Ira Kantor’s Vinyl Confessions: Discovering Japan
Late in 2021, revered Japanese label Nippon Columbia released a compilation album entitled TOKYO GLOW, which explores city pop, funk, and soul from Japanese artists recorded in the late...
Ira Kantor’s Vinyl Confessions: “He Was Our Coach” (You Did Good)
Photos courtesy of Brad Long
“It’s opening only in Indiana and it’s gonna open elsewhere in January, but I think they ought to open this one in New York and...
Ira Kantor’s Vinyl Confessions: 10cc Attains High Art (For Art’s Sake)
Photos courtesy of Glass Onion PR
Reflect back on the great 1970s British bands and you’ll see 10cc more than measures up to their competition.
Equal parts irreverent and intellectual, the...
Ira Kantor’s Vinyl Confessions: Exposure (“We Are Maggie and Terre and Suzzy”)
Photos courtesy of Terre and Suzzy Roche
Forty years ago, guitar legend Robert Fripp unveiled two of his most unique album efforts — neither of which bared the King Crimson label.
First,...
Ira Kantor’s Vinyl Confessions: Tennessee Studs (Foggy Mountain Breakthrough)
Within the sphere of popular music in Nixonian-era 1972, there’s an interesting hybrid of commercial acts. Teen idols, hard rockers, proggers, female belters, country crooners, soulsters — nothing is...
Ira Kantor’s Vinyl Confessions: I Want Candi!
Photos courtesy of Bill Carpenter and Mario Casselli
It goes without question that one of music’s most seminal anthems depicting necessary assertion and cathartic independence is Gloria Gaynor’s 1979 classic “I...
Ira Kantor’s Vinyl Confessions: Magic Is Afoot; Magic Never Died
Photos courtesy of Eric Alper
“Illuminations by Buffy Sainte-Marie is one of my favorite albums. When she sings at her best, it’s the soul laid bare.” – Steve Hackett (2020)
“I...
Ira Kantor’s Vinyl Confessions: How Do I Survive ~ Amy Holland at 40
Photos courtesy of Amy Holland
February 25, 1981, marked one of the most important dates in singer Amy Holland’s life and career.
Bolstered by the success of a Number 22 Billboard...
Ira Kantor’s Vinyl Confessions: Still Alive ~ Baby, Just Take Another Look (At Clover)
Photos courtesy of Alex Call
In 1977, right before punk becomes the zeitgeist musical movement in the UK and the states, a Bay Area-based six-piece band took one last mighty...
Ira Kantor’s Vinyl Confessions: I, Carly
Photos courtesy of Lennie Petze
Before Carly Simon formally “let the river run,” she first got her groove back.
Fifteen years into an already landmark career, the songsmith behind such beloved radio...
