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J.D. Considine

J.D. Considine

J. D. Considine has written for many North American magazines and newspapers. From 1979 to 1996, he wrote for Rolling Stone and then wrote for Musician. He was on the staff of the Baltimore Sun from 1986 to the end of 2000, leaving to become managing editor of Revolver Magazine. He later became jazz critic at The Globe and Mail in Toronto.

Steven Ward's 2000 interview with Considine

94 articles

List of articles in the library

By date | By artist | Most recently added

Santana: Carlos Santana

Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, July 1981

Unable to slake his thirst for new music, Santana swings from jazzy solo outings to rock-based group projects. ...

Dr. John: Dr John: On Becoming Mac Rebennack

Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, June 1982

The legend of Dr. John and his gumbo ragtime voodoo funk medicine, as told by the man who invented him, lived him and let him ...

Megadeth: So Far, So Good...So What! (Capitol)

Review by J.D. Considine, Spin, March 1988

MATURITY IS not a concept commonly associated with heavy metal (unless you're using it as a euphemism for "old and decrepit" in which case it ...

Rush: Screwing Up Pop — On Purpose

Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, April 1990

RUSH MAY BE the only band on earth to have made "fear of boredom" a primary musical motivation. Needless to say, they don't put it ...

Elvis Costello & The Attractions: Imperial Bedroom

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, August 1982

THIS IS ELVIS Costello's best yet. I know you've heard that before, and probably about a couple of his albums, but I can't help it ...

Genesis: Three For The Road

Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, June 1992

VISITING REHEARSALS FOR A STADIUM TOUR ...

Sublime: Second-hand Smoke

Review by J.D. Considine, Baltimore Sun, 8 January 1998

Sublime's Second-hand shows the promise that went up in smoke ...

Living Colour, The Scorpions: Scorpions: Savage Amusement (Mercury); Living Colour: Vivid (Epic)

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, July 1988

ADMIT IT — most of you would no sooner listen to metal than volunteer for root canal work. Metal is nasty, noisy, brutish, the kind ...

Phil Collins, Genesis: Front Man: Phil Collins

Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, July 1990

IN A REVIEW of Phil Collins' latest album, ...But Seriously, J.D. Considine wrote that Phil was more fun when he was frivolous. That's where Phil ...

Exposé: Greatest Hits (Arista)

Review by J.D. Considine, Vibe, March 1996

THESE DAYS, most people think Gloria Estefan was queen of the pre-bass Miami dance music scene. But the real rulers were Exposé, three women who ...

Boston, Cheap Trick, Foreigner, Jefferson Starship, Journey, Rainbow, REO Speedwagon, Styx, Toto: Hard Pop, Suburban Rock

Report by J.D. Considine, Musician, October 1981

Band like REO, Styx and Journey have taken the details of the rock sound and made the medium the whole message, capitalizing on the rock ...

Dr. John: Dr. John Plays Mac Rebennack (Clean Cuts)

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, March 1982

AS THE TITLE implies, this is Dr. John being himself, stretching out on the piano and doing what comes naturally. At the same time, there's ...

Fabulous Thunderbirds: The Fabulous Thunderbirds

Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, June 1986

FROM RIB JOINTS TO MOVIES, THE T-BIRDS MAKE IT TOUGH ENOUGH ...

Was (Not Was): Born To Laugh At Tornadoes (Ze/Geffen)

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, November 1983

FOR AN ALBUM that boasts such a pointedly diverse array of vocalists — would you believe Mitch Ryder, Mel Tormé, Doug Feiger and Ozzy Osbourne, ...

Divinyls: The Divinyls: Painters Mill Star Theater, Baltimore

Live Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, July 1983

CHRISTINA AMPHLETT looks like Lily Tomlin's Edith Ann doing Patti Smith. She's standing at the microphone at Baltimore's Painters Mill Star Theater, wearing an amazingly ...

Carlos Alomar, David Bowie: Who The Hell Is Carlos Alomar?

Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, March 1984

The Guitar Power Behind Bowie's Thin White Throne ...

Chic: Baltimore

Live Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, June 1982

APPEARANCES CAN be deceiving. As the rest of Chic pumped out the urgent, staccato vamp to 'Stage Fright', Nile Rodgers, Alfa Anderson, Luci Martin and ...

Simple Minds: Ontario Theater, Washington D.C.

Live Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, August 1983

A THIN SLIVER OF STYLE ...

Billie Ray Martin, Kristine W: Billie Ray Martin: Deadline For My Memories (Sire); Kristine W: Land Of The Living (Champion/RCA)

Review by J.D. Considine, Vibe, September 1996

BEATS AREN'T the only things that change as dance pop evolves. When Madonna first made club music safe for the masses, she did it with ...

The Police

Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, December 1981

Between the pleasant song hooks and facile photogenia of the Police there lies a sophistication and urgency that has justly brought Andy Summers, Sting and Stewart Copeland to the ...

The Human League, Japan: Human League: Dare (A&M); Japan: Japan (Virgin/Epic)

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, June 1982

CONTRARY TO popular belief, all synthesizer bands are not unlistenable. True, many do sound rather like the result of an infinite number of silicon chips ...

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band: Mardi Gras In Montreux (Rounder)

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, October 1986

IF DECADES of drab Dixieland combos have left you thinking that the New Orleans notion of collective improvisation is mere fabrication, prepare to be converted. ...

Jenny Burton, The Cold Crush Brothers: Various Artists: Wild Style — Original Soundtrack (Animal); Jenny Burton: In Black And White (Atlantic)

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, April 1984

AS HIP-HOP, the rapping and scratching music of the break dancers, bounces out of the urban subculture and into the mainstream, it's reasonable enough to ...

Grandmaster Melle Mel & the Furious Five, Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, Melle Mel, Mutabaruka: Grandmaster & Melle Mel: 'White Lines (Don't Do It)' (Sugar Hill 12-inch); Mutabaruka: 'Ode To Johnny Drughead' (Alligator 12-inch)

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, January 1984

ALTHOUGH IT'S doubtful Nancy Reagan listens to either rap or reggae records (or anything more soulful than Ray Anthony, for that matter), she ought to ...

Paul McCartney: Pipes Of Peace (Columbia)

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, January 1984

JUST WHEN you thought it was safe to like Paul McCartney again, along comes an album that makes Ram look like Abbey Road. It isn't ...

Culture Club: Kissing To Be Clever (Epic/Virgin)

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, February 1983

JUST WHEN you thought the last thing you needed was another washed-out attempt at dance music, along comes Culture Club to smash all your preconceptions ...

The Beat: The English Beat: Special Beat Service (IRS)

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, February 1983

UNLIKE WH'APPEN, Special Beat Service successfully manages the transition from 2-tone to full color, giving the English Beat a sound that is at once more ...

Van Halen: Fair Warning (Warner Brothers)

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, October 1981

THE GENERALLY accepted notion of guitar heroics holds that heavy metal is a lead guitarist's forum. Practice and history, however, suggest another conclusion. Despite the preponderance of ...

De La Soul: De La Soul Is Dead (Tommy Boy)

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, July 1991

De La Soul's Serious Fun ...

China Crisis, Wang Chung, Wire Train: Wire Train: ...In A Chamber; Wang Chung: Points On A Curve; China Crisis: Working With Fire And Steel

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, April 1984

IT WASN'T too long ago that new wave partisans like myself (and most likely you, too) were sneering at mainstream rock for being predictable, un-threatening ...

The Psychedelic Furs: Psychedelic Furs: The Ritz, New York NY

Live Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, March 1983

RICHARD BUTLER stalks to his microphone, a vision in beige. While the other six Psychedelic Furs take their places decked out in the standard postpunk ...

New Order: Technique (Qwest)

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, April 1989

TECHNIQUE IS not something most listeners associate with New Order. Sure, the band has made significant strides over the years, developing a sound far more ...

Heart: Ann & Nancy Wilson Get Hot Again

Interview by J.D. Considine, Record, November 1985

FOR A WHILE, it looked as if Heart was going to end up as another group filed under "What ever happened to?" Although the band ...

Wire: Re: Wire

Interview by J.D. Considine, New York Rocker, March 1980

TELEPHONE INTERVIEWS are not my favorite means of communication, but in the case of Wire (to be specific, bassist Graham Lewis), it's either that or ...

Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, Melle Mel: Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five: Greatest Messages (Sugarhill); Grandmaster Melle Mel: 'Jesse' (Sugarhill)

Review by J.D. Considine, Record, June 1984

RAP RECORDS had messages before 'The Message' exploded across the airwaves in 1982, but it remains extremely tempting to argue that it was Grandmaster Flash ...

James Brown: Calling Mr. Dynamite

Overview by J.D. Considine, Record, November 1984

WHEN JAMES Brown first took to being called The Godfather of Soul, it was more to play upon the faddish success of Francis Ford Coppola's ...

Cyndi Lauper: She's So Unusual (Portrait)

Review by J.D. Considine, Record, March 1984

IF GOOD SINGING were its own reward, then She's So Unusual, the solo debut of former Blue Angel singer Cyndi Lauper, would be one hell ...

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts: Glorious Results of a Misspent Youth (Blackheart/MCA)

Review by J.D. Considine, Record, December 1984

IN SOME WAYS, the worst mistake Joan Jett ever made was recording 'I Love Rock 'n' Roll'. Sure, it was a great record, an instant ...

Holly & The Italians: Warner Theatre, Washington DC

Live Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, May 1983

UNDER NORMAL circumstances, Holly Beth Vincent would be the perfect punk debutante. Between the seedy elegance of her second-hand black evening dress and the rakish ...

Prince, Mavis Staples: Prince: Batman (Warner Bros.); Mavis Staples: Time Waits for No One (Paisley Park)

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, September 1989

Batty Prince, Torn Between Good and Evil ...

U2: The Unforgettable Fire (Island)

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, November 1984

Turning Point: U2 mixes textural growth with thematic ambiguity in a view of Mythical America. ...

Various Artists: Ken Burns Jazz - The Story of American Music/The Best of Ken Burns Jazz

Review by J.D. Considine, Revolver, Winter 2000

ANYONE FAMILIAR with the acclaimed documentary filmmaker Ken Burns (Baseball, The Civil War, et al) knows that this man is unafraid of tackling the most ...

Aretha Franklin: Who's Zoomin' Who? (Arista)

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, September 1985

ARETHA FRANKLIN has never made a bad record. When her records lacked the fire that ignited her greatest singles, that voice has been enough to ...

The Cars, Elliott Easton: Elliot Easton, Closet Traditionalist

Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, September 1986

THE CARS' GUITAR SPARKPLUG ON BEING APPROPRIATE ...

Sheila E.: Romance 1600 (I.R.S.)

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, November 1985

ARTISTS USUALLY sound more distinctive and less derivative over time. Sheila E. seems to be moving in the opposite direction. The Glamorous Life, her solo ...

Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble: SRV

Review by J.D. Considine, Revolver, Winter 2000

CARLOS SANTANA was on British TV the other night, talking about those wondrous moments in a musician's life when conscious control dissolves and something just ...

Everclear, Kid Rock, Limp Bizkit: Big Shots: Fred Durst, Kid Rock and Art Alexakis

Report and Interview by J.D. Considine, Revolver, Spring 2000

NO ONE EVER mistook Fred Durst for a suit. in fact, he looks more like a bicycle messenger than a corporate personage. "I wear shitty ...

Jermaine Jackson: Jermaine Jackson (Arista)

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, July 1984

IF MICHAEL Jackson's public persona makes him out as a bit of a dreamer, there's always enough fire in his work to add an edge ...

LL Cool J: L.L. Cool J: Bigger And Deffer (Def Jam)

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, August 1987

THE INEVITABLE challenge of a great debut: what to do for an encore. For James Todd Smith — a.k.a. Cool James, a.k.a. L.L. Cool J ...

Stevie Wonder: Selections From The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack: The Woman In Red (Motown)

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, January 1985

THE NEW Stevie Wonder album has this problem: It thinks it's a soundtrack. It doesn't get violent about it, true. In fact, except for the ...

Elvis Costello: Constitution Hall, Washington D.C.

Live Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, July 1984

"I'M GOING TO do something you've never seen me do before," Elvis Costello told the audience at Washington, D.C.'s Constitution Hall as he unstrapped his ...

Chic, Led Zeppelin, The Power Station: Tony Thompson: It Ain't The Meat, It's The Emotion

Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, March 1986

The Power, the Glory, and the Groove: Our Man from Chic Hits Hard and Hits Big, from Zep to Power Station to Madonna ...

George Clinton: Computer Games (Capitol)

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, March 1983

THERE ARE times when I think George Clinton puts out uneven albums just to piss the rest of the world off. I mean, there are ...

Womack and Womack: Womack & Womack: Soul Dispatches & Gospel Truths From The Funky Front Of Love Wars

Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, May 1984

CECIL AND Linda Womack are sitting on a couch in their home near Philadelphia while Micah, their youngest, plays with a pull-toy on the floor. ...

Miles Davis, Marcus Miller, Luther Vandross: Marcus Miller Gets Around

Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, May 1984

THE FUNKY THROUGH-LINE BEHIND LUTHER VANDROSS & ARETHA; THE JAZZY AGITATOR BEHIND MILES, GROVER & SANBORN ...

Womack and Womack, Bobby Womack: Bobby Womack: Someday We'll All Be Free (Beverly Glen); Womack & Womack: Radio M.U.S.C. Man (Elektra)

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, September 1985

GREAT SINGING is its own reward, and that's particularly true of the Womacks, Bobby, Cecil and Linda. Their voices carry not only the experience of ...

Smokey Robinson: Painters Mill Star Theater, Baltimore

Live Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, November 1981

IT'S HARD TO imagine that a Smokey Robinson concert could hold much in the way of surprises. Celebrating his 25th year in the business, Robinson ...

Alexander O'Neal, Wendy And Lisa: Alexander O'Neal: Hearsay (Tabu); Wendy and Lisa: Wendy And Lisa (Columbia)

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, October 1987

TIME WAS when any R&B act of consequence bore the imprimatur of Prince or one of his aliases. These days, the big buzz is from ...

Girlschool: Coast to Coast, Baltimore MD

Live Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, August 1982

FROM A DISTANCE, Girlschool looks pretty much like any other heavy rock group — long hair, Marshall stacks, denim and leathers. But it doesn't take ...

Bobby Womack: The Poet II (Beverly Glen)

Review by J.D. Considine, Record, July 1984

NOMINALLY A sequel to 1981's The Poet, this is less a second helping of that album's personal expressiveness than a second side of Bobby Womack. ...

Blondie: Eat To The Beat (Chrysalis)

Review by J.D. Considine, New York Rocker, December 1979

AMERICA, AS you might expect of any pop-oriented, media-saturated culture, has a disturbing tendency to take its sexual images literally. Lauren Hutton and Cheryl Tiegs ...

Philip Bailey, Phil Collins: The Second Coming of Phil Collins

Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, June 1985

A SEASONED PLAYER ENJOYS CHARTBUSTING NEW LIFE AS A SOLO STAR ...

Sam Phillips: The Heretic Finds Some Happiness

Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, November 1988

SAM PHILLIPS is sitting in a New York office, looking remarkably unwilted in the sultry August heat and listening to me complain about having been ...

R.E.M.: Subverting Small Town Boredom

Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, August 1983

ALMOST EVERYBODY else at the Athens, Georgia, Holiday Inn was there for some convention being held at the University of Georgia — seminars in bovine ...

Wall of Voodoo: Oddballs Amok in the Melting Pot

Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, July 1983

MARTY ROBBINS has just ridden back into El Paso to see his beloved Felina, and is met instead by a vengeful posse. The lights go ...

Herbie Hancock: Sound-System (Columbia)

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, November 1984

DON'T MAKE the mistake of turning up your nose at this because it's "another goddamn rock record." Don't even fall for the line that Sound-System ...

Dave Alvin, Henry Rollins, Dave Van Ronk, X: Various Artists: Radio Tokyo Tapes, Vol. 3 (PVC); Dave Van Ronk: Going Back To Brooklyn (Reckless)

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, July 1985

NOW THAT Bob Dylan is establishing himself as a born-again rocker, why shouldn't the new wave stage a folk revival? But listening to Radio Tokyo ...

U2: October (Island)

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, February 1982

LIKE ALL good Irishmen, I enjoy nothing better than a good talker. At the same time, I share the instinctive Irish mistrust of anyone for ...

Culture Club: Waking Up With The House On Fire (Epic)

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, January 1985

NOBODY HAS ever accused Culture Club of having too much depth. For them, frivolity is its own reward, and there's more than enough meaning in ...

Dr. Dre, Snoop (Doggy) Dogg: Dr. Dre On How To Make An Album Doggystyle

Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, February 1994

DR. DRE ISN'T a good advertisement for music school. "With all these players out here, why should I waste this much time learning how to ...

Midnight Oil: The Only Band That Really Matters

Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, September 1985

THERE'S A TV commercial running on television stations in Sydney that explains a lot about modern-day Australia. The ad is for McDonald's, and seeks to ...

Santana: Paul Reed Smith's High-Class Hybrid

Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, July 1984

Bridging the Age-old Gap Between Strat and Paul ...

The Last Poets, Bill Laswell: The Last Poets: Bill Laswell on how to Produce A Holy Terror

Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, September 1995

USUALLY, THE relationship between words and music on a recording puts the music first and the words second. But when Bill Laswell began work on ...

Radiohead: Harmony in my Head

Interview by J.D. Considine, Spin, May 1996

Radiohead's The Bends reveals a band whose musical flights go far beyond 'Creep' — and, as J.D. Considine discovers, rely on none of the ususal ...

Al Green: He Is The Light (A&M)

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, January 1986

AL GREEN'S gospel recordings never really turned on his pop following, in part due to their uneven quality, but also because hosannas, no matter how ...

The Human League, Japan, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, Soft Cell: Human League et al: Synth-Pop

Report and Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, August 1982

Music Without Musicians...But Not Without Craftsmanship and Great Songs ...

Dennis Chambers, The Police, Bruce Springsteen, Tony Williams: How To Think Like A Drummer

Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, June 1988

Becoming a Drumhead in 6 Easy Lessons ...

Charlie Parker: The Sound and Myth of Charlie Parker at 100

Report and Interview by J.D. Considine, Downbeat, 10 January 2020

TO SAY THAT Charlie "Yardbird" Parker was one of the greatest jazz musicians who ever lived is a bit like saying the Mona Lisa is ...

Great Polysynths For Under $2,000

Overview by J.D. Considine, Musician, February 1984

Making Trickle-Down Economics Work for You ...

Genesis

Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, March 1982

Seminal art-rockers in the '70s, Genesis takes off in an exciting new direction, leaner and more aggressively funky, yet moody and lyrical, led by Phil ...

R.E.M.: Murmur (I.R.S.)

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, June 1983

R.E.M. HAS the most hypnotizing sound of any group playing rock today. That sounds like hyperbole, I know, but it's true. Thanks to their densely ...

Angela Winbush's Old and New Style

Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, March 1994

"NON-AESTHETIC records that sound like carbon copies of another." ...

Al Jarreau: Jarreau (Warner Bros.)

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, July 1983

ALTHOUGH POP has always seemed Al Jarreau's destiny, his disposition toward jazz kept getting in the way. It wasn't so much that Jarreau bopped when ...

Bananarama, Fun Boy Three: Fun Boy Three: Waiting (Chrysalis); Bananarama: Deep Sea Skiving (London)

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, June 1983

ON THE surface, these two records seem to have a lot in common. Aside from the fact that the Funboys helped to get Bananarama together ...

Roxette: Sweden's Roxette Is Making It Big Almost by Accident

Interview by J.D. Considine, Baltimore Sun, 23 September 1989

ALL AROUND THE WORLD, pop groups dream of making it big in America. Not only is the United States home to the biggest and most ...

Gang Of Four: The Revolution Lightens Up

Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, October 1982

While their political passion remains undimmed, these post-punk party comrades are now using heinous capitalist tactics like great melodies, gang vocals and good humor. ...

Christian McBride & Inside Straight: Live At The Village Vanguard (Mack Avenue)

Review by J.D. Considine, Downbeat, January 2022

AT THE END of a brightly swinging run through 'Fair Hope Theme,' bassist and bandleader Christian McBride tells the Village Vanguard audience, "This band was ...

John Medeski: Mad Skillet (Indirecto)

Review by J.D. Considine, Downbeat, March 2019

For John Medeski's Mad Skillet, it's all about the bass — or in this case, the sousaphone. Because in Medeski's New Orleans funk band, it's ...

Prince: The Artist weaves a web

Interview by J.D. Considine, Baltimore Sun, 20 September 1997

BY RECORDING INDUSTRY STANDARDS, The Artist Formerly Known as Prince is turning into The Artist Who Formerly Had a Career. Once one of the biggest ...

The Cure, Dinosaur Jr.: What's The Big Idea? Robert Smith's Conception of the Cure

Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, July 1989

ON THE whole, the average pop fan's image of the Cure is pretty close to the way the band appears in the video to 'Fascination ...

Frankie Goes To Hollywood: Welcome To The Pleasure Dome (ZTT/Island)

Review by J.D. Considine, Record, January 1985

ACCORDING TO the press out of Britain, Frankie Goes To Hollywood is the hottest thing since Duran Duran discovered eye-liner. ...

Ace Of Base: The Bridge (Arista)

Review by J.D. Considine, Spin, February 1996

IF EVER A group appeared to consist entirely of shiny, happy people, it's Ace of Base. Simply looking at them is enough to give most ...

The Chemical Brothers: Chemical Brothers: Surrender (Astralwerks 47610)

Review by J.D. Considine, Baltimore Sun, 22 June 1999

Surrender a heady mix Electronic music's Chemical Brothers simply dub over the torpedoes, go full speed ahead. ...

Culture Club: Colour By Numbers (Virgin/Epic)

Review by J.D. Considine, Record, January 1984

BOY GEORGE may be pop music's best argument against judgment on the basis of looks alone, but Culture Club's music makes a pretty strong case ...

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