Laura Fissinger
Laura Fissinger has written for Rolling Stone, Record, Spin, Musician and many other music publications.
62 articles
List of articles in the library
Bryan Adams: Cuts Like A Knife (A&M)
Review by Laura Fissinger, Creem, May 1983
IF THIS were a CREEM feature story, the boldface headline would plead with you thusly: CAN YOU IGNORE THE PAIN IN THIS FACE? BRYAN ADAMS, ...
The Bangles: Different Light (Columbia)
Review by Laura Fissinger, Rolling Stone, 13 March 1986
Bangle Lore ...
Pat Benatar: In the Heat of the Night (Chrysalis)
Review by Laura Fissinger, Rolling Stone, 3 April 1980
THIS STORY'S so ancient it barely has the strength to be told. When those that ain't got finally get, they start pulling the same tricks ...
Pat Benatar: Precious Time (Chrysalis) **
Review by Laura Fissinger, Rolling Stone, 29 October 1981
Spandex ballet ...
Big Country: The Big Test On Big Country
Interview by Laura Fissinger, Creem, April 1984
IN OUR usual farsighted fashion, we figured out what you need before you did. After reading Big Country features in every magazine, newspaper, and periodical ...
Rubén Blades y Seis del Solar: Agua de Luna (Elektra)
Review by Laura Fissinger, Rolling Stone, 26 March 1987
EVEN THOUGH Rubén Blades's English-language debut isn't due for a while yet, the Panamanian salsa star, lawyer, essayist, activist and actor has already been bear-hugged ...
Review by Laura Fissinger, Creem, July 1983
LET'S NOT mince words, eh? Laura Branigan is a damn lousy excuse for a singing star and Ellen Foley is only a pretty good excuse ...
Kate Bush: Hounds Of Love (EMI America)
Review by Laura Fissinger, Creem, February 1986
IF THEY were going to run a contest for Most Irritating Rock Star, there'd be plenty of candidates. The Smiths, David Lee Roth, Sting, Stevie ...
The Carpenters: Made In America (A&M)
Review by Laura Fissinger, Creem, October 1981
TOO MUCH TO DREAM LAST NIGHT ...
Jim Carroll: The Transformation of Jim Carroll
Profile and Interview by Laura Fissinger, Musician, February 1981
IS JIM CARROLL, streetwise poet, athletic Catholic Boy, being pushed into the vacant position of rock'n'roll martyr? ...
The Cars: Heartbeat City (Elektra)
Review by Laura Fissinger, Creem, July 1984
HEARTBEAT CITY is a heavy duty history lesson. First: the Cars had more to say about what rock sounds like now than almost any other ...
Profile and Interview by Laura Fissinger, Creem, February 1986
ROSANNE CASH, a very young and dishy 30-year-old, has just celebrated the start of her second year without drugs. "Being on drugs is like being ...
Chic, Sylvester: Chic: Tongue In Chic (Atlantic); Sylvester: All I Need (Megatone)
Review by Laura Fissinger, Creem, April 1983
(IN ORDER to take the following two extension courses, students must have successfully completed Disco 101, centered around this basic precept put forth by Chic ...
Concrete Blonde: Concrete Blonde (I.R.S.)
Review by Laura Fissinger, Rolling Stone, 23 April 1987
HORDES OF eighties bands have claimed to be catholic in both their influences and their output. Concrete Blonde, however, can actually back the claim up. ...
Concrete Blonde: Only their hairdressers know for sure
Interview by Laura Fissinger, Creem, August 1987
I DON'T KNOW if any of you guys read the New York Times — I personally try to avoid it at all costs — but ...
Marshall Crenshaw: Still Likes Girls... and 11 Others
Interview by Laura Fissinger, Creem, October 1987
Sorry, Aretha, but maybe there is such a thing as too much respect. Since his pop-heaven debut LP in 1983, Marshall Crenshaw has been bowed ...
Devo: Freedom of Choice (Warner Bros.)
Review by Laura Fissinger, Rolling Stone, 27 November 1980
AFTER THE SEMINAL mutant microcosm of the modern world they constructed on Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo., Devo have moved on ...
Divinyls: How Ya Gonna Keep Em Down On The Lip Farm?
Profile and Interview by Laura Fissinger, Creem, September 1983
THERE'S A new entry in the Battle of the Australian bands; they're called the Divinyls and they stand some chance of winning the war. There's ...
Steve Earle, Will Rambeaux, Randy Travis: The New Nashville
Report by Laura Fissinger, New York Daily News, 20 December 1987
Country is giving berth to rock these days ...
Lita Ford: A Lita Bit Closer to the Top!
Interview by Laura Fissinger, Creem, December 1984
WHAT A TIME to be a gal, hey? One in space, one in the presidential race, and one who plays metal guitar fast and mean ...
Gang of Four: Letter Bomb for Ted Baxter: Gang of Four Out of Uniform
Interview by Laura Fissinger, Creem, November 1982
WHATEVER IT is that's doing a George Romero on the American Dream is finally starting to do it in such bastions of good life as ...
Girlschool: Hit And Run (Stiff America)
Review by Laura Fissinger, Creem, July 1982
SCREW HOME EC; WE'RE MAJORING IN SHOP ...
Review by Laura Fissinger, Musician, May 1984
CAR 'N' BAR dance bands area pop staple with a frequently short shelf life. One or two albums into some of these careers, then it's ...
Daryl Hall & John Oates: Hall & Oates: H2O (RCA)
Review by Laura Fissinger, Creem, February 1983
VICTIMS OF SEXISTANCE ...
Haysi Fantayzee: Battle Hymns For Children Singing (RCA)
Review by Laura Fissinger, Creem, January 1984
I'VE BEEN sitting here for a humiliating number of hours trying to write this review. Every time I get started, I stop — with a ...
Interview by Laura Fissinger, Rolling Stone, 24 April 1986
After a nearly fatal four-year slump, the Wilson sisters take Heart and reclaim their platinum past ...
Review by Laura Fissinger, Rolling Stone, 2 July 1987
OVER HEART'S eleven-year recording career, the band has often been charged with creating standard-issue stadium rock. That accusation hasn't always been fair: the Wilson sisters ...
Hüsker Dü, Prince, The Replacements: Minneapolis: The Art of the Heart of the Country
Report by Laura Fissinger, Record, October 1985
IF YOU believe music comes from a state of mind rather than a state on the map, now's a good time for a look at ...
Review by Laura Fissinger, Creem, October 1984
THROUGH A series of circumstances too bizarre to recount (even here!), CREEM has become the first national publication to locate and interview the lost Jackson ...
Grace Jones: Living My Life (Island)
Review by Laura Fissinger, Creem, March 1983
CLEARLY, WE are dealing here with a case of Persona, in this case as outsized as War And Peace. And static too — who, recently, ...
Interview by Laura Fissinger, Rolling Stone, 2 July 1987
The Judds find that the family that plays together stays together ...
Chaka Khan: What Cha' Gonna Do for Me (Warner Bros.) **
Review by Laura Fissinger, Rolling Stone, 6 August 1981
WHAT CHA' Gonna Do for Me is a textbook example of how to make incredibly pedestrian "fusion" music and pass it off as jazz for ...
Cyndi Lauper has a Great Personality
Profile and Interview by Laura Fissinger, Creem, May 1984
NEW YORK — We've only got a little time here, so let's go right for the trouble spot: After a recent Lauper set in New ...
Huey Lewis and the News: Breaking Rules with Huey Lewis
Interview by Laura Fissinger, Creem, March 1984
RIGHT BELOW "decadent millionaire" and "world savior" on the list of popular life ambitions is "normal guy making good as big-deal rock star." CREEM has ...
Madonna Milks Sexy, Savvy Image
Profile and Interview by Laura Fissinger, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 10 May 1985
USUALLY IT takes a while for a pop star to earn heavyweight hatred from a significant percentage of the press and public. But, like everything ...
Review by Laura Fissinger, Creem, November 1986
LOOK, I don't blame all you Madonna non-fans out there. I, too, was a non-fan — in the summer of '83, to be precise. I ...
Madonna: Maybe She's Good: 10 Theories On How Madonna Got "It"
Interview by Laura Fissinger, Record, March 1985
Usually it takes a while for a pop star to earn heavyweight hatred from a significant percentage of the press and public. But like everything ...
The Mary Jane Girls: Mary Jane Girls: Only Four You (Motown)
Review by Laura Fissinger, Record, July 1985
THIS WAS originally planned as a funny record review. Then I listened to the record. ...
Men at Work: La Vie En Mung: Men At Work Do Just That
Report and Interview by Laura Fissinger, Creem, January 1983
MINNEAPOLIS — One day in the (work) life of Colin Hay: ...
Pat Metheny Shrugs Off Success
Interview by Laura Fissinger, Rolling Stone, 17 September 1981
NEW YORK CITY — In his salad days as a (barely) postadolescent college instructor, Pat Metheny should have been teaching Healthy Attitudes 101 in addition ...
Microdisney: Crooked Mile (Virgin)
Review by Laura Fissinger, Rolling Stone, 2 July 1987
THE MUSIC on Crooked Mile is a marvelous cross-genre mutant: lazy tempos and teary guitars from country music, Elvis Costello-esque chord progressions and lead vocals, Merseybeat melodies, ...
Profile by Laura Fissinger, Musician, January 1981
"ONE OF MY big dreams is to write music that communicates moods so concisely that each song would be like a movie — you could ...
The Neville Brothers: Fiyo on the Bayou (A&M)
Review by Laura Fissinger, Musician, October 1981
WHAT THE hell is a music that thinks of itself in a perpetual present tense going to do with a rapidly accumulating history? Performers like ...
Robbie Nevil: Robbie Nevil (Manhattan Records)
Review by Laura Fissinger, Rolling Stone, 12 February 1987
MY BEEF with Robbie Nevil is such a stock critic's kvetch that it seems only mannerly to preface it with kudos and huzzahs. Which, by ...
Robert Palmer's Pride & Prejudice
Interview by Laura Fissinger, Creem, December 1983
IT WAS A case for the toughest and the best. They were both out of town, so CREEM sent me instead. ...
Ray Parker Jr.: The Other Woman (Arista)
Review by Laura Fissinger, Creem, September 1982
IF SOFT FUNK is Ray Parker's main squeeze, the other woman is rock 'n roll — dirty, white boy, garage gi-tar, thump and hump rock ...
Penetration: Coming Up for Air (Virgin International)
Review by Laura Fissinger, Rolling Stone, 20 March 1980
HEY, THE echo switch has been rediscovered! Not to mention other stuff within reach of a bargain-basement studio console. Producer Steve Lillywhite seems to have ...
The Power Station: Power Station Soars!
Interview by Laura Fissinger, Creem, May 1985
Is There Life Beyond Duran Duran? ...
Review by Laura Fissinger, Musician, January 1983
ONCE UPON a time, Prince was assessed thus: a (modestly) gifted dance floor sexmeister; a (very) occasional visitor to profundity and innovation; and (mostly) a ...
Interview by Laura Fissinger, Spin, May 1986
POP MUSIC'S intelligentsia claims Stan Ridgway as one of its own — seeing that no one else has really tried, maybe they have that right. ...
Profile and Interview by Laura Fissinger, Creem, October 1986
THE GUY'S about 45, a classic born-and-bred New Yawk City street tough, and a publisher of music magazines more likely to feature Motley Crüe than ...
Rod Stewart: Foolish Behaviour (Warner Bros. HS3485)
Review by Laura Fissinger, Trouser Press, February 1981
FOOLISH BEHAVIOUR is Rod Stewart's first studio LP in two years, written entirely by Rod and band and produced almost entirely by same. Gee, it's ...
Tears For Fears: Primal Therapy Cures Mental Hurting
Interview by Laura Fissinger, Creem, October 1983
NEW YORK — Think about the reasons people give for starting bands. To get money. To get girls. To stand tall as a wimp in ...
Review by Laura Fissinger, Record, February 1985
LIKE PRINCE, Teena Marie is her own producer, writer and arranger. Such autonomy is impressive considering Marie's age (mid-20s), gender and race. Her situation is ...
Teena Marie: Lovergirl on Parade!
Profile by Laura Fissinger, Creem, September 1985
FOR ALL THE extremely pleasurable flesh pleasures in her music, Teena Marie is devoutly religious. Up until 1985, she probably drew a lot of comfort ...
Twisted Sister: Snider As Usual
Interview by Laura Fissinger, Creem, May 1986
THEY HAVE a new album out, their fourth, Come Out And Play. They're on an 11 month world tour. So of course Twisted Sister talks to ...
U2: Uncle Sam's, Minneapolis MN
Live Review by Laura Fissinger, Musician, July 1981
PRAISE FOR Ireland's U2 first spread through the U.K. press like head colds in autumn. Now with the American release of their debut LP, Boy, ...
Steven Van Zandt: Little Steven: Threat or Menace?
Interview by Laura Fissinger, Creem, November 1984
ONCE UPON a time the Federal Bureau of Investigation was more talked about than Michael Jackson is now. Seems that lots of folks got disrespectful ...
Rosie Vela: Rosie Flores: Rosie Flores (Reprise)
Review by Laura Fissinger, Rolling Stone, 3 December 1987
WHAT DWIGHT Yoakam is to new-traditionalist country's male division, Rosie Flores could be to its distaff side. Like Yoakam, she comes out of the California ...
World Party: Wallinger: The World's in His Hands
Interview by Laura Fissinger, New York Daily News, 12 May 1987
NOT THAT Karl Wallinger is modelling himself after Sean Penn or anything, but he'd really rather not be doing interviews — not this month, anyway. ...
X: Under The Big Black Sun (Elektra)
Review by Laura Fissinger, Creem, October 1982
X'S ALL-AMERICAN ANGST ...
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