Roy Trakin
ROY TRAKIN is a pop culture critic, pop and rock music aficionado, published author and online talk show host, not to mention diehard Mets/Knicks/Jets fan. Since 1992, this Brooklyn-born, L.I.-raised Jewish American prince has been exiled in the depths of the San Fernando Valley (north of the Boulevard, natch), paying off the SBA loan on the earthquake-damaged, still-hasn't-recovered-its-full-value house he shares with his indispensable wife of 26 years, Jill Merrill, and two auteurist theory offspring, Taylor, 19, and Tara, 17.
Trakin was also briefly the lead singer in the New York-based punk-rock group The Geeks, who played at CBGBs, broke up shortly after the Sex Pistols and have influenced everyone from the Plasmatics to the Beastie Boys and Marilyn Manson. During the influential mid-to-late ‘70s in New York, he served faithfully as Minister of Information for Marty Thau’s historic Red Star Records, where he took it to the street, doing guerilla marketing and publicity for the likes of Suicide, the Fleshtones, Real Kids and others.
Trakin also served as chief copywriter for the MTV Corporate Relations Dept., Director of Public Relations for the Recording Industry Association of America and Head of Promotion for AEI Music, a leading foreground music programmer now owned by Liberty Media.
Since 1986, Trakin has been a Senior Editor of HITS magazine, the music industry's influential trade magazine/tip sheet/money-laundering operation. Trakin has contributed to every rock magazine that ever mattered, but no longer exist, including Musician, BAM, Creem, Details, New York Rocker, Soho Weekly News, and several distinguished dailies such as the L.A. Times, L.A. Herald Examiner, Newsday, N.Y. Daily News and USA Today. Other publications for which he’s written–both online and traditional hard copy–include the Village Voice, Grammy magazine, React, PopSmear, Addicted to Noise and Stuff. He is a voting member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the MTV Video Music Awards, as well as one of the writers asked to vote on Rolling Stone’s 50 Greatest Albums of All Time.
He has previously written the biographies Sting and the Police (Ballantine Books '84), Tom Hanks: Journey to Stardom (St. Martin's Press '95) and Jim Carrey Unmasked (St. Martin's Press '95). He also served as an editorial assistant on John Lennon Remembered: Strawberry Fields Forever (Bantam Books '80) with Vic Garbarini and Barbara Graustark. He penned Malcolm McLaren’s famed speech at the New Music Seminar in 1984, and has written speeches for the likes of Virgin’s Richard Branson.
Trakin also hosted the world's first online interactive pop music chat show/pickup area, "Rant & Roll," for Prodigy and America Online's L.A. Digital City (which USA Today called "one of the new wave of online talk shows.")
He is currently co-host of the KLSX-FM L.A. music radio talk show, "Media Whores" with Wire Image's David Adelson, where his guests have included everyone from Brian Wilson to Limp Bizkit, Randy Newman to Orgy, Mike Stoller and Earl Palmer to Alice Cooper and Al Martino.
In his spare time, he adopts the identity of Meshugge Knight to manage L.A. Magazine's "best Jewish rap duo," M.O.T. (Members of the Tribe), featuring MCs/tummlers extraordinaire Ice Berg and Dr. Dreidle, whose critically acclaimed Sire/Warner Bros. album, "19.99," can be ordered from Amazon.com. They (and he) are available for weddings and bar mitzvahs. He has also been quoted extensively as a music and entertainment business expert on CNN, A&E, VH1 and MTV. He also was an on-air music correspondent for E! Entertainment and covered West Coast news stories as a segment producer for MTV.
As HITS Sr. Editor, he was responsible for putting together the Web site www.hitsdailydouble.com, cited as one of the most popular and influential music sites on the web and recently broke the exclusive jailhouse interview with imprisoned rap entrepreneur Suge Knight.
Roy is equally adept at personality stories, new stories, trend stories, behind-the-scenes stories, opinion pieces, concept pieces, think pieces and just plain filler, quick with a quip, and capable of representing Star magazine in various form of media, including television, radio and online.
References: Judy McGrath, MTV Networks; David Adelson, Wire Image; Irving Azoff, Azoff Management; Larry Solters, Scoop Marketing; Lori Berger, Teen People Magazine; Shirley Halperin, Entertainment Weekly, Allen Kovac, 10th Street Entertainment
171 articles
List of articles in the library
The Ramones: Rockets Or Rubberbands?
Interview by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, November 1977
I. Punk rock’s charter band will be your mirror. ...
Report by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, July 1978
"He's in love with a rock 'n'roll world..." — 'Janie Jones', The Clash ...
Talking Heads: More Songs About Buildings and Food
Review by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, July 1978
Head and Shoulders Above ...
Lydia Lunch, Teenage Jesus & the Jerks: Teenage Jesus and the Jerks: Out To Lunch
Interview by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, July 1978
A Dialogue between Roy Trakin and Lydia Lunch of Teenage Jesus and the Jerks ...
The Ramones: Road To Ruin: One Small Step For Man, One Giant Step For The Ramones
Review by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, September 1978
AS THE NEW WAVE bubble bursts and explodes into a thousand tiny particles, the Ramones remain as true survivors, one of few punk acts to ...
The Dictators: Rock'n'Roll Made Me A Mensch: The Dictators Reach Maturity
Profile and Interview by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, September 1978
The IntroductionWHEN THE Dictators proudly declared themselves the "next big thing" on their rock ‘n’ roll-icking debut album Go Girl Crazy!, they were not, as ...
The Cars: The Bottom Line, New York
Live Review by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, September 1978
ONE THE face of it, one is forced to admit that the Cars, Boston’s latest pop machine, are an entirely unwelcome corruption of any new ...
Television: Changing Channels: Television Breakup
Report and Interview by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, November 1978
I FOUND OUT, in attempting to sift through the ashes of Television's demise, that it was almost as unpleasant and impossible a situation as investigating ...
Live Review by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, November 1978
CHARLEY THE Soundman huddled behind his sacred mixing board and coolly surveyed the growing house. Packed literally to the rafters, the overflow crowd was an ...
James Chance, James White and The Blacks: Q: Why Interview James Chance? A: Because He's There
Interview by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, January 1979
Roy Trakin (Who Really Wants to Know) Talks to James Chance (Who Isn't Telling) ...
Review by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, January 1979
GETTING TO NO YOU: NO NEW YORK ON RECORD ...
The Clash, Bo Diddley: The Palladium, New York NY
Live Review by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, April 1979
DON'T EXPECT the back-Clash to start here. Since the Clash's smashingly successful Palladium debut, I have had some second thoughts, but none of these contradict ...
Elvis Costello: Live in New York
Live Review by Roy Trakin, Melody Maker, 14 April 1979
Palladium & Great Gildersleeve's, NYC ...
Report by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, August 1979
JUST A SCANT eight months ago, Blondie the group was seemingly nowhere. Their third album (and second for Chrysalis), Parallel Lines, was languishing in the ...
Tom Verlaine Without TV: The New Season
Review and Interview by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, September 1979
THE BREAK-UP of a band, in the wake of our experience with the Beatles and countless others, should no longer be a traumatic event, but ...
Iggy Pop: The Discreet Charm of Iggy Pop
Interview by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, December 1979
Mr. and Mrs. Osterberg's favorite (and only) son learns 'tis better to consume than to be consumed, or "They call me Mister Pop." ...
The Plasmatics: Wendy What Went Wrong: The Plasmatics: Palladium, New York
Live Review by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, February 1980
SHE CAME. SHE SAWED (a guitar in half). She conquered. Wendy O. Williams, late of the 42nd Street grind circuit, now lead singer of the ...
The Specials: Hurrah, New York NY
Live Review by Roy Trakin, Melody Maker, 2 February 1980
Up to you ...
Live Review by Roy Trakin, Melody Maker, 9 February 1980
EVEN THE decidedly old-wave, uptown industry water-hole Trax has caught the Funk Flu that's hit this borough like an epidemic. People are dancing to progressive, ...
Review by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, March 1980
PIL'S METAL BOX: THE TIN CAN HAS A HEART ...
Report and Interview by Roy Trakin, Melody Maker, 15 March 1980
The Raybeats and Joe Bowie's Defunkt are working on New York's newest fusion: a post-No Wave music in which James Chance's punk meets George Clinton's ...
Cristina: Cristina (Ze lLPS7004)
Review by Roy Trakin, Melody Maker, 29 March 1980
TAKE ONE graduate from a snooty Ivy League College, holding a degree in, say, Abstract Philosophy. Add a dash of new journalism, a patently fake ...
James Brown: Studio 54, New York City
Live Review by Roy Trakin, Melody Maker, 17 April 1980
Despite the recent hip upsurge in his popularity, James Brown has for over a year studiously avoided playing a live gig in Manhattan. Pity that, ...
Profile by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, May 1980
EVERY NOW and then, we critics drop our objectivity – believe it or not – become emotionally involved with a band. For slightly over a ...
Cristina, Kid Creole & The Coconuts, Lydia Lunch, Suicide: ZE Night: Hurrah, New York City
Profile by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, June 1980
THE RICH ARE different from you and me, my friends. While we content ourselves with free promos and an occasional "plus-one" at a local bistro, ...
Interview by Roy Trakin, Musician, October 1980
The '70s were dawning, and the golden age of rock 'n' roll was about to give way to terminally mellow singer/songwriters or lowest-common-denominator heavy metal ...
DNA: Sons and Daughters of No New York: DNA
Interview by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, October 1980
THE MOST exciting aspect of the No New York album was the clean break it made, once and for all, with '60s rock. While the ...
Review by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, November 1980
FUNNY ISN'T it, how both of these records, for one frustrating reason or another, make you long for the late and all-too-unlamented Dictators? Sorry, folks, ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, November 1980
"YES, THE BOY'S got a voice/But his words don't connect to his eyes," sings Paul Simon, and I couldn't describe the problem with One Trick ...
David Byrne: The Head Boy Talks
Profile and Interview by Roy Trakin, Time Out, 28 November 1980
CENTRAL PARK, end of summer, 1980. The Talking Heads are playing to a crowd of over 5000 people who are literally overflowing a converted ice-skating ...
Elton John: Concert in Central Park, September 1980
Live Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, January 1981
SOME PERFORMERS just don't know when to quit — and thank goodness for that. We followed tennis star Jimmy McEnroe into Central Park's Sheep Meadow ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, February 1981
THE WANDERER is disco diva Donna's Inferno, a trip that will take us through her cold hell, up against fiendish temptation and out the other ...
Gary Numan, XTC: XTC and Gary Numan: The New English Art Rock
Report and Interview by Roy Trakin, Musician, February 1981
BOTH XTC and Gary Numan express a sense of the new English isolation. Americans seem to like the car-crazy Numan, while the pure British pop ...
Gang of Four, Sector 27: Gang of Four: Gang of Four (Warner Bros. EP); Tom Robinson: Sector 27 (IRS)
Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, April 1981
THE LAST twitches of the dying Left or the first angular thrusts of the New Right? It's your Move. The Gang of Four's solemn Marxist ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, April 1981
The slapstick guerilla politics have never sounded more outlandishly unfashionable. Gone are the triple-front-line punk harmonics & amphetamine raw power. Ditto for the crunching metallic ...
Report and Interview by Roy Trakin, Hit Parader, June 1981
ACCORDING TO THE BIBLE, 'Rapture' will occur when Jesus Christ returns to retrieve a third of the Earth's population for the Kingdom of Heaven, leaving ...
Live Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, June 1981
TONIGHT, the smoky Rock Lounge is filled with sassy fifteen-year-old teeny-boppers in leather jackets, jeans and black Converse sneakers, looking tough, chewing gum and hanging ...
Review by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, June 1981
THE ALBUM TITLE is part of a motto on the British Royal Coat of Arms, "Honi soit qui mal y pense." "Evil to him who ...
Interview by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, July 1981
Independent Thoughts From Rough Trade's Geoff Travis And Factory's Tony Wilson ...
Review by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, July 1981
"Got a hole in my heart/Size of my heart/Is my fist" — 'The Once Over Twice' ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, August 1981
WHEN IS A guitarist not a guitarist? What distinguishes pop music from avant-garde or classical? Why is most cerebral music purely instrumental? Can you dance ...
David Johansen, New York Dolls, Johnny Thunders: Beyond The Valley Of The New York Dolls
Report and Interview by Roy Trakin, Musician, October 1981
THE FIRST TIME I ever laid eyes on the New York Dolls was New Year's Eve, 1972, at the old Mercer Arts Center, and, quite ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, October 1981
LISTEN TO the cacaphonous cutting edge of no wave punk-jazz in the privacy of your very own SONY walk-man. Be-bop down the street snapping yer ...
The Ramones, Squeeze: Radio Relief: Squeeze And The Ramones
Profile and Interview by Roy Trakin, Musician, 1 November 1981
Squeeze and the Ramones keep alive an intercontinental rivalry of rhythm for real-life people. But the Beatles and the Beach Boys?...Well, maybe not. ...
Blondie, Debbie Harry: Debbie Harry Goes Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls
Report and Interview by Roy Trakin, Hit Parader, December 1981
WHEN WE LAST left Blondie's Chris Stein and Deborah Harry back in December, Autoamerican had just been released. Owlishly-wise Chris was predicting it would get ...
Review by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, 1982
THE CARS have achieved success the-way Henry Ford build autos – by creating interchangeable, streamlined riffs that are assemble to mass-produce pop hits. In 1982, ...
Interview by Roy Trakin, Musician, February 1982
Malcolm McLaren, the shaker and baker of British punk, turned the Sex Pistols into an epochal event, turned Adam Ant around and now plays Svengali ...
The dB's: The dBs: The Ritz, New York NY
Live Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, June 1982
THE CONVENTIONAL wisdom on these Carolina-bred, N.Y.-honed popsters says they're expert in the studio, puzzlingly erratic in concert. On two Albion import albums, Stand For ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, August 1982
IF YOU THOUGHT Sandinistal's epic sprawl would be edited down to a solid, filler-free album this time, guess again. Combat Rock reflects that triple-record set's ...
The Individuals: Thinking Aloud: The Individuals Discuss Their Fields Of Expertise
Interview by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, November 1982
VOCALIST/GUITARIST Glenn Morrow you already know about: former managing editor of the rag you hold in your hands, all-around nice guy, and one of the ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, January 1983
THE "MYSTICAL" BEATLE had his first hit in a long time last year with that cloying, simplistic eulogy, ‘All Those Years Ago’. On his latest ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, January 1983
THESE ART-ROCKERS ward off chaos with an armor of meticulously conceived pop songs that cloaks its creators' identifies even as it showcases their talents. ...
Yoko Ono: It's Alright (Polydor/PolyGram)
Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, February 1983
THERE ARE still many Beatles fans who accuse Yoko Ono of cannibalizing John Lennon's soul. Undoubtedly, Yoko's new solo effort will add fuel to their ...
Live Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, March 1983
CONTRARY TO the prevailing opinion, when these five Akron androids pose the rhetorical question, "Are we not men?," they don't mean, "We are not men," ...
ABC, Culture Club, The Thompson Twins, Yazoo: New Romantics: Sweat & Ice
Report and Interview by Roy Trakin, Musician, March 1983
THE NEW BRITISH DANCE ROMANTICS: ABC, THOMPSON TWINS, YAZ, CULTURE CLUB ...
Rank and File: Rank & File: Sundown
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, March 1983
TIME WAS BROTHERS Chip and Tony Kinman were just another coupla SoCal surfpunks, bitchin' 'bout class wars and hating the rich. The Dils, which was ...
Dexys Midnight Runners: Dexy's Midnight Runners: Too-Rye-Ay
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, April 1983
WHEN WE LAST left Dexy's pugnacious leader Kevin Rowland, he wore a knit stocking cap, a navy peacoat, a pencil-thin mustache and the leering mug ...
Captain Beefheart: A Wacky Way Of Knowledge
Profile and Interview by Roy Trakin, Creem, May 1983
"If you've got ears, you gotta listen," – Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, June 1983
ALL YOU NEED Is Synth. Producer George Martin sez these guys are the most musical band he's worked with since you-know-who. So, what'd you expect ...
The dB's, Pylon, R.E.M., Chris Stamey: Mitch Easter's Drive-In Studios
Interview by Roy Trakin, Musician, August 1983
Producing the Post-Punk Pantheon ...
Material, Nona Hendryx: Nona Hendryx: Nona (RCA)
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, August 1983
YOU KNOW Nona. Along with Patti LaBelle and Sarah Dash, she was part of LaBelle. ...
Talking Heads: Speaking In Tongues
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, September 1983
WITHOUT THE ANCHORS of either longtime producer Brian Eno or the general pancultural ideology expressed on their last few records, the Talking Heads' latest album, ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, November 1983
"I'LL ROCK 'N' ROLL 'til I fall down." shouts Douglas Farage in his best Jaggeresque drawl, and darn if you don't believe every word. ...
The B-52s, Will Powers, Tom Tom Club: Steven Stanley: "Youth Sound"
Interview by Roy Trakin, Musician, November 1983
Common Sense at Compass Point. ...
Grand Mixer D.ST, Herbie Hancock, Material: Herbie Hancock: Comeback Scratch
Interview by Roy Trakin, Musician, December 1983
"I DIDN'T JUMP on anybody's bandwagon with this record," insists Herbie Hancock, who has climbed aboard more than a few in a career which has ...
Was (Not Was): Was Not Was: Born To Laugh At Tornadoes
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, January 1984
THE WOODWORK SQUEAKS...and out comes Ozzy Osbourne, rapping? Ex-Knackster Doug Fieger making fun of himself? Mitch Ryder barking like a dog with Good Golly Miss ...
Interview by Roy Trakin, Creem, February 1984
ONCE UPON A time, in the early '70s, long before currently voguish "new music" outfits like Soft Cell, Yaz and Human League, there was Suicide. ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, March 1984
IT'S THE BAND that just won't go away, the thing that wouldn't die, no matter how many limbs are cut off or obstacles put in ...
The dB's, Chris Stamey: Chris Stamey: The Wonderful Wacky World of an ex-dB
Interview by Roy Trakin, Musician, April 1984
SOME ROCKERS start earlier than others. North Carolina native Chris Stamey, for example, was a mere nine years old when he got his first tape ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, April 1984
THE RICH ARE different than you and me, but TV shows like Dallas and Dynasty prove that wealth doesn't necessarily equal happiness. Even debutantes get ...
The Smiths, The The: The The: Soul Mining (Epic); The Smiths: The Smiths (Warner Bros.)
Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, May 1984
"FIFTEEN MINUTES with you/I wouldn't say no," sings the Smiths' Morrissey, echoing Warhol's famous dictum. Well, there you go again, as President Reagan is wont ...
Morrissey, The Smiths: Not the Jones: Morrissey
Interview by Roy Trakin, Musician, June 1984
AMERICA MAY HAVE been charmed by Boy George, but it's more difficult to imagine it embracing the Smiths and their poetic singer/writer Morrissey, the U.K.'s ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, July 1984
WHAT HAPPENS to hardcore bands when they get old? They turn into Hawkwinds, that's what. Redondo Beach's finest have let their skinheads grow out and ...
Dennis Brown, Sly & Robbie, Yellowman: Sly & Robbie: Night of the Living Dread
Report and Interview by Roy Trakin, Musician, August 1984
The Riddim Twins Celebrate Ten Years ...
Interview by Roy Trakin, Creem, September 1984
NEW YORK – He was 14 when he began playing bass for John Mayall's Bluesbreakers back in '66, and 16 when he joined Paul Rodgers, ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, September 1984
A TRIO OF STREET teens from the shadows of Shea Stadium who bear out ex-Met manager Casey Stengel's enthusiasm about the Youth of America? ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie and the Banshees: Hyaena
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, November 1984
ONCE UPON a time, they might've burned Siouxsie Sioux at the stake or thrown her in a lake to see if she'd float with rocks ...
Hall & Oates: Big Bam Boom (RCA)
Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, January 1985
Maestros of Yuppie Soul, Hall & Oates keep their sleek street machine in high gear. ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, January 1985
THE REGIONALIZATION of American pop continues apace, and it's about time we turned the beat around on our Brit cousins, right? ...
Yellowman: Reggae's Clown Prince
Interview by Roy Trakin, Creem, January 1985
NEW YORK — Winston Foster not only escaped the oppressive poverty of his Trenchtown youth, but also overcame the psychological effects of childhood taunts about ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, March 1985
SOMETIMES GOOD INTENTIONS aren't enough. In rock 'n' roll, the importance of being earnest must take a back seat to that of being entertaining. ...
Everything But The Girl: Everything But The Girl (Sire)
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, April 1985
YOU GREW UP on rock 'n' roll. You listened to ‘Rag Doll’ on a tiny transistor underneath your pillow and saw the Beatles on Ed ...
Interview by Roy Trakin, Creem, April 1985
"NOW REMEMBER," the harried veteran publicist briefs me as I perch on the jump seat of the chauffeur-driven limousine cruising groovily over the 59th Street ...
The Replacements: Pop Perplexity — Disintegrating the Replacements Way
Interview by Roy Trakin, L.A. Weekly, 9 May 1985
And if I act a bit obscene, That's just because I'm a human being. — New York Dolls, 'Human Being' Somewhere there's somebody throwin' up. — ...
The Beat Farmers: Beat Farmers: Tales Of The New West
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, July 1985
ROOTS? DID I HEAR somebody say roots? These grizzled nugget-miners have wandered in from the San Diego desert town of El Centro with an impressive ...
Eurythmics: Be Yourself Tonight (RCA — CD)
Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, July 1985
PERHAPS THE title is meant to be ironic, for Annie "Zelig" Lennox is one pop chameleon who adapts to her surroundings. ...
Autograph: The Writing's On The Wall
Interview by Roy Trakin, Creem, August 1985
LIKE FELLOW METAL popsters Ratt and Night Ranger, L.A.'s Autograph is an overnight sensation which took 10 years. ...
The Mary Jane Girls, Rick James: Rick James: Glow (Motown)/Mary Jane Girls: Only Four You (Gordy)
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, August 1985
TO CROSSOVER or not to crossover, that is the question. Just a few short years ago, it looked like Buffalo-born Rick James would parlay his ...
The Bongos: Bongos in the U.S.A.
Interview by Roy Trakin, Creem, September 1985
LOS ANGELES — The Bongos are desperately trying to prove Leo Durocher's adage about nice guys was wrong. The Hoboken-based popsters are bouncing around America ...
Marvin Gaye: Dream Of A Lifetime
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, October 1985
PRETTY STRANGE DUDE this Marvin Gaye. What's Goin' On, indeed. Lived his last days inna free base daze, died in a hard-to-believe Oedipal nightmare. ...
The Mary Jane Girls: Mary Jane Girls Can't Help It
Interview by Roy Trakin, Creem, October 1985
LOS ANGELES — Ah, the pleasures of pulchritude!! To be surrounded by two members of Rick James's musical wet dream, the salacious Mary Jane Girls: ...
Interview by Roy Trakin, Musician, November 1985
Doctor of Applied Song Medicine, Studio Psychology, R&B Analysis and Chart Metallurgy... ...
Stevie Wonder: In Square Circle
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, February 1986
IT BUBBLES, it gurgles, it coos. You were maybe expecting ‘Fingertips Part III’? In Square Circle is a seamless piece of synthetic aural gratification that ...
Divinyls, Pat Benatar: Pat Benatar: Seven the Hard Way; Divinyls: What A Life!
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, April 1986
CHRYSALIS'S TRIED-and-true formula for reforming bad girls has always been to call for producer Mike Chapman, with his updated Spectorisms, and songwriter Holly Knight, with ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, June 1986
I READ THE other day where Lee Abrams, the esteemed market research expert who brought us AOR radio, said he knew "snivelling Johnny Rotten would ...
The Bangles: Making Pop Her-Story Or It's A Girl's, Girl's, Girl's World
Interview by Roy Trakin, Creem, June 1986
YOU CAN almost hear the buzz of excitement in the air at Mike Gormley's L.A.P.D. (for "personal direction") management offices in Hollywood. ...
Van Halen: 5150 (Warner Bros.)
Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, June 1986
POST-LOBOTOMY VAN HALEN GO ON WITH HALF A MIND ...
Dwight Yoakam: Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, August 1986
THE PURIST LET loose a thin stream of tobacco juice between his teeth and into the brass spittoon. "Not another 'Next Gram Parsons,"' he harumphed, ...
Katrina and the Waves: Songs For The Common Man
Interview by Roy Trakin, Creem, August 1986
IF IT'S TUESDAY, this must be...Universal City. You'll have to forgive this peripatetic foursome if they're a little disoriented. Plucked from the middle of an ...
LL Cool J: Float Like A Butterfly, Sting Like A Beat Box
Interview by Roy Trakin, Creem, August 1986
LL COOL J COMES on like a rap version of Muhammad Ali, taking delight in clever wordplay with a showman's sense of timing and a ...
Bob Dylan: Knocked Out Loaded (Columbia)
Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, September 1986
DESPITE A high-visibility tour with Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, his best band since the Band, Bob Dylan's new studio album is being released with ...
Bob Seger: The Creem Interview: Bob Seger
Interview by Roy Trakin, Creem, September 1986
"My hands were steady/My eyes were clear and bright/My walk had purpose/My steps were quick and light/And I held firmly/To what I felt was right/Like ...
Interview by Roy Trakin, Creem, October 1986
THE SYSTEM OF law in New Guinea involves a concept loosely defined as "payback," which means if one village has wronged another, that village is ...
David Bowie: Never Let Me Down
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, August 1987
THE PICTURE OF Dorian Bowie, in which the master remains young but his music begins to limp. Or the boy who cried wolf, so that ...
Live Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, August 1987
U2: Los Angeles Sports Arena, April 17-22, 1987 ...
The Replacements' Paul Westerberg (1987)
Interview by Roy Trakin, Rock's Backpages Audio, 14 August 1987
Replacements kingpin Westerberg on the making of Pleased To Meet Me in Memphis with messrs. Chilton and Dickinson, and on his family background, the Minneapolis scene, hatred of the English music press, beer, football and life on the road.
File format: mp3; file size: 43mb, interview length: 44' 46"; sound quality: ***
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, October 1987
THE CAGNEY AND LACEY of rock 'n' roll are back with their increasingly polished version of Ms. Zeppelin. This is the kind of thing you ...
Hugh Masekela, Paul Simon: Hugh Masekela: Grazing in Graceland
Interview by Roy Trakin, Creem, October 1987
HUGH MASEKELA hasn't been back to South Africa since he left his homeland 27 years ago to study trumpet in London and New York, but ...
Interview by Roy Trakin, Rock's Backpages Audio, 27 October 1987
La Carlisle on Solo vs Go-Go, Pop vs Rock, critics vs her, choosing songs and NOT being an actress
File format: mp3 File size: 20.5mb Interview length: 22 minutes 21 seconds Sound quality: ****
Van Morrison: Poetic Champions Compose (PolyGram)
Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, November 1987
"IF MY HEART could do the thinking, and my head began to feel," pleads Van Morrison on a song from his latest album, a sentiment ...
Interview by Roy Trakin, Rock's Backpages Audio, 18 November 1987
Little Richard, on the 'phone, talks about race, religion, Good Works, the original giants of rock'n'roll, and Prince and Michael Jackson
File format: mp3 File size: 20.3mb Interview length: 22 minutes 13 seconds Sound quality: **
Fabulous Thunderbirds: Can Rich Men Sing The Blues?
Interview by Roy Trakin, Creem, December 1987
THESE ARE THE best and worst of times for the Fabulous Thunderbirds. After 14 lean years and four commercial flops, the Austin, Texas-based critical darlings ...
The Cars: The 50,000 Mile Tune Up
Interview by Roy Trakin, Creem, January 1988
DR. YOGI BUP is the alias Elliot Easton uses when he checks into a room on the road. Imagine that. It's not enough that the ...
Interview by Roy Trakin, Creem, February 1988
"YES, WE ARE five individuals. That's what makes it what it is, how good it is and as complicated as it is. Each of us ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, March 1988
THIS IS ALMOST as satisfying a return to form as Sugar Ray Leonard's victory over Marvelous Marvin Hagler and practically as much of an upset. ...
Divine Horsemen, Meat Puppets: Meat Puppets: Huevos/Divine Horsemen: Snake Handler (both SST)
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, April 1988
IF THERE'S ANY doubt that the balance has shifted in the bi-coastal rock community – in terms of talent, excitement, commitment, energy, etc. – from ...
David Johansen: The Strange Case Of Buster Poindexter
Interview by Roy Trakin, Creem, June 1988
"WHY YA GONNA write this for CREEM?," rasps David Johansen in that gravelly Noo Yawk slang his alter ego Buster Poindexter has put to such ...
Jesse Johnson: Every Shade of Love (A&M)
Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, July 1988
YOU'D BE excused for mistaking one-Time guitarist Jesse Johnson for his former Twin Cities running mate, Prince. ...
Interview by Roy Trakin, Rock's Backpages Audio, 7 July 1988
An avuncular (if occasionally inaudible) John Lee talks about making The Healer, doing Iron Man with Pete Townshend, his roots, and the state of the world today
File format: mp3 File size: 24.9mb Interview length: 27 minutes 12 seconds Sound quality: ***
Lou Reed: New York State of Mind
Interview by Roy Trakin, Hits, 6 February 1989
Lou Reed's Sire/WB debut, New York, marks a welcome return to the wild side for the veteran Velvet Underground founder and street bard. It is ...
The Pixies' Black Francis (1989)
Interview by Roy Trakin, Rock's Backpages Audio, 27 March 1989
Black Francis on the telephone, talking about The Pixies' major label debut, his influences ranging from his Pentecostal background to the movies of David Lynch, and his "Black Francis" persona
File format: mp3 File size: 23mb Interview length: 25 minutes 10 seconds Sound quality: **
Jane's Addiction: Addiction By Subtraction
Profile and Interview by Roy Trakin, BAM, 30 November 1990
PERRY FARRELL is onstage at LA's Henry Fonda Theater on Halloween night, haranguing the hippie generation for selling out its ideals, and urging his followers ...
Carl Stalling: The Carl Stalling Project: Music from Warner Bros. Cartoons 1936-1958
Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, December 1990
MOST PEOPLE have probably never heard of the late Carl W. Stalling, but they've undoubtedly heard his music. As the chief composer for cartoons at ...
A Special Time In Rock: 1966 On The Sunset Strip
Retrospective by Roy Trakin, Los Angeles Times, 1991
THE SUMMER of 1966 on L.A.'s Sunset Strip was a time when many young musicians thought anything was possible. A teenager from the San Fernando ...
Fishbone Swims Upstream To Spawn Its Punk-Funk Hybrid
Interview by Roy Trakin, Musician, May 1991
IT'S ONLY a rehearsal in a warehouse in a desolate section of downtown L.A. ...
Paul Westerberg: 14 Songs (Sire/Warner Bros.)
Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, June 1993
STRIPPED-DOWN WESTERBERG ...
Alvin Lee, Blodwyn Pig, Robin Trower: Is There Life After Rock Guitar Godhead?
Overview by Roy Trakin, Musician, 1994
ALVIN LEE HAD reached the pinnacle of rock guitardom. Of course, by the time Woodstock was over, his "I'm Going Home... by helicopter" histrionics would ...
MC5: The MC5's Wayne Kramer (1994)
Interview by Roy Trakin, Rock's Backpages, 25 January 1994
Detroit guitar-wrangler Wayne Kramer looks back at the MC5 and departed comrades Fred Smith and Rob Tyner, drugs and jail, and his life after the Five.
File format: mp3; file size: 39.6mb, interview length: 43' 14" sound quality: *
Report and Interview by Roy Trakin, Musician, February 1994
Collapsing stages in Japan! Elephant farts in Vegas! Eskimo shows in Alaska! A Survey of Abominable Venues and Disastrous Shows! ...
Sleeping With The Enemy: When Musicians Become Record Executives
Report and Interview by Roy Trakin, Musician, March 1995
YOU WOULD think Gary Lemel is one of the luckiest guys around. As President of Music for Warner Bros, films, he gets to pal around ...
Interview by Roy Trakin, Rock's Backpages Audio, 9 August 1995
The young pups of punk nouveau phone in about their humungous success, vast wealth, and what it means to be a punk, twenty years after the fact.
File format: mp3 File size: 33.3mb Interview length: 36 minutes 24 seconds Sound quality: **
Randy Newman: The Devil Made Him Do It: Randy Newman
Interview by Roy Trakin, Addicted To Noise, 31 October 1995
"IT'S HARD TO keep a good man down" goes the refrain to one of the songs on Randy Newman's musical version of the Goethe tale, ...
Elvis Costello, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, The Red Hot Chili Peppers: Why Are Records Too Long?
Report by Roy Trakin, Musician, November 1995
And other odd twists of the CD revolution. ...
Interview by Roy Trakin, Addicted To Noise, 1996
YOU COULD SAY Bad Religion have something to prove. The veteran L.A. punk band are survivors of the West Coast's second great wave, the early ...
Dawn, Tony Orlando: Tony Orlando and Dawn
Sleeve notes by Roy Trakin, The Definitive Collection of Dawn, August 1998
OCTOBER 1970. The war was still raging in Vietnam. Richard Nixon was in the White House and the Watergate was still just the name of ...
Tupac Shakur: Jailhouse Rap: An Exclusive Conversation With Suge Knight
Interview by Roy Trakin, Hits, 19 July 2000
MULE CREEK State Prison is the fourth jail rap entrepreneur Marion "Suge" Knight has been locked up in since he was given a nine-year sentence ...
Elvis Costello: Elvis Gets His Groove Back
Interview by Roy Trakin, Hits, 2002
THE ONCE-ANGRY young man of punk-rock is now practically a pop music singer-songwriting icon. It's been more than 25 years since a bespectacled nerd with ...
Phil Collins: His Turn to Testify: An Exclusive HITS dialogue with Phil Collins
Interview by Roy Trakin, Hits, 2002
JUST WHEN IT SEEMED like Phil Collins was ready to kick back and relax with his new wife Orianne and his 14-month-old son Nicholas in ...
Holland-Dozier-Holland: They Wrote The Songs
Profile and Interview by Roy Trakin, Hits, May 2003
An exclusive HITS dialogue with Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland by Roy Trakin ...
Los Lobos: How The Wolf Survived: Los Lobos’ 30-Year Ride
Sleeve notes by Roy Trakin, Hollywood Records, 2004
"Someday I will go home /And I’ll find peace in the house/Of my heavenly father." (‘Someday’) ...
Kurt Cobain, Nirvana: In Utero: Kurt Cobain Speaks
Interview by Roy Trakin, Hits, 14 April 2004
NIRVANA'S ALBUM NEVERMIND was out about two weeks on Oct. 9, 1991, when I conducted the following phone interview with Kurt Cobain. ...
The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson: SMiLE When Your Heart Is Breaking: Brian Wilson
Interview by Roy Trakin, Hits, October 2004
"Come about hard and joinThe young and often spring you gaveI heard the wordWonderful thingA children's song" ('Surf’s Up') ...
Mötley Crüe, Tommy Lee: Mötley Crüe's Tommy Lee Lets It All Hang Out
Interview by Roy Trakin, Grammy Magazine, April 2005
EVEN BEFORE HE agreed to join bandmates Nikki Sixx, Vince Neil and Mick Mars in this year's surprisingly successful Mötley Crüe reunion tour – the ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Rock's Backpages, 2008
THE INITIAL, BOOMING Wall of Sound strains of 'Flowers and Football Tops' on this Scotland foursome’s promising debut are like the opening of Martin Scorsese’s ...
Elbow: The Seldom Seen Kid (Fiction/Geffen)
Review by Roy Trakin, Rock's Backpages, September 2008
THIS IS THE FOURTH album from the most recent winners of the U.K.'s prestigious Mercury Music Prize and, after three releases on V2, the first ...
Kings of Leon: Only by the Night
Review by Roy Trakin, Hits, 17 October 2008
IT'S NO MISTAKE that two of America's most promising rock groups are from the South, steeped in the area's blend of goth, ghosts and guilt. ...
Elliott Murphy at the Hotel Café, L.A.
Review by Roy Trakin, Rock's Backpages, January 2009
BACK IN 1973, this celebrated Long Island singer/songwriter and the New York Dolls were the twin toasts of the town's still-nascent rock-crit community. ...
Van Morrison: Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl (Listen to the Lion/EMI)
Review by Roy Trakin, Rock's Backpages, January 2009
FAR INTO THE post-apocalyptic future, long after people have holed up in their fallout shelters, emerging only to forage for what little edible green foodstuff ...
Animal Collective: Merriweather Post Pavilion (Domino)
Review by Roy Trakin, Rock's Backpages, 23 January 2009
ACTUALLY, IF YOU haven't picked up on these guys by now, you haven't been surfing the online music blogosphere, which has been blathering about this ...
Janis Ian: Society's Child (Tarcher/Penguin)
Review by Roy Trakin, Rock's Backpages, March 2009
I ADMITTEDLY hadn't thought much about Janis Ian lately, even as my good friend Andy Schwartz kept recommending this surprisingly compelling, always-candid autobiography, going so ...
Steve Earle, Townes Van Zandt: Steve Earle: Townes (New West)
Review by Roy Trakin, SonicBoomers.com, 29 May 2009
IF YOU'RE LOOKING for a dark-horse Grammy Album of the Year contender, you couldn't find a better one than this effort, which boasts the requisite ...
The Beatles, George Harrison: By George: Harrison's Post-Beatles Solo Career
Retrospective by Roy Trakin, Capitol Vaults blog, June 2009
MOST PEOPLE THINK of George Harrison as "the Quiet Beatle," the spiritual one, the first to turn the band on to transcendental meditation, but the ...
Coldplay: Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, Irvine
Live Review by Roy Trakin, Hits, July 2009
WHY DO PEOPLE CONTINUE to hate on these guys? Is it a corollary of the Sting Effect, where there's just outright jealousy over a handsome ...
Live Review by Roy Trakin, Hits, July 2009
MAYBE THIS IS the future of the record business. On a balmy summer evening in L.A., we're gathered in a suburban backyard, twinkling lights strung ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Rock's Backpages, 14 January 2010
THERE'S NOTHING more gratifying for a rock music fan than to witness an act suddenly seize the moment, feel its oats and begin to break ...
MGMT: Congratulations (Columbia)
Review by Roy Trakin, Rock's Backpages, February 2010
THESE BRAINY Wesleyan alums remain just as ironical about their rock star dreams than ever, despite a year in which they garnered a Grammy nod ...
The xx: xx (Young Turks/XL Recordings)
Review by Roy Trakin, Rock's Backpages, March 2010
THIS LONDON-BASED QUARTET-turned-trio is fronted by a pair of precocious 20-year-olds in Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sims, who share vocals with an intimacy that’s ...
Lady Gaga: Staples Center, Los Angeles
Live Review by Roy Trakin, Hits, August 2010
I'VE HAD MY eye on the artist formerly known as Stefani Joanne Germanotta since May 2008, when I wrote about a local Hollywood showcase. ...
Interview by Roy Trakin, Rock's Backpages Audio, 3 July 2012
The ex-Ten Years After guitar wrangler talks about his new album, Still on the Road to Freedom; no longer being the fastest guitar player in the West; memories of playing with Scotty Moore and Jerry Lee Lewis, and how Woodstock took him out of the small halls he preferred.
File format: mp3; file size: 26mb, interview length: 27' 06" sound quality: ** (phoner)
Jonathan Richman: The Echo, Los Angeles
Live Review by Roy Trakin, Hits, 13 July 2012
IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME since I've seen the legendary founder of the Modern Lovers, the man-child my fellow companion at a show once showered ...
Mumford & Sons: Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles
Live Review by Roy Trakin, Hits, November 2012
"CAUSE I KNOW my weakness, know my voice," sings Marcus Mumford on the title track of Babel, the spectacularly successful U.K. folk-rockers' second album. "And ...
Alvin Lee: Finally Going Home: Alvin Lee
Interview by Roy Trakin, Rock's Backpages, March 2013
This tribute piece is based on an interview conducted on the release of Alvin's 2012 album Still on the Road to Freedom, a sequel of ...
Music Attorney Lee Phillips: "Labels Made a Mistake by Not Doing a Deal with Napster"
Report and Interview by Roy Trakin, The Hollywood Reporter, 15 April 2014
WITH ALMOST a half-century under his belt since starting in private practice, music and entertainment attorney Lee Phillips has seen it all, but even he ...
Lana Del Rey: Shrine Exposition Hall, Los Angeles
Live Review by Roy Trakin, The Hollywood Reporter, 2 June 2014
Lana Del Rey's deadpan manner is the point... As the daughter of advertising executives, she understands the use of imagery in selling product, in this ...
Lana Del Rey's Ultraviolence: What the Critics Are Saying
Report by Roy Trakin, The Hollywood Reporter, 17 June 2014
Sophomore album proves the chanteuse has created a strong identity, thanks to a back-to-basics production by Black Keys' Dan Auerbach. ...
Live Review by Roy Trakin, The Hollywood Reporter, 15 July 2014
IT WILL BE 40 years in December, 2015, since the release of Patti Smith's Horses, on Clive Davis' Arista label, arguably the beginning of the ...
Courtney Barnett: El Rey Theatre, L.A.
Live Review by Roy Trakin, Addicted To Noise, 10 November 2014
ROCK 'N' ROLL may be on its last legs, but it is still capable of providing an epiphany along its death spiral. Thank god for ...
David Bowie, Lemmy, Prince: For Rock's Fallen Superstars, A Promise of Life After Death
Comment by Roy Trakin, Cuepoint, 12 July 2016
As fans of Prince, Bowie, Lemmy (and many more) confront music mortality, industry innovators revitalize the legacies of deceased artists. ...
Report and Interview by Roy Trakin, Variety, 21 July 2017
IF THE HISTORIES of Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre warrant four hours of prime HBO real estate in The Defiant Ones, then certainly Michael Alago, ...
Obituary by Roy Trakin, Variety, 9 August 2021
WALTER YETNIKOFF, a colorful record label executive who led CBS Records as president/CEO from 1975 to 1990 — when its roster was stacked with superstars ...
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