Dec 14

Stephen Thomas Erlewine

STEPHEN THOMAS ERLEWINE
 
 
Stephen Thomas Erlewine  (born June 18, 1973, Ann Arbor, Michigan) is an American music critic and senior editor for AllMusic.  He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, occasionally contributing liner notes.  He is the frontman and guitarist for the Ann Arbor-based band, Who Dat?  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 

Another band from the same time period, the Go-Go’s became popular even beyond their hit songs and albums.  Their first album, the triple-platinum Beauty and the Beat is one of the top selling debut albums of all time and is described by Stephen Thomas Erlewine in Allmusic as being “one of the cornerstone albums of American new wave”.  

 

(November 2013)

 

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First though, I realize that I have quoted Allmusic dozens of times through these posts and have never really said anything about who they are.  In 1991, Michael Erlewine founded the All Music Guide as an Internet-based consumer guide; he later launched All Movies Guide and All Games Guide.  The owners reported in 2011 that there were 3,000,000 unique visitors per month to the three sites.  The music site – which has undergone several name changes:  AMG, Allmusic, allmusic and back to Allmusic – has become a very popular resource.  Michael Erlewine’s nephew, Stephen Thomas Erlewine later became a senior editor at Allmusic.

 

(March 2014/2)

 

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Writing for Allmusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine calls Disraeli Gears “a very British album”, and never more so than on the closing track “Mother’s Lament”, showing that Cream was also attracted to traditional songs other than the blues.  For a change, no attempt was made to market a different album in the U.S. from the one that was released in England, and Americans responded by driving the album to #4 on the Billboard album charts, even better than the #5 showing that Disraeli Gears reached in the U.K. 

 

(May 2014)

 

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The Runaways’ sole hit “Cherry Bomb” was included on the tape Awesome Mix, Vol. 1 that was prominently featured in the 2014 mega-hit Guardians of the Galaxy.  Not surprisingly, an album called Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix, Vol. 1 has also been released, and it too includes “Cherry Bomb”.  In his Allmusic review of the album, Stephen Thomas Erlewine says that “the ‘Awesome Mix’ . . . offers a nostalgia trip that’s potent even if you’ve never seen the film”.  

 

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About Ear Candy, the album that I have, Stephen Thomas Erlewine writing in Allmusic says:  “Ear Candy qualifies as a genuine oddity in Helen Reddy’s catalog, a record that finds the queen of Australian soft rock paired with the king of L.A. sleaze, Kim Fowley, and his henchman Earle Mankey, a pair who were just coming off of the teenage kicks of the Runaways.  Fowley and Mankey pushed Reddy toward unusual territory, but that doesn’t mean they lead her toward the gutter:  They encouraged Reddy to write, prompting a surprising five originals on this ten-track album, let her dabble with synthesizers on the lurching ‘Long Distance Love’, and had her do a Cajun stomp with ‘Laissez Les Bon Tempts Rouler’ [French for “Let the Good Times Roll”, and a frequent slogan down here in Mardi Gras country]. . . .  [W]hile there are no big hits here, there are few dull spots, and the odd moments help make this one of Reddy’s most interesting LPs.” 

 

(January 2015/1)

 

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Alain Johannes and Natasha Shneider worked with No Doubt on one of my favorite albums of the early 2000’s, Return of Saturn; Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic notes:  “No Doubt’s desire to expand the emotional template of new wave is the perfect match for [Gwen] Stefani’s themes – she may be writing about love, but she’s not writing adolescent love songs.  Fragments of her teenaged romantic fantasies remain, but she’s writing as a woman in her late 20’s.  She’s tired of being another ‘ex-girlfriend’ – she wants to fall in love, get married, and have a family.  It’s a subject that’s surprisingly uncommon in pop music, which would alone make Return of Saturn an interesting album.  What makes it a successful one is that the band delivers an aural equivalent of Stefani’s lyrical themes. . . .  Surprisingly, they pull it off – it’s a far stronger record than Tragic Kingdom, even if the catchiest numbers don’t have the same swagger and punch as their previous hit singles.  So be it.  With Return of Saturn, No Doubt have made a terrific, layered record that exceeds any expectations set by Tragic Kingdom.  Not only have they found their voice, they know what to do with it.” 

 

(April 2015/2)

 

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The debut Ramones by Ramones is a landmark album released in April 1976 that initially went nowhere, peaking at #111 on the Billboard album charts. In retrospect, all of the ingredients of punk rock were there, and its influence was enormous. Stephen Thomas Erlewine states flatly in his article on the band in Allmusic: “The Ramones were the first punk rock band. . . . By cutting rock & roll down to its bare essentials – four chords; a simple, catchy melody; and irresistibly inane lyrics – and speeding up the tempo considerably, the Ramones created something that was rooted in early ’60s, pre-Beatles rock & roll and pop but sounded revolutionary.” Rolling Stone lists Ramones as #26 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time; while in 2002, Spin magazine named them the second best band, behind only the Beatles.
 
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Stephen Thomas Erlewine gives the band their due in his write-up for Allmusic: “The New York Dolls created punk rock before there was a term for it. Building on the Rolling Stones’ dirty rock & roll, Mick Jagger’s androgyny, girl group pop, the Stooges’ anarchic noise, and the glam rock of David Bowie and T. Rex, the New York Dolls created a new form of hard rock that presaged both punk rock and heavy metal. Their drug-fueled, shambolic performances influenced a generation of musicians in New York and London, who all went on to form punk bands. And although they self-destructed quickly, the band’s first two albums remain among the most popular cult records in rock & roll history.”  
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The Stooges (also known as Iggy and the Stooges) are the prototype of proto-punk. Like MC5, they are a Detroit band, or more properly an Ann Arbor band. As Stephen Thomas Erlewine observes in his Allmusic article: “Taking their cue from the over-amplified pounding of British blues, the primal raunch of American garage rock, and the psychedelic rock (as well as the audience-baiting) of the Doors, the Stooges were raw, immediate, and vulgar. Iggy Pop became notorious for performing smeared in blood or peanut butter and diving into the audience. Ron [Asheton] and Scott Asheton formed a ridiculously primitive rhythm section, pounding out chords with no finesse – in essence, the Stooges were the first rock & roll band completely stripped of the swinging beat that epitomized R&B and early rock & roll.”
 
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Continuing in the Allmusic article, Stephen Thomas Erlewine talks about the genesis of the Stooges’ third album: “Early in 1972, [Iggy] Pop happened to run into David Bowie, then at the height of his Ziggy Stardust popularity and an avowed Stooges fan. Bowie made it his mission to resuscitate Iggy & the Stooges, as the band was then billed. Iggy and [James] Williamson were signed to a management deal with MainMan, the firm guiding Bowie’s career, and the new edition of the band scored a deal with Columbia Records. Temporarily based in London and unable to find a suitable rhythm section in the U.K., Iggy and Williamson invited the Asheton brothers to join the new group, with Scott [Asheton] on drums and Ron [Asheton] moved to bass. Iggy produced the third Stooges album, Raw Power, and Bowie handled the mix. Released in 1973 to surprisingly strong reviews, Raw Power had a weird, thin sound due to various technical problems . . . [with] many Stooges purists blam[ing] Bowie for the brittle mix.”
 
(December 2016)
Last edited: March 22, 2021