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Articles by Dan Epstein
Classic Live Album of the Week – Humble Pie’s ‘Performance: Rockin’ the Fillmore’
Few albums truly capture the post-Woodstock/pre-punk-rock concert experience like Humble Pie live document Performance: Rockin’ the Fillmore. In an era defined by ancient ballrooms and movie palaces like New York City’s Fillmore East, revamped to accommodate live music, bands flashed their technical wizardry at paint-peeling volume in service of elongated, blues-based jams.
JTL Flashback: Trick Or Treat
Greetings, Jagged Time Lapsers! Now it can be told: As of last Monday, my partner and I are officially homeowners. It’s been a long, arduous and at times maddening journey, but we’re over the moon about the adorable little pre-WWII cottage we’ve found in Ellenville, NY.
Autumn Curves
Some groovy instrumental EZ listening for your Bandcamp Friday Greetings, Jagged Time Lapsers! Well, I’d hoped to put the finishing touches on a new track by my solo musical venture The Corinthian Columns, but the same distractions that unfortunately caused me to miss this week’s fab CROSSED CHANNELS confab with Grasshopper from Mercury Rev also got completely in the way of any kind of sustained creativity.
Mercury Rev’s Grasshopper on Conquering Europe While Remaining Strangers at Home
Crossed Channels with Tony Fletcher and Dan Epstein Mercury Rev’s Grasshopper on Conquering Europe While Remaining Strangers at Home 1× Preview 0:00 Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -13:45 -13:45 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade.
Pete Jolly - Seasons
An oddball jazz outing from 1970 saves my sanity in 2026 Greetings, Jagged Time Lapsers! Some big changes are currently happening at JTL HQ, which are all to the good but have been so distracting and time-consuming as of late that Tony Fletcher had to get a member of an internationally-renowned rock band to fill in for me on the next episode of our CROSSED CHANNELS podcast. So today’s post will be on he extremely short side — but, thanks to the music involved, it’ll also be pretty sweet.
Me About “Me About You”
As is correctly (and entertainingly) noted in the wonderful 1991 documentary The Turtles: Happy Together, the song “Happy Together” gave The Turtles new life — not to mention newfound international success — at a time when their career seemed to be rapidly running out of gas. The L.A. band’s third single, an infectious rendering of the P.F. Sloan-Steve Barri composition “You Baby,” had reached #20 in March 1966.
Brains and Spleens
Rather than cook up a long piece on a particular subject, I thought I’d share some thoughts about a couple of records that have been really knocking me out as of late — and which I think you’ll really dig, too… I heard Funkadelic’s Maggot Brain for the first time in the fall of 1989, shortly after I’d graduated college and moved back to Chicago to start a band.
JTL Flashback: The Fool Over the Hill
It’s been a jam-packed week of TCB-ing (including getting my updated flu and Covid vaccines, which made me a bit too woozy yesterday to write anything particularly coherent), so today I’m re-running this JTL piece from January 2023, which I suspect that most of you haven’t seen before. But if you dig The Beatles and/or Rhino’s infamous Golden Throats series, this will make for a most enjoyable weekend reading and listening experience.
A Brush With Death And Brian Eno
Rocking the paisley at the top of 30 Rock, September 12, 2006. My left hand was, in retrospect, signaling that my appendix had about two days left in my body. Twenty years ago today, I woke up at the Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, New Jersey, having come about as close to dying as I’ve ever been before or since.
Blow By Blow: The Jeff Beck Story
Welcome to a special audio edition of Jagged Time Lapse! (Dare I call it a podcast?) As I begin packing for what will hopefully be an October move to a new pad, I am forced to reflect on my book-accumulation tendencies. Despite a couple of recent donation runs to the local library, I still have nearly twice the number of books that I moved from NC to NY with four years ago. And then, of course, there’s that “waiting to be read” pile stacked up beside my bed, which seems to grow larger by the day.
Lonnie Jordan Spills The Wine, Part Two
WAR’s music has been part of my life since the days when I cared more about toy soldiers than 45 rpm records. In fact, I knew all or most of the words to their 1975 smashes “Why Can’t We Be Friends” and “Low Rider” and their 1976 hit “Summer” — all staples on L.A. radio during my mid-’70s vacations there — before I even knew that they were all the work of the same band.
The Summer Was Hot, And I Went To The Sea
Greetings, Jagged Time Lapsers! There’s a few weeks left until the autumnal equinox — and a few more days before Labor Day marks the official “end of summer” in the States — so I figure we still have time here for a little sun-baked fun. The idea for this post began germinating (or perhaps, as we’ll get to in a second, German-ating) last week, when I pulled out my copy of Get Easy! Vol. 3: The French Pops Collection for the first time in many a moon.
Unlocked! The Who Take on US and Win, 1967-69
Your CROSSED CHANNELS hosts with two top late 60s Who recordings.
CD Review: “East River Blues” by Chris Bergson
Throughout his three-decade recording career, veteran New York guitarist, singer, and songwriter Chris Bergson has continuously demonstrated an almost uncanny ability to pivot from blues to jazz to soul with equal measures of expertise.
Lonnie Jordan Spills The Wine
Eric Burdon & War, 1970. (Lonnie Jordan at center rear) Jagged Time Lapse turns 4 today! Today marks the 4th anniversary of my first real Jagged Time Lapse post.
LAMB OF GOD look back on breakthrough classic album 'Ashes of the Wake'
This article was originally published in 2024 as part of Revolver's special collectors issue on Lamb of God and has since been slightly edited and updated. Over two decades later, Ashes of the Wake stands as a landmark record for many reasons. Lamb of God's third studio album under that name, and fourth overall, Ashes of the Wake was LOG’s first for a major label.
Dolly, Gettysburg, Pigs, Bears and Elephants
“I feel like my aunt just died,” Shannon said. We were somewhere in Pennsylvania when we first heard the news about Dolly Parton’s death, driving home to New York at the tail-end of a week-long road trip that had also taken us through Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee, along with a small chunk of the Great Smoky Mountains near where Dolly was born and raised. I knew exactly what Shannon meant.
10 curiosidades sobre 'Ten', o álbum de estreia do Pearl Jam
Histórias de bastidores incluem inspiração do Kiss em 'Alive' ou como Billy Ray Cyrus bloqueou caminho da banda até o primeiro lugar nas paradas Resumo Lançado em 1991, *Ten*, álbum de estreia do Pearl Jam, consagrou a banda e impulsionou o movimento grunge globalmente.
10 curiosidades sobre ‘Ten’, o álbum de estreia do Pearl Jam
Uma das bandas de maior sucesso dos últimos 40 anos, o Pearl Jam lançou 12 álbuns de estúdio, além de inúmeros discos ao vivo e gravações piratas oficiais ao longo de sua carreira, vendendo cerca de 100 milhões de cópias em todo o mundo. Mas se tivessem lançado apenas um disco – sua estreia, Ten (1991) –, seu lugar na história do rock ainda estaria garantido.
JTL Flashback: Let's Recapture All the Rapture
Greetings, Jagged Time Lapsers! I’m still on vacation, so I thought I’d re-post an early JTL entry that most of you haven’t read. See you back here on Friday or Saturday with some fresh material! Nearly two months after moving into my new place in the scenic hamlet of Kerhonkson, NY, my one box of 45s that had gone missing in the move finally showed up at my door.
JTL Flashback: And After All This, Won't You Give Me A Smile?
Greetings, Jagged Time Lapsers! As I’m currently in the midst of a little summer road trip, I thought I’d re-post this blast from summers long past — one which seems worth revisiting in light of the recent news that ICE is planning to spend $20 million on gloves that will allow their agents to deliver debilitating electrical shocks to anyone within grabbing range.
Oscar's Picks: City Nights
When my impossibly handsome cat Oscar passed away this past November, I started going through all the pics I’d taken of him during the 11 years or so we spent together.
Chris Difford: "I've Got The Easy Part."
Chris Difford. (Photo by Dean Chalkley) It was Glenn Tilbrook’s golden trumpet of a voice that initially hit me when I first heard Squeeze in the summer of 1980 — “Pulling Mussels (from the Shell)” was the song, which was then getting a fair amount of airplay on New York City’s FM rock stations.
Siouxsie & The Banshees Set America Ablaze
Welcome back to the CROSSED CHANNELS podcast — the podcast in which music journalists/obsessives Dan Epstein (the “Yank”) and Tony Fletcher (the “Limey”) clash and connect over music from either side of the pond. True to that intent, and alternating countries as we like to do, our previous episode celebrated the 50th anniversary of a legendary American punk band (The Ramones) making their initial landfall in England.
JTL Flashback: Kris Kristofferson Was My Babysitter
Greetings, Jagged Time Lapsers! I’m currently on the final laps of a book-editing project, so I unfortunately had no time this weekend to concoct something new and tasty for your Monday eyes. It was also my mother’s birthday yesterday, which I think should qualify as a no-work holiday in any civilized society.
Glenn Tilbrook: "It Was Like Magic When We Got Together!"
As you may or may not have already heard, four prominent music coverage publications — BrooklynVegan, Alternative Press, Revolver, and Goldmine — were gutted this week by a massive round of staff layoffs. These moves came courtesy of Veeps, a company owned by Benji and Joel Madden of the forgettable-but-apparently-quite-profitable 00s pop-punk band Good Charlotte, which currently owns all of these publications, and which is apparently now part of Live Nation.
Don't Give It Up Now
Jeff “Monoman” Connolly, from the cover of The Lyres’ Live At Cantones LP, 1987. (Photo by Monica Dee.) Jeff “Monoman” Conolly, the leader and lone constant of long-running Boston garage rock kings The Lyres, died of cancer last week at the far-too-young age of 69. It’s possible that many Jagged Time Lapse readers have never heard of Conolly or heard his band, which would be a damned shame… but also entirely understandable. The Lyres never had anything close to a real, Billboard-anointed hit.
Oh Cey, Can You Sing?
My very first Ron Cey card, clipped from the bottom of a box of Hostess Twinkies in the spring of 1976. While I generally strive to feature only high-quality music here at Jagged Time Lapse, sometimes you just need to throw something truly awful into the mix.
Time To Get Organ-ized
Would you buy an album of funky organ grooves from these reprobates? I did! I received a lovely surprise late last week, when Tales of the Wyldewood Green landed on my doorstep. Its arrival was surprising to me on two counts: One, I didn’t think that my limited-edition vinyl copy of The Wyldewood Green’s first full-length album (which I’d pre-ordered from Bandcamp back in June) was actually going to show up until August. Two, the record turned out to be even more happening than I’d been hoping.
Everybody’s talking about explosive diarrhea right now, but I’d way rather talk about the explosive Freddy “Boom Boom” Cannon, who passed away last week at the age of 89 on the heels of a recent cancer diagnosis. A true rock n’ roll lifer, the man born Frederick Anthony Picariello Jr. made his lasting mark during that oft-maligned pop era bookended by Elvis Presley’s Army induction and The Beatles’ first appearance on Ed Sullivan.
Undying passion: How NEUROSIS returned to the world with burning ambition
On the morning of March 20th, 2026, Neurosis fans woke up to something many had stopped expecting: a resurrection. The Oakland post-metal titans had lain quietly dormant since their 2019 tour, only briefly emerging in 2022 to announce they had parted ways with co-founder Scott Kelly over his abusive behavior toward his family. Was the band, which originally formed in 1985, calling it quits? Would there ever be more Neurosis music?
Rainy Day Sculpture Garden
Brunel Park Sculpture Garden, May 2026. (Photo by Dan Epstein) They say it’s the mark of a good vacation when you feel a major let-down upon returning home, and that’s definitely been the case for me over the past two weeks since getting back from the desert. Don’t get me wrong; I’m a happy and grateful person by nature, and I love (and am profoundly thankful for) the sweet and relatively simple life I lead here in the foothills of the Shawangunk Mountains with Shannon, my amazing girlfriend.
Bill Ward: "We’ve Always Had That Jazz Thing!"
Bill Ward: Slamming in the Seventies. (Photographer unknown) Sometime during the early spring of 2001, I spent an incredible (and incredibly memorable) afternoon at some medium-posh Beverly Hills hotel in the company of Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward — three of the four members of Black Sabbath’s “classic” lineup.
Summertime... and the Listening is EZ
Vintage 1960s postcard of the Shadow Mountain Club in Palm Desert, CA. Back in May, I had the honor of guesting on Frank Santopadre’s wonderful Fun For All Agespodcast, where I joined my dear pal Rachel Lichtman (of Programme 4 fame) to fly the flag for the artistic joys and therapeutic properties of vintage easy listening music.
JTL Flashback: The Power Of Platinum
Greetings, Jagged Time Lapsers! I have returned from my vacation out west, but am still to fried from the time change, my flight-delayed journey home and the muggy “heat dome” hellscape of New York in early July to write any new stuff worthy of your eyeballs. But after watching Questlove’s new documentary Earth, Wind & Fire (To Be Celestial vs That’s the Weight of the World) the other night, I figured it would be fun to re-run this piece from 2025.
HEY HO! LET'S GO! (To London for July 4th)
Dan’s hair is courtesy of Radio Kingston’s headphones. Greetings, Jagged Time Lapsers! This podcast episode went live yesterday (July 2) on Tony’s Substack, but as I was traveling — and didn’t want to take my laptop with me on vacation — I was unable to make the final tweaks on my end until the wee hours of this morning. I apologize to any of my paid subscribers who tried to listen to the full episode on Tony’s post, but found themselves only able to access the preview clip.
JTL Flashback: But Definitely For Me
Greetings, Jagged Time Lapsers! I’m taking this week off for a little vacation, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to re-post a few things from the first year of this Substack, which the majority of you probably haven’t read.
JTL Flashback: Portrait of the Writer as a Young Guitarist
Greetings, Jagged Time Lapsers! I’m traveling for the next week, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to re-post a few things from the first year of this Substack, which the majority of you probably haven’t read. This one, originally published in May 2023, is a bit of an origin story… This above image is me, 37 [now actually 40] springs ago, in my freshman dorm room at Vassar College.
Love Your Mother, Trust Your Brother, Have Faith In One Another
Greetings, Jagged Time Lapsers! First — a bit of book news. Though many of you guitar gear aficionados are already hip to the jive, it bears repeating that Made On Earth For Rising Stars: The Electro-Harmonix Story is now out via Jack White’s Third Man Books and will soon be available from all major booksellers.
Geezer Butler: "I Wanted To Be A Priest!"
So much attention has been focused over the years on Ozzy Osbourne’s antics and Tony Iommi’s down-tuned guitar riffs, it’s easy to forget just how important Terence Michael Joseph Butler — a.k.a. Geezer — was to Black Sabbath’s groundbreaking and earthquaking sound and vision.
The author with Ian McCulloch at ShockHound, 2010. (Photo by Randy Bookasta) I’ve been in a heavy Echo & The Bunnymen mood lately, largely because Tony Fletcher and I decided to tackle the legendary Liverpool band’s self-titled 1987 album for the latest episode of our CROSSED CHANNELS podcast.
5 Questions with Robyn Hitchcock
Next year will mark Robyn Hitchcock’s 50th anniversary as a recording artist. But judging by his new album The Confuser, the prolific English songwriter’s abilities remain remarkably undiminished by the passage of time.
Echo & The Bunnymen: The Album That Broke Echo & The Bunnymen
Welcome to the CROSSED CHANNELS podcast — the podcast in which music journalists/obsessives Dan Epstein (the Yank) and Tony Fletcher (the Limey) clash and connect over music from either side of the pond. In this 29th episode we discuss not one of the first four classic albums by Liverpool legends Echo & The Bunnymen, but the troubled, eponymous fifth album.
Let There Be COCKS
THE COCKS: Jason “Halo” Halogen, Mike McCormick, Tchad Drats and Zsa. I’ve been a fan of gay punk purveyors THE COCKS ever since 2021, when they burst out of Los Angeles (and their trousers) with Loads of Fun, their loud n’ lusty debut album.
Dock Ellis and the Jamaican Connection
When it comes to baseball’s late, great Dock Ellis, I like to think I’m fairly well-versed in his life, career and antics, both on and off the field. After all, the irrepressible right-hander is a recurring character in all three of the books I’ve written about baseball in the 1970s — Big Hair and Plastic Grass, Stars and Strikes and The Captain & Me — and I even appeared as an interview subject in 2014’s Dock doc No No: A Dockumentary.
In David Baerwald’s epic tale of espionage and wartime horrors, family history is stranger than fiction
Hello, fellow Forward reader! I’m Joel Brown, a Forward reader and supporter for more than 15 years, and currently the chair of the board of directors. I’m an avid Forward reader because it ticks so many of my essential boxes: excellent journalism, Jewish focus and diverse viewpoints. In today’s political climate, what I most appreciate is the Forward’s independence — made possible by the generosity of its membership. The Forward is committed to bringing you unbiased, nuanced Jewish news.
Tony Iommi: "I Can Play Most Of Our Things With Two Fingers!"
Tony Iommi, 2009. (Photo by Adam Bielawki, shared via Wikimedia Commons.) Interviewing Tony Iommi in the sunlit lobby of a medium-posh Beverly Hills hotel is a little like reading a collection of M.R. James’ antiquarian ghost stories by the pool — not exactly the ideal setting for it, but you can still think of much worse ways to be spending your time. In any case, that’s exactly where I find myself — and exactly what I find myself doing — on this early spring afternoon in 2001.
Drinkin' The Cool Aid In Funky L.A.
Flashing back on Paul Humphrey's underrated 1971 instro-funk album Back in the early 1990s, when the CD boom was motivating record labels of all sizes to unleash all manner of reissues and compilations, I got my very first taste of “Cool Aid,” courtesy of Rhino Records’ Soul Hits of the ’70s: Didn’t It Blow Your Mind! Vol. 5.
Cher The Land
A brief ode to the pop goddess in the wake of her 80th birthday It’s April 1979, and my sister and I are spending our spring break in New York City visiting our father, who has recently returned to his (and my) hometown after living for over a decade in the comparative cultural desert of Ann Arbor, Michigan. We’re having such a fantastic time visiting local museums, landmarks, delicatessens and record stores that I don’t even really mind when our planned visit to Shea Stadium gets rained out.
T. REX: Move Like a Cat, Charge Like a Ram, Slip Like an Oaf
Flashing back on how my rock n' roll fantasy took a knee Greetings, Jagged Time Lapsers! I’m pretty wiped out from this past week, and thus am simply too fried to finish the piece I was hoping to upload today. So I thought I’d resurrect this particularly amusing blast from the past, which was originally published in March 2023, back before most of my current loyal subscribers had climbed aboard the good ship JTL.
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