Brett Milano | |
---|---|
Born | 1957 (age 63–64) |
Occupation | Writer, music journalist |
Website | www |
Brett Milano (born 1957) is a Boston-based music critic and columnist. His fourth book, a biography of Game Theory's Scott Miller, was published in October 2015.
According to the Boston Globe , Milano is a veteran music critic whose 2007 book, The Sound of Our Town: A History of Boston Rock and Roll, "should be required reading for anyone interested in understanding Boston's unique contribution to rock 'n' roll." [1]
Milano entered the Boston music scene in the 1980s as a music journalist. [2] He was a long-time columnist for the Boston Phoenix , as well as the Boston Globe and Sound & Vision magazine. Milano has also written for publications such as Billboard , Pulse, and the College Media Journal . [3] In 2013, he became the editor of OffBeat , where he has written about music since 2005. [4]
Turning his hand to fiction, he is the author of two short stories anthologized in the 2011 and 2012 volumes of Tales from the House Band, a series of books edited by Deborah Grabien. [5] [6]
He has been interviewed in documentary films as an authority on rock music, [7] and has written liner notes for albums by Todd Rundgren, the Cars, and the Smithereens. He compiled and annotated the 1993 Rhino Records CD release D.I.Y.: Mass. Ave: The Boston Scene (1975–83), a compilation of Boston punk history.
The Boston Globe wrote that Milano's book The Sound of Our Town (2007) depicts Boston's "diversity of scenes and attitudes, much of it driven by the constant influx of college students and transplants", creating a "healthy dissonance" that defined the Boston rock sound. [1]
The book was written over the course of two years, though Milano had been collecting material for several years beforehand. [2] Milano's approach to the problem of structuring the book to reflect the typical chaos of a local music scene was "to at least give a mention to every great band I could ... without making it just a laundry-list of bands," in an effort to "catch the spirit of the time and places, and tell some of the more important band histories, and have it flow as a story." [2]
Milano's biography of Scott Miller, Don't All Thank Me at Once: The Lost Genius of Scott Miller, was published in October 2015. [8] [9] Milano described the book as one that not only tells the story of Miller and his bands Game Theory and The Loud Family, but also explores "the college and indie-rock explosion of the 1980s and 1990s," and how some influential artists "managed to fall through the cracks." [8]
In the aftermath of Miller's death in April 2013, Milano submitted an initial proposal for a book about the album Lolita Nation to Bloomsbury, the publishers of the 33⅓ book series. [10] The series' editor rejected the topic as too non-commercial for that series, but provided "enough encouragement" that Milano decided to go further with the project, to write "a real proper biography, and try to get a handle on who Scott was and how that played into the music he made." [10]
Explaining his motivations for writing the book, Milano stated, "Like a lot of people I was pretty shaken up by his sudden and self-inflicted death in 2013, and thought he should be honored in some way... there’s some earthshaking music here that I have to tell people about." [11] Citing comparisons to Big Star and Nick Drake in a 2016 interview, Milano expressed his hopes and expectation that Miller's music will be rediscovered, bringing Miller "after-the-fact acclaim." [11]
Milano attended Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts before relocating to Boston in 1980 and earning a graduate degree in journalism at Boston University. [2] For three years in the early 1990s, he worked in Los Angeles doing A&R and publicity for Alias Records and Rhino Records. [9] : 172 He also worked for Harmonix as a writer, editor, and researcher for its Rock Band video game. [4]
Milano continues to live in the Boston area, and was married in 2013. [12]
Since September 2016, Milano and Rocker Magazine editor-in-chief Erin Amar have co-hosted a monthly rock and roll trivia night at various venues in the Boston area. [13] [14]
Books:
Stone Temple Pilots is an American rock band from San Diego, California, that originally consisted of Scott Weiland, brothers Dean DeLeo (guitar) and Robert DeLeo, and Eric Kretz (drums). The band's line-up remained unchanged from its formation in 1989 until the firing of Weiland in February 2013. Linkin Park vocalist Chester Bennington joined the band in May 2013 but left amicably in November 2015. In 2016, the band launched an online audition for a new lead vocalist and announced Jeff Gutt as the new lead singer of the band on November 14, 2017.
The Cars were an American rock band formed in Boston in 1976. Emerging from the new wave scene in the late 1970s, it consisted of Elliot Easton, Greg Hawkes (keyboards), Ric Ocasek, Benjamin Orr, and David Robinson (drums). Ocasek and Orr shared lead vocals, and Ocasek was the band's principal songwriter.
The Loud Family was a San Francisco-based power pop band formed in 1991 by songwriter and guitarist Scott Miller, who previously led the 1980s band Game Theory. The Loud Family released six studio LPs and one live LP from 1991 through 2006. After Miller's death in 2013, three Loud Family members participated in recording sessions for Supercalifragile (2017), Miller's posthumous Game Theory album.
Mistle Thrush was a female-fronted 1990s alternative rock band based in Boston, Massachusetts. They've been described by the Boston Herald as The Cure-meets-Fairport Convention. Steve Morse of The Boston Globe wrote that Valerie Forgione, the band's singer, has "some of the most versatile pipes since the dream-pop heyday of Kate Bush" and that the "band remains a local treasure". During the band's heyday, their songs frequently charted in CMJ's Top 200. According to the band's website, they're on hiatus but their last album was released in February 2002. In January 2011, they reunited to play their first concert since 2003. Forgione's current project is called Van Elk.
33+1⁄3 is a series of books, each about a single music album. The series title refers to the rotation speed of a vinyl LP, 33+1⁄3 RPM.
The Rathskeller was a live music venue in Boston that was open from 1974 to 1997. It was considered the "granddaddy" of Boston rock venues.
The Middle East is an American entertainment complex consisting of five adjacent dining and live music venues in the Central Square area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Its three dedicated concert spaces, Upstairs, Downstairs, and Sonia, sit alongside ZuZu and The Corner, two restaurants which also host live music. Having featured a huge variety of musicians since 1987, the establishment was described in 2007 as "the nexus of metro Boston's rock-club scene for local and touring bands" by the Boston Phoenix.
Scott Miller was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist, best known for his work as leader of the 1980s band Game Theory and 1990s band The Loud Family, and as the author of a 2010 book of music criticism. He was described by The New York Times as "a hyperintellectual singer and songwriter who liked to tinker with pop the way a born mathematician tinkers with numbers", having "a shimmery-sweet pop sensibility, in the tradition of Brian Wilson and Alex Chilton."
Sweet Insanity is an unofficial album by American musician Brian Wilson that was originally planned for release in 1991. Wilson has said that the master tapes were stolen, preventing an official release, although the songs are available on numerous bootlegs. Five of the songs were rerecorded over a decade later and released on Wilson's 2004 album, Gettin' In Over My Head, although some critics believed the remakes weren't as good as the originals. Sweet Insanity is one of the more sought-after bootleg albums.
The Downbeat 5 is a Boston-based rock band started in 1999 by former DMZ guitarist J. J. Rassler and his then-wife, Jen,. The band's music draws on 1960s girl group sounds, garage rock, and rougher-edged British Invasion bands like The Rolling Stones.
The Proletariat are a punk rock band from Southeastern Massachusetts, whose heyday was during the 1980s, when they were active in the early Boston hardcore scene, sharing the bill with many of the best punk and hardcore punk acts of the time, despite their recorded output having a decidedly non-hardcore aesthetic; the Proletariat show more strongly the musical influences of early British post-punk bands such as Wire and the Gang of Four in their fractured guitar sound and Marxist-themed lyrics.
Oedipus is an American radio personality. Oedipus's radio career began in 1975 as a D.J. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s college station WTBS. He gained notoriety as the pink-haired DJ who created the first Punk rock radio show in America, introducing Punk and New Wave to Boston and to the country. He did the first radio interviews with the Ramones, Talking Heads and The Damned (band), and legendary on-air conversations with The Clash, Public Image Ltd, Suicide (band) and so many others.
Deborah Grabien is an American novelist and essayist. Her works cross several genres, including murder mysteries, supernatural thrillers, utopian fantasies, etc. Her novel Plainsong is a religious fantasy featuring the Wandering Jew and a female Messiah. Grabien is currently a reviewer and guest editor for Green Man Review.
The Nervous Eaters, one of Boston's first punk/new wave bands, debuted in early 1977 with Steve Cataldo on vocals and guitar, Robb Skeen on bass, and Jeff Wilkinson on drums. They had used the name some years earlier, but had not performed live under it. As the Rhythm Assholes, they had backed local rock legend Willie Alexander on his single "Kerouac" and in concert. After a name change, they made their debut at the hub of the city's alternative music scene, the Rathskeller—known as the Rat—in January 1977. Their first single, "Loretta", appeared that year on the club's Rat label.
"It's Only Love" is a song by American rock band Cheap Trick, released in 1986 as the lead single from their ninth studio album The Doctor. It was written by guitarist Rick Nielsen and lead vocalist Robin Zander, and produced by Tony Platt. The song failed to chart in the US. Despite the commercial failure of the song, the music video is notable for the use of American Sign Language.
Music: What Happened? is a book of music criticism by Scott Miller, leader of the bands Game Theory and The Loud Family. Published in 2010, the book was described by Billboard as "a well-received critical overview of 53 years of rock history."
George Gilbert "Gil" Ray was an American rock drummer, guitarist, and vocalist, best known for his recordings in the 1980s and 1990s as a member of the bands Game Theory and The Loud Family. In late 2012, he joined Rain Parade as drummer for a series of reunion performances.
Don't All Thank Me At Once: The Lost Pop Genius of Scott Miller is a 2015 biography of pop musician Scott Miller, written by Brett Milano.
The Sound of Our Town: A History of Boston Rock and Roll is a 2007 book about the distinctive rock music scene of Boston, Massachusetts. It was written by Brett Milano, a Boston-based music critic and columnist.
Clea Simon is an American writer. She is the author of World Enough, a psychological suspense thriller set in the Boston music scene, and the Blackie and Care, Theda Krakow, Dulcie Schwartz, Pru Marlowe, and Witch Cats of Cambridge cozy feline mysteries. Her non-fiction books include Madhouse: Growing Up in the Shadow of Mentally Ill Siblings, Fatherless Daughters and Feline Mystique: On the Mysterious Connection between Women and Cats.