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Mac Randall

Mac Randall

Mac Randall has written about music and musicians for numerous publications, including The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Details, The New York Daily News, Interview, Guitar World, The New York Observer, Harp, Newsday, CMJ New Music Monthly, Blender, Time Out New York, Mojo, and Guitar Aficionado. He is editor-in-chief of Music Alive!, a music magazine for middle and high school students and teachers, and Teaching Music, the member magazine of America’s National Association for Music Education (NAfME). Previously, he was senior editor of Guitar One, East Coast features editor for Launch.com (now Yahoo! Music), and senior editor of Musician. His book Exit Music: The Radiohead Story, originally published in 2000, is now available in four languages and three revised editions. Also a guitarist and composer, he has worked most recently with the New York-based band Bedsit Poets.

24 articles

List of articles in the library

By date | By artist | Most recently added

Bill Nelson, Robert Wyatt: Robert Wyatt & Bill Nelson: Tough Guys Don't Dance

Interview by Mac Randall, Musician, August 1992

Bill Nelson meets Robert Wyatt. For 20 years they've bucked the system and made music at the edge of rock. Two vets discuss the never-ending ...

Annie Lennox, Eurythmics: Annie Lennox: Front Woman

Interview by Mac Randall, Musician, March 1993

CONGRATULATIONS ON your Grammy nominations. Are you making any bets on how you'll do? ...

Aimee Mann: Sweet Revenge

Interview by Mac Randall, Musician, April 1993

"WE'VE HAD a joke going recently," Aimee Mann says, "that the new album has three themes: despair, defeat and revenge." ...

Dinosaur Jr: J Mascis' Big Step

Interview by Mac Randall, Musician, June 1993

WHEN DINOSAUR JR comes to your town, get ready for a unique event: the Dance of the 17 Footswitches. ...

David Bowie, Brian Eno: David Bowie & Brian Eno: The Outside Story

Interview by Mac Randall, Mark Rowland, Musician, November 1995

DAVID BOWIE AND BRIAN ENO EXPLAIN IT ALL FOR YOU — by Mark Rowland ...

Sonic Youth: The Importance of being Sonic Youth

Interview by Mac Randall, Musician, December 1995

Sonic Youth take the Lollapalooza caravan to The Zone ...

Metallica: Load (Elektra)

Review by Mac Randall, Musician, August 1996

Monsters of Pop ...

Evan Dando, The Lemonheads: Evan Dando's New Traditionalism

Interview by Mac Randall, Musician, January 1997

A Lemonhead's Personal History of Song ...

Pavement: Brighten the Corners (Matador)

Review by Mac Randall, Musician, April 1997

INDIE CRED. It's tough to acquire, but it's even harder to hang onto. Take the case of Pavement, a band boasting a distinctive guitar-based sound ...

Radiohead: Radiohead Get The Details

Interview by Mac Randall, Musician, September 1997

On tour in Spain with five musicians for whom the little things mean a lot ...

Robert Wyatt: Deep Shleep: Robert Wyatt Gets Personal

Interview by Mac Randall, The Boston Phoenix, 20 January 1998

"THE BIG PROBLEM I have with rock and roll is the rock end of it," says Robert Wyatt. "But I love the rolling. I'm into ...

Pat Metheny Keeps the Story Going

Interview by Mac Randall, Musician, February 1998

A Master of Improv Stresses the Importance of Narrative ...

Radiohead: The Golden Age of Radiohead

Profile and Interview by Mac Randall, Guitar World, 1 April 1998

ON A FRIDAY RELAUNCHED itself in the summer and autumn of 1991, playing a series of gigs at Oxford's Jericho Tavern and circulating its first ...

The Beach Boys, The High Llamas: Pet Sounds and High Llamas

Review by Mac Randall, The Boston Phoenix, 6 April 1998

THERE CAN'T BE MANY classic rock albums that rock less than the Beach Boys' 1966 opus Pet Sounds. The fruity orchestral arrangements are about as ...

Bernard Butler: People Move On (Creation/Columbia)

Review by Mac Randall, Rolling Stone, 9 July 1998

SULKY GUITARIST Bernard Butler was a major creative force behind leading Brit-poppers Suede, but when he quit in 1994, nobody expected the guy to start ...

Mark Lanegan: Scraps at Midnight (Sub Pop)

Review by Mac Randall, Musician, October 1998

THINK BROWN. Brown clouds of dust hanging on the horizon. Big brown rocks catching the last rays at sunset. Warm brown whiskey in a hip ...

The Band, Bob Dylan: Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Live 1966 (The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert) (Columbia/Legacy)

Review by Mac Randall, Musician, January 1999

THIRTY-TWO years ago, Bob Dylan got into a little disagreement with his audience during a tour of England. A lot of his English fans at ...

The Posies: Blooming In The Afterlife: The Posies

Retrospective and Interview by Mac Randall, launch.com, 16 August 2000

IF YOU MEASURE a band's activity by the complexity of its release schedule, then you'd have to conclude that the year 2000 has been an ...

Linda Thompson: Miserable Old Sod Linda Thompson Returns as Exquisitely Sad as Ever

Interview by Mac Randall, New York Observer, 29 July 2002

THERE ARE SOME PEOPLE who say that Linda Thompson is the greatest female rock singer alive. I'm not one of them-partly because I think her ...

LL Cool J: Beacon Theatre, New York

Live Review by Mac Randall, New York Daily News, 23 June 2003

At Beacon, everybody loves Cool James ...

Al Green: I Can't Stop

Review by Mac Randall, Rolling Stone, 27 November 2003

Al Green reunites with his partner from his greatest records, producer Willie Mitchell. ...

The Slits: The Distaff Side of Punk - The Slits Re-Released at Last

Retrospective by Mac Randall, New York Observer, 14 February 2005

IF YOU ASK PEOPLE to name the most influential punk-rock bands of all time – even people who boast scarily high levels of pop-culture awareness ...

Beck: ...Bottle of Blue

Interview by Mac Randall, Harp, March 2005

PREDICTING BECK Hansen's next artistic move is a game for fools and rock pundits only. Any sane person gave up trying long ago. Plot this ...

Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris: Elvis Costello with Emmylou Harris: SummerStage, Central Park, NYC

Live Review by Mac Randall, New York Daily News, 20 July 2005

"PITY ABOUT IT BEING so cold and all," Elvis Costello cracked toward the beginning of his Central Park SummerStage concert last night. ...

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