Fufkin.com is a web community focused on great music whenever it was made whatever the genre or category. Our tastes run the gamut from The Beatles to The Stooges to Sparks to The Kinks to Cheap Trick to Johnny Cash to Fats Domino to Nick Drake to Pernice Brothers to Mingus to Sinatra to whatever is great according to people with good taste. We thought long and hard about what we could do to create a site that would be a real gathering place for savvy, unique, interesting people, music fans, musicians, music engineers, music business professionals, musical instrument dealers, and music collectors. We wanted a place that you would look forward to visiting because of the content we offer. We wanted the experience to be easy, fast, free and unencumbered bandwidth-wise by burdensome plug-ins, heavy graphic design and commercial excess. We think we have accomplished that goal.

We created this site out of sincere love of good music, and all the very good people who really appreciate the music that we talk about here.

What We Are About. Fufkin.com is about the writers and their perspectives on good music. Ultimately, it is about your perspectives on good music. Fufkin.com is not strictly a reviews site. Why? Well, we wanted to give the writers a platform to express their views over and above the usual music reviews. Music is way beyond the confines of a compact disc for us; it is a way of life. We want to share our side of it so you can share our experience. Then, hopefully, you can compare it to how you feel about it.

We hope that this site makes you think. We hope it challenges you. We hope that there is something that you can take away from Fufkin.com every month, good, bad or indifferent, and make it your own. Again, we hope that what you read here challenges you to form your own opinion, an opinion as strong as any of the opinions we express here.

Read the Fufkin.com Manifesto by Kurt Hernon.

We are privileged to have as writers individuals who truly care what they are writing about because it is their passion. No one is forced to write about anything on this site. If it is part of the site, it is because one of the writers felt that it deserved mention over and above the myriad of topics and entertainment options that particular month. We strive for credibility, and we feel a good first step towards that goal is not to take advertising revenue, not to assign CDs for review and not to tell anyone what to write about.

The Fufkin maxim is that if you love it, and you feel like you know as much as anyone else about the subject, then take a position and write about it. It's pretty simple.

Each of us really loves interacting with the visitors on everything we write about.

Send us an e-mail by clicking on the Contact Us navigation bar, or by clicking here or scroll down for the individual e-mail addresses of the Fufkin.com writers.

Music Reviews and Columns. We try to review the best of new releases every month, interview interesting people and provide columns on many different subjects, including artist retrospectives, fiction, concert reviews, personal anecdotes, and anything of quality that makes you think, laugh or otherwise react.

Submission Policy. Our submission policy is that we will attempt to listen to everything sent to us. We can never guarantee a review. If you are referred by someone, please indicate. There is *no need* to send an e-mail asking if we are interested. Actually, please refrain from doing so. I'll just send the address listed at the Contact Us page which is Fufkin.com, P.O Box 7420, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33338-7420. If you are a publicist, please send an e-mail describing your artists. We have a relationship with some quality firms, and we have found that some of our best music comes from those relationships. We get 1000s of hits a day from around the world. Consider adding us to your promo list. If you have any question, please contact us. For the indie artists, we know it is expensive to send CD-Rs, but we just get too much music to do anything other than to consider CD-Rs or manufactured CDs. As such, we don't review mp3s and we don't visit websites to download mp3s.

Recommendations. This is an attempt at an online reference for great popular music recordings for use by the more casual music fan. When you review these recommendations, remember that we all discovered our favorite recording through some source. That is what we hope this becomes for some of our visitors: a place to discover something new. These pages will be a continuing work in progress and these pages are just a start.

Discussion and Classified. We have message boards divided into two categories, Discussion and Classified. Talk about whatever you want in Discussion. The Classified section is to buy, sell and trade music and maybe make a new friend. I know that anyone with common interests here may have a chance to be friends. If you complete the profile, our directory is searchable and you can find people with interest in the same artist and more. We have visitors from all over the world and have 1000s of page hits a day on our site. We hope that you make a new friend.

Links. We have attempted to organize our voluminous links so that you can find exactly what you want quickly. Categories like record labels, magazine and e-zine links, recording links, musical instrument retail links (both vintage and new) and other links are all organized so that your destination is only a few clicks away. There is a lot here.

Help. The Help section is for the virtually challenged. No offense, but I have received some pretty amazing e-mails about inability to find columns and reviews. There certainly were some problems with organization on the old Fufkin, but hopefully this will be rectified with some of our changes. We try to make it as easy as possible. This is one more attempt.

Join E-list. This was a discussion list for about a month until one of our overzealous visitors spammed it so many times that I had a couple of death threats (or more like I-want-to-be-removed-from-this-list-NOW threats). If you join this, you will only get one e-mail a month notifying you of the update and its contents.

Who is David Fufkin? David Fufkin is not a real person. He is not based on any real person. He is not based on any fictitious character. He is a fiction that I, Casey Fundaro, use as a ghostwriting pseudonym. It is a name that hopefully captures the music business in general, with all of its hype, publicity machinery, focus groups, corporate radio programming and schemes used in an effort to control the masses and their perception of good music. Fufkin.com is merely a platform to express our views as to what is good music. We feel that we know what's good and we are going to tell you. Whether you agree or not is besides the point. We just hope that your opinion is as passionate as ours.

Legal Stuff.

Remember, the opinion of any Fufkin writer is the opinion of that writer alone, and does not represent the opinion of Fufkin.com, Casey Fundaro, any other writer or a collective opinion of all the writers. Some statements might seem outrageous, offensive and/or tasteless to you. To others, the same statements might be considered high-level humor, irony, social commentary, satire or statements that only a thinned-skinned person might take seriously. Each writer stands behind the truth of any factual statements, and Fufkin in no way warrants the truthfulness of any statements made by any writer or writers and takes no responsibility for the statements. Fufkin stands behind any writer's right to express himself whatever way he or she sees fit within the boundaries of the law. It's the old maxim: "...I might not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." The bottom line is that if you don't like the way we express ourselves, then just don't come back. It's that simple.

__________________________________________________

Fufkin.com Contributors Past and Present

__________________________________________________

Jon Bard

Jon Bard is a native New Yorker who has bored countless unfortunates with tales of hanging out at Max's Kansas City and CBGB back "when rock mattered". He now lives in Fort Collins, Colorado with an amazingly patient wife and an 8 year old son who has already formed his own band - The Devil Skulls -- thus showing more musical initiative than his old man ever managed to muster. Jon is a daytime DJ and host of "Left of the Dial, Your Rock & Roll Clubhouse" on KRFC, 88.9, and writes about all things rock & roll for the Rocky Mountain Bullhorn, an alternative weekly. He loves Johnny Thunders, baseball, thai food, The Clash, Jim Thompson novels, The Riverboat Gamblers and his family, not necessarily in that order.

Oh yeah, Jon needs to tell you one more thing - "if you don't feel strange about going to a college stadium and watching a bunch of 19 year olds play a football game , why should you feel strange going to a rock club and watching a bunch of 19 year olds play music? For god sakes, get your old, bald-headed ass out there and rock out!"

_______________________________________________________

Rick Bilous

Rick Bilous grew up in the small town of Roblin,
Manitoba, Canada where he was subject to only classic
oldies AM radio. As a result, when he attended
University, he was subsequently without musical
direction - unable to relate to his headbanger
friends. He found his musical salvation in 1993, when
a buddy lent him a copy of Teenage Fanclub
Bandwagonesque. He has never looked back since then,
and has become a power pop freak. He has worked
briefly as a college radio station DJ, but the lack of
money has led into other career paths. He is presently
a school teacher in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

__________________________________________________

Mike Bennett

Mike Bennett spent his formative years listening
to AM top 40 radio in the '70s which cultivated
his love for the hook in many forms. His music
fanaticism became a permanent condition after
his years as a DJ/Program Director-type in high
school and college radio. After spending four
post-college years in the low paying world of
retail music, he changed careers and is now a
low paid appellate public defense attorney.

Confining his vices to eating too much junk food
and buying CDs, Mike has recently ventured into
the world of music criticism. Mike made his review
debut on the Pop Palace website (check out the
links section) where he formerly was a staff writer.
Powerpop and punk rock are Mike's main musical
loves, but he also wraps his ears around traditional
and alt-country, garage rock, old school rap, 60's
and '70s R & B, and various post-punk and
alternative noise. Favorite artists include XTC,
Cheap Trick, Sweet, Sparks, Didjits, Buzzcocks,
The Fall, The Kinks and the Swingin' Neckbreakers.

__________________________________________________

Dawn Eden

Dawn Eden has written about music and popular culture for numerous magazines, including Mojo, Salon, Billboard, the Village Voice, and New York Press. A rock and roll historian, she has written the liner notes to over 70 CD reissues, including Harry Nilsson's Personal Best, the Hollies' 30th Anniversary Collection, The Brill Building Sound boxed set, and the Millennium's Begin. She is single and has no children that she knows of.

For a definitive list of Ms. Eden's work, go to the All Music Guide and type in the search terms "Dawn Eden", or you can try clicking on these words: - ed.

__________________________________________________

Gary Pig Gold

For Gary's biography, click here

__________________________________________________

Gary Glauber

Gary Glauber is a former sportswriter, musician and playwright who currently runs Freelance Advancers, a referral service for graphic designers and editorial talent in NYC. While forging a literary career in short fiction, he continues to stockpile obscure music and trendy literature. His musical loves include powerpop, Beatles, XTC and others too numerous to mention. He has read all of Marcel Proust's A Remembrance of Things Past. His M.F.A in Playwriting qualifies him to settle all heated Shakespearian arguments that break out nearby. He also does music reviews for www.popmatters.com.

________________________________________________________________

Alan Haber

Alan Haber is a lifelong pop culture addict. His specialty is melodic pop music of the sixties and seventies, although he likes a little bit of just about every kind of music there is. He has, at one time or another, been a commercial radio disc jockey, a telephone salesman, a deli clerk, editor of a radio industry trade magazine called Tuned In, and chief correspondent for that magazine’s sister publication, a radio trade newspaper called Radio World. He used to host the Pure Pop radio show, which was heard the world over thanks to the miracle of streaming audio, and edit a corresponding web site, both of which were pretty popular back in the day. Then he went into self-imposed retirement, building a stretch of luxury dream houses in the South Pacific, until he ran out of nails and had to take the first raft back to civilization—and his music collection. His latest web site, buhdge (http://www.buhdge.com), is a pop culture meeting place with which he hopes to have lots of fun.

Kurt Hernon

Kurt Hernon is just glad to have made
it to 33 years of age and realizes that at
34 will have outlived some of the most
notable figures in history (Lester Bangs,
Jesus, and a few others higher up).

He is the founder of bangSheet Online

(http://www.bangsheet.com)

and has had a bit of a personality problem
that he is eternally working on correcting
through writing (although reading sometimes
helps too). All things considered, he'd rather
be at a Tubes concert most days of the week.

__________________________________________________

Bill Klutho

Bill Klutho bought his first album, Midnight Ride by Paul Revere and the Raiders, in 1965 and hoped that one day he'd have enough LPs to overload his parents console stereos limit of 12. 3000 LPS and 2000 CDs later, Bill finally got his wish. Starting his high schools' radio station with pop albums of all descriptions (and obtained by various means), Bill spent almost 20 years as a radio programmer and program director - specializing in music from 1955 - 1975. Now almost all grown up, Bill is the public relations manager for a Fortune 100 company but tempers that corporate atmosphere with a passion for all kinds of music. He lives in Raleigh, NC.

__________________________________________________

Michael Lynch bio coming soon

__________________________________________________

Kevin Mathews

Mr. Mathews is Singaporean of English descent - no, really! By day, he is the general manager of an architectural corporation, but under the cloak of darkness he transforms into a freelance pop writer and hobbyist singer-songwriter-musician. As a writer, Kevin contributes to magazines like BigO and Amplifier. He also contributes to on-line 'zines PopMatters and his own Power of Pop. With his band Popland (together with partner Tim Nolan), Kevin has several CDs under his belt, the latest of which has been released by ZiP Records, called Action!

__________________________________________________

Robert Pally

Robert is a Swiss freelance journalist presently working for around nine mags and newspapers. He has been a music lover since the age of 15. After playing in some bands, Robert made the decision to become a music journalist. Today, Robert is working 40% as a freelance journalist and 60% as a technical writer. His love for Power Pop and good Pop in general started in the '90s when Bill Forsyth, the owner of Minus Zero Records in London, introduced him to it. Robert discovered Bill's shop accidentally while strolling through the Portobello Market. He has spent a lot of money at that shop!

__________________________________________________

Kurt Sampsel

My love for music began with the plundering of my dad's record collection as a kid. The records I "borrowed" began my (mostly) healthy obsession for 60s rock 'n' roll, and reading Lenny Kaye and Lester Bangs inspired me to write about it. Since music and writing are my two biggest interests, it just seemed logical to combine them (especially since I could never make a go of it as a musician). In addition to writing for Fufkin, I also publish my own site, I Like the Way You Freakout, and my work has been featured on The Rock and Roll Report. My writing is also included on web pages for The Beach Boys, The Left Banke and The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, and I've done special review projects for The Electric Prunes, Light in the Attic Records, and Radioactive Records. I'm always interested in reviewing 60s music, especially for up-and-coming reissue labels. Having graduated in 2004 from Kent State University (B.A., English), I'm currently working on my M.A. at Ohio University in Athens, OH. But don't worry-I always find time for music.

_________________________________________________

Julia M. Scott

I’ve played the trumpet since the third grade, taking just about every type of band and music class available to me from age 9. I got turned onto jazz in junior high school when my Dad gave me a copy of Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue and I’ve never been the same since. I came to New York City in 1996 to go to college and never moved back home (even though I promised, sorry Mom). And truly, the music here has been an education in itself. I’ve gigged with swing bands and R&B funk bands, managed top name jazz musicians, booked tours nationwide, and am currently completing my masters in Jazz History and Research at Rutgers-Newark. Jazz both scares the shit out of me and gives me the courage to reach for my dreams. And I hope from reading my column and listening to the music that you will get some of the same exhilaration from this incredibly vast body of music that I do.

__________________________________________________

Eric Sorensen

Like many Baby Boomers, Eric Sorensen used to fall asleep listening to pop music through the earplug of his transistor radio. Eric believes that pop music’s “golden era” occurred between 1964 and 1969. The Byrds and Buffalo Springfield were Eric’s two favorite bands during that period, and he remains a steadfast fan of Roger McGuinn and Neil Young. Since first hearing “Mr. Tambourine Man,” Eric hasn’t heard a song featuring a chiming or jangly Rickenbacker 12-string guitar that he doesn’t like! Once his Naval career allowed him to establish roots in one area, Eric tuned in to the “pop renaissance” of the late 80s and the 90s. Although he also enjoys folk, alt-country, country-pop and rock music, “pseudo 60s” pop remains Eric’s favorite genre of music, and much of his music collection has been devoted to music that is derivative of the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and Neil Young and Crazy Horse. Favorite contemporary artists include Horst-Peter Schmidt (who faithfully mimics McGuinn on a Rickenbacker 370RM-12 string guitar) and Rich Hopkins (whose brand of scorching “Desert Rock” often emulates Neil Young’s rock riffs).

Eric resides in Arlington, Virginia and enjoys the live music scene in the greater Washington, D.C. area. His sons, Chris and Tim, have inherited his passion for music …
and, as Eric is quick to point out, they are both fortunate to have the musical talent that he never possessed.

__________________________________________________

Jason Thompson

Jason is the creator and Editor-In-Chief of Echo From Esoterica, an online magazine that features music reviews, interviews, and humor. Before that, though, Jason started penning reviews and articles for Fufkin.com in November 2000. An avid music fan, he became infatuated with rock and roll and record collecting at an early age thanks to his two older siblings. Having taken in a large amount of the '70s, and the entirety of the '80s, Jason was ready to start making his own music. He formed his first band, The Penguin Project, in 1989. From the drummer's position in that group, he went on to taking up the guitar that he learned how to play from listening to Lou Reed and Velvet Underground records. Eventually, his second love - writing -- began to itch and Jason figured that there was no better place to get noticed than on the Internet. After a brief stint at a crummy write-for-cash-rewards site, Jason signed on to Fufkin, which led to his work at PopMatters, which in turn inspired him to create Echo From Esoterica. His work can currently be found on all three publications, as well as other music sites like PunkFix.

__________________________________________________

Eliot Wilder

Eliot Wilder is an LA-bred, Boston-based editor and freelance writer for various publications. He enjoys music of all shapes and sizes, and currently spinning in his disc changer are CDs by techno and '60s psyche-pop artists. Eliot's other passions are literature, photography and the takeaway Thai food at Rod-Dee2 in the Fenway. Eliot has own Web site (updated daily) at www.eliotwilder.com.

__________________________________________________

Shona Winfrey

Everything wrong with me can be traced straight back to seeing the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show shortly after my first birthday, and through the day I publically announced I thought Iggy Pop was cool (I did it for shock value) and got myself labeled an outcast in my dinky-cowtown-middle-of-nowhere high school (obviously the shock treatment worked). I was a freak kid who carried a radio around with me and listened to American Top 40 back when AM was not an option, but the given. My parents used to take my radios and record player away from me to punish me, because it was the only thing that worked. Except maybe the whole ploy backfired, because just look how I turned out?!? I have rules about records. I break them a lot, and contradict myself.

My rules are something like this:

I like my records "slick" and over-produced, but quirks will make up for lack of technical prowess.

I love good vocals, but sometimes a sincere lyricist will make up for lack of vocal skill. However, if I hate your voice, I will hate your band and I will hate all of your records and I will tell everyone.

If it don't sound good on headphones, it ain't worth listening to.

Danger and excitement are always more fun than warm fuzzies in rock and roll, but I am a sentimental hack and cry over records a lot.

Feedback is good. Fuzzy bass is good. Reverb is good. Angst is good. So is a good sense of humor.

I am a musical sensualist and I really appreciate a record that makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck, or makes me feel like I'm floating or melting or enveloped. Records that cause visual hallucinations which impair driving are the best of all.

A top notch album has at least nine of twelve tracks graded B+ or better after ten listenings.

I'd rather feel as think, but sometimes sheer emotionalism must be balanced with a dose of the intellectual. There is no place where this is more true a statement than trying to review an album.

I still love the Beatles and the old version of ELO. I love XTC, Todd, Neil Young and Steely Dan. These are my biggies. I love the Posies and Teenage Fanclub and Sloan and Weezer and Ben Folds Five and the Charlatans and Jellyfish and Elliott Smith. I love Hum, Failure, Tool, NIN, Incubus and a lot of other hard rock/metal bands that would make me a laughing stock were I to make a full disclosure and come clean about my dirty habits. I also love old Motown, R&B, and disco is not dead. I love techno and acid jazz.

I love music.

I'd rather starve to death as give up my hearing. Just because I proclaim an album the 'best' of a year, doesn't mean it's my favorite. It means I think the album will become important historically for its technical and creative contributions to popular music.

There is nothing worse on God's green earth than an innocuous record.

I will be flamed. I do not care.

love and big phlbbbbbbts, y'all!

__________________________________________________

Nick A. Zaino, III

Nick A. Zaino III is a writer and musician
living in Boston, Ma. He's written for The
Boston Phoenix, No Depression, Playboy.com,
Amplifier Magazine, The Buffalo News, and
a bunch of Web sites and smaller publications.
He loves his Fender Telecaster, even if it is
the Mexican version (Hey, you try buying an
American Tele on a freelance writer's salary.)
He's also the author of War and Peace, a race
car driver, a brain surgeon, a comic book guru,
and an intergalactic cowboy (with a strange
aversion to John Lithgow.)

__________________________________________________

Thanks for visiting, and we hope that you make us your Virtual Home

To reach any other page contained in this month's update on Fufkin.com, read the home page for the appropriate link and click on it. You can also search the site from any page using the search box located at the top of each page. Merely type in the word, phrase, name of the band, recording, name of the Fufkin writer that you are looking for or Whatever in the search box, and then click on "Search". If you would like to e-mail us, go to the About Us page for a list of e-mail addresses.

Go back to the home page by clicking here

________________________________________________________________