Blue Plate Special: This Picture
This Picture emerged from England’s Bath–Cheltenham corridor at the very end of the ’80s, a moment when alternative rock was still wide-open and hungry...
Category: Music
Blue Plate Special: Robert Palmer
Robert Palmer cultivated a persona that felt as meticulously tailored as his suits: cool, cosmopolitan, and effortlessly genre-fluid. His voice, silky yet commanding, moved...
Blue Plate Special: Brian Eno (Part 2)
As mentioned in Part 1, Brian Eno is an English musician, producer, and artistic provocateur whose work since the early 1970s has continually pushed...
Blue Plate Special: Brian Eno (Part 1)
Brian Eno emerged in the early 1970s as a provocateur of sound, intent on dismantling traditional ideas of what rock music could be. Trained...
Blue Plate Special: The Strokes
The Strokes emerged from late-1990s New York City as a band that made restraint feel radical. Formed by Julian Casablancas, Nick Valensi, Albert Hammond...
Blue Plate Special: Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello (born Declan Patrick MacManus) writes songs the way a sharp-eyed novelist writes scenes: quick cuts, bright details, and a line of dialogue...
Blue Plate Special: Big Country
Big Country emerged from Dunfermline, Scotland in the early 1980s with a sound that felt less like pop music and more like geography. Founded...
Blue Plate Special: Depeche Mode
Not sure why I neglected adding them for so long, but here you go: From the start, Depeche Mode looked and sounded like the future...
Blue Plate Special: Kent
Kent built their legacy on a sound that blended widescreen melancholy with laser-focused pop craftsmanship. Early on, their music leaned into gritty alternative rock,...
Blue Plate Special: Talking Heads
Talking Heads emerged from the art-school corridors of the Rhode Island School of Design with a visual imagination as sharp as their angular guitars....
