Mark Rosen

Big Head Todd and The Monsters Live Monsters (Reprise) The live album is inherently problematic. Some bands that are good in the studio are great on stage, but, when the fire of a stage performance is translated back into the recorded medium, the results rarely satisfy. In all of contemporary...

XTC Transistor Blast (TVT) In the rarified world of brainy alterna-folk-pop, no absence has been more sharply felt than that of XTC. Six years have passed since the band failed to make a significant impact on American audiences, much to Geffen's consternation. Still, the label forged ahead with an excellent...

Aerosmith A Little South of Sanity (Geffen) Ever wonder what an Aerosmith concert is like? If so, A Little South of Sanity, the band's new live double album, will answer any and all of your questions. You won't be surprised. (That's never been one of Aerosmith's objectives.) Here are the...

The Figgs Couldn't Get High... (Absolute A Go Go) The Figgs are rock 'n' roll graybeards by any measure; they've toughed it out on the bar and college circuit for 11 years, been signed and dropped by a major label, and come within spitting distance of fame as Graham Parker's...

Various Artists Bespoke Songs, Lost Dogs, Detours & Rendezvous: Songs of Elvis Costello (Rhino) Although it's meant to further illuminate the songwriting genius of Elvis Costello, the uneven, erratic Bespoke Songs, Lost Dogs, Detours & Rendezvous instead chronicles the artistic demise of a once-great wordsmith. Because it pulls Costello-penned cuts...