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Jheri Curl June: Stevie Wonder’s “Love Light in Flight”
It’s a well-known fact that most white music critics don’t “get” ’80s Stevie Wonder. And for a long time, I was no exception: I took as gospel the truism that it was all downhill for Stevie after Hotter Than July, and I levied what I considered to be the appropriate amount of scorn on his material from…
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Jheri Curl June: Kashif’s “Ooh Love”
Last month, we recorded our annual Memorial Day podcast, a budding tradition in which we commemorate (and lightly mock) many of the important musical artists we’ve lost since the previous May. And this time, one of those artists was especially bittersweet: former B.T. Express keyboardist, producer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and dope-moustache-haver Kashif. As I said on…
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Jheri Curl June: Kleeer’s “Tonight”
Kleeer had a rocky road to Jheri Curldom. Originally conceived in 1972 as the Jam Band, the backing band for the Choice Four, they later became their own entity, changed their name to Pipeline, and recorded the hard rock infused “Gypsy Rider.” After the single tanked, Pipeline transformed into the Universal Robot Group, under which they recorded and toured for…