Album Notes

R. STEVIE MOORE has been an eccentric, reclusive home recording artist for over 30 years. Considered the grand-daddy of DIY home recording, Stevie has self-produced over 250 original tape/CDR "albums" and commercially released 16 compilations (on eleven labels in four countries). He has a catalog of over 1000 songs -- at least 435 of which are worth hearing.

* * * * *

R. Stevie Moore press niblets:

Ira Robbins in the Trouser Press Record Guide: "The American record industry¹s failure to recognize and promote the unique gifts of this giant talent is a case of criminal neglect."

Rolling Stone's Alt-Rock-A-Rama dubs RSM's 1976 LP Phonography one of "The Fifty Most Significant Indie Records" (March 1996): "[Moore is] the man who can safely be credited with bringing home recording to the forefront."

David Fricke on R. Stevie in The New Rolling Stone Record Guide (1983): "He... works in a peculiar corner of pop music space where the alien progressive rock strains of Eno and Fripp, the prankish gags of the Residents, and wholesome American sixties rock & roll intersect. What's even more peculiar is that for the most part it works."

Kurt Loder in Trouser Press on Delicate Tension LP (August 1979): "...a broadly eclectic album unified by a seductive pop-rock logic..."

Tower Pulse on Everything... LP (March 1985): "...an offbeat delight and true sleeper from a founding member and crusader of the growing independent cassette underground."

Underground reviews Teenage Spectacular LP (1987): "R. Stevie should be sponsored by the American people as one of the few realistic pieces of rock 'n' roll history they have left."

The Archive of Contemporary Music reviews Teenage Spectacular LP (1987): "...the crispness of the production only highlights those characteristics which endear him to his listeners: his cantankerous wit, his love of radio montage, and the incredible scope of his musical vocabulary."

The New York Times on a 1986 "Sings at Speakeasy" show: "Some of his selections... were only shards, a few lines long; others had recurring verses and choruses that expanded or shifted in asymmetrical designs."

Sounds (UK) on Verve LP (August 1985): "I believe this man is almost off his trolley, and if he didn't have a creative outlet for his fears Stevie would need an iced bath and a cattle prod in the genitals."

OP on What's the Point?!! LP (1984): "He does things within the standard forms that alter and slightly mutate them into something truly interesting."

Sounds (UK) reviews What's the Point?!! LP (August 1984): "What's the Point?!! is a wry and cutting document of a man with problems who hasn't lost his sense of humour." Five stars out of five!

Melody Maker reviews What's the Point?!! LP (August 1984): "...if only Stevie didn't feel it necessary to skirt half a dozen styles along with the same number of time changes in the space of a single song."

The Boston Phoenix reviews Everything... and What's the Point?!! LPs (May 1984): "...if it tries to cast Moore as a whimsical hermit, a coy Zappa clone, it also demonstrates the breadth of sources he commands..."

Profile in Goldmine (February 1984): "...his tapes... are stunning, atmospheric collages intricately woven with pieces of... styles, influences, gimmicks, passing fancies and trends juxtaposed (or simply hodgepodged) by the stamp that is undeniably Moore's."

Musician gets inside Stevie's gearbox (June 1983): "He gets by just dandy in one cramped corner of a room, nestled into a rat's nest of old boxes and electrical wiring that resembles nothing so much as the DANGER, DON'T DO THIS TO AN OUTLET drawings they used to show us in fire prevention classes."