The Bigger Picture
RSM: Music Man
by Jay Lustig
New Jersey’s Star-Ledger gave R.Stevie the star treatment recently. And we include two new videos that capture RSM and guitarist/songwriting partner Michael Jodry in a sweetly reflective pop mode. We first heard these songs when the duo played David Garland’s “Spinning On Air” program on WNYC , and the videos add a whole other instrumental and visual dimension.
It's after midnight on a Saturday night at Surreal Estate, which is presenting a four-act concert billed as "A Pristine Pop Show." This isn't a nightclub, exactly, but a building in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, where people live and collectively organize concerts and other events. There is a shower in the restroom, and homemade wine and cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer are sold out of the kitchen.
The headliner is on stage with his electric guitar -- and he couldn't look more out of place. With his bear-like physique, thick glasses, mane of unkempt hair and full white beard, he looks like he should be teaching a graduate course in physics to the twentysomethings in the other bands. But he is chasing his rock ¤'n' roll dream just as ardently as they are. Maybe more so.
He is R. Stevie Moore, 56, of Bloomfield, an artist who, over the last four decades, has made music on his own terms, developing a worldwide underground reputation in the process. More…
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