Bibliography

The Official Brendan Lynch Site has text for a lot of these articles.

The reviews trickle in... actually, it just takes a long time for search engines to finally register them. Brendan gets a 5-star review from AMZ.

Mike Magazine, Premiere Issue Nov. 1997, p.46 "Jagged Little Poet" - Divina Infusino wrote a two paragraph sketch on Brendan after lunching with him. Has a picture that looks even less like Brendan than the Elle one did. She says that the family has a total of 12 children, but she's wrong - they're fifteen of us. Maybe Brendan's losing count like I am.

The Daily Bruin, October 10th, 1997 - A pretty well-written review that nonetheless slashes at Brendan for his performance style. It is the job of critics to be opinionated, but I think her criticisms in this regard are ill-considered. People often forget that performers are supposed to perform. She states that it's because Brendan thinks he's so cool that he's so "comically intense". As you can find out from watching nearly any high school drama class, it's only the brave that actually "perform". Those who are "cool" and the most popular don't bother to make themselves so vulnerable. I don't think the intensity of Brendan's performance comes from ego (not that I would deny that part of his ego is healthy...); it comes from self-absorption, which is a horse of a different color. When one really enjoys performing, one can be transported to a state of mind approaching a trance. I've performed myself and I can tell you it takes bravery to be vulnerable and give people a show instead of apologies. One always imagines that one will be heckled or worse...

The Temple News, Oct. 8th, 1997 "Brendan Lynch" by Sarah Klem - A rather candid review. You can't please 'em all... She thinks Brendan's writing about female heroes. ;-)

Tufts University Observer, October 2, 1997 - Kristy Baskerville has some pretty nice things to say. She was definitely listening to the lyrics.

California Alumni Association's Young Alumni Times, Fall 1997, Vol. 5 No. 1, p.2 - Brendan's album release rates a mention.

Contrariwise, Brendan's album gets slammed by Spinme.com I don't feel like doing spin control - will include links to every Brendan review I can find on the web. I'll let you guys make up your own minds.

Santa Barbara News-Press, September 20, 1997 - An article on Brendan's connections to Santa Barbara as well as a little glimpse of what his Emerald City gigs are like.

Gig Magazine, September 1997, page 20 "Getting Signed: Mercury's Rising for Brendan Lynch" - Steve Alcorn, author of an early article on Brendan, preaches to a larger choir with his article for Gig. I find out things I didn't know when I read these articles, including Courtney Love's reaction to "Stop Your Crying"!

Elle, September 1997, page 272 - Brendan makes number 4 on the Elle 25. Ignore the pretty sappy copy. The picture at the top of the home page comes from the Elle article. He only sorta looks like that.

Billboard, August 16th,1997, page 14 "Mercury's Brendan Lynch Gets a Boost from Ballard on Debut Set" - Brendan was in an issue of Billboard earlier this year and I will try to come up with that citation later. A lot of the press Brendan's getting is because Glen Ballard (the guy who made Alanis Morissette) is producing Brendan's album. This article talks a little bit about how Brendan got signed and what Brendan's plans are for the foreseeable future.

MTV News Gallery, July 2nd, 1997 - Just a short blurb that mentions Brendan working with Glen Ballard in the context of a news item on Alanis Morissette.

NEW!Rock Report, May 1997, no. 38, p. 49 - This is a Belgian magazine devoted to what it calls " AOR and melodious hardrock ", therefore the review is in Dutch. It was written by Rick Huisseune, who generously made it available to me. The review gave the album 3 stars.

Eerder in deze uitgave kon je al de recensie doornemen van ene David Grow, wel als die cd je bevalt en je bent niet vies van het "so called" modern post power poprock genre, dan ken je meteen net zo goed ook het debuut van Brendan Lynch aanschaffen. Beide albums verschillen qua stijl niet zoveel van elkaar, ze zijn beiden boeiend tot op het bittere einde en beide hoofdrolspelers beschikken over hetzelfde niet onaardige stembereik. Toch mag ik onderlijnen dat we met David Grow iets sterkere nummers in de aanbieding hebben. Bovendien stoeit "onze" David met meer getalenteerde music) dan Brendan Lynch. Maar daarentegen heeft brave Brendan wel een sterkere troef in handen met producer Glen Ballard (o.a. Planet 3). Deze cd klinkt dan ook gewoon fabuleus. Ik weet zeker dat het moeilijk zal zijn om deze sound in '98 nog te kunnen overtreffen. Ballard mag trouwens wel meer touwtjes in handen nemen naast de taak van producent van dienst, zo hanteert deze labeleigenaar in spe (Geffen Rec.) ook de gitaar, de bas en de toetsen. Dat maakt het gevarieerde spel van Lynch overaantrekkelijk, doch haal je één nummer uit dit pakket den stuikt z'n complete album zonder enige twijfel als een kartonnen huisje in mekaar. Met z'n teksten vermomt Brendan Lynch zich als geen ander ... Iuister, huiver en geniet van z'n sappige details tijdens de prima krakers "Volume", "Embryo", "Sugathrilla" en "Stop Your Crying" wear hij meermaals de draak steekt met trendy genres zoals bv. grunge. Dit is duidelijk geen voer voor fans die geluimd zijn op heavy gitaarwerk, maar voor diegenen die zich net als ondergetekende graag eens verdiepen in het grenzeloze melodieuze rockgenre. Conklusie: deze cd ken je in één adem oppikken met de parel van David Grow die voor mij toch nog één trapje hoger gekwoteerd staat.

Billboard, January 18th, 1997, page 1 - "Pop Music Is Looking For a Few Good Men" - A feature on the "need" for more solo male performers and what record labels are doing to find and market them. Brendan features in a paragraph or two on page 77.

Pasadena Weekly, sometime in 1994 or 1995, "Stolen Guitars and the Computer Blues" - A local weekly covered Brendan when he started playing seriously as a solo artist.

Yak back to Webmistress Spidra Webster

Last modified on 7/23/00

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