Under the Rock (and then some)

2008-01-30T09:17:00.000-05:00

Best of 2007, Pt. 4

I'm a little late with this one, but the Village Voice Pazz and Jop poll came out last week. My ballot is here.

2008-01-15T22:30:00.000-05:00

Best of 2007, Pt. 3

I participated in the Idolator Pop '07 poll, the results of which you can comb through here.

2007-12-27T12:48:00.000-05:00

Best of 2007, Pt. 2

City Paper's '07 round-up came out today. For the second year, the results are presented online in a nice, well-designed format that, alas, does not lend itself to linking. Check the whole thing here. I wrote the entries on numbers 10 (The Weakerthans), 18 (Wilco) and 19 (Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings).

Also, as is customary, you can check the ballots of all who contributed to the list, mine included.

2007-12-23T13:06:00.000-05:00

Best of 2007

Top 10 Albums
1. The Weakerthans- Reunion Tour (Epitaph/Anti)
2. Emma Pollock- Watch the Fireworks (4AD)
3. Various Artists- Ballads of the Book (Chemikal Underground)
4. Saint Joan - The Wrecker's Lantern (Camera Obscura)
5. Wilco- Sky Blue Sky (Nonesuch)
6. Of Montreal- Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? (Polyvinyl)
7. Future Clouds and Radar- Future Clouds and Radar (Star Apple Kingdom)
8. Electrelane- No Shouts, No Calls (Too Pure)
9. Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings- 100 Days, 100 Nights (Daptone)
10. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss- Raising Sand (Rounder)

Top 10 Singles
1. Sons and Daughters- "Gilt Complex" (Domino)
2. 1990s- "See You At the Lights" (Rough Trade)
3. The Weakerthans- "Civil Twilight" (Epitaph/Anti)
4. Beyonce- "Get Me Bodied (Extended Mix)" (Sony)
5. Aesop Rock- "Coffee (featuring John Darnielle)" (Definite Jux)
6. Meg Baird- "The Waltze of the Tennis Players" (Drag City)
7. Crowded House- "Don't Stop Now" (ATO)
8. Art Brut- "Direct Hit" (Downtown)
9. Rilo Kiley- "The Moneymaker" (Warner Bros.)
10. M.I.A.- "Paper Planes," (Interscope/XL)

2007-11-11T21:42:00.000-05:00

A new column on Euros Childs here.

2007-10-31T08:46:00.000-04:00

A review of The Weakerthans show is here.

2007-10-08T11:56:00.000-04:00

I reviewed a 1990s show for the City Paper's new A&E blog.

2007-09-27T09:24:00.000-04:00

I reviewed a Rilo Kiley concert here.

2007-09-19T21:17:00.000-04:00

Here are my Best Bets for the fall season. Best Bets! The best, I tell you!

2007-08-31T09:34:00.000-04:00

I contributed a little something to the City Paper Clog.

In other news...

People, Nathan Rabin's My Year of Flops series on the AV Club is easily the best thing on the internet right now.

And this should make you happy, sad or both.

2007-08-09T00:18:00.001-04:00

This month's column -- featuring an interview with Neil Finn of Crowded House -- is here.

2007-07-18T16:33:00.000-04:00

Here is the July column, reviewing new(ish) albums by Art Brut, Nick Lowe and Saint Joan.

2007-06-24T21:15:00.000-04:00

An Annoucement

I've finally done it.

Here is the New Project, a blog that will review every released Pulp song. I'm really looking forward to sinking into a long-term, big-thinking kind of writing assignment about my favorite band. And as the blogroll on there indicates, these "oeurveblogs" are spreading fast. So no time like the present. Under the Rock will continue to exist for links to my writing and other musings, but I really hope to focus more writing time on the New Project. Head on over, bookmark it, add it to your feeds, comment, etc. Thank you for your support!

Mike

2007-06-18T12:24:00.001-04:00

Paging Film Nerds

NY Mag film critic David Edelstein oh-so-subtly claims at the bottom of this page that he coined the phrase "torture porn" in reference to Eli Roth-type movies. Anyone know if this is actually true?

2007-06-06T20:07:00.000-04:00

Belated Record Review: Wilco, Sky Blue Sky

“Could anybody imagine the Wilco record that would make everybody happy? I can't imagine it.”
--Jeff Tweedy in an interview with The A.V. Club

How did it come to this? How did this band become such a lightning rod? If you’re like me – a fan for over ten years now – you may eventually want to say, Hey, what’s the big deal? They’re just some guys who play these songs, see?

But no. It seems if you are at all rock-inclined, you must have a strong reaction to Wilco, positive or negative. Even if you regard the band with a blasé “so what?”, somehow that becomes a statement of import. Couldn’t we all just agree that they’re a band that happens to do some things very well that happen to hit the sweet spots of some of us? No? Okay. And you wonder why I feel so murderous about The Hold Steady.

Another way of looking at it: Perhaps it’s a testament to Wilco’s strengths that they manage to garner a reaction, even when they release an album as seemingly unambitious and easygoing as Sky Blue Sky. Here we have the band’s version of the history of ‘70s rock. To some it might be “dad-rock”; to my ears, it’s an unlikely hybrid of The Band, Television and Steely Dan. Like the first two bands, Wilco on Sky Blue Sky revel in the joys of band interplay, in the relatively unadorned sound of musicians making noise together. As for “the Dan,” well, maybe that explains the return of “tasty licks” to their sound arsenal.

But it’s this combination of transparent “play for the song” tastefulness and the “look at me” show-offiness that makes Sky Blue Sky sound more like a living, breathing thing – capable of humor, sorrow, good times, not afraid to be corny or goofy – than the labored lab project that was 2004’s A Ghost is Born.

And of course, Jeff Tweedy is too smart to merely show off his record collection, adding the right jagged edges to songs like “Side with the Seeds” and “Hate it Here.” Plus, he’s written “Leave Me (Like You Found Me),” one of his most lovely songs, worthy of the ranks of “Jesus Etc.” and “Far, Far Away.”

Lyrically, he has pared down his tendency towards elaborate non sequiturs and, yes, he does delve a bit into post-rehab, borderline-new-age platitudes. But his aims haven’t changed. He’s still excited by the possibilities of the words in songs. This is most apparent in the song “Impossible Germany.” On one hand, it’s friggin’ jazzy lite-rock; on the other, every molecule of the song is perfectly arranged to convey an unfolding sense of wonder. “Impossible Germany, Unlikely Japan.” The phrase seems to mean more and more to Tweedy as the song progresses. It’s about the unknowable natures of distance and discovery alike. “But this is what love is for/To be out of place/Gorgeous and alone/Face to face.”

So is this, in fact, the best Wilco album since Summerteeth? Oh, I don’t really know. It’s better than Ghost, that’s for sure; although like that album, many of the songs here sound like blueprints for what will become ecstatic concert showcases. As for Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, that album’s become overburdened with meaning and signifiers, in both its acclaim and backlash. It’s hard to think of it as a mere album anymore.

I do wish Wilco would loosen up more and let in just a little tastelessness, maybe a big drum sound or a cheesy keyboard hook. But by the end of Sky Blue Sky, the swells of emotion get me almost as much as they do in It’s a Wonderful Life. If this indeed is “dad-rock,” then Jeff Tweedy could do far, far worse than Jimmy Stewart.

2007-06-06T17:11:00.000-04:00

This month, the column takes a look at Brighton, England's awesome Electrelane.

2007-05-27T12:24:00.000-04:00

They Used My Favorite Nirvana Song on Lost

A good way for the show to continue to get back in my good graces.

Coming soon: Me on Wilco's Sky Blue Sky. It's their best since Summerteeth, donchaknow?

2007-05-21T09:36:00.001-04:00

An Elvis Costello concert review here.

2007-05-20T20:53:00.001-04:00

I've noticed that a lot of people find this blog looking for information about the best TV show ever, The Wire, specifically the upcoming fifth season. It's kind of funny to me -- I don't have an inside line to the show... yet. But anyway, here's a fun interview the Human Giant fellows conducted with Gbenga Akinnagbe (Chris Partlow). Anyone care to guess which indie-type comedian plays the fan on the phone?

Found the link via Recidivism.

2007-05-20T10:17:00.000-04:00

Scroll down here for my review of the Meg Baird album.

2007-05-09T21:08:00.000-04:00

Look at him! He's got a blog!

Art Brut lead singer Eddie Argos is blogging for The Guardian here.

2007-04-27T08:57:00.000-04:00

Concert preview at the bottom of this page.

2007-04-25T19:49:00.001-04:00

Latest column is here.

2007-04-23T22:58:00.000-04:00

Jarvis Cocker, Webster Hall, New York City, 4/22/07

The opening band was deeply mediocre, and the main event was further delayed when the roadies spent 15 minutes puzzling over a malfunctioning piece of equipment near the drum kit. But all such concerns evaporated once the man hit the stage.

He wore a grey blazer, flannel shirt, black jeans and sported a truly awesome belt buckle (some pictures here and here) and his now-trademark big glasses. Yes, nowadays, Jarvis has the look of a perpetually startled college professor, but it seems totally appropriate, since the album Jarvis posits a worldview that’s both endlessly befuddled and deeply perturbed.

He just may possibly have the most natural and idiosyncratic stage presence I’ve ever seen. At 43, Jarvis still commands a crowd like he did in his prime. With his jutting hip and wild hand gestures, it sometimes looks as if he’s executing a highly elaborate dance routine that he hasn’t bothered to teach anyone else. (Sort of the opposite of the video for Prince’s “Raspberry Beret,” which I’ve always loved since it features a large crowd suddenly executing a perfect, elaborate dance routine.) In between songs, his stage banter was charmingly rambling, and he seems genuinely interested in making an actual connection with an audience

The backing band consisted of a crew of stone-faced road warriors (including Pulp bassist Steve Mackey). Like the stone-faced thrift-store chic that the members of Pulp specialized in, their aesthetic wisely abdicates the spotlight to the frontman. Besides, if anyone else attempted any elaborate routines of showmanship, it would just be too much.

The best songs of the night were “Big Julie,” “Running the World” and “Big Stuff.” (The latter was one of two stellar b-sides performed. Like many Pulp b-sides, these songs were perfectly worthy of making it onto an album.) Those three songs had in common the rising swells of drama that have always brought the best in Jarvis as both a performer and writer. (“My Legendary Girlfriend,” “Common People,” “This is Hardcore,” “Sunrise” and on and on…)

I will continue to maintain that he should pencil more time for lengthier American tours and, yes, he should play a show here in Philly. In my own crazy way, I believe this album – full of guitar hooks and warm arrangements and generous melodies – has more potential in the U.S. than any Pulp album. Hope springs eternal: He’ll be on Letterman this Friday, for the first time since Pulp played “Common People” on the show in 1996.

4/22/07 Set List
(Thanks to PulpWiki for helping jog my memory)

Fat Children
Don’t Let Him Waste Your Time
Heavy Weather
One Man Show
I Will Kill Again
From A to I
Tonite
Big Julie
Disney Time
Big Stuff
Running the World

Encore
Heaven (Talking Heads cover)
Paranoid (Black Sabbath cover)

2007-04-21T07:50:00.000-04:00

Plenty of Pulp goodies on YouTube (see here), but the greatest find is most definitely the hour-long BBC documentary The Story of Pulp's "Common People," helpfully split up into six parts. Here's part one.

And here are parts two, three, four, five, and six.

Lots of good stuff here: The other members of Pulp get more interview time than usual, and Jarvis' mother makes an appearance as well!

All things being equal, the next entry on this blog will be my review of Sunday's show.

2007-04-18T21:07:00.000-04:00

Scroll down for a CD review here.

2007-04-18T20:54:00.000-04:00

Jarvis/Pulp Links of Note

Acrylic Afternoons: Currently, the best of the Pulp fan pages. Has a great archive of transcribed interviews, among other fun stuff.

PulpWiki: In particular, I recommend this.

Pulp People: The web home for the official fan page. It's been inactive since the band went on hiatus in 2002, but still has a lot of good info you can't find elsewhere.

Truth and Beauty: Mark Sturdy's website for his fantastic, enormous Pulp bio of the same name.

Bar Italia: Once a complete listing of every song the band ever recorded (with lyrics, reviews and other useful stuff), it's been mothballed for a while in preparation for an impending redesign. For now, there's a message board worth reading. (For now, PulpWiki has the most information on songs released, rumored and otherwise.)

Last but not least, Jarvis' MySpace.

2007-04-14T22:49:00.000-04:00

Following up on the previous post...

So let's talk about release dates. My favorite album of '04, Art Brut's Bang Bang Rock and Roll, did not get released in America till '05. I took the hard line that the album could not reappear on my '05 list. However, recently I remembered that in 2001 I listed Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot in my best-of list, despite that it was only available at the time as an online stream and/or leak. And when it was bona fide released in 2002, I put it at number one.

Now I find myself in a similar situation. Jarvis received a '06 release in the Europe and elsewhere and an '07 release here in the States. I have no intention still of listing it on the '07 list. Am I wrong? If there are any critics or listmakers who wish to comment, please tell me: Where do you stand on the nature of imports, delayed release dates in the U.S. and the like?

2007-04-08T21:10:00.000-04:00

Spreadin' the word, any way I can (scroll down some).

Further commentary TK.

2007-04-07T10:52:00.001-04:00

jarvis
Originally uploaded by poppywhore.

Times are tough, but let's focus on the positives. On Sunday, April 22, I will finally be seeing Jarvis Cocker in concert, at Webster Hall in New York City. To commemorate, and to countdown, I'll be posting various Cocker/Pulp related things. Firstly, here is an excellent Flickr page of Jarvis photos, mostly from his current solo tour. Thanks to Flickr users poppywhore and mandy-may (see previous post) for the use of their photos here.

2007-04-07T10:45:00.000-04:00

2006_11_12
Originally uploaded by mandy-may.

2007-03-20T22:27:00.000-04:00

Best of: 2005 and 2006

2005: Truth be told, 2003 and 2004 were not, I felt, the most inspiring of years for music. But things changed in ’05 thanks to a little band from England called Art Brut. I hadn’t heard a record as funny, as dead-on, as Bang Bang Rock & Roll in a long while. Maybe I overdid it when I listened to it three times a day for a little while, but I couldn’t get enough of Eddie Argos’ delivery and his bandmates’ enthused garage bashing.

2006: I have a check-in-and-out relationship with Sonic Youth. I’ll positively love an album, and then somehow neglect to buy their next few. I don’t exactly remember why I decided to check in with Rather Ripped, but it was a wise decision. RR may be one of their most structured, song-oriented albums, but they make a glorious racket all the same, showing just what an amazing job they can do with parameters. The whole thing moves with an urban electricity that’s matured but enthralling all the same.

2007-03-10T11:37:00.001-05:00

Concert review here.

2007-03-09T08:42:00.000-05:00

Wanna shut a crowd up incredibly fast? An impromptu performance by Portishead seems to work.

2007-03-06T22:03:00.000-05:00

Best of: 2004

Then: I was swayed by the goofy charms of Brian Wilson’s long-awaited Smile (Nonesuch). I still enjoy this album – down to every last slurred vocal and trombone slide – but I have to be in the mood.

Now: In what is something of a recurrent theme, I’ve moved by then-number-two, The Delgados’ Universal Audio (Chemikal Underground) to the top spot. In many ways, I consider this album of a piece with Summerteeth and The Execution of All Things in terms of sound and outlook; it’s another pop album of great drama and distress, with the arrangements to match. (And, like PJ Harvey’s Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea, I find this album a lot more compelling than anything else I’ve heard by The Delgados.)

And that pretty much brings us to the recent past. The next post in this series will be the final one; I’ll cover both 2005 and 2006. My favorite albums for both these years haven’t changed, but I’d like to talk about them all the same.

2007-03-06T20:14:00.000-05:00

There are a lot of ballyhooed bands in indie-rock -- apparently, one of them released an album today -- but if I had my druthers, Beauty Pill would fast leap to the front of the pack.

Exhibit A: This blog post by the band's frontman, Chad Clark. I found it so intriguing, I said so in the comments section.

Exhibit B: This podcast, a broadcast from this radio show. Chad and bassist Basla Andsolsun spin some favorite tunes and talk about them. The talk can go kinda long, but the insights are crucial, a key that further explains what I love about this band. Also, you can hear on this podcast the Beauty Pill song with which Exhibit A is concerned.

2007-03-06T10:37:00.000-05:00

The Wire, Season 5 Preview...

...is here. McNulty regains center stage this season. Better yet, Clark Johnson joins the cast.

2007-03-02T08:59:00.000-05:00

Jarvis curates Meltdown festival. This story mentions previous curator Louis Andriessen. I immediately got a mental picture of this guy.

2007-02-27T23:52:00.000-05:00

Best of: 2003

Then: This was the first year I voted in Pazz and Jop. (It was around this time that I came to terms with the idea that I was, in fact, a rock critic. Of sorts.) And, after the high of 2002, this was the weakest recent year of music for me. Looking over my list, I see albums that aren’t exactly bad, but I haven’t played them for years either. My choice at the time, Blur’s Think Tank (Virgin) is still pretty decent, but the bad stuff (like “Crazy Beat”) sticks out more egregiously nowadays, and the whole project seems more a dry run for Gorillaz’s Demon Days. Still, though, one of the best live shows I ever saw.

Now: Hearts of Oak (Lookout) by Ted Leo and the Pharmacists isn’t perfect, either. But the best songs – “Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone,” “The High Party,” “The Ballad of the Sin Eater,” among others – are rock anthems that genuinely try to get at real life, especially the claustrophobically politicized world of which we had just begun to realize, oh shit, this is the way things are now. The fact that Leo conveyed all this while still making music that conveyed joy and exhilaration was his way of showing that there may actually be a way out.

2007-02-26T23:44:00.000-05:00

Best of: 2002

Then: Well, I finally got around to recognizing a Wilco album in its time. Sort of.

The previous year, I had put the unofficially leaked Yankee Hotel Foxtrot in at number two. And of course, Nonesuch officially released the album in 2002, which became their year to officially go through the hype-backlash wonderworld. Still, it felt nice to see the band officially leave the alt-country/Triple-A ghetto and, after all, YHF is still an album of incredible sonics, content and flow. But I got it wrong again.

Now: The Execution of All Things (Saddle Creek) by Rilo Kiley is not only my favorite album of 2002, it easily remains so far my favorite album of the decade. Just like Summerteeth, The Execution of All Things perfectly balanced the combination of sweet pop, fatalisms, production quirks and honest-to-goodness rocking out. Seriously.

Actually, the piece I wrote about the band the following year summed it up pretty well for me. It’s linked over on the sidebar to your right, but if you’re lazy, just go here.

And one more thing: for me, 2002 had more great albums than any other year of recent vintage: Neko Case’s Blacklisted; The Bigger Lovers’ Honey in the Hive; Paul Westerberg’s Stereo/Mono; Neil Finn’s One All; Bryan Ferry’s Frantic; Sleater-Kinney’s One Beat; Queens of the Stone Age’s Songs for the Deaf. Probably a few others too.

2007-02-21T19:24:00.000-05:00

Best of: 2001

Then: Old 97’s Satellite Rides (Elektra), with its literate, unabashed romanticism appeals to my bookish, sensitive side. But obviously with hindsight it doesn’t really capture the year for me anymore.

Now: Of course, you could argue that there’s nothing in Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci’s How I Long to Feel That Summer in My Heart (Mantra) that flavors this major bummer of a year. This is after all a bucolic, pastoral album of overriding gentleness. But look at that title; if that doesn’t capture what at least part of the last four months of that year felt like – if you’re prone to melancholy of course – than I don’t know what else does. Toby Keith can’t speak for all of us, you know.

But enough of the zeitgeist angle. This ultimately isn’t really a very challenging album. These are mainly simple love songs that are occasionally preoccupied with the passing of youth, though frontman Euros Childs never addresses that topic with the depth worthy of The Kinks’ Village Green Preservation Society. When Childs tries to push himself lyrically, as on the Star 80-ish scenario of “Christina,” he is on deeply unsure ground.

How I Long’s triumph is as much structural as anything. The album possesses an effortless-sounding sequence. Every song’s arrangement is perfectly calibrated, with each entrance of harpsichord, brass, choral vocals happening exactly when required. And when you consider songs as gorgeous as “These Winds are in my Heart,” “Honeymoon with You” and “How I Long,” the result is an album that truly manages to embody the passing of summer to autumn. Which maybe brings us back to that zeitgeist.

2007-02-21T17:22:00.000-05:00

New column here.

2007-02-19T14:44:00.000-05:00

Best of: 2000

Then: Again, I went with an Aimee Mann album – Bachelor No. 2 (or, the last remains of the dodo) (SuperEgo) – and, again, a fine album has nonetheless lost a little luster. Don’t know why exactly.

Now: Truth be told, for this series I’ve used my iTunes as a rough guideline, to discover which albums of each year that I now listen to the most. And I listen to PJ Harvey’s Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea (Island) quite a lot. I loved this album when it came out – more than any other PJ Harvey music, most of which I’ve admired more than enjoyed – and it hasn’t failed me in the ensuing years.

The album opens with one of the few true rock anthems of the modern age, “Big Exit,” and manages to keep up that momentum for the rest of the running time. Other highlights include “Good Fortune,” the terror-sex-predicting “This is Love” and the torchy duet with Thom Yorke, “This Mess We’re In.” But the most impressive element of this album is the sound. It’s a real rhythmic album, with lots of chunky guitar riffs, but at the same time, the drums are mixed pretty low, especially by modern-day standards. (Don’t get me started on the way drums sound on most mainstream rock records these days.) While I love my share of loud drums – part of the appeal of Summerteeth, for example, is the fairly in-your-face drums – there is something to be said about an album like Stories from the City, which isn’t dependent on drums, can be quite atmospheric at times and yet always maintains a strong rhythmic pulse.

2007-02-15T23:51:00.000-05:00

Best of: 1999

Then: A year or two previous, I had begun exploring the music of XTC, and thus I proclaimed their long-awaited Apple Venus Volume 1 (TVT/Idea) the best of the year. Actually, this album has some moments of genius (“River of Orchids,” “Easter Theatre”) surrounded by filler and some truly hellacious puns (“Knights of Shining Karma” – Oy!).

Now: Well, now it’s completely obvious. For whatever odd reasons I put it at number two at the time, but even then no other album completely captivated me and fulfilled what I required from an album like Wilco’s Summerteeth (Reprise). It seems I had been consistently underrating this band during the ‘90s.

I want to temper the urge to overpraise; but I think I was totally accurate in believing that, upon its release, Summerteeth was quite simply the album of my dreams. It had all the Kinks/Beatles/Beach Boys melodic influences I so craved but, unlike so many ‘60s-influenced music coming out around the same time, this was music with guts, hell, with balls. The rhythm section played loudly, the guitars and keyboards weren’t afraid to veer out of control at times. Most crucially, Jeff Tweedy made a huge leap as a lyricist, the likes of which I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed before or since. Not only could he suddenly pull off beautiful imagery and disturbing content in his words, but he also crucially seemed to suddenly understand that the way the words sound was just as important as the actual content. The way he formed his syllables is arguably the fulcrum of his talent from this album onward.

When you put all that together, you get an album that says you can do something with nerdy pop songs. The highpoint of the album is probably “I’m Always in Love,” a song I still think could’ve been a hit, with a Moog synth that connects Linda McCartney to Dr. Dre. Here, in 1999, is a group of supposed alt-country dudes, paying tribute to ‘70s AM radio and saying things like “When I let go of your throat-sweet throttle.” Summerteeth shows that you can convey darkness and doubt better than you could with any other kind of music, because the music here realizes that the dark and the light coexist at the same damn time. From this point onward, the ability to realize this dichotomy becomes for me what separates great music from all that other stuff.

2007-02-13T23:04:00.000-05:00

Best of: 1998

Until we get to the very recent past, this is the only time I’ve maintained my best-of-the-year pick. I said it then, and I say it again now: Pulp’s This Is Hardcore is the best album of 1998.

The doomy, fatalistic tone of this album fits in well with both college-age angst and the slightly more grown-up version. This Is Hardcore’s sound flirts with a kind of antiseptic bombast, but – thanks to Jarvis Cocker’s inimitable lyrical and vocal stance – it’s completely appropriate, treating the slick modern age as an especially horrific hall of mirrors. In 1998, the most noteworthy tracks for me were the ones with the most gothic despair, like the title track and “The Fear.” Some nine years later, however, it’s the back end of the album that has gained the most resonance; “Glory Days” and “The Day After the Revolution” genuinely try to work through disillusion to get to some better, wiser place. I must also give props to the U.S. version of the album, losing the 14-minute synth note at the end of “Revolution” and adding the awesome glam-rock thrill of “Like a Friend,” which also manages to fit into the aforementioned mood of the album’s conclusion.

The only real competition for best-of-’98 for me is Quasi’s Featuring “Birds”, another album-length ode to failure and shattered dreams. Both albums achieve a sort of catharsis, and both sound great when I’m having a shitty day at work. But I’m going to give the edge to This Is Hardcore, not just because it more explicitly looks for a way out of the mire, but also because of my well-established and unabashed Pulp bias.

2007-02-11T13:44:00.000-05:00

Best of: 1997

Then: Still editing/writing for the Collegian; started interning for the Philadelphia City Paper, more specifically, their short-lived quarterly music mag Earshot. At the time, my pick of the year was Ben Folds Five’s Whatever and Ever Amen (Sony 550). I had a pretty strong fixation on this band throughout the bulk of my college years. Maybe that seems odd, but I’m a sucker for unabashed hooks and the heartfelt/humorous dichotomy. And yet, I have not listened to this album in about six years.

Now: I did not know what to make of Cotton Mather’s Kontiki (Copper) at first. Boy, I thought, they really want to be The Beatles, or maybe just Squeeze. But songs like “My Before and After” and “Homefront Cameo” wore me down, with such resilient melodies, perfectly baited hooks and bizarrely elliptical lyrics (“Cracked the code on the Rosetta stone/Said the word for ‘alone’ is ‘alone’”). “My Before and After” (the source of that lyric) particularly is the great lost perfect pop song. Everything’s there for a reason: the snare-drum thwacks, the peeling guitar riffs, the chorus piano. The Austin, TX-based Cotton Mather became a semi-sensation among power-pop aficionados (always a double-edged sword, that), but their existence was just elusive enough to make them more of a rumor than a real band, one of the great secret stories of indie-rock.

(In fact, just as I was planning this entry, I finally tracked down CM frontman Robert Harrison. His new band Future Clouds and Radar has a self-titled double-disc debut due out on April 24. For a particularly promising entry from this outfit, check here.)

2007-02-06T22:51:00.000-05:00

Best of: 1996

This was my first year as Entertainment Editor for my college paper, the La Salle Collegian. For album of the year, I chose Aimee Mann’s I’m With Stupid (Geffen). This is still a really great album: fuzz guitars, hooks a’plenty, smartly pointed lyrics, classic Jon Brion production quirks. One of these days, I’ll submit Brion and Mann as one of the great unsung partnerships in music. But I no longer think I’m With Stupid is the best album of 1996. That would be Wilco’s Being There (Reprise).

Being There was the first Wilco album I ever heard and at the time, it seemed half-filler. Before long, however, it began making more and more sense. For a while, I was obsessed with trying to tangle the album’s timeline. It seemed to begin at ultimate disillusion before spinning back to youthful exuberance and making its way back to the present; and all this without succumbing to concept album’s clichés, without trying to impose a “storyline” in a medium that simply has no need for one. Just when my literature and film classes had gotten me thinking about the structure of art, Being There arrived, having its way with the structure of a rock album. And this vaguely post-modern structure managed to co-exist within a pretty conventional rock-to-roots-rock format, dominated by guitars, drums and piano/organ, plus pedal steel, banjo, mandolin, etc. The days of overt atonal weirdness and intense studio doctoring had not yet arrived for this band. But the stage was set.

2007-02-06T20:25:00.000-05:00

Behold

Pazz and Jop, '06. My ballot.

2007-02-05T13:37:00.000-05:00

Two Announcements

1) I didn't think Prince was all that great last night.

2) This month, I turn 30. In commemoration of this event -- and to get some more substantial content up here for the first time in months -- I'll be embarking on a little project. See, I've been writing about music in some forum or another since about 1996. So for each year from '96 onward, I'll take a look at what I decided at that time was the best album of each year, and what I now think was that year's best.

2007-01-26T15:14:00.000-05:00

A Perfect Song Series from a Shuffling iPod #2

John Coltrane's 23-minute "My Favorite Things" from here.
Paul Stanley telling a Swedish audience that they're about to put the pedal to the metal.
Neko Case, "Mood to Burn Bridges."

2007-01-21T22:03:00.000-05:00

Record review contained within.

2007-01-19T09:04:00.000-05:00

Concert review here.

2007-01-18T09:07:00.000-05:00

My Rock/Pop picks for the next few months are here.

BTW, this is still a fully operational blog, contrary to the lack of recent content. The surge in work (both freelance and full-time) will hopefully have fully settled down by the beginning of February. Until then, expect little more than links to things. So, as a public service, please enjoy the rare Neil Finn songs posted on this blog.

2007-01-06T23:13:00.000-05:00

Idolator's poll results are here. You can see my ballot (though it's no different from what I posted here last month) here.

2006-12-28T15:46:00.000-05:00

A Perfect Song Series from a Shuffling iPod #1

"Beautiful Feeling," PJ Harvey
"Fancy," The Kinks
"Klaus Kinski," Saint Joan

Eerie, eerier, eeriest.

2006-12-27T20:59:00.000-05:00

The semi-deluge of best-of-2006 lists with contributions from yours truly begins... now. City Paper's annual Top 21 list can be accessed here. They've fancified the online presentation this year. To see my write-ups, click on entries 9 and 18. And to see the top ten lists of me and everyone else who voted, go here.

2006-12-17T22:40:00.000-05:00

Well, this evening I scored one of those fabled once-in-a-lifetime bargains from Tower Records' last stand. I picked up one of my collection's last few missing pieces of Pulp music. The import copy (as we all know, nothing Jarvis Cocker puts out gets a U.S. release anymore --it's like a law or something) cost a mere $7.26, easily the lowest amount I've ever paid for an import full-length. I'm pretty sure it was the only copy in the store.

I was also amused to hear some Beatles best-of playing over the sound system; not only were the songs fairly appropos to Tower's decline and fall ("Help!," "Yesterday," "We Can Work it Out," ah, if only), but it was truly odd to hear very famous music in a record store and not be able to buy that music there, if you were so inclined.

ITEM! Anchor Steam's Christmas Ale really is something. Try and drink it sometime!

2006-12-15T00:14:00.000-05:00

Oh, Alright

Commentary TK. Or not, if I never find the time.

Top Albums of 2006
1. Sonic Youth, Rather Ripped (Geffen)
2. Jarvis Cocker, Jarvis (Rough Trade)
3. Quasi, When the Going Gets Dark (Touch and Go)
4. Neko Case, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood (Anti)
5. Lupe Fiasco, Lupe Fiasco's Food and Liquor (Atlantic)
6. Ray Davies, Other People's Lives (V2)
7. Campfire Crush, Lunar Moss (self-released)
8. Espers, II (Drag City)
9. Cheap Trick, Rockford (Big 3)
10. Electrelane, Singles, B-Sides and Live (Too Pure)

Top Singles/Tracks of 2006
1. Jarvis Cocker, "Running the World" (Rough Trade)
2. Sonic Youth, "Pink Steam" (Geffen)
3. Lupe Fiasco with Jill Scott, "Daydreamin'" (Atlantic)
4. Neko Case, "Star Witness" (Anti)
5. Camera Obscura, "Lloyd, I'm Ready to be Heartbroken" (Merge)
6. The Dears, "Ticket to Immortality" (Arts and Crafts)
7. Tom Petty, "Saving Grace" (American)
8. OK Go, "Here it Goes Again" (Capitol)
9. The Divine Comedy, "To Die a Virgin" (Parlophone)
10. The Pernice Brothers, "B.S. Johnson" (Ashmont)

2006-12-12T10:16:00.000-05:00

Not that Kelefa Sanneh's writing needs more exposure or anything, but I thought his Jarvis piece (which somehow slipped by my radar till yesterday) was pretty spot-on.

(Coming soon: top 10 albums and singles lists for 2006, once I get a sizable break from my current workload to figure out the latter.)

2006-12-08T09:26:00.000-05:00

Pick here.

2006-12-07T09:44:00.001-05:00

Here's a column, one that I've anticipated writing for some time now.

2006-11-28T15:46:00.001-05:00

This should be interesting.

2006-11-21T23:00:00.000-05:00

Following up on some earlier posts...

Philip Marlowe: Nobody cares but me.
Terry Lennox: Well that's you, Marlowe. You'll never learn, you're a born loser.
Philip Marlowe: Yeah, I even lost my cat.

-- From The Long Goodbye (1973)

And then of course, Marlowe shoots him. But, thinking now about the Robert Altman films I've seen, what sticks in my mind now is a critique on winner-takes-all that runs through many of these films -- off the top of my head, I can clearly see it in The Long Goodbye, as well as McCabe and Mrs. Miller, California Split, The Player, and the class expose Gosford Park. Sometimes this critique is blatant, other times more sly and ironic, but I'll be looking for it in every Altman movie I discover from here on.

In California Split, the heroes win, but it's one of the most hollow, sad wins in cinema. In The Long Goodbye, the hero slams up against his cluelessness, but it seems like he might've gained an actual clue in the process. And in The Player, we learn just how much of a creep the "hero" is, when we see the lengths he will go to win, and just how good he is at it.

And Altman's career itself stands as a kind of testament against winner-takes-all. He's proof that there's a good reason to stick to your guns and not take any shit, even if it means long periods on the outskirts of success (however which way you might define it).

If nothing else, I'll always love Altman because he tried to portray life the way people actually live it; something too few artists shoot for, yet it's maybe the thing I value most in film, music, books, TV, etc.

As for Nate Wiley, sadly it had been a bit of a while since I last heard him play sax while drinking at Bob and Barbara's on a late night (though my liver is probably better off for this). But, I contend, he was a Philly institution. His presence succinctly summed up the city's flavor more than any tourist trap ever could.

Finally, how was I to know -- a little while after posting a fond Seinfeld memory -- how unpleasantly (to put it mildly) one of the former cast members would, out from nowhere, self-destruct in public?

2006-11-21T12:42:00.000-05:00

R.I.P.

Robert Altman

Nate Wiley

2006-11-20T12:06:00.000-05:00

Some things I'm thinking about

1) How great Seinfeld Season 8 was. Want proof? Episodes include: The Foundation, The Bizarro Jerry, The Little Kicks (Death Blow!), The Package (Mail Fraud!), The Chicken Roaster, The Abstinence, The Susie. Sweet fancy Moses!

2) How The Beatles' Love might be nice and all, but it's no more a "new" Beatles album than Let it Be... Naked was. HEY APPLE/EMI: NOW WILL YOU REMASTER THE ORIGINAL UK ALBUMS?

3) How badly I want this.

2006-11-19T12:37:00.000-05:00

CD review contained within here.

2006-11-17T08:43:00.000-05:00

Show preview at the bottom of this page.

2006-11-16T08:53:00.000-05:00

Important Update!

The mystery TV theme has been identified: It belonged to Buffalo Bill (1983-1984) starring Dabney Coleman, Geena Davis and Max Wright. The song sounds like this.

The show was about a conceited talk show host, played by Coleman. I suspect that if you combined this character and Dave Thomas' Bill Needle from SCTV, you'd get something awfully close to Bill O'Reilly.

In other news, I have a boxed set review here.

2006-11-15T13:08:00.000-05:00

My New Favorite Song

The theme to Crazy Like a Fox.

Crazy Like a Fox (1984-1986) was an hour-long show about a wacky private eye (Jack Warden) and his button-down, conservative son (John Rubinstein). Growing up, I was into this show for a little while, though not the whole run. What I remembered most was a vague inkling of the theme show being awesome in the rousing way that themes for humorous, frivolous hour-long shows from the '80s about crime-fighting/mystery-solving often are.

Finally, thanks to this site, I found the song and realized a) the theme song in my head was something different, maybe Scarecrow and Mrs. King or something and b) the actual Crazy Like a Fox theme is even greater than I initially believed. If you'd like a mental picture while playing this song, make sure you imagine Jack Warden and John Rubinstein running a lot.

My continuing interest in this song resulted from my conviction that these kinds of shows need to make a comeback to balance out the many furrowed-brow crime dramas (24, all the Law and Orders, all the CSIs, and no, smart guy, The Wire doesn't count). Bob (i.e., "Bob" of this blog's comments section) and I have just the show in mind: A show about crime-fighting magicians starring Ricky Jay and (in lieu of a time machine that we could use to procure the young, pre-Night Court Harry Anderson) Will Arnett.

2006-11-10T08:49:00.000-05:00

Show preview at the bottom of this page.

2006-10-27T10:56:00.000-04:00

Decided to try a different template. I assume there are no strong objections.

2006-10-25T23:03:00.000-04:00

The Unified Theory of Everything

This is all true.

Today, I attempted to purchase Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious on DVD.

First I went to Borders, where the soundsystem was playing "Notorious" by Duran Duran. But they didn't have the DVD.

Next, I tried the going-out-of-business Tower Records across the street. They didn't have it either. While I was looking, they began playing The Beatles' Abbey Road.

Finally, I went to the TLA Video on Locust St. As I entered, they were playing the last few songs of Abbey Road. And they also did not have the DVD.

What does it all mean?

(BTW: The Criterion Collection DVD of Notorious is out of print. I thought maybe I'd get lucky.)

2006-10-19T19:24:00.000-04:00

Save Me a Place

I'm something of a fair-weather Lindsey Buckingham admirer (although Crystal and I did dress up as Stevie Nicks and LB for Halloween last year) but I really enjoyed this live performance of a Tusk favorite.

Found this initially on Stereogum. Check out the link for some Buckingham insights from friend/rock-crit/drummer Patrick Berkery.

2006-10-19T09:36:00.000-04:00

Pick here.

2006-10-16T10:36:00.000-04:00

From here:

"Kids, they'll find some other club," Ms. Smith insisted during her set. "You just got a place, just some crappy place, that nobody wants, and you got one guy who believes in you, and you just do your thing. And anybody can do that, anywhere in the world, any time."
After her set was over and the club had partly cleared out, Ms. Smith returned to the stage for a silent postcript. As fans held up outstretched hands, Ms. Smith reached into a bag and handed out little black pins. They read, "What remains is future."

Sometimes, idealism is still awesome.

2006-10-15T17:56:00.000-04:00

For the first time in a long, long while, it's actually exciting to be a Pulp obsessive. Oh, I grant you, it's always exciting, otherwise why would I bother? But between JarvSpace, the recent reissues, the upcoming Peel Sessions anthology, and Jarvis Cocker's also-upcoming solo debut, you actually feel like the outside world has responded to the fact that, yes, there are Pulp obsessives still on this planet and, yes, we will buy things.

At some point, all I have to say about all this will show up in some venue. For now, here is the latest development: Jarvis' stint as guest editor for The Observer Music Monthly.

2006-10-11T18:19:00.000-04:00

Lately

Now with some elaboration!

Hearing: Lupe Fiasco, Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor; Cheap Trick, Rockford; Eletrelane, Singles, B-Sides & Live. (Three newish albums that are all excellent.)

Watching: Lost (I should've put this "on notice." That's all I'm saying for now.)

Studio 60 on Sunset Strip (I mostly like it so far for the witty, fast-pacedness, and for Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford playing "darkly neurotic." Anytime it tries to be wistful or romantic I kinda hate it. There are also some jazz-hands tendencies lurking that I don't approve of.)

The Wire (Like Arrested Development did for comedy, this show makes every other drama on TV just not good enough in comparison.)

Reading: Clockers by Richard Price (More of The Wire's influence on my life. Awesome stuff.)

Remembering: My first purchases at Tower Records. In 1988, at the New York location, my Aunt Mary bought Past Masters, Vols. 1 & 2 by The Fab Four, dubbed them for me, and held onto them 'till I got my first CD player -- which would happen about 3 years later. Then, in '95, on South St., I scored The Kinks' UK version of To The Bone (which I didn't even know existed before then) and The Replacements' Pleased to Meet Me.

As reported elsewhere (here and here), Tower's going-out-of-business sale has been bullshit so far. While it's not fun to see people lose their jobs en masse, the chain's been obsolete for years, and recent events serve only as a reminder why.

2006-10-08T12:18:00.000-04:00

Scroll down here for a review, my first for a new venture that I'm pretty excited about.

2006-10-05T09:43:00.000-04:00

Here is the latest column. Don't ask me how the word "the" got in front of "ELO."

2006-09-28T10:56:00.000-04:00

Wrote a film review here.

Also, am I the only person who has difficulty imagining Dick Cavett cursing?

2006-09-18T22:24:00.000-04:00

Scroll down to the bottom of this to see what I've put on notice.

2006-09-18T11:54:00.000-04:00

Lately

Hearing: Bob Dylan, Modern Times; Afel Bocoum, Damon Albarn, Toumani Diababte and Friends, Mali Music

Watching: The Wire, Season 4

Reading: About Town: The New Yorker and the World It Made by Ben Yagoda

Driving: On Saturday, I rented a Toytoa Prius Liftback from Philly Car Share. Not an out-of-the-ordinary event, but this must've been a newer model. These things all have a screen on the dashboard (seen here), but this one -- when the car's in reverse -- switches to a camera view from the rear window. Space-age and crazy.

While I'm here, let me point out another new something from a friend: Dan Buskirk's new blog.

2006-09-15T13:47:00.000-04:00

Congrats to Maura on her new gig. Do check it out.

2006-09-14T09:54:00.000-04:00

I wrote the Rock/Pop Best Bets for the CP's Fall Guide.

2006-09-06T19:41:00.000-04:00

Pick here.

2006-08-31T09:48:00.000-04:00

Here's the new column on Bob Dylan, who you may recall was also the subject of the first Under the Rock. (Feel like reading that one too? Go here.)

Update: Also, with this column, I've achieved a minor ambition: To get listed on Largehearted Boy's daily link round-up.

2006-08-27T18:35:00.000-04:00

Do not go gentle into that good night, Spaceboy.

2006-08-21T16:25:00.000-04:00

Fun with Archives

For some reason, just now, I remembered this old thing I wrote.

2006-08-21T14:14:00.000-04:00

Watch That Man

Here's the post where Under the Rock (and then some) succumbs to the magic of YouTube links.

Crystal and I caught this on VH1 Classic last night. One of the coolest Bowie looks ever, if not the coolest. I want that suit.

Some questions for review: Is that how DB really dances in real life? Where does this video fit in the evolution of Robert Palmer? What would happen if the Bowie of this video and Bryan Ferry were in a room together?

I don't have anything interesting to say about him in drag.

2006-08-11T12:00:00.000-04:00

Requiem

I could be wrong, but I believe my 12-year-old Sony cassette player finally gave up the ghost last night.

The next step, as I see it, is to buy something cheap and second-hand that doesn’t even have to connect to my stereo. Some of these cassettes, I’m a little attached to 'em. Sure, there are the ones I can (and should) upgrade – the three Sonic Youth ones (including Daydream Nation), Suzanne Vega’s 99.9F and Pete Townshend’s Empty Glass, among others. But what about those out-of-print, latter-day Kinks albums that can serve as fodder for this blog? Or how about those choice early-‘80s Squeeze shows that ‘MMR rebroadcast when I was in high school? (Seriously, they were actually a smokin’ live act back in the day.)

2006-08-08T21:35:00.000-04:00

Is there a short song that tells a complete story more completely and succinctly than Steely Dan's "Through with Buzz" (1 min., 34 sec.)? Magnetic Fields' "A Pretty Girl is Like..." -- which I just bought from ITunes since on my CD the track is scratched beyond salvaging -- comes closest for me right now, but it's 16 seconds longer.

2006-08-07T18:04:00.000-04:00

Back in Business

Having pretty much completed yet another move within this fair city, I'm ready to restart activities such as this blog.

So -- in order to have something to moan about, and in anticipation of the upcoming Bob season -- have a look at the No Direction Home review currently found here.

What is this bunk? Scorsese's "best films feature jazz, Martinis, and characters belonging to or nostalgic for the pre-rock era"? Even if you put aside The Last Waltz -- how about "Be My Baby" in Mean Streets? Or, a less obvious but almost as great example, Mott the Hoople's "All the Way from Memphis" in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. I'd even make an argument for "Is That All There Is?" from After Hours, sung by the pre-rock Peggy Lee, but written by the definitely-rock Leiber and Stoller (and arranged by the rock-in-my-book Randy Newman).

Which songs-scenes do you think people remember from Good Fellas? I'm willing to wager it's the "Layla" scene, the music-montage accompanying the errand-running, coked-out Henry Hill and Sid Vicious' "My Way" at the end.

So, uh, there.

2006-07-20T22:43:00.000-04:00

Picked this up from Maura. Here's a hypothetical CD of my best of 2006 so far.

1. "Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken," Camera Obscura
2. "Quit That Scene," Tommy Keene
3. "Doctor Monroe," Casey Dienel
4. "Running the World," Jarvis Cocker
5. "Cruel Storm," Espers
6. "Marie," Allison Moorer
7. "Circus Time," Euros Childs
8. "Ann the Word," Beauty Pill
9. "You Are What You Love," Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins
10. "Nothing to Do But Dream," Jolie Holland
11. "If You Didn't Love Me," Cordalene
12. "Over My Head," Ray Davies
13. "Star Witness," Neko Case
14. "Pink Steam," Sonic Youth
15. "Death Culture Blues," Quasi

(I linked to the Beauty Pill track because a) it is only available on MySpace at the moment, and b) right now I just cannot get enough of this song.)

Post your CD too, if you like.

Update: Since he kindly linked to this on his blog, I should mention that Matos started this meme.

2006-07-13T10:09:00.000-04:00

Pick here.

And then there's this. (Scroll down to the last item.) Sometimes, things that are private jokes between you and maybe two or three other people can somehow become writing assignments.

2006-07-12T12:23:00.000-04:00

Sometimes, old articles you wrote show up in the strangest places.

In other news, I watched Lukas Moodysson's Together last night and it was pretty wonderful. Moodysson's ability to move plot and characters in natural but just-so-unexpected ways is really something. Apparently, his subsequent work is much darker, though. I guess this quote he gave to the Village Voice in Aug. '01 no longer applies:

People are very much aware that it's a difficult world. We don't need films that tell us life is a tragedy. We need films that tell us life is very difficult but possible. There's a misunderstanding that serious art needs to be dark. This pessimism in contemporary art is very much a luxury problem of the Western world.

2006-07-05T20:52:00.000-04:00

A column here. I think it's pretty neat that Gorky's Zygotic Mynci got to be the music lead. Aren't you sorry you broke up now?!

2006-07-05T10:02:00.000-04:00

He's back. (Note: The song posted contains many dirty words, so maybe listen with headphones if you're at work.)

2006-06-30T08:35:00.000-04:00

Lately

Hearing: Split Enz, "Hello Sandy Allen"; Espers, II; Beauty Pill, The Cigarette Girl From the Future.

Reading: On Beauty by Zadie Smith

Riding: Fuji Finest and Trek Antelope

Looking: For an apartment. My landlord has sold my current building and everything, and everyone, must go. Any leads?

2006-06-23T12:36:00.000-04:00

Dory Previn: Going Home is Such a Low and Lonely Ride

I'm still a little wary about proffering Wikipedia as a source, so I'll give my Google search results.

Cherry-picking some interesting facts -- Previn was married to Andre Previn; he left her for Mia Farrow. Also, the Previns wrote together, most notably perhaps the songs from The Valley of the Dolls.

Probably the best song on Jarvis Cocker and Steve Mackey's The Trip compilation, Dory Previn's "The Lady with the Braid" hitches its pretty country-rock groove to a lyric that is witty, knowing, disarming and a little unnerving too. (As the reviewer on Pitchfork suggests, astutely for a change, it's not unlike a Jarvis Cocker lyric.)

The lyric skips from detail to detail in a manner that is almost stream-of-conscious -- my favorite is the "cup of homemade coffee" with honey in it. Most songs that get described as "conversational" never come close to real conversation like this does.

The more I listen to "The Lady with the Braid," the more elusive the narrator/Previn seems, making my reactions all the more complex. Frankly, the narrator comes off pretty neurotic -- intentionally, I think. But because the song is so carefully composed, you are just drawn in further. Ultimately, the song is a tender but knowing tribute to human fraility.

Just as my obsession with this song was reaching its peak, I discovered that Camera Obscura have a song on their new album called "Dory Previn." The mind boggles. It's a nice song, with a similar but slower soft-rock sound to "The Lady with the Braid." (Actually, it sounds more like Wilco's "Far, Far Away.") But the lyric, in which the singer listens to Previn in the wake of a break-up, is way more prosaic.

Also, I learned today that "The Lady with the Braid" is one of Stuart Murdoch's favorite lyrics.

It looks like Previn's albums are not impossible to find, but they're not cheap on Amazon either. Here's hoping I'll be able to track some down for a sensible price.

2006-06-22T09:49:00.000-04:00

Here is the latest column. I went for a slightly different approach this time; it's just three CD reviews. I needed a break from using too many words to pretend to grok some meaningless topic. Lately, I've been feeling that think piece = wank piece.

That said, sometime before the end of the week, I hope to present here some interesting findings regarding one of the songs mentioned in said column.