These posts are about the songs that fell just short of crossing the key line of chart success, entering the Billboard Top 40. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 41. After drummer Darren Costin left the group, … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “To Live and Die in L.A.”
Hannie Caulder (Burt Kennedy, 1971). Raquel Welch stars in this Western as Hannie Caulder, a woman who is widowed and raped by three bank robbing brothers fleeing their latest stick up (Ernest Borgnine, Jack Elam, and Strother Martin, Western movie … Continue reading Then Playing — Hannie Caulder; War of the Planets; Top Gun: Maverick
This series of posts covers my long, beloved history interacting with the medium of radio, including the music that flowed through the airwaves. I went back to my favorite place last night. Due to the ongoing generosity of both the … Continue reading Radio Days — Then and Now: September 4, 2022
149. XTC, Black Sea (1980) “We find that once you’ve done something, you’ve tried it and you should move on,” Andy Partridge, frontman of XTC, declared not long after the release of Black Sea, the band’s fourth studio album. “Actually, … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #149 to #147
Friday night fish frys define Wisconsin. What happens when climate change adjusts the menu? by John McCracken I feel residentially obligated to share this article, one of an increasing number that strives to take the effects of climate change out … Continue reading Outside Reading — Walleye Be edition
This is as it should be. I feel like a band that had its official home base in the same ZIP Code as me (or one of the nearby ones within our shared city limits) should give me this this … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Disq, “(With Respect to) Loyal Serfs”
These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. As the devoted listeners at Central High clearly know, it’s nice to be able to efficiently satisfy … Continue reading The Art of the Sell — Monkey DJ for Monkees Records
SOCCER MOMMY Sometimes, Forever (Loma Vista) — For her third full-length album as Soccer Mommy, Nashville-based singer-songwriter Sophie Allison enlisted fairly unlikely help from Oneohtrix Point Never’s Daniel Lopatin as producer. Her earthy, moody material seems somewhat at odds with … Continue reading Medium Rotation — Sometimes, Forever; Beatopia
I read a lot of comic books as a kid. This series of posts is about the comics I read, and, occasionally, the comics that I should have read. When I committed myself wholeheartedly to reading superhero comic books, it … Continue reading My Misspent Youth — Flash by Mike Baron and Jackson Guice
Fuzz (Richard A. Colla, 1972). Fuzz can be slotted in with the spate of films from the first half of the nineteen-seventies, such as Across 110th Street and The Super Cops, that depict big-city police work as nonstop chaos, an … Continue reading Then Playing — Fuzz; Prey; Broken Strings
