182. The Three O’Clock, Arrive without Travelling (1985) After the Three O’Clock’s 1983 album, Sixteen Tambourines, grabbed the attention of student programmers, I.R.S. Records came calling. Perhaps no other label was so sharply focused on assembling a roster of acts … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #182 to #180
Made for Television by Emily Nussbaum Writing for The New Yorker, Emily Nussbaum delivers an entertaining profile of spouses Robert and Michelle King and their splendid stable of offbeat television programs. Our household is all in on Evil, and we … Continue reading Outside Reading — The Garden of Good and Evil edition
Because I, too, am sometimes ready to rage. Gnosis, the eighth album from Chicago trio Russian Circles, is scheduled for release in August. Continue reading This Week’s Model — Russian Circles, “Conduit”
This series of posts covers my long, beloved history interacting with the medium of radio, including the music that flowed through the airwaves. In my most recent return to the broadcast booth of my adored college radio alma mater, WWSP-FM, … Continue reading Radio Days — 90FM’s Top 35 for June 16, 1989
MJ LENDERMAN Boat Songs (Dear Life) — The new album from Asheville-based singer-songwriter MJ Lenderman is a revival triumph for the era of sloughy dudes with guitars and an attitude grounded in sardonic misery. Boat Songs, the third solo album … Continue reading Medium Rotation — Boat Songs; Headful of Sugar
Sometimes comedy illuminates hard truths with a pointed urgency that other means can’t quite achieve. Sometimes comedy is just funny. This series of posts is mostly about the former instances, but the latter is valuable, too. Sometimes I just stop … Continue reading Laughing Matters — Lauren Wilford as every woman in a 70s movie
This series of posts covers my long, beloved history interacting with the medium of radio, including the music that flowed through the airwaves. As I am occasionally privileged to do, I returned to my college radio alma mater last night … Continue reading Radio Days — Then and Now: Retro College Countdown from June 1989
185. Big Country, Steeltown (1984) Big Country has the kind of debut album a rock act longs for. Boosted in part by the surging influence of the new cable network MTV, The Crossing and its single “In a Big Country” … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #185 to #183
Stay Furious by Jessica Valenti Going all the way back to the time the George W. Bush administration was in power, I believed the most long-lasting damage exacted by that particular crew of amoral miscreants would be the following: A … Continue reading Outside Reading — Anger Is an Energy edition
For music fans with a long enough memory, I think there’s probably no way for the new Laura Veris single, “Eucalyptus,” to avoid comparisons to Suzanne Vega. A lilting female voice engaged in plain, crisp storytelling using a staccato rhythm … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Laura Veirs, “Eucalyptus”
Coffee for Two 