356. Translator, No Time Like Now (1983) When 415 Records, an independent label based in San Francisco, inked a distribution deal with Columbia Records, Translator was the first act they brought to the newly accessible masses. Heartbeats and Triggers, Translator’s … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #356 to #354
The Girl in the Kent State Photo by Patricia McCormick More than fifty years after the Kent State shootings, Patricia McCormick profiles the girl who was at the center of the most famous photo of the government’s crime against the … Continue reading Outside Reading — This Summer I Heard the Drumming edition
There are few things more insidious than the systemized retribution against survivors of sexual harassment who speak the truth of their experiences. When several women came forward to detail the serial abuse perpetrated by a British musician, he drew upon … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Solidarity Not Silence, “This Is Sisterhood”
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. The first song that Beatles took to … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “From Me to You”
There are many building blocks of the internet, but the cornerstones are think pieces, offhand lists, and other hollow provocations meant to stir arguments and, therefore, briefly redirect web traffic. Engaging such material is utterly pointless. Then again, it’s not like I … Continue reading Bait Taken — Rolling Stone’s 100 Best Sitcoms of All Time
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. May the farce be … Continue reading Laughing Matters — Hardware Wars
This series of posts covers my long, beloved history interacting with the medium of radio, including the music that flowed through the airwaves. During my college radio days, we were always hungry to hear as much new music as possible. … Continue reading Radio Days — Certain Damage
359. The B-52’s, Mesopotamia (1982) After two full-length studio albums, the B-52’s had exhausted their backlog of original songs. Gary Kurfirst, the band’s manager, insisted that shouldn’t stop them from getting to work on a third record. His urgency to … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #359 to #357
Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie: The oral history by Adam Carston The big-screen iteration of Mystery Science Theater 3000 hardly seems to have enough significance to merit a lengthy oral history on the occasion of its anniversary, but I’m … Continue reading Outside Reading — This Island Earth Doesn’t Shine for Me Anymore
Now that we’re more than a year past the point when practically the entirety of the live music business shut down, it will be interesting to see if there are discernible impacts on the release of studio efforts. Maybe Molly … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Molly Burch, “Control”
Coffee for Two 