948. Fishbone, Fishbone (1985) “Party at Ground Zero” stands as one of the greatest opening declarations of artistic identity in all of college rock. It’s probably not wholly correct to assert that no one sounded like Fishbone before the Los … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #948 to #945
This was written for my former online home, back when I was devoting the end of the working week to a feature dubbed “Flashback Fridays,” giving myself the prompt of a year to get me tapping keys on a range … Continue reading From the Archive — The Badger
I’ve long had a particular weakness for performers who simply pick up an acoustic guitar and make greatness happen. It likely stems from my obviously mistaken notion of the outcome awaiting me had I the same skill. More than that, … Continue reading One for Friday — Kristin Allen-Zito,”Cup of Love”
Record albums aren’t novels. They aren’t films or plays or anything else that needs to follow the rules of traditional — or, for that matter, highly non-traditional — narratives. There is zero necessity for a compelling thesis statement or a … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Historian
A United Kingdom (Amma Asante, 2016). It’s almost jarring to see a modern movie as staid in its dramatization of noble societal perseverance as A United Kingdom. Based on real history, the film follows the heartbreaking travails of Seretse Khama … Continue reading Playing Catch-Up — A United Kingdom; Downsizing; Girls Trip
Steven Spielberg is the dream director for the film adaptation of Ernest Cline’s novel Ready Player One. He’s also arguably a terrible choice for the near-future cotton candy dystopia of a puzzle quest across a virtual landscape of pop culture … Continue reading Now Playing — Ready Player One
These posts are about the songs that just barely failed to cross the key line of chart success, entering the Billboard Top 40. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 41. In 1966, Dean Martin appeared in four … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “A Million and One”
956. Velvet Elvis, Velvet Elvis (1988) Velvet Elvis formed in Lexington, Kentucky, largely because aspiring singer-songwriter Dan Trisko needed an outfit to deliver the tunes he was cranking out with admirable efficiency. The band played through the reasonably robust club … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #956 to #953
By now, I’ve shared most of the reviews I still have from my days as the co-host and co-producer of the early-nineteen-nineties radio show The Reel Thing. This represented a rare instance of tying the weekly home video segment into … Continue reading From the Archive — The Hard Way and Doc Hollywood
I remember it as a slow, melancholy dimming of the lights for a certain kind of record collecting — or, being precise about the era, CD collecting, I suppose. Paul Westerberg was just a few years into his solo career, … Continue reading One for Friday — Grandpaboy, “Psychopharmacology”
Coffee for Two 