Thirty years ago, in the fall of 1988, the Toll released The Price of Progression. It was the debut album for the Columbus, Ohio band, released on major label Geffen Records. Stirred partially by the advocacy of Psychedelic Furs bassist … Continue reading One for Friday — The Toll, “Jonathan Toledo”
When he was interviewed on British television in 1976, this is how Harlan Ellison was introduced by journalist Mavis Nicholson, after she said, “I will explain to viewers what your publicists have told me about you”: You were born in … Continue reading Harlan Ellison, 1934 – 2018
These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. This has been a tough day for me and for anyone who has a political outlook roughly … Continue reading The Art of the Sell — “The Courage to Change”
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. Once I locked into superhero comics as a youngster, my appetite … Continue reading My Misspent Youth — The X-Men Companion II
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. We recently slipped past … Continue reading Laughing Matters — George Carlin, “The American Dream”
908. The Bears, Rise and Shine (1988) Rise and Shine was the second album from the Bears, a group guitarist Adrian Belew assembled when King Crimson went on hiatus. At the time, Belew had a reasonably healthy solo career and … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #908 to #905
Since I’ve been on a little bit of a thirty-years-ago kick lately, why not take unearth a movie review of a film released in June 1988. I wish I could report I wrote about Big when it hit theaters, but … Continue reading From the Archive — Big
Thirty years ago, in the summer of 1988, Voice of the Beehive released the album Let It Bee. The band is best known as a showcase for sisters Tracey Bryn and Melissa Brooke Belland, transplants from California who settled in … Continue reading One for Friday — Voice of the Beehive, “Don’t Call Me Baby”
In writing about recent albums, I can sometimes lose sight of the simple fact that new bands aren’t always that new. (Unless the band has been around for ages, of course.) I go through a litany of comparisons to other … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — 7
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 1956, the French singer Lucien Lupi … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “Till”
