32. The Cure, The Head on the Door (1985) It seemed the Cure were at an end. Post-punk upstarts on their 1979 debut, Three Imaginary Boys, the band rapidly evolved into trailblazers of goth rock on subsequent albums. That process … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #32 and #31
TCM Fans Are Right to Worry by Josef Adalian It was probably inevitable that the rampage of the wrecking ball serving as Warner Bros. Discovery CEO would eventually reach Turner Classic Movies, the one network that deserves to be part … Continue reading Outside Reading — Louis, I Think This Is the End of a Beautiful Friendship edition
The next Guided by Voices album, Welshpool Frillies, is scheduled for release in July. It is their second full-length album this year. They also released two studio albums last year and two the year before that. They released three studio … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Guided By Voices, “Meet the Star”
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. As we prepare to … Continue reading Laughing Matters — SCTV, “Check Please”
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. There are many reasons I feel fortunate in my timing in … Continue reading My Misspent Youth — Fantastic Four Annual #15 by Doug Moench and George Pérez
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. Paula Adbul had a booming career as … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “Knocked Out”
This series of posts covers my long, beloved history interacting with the medium of radio, including the music that flowed through the airwaves. My pal who’s spent many, many years holding down the Sunday night, 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. … Continue reading Radio Days — Then and Now: June 18, 2023
34. The Clash, Sandinista! (1980) “We planned to release a lot of singles, but we had trouble with CBS,” Paul Simonon, bassist for the Clash, told a reporter early in 1981, referring to recent scraps with the band’s record label. … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #34 and #33
As more schools target ‘Maus,’ Art Spiegelman’s fears are deepening by Greg Sargent Art Spiegelman has been here before, so when he intimates that the right-wingers’ frothing eagerness to ban books is at a higher level than before, and showing … Continue reading Outside Reading — Fahrenheit 450 and Rising edition
I like every but of this meaty, mighty rock song from the Brooklyn-based band THICK, but it’s the perfectly constructed chorus that makes it downright unshakeable: “I could kiss you hard right now/ Close my eyes and open up my … Continue reading This Week’s Model — THICK, “Doomer”
