There are songs and styles that will grab me immediately, tapping into the portion of my inner being that never truly exited my old college radio studio. That sliver of me flips through the heavy rotation shelf for all eternity, … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Mikal Cronin, “Shelter”
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. According to Huey Lewis, he started writing the song “Workin’ for a Livin” when he was doing exactly that. A musician who toiled through the nineteen-seventies with modest success — most notably as a member of the San Francisco band Clover — Lewis relied on a series of other jobs to help him make ends meet over the years, including a stint as a truck driver. It … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “Workin’ for a Livin”
660. Hunters & Collectors, Human Frailty (1987) In just about every way, Human Frailty was a breakthrough for the Australian band Hunters & Collectors. The band’s fourth studio album represented their first significant hit in their homeland, slipping into the … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #660 to #657
“Water Me Down,” the new single from Vagabon, is lovely and enveloping. A thrilling shard of neo-soul, the track boasts effortlessly elegant vocals and an array of quietly seductive synthesized sounds. What could be just another luxe come-on, hollowed out … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Vagabon, “Water Me Down”
If No Cities to Love, the 2015 comeback album from Sleater-Kinney, was an assurance that the beloved group could reemergence from a decade-long hiatus with their roaring power and vibrant creativity intact, then The Center Won’t Hold is the provocative … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — The Center Won’t Hold
664. Jason and the Scorchers, Fervor (1983) “When I came to Nashville, I was looking for a sound with a rural feel to it and a lot of energy, a sound that was American,” Jason Ringenberg told The New York … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #664 to #661
Raw and brilliantly vicious, “Like Envy” burbles up like magma from beneath the planet’s surface, spreading out to scald anyone in its way. The new single from New York band Weeping Icon bears characteristics familiar from Sonic Youth window-rattlers of … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Weeping Icon, “Like Envy”
668. The Rave-Ups, The Book of Your Regrets (1988) The Rave-Ups had the misfortune of discovering how a little taste of success could lead to nasty legal entanglements in the cutthroat music industry. Earthier rock ‘n’ roll players on the … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #668 to #665
Americans Are Sad About Politics. Who Could Blame Them? by Clare Malone Writing for FiveThirtyEight, Clare Malone explores the exhausting nature of the current culture for politically attuned citizens, defined by a cascade of norm-shredding outrages and out-and-out criminal actions … Continue reading Outside Reading — Red and White and Black and Blue edition
I’m supposed to be too cynical to enjoy a rock song that espouses uplift. Reared on the slashing defeatism of college rock heroes who wielded buzzing guitars like impenetrable shields, I am meant to feel my strongest kinship with songs … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Michael Kiwanuka, “You Ain’t The Problem”
Coffee for Two 