784. Aerosmith, Night in the Ruts (1979) Well before their unlikely mid-nineteen-eighties comeback, Aerosmith was band that didn’t just court disaster. It got down to one knee and gave disaster a full-hearted proposal of marriage at first sight. The Boston … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #784 to #781
Maybe someday Phoebe Bridgers will appear on every record, or at least every record worth buying. In the last sixteen months, Bridgers released her solo debut, gave all the sad kids new treasures as one-third of boygenius, and now arrives … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Better Oblivion Community Center, “Dylan Thomas”
788. Stevie Nicks, The Wild Heart (1983) At the time Stevie Nicks recorded The Wild Heart, her second solo album, there was little doubt that she was emerging as the dominant member of Fleetwood Mac, the band that could still … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #788 to #785
The way Timothy Showalter tells it, creating new music to be released under his preferred moniker Strand of Oaks wasn’t his idea. On his website, Showalter even openly ruminates on the possibility that he might have reached a creative endpoint … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Strand of Oaks, “Weird Ways”
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. Trent Reznor didn’t expect to make hits. … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “Closer”
792. Eric Clapton, Backless (1978) Eric Clapton’s career was on steady ground when he made the 1978 album Backless. He’d spent several years with essentially the same backing band, he was working on the second straight album with producer Glyn … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #792 to #789
“Seventeen,” the new single from Sharon Van Etten’s album Remind Me Tomorrow, sneaks up. Gradually growing louder in volume at the beginning, the track is all beautiful tension at first, which is Van Etten’s creative comfort zone. It holds promise … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Sharon Van Etten, “Seventeen”
796. The Motels, Little Robbers (1983) The Motels had their earliest rumbling in 1971. That’s the year a charismatic, distinctive singer and guitarist named Martha Davis connect with several other California musicians to form a band called the Warfield Foxes. … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #796 to #793
According to the official tally within the digital machinery of this humble corner of the online megaplex, the post that went up one week ago today, boasting a downloadable MP3 of a Was (Not Was) track, was the five-hundredth globule … Continue reading One for Friday — The Weeds, “Dicked”
As usual, the final reflection on a calendar year’s worth of music comes in the form of a quintet of songs. I’m not offering these as my personal choice for the best five tracks of 2018. Instead, these are just … Continue reading Five Songs from 2018
Coffee for Two 