928. John Cale, Honi Soit (1981) “Among the True Perverts of Rock, John Cale has always been the most persistently wanton,” Boo Browing wrote in The Washington Post around the time Cale released the album Honi Soit. I believe it … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #928 to #925
I wrote about Frightened Rabbit only once. When I was regularly churning out copy for Spectrum Culture, I put in to detail the ingenuity of a track from the band’s sterling 2013 album, Pedestrian Verse, as a contribution to the … Continue reading One for Friday — Frightened Rabbit, “Oil Slick”
It seemed entirely possible that any new music from Janelle Monáe would be a long time coming. Although she had already started the process of developing her third studio album when she stepped into the job of big-time movie actress, … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Dirty Computer
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. Daryl Hall and John Oates were ludicrously … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “Don’t Hold Back Your Love”
932. Rush, Signals (1982) I think the prevailing opinion is that the nineteen-eighties demolished the prospects for classic rock bands, especially as MTV took almost complete control over determining which songs were worthy of upward chart movement. There’s some truth … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #932 to #929
I had this project, you see. After several years of operating motor vehicles equipped with outdated technology in the dashboard stereo, I finally graduated to a car that had a CD player and an input jack for an iPod. To … Continue reading From the Archive — Smells Like a Mix Tape
Since I invoked Lyle Lovett in yesterday’s album review, it seems an appropriate time to return to him in this weekly act of music-sharing. Lovett first entered into my little cohort of favored artists with the release of his second … Continue reading One for Friday — Lyle Lovett, “L.A. County”
I can’t claim to understand the vagaries of what drives country music radio, but the apparent middling affection for Kacey Musgraves is perplexing to the point of aggravation. Despite the Texas native’s place in the Universal Music Group Nashville stable … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Golden Hour
936. Skinny Puppy, Cleanse, Fold & Manipulate (1987) It bizarre for me to think of industrial titans Skinny Puppy as edging towards cuddly mainstream acceptance, but that’s arguably what was happening around 1987, the year the Canadian released their third … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #936 to #933
In my music collection, I have many versions of “A New England.” I think it’s a natural, perhaps inevitable result of being a Billy Bragg fan in good standing. The song he wrote when he was twenty-one years old — … Continue reading One for Friday — Kate Nash and Billy Bragg, “Foundations/A New England”
Coffee for Two 