I love that the World Wide Web is the location of the greatest music swap in history. While I often actively gripe about the evil machinations of the RIAA, I’ll also concede that I get why they don’t particularly care for it. When an organization’s entire mandate is to squeeze every potential penny out of consumers for fat cat executives–don’t kid yourself for a moment that the RIAA is actually looking out for the artists; that “I” is for “Industry”–then seeing the new Kanye West record pop up for free on a fleet of sites before it’s even legally available … Continue reading One for Friday: Jerry Reed, “Bandit Ball”

While I try not to cede this weekly space entirely to the efforts of others, there is indeed a precedent. We’ve just returned from almost a week away, and my brain is soft, pliable and unable to think of a good entry for this week. Honestly, I can’t even come up with a wildly creative, obscure song selection. But there’s always Mr. Robyn Hitchcock… Continue reading One for Friday: Cheating Off of Someone Else’s Paper

It’s been a little over a year since I finally secured a turntable after several years without, as a friend of mine once called the device, a vinyl-spinner. It was absolutely wonderful to track through the remainder of my record collection, often playing things that I figured (somewhat erroneously, as it turns out) were essentially entirely unattainable these days. Turns out, though, that the main appeal of having a turntable again is being able to shop for records again. I’m not referring to the new culture of 180 gram vinyl rapturous collecting (though my household does occasionally succumb to that … Continue reading One for Friday: The Balancing Act, “A TV Guide in the Olduvai Gorge”

I could be retroactively ascribing insight to my band of college radio cohorts, but I do believe there were times when we knew–really knew–a band was going to be amount to little more than one great song. The Liverpudlian band the Farm had other successes besides “Groovy Train,” especially in their native land. Hell, the follow-up single, “All Together Now,” actually charted higher everywhere, including on the stateside Modern Rock lists. But even now I hear that track and I’m struck by the weary idle of its gleaming pop, like it was pulled together by a compromise committee in order … Continue reading One for Friday: The Farm, “Groovy Train”