Syd Straw was an artist I first found in college, taking special solace in her solo debut, Surprise. She wasn’t incredibly prolific, which seemed somehow apt. There was something about Surprise that made it seem like a rapid-fire follow-up simply wouldn’t be appropriate, as if it would lack respect for the specialness of what had been accomplished. Besides, there was a purely selfish benefit to Straw taking about seven years to get around to releasing her sophomore effort, 1996’s War and Peace. By the time it arrived, I was deep into my tenure in commercial radio, growing ever more enchanted … Continue reading One for Friday: Syd Straw, “CBGB’s”

I’m currently reeling from illness, which makes me tempted to call in sick on writing this post. But there are some obligations that need to be followed through on. For example, I have a ticket for a concert tonight, an investment I don’t take lately. Even if I felt I could eat the twenty bucks for the privilege of burrowing deeper under the covers of my inviting bed, I don’t want to miss this. Not that it’s some once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. In fact, this will be third time in as many years that I’ve hauled my weary old bones over to … Continue reading One for Friday: The Mountain Goats, “You Were Cool”

I would never claim to be some sort of brilliant tweeter. I have my account, and I dutifully throw observations and snarky commentary up there. Mostly, it’s little more than links to different things that catch my eye during the day. Occasionally, though, an interesting little chat springs up around there, as was the case this past week when I expressed my helpless admiration for a certain Tommy Shaw single. Shaw was a guitar player for the ludicrously bombastic nineteen-seventies and nineteen-eighties rock band Styx. The group broke up shortly after the mammoth success of their 1983 album Kilroy Was … Continue reading One for Friday: Tommy Shaw, “Girls with Guns”

As a general rule, I’m highly suspicious of band reunions. Several years ago, when people were flipping with excitement about the prospect of the Pixies getting back together to play a few dates and maybe–but probably not!–record again, I was entirely unmoved and uninterested. Admittedly, that may stem in part from the fact that I wasn’t nearly as devoted a fan of the band as my college radio brethren during the Pixies’ heyday, but it was also because it was such a transparent attempt to cash in on past success by performers whose respective solo and spin-off careers had pretty … Continue reading One for Friday: The Soft Boys, “I Love Lucy”