‘She never pandered to fashion’: why Kirsty MacColl’s vivid pop career was no fairytale by Alexis Petridis The release of a massive new box set prompts Alexis Petridis to write about the great Kirsty MacColl. The article offers a consideration … Continue reading Outside Reading — And They’ve Never Heard of Love edition
I’m confident that Laura Jane Grace knows a lot. I’m especially confident that Laura Jane Grace knows that a great punk song can get its point across in under two minutes. Leave the sonic epics to other fools. “Hole in … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Laura Jane Grace, “Hole in My Head”
This series of posts covers my long, beloved history interacting with the medium of radio, including the music that flowed through the airwaves. As we close in on the end of the very large College Countdown project that I started … Continue reading Radio Days — 90FM’s Top 35 for November 9, 1990
ALLISON RUSSELL The Returner (Fantasy/Concord) — It’s phenomenally fitting that Joni Mitchell inspired the title of Allison Russell’s sophomore full-length, The Returner. After being a firsthand witness to Mitchell’s transcendent 2022 comeback performance as one of the musicians onstage, Russell … Continue reading Medium Rotation — The Returner; Hox; Careful!
7. Rolling Stones, Tattoo You (1981) The Rolling Stones were in a precarious place. Commercially, they were as strong as ever. The 1978 album Some Girls was their biggest-selling album to that point in the U.S., and its follow-up, Emotional … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #7
“Sweet Stripe!,” the new single from Brooklyn-based band Stay Inside, feels like it starts in midstream. The guitars are already churning, the beat is already pulsing, the very thought of the song is fully formed. From there, it’s a roaring … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Stay Inside, “Sweet Stripe!”
8. R.E.M., Document (1987) R.E.M. had a message to convey and, more than was previously the case, they wanted to ensure they were understood. Across their first four studio albums, the immediate icons of college rock established and cultivated a … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #8
Dowsing is officially based in Chicago, but the individual members of the quartet are currently spread across four different states. So the decision to title their fifth proper album, their first new studio effort in four years, No One Said … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Dowsing, “It Was Easy”
SLOWDIVE Everything Is Alive (Dead Oceans) — Like a lot of folks, the members of Slowdive have come through a tough couple of years. There were the usual lockdown woes to be sure. They also faced down the deaths of … Continue reading Medium Rotation — Everything Is Alive; Relentless
9. The Sugarcubes, Life’s Too Good (1988) Everyone in the band Kukl knew that knew that they’d reached the end. The group formed in Reykjavík, Iceland, in the summer of 1983. Initially meant as an one-off for the final episode … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #9
Coffee for Two 