Olivia Rodrigo gave no indication that she was going to have difficulty following up her sensational debut album, Sour. Surely, it would have been understandable had she been taken a little aback by the surge of commercial and critical success … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Guts
14. Talking Heads, Little Creatures (1985) Movies, it turns out, take a long time to make. David Byrne, the frontman of Talking Heads, learned that as he ground his way towards his feature directorial debut. As the band that provided … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #14
The Most Heartfelt and Goofy of R.E.M., According to Mike Mills by Devon Ivie I consider myself lucky that my tenure as a student in college radio coincided with the time that R.E.M. were still making great records. My longtime … Continue reading Outside Reading — Mills Mulls edition
There has clearly been no diminishment in the capacity for Big Thief to release one sterling song after another, all done with a rapid pace basically unseen the heyday of nineteen-eighties Britpop bands that were under the thumb of a … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Big Thief, “I Was Born for Loving You”
This series of posts covers my long, beloved history interacting with the medium of radio, including the music that flowed through the airwaves. When a group of us college radio kids participate in the beater car caravan from our modest … Continue reading Radio Days — Too Much Joy at Shank Hall
These posts are about the songs that fell just short of crossing the key line of chart success, entering the Billboard Top 40. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 41. The Stylistics had a team that served … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “Heavy Fallin’ Out”
15. The Cure, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me (1987) Robert Smith had the whole history of the Cure in his head when he started writing songs for the band’s seventh studio album, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me. Of … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #15
Some weeks I scour all the new tracks that have been released by an amazing array of artists, agonizing over which song I’ll plop into this weekly feature. Some weeks, the phenomenal Shilpa Ray makes a recommendation on her Instagram, … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Frida Kill, “Last Ditch Effort”
The background information on The Window, the fifth and latest album by Chicago band Ratboys, suggests they knew they had material that would benefit from an added level of commitment. The quartet broke from the usual practice of recording in … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — The Window
Rather than type out a whole bunch of words, I will cede the floor to the Bard of Barking. Continue reading Happy Labor Day
Coffee for Two 