16. Pretenders, Pretenders (1979) Chrissie Hynde had every reason to believe that a career in rock ‘n’ roll simply wasn’t going to work out for her. The native of Akron, Ohio had kicked around on the fringes of the music … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #16
Journalism fails miserably at explaining what is really happening to America by Will Bunch Until the mainstream news media comes to its collective senses and starts reporting with proper alarm on the Republican party’s cult-like adherence to despotic tendencies, writers … Continue reading Outside Reading — Burying the Lead edition
“Getting Bitter,” the new track from New Jersey–based band Teenage Halloween, is a chewy, chunky blast of pop punk. It call to mind the Beths when they’re in a louder mode, and that includes in the way the bouncy music … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Teenage Halloween, “Getting Bitter”
CABLE TIES All Her Plans (Poison City/Merge) — The Melbourne, Australia trio Cable Ties comes into their third album with a fine fury. All Her Plans opens with “Crashing Through,” which skews close enough to vintage Sleater-Kinney to flap anyone’s … Continue reading Medium Rotation — All Her Plans; I Inside the Old Year Dying
17. Thomas Dolby, The Golden Age of Wireless (1982) Upon its initial release, Thomas Dolby’s debut album had different track listings for its U.K. and U.S. versions. This was hardly an uncommon practice in the nineteen-eighties. What stands out all … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #17
I suspect Billy Bragg was inspired to pick up his guitar by the laughable corollary drawn between the current #1 song in U.S. and the work of Woody Guthrie, a comparison made solely by right-wing ghouls operating with their usual … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Billy Bragg, “Rich Men Earning North of a Million”
FEEBLE LITTLE HORSE Girl with Fish (Saddle Creek) — For Feeble Little Horse’s first studio album recorded under their pact with Saddle Creek (their previous LP was reissued by the stalwart indie label), the Pittsburgh band unleashes a torrent of … Continue reading Medium Rotation — Girl with a Fish; Time Ain’t Accidental; Joy’All
A couple weeks ago, I discovered I made a mistake on the current iteration of the College Countdown, which is tracking through the top one thousand albums on the college radio charts between 1979 and 1989. For all sorts of … Continue reading College Countdown Correction: #346
18. XTC, Skylarking (1986) XTC were handed an ultimatum from their record label. The trio had all the material needed to record a new studio album, which would be their eighth long-player under the XTC name (they’d also just released … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #18
The Swedes know the secret to happiness: You are not your stuff by Michael J. Coren Using the bestselling book The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning and its spinoff reality show as a prompt, Michael J. Coren writes about … Continue reading Outside Reading — The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning edition
Coffee for Two 