That guitar. It snarls to life so beautifully. Then the bass and drums join in, like nineteen-fifties hoodlums falling in line for a strut down the city block to signal neighborhood sovereignty. By the time Lexi McCoy starts in with … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Suzie True, “Backburner”
128. Haircut One Hundred, Pelican West (1982) Guitarist and vocalist Nick Heyward and bassist Les Nemes cycled through a few different bands together during the latter half of the nineteen-seventies, none of them really amounting to much. After a move … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #128 to #126
In the time since Caroline Polachek moved on from the breakup of her band Chairlift, it’s sometimes seemed like she’s everywhere doing everything. Her debut solo album, Pang, was released in 2019 to widespread acclaim, but it’s more than that. … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Caroline Polachek, “Sunset”
This series of posts covers my long, beloved history interacting with the medium of radio, including the music that flowed through the airwaves. There were two times per year that we preempted the entire weekend schedule at WWSP-90M, the student-run … Continue reading Radio Days — 90FM’s Jazzfest
THE MOUNTAIN GOATS Bleed Out (Merge) — Presumably, John Darnielle has somehow eradicated the need for sleep. A Nobel is surely forthcoming. How else to explain the amazing output in recent years from the previously prolific and now practically omnipresent … Continue reading Medium Rotation — Bleed Out; 2007; Natural Brown Prom Queen
131. Hüsker Dü, New Day Rising (1985) Following their creative breakthrough with the double album Zen Arcade, Hüsker Dü felt they were ready to produce their next album entirely on their own, something they hadn’t done since Land Speed Record, … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #131 to #129
Hacked to Bits by Jaya Saxena Writer for Eater, Jaya Saxena explores the culture of creative tinkerers who use the online menus of chains restaurants and coffee shops to concoct wild variants of the businesses’ standard fare. Because they post … Continue reading Outside Reading — Off the Menu edition
An empowerment anthem about rejecting a personal tendency for diminishing self-judgment, “Flip It” is a prime blast of Bleached. The single is grounded in a chewy pop-punk and spins on the axis of an irresistible singalong chorus, siblings Jennifer and … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Bleached, “Flip It”
SYLVAN ESSO No Rules Sandy (Loma Vista) — On their prior albums, it was sometimes difficult to discern whether Sylvan Esso wanted to master or deconstruct pop. They decisively elide that question on their fourth studio full-length, No Rules Sandy, … Continue reading Medium Rotation — No Rules Sandy; In My Car
These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. If an advertisement is measured by how much it makes a person crave the product peddled, I … Continue reading The Art of the Sell — Sammy Davis Jr. for Suntory Whisky
Coffee for Two 