314. Bryan Ferry, Boys and Girls (1985) Bryan Ferry had several solo albums to his credit when he made Boys and Girls. Unlike most of those prior efforts, though, working through material under his own name didn’t seem like a … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #314 to #312
I don’t know if it’s entirely fair that a bad this prolific is also this good. Continue reading This Week’s Model — Big Thief, “Little Things”
This series of posts covers my long, beloved history interacting with the medium of radio, including the music that flowed through the airwaves. Because of a task I’m gladly — gratefully even — taking on this week, my mind is regularly … Continue reading Radio Days — 90FM’s Top 35 for August 9, 1991
317. Violent Femmes, Hallowed Ground (1984) “We’ve been betraying people since the second album,” Gordon Gano told the Orlando Sentinel a few years after the Violent Femmes’ sophomore release. “With every album, people come up to me and say things … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #317 to #315
On the song “Superhero,” Ani Difranco writes about the experience of falling in love despite her determination to avoid such entanglements. Among its lyrics is a couplet that captures the way the world seems to transform around anyone who’s so … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Chubby and the Gang, “I Hate the Radio”
Lucy Dacus writes songs as if her heart depends on it. On the new album Home Video, her third full-length studio effort, Dacus excavates her past. By her own reckoning, the lyrics across the album are almost entirely preoccupied with … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Home Video
320. Meat Puppets, Up On the Sun (1985) Any album describe as the “beer and pot” album in a band’s discography is sure to be a success on college radio, not that Meat Puppets necessarily needed the appeal of implied … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #320 to #318
The quality of the new cut from Sleigh Bells that I admire most is the way it take the tried-and-true tricks the band has been plying since the jump and gives them a winning spruce-up. On “Locust Laced,” the jackhammer-burst … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Sleigh Bells, “Locust Laced”
It’s reasonable to surmise that no modern musician with an already well-stocked discography was better prepared to persist in their creativity through an extended lockdown than John Darnielle. The frontman of the Mountain Goats started his now-lengthy tenure as a … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Dark in Here
This series of posts covers my long, beloved history interacting with the medium of radio, including the music that flowed through the airwaves. General programming was taken seriously at the college radio station where I spent the bulk of my … Continue reading Radio Days — Programming Clocks
Coffee for Two 