I have spent more time than I should admit dealing with fresh flare-ups of jealousy. Thanks to the punishing wonders of social media, I was privy to the delight a select few of my friends felt when they recently attended … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Wilco and Robyn Hitchcock, “Tomorrow Never Knows”
This series of posts covers my long, beloved history interacting with the medium of radio, including the music that flowed through the airwaves. There are few trickier times for a college radio station than winter break. The reliance on student … Continue reading Radio Days — A Metal Thunder Christmas
600. Elvis Costello, Taking Liberties (1980) There were a lot of trips to the record store for anyone who committed to being an Elvis Costello completist in the early years of his career. Following the release of his debut album … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #600 to #597
Indie rock covers of holiday songs are plentiful enough (those YouTube channels and Bandcamp pages have got to get filled up somehow) that I’m amazed it’s taken this long for a prominent artist to take a pass at “7 O’Clock … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Phoebe Bridgers (featuring Fiona Apple and Matt Berninger), “7 O’Clock News/Silent Night”
604. Green on Red, Gravity Talks (1983) Green on Red formed in Tucson, Arizona, but it didn’t take long for them to head further west, setting up shop in Los Angeles just as the city’s Paisley Underground movement and punk … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #604 to #601
I do my best to write to write about the songs dropped conspicuously in this digital spot every Friday, trying to capture what about them captivated me to pluck them from the mass of new music that storms the landscape … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Torres, “Gracious Day”
608. Roxy Music, Manifesto (1979) Officially, Roxy Music was broken up. The band’s 1975 album, Siren, was adored by music critics and, but Roxy Music’s modest standards, a commercial success. “Love is the Drug,” a single taken from Siren, scraped … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #608 to #605
In this age and day, it takes some moxie to adopt a band name that isn’t particularly distinctive. When establishing dominance over Google search results is at least part of the strategy for reaching an audience and therefore heightening chances … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Sorry, “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star”
612. Frank Zappa, Sheik Yerbouti (1979) Sheik Yerbouti was a new beginning for Frank Zappa. After several frustrating years spent extricating himself from an onerous pact with Warner Bros., Zappa was finally on his own. He’d also been stockpiling material … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #612 to #609
It was probably inevitable that a holiday-themed song would crop up in this weekly space at some point during this stretch of the year. Although my general aversion to melodized yuletide cheer made me suspect that I’d cave in to … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Kacey Musgraves, “Glittery”
Coffee for Two 