Sometimes comedy illuminates hard truths with a pointed urgency that other means can’t quite achieve. Sometimes comedy is just funny. This series of posts is mostly about the former instances, but the latter is valuable, too. I think it’s possible … Continue reading Laughing Matters — Steve Martin, “Grandmother’s Song”
564. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, O.M.D. (1981) Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark were very busy in 1980. Starting as a duo comprised of bassist Andy McCluskey and keyboard player Paul Humphreys, the band released their first two full-length studio … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #564 to #561
The Original Renegade by Taylor Lorenz There’s a long, miserable history of pop culture appropriation that swipes innovations from their creators to earn riches for performers more immediately palatable to the masses. Digital interconnectivity has only turbo-boosted that process as … Continue reading Outside Reading — The Jalaiah Harmon School of Dance edition
Much as I try to avoid getting overly mired in nostalgia for the music of my youth, there are few sonic offerings that will set my heart aflutter quite as surely as modern indie pop that adopts the slick, sauntering … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Moaning, “Fall in Love”
568. The Inmates, First Offence (1979) During the height of punk rock mayhem, in the latter half of the nineteen-seventies, performers took it as an imperative to adopt stage names that skewed toward the confrontationally putrid. That’s what makes it … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #568 to #565
My usual intent with calling out a single song every Friday is to focus on brand new material, with a particular hope to introduce myself — and, if I can, others — to emerging artists. Although my research this week … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Bat for Lashes, “Boys of Summer”
572. Various Artists, Dance Craze (1981) Although director Joe Massot couldn’t have had particularly warm feelings about working on the Led Zeppelin concert film The Song Remains the Same, having been kicked off the project by the producers, he was … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #572 to #569
I retain a youthful tendency to fall hard for certain songs, albums, and music artists (and certain films and filmmakers, but that’s a different topic), and no performers have been more successful in recent years at making me dizzy with … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Diet Cig, “Night Terrors”
576. Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Re·ac·tor (1981) Outside circumstances mandated a new approach for Neil Young when he recorded the album Re·ac·tor. His infant son Ben, his first child with his second wife, had recently been diagnosed with severe … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #576 to #573
Officially, “Cop Car” is the first new original song released by Mitski since the stellar Be the Cowboy, and plenty of music scribes have already touted it as a hopeful sign that the artist’s recently announced hiatus won’t be as … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Mitski, “Cop Car”
Coffee for Two 