Back when Fridays were turned over older songs excavated from my digital collection, the edition that landed around the U.S. federal holiday Independence Day often featured a track that somehow, some way spoke to the character of the nation celebrating … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Lucy Dacus, “Forever Half Mast”
Three months shy of his seventieth birthday, no one would chastise Bruce Springsteen for hanging up his guitar strap. Especially following the monumental Springsteen on Broadway run, it would seem the man who strummed his first formative chords with the … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Western Stars
Whatever other plentiful complaints can be lodged against the hair metal band Winger, they deserve admiring credit for the novelistic perfection of this detail: Their final single to place on the Billboard Hot 100 bears the title “Easy Come Easy … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “Easy Come Easy Go”
700. Dinosaur Jr., You’re Living All Over Me (1987) Still known as simply Dinosaur at the time, the band fronted by J. Mascis released their sophomore full-length, You’re Living All Over Me, late in 1987. Championed by members of Sonic … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #700 to #697
Banned: The song deemed ‘too dangerous’ for the BBC by Stephen Dowling In a marvelous act of research and wry summary, Stephen Dowling provides the details on around a dozen different songs that have received official bans from the BBC … Continue reading Outside Reading — When She Squeezed Me Tight She Nearly Broke My Spine edition
I want music to be complex and surprising. I want intricacies and subversions, devilishly clever reinvention and bursts of inspiration that upend the very foundations of pop. But sometimes — often, really — what I want more than anything is … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Sheer Mag, “Blood From a Stone”
I come to Originals, the new album credited to Prince, with mighty mixed emotions. My cumbersome manner in naming the performer associated with the release basically tells the story. I have a hard time believing Prince would have been pleased … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Originals
704. Phil Manzanera, K-Scope (1978) Phil Manzanera was a busy fellow in the late nineteen-seventies. Undoubtedly most famous as the lead guitarist for Roxy Music, Manzanera was dabbling in all sorts of other projects. Tops among them was the band … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #704 to #701
Bob Mould writes about the impact of the Buzzcocks in his memoir, See a Little Light: The Trail of Rage and Memory. As a college sophomore, Mould saw the Buzzcocks opening for Gang of Four. Enamored by what was before him, Mould intently studied the guitar work of frontman Pete Shelley. The scrutiny was obvious enough that Shelley supplemented Mould’s studies by shouting out chord changes as he made them. Elsewhere in the book, Mould recounts meeting Steve Garvey, bassist for the Buzzcocks, enthusing about the long-past show that shaped him. “I was again reminded that I’m simply part of the … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Bob Mould, “I Don’t Mind”
I’ve spent the last few days knocked to the canvas by a cruel summer ailment. Maybe it’s a summer cold or a bout with the flu. Maybe it’s something yet worse that I, a stubborn fool, should have already gone … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Dedicated
Coffee for Two 