Medium Rotation — Second Nature; Growing Up
LUCIUS Second Nature (Mom + Pop) — To the legions who’ve been longing for the next great record that’s suited to be accompaniment for a tearful backwards skate after a roller-rink break-up, Lucius is here for you. Six long years … Continue reading Medium Rotation — Second Nature; Growing Up
College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #188 to #186
188. The Jam, The Gift (1982) “For me, the songs on The Gift have less stops and starts,” Rick Buckler, drummer of the Jam, observed several years after the release of the band’s final album. “This is what I’m getting … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #188 to #186
Outside Reading — Your Best American Grrrl edition
Kathleen Hanna Won’t Save You, So Stop Asking Her To by Laura Wynne This week brought the unlikely return of Creem. The brattier counterpoint to Rolling Stone in the nineteen-seventies and nineteen-eighties relaunched as a robustly updated website and a … Continue reading Outside Reading — Your Best American Grrrl edition
This Week’s Model — Pinkshift, “Nothing (In My Head)”
“Nothing (In My Head),” the new track from the Baltimore band Pinkshift, is a bazooka. In press material accompanying the release, the band explains that the song is about feeling trapping and longing for escape. The annotation is hardly necessary, … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Pinkshift, “Nothing (In My Head)”
Medium Rotation — Warm Chris; Crooked Tree
ALDOUS HARDING Warm Chris (4AD) — The fourth studio album from Aldous Harding crackles with invention. Well, crackles might not be the right terminology, since that overall impression this smoothed-out, folk-grounded pop gives is of ideal refinement. The tracks on … Continue reading Medium Rotation — Warm Chris; Crooked Tree
My Misspent Youth — Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #86 by Bill Mantlo, Al Milgrom, and Fred Hembeck
I read a lot of comic books as a kid. This series of posts is about the comics I read, and, occasionally, the comics that I should have read. There was a unifying conceit to several of the comic book … Continue reading My Misspent Youth — Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #86 by Bill Mantlo, Al Milgrom, and Fred Hembeck
The Art of the Sell — John Lydon for Country Life Butter
These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. On the occasion of the new Danny Boyle–shepherded streaming television series depicting the tumult of the Sex … Continue reading The Art of the Sell — John Lydon for Country Life Butter
Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “Dance Naked”
These posts are about the songs that fell just short of crossing the key line of chart success, entering the Billboard Top 40. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 41. After releasing a string of hit singles … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “Dance Naked”
College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #191 to #189
191. X, See How We Are (1987) The sixth X record, See How We Are, found the Los Angeles band in transition. On their previous studio outing, Ain’t Love Grand, they undertook a shift that proved faulty. They parted ways … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #191 to #189
Outside Reading — Safety Last edition
What It’s Like Here by Albert Burneko I’ve had such a difficult time processing the events of this week, including the steady revelations of how abominably law enforcement and other officials in Texas responded to the shooting at Robb Elementary … Continue reading Outside Reading — Safety Last edition
Coffee for Two 