College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #203 to #201
203. JoBoxers, Like Gangbusters (1983) Subway Sect was a band that spun like a revolving door. Their first single, released in 1978, featured them playing with fervor and fury. By the early nineteen-eighties, their sound shifts entirely to lounge-tinged pop … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #203 to #201
Outside Reading — Crude edition
Why U.S. Consumers Are Vulnerable to Spiking Oil Prices by Hiroko Tabuchi and Maggie Astor In today’s edition of The New York Times, reporters Hiroko Tabuchi and Maggie Astor offer a straightforward accounting of the ways in which the U.S. … Continue reading Outside Reading — Crude edition
This Week’s Model — Arcade Fire, “Unconditional I (Lookout Kid)”
Yeah, that’s the stuff. We, the new album from Arcade Fire, is scheduled for release in May. Continue reading This Week’s Model — Arcade Fire, “Unconditional I (Lookout Kid)”
Medium Rotation — Lucifer on the Sofa; Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You; Life on Earth
SPOON Lucifer on the Sofa (Matador) — Ten albums deep, there’s only so much boat rocking Spoon is likely to do at this point. They can change recording locales and approaches, layer on different sonic techniques, and try to tap … Continue reading Medium Rotation — Lucifer on the Sofa; Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You; Life on Earth
The Art of the Sell — Kenzo World
These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. Spike Jonze directs the hell out of this ad, and Margaret Qualley similarly gives it her. I … Continue reading The Art of the Sell — Kenzo World
Then Playing — High Anxiety; To Sleep with Anger; The Professionals
High Anxiety (Mel Brooks, 1977). Following hits spoofing Westerns, classic horror, and silent movies, Mel Brooks turned his attention to the oeuvre of Alfred Hitchcock, even consulting with the master himself on the screenplay. In its first half or so, … Continue reading Then Playing — High Anxiety; To Sleep with Anger; The Professionals
Now Playing — Everything Everywhere All at Once
I have rarely encountered a film more aptly titled than Everything Everywhere All at Once. The second feature film written and directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (cheekily billed as “The Daniels”) earns that accuracy through its densely complicated … Continue reading Now Playing — Everything Everywhere All at Once
College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #206 to #204
206. Kate Bush, Hounds of Love (1985) After releasing four studio albums in the span from 1978 to 1982, Kate Bush was conspicuously absent. Following the release of her 1982 album, The Dreaming, Bush retreated to the countryside, in part, … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #206 to #204
Outside Reading — Cabin Pressure edition
Whoops of selfish delight by Robin Givhan Set aside for a moment that the federal mask mandate for airplane and other mass transit was struck down through legal reasoning of questionable merit by an unqualified judge given her position because … Continue reading Outside Reading — Cabin Pressure edition
This Week’s Model — Linqua Franqa, “Oh Fxck”
I come by the selections for this weekly feature in a variety of ways, but I think this is the first time the cut in question first found my earholes because it was lobbed into my social media feeds by … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Linqua Franqa, “Oh Fxck”
Coffee for Two 