College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #287 to #285
287. Gene Loves Jezebel, Discover (1986) Welsh twins Jay and Michael Aston, joint frontmen of Gene Loves Jezebel, strode into the peak music video era knowing how to command attention. Lounging scallywags with haybale hairdos, kaleidoscopically colorful outfits, and troweled-on … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #287 to #285
Outside Reading — Deep Normalcy Inflected By Sharp Stabs of Strangeness edition
The Shapeshifter by Sam Anderson I played music from a multitude of artists during my long-ago tenure as a student programmer in college radio. Many of those performers were clearly talented, and developed their gifts with commitment and craft. Those … Continue reading Outside Reading — Deep Normalcy Inflected By Sharp Stabs of Strangeness edition
This Week’s Model — Leo Nocentelli, “Give Me Back My Loving”
Guitarist Leo Nocentelli helped form New Orleans band the Meters in the middle of the nineteen-sixties. The mostly served as studio backups on recordings made for Allen Toussaint’s Sansu Enterprises record label, a sort of Funk Brothers of the swampy … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Leo Nocentelli, “Give Me Back My Loving”
Beers I Have Known — Toppling Waters Barrel-Aged Stout
This series of posts is dedicated to the many, many six packs, pony kegs and pints that have sauntered into my life at one point or another. When I moved back to the Upper Midwest, there were several breweries I … Continue reading Beers I Have Known — Toppling Waters Barrel-Aged Stout
The New Releases Shelf — Star-Crossed
Kacey Musgraves has a story to tell. It’s a sad story, it’s a true story, and it’s her story. After filling Golden Hour, her roundly acclaimed 2018 release that won her the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, with … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Star-Crossed
Then Playing — The Ascent; Love Field; Dune
The Ascent (Larisa Shepitko, 1977). The fourth and final feature from Soviet director Larisa Shepitko is a powerhouse drama set during World War II. After Sotnikov (Boris Plotnikov) and Rybak (Vladimir Gostyukhin) are dispatched from their unit to seek desperately … Continue reading Then Playing — The Ascent; Love Field; Dune
Laughing Matters — Charlie Hill on The Richard Pryor Show
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. Charlie Hill rejected Richard … Continue reading Laughing Matters — Charlie Hill on The Richard Pryor Show
College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #290 to #288
290. Quarterflash, Quarterflash (1981) The members of the Portland band Seafood Mama spent a good portion of 1980 peddling their independently released single “Harden My Heart” as they gigged across the Pacific Northwest. The song took hold in local radio, … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #290 to #288
Outside Reading — A Record Record Record? edition
Pure Nostalgia: The Oral History of ‘That Thing You Do!’ by Jake Kring-Schreifels Jake Kring-Schreifels draws a dream assignment: gathering reminiscences about Tom Hanks’s directorial debut, That Thing You Do! The considerable charm of the feature comes through in the … Continue reading Outside Reading — A Record Record Record? edition
This Week’s Model — Mitski, “Working for the Knife”
A mild panic rose a couple years ago, when Mitski announced she was withdrawing from the music-biz grind for an indefinite period of time. She had to take to social media to remind her devotees that “indefinite” is foremost a … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Mitski, “Working for the Knife”
Coffee for Two 