College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #876 to #873
876. Screaming Trees, Invisible Lantern (1988) “When we did Invisible Lantern, we were probably ready to call it quits,” Van Conner, bassist of Screaming Trees, once acknowledged. “We all had crap jobs, and had no future. You weren’t making any … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #876 to #873
From the Archive — Children of Men
There are times in the process of seeing, writing about, and, yes, ranking films, when the best feature of the year is immediately evident upon first viewing of it. For me, that was the case with Children of Men. That’s … Continue reading From the Archive — Children of Men
One for Friday — The Dream Syndicate, “My Old Haunts”
Thirty years ago, in the summer of 1988, the Dream Syndicate released the album Ghost Stories. Although the band was one of the defining acts of the Paisley Underground movement that spun out of Los Angeles in the nineteen-eighties — … Continue reading One for Friday — The Dream Syndicate, “My Old Haunts”
Aretha Franklin, 1942 – 2018
From now on, I don’t want you listenin’ to Guns N’ Roses an’ The Soup Dragons. I want a strict diet of James Brown for the growls, Otis Redding for the moans, Smokey Robinson for the whines, and Aretha for … Continue reading Aretha Franklin, 1942 – 2018
Now Playing — BlacKkKlansman
Across thirty-plus years of commercially released feature films, director Spike Lee has rarely lacked for ambition. Near-perfect or fatally flawed, his efforts are routinely packed with ideas, manifesting as narrative deconstruction, wildly inventive manipulations of cinematic technique, or heated social … Continue reading Now Playing — BlacKkKlansman
Laughing Matters — Saturday Night Live, “Common Knowledge”
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. Saturday Night Live long … Continue reading Laughing Matters — Saturday Night Live, “Common Knowledge”
Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “It Isn’t, It Wasn’t, It Ain’t Never Gonna Be”
These posts are about the songs that just barely failed to cross the key line of chart success, entering the Billboard Top 40. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 41. Whitney Houston’s mother was a highly lauded … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “It Isn’t, It Wasn’t, It Ain’t Never Gonna Be”
College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #880 to #877
880. Billy Idol, Don’t Stop (1981) The bloke born William Michael Albert Broad was exceedingly comfortable returning to promising material until it finally turned into a hit. Taking the stage name Billy Idol because his school teachers routinely derided his … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #880 to #877
From the Archive — Pineapple Express
The arrival of the tenth anniversary of the release of Pineapple Express has led to a small batch of articles reflecting on the comedy-action film as if it’s some significant artifact. I guess. For me, it’s just another entry in … Continue reading From the Archive — Pineapple Express
One for Friday — Hunters & Collectors, “You Can Have It All”
Thirty years ago, in the summer of 1988, Hunters & Collectors released the U.S. edition of their fifth studio album. The Australian band was a reasonable commercial force in their homeland, routinely delivering albums that charted in the Top 20 and singles that made — or at least approached — the Top 40. Stateside, they had recently signed with I.R.S. Records, the independent label that made dominance on college radio their model through much of the nineteen-eighties. The album What’s a Few Men?, released in Australia in 1987, was determined by the executives to have too strong of a Down … Continue reading One for Friday — Hunters & Collectors, “You Can Have It All”
Coffee for Two 