College Countdown, The First CMJ Album Chart, 13
13. Bryan Ferry, The Bride Stripped Bare In the great mushy mess of classic rock chronology that exists in my head, there are a few standard patterns that I grab tightly on like handlebars that will help me steer through … Continue reading College Countdown, The First CMJ Album Chart, 13
From the Archive: Popcorn
I marvel at the things we needed to watch. The little burg where I started as a film critic at my beloved college radio station rarely played art house fare and was even late in the run of higher profile prestige material. When we started our movie review show in the fall of 1990, the screens always had plenty of room for cheapo horror flicks, though. Popcorn is almost entirely forgotten now, but I stand by my laudatory evaluation of the early scene found at the front end of this review. I actually still think of that passage from time … Continue reading From the Archive: Popcorn
One for Friday: Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, “Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?”
When I was a college radio kid, heading off to New York City for the annual CMJ Music Marathon was a pure pipe dream. We simply didn’t have the sort of money for that sort of thing, and our different advisors and on-campus advocates decided, probably accurately, that it was a bit of a boondoggle, not worth fighting for. When dryer, more professionally respectable student-oriented broadcasting conferences cropped up more regionally conducive locations, they made university funding available to us. Again, they were probably correct to do so. Considering the sort of shenanigans we got up to in our posh … Continue reading One for Friday: Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, “Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?”
Top 40 Smash Taps: “Ticks” and “Letter to Me”
These posts are about the songs that can accurately claim to crossed the key line of chart success, becoming Top 40 hits on Billboard, but just barely. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 40. Brad Paisley absolutely owned the country charts in the aughts. After nabbing his first country #1 (and Billboard Top 40 hit) in 1999, with “He Didn’t Have to Be,” Paisley had an even more prodigious stretch in the following decade, including ten straight chart-toppers at one point, which was then a record. (Shameless country huckster bested that feat just this year.) Maybe even … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Ticks” and “Letter to Me”
Top Fifty Films of the 50s — Number Thirty-Five
#35 — Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959) The default tendency when looking back at films from a few generations back, especially those presided over by those filmmakers who’ve been anointed auteurs by all the right authorities, is to find all … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 50s — Number Thirty-Five
The New Releases Shelf: Shriek
(Picture credit.) I was nervous about the new Wye Oak album. I have significant admiration for the duo’s previous record, 2011’s Civilian, but it was clear that Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack were moving in a new direction, one seemingly … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf: Shriek
My Misspent Youth: Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra
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. This is another one of those instances where I need to … Continue reading My Misspent Youth: Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra
College Countdown: The First CMJ Album Chart, 14
14. Hall & Oates, Along the Red Ledge The conventional wisdom is that the duo of Daryl Hall and John Oates didn’t hit their commercial stride until the early-nineteen-eighties. That’s hard to argue with, given that they topped the chart … Continue reading College Countdown: The First CMJ Album Chart, 14
From the Archive: Man on the Burning Tightrope
This review is taken from the same issue of The Independent as the review of the Mars Volta record from a few weeks back. I went ahead and loaded it up for this feature knowing that the title of the record was nicely well-suited for the way I’d feel as the closing of one of my most demanding work-weeks of the year was coming to an end. Led by former Cop Shoot Chop bassist Tod A., Firewater made a pebble-sized splash with their last effort, 2001’s Psychopharmacology. Much of this follow-up sounds as if they took the Tom Waits drunken … Continue reading From the Archive: Man on the Burning Tightrope
One for Friday: Graham Parker, “Don’t Let It Break You Down”
Sometimes in those especially busy work weeks, all I want (or maybe need) when we get to our fine One for Friday post is a bit of affirmation, a spirited kick to the soul and an assurance that the heavy lifting that remains will be accomplished with aplomb. Naturally, I prefer my affirmations to be a little more scabrous and cynical. For positivity and endurance framed that way, I can do no better than Mr. Graham Parker. Truthfully, anything I feel compelled to share about him and my gradual discovery of his music has already been shared in this space. … Continue reading One for Friday: Graham Parker, “Don’t Let It Break You Down”
Coffee for Two 