College Countdown, The First CMJ Album Chart, 21
21. Happy the Man, Crafty Hands Prog rock was still a very viable music genre in 1978, even if it was fighting a losing battle against disco for privilege of primacy among pop diversions into excess. (One year later, disco … Continue reading College Countdown, The First CMJ Album Chart, 21
From the Archive: Once Around
The earliest months of the film year are brutally hard to get through. The problem is lessened by the quality offerings from the prior calendar year that dribble into smaller markets in fits and starts, but most films that get their initial, often widespread release in the months January and February (and even into the spring) are largely the weaker material that studios felt couldn’t compete in Oscar season or weren’t worth holding back for the highly charged summer season. That’s still the case, but it was even more pronounced back in the early nineteen-nineties, before the release schedule started … Continue reading From the Archive: Once Around
One for Friday: Robyn Hitchcock, “One Long Pair of Eyes (Live at Cat’s Cradle Back Room)”
Like a lot of college radio kids, I was a fairly dedicated concertgoer for a time. I wasn’t one of those who jumped at nearly every opportunity, nor was I especially adventurous, hitting the clubs to hear bands I wasn’t all that familiar with (I will regret to the end of my days that I didn’t see Sleater-Kinney with the White Stripes opening up at a dinky club in Madison way back when). But I had a respectable number of torn tickets shoved into CD cases and record sleeves. That’s waned enough in the past several years that the first … Continue reading One for Friday: Robyn Hitchcock, “One Long Pair of Eyes (Live at Cat’s Cradle Back Room)”
I prefer your love to Jesus
Fiftieth in a series… (Via) Continue reading I prefer your love to Jesus
The New Releases Shelf: St. Vincent
I keep hunting my brain for the proper hyperbole to affix to the new, self-titled release from St. Vincent. The album, a release that seems at once playful and revolutionary, almost demands such breathless praise. There’s an implicit invitation to … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf: St. Vincent
My Writers: John Updike
Sometimes I don’t feel worthy as a reader, as if I haven’t earned the right to turn the pages. That’s admittedly entirely at odds with the impact that any writer would ever hope to have, making me feel guilty for even expressing it. Certainly, John Updike, a deeply devoted reader who contributed effusive, informed book reviews to The New Yorker for years, would probably be dismayed by me–by anyone–applying that sentiment to his work. And yet that’s exactly how I felt. It’s not that the language was too dense or flowery, curlicues of off-putting eloquence. Instead, it was the clean, … Continue reading My Writers: John Updike
The Incredible Shrinking Oscars
I will grant that producing an Oscars telecast is a thankless task, perhaps one that has crossed over fully into hopelessness. Even in a year such as this, when there was actually some doubt about the inevitability of certain major … Continue reading The Incredible Shrinking Oscars
College Countdown, The First CMJ Album Chart, 22
22. Billy Joel, 52nd Street 52nd Street was undoubtedly the most highly anticipated album in the career of the man born William Martin Joel. After years of struggle, both with bands that were mismatched with his skill set (sometimes severely … Continue reading College Countdown, The First CMJ Album Chart, 22
From the Archive: Revenge of the Sith
Let’s begin by noting this: if I didn’t refer to The Empire Strikes Back as Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back in 1980–and I assure you that I did not–then I’m sure as hell not going to start now with some miserable acquiescence to George Lucas’s cumbersome attempts to forever remind people that he has more interest in perpetuating brands than in creating films. Ahem. At the urging of students I was working with at the time, I signed up for a LiveJournal account in the summer of 2004. For ages, I had no real idea what to … Continue reading From the Archive: Revenge of the Sith
One for Friday: Paul Kelly and the Messengers, “Dumb Things”
Though it may seem quaint now that we exist in an era where it’s widely understood that bands and performers toiling on the lower rungs of the fame ladder should exploit every revenue possibility that comes their way, there was a time when it was surprising to hear a song from a favored artist at our station used in a more commercial venture. Now actual commercials didn’t happen too often, but John Hughes had spent much of the nineteen-eighties teaching his fellow filmmakers to look to the left end of the radio dial to find low-cost options to fill out … Continue reading One for Friday: Paul Kelly and the Messengers, “Dumb Things”
Coffee for Two 