I’ve noticed that a lot of the music I’ve clung to like a life preserver these past couple years has been animated by a sense of enduring hope and camaraderie, seeking out the remaining shafts of light while storm clouds … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Ezra Furman,”Calm Down aka I Should Not Be Alone”
I’m well aware that I tend to lean on cockeyed comparisons when describing music I like, but I can’t help it. That’s simply how I wrap my understanding around songs that tickle their fingers merrily across buttons I didn’t even … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Hatchie, “Obsessed”
“I don’t really know/ Why I like you/ I’ve been doing just fine/ On my own,” Leslie Hong sings on “Get Down,” the new single from Haybaby. The band’s sophomore full-length, They Get There, arrives in early June, and the … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Haybaby, “Get Down”
Although it’s been many, many (many, many, many) years since I set my internal clock by the schedule of a college radio station, some vestiges remain. For example, as the calendar page flips and the thirty-one squares of May are … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Bleached, “Hard to Kill”
When I write about music, I do so as a fan and a novice. In contrast to how some artists would likely characterize my typed-out ruminations, I do this not to pompously pontificate about what is right and wrong in … Continue reading This Week’s Model — FKA twigs, “Cellophane”
This weekly feature is intended to share a song that made its debut into the cultural conversation within the previous week, but as we stand on the cusp of the fiftieth staging of the event now known as the The World’s Largest Trivia ContestTM, there’s really one track I’d like to highlight. My Trivia team has an official song, and I have a very talented friend who’s a splendid songwriter with a true gift for evocative cover songs. A few years ago, I asked her to record a track just for me and my crew. And that’s how a digital music … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Mollie Donihe, “Come On Eileen”
Titus Andronicus is one of those bands I’ve followed with appreciation, but without ever quite locking in fully. The rafter-rattling power of their music and the fierce craft that clearly goes into their songs is admirable, to be sure. I … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Titus Andronicus, “(I Blame) Society”
The opening guitar riff is almost enough for me. Rhythmic, echoing, and steely strong, it reminds me of the first moments of Billy Bragg’s “The Saturday Boy,” though with an extra coat of hard toffee gloss and a quickened pace … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Tacocat, “Hologram”
In my music fandom, I have a few clear weaknesses, sounds and conceits before which I am utterly helpless. One of chief bits that gets me almost every time is a song that is about being a song, calling attention … Continue reading This Week’s Model — An Horse, “This is a Song”
It’s perhaps not surprising that a performer as iconoclastic as Karen O might have difficulty finding her footing in the current music industry. All sharp edges at a time when the strong preference is for sleek, prefab figures, the frontwoman … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Karen O and Danger Mouse, “Turn the Light”
Coffee for Two 