Happens every year, I haul out all my data and assemble a best-of list and submit to Village Voice pazznjop poll. Always find something new somebody else has discovered, always forget a couple titles that should have made my own list. This one's weird: could have easily topped my list, and you don't … [Read more...]
DELUXE DOUBLE ISSUE: RIP 2016
BEST OF 2016 In no particular order (spotify links): David Bowie: Blackstar (Columbia) Margaret Glaspy: Emotions and Math (Warner Bros) Maren Morris: Hero (Columbia Nashville) Alicia Keys, Here (RCA) Brandi Carlisle: The Firewatcher's Daughter (ATO) A Tribe Called Quest: We … [Read more...]
Sweet November, or Whither Anthony Newley
Dylan's Nobel Extra points for how the announcement landed on Paul Simon's 75th birthday (October 13). I like what Milo Miles wrote: Like many an academically beloved poet — say, Ezra Pound or T. S. Eliot — Mr. Dylan has always placed himself on a literary continuum where allusions focus and … [Read more...]
Regulators! Let’s Dance!
Master & Dynamic Comfort cans that deliver mucho fidelity, warm, spacious tones, and a wicked commitment to badass designery. Mic moves closer to your face than regular cables. Optional input on EACH EAR. MUTE button on Right can. Detachable ear foam pads. Also: boom mic stands, … [Read more...]
September, Sweeter Than Ever
August: Medium Finds Message
Tom Hull has a dense roundup of political thought surrounding the Republican hatefest, and continues to update with think pieces and canon fodder. Also, maintains an ongoing annual list. Light-bulb joke springs to life Iggy Jackson-Cohen channels TTP bluster … [Read more...]
July All-Stars Get Off-On Bowie
Five Quotes from Rob Sheffield's On Bowie (Dey Street) "Then there's the Rip Torn full-frontal scene. (Rip ain't no Jenny Agutter, that's for sure.)..." "How is it possible to get so flaked out that John Phillips looks like the reliable pro?" "In a way, the Davis/Murray/Almomar trio are … [Read more...]
This Is What May Sounds Like
Take it to the Bridge: From the Boston Phoenix, Graffiti Bridge review, 1990 … [Read more...]
Producer’s April: George Martin, Sam Phillips
bit.ly/georgemartintr "...And while the pillars of Phillips’ life rest on how to frame aesthetic ideals, the story bulges with juicy … [Read more...]
Marching Through Springsteen Chapter Titles: Definitive Pianists, Composers to Follow
Bruce Springsteen's memoirs announced, sample chapters include: Blood on the Turnpike, Human Town, Lucky Touch, Hear Those Tires SQUEAL, Chuck Berry Stole All My Riffs (So I Stole Some Song Titles), Prince Almost Stole My Mojo, Hitchhiking to We Are the World, Leftover Songs for Breakfast, Car Parts … [Read more...]
Don’t Stare at February’s Tassles: A Click In Every Pot
Blackstar, David Bowie (with the Donny McCaslin Quartet and guitarist Ben Monder) (Columbia) Peter Doggett on On Point, January 12, 2016 Jon Pareles Obituary, New York Times Greil Marcus on Lodger, 1979 ("...ideas are run up the flagpole, but try and find the flagpole..."), Rolling … [Read more...]
Jumpin’ January Jehovahs: Stuff Like This
River, Season 1 (BBC1/Netflix) As Detective John River, Stellan Skarsgård, agony in a trenchcoat, investigates his partner Stevie's murder. Bookended by the Tina Charles's 1976 No. 1 (UK) "I Love to Love (But My Baby Just Loves to Dance)," a pure a jolt of disco joy, the song seems to leak straight … [Read more...]
December Spinout: Links, Letters, Libraries
Van Gogh's Letters by Nicole Kraus "In Jewish mysticism, the empty space — the Chalal Panui, in Hebrew — has tremendous importance, because it was the necessary pre-condition for God’s creation of the world. How did the Ein Sof — the being without end, as God is called in Kabbalah — create … [Read more...]
Modified Limited November Hangout: Lowdown on the UpClick
There Is No White Race by Walter Mosley (July 9, 2014) "The white race is a fiction created by aggressive colonization and slavery. In the colonies destined to become the United States, the European colonists found themselves pitted against the indigenous (red) people while enslaving Africans … [Read more...]
October Blues: Line-Dance Clicks
Owing to the Greeks Tom McCarthy on historical roots of the European Union fiscal crisis "This echo in German of a Greek theme or relation is exemplary: Germany has always been particularly indebted to Greece. Indeed, from a cultural point of view, it could be argued that Germany more or less … [Read more...]