As a music nerd of unconscionable proportions, I get up in an unwieldly tizzy when people are ignorant of music. Now, obviously, they’re probably just not as psychotic about it as me. Still, say, when the only Counting Crows song I have any chance of hearing is “Mr. Jones”; I find exception, as August and … Read more“A Brief, Compartmentalized Juke-Box Tutorial”
Well, it’s been another lonely year in the blogosphere, more or less. Once in a while I’ll get an e-mail from the guy in Germany wanting me to review an album on his label, and every so often an artist will hit me up, invariably ignoring my request for fee. Other than that, it’s a … Read more“Dolby’s Top 50 Albums of 2023”
10 Blue Ocean – “Ode” Oakland is certainly a cinematic place these days, in its own right — for all its economic disaster and mass sports-team-exodus, there seems to be a rash of individuals there taking music very seriously, down to the sophisticated details. Blue Ocean is twee pop with a drum machine and a … Read more“Dolby’s Top 10 Tracks Oct./Nov. 2023”
I heard the Coldplay song “Viva la Vida” the other night in this quaint little sports bar where I was chilling. To be honest, I’d always found the song a little cheesy and just to roughly mimic in tempo and mannerism the former, mega-hit “Talk”; from their prior album. Eventually, though, as we all know, … Read more“How My Relationship with ‘Viva la Vida’ Has Shifted in the Wake of Recent Events”
I did one of these posts for Wilco, too, and truthfully, they both probably stand no chance of creation on account of label restraints. But the mission statement is clear on both: showcase the band’s best material on clear, analog sound, and pare things down to a $20 piece of merchandise that can be stuffed … Read more“The Best of Modest Mouse (Designed for Vinyl)”
Both LIVE and The Smashing Pumpkins took three years to release albums subsequent to their commercial apex as bands, the mid-’90s. I’m not sure if this is important but it’s sort of interesting to note. It’s also pertinent that there was a lot of messed up sh** going on in the world, such as an … Read more“Comparing and Contrasting Two High-Profile Commercial Followups, Adore and Secret Samadhi.”
It seems a shade misanthropic but my version of He** is pretty much hearing the music that people play in the sports bar on a Saturday night. I’ll be having a decent time, anyway — I was chilling in there this past Saturday evening, dead tired from a crazy dinner shift, and the Washington – … Read more“Where Black Sabbath and Creed Meet in the Dark World of Hopeless Sports Bar Denizenship”