Blurbs

Just as bands can be guilty of falling into a “style over substance” mindset administrative to their creative outputs, such can critics, as well, overemphasize a band’s “style” as a potential pitfall, and ignore emotional authenticity, poesy of lyrics, brilliance in song structuring, and, of course, good ol’ fashioned undeniable energy.  Now, granted, the Chili … Read more“A Red Hot Chili Peppers Appreciation Post (Apropos of the Dingbats Online Who Say They’re Overrated)”

It was a rainy, unseasonably cool evening in the bar downtown. Pain was in the air, you might even say. It was the kind of night where you didn’t look anyone too closely in the eye. We were in Indiana. We were in the shadow of Chicago, of the University of Notre Dame, of Michigan, … Read more“Steve Earle”

It so happens that in my idle, time-killing habit of scrolling on Facebook, I’ve encountered a certain number of individuals who refer to The Beatles as “overrated,” or respond as much, implicitly, under post prompts, to be exact. Now, admittedly, there’s a number of cultural forces at work here. One, I think, is the intention … Read more“A Beatles Appreciation Post (Apropos of the Dingbats Online Who Say They’re Overrated)”

I have been fairly pleased, today, to encounter this year’s selections for Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees. One thing they all have in common is that they’re all beholden to an array of songs which are very near and dear to us — songs people lean on on a consistent basis, on an … Read more“On the Concept of Artistic Quality and the Importance of ‘Like Items’”

I think it’s clear at this point that if mainstream rock music is to continue to evolve, at all, it will have to in some way prioritize an element of funk, as a sort of stylistic catalyst or anchor. This is just my measurement from imbibing artists like Hozier, which seem bent toward a white-boy … Read more“Working toward Placing Black Mountain’s ‘Druganaut’ within the Forum of Political Commentary in Music”

To this day, it’s astonishing to me how much meaning I’m meeting and greeting with this band, how much inspiration they seem to have procured, whether in the bar, or the back alley behind it, or wherever. I mean, they’re the very definition of controlled popular rock, like Semisonic on prozac, if that’s possible. “Everything … Read more“Dolby’s Rupees: Vertical Horizon – ‘You’re a God’”

Really, despite my maniacal tirades during the Vinyl Me, Please craze of colored records and hip-hop vinyl plugging [1], I’ve always loved vinyl. I have this memory of a religious experience in my life, for instance, which was hearing my mom’s Neil Young – Decade LP, and its closeur, “Long May You Run”; on wax. … Read more“If the Entire World Refuses to Acknowledge the Difference between Bluetooth and Analog Sound, Why Shouldn’t I?”

Dear Ryan: It is on this hopeless, cloudy day in Arizona that I choose to write to you, apropos of your three-out-of-10 rating redolent to our 2001 album, Bleed American.  You see, cloudy days aren’t supposed to happen in Arizona. We know how to deal with them for their non-frequency. I wrote a bunch of … Read more“A Homespun Letter from Jim Adkins to Ryan Schreiber”

I remember, vaguely, the surreal worlds, the constant bevy of funny characters and the refreshingly low-budget aesthetic, as if some sort of phenomenological process were taking place within comedy, within television and within my life. I remember Nancy Kerrigan getting attacked and everybody making fun of her, including, I think, a dude at the Academy … Read more“One for Rocko’s Modern Life.”

I’m sitting here on a sunny Sunday off, looking ahead to spring and just vibing off of my everyday life right now. In my mind is a sort of thermal, spiraling sense of bright spirit — I’m not sure if it’s because I work with Jamaican people now or what (literally in the kitchen five … Read more“Winwood Piece, or, on Definition through Abstraction within Models of the Idee Fixee”