The New Pornographers, now, with Together, may have created pop music to transcend the visceral. The truths of an aging, vulnerable person are always boring, though, which is why we root for the Michael Stipes and Carl Newmans, and gloss over the R.E.M. lyrics that are like, “I want everything now”, and “We’ll show the … Read more“Keep Your Ear on the Moving Target: Pop and The National”
In case anyone was wondering or doesn’t know already, Bukowski was wrong about Shakespeare, he was a genius of spellbinding moxie. Of course, Bukowski was more like a machine than he was a man — he was like some fan that shoots out wind and beer and makes funny noises. I mean, one time apparently … Read more“On Shakespeare’s Curiously Befouling and Pardoned Agnosticism”
Cut Copy have a “limited palette” (cokemachineglow.com), and they excessively “get… to the point” (pitchfork). Just to preface this, cokemachineglow are a bunch of stuffed musical terds, to paraphrase Bukowski, and they would not be satisfied without a portfolio — a sort of proof of the artist having obnoxiously turned over every stylistic stone availably … Read more“That’s the Anthem Get Your Damn Hands Up: Cut Copy and ‘Ye”
Rock and roll reaches the tips of the fingers of those who have been forgotten, neglected: from slavery in the old South, to New Jersey, to Seattle, pre-1991. Heavy metal is basically with the keyboard taken out. True bands, though, should have a keyboardist, like The Doors, Beach House and Cave. Amazingly, The Doors were … Read more“Rock and Roll and Commercial Chasm, Notes”
Summer is coming, and so, in America, Phish will always be a relevant topic. I’ve seen two Phish shows, and, appropriately enough, I scantily remember either of them, though I remember the histrionics leading up to their onset more vividly, swallowing a chocolate candy drug, thinking it was acid, discovering it was mescaline, seeing the … Read more“In a Numbed State, The Mind Drifts to Optimism: An Examination of Phish and Their Fans”
Because Smiles are earned through autonomy And are beautiful, Of heaven That’s what is forgotten In the documented, The crestfallen Stabs at containment The fact is, It’s raining too hard For stasis It’s raining need, Which is voluptuous, vituperative rage, It’s raining confusion, Change, with heads swiveling round, And finally, It’s raining smiles, … Read more“I Migrate to Where Smiling is the Default”
Ok, there are a lot of layers to this, so let me be begin by commenting that “Bleed American,” the opener on Jimmy Eat World’s fourth album which was ONCE called just that, is one of the headiest, steady-handed jabs at reclusive modern culture in rock. Because I know everybody’s going to be saying, with … Read more“Blink 182 and Jimmy Eat World: The Much Maligned Odd Couple of Late-’90’s Pop/Punk”
Music has the ability to wipe the slate clean of the mind, be an infirmary for the troubled and tormented subjected to capitalism’s brutal repetitions and blatant insults of intelligence. Eminem is a great example of a vocalist who saw through a lot of sh**, and as a result was feared and pigeonholed, and so … Read more“Gettin’ Pumped for Spring Releases”
Beer must be cheap Around here, And it is, As you see As you Pass by The Trees And the grass And the leaves And the curbs Your car is lit And Survival If it should extend In your trip past the glass in the gas station Is not because of The glass … Read more“The Glass”
Capitol/1982 … I used to dishwash at this bar/burger joint down the street from where I went to high school, down the street from where I live now. The radio would constantly be on the oldies station, which used to play stuff like Motown and “Leavin’ on a Jet Plane,” but now is more the … Read more“Album Spotlight: Billy Squier – Emotions in Motion.”