Friday morn on the subway line, and it’s a frikkin’ fashion show, everybody in their extra-special Friday night clothes. The negative of a certain George Tooker painting. When They hit the subway — and They will — I kind of hope it’s on a Friday. Although I hope They don’t at all. Me, I’m enclosed […]

One lovely little side effect of my 50 free Emusic downloads has been my newfound ability to download a few tracks from albums I own only on vinyl. I know, I could forsake Luddite-ism and begin to burn my vinyl to disc, but I’m lazy like that. And I’ve had a stomach virus which had […]

In the arts and leisure section of today’s Sunday Ny Times, Joey Burns of Calexico writes of his recent music faves. For the Times, it’s a list, for once, ahead of the curve, since they often masquerade their lack of hipness with their up-to-the-minute knowledge of mainstream hip hop and modern jazz. Jon Pareles is […]

Influences get worn on sleeves, collars, hemlines, and belts. On their latest leaked track from their forthcoming release News and Tributes, The Futureheads wear theirs right smack in the middle of a matching set of blazing red t-shirts. As if they don’t, usually, enjoy them as I do, with their The-Damned-Meets-XTC sound. Download the following […]

But the Replacements got it partially wrong, because their videos were great, only cementing my nascent love for them. A stereo speaker, in b&w, for the duration of “Bastards of Young,” and then a foot smashes it? Four guys sitting on a sofa, some wandering off, for “Alex Chilton?” I was sold. I was seeing […]

Wait a minute. When I was a younger-young person, I jeered at old timers who, cool enough to recognize, say, The Who, for what they were in their heyday, would still drool over embarrassing garbage like”Eminence Front” like it was “The Who Sells Out” reborn. So is this me with the three new Sonic Youth […]

Like some people who shouldn’t have a kid, some shouldn’t have a blog. And I wonder if one could concoct a formula for just the exact type of indie rock a computer-savvy webber blogger 20-30 something would be attracted to, because I’m muttering ‘of course’ under my breath when the blog-o-the-moment blabs holymoly about Arctic […]

Every blog has that special day where, in their retarded delusions of a readership, they get thematic. Here’s my pathetic entry into that new and needless genre: Lost 80s Day. The intention: there’s an indie rock canon, and then there’s the really lost stuff, the quality influences bound to be rediscovered by hipsters any second […]

Beyotchfork gives Calexico’s new album an 8.1 today, but tellingly leaves it off their ‘recommended’ list, which should clue you into the bullshit of the 8.1 istelf. I’d give it a 6.5, max. If I was feeling generous, I’d say the 8.1 is Beyotchfreak’s makeup call for having slept on Calexico’s glorious early years, but […]

Business first: stop loving Bright Eyes. Oberst doesn’t self-edit, leaving a knee-high lake of horseshit blocking us from his one or two nuggets per double album. The Submarines will be getting notice because Blake Hazard is reportedly F. Scott Fitgerald’s great-grandaughter. But from the sound of the music, it seems the gene pool has been […]