Tomorrow I travel to the midwest, cornfields and all. A great plains state. The new job’s duties are almost in hand, and the child is recovering well from her Ailment that Required Antibiotics (not serious, but still), along with much sleeping in mommy and dady’s bed. Little Parnell was milking the care quotient on that […]

Please don’t expect much from J Frank for a while. Certainly not daily entries. Closing shop on the old job last week killed any writing time. And when blogger or ezarchive were/are down, which lately seems like always, I can’t wait around. Certainly not this week, learning the new stuff from the old boss, whom […]

I’ve been a weak blogger of late, despite Excuses I’ve got, I promise. As penance, here, I will reveal that I missed the second Little Killers album, A Real Good One, last April, on Gern Blandsten. I have no idea how I slept on this one, having enjoyed their self titled debut, on Crypt rekkids, […]

If I started a band, it would be known as The Island of Dr. Zizmor. Just sayin’. Dipping deeply into The Celibate Rifles in the past few days has journeyed me onward to my ‘ol love of These Immortal Souls, a solo project of Rowland S. Howard following the demise of the Birthday Party and […]

Please, people walking down Broadway: Do not affect that angry/serious face when you want to seem importnat and good looking – it doesn’t work. Smile. You’re in NYC at the turn of the century, living in interesting times, positive or not, and you’re probably not too poor. Stop that awful squinting and cheek sucking. And […]

If Televison was the backing band for Arthur Russell: The Whitest Boy Alive — Done with You Another project of Norway’s Erlend Oye, he of the soft-folk, Simon and Garfunkel-esque Kings of Convenience, and of his own electro-dj collaboration solo albums, and of Odin knows what else. Whitest Boy Alive does a nice job surrounding […]

I’ve been Swamp Thing here at the lab, and also busy challenging interesting statements, like whether Beyonce is among the best songwriters of her generation, on other blogs. A futile endeavor, but time killing all the same. And I’ve been dunking my head in the hip-hop apple-bobbing contest a month early. The new Method Man, […]

Mail Call. Jagjaguwar sent some treats concerning Oakley Hall, and the following track, while my socks aren’t flying off, confirms said label’s dedication to good things. Oakley Hall does a quality job channeling their X influences. If they work hard and add some new wrinkles to what X has minted, I’ll still be listening. Oakley […]

Large change forthcoming in the world of J Phranc Parnell’s ghostwriter. Details never to follow. At least not here. Don’t ask yet. So these: Michael Hall – When September Comes Got this on a Safe House Records (site down?) comp known as The [W]rec[k] Room, Volume One. Hall hails from TX and did time in […]

In the NYTimes 9/2/06 Sunday Arts & Leisure section there’s an alright (albeit two years behind) arts& Leisure section cover piece concerning the shift, on the net, to user-controlled and influenced music buying. One such example proffered, the music genome project at Pandora, allows users to enter in a favorite act and then receive suggestions […]