Apologies abound: yet there’s but two reasons, really, to account for my absence: 1) the new job and 2) ezarchive did something shady and I’m gonna need to switch but I don’t have the time or patience because of: see 1). But Richard Powers won the National Book Award. Again? Or was he only nominated […]

Gotcha! Allmusic’s bio of Harry Nilsson: “Much of Nilsson’s notoriety stems from a period in the mid-’70s when he was a drinking buddy of John Lennon in Los Angeles (where Lennon was living during a separation from Yoko Ono). The drunken pair were thrown out of L.A.’s Troubadour club in a well-publicized incident, following which […]

So what’s to hate and love? The new Bonnie Prince Billy single as a swell Kenny Rogers cover: BPB – Buried Treasure Heard the indie-Asia known as Swan Lake. It’s a mess, and actually rehashes some of their individually older stuff. Too many cooks – dudes with such over-busy songwriting styles weren’t meant to collaborate. […]

Proof there is a God. Yeah.

The Booker went to deserving title, although David Mitchell should have been at least nominated again for Black Swan Green. And because I’m more of a baseball fan than a Yankee fan, I’ll say it here: The Detroit Tigers are going to win the world series. Better still, I’ve been listening to the new Califone […]

Nothing is constant except change. The roundup: 1) You know why The Hold Steady’s new album sucks, and why they’re not what the Felchfork overhype says what they are? Girls don’t like them. 2) The Decemberists’ The Crane Wife is only slightly better than the Hold Steady’s new one. Meloy writes lyrics and sings, rather […]

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 […]