Waking to an overcast spring morning, thankful the pollen can’t fly like yesterday, there’s news; the passing of a musician I’d been taking for granted. There was a time when Grant McLennan’s music was all I could stand. And then the clock turns/ and it’s now It wasn’t always shits and giggles. When McLennan returned […]

Heard the new Replacements song. It only makes me do this again: The Black Keys:Didn’t the Allman Brothers do this already? Gang of Four:Or, The One Album Wonder. Mission of Burma:See Gang of Four. The Stone Roses: Three songs: “I Wanna Be Adored,” “One Love,” and “I Am The Resurrection.” Lou Reed:A few VU records […]

is the end of the Replacements’ “Sixteen Blue.” (with a close second to the entire 0:42 of the Minutemen’s cover of VH’s “Ain’t Talkin ‘Bout Love”). We’re talking economy + melody + skill + timing + inspiration + no Van Halen masturbation. And the guitarist, like Bob, should always be kinda retarded, so the solo […]

Yeah, I’m a baseball fan and last night’s Boston v Yankees battle had me glued in disgust. You walk David Ortiz. Buck Showalter would’ve. This is how I feel: But that’s Ty Cobb. Racist, sure, although you couldn’t argue with how he played the game. You also can’t argue with another good song from the […]

After delighting in their mope-electro “Girl and the Sea” single, what I’ve heard from the new Presets album just bites the dog testicles. Songs, gentlemen, make for real electro. The new Built to Spill, You in Reverse, has a paltry one good track, and we’ve unfortunately been hearing it for months, because it was the […]

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 […]