But first, a word from Otto, our literary editor, on Franzen’s Freedom: As usual, NY Times critic Michiko Kakutani’s intern was reading a different book than I read. A surprisingly trashy (in comparison with The Corrections) 800+ pages of gossip following mostly unlikeable people as they fail or succeed despite their personality flaws, Freedom’s only […]
New Orleans, you stole something from me, and I want it back. Here We Go Magic – PigeonsNot a turn for the better, but: moments. Less collage&mood and more Eno-ish pop than their still-unassailable debut. But – did Luke Temple injure his voice? On some tracks, he misses. Aloha – Home Acres What can I […]
1) The Smithereens 2) The Foo Fighters 3) Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers 4) The Cars 5) The Rolling Stones (not one album a masterpiece all the way through, not even Exile) 6) Belle & Sebastien (do they have a hits comp out?) 7) Any of the solo Beatles 8) The Four Tops 9) The […]
Goodbye to the Sextape Decade. Albums, no order: The Clean – Mister PopThe greatest band formed before 1980 and still making music. Wilderness – (K)no(w)hereReally an EP, but I’ll take anything. Pre-attack music for pirates. Future of the Left – Travels with Myself and AnotherMcClusky can be made a dim memory if FotL’s records continue […]
Don’t call it a comeback. More coming, too. Reviews for the time-challenged: Big Star – Keep an Eye on the SkyThis kicks any record off any desert island list I’ve made in the past. There’s so much on this collection that I hadn’t heard, all of it good -and I call myself a fan — […]
Peter, Bjorn, & John – Living ThingD.O.A. Super Furry Animals – Dark Days/Light YearsWelsh supervillians glass-blow ELO-meets-Elephant6-collective magic pop. They release oodles of albums, so I just picked this one. The others might be as good, or just marginally different depending on your mood. Best moment: “The Very Best of Neil Diamond,” with its Bollywood-meets-Love […]
http://youtube.com/v/NiLe7D1qWSc #3 in Bands I miss Most from the 90s: The Mummies. “This next one goes out to fuckin’ me” Maybe the best cover song of the 90s. Good freakin’ God I miss the Mummies. They get my vote for the greatest song title ever: “Sooprize Package for Mr. Mineo!”
http://youtube.com/v/aBaB4bjfYGQ #4 in the “Bands I Miss Most from the 90s”While all you neu-shoegazers were still wearing Garanimals, I was scooping up Skywave seven inches without reading the price tag. Ackerman went on to help form A Place to Bury Strangers, which is alright, I guess, but Skywave had the songs. “Don’t Say Slow” is […]
http://youtube.com/v/0EWJ9JrxU0g #5 in the “Bands/Artists I Miss Most from the 90s”Gang Starr might have dropped their debut in ’89 and a decent – actually excellent — album in 2003 (“Ownerz”), but they’re of and by the 90s. Most of their product still makes the likes of fitty, snoop, etc, sound like punks.I represent /set up […]
Pitchfork’s review of the new Franz Ferd album (7.3): More so than stoking the band’s current commercial prospects, Tonight is an exciting record for what it could potentially spell for Franz Ferdinand’s future– from here, you could just as easily imagine the band further exploring electro-house productions, or stripping their sound down and making a […]
Stop Loving Everything 