I’m lit from within with the beatific joy that comes when you discovery your deity of choice. My deity is called Ellen Willis and she was a writer who worked as the first popular music critic for The New Yorker. My bible (thus far) is Out of the Vinyl Deeps. Like any recent convert I’ve …
What is it that links certain periods of time in your head with certain albums and not others? For instance, the soundtrack to my 26th year will forever and always be Dylan Hicks’ “Poughkeepsie” and Neutral Milk Hotel’s “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.” The fact that these two albums will always sound like 26 …
I think it was my next-door neighbor and childhood best friend Jenni who gave me the 45 for Suzanne Vega’s “Luka.” It was either that or a 45 of Jack Wagner’s “Weatherman Says.” Those two songs came into my life at about the same time and I know Jenni gave me a record just for …
This is a sincere and genuine question, how do you enjoy something ironically? Perhaps, because I’m an aging GenXer I will never quite understand the ironic enjoyment of “bad” things. Is the fact that I have banished guilty pleasures from my life to blame? If it provides pleasure in a world doing its best to …
I woke up this morning singing Soul Aslyum’s cover of Victoria Williams’ “Summer of the Drugs” which got me thinking about how fantastic the Sweet Relief compilation is. Do they still do this, get a bunch of awesome bands and singers together to make what is, essentially, a professional mixtape? Or were the early to …
Just about every year since I got my first iPod, Roland, I’ve been keeping track of the most popular songs of the year. Since I got my iPod in March, the timing is a bit goofy, but so what? Now to some people these year-long numbers might look ridiculously low, as though I only listen …
I’m in the midst of a project that requires a lot of formatting of text. It’s one of those projects that is wonderfully mind-numbing and kind of fun because it takes you out of your head. The danger with this kind of project is falling asleep. As you know, I have a long history of …
