I was rather looking forward to seeing Passion Pit regardless of the fact that they were playing at Northern Lights on a Monday night. It’s usually okay to show up fashionably late, or just plain late, and not miss much at a Northern Lights show. The doors for this particular event opened at 6:30 Continue reading
This past Tuesday Helm’s wife and daughter asked fans to pray for Levon as he had end-stage cancer. At 1:30pm on Thursday, Levon Helm passed away at age 72.
* * *
A lot of young music enthusiasts go through a classic rock phase when they are younger. You come home from school one day and ask your parents “What did you guys listen to when you were my age?” Continue reading
Exley by Brock Clarke (2010)
“Sometimes you have to tell the truth about some of the stuff that you’ve done so that people will believe you when you tell them the truth about other stuff you haven’t done.”
I read Frederick Exley’s A Fan’s Notes my freshman semester of college at the recommendation of a friendly book dealer. I loved it. After reading Clarke’s “Note From the Author” at the end of Exley, there’s really no wonder. Similar to Clarke (to a lesser, younger extent) who was similar to Exley (to a lesser, younger extent), I was living at home Continue reading
TOPS is the Montreal-based foursome of singer/synth Jane Penny, guitarist David Carriere, bassist Tom Gillies and drummer Riley Fleck. Their debut, Tender Opposites, was released in February of this year on Arbutus Records (also home to Grimes). I read only two things prior to hearing this record: 1) The production is similar to “new” Ariel Pink, and 2) TOPS bites a Fleetwood Mac sound, particularly Continue reading
Lotus Plaza is the solo project of Deerhunter guitarist Lockett Pundt. Spooky Action at a Distance is Pundt’s second release after 2009’s very bright but somewhat washed-out debut, The Floodlight Collective. Like Deerhunter frontman and bandmate Bradford Cox did with last year’s Parallax (#2 on my Top 11 Albums of 2011), Lockett Pundt proves once again that members of busy bands can produce wonderful things on their own time. It should also be noted that the outspoken Pundt may be the Continue reading
A few months ago I placed an Amazon order for the Kids in the Hall movie, Brain Candy, which I thought would round out my KITH collection (owning seasons 1-5 of their sketch comedy), but I discovered thanks to “customers who bought this item also bought…” that they had released a mini-series on the CBC (reran on IFC) entitled Death Comes to Town in 2010. As a Kids shill, Death Comes to Town was an exciting and obvious purchase.
The series, directed by Kelly Makin (KITH director since the early 90’s), takes place in the fictional Shuckton: a small Canadian town with Continue reading
Chicago’s Disappears has been busy, busy. Three albums in three years: 2010’s Lux, 2011’s Guider and this year’s Pre Language. Disappears is admittedly not doing anything new. Their three albums reclaim late 60’s garage rock (the Velvet Underground aesthetic on Lux and the White Light, White Heat structure of Guider), early 70’s proto punk and Krautrock, late 70’s post punk (particularly The Fall and Wire) and early 90’s shoegaze. Their sound also incorporates elements of frontman Brian Case’s former band The Ponys.
Pre Language wasn’t exactly what I expected Continue reading
Consider the Lobster And Other Essays by David Foster Wallace (2005)
David Foster Wallace, most famous for his gargantuan novel Infinite Jest (as the cover of this book of essays will tell you), is an author that has been recommended to me countless times. Infinite Jest, widely regarded as one of the best pieces of fiction in the past two decades, is over 1,000 pages in length (reportedly 200 of which are footnotes). Because of its sheer size, Jest also joins my list, like Joyce’s Ulysses and Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, of “things that I really should get around to reading the next time that I have a three-week vacation.” For this reason and Continue reading
April 5th, 2012 marks the ten year anniversary of the death of Alice in Chains’ frontman, Layne Staley. Staley was the lead vocalist and predominant songwriter for Alice in Chains which is one of the most memorable and influential Grunge/Alt. Rock bands of the 1990’s. AiC’s debut, Facelift, their iconic follow-up, Dirt, second, acoustic EP, Jar of Flies and final self-titled LP (sometimes referred to by fans as Tripod because of the three-legged dog on the albums cover) are all certified platinum.
Alice in Chains’ sound, owed heavily to Staley’s dark, pain-stricken vocals and Continue reading
I went to see Friends With Kids a week ago after dinner with my parents because my mother felt like seeing “something light” after doing schoolwork all day. I lioned an antipasto and the better part of a sausage, olive, mushroom pizza and so something light was probably the only thing I could have stomached.
Aside: “Something light” as defined by my mother = rom-com. “Lioned” as defined by my friend Steve = my primal consumption by volume of food when hungry.
The only thing that I had heard about the movie prior was that Adam Scott (Parks and Recreation), Maya Rudolph (SNL, Bridesmaids) and Jon Hamm (Mad Men) were part of the cast. All good things. Continue reading
the self-hating hipster 