2013 Sucked For New Music

| Music

2013 was my worst year for new music since 2002.  I couldn’t even make a year end best of list because I couldn’t fine ONE song that stood out from the dreck I’d managed to collect in the last twelve months.  Everything sounded like car commercials — shiny, happy songs for people to purchase to. […]

The Blood Oranges

| Music

Since The Blood Oranges seem to have vanished without a trace, it seems as good a time as any to mention that they were one of the great punk-bluegrass bands of the early ’90s.  Now that I type that, I can see why they may have had trouble finding their niche, or maybe it was […]

Why I Hate Cloud Music

| Music
Lili Boulanger

I remember a year or two ago hearing a Sony exec announce that the mp3 format was dead.  “Music will all be in the cloud,” he said.  At the time I thought he was overstating but he was right and quickly too.  Today, most artists are releasing their stuff via Sound Cloud or other service, […]

Deacon Blues

| Music

Sitting on my back porch, head still addled from this late season flu, I listen as the last chords of “Deacon Blues” fade away and permit myself a sardonic smile. “They got a name for the winners — I want a name when I lose…” I am listening to Aja, Steely Dan’s mid 70s masterpiece, […]

Future Bible Heroes and Gothic Archies Artifacts

| Music

I grew up in the heyday of the long playing record, spent my babysitting years buying albums, made mix tapes like everybody else in the 80s, segued into CDs in the 90s, and then sometime in the 2000s, there stopped being records.  By records, I mean physical copies of music with packaging, cover art, and […]

I Know This World Is Killing You

| Music

One of my favorite web sites seems to have died or maybe it’s just in a coma.  BetterPropaganda.com hasn’t had any new content since December 2012. BP used to be my go-to source for interesting new music.  It was all free and legal, released by the artist or the label.  And it had great contributors, […]

Dent May – Best Friend

| Songs

It’s a little hard to believe that all this gorgeous 60s style vocalizing is coming from one guy, but it is, and that guy is Dent May.  May got his start in Mississippi where he started writing songs at the age of 12, according to his label.  He later attended NYU Film School, but dropped […]

Sweet Life by Frank Ocean

| Songs

Not that many records have impressed me  this year, but there’s something about Sweet Life by Frank Ocean that stuck with me even though lyrically, it’s completely alien to my life.  Somewhere between rap and R&B, Sweet Life takes you to a land of milk and honey somewhere in Beverly Hills where happy young people enjoy […]

Spiral by Wye Oak

| Songs

I’ve been intrigued by Wye Oak for a few years, partly because they’re called Wye Oak (the ancient oak tree in Maryland that died a few years back) and partly because they’re from my old home town of Baltimore.  “Civilian” was one of my favorite tracks of 2011 and now they’re back with “Spiral,” a […]

Superfast Jellyfish Are Running Out

| Songs

First, there were superfast zombies, now it’s jellyfish.  What next?  I do love this tune, which combines great poppy hiphop with great poppy pop, dedicated to the “water breathers.”  It’s great summer music, although maybe not for beach-goers.  Thank you, Flux Blog. Gorillaz: Superfast Jellyfish Speaking of FluxBlog, they had another recent favorite of mine, […]