Some year I’m going to design an elaborate March Madness style bracket to determine my favorite album, but this was not that year. Instead, I listened to 1134 of 1516 tracks in my 2010 playlist, alphabetical by artist and album, between December 1 and, uh, right now, and I made a list: top 25 albums and the…
Author: brandnewkindof
Photographer, baseball fan, lover of rock music, sweet tea, chili cheese hotdogs, and Matt Wieters.
top tracks, eps and singles of 2010
Shorter and less obsessed-over (than tomorrow’s epic work of art top albums list) lists of great EPs and 7″s, and tracks I loved in 2010. (I totally made the first list so I could put Frank’s EP and the Graves’ EP on it.) Top EPs and 7″ Releases of 2010 Frank Turner — Rock and…
the difference betwen murder and homicide
The difference between f1.8 and f1.4 is miraculous. Also, it snowed. Muchas, muchas gracias to the parental units, who for the holidays upgraded my workhorse E-series manual 50mm to the new Nikkor 50mm with the focus motor in the body; it’s nearly as big as Six herself, and it is amazing. I can’t wait to…
peace on earth, y’all
Happy holidays from me and shep. and the cats here at the Alpha Site, to all y’all out there in the world.
top ten shows of 2010
Today kicks off a couple of year end lists; tomorrow you’ll get EPs and tracks, and next week, a massive list of albums the making of which may make me more insane than usual, but which will be thorough if nothing else. Today, though: today you get my Top 10 Live Shows of 2010. I…
christmas mix 2010: the right to use a word
I’ve been making what I call a Christmas mix — that is, not holiday songs but a mix made at the holidays — since 1997; first they were tapes, then for a few years cds, and finally, in the digital age, the last five years have been downloadable zip files, and this year is no…
ha ha tonka @ local 506
This is a story about how I almost never heard my favorite album of 2009. When I lived in Chicago, I fell in love with Bloodshot Records, outlaw country independent record label of my heart — like Suburban Home, like Merge, like Trekky, I trust Bloodshot to know what I like and to give it…
deserves a quiet night
Anyone who doesn’t know that I spend a ridiculous amount of time listening to, thinking about, talking about and writing about music really, really hasn’t been paying attention. I will talk about music, and why I love it, and musicians I’m fixating on, and how it makes me feel, with anyone who will listen. That…
luego @ local 506
See local bands enough times, and they start to grow on you. Luego is growing on me, is what I mean. An easy, funny, warm night, a friendly crowd in the 506, and excellent company and music.
trekky records christmas at the cradle 2010
At some point I will give up trying to explain why the scene here is so amazing, so valuable to me; at some point, I promise I will. But then there are shows like last night, where I end up laughing my head off and wailing “But I don’t understand what’s going ooooooooon” and enveloped…
brand new kind of photography 