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…
(and i feel fine)
The first album I ever bought for myself was R.E.M.’s Green. On tape. I was — 9 or 10, I think. I loved the hell out of that album, and it led me, in middle school, to newer R.E.M., and in high school, to older R.E.M. They were the first band I ever said, “That’s…
justin townes earle @ cat’s cradle
I’ve now seen Justin Townes Earle three times in three years, all three utterly different crowds: the first in 2008, a small but supremely enthusiastic crowd at the Berkeley Cafe in Raleigh (a tiny venue); in 2009 on one of the mainstages at Bristol Rhythm & Roots, to a huge (thousands) but utterly placid crowd;…
american aquarium @ motorco music hall
Such a polite crowd on Saturday night; I am not used to American Aquarium crowds who are that attentive and subdued. Also, the Motorco drink named after the band: the same blend of deliciousness and shame that I have come to expect from the band. (Band of my heart, my heart, my heart.)
stroke it, noel: a fully orchestrated performance of big star’s third album
Anyone who loves Big Star’s music knows there’s a particular kind of pop songwriting power behind it; every member of that band, save Andy Hummel (only because I don’t think he wrote anything they recorded), had and has a great ear and talent for songwriting, and Alex Chilton was among the best there ever was. But…
thank you friends
Alex Chilton passed away the day before my 30th birthday, and his death is something that I’ve struggled with all year. I was unexpectedly devastated by it when it happened, and I have found myself blindsided repeatedly by the fact that he’s gone, more than once at more than one random moment, this year. And…
an open letter to a variety of folks
Because Lani and I once made an ill-advised there-and-back trip to the Orange Peel to see the Decemberists — the drive was ill-advised, not the show; the show was great — I still get emails from the Orange Peel about their upcoming shows. Dr. Dog and the Old 97s have shows there in February, which…
brand new kind of photography 