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…
(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…
brand new kind of photography 