I AM SO PSYCHED ABOUT THIS . . .

. . . That I can’t wait for Savefile to get back up and running to post it. Really annoying–the service isn’t working and it’s not clear why. Tegan and Sara-Umbrella (Rhianna cover)

REAL ROCK AND ROLL: THE BLAKES-”S/t” and RED COLLAR-”Hands Up! (EP)”

A twofer from my review queue. These albums happened, at random, to come up back-to-back, and they inspired me to rip up my T-Shirt and dance around playing air guitar (not a pretty sight), so I thought they deserve a post. Two really good rock albums, in a year that seems to favor rote hip [...]

ETHAN LIPTON AND HIS ORCHESTRA-Mr. Softy

I’ve struggled with this disc. It defies classification, for one thing, bouncing easily from jazz, to lounge, to something approaching country. For another thing, it is laced with acid wit–lyrics that are funny, and often deep–shrouded by what sometimes sounds like novelty music. Like their tune, “Pirates of the Heart,” which sounds like Tom Waits [...]

HARD FI-Once Upon a Time in the West

Here on this corner of the blogosphere, we have a general rule against reviewing RIAA material. But we’re making an exception for Hard Fi for selfish reasons. The Middlesex, England, band’s first album (which premiered on an independent label, Necessary Records) was one of my favorite albums of this Century. It got them signed to [...]

I DON’T GET NO RESPECT AT ALL

I should change the name of this blog to Rodney Dangerfield’s blog. I’ve been all-the-fuck-over Hype Machine for over a month now. Right this moment, I have three songs in the top 10. Yet, whenever the press talks about blogs, I get no respect. Whenever artists contact blogs to offer exclusives, I get no respect. [...]

RICK ROSS – RISE TO POWER

2007 has been a miserable year for hip hop. Kanye’s new one is good, but it’s not great, and no matter how many people call me names and get in my face, I just can’t get behind “Curtis” in any way. It’s boring and ordinary, and he’s done it before and much better. So far, [...]