Top Singles of 2009

One of the many things that I did poorly this year was keep track of my favorite tracks as the year progressed even though I knew that this list was looming in the future. Over the past few weeks I have racked my brain trying to remember that one particular track that I heard from [...]

Top Ten Albums of 2009

10. Loney Dear – Dear John Dear John was the first album I heard this year that made it onto this potential list. It also opened a great year for Sweden and all the amazing acts that are calling it home. Emil Svanangen turns a bit more to his darker and depressed side on this [...]

When reading our comments, follow the hyperlinks

Like this commenter, whose name link thingy leads to this website: It also would be easy to dismiss [Apple Miner Colony] for its connection, however slight, to the same Eastern European influences of two other bands, Beirut and A Hawk and a Hacksaw, which have gained international success and hail from the same 100-mile radius [...]

A Hawk And A Hacksaw

Haven’t quite gotten my brain around this outfit yet: it certainly occupies the same zip code as Beirut and DeVotchKa. I much like “In The River,” which you can stream here or hear in its proper setting on their The Way The Wind Blows LP. Their home page is a bit mental. By the way, [...]

Indie Rock Fashion

Indie musicians tend to either have outstanding fashion sense or throw caution to the wind and go the outrageous direction with their apparel decisions. So The New York Times decided to help out at Coachella this year by taking a wordrobe full of clothing that none of us could ever afford to drape them over some [...]

Someone has clearly drawn my blood while I slept,…

…sent my DNA sample to a lab, mapped it with some 137 data points on three musical axes, stolen off to a studio in Birmingham, and started to calculate my genetically ideal blogging project. They’re unpolished to be sure, but that’s what a music blogger should be looking for (we’re looking at you, P4K). Their [...]

New Music Tuesdays

We’ve got a bit of ground to cover. Let’s get right to it: 1. OK Bear by Jeremy Enigk. Haven’t listened to it yet and may not. Enigk vanished from view of the spin-o-sphere after his 1996 masterpiece Return of the Frog Queen. After a decade-long hiatus he released the colossally disappointing — yet flawlessly [...]

Who will be the best band of the decade?

Go there. You know you want to. And while you’re thinking about it, may we suggest…?

Analyze this.

Last night I had my first music dream in a long time, certainly the first one since we launched tMiM. My parents and I were going through some old boxes and I tearfully came upon my collection of old vinyl records. This much of the dream has at least some basis in reality: from about [...]

Divablogging, Vol. 1, No. 1, first in a series?

Which recording artist has the finest web log? Piece of cake: that’s Amanda Palmer, of the Dresden Dolls. It’s funny, passionate, neurotic, gossipy, breathless, profane, long-winded, and in the end, touching. For a sample, try this recent entry: i had a poster of brian setzer above my bed that i ritualistically HAD to KISS before [...]