“So we sit, wearing headphones and frozen grins, and continue denying that guilty, nagging feeling that actually, in some ways, when you think about it…Radiohead kinda blow.”

Few, save for Liam or Noel Gallagher, dare speak this heresy aloud, instead couching it in longings for a “back-to-basics” album or a “return to form,” despite the fact that Radiohead are at their critical and commercial peak. Civil (by Internet standards) discussions reside on Yahoo message boards with titles like “Why Did Radiohead Become [...]

“No. End of discussion.”

As for the question that prompts such an answer? “Is the internet stifling new music?” Via BBC no less. The article is written by once-rock star John Taylor, former bass player for Duran Duran and Power Station. The man has been pelted by his share of female undergarments while performing live, and it shows: When [...]

Don’t laugh, or it will happen to you

That was weird. Just now driving back from 7-Eleven (executive lunch). Carrollton, Texas. I’m crossing Marsh Lane from the west while a mother in sweat pants with a baby and baby stroller is crossing Marsh Lane from the east. She gets that smile, that Something is Wrong smile, and I think nothing of it. Then [...]

A myriad of little choices

Neither Patrick nor I ran Ironman Wisconsin (it’s way out of my league, and Patrick’s Ironman isn’t until May). That said, one of the quotables from Trifuel’s Race Preview stuck in my head: What truly separates one course from another isn’t total elevation gain, winds, etc, but rather how often it forces you to make [...]

“We Listen For You” on The Clues

A dispatch from yesterday caught Patrick’s eye: I would like to take a moment to talk about the 10.0 rating (I’ve never handed one out) and make our criteria for a perfect score clear. Personally, I think the album has to move the listener to a level where the love for the sound is indefinable, [...]

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 [...]

Mein Gott im Himmel but rock musicians look like children anymore

I don’t like the name of the band (Proximity Effect). I don’t like the fact that any one of these cats makes me look ninety years old (I guess that’s also the Proximity Effect, tee hee!). But hell, I don’t like the wife’s ergo-correct keyboard, either, yet somehow I persist. Citing such unimpeachable influences as [...]

Some of my favorite John Vanderslice tracks…

…are Pale Horse, They Won’t Let Me Run, or pretty much anything from his Cellar Door LP. The track “White Plains” is easily one of my top 25 favorite tracks of all time. …a cover of Radiohead’s “Karma Police,” from Stereogum Presents…OKX: A Tribute to OK Computer. While you’re there, check out Vampire Weekend’s cover [...]

Use the force, Lukas

When CBS unhappily traded a third season of Rock Star for the unbearable Survivor knock-off Pirate Master, it became clear that Lukas Rossi was the sole heir to this short-lived series. He had started strong from the beginning, delivering throaty and capable performances of Billy Idol’s “Rebel Yell” and The Verve’s “Bitter Sweet Symphony.” But [...]

Songs Changed to 8-Bit

Changing a song from a multi-track recording to an 8-bit track is easier than I once thought. Apparently all you have to do is run the MIDI through a program like GXSCC MIDI player which will create a wave file of the MIDI into an 8-bit NES style track. There are hordes of these on [...]