Category: music

• music Record reviews

  You may ask yourself, how did they get here?

  True Stories Talking Heads 1986 Every album Talking Heads released after Stop Making Sense (1984) was a disappointment. How could it have been otherwise? How do you top or even equal a record like that? Only The Beatles created a pop cultural icon and then came back to create a…

  April 9, 2013
• music Record reviews

  Objects in mirror are not as close as they appear

  Get Close The Pretenders 1986 Pretenders (1980) is the kind of album that runs you over with a cement mixer then shoots you in the head five or six times for insurance. Bracing. Pretenders II (1981) is more of the same at a lesser pitch. Disappointed? Nah – that formula…

  April 8, 2013
• Miscellaneous music

  Middle-aged punks on dope

  “I am what I am. Thank God.” – Jimi Hendrix, “Message to Love” A co-worker entered my humble cubicle one day late in 2012 and said, “Flashback!” He was looking at the two shelves above my desk, which held a row of CDs, a display of old postcards, and the…

  April 7, 2013
• music Record reviews

  Give me that old time rock ’n’ roll

  Rebel Soul Kid Rock 2012 I first encountered Kid Rock when Devil Without a Cause (1998) served up two mega-hits, “Bawitdaba” and “Cowboy,” both of which are totally awesome if you’re a teenager and clueless. I thought of him again in 2004, when my boss at the time and his…

  March 23, 2013
• music Record reviews

  Rage against the Bikini Machine

  Bikini Machine joue Dutronc Bikini Machine 2011 I was looking at Allmusic.com’s lists of recommended songs and albums for 1969 when I hit “Le Responsable” by Jacques Dutronc (from the album Un disque MAXI). Messr. Dutronc is a legend in France but unknown in the USA. He was definitely unknown…

  February 10, 2013