Category: music

• Concert reviews music Record reviews

  What we talk about when we talk about Talking Heads

  Stop Making Sense Talking Heads 1984 I’d like to have a few words with you today about the value of friends. And I don’t just mean how much money you can borrow from them. My friends have more than once straightened me out about music. Today I’d like to tell…

  July 24, 2011
• music Record reviews

  The not-so-sweet smell of success

  The birthday of our nation is a good time to complain about complainers. I am referring here to “dues songs,” in which musicians who have been made wealthy by their music describe how difficult it is to be successful. And apparently success is very difficult indeed. The ’70s were an…

  July 4, 2011
• music Record reviews

  The Power-Thru

  Sweet Oblivion Screaming Trees 1991 Unemployment has so many advantages that I hardly have time to list them all in. For example, I never got dressed today. I’ve been wearing my pajamas since last Monday. Or maybe the Monday before. For another example, I get to listen to as much…

  June 12, 2011
• music Record reviews

  I want my…I want my MTV…

  MTV went on the air in 1981 and immediately rewrote the musical map. It’s easy to see how round-the-clock music videos made stars of talented people with outlandish personalities, like Michael Jackson and Madonna. I thought it would be more interesting to see what MTV did for a band with…

  June 5, 2011
• Miscellaneous music Record reviews

  Run-DMSteve roundup!

  Today’s vocabulary word is “leverage,” and I don’t mean the TV show about happy-go-lucky con artists who police the global economy but can’t figure out how to date. I have leveraged my blog into a regular slot at www.thenervousbreakdown.com, and if you enjoy what I’m dishing out here I hope…

  May 23, 2011