Released: February 26, 2021 One thing that is exciting about good dance music is its ability to manage energy, whether it is a DJ set or an individual artist’s record. “Don’t Leave Me This Way” is a great example. Whether you’re listening to Harold Melvin, Thelma Houston or the Communards, the song kind of simmers and then just soars at… Read more »
Released: February 8, 2021 Akira Ifukube is best known for composing the scores for Godzilla movies. Of course, I only know this, because I googled him, being unfamiliar with his work prior to Reilo Yamada’s recent recording of his Ritmica Ostinata. It’s interesting, because nothing about this composition made me think of old Japanese horror films known more for bad… Read more »
Released: July 1, 1986 The list of records that I love that a lot of people hate is probably not all that short, but the one that always comes to mind first is Discharge’s 1986 LP, Grave New World. Some treat it as a departure or even a sellout (the worst of all punk rock sins) by the godfathers of… Read more »
“I do not think there are any wrong reasons for liking a statue or a picture.” – E.H. Gombrich, The Story of Art If music is art (and Gombrich is correct about art), the quote above should be applicable to music as well. And I certainly think that music is art. But it is also entertainment. It is also a… Read more »
Released: January 29, 2021 When Lester Bangs’ character in Almost Famous said the Guess Who had the “courage to be drunken buffoons,” I always remembered it as the “courage to be stupid,” which while incorrect, really got to the character’s point in that scene. The notion of that kind of courage made sense to me even as I so often… Read more »
Released: February 18, 1966 In the 1960’s, Motown was in the business of making money and they accomplished that by producing a great product. The Supremes’ I Hear a Symphony is one of the crowning achievements of that plan. It is an album that existed somehow in the past and present simultaneously. Originally conceived as a Motown take on old… Read more »
Released: February 5, 2021 Usually, it’s a good thing when a group tries to move beyond the strict confines of their sound. Without that impetus, we’d have no Sgt. Peppers, no Heroes, no Achtung Baby. It’s the boldness that moves the art of making music forward. That being said, it is not something to undertaken lightly or carelessly. The artist… Read more »
Released: Juneteenth 2020 Untitled (Black Is) opens with a gospel chant of revolution that rises to a fever pitch similar to how calls for racial justice rose to a fever pitch in the days leading up to its release on Juneteenth 2020. Then it does something interesting. The chant fades away to gentle chords and warm ambience and a reassuring… Read more »
Released: February 5, 2021 We all know covers are a tricky business. So many fall into one of two categories: Too little of the covering artist or too little of the covered artist. Jim Bob’s short collection of covers somehow manages to do both at once. There are some great punk and new wave tunes here, but too often they… Read more »
Released: December 15, 2020 Before calling it quits, Mystic Inane released this four track EP in late 2020. It’s basically just early 80s American punk (think pre-metal Black Flag and Circle Jerks or JFA) that leans to the somewhat angular side à la the Minutemen. Yes, it’s been done before, ad nauseum even, but there is something to be said… Read more »