Archive for February, 2009

quick reviews of everything stacked up on my desk, pt.1, with apologies to john darnielle of LPTJ

Posted by admin on February 26th, 2009 filed in Music

Huge piles of CDs on my desk, so here goes: 
Catfish Haven - Devastator: I find it hard to believe that there are no Allman brothers in this band. Maybe Ernie Allman? Imagine Greg Allman fronting…actually, imagine him fronting the Allman brothers. That’s a little cheap; they have more going on, and this isn’t at all bad. [...]

Read More..>>

heart on the line: m. ward’s hold time

Posted by admin on February 23rd, 2009 filed in Music

m. ward’s new album hold time is suddenly everywhere (”everywhere” in my world means it’s in the new york times and the onion. and i imagine sasha-frere jones has recently emerged from his hyberbaric chamber of concentrated hip intellectualism and is thawing out to write some words for the new yorker.)
a classier blogger would sit [...]

Read More..>>

put lerche and costello in the fishtank

Posted by admin on February 19th, 2009 filed in Music

The blue trenchcoat is, in many ways, like a professional basketball franchise: we take an extended hiatus for the All-Star weekend, we emphasize height above many other qualities, and we’d be willing to trade most of our staff for Amare Stoudemire and two first-round draft picks. 
But trade talks fell apart, and so, in lieu of [...]

Read More..>>

short list: inspiration information and friends

Posted by admin on February 12th, 2009 filed in Music

Those of you who haven’t been following the blue trenchcoat with the proper obsessive zeal may need catching up on the whole idea of the short list. What, in a deeper sense, is the short list? What, in a totally shallow sense, is the short list? Who is Spain? Why is Hitler?
Well - I can’t [...]

Read More..>>

zero boys don’t cry

Posted by admin on February 10th, 2009 filed in Music

I know what you’re thinking: great blog, but needs more poetry! Specifically, needs a poem composed entirely of dark, aggressive band names. More specifically, needs a poem composed of all the band names I saw on t-shirts while covering the Fun Fun Fun Festival for Alarm. You’re so specific! But fine - What? You also [...]

Read More..>>

the short list 3: shotgun willie

Posted by admin on February 8th, 2009 filed in Music

Another album I almost pitched to 33 & 1/3: Willie Nelson - Red Headed Stranger. This one made good sense for a number of reasons - one, Willie’s an icon, and one of the few artists of his stature who has yet to receive the 33 & 1/3 treatment, two, the publishers seem to be [...]

Read More..>>

masters of obscurity: number seven uptown defeats spiderland

Posted by admin on February 5th, 2009 filed in Music

 
I own a copy of Slint’s album Spiderland, mostly because I felt compelled by a rising tide of critical acclaim to get out there and educate myself. Occasionally older albums catch this wave of indie respect, and we’re all meant to pretend we liked them all along: “seminal,” we will say sagely, and for extra [...]

Read More..>>

the short list, pt.2: modern lovers

Posted by admin on February 3rd, 2009 filed in Music

I wasn’t expecting the first of these posts to go on for quite so long, and I know you all have the attention spans of mice on speed. So I’ve broken up my almost-not-quite list of 33&1/3 classic album proposals into several posts, the second of which you are in middle of right now. This [...]

Read More..>>