By Matt Meade Neil Young has been coaxed, once again, into the current election cycle by that age-old political practice of a candidate willfully misunderstanding what rock and roll songs are about. Back in September Young yanked his Hubert Selby novel set to music, “Keep on Rockin’ in the Free World,” from one walking […]
Read more "Stuck in My Head #20: “Campaigner” by Neil Young"You might not know who Allison Moorer is but you probably know her ex-husband. Last year she got a divorce from the guy she’d been married to for ten years and when I found out, all I cared about was him. You see, her ex-husband is Steve Earle and I feel like I know Steve […]
Read more "Stuck in My Head #19: Allison Moorer “Down to Believing”"from The Sacred Heart Sessions Team Love Records, 2015 God I love being smart. Using words they taught me in SAT prep. Connecting dots you’d never think to. Making statements so hard to understand that they couldn’t possibly be meaningless. My brain is a Great Dane puppy. It needs room to run, or it will go […]
Read more "Stuck In My Head #18: The Lowest Pair “Rosie”"I guess I didn’t think Punch Brothers would ever last. When Nickel Creek announced they were going on indefinite hiatus after their farewell tour in 2007, it was welcome news that mandolinist Chris Thile had a new project. I heard on NPR that he had composed a four-movement suite that would blur the boundary between […]
Read more "Stuck in My Head #17 – Punch Brothers “Familiarity”"Everybody wants things. You for example. You want something. You are chasing something elusive; a dream, a person, a goal, a state of mind. You struggle to achieve your goal and when it evades you, you look for solace. You are just like the rest of us when it comes to this because you try to […]
Read more "Stuck in My Head #16: The Seeds – “I Can’t Seem to Make You Mine”"Did you ever watch The Kids in the Hall? Remember the intro where The Kids hang out in a club with a collection of cute girls and circus-freak-type extras while a band plays a repetitive riff heavy on the wah-wah bar?[i] Well, I loved that show when I was a kid, and that intro is […]
Read more "Stuck in My Head #15 – The New Pornographers “Myriad Harbour”"The music of Delicate Steve is not at all easy to describe. It bothers me when someone writing about music drops the names of like six other artists to describe a performer, as in: “[Insert band name] sounds like Fleet Foxes combined with Yo La Tengo, with a little bit of Hot Hot Heat and […]
Read more "Stuck In My Head #14 – Delicate Steve “Afria Talks to You”"from Tales of Great Neck Glory DGC/Geffen, 1996 Blah. Boredom. Block. Ennui. Uninspiration. Even way back, when the pioneers of […]
Read more "Stuck In My Head #12: Sammy “Neptune Ave./Ortho Hi Rise”"Often we find that the best artists are among the best observers. They are able to take the impressions they receive with their own senses, interpret them with great depth of feeling, and transmit that feeling to an audience through their chosen media. But those who open their psychic camera lens wide to the world […]
Read more "Stuck In My Head #11 – Sean Rowe “Colors and the Kids”"“Can’t Find My Way Home” Blind Faith Blind Faith Polydor, 1969 Some songs are both easily forgettable and deeply familiar. I hear them and feel as if I am unearthing a repressed secret from childhood or recalling a past life. They are not songs I would count among my favorites or listen to often, but […]
Read more "Stuck In My Head #10 – Blind Faith “Can’t Find My Way Back Home”"What’s stuck in my head this week is less a song and more a fascination with a strange coincidence in the world of contemporary rock music. Let me take you back to ancient Greece so I can explain: Legend[i] tells us that Helen, born from an egg laid by her mother Leda, who had been […]
Read more "Stuck In My Head #9: Blonde Redhead, Brandi Carlile, and the Archetype of the Divine Twins"Bell Orchestre “Elephants” As Seen Through Windows Arts and Crafts, 2009 “If elephants didn’t exist, you couldn’t invent one. They belong to a small group of living things so unlikely they challenge credulity and common sense.” -Lyall Watson The same could be said of the music of Bell Orchestre, the Montreal-based instrumentalists whose music is […]
Read more "Stuck In My Head #8: Bell Orchestre “Elephants”"Town Mountain “I’m On Fire” Heroes and Heretics Pinecastle Records, 2008 I first learned of Town Mountain during the San Francisco Bluegrass and Old-Time Festival in February, 2008. They were playing on a triple bill at the Café Du Nord on Market Street with two other bands I found very forgettable. I walked in […]
Read more "Stuck in My Head #7: Town Mountain “I’m On Fire”"La Luz “Sure As Spring” It’s Alive Hardly Art, 2013 I wouldn’t call myself a beach guy. I’ve always viewed surfers with a detached distance, as members of a culture whose basic tenets are confusingly beautiful at best, disgustingly superficial at worst. All that sun and exposed skin is too much for a northeastern forest-dweller […]
Read more "Stuck In My Head #6: La Luz “Sure As Spring”"by Noah Kucij Wim Wenders’ 1987 film Wings of Desire centers on two angels who spend their days hovering above and among the people of Berlin, carrying out a distinctly angelic purpose that’s beside the point here. But early in the movie, one of the angels begins to give voice to his yearning to fall, […]
Read more "Stuck In My Head #5: Dire Straits “Wild West End”"
OLD SCHOOL RECORD REVIEW 