When we last left off, I was saying that the Asia album you want is the one with “Heat of the Moment” on it. Well, this is not that album. But from about the first 15 seconds of Alpha, I’m thinking this one might just be a keeper.

Going back to the first time I ever heard Captain Beefheart’s Trout Mask Replica, I remember wondering, “What is going on here?” The second thought immediately following this was “Who on Earth would release this?” Even today, Trout Mask Replica stands out as a left-field landmark, an impressive opus that may not sound like a [...]

Magazine – No Thyself (Wire-Sound Records) “I don’t give a fuck about you too,” deadpans Howard Devoto on “Final Analysis Waltz” from the first new Magazine album in something like forever. The reality is that no one retires a band after four records only to reprise it over three decades later. And I don’t care [...]

So the first thing you may notice if you read my last column post, is that regardless of what kind of writer I am, I clearly don’t have a grasp of the alphabet. Or more to the point, I’ve done a really crappy job of organizing my records. Now I could waste a bunch of time going through and making sure that my records are indeed, alphabetized. Or I could spend the time actually listening. Clearly there is only one choice here, and that’s to forge ahead and pull the lp’s off the shelf in whatever order they are in and call it good.

Until recently, we’ve had a mild winter in the Midwest. There’s been very few days where temperatures fell below freezing and it was the first time in years when there wasn’t snow on the ground during Christmas. It was a challenge not to buy Kate Bush’s new album 50 Words For Snow when it was [...]

Launching a new column is somewhat daunting, as there’s usually a lot to explain. But an editor of mine once told me to just dispense with the disclaimers and jump right in. The readers will figure it out, he felt. And besides, plotting out all the thinking that went into the thing is somewhat presumptuous [...]

Boris New Album (Sargent House) The title is a joke since this is Boris’ third release in 2011 and since some of the songs have already been previously featured in one of those releases. But New Album may be the most recognizable record out of the bunch as it completely changes direction and will be [...]

Wooden Wand’s James Jackson Toth has traversed some rough country—or at least the characters in his songs have—and there’s a jagged edge around his songs that belie the often tender lyrics at the heart of them.  The remnants of those journeys are sprinkled throughout the new album Briarwood with the “patches on my jacket and [...]

Scott Weiland – The Most Wonderful Time of the Year (Atlantic) The very idea of a Scott Weiland Christmas album is a strange concept for some, and while I’m not a fan of Mr. Weiland’s work, at least I can grasp the notion that he recently released a collection of holiday songs after hinting at [...]

It’s impossible for me to separate The Smiths’ music from my strong personal connection to it. The Smiths were the first band that truly connected me with a world outside of where I had been before. From art, to humor, to the morose, to loneliness and isolation, the music touched me. I came to find [...]