So after fighting through not one, but two Asia albums in a row and peeking ahead at the next slab of vinyl on the shelf and realizing it’s a record that actually belongs to my wife, I have decided to throw the first curveball and grab an “A” record out of the jazz bin.

So, last week I decided to check out the love show of a band I knew nothing about. I don’t get to do that nearly as often as I’d like to, but my pal and local PR man, Nathan put the word out he was looking for a date and I decided to go hang [...]

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.

MP3: Adam Cohen – “What Other Guy” from Like A Man, due April 3 on Decca (UMG). Who would’ve guessed? I can only thinkf of a handful of good musicians whose parents were famous artists. The Nelson twins? Nope. Wilson Phillips? Nope. Arguments could certainly be made for Jeff Buckley, Rufus Wainright, and Charlotte Gainsbourg. [...]

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.

Video: Wilco – “Dawned On Me” I usually hate animated videos but this one was pretty fun. It’s apparently “the first hand-drawn Popeye cartoon in more than 30 years.” Which is odd, because who knew that there have been any Popeye cartoons made in the past 30 years? Even if you’re not impressed by the [...]

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 [...]

Video: Butch Walker And The Black Widows – “Synthesizers” “To commemorate the 20 year anniversary of the filming and inception of [Dazed and Confused],” Butch Walker says, “we brought a little someone from the film back to be the life of the party for our new video for the song ‘Synthesizers.’ The song lyrics really [...]

Let’s put politics aside for a moment and just appreciate that this guy is smooth. Years after Clinton squawking away on a sax and eight arduous years of Bush trying to dance (or whatever that is), we finally have a President with at least a hint of musical acumen. Making the rounds this week is [...]