Ben W. | August 31, 2009
The weird winding road that is Johnny Marr’s post-Smiths career continues today with the release of the new Cribs single.
Marr, don’t you know, is The Cribs’ new lead guitarist — a plot twist only slightly less strange than his two years spent with Modest Mouse.
The Cribs, at least, are a band steeped in the British [...]
Ben W. | August 29, 2009
This is part two of a series of stream-of-conscience comments on the new Arctic Monkeys’ album Humbug. I’m listening to it once a day and chronicling my opinions of each listen, hoping to illustrate how my opinions of the record develop (or fail to develop). Read part one here.
Back for day two and can’t say [...]
Ben W. | August 28, 2009
Today’s 12:12 Tuner is an almostfourstars history flashback. Take notes. There will be a quiz afterward.
Way back in August of 1978, the first set of evacuations were ordered for residents in Love Canal, New York — a suburban Niagara Falls neighborhood just north of the Niagara River. Residents were tripping over barrels of chemical waste [...]
Ben W. | August 27, 2009
I should tell you that I’m notoriously bad at sorting out first impressions. I often hate an album on first listen, only to decide two weeks later that it’s the greatest piece of pop music ever released. I used to think it was a weakness. I tried to work on it. I tried to develop [...]
Ben W. | August 27, 2009
In one of the year’s stranger sub-plots, Diddy loves the Arctic Monkeys. I mean, really really loves. He and Arctics drummer Matthew Helders are always talking in interviews about how they’ve become great friends. Strange.
Diddy really wants you to go buy his new best pals’ new album, too. He’s all a-Twitter about it.
Vote or Die part [...]
Ben W. | August 26, 2009
Weezer sucks.
Amanda Lee | August 26, 2009
Au Revoir Simone’s “Sad Song” is what it sounds like to know that someone’s left you and you miss them, but you’re putting on a brave face anyways. The triumphant brass fanfares and skip-inducing drum-machine beats do nothing to belie the deadpan refrain “Take me with you always.” Can you really dance if your heart [...]
Ben W. | August 26, 2009
I was one of the fortunate few who saw Future Of The Left rock the Southgate House in Newport, Ky. last month. They played the parlour upstairs, which – for those not familiar – is an old, beautiful, cozy, musty room full of books, weird paintings, weirder wallpaper and a creaky piano in one corner. And [...]
Ben W. | August 25, 2009
So this is a kind of “That Was Then, This Is Now” Tune of the Day in conjunction with yesterday’s Stone Roses flashback.
It’s a curse of sorts, I suppose, for Ian Brown. Having fronted the Stone Roses at age 22, the rest of your music career is bound to pale in comparison. Certainly, the best [...]
Ben W. | August 24, 2009
The Stone Roses released their self-titled debut album for about the 56th time the other day. It’s the 20th-anniversary edition.
My brain – small and limited as it may be – managed two thoughts in reaction. Both began with low-grade swear words. They were these:
* Damn, I’m old. I just bought the 10th-anniversary edition, didn’t I?
* [...]
A borderline psychotic explosion of opinion.
