“It’s always cold outside the Icehouse.”And “there’s no love inside the Icehouse.” It’s 1981 and I’m 17, totally immersed in what they call New Wave music, neverto return, or to return only nostalgically,to the hard rock of my pre-teen years.Certainly, I saw the video for the titletrack and theme song for this new bandon MTV,Continue reading “#734: I is for Icehouse”
Tag Archives: listening challenge
#732: H is for Hozier
My first Hozier experience, like it was for most people,was “Take Me To Church,” an unlikely pop song that managed to take the Catholicchurch to task while soundinglike a spiritual, or gospel music. There were those smart, literarylyrics and that gigantic voice. It didn’t really matter to me that stylistically it was not musicin myContinue reading “#732: H is for Hozier”
#728: H is for Honorary Astronaut
Moving through my collection as I’m doing, it’s a joyous occasion when I come across artists I love from the end of the alphabet who arecollaborating with artists from an earlier letter of the alphabet (David Byrne and St. Vincent, Robyn Hitchcock and Andy Partridge from XTC) or when I arrive at a solo artistContinue reading “#728: H is for Honorary Astronaut”
#727: H is for Hitchcock, Robyn
The first album from Robyn Hitchcock I ever heard after I bought the CD in 1988 is also thelast Hitchcock record added to the collection on vinyl, the 2025 remixedand remastered Globe of Frogs. It remains today, I think, my favoriteRobyn Hitchcock record. “Tropical Flesh Mandala” had about the strangestlyric lines I had ever heardContinue reading “#727: H is for Hitchcock, Robyn”
#726: H is for Here Comes Everybody
Preface in Prose: I have written pretty extensively about the history and recording output of my own band Here Comes Everybody in previous blog entries (see links below). In a similar listening challenge/blog writing series begun many years ago now, I started the project of listening to my neglected CD collection one artist at aContinue reading “#726: H is for Here Comes Everybody”
#725: H is for Harrison, George and Dhani
PrologueNot the first timelistening to music by offspring of another famousmusician, (Liam and Elroy Finn),and not the first time writing about the music made by an offspring of oneof The Beatles, (Sean Lennon), this IS the first time listening to and writing aboutthe music of both The Beatle and their offspringin the same poem-like-thing. People of Earth, I giveContinue reading “#725: H is for Harrison, George and Dhani”
#724: G is for Guided By Voices
The most prolific alt rock band in history? They will shortly have competition from King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, but for now, I think they are the champions.Guided By Voices, since the 80’s, havereleased 40 studio albums, 30 of which have been released in the last 25 years.I have three Guided By Voices albumsContinue reading “#724: G is for Guided By Voices”
#723: G is for Grizzly Bear
Even though the first trackon the album Shields is noisy AF, noise is not most often the Grizzly Bear game. Skilled musiciansleaning into a kind of psych-prog pop, their arrangements are dense, the instrumental work is accomplishedand interesting, the drummer playsbeats that are unconventional, orchestral, and Ed Drost has the voice of an angry angel.Continue reading “#723: G is for Grizzly Bear”
#722: G is for Green and Greep, Al and Geordie
Here’s an odd pairing for you rightnext to each other in the alphabet, the iconic soul singer Al Green and the contemporary prog rock madscientist guitar player singer GeordieGreep. Like the pairing of Glaspy andGlavor, I put them together here justso I can type their names side by side: Glaspy and Glavor, Green and Greep.OutsideContinue reading “#722: G is for Green and Greep, Al and Geordie”
#721: G is for Grant, John
I stumbled upon a live studio recording of Elbowperforming a song called“Kindling” from the Little Fictions album with a guestvocal performance by a guynamed John Grant. Who’s this person, I wondered. And I concluded, if he’s a friendof Elbow’s, he’s a friend ofmine, and then I watched thatvideo. Whoever this JohnGrant person was, he wasContinue reading “#721: G is for Grant, John”
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