“Pool Hopping” has to be one of the mostcrushing power pop punk rock songs in recentmemory. Followed immediately on the albumLet Me Do One More by the equally sassy andwildly exuberant “MMMOOOAAAAAYAYA.” One would be hard pressed to find two more powerful opening tracks in the wholeof the year of our pandemic, 2020-21.The project ofContinue reading “#736: I is for Illuminati Hotties”
Tag Archives: new music
#717: G is for Glaspy and Glavor, Margaret and Hannah
It sounds good to say their namestogether, for one, and for another, they’re both extraordinarily talented singer-songwriters and equally mean guitarists, and look at them there, right next to each other in the alphabet,as if it was just meant to be. The first song on Margaret Glaspy’s Echo the Diamond is a rocker called“Act Natural.”Continue reading “#717: G is for Glaspy and Glavor, Margaret and Hannah”
#689: F is for Fagen, Donald
The Nightfly, circa 1983, was hands down one of the sonically best sounding albums I had ever heard. And of course, there were so manygreat singles from this, his debut solo album, and probably by a long shot his most successful, and I had heard them all on the radio. But it would be severalContinue reading “#689: F is for Fagen, Donald”
#672: D is for Dirty Projectors
I’d forgotten how crazy and greatthis music was. Claps, subsonicbass, acapella female voices, nutty lyrics, great, rubbery, pitch-perfect, jazzy tenor lead vocals, gnarly guitar, a goofy and groovy mix of real drums and machines, odd time signatures, impossible sounding figures, warbley and wobbly synthesizers,suddenly a string section, female lead vocal here and there,abrupt stops andContinue reading “#672: D is for Dirty Projectors”
#670: D is for Destroyer
I first heard Dan Bejar’s voiceon The New Pornographers’ records, and I thought to myself, what the hellis that? A voice, not really similarto, but along the linesof a Neil Young–a totally uncharacteristic kind of voicefor rock music, but simultaneouslyperfect for it. At first, I didn’t like it, but there was some hook,some element ofContinue reading “#670: D is for Destroyer”
We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Program to Talk About Geese
I just don’t want to like them. Everybody loves Geese. Everybody loves their new album, Getting Killed. Everybody seems to be falling down stupid-in-love with their singer and principal songwriter, Cameron Winter. Even people whose opinions I trust and whose art I respect or love, St. Vincent and Marc Maron, as examples, are falling overContinue reading “We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Program to Talk About Geese”
#635: B is for Bright Eyes
In the fine tradition of great bad singers, here is Conor Oberst, otherwise known as the band leader of Bright Eyes. His singing is imprecise, full of vibrato, a tentativetenor, except for when he’s screaming, which he does sometimes, even in quiet songs. He often soundslike he’s on the verge of crying or throwing aContinue reading “#635: B is for Bright Eyes”
#612: B is for Beauty Pill
I’ve got to get my alphabet shitback together. They say smoke follows Beauty but damn it, BECK follows Beauty too. And so here I am with another corrective, trying to write a poem-like-thing about an absolute favoritediscovery of the lastfew years, Beauty Pill. My friend Ericturned me on to this band a few years ago.Continue reading “#612: B is for Beauty Pill”
#566: Two Sonnets for Lucro Sucio; Los Ojos del Vacios by The Mars Volta
I I haven’t even listened to it yet, but I have looked at it with some surprise– precisely because there’s nothing to see.I will describe it from the inside out.Black vinyl, black label, on which tiny numbers indicate sides, inside black sleeves.An insert, the only art, a gray and tanindeterminate image, a map, orjust randomContinue reading “#566: Two Sonnets for Lucro Sucio; Los Ojos del Vacios by The Mars Volta”
On the Thirtieth Day of 2025…
…I’m thinking about having watched the Björk concert last night on Apple TV. Filmed, I think, within the last year, it was a live performance of mostly material from her Utopia album, the album preceding her most recent project, Fossora. It was a fascinating experience, and while it was not entirely pleasant, I could notContinue reading “On the Thirtieth Day of 2025…”
michael jarmer 