Tag Archives: Reviews

#759: J is for Jellyfish

I cannot think of a better 90’s bandthat did not sound like the 90’s. Maybe The Posies or They Might BeGiants both come close, but thesecats, this Jellyfish band, I saw liveonce in their first iteration at a smallclub downtown shortly after that firstalbum, Bellybutton, and it was nearlya religious experience. Andy Sturmer, lead singingContinue reading “#759: J is for Jellyfish”

#743: J is for Jackson, Kara

I can’t remember the last timeI was as hypnotized by a voice. Or the last time I fell in love withan album that was, ostensibly, folk. When Kara Jackson tours, I think, she’s just a singer with an acoustic. And while the songs are powerful delivered in this stripped down way,this record is sonically complex.Continue reading “#743: J is for Jackson, Kara”

#739: J is for Jackson, Joe

At first, Joe Jackson struck meas the “other” Elvis Costello, and at the time, in my teens, I could not imagine needing another one. I was wrong aboutthat, of course, and I knew itas soon as Jackson released the big band album, Jumpin’Jive. He actually beat Costelloto the punch with the genrehopping. But this, NightContinue reading “#739: J is for Jackson, Joe”

#736: I is for Illuminati Hotties

“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”

#734: I is for Icehouse

“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”

#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”

#729: H is for Hot Chip

This album by Hot Chip has the distinction of having the absoluteworst graphic design of almost any record ever, certainly of any recordin my collection. The track list, the title,the lyrics, the name of the band, the credits, appear to all be jammed togetherand overlapping each other on the frontcover, black ink on a whiteContinue reading “#729: H is for Hot Chip”

#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”

#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”