Fourteen years after Mike Kinsella’s debut into the music world with American Football, he releases this, his 14th! solo recording under the unlikely moniker of Owen. I think I foundAmerican Football backwards only after finding Owen first. I don’t remember, in 2013, how I found him or why I landed on this record first, orContinue reading “#825: O is for Owen”
Tag Archives: Reviews
#824: O is for Other Lives
So how does one get turnedon to a band from Oklahomadoing a kind of baroque chamberpop thing with electronics, folksy acoustics and understated and sometimes whispery light singingover the top of percolating percussion?Another pre-streaming discovery, I think I downloaded their debut 2011 album, Tamer Animals, froma service called Emusic, a musicsubscription site that allowed twoorContinue reading “#824: O is for Other Lives”
#821: O is for Oingo Boingo + Boingo
In the first year or so of MTV, fronted by the theatrical, vocalist extraordinaire, andfuture film scoring giant, Danny Elfman, Oingo Boingo made their debut into the punk rock new wave universe and the national consciousness with the insane music video for their first single, the cringy (especially in hindsight), “Little Girls.” As a highContinue reading “#821: O is for Oingo Boingo + Boingo”
#820: O is for Of Montreal
I’ve pulled this album out, the only one I have by this American psychedelic pop “band” called Of Montreal, which is really the creative brainchild of one Kevin Barnes, a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter,visual artist, and provocateur. There is no identifyinginformation on the album cover, on the spine, or on the disc labels. Not even the linerContinue reading “#820: O is for Of Montreal”
#819: N is for Nyro, Laura
Another mysterious album in the collection gifted to me by my artist and musician friend Curtis.Here’s a songwriter that I would have heard about, whose name I would have recognized as a person often cited as a significant figure, whosesongs I had heard performed by otherartists, but whose records had completely escaped me. It’s 1969.Continue reading “#819: N is for Nyro, Laura”
#818: N is for Numan, Gary
Telekon, Gary Numan’s fourth album, the second album post Tubeway Army, begins with the most crushing slow rock synth groove of “This Wreckage” and, in that early, nasal, almost robotic, most distinctive voice, he sings the first lyric: “And what if God’s dead?” This was heady stuff for a 16 year old me, who hadContinue reading “#818: N is for Numan, Gary”
#817: N is for Nilsson, Harry
Before I became educatedabout this guy, if you would havetold me that “Coconut” (you know, put the lime in the____ and call mein the morning), “Everybody’s Talking”(at me, and I don’t hear a word they’resaying), and (I can’t live, if living is “Without You” were all songs written by the same guy, I would haveContinue reading “#817: N is for Nilsson, Harry”
#816: N is for The New Pornographers
They are one of only a few artists or bandsthat jump-started their career during the 21st century whose entire catalog has found its way into my CD and vinyl collection. Despite their most unfortunate band name, these Canadians have made ten studio albums over the last 26 years, all of which are tremendously good. AContinue reading “#816: N is for The New Pornographers”
#813: M is Still for The Mountain Goats (20, 21, 22, 23, 25)
Prologue The last five albums in my collection of records by The Mountain Goats bringsme to the end of the letter M and a littlepast the half way point of my entire storeof vinyl LPs, but it brings me also to a place of turntable crisis. Everything sounds likeshit. I can’t get that stylus cleanContinue reading “#813: M is Still for The Mountain Goats (20, 21, 22, 23, 25)”
#812: M is for The Mountain Goats (15, 17, 19)
The next three albums in my MountainGoats collection, consecutively released, serve as a tidy little trilogy. Unrelated to each other, but I’m guessing each deeply personal to the lyricist, we have three concept albums in a row, albums that aren’t narrative necessarily, but all revolvequite specifically and rigorously arounda single subject matter. Not because ofthisContinue reading “#812: M is for The Mountain Goats (15, 17, 19)”
michael jarmer 