The nation's oldest Death Row inmate probably won't ever be executed. But he sure loves to write letters.
South Florida's lawless exotic rental car industry keeps rolling.
If you thought Seattle couldn't fetishize coffee any more, you haven't been to a "cupping" yet.
On Jack's Mannequin's optimistic new single "The Resolution," vocalist/pianist/songwriter Andrew McMahon sings, "I'm alive, but I don't need a witness, to know that I survived." The 26-year-old could just as easily be referencing the fact that he's transcended his teenage band (piano-punks Something Corporate) as he is that the cancer that threatened to derail his career is in remission. But The Glass Passenger, JM's eagerly awaited — and long-in-the-making — follow-up to 2005 debut Everything in Transit, is by no means fixated on his sickness. "Swim" is a slower, uplifting piano ballad — a lazy, hazy day twirling on a swing set — while the brisker "Suicide Blonde" has a muscular, fuller-band sound with echoes of '70s glam swagger and jaunty Britpop bounce. The rest of the hook-happy Passenger floats by on lushly orchestrated atmospheres, with an emphasis on the shadier side of sunny California pop (Jackson Browne, Fleetwood Mac) and classic-rock kingpins (Tom Petty, The Who). All of these influences emerge even more live: With a full band behind him, the spidery McMahon scurries out from behind — if not climbs on — his piano, and frequently breaks out covers such as Petty's "American Girl" or Springsteen's "I'm on Fire."