For the second (third?) year in a row, LOM didn't vote in either the Nashville Scene's best of country music poll or the Village Voice's Pazz & Jop best of American music poll. I'm just not a good list-maker. Detest that stuff. Just trying to compile a list of possibles makes my brain hate me.
Anyway, I rarely get serviced by the major labels, and I don't listen to the radio stations that kowtow to the major labels, so I don't feel I have much context in which to wrestle with the important
[Note: Aftermath attended all these shows and reviewed most of them. Even he couldn't see them all.]
Six Organs of Admittance, Walter's on Washington, January 18: "[Ben Chasny's] quieter moments reminded me of the softer side of bands like Pavement and Guided by Voices, and the mournful specter of Townes Van Zandt made its forlorn presence felt more than once."
Foo Fighters, Toyota Center, January 22: "Each song was embellished with the interplay between guitarist Chris Shiflett and Grohl
I first encountered Tim Easton about five years ago at a New West Records South By Southwest party. It was a hot day at an outdoor stage. I felt the presence of someone moving up beside me and saw from his name tag that it was Michael Corcoran, longtime music critic for the Austin American-Statesman.
Sweating profusely, Corcoran was scribbling like a man possessed. After several songs, during which Corcoran had consumed several pages of his notebook, he looked at me and asked, "Do you know who'
LOM still can't get over the death of Tim Krekel. Nor can we get over that he was, for the most part, so underrecognized and underappreciated by the world at large. Several late-night dinner parties have passed at our house in the weeks since his passing, and we always seem to end up listening to Tim's Soul Season at some point. The messages in his music always hit home. He could sell it 'cause he meant it.
Krekel's passing also rekindles the urge we think most music writers have, to bring a me
Although Rocks Off had every intention of rambling about something different this week, we thought it would be a lost opportunity to not examine an issue that seems to have been revealed by readers' responses last week. Although many fantastic points were made, we were fascinated to detect that woven amongst the thoughtful insights was an ambivalence about how we as a community view the impact technology has had on our relationship with music.
This topic is pretty broad, so we're going to ha
"American man in the laundry pile/ With the rain check claims and the skateboard child" - Chuck Prophet, "American Man"We admit to being full-fledged, card-carrying members of the Chuck Prophet Party, but it still took Lonesome, Onry and Mean longer than usual to get the ears and head wrapped around Prophet's chaotic new Yep Roc Records album ¡Let Freedom Ring! The album may have the widest stylistic scope Prophet has ever laid down, although CP is known up front for going all over the rock
