The Pinning of “Happiness”
“Dream boards”, they used to call them: collections of lovely-looking ephemera designed to motivate an individual towards achieving a goal, often through hard work, perseverance, pay cheques and pocket change. … Continue reading
The Redemption of the Nerds
Tell me, if you will, what it means to be a nerd. I’m quite serious. Think about it for a minute or two: What is the essence of nerdiness? What … Continue reading
Strákur Sem Spilar Með Vindi
There is a well-known saying amongst music journalists and rock critics, a sort of Zen koan used to intimate (and, to some extent, exaggerate) the frustratingly ineffable nature of aesthetically … Continue reading
Colors of the West
Oh, you pop-rock collectives you! You and your shifting line-ups and crowded stages, your jam-packed liner credits and endless thank-you notes, your wall-o-sound flourishes and full-to-bursting, quasi-orchestral arrangements. Too many … Continue reading
Radio Ready
Looking back on it, the American underground music scene in the late Nineties and early Naughties must have been a frustrating time for category-obsessed audiophiles. Although major labels and chain … Continue reading
Renaissance Sound II
Lately, I’ve found myself listening to a lot “cool jazz”. Y’know, that classical-meets-bebop mélange of formal structures and virtuosic performances made famous by the likes of Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck, … Continue reading
Beatbots Was Made of People
Rumours of my retirement have been greatly exaggerated. Well, moderately exaggerated—and probably not all that rumour-worthy to begin with. As demi-professional music critics go, I’ve never pretended to be anything … Continue reading
Echoes of 2012
Music-wise, 2012 was a bit of an off year—in the sense that I more-or-less took the year off from my heretofore routine rock-crit habits. Sure, there were a few album … Continue reading
Supernatural Strategies for Making a Rock ‘n’ Roll Group
In a rare bit of literary-critical kismet, I have, at this moment, copies of Roland Barthes’ Mythologies (2012 Hill and Wang; Richard Howard, trans.) and Stephen Colbert’s America Again: Re-Becoming … Continue reading
Isn’t It Worse
I have to hand it to Emile Berliner: the gramophone record is one resilient piece of technological kit. Over a century old and still in regular use amongst the music-loving … Continue reading
