Torch Ballads & Jukebox Music
November 6, 2009
This Is Michael Jackson 12
by Sonya Chung
What could be more compelling than film footage of the King of Pop so clearly not meant for our eyes?
August 31, 2009
Matt & Kim, Beat & Beckett 3
by Emily Colette Wilkinson
Matt and Kim’s “5K” video speaks much more intelligently of our culture’s resurgent love of vampires than does the idiotic and thieving Twilight series.
July 24, 2009
Torch Ballads & Jukebox Music #4: Serenaded by Jonathan Richman 2
by Andrew Saikali
Jonathan Richman, along with his long-time drummer Tommy Larkins, took the stage, strummed his acoustic guitar and began to sing. Nothing. The mikes weren’t working. Where other performers, and indeed lesser legends, might have turned diva, Jonathan simply announced – loudly, to make up for the microphone – that he and the techies would confer [...]
July 23, 2009
What’s Not to Like? The Pains of Being Pure at Heart 2
by Emily Colette Wilkinson
Oh, to be so winsome as The Pains of Being Pure at Heart! All aspects of the unwieldily named indie pop quartet are uniformly captivating – their music, their lyrics, their persons, their demeanor on stage and in interviews – and newspapers and blogs from their home city (New York) to LA and San Fran [...]
July 10, 2009
From Wilco, With Love 11
by Noah Deutsch
For this latest record, Tweedy seems ready to accentuate the positive, even if that old bleak outlook does occasionally cloud over the proceedings.
April 27, 2009
Musical Exercise: Creating Literary Soundtracks 5
by C. Max Magee
Some books just demand a soundtrack – they either are about music and musicians or music is threaded through the book like a character. Pandora, one of several sites where you can create your own radio stations, has long been a daily musical companion of mine, but recently I’ve been thinking of it as a [...]