Sad news on a Saturday evening – the legendary Chuck Berry is gone. There are barely words to articulate Berry’s importance to Rock & Roll. A genius in his own right, his songwriting, his showmanship and his innovation with the electric guitar influenced everyone who followed. In truth, there had never been anything like Berry and there hasn’t been anything
Read moreThis week I set up a new Facebook group with Rick Flierl (of Dotsun Moon) to replace one that had sort of taken a left turn on us. The goal: sharing and discussing a particular strand of emerging music styles. 3rd Millennium Sound revolves around specific genres like Electro-Pop, Darkwave, Industrial, contemporary Trip-Hop, Shoegaze/Dreampop, BritPop and more. This description isn’t intended to
Read moreI’m packing for our long march through the coming winter storm. This seems essential.
Read moreDotsun Moon’s new singer, Maria Sebastian, is simply wonderful. Here’s proof. In my top CDs of 2016 list last week, I propped Rich Flierl and Dotsun Moon, a band doing some serious soul-searching after losing its very talented lead singer. Rich dropped some new tunes on me the other day, and they suggest that in Maria Sebastian he has found
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2016 was an odd year for music. But at least Bowie left us a masterpiece on his way out the door. If I were doing my year-end ratings and reviews the way I used to I have no idea what I’d make of 2016. It started horribly, with David Bowie, one of the most influential geniuses in rock history, releasing Blackstar and
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2016 isn’t a person or a monster, but the collective assholery of all we experienced transcends the normal rules. Here’s to you, 2016 – and good riddance. And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
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No, famous people won’t stop dying on January 1. But we lost too many bright lights this year and we hope that 2017 will be better. Here’s a list of noteworthy people who died in 2016. For the past several months a lot of us have been saying we can’t wait for this damned year to be over. 2016 gave us
Read moreRemembering the blackest moment of the entire nativity cycle is an odd way to celebrate. For a couple weeks now I have been assembling my “Dark Christmas Melancholy” playlist, a process I described in a post a few days ago. While I have listened to (and sung) a lot of holiday music through the years, my little project introduced me to a
Read moreYesterday I added Greg Lake’s “I Believe in Father Christmas” to my Dark Christmas Melancholy playlist. This morning I wake to learn he’s gone. Another light snuffed by this hellish, hateful year, and the holiday season just got a little darker…
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There is beauty in the darkness. This is all I have ever known. Beauty doesn’t work the same for me as it does for most people. I first started realizing this in Mr. Booth’s (excuse me, Dr. Booth’s) English V class at Ledford High School in 1978 and 1979. I remember two moments distinctly. First, we read “The Eve of St.
Read more2016 has snuffed another brilliant light. Sharon Jones, one of the icons of the neo-Soul revival in the last decade, is dead of cancer at the age of 60. Scholars & Rogues honors the heart and soul of Daptone Records.
Read moreMy favorite versions of the greatest pop song ever written – goodbye, Leonard 2016 took Leonard Cohen, one of popular music’s true iconic geniuses, from us this week. I have said before that I think “Hallelujah” is perhaps the greatest popular song in history, and as evidence I would simply note that it has been covered countless times by an
Read moreLeonard Cohen is dead at 82. Listen now: Leonard Cohen Playlist
Read moreThree videos for Election Day. Who do we want to be? Some years ago Sean Kelly of The Samples penned what has to be the election day anthem. It acknowledges what we all know, it notes the reasons we have to abandon hope, and still it insists that we carry on. It’s Election Day 2016. What choice will you make about
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lullaby pit 