On October 5, I complained about the banality of most pop songs about domestic bliss, and adduced as an example Crosby, Stills & Nash’s “Our House.” (Oh, and by the way: I realize it appears on Déjà Vu, a CSNY album; but Neil’s entirely absent from “Our House.” The man has taste: you’ve gotta give [...]
So I’ve promised to write about a couple of smackdowns: “Our House” (CSN) v. “Our House” (Madness), and also “Green Eyes” (Coldplay) vs. “Green Eyes” (Husker Du). And I will: need a couple more days, though. In the meantime, another train of thought inspired by A Rush of Blood to the Head. I argued, or [...]
I wonder if it’s fair to say that I’ve come now to believe that Coldplay writes some pretty majestic, stirring music—but bad songs? I wonder if that’s the distinction I was groping toward yesterday? To continue with that narrative, then: wanting a song to remind me of my baby, I went to A Rush of [...]
The drive to Portland was long, and surprisingly un-entertaining. I’ve taken, of late, to trying to put the iPod away on car trips, and to let myself be surprised instead by what the radio might bring me. I was disappointed, though: not because it brought me bad music (as I’ve been writing, I find I [...]
My apologies in advance—or in arrears, perhaps—to any and all fcrp readers who have both heard, and are utterly fed up with, this Justin Bieber party trick. It’s hard for a guy with a day job to keep up with the speed of sound, even when the sound’s this slow. Maybe Hipster-hated Chris Martin can [...]
Thanks to my friend Michael Coyle for today’s provocation. The term “hipster”—which just a couple of years ago would have seemed as lame and dated as “cat” or “daddy-o”—has inexplicably become “hip” again. Pomona student Tim McKee wrote a great paper about this last year; I owe most of what I know about it to [...]
I first became aware of the weirdo Liverpool band Clinic when my oldest daughter Emily bought me their 2002 album, Walking with Thee; I loved it almost immediately, and love it still. I haven’t kept up with their work in the interim, but they’ve got a new album, Bubblegum, scheduled for release on October 5—almost [...]
So yesterday’s post was, in a sense, about guilty non-pleasures: those bands or artists in whom we’re supposed to delight, but just can’t. The “guilty” part is just optional, of course: I do feel guilty for not liking Wilco and Fugazi more than I do, but not a bit guilty about loathing Metallica and the [...]
It’s been pointed out to me that for folks not as toxically obsessed with Radiohead as I am, this might require a bit of explanation. When I decided to do a blog—which is to say, when my friend and editor Shannon told me I need to start a blog—I was visiting my daughter Audrey and [...]