Southeast Engine
I have a friend who is the director of several homeless shelters in Athens, Ohio. He’s the king of a dubious empire, and business is booming. Athens is tucked away in the southeast corner of the state, thirty miles from the West Virginia border. There may be a higher percentage of homeless people in and around Athens, Ohio than in any other town in America. There’s a 20,000-student university there, and a few thousand former coal miners who, if they work at all, now work at the Taco Bell on Court Street or the Wal-Mart out on State Street because... read more
Lists
Every year, my favorite/least favorite issue of Paste Magazine is the one where the year’s best albums, films, and books are ranked. Every year Paste gets it completely wrong. This is because they don’t publish my own rankings. Most people seem to operate according to these sensibilities as well, except they’re not me, and therefore I disagree with them. They all suck. Among the charges leveled at Paste’s recently published list of the Best Albums of 2007: -- What a lame-ass, mainstream list. Why can’t you be adventurous and cool, like me? -- Who the hell has even heard of... read more
Hating Led Zeppelin
I hated Led Zeppelin for a long time. Part of it was the presence of those interminable songs about Gollum and Valhalla at every stonerfest, and earnest stoned mystics proclaiming the utter heaviosity of it all. Part of it was my aggrieved sense of injustice, knowing that Page and Plant had ripped off deserving blues musicians wholesale and credited their non-creations to, you guessed it, Page and Plant. And part of it was pure and simple jealousy. Okay, it irritated me that these Viking hippies could have their pick of an unending line of groupies and still have enough testosterone... read more
Walk Hard
Good musical parody walks a fine line. Play it too broadly and it’s good for a laugh the first time, and then you never want to revisit it again. Who wants to listen to a comedy routine when you already know the punch lines? Play it too subtly and it’s just not that memorable. Why listen to an imitation of serious artists when you can listen to the real thing? Walk Hard, the soundtrack to the John C. Reilly spoof of musical biopics, gets it just right. Covering a dizzying variety of musical styles, from ‘50s rockabilly through ‘60s folkie... read more
Watermelon Slim
Seeing his picture, you might think you’re looking at Tom Waits tricked out for the Grand Ol’ Opry. But nope, that’s Watermelon Slim. And Watermelon Slim is one Delta Mack Daddy, the most exciting and authentic blues performer I’ve heard in years. Surely the ghosts of Muddy and the Wolf are smiling. Mr. W. Slim is one William P. Homans of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma—Vietnam veteran, truck driver, forklift operator, sawmiller, firewood salesman, collection agent, funeral-parlor director, small-time criminal, watermelon farmer, college graduate times three, and member of Mensa. You can hear all that and more in his songs, which have... read more
In Praise of Obscurity
In the current issue of Paste, esteemed music critic Geoffrey Himes laments the decentralization of the music industry, and points out that his favorite album of 2007 will go unnoticed, even by most ardent music fans. And I’ll see Geoffrey’s obscure artist and raise him two: my three favorite albums of 2007 are by a Boston wunderkind named Ezra Furman, a bunch of Ohio indie rockers called Southeast Engine, and a Virginia country/folk neo-hippie named Devon Sproule. Who? Are those albums better than the ones released by Bruce Springsteen, Arcade Fire, and The National, the albums that occupy the top... read more
Deer Season
Today is the start of gun deer season in Ohio, a high holy day for Bubba and Wanda and their progeny. Schools are closed in many counties in southeastern Ohio, not because of weather or natural disaster, but because the savvy superintendants have learned that little Maideen and Bubba Jr. are going to be out hunting with pa, and won’t be bothered by little things like homework. Supper’s on the line. And so I bring you a very special high holy day playlist: 1. Twin Killers – Deerhoof 2. Sun – Lost Fawn 3. Peace and Quiet – The Rifles... read more
Worst Christmas Albums of All Time?
Let the fun begin. But here’s my nomination: I recently received Conway Twitty’s 1983 album A Twismas Story with Twitty Bird and Their Little Friends. This may possibly be the nadir of recorded music in the 20th century. First, Conway sounds like he’s been pulled away from the honky-tonk to fulfill some contractual obligations. Various reindeer songs appear, as do songs about snowmen, and someone called “Happy the Christmas Clown.” A vocal group that may be The Ray Conniff singers accompanies Conway, and adds that special sixties holiday schlock to the proceedings, chiming in with “like a lightbulb” after Conway... read more
Coheed and Cambria, I’m Not There Soundtrack, John Fogerty
Coheed and Cambria – No World for Tomorrow There are concept albums, and then there are meta-concept musical careers. NYC’s Coheed and Cambria are now four albums into an ongoing saga about something or other, revisiting musical motifs and lyrical themes that all vaguely seem to tie in to Rush’s 2112 and dystopian visions of a dark future. Be very afraid. To their credit, these guys have the prog-rock chops to pull it off, and lead singer/songwriter Claudio Sanchez has clearly absorbed some valuable histrionics lessons at the Shrine of St. Geddy Lee. But for better or worse, this music... read more
Favorite Songs of 2007
Yeah, I know, there are still two months left in the year. So things could change. But it just seemed time for a new list because: 1) Lists are fun. 2) Lists are educational, and 3) Lists provide the illusion of order and objectivity to our increasingly chaotic and inscrutable lives. So this is the 4-CD box set, complete with 64-page illustrated booklet and collectible “Best Songs of 2007” trading cards. I dearly love all these songs, all of which have been released this year. And since they cross genres and moods, I won’t even begin to try to fit... read more
The Year of the Runner Up
* January, 2007—The Ohio State Buckeyes lose to the Florida Gators in the NCAA Football Championship Game * April, 2007—The Ohio State Buckeyes lose to the Florida Gators in the NCAA Basketball Championship Game * June, 2007—The Cleveland Cavaliers lose to the San Antonio Spurs in the National Basketball Association Finals * October, 2007—The Cleveland Indians lose to the Boston Red Sox in the Major League Baseball American League Championship Series. You can tell a lot about a city by its airport(s). I recently traveled to Europe and witnessed this firsthand. In Atlanta’s Hartsfield airport, where I had a three-hour... read more
Bruce Springsteen Finds the Old Magic
I want a thousand guitars I want pounding drums I want a million different voices Speaking in tongues -- Bruce Springsteen, “Radio Nowhere” Me too. I’ve heard all the arguments: Bruce Springsteen, at 58 years old (with heavy emphasis on “old”), should not be making rock ‘n roll records. There’s something unseemly about it, like Laura Bush wearing a bikini. And he’s made a derivative rock ‘n roll record at that, one that plunders dubious musical treasures such as Tommy Tutone’s “867-5309 (Jenny),” as well as his own back catalogue. You know what? I don’t care. It’s still Magic. That... read more
Levon Helm—Dirt Farmer
Levon Helm, iconic drummer and singer in The Band, is back with a miracle of an album. I don’t think that’s an exaggeration, and Helm would surely agree, as his liner notes attest. Helm almost lost his life to throat cancer a few years back. He most assuredly lost his voice. So the fact that he is singing at all is significant. The fact that he is singing this well is almost mind-boggling. The man is 67 years old, has been to hell and back, and he sounds as great as he did on “The Night They Drove Old Dixie... read more
Chip Taylor and Carrie Rodriguez—Live from the Ruhr Triennale
Chip Taylor has led a nomadic life. The brother of actor John Voight, Chip started off with a less-than-successful stint as a professional golfer, dabbled as a songwriter and did pretty well for himself, writing hits in the ‘60s for The Hollies, Janis Joplin, and Merrilee Rush, wrote the proto-garage anthem “Wild Thing” (yes, that one, for better and worse), journeyed to Hollywood and acted for a while (Melvin and Howard), and dropped out of the music business for twenty years and survived as a professional gambler. But he saved the best act for last, re-emerging six years ago as... read more
A.J. Roach—Revelation
Folksinger A.J. Roach may call San Francisco home, but he’s got the mountains and hollers of his native southwestern Virginia deep in his veins. It turns out he may have other things in his veins as well. And when you put that together, you end up with one hell of an Appalachian confessional album, called Revelation, replete with biblical imagery and harrowing addiction stories set to gentle banjo, mandolin and fiddle accompaniment. “Revelation” is right. The power of this album lies in the juxtaposition of the traditional mountain gospel accompaniment and iconography with the tales from the gutter. Consider Roach’s... read more
Hey Hey, They’re the Granddaddies of Country Rock
With all due respect to Gram Parsons and Bob Dylan, the real shitkickin’ granddaddy of country rock was a Hollywood star, and a Monkee. It happened a full year before Parsons introduced Merle Haggard and the Louvin Brothers to the hippies with the International Submarine Band’s Safe At Home and The Byrds’ Sweetheart of the Rodeo. And it happened a full two years before Dylan emerged as the country squire on Nashville Skyline. Mike Nesmith was the granddaddy’s name, and his music is now all but forgotten in the ongoing hipster backlash against the Prefab Four. It shouldn’t be. I... read more
Anders Osborne—Coming Down
First, the bad news: Anders Osborne’s latest album is highly derivative, and he does little more than channel early ‘70s Van Morrison. Now, the good news: Anders Osborne’s latest album is highly derivative, and he does little more than channel early ‘70s Van Morrison. Since the new Van can’t sing like the old Van, there’s something to be said for imitation, particularly when you can scat off into the mystic like this guy. There’s also something totally delightful about the Swedish ex-pat Osborne, long a resident of New Orleans, paying homage to the iconoclastic Belfast legend. Call it international chutzpah.... read more
Patti Scialfa—Play It As It Lays
It’s not her fault that Patti Scialfa must go through life known as Mrs. Bruce Springsteen. Patti had her own (admittedly lowkey) musical career before she met The Boss, and she’s sporadically released solo albums throughout her marriage. And they’ve been fine, albeit a little too reliant at times on Broooooce iconography and E-Street accompaniment to put them across. But Patti’s new album Play It As It Lays, out today, is her first real musical triumph. She gets it exactly right, and she’s very much her own woman. Sure, Bruce is here, and contributes on guitar and harmonica, and fellow... read more
Uncle Tupelo’s Kids
It’s been almost fifteen years since the Great Uncle Tupelo Schism rocked the music world. Okay, perhaps I exaggerate. Outside of Belleville, Illinois and the minds and hearts of a few thousand dedicated fans, probably not many people even noticed. But I did, and I mourned for a couple years before the first Wilco and Son Volt albums appeared. The chief protagonists, Jeff Tweedy and Jay Farrar, have certainly moved on to bigger and better things in the intervening years – Tweedy with Wilco, and Farrar with Son Volt. But, truth be told, as much as I like them now,... read more
People Take Warning!
In 1930, commercial radio was still a novelty, and television and CNN were as fanciful as the notion of travel to Alpha Centauri. In the rural southern United States, still largely bereft of electrical power, news traveled slowly, and was usually conveyed not by professional journalists, but by itinerant musicians who set up shop on the steps of the general store, or in the jukejoint on the outskirts of town. People Take Warning!, a 3-CD box set about to be released by Tompkins Square Records, collects 70 topical songs recorded between 1927 and 1938. These are songs you might have... read more
The 20 Best Gadgets of the Decade…
The 17 Best Romantic Comedies This Decade
The 50 Best Albums of the Decade…
The 25 Best Movie Performances of the…
The 20 Best Live Acts of the…
Kim Taylor - Days Like this
Blind Pilot - The Story I Heard
Gregory Alan Isakov - The Moon Song
Patrick Watson - Man Like You
Punch Brothers - Punch Brothers at CMJ
David Bazan - Hard To Be
Anya Marina - Whatever You Like
