This song always takes me to simpler times. I used to live in a small colony near an oil refinery. The colony was for the workers and it had lots of leafy sections, a communal pool, and a palapa, w…

On the subject of catching up with rap acts, back in 2002 I spent Memorial Day in Arkansas with my family. We were visiting my brother and we went to Circuit City as they had a massive sale for CDs…

How? How is it possible that Hints, Allegations & Things left unsaid by Collective Soul is a demo? Sure. It’s rough, unpolished and needs a good mixing. But every track is a winner. No wo…

Autumn of 2002 is when I started filling out all the gaps I had on my rap collection. Mexico was never keen on the genre and it was hard and expensive to get albums, whether it was Notorious B.I.G.…

After the one-two punch of Laid and Wah Wah, both produced by Brian Eno, James’ time on the spotlight seemed wanting for extra innings. Singer Tim Booth, however, was also busy with his own s…

After the one-two punch of Laid and Wah Wah, both produced by Brian Eno, James’ time on the spotlight seemed wanting for extra innings. Singer Tim Booth, however, was also busy with his own s…

By the mid 80s, the AOR and MOR bands of the 70s had two choices: adopt to a mellower sound or face extinction. REO Speedwagon on their eleventh album, Wheels Are Turnin’ finds the band as fa…

File under “songs you spent a good chunk of a decade finding the name of”. Used to hear this damn song everywhere and whenever I tried to use Shazam, I would get the weirdest of results…

“I’ll listen to it later” is the common response we all have to classic acts when we kinda want to listen to them, but not make them a priority. As far as I remember, I heard abou…

I have nothing but utmost respect for Public Enemy. Spearheaded a movement and a scene. Fought against tide and time to get their albums released. Survived countless censorship attempts. With that …

I have nothing but utmost respect for Public Enemy. Spearheaded a movement and a scene. Fought against tide and time to get their albums released. Survived countless censorship attempts. With that …

File under “songs you didn’t understand when you were a kid”. Smalltown boy is Bronski Beat’s fabulous and heartbreaking debut single from 1984’s politically charged A…

Grouper is one of those “band’s bands” that I mentioned on yesterday’s post. A band or artist that is not well known for the general public, but plenty of artists and many m…

For younger generations, there’s always one sure fire way to find old great bands: their parents’ record collections. That’s always a great starting point. But as discerning music…

You know what I really miss from the 2010’s? In studio live versions of songs. Yeah, we still have them with KEXP and Tiny Desk, but stuff like Daytrotter, man, those things were amazing. Day…

Three things come to mind when I hear The Ramones: they were a fun band for good times, their rhythm was deceptively hard to play, and the video for Rock n Roll High School gave me nightmares. Gran…

The 90s found Johnny Cash going for that staple of music covers that many musicians branch out to eventually on their careers. You’ve seen it with Rod Stewart, you’ve seen with Barbra S…

The cake wasn’t a lie. At least that’s the takeaway from Low’s memorable and disturbing video for Breaker, one of their harshest sounding singles. Drums n Guns finds Low in one of…

Guadalupe Plata has many albums, all named Guadalupe Plata. Their bass player performed with a washtub bass. They have a song about a kitten. Their songs range from Psychobilly to Blues to Flamenco…

For the last few months, I’ve been clearing out my parents’ house. It’s been somewhat of a titanic shit show, as the more I stuff I believe I got rid off somehow still doesn&#8217…

When you think Weird Al Yankovic, you remember his parodies. From the Michael Jackson pisstakes to the lesser known Greg Kihn and Jurassic Park tributes, his knack for comedy is perfect. His polka …

The death of the author is a theory by Roland Barthes that posits that the ultimate meaning of a book lies in the reader, not the writer. I understand that you usually reflect yourself on media and…

1994’s San Francisco is American Music Club’s best album. Their seventh album, and the last before a long hiatus, finds the band with a polished sound that tightly holds to Mark Eitzel&…

Before youtube, the only chance you had to catch a video was either MTV (or any of its knock offs) or waiting ages to download on dial-up or any P2P program like limewire, bearshare, and the like. …

A friend once said that soundtracks are the new classical music. I agree wholeheartedly. The influence of composers like Rachmaninoff and Beethoven bubbles in songs from Star Trek, ET and more. Vid…

When I was a kid, I had this uncle who was a bit of a hero to everyone. He made the greatest parties, he always had a quick smile with a wink, could make the best drinks, and always made you laugh.…

The randomness of getting to know a band is always fascinating. Maybe you got a YouTube recommendation. Maybe you had a song in your head and through the magic of searching, you stumble upon that e…

A tragic song doesn’t necessarily have to be a slow song. Lakini’s Juice always felt like a song rooted in utter destruction, which I’ve always understood being self-control. Once…

Peter Gabriel always felt like “the guy with funny videos who went serious”. Blame it on the MTV megahit Sledgehammer. Or the lesser known follow up, Steam. Both songs have trippy, tech…

The previous post I wrote for Sloucher got me a warning from the AI censorbots from threads. Apparently, the cover art from Those Darlins counts as “sex solicitation”, or so says thread…

Many years ago, American Laundromat, an american Indie label, got in touch. They’ve read my constant bigging up of Repo Man and they had a tribute album to the film. I got a review copy and w…

Recently I checked my last.fm stats and found a curious factoid: I’ve listened to Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds thrice the time that I’ve listened to Oasis in the last 5 year…

I love writing. I’ve been writing since I was a kid, but only got “serious” around ’94, when I started fervently listening to music, both on CD and tape. I wasn’t too …

“His music’s rubbish, and he’s ginger” declares God (maybe?) at the end of 24 Hour Party People to Tony Wilson. Both portrayed by Steve Coogan. It’s a film I love but …

“We could never find Waylon” joked Willie Nelson on his VH1 Storyteller session with Johnny Cash. Ghost Riders in the Sky had just finished, and for my money, it’s the best versio…

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It’s a weird fact that a few decades ago, it seemed that an artist had a halflife of 3 albums (at most) or 6 music videos, if you go for MTV standards. The popularization of synths, which led…

“Women don’t sell records” is the infamous phrase thrown at Wanda Jackson in the late 50s. That probably sparked her furious energy that spilled into a long career in music. With …

A couple of years ago, I sat down and made a couple of playlists. One was for country music that reminded me of my childhood and family trips. The second one was for the country music I’ve di…

“Things ain’t what they used to be” is a staple of any genre, music or otherwise. It can be trite sometimes, a spot of “old man yelling at clouds” for the terminally o…

An unreleased track by the time of Cline’s tragic passing, Sweet Dreams (of you) was a further exploration of a pop-friendly side of Patsy Cline. Originally a Don Gibson track, Sweet Dreams (…

For some strange reason, I correlate country and the 70s as a single entity. Disco, punk, and AOR are surely a better reference for everyone, but in my case, I can’t see that decade as anythi…

EDIT: Terrible timing for this post, as I just heard the news. Thanks for all the music and my family memories, Ms. Parton. As a kid, I always thought that Parton’s song (and movie) 9 to 5 in…