Category Archives: Appreciations

The Post-Rockist Post-Rad Mix of ’09: Hazy, late summer jams and wobbly-kneed joints

I could have been productive this weekend, I could have been social. Instead, I wasted way too much of my time on mp3 blogs, digging through elbo.ws trying to catch up with various of-the-moment bands — bands whose careers may very well only last as long as it takes to press play on a single [...]
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Win a Titus Andronicus 12″ – Live in London!

Post-Rockist stalwarts Titus Andronicus are coming to the Firebird next Tuesday. They play an unapologetically rough and raw style of rock & roll that’s best taken in a live setting to appreciate, and as it turns out, we’ve got one copy of a live Titus Andronicus 12″ to give away to our readers. The Innocents [...]
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R.I.P. Ellie Greenwich, 1940-2009

From the Los Angeles Times: Ellie Greenwich, the New York songwriter behind a string of 1960s hits that gave effervescent voice to unbridled teen romance including “Da Doo Ron Ron,” “Chapel of Love” and “Be My Baby,” many of them in collaboration with producer Phil Spector, died Wednesday of a heart attack, according to her [...]
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St. Vincent and Camera Obscura, acoustic in France, presumably to mix electric and acoustic in St. Louis

Normally I try not to be one of those bloggers who just regurgitates his spam box as a way of approximating personal taste, but this particular blast from, I think, “Grand Crew” caught my attention, and not just because it was HTML-embedded with obnoxious hypercolor neons and mostly written in an obscure European language I [...]
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We’re still around even if we’re not always here

Bill Withers – “Ain’t No Sunshine” (buy) [Audio clip: view full post to listen] The Magnetic Fields – “I Don’t Believe in the Sun” (buy) [Audio clip: view full post to listen] Jay Reatard – “There Is No Sun” (buy) [Audio clip: view full post to listen] Hi everybody! I know I’ve heard from a [...]
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R.I.P. Les Paul

The Wizard of Waukesha, Les Paul, is dead at 94. Without this man, rock & roll as we know it probably wouldn’t exist. It’s tempting to say that about a lot of music legends, but the man who pioneered both the solid-body guitar and multi-track recording has a pretty convincing claim to the title. Here [...]
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JJ on Lil Wayne, Jumbling Towers on Kanye West

[Audio clip: view full post to listen] JJ – “Ecstacy” (from JJ No. 2) I like this album. JJ are a nebulous Swedish group, shrouded in manufactured mystery and gauzy layers of shoegazer synth. They’re signed to The Tough Alliance’s Sincerely Yours imprint, which means they share TTA’s characteristic soft dance pop aesthetic, but they [...]
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