Debby was Bill Evans’ niece, but I like to imagine to myself that she was a mysterious stranger, swathed in cosmic mystery and down-tempo nonchalance. The silhouette on the front could be Debby. We assume it to be anyway. But it is wonderfully vague. Up close, the lines are blurred and unclear; the profile looks [...]
Dirty Beaches – Badlands
18 April 2011 by Leave a Comment
It’s sorta funny: no matter how many times I listen to Dirty Beaches’ Badlands (and it only came out a few weeks ago) I can’t manage to decipher anything about it. Maybe it’s the hypnotic rhythms or the cavernous reverb or the absolute lack of low end frequencies. Maybe it’s the near-perfect Chris Issak impression [...]
Johnny Cash – At Folsom Prison
29 November 2010 by Leave a Comment
As far as live music legends go, this is one of the big ones. Johnny Cash at one of the country’s first maximum security prisons singing songs about shooting a man in Reno “just to watch him die” to folks that have probably acted comparably. It’s the “Man in Black” singing songs that befit his title: [...]
Bob Dylan – Blonde on Blonde
19 November 2010 by 2 Comments
What can be said about Bob Dylan? He’s an artist of incalculable influence. To absorb his music is to understand one of the last remaining strains of 1960s Americana that isn’t tarnished with the muddy waters of faded memory and commercial nostalgia. That said (and I know this is a contestable point) Blonde On Blonde [...]
Blue Note Records
17 October 2010 by 3 Comments
Asking someone what the most iconic album cover is gets a ton of different responses. What you hear is based on generation/style/politics/shock value/etc: Nevermind, Dark Side of the Moon, Sticky Fingers, Never Mind the Bollocks, The Velvet Underground & Nico, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and so on. Credit should be given where it’s [...]
Kraftwerk - The Man-Machine
Tom Waits - Bone Machine
Pulp — Different Class
Lost in Translation OST
Wire - Chairs Missing