First the title: as far as Flaming Lips album names go, the band hits a sweet spot with this one. Whereas previous titles like In a Priest Driven Ambulance and Transmissions from the Satellite Heart have a bit of a corny aftertaste and ones like Telepathic Surgery and Clouds Taste Metallic are overly acid-fried, Yoshimi [...]
The Cure – Faith
16 April 2012 by Leave a Comment
The Cure is a confusing group to parse. They’ve always had a reputation for being all gloom and doom — an aesthetic likely informed by Robert Smith‘s black dandelion haircut and mousey stage persona — but the span of their career has been eclectic to say the least. Their first albums, for example, were filled [...]
Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures
20 June 2011 by Leave a Comment
Joy Division has enjoyed a bit of a reboot in fame lately. Four years ago, Ian Curtis’ biopic was brought to big screens in moody black-and-white. Ten years ago, it seemed like only the graying goths and moody punks were the true fans. Twenty years ago, I imagine it was hard to look at the [...]
Low – Long Division
16 May 2011 by Leave a Comment
I was high as a kite but the guy next to me was higher. I weaved in and out of neighborhoods and got the feeling that I was looking for something I couldn’t name. Whatever it was, it needed the music to be on and loud. The night sky was bleached with a blanket of [...]
Kraftwerk – The Man-Machine
14 December 2010 by 1 Comment
Seventeen years old, a junior at an all-boys Jesuit high school, and breaking away from a teenage goth phase and the social stigmas associated with black trenchcoats in Southern California. That was where I was when I first heard Kraftwerk’s The Man-Machine. As for where I was physically, it was the room above a garage [...]
Bloodhound Gang – Hooray for…
Packaging: Good/Bad/Horrifying
Chrome - Half Machine Lip Moves
Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon...
Guest Post at Fleur-de-Violette