Helplessness Blues

Posted on September 22, 2011 by R.J.

Band: Fleet Foxes
Album: Helplessness Blues
Best song: “Montezuma.”
Worst song: “Lorelai” isn’t much.

Next week, Geffen Records is releasing a 20-year-anniversary edition of Nevermind. I’m 30 years old, so the album’s original release wasn’t the seminal moment it was for those a few years my senior, but the album itself is seminal. Nirvana introduced me to the underground and was one of the first bands that I actually cared enough about to become a junior fanboy for. For my 13th birthday, for example, I received the Nirvana singles box. That set contained all the CD singles from the band. Those b-sides were epic for a preteen punk/indie rocker. Continue reading →

Hawk

Posted on September 22, 2011 by R.J.

Band: Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan
Album: Hawk
Best song: “You Won’t Let Me Down Again” is the best song on the record.
Worst song: I’m not in love with “No Place to Fall,” as Willy Mason doesn’t do it for me.

Let me preface this by saying that this entire piece is mostly my trying to rationalize my being super judgemental. So, take whatever follows with a giant grain of salt. Similarly, I am not humorless, I assure you. I just come off that way because I’m going through my usual existential crises.

One of my close friends got married in 2010 — long story short: my friend is awesome and she had her wedding at the zoo — and I’ll never forget talking to her a bit about dating and her saying one of the most prescient things I’ve ever heard about me and my dating preferences:

Continue reading →

L’amore Non è Bello

Posted on September 16, 2011 by R.J.

Band: Dente
Album: L’amore Non è Bello
Best song: “A me piace lei” is the album’s grand optimistic — though, mostly aspirational — point and is a great song, but “Buon appetito” has the best arrangement, lyrics and vocal work.
Worst song: Probably “Quel mazzolino.”

I’ve long said that the best love songs are the sad ones. There’s value in songs like “Something,” but overwhelmingly, the best songs are the ones that speak to melancholy, confusion and unrequited love. I’m not sure why this is. Continue reading →

April

Posted on September 14, 2011 by R.J.

Band: Sun Kil Moon
Album: April
Best song: “Lost Verses.” All 9:43 of it.
Worst song: “Heron Blue” is good, but the weakest song on an excellent set.

In baseball (here I go again about baseball), there is a phenomenon of the age-27 season (though, many would suggest otherwise). It was thought that baseball players generally peak during their age-27 seasons, as the general baseball player peak is 25-29.

I am not a professional ballplayer, of course. I am a regular schmoe. Indeed, I turned 27 in 2008, though I didn’t anticipate it to be the most tide-turning year in my adult life. Continue reading →

The Lost Tracks of Danzig

Posted on September 6, 2011 by R.J.

Band: Danzig
Album: The Lost Tracks of Danzig
Best song: The cover of “Cat People” says a lot about Glenn, doesn’t it?
Worst song: Well, “White Devil Rise,” while not racist, is kind of strange. I don’t think Rick Rubin and Glenn Danzig taking on Louis Farrakhan (by explaining the inherent malevolence of a race war) is the best of ideas. Also, it’s a crappy song.

I have a friend — we used to be closer, but he and I have grown apart, as all adult friendships separated by 700 miles are wont to do — who is the picture of a certain kind of masculinity. Continue reading →

Show Your Bones

Posted on September 1, 2011 by R.J.

Band: Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Album: Show Your Bones
Best song: “Phenomena.”
Worst song: “Honey Bear.”

I’ve told this story before, most assuredly, in this or another space, but it’s always worth repeating. During the fall of my freshman year of college (1999, for those following), Eric Bachmann, Superchunk and Guided by Voices played a show at the local club in town. I was trying too get in with the radio people, so I naturally attended said show and promptly looked for radio people with whom to cozy up. While Bachmann was finishing up his set, John — one of the people to whom I look up and someone I idolized at the time — said something to me that I found outstandingly smart.

“Both these bands have been playing the same song for 15 years. I just like the Superchunk song better.” Continue reading →

Silent Alarm

Posted on August 17, 2011 by R.J.

Band: Bloc Party
Album: Silent Alarm
Best song: “Helicopter”
Worst song: “Luno” is not the best.

I’ve mentioned my time in sportswriting a little bit, but it’s worth noting that sport is a large part of my life. Baseball is, specifically, something I enjoy quite a bit. I’ve mentioned my love of softball before, but professional baseball is a particular passion of mine.

In fact, it was 2005 that my best friend and I combined our blogs to write about Chicago baseball together. The blog, essentially, lasted five years. I stopped writing right around the time Taft passed away; neither of us had time to write baseball along with our other pursuits (graduate school, mostly). I also moved my interest back into writing about myself and my connection to music. Continue reading →

Funeral

Posted on August 5, 2011 by R.J.

Band: Arcade Fire
Album: Funeral
Best song: “Rebellion (Lies)”
Worst song: The album ender, “In The Backseat,” does not impress me.

On a first (might’ve been second, I don’t know) date recently, my companion and I were talking about irrational fears. She’d mentioned some of the things which she fears — included normal things like spiders and such and less-normal things. But, ultimately, tactical, real things which scare her. Irrationally, probably, but real, physical things. Continue reading →

Sing the Sorrow

Posted on August 2, 2011 by R.J.

Band: AFI
Album: Sing the Sorrow
Best song: “The Leaving Song Pt. II” is a great shout-along song.
Worst song: “Dancing Through Sunday” isn’t very good.

I would say that 2003 was a great year to graduate college, but, ultimately, I don’t know any other year to graduate college. By happenstance of my birth and my upbringing, 2003 was the year I graduated college.

It was, however, the year that I entered the workforce for good. It definitely is in the running for most important year of my life. So much happened that year for me. I went to India. I got my first full-time job. I got a part-time job at my dream location, thanks to a helping hand from a celebrity. I moved, officially, out of my mom’s house. I moved out to the DC area that year. It was a big deal year. Continue reading →

Control

Posted on July 18, 2011 by R.J.

Band: Pedro the Lion
Album: Control
Best song: “Rapture” has the best guitar work.
Worst song: I don’t care for the production on “Progress.”

Maybe this is a function of my home life growing up or maybe it’s a function of simple disposition as a person. Maybe I’m naïve. But, everyone likely has a moment when it comes into stark reality that your parents are not authorities in the way that their word is their bond always. And that they make mistakes that we, as kids, make. Continue reading →

Albums That I Own

I write about albums. Albums that I own.

Category Archives: 30 Years