Carrie & Lowell

By R.J. | Published: March 27, 2015


Band: Sufjan Stevens
Album: Carrie & Lowell
Best song: “Fourth of July”
Worst song: “Drawn to the Blood” is not as strong as the rest of the record.

There’s a conversation to be had about Sufjan Stevens, his religiosity, his skillset, his campiness and his general whiteness (I believe Pitchfork touched on the whiteness of the indie scene here). There are connections there, most certainly, but I can’t put them together right now. To use an overly obnoxious cliche: What do we talk about when we talk about Stevens? Is it one of those things above? Is it his popularity that seemingly came out of nowhere, only to be somewhat wasted on Christmas songs?  Read More »

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Singles

By R.J. | Published: March 17, 2015


Band: Various
Album: Singles
Best song: “Birth Ritual” and “Would?” are classics.
Worst song: “Waiting For Somebody” is so so dumb.

Part of being old is the mistaken belief that the thing from one’s youth are the best things to have ever existed. I’ve written about it a million times, but — if I can pat myself on the back here for a minute — I do try to buck that trend. Balancing the “everything new is the best” with “everything from my youth is the best” is a tough road to hoe, but here we are. Read More »

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Prism

By R.J. | Published: February 21, 2015


Band: Katy Perry
Album: Prism
Best song: “Roar,” I guess.
Worst song: “Unconditionally” is bad.

Despite my general disdain for the National Football League, I really like having a party for its biggest event. I would agree with what Natalie Shure said this year.

Secondarily, I make chili, get some desserts and have people over. Also, the Super Bowl always falls near my birthday, so the get-together gets to be a pseudo birthday party I throw for myself. I get all the good things about such a party (get my friends in one place, eat like a glutton, etc.), without having to be the center of attention.

Read More »

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St. Vincent

By R.J. | Published: December 9, 2014


Band: St. Vincent
Album: St. Vincent
Best song: “Digital Witness” is certainly the smartest of the songs on the record.
Worst song: “I Prefer Your Love” is good, but nothing special.

It’s that time of the year: Everyone with a voice is talking about their favorite things of 2014. I don’t make “Albums of the Year” a thing, largely because what do I know? But it’s also because my tastes are pretty specific, however vast and omnivorous they tend to be (For example: The Pusha T record is great, but I feel less-than-qualified to write about it). I’ve already written about two of my favorite albums of the year so far: Banks’ debut record Goddess and Emma Ruth Rundle’s Some Heavy Ocean. The third is St. Vincent’s self-titled record.  Read More »

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Mic City Sons

By R.J. | Published: November 24, 2014


Band: Heatmiser
Album: Mic City Sons
Best song: “Plainclothes Man” is among Elliott Smith’s best songs.
Worst song: I am lukewarm on “Eagle Eye.”

I’ve referenced this before, but Patton Oswalt has a track on his record Werewolves and Lollipops called “At Midnight, I Will Kill George Lucas With a Shovel.” The premise is that if we like a thing, we don’t always want to see where that thing came from, but rather we want to see that thing. He uses the comparison of Jon Voight’s ball sack and Angelina Jolie to young Anakin/Darth Vader in The Phantom Menace. Read More »

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Electric Guitar One

By R.J. | Published: November 21, 2014


Band: Emma Ruth Rundle
Album: Electric Guitar One
Best song: “For Paul”
Worst song: “Dialogue Preceding”

One of the self-evident parts of fandom is the strange reality of coming near the subject of said fandom. I suspect it’s not a real thing for super duper mainstream artists.

Let me back up.

I’ve interviewed a bunch of musicians in my life and have, generally, taken to the idea that they’re just people. Name-dropping isn’t going to do me any good, but meeting people like Chris Walla or Ike Brock or Wayne Coyne or Doug Martsch didn’t bother me; ultimately, they were just some dudes.  Read More »

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Wildflowers

By R.J. | Published: November 21, 2014


Band: Tom Petty
Album: Wildflowers
Best song: The title track is one of my favorite Petty songs.
Worst song: “Hard on Me” isn’t the best.

After the Concert for Valor, I had an interesting conversation with my boss (a big Springsteen fan) about a certain brand of straight rock and roll and its place in society. He referenced U2 as the type of band that’s, basically, always been relevant since inception, yet never really fell into the dreaded “classic rock” category that many bands of that vintage do. Springsteen is in that category, but most bands of that and earlier eras most certainly do not; Zeppelin, Dylan, the Stones, REM, etc. are still giants, but when they tour, they do the hits. No new stuff. Shit, Concert for Valor artists Metallica thinks themselves the former, but are most definitely the latter. It’s hard to avoid. Read More »

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So Much For The Afterglow

By R.J. | Published: November 20, 2014


Band: Everclear
Album: So Much For The Afterglow
Best song: “Everything to Everyone” is very catchy.
Worst song: “Hating You For Christmas” is as dumb as the title suggests.

Recency bias is a funny thing. Because I want to rewrite my own history, I tend to claim my high school years were soundtracked by a combination of underground 80s/90s punk (Big Black, Naked Raygun, Rodan, Fugazi, etc.), classic rock/punk (The Who, the Kinks, Beatles, Clash, etc.), prog (mostly Genesis, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull and King Crimson) and, eventually, era-appropriate indie rock (this is where my love of Smog, Tortoise, June of 44 and the like started). That’s certainly the vast majority of the story, but it is not, shall we say, the entire story. Read More »

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Goddess

By R.J. | Published: November 19, 2014


Band: Banks
Album: Goddess
Best song: “Brain” is brilliant.
Worst song: “Warm Water” is not my favorite.

I first came across Banks because of her acoustic cover of Aaliyah’s “Are You That Somebody” that was splashed across every music blog in the world over the summer. Being a huge fan of that song, I listened to that cover hundreds of times, along with the acoustic version of Banks’ song “Brain” recorded during the same session. Read More »

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Some Heavy Ocean

By R.J. | Published: July 20, 2014


Band: Emma Ruth Rundle
Album: Some Heavy Ocean
Best song: “Run Forever” is the most-played song on Spotify and is a great song. Really, I like every song on the album a ton. “We ARe All Ghosts” is my current favorite, but that changes weekly.
Worst song: I’ll cop out and say “You Card the Sun” is the worst, because it’s an interstitial.

I meet a lot of people who say they “love live music” and I’m not totally sure what it means. I imagine some of it is because they want to support local and touring bands, but mostly I think it’s because it speaks to an idea of being hip and “in the scene.” And people like to go out or whatever. I guess. Read More »

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  • About Me

    I'm Ross Jordan Gianfortune. I am not a writer, but I sometimes write here about music and my life. I live in Washington, DC.

    I used to review each of Rolling Stone Magazine's top 500 albums of all time. Now I'm writing about albums I own.

    My work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Gazette, The Atlantic, Sno-Cone and a bunch of defunct zines.

    You can contact me at rjgianfortune at gmail dot com.

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