Sunday Music: Decent Gentlemen, Try And Understand (“Reeko” By NOFX)

July 5th. The parties are over, there’s a mess in the house and a bigger one in the backyard. I woke up thinking of “Reeko” by NOFX this morning. Sooner or later, the fun ends and you have to start cleaning up. That doesn’t just go for the rager that trashed your house. In case …

Sunday Music: New Playlist For June 2020

A new mix to close out June 2020. This is a little mellower than some of the last few (find more here), and it has less purely new stuff than normal. Still, it’s an early summer vibe. The world is a mess. It’s hot out. Might as well put the windows down and sing along …

Rick Rubin, Beastie Boys, And The Power Of Confidence

They were just a bunch of high school kids cutting class. He was the inexplicably connected college kid with a sound system, two turntables, and a vinyl library* in his dorm room where they would all hang out. When they started to make music as Beastie Boys, they remembered Rick Rubin making them feel like …

Sunday Music: Don’t Be Cruel (No, Not That One)

What do you know about Billy Swan? Nothing? Fine. Start here. His rendition of “Don’t Be Cruel” will make you completely rethink the Elvis version you’ve been hearing for years. Pay extra note to the break in the middle, right around the “walk up to the preacher” line. He’s building a tension I had never …

Sunday Music: April 29, 1992, There Was A Riot On The Streets Tell Me Where Were You?

When I first heard Sublime’s “April 29,1992” in the mid-90s I thought it was just some punk/anarchist stuff. These last few weeks it’s been one of the songs I’ve revisited several times. It’s not just about looting and rebelling, it’s about inequity. It’s about the dark side of our consumer culture, where when the things …

Lessons From The Rise Of Sub Pop Records

Sub Pop Records founders Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman said there were two critical things they got right in the early days of the label: wherever possible they cut out the middle man, and they focused on limited releases. Any business can borrow these basic principles. In the music industry, record labels would work with …

Sunday Music: La Grange

Have mercy. I finally watched the Netflix documentary, “That Little Ol’ Band from Texas,” about ZZ Top. Billy Gibbons reportedly went and ran around outside in the winter to get his voice to sound the way it does on “La Grange.” Creativity, dedication to the craft, and world-building, this band deserves a Harvard case study. …

Sunday Music: Sequestered In Memphis

If you can make an earworm with sequestered and subpoenaed in the lyrics, you get bonus points. I’ve been playing through some old playlists and re-stumbled upon this gem: “Sequestered in Memphis” by The Hold Steady. You’ll recognize some of the influences right away, but don’t get stuck on comparisons. There’s some crazy mix of …

Sunday Music: Playlist For May 2020

The spring of 2020: under quarantine, but still coming into summer. Here’s a playlist of some new (to me) and old favorites that I’ve been listening to. This one starts off pretty high energy, mellows into some R&B, drops in on some New Orleans horns, gets rocking, and then turns almost country (almost, but not …

Podcast Of The Week: Jason Isbell

“The last time people really needed the written word was when it was on the wall of a cave, ever since then it’s been a vanity project for all of us.” Songwriter/guitar player/poet/all-around fascinating human Jason Isbell pretty much starts there with Brian Koppelman (The Moment with Brian Koppelman podcast 5/12/20). All creative work is …