does the vocal this week throw off a bit of a we-have-your-daughter-and-we-want-our-money vibe?  that’s what you get with a B-grade Guitar Center mic and a glass desk, and a room more suitable to shooting a YouTube video on how to bedazzle your prom dress, than it is to recording.  somebody get Marc Maron on the […]

it’s all for, Damien.  spanking new stuff from Weaves, Wolf Parade & Lemon Twigs, along with some rough stuff from the ‘Mats and the Smiths, and Jarvis Cocker genuflecting graciously to Scott Walker.  all for the low, low price of nada. Weaves — #53  /  Wolf Parade — Valley Boy  /  Tera Melos — Don’t Say I Know  /  The Lemon Twigs — Night […]

a special 2-hour edition of the Water brings some classic reggae, a double-dose of Daddy Issues, new ones by Teen Vice, See Through Dresses, Japans Breakfast & Brightness, plus a temperamental turntable and a host who doesn’t even have the excuse of having shown up half in the bag. Teen Vice — Cochon Deluxe  /  Jason Loewenstein — Fall […]

I’m not here this week, but I’ve left this life-like approximation of my sensibilities, soundtracked to the best low-budget music a nonprofit station can afford.  David Nance channels Merle Haggard, GBV have yet-another-album coming, and otherwise it’s a lotta stuff from 6 to 9 months ago because I didn’t have time to listen to all […]

the very very good Cymbals Eat Guitars blew into town and cut a fantastic 30-min. session for us, that includes blistering live takes on their fan-fave “Chambers” plus “Well” & “Have a Heart” from the new album, Pretty Years. Joseph D’Agostino – gtr, vox Matt Whipple – bass Brian Hamilton – keybds Andrew Dole – […]

Ted Leo arrives 10 seconds before I do, which is why I sound breathless and even more incoherent than usual.  the 405 is a trickster fox — one minute, forgiving and seductive; the next, … just never mind.  PILL & Protomartyr are back.  all the best bands start with “P.”  except Poco. Ted Leo — You’re […]

I couldn’t take life’s often pallid soundtrack, without some skronking sax.  so thank gods PILL is back.  and it’s guitars on all sides, what with the likes of American Lips, Jason Loewenstein and King Gizzard giving the goods.  I dusted off an old R.E.M. boot and found a pricey Superdrag set to light the turntable […]

when I was 11, I couldn’t get a girl to talk to me, to save my life.  now, in the humbling throes of middle age, I’m surrounded by them.  here’s a few of them talking at me, in the first half.  their perspective is clear, their concerns are real, and their interests are our future.  […]

know what?  there’s not enough disk space on the drive in the studio.  know what else?  that’s why the show intro and the first break now live out in the ether with Richey Edwards, all of my family photos, and the digital Star Wars watch I left in Orlando in 1981.  the rest is intact […]

do you smell the wax?  Open Water made an all-too-rare foray into the glossy black world of vinyl on this show, of necessity, since the B Boys’ new whack wouldn’t see release til the next morning.  so worth all the technial miasma it took, just to get one song to play from one record on […]