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  • From The Stacks: KISS ALIVE II

    By the time KISS Alive II was released in 1977, the mighty KISS machine was essentially a money press. In three and a half short years, Casablanca Records managed to stuff the record bins with nine different KISS packages, six of which were original material. If that sounds like a lot of product, consider this:…

  • Throw Beck Thursday: That Time I Met ‘Peter Criss’

    KISS released Unmasked shortly after my thirteenth birthday.  I begged my sister to drive me to the record store the day it was released.  Brand new KISS!  I couldn’t wait to get it on the turntable.

  • Deep Cuts: Car Crash Songs

    This is a list that can go on and on. Car and motorcycle crash songs were an early rock and roll genre (“Leader of the Pack,” for example), and their popularity enjoyed a short revival with Meat Loaf’s “Bat Out Of Hell.” But those are too easy. This is “Deep Cuts,” after all, so here…

  • This Week On Paste: Santa Cruz Ale Works Kolsch

    What’s more fun than rolling into a new town and sampling the local microbrew? Not much. Here’s the verdict on Santa Cruz Ale Works Kolsch.

  • 184. And Butterflies Are Free To Fly

    The memory is incomplete: Exterior, Day. Jody and I are eastbound on Sunset Boulevard in her Chrysler Cordoba. I’m driving. The radio is off for some reason: maybe we’re arguing about something. We idle at a stoplight. The car to my left is filled with girls our age laughing loudly. I turn to see what’s…

  • Foxy Shazam, 08/02/14, Assembly Music Hall

    Foxy Shazam is one  of those bands you simply get or you don’t. Ten years into their career they still refuse to adhere to any one genre, which delighted rather than confused the loyal fans who turned out for their show last night at Sacramento’s Assembly Music Hall. Front man Eric Sean Nally came out…

  • From The Stacks: Moe Bandy – I Just Started Hatin’ Cheatin’ Songs Today

     I Just Started Hatin’ Cheatin’ Songs Today is country legend Moe Bandy’s 1974 debut album. If you like your country with harmonies, pedal steel guitar, fiddles, and drinkin’, Moe is your feller. Check out “Honky Tonk Amnesia”:

  • On My Turntable: Closure In Moscow – Pink Lemonade

    What do you get when you mix Jamiroquai, The Mars Volta, Porcupine Tree, and Led Zeppelin? You get several gigabytes of space in my music library for one, but more importantly you get Closure In Moscow’s sophomore album, Pink Lemonade.

  • From the Stacks: Harry Chapin-Cats in the Cradle

    My kids and I were in the car when Harry Chapin’s “Cats in the Cradle” came up in the rotation. “Listen to this,” I said, and I turned it up a little. “This is the saddest song ever written.” “Why is it so sad?” my daughter asked. “Just listen.”

  • Throw Beck Thursday: The Things In My Pockets

    My grandfather had great pockets. He wore denim shirts with mother of pearl snaps, and in the left breast pocket he usually carried a pack of smokes. Sometimes he’d go on a roll your own kick, and that’s when his shirt pockets were the most interesting: a drawstring bag of tobacco in one and cigarette…