Why It Matters

Blog

wimwords.com/

Profile

wimwords.com/author/jostafford

Homepage

jamesostafford.com

  • From the Stacks: Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited

    I bought this album at a friends of the library book sale for one reason: To impress the super hot hippie chick, Tuesday. It didn’t work, but nothing did.

  • From the Stacks: Graham Central Station – Ain’t No ‘Bout-A-Doubt It

    Let’s talk about the legendary Larry Graham, the inventor of the “thump and pluck” style of bass playing without which we’d have no funk. We can stop right there, can’t we? That’s reason enough to give the man a Nobel.

  • Deep Cuts, Reader’s Choice: Simon Jones

    Simon is one of my favorite Twitter mates, and he runs a killer blog well worth your time. Even though he’s in the UK, he’s been bitten by the same layoff bug that has taken down so many Americans in the last few years. Like any good music geek, he took to his playlist for…

  • 147. Senseless Working Overtime

    After the holidays I was back in Savannah and back to work in my new role as non-manager of Starship Records. I still had the keys, though, so 8 a.m. Monday morning I drove over to open up the store.

  • Peter Murphy, Uptown Theater Napa, 10/12/2013

    This was a rough night, and that wasn’t Peter Murphy’s fault. The band’s tour bus broke down, reportedly around Joshua Tree, so the show was doomed to a late start time. The press list was with the bus, so I was left stuck outside the venue for two hours while that got sorted out. Fortunately,…

  • From the Stacks: Peter Hammill – The Future Now

    I bought this album out of the cutout bin when I was a kid because I thought it must be some kind of Mick Fleetwood rarity. Man, was I wrong, thank goodness.

  • GMP Writing Prompts, Week of 10/14/13

    Here are some ideas for GMP Arts and Entertainment articles. Don’t see anything you like? Check out last week’s list. Still not finding anything? My door is wide open. Send me (jostaffordjr@gmail.com) what you have, what you want to pitch, or even your random thoughts. We’ll talk about them. Remember: First-person narratives in the 800-1,500…

  • From Robbo’s Stacks: Alice Cooper — Pretties for You

    I hope that this becomes becomes a regular WIM feature. Robbo is a good friend from my art school and record store days, and he has a killer record collection. He’s also a huge Alice Cooper fan, as you probably picked up from his first From the Stacks piece. He’s back again with Alice’s debut…

  • Why It Matters to Havok’s Reece Scruggs

    If you like your metal extra crispy, Havok is your band.  The band dates to 2004, but there have been quite a few line up changes along the way. Guitarist Reece Scruggs came on board in 2010, and the band is all the better for it. His solos are clean and straight to the point,…

  • Deep Cuts: Songs For Destruction

    I may have reduced a short story to smouldering rubble, but we’re prone to dive bomb all aspects of our lives: careers, relationships, health. Lately our government has been particularly adept at burning down the house, but what do they know? They’re just a bunch of talking heads. If you feel that urge to tear…