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  • Deep Cuts: Guitar Gods Who Aren’t

    Rock guitar gods go all the way back to Robert Johnson.  The list is well-worn and not worth repeating, but regardless of whether you lean toward bluesy legends or fierce shredders chances are that the “guitar god” cliché conjures a certain image in your tinnitus-addled noggin. But guitar virtuosity extends well beyond the “Hello Cleveland!” crowd. …

  • 77. Everyone’s Breaking Past My Speed Of Sound

    I couldn’t handle the hours at Hardee’s.  Not only was I barely squeaking through the eleventh grade, but on my way home from work one Sunday I woke up in the oncoming traffic lane. And so one afternoon at Camelot Music while paying for a copy of The Clash’s Give ‘Em Enough Rope I asked the…

  • The Black Keys with Arctic Monkeys, Power Balance Pavilion 5/05/2012

    Power Balance Pavilion is the home of the NBA’s Sacramento Kings, at least for now.  The team’s owners have been trying hard to hold the city hostage for a new arena, a flavor of legal thuggery that has been going on all over the United States for a number of years now.   The theory goes…

  • Beastie Boy Adam “MCA” Yauch: 1964-2012

    Son of a bitch, I wasn’t ready for this one.  Adam Yauch has been battling cancer for several years, but the party line has always sounded so positive.  We should’ve known when he didn’t appear with his fellow Beasties at their recent Hall Of Fame induction that it was more serious than the official statements made it sound.…

  • From The Stacks: The Harmonicats Dolls Dolls Dolls

    I know what you’ve been wondering: Why can’t my love of creepy dolls and harmonicas be satisfied in one hi-fidelity package?  It can.  Oh, it can.

  • On My Turntable: Noctourniquet

     The Mars Volta remains the most interesting major label act, an informal title they’ve held since their debut album in 2003.  Nothing about their work is simple even when it is, nor is it straightforward.  Their new album, Noctourniquet, is no exception. I’ve been living with this album for two weeks now, literally playing it…

  • 76. Return Of The Son Of Cutout Bin

    I have a dish of songs next to me that have coagulated into that one giant chunk of striped hard candy that grandmothers try to palm off onto unsuspecting kids.  None of these songs have a full story behind them, but they evoke too strong of memories to dismiss them.  So grab your candy lump and…

  • From The Stacks: The Big Beat: A Rock Blast

    There were two establishments in Upstate South Carolina in the Seventies and Eighties that were the go-to insults.  “Your mama is on Bull Street” meant “your mother is in the loony bin.”  The other batshit crazy institution was Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. For those of you unfamiliar with BJU (yep, BJU), I recommend…

  • From The Stacks: Earl Meyers Sings Praises

    . Oh, the classic double exposure,  a favorite of small town photography studios for years.  Sure, the library backdrop makes the subject appear intellectual, the split rail fence or wagon wheel brings out the subject’s folksiness.  But the only way to truly capture the multifaceted Earl Meyers is with the double exposure.  Here’s terrestrial Earl smiling right at us.  “Don’t I remind…

  • Deep Cuts: Bicycle Songs

    I love bicycles, absolutely love them.  I love riding them, looking at them, working on them, rescuing them, restoring them.  There is no more democratic form of mechanical conveyance than the bicycle, which is how the overwhelming majority of the world uses them.  Here in the United States we use them mostly as toys for…