Statesboro, Georgia. Jody and I are in a school gym. At one end of the floor rests a stage. Bodies press together to about half court, then the crowd trails off like […]
157. Disturbance at the Hanner House
Jeff Tweedy, Davis, California 12/11/2013
Jeff Tweedy’s performance at UC Davis’s Mondavi Center was so delicate that I was afraid I was going to break it — like fresh snow, so clean and perfect. Every step I […]
Deep Cuts: 1987
In story time we’re at 20 years after 20 years after Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play. 1987 was a remarkably good year for music, a kind of intersection for the […]
Deep Cuts: Station. Wagon.
They were big, they were ugly, and if anybody ever wrote a song about one I don’t have it in my stacks. So what’s a desperate playlist maker to do when deadline […]
Deep Cuts: New York
New York looms large in the American imagination, especially for creative types. That’s where it all happens: The Chelsea Hotel, The Cafe Wha?, SoHo, Greenwich Village. Brooklyn kids. Warriors, come out to […]
From the Stacks: Love Tractor – This Ain’t No Outerspace Ship
This was the one that was supposed to break Athens, Georgia’s Love Tractor nationally. Things didn’t work out that way, but it’s still a great album.
Deep Cuts: Safe and Normal
Only a nineteen-year-old man would bristle at being called “safe and normal.” At that age a guy looks in the mirror and sees “Wild One” Brando reflected back with no idea that […]
Deep Cuts: Help Me I Think I’m Falling
The big money moment in this week’s story was our hapless young protagonist slowly sliding toward a splattery demise off the back of a roof, at least for me. After all, I […]
Deep Cuts: Songs About Names
What’s in a name? I don’t know. Everything, nothing. All I know for certain is that the move from Jim to James was a liberating one for me. So what’s in a […]
Deep Cuts: They Came From the South
R.E.M. won the mainstream, but there were many brilliant bands kicking around the Southeast during the eighties. Some have become legends, others never made it out of the kudzu belt, but they […]
Why It Matters 