An early summer night in 2008. Boy scoops girl up in battered Grand Am. A tentative, innocent kiss. “Where to,” he asks? “Let’s just drive. I finished your mix!” She smiles, handing him a slim disc case. There are graphics, a tracklisting, liner notes. My kinda girl, he thinks to himself. He scans the tracklist: Counting Crows, Deborah Cox, Motion City Soundtrack, Evanescence. He slips the disc into the player, willing to forgive the Evanescence in lieu of the sheer […]
Author Archive
Spin Cycle: Guided By Voices, Class Clown Spots a UFO
The newly-reformed Guided By Voices are back with their second post-comeback album this year. Check out our review of “Class Clown Spots a UFO.”
Spin Cycle: Jimmy Fallon, Blow Your Pants Off
Late night host and musical comedian Jimmy Fallon’s second record, Blow Your Pants Off, collects memorable musical moments from his show. Check out our review to see how many laughs you’ll get from it.
Spin Cycle: Regina Spektor’s What We Saw From the Cheap Seats
Russian-born and Bronx-bred singer/songwriter Regina Spektor is back with What We Saw From the Cheap Seats, her sixth collection of idiosyncratic pop nuggets.
Spin Cycle: Best Coast’s The Only Place
California duo Best Coast are back with another collection of sun-kissed beach pop. Check out our review of “The Only Place.”
Spin Cycle: Killer Mike’s R.A.P. Music
ATL’s own Killer Mike is back with “R.A.P. Music”, the emcee’s full-length collaboration with El-P. Check out our review!
Spin Cycle: Tenacious D’s Rize of the Fenix
Jack Black and Kyle Gass are back with another collection of songs; on “Rize of the Fenix”, Tenacious D subvert their jokey expectations by delivering a pretty rockin’ record.
Spin Cycle: Jim’s Big Ego’s Stay
Boston folk-funk act Jim’s Big Ego is back with another set of witty, tuneful, and eloquent tunes in “Stay.” Check out our review!
Spin Cycle: B.o.B’s “Strange Clouds”
Rapper, singer, and multi-instrumentalist B.o.B returns with “Strange Clouds”, the stormy follow-up to his hit-spawning “The Adventures of Bobby Ray”. Check out our review!
The Jukebox From Hell 11: “Rockstar”
Yeah, it’s easy to hate on Nickelback. But you’ve never read an ass-whipping as eloquent as the one Drew gives the Canuck schmucks’ “Rockstar.”
Diggin’ in the Crates: “Stoney and Meatloaf”
It’s accepted music lore that Meat Loaf ripped through popular music on the back of a silver black phantom bike like a bat out of hell with his solo debut, appropriately titled Bat Out Of Hell. It was a work of massive, lusty hubris, composed by master songwriter and closet freak Jim Steinman, and it married 1960s adolescent yearning to a Spector-esque wall of sound – complete with horns, resplendent grand pianos, wall-to-wall vocals, and charmingly pretentious spoken-word excerpts – […]