“You are the first generation born without religion.” Douglas Coupland wrote this about my generation in Life After God. Of course he was correct. As much as our parents, many of whom were part of the hippie generation, attempted to live a nontraditional life in their youth, once they got a little older and married they fell into fairly conservative lifestyles. Church, and specifically the Judeo-Christian religions of the founding fathers, was a cornerstone of that conservatism. As much as […]
Monthly archive August, 2011
Shoulda Been a Hit: Citizen Cope’s “Bullet and a Target”
Citizen Cope is one of those artists you look at and wonder “why isn’t he more famous?” Granted, there are tons of artists you could apply that question to, but, I don’t know, the guy’s got the respect of his peers (Sheryl Crow’s covered him, Dido’s worked with him), and he sells out spots all over the country (the date I went to in Boston about a year and a half ago was sold out-in a decent sized room, too). […]
Spin Cycle: Mariachi El Bronx’s “II”
I remember when The Bronx first appeared on the scene that there was a tremendous amount of buzz surrounding them. Not being one to dismiss things because there is hype around it (as sometimes the hype is well deserved), I decided to check them out. Quite simply, I didn’t get it at all and stopped paying attention. I have a lot of friends who enjoy the band and when they made their transformation from The Bronx into Mariachi El Bronx, […]
Diggin’ in the Crates: Rick James’ “Cold Blooded”
Many of us at Popblerd HQ are big vinyl collectors. It allows us the chance to catch up on some of our old favorites, many of which aren’t available on CD (or digitally). With that in mind, we decided to create this here column. Diggin’ in the Crates finds us flipping through our own stacks of vinyl and reviewing some old favorites. Our first entry in this column comes courtesy of the bad-ass king of punk-funk: Buffalo’s own Rick James. […]
