♦ Bret Alexander – Gentleman East: In a lot of ways, this one is probably the best of the half-dozen or so Badlees side projects that came out during the great post-UTDH hiatus, even if it’s not my favorite (that would probably be Perfect Smile). The foundation of what makes(made?) the Badlees great was the […]

Last Friday morning while taking care of a few errands, I stopped at Target to check out the electronics clearance rack, where over the years I’ve found many great deals on video games and computer storage media. While poking around amongst the marked down ipad cases and wii shovelware, I found one of these: This […]

for she is mighty. To any reading in eastern PA, stay safe.

I recently visited a place that used to be really special to me. A place that I associate with many fine and treasured memories. It was a good feeling to go back. The sounds and smells were largely the same. Many of the old landmarks, both the “official” ones as well as those that are […]

I wrote this one in fits and starts during the last couple of weeks. Little bits at a time, mostly, because I’ve been under a lot of pressure and stress, and I worked in a couple of audiobooks for the really long drives. Still, I hit on some good selections, including a cross-section of the […]

It seems like the concept of nostalgia is something that is bubbling up quite a bit these days, here and elsewhere. For the last several weeks, I’ve been going back through my music collection and re-visiting the thoughts and feelings those fifteen and twenty year old records dredge up. I’ve written at least three pieces […]

There are several Greatest Hits packages in this edition; quickie releases designed to quickly get new fans up to speed or replace aging cassette tapes, or just to make money to pay off a divorce settlement or wring the last bit of blood from the stone after the band calls it quits. They have their […]

I was recently introduced to the concept of “”blogging as a spiritual practice.”” Not “”spiritual”” in the sense of either my youthful experience (angels, not thinking too hard about god, veiled right-wing propaganda) or “”celebrity”” spirituality as effectively satirized in the form of David St. Hubbins or Terry & Laurie Bohner on film, but “”spiritual”” […]

Being the devoted music fan that she is, Amanda Marcotte put this piece up about the 20th anniversary of the release of Nevermind coming up next month. That record, nor any of Nirvana’s output ever really resonated with me the way it did with a lot of my peers, especially those a few years younger […]

This week, we talk about a handful of other records pulled out of my big box. I guess if there’s something approaching a theme to be drawn from this batch, it’s the presence of hidden lore behind a record that makes it what it is. I almost threw in a review of the newish Wailin’ […]