Maggie Rogers stands onstage alone, acoustic guitar in hand, to begin her encore at Austin’s Moody Theater. In a heartfelt speech about gratitude, Rogers thanks the 24 people who worked on the set and lighting, and the fans who brought her music to light. She has barely been home in three years, thanks to her…
Category: Reviews
Gogol Bordello: Smuggling in the Immigrant Culture of Gypsy Punk
Originally seen on Tastemakers Online, September 20, 2017 Gogol Bordello is what might happen if a drummer and a bassist put out a call for an exceptional frontman, and took five of them. The real story is this: the Ukrainian immigrant frontman Eugene Hütz (who you might already know as the life of the movie…
Audiovisual and Assorted Thoughts on Blade Runner 2049
This is a casual collection of significant or intriguing audiovisual relationships from Blade Runner 2049, since I found the artistic direction of this film to be quite moving, and noteworthy. This is by no means a complete list, or even review. Just assorted thoughts. Please feel free to leave some of your own in the…
Girls Wear Makeup For…? Blondie and Garbage’s Rage and Rapture Tour
Originally seen on Tastemakers Online, August 5, 2017 Last night was the first time in my life I wore blush: girls don’t wear makeup for boys, they wear makeup for Debbie Harry. (Boys wear makeup for Debbie Harry, too.) On this stop of the Rage and Rapture Tour I saw several pairs of icy blue…
New Earworms and Heartworms from The Shins
The Shins are back again after a five-year absence with a second single from Heartworms, “Name For You”. The new album produced by frontman James Mercer, is out March 10th and available for preorder. Some people (your author, for instance) who love vaguely gruesome, trip-inducing tattoo art might spring for the slightly overpriced, but charming lithograph poster….
ZZ Top Live Without Guest Gregg Allman: Confronting and Celebrating Aging in Live Music
I read a review of a Paul McCartney show recently that opened with a rather morbid reminder that he won’t be around forever. I wondered if Paul McCartney really deserved such a sobering introduction but in retrospect, I think I needed the reality check on celebrity aging before venturing out to the Blue Hills Bank…
A Great New Binge Watch To “Get Down” With
Combined efforts from Baz Luhrmann, Nas, Grandmaster Flash, and more have brought a small but powerful piece of old-school hip hop to Netflix in a neat little package called ‘The Get Down’. The plot explores landscapes of hip hop, disco, graffiti, and politics in the late 1970’s Bronx, with a clear figurehead in each parallel plot and Ezekiel “Zeke” Figuero at the crux of it all.
New Release: Pierce Fulton’s “Make Me Blue”
The fresh and playful “Make Me Blue” stands out in Pierce Fulton’s current repertoire of in-your-face dance music, and puts him on the map for more alternative fans who still like to get down to a fun electronic groove. This new track is an alternating string of sparsely yet elegantly filled swathes of vast sonic…
Paul Simon’s Spiritually Schizophrenic Stranger to Stranger: A Listening Guide
Paul Simon’s new concept album Stranger To Stranger is a complex juxtaposition of styles and influences in a musical discussion of the differences between organized western religion, group spirituality, and untamed mysticism. Simon brings us on a schizophrenic tour of musical traditions and cultural references namely from the old American South, Brazil, and Africa. Here…
RiFF RAFF ONLY MADE 4 MiLLiON LAST YEAR, STiLL WEARS DOPE PEACH TUXEDO
I’ve often wondered how much of Riff’s ironic behavior has turned over in his head into a real lifestyle, and maybe I give him too much credit, but I really feel like the Pantherettes are meant to be a sarcastic kind of cliché groupie. I like their status of essentially being bodyguards…
Different Strokes for Different Folks: “OBLIVIUS”, “Drag Queen”, and “Threat of Joy”
This week the Strokes unveiled, one by one only over the course of a day, their first release in three years: the EP Future Present Past. I can’t help but wonder if the three time periods are represented in the three songs, and since the tracks became more familiar to me as a Strokes fan…
Flesh Without Blood Without Redeeming Qualities
Author’s Note: I wrote this review in January for an exercise in writing about something with a negative slant. My first contact with Grimes was in stills from the 2013 MTV VMAs, wearing the same Versace pants as 2 Chainz. Here she was caught in the bane of a female star’s existence, wearing the…
Attunement 