Chicago’s Head of Femur have created a minor masterpiece of pop nostalgia with “Ringodom or Proctor” (mp3). The band is apparently comprised of 2/3 of the Second City’s metropolitan population, yet they somehow manage to cohere without collapsing under their own weight. Light strings, strummed acoustic guitars and insistent drums merge with a yearning, delicate [...]

I’m not a huge fan of the Eels–I’ve always found Mark Everett to be the premiere sufferer of that young, male disorder that disallows non-clunky expressions of angst, despair, and relationship problems (see Bright Eyes, Death Cab for Cutie). However, the band’s videos have always pleased me, from the floating in the air clip for [...]

This podcast will serve as the first to be distributed with Feedburner, a free and comprehensive distribution service that will allow marathonpacks to automatically download to your feed-reader of choice. Coolest to me, though, is the ability to feed it directly into your iTunes, and let it update each time you open the application (music [...]

Man, Philly has been responsible for three of marathonpacks‘ favorite singles this year–The Spinto Band’s “Oh Mandy,” CYHSY’s “Over and Over Again” and now Mazarin, with their irresistable “For Energy Infinite” (mp3), from We’re Already There. It’s this year’s version of 2004’s “Nowhere Again” from Secret Machines–all forward momentum, created mostly by that springlike, almost [...]

Hanne Hukkelberg rode her bike around Oslo over the past two years, recording all kinds of random sounds. They’ve been magically transformed into a great album, the appropriately titled Little Things. It’s not the precious toybox one would assume, though. The sounds are woven seamlessly throughout the songs, which stand on their own as well-composed [...]

I’m not sure if they’re actively playing off the AC/DC-derived irony in their name, but the music produced by Denmark’s Who Made Who couldn’t be further from their ostensibly descriptive moniker than fellow Scandanavians Acid House Kings. They have managed to stake out a space in the heavily populated electro field somewhere between the [...]

I wasn’t a fan of Robert Greenwald’s last major film, Outfoxed, for a variety of reasons, mostly formal. First, it was a technical mess–repeating itself over and over while appearing to be edited by a high-schooler on iMovie. From a content perspective, while the film was well-intentioned, it was preaching a message that should [...]

Harriet Miers’ withdrawl from Supreme Court consideration this morning, in the same month as her nomination, definitely came as a shock to me, which soon gave way to anxiety. You see, the US news media can only concentrate on one issue at a time, and with possible indictments coming down soon, I’m worried Bush will [...]

Today, my friend Mike Lahey joins us, with a guest post on last night’s show. I’ve had the good fortune to make his acquaintance this semester, and his views on and experiences with all manner of cultural phenomena is on par with anyone I’ve met. I’m hopeful that he will grace us with his [...]

A few years back, I was able to attend a screening of Larry Charles’ polarizing Bob Dylan paean Masked and Anonymous, and I was amused during the ensuing question and answer session at the director’s cavalier, almost to the point of laughing, attitude toward the majority of the audience that were completely baffled at the [...]