Janelle Monae, performing “Let’s Go Crazy,” in front of Prince, at last night’s BET Awards. Me, last Friday at the Voice, wondering if she’s too weird to cross over into wide acceptance. Much more to come from me on her, soonish.
Also more to come from me/here/soonish on M.I.A. and Drake, both [...]
I’m over at Village Voice’s Sound of the City Blog today and tomorrow, lending my expertise on a variety of subjects, including that insane new Books track, that *yawn* new Interpol *yawn*, and best of all, puns galore with possible Weird Al/Lady Gaga songs.
I was there doing the same thing two months ago, too, which [...]
Larry Jon Wilson passed away today, drifting off into the Big Ephemeral. Thirty-five years ago he released a country-folk record that has become very important to me. It is called New Beginnings, and at the time, it represented a new beginning for Wilson. More than that, it represents the potential in [...]
(top photo: Voxtrot. Bottom photo: no idea but surely not Vampire Weekend) (EDIT: that’s Dr. Dog and yes, IU’s Union Board needs to better tag its indie band clip art)
I took this photo at the height of my baseball fandom and my not-coincidental fascination with statistics. I was either 10 or 11, and this was the first pro baseball game I’d ever attended. I kept score for this game on the scoresheet in the program, the same way I did for about 1/3 of [...]
Yes, this one’s a couple months late. But it might be my favorite of the first three, too. Maybe because I’ve sat on it for longer. Regardless, here’s yr rock (with incessant references to John Lennon to boot). Then, it’s time to move on–so much amazing music has been released over the past six months! [...]
Zach Baron wraps up a slick, strategically-written defense of Drake over at the Village Voice. Here’s his “whaaa?” kicker, which is quite brilliant actually:
Like the similarly loathed Wes Anderson and Sofia Coppola, who have eloquently staked out the territory of upper-middle-class malaise in cinema, Drake’s done the same thing in rap. How much [...]