Improving Upon Perfection, Part Five: Five Covers from The Black Keys
Sean Murphy(Parts 1-4 of this series here, here, here, and here.) Before they became the Black Keys of Leon (a development that was equal parts unfortunate and inevitable) The Black Keys…
Gary Clark Jr.: Seeing Is Believing
It’s only happened on two other occasions, before last Friday night. In 2001, seeing Mike Patton in person for the first time, with his brand new side project Tomahawk (at…
Top 50 Albums of the Decade, Part Five (Revisited)
10. The Fiery Furnaces, Bitter Tea (2006) It's a funny thing: as decidedly out there as this effort obviously is, compared to the album that preceded it, Bitter Tea is…
Top 50 Albums of the Decade, Part Four (Revisited)
20. Fiona Apple, Extraordinary Machine (2005) Mad genius? Compulsive artiste? Fragile chanteuse? Misunderstood icon? All of the above? More? Whatever it is (and it could be none of this), there…
The Top 10 Albums of 2010, According To Me
2010, looking at my personal picks, (and these are the exact same ones I submitted to the annual "Pazz & Jop Poll", an annual endeavor of critical consensus conducted by…
Beefheart & The Black Keys: Grown So Ugly
Another song from Safe As Milk, the great "Grown So Ugly": The Black Keys attacking it, in one of the best covers you'll ever hear (from their amazing album Rubber Factory):…
2000-2009: Let’s Break it Down (Epilogue)
So, the recent discussion of the Top 50 albums of the last decade was supposed to end, as it began, with a sampling of songs. The introductory entry covered 2000-2004;…
Top 50 Albums of the Decade, Part Five
10. The Fiery Furnaces, Bitter Tea (2006) It's a funny thing: as decidedly out there as this effort obviously is, compared to the album that preceded it, Bitter Tea is practically conventional. Well,…
Top 50 Albums of the Decade, Part Four
20. Fiona Apple, Extraordinary Machine (2005) Mad genius? Compulsive artiste? Fragile chanteuse? Misunderstood icon? All of the above? More? Whatever it is (and it could be none of this), there…
2000-2009: Let’s Break It Down
Facebook friends, Bloggers, Strangers, lend me your ears; I come to bury the last decade, not to praise it. Actually, I do want to praise it, but I first must…