Tag Archives: Modern Musicology

The Summer’s Is Gone The Winter’s Tuning Up

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I totally borrowed the title from a Leonard Cohen song. Everyone should read and hear Leonard Cohen.

As the miserable heat of summer gives way to a brief autumn, people are beginning to go outside again. I am a little bit, but cautiously, because of… people.

I have been pretty busy. The blog has taken a back seat as I look for a steady gig and take on things to write about for more income. Plus, there is so much stuff to stream. The long and short of it is I am sorry to be so tardy with this.

This summer had a hot few months. Originally I was fine with that. After all, it is not snow or ice. The weird, colder spell in the middle is kind of weird, but also super nice. But now, there has been a break and it is not as muggy and nasty and crappy out. Hallelujah. That stretch of a week to ten days with the super high heat index was really a beast.

I am worried that our rather brief spring and summer means we may have a long winter. I do not want to see snow or sleet in the coming months. So, the seasons are a trade-off of sorts. All I know is I hate winter. And this year’s is supposed to be miserable. According to the Farmer’s Almanac, we are supposed to have a rough winter. Great.

Spring turned into summer and with those seasons came a sudden uptick in stuff I needed to do. I have had more articles to turn in and a few other projects have come down the pipeline. I am glad to be busy, but I am not thrilled with the arrival of the fall allergy season.

In addition to some articles for Broadway World, FEAST, and ReviewSTL I have been hosting a second radio show. It is called Antics and it airs on Louder Than War Radio on Mondays from 6-8 pm GMT or 12-2 pm Central time. Click here to listen to archived shows.

It differs from my other radio gig in that I do not need to run promo spots or reviews. It is more or less, a full two-hour slot of music. Plus, I can play longer music and make deeper dives into the songs I like. And there are less shenanigans to deal with. If you need a break from the station I also broadcast from, this is a nice reprive.

I also continue to co-host the Modern Musicology podcast. You should check it out, we’ve had some great guests on it.

Speaking of radio…Thirty years ago I was told by The Point that I didn’t know enough about music to be a DJ on their station. Well, looking back, most commercial alternative stations now are completely craptacular.

There has been so much music. I saw Sparks in Kansas City. They were terrific. This concert was fun and euphoric. However, I still think I liked their concert in Chicago last year more. it was more energetic.

In a weird chance of fate, I got an opportunity to review the Taylor Swift concert the night before. I was joined by over 80,000 other people. it was kind of surreal. I was only marginally familiar with her music, but I was really interested in the production itself. There were three connected stages, a massive video screen, lots of cool projections, elaborate sets, costume changes, and rising and lowering stages. It was a massive technical undertaking.

One takeaway from the show was how polite and nice her fanbase was. Another was the fact that she played for nearly four hours and showed no signs of fatigue.

A band that is buddies with T. Swift is The National. They dropped an album called, First Two Pages of Frankenstein. Now, they just dropped another album called Laugh Track.

First Two Pages of Frankenstein is solid, but Tropic Morning News is my favorite.

The album is pretty minimalist and it sounds just as intense as their previous records. Phoebe Bridgers and someone named Taylor Swift are on the album.

Laugh Track is more or less the same in texture and sound. The first batch of songs from it dropped a few weeks ago.

I like Space Invader a lot. I think it sounds like their older stuff. The guitars on it are also pretty good.

Louise Post used to be in Veruca Salt. Now, she has released an album called Sleepwalker.

I saw Veruca Salt open for that terrible band called Live once. I saw their set and then PJ Harvey’s and then left before Live went on stage. Recently, Louise toured for the record but it was a super short run.

Yard Act dropped The Trench Coat Museum a few months ago. It is simply epic.

Sounding like LCD Soundsystem and Gang of Four had a baby, this cut is deep. It’s got some really searing guitars, some bells, snazzy percussion, and a really sharp vocal delivery. I look forward to hearing what these guys do next.

In June I Saw Love and Rockets in Chicago. They were fantastic. They crushed it. I was really surprised by how tight their set was. They did play the hits but they also did some cool deep tracks and b-sides. At a time when everyone was doing a reunion tour, this one was really good.

The Theater Section

Opera Theatre St. Louis has come and gone for this year. I enjoyed the season immensely. I am looking forward to the upcoming season.

If you ever go to an Opera Theatre show make sure to people watch. The amount of 1970s polyester suits still in the wild is frightening.

I am seeing plays again. I am lucky that I get to review them, so if they are ghastly, I am not out any money. Nothing is worse than spending lots of money on rubbish theater. One of the best things about St. Louis that goes undervalued is our terrific theater scene. We have a lot of great companies doing terrific productions.

The best thing I saw in the Spring was the touring production of To Kill A Mockingbird with Richard Thomas. He was outstanding and the entire ensemble was terrific. I was pleased that it kept the spirit of the book. it is coming back to town next year.

I really enjoyed seeing Beetlejuice at the Fox. The show had a kinetic energy to it and the musical numbers were very good. It was a great opener for the Fox’s new season.

I am thrilled that The Phantom of the Opera has ended its run on Broadway. I know people love it, but I think it’s overhyped and tedious. It needed to be about a half-hour shorter. It just never did much for me.

I am thrilled that people are going to movies and live theater again. However, I wish they would remember that the time that is printed on that ticket they have is when things start. It is not an estimate or a five-minute alert. It’s the go time. But, somehow, there are always assclowns who come later. It is especially annoying when you have gotten all settled in your seat and then have to get up to accommodate some moron who has no time management skills. Oh, by the way, it’s really rude to come late.

Also when you come late and have to make everyone in the aisle move to accommodate you, don’t bring like 6000 things to carry with you. Especially snacks. And another thing…don’t talk during the show.

Let’s All Go To The Lobby

Party Girl is out on Blu-ray. This 1995 comedy starring Parker Posey and Liev Schreiber takes the spirit of comedies of the 1930s and puts it in 1990s New York club culture.

All these years later this is still a fine indie film. Ironically, it was filmed in Austin.

Trainspotting is getting a 4K restoration for a 2024 Criterion release!

This edition has a few new extras as well as stuff that was on the original Blu-ray release. There is also some sort of spinoff series with Robert Carlyle coming soon as well.

The new restoration of Stop Making Sense is fantastic. I had not seen the movie for maybe twenty years or so and was thrilled to see it has held up well as a concert film.

The restoration is fantastic. it looks and sounds amazing. Hearing it now in a theater with great audio really makes it a richer experience.

Seeing it now, I am reminded of just how great this band was. I saw them near the end when the were close to breaking up. They were good then, but nothing like this.

There is appliance news!

The black lining inside of the dishwasher was starting to come apart. I was going to buy some waterproof sealant and just that hold somebitch back into place. But, when I mentioned the issue to the property manager. She decided to get a new dishwasher instead. I was surprised because she is generally useless.

It should have been an easier process. But it wasn’t. The new one, probably bought from a second-hand place, was dropped off. The guy bringing it didn’t want to bring it inside. He wanted to leave it on the stoop and let me and my arthritic knee move it. But, eventually, he brought it in and I pushed the box into a corner. I had to do this because the person installing the dishwasher was coming the next day.

So, to make all of this work I had to move a bunch of appointments around. I wanted to be here when it got installed and not have the person alone in my apartment with it. Plus, I wanted to make sure the old one got removed and not left in my kitchen or outside somewhere where it would sit and rust.

The stupid thing is that the dishwasher we got doesn’t fill the entire space. So now there is a small cap between where the counter ends and the dishwasher starts. I am not quite sure how to fill it but it is a giant hassle.

Books!

First off, support your local library! help them fight the banning of books and be nice to their staff.

Probably the best music book I have read all year is Listening To The Music The Machines Make by Richard Evans.

It is a thorough examination of electronic music of the late 1970s and early 1980s. I am so glad someone else likes Telex as much as I do!

Nick Hornby is a fantastic writer. His latest book is a quick read.

In Dickens and Prince: A Particular Kind of Genius, he finds parallels between the two artists and how they executed their craft. He doesn’t directly connect them to each other, which is fine, but he does fanboy about each and why their work continues to resonate and why it is vital.

His books are always well paced and this one is no exception. Told as a collection of essays, he touches on how common themes of social status, race, and education affected each artist.

Finally, people found a lot of things to blame the Cardinals’ crappy season on. I think it is the flurry of “He Gets Us” Jesus commercials. I will say this, these things are slick. They really try to draw folks in some seriously unsuspecting ways.

I think the commercials are really annoying and I think that they should not be on TV or radio. I mean, people of other faiths listen and watch baseball games.

But overall, this campaign is insipid, stupid and diabolical.

Binges and Hinges

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It’s been a very crazy few weeks. To quote The Smiths, “I was looking for a job, and then I found a job…”

Yes, there is some stability in the cards. I am giving up on depending on just freelance and contract work for a full-time agency gig. I wasn’t doing the hustling and scraping on purpose; it was just the hand I was dealt. You can’t get an agency gig without experience, and you cannot get experience without a job, so it was a crappy circle.

Despite the new content creation gig, I will still do freelance writing and take on clients. But, it won’t be my only way of doing things. But, it does not mean I won’t have to have a part-time hustle anymore.

It is a small firm with maybe six employees, none of which are hipsters. Plus, it is remote, so I can work without a chance of seeing hipsters and too cool for school agency types. There are two types of people who do content creation agency work; those who are chill or those who are annoying. There is no middle ground.

It is a small firm with maybe six employees, none of which are hipsters. Plus, it is remote, so I can work without a chance of seeing hipsters and agency types. There are two types of people who do content creation agency work; those who are chill or those who are annoying. There is no middle ground.

But, for the first time in over three decades, I am not doing any type of customer service or retail!

I quote the great Lloyd Dobler.

I don’t want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don’t want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don’t want to do that.

It’s sad when a store closes that has been around for over five decades. It’s like it is being placed in a home. The worst part is the vultures who come in waiting for the discount prices to drop to 50% or better. They hover over the things they want. Most of which haven’t sold for a reason. Or worse, they ask a million dumb questions, like “when are you closing?” or “when is the next sale reduction?” Store closings attract weird people. Most of them bring calculators to ensure the markdown is correct. They are truly hideous people.

After years of working in record stores, book stores, libraries, museums, and offices I can certify any statements that people are simply insane. Somewhere along the line people gave up using their brains, thinking for themselves, or learning.

The result is that there are now lots of selfish people out there. Sadly, for the last eight years, at my last gig, I waited on a lot of them. They got enough cigarettes, porn, racing forms, beef jerky and change for parking meters to last a lifetime. Generally, they were rude, and pretty stupid. I will not miss any of that.

It is not quite appliance news, but the toilet got a new flush valve. The old one lasted about 15 years and had seen better days. Now, with the new one added, that ting roars like a jet engine.

The biggest at-home hassle of the month was replacing a hinge on one of the kitchen cabinets. One of them completely snapped off. There was no pulling or extra pressure, it just snapped. It was pretty weird. Once that happened I had to find a replacement.

This was not as easy as I anticipated. As it turns out I needed an 830-40 Soft Close hinge. Every place I tried was out of them. It was crazy.

The only problem is that they do not make them anymore. Luckily, the internet was good to me and I found several replacement options.

The biggest takeaway from all of this is that shopping for cabinet hinges is pretty boring!

I finished binge-watching the latest season of Cobra Kai. It is mindless fun. The show’s soul rests completely on its nostalgia. Between ’80s metal and old clips from the film, it clearly plays with its connections to the past.

There is a lot of melodrama and predictable plot twists, but somehow, it remains an interesting melodrama. Everyone makes poor decisions. Seriously, they all do. All I want is for one of the characters to pause for a minute and reflect on the potential results of their hasty actions.

I guess you could say I just watch it for kicks.

Top Chef is back. It is early, but so far it’s been kind of dull. I hate the fact they are doing it in Texas, where over half the 15 contestants would most likely have problems voting. However, Houston’s diversity and restaurant culture could make the series more interesting as the season progresses.

I am now starting on Station Eleven. It has gotten a lot of really great reviews, and it looks interesting.

I am not sure a series set during a pandemic is the most stable thing to watch, but it looks really good.

I did watch some of the Winter Olympics. While it was not as compelling as previous ones, I enjoyed seeing curling again. I also checked out the biathlon, hockey, and any fast-moving sled thing. Luge, bobsledding, two-person bobsledding, relay bobsledding, bobsledding in kitchens. All of it.

I think the Olympics were missing a soul. They seemed flat. Maybe it was the location or lack of crowds. Instead of having it on to watch, I just tuned in sparsely when the sports I wanted to see were on.

The problem with watching things like the Olympics is that I know that if I ever met any of these people in real life, they probably would be self-centered jerks with massive egos. The curlers seem to have an “everyday person” ethos to them. Maybe that is why I watch it. Or it could be because it is stupid.

Speaking of stupid, this business with the MLB owners and players is annoying. The real people getting hurt are those who work at the games, parking lots, ticket booths, and concession stands. The local businesses that serve that industry are also screwed.

No one should be surprised, rich people have been fighting over crumbs for centuries, and this is no different.

Morris Day can no longer use “Morris Day and the Time” because the Prince estate is claiming ownership. This is a pretty crappy thing to do.

Leave him alone! The man has brought a lot of joy and happiness to people through his music for decades.

I have been listening to Fall In Love Not In Line, the new record from Kids On A Crime Spree. They are an Oakland based three piece trio, comprised of Bill Evans, Rebecca Barron, and Mario Hernandez, who make music meshes power pop, reverb fuzziness, jangly vocals, and blissed out melodies.

It is their first album in 11 years and it is well worth the wait.

I have been enjoying Reversing into The Future: New Wave Graphics 1977 – 1990. It is a wonderful book about album art and graphic design spaning punk, new wave and post-punk eras.

Written by Andrew Krivine (who owns a massive collection of stuff from this era), the book represents a visual history of the period with essays on the art, design, album sleeves, posters, and adverts

The book also signifies how the indie music scene of the time used visual design elements that coincided with the anti-consumerist and anti-materialistic aspects of the music. Eschewing away from the black and white print style of punk, designers within the new wave movement instead favored a more artistic approach. One that incorporated visual style with the music.

I also am revisiting each of Neil Gaiman’s short story collections. I had not read Fragile Things in a few years but recently explored it again, and it did not disappoint.

Currently, I have delved back into Trigger Warning, his most recent collection of short stories. I forgot how dense it was. Each of the stories is wonderfully imaginative. I am still a sucker for The Return of the Thin White Duke, his nod to David Bowie and Nothing O’Clock, his nifty Doctor Who story.

During the pandemic, I saw him do a virtual reading of Click-Clack the Rattlebag that was pretty spooky. Overall, Trigger Warning is a compendium of great stories culled from various sources.

He is doing a speaking tour right now, and I would love to see him, but I’m not sure how the money shakes out.

I was not expecting much from The Batman. I wasn’t really intrigued by the trailers and thought another version of the franchise was redundant.

However, I must admit that this new incarnation of the Caped Crusader plays out like a neo-noir. It is gritty, brutal,l and dark. It also captures the detective feel of the comics which has been missing from other films.

While it has a ridiculous end scene that causes the film to run 15 minutes too long, this mashup of mafia film, cop drama, film noir, and superhero flick captures the grimy aspects of the comics without compromise.

Colin Ferrell damn near steals the film as the Penguin, and Jeffrey Wright is terrific as Jim Gordon. Robert Pattinson’s sulky emo antics got a bit tired, but I am hoping he ups his game in the next films as Bruce Wayne develops further.

Paul Dano is pretty creepy in everything. Here he lets it all loose. Thankfully, they took the Riddler out of the stupid clothes of the comics and cartoons. Now he looks more menacing and contemporary.

Hey, if you are looking for something to listen to and love music, check out Modern Musicology, a podcast that I am on. It has been a lot of fun to do and I hope you check it out. Each week we discuss an interesting topic. Tune in and dig it!

With the cold weather seemingly behind us, I am so looking forward to reading outside in the sunshine again. I like Spring. It is not too hot and it usually features a bevy of interesting new records.

However, what I really want this spring is for an end to the madness and unhinged terror of the world to subside. maybe it will be replaced with kindness and lemonade. I doubt it. But it would be nice.