Maybe the soundtrack to your life didn’t exist in 1969, or if you’re fortyish, was filtered through an amniotic sack. 1969 was an unsettling year. The fall was post-Woodstock and spelled the end of the ‘60s, though what we now think of as “the ‘60’s” arguably didn’t happen until the ‘70s. 

This album was issued back in 2008 but gets reviewed here because though the name Nada Surf has popped through my consciousness for years, I’d never heard them. I know, I can go online and listen and probably even steal all of their stuff for free but I’m not wired like that, so I actually went out and bought this album on vinyl without hearing a note.



That’s how it used to be done and there’s something fun and exciting about that. Even disappointment and disgust can have its value. I remember buying an album by a band called Touch back in the ‘60s just because.

Was this the greatest rock and roll concert recording ever as some suggest? Is it deserving of deluxe box set status? The producers of this ultra-sumptuous box obviously thought so!

Was this the greatest rock and roll concert recording ever as some suggest? Is it deserving of deluxe box set status? The producers of this ultra-sumptuous box obviously thought so!

Jim O’Rourke’s latest solo release, his first in nearly a decade, is a bold act in today’s dumbed down, sonically parched musical environment.



(O\\'Rourke is a busy man, of course, collaborating with dozens if not hundreds of musicians on various projects, both as a musician and producer).



The instrumental music is subtle and understated. The recording is stunning and the packaging harkens back to vinyl’s heyday.

In the wake of Norah Jones’ smash debut Come Away With Me, Nellie McKay issued the Geoff Emerick produced double CD set Get Away From Me.

Though her long debut album would have fit onto a single CD, McKay insisted upon two CDs to resurrect (sort of) the ritual of flipping a record over to hear the other side.

Meet the attractive, pert, perky (etc.) twenty eight year old former stand—up comedian and you’ll be confronted by a gal who appears to be a throw back to a ‘40s Jean Arthur movie character.

The first Blood, Sweat and Tears group led by Al Kooper and including his former Blues Project bandmate Steve Katz, was the sophisticated assemblage that produced but one album. This one.

The first Blood, Sweat and Tears group led by Al Kooper and including his former Blues Project bandmate Steve Katz, was the sophisticated assemblage that produced but one album. This one.

Icy cold vistas, shards of broken electronic glass, relentless thumping disco beats and possible mysteriously encrypted bits of dialogue may not sound like something that would be particularly inviting on a full range audio system, but somehow Fuck Buttons makes it so on this album of artificial mayhem and just plain noise.

Version #1:

When this Steve Albini recorded grunge classic was first submitted to DGC for release back in 1993 label execs where appalled by what they heard. The recording had an odd quality called dynamic range that they found disturbing.

Will the kids understand? Will it scare them? Is that why it disturbed them? Or was it that the shit they had for stereo gear in their offices simply couldn’t handle the dynamic swings.

Version #1:

The indie rocker Sufjan Stevens brings a surprising and delightful buoyancy and sense of wonderment to his orchestral suite commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its “Next Wave” Music Festival. The original debut performances were in November of 2007.

Only in retrospect does the “high concept” of Marshall Crenshaw’s remarkable 1982 debut assert itself: marry infectious ‘50s and ‘60’s-like rock’n’roll tunes with the then modern chorus guitar effects popularized by The Police’s Andy Summers. Maybe that wasn’t the plan, but that’s sure what it sounds like! That, or what a vintage Seeburg or Wurlitzer juke box would sound like heard from outside of the malt shop teen hang out.