The year was 1996, and I was sitting in the lounge of my college dorm watching Homicide: Life on the Street, when this song started to play. It was a sneering, sexy wash of electronic rock and it immediately caught my attention. That was my introduction to the band Garbage, and I’ve been a fan from that day forward. I have no idea if that story is completely true, but it sounds good so it’s the truth I’ll choose to believe in. 1996 was a long time ago, times, and tastes, change and Garbage has always seemed like a fragile creation. More a melding of studio elements than a true band. And it is true that it’s been seven years since their last release, the excellent Bleed Like Me. Now they’re back with Not Your Kind of People, but is it my kind of album? (tl;dr duh obviously)
It’s that time of year again for my favorite running gimmick, best of lists! Today is dedicated to my favorite records and tomorrow is for the movies.
For the longest time I irrationally avoided Florence + the Machine’s first album Lungs — I was weirded out by the cover art. Once I got over those reservations I discovered I loved her sound. So much so that I quickly went out and bought the collection of B-Sides she put out last year. Now Florence had a new album Ceremonial out, does it live up to the rest of the Florence canon?
New music from Jenny Owen Youngs! New Music from Jenny Owen Youngs!
Apparently this song will not be on the album she’s working on. Which is an interesting decision, because it’s an alright song.
There are two albums that really are the first that I remember as having a real impact on me. One of them was Dire Straits Brothers in Arms. The other was Born in the USA. I wore my parent’s cassette of that one out the summer of 1985(?). And The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle was one of the first albums (well, cassette really) I ever owned. So it’s fair to say the news that Clarence “Big Man” Clemons died hit me.
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This year as part of the thank-you package for renewing my membership in the Dave Matthews Band fan club they thoughtfully included a copy of the latest release in the band’s Live Trax series. Volume Twenty is a recording of a concert from 8/19/1993 at the Wetlands Preserve in New York City. This makes it the earliest official release of concert material from the band, and as such is extremely exciting.
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First I saw this
and was like
And then I saw
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2010 was a down year musically for me, especially when compared to 2009. Without records by the likes of Silversun Pickups, the Dave Matthews Band, or Jenny Owen Youngs, the music scene just didn’t grab my attention as much. That being said, there was still some excellent music released in 2010. Continue reading »