Author: J T. Ramsay

  • New York’s all right…if you like saxophones!

    Lis­ten: Spin­ning and Scratching Love is All were near­ly lost to the whirl­wind this week, as they opened for Tilly & The Wall at a near­ly emp­ty Starlight Ball­room. Mind you, after sev­er­al con­sec­u­tive packed hous­es for the likes of Bore­doms, Son­ic Youth and TV on the Radio, the sorts of shows where the whole…

  • Sorting dream recipes by the light of the silvery moon.

    Reviews of Love is All, The Sci­ence of Sleep and the new UT reis­sues forthcoming Tonight: Beach House

  • Love is a poverty you couldn’t sell.

    Lis­ten: Movie Theme It could’ve been a com­plete wash. With the Killers play­ing across town, and the week’s sched­ule filled with plen­ty of hot indie acts, it was alto­geth­er pos­si­ble that Beck, a sort of father fig­ure to count­less pop absur­dists, would’ve seen him play­ing to a hol­low venue peo­pled with aging hip­sters and VH1…

  • Misery waits in vague hotels.

    My mind is still some­what blown from this. I’m wish­ing now more than ever that some­one had shot video of the Philly pup­pet out­ro, but this footage from New York will have to do. Com­men­tary on Beck-as-pup­pet lat­er today.

  • Listening to the blues from down here.

    Sat­ur­day night’s TV on the Radio showed a band moti­vat­ed by their per­son­al ambi­tion and the polit­i­cal cli­mate in which they’re work­ing. Like the ear­ly days of U2, R.E.M. and more recent Radio­head albums, TV on the Radio com­bine pol­i­tics and love and con­fu­sion with­out over­pow­er­ing the audi­ences with melo­dra­ma or mes­si­ah com­plex­es. Tunde Ade­bimpe…