Category: Listening

  • Steve Gunn — Eyes on the Lines

    It may be my 19125 show­ing, but Steve Gun­n’s Eyes on the Lines seemed crim­i­nal­ly under­ap­pre­ci­at­ed last year. It was a per­fect sum­mer record that split the dif­fer­ence between the Grate­ful Dead and those late Son­ic Youth records inspired by the Grate­ful Dead, with a dash of the fun of those ear­ly solo Malk­mus records…

  • Wilco — Schmilco

    2016 was a fun­ny year. One of the year’s biggest sur­pris­es for me was Wilco’s Schmil­co. For me, Wilco was a casu­al­ty of over­ex­po­sure; to be a rel­e­vant music crit­ic in the ’00s meant killing your idols and real­ly try­ing to dis­tance your­self from indie rock to the extent it was possible. In some ways,…

  • Brian Eno — Reflection

    David Bowie was, to me, my Dylan. He was one of the few artists I always felt I could spend more time with and nev­er spent enough. When he died last year, I wres­tled with how to mourn him. Short­ly there­after, I must’ve been watch­ing the doc­u­men­tary 5 Years that I learned how Bowie adored Eno’s Dis­creet…

  • Spoon — Hot Thoughts

    I haven’t been this excit­ed for new music from Spoon in some time. Maybe since Gimme Fic­tion? I loved Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, liked a few tracks on Trans­fer­ence and then I’m embar­rassed to admit that I slept through They Want My Soul altogether. The lead sin­gle, “Hot Thoughts,” strikes a famil­iar chord: it…

  • Brock Winthrop — Pastoral Scene

    Pastoral Scene by Brock Winthrop I heard this song at the end of an episode of Chapo Trap House ear­li­er this year and found a link over on the Chapo sub­red­dit. This hits all the right notes for me, blend­ing mem­o­ries of my favorite 90’s pop acts, notably Teenage Fan­club and Matthew Sweet.