Quit Mumbling

Mostly at Bear’s insistence and partially from my own curiosity, I have fallen into a full-fledged, unglamorous Bill Callahan stupor as of late. I have to have it with my coffee in the morning, and it has too often become my middle of the night wake-up call to turn off “One Fine Morning,” a song [...]

A week away from Christmas, it is time to really set the mood, and there is no legendary voice better than doing just that than Otis Redding’s. He turns the most family oriented time of the year into a love affair. Bing Crosby’s version of “White Christmas” may be the best selling single of all [...]

Around time of the protests against Governor Scott Walker’s attempts to limit collective bargaining rights for public employees in Wisconsin, I wrote about what I thought Pete Seeger would think.   At 91, he voiced his support for the public employee unions.  We cannot, though, rely on Pete forever. The anti-war and civil rights movements of [...]

Having Syrian poet Mahmoud Harbi whisper lyrics into his ear while he sings and dances and making it rain Syrian Pounds (XE sets today’s exchange rate for the SYP at 47.47 to 1 USD), Omar Souleyman is nothing short of a signature badass. He releases his music exclusively through cassettes, which you can purchase in [...]

You know that annoying desert island question you’re never prepared to answer, the one that always makes you look like an idiot because you can’t name one album you would take with you in a Castaway scenario? It doesn’t matter that you can’t answer not because you fail to think of a single album worthy [...]

While it’s all too easy to let these grey days of June Gloom guide you into a somber slump (complete with candles, red wine, and multiple spins of the new Bon Iver record), its Monday damnit, and you’ve got things to do! Whether its the dreaded wonderful return to the working week or just another free day [...]

Any friend of mine enjoys dipping his toe in some R. Kelly from time to time, anytime. But I know, I know. How could you? He’s a monster! I’ll tell you. Have you heard “Happy People”? It should change your mind. Off 2004′s double album Happy People/U Saved Me, It’s the kind of song you [...]

The Cure inadvertently helped create the post-millennial model for emo, but there was always a playfulness beneath all the nihilism (sometimes buried deeper than others), creating this sort of giddy misery. A deliberate departure from the gloomy sound they became known for, leave it to Robert Smith to pen a pop song about a lovers’ [...]

East Africa doesn’t get enough love. As a connoisseur of music coming out of Africa from the 70′s, sometimes I tend to get caught up on the western, Francophone countries – Nigeria, Benin & Togo – and tend to neglect the rest. Mulatu Astake’s music – like a ringing bell – shows why that’s a [...]