Current Ellen Willis clips. We're not worthy. VERBAL HOOKS WITH SWING Sam Phillips A BOOT AND A SHOE (Nonesuch) Song title that lives up to its lyric: "I Dreamed That I Stopped Dreaming" Lyric: "When noone's listening I have so much to say..." from "How to Quit" KETCHUP The Raveonettes CHAIN GANG … [Read more...]

My Phish piece aired today. A lot of what I say could be applied to the Paradise show I saw 1989 when I covered them for the Phoenix. … [Read more...]

Tom Carson is predictably, astutely hilarious in his Voice obit:...Reaganism had beauty. Even if you knew better, it was seductive. The best description, or possibly just evidence, I know is the oddly forgotten Talking Heads song "Road to Nowhere," from 1985's Americana-flavored Little Creatures. A … [Read more...]

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Thank you to Tom Wilk and Doug Jones, who wrote in jogging my sieve of a memory: added John Fogerty's BLUE RIDGE RANGERS below. Does it strike anyone else what a good year 1973 was for covers? And as if to bless all this cosmic meandering, the Los Lobos record, THE RIDE, just came, and it's like a … [Read more...]

"Missing the Point" No. 3 on Austin's Book People New and Noteworthy page. Keep track. ART OF COVERS Ever since David Byrne's BELEZA TROPICALE (1989) compilation, I've followed Bahia's Caetano Veloso, even wrote up his Knopf autobiography for Boston Review, a piece that never ran. One of the … [Read more...]

Like everybody else, I'm fascinated by Tony Hendra's conversion buzz, but suspicious of Andrew Sullivan. While gay, and a semi-reformed neo-con (the gay marriage thing had him recanting Bush fever), Sullivan remains, after all, a Catholic. (One wonders what it might take for him to recant THAT … [Read more...]

From: Jonathan Dorfman Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2004 12:02 PM To: 'triley@artsjournal.com' Subject: A few words Tim:  Hope you/kids/Sara are well.  Love to get together soon.  Congratulations on the book: I’m sure that future comments will differ from those Grace Slick!  Screw Publisher’s Weekly!   … [Read more...]

Fever: How Rock & Roll Transformed Gender in America Riley, Tim ISBN: 0-31-228611-2 St. Martin's Press Hardcover $24.95 2004/06 When Elvis walked onstage and sang "Love Me Tender" or "Hound Dog," he changed and challenged more than just popular music. According to Riley, his gyrating hips and his … [Read more...]

Byliner helps you track your favorite writers from wherever they may contribute, easy interface, totally addictive, even has a chart for most accessed stories. Includes RSS feed for Bloglines, which is now a daily fix. Also, this guy gave up his anonymity for NY Times, wouldn't you? I'll bet his … [Read more...]

Gary Giddins looks pretty sharp leaving the Voice with this piece, don't he? Alongside Sasha Frere-Jones and Alex Ross, music suddenly becomes the boldest section in the back of book. Could be a golden era until someone forgets. (Does anyone else find Nancy Franklin overrated?) Now if the profiles … [Read more...]

"His aesthetic is its own punishment," Keith Harris on Nick Hornby's NY Times Op-Ed piece today. Sasha Frere-Jones calls him Nick "Mojo-Magazine-Invented-Me-In-A-Diabolical-Laboratory-And-Now-They-Can't-Kill-Me" Hornby. … [Read more...]

Here's my NPR story on Loretta Lynn and Melissa Auf der Maur from last week, buried at the bottom of the page (direct RM link here). Guess which title is wearing much better than the other one? … [Read more...]

Soda tragedy befalls key work station -- anxious fingers twitch daily -- email on other machines feels foreign, off-putting -- reading to fill my head with ideas, develop articles -- mental nail-biting lies down on already stressed workload, finance dilemma -- film at 11. PS: SCTV DVDs came in the … [Read more...]

So I'm doing tons of reading. And planning for future posts. And taking notes on everything I need to be doing once I get my unit ramped back up. We went to see SHREK 2 today. Man that franchise has some bad tunes -- almost redeemed by use of Tom Waits in the bar. AND double-check that list below, … [Read more...]