Every year is a good year for music. 2025 is no different. Getting the tap on the shoulder to be a contributor to Aquarium Drunkard this past spring meant that I also participated in the 2025 version of AD’s annual Year in Review compilation. Its existence is conclusive evidence of my opening statement. Personally, I’veContinue reading “Favorite Albums of 2025”
Tag Archives: Bob Dylan
Stephen Malkmus Series: “Xian Man”
From the perspective of hindsight, March 6, 2020 turned out to be a bad time for Stephen Malkmus to release an album. Within weeks of the record’s release date, Malkmus’s beloved NBA suspended their season, schools in the United States began closing down, and individual states started to shut down bars and restaurants. Travel bansContinue reading “Stephen Malkmus Series: “Xian Man””
Stephen Malkmus Series: “Cast Off”
“Cast Off” is the lead-off track of 2018’s Sparkle Hard, the last album that Stephen Malkmus released with the Jicks: The song and album open with a dramatic chord and then Jicks’ keyboardist Mike Clark plays a beautifully gentle passage on the piano, which is repeated a few times with variations to create a senseContinue reading “Stephen Malkmus Series: “Cast Off””
Stephen Malkmus Series: “Lariat”
Many of Stephen Malkmus’s songwriting contemporaries and forebears invite grand metaphors when considering their work. On this site alone, I’ve written about the closing of the American West in Bill Callahan’s songs “Drover” and “Baby’s Breath” as well as the hero’s journey and Guy Debord’s concept of dérive in “Where Are You Tonight? (Journey ThroughContinue reading “Stephen Malkmus Series: “Lariat””
Some Thoughts on Pavements
Pavements — the 2025 quasi-documentary which tracks the impact of the band Pavement from their beginning in Stockton, CA in 1989 through their ups and downs in the 1990s until the present — is anything but a simply-told story. Writer/director Alex Ross Perry has stuffed his film with every idea he possibly can to makeContinue reading “Some Thoughts on Pavements”
2025 Big Ears Festival, March 27-30, 2025
At one point while waiting for a venue to open during the 2025 Big Ears Festival, a man approached the line with a sign indicating that he was selling two tickets for the rock band Heart, who would be playing in Boston next month. Everyone who saw the sign laughed since he was trying toContinue reading “2025 Big Ears Festival, March 27-30, 2025”
“Bluebirds in a Fight” & the Songwriting of Ryan Davis
Listening to a song written by Ryan Davis for the first time can be an exhilarating, yet overwhelming experience. His songwriting features a cavalcade of images, wordplay, metaphors, and jokes that come in a rush. It’s similar to flipping too quickly through a book of photographs by William Eggleston. The abundance of color and outlandishContinue reading ““Bluebirds in a Fight” & the Songwriting of Ryan Davis”
Some Thoughts on A Complete Unknown
A Complete Unknown — the 2024 film about the life and music of Bob Dylan between the years 1961 and 1965 starring Timothée Chalamet, Edward Norton, Elle Fanning, and Monica Barbaro — was not made for me, at least not for people like me. Biographical films about musicians, also known as music biopics, are notContinue reading “Some Thoughts on A Complete Unknown”
Allen Ginsberg & Bob Dylan Ride the “Vomit Express”
In November 1971, Allen Ginsberg and Bob Dylan entered the Record Plant recording studio in New York City to record adaptations of Ginsberg’s own poetry, arrangements of poems by William Blake, and a few Ginsberg-Dylan original songs. The resulting recordings are rough and ragged. However, the most successful work is “Vomit Express,” which constitutes aContinue reading “Allen Ginsberg & Bob Dylan Ride the “Vomit Express””
Roadhouse
A few months ago, I took to social media to officially pronounce my separation from the word “choogle.” For those unfamiliar with the term, it’s a musical description — some even may refer to it as a genre — that originated with Creedence Clearwater Revival’s 1969 song “Keep on Chooglin’.” During the song, John FogertyContinue reading “Roadhouse”
Recliner Notes 