“What Is Life” – George Harrison When I opened Apple Music today to scan the new releases, I noticed that George Harrison’s music is now available to stream. Which is weird because within just the last week or so I heard one of his songs on SiriusXM and wondered if his solo work had ever been cleared for streaming. As…

“Leave A Trace” – CHVRCHES One of the big music surprises of 2013, on multiple levels, were CHVRCHES. Their opening single, “The Mother We Share,” came out of nowhere and was an utter delight. Still, it felt like a bit of a novelty, unlikely to be followed by anything else as engaging. The second surprise came with the release of…

“Laced” – DMA’s A rather goofy video, that really isn’t worth watching, for a pretty spectacular song. In fact, just hide this window while the song is playing and enjoy the sounds. DMA’s take a little Arctic Monkeys, some Oasis, and a heavy dose of classic Australian jangle-pop, and end up with some often gorgeous, if derivative, music.

I’ve kicked this around for nearly two weeks, so I suppose it’s time to finally convert the thoughts into text. I would not call this an album review proper, but rather a few musings about Ryan Adams’ cover of Taylor Swift’s 1989. Ryan Adams is no stranger to covering other people’s music. His set lists are peppered with songs from…

Two videos that have nothing to do with each other this week. “No Myth” – Michael Penn It’s National One Hit Wonder day! What actually constitutes a one-hit wonder can often be a little murky. Does it mean cracking the Billboard Top 40? Or does it mean songs that get into our pop culture memories regardless of chart position? Regardless,…

“Major Tom” – Peter Schilling I have a bad habit of loading up our DVR with shows that I either take months to watch, or eventually delete without ever viewing them. Even for a show like The Americans, that I absolutely adore, I was a month behind. I still have the entire first season of Better Call Saul to begin.[1]…

https://youtu.be/ASFSjjbD_D0 “Ride On” – Rocky Nti Good grief this song is catchy!

Music for the last weekend of summer. https://youtu.be/qh4nVj8g4hg “The Boys Of Summer” – Don Henley Say what you want about Henley, and there’s plenty of negative things to say about the guy, but this is a great song. Even if he’s not really singing about the end of summer, its place in pop culture is as an end of summer…

http://youtu.be/-OZV5i_6Rj4 “She’s The One” – Bruce Springsteen and the E. Street Band Born To Run turned 40 this week. You may have read something about that somewhere.[1] The song “Born To Run” is one I remember from way back in, likely, it’s earliest days. It wasn’t a song for me, or about my life. But it was one that got…

“Clampdown” – The Clash “Johnny Appleseed” – Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros Joe Strummer would have been 63 today. Here are two songs that sum up the second and third phases of his career about as well as any. “Clampdown” is an absolute blowtorch of a song. It is roughly four minutes of righteous fury; a warning to either jump…