Blog: Glorious Noise

One year ago for our tenth anniversary, we took a little break . A sabbatical. After six months with nary a peep, we quietly started publishing stuff again. And we've been posting stuff fairly regularly since then. The break was nice. It gave us time to migrate from MovableType to WordPress. We also switched hosts from Hostrocket to Dreamhost. And then switch back to Hostrocket after Dreamhost couldn't power our decade-worth of content with their measly 8MB of PHP memory. Our break also gave us some time to think about why we do this [...]

My Vinyl Solution is simple: I'm listening to my records. As my collection has grown, I've realized that I've been spending too much time amassing lps, to the point that I have no idea of what I even own. Hence, this column . Asia, Astra So the first thing you may notice if you read my last column post , is that regardless of what kind of writer I am, I clearly don't have a grasp of the alphabet. Or [...]

Stream: Jack White - "Love Interruption" Wurlitzer electric piano, acoustic guitar, then: I want love to roll me over slowly, stick a knife inside me, and twist it all around. I want love to grab my fingers gently, slam them in a doorway, put my face into the ground. And that's how Jack White introduces his debut solo album, Blunderbuss , due April 24 on Third Man Records/XL Recordings/Columbia. Background vocals from Nashville-based, Ghana-born Ruby Amanfu add a creepy, old-timey [...]

Video: Wilco - "Dawned On Me" I usually hate animated videos but this one was pretty fun. It's apparently "the first hand-drawn Popeye cartoon in more than 30 years." Which is odd, because who knew that there have been any Popeye cartoons made in the past 30 years? Even if you're not impressed by the primitive animation and silly storyline (Olive Oyl picks Tweedy over Popeye and Bluto? Come on!), "Dawned On Me" is one of the highlights of Wilco's The Whole Love . [...]

Until recently, we've had a mild winter in the Midwest. There's been very few days where temperatures fell below freezing and it was the first time in years when there wasn't snow on the ground during Christmas. It was a challenge not to buy Kate Bush's new album 50 Words For Snow when it was released last November, but I had to wait. I knew that someone would probably place it under the Christmas tree as a gift for me, as it's well known around these parts that my love for all [...]

Launching a new column is somewhat daunting, as there's usually a lot to explain. But an editor of mine once told me to just dispense with the disclaimers and jump right in. The readers will figure it out, he felt. And besides, plotting out all the thinking that went into the thing is somewhat presumptuous isn't it? After all, you haven't written shit yet, so laying out a bunch of crap that may or may not come to fruition is like showing people the boxes of parts you've ordered for the rusting hulk in the garage. Just shut up and [...]

Launching a new column is somewhat daunting, as there's usually a lot to explain. But an editor of mine once told me to just dispense with the disclaimers and jump right in. The readers will figure it out, he felt. And besides, plotting out all the thinking that went into the thing is somewhat presumptuous isn't it? After all, you haven't written shit yet, so laying out a bunch of crap that may or may not come to fruition is like showing people the boxes of parts you've ordered for the rusting hulk in the garage. Just shut up and [...]

Video: Butch Walker And The Black Widows - "Synthesizers" "To commemorate the 20 year anniversary of the filming and inception of this amazing movie," Butch Walker says , "we brought a little someone from the film back to be the life of the party for our new video for the song 'Synthesizers.' The song lyrics really relate to just about anyone who has a hard time moving on with the changes that life throws at you." This video made my day. Butch Walker's [...]

Let's put politics aside for a moment and just appreciate that this guy is smooth. Years after Clinton squawking away on a sax and eight arduous years of Bush trying to dance (or whatever that is ), we finally have a President with at least a hint of musical acumen. Making the rounds this week is the President singing some Al Green, which is awesome enough. But it's not the first time The Crooner in Chief has put his pipes to the test. Dig his repertoire. Barack Obama Sings Al Green [...]

Video: Howlin' Wolf Defines the Blues, "Meet Me In The Bottom" This is something else! Wolf is patiently trying to explain what the Blues really are, while he's repeatedly heckled (off-mic, unfortunately) by an apparently loaded Son House. After not too long Wolf has had enough and rips into House. "You had a chance with your life but you ain't done nothing with it... See now you don't love but one thing and that's some whiskey." You can hear House arguing something to the effect of "I wants [...]

MP3: Cold War Kids - "Minimum Day" I've held a bit of an irrational grudge against the Cold War Kids since 2007 when we ran an interview with them by a new GLONO contributor whose writing read like P.R. copy. We tried to encourage him to put a little more personality in his stuff and he got offended. The whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth and for some reason I've taken it out on the Cold War Kids. It's ridiculous, I know, but what can you do? Anyway, [...]

• Cold War Kids - Minimum Day

Even though I've spent my fair share of time in packed vans and cars driving to shows through snow and ice and overheated engines and speed-traps…I still love to read about other people's experiences on the road. Throw in a healthy dose of frizzy hair and bell-bottoms and I'm hooked. I stumbled across this gem of a story while watching talkingheads dissect the South Carolina GOP debates and thank God for it. Author Craig Morrison gives a hilarious and detailed account of his "jazz-rock show band's" trek across Canada in 1974. This isn't The Song Remains the Same, [...]

When I was a kid—and I mean, when I was eight or nine years old—I told anyone who would listen that if I ever had kids I would name them after The Beatles. And I meant all of The Beatles, even Ringo. But I was a kid and what did I know? I grew up and realized it was ridiculous to name my kids after my favorite band. Paul Weller on the other hand is welcoming his twin sons Bowie and John Paul into the world this week. The 53 year old former frontman of The Jam announced [...]

Sancho from Martin Starr This is a mildly amusing song about a guy who suspects that his wife (played in the video by Liz Phair) is getting some service from a non-authorized dealer. The punchline is silly, but Liz looks great throughout. Will Forte steals the show, of course.

Oh my God, this is fantastic. If you watch Always Sunny, you get it. If you don't, well...you should really watch Always Sunny. Joman - Daymanstep (with Video) VIA the more than slightly dopey Bro Bible

As someone who loves old stuff, especially old musical instruments, this is hard to read: A massive cache of musical treasures that's grown to include a fragile harp-piano, the pioneering Moog synthesizer and the theremin used for "The Green Hornet" radio show has been shuffled over the years from a theater to an unheated barn and now languish, rarely seen or heard, in a Michigan storage vault. That's the lede to a story detailing the fate of the Stearns Collection of Musical Instruments. Donated to the University of Michigan in [...]

Stream: The Doors - "She Smells So Nice" Seems crazy that they're still digging up new Doors material, but apparently producer Bruce Botnick discovered this one while preparing the session tapes for L.A. Woman , which is once again being reissued on January 24 . Curious that it didn't turn up when they released the 40th Anniversary remixes in 2007. Regardless, this is the kind of Doors song I really like. Lyrics aren't too silly and the band sounds great. Krieger's blues licks sound perfectly [...]

Stream: The Shins - "Simple Song" from Port of Morrow , due March 20 on Columbia . "I know that things can really get rough when you go it alone." So this is the sound of the Shins after James Mercer ditches his band and dumps Sub Pop for a major label. Sounds a lot like the Shins back when James Mercer had his old band and was still on Sub Pop. It sounds good. Might take you a couple listens to get adjusted [...]

Van Halen. Mark IV. Let me bring you up to speed-since we've entered a new phase of Van Halen-of my schizophrenic relationship with the band's various line-ups. There's the unconditional love of Mark I, the line-up that all others are compared to. There's the boredom and occasional irritation of the Sammy Hagar years, leading up to an embarrassing bit of time with Gary Cherone . And now we have the drama between Eddie Van Halen and Michael Anthony which leads to some pretty interesting alliances between the V.H. faithful, some of [...]

Damien Jurado has always had a dark soul. His stark albums have always had more than a tinge of foreboding that's been tempered by his disarming and vulnerable delivery. Well, now the gloves are off and the bats are out…literally. Alternative Press debuted Jurado's creepy new video yesterday and it's downright unnerving. Watch as a cute indie couple gets chased around by dudes with bats through some decrepit industrial wasteland. Will they get away? It doesn't look good but at least they have a killer soundtrack for their farewell. VIDEO Damien [...]