by DJ El Toro
I have notoriously flawed instincts when it comes to popular music. Before the release of Mariah Carey’s first album, I famously told a Sony executive his label was wasting time and money because the public would never go for such an obvious Whitney Houston knockoff.
Naturally, with such keen acumen, I became [...]
I’ve been thinking about buying a new bicycle. Again. I buy a bicycle about once a decade. I’m good at buying them. I ask questions and comparison shop and take them out for a spin before slapping down my hard-earned cash. But riding? Not so much.
I grew up thinking the world was flat — not [...]
I’ve often joked that nothing good ever happens in songs set by a river. Seriously. You go down to the river, and the next thing you know innocents are being deflowered, or someone’s getting shot (Neil Young’s “Down by the River”) or bludgeoned with a rock (Nick Cave’s “Where the Wild Roses Grow”), or a [...]
by DJ El Toro
Last month, legendary producer and songwriter Phil Spector was convicted of second degree murder. And I’m finding it a bit difficult to listen to his records. I love those classic “Wall of Sound” oldies, Spector’s “little symphonies for the kids,” designed to sound huge even through the tiniest transistor radio speaker. Yet [...]
When Steve Earle was in the KEXP studio yesterday, playing songs and talking about the life of Townes Van Zandt, he also praised another great songwriter: Loudon Wainwright III. Mere coincidence? Probably not. Wainwright is performing in Seattle tomorrow night (at the Moore Theatre), and I’d played one of his recordings on-air while Earle was [...]
Like all of us, the recession has forced me to make choices about how I spend my discretionary income. New books? Ha! My library card sees a lot more action than my Visa or American Express. And yet, the other day, I saw something on a remainder table — marked down from $45 to $14 [...]
You know what I hate about mp3 files? The color: None.
Last week, I plucked a copy of Josie Cotton’s 1982 single “He Could Be The One” out of a bargain bin for pennies. And that little 45 reminded me once more that, much as I appreciate the convenience of digital music, vinyl records will always [...]
Between Hood-to-Hood (thanks, Capitol Hill!), Record Store Day, the 2009 Pop Conference, and covering an overnight show on Saturday night, I’m a little too drained to write anything of note this morning. So please enjoy this video of my presentation from the Pop Conference, “Papaya: Strange Fruit,” about how my favorite Polish jazz singer accidentally [...]
by DJ El Toro
Tuesday, March 31:
“I didn’t get to digest as much music as I’d have liked yesterday. (Plus I have a wad of Britney Spears’ “If U Seek Amy” rotting in my colon, refusing to pass — just the chorus, repeating ad nauseam, making its tenacity known with such aggression that I find [...]
The week before last, I polished off Bill Drummond’s excellent and hilarious memoir 45. Drummond managed the Teardrop Explodes and Echo & The Bunnymen, was one-half of the KLF, and found subsequent infamy as a art provocateur, author, etc. His rabid discourse on music in myriad forms inspired me to make a pact: I will [...]
Posted in KEXP, Weird At My School | Tagged Bat For Lashes, Black Moth Super Rainbow, Echo & The Bunnymen, Grizzly Bear, John Cale, Peter Walker, Sir Richard Bishop, Six Organs of Admittance, Teardrop Explodes, Thurston Moore |
