I love being an Oregonian. It means that I took care of my civic responsibility over a week ago. If you haven’t yet… please do.

No, today’s fun isn’t about voting. It’s about leaving on a business trip. I’m headed to IT Nation in Orlando FL for the rest of the week. Yay? I haven’t been through the airport/airline/hotel process since the Datto ( Read more... )

It was suggested, years ago, that I rejected monogamy because I have issues with commitment. The fact that I’ve maintained two stable relationships for a dozen years or so now may put the lie to the intent of the statement, let’s be clear.

There may be a commitment problem in my mind, though. Just not the one some may have suggested. I’ve been ( Read more... )

We’ll round out this summer run of music (and related products) reviews with a handful of most-recent-album selections which I just couldn’t work up enough enthusiasm for to devote a full entry’s worth of time & effort…

• Apocalyptica, Shadowmaker - So they’ve got a dedicated singer now. “Cold Blood” is good, the rest of the record left me… cold. ( Read more... )

You’d think with my musical identity being formed in the mid-1980s and with ABC being a popular UK-based band (and boy howdy was I into that sort of thing back then) that I wouldn’t have missed out on most of their discography. And yet, I only listened to one of their albums a few times (at a friend’s house) back in the day and never went looking ( Read more... )

There’s an old line that goes, “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.” (The origin of the phrase is, apparently, a subject of considerable debate.) We’re going to take a brief break from writing about music, this week, and instead write about writing about music.

Okay, I’m done with that riff now.

Growing up, I was pretty much a ( Read more... )

Yes, this album is over two years old. Since it’s technically the most recent release from the artist in question, I’m going to rule this one a valid choice. So there, my site my rules, neener neener et cetera.

Now. I feel the need to provide backstory on this one.

Friend Wonderduck and I trade YouTube links from time to time. (Okay, he’s much much ( Read more... )

There are three bands that I consider the core of my music fandom, bands that I got into heavily during my initial teen-aged self-propelled exploration of what pop music had to offer. Genesis and Midnight Oil are no longer active, yet the Pet Shop Boys endure. In all three cases most folks only know them for songs released in the 1980s. (That would ( Read more... )

In case you thought you might be in for something of an upbeat barn-burner of a record, the latest Garbage album starts with a three minute quiet gloomy piece called “Sometimes,” after which you get the big pop single, “Empty.”

Strange Little Birds is the work of a band who sound like they just want to do whatever it is they do, and they feel no ( Read more... )

The guys with the breakout hit a couple years back, the ones with the heavy drums and frequent accordion, have returned with a second album release. How does Egomaniac stand up to what Kongos have done before?

Well, the lead single, “Take It From Me,” isn’t as deeply catchy as “Come With Me Now.” That’s not to say it’s bad. I enjoy the heck out of ( Read more... )

To enjoy Caravan Palace, you need first be able to enjoy a genre called “electroswing,” which is basically old-timey swing-era jazz songs smushed together with electronic sounds & modern production values. It’s not my tip-top favorite sound, but sometimes it suits my mood for a while.

To enjoy Caravan Palace’s third album, the one with the ( Read more... )