That was the working title for XTC's fourth album, but I think the manager figured it would send a bad impression, so it was changed. The cover art for that title was retained, though, and the name changed to Black Sea.


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I recently started subscribing to the New York Times headline feed, and today there was a story about Terrible Towels. My undergraduate college wasn't too far from Pittsburgh, so I remember hearing about these symbols of the Steelers occasionally while there. I think one of my classmates said that his family would drape the towel over the TV ( Read more... )

XTC's Go 2 has one of the most amusing album covers I've seen.


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Actually, White Music, the title of XTC's first album isn't a reference to the band's own Caucasian-ness (besides, Andy Partridge claims to be one-eighth black), but a play on "white noise." I didn't buy the XTC albums in order, and I'm glad I didn't, because this one took some getting used to. I kind of wish I could go back in time to when the ( Read more... )

I bought a copy of Paste magazine last night. I'm not much of a magazine buyer, but who could resist a cover like this?


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Whatever happened to the search function on LiveJournal? I know it was a third-party application, but did they just remove all of the links to it, or what? The thing is, I have a nagging feeling that I might have used this post's title before, but I don't feel like going back and checking. I'm sure nobody but me really cares, though ( Read more... )

Having now reviewed every They Might Be Giants album, plus a few B-sides and other projects, I'm going to turn to the Johns' solo projects. Flansburgh was definitely the more productive John in this respect. As part of his Hello Recording Club (which I often wish I'd been able to get in on, but I wasn't a fan back then), there was an EP credited ( Read more... )

Now that I've had to chance to check out some of my Christmas presents, here are some of my often-written and probably seldom-read reviews:

The Vermillion Lies album, Separated by Birth, is really good. They're a band that can successfully sing comical lyrics, use unusual instruments like toy drums and barbecue grills, and make cute interjections ( Read more... )

Hey, my third post today! Can you tell I'm bored? :P This is something I'd been wanting to do anyway, though, and here's an excuse!