A Few Reasons not to Listen to 1001 Albums

So, a friend approached me a few weeks ago and asked if I would accompany him on a project. He is listening his way through this book called 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. He asked me to blog the project with him. But I can’t do it. There are three main problems [...]

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Sell Music, Buy Shoes

The conversation about “selling out” in popular music has been dead for some time. And I’m not interested in reviving that conversation now. The last time it really flared up was around 1989, when Nike featured the Beatles’ “Revolution” in a commercial. Since then, it’s basically been a done deal. So, today’s New York Times‘ [...]

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Music Will Never Look the Same

Just in case you thought that all the talk about the changing media landscape was only threatening the future of newspapers, sit-coms, and books, MTV’s recent decision to drop its “music television” tagline indicates that change is afoot in all quarters. MTV, the upstart cable network that killed the radio star when it launched in [...]

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All Idiot, no America

Last week I went to see Berkeley Rep‘s much-hyped staging of a rock opera set to Green Day‘s 2003 concept album American Idiot. This seemed like a sure-fire winner of an evening. I am a huge fan of the album, I grew up in Berkeley, Green Day famously got their “start” at 924 Gilman, a [...]

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And then, every once in a while…

There’s a gorgeous book cover from days gone by

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Ships, pirates and bootleggers

I went to the movies the other night, and while the movie was good, if forgettable (thanks, Julie and Julia), one of the previews stuck in my mind and my craw. It was a preview for a film called “Pirate Radio,” about a wacky band of renegade music fans/radio station operators who broadcast from a [...]

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