Category: Watch

  • Chops Sawyer

    “Changes aren’t permanent. But change is.”

  • Swearin’ to God

    It’s a movie, it’s a playlist. Just watched “Jersey Boys” in pieces on cable. Once you settle in to not expecting the Scorcese movie it could’ve been, there’s amusement to be had there. The moment the band comes up with its name (via a bowling alley sign)…or with the title “Big Girls Don’t Cry” (watching…

  • This is Grunge

    What is such-and-such a time/place/scene in music? We’ll ask and answer from time to time. This is a quick ‘n’ easy one: What is grunge? This is grunge: A punk/heavy metal hybrid that emerged in Seattle during the late 1980s. Guitars were sludgy, lyrics typically angst-filled, shirts flannel, and authenticity valued above most else. The…

  • CBGB’s Doc: Blitzkreig Bop

    It’s CBGB’s, 1978. Blondie, The Ramones, The Dead Boys live. It’s a documentary.

  • Important: “Crazy Horses”

    This is 1972. If we’d only just listened.

  • Remembering “Night Flight”

    Great, short piece by Kevin C. Smith at DangerousMinds.net: “Do You Remember ‘Night Flight?” We do–as a crucial, freaky centerpiece of TV-hooked 80s teendom. What it was: A lot has been made of MTV’s launch on August 1, 1981, but Night Flight—appearing on the fledgling USA Network—beat them to the punch by nearly two months…

  • The Fever is High

    Here’s the old, abandoned Tumblr site that first collected a bunch of “One of These Nights” solos and miscellaneous other home-spun You-Tubed entertainments: the fever is high. Also a bunch of songs with whistling in them. Last post there, this lovingly edited compendium of “Black Dog” covers: Someone else’s whistling song playlist:

  • Versions: Memphis

    It’s the inaugural post of a we’ll-see-how-long-it-last series, Versions–assertively curated lists of much-covered songs. Not just any much-covered songs, but ones you might want to hear over and over, or at least add to occasionally shuffle upon in your overstuffed Spotify library (if that’s how you do things).  First up: “Memphis, Tennessee” (aka “Memphis”) Chuck…

  • “Into the Black”

    The death of Kurt Cobain (4/5/94)–and the end of grunge–profiled the summer after in Spin (via Longform): Seattle bid goodbye to Kurt Cobain on April 10 in true grunge-rock style, bursting the ranks of a quickly organized public vigil and leaping into the nearby international fountain, a giant, water-spouting structure some 50 yards wide and…

  • Cowbells and Apples

    A pair of YouTube drum covers that make drumming seem more complicated and more awesome than you may have previously thought. First in a ongoing series (The Fever is High)–living room and garage musicians doing their living room and garage thing. Usually made all the more watchable by interesting glimpses of living rooms and garages.…