Soul Warrior
This past weekend the Swedish Skeptics celebrated our 30th anniversary with a two-day conference in Gothenburg. It included the annual business meeting of the society at which I was reelected as...
View ArticleLive Drummer Plays Impossible Machine Beats
Bizarre musical development. The drum and base genre of music was created when people turned up the tempo on drum machines to insane speeds. But this guy plays drum and base beats live! Ree-spect!
View ArticlePitch-Perfect Pixies Homage
This musical style was invented by the Pixies in the mid 80s. Their early work was a main source of inspiration for Curt Cobain of Nirvana. Now Cage the Elephant have recreated the early Pixies style...
View ArticleIn My Earbuds Lately
Black Keys – Brothers (2010). Soulful vocals and psychedelic guitars. Brimstone Solar Radiation Band – Solstice (2005). Melodic Norwegian psych. David Bowie – Low (1977). Soul rock interleaved with...
View ArticleNew Rolling Stones E-Book
This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Rolling Stones’s first gig, at the Marquee Club in London. Journalist Hanspeter Kuenzler and Bavarian e-book publishers The eBook People GmbH celebrate the...
View ArticleBill Doss of Olivia Tremor Control Dead at 43
My musical taste spans half a century, but like many people I have a particular soft spot for musicians of my own age and the albums they made during our 20s. I really love 90s neo-psych. It was...
View ArticleNew Single From Qoph
Qoph is an excellent heavy psych rock outfit from Lidingö not far from where I live, and I’m really excited to learn that their third album is on its way! Here’s the first single. I like it!
View ArticleFlute Clock Reborn
My part-time employers the Academy of Letters are charmingly unworldly in a muscular way. They’re not a government body and are beholden to nobody except King Gustav III who laid down their bylaws in...
View ArticleInexplicable Millas Mirakel Lyrics
I’m bothered by odd redundancy in an 80s song lyric. Millas mirakel advises us that “It is better to light the fire of life than to never be allowed to be yourself”. Yes, and? That turn of phrase...
View ArticleMaking Peace With Kraftwerk
I used to be kind of angry and disappointed with Kraftwerk. The only album they put out after I started listening to them was 1986′s Electric Café which is OK but not great, and after that, no new...
View ArticleDepeche Mode Meets Tom Lehrer
In your room Where time stands still Or moves at your will Will you let the morning come soon As we dance to the Masochism Tango I ache for the touch of your lips, dear But much more for the touch of...
View ArticleIn My Earbuds Lately
For months I subscribed to too many podcasts, and so wasn’t listening to a lot of music. But lately I’ve made an effort to rectify that. Here’s what I’ve been bopping to. Apples In Stereo – Travellers...
View ArticleFive Good Psychedelic Pop Albums
Junior’s buddy expressed an interest in psychedelic pop. Here’s a selection of good albums, one for each decade. There is of course also heavier psych rock with prominent blues guitar in the tradition...
View ArticleAlbum Review: Astrophobos, Remnants of Forgotten Horrors
Pär Svensson of Kurtz, himself a rock guitarist with unbelievably eclectic musical tastes, pops in with a guest entry. Hello Cleveland! Martin asked me to review the debut album of his brother’s death...
View ArticleLove’s Kind Of Crazy With A Spooky Little Boy/Girl Like You
The lyrics to Dusty Springfield’s 1970 song ”Spooky” are slightly odd. They have a woman describing her relationship with a fickle, unreliable, flirtatious man. ”Love’s kind of crazy with a spooky...
View ArticleArrival Songs
The English language has a rich tradition of songs celebrating the joys of orgasm. Here are just a few examples. Sumer Is Icumen In (anon., 13th century) Come Again (John Dowland, 1597) Come, Thou...
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In My Earbuds Lately
GOAT: the new groovy weirdness from Gothenburg Here are some good albums that I’ve been listening to lately. Dowling Poole – Bleak Strategies (2014). For all who miss the later Beatles and the Super...
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In My Earbuds Lately
Country Funk — Country Funk (1970) Here are some good albums that I’ve been listening to lately. Country Funk — Country Funk (1970). Not country and not funk: folk psych. GOAT — Commune (2014)....
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