If you’re reading this post, you should also be able to see a little box on the right side of the page that contains a thumbnail shot of the I Call Time album cover and a few accompanying words. Clicking on the cover shot will lead you to a new section of my website that’s […]
I started working on an album of my own songs in 2013. It was the first such project I’d done in 18 years. During that long gap, I made several albums as a member of various bands: Fuller, the Grand Old Party, and Bedsit Poets. But the closest thing I had to a solo record […]
For a long time I’ve felt that I should like the Smiths more than I do. They mesh with so many of my core stylistic proclivities: very jangly, very quirky, very British. Modern yet classic, they consciously stood apart from the prevailing trends of the ’80s, daring to be intelligent and guitar-centric. And although lots […]
I was lucky enough to spend a few days in the Bahamas recently—a welcome respite from the seemingly never-ending New York winter—and I brought a book along that I thought would be perfect for the trip: My Lunches with Orson, edited by Peter Biskind. The book is essentially a transcription of a series of conversations […]
Between 2000 and 2006, I wrote regularly about music for the New York Observer. It was one of the best gigs I’ve had, giving me splendid opportunities to stretch myself and further develop my chops. Then, as always happens, things changed. Editors came and went at the Observer, full-time jobs came and went for me, […]
As much as I love cinema and theater and TV, I’ve never gotten as nerdily obsessed with actors as I have with musicians. So I never felt compelled to do much research into the life of Philip Seymour Hoffman. All I knew was that he was great—no, not just great, magnificent—in every single role that […]
NOTE: This essay has been reposted with corrections and a postscript. When the Beatles first arrived in America nearly 50 years ago, the representatives of their U.S. record label, Capitol—who couldn’t have cared less about the band a few weeks earlier—suddenly had dollar signs in their eyes. They wanted as much product as they could […]
If you read my earlier post about Doctor Who, you may have noticed that I said nary a word about the show’s rebirth in 2005 after nearly 17 years out of production (if you set aside the ill-fated 1996 Fox TV movie, which I will for the sake of convenience). That’s because the new show […]
A couple of months ago, the BBC television series Doctor Who celebrated the 50th anniversary of its first broadcast. I won’t delve too deeply into details about the show here—if I did, I might very well reach a point of no return—but a few basic facts up front should make the following essay a little […]
It’s that time of the year, and so when the Village Voice invited me to contribute to its annual Pazz & Jop poll, I decided I would. Once I made this decision, however, I began to feel that I hadn’t heard enough new music to make informed choices. That prompted a couple weeks of Spotify power […]
