hot out here

Honestly, I wouldn’t expect too much in the world of blog posting for the near future.  Between the new attorney gig, an impending part-time job (starting late next month), my occasional freelance forays, and actually seeing my wife and kids once in awhile, I can barely catch my breath right now.

One new thing I’m doing is a series of MP3 posts of A to Z; Annie and I will be alternating every other Thursday.  I got to write the inaugural post, a look back at Beanpole’s pleasingly lo-fi pop sounds.  I’ve been a fan of Verna’s solo recordings for years, to the point of interviewing her for the last issue of CIF in 1999, and “Now I Know” is one of her best.

Los Campesinos!/Titus Andronicus insta-blog post, A to Z.

I wrote this in a half-asleep daze in the immediate wee hours after the show.  Believe it or not, it is difficult for 42-year-olds to rock all night.  I’m just glad the words came quickly.  Sometimes they don’t.  When I wrote an A to Z post about Smoosh’s opening set for Bloc Party, for instance, it took literally half the night (and several frantic emails to my poor music editor) to finish it.

Speaking of year-end festivities, this week I’m part of the RFT‘s 2008 wrap-up.  I’m on page 2 blabbing about various noisy pop bands a la Vivian Girls, Crystal Stilts and Nodzzz.  I also wax regretful on Brian Wilson’s That Lucky Old Sun.

Twenty-five years since R.E.M.’s Murmur was released.  A quarter of a century.  How can that be?

Twenty-five years ago I was a high school student who regularly took buses to New Brunswick and NYC to buy records.  I bought Murmur on one of those trips over the summer, having fallen for Chronic Town some months earlier.  I fell for it pretty much immediately.  Murmur was part of one of the all-time great musical hot streaks: R.E.M. simply could do no wrong between Chronic Town and Lifes Rich Pageant.  To be an R.E.M. fan during that time was to experience Beatlemania on a micro-level – or, more to the point, a Bob Dylan level of scholarship.  R.E.M. fans loved R.E.M.: would travel to see them, visit their early Athens landmarks like religious shrines, dissect each mumbled lyric fragment for meaning, check out other bands and songwriters that they recommended.  You felt like you were part of an exclusive but sizable group.

Perhaps the greatest compliment to Murmur is that new generations keep discovering it.  In honor of a new deluxe reissue, tonight next Monday night, my friend/editor Annie will host a tribute to Murmur on her KDHX radio show, “International Pop Overthrow.”  She will play the album in its entirety, interview co-producer Don Dixon, and throw in some tracks by R.E.M.’s friends, tourmates and kindred spirits.  No podcast, so tune in to 88.1 FM (if you’re here in STL) or be sure to listen online.

Two RFT pieces of note:

1) My A to Z blog post about the Music Tapes’ Holiday Cheer tour, in which I chastise STL for not being hospitable.  Hopefully this will change things.  Sorry about the unintentional Yakov Smirnoff tribute in the first paragraph.  (“In Russia, concert goes to see you!”)

A side note: The reason we have not invited Koster ourselves is because we have a four-year-old and a two-year-old.  The caroling times coincide perfectly with their crankiest time of the day (dinner/bedtime/crash from tiredness).  Maybe if there’s a Third Annual Caroling Tour, we’ll be on the schedule.

2)  A fascinating peek at a Glenn Branca rehearsal.  Branca is debuting a new symphony at the Pageant tonight.  A to Z will have a interview with the maestro himself later today. He’s always a fascinating and candid interviewee, so that should be worth reading.  (I just want to know if he still thinks the government killed D. Boon, as he once suggested in Forced Exposure.)

Callie and I visited just before leaving the West Coast.  I suppose I’ve always been a little intrigued by the idea of Anacortes, with its strong connections to K Records.  I vividly remember the fog and the mountains on our way north from Seattle, which seemed to envelop everything around us.  Anacortes itself was…eh, no big deal.  Your basic Pacific Northwest small town, really.  We made a quick stop at The Business and headed back to Seattle.  I should have remembered what I supposedly learned from previous visits to Athens and Olympia: just because bands you like come from a small town is no guarantee that there’s much to do in that small town. Perhaps I should have visited when there was a good show at the Department of Safety, or stopped by during What The Heck Fest.

Anyway.  Two reviews in this week’s RFT:  Jennifer O’Connor at the Off Broadway, and Mount Eerie (from Anacortes) at the Lemp Arts Center.  Note that these shows are literally down the street from each other.  I’m going to try to hit both.  So should you.