I briefly mentioned the new Kleptones album a couple of weeks ago. Since then, I got a chance to hear the episode of the Radio Clash podcast that included an interview with “Eric Kleptone,” the leader of the Kleptones. Hearing his perspective on his efforts was fascinating. It turns out that he was in a… — read more

More and more lists of the best albums of the year are being posted, and, for whatever reason, I’m finding them all very interesting. So interesting that, with a gift certificate I got from my employer, I got a bunch of the albums mentioned, including: Black Sheep Boy – Okkervil River Stephen Malkmus – Face… — read more

Pitchfork has released their list of the “Top 50 Albums of 2005.” It’s a pretty good looking list, and for the first time in years I’m actually in a position to say so. I already have ten albums on the list (and I’ll probably get more), which isn’t bad for someone hurtling into middle age.… — read more

Though it’s lyrically admirable, I never thought that “Imagine” was a very good song. Does that make me a bad person? Yet at the very least, the deluge of that song today has provided a brief respite from the blitz of Christmas carols to which we’re otherwise subjected for the month of December. A far… — read more

The Chemical Brothers have put a remixed version of their most recent album, Push the Button, and an EP of remixes of one of the singles from that album, “Believe,” on the Web for anyone who wishes to download it. Their only request is that people downloading the album or EP make a donation to… — read more

Apple released some more free GarageBand loops for .mac members this week. They’re all symphony pieces. After a walk down to the river with Olive and my wife–on which I took a few pictures–I threw together “Viola Song” (a lame allusion to Nick Drake‘s “Cello Song,” which is actually good) in an attempt to catch… — read more

Speaking of celebrity cult members, Madonna‘s new album, Confessions on a Dance Floor is surprisingly good. It’s a return to the deeper dance music of the Erotica and Bedtime Stories era, but still more trancey and less pop, and with less of a point to make than either of those albums. It seems to be… — read more

On the latest episode of the Radio Clash podcast, Tim includes “Macamuppet,” a mash-up of the Doors, the muppets, and “The Macarena.” It is, I think, the aural version of “the Entertainment” from David Foster Wallace‘s Infinite Jest, and is rivaled only by the “B-Boy Polka,” a mash-up of Lawrence Welk and DJ Kool Herc,… — read more

I don’t know what’s more troubling: that someone has sampled Iron Butterfly’s “In-a-Gadda-da-Vida,” or that I recognized the sample immediately. Actually, the shame is that the song that sampled “In-a-Gadda-da-Vida” isn’t very good–it should have been at least interesting. — read more

It‘s not safe for work and I have no idea what they’re saying, but the production values are impressive, you can dance to it, and a Buddha makes an appearance, so it can’t be all bad, can it? — read more