“Echo Beach” b/w “Teddy The Dink” DinDisc Records DIN 9 (UK) Released on January 25, 1980 Produced by Mike Howlett As the new decade began, Martha and the Muffins had a debut album in the can when they released their second British single. Written by guitarist Mark Gane, “Echo Beach” is exactly the same recording...
“Insect Love” b/w “Cheesies and Gum” DinDisc Records DIN 4 (UK) Released on November 3, 1979 Produced by Mike Howlett Once more, with feeling: Martha and the Muffins re-recorded “Insect Love” for their first release on DinDisc Records, a boutique label established by Carol Wilson under the Virgin UK umbrella. What a difference a producer...
“Insect Love” b/w “Suburban Dream” Muffin Music MM 001 (Canada) Released in February 1979 Produced by Martha and the Muffins This is a self-released single under the band’s DIY label, Muffin Music. The tracks were taken from a June 1978 demo of five songs (the other three recordings are “Teddy the Dink,” “Trance and Dance,”...
This year marks the first time that some end-of-year favorite albums were enjoyed on streaming platforms only. That probably tells you all you need to know about my old-man embrace of the contemporary listening experience. Cate Le Bon – Reward The daffy “it girl” from Wales finally recorded an album with deep emotional resonance,...
Ranked in approximate order of what I would consider most essential listening, these albums comprise a decent playlist of what my decade of new music sounded like… at least from the perspective of the final year. (I see that at least one 2018 album included here didn’t make my end-of-year favorite music of 2018 list...
[Nicole Lipman has been my undergraduate research assistant for three years and has helped me immeasurably by transcribing interviews, scanning and indexing press clippings, and doing other work that my book project needed. Nicole is also a musician and music writer, so before she graduated in May, I asked her to update me on the...
[I’ve wanted Thomas Calkins to write something for this blog since well before I served as external adviser to his University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee sociology dissertation on the life and death of urban record stores. While that project currently evolves into academic journals publications, he found the time to share some thoughts on a quite recent...
[Note: Since the original 2019 post, I’ve updated this page with five additional years (2018-2022) of Times coverage, archived at the bottom of this page. An analysis of this period, inclusive of Covid-19 and its accompanying pandemic gentrification, is forthcoming. -LN] I’ve noticed that folks in the Hudson Valley can’t avoid taking the bait when...
Thus Owls – The Mountain That We Live Upon Top billing goes to the stark, incantatory, incandescent fourth album by this Quebec duo. Singer Erika Angell is the most exciting and committed vocalist I heard all year. Jonathan Wilson – Rare Birds Producer to the indie stars and dude who looks like Jesus achieves...
A paper presented at the “Small Cities in the 21st Century” mini-conference, in the annual meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, Baltimore, Maryland, February 23, 2018: Urban Lift-off Amid the Rural Amenity Economy: Riverfront Cities and the “Brooklynization” of the Hudson Valley by Leonard Nevarez Vassar College ABSTRACT: What futures and fortunes await...
Protomartyr – Relatives In Descent Unsettling, noisy, bleak, wrathful, feverishly pored over by those who scrutinize the fine print… 2017 was a hell of a year, am I right? Oh, we’re talking about the Protomartyr record. Nadine Shah – Holiday Destination Urgent reportage transmitted via globally sourced sounds and Nadine Shah’s authoritative, ass-kicking rock....
How did a bunch of kids in suburban Thornhill ignite a Toronto music scene and bring new energy to Queen Street West, now a hip urban neighborhood? My last post introduced the key players and forgotten bands in the so-called Thornhill sound, but their network, activities, and energies would need to relocate and expand in...
