Somewhere along the fallibility continuum of the American justice system – closer to the Rosenberg commies than those anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti – now lies that weird little gun-toting, Jewish kid from the Bronx known as Harvey Phillip Spector. Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler (who apparently has received some poetically disturbing death threats as […]

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With the pitch-shifting, futuristic melodies and the oddball techno stomp of its debut, Mirrored, Battles has pushed itself to the forefront of the experimental elite. The first single, “Atlas” showcased the band’s bag of complex wizardry with an unforeseen vocal melody over top a danceable backbeat, squawking, processed guitar jabs and rigid keyboard noodlings. The […]

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Mental Floss serves up a mostly predictable tally of “23 Album Covers That Changed Everything.” Why 23 and not 20 or 25? How the shit should I know? It’s not important. I mean, the burning man on the cover of Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here really was on fire for chrissakes. Damn. Meanwhile, the […]

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While rock ‘n’ roll purists (i.e. geezers) genuflect at the altar of the blues, I find the genre to be formulaic and by and large dull. Let me qualify by saying I don’t mind when bands (e.g. The White Stripes or The Black Keys) frame their music within the blues’ traditional context, but too many […]

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I understand the desire to move forward as a band, so if you’re going to try to be around for multiple decades it only makes sense to experiment wildly. I just don’t know that the transparent use of a flavor-of-the-month producer is the way to go. Madonna hops on the whatever’s hot train every time […]

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Since the Drawer here has recently become the judge, jury and foremost executioner for those seemingly good bands that do very bad things, the evil puppy-kicking corporate conglomerates can add a José González notch on their handcrafted by an eight-year-old in dank Singapore cellar belts with this one. To their collective credits, I really didn’t […]

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Music’s a lot like syphilis and movies where Scarlett Johansson doesn’t flash her gash – there’s way too much of it in the world today. (By the way, hey Google, when I type “scarlet johansen naked” that’s precisely what I mean: Scarlett. Johansson. Naked. It’s not a suggestion. Don’t be giving me see-through wet bikini […]

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