They say the strongest human emotion is fear. In fact, it tops Robert Plutchik’s list of eight basic emotions. Love does not find its way into Plutchik’s theory on emotions, but it does find its way (if just barely) into Aristotle’s Rhetoric. Fear, and Love. Two intense emotions; and both of them come into play…
Quick caveat: As of the publishing of this post, I am still reading Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk. In fact, I have yet to break past the first hundred pages. Earlier this month I drove down to SeaTac for a one-day business trip to Scottsdale, AZ. At the airport, I reconnected…
The turning of the clock. Another year gone. I’m now rooted in middle-age. Mikey’s all growns up, as Vince Vaughan’s character would shout in the 1996 film Swingers. Today is 2017. Tomorrow is 2018. The change from one year to the next always evokes a clashing sense of poignancy and hope. People create lists of…
It’s been a while since I’ve written about a new band and a new release. Of late, my sights have been in the opposite direction: the past. Over the past several years, my collection has expanded greatly, but additions have predominantly had release dates anywhere from 5 to 50 years back. Case in point: if…
Alright, so there’s really no one way to do pretty much anything under the sun. That includes “How to Shop on Discogs” — there really is no RIGHT way. But this post is about how I shop and how I recommend shopping on the music marketplace platform. It’s also about how this method led me…
Oh, Maxed Out On Distractions, where have you been the past three years? I tend to be one of those hyper focused people that always has something going on, from a 50 hour work week to slinging the occasional record to make room for more, to a billion house projects. Not to mention this blog….
Depending on which article you read, and what your own personal definition of various sub-genres may be, Tactics fit into the realm of post-punk, art rock, and/or new wave. The band formed in the late 70s as an answer to the growing presence of these styles of music in Europe and the US, but somewhat…
Alright, so a few years back there was a resurgence of sorts in the underground that found modern day bands releasing new albums on cassette. This fad, to an extent, lives on today with notable indie labels such as Sub Pop and Suicide Squeeze joining the ranks of releasing their artists on this format. I…
The best compilations can be likened to the mixtape. Scoring the track list, and getting it right so it flows flawlessly, requires an impeccable level of detail. I think Nick Hornby was spot-on in High Fidelity: The making of a great compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do, and takes ages longer than…
I’m somewhat smitten by the upbeat pop sounds of one of Sub Pop‘s new signings from the past year or two. It’s a little band out of Australia with a weird, long band name: Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever. If I didn’t have better things to do, like listen to this EP again unhindered by the…
