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Keep The Car Running
Or, one song of Temecula I sangIt was already late enough and the road was full of fallen branches. Thrown into De Portola’s two lanes by the storm with the geometry and precision of Pollock, his...
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2011: Comeback Album of the Year
"Circuital" My Morning Jacket Don't get me wrong. I appreciate bands who make efforts to further their sound, to move past what they have already done. However, these endeavors are not always...
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2011, Most Disappointing Album of the Year
"The Rip Tide", BeirutSorry, Zach. This album didn't work. Maybe "Most Disappointing" is a bit harsh. I could say, rather, the "Most Boring, When I Expected Much More Album of the Year". I had come to...
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2011, Best Album Cover of the Year
"I Am Very Far," Okkervil RiverDisclaimer: Any year that Okkervil River releases an album, it will be the best album cover art. Simple reason why... William Schaff just might be my favorite living...
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2011, Best Debut Album of the Year
"Within and Without", Washed OutErnest Green burst onto the indie scene in 2009 with his EP, Life of Leisure. Literally, he burst onto the scene. Possibly single handedly creating his own sub-genre of...
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2011, My Ten Most Favorite Albums of the Year
10. "Apocalypse", Bill Callahan Good ol' Bill does it again. Haunting, sweeping, pining, melancholy.9. "I Am Very Far", Okkervil RiverWill Scheff conjures up a different sounding batch of songs. No...
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2011, My Most Favorite 30 Tracks of the Year
30. "Kaputt" Destroyer29. "Riding for the Feeling", Bill Callahan28. "Thought Ballune", Unknown Mortal Orchestra27. "Modern Art", Black Lips26. "Same Mistake", Clap Your Hands Say Yeah25. "County...
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Positively Ludlow Street
Or, a brief vision I had while walking around the Lower East Side last July.Lou Reed walks down Ludlow Street, shuffling a deck of 51 cards. Here he comes, dressed all in black. Black jeans tucked into...
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Jack Describes Eterntiy
Or, a confusing dialogue I had with Jack Kerouac in my mind while eating apple pie in Julian the day after Christmas.“Did I create that sky? Yes, for if it was anything other than a conception in my...
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In Honor of Oscars Sunday,
because, this time of year makes me extra curmudgeonly-criticI love movies. But I hate actors. Of what purpose do they serve in society? They are merely our escape artists.The Oscar acceptance speech...
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The Consul is Dead
Or, my reflection on Malcolm Lowry's masterpiece, Under the VolcanoThe Consul is dead. He will not be returning. Take him out into the breathing jungle. Let the vines tangle and take him back into the...
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Notary and Outcome and So and So
Seventeen years in the cityand he walks between the same cracks that echospray painting skeletons and santeria.Revolutionary Debris.The worst way to ask forHELPis to ask forHELPin the Spanish...
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I am Constantly Risking Absurdity
I am stealing a line andconstantly risking absurdityby adding and multiplying in Latin script.Breathing life into thoughts thatspark from the fireplaceup into the airand then gone.Or like the flashes...
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How to Gracefully Disappear in a Room
Is it odd that I think about Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec from time to time? Henri, the brilliant, but biologically and psychologically troubled, French post-impressionist painter, who I imagined must...
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Ill Communication
MCA is gone - 1/3 of the Beastie Boys. The world knew he was sick since 2009 with throat cancer. But I thought I heard somewhere that he was recovering. It was relieving and comforting to...
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Attack On Memory
Are you going to turn into a weirdo? An important question, no doubt, proposed by my mom to me, aged 14, on the way home from the Temecula library after picking up a reserved copy of Gravity’s Rainbow...
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Motel Arizona
My eyes strained, bleached as the Arizona ground around me, following the stretch of highway out to the horizon, where the top of the blacktop met the bottom of the rose dusk sky. I knew it was time to...
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My History With Hot Chip
The first I ever heard of Hot Chip was back in 2005 in a Myspace message (remember those?) from Devin. It read:Here is what I am listening to right now - Hot Chip, Cut Copy and Quantic Soul...
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Celebration Rock
The first sound that bombards you on the new Japandroids album, Celebration Rock, is the far off explosions of high up fireworks. It sounded odd at first listen - when do you ever hear fireworks...
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The Times They Are A-Changin'
"Come gather 'round people wherever you roam..."Dylan welcomed the world into his song with the ancient archetypical greeting laid down by minstrels and folksters and voices of protest that had echoed...
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