I wanted to write a quick entry on Jakob Dylan’s ‘War is Kind,’ and I was pretty sure I’d never featured it on the blog. But lo and behold, nearly seven years ago, the track was Song of the Day #129. But I won’t let that stop me.
Sitting in for Jakob Dylan is a man identified on YouTube only as swp1230. He’s a talented guitarist and singer who apparently has no interest in making his real name known.
I caught up with writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s Beyond the Lights on NetFlix a couple of months back and was thoroughly impressed. It’s the sort of adult drama that’s been pushed off of movie screens by reboots and superhero films in recent years.
Don’t get me wrong, I love me a Marvel movie, but I don’t think film lovers should concede that all of the small, smart, character-driven stories now happen only on TV.
This hasn’t been a great year for new releases, at least not so far. Upcoming albums from Ben Folds, Lana Del Rey, Adele and Rihanna might change that, or they might be too little too late.
At least one recent release, Ashley Monroe’s The Blade, has been a delightful standout.
I discovered Monroe as one third of Pistol Annies and really enjoyed her 2013 album Like a Rose, but The Blade puts her on a whole new level.
Lana Del Rey’s new album, Honeymoon comes out on September 18. This is exciting news for my daughter and me, both big fans of the mournful chanteuse.
It is less exciting for my wife, who finds Del Rey boring and annoying. As we remind her regularly… haters gonna hate.
While looking up Honeymoon‘s release date, I discovered that Del Rey released an 8-song EP titled Paradise in between her last two full-length albums. New music before the new music!
John Mellencamp released 1993’s Human Wheels 17 years into his successful career. It’s been 22 years since. I’m a casual Mellencamp fan at best, but from a distance I view this record as a turning point for him.
He had certainly released his share of hits before Human Wheels. In fact, the seven albums prior to this one went platinum, and five of them went 3x or 5x platinum. But the songwriting and production on this record was on a different level, or at least a level that more directly connected with me.
Meet Me In Montauk 