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By Scott Duhamel, on March 7th, 2010 123 views
Crazy Heart’s well-traveled tale concerns itself with Bad Blake (Bridges), yet another country and western macho poet with a fistful of magical songs, heartsick and stumbling towards oblivion with a lungful of cigarette smoke and gut full of bourbon. Blake bounces from Bowling Alley stage to straight-up saloon gig, often puking mid-song, piloting himself with laid back charm or churlishness, almost broken with regret, yet nursing dreams about reversing his showbiz status. His shaky encounters with a trio of antagonists set the stage for an admirably unforced and neatly ambiguous tale of
Continue reading Crazy Heart, Take II: Falling and Flying
By Fred Shaw, on March 1st, 2010 131 views
Another writer once proclaimed Patti Smith to be the “Godmother of Punk,” and it would be tricky to dispute that she doesn’t deserve the title. Her 1975 debut album, the seminal Horses, uses an effective blend of well-crafted poetry and three chord guitar rock with beautifully placed feedback to set a standard for a generation of rockers. Bands such as R.E.M. and The Smiths, which fielded influential musicians of their own, have remarked on the impact of Smith’s music on their own
Continue reading Just Kids: Book Review
By Jericho Brown, on February 26th, 2010 175 views
Poet Jericho Brown lays down the perfect mix tape to groove to, break up to, and dance lying down to.
Featuring tracks by Prince, Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, Tendy Pendergrass, and
Continue reading Jericho Brown’s Down and Dirty Funk and Soul Mix
By Marion Winik, on February 4th, 2010 350 views
My skin is cellophane wrap; my heart is pinned smack in the middle. Squarish in shape, it catches the light. HELLO MY NAME MY IS
Continue reading CRY BABY CRY: A Mixtape with heart-dotted sleeves
By Mark Cutler, on January 24th, 2010 359 views
A Mix Tape from Mark Cutler, songwriter, singer, bandleader and guitarist
Continue reading A Winter Mix from yeah, yeah, you got us rockin’
By Wayne Cresser, on January 15th, 2010 811 views
Thomas Cobb discusses Hank Williams, Nabokov, and the near impossibility of
Continue reading shaking talks to novelist Thomas Cobb about Crazy Heart
By William Walsh, on January 10th, 2010 300 views
A mixtape of artists with long careers who continue to produce great songs.
Continue reading Don’t Call It A Comeback
By Rick Moody, on December 25th, 2009 789 views
Rick Moody lays out the ultimate mixtape tracks to get us through the holidays.
Continue reading Songs Useful In Any Contemporary Attempt to Ignore The Holidays
By Amity Bitzel, on December 22nd, 2009 685 views
Scribbling from the margins of that cultural framework is seventeen year old Jolene, a high school senior in Toledo, Ohio. The teenage Jolene is a girl that many of us have known, or dated, or perhaps even were; the kind of girl whose carefully cultivated gothy exterior functions a carapace for the anxious, artistic depressive
Continue reading shaking talks to the author of “Go Ask Ogre”
By Liz Carter, on December 16th, 2009 596 views
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