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Mark DesrosiersFeatures2003I remember as a toddler being damn near being reduced to tears of relief and exhilaration when Mr. Rogers looked me in the eye and recognized my own inner dramas. Through the course of an episode he gently untied all the psychic knots that get twisted in the mind of a troubled childhood. [3 March 2003] Hard Hitting Blues: Baby Workout: Jackie WilsonHis tragic career will always be offered as an object lesson in power and greed (not to mention the fate of the black man in entertainment). [28 June 2002] Cadence to Arms: the Dropkick Murphys[The Dropkick Murphys are] quite possibly the most brilliant and exciting live band around today, really. And if they don't make you start thinking patriotically about Irish-American heroes like Mother Jones, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Michael J. Quill, and George Meany, then they haven't done their job. [15 March 2002] All Too Much: George, History, and PsychedeliaThere are countless Beatles classics that would be nothing without George Harrison's trademark pretty, jangly, button-down riffs suffusing them like a potent incense cone. [6 December 2001] 25 Up: Punk’s Silver Jubilee: Aesthetic Anesthetic: Liberating the Punk CanonLet's gob on the punk canon and see what happens. [8 November 2001] ColumnsBigmouth Strikes Again: Eight Mistakes that Music Critics MakeWe rock critics should have leathery skins and sore throbbing eardrums and calloused typing fingers, and we should accept little in return but the possibility of more great new tunes coming our way. [19 March 2003] (more Pomo Audit) On Fire Like Old Dry GarbageHe was an over-saturated, pungent, weed-choked swamp of words. [15 January 2003] (more Pomo Audit) Can You Dig It? Yes I Can!This was a band that thrived despite being jeered and pissed on by critics, hipsters, jazzbos, even its own ex-members. [6 November 2002] (more Pomo Audit) Hello Cruel World: Blogs and Tunes One Year Later. . . (S)houldn't we be celebrating our collective vain, ironical stupidity just to bug that humorless sobersides Osama bin Laden and his fellow fanatics? [18 September 2002] (more Pomo Audit) A Random Walk Down Pirate StreetIndeed, American book pirates of yesteryear are pretty much the same as Asian tape pirates today. The captains of industry hate 'em, but why else do you think damn near every citizen of Jakarta knows the lyrics to Don McLean's 'American Pie'? [7 August 2002] (more Pomo Audit) WRECKTHEPLACEFANTASTIC: A Metaphysics of the Mosh PitWhen a mosh pit is right-on, you experience one of the most energetic, crazed, communal forms of dancing ever invented. [22 May 2002] (more Pomo Audit) Do You Love Me? Three Metal MemoirsNow the worm has turned, and I suspect that the success of 'The Osbournes', Andrew WK, and those gargling perennials Aerosmith will out us all as the closet metalheads we truly are. [1 May 2002] (more Pomo Audit) Maim That Tune: The Moldy Peaches and the Apotheosis of Lo-FiGood lo-fi bands know that they have an ace tune on their hands when they can stumble drunkenly over it and it still rocks the box. [6 March 2002] (more Pomo Audit) Reviews
Danielia Cotton: Rare ChildMy hope is that Cotton will become a reverse Rod Stewart -- starting out bland and commercial and then getting looser, more intuitive, and riskier as her career goes on. [5 June 2008] 
The Lady Tigra: Please Mr. BoomboxCall it Pinkberry music, or call it electroclash: either way, it's great stuff. [29 January 2008] 
Hammer No More the Fingers: Hammer No More the FingersThese songs seem like simple alchemy at first, but they do stick with you, kinda like how the Go-Betweens or the Plastic Constellations worked their magic. [25 January 2008] 
Filkoe: Lost Zoo Keys and the Animal Spirits that Haunt ThemWow, just what the world needs: a really lame Atom & His Package knock-off. [8 January 2008] 
GDP: InvolvementA slightly hard, mildly funny hip-hop record by an artist who should definitely be part of a trio. [2 January 2008] 
Saint Bernadette: In the BallroomWith some more apparitions, weirder songwriting, and maybe a wholesale embrace of cacophony and insanity, Meredith DiMenna could become a menace, a Karen O. for Fairfield County. [13 December 2007] 
Federation: Its WhatevaA nonstop drunken-master thizz-dance that careens from post-crunk, to R&B Dramamine, to screamo-rock, to gospel, to some scatterbrained hybrid of all these, for eighty short minutes. [26 November 2007] 
Gary Allan: Living HardWelcome to 2007. When personal growth and honky tonk clash, it's personal growth that wins. [16 November 2007] 
Faith Hill: The HitsNine out of 23 greatest hits on a “greatest hits” album ain't bad. Depending upon your definition of "bad". [5 November 2007] 
Jessi Colter: Out of the AshesIt’s the first ever concept album by a widowed former outlaw. As such, it's a mix of tomfoolery and the sublime, with a little gunplay and squeaky bedsprings in there too. [28 February 2006] 
Who Made Who: Who Made WhoWho Made Who are a Danish trio bent on playing disco non-ironically. [16 February 2006] 
Tender Forever: The Soft and the HardcoreThis is a woman who gazes upon the wet spot in her sheets, feels her cheeks burn, and pens a simple tune to remember the complex mix of endurance gymnastics and safety cuddling. [22 December 2005] 
The Ex: Singles. Period. The Vinyl Years 1980 - 1990At times this sounds like a dance-party coming from these dour Dutch anarchists, albeit with a bust of Winston Churchill staring by the door. [16 December 2005] 
Gogogo Airheart: Rats! Sing! Sing!We get some groovy three-chord post-punk, some phoned-in dub, and a few comical cartwheels into garagetown. [16 November 2005] 
Old Time Relijun: 2012Old Time Relijun are in many ways the anti-White-Stripes, an authentic and healthy alternative to the snake oil that Jack White is selling. [27 October 2005] 
Deerhoof: Milk ManThis album evades a raking over my coals because of the brilliant title track, which keeps me listening, and because as an art-rock quartet they’ve generated some great background music here. [9 March 2004]
Deerhoof: Apple O’Apple O’ is a wonderful album by a band that’s created an entirely unique noise out of old Shaggs LP’s and the San Francisco fog. [17 April 2003]
Johnny Cash: Ride This TrainFrom the moment he took his first Benzedrine tablet in 1957 until his attempted suicide in Nickajack Cave 10 years later, Johnny Cash's musical output was more fertile and prolific than at any other period in his career. [16 June 2002] 
Gossip: Arkansas HeatNow those of you who haven’t yet caught their greasy magic should immediately skip down to the local record dealer and pull out their big 10-inch record, Arkansas Heat, a quick and noisy platter about Arkansas, love, and revolution. [6 June 2002]
Johnny Cash: America: A 200 Year Salute in Story and SongJohnny Cash created something new, a visceral, holy, and violent brand of folk music that passed itself off as 'country' when country was busy schlocking things up in Nashville, while folk was the province of hippie bubbleheads. [10 December 2001] 
Aphex Twin: DrukqsWe were all on the edge of our seats back in the day, when Richard James' tunes were an explosive mixture of ray guns, mouth harps, and ping-pong balls. On 'Drukqs' he just opens up his box and draws out the same dusty old props. [21 October 2001] 
The Strokes: Is This ItThe Strokes have a great sound, and the album is lots of fun. But they are not the saviors of rock 'n' roll, nor are they even remotely cool. [25 September 2001] 
Jerusalem Calling: A Homeless Conscience in a Post-Everything World by Mark DesrosiersThe book combines tweedy rant with engaging memoir to reveal a refreshingly cynical, cloyingly elitist, and analytically Marxist point of view. [1 January 1995] 
Peaches: The Teaches of PeachesIn a world where the elusive power dynamics of sex have created a form of ideological trench warfare, it's hard to deny the citrus refreshment offered by the Peach with her brights on, bearing down on an innocent priapic fellow. |
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