You gotta have fear in your heart

Welcome back to May, dear friend and reader! Is this better? Are you again comfortable? Are you even there? Welcome, also, to another round of Remember When? as I parse my own archives. Last year’s Volume 10 was that in spades, compiling a Best of Me on the way to six thousand more words. I […]

Beer and football IX — playoffs, week four (bye)

The beer: Proclamation Derivative Vic Secret Pale Ale The commentary: Some people lose front teeth. Others lose old blog posts. (Transition: smooth.) My relationship with the Biff! Bang! words you’re reading is troubled, and if the Pats weren’t such a goddamn winning machine I might have signed off altogether following the Beefheart crowning achievement. It’s […]

Don’t gimme no affliction: 25 years of “Moonlight on Vermont” and other bush recordings

“It’s very gratifying to say that Captain Beefheart’s [Trout Mask Replica] is a total success, a brilliant, stunning enlargement and clarification of his art. Which is not to say that it’s in any sense slick, ‘artistic’ or easy.” – Lester Bangs, Rolling Stone “If one is to enjoy Trout Mask Replica’s twenty-eight songs on a […]