For weeks now, I've been posting playlists made up of music from this year's South By Southwest festival in Austin. It's not that I'm a huge SXSW fan. I've never even been to the festival. I do this because I'm a sucker for sampling things. I like sampling beer. I like sampling wine. I like sampling food. So, of cour

Here's another playlist made up of songs from the massive collection of freebies from the South By Southwest 2013 torrents. This time around, it's a pop playlist with a bit of an 80's vibe... kinda, sorta.

I love the fact that somebody named a song Sting's Teacher Years, even though the song has nothing to do with Sting. Or does it? I tried googling the lyrics, but I ended up with pages of links to pages about Sting. Obviously.

Here's another batch of songs from this year's South By Southwest festival. Basically, it's a collection of songs that more or less seem to fit together. There's really no rhyme or reason beyond that.

Another week. Another playlist. I've been posting compilations made from the free music available from this year's South By Southwest festival. This will be the 4th playlist so far from this year's SXSW. The festival ended well over a month ago, but there's a lot of music to go through, so I've been breaking it down int

Here's another playlist from this year's South By Southwest festival. This time, the playlist is kind-of sort-of twangy, and it gets twangier as it goes along.

More music from this year's South By Southwest festival. This time, it's more of an indie rock playlist.

Every year, as part of the South By Southwest music and technology festival in Austin, a pair of mammoth music downloads are released for free via torrents. It ends up being around 1200 songs, most of which suck. But... but but but... 1 in 10 tend to be pretty

A year or two ago, I filed away a link for the blog of a writer named Neil Cross. He writes horror novels, and though that's a genre I have absolutely no interest in, I enjoyed the blog he writes about his writing. Odd? Yes. One

I went to see Morrissey at The Schnitz on Friday night. The show was mostly fun, though it felt brief. I say 'mostly' fun because, really, I didn't need the giant display overhead as he performed Meat Is Murder. Yes, he did play some songs from The Smiths - five if memory serves correctly. Some of his choices from his s

How do you spell the sound of whistling? I don't know. I can't help wondering how musicians write the whistling parts into songs. Take "Late March, Death March" by Frightened Rabbit, for example. On paper, does it look like this? "March, death march, I went too far. Wheeee whooo, wheeee whooo whoooooo." The beginning

A pop playlist for a harmless sort of day.

Baby Shoes by Bad Books opens with a line that reminds of the six word story supposedly written by Hemingway: "For sale, baby shoes. Never worn." Did Hemingway really write those six words?

I'm ready for spring, but spring isn't ready for me. I'm looking forward to warmer temperatures and sunshine into the evening. Instead, it's gray. Cold and gray. I realize the calendar says February, so winter weather is to be expected, but the heart wants what the heart wants, and mine wants spring. The heart will hav

"Cats and dogs and rooster calls Telephones and pay phone stalls They take away The lonely days For now" - The Head And The Heart, 'Cats And Dogs'

I whipped together a quick playlist without realizing I'd paired Frightened Rabbit with White Rabbits. It happens.

"You told me I was like the dead sea. You'll never sink when you are with me. Oh, lord, I'm your dead sea." -- The Lumineers

I have no idea why, but... musically, this is what I'm craving today.

New music for a new year... except that much of it isn't new, but then again, there isn't any 2013 music yet anyway. The playlist opens and closes with a pair of tracks from the relatively new album by Sea Wolf called Old World Romance. It's seriously good stuff.

Just once I want to see a drug advertised on TV using the phrase: "May cause sexual side effects... but you'll LIKE 'em." I don't care what the product was called or what it was created to do, that shit would fly off the shelves faster than you can say "May have sexual side effects, but..." It amazes me how many drugs ha

Every year on the evening of December 25th, Christmas music expires. It has a shelf-life of one month at best, stretching from the day after Thanksgiving through Christmas day. And, much like the forgotten half gallon of eggnog in the back of the fridge that may or may not still be good, we know better than to serve it.

Here's a batch of mellow Christmas music to stream as the holiday draws near. This is easily my favorite time of year, despite the darkness and the rain. Even though the news has been filled with headlines about gun violence and the fiscal cliff, I can't help feeling a bit optimistic about the world at Christmastime. If

Me? I want the rain to stop for a few days, particularly on the weekend. I realize it rains a lot here, but there needs to be a system for scheduling the few dry days around times when we Oregonians can actually use them. Or, how about even just being able to schedule the few dry hours? Let the sky be dry on Saturday, f

I'm angry tonight, and I don't know how not to be. This week alone, in Portland, a 7 year old and an 11 year old tried to steal a woman's car at gunpoint, a high school student tried to sell a rifle to another student at school, and a shooter with an assault rifle fired dozens of rounds at the mall, killing two people and

I found out long ago, it's a long way down the holiday road...

I own a plant whose name is not Chuck, though that's what I call him. To be honest, I've forgotten what his real name is, and he refuses to remind me, so... he's Chuck. Tonight, I asked Chuck: "How much Chuck could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?" Chuck resented the question. Also, he resented the fa

Death Cab's version of Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) is my favorite modern Christmas song - cover or otherwise. And since it is that time of year again, I can't think of anywhere better to begin a playlist than that.

I could tell she had something on her mind, but I must say, I was impressed when halfway into her first drink she cut to the chase. "Can I ask you a question?" "Of course." Through the years, I’ve learned a few things. Don’t eat the yellow snow. Never arm-wrestle a re-assigned priest. If you live alone and don’t

One of the highlights of the new Ben Gibbard album (ahem. The 'Benjamin' Gibbard album) is a song called A Hard One To Know. It's a poppy song with clever lyrics like "You're like a flower garden buried in snow, you're a hard one to know." It pulls me in, but it also reminds me of how much Death Cab For Cutie is more tha