If Only No One Won…
They said it was a record that would never be broken: One band, eight sets, five days of SXSW. Never say never—especially when it comes to a music based challenge involving your favorite active live touring band (I think). I was on a mission to make up for my shoddy attendance last year when Benji…
And the winners of JLC’s 2025 Dangerous Folk Rock Appeal Awards are… ALBUMS 1. Stick— Jim BobEasily my favorite solo album by the former Carter USM frontman since 2007’s A Humpty Dumpty Thing (and his most fun record since In A Big Flash Car on a Saturday Night), Stick harkens back to the turn of…
My brain went and did that dancing about architecture thing again, this time envisioning one of my favorite albums of 2025 as a musical by stringing the songs together into a narrative. Unlike L Extreme, here the idea was to fill in the spaces between the songs with segues to flesh out a story. The…
L Extreme is billed as a novelization of the album A Love Extreme by Benji Hughes, though it actually pulls from his entire catalog through early 2021. January 31, 2025 marked the release of three new Benji Hughes jams via the soundtrack to the film Home Free. Since I spent years mapping out how to…
Welcome to my 2024 annual best of music list, rechristened The Dangerous Folk Rock Appeal Awards (DFRAAs) after Local Boy’s favorite phrase. (Since this is a time travel themed blog, maybe I’ll go back and retroactively change past years…) Despite the name, we like all kinds of music around here—not just folk. Onwards to the…
…and it might’ve been the greatest music weekend I’ve ever had. Feeling a little underwhelmed by the 2024 ACL Fest lineup (no offense — I still went Friday), I accidentally built my own 3-city fester the weekend before when the stars magically aligned. How’d it come to be? Bought tickets to the epic Friday night…
I’m known to engage in some unreasonable live music fandom from time to time. Following 311 on summer tours in high school and college on the MA-RI-CT-NY-NJ circuit in various orders. Flying to London for the “last ever” Carter USM show…twice (2007 & 2014). All four nights of the epic July 2010 Benji Hughes residency…
Bidding farewell to a particularly strong year in music with the usual listage: ALBUMS SONGS SHOWS BOOKS Bonus for 2023: Shepherd.com invited me to write about my 3 favorite books read this year. Check them out at the link, or peruse how ~1300 other authors answered the same question. PHOTOS Second bonus: Pictures to prove…
Saw a stellar Flaming Lips concert this week, reminding me why Benji Hughes calls them the greatest show he ever saw. They played Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots in its entirety, followed by a full second set with all of the usual delightful hjinx throughout. If memory serves this was my 5th Flaming Lips show…
It’s the most wonderful time of the year — actually posted on the last day of the year! ALBUMS: REISSUES: SONGS: SHOWS: Lighter than usual as we ease out of pandemic life. I’m trying to better pick my spots vs. go to every show that catches my interest — and often seemingly end up being…