I almost called this chapter “Fourth Time Around” but I’ve never liked when an album has the same title as a song on it. (Yes, I already sort of did this earlier…) “New Age” is fine, but I considered it a placeholder of a scene title until I was agonizing over where to set the…
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LBDG Commentary 14: Devotional Deviations
Making Local Boy Done Gone a standalone sequel meant telling a self-contained story, but also allowing it serve as either book one or book two depending on your reading order. (Or the other book two, but I’m getting ahead of myself much like Local Boy often does.) Part of that involved the Back to the…
LBDG Commentary 12: The New Abnormal
The title of this chapter comes from the 2020 album by The Strokes, featuring cover art by 27 Club member Jean-Michel Basquiat. Here it represents Local Boy’s reluctant return to (ab)normal life after losing time after his adventures with the redhead. It’s also the term I used to describe COVID lockdown, apparently inspired by this…
Still Right Here With You: 8 Shows with The Pink Stones at SXSW 2024
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…
Yoshimi Battles a Hazy Memory
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…
Remixing Heartman & Songstress
L Extreme plays out in album order as a track-by-track adaptation of A Love Extreme, but ironically following the song sequence generated a non-sequential narrative that loops back on itself in a series of flashbacks. Keeping score at home? Excluding framing devices, re-arranging the chapters into chronological story would be along the lines of: 21, 3, 8,…
Of The Year: 2021
Say what you will about life in the last couple years, but musically it’s been a creative delight. (Maybe that’s just more time to listen?) For the second year in a row I have a full top 10: ALBUMS 1975 — No-No Boy Melodic and memorable with a great story and purpose behind it (the…
LX Commentary #26: Baby, It’s Your Life!
Endings are tough. You need to tie up as many dangling threads as possible, leave the reader satisfied that reading the book was worthwhile, and try to go out on a memorable high note without it feeling abrupt or forced. That’s something I wrote a dozen years ago in the commentary post for the final…
LX Commentary #25: Lyegue
One final instrumental to segue us into the finale! Like Coyotes, in the first draft this was a Benji-centric dream. Realizing that chapter needed to focus on L opened the door for C’s starring turn here. Way back in Tight Tee Shirt, C conveniently said “I had a dream last night too. A dream about…
LX Commentary #24: Love On A Budget
Defeating the villain was (seemingly) the point of the previous chapter, but we still have 3 songs left. What’s next? It’s about to get weird… Just like the song says: “Love on a budget doesn’t make much sense anymore.” A simple line, I embraced the second half of that lyric here—but that’s not how it…