past articles

31 May 07

Oxford Collapse: If You Aren't Busy Living, You're Busy With The Wrong Half

Free Daytrotter Session Songs (Don’t miss this page!) There’s a certain age when a body starts to give out, when the joints start to rust and the connective tissue deteriorates. Sooner rather than later, the bone begins rubbing against bone, the back feels as if it needs to be excavated and replaced with something springier/stainless/sexier and the crow’s feet near the corners of eyes are slowly spreading around the face, eroding the formerly tight and young skin. There’s a time when you will be smart enough to realize beforehand all of the things you shouldn’t do because once the morning comes, you’ll be paying dearly for them. You’ll have become the closest thing to a retiree, though you’ll be closer to your high school prom than all-day euchre tournaments in gathering halls that smell like moth balls and rotten teeth. You’ll be old, exactly what you’d rather not be. You’ll be far from ancient, but you’ll be unfavorably old, regardless of your actual age. To a 13-year-old, the 30-year-old man is on his deathbed. There is no more string cheese for snacking or chocolate milk for sucking out of twisty straws. Adult problems lead directly to that pain in the ass sense of responsibility that comes, like clockwork, to everyone of a certain age.more...

30 May 07

O'Death: Devil-Grinned And Life-Affirming

Free Daytrotter Session Songs (Don’t miss this page!) Westerns get good when the fight scenes find their way into the pictures. The romantic side stories of winning the girl are tame and predictable, the town always needs saving from some no-good, lawless brutes and the sheriff is usually found in well over his head as it’s all hitting the fan. But those fight scenes can be counted on for gratification – instant payoffs. The way the wooden stools crack so effortlessly against the bar, sending splinters loverly into the air like the seeds of dandelion flowers. The way the bartender knows a brouhaha is on the horizon and pulls himself down beneath the bar before the second bullet flies. The way some were bound to get messed up and others were bound to get killed. The way they amplified the shattering of beer mugs. Brooklyn’s O’Death shares some commonalities with a shootout that winds up leaving a saloon worse for wear and without a single glass capable of holding any liquid.more...

29 May 07

May 21, 2006: Drakkar Sauna

Download the Drakkar Sauna Daytrotter Session…more...

28 May 07

The Broken West: How The Real West Was Sung

Free Daytrotter Session Songs (Don’t miss this page!) When The Thrills decided that they wanted to move from Ireland to the United States to live and write an album five years ago, they moved to California and wrote a mess of songs that referenced everything mystical about Sir Arnold’s state – the sand between your toes aloofness, the eternal sunshine of the various spotless minds and the drowsy, sunny landscape. The tunes became So Much For The City and it was an engaging record that acted like a Viewmaster. A review for Spin magazine by the soon-to-be-fucking-legendary Chuck Klosterman, still comes to mind. He described the record in the basic way we all should experience music, as we do books, which are always touted as portals to a different place. Children are taught to believe that books and movies are the ultimate forms of escapism. They can take you thousands of miles from home without ever leaving your chair. Klosterman claimed that The Thrills took a listener to California, minus the airfare or gas money it would actually physically take to do so. This was a California as imagined by a fivesome of blokes who’d believed in the sweet, multitudinous harmonies and majesties of The Beach Boys and Jan & Dean.more...