2+ day, 5+ hour ago  (1206+ words) A.C. Koch lives in Denver where he teaches linguistics, writes fiction, and fronts a sharp-dressed powerpop trio, Firstimers. You can find him on Twitter @henry_iblis and @firstimers3, and he blogs about books, film, and the long slog of publishing rejections (with a sprinkling…...

2+ day, 5+ hour ago  (1075+ words) Spectrum Culture Maybe timing’s the culprit. Consider the title track, an affably brutish tribute — sung with customary sprezzatura by Gordon — to a woman with the evocative sobriquet Goo. Like the subject of a later hit by Presidents of the United…...

2+ day, 5+ hour ago  (719+ words) Spectrum Culture As it happens, the boxset is credited as Diamonds and Dirt, so it might make sense to rate it as one flowing whole. The collection showcases every part of the Scottish musician’s creativity. “Fishers Love Birds” is hypnotic,…...

2+ day, 5+ hour ago  (1188+ words) Spectrum Culture Jake Deal is a shameless “nightcrawler” streamer, following a trail of police radio broadcasts to capture gruesome images of crime scenes as he waxes poetic to his ghoulish followers about Los Angeles, where America’s demons are writ large....

2+ day, 5+ hour ago  (430+ words) Spectrum Culture For all its anomalies, the Dead sound remarkably fully formed and self-actualized this early in the game. After a solid, if not that remarkable “Nobody’s Fault but Mine” to kick things off, they launch into that old live…...

2+ day, 5+ hour ago  (1193+ words) Various Artists: Sowas Von Egal (German Synth Wave Underground 1981-86) – Vol 3 Spectrum Culture The first track demonstrates the difference this time around. Guyer’s Connection was a pair of Swiss teenagers with synthesizers who recorded a couple of albums’ worth of material…...

3+ day, 5+ hour ago  (865+ words) Spectrum Culture Inland Empire is David Lynch’s last feature film, and his most enigmatic. The film began as a monologue for Laura Dern, before being expanded into a feature. Even at feature length, Inland Empire never had a complete screenplay;…...

3+ day, 5+ hour ago  (708+ words) Spectrum Culture One might be able to submit the screenplay for The Isolate Thief to Merriam-Webster for display under the definition of “precision.” This is storytelling so pared down to the essentials that a climactic shootout arrives with all the…...

3+ day, 5+ hour ago  (708+ words) Spectrum Culture If you’re self-aware enough to understand that this isn’t exactly a crowd-pleasing collection of musicians, you can detect a problem. It’s perfect that their collective plague songs are difficult, and indeed, it seems to have been the point....

3+ day, 5+ hour ago  (1065+ words) Spectrum Culture By 2000, the furor over Mayhem’s church-burnings-and-murder era had long since died down, but their notoriety gave their mostly well-received comeback album Grand Declaration of War a strong marketing push and the band was suddenly at the height of…...