This has been a tough week as a literature teacher.  Brian alluded to the heartfelt loss we feel as a reading community at the loss of Howard Zinn and JD Salinger this week.  Zinn was a seminal author for Brian, and understandably so.  For me, however, Salinger’s writing marked a pivotal change for me.  My [...]

Austin based quintet Balmorhea makes really good instrumental music; that’s maybe an overly simple way to start a review, but it is totally true.  More erudite reviewers would cite a slew of modern composers that the band draws influence and inspiration from. (A review of their 2008 effort, River Arms, on P4K referenced Stravinsky, Keith [...]

The best part about this particular review is that it doesn’t need to be a long one.  We’re some verbose mofos here and we tend to dig pretty deeply into our album reviews.  Every now and again, an album without a lot of necessary analysis enters the picture, and in some cases, this is extremely [...]

Whoever said there are no second acts in America apparently never met Owen Pallett. The versatile artist who once performed under the moniker Final Fantasy has not only survived since shedding the JRPG-inspired name, he has positively thrived between touring with The Mountain Goats, lending a hand on recent releases by Gentleman Reg and Gigi, [...]

We are always excited when we have the opportunity to be the first to debut a new track from a band that we love, and this new single from the Athens quartet, Twin Tigers, is no exception. If you are hip to the band and have read anything about them previously, you are probably aware [...]

Something is pretty awesome in the state of Denmark. This ham-fisted MacBeth reference is doubly pertinent for the city of Aalborg, the nation’s fourth largest city (after Copenhagen, Aarhus, and Odense) and, according to Professor Wikipedia, the one designated as “The Paris of the North.” There are a lot of other facts I could include [...]

Recently, French Kissing sent us an mp3 of their new single “Oh Suzanne”. At first, French Kissing seemed like a provocative name for a grade-school band. A few moments later, I came across the above photo being used as their avatar on Myspace.  Since I’m part of a generation jaded by internet porn (where do [...]

(Editor’s note:  That’s a picture of Phillip IV, an actual king of Spain.  I am aware that the song I’m posting today is an extended metaphor and not a legitimate wish from The Tallest Man on Earth to be the actual monarch of an Iberian nation.  However, it is a rare occasion that I can [...]

Indie Orthodox New Years, that is.
Citizen Dick pals Kevin & Melanie at Music Saves coined this little phrase/mock holiday a few years back in recognition of the glut of new albums that always drop at the end of January, the first serious release day usually since the end of November. As the years have passed, [...]

Live music is important.  Records are great (obviously) because they allow for the mass distribution of art.  But.  There’s no perfect substitute for a really good live show.  At their best, records are (often) just pale imitations of live music.  There are artists who subvert that notion and are still wildly successful (Grizzly Bear comes [...]

I entered this world on June 18, 1978 to a first-time mother and father who had just wrapped up their senior year of college.  Two relatively green and excited kids took the plunge and married just before my birth, and entered their lives together with only the earnest naivety young love affords.  I still occasionally [...]

Editor’s Note:  Albums are already starting to stack up, and oddly, this week’s installment of Radio Dick offers a playlist of things to come (and probably fitting that most of these are heavy hitting acts with prolific careers already).  I’m starting to get the feel that many bands used 2009 as an off-season and this [...]

(Editor’s note: I got lazy with today’s photograph.  The inimitable Paul Lukas linked to it the other day at Uniwatch.  My extreme sloth is explained below.)
Here’s the breakdown:
(1) I write Lazy Saturdays on Fridays.  (Makes sense, right?)
(2) This Friday (yesterday for you folks) was particularly shitty.
and
(3) Robert and I will be seeing the Retribution Gospel [...]

Some of you may have noticed that we added a new feature to the site recently in the form of a page that allows readers to submit their own tracks for review. We added this in hopes of uncovering even more new music for our readers that we may not have otherwise found through our [...]

Here we are, less than a week from the first major slew of 2010 releases dropping, and I still have some unfinished 2009 business to attend to. There are a bunch of records released in the last quarter of last year that we didn’t get to, but for me, the most important one to weigh [...]

If you’re a longtime reader, you’re probably familiar with our ongoing love affair with New Orleans’ Park the Van Records.  It’s pretty rare that PTV puts out a record that isn’t up our street.  Floating Action, Golden Boots, The Peekers, Generationals and (although they’re now with ANTI) Dr. Dog are all PTV artists that tickle [...]

One of the strangest things, to me, pop culturally, is how Liv Tyler could have possibly been conceived from Steven Tyler.  Dude’s an ugly man, for certain.  Let’s pause for a second and consider the possible scenarios here.  First, maybe Liv got the recessive genetic traits, long dormant in the Tyler line.  Perhaps a secondary [...]

Brooklyn quartet Bear in Heaven’s 2009 LP, Beast Rest Forth Mouth wound up as one of our Best Albums of 2009, and as the band tours around the US, armed with even more European/US touring on tap, the Hometapes label act is primed for the stars.  The inclusion of the record on Pitchfork’s top 50 [...]

The mid-January thaw in Cleveland is always a nice reprieve from the snowy assault that usually spans five months of our year in the snow belt of Ohio.  Typically, the gods smile intermittently and allow us the chance to catch up with the plowing and salting of the roads.  The slight increase above freezing temps [...]

(Editor’s note: Those dudes above built the Hoover Dam.  Sometimes I wish I lived in a tent and poured concrete in a desert.  Those cats up there didn’t have the internet or cell phones or laser beams, but they look happy, content in their knowledge that they’re building something they can stand on.  I probably [...]