Category: Music

  • Hey, 2013! You Get A Top Ten List!

    For reasons I can’t quite recall, 2012 went out like a light and had no top ten list to show for it. Poor thing, but there’s nothing I can do. If I went back and tried to make something from nothing, 2012 would still give me that look that says, “Well, you should’ve done it…

  • Throwback: The Reclaimed and Revisited Summeration Mix of 2008

    Back in June of 2008, I went to work on a summer mix. Calling it good enough, I posted it here. Five years and a month later, I was surprised to find that particular ZIP hanging out on a mostly abandoned file sharing website. Once I remembered the password, I reclaimed that stack of tracks…

  • The Very Necessary Summeration Mix for 2013

    It’s here … [mixcloud]http://www.mixcloud.com/thomasls/the-very-necessary-summeration-mix-for-2013/[/mixcloud] Tracklist: Summertime (Part 1) By Sam Cooke Streakin By The Honeydrippers Right Here Human Nature Mix By SWV Remember The Time (New Jack Radio Mix) By Michael Jackson I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do) By Hall & Oates Sunrise By Simply Red I Like The Way (The Kissing Game)…

  • Amazon Cloudburst (aka “Nice MP3s Ya Got Here, Hate To See Somethin’ Happen to Em”)

    I’ve been staring at my screen for about an hour, keeping this one tab open behind others. I check the news, look at Metafilter, refresh my email, then I come back to the tab in question. At the center of the tab is an implied question. Or a decision. Actually, it is neither of these.…

  • Nobody’s Top Ten But Mine (for 2011)

    Every year, I do one of these top ten lists. Or a top fifteen. I try to play the critic and justify my choices with a range of reasons from erudite to ridiculous. This year, I think I’m suffering the same critical fatigue as the rest of the Internet-aware world — which I suppose is…

  • Yes, You Can Spotify On Your Kindle Fire

    If you search for Spotify via the app store on your brand new Kindle Fire, the predictive text will suggest “spotify” and “spotify app.” However, the results display only Pandora, Rdio, a collection of songs from Glee and Cut The Rope. However, you can use Spotify on your Kindle Fire. See? Now, how did I…

  • Three Possible Questions Posed to Kim Boekbinder

    Say you are a musician. You want to do a ten city tour. Real cities. Los Angeles. Seattle. Minneapolis. Real life, no kidding, not right-next-to-another cities. It’s risky for even an established musician. What if nobody showed up? Would you want to go to Boston if there wasn’t a really good reason? (Just kidding, Boston.)…

  • Revisiting The Wrath

    In 2009, I threw together a mix inspired by Kanye West’s 808s and Heartbreaks. Here’s what I said then: I couldn’t dismiss it entirely. I left it on my iPod, letting shuffle find tracks on occasion and usually letting them play out. I started to think of it as a friend going through a rough…

  • So Long Lives This: Pondering Kurt Cobain (A JIVE Re-Post)

    Today. An anniversary deserving of recognition, even if you hold little admiration for the man. Conspiracies abound to the contrary, but seventeen years ago this week, Kurt Cobain died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Seattle. The death of Kurt Cobain affected the children of the late 70s / early 80s far more than it…

  • Revisiting: Rush – Hold Your Fire

    The album I associate most with my first car, with my initial forays into driving on my own, going on those timid initial dates and experiencing for the first time the strangeness of a night drive home alone … is Hold Your Fire, the 1987 release by Rush. I don’t even recall why I bought…