The Famous Door
July 11, 2012
The Surprising Queer Roots of the Blues
June 15, 2012
A Creepy Father's Day Song from the 'Mad Men' Era
No excuse is too flimsy to justify talking about seriously terrible music. The excuse I’m using is Father’s Day—Hallmark’s bequest to the neckwear industry—and the relevant but God-awful piece of music is a lounge standard of the Mad Men era called “Daddy.” In the sizable canon of popular songs involving father figures in troubling, offensive ways, “Daddy” is surely the most icky. READ MORE >>
June 08, 2012
Where Did the Beach Boys' Sound Come From?
June 01, 2012
Doc Watson’s Appalachian Swing
May 18, 2012
Go-Go, From Scopitone to Chuck Brown
May 04, 2012
Meet the Next Louis Armstrong
People uncowed by the tyranny of history should take up the jazz trumpet. Others would be smart to try another instrument—or avoid music, where the specter of the past is always looming, and seems to loom larger and larger in the Youtube era. READ MORE >>
April 27, 2012
John Hammond and the Myth of the Musical King-Maker
April 23, 2012
