Author Archives: rustindodd

Feb 07 2012
Leave a comment
Essay, Music

Country Music

It was a dark Friday night, a long drive home from a high school basketball game on the outskirts of Kansas City, and I began to fiddle with the radio. It’s strange. In Kansas City, the radio formats change so often, with so much predictability (and yet, no creativity), that sometimes it’s hard to figure out what station is playing what.

Wait? Is that a top-40 station now? Wait, classic rock? Another one? Aren’t there like six of those? And must they all have “Bad to the Bone” in rotation at all times?

One of the latest to change — a station called 99.7 The Point — purports to play “Today’s Best Music.” This is, of course, a pretty vague description. And considering the station was playing “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” a few minutes ago, it’s not even really all that accurate. And yet, there’s one thing that doesn’t change in Kansas City radio: the country stations.

Continue reading →

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Feb 06 2012
1 Comment
Music

#MusicMonday: The Shins

Every Monday morning. Music so good… it must be shared.

This week: “Simple Song” — The Shins, from the album, Port of Morrow.

Somewhere along the line, as the years stacked up, the Shins became one of those bands that “just went away.” The Shins’ last album — Wincing the Night Away — came out in January of 2007 (really, five years ago), with the first single (“Phantom Limb”) finding its way online two months before that. James Mercer, bearded frontman of the Portland outfit, has stayed busy, of course. He collaborated with Danger Mouse on the side project, “Broken Bells”, and you may have seen him pop up for a predictable cameo on the first season of Portlandia.

But finally, on Jan. 9, the band released “Simple Song,” the first single off its new album, Port of Morrow, to be released in March. The band has been idle for five years. And the lineup, save Mercer, has totally turned over. But “Simple Song” still sounds like what you’d expect a Shins single to sound like. And this, I think, is a good thing.

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,
Jan 30 2012
Leave a comment
Music, Nostalgia

#MusicMonday: Harvey Danger

Every Monday morning. Music so good… it must be shared.

This week: “The Show Must Not Go On” — Harvey Danger 

So I remember this one time, freshman year of high school, I was riding shotgun in a senior’s car, feeling old and cool, and the song “Flagpole Sitta” started blaring out of the CD player. “I wanna publish ‘zines… And rage against machines…” I can’t ever remember listening to another Harvey Danger song. Don’t think I even searched for any. But that song, to me at least, still says high school, those couple years when Napster was just firing up — and the kids in my neighborhood still cruised 103rd street, from Nall to Nieman. (Maybe they still do.) I thought of this story the other day when I found out Harvey Danger had broken up. But first, the band, apparently, released this song on their website for free — a sort-of final goodbye for a group that most had forgotten. Pretty cool way to go.

Tagged , , , , , , ,
Jan 27 2012
Leave a comment
Culture, Endorsements, Movies, Sports

Unsolicited Endorsements: XIII

Because sometimes you just want friends to tell you about cool things… the Brew House team offers up its weekly mix of author-supported goodness.

Film: “The Pruitt-Igoe Myth: An Urban History”


In college, I detested pre-requisite classes. My line of thinking: “When will I ever use biology, geology or the principles of mathematics in my everyday life?”* Sociology was the lone exception. I read all of our assigned books and texts and made it all the way through the textbook — even the sections we weren’t assigned. Social and financial stratification, ethnicity or gender as a blessing or curse, the construct of “race:” I found much of this fascinating. As an adult (I use that term lightly), it’s no surprise that my favorite genre of film is Documentary, and I much prefer non-fiction writing to fiction. I’ve consumed a lot of this material in recent years, and “The Pruitt-Igoe Myth: An Urban History” stacks up favorably against most of it.
Jan 23 2012
Leave a comment
Music

#MusicMonday: The Jayhawks

Every Monday morning. Music so good… it must be shared.

This week: “She Walks In So Many Ways” — The Jayhawks, from the album, Mockingbird Time

Released last September, Mockingbird Time was the Jayhawks’ first album since 2003’s Rainy Day Music, as well as the first with original founder Mark Olson since 1995’s Tomorrow the Green Grass. (Quick aside: Tomorrow the Green Grass features the fantastic song, “Blue”, which is responsible for one of the all-time great live music performances on YouTube — the Jayhawks’ performing “Blue” on the Jon Stewart Show on early-90s MTV.) Enjoy.

Thanks for stopping by The Brew House.

Jan 22 2012
Leave a comment
Culture

The Theory of Moderation (Or how I learned to rip things): Volume II

Back a couple months ago, I mentioned this story. It’s about this old maxim my brother used to say. I’m pretty sure he didn’t come up with it. At least, I don’t think he did. But I always think about it whenever I feel guilty about doing something.

The quote, in and of itself, is about moderation. But really, it’s about everything else.

“I live my life by the theory of everything in moderation,” he would say. “But to truly live out this creed, you also have to exercise moderation in moderation. So, every once and a while, you have to embrace extreme debauchery.”

I always liked these words. 

Continue reading →

Tagged , , ,
Jan 20 2012
Leave a comment
Endorsements, Music, TV

Unsolicited Endorsements: XII

Because sometimes you just want friends to tell you about cool things… the Brew House team offers up its weekly mix of author-supported goodness.

Music genre : Love Rap

Eye Know by De La Soul and Set Adrift on Memory Bliss by P.M. Dawn

Love rap is maybe my favorite subgenre of what is probably my favorite genre. You get songs with wonderful R&B hooks and self-proclaimed thugs showcasing what they consider their softer side but is really just their lusty side. Sometimes this can lead to unintentional hilarity.

Example A: “Wanna Get To Know You”  by G-Unit.  The chorus starts with someone crooning “I Wanna Get to Know You.” He then proceeds to say, “I really wanna fuck you.”

Continue reading →

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,
Jan 18 2012
Leave a comment
Food, Travel

Nutella

It starts with breakfast. Breakfast in a hostel. A hostel in Paris. Paris in the summer.

We had been traveling for five or six days, give or take a town. We would travel for five or six more, my brother and I following the EuroRail map from Annecy to Nice to the Cinque Terre and back.

But that’s a story for a different time. This is a story about breakfast. And you probably know that breakfast in a Paris hostel consists of about three things. Bread and cheese and… and maybe water. That’s it. This particular hostel had a tiny room for the travelers to eat. It had faded wallpaper, and frilly curtains on the windows, and white table cloths from 1981. My brother and I sat down at the table and surveyed the spread.

Continue reading →

Tagged , , , , ,
Jan 16 2012
Leave a comment
Music

#MusicMonday: The Big Wu

Every Monday morning. Music so good… it must be shared.

This week: “Kangaroo” — The Big Wu, from the album, “Tracking Buffalo Through the Bathtub”

According to Wikipedia, these guys haven’t toured for about five years — just occasional shows in their home state of Minnesota. But they’ll always have “Kangaroo”, one of the underrated classics from that jam-band saturated era known as the late 90s. Yes, this song — String Cheese’s “Texas” — is also in the pantheon.

Thanks for stopping by The Brew House.

Tagged , , , , , ,
Jan 09 2012
2 Comments
Music

#MusicMonday: Adam Arcuragi

Every Monday morning. Music so good… it must be shared.

This week: “Bottom of the River” — Adam Arcuragi, from the album, “I am Become Joy” 

Thanks for stopping by The Brew House.

Tagged , , , ,
← Older posts
Newer posts →