Category Archives: Music

Apr 20 2012
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Endorsements, Music

Unsolicited Endorsements: XXII

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.

Band: Japandroids

 Japandroids have 26 officially released songs and one volume setting: loud. The Canadian twosome plays hard, plays fast, and makes a hell of a lot more noise than you would expect from a guitar-drums duo. With their second full-length due out June 5 and riding a sizeable wave of SXSW hype, the band seems to finally be creeping into the consciousness of the music-listening public, despite their rough edges. This is great news if you’re a fan of earnest music that doesn’t carry an ounce of irony (I am). They aren’t incredibly cool, they aren’t at all polished, but they are real.

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Apr 15 2012
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Music

#MusicMonday: Hot Chip

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

This week: “Hand Me Down Your Love” — Hot Chip, off the album, “One Life Stand”

Hot Chip’s next studio album, “In Our Heads”, is scheduled to be released on June 11. It’s the fifth from the electro pop stylists from England. Enjoy.

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Apr 13 2012
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Art, Endorsements, Humor, Music

Unsolicited Endorsements: XXI

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.

Painting: “The Twist” — Thomas Hart Benton

Thomas Hart Benton’s roots are in Missouri. He was born in Neosho; once worked as a cartoonist at the Joplin American newspaper in Joplin, Mo., and finally settled in Kansas City, teaching at the Kansas City Art Institute (where he’d cross paths with a rebellious young student named Dennis Hopper).* Along the way, he would become famous for his depiction of life in the U.S. — often in the form of conflict (old traditions vs. industrialization, the settling of the old west, etc.)

Here’s “The Wreck of the Ole ’97”

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Apr 10 2012
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Dallas, Essay, Music, Travel

Heartbeat

The white beams appeared from nowhere. I suspect they had stood somewhere in the distance beyond the boundaries of downtown for quite some time, as two plastic moldings the size of a skyscraper that meet to form an arch can’t be constructed overnight, but I had never noticed them before.

I was driving with my sister, Rachel, and her friend, Sara, in my white Mustang convertible. Sara had just moved to Dallas. Rachel was visiting. I was giving them a tour. We drove through all the prominent neighborhoods: Uptown, Deep Ellum, Lower Greenville, Highland Park. Near home, the white beams raised from the flat horizon. Dallas must be trying to build a replica of the St. Louis Arch, I joked. Continue reading →

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Apr 09 2012
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Music, Uncategorized

#MusicMonday: Alabama Shakes

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

This week: “Hold On” — Alabama Shakes, off the album, “Boys & Girls”

 
Debut album. Soulful sound. And lead singer Brittany Howard is three levels of badass. Here’s a full first listen from NPR Music and a solid review from the Chicago Tribune.

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Apr 06 2012
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Music

Unsolicited Endorsements XX

Here’s the thing about this endorsement: It may all be a matter of opinion. As someone that has to spend a lot of time writing on a laptop, I generally have music playing in the background as I work. Sometimes it’s just random playlist, or a Spotify channel, or a whole album. Continue reading →
Mar 16 2012
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Endorsements, Music

Unsolicited Endorsements: XIX

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.

Endorsement: Joe Posnanski’s commenters

A few months ago, Joe Posnanski disallowed comments on his blog, one of the few blogs I consistently frequent. Normally, I don’t read too many comments, aside from perhaps the first five or six after a story on most website, and I rarely comment on any piece of work. Posnanski’s website is different. I always read the comments, and I’ve commented a few times as well.

But, yes, a few months ago, Posnanski removed the comments section from his blog. He was justified for doing so.  In a post, he wrote about a particularly malicious comment he had to delete, which the commenter then just rewrote no more than a few minutes later. He decided to suspend the comments section because he wouldn’t have time to moderate.  A blog without comments is like an SNL episode without “Weekend Update.” It just doesn’t happen.

His readers realized this. A few apparently VOLUNTEERED to monitor the comments for him so the section could return.

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Mar 12 2012
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Music, Sports

The Sounds of March

I love pep-band music.

No, really, I love pep-band music. It’s one of my favorites things about basketball, one of my favorites things about college, one of my favorite things about life.

And of all the months of the year, March is THE month for pep-band music. Parents and students and fans are packing gyms across the country for high school state tournaments*. And the NCAA Tournament field was unveiled on Sunday. And this means that pep bands will be blasting out their renditions for the better part of the next month.

*Spent two days in Columbia at the Missouri state basketball tournament last weekend. The coolest song I heard a pep band play: Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep.”

 In honor of March Madness, here’s a collection of the best pep-band songs I could find on YouTube — with a hat tip to Pablo S. Torre.

1. So first, for obviously reasons, we’ll start with a band from VCU playing “Rolling in the Deep.”

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Mar 12 2012
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Music

#MusicMonday: Sauti Sol

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

This week: “Soma Kijana” — Sauti Sol, off the album, Sol Filosofia

[h/t “All Songs…“]

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Mar 09 2012
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Endorsements, Music, TV

Unsolicited Endorsements XVIII

Comedy Crush: Aubrey Plaza

Tom Haverford is my favorite character on Parks and Recreation. This has to be the case because Aziz Ansari is currently the funniest person on the planet. But lately, I haven’t been able to get enough of April, of Aubrey Plaza, especially after I found her user name on YouTube.* Continue reading →

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