March 21, 2013 • Spotify

Jason Molina is dead.

January 21, 2013 • 2 notes
Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, Op. 31: XVI. The Lord's Prayer
Cambridge King's College Choir, Peter Scorer, Stephen Cleobury & Tobias Sims
Rachmaninov: Liturgy of St John's Chrysostom

The Lord’s Prayer from Rachmaninov’s world-stopping Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, performed by the Cambridge King’s College Choir.

December 18, 2012 • Spotify

The Dying of thirst passage of this song is astonishing. Even more astounding is how important the skit at the end is to the song—and to the entire record. How is it that a blockbuster rap record climaxes with a baptism scene and the words, “Remember this day, the start of your new life, your real life…”?

good kid, m.A.A.d city might be my favorite record of the year. 

December 14, 2012 • Spotify

Paul Hillier directs what I think is the definitive recorded performance of Arvo Pärt’s time-stopping Magnificat. The rich are sent empty away.

December 11, 2012 • 1 note

I loved Freaks and Geeks when it first aired. This pitch-perfect scene makes me want to revisit it. Bill alone making himself a grilled cheese. The mirroring shots between him and Garry Shandling (drinking, teeth, Bill pointing at himself). The laughing with food in his mouth. Comedy with this kind of pathos is, I think, one of the highest art forms.

August 16, 2012 • 1 note • Spotify

From Ghosts of the Great Highway, a record that is still improving on each listen for me… like Richard Buckner’s Meadow, a record that has quietly become one of my all-time favorites without my having really noticed.

April 19, 2012
Danko/Manuel
Drive-By Truckers
The Dirty South

Levon Helm died today. Here’s the Drive-By Truckers with a song about the deaths of two other members of The Band.

March 2, 2012
As One Who Has Slept
Choir, The & James Whitbourn
Tavener: Choral Ikons

This shall be sung at Easter by the Trinity Reformed Church choir. Until that time, when the voices of my brothers and sisters are singing it, this recording shall have to do. If you listen to this, stop whatever else you’re doing to take it in.

December 15, 2011 • 2 notes
First Antiphon
Dmitri Hvorostovsky; Nikolai Korniev: St. Petersburg Chamber Choir
Rachmaninov: Liturgy Of St.John Chrysostom
August 26, 2011

The Drive-by Truckers: Carl Perkins’ Cadillac

But damn, Mike Cooley can write some lyrics. This one’s on the towering The Dirty South.

Life ain’t nothing but a blending up of all the ups and downs
Dammit Elvis, don’t you know
You made your Mama so proud
Before you ever made that record, before there ever was a Sun
Before you ever lost that Cadillac that Carl Perkins won

Mr. Phillips found old Johnny Cash and he was high
High before he ever took those pills and he’s still too proud to die
Mr. Phillips never said anything behind nobody’s back
Like “Dammit Elvis, don’t he know, he ain’t no Johnny Cash”

If Mr. Phillips was the only man that Jerry Lee still would call sir
Then I guess Mr. Phillips did all of Y’all about as good as you deserve
He did just what he said he was gonna do and the money came in sacks
New contracts and Carl Perkins’ Cadillac

I got friends in Nashville, or at least they’re folks I know
Nashville is where you go to see if what they said is so
Carl drove his brand new Cadillac to Nashville and he went downtown
This time they promised him a Grammy
He turned his Cadillac around

Mr. Phillips never blew enough hot air to need a little gold plated paperweight
He promised him a Cadillac and put the wind in Carl’s face
He did just what he said he was gonna do and the money came in sacks
New contracts and Carl Perkins’ Cadillac

Dammit Elvis, I swear son I think it’s time you came around
Making money you can’t spend ain’t what being dead’s about
You gave me all but one good reason not to do all the things you did
Now Cadillacs are fiberglass, if you were me you’d call it quits