Happy birthday to Bruce Springsteen, the daring depictor of the shadow world of tenement work and the still more corrupt onset of the new oligarchies. Here's a piece I wrote over at the Ringer about the airline strikes of 1981 and the 40th anniversary of 'Nebraska'. www.theringer.com/2022/12/14/m...

In advance of this week's Ryder Cup, I teed it up with my formidable Ringer playing partners Megan Schuster and Matt Dollinger and ranked all of the participants in order of significance. Warning: THIS WORK IS HIGHLY SCIENTIFIC. You will need to pay close attention. www.theringer.com/2025/09/23/g...

Love this!!

Beaming tonight as my Paranoid Style bandmate Peter Holsapple wins the true Nobel Prize of being lauded by Spinal Tap. Check out the newest edition of Amoeba Records' delightful 'What's In My Bag' and hear David St. Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel on the dB's. youtu.be/eOALVpbdwOY?...

Hunter understood the Vegas buffet of human nature. Still prefer the real buffet though less existential dread, more shrimp cocktail.

Just randomly opened 'Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas' to the chapter that begins with only the half-coherent notes written on the back of a Keno card; "Las Vegas is a society of armed masturbators." Some non-trivial part of Hunter Thompson understood America better than any author since Twain.

“The astonishing legacy of a scriptless film with zero budget, a first time director, no stars and a studio that never got the concept.” Over at the Washington Post, I wrote about Rob Reiner's new Spinal Tap memoir “A Fine Line Between Stupid And Clever.” Gift link here! wapo.st/3IuXCR7

Son of a bitch, “shame as it ever was” is a perfect turn of phrase, even by your high standard.

Possibly the most caustic LP ever recorded about the American temperament, Randy Newman’s ‘Sail Away’ is twelve ready-made sketches of false prophets, psychopaths, con-men, absolute losers and everything else we tend to consider patriotic. Shame as it ever was. What a long, strange grift it's been.

I never put it together that Malkmus swiped the solo from "Tumbling Dice."

Somehow I had never realized that Chrissie Hynde was AT Kent State. Like, AT, at Kent State. Protesting on the other side of campus at the time. I knew that Devo were there, but hadn't know she was as well.

Still extremely relevant given how many things I feel tedious contempt for these days.

Time The Avenger🙌 youtu.be/HbTYnEB1jRA?...

Happy birthday to Chrissie Hynde who taught me to treat male oppression with tedious contempt. Songs somehow navigating between bone deep humanity and a cynical response to the limitless corruption of our times. My recent Pitchfork Sunday Review of 'Learning To Crawl'. pitchfork.com/reviews/albu...

Farewell to Mark Volman, co-founder of the Turtles, one half of Flo & Eddie, and one of the great eccentrics of the rock'n'roll era. My obituary for the Los Angeles Times. www.latimes.com/entertainmen...

Listening to Apple Music's weekly, custom New Music Mix. I hear an interesting-sounding song with a cool vocal delivery, check the ID, and it's The Paranoid Style @paranoiacs.bsky.social. Of course!

The new one is so good.

It's deeply fitting and joyfully moving that Superchunk, of all bands, has become our best and most reliable political compass amongst American rock bands in the post-dissociative years of our contemporary national life. Five straight reunion albums of refusenik jams and wild-eyed seeking. Punk CCR.

Many days too late, I want to recommend this Pitchfork review of the new Nick Drake collection The Making Of Five Leaves Left. The finest critics identify the hopes and biases you didn't previously know you possessed. GHC is the absolute best at this. Essential insight. pitchfork.com/reviews/albu...

How clearly I remember the days when there wasn’t a different pitcher designated for each of the game’s final 12 outs.

OIde Jack Morris would pitch into the tenth inning with a twirling mustache and an arm falling directly off the bone. It's said he wasn't a pleasant man to deal with but given how much his arm must've hurt every day, how could he be? Try this now! Things have changed. www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ath...

So good I had to put on my new favorite shirt #musicsky

New playlist this week ft./ killer new tracks from @paranoiacs.bsky.social the @thebeths.bsky.social and more! Come share your latest faves and leave with a couple of new ones!

Paranoid Style offer a power pop tribute to late dc roots guitarists Danny Gatton and Roy Buchanan via a lyrical reference

"The very moniker Replacements suggesting something slippery and Warholian about the fungible masks of modern celebrity. To be, or not to be—is it a question?" From my liner notes. So psyched to be a part of Rhino's revelatory new 'Let It Be' reissue. Pre-orders here. store.rhino.com/en/rhino-sto...

Added these to your playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/1gm...

Loved this piece. I'd never heard of Gatton, but he seems amazing!

Over at my Substack Please Take My Advice, I talked with ace guitarist and Paranoid Style contributor Eugene Edwards about his life as a musician and how it was informed by his deep and abiding musical relationship to the great DC-guitarist Danny Gatton. theparanoidstyle.substack.com/p/tearing-th...

"They told me I'd never make it—I told them where to stick it." Guys and guys and guys. New Paranoid Style single"Tearing The Ticket" available from Bar-None Records now. With Matt Douglas from the Mountain Goats on sax. People, what are you waiting for? theparanoidstyle.bandcamp.com/track/tearin...

And just like that your mind gets blown! Awesome new single from @paranoiacs.bsky.social:

The one thing that they don't tell you Is the one thing ya shoulda known And just like that your mind gets blown Wishing @paranoiacs.bsky.social a happy birthday!

New single from The Paranoid Style (aka @paranoiacs.bsky.social‬) open.spotify.com/album/7fRplu...

Good tune

The elegiac new Paranoid Style single Tearing The Ticket is a tribute to the lost DMV guitar legend Danny Gatton, and a pledge to keep the faith against all odds. Featuring Matt Douglas from the Mountain Goats on sax, in full degenerate Springsteen mode. theparanoidstyle.bandcamp.com/track/tearin...

If you play golf or follow pro golf - hell, even if you hate golf but love great writing - you absolutely must follow @paranoiacs.bsky.social. Come for the sports, stay for the musical deep cuts & razor-sharp wit.

"We have no way of knowing how he’ll ultimately steer the ship, but by sidestepping the tempting proposition of becoming player-captain, he’s navigated around his first iceberg." At the Ringer, I wrote about Keegan Bradley's savvy picks for the U.S. Ryder Cup squad. www.theringer.com/2025/08/27/g...

One of my very favorite music writers writing about one of my very favorite albums by one of my very favorite bands. Thank you, Elizabeth. Happy birthday, Jeff.

Love this! My favorite Wilco songs are on Summerteeth but the slow tempo ones left me feeling Being There was a better album. I’m hard pressed to name a better block than I'm Always in Love & Nothing'severgonnastandinmyway (Again) on any album. P.S. Bought mine at Melody Records near DuPont Circle

Happy Birthday, Jeff Tweedy.

Hands down, my favorite Wilco album as well as one of my favorite albums of all time in general.

"Unwieldy and unsparingly catchy, futuristic and familiar, a spiritual knife fight staged in a circus funhouse." Revisiting Wilco's queasy "Summerteeth" tonight on Jeff Tweedy's birthday. A weird hang. Here's a piece I wrote about it for The Ringer a few years back. www.theringer.com/2019/07/30/m...

I've spent too much time in the past month listening to and thinking about Billy Joel. My review of the five-hour HBO Max documentary Billy Joel: And So It Goes.

"wildly elucidating" is how I think of @paranoiacs.bsky.social's prose, this oughta be a treat

Raise a toast!

beautiful stuff need to give this a listen again

His worldview, based on his actual worldview childhood you mention, pushed his songwriting so far beyond his contemporaries that they never caught up. London Calling went off like a punk rock world music atom bomb to open the 80s, and your piece on it. and take on Stevens as duende, is brilliant.

Neither saint or martyr, Joe Strummer still remains my ultimate hero for the way his endless curiosity about others stimulated a profound compassion he could never fully control. Here's a piece I wrote about 'London Calling' for the Ringer. Happy birthday, rude boy. www.theringer.com/2019/12/17/m...

i love that it’s you! congratulations frr 🌞🌞🌞

I'm possibly more excited about this part of the re-issue than any other.

FINALLY! We get a woman writing the ‘Mats’ liner notes. It’s about damn time.