I do too.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

From the anxious amoral opener “See No Evil” to the cosmic-stoner guitar-off of the title track, Television’s ‘Marquee Moon’ is the LP which smuggles the Grateful Dead into punk rock before Pavement had the chance. Speed kids dig it and the major heads too. A miracle. www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7L0...

Elizabeth Nelson's fine distillation of one of the great and quirky albums of the mid-80s. I'll play it today to get back there from here, just for a while. Genuinely strange and gorgeous!

Fan of both this album and BOC and never really drew that connection but I guess I can hear it… yes.

I was in a weird and unsettled place in my life when I first discovered this record full of weird, unsettled songs about outsiders and homesickness. I fell for it instantly. It might be my favorite[1] REM record. [1] - Distinct from being their best record.

I honestly didn’t know how to take this album when it came out, but it’s worked out fine. The older I get, the more I love “Wendell Gee”.

Shunting aside their early Byrds-fixations in favor of Fairport Convention’s gnomic philosophizing and the light menace of Blue Oyster Cult, REM’s “Fables Of The Reconstruction” is a genuinely strange and gorgeous stop on the road to infamy. Automatic For The Weirdos. www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuFI...

Also their most Minnesotan! Which I think is not a coincidence maybe.

If ‘Fargo’ is the Coen Brothers movie which best exemplifies the comical folly of human greed and ‘Miller's Crossing’ is their great ode to having a code, ‘A Serious Man’ splits the difference between modern illusions of agency and the non-negotiable edicts of the Old Testament. Their scariest film.

I had a total blast interviewing Steve Jenkins from the Dylan Center at the Lyric Theater in Oxford, MS Wednesday night, following a screening of the amazing new ‘12 Songs’ exhibit of rare and unreleased Dylan live appearances. Thanks to Southwest Review and the End of All Music for making it occur.

#EmojiSounds #MusicChallenge Day 27 - 🐈 “Banner Day for the Trash Cat” by The Paranoid Style @paranoiacs.bsky.social music.youtube.com/watch?v=v4aP...

& as part of NPR Music's great TURNING THE TABLES series, the year we did the foremothers, I got to write one of my favorite stories where I got to imagine a world in which Rosetta had always gotten her propers: www.npr.org/2019/09/24/7...

Absolutely!

The thing we don't talk about enough regarding the Velvet Underground's 'Loaded' is that it choogles. Full on east-coast CCR cos-play. No apologies asked, no fucks given. Rolling down the East River. www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2-H...

This album makes me vibrate emotionally more than any record. It is almost unbearable for me to listen to it all the way through. I can’t listen to it on airplanes because I cry embarrassingly. I love this record. “I am listening to hear where you are.” Don’t worry, I’m okay!

Me too.

The saddest LP about disappearing, Neutral Milk Hotel's 'In The Aeroplane Over The Sea' is one-part sequel to John Cale's 'Paris 1919' and one-part last moan of a boxer who's thrown his final fight. Frank conversations about Ann Frank. I think of Jeff, wherever he is. www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLaF...

Four hundred years of colonial misery condensed into six shocking minutes, the Clash’s “Straight To Hell” intuitively connects the cruelty inflicted upon 19th century Congo, 20th century Vietnam and the dispossessed working poor of everywhere. Strummer's great gospel. www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7Sv...

I'd argue that to the extent that the 'Meet Me In The Bathroom' scene in New York's early 2000's represented a "rebellion" of any kind, it was the one which ushered in the permanent hegemony of the investor class. Privileged, tediously bacchanalian and aggressively non-political. Gross, reactionary.

Muswell Hillbillies is the Kinks LP where Ray Davies’ roiling conservatism fully cross-pollinates with his burlesque impulses, resulting in a comic concept album about being too afraid to leave the house. Merle's poetic provincialism meets The Band’s musical big tent. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Idab...

Hey, there's a new @paranoiacs.bsky.social record out and it's some really good music for the discerning listener: www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2026/03/icym...

I always wanted to meet Grayson Haver Currin, a great critic. Then we got in a dumb internet argument which eventually ended up with us becoming close friends. Anyway, I was thrilled for the Paranoid Style to be included in his roundup up of best February music! currincy.substack.com/p/musical-fr...

Unbelievable show at the Birchmere tonight by my eternal inspiration Patterson Hood. A brilliant 90 minutes from "Putting People On The Moon" to "The Van Pelt Parties" to a killer new tune just recorded for the forthcoming DBT record. Now more than ever. So deeply gratifying to see you, old friend.

A great conversation with my pals and colleagues over at Lawyers, Guns & Money- still the best politics (with a side of music and sports) website in the world!

Paradise shoulda been in heavy rotation in every classic rock station in the US.

“[B]eautiful, timeless songs that I can’t recommend highly enough…[combining] the best of Neil Young's nature writing, the weird ecstasy of Roxy Music, the exultant defeatism of American Music Club.” — @paranoiacs.bsky.social on Known Associates from @southwestreview.bsky.social

Given that description I need to listen to this when I have some more time.

It’s on my listening list! So many good podcasts, so little time…

they're my favorite country band

Saw ‘em live in a small, sweaty WDC venue many moons ago - one of my all-time favorite shows. “I got a shirt that cost $1.25 / I know I’m the best dressed man alive / I put it on & head down to the local dive….” That song still makes me wanna shout along & pogo to this day.

Conjuring ZZ Top and the Dead much in the manner that the Minutemen chanelled CCR and Van Halen, the Meat Puppets' weird boogie odyssey ‘Huevos’ is one of the great guitar records. An alternate history of punk where its major deity isn’t Johnny Thunders, it’s JJ Cale. www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrCH...

On the brand new edition of my podcast Known Associates: me and the brilliant songwriter and critic Jason P. Woodbury touch on the mysteries of the desert, future journalism, the imperative need for gratitude and his transporting new record. An all time fave talk! southwestreview.com/known-associ...

On the brand new edition of my podcast Known Associates: me and the brilliant songwriter and critic Jason P. Woodbury touch on the mysteries of the desert, future journalism, the imperative need for gratitude and his transporting new record. An all time fave talk! southwestreview.com/known-associ...

Newest episode of my podcast 'Known Associates' is up! Amazing talk with Jason P. Woodbury, a brilliant musician and writer with a wonderful new LP! I enjoyed this immensely, and I think you will too!

It was an utter delight having The Paranoid Style @paranoiacs.bsky.social on today. We had a great conversation, listened to some songs that influenced the new album Known Associates, and they played a handful of songs live in the studio. Check it out here: www.mixcloud.com/rockrabbitho...

Greasy genius youtu.be/C-6mI708yWc?...

ZZ Top appeared on a BBC show with Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark in 1980 and nicked not only their sound but also their dance moves domino.elfworld.org/omd-zz-top-s...

Every girl's crazy 'bout a sharp guitar hook and a Simmons SDS-V

I guess the band had pretty much exhausted the boogie-band trio thing after a decade, but I prefer my ZZ Top sans Fairlight!

Texas meets Essex and gets funky

The astonishing outcome of Billy Gibbons' on-its-face-insane inspiration to make ZZ Top sound more like Depeche Mode, ‘Eliminator’ is forty-five minutes of ecstatic hooks and Fairlight boogie whose groove is nothing less than a novel musical vernacular. A masterpiece. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae82...

This Tuesday, we welcome Elizabeth Nelson & Tim Bracy of The Paranoid Style. They'll play a few songs live in the studio, and walk us through some influences behind their brand new album, Known Associates. March 10 from Noon-2pm Eastern at TakomaRadio.org and WOWD 94.3 @paranoiacs.bsky.social

absolutely hijacking international women's day to suggest that you consider purchasing a copy of THREE CHORDS AND BLESSED NOISE, a chapbook written by a woman about Patti Smith's Horses 50th Anniversary tour! jukeboxgraduate.bigcartel.com/product/thre...

I’ve been an X’gauer since 1992. I occasionally subscribe to his Substack, and plan to restart in April. If not for the Dean of American Rock Critics, I wouldn’t have discovered The Paranoid Style. Congratulations on yet another another solid “A!”

As someone who practically memorized his 'Rock Albums of the Seventies' you are in fine company and it's well deserved. Kudos!

When I began writing songs, it was outside the limits of my imagination that I'd ever get an A grade from Robert Christgau for any of my records. Today's Consumer Guide marks five full A's in a row for the Paranoid Style. Sharp as ever. I couldn't be more grateful. open.substack.com/pub/robertch...

I co-sign all of this. Jody Stephens once said to the effect of feeling like he was allowed to rave about Big Star because he didn’t write the songs. I feel similarly in this case.

This is great. Especially if it would lead paranoiacs to tour enough to come near the geographic center of the country (or maybe just a small bit North and East though I'd drive to make up for the difference).