The fact that Lou Reed was able to bounce from major label to major label for 40 years without ever selling any records is proof that once upon a time, music critics' opinions actually carried weight in the industry.

Live jazz should never require sheet music.

Mainstream country is music for bigots, and boring willfully ignorant normies, who are just as complicit.

jaimie branch

I have gotten multiple emails this morning about a band called MANGLED RECREMENT and I have blinked rapidly several times at each one.

One thing where I will absolutely hand it to the youths is referring to the 20th century as "the 1900s." Fully on board with this and look forward to its widespread adoption.

By every technological measure, CDs are the superior music storage format, but people are willing to spend $40 for an LP that costs $10 to manufacture, so...

Having one of those "'No Quarter' is the best Led Zeppelin song" mornings.

Against?

Photos of fathers and sons holding hands. www.itsnicethat.com/articles/val...

Pussy Galore : The Rolling Stones :: White Zombie : Led Zeppelin

I've only heard a few releases on Nyege Nyege Tapes, but every one I've heard has been amazing. (One word: PHELIMUNCASI.) The debut album by Kinact, Kinshasa In Action, came out today and it will take the top of your head off. nyegenyegetapes.bandcamp.com/album/kinsha...

It's weird how both BALLERINA the 2025 John Wick spinoff movie and BALLERINA the 2023 Korean revenge thriller both feature female bodyguard/assassins killing dudes with flame throwers. It's even weirder that no reviews I saw of the 2025 movie mentioned this clear homage.

RIP Dictators/Manowar founding guitarist Ross "the Boss" Friedman, dead of ALS at 72. A pioneer of "we don't care if you think it's funny, WE think it's funny" rock. blabbermouth.net/news/former-...

HOW IS THIS REAL www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9uW...

Afternoon listening: Luny Tunes & Baby Ranks - Mas Flow 2. LT & BR are the producers; vocalists include Daddy Yankee, Tego Calderón, Wisin y Yandel, Ivy Queen and many others. A CRUCIAL reggaeton document, not on streaming services.

A very interesting piece. (A quick reference toward the end to the need for an in-depth reggaeton compilation led me to the discovery that Mas Flow 2, the best-selling compilation in the genre's history, is NOT on streaming services.)

Sketchbook page.

Today's newsletter (half of which is for paying subscribers) asks: Have you ever imagined a song? You also get reviews of movies I've watched recently, and multiple fascinating articles on a wide range of subjects. Become a paying subscriber! burningambulance.substack.com/p/links-n-st...

There are many days when I think that the uncoolest band I genuinely love is Metallica.

Morning writing/editing soundtrack: Sofia Kourtesis, DJ-Kicks. sofiakourtesis.bandcamp.com/album/dj-kic...

MARGIN CALL is one of the best movies of the 21st century.

Flea making a jazz album is really summoning all the worms up out of the earth. "This isn't real jazz!" "He's not a virtuoso trumpet player!" "Why is this getting so much more press than [obscure nobody]'s record?" This is why nobody wants to be friends with jazz critics.

A very long essay about Bret Easton Ellis. I admit my interest waned after the section dealing with GLAMORAMA (which is not only Ellis's best book, but one of the best books of the 1990s) but I read the whole thing. You should too. www.metropolitanreview.org/p/the-very-g...

I doubt anyone was expecting (or pining for) a new Dimmu Borgir album in 2026, but I’ll take it. (I saw them on Ozzfest in maybe 2005; hard to imagine a band less suited to performing outside on a sunny NJ afternoon.) m.youtube.com/watch?v=1oOg...

Imagine if the Iranian regime said simply, "The Strait stays closed to you and your allies, open to others. We will negotiate with your successor."

An interesting thread. One note: Rhino may be out of the pop-culture archiving business (except for selling pricey vinyl reissues of the classic rock canon), but Cherry Red has been doing really good work both anthologizing artists' catalogs and assembling genre/scene overview boxes.

Orangutans are the coolest apes.

pirateship dot com

You know those signs in liquor stores that say DO NOT ACCEPT A CHECK FROM THIS PERSON? Movie theaters should have this guy's picture and the message DO NOT SELL THIS MAN A TICKET. HE DOESN'T KNOW HOW STORIES WORK.

Revisiting Agent Orange's debut album and now I think every punk band should have a cover of "Pipeline" in their back pocket, ready to go. (Amon Amarth, too.) www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2o3...

Expanding the age of eligibility is always the sign of a healthy military, right? And it never leads to conscription, right?

Was just listening to Pentangle — Cruel Sister and Reflection — yesterday. The Cherry Red box set of their albums (with a ton of bonus tracks) is amazing.

Ah, the ambivalence of seeing a good friend working with a hated enemy (or, more accurately, someone I couldn't possibly give less of a shit about, but who has had a weird hate-on for me for probably 20 years at this point).

In today's newsletter, Diego Caicedo writes about some new recordings of Shostakovich's complete string quartets, and how that music has influenced his own work. This is a brilliant piece, and I hope you'll reward Diego by buying his albums. burningambulance.substack.com/p/diego-caic...

Morning writing/editing soundtrack: John Lee Hooker, The Vee-Jay Sessions. A 90-track, 4-hour streaming playlist put together by "UME - Global Clearing House." If this was a 4CD box set, I'd buy it.

I've enjoyed some of the movies he's written and directed (28 DAYS LATER, SUNSHINE, and yeah, I'm the guy who likes ANNIHILATION) but Garland is clearly a dolt.

TFW you're listening to a death metal song called "Slugs of Decadence" and trying to decide whether they're talking about slugs as in bullets or slugs as in slugs...

Bob Weinstock believed in treating music and album covers equally as serious art, and 'WAIL,' by Chris Entwistle and Mark Havens, reveals how that conviction produced a graphic legacy still being imitated today. The Tonearm's Bill Kopp speaks to the authors. The Unsung Canvas of Prestige Records:

It's behind a paywall (so subscribe!), but my latest Stereogum column features an interview with alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins and reviews of killer new albums by Irreversible Entanglements, Shabaka Hutchings, Pat Metheny, Adam O'Farrill, and more: stereogum.com/2493314/imma...

A post-rock band called Ostinato feels a little on the nose, right?

Re-watched ALTERED STATES (Criterion Blu-Ray) tonight. What a hilariously bonkers movie that is. The only Ken Russell anything I can make it all the way through. Paddy Chayefsky was obviously the proto-Sorkin in that every character is just him monologuing behind a mask. It rules.

I'll never forget a quote from Pat Todd of the Lazy Cowgirls, who described their audiences for the first several years of their existence as "nobody, and people from work."

Listening to the new Neurosis album and recognizing why I don't really connect with them. Simply put, it's because so much of their music is about intensity (brooding intensity, explosive intensity) and processing sadness and the heavier emotions. And... I don't really listen to metal for that.

"Hobbyless behavior" is an excellent, precise insult. I've also long advocated for the adoption of the UK term "saddo" in America. But you can always just go with "loser shit."

Morning writing/editing soundtrack: Miles Davis, In Concert: Live At Philharmonic Hall. A 1972 set I've been wrestling with for ~30 years. Far less aggro than Dark Magus or Agharta/Pangaea, but often more psychedelic/dreamlike, with Al Foster's drums cutting straight through everything.

Jimmy Scott's legendary album Falling In Love Is Wonderful is being reissued next month, and it's *crazy* how you can listen to this version of "Someone To Watch Over Me" and in about two seconds say to yourself, "Yeah, that's Ray Charles on piano." www.youtube.com/watch?v=5af0...

I have recently discovered that Apple TV has a ton of Formula 1 content, and I'll tell you what: Turn the sound off and ignore all the little statboxes and whatnot, and that stuff's even more relaxing than those YouTube videos of eight-hour train trips through rural Norway or wherever.

I would like to gain 13 followers over the weekend. Should I achieve this goal, I promise not to raise the quality of my posts even slightly.

In today's mail: One of the coolest projects I've ever been privileged to work on. The Cecil Taylor Unit's Fragments: The Complete 1969 Salle Pleyel Concerts is a 3LP or 2CD set coming out on Record Store Day, April 18.