Good pipes, distorted bliss and the end of an era By Benjamin Smith Photo: The Irrepressibles deliver songs of “magical ship” and “glistening mermen” 2013 is already proving to be the busiest of years for your writer. So much so, in fact, that – after copious vodka consumption and consultations with the “I Ching” – I [...]
The sounds of a questionable future By Benjamin Smith New Year’s resolutions are lies, people. Lies! Are you really going to lose weight, quit smoking and become brilliant? No. You are going to stay fat and gross and stupid. Yet you can start 2013 on a slightly improved foot simply by trying something new this [...]
OK KID: Worst of all albums, end of all culture By Benjamin Smith As the proud father of a precocious 10-year-old, I feel I have the experience and wisdom to proclaim, with impunity, that children are terrible. Seriously, they ruin everything. Children piss on your shoes, eat all the cupcakes, vomit at operas. Children ruin [...]
Four albums you have to buy or die By Benjamin Smith Hell is holiday shopping. Oh, how I loathe the upcoming exercises in self-induced anxiety and advertising-induced excess. Purchase or perish! For me, it’s bad enough that I don’t know what to buy people anymore; worse still is the fact that I don’t know if [...]
Questionable health, haunted people, wintry pop and electric sex By Benjamin Smith As I write this article, a colossal storm is slamming the East Coast, a toxic presidential election is reaching fever pitch, many are hoping for some sort of apocalypse on Dec. 21 – and I think I have the plague. ‘Tis a bleak [...]
Four foreign records for the fall By Benjamin Smith So the serpent has been slain – the venomous, endless summer of 2012. Somehow we survived the toil and trouble. Zounds! Let us now bask in the crisp calm of autumn. There’s a turbulent election coming of course, but hush: we need a break from chaos. [...]
New sounds from across the pond By Benjamin Smith Your writer is getting married to a wonderful woman on Sept. 7. One of the countless wedding details we’ve obsessed over this summer together concerns the reception setlist. I’m pretty pleased with the final selection: Beatles, Motown, James Brown, disco-era Rolling Stones, early Madonna and even [...]
New sounds from across the pond By Benjamin Smith I’m no Nostradamus. Yet I do predict that one night, while sipping absinthe on the Trolley Stop patio, a local musician will question me about this column’s value (or lack thereof). The inquisitor appears hazy in my vision, but I see…yes…I see that he can pass [...]
Sounds from Fixers, Marty Graveyard, Benjamin Herman and Hot Chip By Benjamin Smith Forsooth, an awful funk permeates our city, radiating the attitudinal stench of some decaying river-beast. Dayton lies stagnant in the summer doldrums. You can spy it in our scowls, perceive it in our pissant Facebook posts: ennui, apathy, listlessness. Methinks we need [...]
New Sounds from Across the Pond By Benjamin Smith Your writer turns 36 on June 15. Now, I don’t expect anything at all from Dayton on this occasion—except a massive music festival. Alas, other than certain local favorites, who would perform? Oasis is done, the Interpol chaps don’t return my phone calls, and I’m pretty [...]
High Fructose Corn Syrup By Megan Garrison The FDA recently rejected a bid to officially change the name of high [...]
Walker was Victorious in Wisconsin Because His Reforms Worked By David H. Landon The folks at MSNBC had a bad [...]
It Takes More than a Tweet By Rana Odeh The victory of Republican Governor Scott Walker over Milwaukee Democrat Mayor [...]
What are the Consequences of Recall Election in Wisconsin? Last Tuesday, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) prevailed in an unusual [...]
Obama’s Support of Same Sex Marriage Will Cost Him Swing States By David H. Landon By Election Day, the President’s [...]
President Obama Announces Support of Same-Sex Marriage Most pundits believe that this Presidential election will be decided on the issue [...]
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