// Category Archive for: Current Faves

From The Daily Cal To The New Yorker: Q&A With Shannon Wheeler of Too Much Coffee Man

Interviewed by Christian Lipski

I first encountered Shannon Wheeler’s work when we were undergraduates at UC Berkeley and he drew a strip called Tooth & Justice in the school paper, The Daily Californian. He’s best known now for the character Too Much Coffee Man, who became Wheeler’s voice for social commentary and satire.

The TMCM comic series earned an Eisner award in 1995. Wheeler’s current home, Portland Oregon, saw the premiere of the Too Much Coffee Man opera in 2006 (and its extended “refill” in 2008). Wheeler also created Postage Stamp Funnies for The Onion’s print edition, and is publishing his cartoons in The New Yorker.
(more…)

Rowland S. Howard, Pop Crimes

By Ann Clarke

It’s not often that this happens, but. . . occasionally I find myself waiting for about ten years for an album to come out. Most people would give up hope by then, but if you like an artist enough, you always hold out for whatever they do. This would be the case with Rowland S. Howard. He’s one of those musicians I’ve pretty much had a hard-on on for since I first stumbled upon him.
(more…)

In Praise Of Robert Wyatt

By John Lane

Aye, the following individual is never, ever to be classified as a “guilty pleasure,” understood? Yes, one could use the expression that he is an “acquired taste,” but goodness knows not all acquired tastes are meant to pass the taste test of everyone.

Robert Wyatt is an English creation, one that could’ve only been born of and thrived in England (albeit in a quiet, genteel way), as he has done professionally for over 40 years.
(more…)

Bebel Gilberto, All In One

By Ann Clarke

I am fully aware of Bebel Gilberto’s namesake, and the fact that she’s been around for awhile. . . but I can honestly say, I’d never heard anything by her. I knew she was a Brazilian musician and her parents were famous musicians (João Gilberto and Miúcha), but that’s about it. So in essence, I can’t compare Bebel’s new album, All In One, to any of her previous works, since I don’t know them. I can say this: I was interested in reviewing this album, because I am willing to listen to foreign vocals without hesitation.
(more…)

Revelations And Resistance: The Music Of Muse

By Lisa Anderson

I’ve loved British things all my life, but my most recent discovery is the band Muse.

(more…)

Squirrel Nut Zippers, Lost At Sea

By J Howell

Live records can be dicey propositions. All too often, in attempting to capture the exhilaration of “being there,” live albums fall flat, sounding muddy, noisy, and altogether bad. There are the rare exceptions, though, and while it’s not quite perfect, Squirrel Nut Zippers’ live return from a nine-year hiatus is one of the better live records in recent memory.
(more…)

Purl Britannia

By Chelsea Spear

For a land-locked American knitter, London seems like a fairyland of the fiber arts. Enterprising crafters hold impromptu knitting circles at pubs, on the Tube, and even at special cinema matinées where theatre owners keep the lights on for them (a practice poo-pooh’d by Alison Goldfrapp in a recent issue of Bust). Waggish knit-bloggers post self-written patterns for unusual objects from slices of cake to hand grenades to (blush) anatomically correct genitalia. While the cost of a round-trip plane ticket to Old Blighty could keep one in cashmere for a year, many of England’s finest yarn manufacturers make their products available to crafty Yanks with an Anglophilic streak.
(more…)

Otis Redding, The Best: See & Hear

By Adam McIntyre

A new release of a refreshingly different kind, Otis Redding: Respect Live 1967 is the bonus DVD accompanying Shout Factory’s new best-of Otis Redding CD. Despite being presented sort of strangely, the DVD of a pair of performances from 1967 is mandatory viewing for a vast cross-section of music lovers.
(more…)

Electric Six “Rocks Ass” At Dante’s

Dick Valentine

By Christian Lipski
Photos by Deborah Lipski

Dante’s, Portland OR
November 13, 2009
(more…)

The Flaming Lips, Embryonic

By Adam McIntyre

Nothing makes me sicker than hype, and people hyping things up unnecessarily, so I’m going to make this review as short as possible because there is about to be a tsunami of nauseating hype surrounding the new Flaming Lips album, Embryonic.
(more…)