We took The Boy to the Tech Museum in San Jose last Saturday. This isn’t the kind of thing I’ve ever really given much thought before, but there’s a lot…
No Idiot’s Guide this week, amigos — as the list of artists about whom I am qualified to expound at length continues to dwindle, I will be required to plan…
I’ve just finished reading the most informative and entertaining biography of Stephen Foster ever written: Doo-Dah! Stephen Foster and the Rise of American Popular Culture – Ken Emerson (1998) The…
Hootie & The Blowfish – Looking for Lucky (2005) Once, when asked to explain his fondness for Beavis & Butt-Head, David Letterman remarked that there was something comforting in knowing…
Á¢€Å“ContentiousÁ¢€ is probably the word IÁ¢€â„¢m looking for to describe the recording of the third (and at the time Á¢€” har har Á¢€” final) album from The Time. While Á¢€Å“Ice…
So I’m pouring The Boy’s cereal this morning, and I notice something a little different about this week’s box of Trix: It seems our old friend the Rabbit has decided…
During their Biblical forty years of wandering in the desert, the Jews subsisted on a miracle food that fell from the heavens each night. Described as a grain tasting like…
Haven’t been able to write this morning because a squirrel fell down the vent above our stove Á¢€” the last couple hours have been spent trying to get the little…
Kissing the Pink. Yes, that’s totally what it means. Ahem. Now that we’ve dispensed with all that, Kissing the Pink formed in 1980 in London and never really broke through…
LetÁ¢€â„¢s talk about the blues. It only seems appropriate, after all, given that itÁ¢€â„¢s Tuesday, the bluesiest day of the work week Á¢€” last weekend a distant memory, Friday a…
As Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith once famously noted, everybody wants to rule the world. In the literal sense, they were imagining some dystopic Orwellian society, but on a deeper…
This is it, my friends — the end of Week Boy-Ar-Dee: It’s been a bumpy road, to be sure, but an educational one nonetheless. We’ve learned, for instance, that it’s…
I love artists past their prime. As I’ve repeatedly mentioned here, I derive endless fascination from the things musicians do after they’ve been forgotten by the public at large. They…
So. We meet again, my fat, toque-headed nemesis: I won’t lie to you Á¢€” yesterday’s Boyarxperiment hurt me, and hurt me bad. Judging from the way my hands were trembling…
King Sunny Adé and His African Beats – Juju Music (1982) I’m not quite sure what to say about this album. If you know about King Sunny Adé, you’re probably…
Yes. Fucking Pepperoni Pizzazaroli: You would think “Pepperoni Pizza Ravioli” would be good enough, or even “Pepperoni Pizzaroli,” but no. They had to add another Z in there, to make…
IÁ¢€â„¢ve been working up to a Ry Cooder IdiotÁ¢€â„¢s Guide for awhile now. HeÁ¢€â„¢s one of my longtime, all-time favorites, but heÁ¢€â„¢s released so many albums in so many different…
Behold! Isn’t modern technology wonderful? They’ve taken cheesy nacho, combined it with pasta, and put it in a can. Convenience at its best! They’ve even given us an easy-off, no-can-opener-necessary…
Meet The Boy: As of a few weeks ago, he and his mom are living with us, and since my eating habits tend to mirror those of a six-year-old boy’s…
So, I heard the news this morning — David Foster is splitting from his wife of over a decade, Linda Thompson-Jenner. I read it about it first over at ohnotheydidnt,…
In a nice bit of blog synergy, it seems everyone is talking about blue-eyed soulÁ¢€¦which leads me to one of the sadder stories of the also-rans (at least in the…
I realize I’m like five years behind the cool kids on Chuck Klosterman, but I’m loving this book: Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto All the same,…
Someone came to the site today through a Google search for “Maura Tierney butthole.”
Been a heady week here at jefitoblog Á¢€” last week’s Stone of Sisyphus review was discovered by the folks at chicagofans.org, not to mention former Chicago guitarist Dawayne Bailey, not…
The Refreshments Fizzy Fuzzy Big & Buzzy (1996) Here’s a little gem I stumbled across the other day while dusting my CD collection. You remember CDs, right? They were all…
Talk about a guy who should have been huge. An accomplished guitarist and songwriter who paid his dues playing for established artists, worked his way up through the ranks, and…
I haven’t been writing every day lately, on account of a few things: 1. Summer = disruption of my carefully constructed schedule 2. Full-time self-employment = less time for aimless…
Talk about DIY Á¢€” when club promoter and all-around Paris-Hilton-famous-for-merely-being-famous trailblazer Steven Strange didnÁ¢€â„¢t like that there werenÁ¢€â„¢t enough good songs to play on his club night, he grabbed some…
I just got back from a last-minute business trip to Los Angeles (otherwise known as “my least favorite city in the world”), so I’m dealing with all the fun of…