It’s hard not to get paranoid when you’re an elected official. First there was the August catnapping that turned out not to be a catnapping. (Cats who take naps don’t…
Bootleg City
149 Articles
Robert Cass
7 Min Read
The career-spanning, four-disc box set Do What You Want, Be What You Are: The Music of Daryl Hall & John Oates comes out October 13, and in anticipation of its…
Robert Cass
1 Min Read
Who doesn’t love The Wizard of Oz? (That was a rhetorical question. Put your hands and middle fingers down.) Last week in Bootleg City, to celebrate the 70th anniversary of…
Robert Cass
2 Min Read
Yesterday was a special day in Bootleg City. Every September 10 — or “One After 909,” as some folks call it — we celebrate Beatle Day, which kicks off early…
Robert Cass
4 Min Read
Hey, y’all. Matthew McConaughey here, fillin’ in for Mr. Mayor of Bootleg City this week. Cassanova gave me a jingle-jangle the other day and said, “Matty Mac, do me a…
Robert Cass
3 Min Read
I was dead asleep when the phone rang. It was three o’clock. I picked it up and mumbled hello. I figured it was my ex-wife. She calls late at night…
Robert Cass
5 Min Read
It’s rare that I get a chance to talk to the artists whose music I steal each week, so when the opportunity arises I seize it. Recently, word got out…
Robert Cass
3 Min Read
For this special edition of Bootleg City, I’m spotlighting the top 17 songs of the ’90s, a decade we can all officially start nostalgicizing on January 1, 2010. Until then…
Robert Cass
2 Min Read
I was beginning to think I’d never find a tough lawman to clean up Bootleg City, especially after my faux pas-filled interview with Marshall Crenshaw. (I won’t bore you with…
Robert Cass
3 Min Read
When the economy’s bad, crime gets worse. That’s why I decided to hire a new lawman to clean up this one-horse-because-of-all-the-horse-thieves town. I know what you’re thinking: “It’s called Bootleg…
Robert Cass
1 Min Read
The budget cuts continue in Bootleg City. This week I had to lay off the village idiot. It was a tough call. On the one hand, he’s provided countless hours…
Robert Cass
4 Min Read
I’m not going to lie to you — even though I’m the most powerful figurehead in Bootleg City, I don’t have all the answers. That’s why I often turn to…
Robert Cass
2 Min Read
Last Saturday I discussed the global economic woes that have trickled down to many American cities in the past year, including Bootleg City. The recession has led to crippling budget…
Robert Cass
2 Min Read
Happy Fourth of July, everyone! As the mayor of Bootleg City, it’s my responsibility to give you the best aural fireworks display money can buy, but therein lies the problem…
Robert Cass
2 Min Read
To celebrate/exploit the release of Varshons, the new covers album by Evan Dando‘s Lemonheads, Bootleg City is covering its own covers-filled edition from July 27, 2007. Of course, back in those…
Robert Cass
3 Min Read
Here are some fun facts about singer-songwriter Jules Shear: 1. He’s from Pittsburgh. So is actor Jeff Goldblum, who stars in the pseudo-documentary Pittsburgh (2006), which chronicles his homecoming performance in…
Robert Cass
1 Min Read
In part two of this flashback edition of Vin Scelsa’s Live at Lunch, singer-songwriter Jules Shear talks about the R&B inspiration for “If She Knew What She Wants,” how he…
Robert Cass
2 Min Read
As the mayor of Bootleg City, it’s good to be king — or just mayor, I guess. Or how about “king-mayor”? But certainly not Sonia Sotomayor, who dared to suggest…
Robert Cass
2 Min Read
Noah Lennox, otherwise known as Panda Bear in the band Animal Collective — and as a solo artist — plays art rock and experimental pop music. But it’s still pop,…
Robert Cass
2 Min Read
Remember last week when I was duped into thinking I’d been sent that Air Supply bootleg by a guy named “R. Murdoch”? It never crossed my mind that “R.” might…
Robert Cass
1 Min Read
For the Bootleg City before Mother’s Day, what could be more appropriate than an Air Supply concert from 1982? If you answered “God, no, anything but that,” you would be incorrect, as Robert Cass is happy to prove with some vintage Australian balladry.
Robert Cass
1 Min Read
In a 2004 interview with music writer Casey Fundaro (a.k.a. “David Fufkin”), former Marah singer-guitarist Serge Bielanko said, “My brother [Dave, the leader of Marah] and I grew up listening…
Robert Cass
2 Min Read
My high school girlfriend received a 16th-birthday mix tape in 1992 from a friend of ours named Tai. There were no artists or song titles listed on the cassette label,…
Robert Cass
3 Min Read
Late last summer a DVD of August, which features David Bowie in a cameo, showed up at the office where I used to work. If you haven’t heard of this…
Robert Cass
1 Min Read
Near the beginning of The Woman in Red, a 1984 comedy written and directed by and starring Gene Wilder (it’s a remake of a French film whose title translates to “An Elephant Can…
Robert Cass
1 Min Read
One of my favorite pebbles of pop-culture minutiae is that Curtis Armstrong, the actor who played Herbert Viola on Moonlighting in the late ’80s and “Booger” in four Revenge of…
Robert Cass
2 Min Read
The first six months after 9/11 were a confusing time, and America wasn’t sure when it would be okay to laugh again. Then on March 5, 2002, some well-funded foreigners…
Robert Cass
1 Min Read
For all those Sheryl Crow fans who were disappointed when they found out she wouldn’t be filling in for Christine McVie on Fleetwood Mac’s current reunion tour, I’ve replaced McVie’s…
Robert Cass
2 Min Read
I don’t know much about this Bob Marley character, but if his performance on the “Welcome to New York” bootleg is any indication, he was a real hack: a quarter…
Robert Cass
1 Min Read
Stevie truly is a wonder, but did you know his music has the power to generate profits not only for his record label but also his fans? When a friend…