Last weekÁ¢€â„¢s massive international celebration of Vinyl Record Day (wait Á¢€” you say that big party they showed on TV was about the Olympics?) reminded me of my teenage fascination…
Jesus of Cool
59 Articles
Jon Cummings
3 Min Read
By now itÁ¢€™s a clichÁƒ©, though often a useful one, to allow a particular song to remind you of a certain time or place Á¢€” that summer fling at the…
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
One of my favorite Popdose experiences to date came in the wake of Part 9 in our colleague Dave SteedÁ¢€™s wonderful Á¢€Å“Bottom FeedersÁ¢€ series. He had identified his first CD…
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
These days baby boomers, especially women, are in something of a panic. Demographically, professionally, financially and sociologically, theyÁ¢€™ve been dominating American culture for nearly half a century now, while succeeding…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
sitÁ¢€¢com n. Informal A situation comedy; a television comedy series involving a group of regular characters in everyday situations, often set in the home and/or workplace For three seasons, Weeds…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
When I worked at Billboard in the mid-Á¢€â„¢90s, a stroll past dance editor Larry FlickÁ¢€â„¢s cubicle was a necessity — he sat near the door — as well as an…
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
Can you feel it? I feel it. You know what IÁ¢€â„¢m talking about Á¢€” that sudden jolt, that shock that has surged through the American consciousness over the past three…
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
Last week in this space, I described a single by the Canadian rock band Prism as Á¢€Å“sounding like an early-Á¢€™80s Cliff Richard single (not that thereÁ¢€™s anything wrong with that).Á¢€…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
Actually, itÁ¢€™s only Volume 2, but whoÁ¢€™s counting? This is an all-Canadian edition of my occasional series sorting through the wreckage of a vinyl collection that focused heavily on minor…
Jon Cummings
3 Min Read
The difference between journalism and history is, of course, time and perspective Á¢€” as IÁ¢€™ve been reminded over the last few months, as IÁ¢€™ve presumptuously taken it upon myself to…
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
Over the past several months IÁ¢€™ve been engaged in a Vision Quest on this tiny slice of the Internet, attempting to locate and suitably disparage the worst Number One songs…
Jon Cummings
3 Min Read
Man, IÁ¢€™ve got a headache. Maybe itÁ¢€™s a hangover from the most recent installment in this series, when so many readers joined me in sifting through the effluvial of the…
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
A few weeks ago in this space, I located the origin of my personal anglophilia in the syndicated radio show Rock Over London, which introduced Americans to Á¢€Ëœ80s-era British acts…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
Like a lot of music buyers back in the late Á¢€™70s and early Á¢€™80s Á¢€” a pre-Compact Disc era when recession, market oversaturation, aversion to disco, and other factors sent…
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
Something’s come over me as I’ve contemplated this, the fourth edition of what promises to be a six-part series (the invention of time travel seeming unlikely before I conclude, sometime…
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
Having spent the last two columns riffing on the careers of Robbie Williams and Texas, two acts that sped my acclimation to the U.K. during my familyÁ¢€â„¢s late-Á¢€â„¢90s stint as…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
Imagine a band with a sultry female singer, an impressive new-wave pedigree, a sound that expertly blends Motown soul with contemporary pop/rock, and oodles of international success over more than…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
“England and America are two countries separated by a common language.” Á¢€”George Bernard Shaw In July 1998 my wife, my son, and I moved into a terraced house on a…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
ItÁ¢€™s time for the third installment in our six-part series (assuming I finish before the end of the decade) documenting the most putrid pabulum of the rock era. And this…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
Patti Myers wants her favorite band in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — and she wants you to help get them there. “If you are fortunate enough to…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
As any loyal Popdose reader with a lingering affection for British power pop surely knows, the name of this column is cribbed from Nick Lowe’s 1978 album Jesus of Cool,…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
At first glance, the video for Al Jarreau’s 1984 single “After All” seems simple enough. Jarreau sings on a soundstage “rooftop” while a pair of dancers interpret the song’s romantic…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
You’d think that slogging through the detritus of the 1960s would be a more delicate maneuver than slinging the shite of the ’50s. You’d be mistaken. The Sixties were the…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
I would hope that every music geek had a friend growing up like my friend John Á¢€” a guy who was just as passionate about music as you were and…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
Welcome to the first installment of an occasional series that dares you to wallow in the very worst of the very best — or best-selling, at least — singles from…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
Grammy week is upon us, and I couldn’t be less excited. I used to live for the Grammys during the early part of the year, just like I lived for…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
Here in the etherworldly state of Serious Pop Culture Fandom, Internet division, it’s traditional to set impossibly high quality standards and then smite with mighty (and snarky) blows any album/film/novel…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
Ladies and gentlemen, the best music-movie moment of 2007: [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/S0A7dtdc-nU” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] Now, don’t get me wrong: I’m not loony enough to think that Music and Lyrics…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
If you were a GenXer coming of age in the 1980s, moviegoing meant heavy doses of Harrison Ford, too much Tom Cruise, an occasional journey into the unhinged eraserhead of…
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