The Lacking Permanence

“New music from Sparklehorse” sounds like something from a fever dream, and it sounds like something from a fever dream.

The voice of your conscience is a very close match to the one you hear coming from Grandaddy.

Always a special treat to be back on the air after missing a show. This is the third show in a year that I’ve started with a Fugazi cover, in this case Failure taking on “Waiting Room” with their trademark grinding, implacable approach. The power of these songs, its distinctive musicality and lyrical content, is undiminished in the hands of any band bold enough to take on the material. Tonight also featured the confluence of several loyal listeners, including James in California, Underdog in Georgia, and Charley who is on South Korea time and got to take benefit from the time zone.

When I hear the sounds of Islands, I am reminded of sparkling diamonds and shattered glass.

Andrew Bird always manages to fulfill that craving for pizzicato minimalism.

Music all about your special someone and / or a newborn human.

This Buck Meek character is difficult to pin down, simultaneously rural and urbane.

Something about Margaret Glaspy’s voice makes me want to hang out and listen to her laugh.

I meant to write the notes for this show sooner than a month after the fact, but travel plans got in the way and here I am struggling for an intro. I can tell you that hearing Sparklehorse take on Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians’ “Listening to the Higsons” for the first time, mere weeks ago, felt like someone became obsessed with the same cassette as I did thirty years ago, but actually got around to letting the hen out.

There are many bands that go by W.I.T.C.H. but this is the only one where it stands for “we intend to cause havoc.”