Once upon a time, Nick Lowe was Mutt Lange. The world’s most famous, most revered, record producer. But their styles were completely different. Mutt is a micro-manager, Nick put everybody in a room, pushed up the faders and tried to capture the magic. And that he did, on Elvis Costello’s game-changing debut, "My Aim Is […]

The first year I lived in Utah my favorite off-slope haunt was the library. It was there that I discovered the rest of J.D. Salinger’s works, reading all about Franny & Zooey, got my favorite albums on cassette and checked out Bob Greene’s book about being on tour with Alice Cooper, "Billion Dollar Baby". Most […]

R.E.M. I heard a good track off their new album on L.A.’s new terrestrial station, "The Sound", today. I still think the outlet’s branding sucks, "World Class Rock", "The Sound", what the fuck do they mean, but the playlist has improved. It’s good if you’re living in 2001, pre-iPod, when you had to sit through […]

It’s not summer here yet in SoCal. It’s been a hundred degrees in NYC, I’ve lived through those east coast Junes, when the mosquitoes will eat you alive and you’re shvitzing as soon as you leave the house, but out here…we’ve still got June gloom, you can’t always leave the house without a jacket. Then […]