mrclay.org

Flipping through the radio I heard “Fire” and thought, “could I get this without guitar?” Of course, the answer is yes. And I like it.

“Thank You Friends” was the first Big Star song I heard, hanging out with Dan Francke listening to a Time-Life cassette comp he ripped from his dad.

I’d never claim file sharing doesn’t hurt music sales, but there’s another simple reason why individual music releases will continue to sell more poorly over time: The continuous explosion of choice. Even if listeners spent as much on music as they did years ago, the chances of us buying the same releases drops constantly as [...]

This compilation of Mark Wirtz-produced songs rocks. Especially if you like 60’s girl groups with wall-of-everything+kitchen-sink productions, dramatic breaks that are just waiting to be sampled, bubblegum pop songs with psychadelic edges. There are duds and some dumb lyrics here and there, but it’s a great variety of sounds and clever pop songwriting.
Some highlights:
Today Without [...]

I’m totally spoiled having a big back room dedicated to making and recording music, but sometimes you can still dream.
Check out this amazing pic of the “Mothership”[1] in Sweden’s Gula Studion. Gula was built as a sister studio to the perhaps more famous Tambourine Studios, birthplace of most Cardigans and Eggstone albums. More than [...]

A brief history of one of my favorite bands. It’s hard to describe to non-musicians how Kurt’s music stands my ears on end. Of course there are the straight-up hooks for the kid in me, but there’s also the complex harmonies for the music geek in me. A piece like “The Tennis System [...]

Friday, July 9th. Sandi and I are in the surprisingly large Orange Peel in Asheville, NC and Rhett and Murry of the Old 97’s are in the middle of wooing us with Murry’s heartbreaking "Valentine". When they get to the break a lone voice says what we’re all thinking, “We love you, Murry!” [...]

I’ve spent countless hours digging around the All Music Guide for years now, but it was always frustrating to have to jump over to some music store like CDNOW (long gone) or Amazon to listen to clips, if you were lucky. Mp3.com for a long time was a revolutionary way to get your music [...]

There should be at least one great Annette Funicello compilation. "Strummin’ Song" (WM clip on MSN) , "Holiday in Hawaii" and "This Time It’s Love" are absolutely essential and the comps available are woefully inadequate. I’m finally getting around to buying Eddie Izzard’s classic stand-up show Dress to Kill to force on friends. Who [...]

Rhino put together a 4 CD, 100-song definitive overview of 70’s punk rock called No Thanks!: The 70s Punk Rebellion. Pitchfork gave it a 10 and from the looks of it it probably deserves it. While a lot of us have heard most of the songs, it’s gonna be a blast to put together [...]