How’s the old joke go?
Guy #1: “Where’s Farris Rotter?”
Guy #2: “He’s standing behind a toothpick!”

The world’s skinniest goth has joined forces with former Ipso Facto keyboardist Cherish Kaya in a new project called Lumina. Their first track is a cover of a Black Keys’ track called ‘I’ll be With You’, which is considerably less 50s [...]

I wasn’t so sure about this at first. It sounded like something made for teenagers, and I haven’t been one of those for a while. I’m old now and things made for teenagers automatically set off my Grumpy Old Mandar. No, I’m not saying how long ago I actually was a teenager. None of your [...]

The Dimes were a pleasant surprise in my inbox this morning. Regular readers might have noticed I’ve been on silent running since Friday, mostly because I like to take a blog break on the weekends. I try to escape from technology all together, but sometimes that’s just not possible. At any rate, I’m behind on [...]

I am usually 2 months behind on my email at any given time. This is caused by two things – 1)I receive far more emails in a day than I could possibly answer and by necessity I prioritize emails from people I know personally and that could conceivably cause me bodily harm should I take [...]

Empire of the Sun are the sound of summer. Not just summer ‘09, but every summer, on every continent. I firmly believe they are the rare band that truly has universal appeal. How could you not enjoy this? I’m slack-jawed at the very idea.
The band, consisting of the Sleepy Jackson’s Luke Steele and PNAU’s [...]

I know nothing about Dead Leaf Echo. I gleaned the basics from their myspace page – they’re from NYC, they’re a foursome, they’ve collaborated with John Fryer (Depeche Mode, Cocteau Twins, Gravity Kills, Nine Inch Nails) & Ulrich Schnauss (A Shoreline Dream, Mojave 3, Longview) and they’ve just self-released their new album, Truth.
Do I wish [...]

I know very little about Fires of Rome, other than I initially thought they were called Fires of Frome, and I was trying to determine if it was a celebration of Edith Wharton or enthusiasm for British townships. Oh, but it was neither, of course! They’re actually from NYC and recently released an album titled [...]