Great Album Reviews: The Dust of Retreat

Album: The Dust of Retreat
Artist: Margot and the Nuclear So and So's
Genre: Pop, Chamber Pop, Indie
Year: 2006

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Just after Pandora came out of beta, I created a station seeded from Damien Rice, and one of the songs that kept popping up was "Jen is Bringin the Drugs" by Margot and the Nuclear So and So's.  It's Richard Edwards -- singer, rhythm guitarist, and chief songwriter for Margot -- by himself, a sad song with just an acoustic guitar and vocal, and it has an aching, world-weary beauty that stuck with me. So when I went to MySpace Music to check out the band, I was surprised to discover that Margot and the Nuclear So and So's actually has a roster that rivals its unwieldy moniker.  The band has something like nine people in it, and most of the tracks on The Dust of Retreat feature layered guitars, bass, piano/keys, horns, strings, drums, and percussion.

Nirvana and Pearl Jam, 20 years on.

On August 27, 1991, Pearl Jam released "Ten," their first album. A month later, on September 24, 1991, Nirvana released their second album, "Nevermind," so for the last month there has been a ton of media coverage about the 20th anniversary of each of these landmark records.  I don't need to say anything about how transformative they were -- that's what the media coverage and the "Alternative" section in the few remaining record stores are for.  What strikes me most about these anniversaries is the vast, heartbreaking chasm between how each is being celebrated.

Road Stories: The Film Screening Q&A

Several years ago, I made a Surrealist short film that people seemed to like -- it won some awards at film festivals, etc., and led to a fair amount of paying work, so (locally, anyway), some people took me to be a successful independent filmmaker.  I was asked to screen the film and do a Q&A afterward for a non-profit that sponsored local, usually small-town, screenings and film education programs in various communities, and I agreed.