Dear Whartscape 2010, What’s up? I imagine you are pretty tired after an entire weekend of being amazing. I know I still have sore feet. Do you think it was from standing for so long, or just the extreme heat firing up all that asphalt? I am not sure which, but our weekend together has left me walking funny! I hate to get all personal when we are both clearly so exhausted, but I am to un ... Continue Reading

Posted: July 26th, 2010

Tonight, the two most storied NBA franchises face each other in the last game of 2009-2010: Game 7 of the NBA Finals. Few NBA Finals games have this much hype, and even fewer deserve it. The last time the Celtics and Lakers met in a Game 7 situation was 1984. The Celtics won. That game featured eight future Hall of Fame players including Kareem, Magic, and Larry. Tonight’s game features six p ... Continue Reading

Posted: June 17th, 2010

Disclosure: The following feature is intended as an experimental work of fiction, combining the creative writing of Beatbots contributor Jared T. Fischer with the music of local band Fridge A, of which Jared is also a founding member, along with his brother Matthew. Both the writing and music are meant to be experienced jointly. One day, seemingly out of nowhere, there was a messed up world. K ... Continue Reading

Posted: March 30th, 2010

On any given day, it’s hard to feel sorry for the major players in the music industry—particularly the multi-billion dollar “Big Four” companies like Warner, Universal, Sony, and (the rather publicly floundering) EMI, the lot of which have been hemorrhaging jobs and/or capital at breakneck speeds over the course of the last decade. As the RIAA’s figures have duly noted, physical album sales have t ... Continue Reading

Posted: March 28th, 2010

Sweet sassy molasses, is it 2010? Already? What in the world happened to 2009? A better question: what the hell has taken me so long to get through this blasted pile of albums? What, indeed. Laziness, cable TV (specifically: Sterling Cooper and the Paddy’s gang), Wii-ing, bears, and a woefully short attention span all have something to do with it, if truth be told. Moreover, it would seem a ... Continue Reading

Posted: February 2nd, 2010

A fresh batch of tunes for a fresh year... Eddy Current Suppression Ring - s/t - Goner Records (www.goner-records.com) If you've got your ear to the ground of international garage punk/rock n roll then you're probably already well aware of this Australian band's seemingly spontaneous explosion into the ears and minds of garage/punk fans world-wide. Their 2nd LP, "Primary Colours", was relea ... Continue Reading

Posted: January 14th, 2010

As of late, I have been stumbling around, not really uncovering or experiencing new music. I have been researching the 60s, 70s and 80s. You know, I got into the Canterbury scene. I also spent time with other manifestations of the avant-garde, and progressive psychedelic pop and rock were pleasures to my brain. I hung on to British and Scottish post punk (though I hate “post” as a descriptor) ... Continue Reading

Posted: December 4th, 2009

I've decided to abandon the single record review format in favor of doing them in batches. My review pile keeps getting taller and taller and I'd just end up clogging up the contents if I did them individually. Hopefully this way I'll actually get more reviews done as I can do them in chunks (Dinosaur Jr's cover version). So here we go. Welcome to the first installment of Stick the Needle Into My ... Continue Reading

Posted: October 16th, 2009

Welcome, readers, to the third installment of (what was initially meant to be) a three-part series, wherein I curb my slacker ways and tackle a prohibitively large pile of yet-to-be-reviewed albums. Wonderfully enough, the pile has since diminished to the point where we’re finally dealing with previously-overlooked releases from this calendar year. Slow and steady though it may be, it’s progress a ... Continue Reading

Posted: September 25th, 2009

Over at the Beatbots message board, members have been sharing their simplest, best-awesomest dinner recipes. Here are my favorites so far. You can share your own here! Beer Can Chicken from Pythong take a can of beer, take a healthy slug out of it and stick it up a chicken's ass, prop it up like a tripod on the grill, leave it there for a little more than an hour, or until it's fully cooked. ... Continue Reading

Posted: September 22nd, 2009