Back in January, Blind Engineer (my band, my bae?) went "into the studio" to record and came out three days later into the sun with a bunch of songs. Six of them are going to be released on our new EP, The Big Restless, in late July.We're putting the finishing touches on the album now,… Continue reading Blind Engineer Announces New EP The Big Restless
My band Blind Engineer is at Big Room Bar this Thursday night, June 30. Check out the event page here. And support your local rock radio, CD 102.5.More news coming very soon.
My new "Ties That Bind" column is up at PopMatters, this time around concerning The Felice Brothers' music which I lovingly think of as "flea-market music":With the release of “Plunder”, there are now two new Felice Brothers singles in advance of the group’s forthcoming album, Life in the Dark. Both songs sound like they were… Continue reading PopMatters: The Flea-Market Music of the Felice Brothers
Once again I'm trying to keep my pencil sharp by reviewing single tracks from wherever, whenever, most of it fairly new unless otherwise stated. This time around I'm calling it "This Week's EP" because the EP is a lovable form: brief, intense in its focus compared to an LP, but spacious enough for some noodling around. The idea is that the included songs would fit on an EP. If that means six songs, or two, so be it. The point is to write this off-the-cuff, no planning, typos okay, lots of semi-colons, perhaps.
The endeavor to create a weekly update, or even any kind of regular update, on this site has failed before, and I expect it to fail again.
Track 1. "Complicated," Fitz and The Tantrums, from their new self-titled album (Elektra/WMG)
The zenith/nadir of indie pop in the sense of highly compressed synth-crunch made with the "spirit" of indie-rebellion-something-or-other, this song, on the heels of the band's single "HandClap," reminds me of the white-collar bar near the Short North Market called Brothers, a meat market kind of place I wandered into once years ago and will never wander into again. "Kissing like a car crash" is a good lyric, though. My rating: three half-smoked cigarette butts on a sidewalk.
When Prince passed away on April 21, I knew that my next column at PopMatters would be about him. That column, "Prince: Never Stop Arguing," is up now. Read it before reading any of what's below.
The problem was that I didn't know what to say. For me, trying to write about Prince has been like trying to walk around an ocean. Where do you even think about beginning? I've been a Prince fan since I was thirteen and first heard Purple Rain. As a young musician I was blown away by his talent, his soul, his ambition, his dedication. I traded for bootleg tapes. When my truck was broken into one night, I was more pissed about the thief taking my Paradiso live CD than I was about the shattered window. I've been trying to write about Prince for years, either for a PopMatters column or something else; I have a few stalled essays, one dating back to the album 3121, one as recent as last year.
My latest column at PopMatters has posted. It's about Kanye West's new album, The Life of Pablo, and its evolving nature. I was reading a recent essay by the philosopher Boris Groys concerning contemporary art and the internet, and something clicked. West's constant revising of his album has been treated like a novelty, so I… Continue reading Documenting The Life of Pablo
If I'm not updating the website, it means I'm busy, which is good, right?Continuing developments goin' on in the background, but here in the foreground, my PopMatters column from last month about Donald Trump and propaganda music. May have some announcements coming up. Blind Engineer continues its work on the EP; we're getting close to… Continue reading Day Late, Dollar Short
We're taking the stage again, this time Friday night, Feb. 26, at Cafe Bourbon Street opening for a great band out of Louisville, Dry Summers. Doors at 9, $5. Also w/a beamed gelling rose + undam and Faster Island. CBS is the best dive/rock bars in Columbus, and I mean that lovingly.Check out Blind Engineer… Continue reading Blind Engineer This Friday
My latest column at PopMatters is up: "Bruce Springsteen, 'The Ties That Bind,' the Working Class and Authenticity." Which pretty much explains what the column is about.Also, I didn't post my previous column here. That one was part 2 of this series on working class music and focused on John Lennon's "Working Class Hero." Read… Continue reading Catching Up: Ties That Bind and More
The Blind Engineer has two shows coming up. I'm playing Friday Dec. 11 at the Mingo Town Music Acoustic Holiday Party, a five-hour extravaganza featuring pretty much all the artists on MTM: Harvest Kings, Heartbreak Orchestra, Devil Doves, Al Smyth's FBnCC, Apple Bottom Gang, Jake Follrod, and Jon Schaer. Eric and Jesse will join me,… Continue reading Blind Engineer Shows and a Springsteen Review
Robert Loss 