Four albums and 26 years later, there are songs on dos y dos that still hold the late-night feel of someone reading you a story, a story that comes from a safe place but may not always have a happy ending. Mostly instrumental, these songs feel somber yet warm, like an old dog being petted. And when Roessler does sing, her broken, flat, whispery voice sounds both motherly and like a warning …

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It was only at a rock festival tent in 2011 that I realized that ALL comedy is now the Henny Youngman one-liner. Steven Wright by way of Mitch Hedberg has won the battle: turgid break-up stories and making fun of pop stars are out; surreal two-sentence twists are all the rage. No back-stories, no set-ups, no preaching about how both political parties are in collusion to keep us down—the only set-up we needed was just maybe a persona to keep the quirkiness going.

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The half-undressed woman in my hotel room was an unexpected surprise for me—and I assume it would have been to her too. Luckily, I didn’t just open the door and saunter in like the clerk told me to on the phone, and instead peered through the windows to see why the hell the lights were on in the room I had booked, and … hey, that’s not Dale Evans!

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As the drummer for the Nerves and Breakaways and lead singer of the Beat, Paul Collins helped create the genre of power pop. His songs have been covered by virtually every band with a guitar, from Audacity to Green Day to White Fence to the Muffs to the Exploding Hearts to … me. He will play Friday at Blue Star—win tickets here! This interview by Dan Collins and Kristina Benson.

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Cry a little more at the sadness of death-bed boob pillows.

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There are so many highs and lows on this album, but as talented as all the members are, especially Rachman on guitar, Jones is the fulcrum upon which the rest of the band teeters. That’s why the simple acoustic ditty “Summertime Dear” will likely be your favorite tune off the album… like Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day,” all the sincere woo-pitching somehow feels like the naivete of the doomed. Only if you listen closely can you pick out the line about wanting to “keep on running, because we can sleep when we’re dead,” which feels straight out of a poem by Bonnie Parker to Clyde Barrow.

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“The film was done with love and respect for Ginn and Black Flag, one of the world’s most important bands, still… even after all of this.”

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Gil Scott-Heron passed away today. He was a poet, songwriter, orator and author sharing record labels if not actual records with American giants like Ron Carter, Bernard Purdie, Bruce Springsteen and Blackalicious. He celebrated the 39th anniversary of “Whitey On The Moon” during the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing. He spoke to Dan Collins in October 2009.

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Poly Styrene, AKA Marianne Joan Elliott-Said, died yesterday after a struggle with spinal and breast cancers. And I wish I shared in her spiritual Hare Krishna ethic. I wish I believed, as her website declares, that she had “won her battle on Monday evening to go to higher places,” because all I feel is the [...]

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If German prog rock bands of the early 70s were members of the Weasley family from Harry Potter, Can would be Ginny Weasley, Cluster would be Bill, Kraftwerk would be Percy, Neu! would be the one who studies dragons, and Faust would be the twins. Faust have always been known for musical larks, marketing scams, and instrument destruction across a career that’s spanned 40 years and seriously nurtured redheads in the process. This interview by Dan Collins.

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