First Review Up on 10Listens.com

Posted on 03/13/2010 by Dean Blumberg

10 Listens is a new-ish music review website co-founded by Jeff Laughlin (you can read his non-music blogs here and here, or listen to his band Beards here), an old friend from my Greensboro days. The premise: provide the world with culturally-situated, opinion-based reviews of new albums by listening to an album ten times in a variety of settings.

As a reader both enamored and repulsed by the heavy-hitters in the music review blogosphere (the pitchforks of the world), I decided to check-in and see what 10 Listens had to offer. I found that I liked their approach toward criticism, their awareness of the music blog as a genre, and the honesty and closeness that each reviewer felt toward a particular album after ten careful listens.

So when I saw the site come through my twitter feed with a call for more writers, well, applying for the position seemed like a smart thing to do. Plus, it seemed like a good way to get back into writing about music and checking out some new bands and new albums that would otherwise fly under my radar. During my few years in Greensboro, NC I had a radio show at WUAG and one of the highlights of the job was writing quick-and-dirty new music reviews to tape to the back of the albums in the new rotation cabinet. Some of my favorite albums were discovered in that new music box.

My first review for 10 Listens looks at Surprises’ debut album All Dressed Up And Nowhere To Die, the solo output of Brooks Paschal, a former Greensboro, NC resident and former member of the band Sullivan.

You can read the the full review here, and take a peak at my “first listen” response here. Should you be interested in checking out Surprises, you can sample songs and even purchase the album with a pay-what-you-want method here. Enjoy.

Dark Dark Dark’s Bright Bright Bright EP

Posted on 03/25/2010 by Dean Blumberg

I’ve got a new first listen review up over at 10Listens. The band is called Dark Dark Dark and while I’m tempted to use Arcade Fire as a reference point, DDD certainly have their own sound. Sara and I listened to it again last night and it’s a solid 6-song EP. I have a feeling that this band has a lot of potential and their output will keep getting better and better. They have a sound that can transcend genre boundaries and stereotypes to reach a diverse audience. One of the greatest qualities of the EP is the recording. Apparently they recorded in a converted church and the space creates great atmosphere for the band to play with melody and harmony.

You can read my review here. At the bottom of the review is a link to the band’s website where you can stream their new EP for free.

The Austerity Program is AMAZING!

Posted on 03/25/2010 by Dean Blumberg

I reviewed The Austerity Program’s new EP Backsliders and Apostates Will Burn EP over at 10Listens yesterday. If you read my initial review you’ll see that this short-player has totally blown me away. Damn. Yeah, I just can’t find enough good things to say about this recording. I’ve had the 4 songs for about a week now and it seems as if they are constantly on repeat.

This is definitely for fans of Shellac/Slint/early Touch & Go stuff. The Austerity Program is two guys and a drum machine, and apparently they are both family guys with kids and advanced degrees. This is family-man punk rock. Take that Henry Rollins! You can read my initial response to their new EP here.

Although the record isn’t released for another month, you can listen to plenty of The Austerity Program on their website and you can get a teaser for the new EP in the youtube promo below. Enjoy.

Sigur Rós’ Jónsi Releases “Go”

Posted on 04/06/2010 by Dean Blumberg

Below is my latest review from 10Listens. Also, be sure to head over there to read B. Michael Payne’s thoughtful commentary on the sexist depictions of Joanna Newsom. It’s good stuff.

I’ll say it up front, I was hesitant to listen to this album. I’ve been like this with nearly every Sigur Rós-related release for the past decade or so. Although it’s been on my radar for months, ever since the official Sigur Rós website posted teaser clips counting down to the www.jónsi.com launch, I’ve been awaiting this album with a mixture of curiosity and fear. You know what I’m talking about. That band that’s been with you for over a decade, through valleys and peaks of internet hype and lack thereof, the band that’s provided the soundtrack to the most significant of life’s emotional cornerstones. For me, that band has been Sigur Rós, and to a certain extent, the sweeping falsetto of Sigur Rós vocalist/guitarist Jon “Jónsi” Þor Birgisson.

Continue reading →

Updates:Lit. Feature/Music Review/Etc.

Posted on 04/29/2010 by Dean Blumberg

Well, it’s been a busy couple of weeks. I defended and submitted my thesis after some grueling revisions; I survived the final two weeks in the writing center where it seems like half the student body now wants to sit down and learn the nitty-gritty of American English grammar and APA style; and I’ve somehow managed to write a few little odds and ends in the spare time that I can find between classes, meetings and work.

First up is a feature I wrote for PopMatters on the literature of the American suburbs. It features some of my favorite short fiction writers (although I tend to reference their novels in this piece): Richard Yates, Richard Ford, John Updike and John Cheever.

I posted an excerpt up in the “writing” page of this website, or you can head on over to PopMatters for the real deal.

Secondly, my homies over at 10Listens were kind enough to post my raving initial review to Holy Fuck’s new LP Latin. This new record is probably the best thing I’ve come across all semester. As you’ll see from the review, it has the uncanny ability to transcend moods and environments making it a highly adaptable soundtrack to suit nearly any occasion. It’s a booty-shaker, fer shure. The 10L review has a link at the bottom so you can sample the jamz. Highly recommended.

In other news, I’m off to SC for a job interview. We shall see, we shall see…

NEW WRITING! UPDATES! NEWS!

Posted on 06/08/2010 by Dean Blumberg

1) I recently accepted a position at Horry-Georgetown Technical College, a two-year school in Myrtle Beach, SC. I’ll be a full-time English/Composition instructor (5 classes!) and I’ll hopefully be teaching a couple of different writing-related courses. I was actually fortunate to have two competing offers for full-time positions. It was a difficult decision, but we were ready to move out of the mountains for a while (the other job would mean staying here in Boone, NC). And with a baby on the way, proximity to family and an airport was very important. HGTC has a wonderfully supportive faculty (I had nearly 15 people at my teaching demonstration on a Friday!) and I’m very excited to be joining their team of teachers.

2) I completed my MA in English with a certificate in Rhetoric & Composition at Appalachian. This semester was busy as I finished my thesis and fulfilled my language requirement all while applying furiously for full-time jobs. Sara was extremely supportive in the process–I don’t know what I would have done without her there to keep me focused, calm and relatively stress-free.

3) I’ve recently scribed a piece on Alan Moore and Steve Bissette’s early Swamp Thing comics, up now as a two-part feature on PopMatters. It’s a close look at the first story arc with Woodrue, the Floronic Man and the revisioning of Alec Holland’s transformation into Swamp Thing. The PopMatters version is a reworking of a paper I presented at an academic conference on popular culture. I’ve stripped some of the verbose, theory-riddled prose and it actually works a lot better. I should have written it like this in the first place. It’s also been a comic I’ve used in my classrooms, employing it as a way to teach writing across the curriculum as Swamp Thing invites perspectives from a range of disciplines.