A man’s dialogue with his past and present. A man determining who he is and who he wants to be with eloquent incisive voice, somnambulant flow with varied and pleasing sonic palettes.
Gene G. McLaughlin 2026
Discordant, urgent, predictive and resigned. A young band in 1997 with a record that sees the time it was recorded in and the future clearly through multiple layered songs and feedback.
Gene G. McLaughlin 2026
A jubilant optimistic record that respects its traditional songs while managing to make the modern songs feel very much of 2026. You can sense the band’s dedication to the pursue of joy in the songs.
Gene G. McLaughlin 2026
A lovely, sometimes dark, sometimes romantic, sometimes amusing record of modern Irish Trad. The songs evoke much in a subtle poetic manner.
Gene G, Mclaughlin 2026
Staring at machinescapes
Fractal music in my head
The inflammation of my spine
Confirms for me I am not dead
A priori me
In the wind, dust, and shadows
A posteriori me
Weighing and measuring my battles
Knowing what I know
Without knowing the reason
The eerie absent answers
Feel like my mind committing treason
I accept the betrayal
My cognizance shoulders on
Knowing some framework exists
Both before and after I am gone
Gene G. McLaughlin 2022
When I heard the echoes of the choir
I wondered whom they sung to
Was it a present loving god
Or fading ideals they still clung to
Did they sing endless songs to joy
Choral anthems of light, rebirth and flowers
Were their voices raised to dogma
Honoring and preserving structures of power
Were they all just howling
Like the night’s wolves seeking grace
Were they drowning out their thoughts
Of the things they would rather never face
Or maybe the voices of the choir
Include the sum of these things
Voices of dreams hopes and desires
Blended as the choir sings
Gene G. McLaughlin 2021
There are phases to being a Neil Young fan. There are the giant songs you first hear. Helpless, Ohio, Old Man or Heart of Gold. These you could have heard of classic rock radio anytime during the last 40 years. That might draw you into CSNY or Harvest or After the Gold Rush beautiful folksy music that sounds as great today as it did when it sold millions of copies. That might lead you to the rest of the 70’s where he is trying to find meaning through his music, trying to account for a world filled with addiction, Vietnam, lost friends, and what fame at a certain level really is. These records are beautiful and an artistic peak, but also bleak and permeated with sadness. This brings you to the 1980’s where he experiments with different sounds and ideas. A mishmash of many things come to the forefront. Again he is a man attempting to find meaning in a world gone mad. Watch the movie he wrote, directed and starred in 1982 ‘Human Highway’ if you want to see a man trying to figure things out in real time. That brings me to his newly released live record from 1990 Way Down In The Rust Bucket recorded before the Ragged Glory tour as a warm up in Santa Clara. The record itself is a loose meandering affair consisting of songs mainly from the same time period. It isn’t what you would call a tight performance, but it sounds great in the disjointed way that only Crazy Horse can. In 1990 Neil Young and Crazy Horse had something that was often missing in the past. Joy. The performance isn’t confrontational or elegy. It is joyous. Sure there are songs of a darker tone like Cortez the Killer, but the man and the band sound like they have come out of the dark. I suppose that is why it is my favorite Neil Young period. I am grateful to have this live recording from it.
Gene G. McLaughlin 2021
I like many records that Mark Kozelek has done over the years. His career has been varied between band projects he was the dominate force in and completely solo projects. I think think the lovely Ocean Beach record is my favorite though. It is a record that I think reproduces the feels of joy and melancholy on an open beach on a windy week day in early summer well. The first three songs on the record (Cabezon, Summer Dress, and San Geronimo) are a perfect opening for the effect the record is trying to produce. They hook you and show you Red House Painters intentions immediately. I find the record somewhat more sincere than Kozelek’s later ironic or absurdist stream of consciousness songs. I love his record Benji, but this early record seems like it was almost from a different person and I suppose being they are about 20 years apparent he likely was. It is a record I like to put on for a rainy work day, perhaps a Monday, when you might need some vision other than you office. In my book a classic.
–BeardedRiffRaff
In 2016 I would listen to the record Telefone by Noname when walking in mornings often. It is an easy smooth rap record, good not great. It did show signs of greatness though. Noname has great writing ability and wry sense of humor. Her rapping and rhyming were solid if not quite great yet. Her 2018 record Room 25 is fulfills that promise. It didn’t get a huge amount of notice in 2018 from rap audiences despite her association with mega-star Chance the Rapper. The content is basically tales of a girl from Chicago living in Los Angeles navigating relationships and the industry. There is sexual content and imagery which is much different than Telefone. The guest vocals are timed well and enhance the record greatly. The music and rapping are purposefully slightly low-key and the lyrics and rhyming are intricate. It definitely feels like a Chicago hip-hop record, with lots slam poetry style rapping and lots great lush jazz style arrangements. I know when Noname toured the record she sold out places like the Orange Peel in Asheville, but she expressed disappointment at the audiences being all white and didn’t have a strong desire to ‘dance on a stage for white people.’ She also expressed interest in quitting if this continues to be the case. I hope that doesn’t come to be and her audience expands and is a broad as she would like it to be. She is a unique talent and I think many people hope to hear more from her. It would be a shame to lose her voice in hip-hop.
-BearedRiffRaff
I guess you would call Black Midi’s Schlagenheim math rock? Maybe noise rock? I am never sure where the genres cross over and become something else. Let’s just say it has a lot going on. They are kind of somewhere in between the howling fury of The Jesus Lizard and atmospheric chant rock of Alt-J with an ever present undercurrent of Don Caballero. They play fast, well, and loud with tons of percussive elements and tons of atmospheric changes in tempo. The first time I listened to the record I thought there were barely any lyrics, but maybe the third time through I realized the songs had full sets of lyrics when them some with actual semi-stories to them. I am not sure the lyrics matter that much, they seem more like an addition of an instruments to the mix than a necessary element, but they are present. The vocals are well done, but they are definitely secondary to the music. To describe it in terms of how you would listen to it I would say you would take a walk and listen to something else and then reach a park bench and sit down and watch the world go by and listen to this. It doesn’t make you want to move as much as ponder. This not a style of record I would typically recommend to people, but it is definitely one of the best records of 2019 to me and I think people who might not normally enjoy math rock/noise rock might like it. Some people might find not find enough melody or emotional engagement, but to certain listeners it is relaxing (almost) and compelling. I think the phrase that describes the record to me most to is thought provoking. It sends my mind off on tangents. It is music that makes you neither want to dance or sing along which is sometimes very welcome in life.
–BeardedRiffRaff
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