LWA Blog — blog

Record of the Week is here with another selection from the Randomizer. This week, it's serving up a 1991 release by a Canadian band, The Ghosts That Haunt Me, by the Crash Test Dummies. This 2019 reissue is on my turntable as I type this.  I seem to remember Crash Test Dummies (CTD, going forward) being listed in Rolling Stone's Bands to Watch or Buzz Bands or whatever the new music column was called. On the strength of that write-up, I bought the CD, most likely at Tower Records. It was pretty much love at first listen.  This is not...

Welcome back to ROTW. It's the day after July 4th and the Randomizer has decreed that we will be listening to English music legend, Peter Gabriel's third solo album, cleverly titled Peter Gabriel. Also known as III (his third solo album, of course) or Melt (look at the cover!). This 2015 reissue will be on my turntable this morning.  This album was released in 1980 when I was kinda getting into prog rock or art rock, whatever you want to call it. I was listening to King Crimson, Yes, ELP, Genesis. Those kinds of bands. Melt was my first Peter Gabriel...

Welcome back to Record of the Week, whomever reads this. Summer is in full swing now. Luckily the bay area remains naturally air-conditioned. It's been a little warm but nothing like what other cities are going through at the moment. On to the record selected by the Randomizer this week, it's The Gits' 1992 release, Frenching the Bully. I'll be spinning the 2025 Sub Pop reissue (on cool red vinyl!).  A couple years ago, I wasn't too familiar with this band. I'd heard the name but never investigated. I remember Kurt Cobain wearing one of their shirts and briefly mentioning them,...

Welcome back to Record of the Week. The rhythm is back after a much-needed holiday. This week, the Randomizer gives us a slice of country/americana goodness in the form of Ashley Ray's 2020 debut album, Pauline. This is the record that's on my turntable this morning.  This album was a lockdown find, it came out at the end of the summer in 2020. The album starts off with a voice message from her mother who is talking about Ashley's grandma, Paulina, and the song goes on to detail how Ashley inherited a lot of her grandmother's characteristics. Pretty cool way to...

Welcome to the imaginatively-titled Record of the Week, we're back from holiday and ready to get back to it. While we were gone, the Randomizer picked out Lykke Li's 2011 album, Wounded Rhymes. This 10th anniversary release is spinning on my turntable today.  My first encounter with Lykke Li was in 2008, on the Swedish Pop Girls tour, when she toured with El Perro del Mar and Anna Ternheim. At the time, I didn't know of her (or Anna Ternheim). I loved El Perro del Mar (that first album is still magnificent) and I wanted to see her. Someone told...