Sound Obsession

Welcome to Part 6 of my “100 Favorite Albums of the 1990’s” list! This part covers the summer of '96 through the fall of '96, leading into my senior year of high school. Urb , Muzik , and Mixmag now joined The Source and Rap Pages on my regular reading list and I attended some of my first stadium and amphitheater festivals that summer. HFStival, at DC's RFK Stadium, showcased bands like Foo Fighters, Cracker, Afghan Whigs, and Garbage, while Smokin' Grooves, at Bristow, VA's Nissan Pavilion, featured A Tribe Called Quest, Cypress Hill, Fugees, and Busta Rhymes. That fall I also stumbled on a new late-night video series on MTV called Amp, similar in spirit to 120 Minutes but instead of alternative rock it focused on electronic music and instead of human VJs hosting there was simply onscreen text and abstract CGI interstitials, giving the show the eerie impression of an intergalactic transmission. In ...

Part 3 of my "100 Favorite Albums of the 1990s" list covers my freshman year of high school and the summer that followed.  This was a major transition period for me musically.  Fall of '93 was peak grunge before a steep drop-off the following year. I'd owned a cheap electric guitar for a while by then (a metallic blue Yamaha Pacifica with a black pick guard and Floyd Rose tremolo), but played it poorly.  The full extent of my prowess on the axe was banging out some Nirvana riffs and stumbling my way through the intro to Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze."  Truthfully, by early '94 I was losing interest in rock music and the dreary elitism it seemed to demand, not to mention the skill and patience it took to learn how to play the guitar.   Kurt Cobain's suicide and the inevitable disbanding of Nirvana in the spring of '94 felt like the end of an era.  The rise of Beck and the Beastie Boys shortly thereafter felt like the start of another.  A summer ...

Willie Nelson & Sturgill Simpson, The Anthem, Washington DC - 5/27/18 Ghost, Warner Theater, Washington DC - 5/20/18 Ghost, Warner Theater, Washington DC - 5/20/18 Ghost, Warner Theater, Washington DC - 5/20/18 Ghost, Warner Theater, Washington DC - 5/20/18 Fu Manchu, Rock & Roll Hotel, Washington DC - 5/9/18 Power Trip, Black Cat, Washington DC - 5/8/18 Beck, The Anthem, Washington DC - 4/27/18 Dan Auerbach, 9:30 Club, Washington DC - 3/22/18 High On Fire, Rock & Roll Hotel, Washington DC - 2/6/18 High On Fire, Rock & Roll Hotel, Washington DC - 2/6/18 Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, 9:30 Club, Washington DC - 1/29/18 Spoon, 9:30 Club, Washington DC - 12/31/17 Spoon, 9:30 Club, Washington DC - 12/31/17 Spoon, 9:30 Club, Washington DC - 12/31/17

Hey, folks.  Regrettably, it's been a while.  Due to time limitations, this year I've changed the format a bit.  Primarily photos, lists, and links for the foreseeable future instead of reviews and analysis.   These are my top ten albums of 2017.  Subjective favorites, of course.  Albums that made the most impact and were in heaviest rotation during the year.  Suffice it to say, Chris Stapleton's pair of earnest and emotive  From A Room  albums (an eclectic two-volume set of originals and choice covers recorded at the legendary " Studio A " in Nashville, TN - released seven months apart) dominated my earbuds and hi-fi in 2017. Click the hyperlinks below each album image for audio/video and check out my 2017 Runners Up and Honorable Mention  list.  Thanks for reading and listening, and have a Happy New Year!  See you in 2018. 1.  Chris Stapleton:   From A Room Vol. 1 & 2   (Mercury Nashville - 5...

A diverse year for music, here are my favorite albums of 2014. Enjoy. . . . 1. D'Angelo & The Vanguard - Black Messiah (9/10) Enigmatic and reclusive Richmond, VA, soul man D'Angelo has been a favorite of mine since the mid-90's when he dropped his debut album  Brown Sugar -  an exceptional 1995 launch that vaulted over its tepid R&B and "neo-soul" competition by merging tough hip-hop swagger with throwback musicality and charm. I even picked that album's version of "Cruisin'" over Smokey Robinson's 1979 original to sit alongside classic cuts by Wilson Pickett, Stevie Wonder, and Bill Withers on my wedding goodie-bag mix CD three years ago. So, after a fourteen year hiatus plagued by legal troubles, substance abuse, weight gain, and the paralyzing anxiety of high expectation to follow up his acclaimed sophomore album,  Voodoo from 2000, D'Angelo finally, and without much warning, dropped his long awaited third LP  ...