Conor: Will, how have we been writing this blog for a month and a half without doing a Reply All article? Will: That’s a great question. A group of geeks who find nerdy things to talk about and share them with an internet-savvy audience? We should have murals of PJ and Alex in our bedrooms. […]Read This
Early Tracks [2]: The Hidden Track
The crisp cold of a St. Louis winter. The thin feeling of my khaki pants against the car seat. The white of half a foot of snow. And a short harmony breathed over the last folksy strums of an acoustic guitar. Whether or not I experienced any of these things at the same time, I […]Read This
On Our Turntable: “Francis Forever,” Mitski
Ever since I heard Marceline cover this song in Adventure Time‘s most recent episode, “The Music Hole,” I’ve been obsessed. The melody is simple—hypnotically so—as are the lyrics. Yet it’s never boring. I still feel deflated every time “Where you don’t see me” comes around, and I still get a rush of energy every time […]Read This
The Rail Gaze CD Club: These Changing Skies, Elephant Revival
If you listen to pop radio today, you might get a rather narrow impression of folk music: banjos, unrequitted love and rousing choruses. In truth, the genre is more expansive, as Elephant Revival will be the first to remind you. Their regular instrumental lineup falls on the traditional side: an acoustic guitar, a banjo, a […]Read This
Early Tracks [1]: Beginning in Earnest
“Well, what do you think?” my dad asked when it was over, looking straight at me, his glee seeping into the question and causing his final syllables to shoot up in pitch. I was in seventh grade, it was my dad’s birthday, and my mom had advised me to get him Jackson Browne’s new live […]Read This
To see you’re really only very small
This is Sam Herring—he’s got Marlon Brando’s face, a Tasmanian Devil’s roar, a stagehand’s attire, and Joseph Gordon Levitt’s eyebrows: But those dance moves are all his own. This performance was somewhat of a viral sensation for Future Islands two years ago when they made their TV debut on Letterman. Later that year, Pitchfork named […]Read This
The Rail Gaze Roundtable: Which is the most average album ever?
Conor: Ok, so here’s a question: we are a blog that features at least occasional album reviews—shouldn’t we have a ratings system? I know it’s wrong, but when I see that an album gets a 6.4/10 on Pitchfork, I can’t help but feel a little worse about that album. I’d like to wield that kind […]Read This
Rail Gaze Review: II
“I wish that I could swim and sleep like a shark does. I’d fall to the bottom and I’d hide till the end of time.” ~ “Swim And Sleep (Like A Shark)”, Unknown Mortal Orchestra This album records the faint echoes of psychedelia transmuted through layers of ocean. It’s lo-fi in the way that phone […]Read This
Rail Gaze Review: Surprisingly Awesome
When I first heard that Gimlet Media was releasing a podcast named Surprisingly Awesome that would attempt to make ostensibly boring topics seem awesome, I rolled my eyes. The idea of teasing out the kernel of an engaging narrative from the sea of science, politics and culture surrounding us has been implicit in the structure […]Read This
“Something” in the way he plays attracts me like no other guitar solo
A lot can happen in 32 seconds. In the case of George Harrison, you can find the notes of a guitar solo that neatly, in its meandering way, distills the essence of longing for spiritual and emotional connection. What is it, in the notes of that solo, that paints what the rest of the music […]Read This