Gerald's Second Blog

John Vanderslice played a "living room" show (it was actually at a small guitar shop - but a homey-feeling one) in Winston-Salem last week and I went.  I knew a larger percentage of the crowd than I was expecting.  It was a good time.  He went on to play shows in Durham and Raleigh over the next two nights, but I didn't go to those, but wish I could have (I just wasn't up for drives like that, at least not alone). If you haven't listened to him, he can be hard to describe.  I have difficulty doing so.  He is about as "indie" as "indie" can be, but doesn't fit what most folks think of as "indie rock" at all.  His music is simple but compelling.  He lyrics are both odd and instantly understandable.  He is exactly the kind of artist who will never hit big, but who will have a small band of die-hard followers.  Despite not going to the other shows this weekend, I'd like to think I've become one of those. He played sever...

I've recently taken to reading a lot of posts from Stereogum and have gotten a bit addicted to a column called "The Number Ones" by Tom Breihan.  For a couple of years now he has been posting daily reviews of the songs that hit number one on the Billboard Top 100 starting in 1958 (with Ricky Nelson's "Poor Little Fool") and moving onward.  As of this posting he has hit 1976 (today, Steve Miller Band's, "Rock'n Me").  The author isn't talking about these as the best of American music, but rather is writing a sort of cultural history with a lot of interesting side notes about musical influences and connections.  This is also that rare internet thing where it is worthwhile scanning down the comments.  He often posts some things about what was #2 at the time, or what was #1 on some of the other charts (especially Soul/R&B) and some of the commentators add nice details (as soon as you hit a "They just sucked" comment it is usu...

I've been feeling the desire to write some things longer than a Facebook post again so I decided to start blogging again.  I just can't communicate using a series of pictures and short videos - I'm all old and text-centric. I also decided to retire my old Virtual Bourgeois blog.  The guy who started that, who consciously tied his blog name to something about his grad school adviser is just not me anymore - or not exactly me.  I thought about various cute names, but none felt right so I thought plain and descriptive was best. I hope someone actually reads this thing.  I also hope I actually keep up with it. Time will tell.