Tim Riley's Blog, page 2
July 7, 2017
Summer Gadget Blowout
Everybody has their preferences, mine tend toward close daily listening on the commute with over-the-ear bluetooths, Master & Dynamic MW60s holding the top slot just behind Sol Republics. Apple Airpods work for in between: for driving say, when you need 360 audio awareness, but still want some detail and crackle to your sound. The default position […]
June 6, 2017
Older Too
SGT PEPPER RERUNS New York Times Today column, 4 June “The Beatles posing in front of the celebrities was a way of them saying, in their arrogant yet completely charming manner, ‘We know we’re the most famous people in the world right now, and we also know that we will be joining this parade, that this […]
May 31, 2017
Momma’s Boy
WHEN VAN CLIBURN, a tall, lanky Texan with a boyish grin, paraded through the confetti from thousands of screaming Manhattan classical converts on a gray spring day in May 1958, he earned the nickname “the American Sputnik.” The floppy-haired 23-year-old had won the first Tchaikovsky Gold Medal by serenading Russian audiences with such guileless Southern […]
WHEN VAN CLIBURN, a tall, lanky Texan with a boyish grin,...
WHEN VAN CLIBURN, a tall, lanky Texan with a boyish grin, paraded through the confetti from thousands of screaming Manhattan classical converts on a gray spring day in May 1958, he earned the nickname “the American Sputnik.” The floppy-haired 23-year-old had won the first Tchaikovsky Gold Medal by serenading Russian audiences with such guileless Southern […]
May 1, 2017
Maypole Sliders
BIG LITTLE LIES (HBO) Of course I tuned in to a whodunit starring four big stars, all with amazing heads of hair, and got sucked in by those ominous Monterey waves beating cosmic doom against the shore. And of course I took offense at Witherspoon’s condescension towards her character. But what really turned me off […]
March 31, 2017
April Dandy
The old saw has you balancing hifi against comfort. But with bluetooth wireless going mainstream, even purists concede: few of us can tell much difference in quality (between plugged and un-), especially during commutes. Fewer still buy a second pair just for quiet listening. (In which case, get yourself a headphone amp and go nuts.) […]
February 28, 2017
February: Anti-Elitist Wormholes
Just finished first six-episode installment of Roll Over Beethoven: A Rock Critic’s Guide to Classical, a podcast detailing classic rock’s conversation with the European elites. This first series aired alternate Thursdays on WBCA-FM, Boston Community Radio. https://audioboom.com/posts/5644624-h... Also available here: https://timrileyauthor.com/roll-over-... https://audioboom.com/channel/roll-ov... https://audioboom.com/channels/488439... pcast://audioboom.com/channels/4884399.rss https://play.google.com/music/listen#... http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/tim-r...
January 30, 2017
January Leftovers:
Happens every year, I haul out all my data and assemble a best-of list and submit to Village Voice pazznjop poll. Always find something new somebody else has discovered, always forget a couple titles that should have made my own list. This one’s weird: could have easily topped my list, and you don’t see it on […]
December 31, 2016
DELUXE DOUBLE ISSUE: RIP 2016
BEST OF 2016 In no particular order (spotify links): David Bowie: Blackstar (Columbia) Margaret Glaspy: Emotions and Math (Warner Bros) Maren Morris: Hero (Columbia Nashville) Alicia Keys, Here (RCA) Brandi Carlisle: The Firewatcher’s Daughter (ATO) A Tribe Called Quest: We Got It From Here (Epic) Leonard Cohen: You Want It Darker (Columbia) Brandy Clark: Big Day […]
October 31, 2016
Sweet November, or Whither Anthony Newley
"Why in the blank hell is there no Nobel Prize for Music?"
