simmantics.blogspot.com
simmantics: Ten Albums I Liked This Year
http://simmantics.blogspot.com/2008/12/ten-albums-i-liked-this-year.html
Wednesday, December 31, 2008. Ten Albums I Liked This Year. I know I know I know, I already said. I hate top ten lists and I do! But I was one of 1,500 i*l*l*u*s*t*r*i*o*u*s music journalists asked to submit a top ten for the Village Voice's poll, so I bit the bullet and put one together in hopes that Rob Harvilla who I think is probably the music editor at the Voice (and if not is at least someone important) will see my picks and go, "Oh my God, Jason Simms, you have such amazing taste! I know several c...
simmantics.blogspot.com
simmantics: Beach Boys: All Of The Things We Like To Do
http://simmantics.blogspot.com/2012/07/beach-boys-all-of-things-we-like-to-do.html
Sunday, July 15, 2012. Beach Boys: All Of The Things We Like To Do. Al Jardine is my favorite Beach Boy. I always liked his voice the best. Something about his hyper annunciation just always gets stuck in my head. When I wrote this article. About the Beach Boys' 50. Reunion tour, I delved pretty deep into the song “Isn't It Time,” which, lucky for me, has a very cool part in it sung by Al Jardine. 8221; was originally, “Isn't it time we catch another wave? The Beach Boys are the daddy of pop rock bands.
simmantics.blogspot.com
simmantics: Mapping Witch Mountain
http://simmantics.blogspot.com/2012/06/climbing-witch-mountain.html
Saturday, June 23, 2012. Witch Mountain has one of those stories that just writes itself. The Portland doom outfit is suddenly taking off after 15 years (minus some hiatus time) as a band. It's an extremely unique career arc and detailed in this story I wrote for The Oregonian. This was the time I first discovered Witch Mountain. I liked what they were going for, but it was just lacking something. Turns out that something was singer Uta Plotkin, who joined the band 12 years into its existence. Freelance ...
simmantics.blogspot.com
simmantics: January 2013
http://simmantics.blogspot.com/2013_01_01_archive.html
Thursday, January 17, 2013. Top 10 of 2012. Although the world didn't end and Romney didn't become president, there was plenty of bad news to shock you in 2012 (see shootings, natural disasters). There were a lot of surprises coming through my stereo too, but they were mostly good ones. My top 10 list this year is full of albums that subverted my expectations. Father John Misty - Fear Fun. Witch Mountain - Cauldron of the Wild. The Beach Boys - That's Why God Made the Radio. Atriarch - Ritual of Passing.
simmantics.blogspot.com
simmantics: Ten albums I liked in 2009
http://simmantics.blogspot.com/2009/12/ten-albums-i-liked-in-2009.html
Sunday, December 27, 2009. Ten albums I liked in 2009. I'm not a big fan of formal year end lists, but I always get talked into it. This time by Michael Byrne at City Paper, who let me write a blurb about number 2 on this list. 1 Subarachnoid Space - Eight Bells. From my Oregonian review. SubArachnoid Space soundtracks the superconscious, with all the breadth of wonderment and horror between sleep and wake and between Dali paintings and Cortazar stories. 2 Health - Get Color. From my Oregonian review.
simmantics.blogspot.com
simmantics: July 2012
http://simmantics.blogspot.com/2012_07_01_archive.html
Sunday, July 15, 2012. Beach Boys: All Of The Things We Like To Do. Al Jardine is my favorite Beach Boy. I always liked his voice the best. Something about his hyper annunciation just always gets stuck in my head. When I wrote this article. About the Beach Boys' 50. Reunion tour, I delved pretty deep into the song “Isn't It Time,” which, lucky for me, has a very cool part in it sung by Al Jardine. 8221; was originally, “Isn't it time we catch another wave? The Beach Boys are the daddy of pop rock bands.
simmantics.blogspot.com
simmantics: PDX Pop Then and Now
http://simmantics.blogspot.com/2013/07/pdx-pop-then-and-now.html
Friday, July 19, 2013. PDX Pop Then and Now. Is putting on its tenth free, all-ages, all-local summer music festival in Portland starting today. I wrote about it for the Oregonian. At age 20, I attended the first one. There were so many bands I'd never heard of and people I'd never seen (actually, subsequent festivals were like this too). I was relatively new to the Portland music scene, so while it felt special to be there, I thought, "This must happen all the time here.". Labels: pdx pop now. Made in o...
simmantics.blogspot.com
simmantics: Top 10 of 2011
http://simmantics.blogspot.com/2012/01/top-10-of-2011.html
Tuesday, January 31, 2012. Top 10 of 2011. I, like most critics, have a top 10 list for the end of the year. See my choices below or take a look at my ballot. On the Village Voice. 1 Bright Eyes - The People's Key. For the first time ever, a fairly mainstream band tops my list. This was definitely my most-listened-to album of the year and I had the pleasure of reviewing it. And a live performance of it. 2 Workout - Workout. 3 Radiation City - The Hands That Take You. 4 Mr Gnome - Madness in Miniature.
simmantics.blogspot.com
simmantics: June 2012
http://simmantics.blogspot.com/2012_06_01_archive.html
Saturday, June 23, 2012. Witch Mountain has one of those stories that just writes itself. The Portland doom outfit is suddenly taking off after 15 years (minus some hiatus time) as a band. It's an extremely unique career arc and detailed in this story I wrote for The Oregonian. This was the time I first discovered Witch Mountain. I liked what they were going for, but it was just lacking something. Turns out that something was singer Uta Plotkin, who joined the band 12 years into its existence. Freelance ...
simmantics.blogspot.com
simmantics: Blondie: Pretty Great For A Night With No Communists
http://simmantics.blogspot.com/2012/10/blondie-pretty-great-for-night-with-no.html
Friday, October 12, 2012. Blondie: Pretty Great For A Night With No Communists. Last month I got the chance to interview Debbie Harry. I was a little nervous, so I over-prepared.so I thought. I had 12 questions for the 10 minutes allotted and asked them all. Debbie is a pretty straight-forward conversationalist. I was busy covering MusicFest Northwest. The night Blondie played in Portland, but fortunately, I was able to catch the very last show of their tour in Port Chester, New York, last Sunday. The ac...
