I interviewed a musician named Matthew Schwartz once, if you can call it that. Cropped black hair. Thick-framed black glasses. Quiet and unassuming. In 2015 I ran a short fill-in-the-blank Q&A article for my blog called Meet Me In The Sound. The headline was “Getting to Know Pacifico”—the obvious one, the kind I still reachContinueContinue reading “Still Getting to Know Pacifico”
Tag Archives: music
The Song That Still Gets Under My Skin: Delta Spirit’s “Patriarch”
Delta Spirit is an American band formed in San Diego, fronted by singer-songwriter Matthew Logan Vasquez. They make passionate, roots-influenced rock that carries real weight. I first came across them back in 2014 while living outside Baton Rouge. A reviewer once described them as something like “U2 before they lost their angst.” That was enoughContinueContinue reading “The Song That Still Gets Under My Skin: Delta Spirit’s “Patriarch””
Marginalia: U2, “Please,” and the 1997 VMAs
In 1997, U2 took the stage at the MTV Video Music Awards and completely misread the room—or perhaps they gave the performance of their lives. Stripping away the technicolor irony of the Pop era, they handed a shiny industry crowd a raw, bleeding prayer for peace in Northern Ireland.
Marginalia: JOHNNYSWIM, “Bridges”
Sometimes a song changes once you know who’s singing it. Back in 2019, I stumbled across JOHNNYSWIM’s “Bridges,” and the performance itself immediately grabbed me. Today’s listen showed it still has that power. Amanda Sudano and Abner Ramirez move through the song with this mix of joy, conviction, flirtation, and earned weariness that makes the wholeContinueContinue reading “Marginalia: JOHNNYSWIM, “Bridges””
Stagger Lee Was a What?
A childhood song, a Christmas Eve shooting, and a Stetson hat that started it all I must have been seven or eight the first time I heard it. Maybe younger. My mother had the radio going… she usually did. And this thing came on with a groove that just grabbed you. Something about a clearContinueContinue reading “Stagger Lee Was a What?”