Today’s challenge: write over a thousand words about Jimi Hendrix without gushing over his guitar playing! Challenge accepted—with the caveat that I can succumb to that natural urge, briefly, but only in the context of evaluating his songwriting. Why ruminate on Jimi Hendrix, songsmith, in 2026? The triggering event was discovering the full upscaled and remastered Jimi Plays Monterrey footage—captured in all its glory by the late great DA Pennebaker—conspicuously positioned where I couldn't possibly miss it…

With one notable exception, the original cast of This Is Spinal Tap were wildly successful thespians playing complete fuckups. Arguably the most iconic character of the lot, the exploding drummer “played” by everyman Ric Parnell, was another story altogether. The tall, angular skin pounder shown pondering the fate of his predecessors—while lounging in a bubble bath with a shower cap on his head—was the role. He honed it through a series of tragicomic misadventures with The Milkmen, a quirky yet capable band…

Undiscouraged by cardiac surgery complications, wildfire smoke, or a nation's harrowing turn toward autocracy, the improbable pairing of The Milkmen's Lory Kohn with The Manfreds’ Marcus Cliffe and Simon Currie has dropped a farm-fresh single. “Suits That Fly,” a paean to the appeal and peril of wingsuit flying, backed with “Sunflower in a Sunshower,” a bittersweet recollection of a brief yet meaningful tryst at an isolated hot spring, is manna from heaven for fans of both groups. 

The “Sunflower in a…

One vibey summer evening in 1986, at the opening of R Lee White’s show at McClaren Markowitz Gallery in Boulder, after some brief flirtation, I got lucky and went home with “Phone Call For You, Sweetie.” 

“Phone Call For You, Sweetie”  

With its trio of one-legged human and canine figures, a semi-erect pair of wolf-gray schlongs, and an anomalous date palm exploding in vivid pastels, the vibrant 64”x48” outlier bore no resemblance to White's Native American-themed acrylics the townsfolk had flocked to see. 

A…

Three plastic storage bins worth of passé storage media: reel-to-reel mixdown tapes, analog cassettes, VHS home movies. A runaway mixdown and a disappeared DAT tape. Digital dilemmas and divine intervention. Heart-stopping drama and a comedy of errors. A longstanding-quest and a cast of quirky characters. The resurrection of “I Should’ve Stayed at Laurie’s” had it all!

Around the 40-year mark after some 20-odd moves, schlepping a binful of deteriorating reel-to-reel tapes through time and space gets a…

Milkmaids and milkmates from Ecuador to Estonia have been getting after me to refocus this blog on the Men of Milk. You were mildly amused when I assumed the role of musicologist, studiously analyzing the merits and warts of more commercially successful bands—but that's not really what drew you to themilkmen.space in the first place or what's kept you coming back for more. 

Let me take a wild guess what you've missed most: it wouldn't happen to be more shameless self-promotion, would it? You know, those…

The opening scene of Gilmore Girls Season 1 Episode 12 parlays Britpop 'n pop tarts as hot thirtysomething mom Lorelai and teenage babe-spawn Rory ready themselves for work and school. The punchy, psychedelic-tinged soundtrack that practically leapt out of my speakers was vaguely familiar—though I couldn't quite place it. The mystery band I should have recognized was XTC; the tune was “Earn Enough For Us,” from their Skylarking album. 

How did I stumble upon this one? Having exhausted the supply of manlier…

Sixty years later, the goofy "The Mr. Ed Theme," crooned by by a talking horse stabled inside a suburban barn and a song pitcher, remains indelibly etched in the collective unconscious. "A horse is a horse of course of course" indeed!

Anyone surprised I've reviewed the song stylings of a talking horse shouldn't be. I signed up to evaluate anything on YouTube that grabs me—talking and singing quadrupeds always have. A hunky golden palomino raising his voice in song to a melody that may outlast the pyramids…

"Nineteenth Nervous Breakdown" never really flipped me when it came out in 1966. Apparently, it just needed a little time—a mere fifty-five years is all it took—to grow on me.

First Impressions
Here we have a pro shoot of the sixties Stones at the top of their game, performing live on a bare studio soundstage, bathed in cool blue light. Mysteriously, clicking Show More brings up zero information about where and when the video was shot. The camera never cuts to an audience, though the mics pick up its…

A lot of folks ineligible for Social Security might be astounded to learn just how much "ink" print media lavished on music reviews in the sixties and seventies. Magazine spreads ran two, three, four pages or even longer. Eagerly-anticipated albums were dissected song by song, with commentary about everything from the guitar picks to the orchestration. Cover art was praised or panned as if the cardboard should have been hung in the Louvre or tossed in the gutter. Even the song order was fair game for…