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(Steven J Wilson)

 I wrote a column called DITB (Down in the Basement) for the Tornado, the greatest community newspaper ever with a four-month lifespan. I didn’t exactly write reviews. I had other people do that; I edited them. Nope, I just kinda went on about whatever was on my mind at the time related to popular music. DITB was probably the first place outside of New York or London where someone raved at length about the Strokes. I went on for a few hundred words about Weezer once. I have no idea what inspired that. 

DITB did follow the rules of journalism. I did my best to research shit. Fact check. Include details. I guess that is where SPEW will divert from DITB. For SPEW I fully intend to forget names, get facts wrong, neglect to give complete titles, and otherwise write irresponsibly. 

Reverberations is the name of my music blahg. Reverberations dates from my days at the KC Free Press, the best online KC news and culture resource ever with a four-month lifespan. See a theme emerging? My late friend Greg Trooper (a wonderful singer-songwriter) used to joke that every label he ever recorded for went out of business. Anyway, I guess I’m the Greg Trooper of rock writing. If I am, being the Greg Trooper of anything is a pretty great thing to be. 

Sometimes I get together with my old pals Nate and Doug. We get addled and play music real loud - introduce selections breathlessly and profanely, prioritize bad humor over analysis, and generally have a gay old time blasting tunes. SPEW is rock writing in that spirit. Call it expressionism. Call it shit. Call it a waste of time. If you get a kick out of it, read it.


SPEW is made possible by Apple Music, which has saved me from the ignobility of illegal downloading. God knows I can’t afford all the goddamn records I intend to write about. 

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The people have spoken.

There is a town in Arkansas called Elaine.

(Steven J Wilson)
Elaine, Arkansas is in Phillips County, one of the poorest counties in the United States, a flat expanse of deprivation where your Google Maps won’t keep you from getting lost. Elaine is lost. It looks like a place where nothing good has happened in a very long time.  That's, at least in part, because something terrible happened there. Something a majority of Americans don't know about.  I'm educated as a historian, but I lack the imprimatur of an advanced degree. I will do my best to offer a concise history lesson.  The facts are straightforward. To escape destitution and indentured servitude, black sharecroppers in the Arkansas delta organized under the banner of the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America. On the 30th of September 1919, a prominent, white attorney named Ulysses Bratton traveled the three hours from Little Rock to meet with the workers to discuss strategy. They met at a small church on the outskirts of Elaine at a place called Hoo...
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2018 in the world of Music: Purple Prose, Spleen, Ideal, Love, Cancer, Hope, Despair and two-cents

(Steven J Wilson)
THE AESTHETICS AT THE ROCK CRITIC’S FUNERAL My self-identified role as a curator of popular music is one that I’ve gradually been shedding, part from changed perspective, part from failure to sustain a meaningful audience. That’s a fancy way of saying that when so many people don’t give a shit, they start to seem convincing after a spell. I ran out of gas. I felt tapped for maintaining blogs and that kind of shit. For years I had some tangible connection to the ‘industry’ that made me feel, I dunno – active? relevant? I ran a really good record store. I wrote for a major metropolitan newspaper. I wrote for various reasonably high circulation periodicals. I appeared frequently on public radio stations. But when my record store died after 52 years (I was there for 39 of them) and the newspaper gave the axe to freelancers, I lost my base, if you will. Sure, people tell me they miss the store. Or my reviews. And it’s nice. But these ripples of awareness are dr...
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SPEW pronounces the 21st-30th best albums of 2017. Shazam!

(Steven J Wilson)
21.     Wire – Silver/Lead (Pink Flag)           Wire are one of my staples, consistent and consistently surprising: https://spewrocks.blogspot.com/search?q=wire 22.     John Murry – A Short History of Decay (TV)          And then I wrote … https://spewrocks.blogspot.com/search?q=john+murry 23.     Whiffs – Take a Whiff (High Dive)           I liked it then https://spewrocks.blogspot.com/search?q=whiffs … I like it now.   24.     Aldous Harding – Party (4AD) Not that anyone asked, but if Aldous Harding reminds me of any of her contemporaries, it’s Cate LeBon. They both have this striking ability to swing from the confidential to the bel canto stentorian more than once over the course of an album. Harding’s songs, mostly accompanied by her guitar and piano, are koan-like without being obscure. Harding uses space deftly, yet her spare arra...
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