Increased Ribbit Amplification
What I'm podcasting, comic-book reading or tweeting lately: Podcasts: WHYY's The Statue, a short-run podcast about the statue from Rocky III, its uneasy...
We Always Return to Destroy
It's the year 2008. Pop singers didn't release albums on cassette. Vinyl was a cult artifact. CD-Rs were still an acceptable format for scuzzy punk bands and...
Mailorder My Heart: 10 Choice Record Stores Online
What was the first music you ordered from a catalog? If memory serves, I sent away an envelope of well-concealed cash (LOL) for three CDs: Succulent Space...
Your Voice Never Really Leaves You
Christopher Guest should make a mockumentary about DIY punk shows. Broken and borrowed PAs, a Punk in a Kilt, a sound guy about to burst a blood vessel from...
94 Good Things from 365 Days of 2022
When I started putting together a personal year-end list back in November, I kept finding myself drawn back to moments not just in albums, but across comics,...
Viking's Choice 2022: Reissues & Renewals of Spirit
All music from the past speaks with the present to inform the future — these reissues and archival projects just so happen to have been released in the...
Guacamole Christmas!
Before his provider basically forced him to switch a few months ago, my Bolivian father-in-law had a dumb phone, which meant he was the target of incessant...
Over-Sensory Osmosis
Y'all ever listen to a piece of music and think: I don't know WTF this is, but it's unscrewing my brain in the best possible way. Scott Walker's The Drift,...
Just Leave Me to the River (I Miss You, Mimi)
I first heard Mimi Parker's voice in 1999. It began with an oh — clear, warm and sustained like a fuzzy pedal organ at an old church. Then a la la la —...
I Just Want You to Know Who I Am
For the life of me, I cannot remember lyrics to songs, even those I've heard hundreds of times. Ask my high school musical theater teacher, church choir...
It's A Little Like Science
I play records around the 3 year old and she has questions/opinions. From my notes app, A-L on Vashti Bunyan's dreamy and delicate 1970 debut Just Another...
Algerian Rave, Nu-Jock Jams, Blackened Thrash
Tracy Chapman's self-titled debut was in the tape deck, Sadie Dupuis' new poetry collection (Cry Perfume) was read in starts and stops and glasses of a...
Roadside Monument Changed My Life
Roadside Monument never made the same record twice, but it was I am the Day of Current Taste, released in 1998 just a few months after they first broke up,...
Welcome to Planet Caravan
Typing by thumbs from vacation just outside Asheville, so forgive any typos. I’m visiting the folks and hoping to visit the Moogseum, the Asheville Pinball...
Mystic Folk, Hill Country Black Metal, Psychedelic Hardcore
Raymond Byron's Bond Wire Cur was already on my list of albums to recommend this week. ESP-Disk' had sent a copy that I finally placed on the turntable and...
He's Out There Setting Fires to the Demons in His Head
Y'all ever get tired of music nerds telling y'all how getting into music was different back in the day? Yeah, me neither. Liner notes, zines, cable access...
Vocaloid Emo, Egyptian Specters, Finnish Prog
Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe made me giggle for 87 straight minutes. (Heh heh he said "straight.") Subplots are sorta rushed to the finish line (heh...
Japanese Metalcore, Numbskull Arena-Rock, Chinese Psych-Pop
Sometimes you listlessly tweet about wanting to hear a Pedro the Lion song done in the style of Jawbreaker, and then someone makes it on his lunch break....
I Finally Fell in Love with Boiled Peanuts
Born in the North, raised in the South by the grace of God. My family moved to Georgia when I was 7 years old and, within days, I knew I was home. Drawn to...
Ren Faire Synth-Pop, Jungle Splatter, Noodles & Choogles
Summer pro-tip: Lemon pepper is underrated. Applied liberally to unbuttered chicken, the seasoning has persisted in American cuisine as an oven-baked, dried-...
Sit Still, Listen and Conduct the Air
In Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould, the world-famous concert pianist stops into a truck stop. Behind sunglasses and under a large trench coat, the...
Quiet Music in an Unquiet Year
At the end of 2017, I was feeling pretty raw about the state of things in the U.S.: rising fascism, threats against women's autonomy and immigrants' safety,...
Gritty Post-Bop, Myst Ambient, Tropi-Psych
We'd been craving paletas — and Mexican snacks generally — ever since we vacationed in CDMX years ago. Sweet, spicy and sour chamoy creations, corn chips...
Guitar Drone, Faustian Black Metal, Bedroom Rave
Flowers bloomed, raced and spun across the floors and walls with a digital gust of wind. The room spun, but didn't. Children ran, skipped and hopped to keep...
Pedro the Lion's Subdued Set Felt Quietly Subversive
Some loosely organized notes on a recent Pedro the Lion gig at the Black Cat in Washington, D.C.: Burly, but bruised — never have I met a guitar tone that...
Swedish Christian Fuzz, Post-Punk Trompe-L'œil, Afro-French Jazz
This is my burger, give or take a topping: Bun, mayo, pickles, cheese, patty (maybe two), tomato, lettuce, bun. In that order. Add-ons can be nice — who am I...
Epic Metal, Japanese Noise, Digital Cumbia
Gern Blandsten is closing up shop after 30 years. I can't speak to the label's imprint on the New Jersey indie rock and punk scenes, but GB proved crucial in...
The Drum Fill in "Everlong" Makes Me Cry
Foo Fighters' "Everlong" is a song measured in chills per minute... from the hushed opening and distorted guitar strums;to the moment Dave Grohl first...
Medieval Metal, French Folk, Harp Improv
On a recent trip to rural Virginia, we brought along a cheap kite that'd been buried deep in the recesses of a closet. Having not flown since childhood, I...
Ambient Pop, Finnish Black Metal, Brazilian Free-Jazz
Some professional news: After two years producing it, I'm now the host of the Best Music of the Month podcast from NPR's All Songs Considered! Basically, I...
Ukrainian Blackmetalpunk, Bassoon R&B, Indonesian Hardcore
The situation in Ukraine changes day to day. Like so many, I watch with worry and heartbreak. I don't pretend to write about things I don't know or...
I (Do Not) Long for Eternal Frost and Black Winters
Greatest Blashyrkh wait for me your deepest realms I'll find / With songs that sound eternally for you my call is ever so strong Winter does not agree with...
D&D IRL, Squirrel Power, Old Man Michelangelo
I am, by no means, a comics expert — I barely know the major story arcs of Marvel and DC from the last decade, and, in fact, find most of them tedious! But...
Mexican Psych, Ragged Rock, Boom-Bap Soul
Y'all ever lost a dog? It is exhausting. Physically. Mentally. Emotionally. Our 12-year-old pup Cocoa Bean slipped out a gate on Saturday, confirmed by a...
Spectral Black Metal, Dance-Punk Revival, Rapturous Free-Jazz
Never thought I'd become a tea cocktail guy, but I have recently taken to putting cereal milk in black tea and, y'all, it's glorious. Cheerios milk in my own...
Japanese Emo, Spanish Street Punk, Blackend Top 40
It's been a minute, but I wanted to say thanks for subscribing to the Viking's Choice newsletter! It's a constant work in progress! And it's going to look a...
Why Do Memories Glow the Way Real Moments Don't? 2021 in Music, Part 2
I have measured my life with bootleg tees purchased online. Didn't read many books, but predictably cried to Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner. Didn't...
But You Were My Mirrored Sky. 2021 in Music, Part 1
If I could, I would write a 300-album year-end list. Music consumes my every day: from checking my Bandcamp feed in the morning to emails from...
Screamed from Pits and Office Chairs! 2021 in Metal
Metal is life's blood... ... drunk from horns and tallboys, screamed from pits and home office chairs – well, more of the latter than the former these days....
You Can Fingerpick Anything! 2021 in Guitar Music
In the spring of 2021, I had a revelation. Fingerstyle guitar dared itself to transform. To grow beyond its presumed roots and sprout beautiful, perhaps even...
Today, let's make the yuletide weird
"We Three Kings" played on sitar? King Diamond? Amy Grant? Yup, I'm hosting a holiday music marathon dubbed the Viking's Choice Holiday Special from 12-8...
Viking's Choice Guide To Bandcamp Friday (Nov. 2021)
Welcome the last (?) Viking’s Choice Guide to Bandcamp Friday!I absolutely reserve the right to bring back this monthly-ish list of new albums dropping on...
Viking's Choice Guide To Bandcamp Friday (Nov. 2021)
Welcome the last (?) Viking's Choice Guide to Bandcamp Friday! I absolutely reserve the right to bring back this monthly-ish list of new albums dropping on...
Viking's Choice Guide To Bandcamp Friday (Oct. 2021)
Every day is Bandcamp Friday if you toss in a couple extra bucks. I've said this before, but it bears repeating. Anyway, if you're new here, hi! Bandcamp...
Burger Emo, Salty Post-Punk, Power Metal Storytime
I don't believe in guilty pleasures… … but there are some songs that I only share with close friends. Songs that demonstrate certain qualities intrinsic to...
This Beautiful Mess
This is not the actual artwork for Sixpence None the Richer’s This Beautiful Mess. But since the test presses only came in paper sleeves, I let my two-year-...
A Good Cup Of Tea Takes Patience And Practice
An oolong brews differently than a white peony than a pu-erh than a jasmine. And even within those varietals, soil and air give them distinct personalities...
Viking's Choice Guide To Bandcamp Friday (Aug. 2021)
Buying trash snacks with your partner is romantic as heck. We scanned the chip aisle of our corner store, recently under new management (they now sell shisha...
Avant-Pop, Fuzz Improv, Bilingual D-Beat
The first time I told a girl that I (platonically) loved her, she kicked me out. This was my mid-20s, which I have come to call the second coming of my...
Sacred Riffs, Blown-Out Cumbia, Space Opera Noise
Summer’s usually got me in three modes: chooglin’ rosé-sippin’ tallboy riffin’ These ways of being heed no creed, genre or person — a country song can...