Rollercoaster
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week we teach you everything you'll need to know when you finally build that rollercoaster in your backyard.
Andrew Womack
Explosions in the Sky, The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place
Austin’s Explosions in the Sky continue their foray into intricate, driving instrumental mayhem and glory with The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place, their third full-length, and with a title that seems abbreviated in comparison to 2001’s extraordinary Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those
Winfred E. Eye, The Dirt Tier
This is the kind of music the punk-rock farmhands make when they head back to their quarters for late-night jams, tall tales, and corn whiskey. It’s slow, grinding, Depression-era rock. Tin Pan Alley with a Hammond organ. Things that shouldn’t match up, but really do.
The Commuter’s Apology
To the woman on the train wearing flip-flops: I’m sorry I almost stepped on your toes. I understand that the danger may have warranted the mock look of pain, a mouthed ‘ouch!’ and a little hop-skip on your part. But flip-flops when it’s 48 degrees
The Shins, Chutes Too Narrow
Oh, oh, oh, Oh, Inverted World was nothing short of mind-blowing, which means the follow-up from The Shins, Chutes Too Narrow, is going to be under some pretty serious scrutiny. Does it deliver? Oh, oh, oh, yes. Track by track, note for note, each song is magnificent: ‘Kissing
Carson Ellis
Illustrator, artist, and all-around winner Carson Ellis tells us about her work with the Decemberists, collapsed mining towns in Montana, and what’s stuck in her head.
TRS-80, Shake Hands With Danger
Part One TRS-80 is a band, not a computer! Part Two Actually, it used to be a computer, and it looked like this. Prior to hearing this album, my primary experience with anything at all called ‘TRS-80’ was pretty bad. It was at computer camp one summer sometime
Fab?
I was too late, and it was such a good idea for a story. Sorry, everybody. There could’ve been massive laughs, if done properly – at least a few chuckles, if even done alright. Here’s the premise: It’s 1962, and Brian Epstein is giving the Beatles a new
The Badger King, Break Up + The Showering Dragons
The Badger King broke up? Nope, but they got four new songs along with two new remixes of songs off last year’s triumphant Tongue and Tooth EP. The new songs stay the pretty much the same course you already know and love, albeit much shorter (not a one comes
Gene Mirabelli
The author of five novels—including some very sexy covers—as well as numerous short stories, book reviews, and journalistic pieces, Gene Mirabelli is "over 70 and probably the least known man of letters since Hawthorne."