| Douglas Martin’s Dirty Shoes: An Epic Interview With Disco Vietnam | January 16, 2013 |
Douglas Martin is lo-fi power pop personified. Before those of you in the peanut gallery start throwing things in the name of nepotism, I must remind you that we here at Passion of the Weiss aren’t in the business of writing about bad music. Barry Schwartz — he of Disco Vietnam — just happens to […]
| Douglas Martin’s Dirty Shoes: 2012, The Year of the Segall | December 21, 2012 |
The final part of The Top 50 Albums list arrives on Monday. In the interim, allow Douglas Martin to serenade you with the sweet sounds of Ty Segall. I. TY IS NOT A GAME Did you record not one, not even two, but three outstanding full-length LPs this year? Did you still have time to […]
| Douglas Martin’s Dirty Shoes – An Interview With Greer McGettrick of The Mallard, The Dirty Shoes Band of 2012 | December 12, 2012 |
Douglas Martin endorses most pheasants. If you consider the minor technicality of Royal Headache’s stellar self-titled debut actually being a 2011 release (in the band’s native Australia), that makes The Mallard’s Yes on Blood 2012’s Dirty Shoes Album of the Year. One cursory listen should indicate why this was an almost laughably predictable choice: It’s […]
| The Old Testament: Beat Happening – You Turn Me On | October 3, 2012 |
Douglas Martin also pondered the deeper meaning of “The Birthday Song” yesterday. The great conundrum about You Turn Me On is that we’re still basking in its relevance after twenty years, even though it sounds like it took twenty minutes to record. It’s kind of weird to picture Bret, Heather, and Calvin– the latter being […]
| Douglas Martin’s Dirty Shoes: The Graceful Aging of Sic Alps | September 20, 2012 |
Douglas Martin is to garage rock what water is to rave-ups. Start with the name. Sic Alps. “Sic” could mean “ill” as in “cool.” But it can also just be improper spelling. Maybe that makes more sense considering they take 60s garage-rock and guitar-pop songs and intentionally disfigure them. Their instruments sounding like poorly functioning […]
Douglas Martin briefly beat-boxed in Department of Eagles. Listening to Grizzly Bear inspires adjectives usually foreign to critically-acclaimed, avant-garde New York City bands: pristine, nuanced, sophisticated. The Big Apple is supposed to be dirtier than everywhere else. Its artists are supposed to be darker, weirder, more damaged, more openly self-destructive. The Velvet Underground. Sonic Youth. […]
| Douglas Martin’s Dirty Shoes: The Long, Slow Dance of the Fresh & Onlys | September 6, 2012 |
Douglas Martin’s favorite slow dance is the Southern minuet. You better ask somebody. Though perhaps not long and slow, the career of the Fresh & Onlys up to this point has certainly been a dance. It started off in whirlwind fashion, not even half a decade ago, with the rapid-fire release of both their self-titled […]
| Douglas Martin’s Dirty Shoes:” Sic Alps – “Glyph” | August 29, 2012 |
An American Flag. A drum kit laden with flowers. A blurry lens. A scarecrow that dresses a lot like yours truly. Chasing geese. Playing baseball with a red guitar. A mysterious, gorgeous lady on a rowboat. Mike Donovan playing guitar for the lady. The lady playing guitar for Mike Donovan. Mike Donovan swinging from a […]
Douglas Martin is loosely affiliated with the Kinski Assassins. Ask no more questions. I. PROLOGUE When we last left Ariel Rosenberg, he was laughing his way to the bank. After over a decade of being underrated, misunderstood, and sometimes downright loathed, he released 2010’s fascinatingly cracked Before Today and the world of indie music finally […]
Douglas Martin is back with scuffed Chucks. Now that we’ve reached the Age of Iceage, it appears Americans have uncovered a side of Northeast Europe most have been unaware of. After the Danish teens released my second-favorite record of 2011, we’ve experienced a wave of loud guitars and heavily accented English. With bands like Vår, […]
