The Useless Critic 2.0

Song of the Day The Big Star documentary " Nothing Can Hurt Me " played in Phoenix recently. Big Star, in case you are unfamiliar, was a brilliant little pop band from the 1970s that didn't last very long. Alex Chilton, the force behind Big Star, died in 2010. Part of the reason he died, if you believe Wikipedia, was due to a lack of health insurance. O_o This song makes me nostalgic; I'm not sure why though.

I've always wanted to go to Record Store Day, but never have. Erie really never had record stores and last year I just didn't do it. So this year, instead of doing chores and going to the store, I said to myself in a monologue my neighbors may have heard: "Britt, fuck it. We're going. Part of life is about the experiences we have anyway." So I bought a bus pass and I WENT.  This post is brought to you by Liv Tyler's midriff. According to the folks at Fuse , Jack White was the national ambassador for the day. Of course he was: Jack is a noted sound-quality snob!  Part of the appeal of Record Store Day are the new releases various artists come out with for it. Like MGMT, Garbage, Tegan and Sara, and David Bowie among others. I didn't see this- I just saw a lot of vinyl that would have been useless for me to buy because I have no turntable (shhhhhh). I saw this and I ended up staring at it entranced for several moments. Alex Chilton still hau...

Chris Bell will be playing at the Crooked I on February 26th, opening for popular local Erie band Shotgun Jubilee. You shouldn't miss this show if you're in the area- he's an up-and-coming folkish musician with a lot going for him in this upcoming year. He was chronicled by the New York Times for the fact he did a tour of the Erie Canal by canoe a few years back. Well this time there is no canoe involved, but that doesn't make things any less interesting. But first things first. Bell was born "a month early" in Springville, NY but brought up in Frewsburg. "I was an only child out in the country, in the summer I could go a week or two without seeing another child my age," he remembered about growing up. These formative years would shape who he was about to become, as an artist and person. "I loved playing in the woods, building strange electronic creations, and watched a lot of TV. I loved television as a kid, I’ve always, always been drawn to ...