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Sometimes great albums take a bit of time, repeated listens, to take hold in our brains. Often these records become some of my favorites, as they continue to challenge my awareness as I discover the varied nuances and creative decisions presented by the artist. Radiohead, Pavement, R.E.M.’s first two records come to mind. Most recently, I have been repeating Madison Cunningham’s 2022 album Revealer. Madison Cunningham is a brilliantly creative musician. In addition to all of the songwriting on the album, she is also credited with all of the vocals, guitar, bass, drums, cello, percussion, etc. etc. There are varying time signatures and song structures, crazy cool guitar tones, and surprising vocal melodies throughout the record. Fans of Andrew Bird will find some things to like here. The title Revealer is apt as you will discover more with each listen. I look forward to what this fascinating young artist does next. ___ Have you been to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? You should go! Cleveland rocks! We went a few years ago, after years of putting it off because I was too cool for school or something; what a great surprise it was. So much to see! They had a whole section on The Replacements! (see below). Music fans of all stripes and intensity will find things to enjoy, just do it. And while you are in the fair city of Cleveland, check out the West Side Market-tons of interesting food vendors in a fantastic open air marketplace that dates back to the 1800’s. (Not the food, the space. The food is quite fresh.) ___ Our children were raised on a steady diet of the band They Might Be Giants. (Which now that I think about it, might explain a few things. Stay tuned for my upcoming memoir, “Mistakes were Made”.) Anyway when I was a young lad gallivanting around New York City in the 1980’s (speaking of mistakes being made), on the back page of the weekly Village Voice newspaper there were personal ads, and among them was a tiny message that said simply “They Might Be Giants” and a phone number. So of course my friends and I called it, and an answering machine played a snippet of a weird and fun sounding song. We were intrigued and amused, called again later and heard more songs, and in time became fans of the oddball band from Brooklyn. The band kept up the Dial-a-Song answering machine for decades, recording short demos of songs and rotating them on the machine, and anyone could call the number, (“free when you call from work!” ), hear the song clip, and leave a message if they desired. One of the messages left by a caller, from a very confused woman and her friend, appeared as a cut on the band’s album Miscellaneous T. Give a listen, it’s quite amusing. “Look in the paper, don’t blame me if the guy’s a nut”
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