New Column: Rapping Up the Year

Another week, another new tm3am column. It seems to be all I can do lately just to get this thing done and out every week. Whew.

This week I turned my attention to the end-of-year hip-hop releases. It seems like everyone on the Internet is drooling over Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and my take is a little more measured, but still positive. I also praised new ones from Kid Cudi and Cee Lo Green. We're now only a few weeks away from the end of the year, and Green's "Fuck You" remains the best pop single of 2010.

How's the album? Well, click on over to find out, and then come back here and leave me a comment. Thanks for reading.

New Column: Metal, Mumble and Mae

I've barely had any time to breathe over the past few weeks. After winding down my election coverage, I'm now in the middle of tying up loose ends before the last weeks of the year, when I will be flying out to Massachusetts. So apologies for the sporadic posting here.

But I did get a tm3am column ready for this week. It's a random one, touching on Christian speed metal, local progressive pop, and the last hurrah of a great pop-punk band. You can read all about it here and then come on back to leave me a comment, if you wish.

And I will try to write more for this site in the near future. Life is exhausting sometimes. Thanks for your patience.

New Column: God Only Knows What I'd Be Without You

I live for recommendations.

In my 10 years writing tm3am, I've built up a small army of people who send me music suggestions. It's often the only way I get to hear certain artists, particularly local and independent ones, and I'm always grateful. This week's column is a shout-out to some of those kind souls.

It's also a chance for me to review some records I've been living with for a while (and one I just discovered, thanks to a recommendation). This week's column includes reviews of Everything Everything's debut, Miles Nielsen's self-titled effort, Oceansize's fourth album, and Chicago folkie Andy B. White's solo bow.

As always, you can click on over to read all about it, and head back here to leave me a comment.

New Column: First Listen to the Last Gasp

So I know we still have two months to go, but speaking as a music fan, 2010 is pretty much over for me.

This week at tm3am.com, I examined the final big music week of the year. I know, Kanye and Cee-Lo are coming, but they're isolated incidents. This week was significant: new albums from Elvis Costello, Weezer and Bleu made it into the column, and I also picked up the new Brian Eno and the reissue of Weezer's Pinkerton. Hopefully that'll be enough to sustain me through the long winter weeks ahead.

Luckily, I liked everything I heard. Costello is typically excellent, Weezer is silly and fun, and Bleu, well, he may have made the power-pop album of the year. You can read my initial reactions to these records by clicking here, then come back here to leave me a comment.