I saw Courtney Barnett at the Enmore Theatre here in Sydney at the end of last month. She was magnificent, even more than I was expecting. As I sit and type this a couple of weeks later, I’m thinking it’s one of the best live shows I’ve ever seen. It was my first time seeing … Continue reading The catharsis and redemption of Courtney Barnett live
Bright Lights, the new album by Susanna Hoffs, and her first in nine years, is an unexpected treat for me. Its release — on Hoffs’ own label, Baroque Folk — was only announced a few weeks ago. From what I can gather from interviews and from Hoffs’ social media, she experienced some frustration in getting … Continue reading Bright Lights by Susanna Hoffs: A collection of warm, intimate, impeccably chosen covers
Gillian Welch’s third album, Time (The Revelator), was released 20 years ago this week. That’s jarring on a number of levels. First of all, it never really left my rotation. I still think of it as new music. There’s this weird compression of time in the internet era. In 2001, music from 1981 sounded a … Continue reading Gillian Welch’s Time (The Revelator) at 20: A timeless masterpiece of apocalyptic country
My name is Jim, and I‘m a writer, DJ, presenter and activist based in Sydney. This is a blog about culture and politics — a home for my ideas and for my writing that’s not published elsewhere. I write primarily about film and music, with some forays into TV, popular fiction and comic books. But … Continue reading Who I am and why I’m doing this
Under the Paving Stones 