I don’t often read things about film (mostly because I never watch movies), but there’s this terrific little spat going on between film critics over at New Yorker. Richard Brody claims that you only need five minutes — any five minutes — to determine if a film has resonance. YouRead More

I hadn’t had the feeling for a long time: that crestfallen heaviness of learning that a band had broken up. It’s something that really used to hit me when I was a kid. Attachments to bands and their music were particularly powerful, and when a breakup was announced…it felt personal.Read More

So there was this study which determined that there is a small fraction of the populace that derives no emotion from listening to music. The condition is called “anhedonia” and about five percent of the population is affected. For these people, music does not make them happy, they have noRead More

Here’s the way it usually works. The end of the year draws closer, and all of the music publications and websites release their “best of” lists. This is almost always followed by various rants about how the lists are “too safe,” “predictable,” or “pretentious.” You May Also Like: Of AllRead More

by Mark Saleski Easily my favorite release of 2009. The Low Anthem surprised me at a show that spring. I’d never heard of them before and they came out and managed to make me forget my name, my identity, and what my favorite color was. It was a stunning experience.Read More

Tomorrow is Record Store Day, that annual event reserved for the celebration of that seemingly dying breed of retail outlet. I’ve written plenty about the future of digital music (mostly my lack of interest in it), but Record Store Day transcends You May Also Like: ‘All Things Must Pass: TheRead More

by Mark Saleski In the recent Southern Music issue of the Oxford American, musician John Engle speaks of “The Vastness,” the idea that the world’s store of knowledge is so vast that “if you tried to take it all on at once it would crush you.” It’s true. And thereRead More

From lowanthem.com by Mark Saleski I have attempted to describe this before (and I even referred to it in a recent preview of The Low Anthem’s Smart Flesh), but the sensation is a difficult one to get at. Without any sort of documentation, the best I’ve ever been able toRead More

By Mark Saleski It was about two years ago that me and TheWife™ went to a folk-ish show in the unassuming function hall of a local church. The band was The Low Anthem. We had never heard of them but not long into the set, in the middle of aRead More