brian, Author at Pop Rock Nation

About brian

Tutor, parent, cat-feeder, and voice-actor Brian Block listens to too much music and glides through life mostly on the strength of his good looks. If he can see farther than others, it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants, an environmentally sound form of public transportation.

#49 album of 2013 – Lousy with Sylvanbriar by Of Montreal

Artist: Of Montreal

Album: Lousy with Sylvanbriar

Last year, when writing about Of Montreal’s 2012 album Paralytic Stalks, I gave the outline of their career progression, and how they’d come to pile so many layers of disco, funk, and modern orchestral music onto a framework of Sgt. Pepper pop stylings. I thought Paralytic Stalks was their masterpiece; neither the critical nor the marketplace consensus agreed with me, so anyway, that’s not what they’re doing now.

On Lousy with […]

By brian|January 15th, 2014|Reviews|0 Comments

#50 album of 2013 – Shruggy Ji by Red Baraat

Artist: Red Baraat

Album: Shruggy Ji

Before I digress for two paragraphs, let me tell you that the Brooklyn-based, half-Asian-immigrant band Red Baraat claim to center their sound on “hard driving North Indian bhangra rhythms with elements of jazz, go-go, brass funk, and hip-hop”. (They also winkingly adopt the genre name “dhol-and-bass”.) I don’t know anything about bhangra or go-go, but I can’t see what they’d gain by lying, so I take this assessment as true.

As I’m […]

By brian|January 14th, 2014|Reviews|0 Comments

Best of 2012 mix cd’s (discs 4-6): a track listing

Every year, I design what ends up being a 6-cd best-of-the-previous-year mix. I have several friends who want all six, others who like to receive samplings therefrom. I design one set in February, another in the fall (giving me further time to explore). I’m told, and choose to believe, that I’m very good with track-to-track flow, so in this era of things like Spotify and Rhapsody playlists, I figured I might as well share with you […]

By brian|September 12th, 2013|News|0 Comments

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