For The Record | Issue 27

Posted 5:59pm Sunday 7th October 2012

For the record, I feel a strong sense of pressure with this particular column, my final one of the year. I want to find just the right words to end with. I want this conclusion to be satisfying. It’s hard to believe the year is almost at its close, and that we’ll soon be free from the confines of Read more...

For The Record | Issue 26

Posted 5:01pm Sunday 30th September 2012

The xx are three British twentysomethings who dress in black and create stripped-down minimalist pop with haunting melodic precision and a zealously apathetic atmosphere. Read that last sentence again. Now go and beat your head against a fucking wall to get that PR-spun marketing dross out of your Read more...

For The Record | Issue 25

Posted 4:25pm Sunday 23rd September 2012

I’ve always liked Thursdays. A distaste for Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays really doesn’t have to be explained; Rebecca Black has forever ruined Friday for me; Saturday is all about anticipation, and the day itself is generally lost in the buildup to “the night”; Sunday Bloody Sunday is a day of Read more...

For The Record | Issue 24

Posted 4:57pm Sunday 16th September 2012

Mentioning Nickelback is a surefire way of attracting attention. It worked, didn’t it? You saw the title and immediately dived into this column with knee-jerk cynicism, eager to mock and insult my music taste. But why, exactly, do you hate the world’s most hated band? No, I don’t love Read more...

For The Record | Issue 23

Posted 4:03pm Sunday 9th September 2012

As a society, we’re obsessed with labels. So it’s no surprise that we’ve given names to the past few generations. We’ve pigeonholed and generalised, using war as a simplistic reference: the “Greatest” lived through it, the “Boomers” protested it, and “Gen X” ignored it. I recently read an Read more...

For The Record | Issue 22

Posted 5:17pm Sunday 2nd September 2012

Music and movies are a great pair — some might even say they go together like cocaine and waffles. While film scores and musicals are the most obvious spawn of this relationship, I’d like to turn your attention towards the technique referred to in industry-speak as “needle dropping”: when a score is Read more...

For The Record | Issue 21

Posted 4:26pm Sunday 19th August 2012

I will begin with a confession, perhaps even a blooming one. I came up with the title of this column long before I sat down, tired and aching after a particularly gruelling and ultimately pointless economics tutorial, and wrote the piece. I often do that — dream up a title first, that is, not waste Read more...

For The Record | Issue 20

Posted 5:14pm Sunday 12th August 2012

Most of us can pinpoint the exact moment our love of a certain artist began. It was my father’s rendition of Bob Dylan’s humorous bootleg “Talkin’ Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues” that set in motion my own grand musical love-affair. My Dad was a passionate Dylan fan, and from an early age I was Read more...

For The Record | Issue 19

Posted 4:49pm Sunday 5th August 2012

“When people ask if firearms are too accessible in America, they might as well ask if religion and speech are too free.” – Senator Larry Craig The nightmarish massacre in Colorado has spurred media pundits across the world to question the future of the cinema. Opinions vary, but a number of Read more...

For The Record | Issue 18

Posted 2:15pm Sunday 29th July 2012

I don’t like decade-themed parties. I’ve never understood the novelty of playing historical dress-up. But more than that, these “retro” parties beg the question: how will we be remembered? From the 1950s up to the new millennium, each decade brought with it a new and unique cultural Read more...