Recommended Reading: Nick Hornby's Songbook

Nick Hornby wrote the music lover's book that was made into the music lover's film High Fidelity. Hornby wrote a collection of essays about 31 songs.

Songbook is not a critique of the songs, but a celebration. He writes about how they make him feel, what they inspire in him, or simply why he loves them. The writing is witty, sharp and so very enjoyable. I often laughed out loud. Sometimes I had to read a piece over again just because it was so much fun.

He takes on some of the sillier tropes in music criticism such as the idea that music must be "edgy" to be noteworthy. He defends pop music with humor, vigor and persuasiveness.

He also recommends several albums at the end and most of them are one's I love.

To celebrate this lovely book, I am going to play his 31 songs for my Monday set, so I will be starting a bit early - at 4:30 PM on Monday, January 27th.

Ugly Celebrates The Man in Pink!

It was The Man in Pink's birthday last week and today I am dedicating an entire set to him.  Expect an abundance of strangeness.  Here is one of the coolest artists he has introduced to me, Hugh Laurie.  Enjoy!

An Evening of Classic Rock

7-9pm, Friday Jan 10th:

It's been a hard week. And when it's been a hard week, a really hard week, I need some hard rock. Hard rock, of the classic kind. Sure, a lot of this came out of the 1970s, but there'll be a dab or two from other decades as well. I haven't put the playlist together yet, but you can depend on hearing Alice Cooper, some Gong, some Deep Purple, Aerosmith, Van Halen, maybe some Rush, and absolutely Led Zeppelin will be included ... the music that makes this old dude feel good. So don your denim jacket and your best concert t-shirt, and head over to the V tonight for the stuff your dad used to listen to. When he was cool. And dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

Obligatory Best of 2013 Set!

Today I'm playing a 2013-heavy set with great songs from 2013, like this gem from the Kopecky Family Band from last year's Kids Raising Kids album.  Enjoy!