Frank Kogan

Well, a couple of obvious recommendations, but Cure For Bedbugs incl. Haloscan comment threads is the best thinking about music and culture I'm running into; and Kelefa Sanneh is doing an amazing job at the New York Times, finding a way to write with character and wit within the Times format/formalization. ILX isn't what it was - too many bores - but when Tim Finney shows up the convo is usually good, and he and Lex in tandem talking about how something sounds can be quite excellent (e.g., last year's Cassie thread). I think both rolling country and rolling teenpop are suffering from the relative off years both genres are having, and also from the general absence of some of the people like George Smith and Abby McDonald and Jessica Poptastic and Jeanne Fury and Dom Passantino (and Tim Finney and Tom Ewing and William Bloody Swygart, for that matter), who used to pop in more.

I think that over in poptimists Tom's figuring out how to deal best with the limitations of livejournal, the set-up of which makes it impossible to sustain a good conversation over several days or over 50 posts; so he's making it fun-and-games, where intellectualism can dart in and out. Is frustrating for someone like me who wants follow-through, but nonetheless it's doing a good job of creating a world and is a good example of people using music as currency in a world. And I'm learning a shitload from it. You might be interested in the new League Of Pop thing they're doing, since the way to score points is by getting people to like something they haven't heard. Also, if you haven't, you should take a look at Popular, which is much like your albums project. I wish I had time to keep up with it more. Also wish I had time to keep up with Eppy's blog, and Fluxblog, and stuff like that. Tom Breihan churns out so much that of course quality varies (his review of Love Is A Mixtape was ridiculously vacuous; he doesn't do well with word limits), but I wish I had time to read him every day rather than once ever couple of weeks.

Dave and I keep raving about and quoting from Brie Larson's blog. I can imagine Brie's deciding she's a writer more than a singer (not that she shouldn't do both).

My favorite critic right now is Paul Zimmerman, who writes about football, not music; not afraid to intellectualize and go detailed, not afraid to fuck around, knows his shit, is passionate, is funny.