Category: Music

Every so often someone will stop me on the street and ask me about the name of this weblog. How did I come up with “Consolation Champs”? It is, after all, a silly name. Well, gentle reader, my answer is that originally it was a name I wanted to use for a band. Most of us walk around with half a dozen or so band names in our heads. Here are a few more that I’ve pondered for many years, although none were ever considered for the name of a web site:

• Robot Pope (eerily close to Robot Wisdom)
• Black Jello
• The Part-Time Jobs (pronounced like the biblical character Job. You can see why this one wasn’t as funny in print as it was out loud)
• Assface (still one of the funniest putdowns I know)
• Fish Pants

Let’s hear some of yours…

Not only do I love to listen to music, I love to read about it, too. Here are a few recently discovered sites with interesting and thought-provoking criticism. I also love that they are all incredibly wide-ranging in terms of genres and time periods:

• RockCritics
• Glenn McDonald’s “The War Against Silence” (hat tip: joe clark)
• George Starostin’s Classic Rock and Pop Album Reviews

Do you know any more? Hit “Comments”…

I added some excellent photos to my Spoon interview, courtesy of Thadd Day, who’s making a documentary about the band. More details as they are available.

Brooke and I saw Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra last night. I’m not a big jazz fan, but I’m glad Brooke impulsively ordered the tickets. I enjoyed the show a lot, but as always, found the jazz musician’s habit of sitting around looking bored waiting for his next solo annoying. The only performer who really seemed into things for the entire show, apart from Marsalis, was the drummer, Herlin Riley, who was excellent. When he finally soloed in the second to last piece, there was a collective whoop from the audience.

Thanks to a link from Prol on u2log.com, we’re welcoming hundreds of new visitors. Welcome, U2 fans. Enjoy the photos and be sure to check out the rest of the place.