Email Author Dan Strachota

2000 Stories by Dan Strachota

• Personal Best

  published December 27, 2000

  For 11 months out of the year, music writers drift along, listening to new albums, thumbing through old ones, poking around for something odd,... More >>

• Hear This

  published December 27, 2000

  San Diego native Rob Crow once wrote a clever little ditty called "Listen to This Song, Kill Pigs, and Try to Sue Me." That was back during his... More >>

• Pop Philosophy

  published December 20, 2000

  And we just installed the DSL line When Riffage.com launched in June 1999, CEO... More >>

• Pop Philosophy

  published December 13, 2000

  The gift that keeps on giving As the holidays approach, it's time to ask that eternal question: What do you get for the person who has... More >>

• Meet the Foibles

  published December 6, 2000

  In 1986, while he was still in the guitar-noise combo Dinosaur Jr., Lou Barlow began home... More >>

• Pop Philosophy

  published December 6, 2000

  Poison pen Gina Arnold gives rock critics a bad name. She's the macaroni and cheese of pasta, the Dr. Kevorkian of physicians, the angel... More >>

• Pop Philosophy

  published November 29, 2000

  Groove Merchants To much of the music-buying world, the name Ubiquity Recordings is synonymous with acid jazz. Never mind that the company... More >>

• The Go-Betweens

  published November 29, 2000

  Reunion albums are dicey affairs. Bands usually take one of two tacks -- either trying to mine old songs for new licks or reinvent themselves... More >>

• Pop Philosophy

  published November 22, 2000

  Listmaker, listmaker, make me a list Rolling Stone stopped being musically relevant about the time the magazine put Dr. Hook on the... More >>

• Bad to The Bone

  published November 15, 2000

  On Sept. 15, a San Francisco radio station set a record that most likely won't show up in the Guinness Book of World Records. That day,... More >>

• Pop Philosophy

  published November 15, 2000

  Would you like some cynicism with your latte? Just when it seems like the populace can't get more cynical, we learn what a sham the... More >>

• Pop Philosophy

  published November 8, 2000

  I deride your truth-handling abilities Have you ever seen the movie Rashomon? In the film, a woman is raped and her husband is... More >>

• Pop Philosophy

  published November 1, 2000

  It's not easy being green As Election Day bears down upon us like a Mack truck on a rainy highway, my mailbox has been flooded with... More >>

• Big Boys Don't Cry

  published October 25, 2000

  There are certain musicians who are so perfectly in tune with the times that they practically define them. Elvis, Madonna, the Carpenters -- all... More >>

• Pop Philosophy

  published October 25, 2000

  New York City was abuzz with World Series fever this past weekend. Or at least much of it was. On the Lower East Side, there was a different kind... More >>

• Beat Scientist

  published October 18, 2000

  At one time, hip hop and rock were entirely separate entities. Then, in 1986, Run-D.M.C. scored big by trading riffs and raps with Aerosmith, and... More >>

• Pop Philosophy

  published October 18, 2000

  Check's in the mail As of last Wednesday, Downtown Rehearsal is officially no more. The Third Street building's former manager and new... More >>

• Pop Philosophy

  published October 11, 2000

  Put me in, coach Last week, there were 40,000-odd people screaming bloody murder across the street from our offices. It wasn't an arts... More >>

• Pop Philosophy

  published October 4, 2000

  And everyone lived happily ever after The tenants and owners of Downtown Rehearsal finally reached an agreement over a settlement this past... More >>

• Pop Philosophy

  published September 27, 2000

  Should they stay or should they go now? It's getting tiring, all this nostalgia for a past I didn't like in the first place. But while I... More >>

• Pop Philosophy

  published September 20, 2000

  Before beginning his set on Friday night, New Zealand singer Chris Knox stood at the lip of the Bottom of the Hill stage and gestured toward a... More >>

• Adventures in Stereo

  published September 20, 2000

  Adventures in Stereo's first two EPs were like a big why-hasn't-anyone-thought-of-that slap upside the head. The Scottish trio of Simon Dine, Jim... More >>

• Hear This

  published September 13, 2000

  Over the past 10 years, John Darnielle has been one of this country's most distinctive songwriters. The fact that his one-man band, the... More >>

• Playing Through

  published September 6, 2000

  The Fairways are, as Tom Waits says, big in Japan. Several months after the release of the band's debut album, Is Everything All Right?,... More >>

• Scene Not Heard

  published August 30, 2000

  "The sky is falling, the sky is falling," Chicken Little sang, as he strapped on his Stratocaster and turned the volume up to 11. The Aug. 8... More >>