Welcome!

The creation of a music blog has been in the works for a few years now, but I could never find the time/initiative to actually start writing. But it's PhD spring break time in Minneapolis and here I am. I don't anticipate this blog reaching the literary heights of Said the Gramophone, or being as content rich as Aquarium Drunkard. But family and friends often ask me, how do you hear about all this music? Well, by devouring music blogs. So, I think I've finally worked up the drive to start advancing my own particular tastes, which both diverge from and converge with the indie music found on Pitchfork, Stereogum, and other music blogs.

Which brings me to the Thin Mercury Sound - a title that conveys the spectrum of my musical enjoyment. For one, this is the title of Caviar's fantastic sophomore album, representing my love for lesser-known elements of the Chicago rock scene - Local H, Triplefastaction, Fig Dish, etc. But said album title is also a semi-obscure Bob Dylan reference, used by Dylan to describe the sound of Blonde on Blonde (one of my favorite albums of all time) - "It's that thin, that wild mercury sound. It's metallic and bright gold, with whatever that conjures up. That's my particular sound."

So be ready for rock, folk/Americana, and many other genres - but my enjoyment, and I hope yours as well, comes from the more general, less tangible qualities of creativity, emotion, and lyrical intelligence - whatever that conjures up.

A few tracks to get this started...

Caviar - Lioness
Caviar - You've Got a Black Black Heart
from The Thin Mercury Sound
buy

This alternate version of "Visions of Johanna" comes from the Dylan bootleg Thin Wild Mercury Music, which includes outtakes from Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, and Blonde on Blonde.

Bob Dylan - Visions of Johanna