R.I.P. Big Star Bassist Andy Hummel

Tough year for Big Star. Andy Hummel (second from right) played a central role in one of the outstanding and most notoriously unsung bands of the rock era. He did not contribute many songs, but "The India Song" is one of my favorite Big Star tunes.

The tragedy of mobility

"Mobility is the great sickness crippling America, withering its civic life and deadening its spirit. But it remains undiagnosed, its symptoms mis-ascribed, for only the mobile have microphones and cameras and printer's ink. You never hear about the millions of stay-at-home Americans; we play the unheard music."

-Bill Kauffman, Dispatches from the Muckdog Gazette