Articles by MarkR

The Replacements - Tim (Let It Bleed Edition)

PoOPlists, PoOPLists 2023 January 19, 2024

Mark Rosen Poop 2023

My POOP DISC-CLAIMER (disc-lamer?): I actually found a good amount of interesting music in 2023 and I didn’t have to pad my list with records that might have only marginally deserved my recognition. But as is the usual case, about half of my picks are rooted, in one way or another, in the past. RetroPOOP, if you will. To mangle the words of Sir Peter of Townshend, I look pretty old but my taste’s backdated, yeah. Buy New or Used via Amazon Rent via iTunes [?] 1. THE REPLACEMENTS – Tim (2023 re-mix, part of the Tim: Let It Bleed…

PoOPlists, Pooplists 2022, Yearly PoOP Analyses January 26, 2023

Main Poop Analysis 2022

Dear POOPsters: Time to POOP. For the 36th consecutive year, we POmpous and OPinionated rut-stuck regulars have re-convened to share the fruits of our music habits. In all 21 have weighed in and tilted at internet windmills this year. Even a few prodigal POOPsters have returned to the fold. That’s pretty encouraging given all that’s happened in America this past year; at least our Right To Choose music remains intact even if little else does. After fifteen separate ballots in the House of POOPresentatives, we have finally reached a consensus. I’ve once again employed the time-honored tabulation system, utilizing the…

This Machine STILL Kills Fascists – Lyrics of Woody Guthrie – Dropkick Murphys

PoOPlists, Pooplists 2022 January 23, 2023

Mark Rosen Poop 2022

My POOP DISC-CLAIMER (disc-lamer?): As years go I’ll give 2022 a semi-meh. As usual a good chunk of my list is made up of albums that in one way or another look back in time. It’s apparent that much of the music that called out to me in my teens and twenties still seems to drive my car. Music in the rear view mirror remains closer than it appears. —

Dropkick Murphys, Freakons, Lou Reed, Corb Lund, The Beatles, Len Price 3, Angeline Morrison, Willie Nelson,

PoOPlists, Pooplists 2021, Yearly PoOP Analyses January 26, 2022

Main Poop Analysis 2021

Having resisted the urge to name POOP after a Greek letter, I present to you the 35 th Anniversary Edition of POOP. This year actually turned out to provide some relative relief and respite from the whirlpool of forces and events that made 2020 a year for history’s shitpile. Since then, we have vaccines that mostly keep us out of the hospital, testing kits that work if you use them at the right time and a new ineffectual leader who is at least not the last guy. Welcome to a world where someone named Cheney is the voice of reason. Huzzah. This year 21 of us have stormed the POOPitol. to a world where someone named Cheney is the voice of reason. Huzzah. This year 21 of us have stormed the POOPitol.

PoOPlists, Pooplists 2021 January 23, 2022

Mark Rosen Poop 2021

My POOP DISC-CLAIMER (disc-lamer?): My re-emergence into the world in 2021 apparently affected my music habits. Compared to never-again-please-2020, I found less of a need to seek refuge in music this year, spending less time in front of my computer and my stereo and more time taking baby-steps into the old world. I may not have seen any live music under a roof but I did routinely go to the supermarket, some record stores, the wine shop and, best of all, visit with my kids and my friends. And then I listened to some music after that. And as per usual, the music I kept returning to was mostly retro in one way or another. More than half of the titles on my list are in some way a look-back at something. The present ain’t what it used to be.

PoOPlists, Pooplists 2020, Yearly PoOP Analyses January 30, 2021

Main Poop Analysis 2020

Behold the 34th Annual POOPlist . . . or How I Spent My Pandemic. This year’s POOP documents what might be called the very best records of the very worst year. But for a year steeped in such sheer and utter shititude, there somehow managed to be a surprisingly ample amount of inspired music (as noted by a few people). So, if you would, allow POOP34 to provide a tincture of balm during this long slog toward whatever the next normal turns out to look like. At least there is comfort to be found that Trump is mostly gone and vaccines are mostly here, so there are those flags to mostly rally around. In the words of Nostratownshend, let us hope that ’21 is gonna be a good year. This year 19 POOPsters decided that making lists was as a good a way to kill quarantine time as anything else.

Strum & Thrum: The American Jangle Underground 1983-1987

PoOPlists, Pooplists 2020 January 27, 2021

Mark Rosen Poop 2020

My POOP DISC-CLAIMER (disc-lamer?): To only slightly-misquote Homer Simpson, that was the suckiest sucky year that ever sucked. While music will never be the first, second or hundredth thing I think of when I look back with, er, 2020 hindsight, this actually was a pretty good year for inspired music, most (but not all) recorded before March. The lion’s share of my selections are in some way steeped in older music, updated or re-examined for the present, but I’ve listed far fewer re-issues or expanded editions than usual. Pandemics work in mysterious ways.

Uncategorized December 7, 2020

Call for entries – Poop 2020

In an effort to restore a wee bit of normalcy (and to bring some sorely needed distraction and diversion), you are hereby invited to take part in the 34th Annual POOPlist. The calamity that is 2020 has made our annual exercise in being POmpous and OPinionated feel downright necessary this year. Anyway, what else do you have on your plate right about now?

PoOPlists, Yearly PoOP Analyses January 31, 2020

Main Poop Analysis 2019

Dear POOPster: Here we go again. As the nation flounders and is perhaps on the verge of altogether going down, we POmpous and OPinionated blowhards carry on like the band on the Titanic deck did. And we know how that ended. Now more than ever we need whatever distractions we can muster that might refocus our attention and restore the Old Normal to our lives, which brings us to the 33rd Annual POOPlist. This year only 19 blathering bloviants shot their confetti cannons into the cybersphere. Maybe it was the decision to not post the lists as they were submitted…

PoOPlists, Pooplists 2019 January 31, 2020

Mark Rosen Poop 2019

My POOP DISC-CLAIMER (disc-lamer?): In a more perfect world music would be one of many vehicles that could bring about meaningful change. In a less perfect one music might at least provide balm to a troubled world. But amidst the chaos and calamity so pronounced right now in America, music struggles even to be a diversion. I look forward to a time when my music habit can once again consume my attention and I hope even more that I can recognize America once again when I wake up on November 4th. These are the titles from which I sought and…

PoOPlists, PoOPlists 2018, Yearly PoOP Analyses February 3, 2019

Main Poop Analysis 2018

January 2018 Dear POOPster: Yes, POOP has undergone its own partial shutdown this year. I’m referring to the fact that hard-copy analog POOP has gone the way of the typewriter, the rotary phone and voting rights in Georgia. Fortunately the 32nd Annual POmpous and OPinionated List continues on its long trajectory using the modern space-age digital format, with Mark Zip at mission control. We are in good hands. This year, 24 people have joined the caravan, a slight droop in the POOP. Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to figure out how POOP’s tabulations are computed. From what…

PoOPlists, PoOPlists 2018 February 2, 2019

Mark Rosen Poop 2018

My POOP DISC-CLAIMER (disc-lamer?): Personal events usurped musical events for me this year. First, my daughter’s wedding in November filled me with a flurry of feelings I never saw coming. There were so many moments I’ll hold on to forever, 98% of which were not the least bit music-related (although slow-dancing to Etta James with my wife Leslie was among the other 2%). And then one week later, after months of working on his behalf, my new freshman congressman scored a surprisingly smashing victory over his NRA-loving, race-baiting, Trumpsucking incumbent opponent. These are where the “music to my ears” came…

Uncategorized December 19, 2018

Call for entries

Dear People of POmp and OPinion: After 31 years Printed POOP (the hard-copy, analog edition, that is) will be coming to an end. However, the digital online edition will continue its time-honored slog, thanks to the often overlooked efforts of Mark Zip, my Partner-in-POOP. For all these years, I have been getting the printed version done, er, under the table at a rather discounted rate but my shady invisible contact has had the temerity to retire from his print-shop position, leaving us without any other option. But puh-leez, remember that POOP lives on, evolving as it does. I hope this…

PoOPlists, PoOPlists 2017, Yearly PoOP Analyses January 30, 2018

Main Poop Analysis 2017

January 2018
Dear POOPster:
It’s the end of the world as we know it . . . please help me I’m falling . . . don’t they know, it’s the end of the world . . .
nuclear error but I have no fear. . . just a few lines from songs that have assumed the stature of existential dread in the past year. Lately I feel that the whole country is drowning and I / live by the river. So, do we need POOP right about now or what? So with that as impetus, I present the 31st annual musings of the POmpous and OPinionated. Remember when WE were the self-important bloviating blowhards? Ah, nostalgia. To the 25 pompoids who have contributed this year, it’s time to break out the tiki torches and behold the collective pith amid the pandemonium. And if I’ve offended anyone with my political vitriol, to you I say, “Go deep. I’ve got some paper towels for you.”

PoOPlists, PoOPlists 2017 January 23, 2018

Mark Rosen Poop 2017

My POOP DISC-CLAIMER (disc-lamer?): In this year like none other before it, writing a list about fleeting things like music feels pretty trivial. Still I welcome the distraction it provides. Thinking about things that excite me is so much more agreeable than dwelling on the Trumpster Fire that currently is this nation. So, for what it’s worthless, I toss out my POOPlist to you like rolls of paper towels, knowing it will provide about the same amount of balm.

PoOPlists, PoOPlists 2016, Yearly PoOP Analyses January 25, 2017

Main Poop Analysis 2016

Dear POOPster:
So . . . there seems to be some agreement that 2016 could have been a tad better. If I may speak for many of you here, fuck you 2016, fuck you for so many reasons. As we approach the end of the world as we know it, we will have to find strength in the little things, as trivial as they might seem right now. And what could be more trivial than the 30th Annual(!) POOPlist.

PoOPlists, PoOPlists 2016 January 23, 2017

Mark Rosen Poop 2016

2016. Where to begin? To paraphuck Charles Dickens, it was the worst of times . . . period. It was a year of unfathomable loss. Yes, the music world lost far too many big names, but that’s not the loss I am referring to. America lost its heart and its compassion, its soul, its purpose, its way. At this point, all I can ask Not-Mein-Fuhrer is to please not break anything too, too badly. Unfortunately I have very little faith in that happening. America has a president with serious and deep-rooted psychological problems who just might find unimaginable ways to…

PoOPlists, PoOPlists 2015, Yearly PoOP Analyses January 28, 2016

Main Poop Analysis 2015

2015 just might become known as the year to beat when it comes to unbridled stupidity in America. But more alarming than that, I fear that with good ol’ American gumption, the coming election year will no doubt leave it behind in the dust. Recently I learned that the oft paraphrased H.L. Mencken quote, the one about how no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people, actually had an even more apropos follow-up sentence: “Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.” But while the American political system as we know it is currently circling the drain, we the POmpous and OPinionated have responded in the best manner we know. While some of those who would be President prattle on in their assholier-than-thou vitriol, 25 POOPsters have found 10 or 25 or so causes for which to campaign, with civil discourse and free of all squirmishes (thanks, Sarah P!). Feel the POOP.

PoOPlists, PoOPlists 2015 January 20, 2016

Mark Rosen Poop 2015

Rhiannon Giddes –
J.D. McPherson –
Darlene Love –
Ryan Adams –
Bob Dylan –
Miriam –
Another Day – Another Time: Celebrating the Music of “Inside Llewyn Davis –
The Velvet Underground –
The Punch Brothers –
The Mavericks

PoOPlists, PoOPlists 2015 January 2, 2016

PoOPList 2015 – Call for submissions – You PoOPin?

Here is the annual plea for PoOP, as circulated by Our Fearless Leader, Mark Rosen. BTW, Mark Rosen, The Fearless Poop Leader is not the same Mark as the Mark Zip who runs this website. To the POmpous and OPinionated: You POOPin? If you’re getting one of these for the first time, POOP is our annual exercise in self-importance wherein we compile “Best Of 2015′ lists, to be published in a quaint ol’ print edition as well as online. This year will be our 29th annual exercise in swillification. A refresher about the rules and deadlines is in order: Limit…

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