Mixtape: Stay
Dream journal: I'm on a street as it starts to crack open. Volcanic lava glows hazmat orange as it oozes through the asphalt. Everything and everyone is...
Mixtape: Sunset
Simply a photo of a church near our family's house at sunset. My neighborhood is quiet and unassuming, yet really knows when to turn on the charm. I hope...
Mixtape: Afloat
I can't fall asleep to music; my brain is too busy dissecting its melodies, textures and rhythms to fully rest, even if I find the music restful. As I've...
Mixtape: Awake
Where are the weirdos in normal spaces? The death of Paul Ruebens, best known for his character Pee-wee Herman, took me back to my childhood in the early...
Mixtape: Aurora
I proclaimed my love of sorghum syrup for Marissa's "ringing endorsements," so in the spirit of sharing, here are some more: I really like movies that won't...
Mixtape: Viking's Flames
Bands either got paid in cash or spaghetti — that was basically the deal when it came to church shows. When I first met Luxury, it was in a cafeteria...
Mixtape: Viking's Mysterium
If you're a good friend I haven't seen in a while who invites me to a thing, I will probably make it my business to go. So when Kim texted me on Saturday to...
Mixtape: Viking's Majesty
For all of its technique, theory and philosophy (or intentional lack thereof), improvisation is an extremely human conversation between people or the self,...
Mixtape: Viking's Syzygy
I really need to stop reading f***** up comics before bed — they give me surreal and stressful dreams. Zak Sally's Sammy the Mouse is set in a Dr. Suess-ian...
Mixtape: Viking's Bubblegum
Caption: Spectators is a NSFW webcomic by Brian K. Vaughan (Saga, Paper Girls) and Niko Henrichon (Pride of Baghdad). On the surface, it's a pre-post-...
Mixtape: Viking's Pearl
The photo above was taken by me, not a professional photographer, with a slightly busted camera phone at Rhizome, a beloved community space in Washington,...
Mixtape: Viking's Serenade
In an effort to reorganize Viking's Choice, I'm gonna try to parse out the regular features — the mixtape, the (hopeful return of the) Viking's Choice...
Unwound is for the Children
In 2003, I heard a WUOG DJ spin "Terminus," a sidewinding cyclone of music that finds the nexus of knotty post-hardcore and string-swept post-rock over a...
By the Fruits: Jack Rose, 'Now That I'm a Man Full Grown'
I turned 40 years old today, so lately I've been thinking about experiences that set roots. Here's the start of an occasional series called By the Fruits:...
Increased Ribbit Amplification
What I'm podcasting, comic-book reading or tweeting lately: Podcasts: WHYY's The Statue, a short-run podcast about the statue from Rocky III, its uneasy...
We Always Return to Destroy
It's the year 2008. Pop singers didn't release albums on cassette. Vinyl was a cult artifact. CD-Rs were still an acceptable format for scuzzy punk bands and...
Mailorder My Heart: 10 Choice Record Stores Online
What was the first music you ordered from a catalog? If memory serves, I sent away an envelope of well-concealed cash (LOL) for three CDs: Succulent Space...
Your Voice Never Really Leaves You
Christopher Guest should make a mockumentary about DIY punk shows. Broken and borrowed PAs, a Punk in a Kilt, a sound guy about to burst a blood vessel from...
94 Good Things from 365 Days of 2022
When I started putting together a personal year-end list back in November, I kept finding myself drawn back to moments not just in albums, but across comics,...
Viking's Choice 2022: Reissues & Renewals of Spirit
All music from the past speaks with the present to inform the future — these reissues and archival projects just so happen to have been released in the...