July 24, 2026

Morrissey

Morrissey is an English singer and songwriter. He came to prominence as the frontman and lyricist of the rock band the Smiths, who were active from 1982 to 1987. Since then, he has pursued a successful solo career. Morrissey’s music is characterized by his baritone voice and distinctive lyrics with anti-establishment stances and recurring themes of emotional isolation, sexual longing, self-deprecation, and dark humor.

Jon McLaughlin and Eric Hutchinson

New Year, New Jax City

vusleeper January 1, 2025

Now that everything is settled down in Jacksonville, I will be looking to explore the city in 2025. I am only here until March, however, eventually, the plan is to make a final move to Jax sometime in late 2025, if we can sell the house in Minneapolis.

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Blitz Vega

Smiths is it!

vusleeper February 27, 2024

In celebration of the late Andy Rourke, Blitz Vega announced his final album Northern Gentlemen. This was Rourke’s last project with Kav Blaggers. Spirit Power: The Best of Johnny Marr is a greatest hits album from guitarist extraordinaire Johnny Marr came out last year. Unfortunately, no The Smiths songs on the tracklisting. This is probably due to rights issue and most likely because they wanted to keep this strictly Marr’s solo work. The official Morrissey merchandise store, Mporium is offering a limited-edition Morrissey Peace Sign Harrington Jacket for £85 pre-order (shipping in April 2024). Unfortunately, this is only offered on their UK website. I kind of want it, I would’ve ordered it, but unfortunately, I don’t live in the UK.

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Brigitte Calls Me Baby at Surly Brewing, Minneapolis (13 July 2023)

Brigitte Calls Me Baby at Surly Brewing, Minneapolis (13 July 2023)

britrockatthetop7 July 14, 2023

Brody checked out Chicago’s Brigitte Calls Me Baby at Surly Brewing Co. in Minneapolis, as part of the special Summer of Sound set for The Current: Happy Hour. The free event was hosted by Jill Riley, who provided the soundtrack, and Brigitte Calls Me Baby provided the live set.

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The Smiths

Remembering Andy Rourke

vusleeper May 21, 2023

The news of Andy Rourke’s death came to me suddenly on Friday. I had no idea the former The Smiths bassist was dying… but on retrospect, I should have seen it coming. Especially since I wrote about how Rourke and Johnny Marr came together to produce “Strong Forever” in Jan 2023. The two were friends since the age of 13, before joining The Smiths, and it was likely a dying man’s last request.

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The More You Ignore Me (2018) - Morrissey

More Morrissey: Blitz Vega and The More You Ignore Me

vusleeper January 16, 2023

Blitz Vega’s “Strong Forever”, What is incredibly important about this single is that it features a team-up of Andy Rourke and Johnny Marr, a long time The Smiths reunion of some sort… a meeting that only took 35 years in the making. We all know that Morrissey has never forgiven the other band members (and in fact had an online spat with Marr a few years ago), so seeing Rourke and Marr together is good enough for me!

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