About

This is the blog of Michael Gerbrandt and we’re sending out missives from the home base in Winnipeg, Canada. TLA aims to focus on music with a smattering of other bits.  Our past includes a radio show on 101.5 UMFM, DJ at various clubs and events, several articles/reviews published in earshot-online.com as well as popmatters.com and Stylus magazine.

Often we’ll be slow on posting as regular life often intrudes whether it’s the family, house projects, or work. However, writing on this blog provides a way of continuing to look critically at new/old albums and really dive into them rather than passively listening. Years ago, riding the bus to university for 1-2 hours a day provided many hours of listening to new music.  Unfortunately that time just doesn’t exist anymore and sometimes driving to work in silence is quite nice.

Mostly though, it’s a way for this 40+ year old to still feel connected to the music scene that we’ve grown up with and continue to love.

*A note about record reviews.

The vast majority of the reviews are “new to me” whether released last week, last year or in 1962 hence the year released listed in brackets. With the rise of streaming, I typically stream newer music on Apple Music to review before deciding to purchase.

Like many avid collectors, I purchase far more than I listen to so I’m also working through a backlog of discs that were purchased in large numbers over the years at used record shops that didn’t get a proper listening to the first time around.  Those will also pop in reviews from time to time.

In the last few years, several box sets and collections have been purchased that contain albums I’m more familiar with by the likes of Bob Dylan, David Bowie, etc.  As I work through those sets over the next few years, I will also review the better known discs for the sake of going in order and placing them in context of the artist’s career.  Generally the bigger boxes (5+ discs) will be broken up into separate reviews while smaller ones will be reviewed in one go.

Thank you for stopping by.

Sincerely,

Michael