Hey there, neglected blog readers. Hoping to squeeze out the past few entries soon (or not-so-soon), but I have a quick request: Could you let me know which of these posts have been your favorites? Trying to round up and revise a handful of the best.
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about the blogger
Keith Harris is a critic, journalist, essayist, and immigration attorney who has written professionally about a wide range of topics, including culture, law, and himself, for nearly two decades.
Eric Alterman called the kicker to his review of Bruce Springsteen’s The Rising “the stupidest comment of the year” in The Nation, and this was back before social media, when insults like that still meant something. Robert Christgau once called him “a class act” (though not in print).
He has been music editor of City Pages and the Chicago Reader, and was a senior editor at Blender for an entire issue.
Other publications that have paid him for his words include Rolling Stone, Spin, the Guardian, Slate, Salon, the Pitchfork Review, Deadspin, the Village Voice, the Seattle Weekly, Mother Jones, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
He was a contributor to the New Rolling Stone Album Guide.
He has a gmail account (kharris1128) and a Twitter account (@useful_noise).
He calls Minneapolis home.
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about the blog
I first set this blog up in 2010 as a place for me to chronologically yammer about my favorite music of the previous decade. That project wrapped up in March 2013. Things have gotten a little more free-form around here since then. -
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Top Posts & Pages
Useful Noise 
Comments
Eminem – “Stan”
Jay Z – “Big Pimpin”
M.I.A. – “Galang”
among my faves
Love all the ones you’ve done on country. (Alcohol comes to mind, for its spot-on placing of Paisley’s role within the genre) You’re one of the very few guys out there really looking at country critically. Keep it up.
Off the top of my head, Viva La Vida, Maps, Get Low, Ignition (Remix) are all great. Also I don’t know what the proper forum would be, but I would like to request a write-up of “Booty In The Air.”
“Stan,” The Legendary K.O., and “Oops (Oh My)” come to mind.
Thanks guys! And thanks for the request, Mike, but I’m having a hard enough time finishing the entries I’ve already committed to!
I thought you did a nice job on “The Scientist” explaining Coldplay in general.
“Midwest Swing”
“Oops (Oh My)”
“Slow Jamz”
“Waiting on the World to Change”
All of those are fantastically written.
Thanks!