Music

  • The Core Is Getting Soft.18: SketchCassette

    My mother used to tell me she got a weird feeling when she walked into vintage clothing stores in the 1990’s. She said a lot of the clothes on display looked she things was used to seeing in the 1950’s when she was growing up. It was odd for her to see the time of…

  • Top 40 Over 40.28: Matana Roberts, Coin Coin Chapter Four: Memphis

    Yes, social media can be a waste of time, and a low self esteem machine. Yes, it facilitates hate and social sniping. But – with a good roster of musical friends it can also introduce you to a lot of great new music – both in the sense of just released, and new-to-you. My latest…

  • Top 40 Over 40.27: No Protection

    Remixes usually disappoint me.  I often imagine it’s because they’re run off quickly without the remixer having an in person musical relationship with the artist they’re remixing.  I didn’t really dig either the UNKLE or Dust Brothers remixes that were done of Folk Implosion’s Natural One & Insinuation.  When One Part Lullaby came out in…

  • Gnawing on the Bone now available!

    Gnawing on the Bone now available!

    The upcoming releases section of this website has felt a bit like a closet in need of cleaning out.  That load has lightened as of yesterday with the digital release on Bandcamp of Gnawing on the Bone.  This is an instrumental project that was written in Watertown MA in 2011 in one sitting as a…

  • Driftin’ back to Buckley

    Simon Joyner once said to me I wish I could sing like Tim Buckley, but I do what I can with what I have.  I said I felt the same way.  This morning I was looking for something irrelevant to listen to while nearing completion of Gnawing on The Bone, an instrumental project I’ve been…

  • The Core Is Getting Soft.17: Iris

    While this site is not organized for commercial purposes, I did want to let those musically productive readers know that Izotope’s fantastic virtual sample based synthesizer Iris 2 is on sale for just $29.  You can also get it combined with Izotope’s Trash 2 distortion plug in for $49.  I used the Iris 2 extensively…

  • It’s Halloween Time

    I’m pleased to announce my participation in a seasonally tuned in lo fi compilation called It’s Halloween Time from Chthonic Records (US) and Almost Halloween Time Records (Italy).  It kicks off with a tune from C. Worth, whose instrumental guitar work I have been enjoying over the past year, and meanders through numerous fragmentary delights. …

  • What We’ve Been Up To

    I recently got to write a post for Dusted Magazine‘s Listed series about ten records & books I’m fond of.  It’s not a Top 10 of All Time, for reasons stated in the opener, more like what I wanted to write about on that occasion: Art Melody, Kari Ka Kian Fô Baaba Maal & Mansour…

  • Top 40 Over 40.24: Zero Set

    1982:  I was 12 years old and listening to James Taylor.*  Ouch. I could have been listening to an album that came out that year by Moebius, Plank, and Neumeier called Zero Set.  That would have been a better outcome for all concerned. Conny Plank (above) would have been 42 when this came out, which qualifies…

  • Top 40 Over 40.23: KRS-One Live at Cat’s Cradle

    I saw KRS – One live a few months ago, and the musical assumptions of ageism took another body blow for sure.  Aging musicians often lose the full power of their stage presence, and / or seem bitter or disillusioned or worn down by the passage of time, or lose the critical edge of their…