Music

  • The Core is Getting Soft.11: TouchOsc

    I’ve always been a latecomer to technology.  When I got a fax machine in 1997, someone I worked with said, “Welcome to the ’80’s!”  I didn’t get a cell phone until late 2008, and I didn’t get a smartphone until a few months ago. Continuing this trend, I got myself an iPad last week.  The…

  • The Core is Getting Soft.10: Madrona Labs

    There are some soft synths or plug-ins I’ve bought where I could have conceivably sprung for the hardware version instead.  But there’s no way I could have ever afforded a Buchla synthesizer – until Madrona labs came out with their Aalto software synthesizer, which is inspired by the designs of Don Buchla, who invented the…

  • Top 40 Over 40.16: Holding It Down

    One possible answer to the question I posed in my post on Reckoning with REM – How come their early portraits of Southern life never said anything about the history of racist violence and forced labor in their native Georgia, even on their album Fables of the Reconstruction / Reconstruction of the Fables? – is that…

  • Impersonal Problems.1: Thanissara

    We’re used to thinking of problems as a word that goes hand in hand with “personal.”  Of course, there are problems in our professional lives.  But when we struggle with things that happen or come from outside of that realm, we tend to look at them as personal.  I’ve been interested in several articles I…

  • See Refrigerator Live online on March 1st at 6:40 pm!!!

    This is such a beautiful picture it makes me a bit misty eyed…  Refrigerator will be playing an event at the library where their lead singer Allen Callaci works in Rancho Cucamonga CA on the 1st of March at approximately 6:40 pm.  This a rare chance to see these wonderful musicians live, even if it’s…

  • Reckoning with early REM

    Recently I’ve been working on two projects at the same time, Gnawing on the Bone and Soy Aqui.  I usually don’t do this but have found that there is an upside to it that reminds me of the story behind the REM song Life and How to Live It.  The song is about a resident…

  • Top 40 Over 40.15: Bill Callahan – Made For the Stage?

    One of the cliches about aging performers is that they usually have to navigate the decline of their sex appeal by finding other ways to make something happen onstage.  There are some who escape this fate.  Kris Kistofferson was called a sex symbol during an interview with CBS’s Sunday Morning news program well into in…

  • The Core is Getting Soft.8: Couture on the Cheap

    When you have friends with similar interests and desires as you, sometimes you have to be willing to experience the pangs of jealousy.  I’m not just talking about romantic jealousy – for us musicians, it can be about the gear.  When I was in grade school, there was a bright and talented kid a year…

  • New Video: The Wrong Tree

    Making a video with Michael Galinsky and his family was so nice, I had to do it twice.  Here is what we came up with together for The Wrong Tree: Don’t miss Michael’s new book Malls Across America!  It reminds me of how nothing makes me think of death more than watching decades old sports…

  • Full Stream Ahead

    Growing up, I only I heard the word “streaming” in reference to tears that were coming hard and fast on the cheeks of a maudlin actress.  These days, it means a freebie. You can listen to my new album Spare Parts streaming in unabridged fashion for the next week at American Songwriter magazine.  Is it…