Tag: Mike Ladd

• 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…

  jhd123

  July 1, 2020

  History, Music, Record Reviews, Top 40 Over 40

  AACM, Black Rock Coalition, Coin Coin Chapter Four: Memphis, Mass Incarceration, Matana Roberts, Mike Ladd, new slavery, Record Reviews, Thirteenth Amendment, Top 40 Over 40, Vijay Iyer

• Silence Is Golden / Way South

  Next release is coming in late March.  It’s a side project of processed instrumental guitar pieces about my semi-rural neighborhood, which ranges from titles like “Mobile Homes” to “Hidden Mansions” following the strange geography of class in such parts of the US. Project title is “Outside A Small City.”  Limited edition of 100 on vinyl,…

  jhd123

  January 31, 2019

  John Davis and The Cicadas, Shows and Events, Work In Progress

  Alastair Galbraith, Auckland, Australia, Class, El Pulpo, Gnawing on the Bone, Inundation Records, Luigi Aht Falagario, Mike Ladd, New Zealand, Outside A Small City, Pure Night Plus, Teachers on Strike, Underwater Now, UTLA

• Bandcamp store now open

  Our new record El Pulpo comes out in the US on October 20th, October 14th if you buy the Shrimper Records tape version from a participating brick and mortar store on Cassette Store Day.  For the first time, I will be selling music through Bandcamp.  I’ve uploaded the new double album as the homepage, (download,…

  jhd123

  September 24, 2017

  Anti-Neoliberalism, Book Reviews, Cassettes, Current Events, History, Migration, New Releases, Politics, Shrimper Records

  10K Strong, Bandcamp, Cassette Store Day 2017, Durham For All, El Pulpo, Mike Ladd, Nelson Denis, Notes On The Return To The Island, Omaha, Pledge Music, Seward, Shows and Events, Shrimper Records, Simon Joyner, War Against All Puerto Ricans

• New Album available for Pre-Sale; Back from Europe for late July / early August USA shows

  Me and the Cicadas are back from Europe, where I was locked out of posting on this website cuz of technical difficulties.  Alex, Wendy, Scott and I had a great tour with some pony-riding and other vacation hijinks mixed in between the shows.  Thanks to the many folks who helped make it happen. Our new…

  jhd123

  July 21, 2017

  Book Reviews, John Davis and The Cicadas, Music, New Releases, Shows and Events

  Derek Bailey, Earl Lovelace, El Pulpo, Evil English, Glasgow, Is Just a Movie, Mike Ladd, Peter Linebaugh, Pledge Music, Quelque Part Records, Ryszard Kapuscinski, Seward, Simon Joyner, The London Hanged, Thistle Books, Tome Records, Voltaire and Rousseau Books

• Read Robin D.G. Kelley on Ferguson

  This is simply to refer folks to an excellent article about Ferguson by Robin D.G. Kelley I read on the Counterpunch website after it was posted by Imani Perry on Facebook. http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/11/25/75039/ Please consider a subscription to Counterpunch as well as checking out Kelley’s excellent books. In musical circles, Kelley is most known for his biography…

  jhd123

  November 26, 2014

  Book Reviews, Current Events, History

  american empire, Barack Obama, Black Agenda Report, Bruce Dixon, Counterpunch, Darren Wilson, Eddie Conway, Ferguson, History, Imani Perry, KRS-One, Left media, Mike Brown, Mike Ladd, Race, Robin D.G. Kelley, The Real News Network

• 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…

  jhd123

  March 2, 2014

  Music, Record Reviews, Top 40 Over 40

  Afghanistan, american empire, Blowback, Buzz or Howl Under the Influence of Heat, chalmers johnson, Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden, Holding It Down, Imperialism, In What Language?, Iraq, Lynn Hill, Maurice Decaul, Mike Ladd, Minutemen, Music, Politics, Race, Record Reviews, REM, Still Life With Commentator, Top 40 Over 40, Vijay Iyer

• 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…

  jhd123

  November 29, 2013

  Music, Record Reviews, Series of posts, Spare Parts, The Core is Getting Soft

  2001, Digital vs. Analog, EMS Synthi AKS, Harry Partch, Holding It Down, Kraftwerk, Mike Ladd, Novachord, Olivier Messaien, Ondes Martenot, Oud, Sandy Bull, software reviews, Soniccouture, Stanley Kubrick, Steve Albini, Treated Piano