Isn’t it good?

By |2015-09-19T00:13:55-07:00December 7, 2011|Uncategorized|

I should (clone myself and) reread Haruki Murakami's novel Norwegian Wood, possibly my favorite of his books. The blog Night RPM (Linden Park) translates, in two parts (1 and 2), Murakami's afterword to the book. Here's a nice bit: The first part of Norwegian Wood was written in Greece, the second part, in Sicily, and the final part, in Rome. There weren’t tables or chairs in the cheap hotel room that I rented in Athens. So I went to a taberu (* bar) every day, repeatedly listened to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band on my Walkman about 120 times, and wrote [...]

"All Together Now"

By |2015-09-19T00:14:19-07:00November 28, 2011|Uncategorized|

Via WFMU's Twitter feed: Every Beatles song played at once, the longest starting first, all of them ending at the same time. [Update Dec 2014: somebody took down the track, probably Apple. But here's the same sort of thing, courtesy of YouTube.] http://youtu.be/uPbU46DkQOo

Holes

By |2015-09-18T23:59:58-07:00April 11, 2011|Uncategorized|

The title of John Luther Adams's concerto Four Thousand Holes, and Alex Ross's praise of it, make me curious...Some description here: In spite of this skepticism, Four Thousand Holes is my own effort to re-appropriate and reclaim for myself something of my own musical past. For the first time since my days as a rocker, I’ve chosen to restrict myself to major and minor triads—those most basic elements of Western music (both pop and classical). But I’ve tried to assimilate them fully into my own musical world. Approaching these simple chords as found objects, I’ve superimposed them in multiple streams of tempo, [...]

Folk feelings

By |2015-09-19T00:00:54-07:00February 25, 2011|Uncategorized|

I was fascinated by this letter from (in lieu of interview with) the singer Cass McCombs, which led me to this song, "County Line," well worth a listen, not least for some surprising/familiar/great Lennonish inflections.From the letter:The greatest art of any era comes from anonymous sources. The Folk who sacrifice themselves by passing on what has been taught to them so that it will live. In this sense, the future is Folk. We must not sell out our Past, but teach the Future. This is how I relate to influences, that Bob Marley, Kurt Cobain, Jerry Garcia, John Lennon, Darby Crash, Merle [...]

"Love"

By |2014-07-07T15:37:07-07:00February 16, 2011|Uncategorized|

What do you think? I could listen to Priscilla Ahn sing the phone book. (I like her cover of VU's "Afterhours," found about 5:30 into this vlog post.)(And remember her cover of "Julia"?)

People who hate the Beatles

By |2020-05-22T11:32:43-07:00December 7, 2010|Uncategorized|

Nyah! My 2c: People who hate The Beatles should really be hating all the musicians that came after The Beatles. It's not James Joyce's fault that nobody's topped Ulysses in that form, nor is it The Beatles fault that Revolver still kicks ass when it comes to the three-minute rock song form. I like Amy Mann, but my being bored with The Beatles doesn't make her music better than theirs. It just makes me bored with The Beatles, and especially receptive to something else. It's a drag, but there it is; maybe it was a coalescing of talents that hasn't [...]

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