October 2019 update: Mr. Baker has died, and I’ve updated and expanded this post a bit, and put it in past tense. I’m rather critical of him. If that’s not what you want to read about […]
Year: 2015
Daily best music in the world: Splash
Slow week. Of course we can’t just have a continuous onslaught of new stuff— I don’t write just to hear myself bloviate, and I’ve already put on the blog far more information than I was […]
Vindication, thy name is Buzzfeed
SHUT UP, Einstein, there’s a drummer present. We are so smrt: [R]esearchers at Stockholm’s Karolinska Institutet found that drummers who kept a tighter rhythm also scored better on a 60-question intelligence test. This is a […]
Daily best music in the world: Weather Report
Lots of other action right now, so light posting is going to continue this week, so enjoy 8:30, by Weather Report. Peter Erskine is on drums. I used to set my turntable to repeat, and […]
Ornette Coleman 1930-2015
New York Times notice Ornette Coleman’s Revolution from The New Yorker Four songs @ Vox Rolling Stone notice Huffington Post notice The Guardian notice NPR notice
Your big paycheck is just around the corner.
In Salon today is a conversation with Marc Ribot about the future of copyright, the Internet, and the state of the music business in general. What started the conversation was some statements by producer Steve […]
Daily best music in the world: Red Red Meat
All my writing energy is going into the new CSD! rock-and-funk book, so let’s enjoy some more rock & roll. Here’s a favorite band of mine: Red Red Meat, from Chicago, who put out a […]
Groove o’ the day: Poison Idea — Marked For Life
Here’s one for my student, Max: from an early demo by northwest punk legends Poison Idea. With our Iron Maiden shirts and long hair, my friends and I went to see them play in somebody’s […]
College — 01
Obligatory Animal House still. I get where he’s coming from. Man, higher education in the US is so screwed up right now, I really do not envy the position of college-age musicians. Truthout has published […]
This / not this: grunge
What can I say, I’m feeling nostalgic. This 1994 video of Portland band Iommi Stubbs playing at The Satyricon is pretty much the epitome of grunge every respect— from the horrible recording, to the lack […]
Groove o’ the day: Melvins cover Butthole Surfers
I was re-listening to the videos in this post, and, in honor of music that makes you feel good— contra music that makes you feel nothing— here’s the beat Coady Willis and Dale Crover are playing […]
Comedy break
While I’m embroiled in working on the new rock-and-funk book— which is in the wonderful snowballing-on-me-and-just-about-needing-a-total-reorganization phase— enjoy some classic turn-of-the-90s comedy: Get A Life, starring Chris Elliot. If you haven’t seen it, it is […]