Listening


KING, KUOW, KEXP, KBTC
(89 Words. January 18, 2012, 07:23 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
I had totally forgotten that KING went public in spring 2011. I’m so happy to have a non-ad supported classical programming station on the air locally.KING’s programming is a far cry from the range of material heard on WFIU in my youth, with not nearly as much screechy and blippy 20th century stuff, but that’s OK - I can get…

Oh of course
(57 Words. December 22, 2011, 08:10 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
While I was able to use this tip to enable a means to view source in Safari on iPad, one cannot copy a selection from the code. Naturally. Nor can one copy a JavaScript link. So I will have to remember to fish around for a quickpost link when I get my butt into the desk chair….

Soundfest
(576 Words. August 18, 2011, 12:29 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
This weekend, Seattle Soundfest happens at a variety of venues in Seattle. The venues are: Neumos The Comet The Funhouse The Vera Project El Corazon Soundfest has umbrella pass pricing for the events at $150 (which includes free beer, probably PBR) and $100. Single-day pass pricing is $40. Individual shows are also priced; I only looked up the prices…

Nighttime
(511 Words. March 22, 2010, 07:55 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
OK, so, uh. On St. Patrick’s Day, a rock musician and studio guru named Alex Chilton passed away at 59 from a heart attack while mowing his lawn in New Orleans. Chilton is best known to the average person as the author of the theme song to ‘That 70’s Show,’ a song called “In the Street” originally written for…

Neat
(16 Words. May 29, 2009, 05:17 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Well, cool! Joe Strummer’s London Calling - found via a cursory google search for “curated playlists.”…

Tuning in
(116 Words. May 29, 2009, 05:06 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
So, as noted in some earlier posts, I have successfully (I hope) executed a Grand Unification of the iTunes Libraries. Unfortunately, a key element in so doing was nuking the extant actual iTunes Library files, which means all my various library playlists are history as well. My head hurts. On the other hand, I suppose the proper methodology is…

Pursuant to Dr. Zink's
(85 Words. May 25, 2009, 08:16 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Pursuant to Dr. Zink’s notice of Miriam Linna’s nascent narrative of the Ohio mafia, I found her linking to one Houndblog. The Hound was a key WFMU DJ specializing in older regional sides but years ago he relocated to NOLA (so I am told) where he owns a bar. Persons who actually live in NOLA and play the rock…

Now playing
(398 Words. May 23, 2009, 04:14 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
After literal years, I have finally completed a multiple-library merge and de-dupe on my primary iTunes music folder. At the end of the project, I have about 30gb of unique songs, representing about 750 artists. As I have been working on this, I have been pursuing a concurrent project to enable multi-zone playback from the primary iTunes machine, a…

How did they fit her in there?
(52 Words. March 12, 2009, 10:15 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Regarding the news of Apple’s latest iPod (ridiculous proprietary headphone nonsense to the side), I must note that it talks. Hmm, gosh, what does that remind me of… Oh yeah! DJ Victoria! Uncle Steve, Manny and I will take our gifting swag here any time… feel free to drop a line!…

Enchirito!
(122 Words. February 14, 2009, 09:11 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Years ago, Viv and I saw, once only, a bizarre ad for Taco Bell’s ‘enchirito,’ featuring the word sung by four guys singing in a circular group as the camera panned around their faces. We both stopped what we were doing or talking about and yelled ‘what was that?“ but the hilarious strangeness of the ad was never to…

Lux Extinguere
(185 Words. February 05, 2009, 07:54 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
RIP, Lux Interior Roll on, rock on, raw bones Well there’s still a lot of rythm in these Rockin’ Bones I wanna leave a happy memory when I go, I wanna leave something to let the whole world know, that the rock n roll daddy has a done passed on, but my bones will keep a rockin’ long after I’ve…

Mom's homemade sushi
(35 Words. January 31, 2009, 10:53 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
How to Make Sushi at Home. Investigated as a potential means toward a transatlantic teleconferencing meal with a self-proclaimed information pope, an autonomous autarch of data organization, an existential code evangelist and good egg….

Fog
(35 Words. January 20, 2009, 06:34 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Oh the clammy fog clings close and thick tonight. Strange that on this day of hope and triumph a ghost story would be the best tale to whisper tonight in and on the Puget Sound….

Spooooky
(103 Words. January 19, 2009, 08:34 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
KUOW is running a retrospective montage of the past eight years which is creeping me the fuck out. It started by blending audio of the morning show’s reaction to the Seattle earthquake with audio of Gore’s concession and is proceeding forthwith through the litany of shame, lies, wholesale slaughter, theft, union-busting, embezzlement, gaming the stock market, governmental failures, fraudulently…

Xombies
(56 Words. October 31, 2008, 05:46 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Exene stumbled fitfully toward John, who had a hard time handling the bass. Billy’s grin seemed unusually wide. DJ’s skinpounding seemed fragile, on this night. The band forgot lyrics, skipped bridges, generally seemed out of things, distracted, a shadow of their former selves. Then the cops arrived. (Originally written as a part of NaDruWriNi 2004.)…

Trumpeter
(36 Words. October 07, 2008, 08:34 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
My ex-bandmate Karel apparently died yesterday. It’s sad news. Here is a portrait I took for a demo cover back in 2001. He was wearing his guitar - you can see the strap on his shoulder….

THE LAST STIFF COMPILATION...UNTIL
(92 Words. September 09, 2008, 06:24 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
THE LAST STIFF COMPILATION…UNTIL THE NEXT ONE. Picked this up at Duroc Records in 1980, who knows where it is now. Listened to it over and over and over and over and over and over again. I think I must have grabbed Red Snerts the same day. It did not really turn out to be a roadmap to the…

Knuckles
(118 Words. August 23, 2008, 04:56 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
I have been rummaging through my computer and digital detritus of late - there is a lot - and was happily able to restore Viv’s iPod to full functionality. Taking advantage of this today as I mowed the lawn, I amused myself by bending an ear to the last BKB thing I worked on, a live demo CD of…

Sink
(4 Words. August 01, 2008, 11:37 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Must try Syncopation….

Rex Bob Lowenstein
(125 Words. July 02, 2008, 05:25 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Listening to a fifteen-year old cassette of a friend’s old aircheck - hm, maybe even older than fifteen years, can’t recall if it’s a WQAX or WFHB show - I was amused by the song Rex Bob Lowenstein, by artist unknown, but possibly Mark Germino. I started to try to figure out whose song it was and the search…

Hear it
(121 Words. July 01, 2008, 11:03 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
From that Hoosier 60s band blog, on my first sweep through it I found a bunch of cools pics and band names but a sad lack of great sounds! This June 2007 post highlighting a side by the Tribu-terrys is the best I’ve come up with so far. I did think it was interesting that many of the other…

Gold
(24 Words. July 01, 2008, 08:24 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Via a reference posted by the respected Yukki Repellent on MFT: 60’s indiana band szene. This is all-new to me, and it’s exciting!…

Glass, and houses
(30 Words. June 30, 2008, 09:48 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Lying on the grass and watching the sky slowly darken of a midsummer evening while Philip Glass’ Powwaqatsi plays the day away is far from an argument against Western overconsumption….

Gang of Burma
(102 Words. June 28, 2008, 10:20 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Whenever I dig out my old Mission of Burma sides, as I have this hot night, I am always struck: the things that I like in MoB are the things that I like in Gang of Four, MoB’s less doctrinaire political lyrics being an exception, and for some reason, a point in Gang of Four’s favor despite the clearly…

Steady
(68 Words. June 26, 2008, 07:13 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Man, Singles Going Steady just never gets old. Here’s a link that should set you up with the Hype Machine Buzzcocks stream. Not the same thing, but when i checked, 80% of the tunes were from SGS. So kick back, pop a handful of black beauties with some acid, and crack that popper under your nose. When you wake…

Sunday Morning
(43 Words. June 08, 2008, 08:44 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Did you ever wake up and realize that something you’d done was so, so sad? VU: She’s my Best Friend VU: Sunday Morning (Banana; I have easy access to the Quine Tapes version, but I’m really thinking of the Max’s Kansas City Version)….

3312
(27 Words. June 02, 2008, 05:22 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Since I know at least two of the authors in the series, and love the idea, I suppose I should really man up on 33 1/2….

Straight to
(315 Words. May 23, 2008, 07:37 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
On my way in to work this morning, I flipped away from NPR when they started repeating stories and scanned the dial until something caught my ear. A snippet from “Straight to Hell,” by the Clash, was looped behind another singer, and the sampling song immediately interested me for a variety of reasons. It turned out to be Paper Planes,…

Gone
(100 Words. May 07, 2008, 07:22 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
A friend of a friend - of many, many friends, actually - died overnight, it seems. The departed is not Seattle local and to my knowledge, I never met him. But lots of people I love chose to love him too, and so I’m unhappy. Reflective, maybe. Moody. WFHB is having the locals show - Frankie, Phil and Al…

The Ministry of Vegetables
(101 Words. April 26, 2008, 09:16 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Supposed to hit seventy today and the upcoming week’s lows are all over forty. Time to move plants around and get some more into the ground. Back to the garden. Hit it, Jason. Huh, might as well make the to-do list here as anywhere. 1. Mow lawn. 2. Pot tomato suckers, start a few more. 3. Site herbs: Sage,…

Do the Indie Kid
(28 Words. April 08, 2008, 08:25 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
MJ Hibbet, via The Best Bus Driver in the World. Lyrics. Hands behind your back, move your feet around… The blog posts are hilarious, also….

John
(39 Words. April 03, 2008, 11:36 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
High-school punk-rock buddy John Strohm (and musician and lawyer) is autobioblography-ing. Part one. Part two. Part three. Part four. It’s really, really interesting to read another person’s well-written recollections of your shared adolescent experiences….

How's that again?
(217 Words. March 26, 2008, 10:06 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
NYT: Researchers Play Tune Recorded Before Edison “Researchers say they have unearthed a recording of the human voice, made by a little-known Frenchman, that predates Edison’s invention of the phonograph by nearly two decades. The 10-second recording of a singer crooning the folk song “Au Clair de la Lune” was discovered earlier this month in an archive in Paris by…

Not my BKB
(230 Words. March 17, 2008, 09:37 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
At work today, a co-worker was listening to a Philly sports radio station when he heard a promo for some St. Paddy’s Day shows by Philly’s own The Bare Knuckle Boxers. He and I both found this amusing, having been founding members of Seattle’s own BKB. Given the Google results for bare knuckle boxers, it seems unlikely that the Philly…

Cities in dust
(96 Words. March 04, 2008, 11:16 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
On my way to NWFF tonight, I walked around my old neighborhood gawking at the massive changes that two years have brought. I was gawking at the new buildings, but evidently crime is up as well. Lots of shiny new restaurants targeting an upscale demographic, lots of closed mom-and-pop storefronts and empty old standbys. The old standby I selected ws…

Leap Day
(315 Words. February 29, 2008, 08:01 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
For reasons unknown (alien invasion?) KUOW ran next week’s WNYC-produced Radiolab, a live show recorded in front of a loving audience in Minneapolis, tonight. The show uses Radiolab’s signature overlapping audio, which to my ear derives most directly from Altman and Firesign Theatre, to explore the production and legacy of the storied Mercury Theatre on the Air “War of The…

The dog ate my...
(153 Words. February 27, 2008, 06:22 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
On arriving home tonight, I was greeted by the conspicuous absence of attention-hoggery and tailwagging from Rocket which inevitably means something has been thoroughly chewed to bits. In normal circumstances, this affects shoes, and consequently Viv, more than me. We’ve adapted by locking the shoes up. Casting my eyes about what should I see, but THIS: That is what remains…

Ol' Pete
(75 Words. February 26, 2008, 07:42 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
The Best Bus Driver in the World (weblog wafted away on the digital winds), acting on a ukelele-inspired whim, bought me a copy of Pete Seeger’s well-known American Favorite Ballads, figuring that since he was buying himself a copy I might be interested too. Happily, the book appears to be the source for several old faves of mine, introduced to…

WMA transcoding
(24 Words. February 08, 2008, 06:47 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
publicdimension.ch points out how to kluge a local real-time transcoded stream with the help of VLC. Not quite what I need, but interesting nonetheless….

Crony
(84 Words. January 30, 2008, 07:54 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Cron for Palm, give or take. I’m looking for an autotaske for the Treo that combines the ability to start streaming web audio as an alarm clock and can do things like send an SMS as a scheduled task. True cron on a full-fledged box would handle that with ease, but I dunno about this. This musing prompted by my…

Panics cover spotted in the wild
(23 Words. January 28, 2008, 01:40 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
JB hipped me to The Panics vs. The Briefs. My minions are toiling away on John’s behalf even as you read this….

Corn-fed platters!
(18 Words. January 24, 2008, 08:03 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
A big TYVM to Eric for pointing out Hoosier Vinyl, pickin’ and sharin’ from my home state….

Cold cold heart
(138 Words. January 15, 2008, 06:09 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
We live on a steep hill which reliably ices over in weather such as that we have tonight, and just as reliably, I grow more and more irritated with the helpless sound of spinning wheels and engines burnt out. My irritation has moved me, this night, to place some random traffic cones abandoned in the neighborhood by a gas-main project…

Playin the fool agin
(228 Words. December 31, 2007, 08:19 PM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
Few things chap a man’s hide the likes of realizing he’s mislaid both the vinyl and CD copies of the Velvet Underground’s late-period works Loaded and Live at Max’s Kansas City. UPDATE: As this entry was prompted by having decided the right way to see 208 in was to listen to the Velvets on vinyl from around 8 until midnight…

Shards
(74 Words. December 31, 2007, 06:20 PM, Comments: 2) MORE >>>
Poking about this weekend as I listened to Steve’s 20-year-old tape, I came across a few posts from some MP3 blog called ‘Shards of Beauty.’ Imagine my surprise when, after finally locating Steve’s blog, ‘Made Explicit,’ it became clear to me that I know the anonymous poster behind Shards of Beauty, and that he’s been busy digitizing and posting some…

well it pays to get up early
(72 Words. November 03, 2007, 07:23 PM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
Due to an odd confluence of events, the past week has been all about the Vulgar Boatmen. This reminds me that if a certain bus driver wants some Boatmen miscellany, such as live recording or obscurities from the deep past, he has but to ask. Also I note that the archives are having problems with ‘proper’ quotes and the like….

No, I mean yes
(56 Words. November 01, 2007, 08:43 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
When a near-twenty year resident of Seattle finds out about a freakin’ Sonics reunion the night before the NYC show from the New Yorker, I think one can safely say that there is something wrong with the world. Or at least my media ecology. No Google trail of any local appearance, but if so: I will….

Winehouse
(50 Words. May 14, 2007, 08:35 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
And while I’m on about music and recordings and the like, the March ‘07 US-released Amy Winehouse record Back to Black is epic. I can’t get it out of my mind. Interestingly, the replay quotient is up there with Neko Case’s second and third records, also audio explorations of heartache….

La Musique
(76 Words. May 02, 2007, 10:03 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
How pleasant to hear NPR’s coverage of the Ponderosa Stomp as I pulled in to the carport this evening and to end the night with Ahmet Ertegun’s valediction on the PBS. Astonishing to be reminded that the Stax men, Booker’s band, were Otis Redding’s sidemen. How amazing to have been introduced to the persons playing the instruments via that…

Orson
(270 Words. April 28, 2007, 04:32 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
As I lay in bed last night, the 10pm LA Theatre Works broadcast of Austin Pendleton’s 2000 play, Orson’s Shadow came on. Recorded in 2002, the play later ran for a year or so in New York City, opening in 2005. the New York production won a passel of awards, and if I read my web-sign aright, the performer…

Josh Bell rocks (?) the DC Metro
(450 Words. April 07, 2007, 08:58 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
WaPo recasts Josh as busker. He’s game. DC commuters? um. Point: JOSH! I really, really liked this. I sent this note to the WaPo team responsible for the piece. Thank you all for making my day. I knew Josh, distantly, as a kid when we were growing up in Bloomington. I haven’t seen him except to be aware of…

If I could
(58 Words. March 08, 2007, 07:49 PM, Comments: 2) MORE >>>
Moments ago KEXP evening man Don Slack pre-credited a song, “If I could,” performed by a female lead singer whose name I did not catch. The song is by ex-Gizmo Tim Carroll, and Slack credited Carroll just before he played the side, causing me to bark excitedly and run around in circles. The song was delightful….

RIP, noisily
(42 Words. February 25, 2007, 10:01 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Per Bart: Funeral for a Friend. Helen Hill gets laid to rest in NOLA. Alternafreaks lay claim to the foundations of American culture and win a stake to the title by blood right. Get the fuck out of the way, dammit….

See ya, Doctor
(81 Words. February 21, 2007, 06:58 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
The Stranger: RIP, Charles Gocher of Sun City Girls (Confidential to Alice Dee: oddly, I don’t think I woulda linked to this if we’d not spoken. It’s the first day of Lent, and all day I have been plotting a delicious fish feast. Perhaps this relates to the untimely passing of Dr. Gocher, fellow venturist.) UPDATE: A commenter on…

You Don't Lethem Me Yet
(27 Words. February 11, 2007, 04:12 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
As spotted on the Vulgar Boatmen listgroup: Jonathan Lethem’s upcoming novel, You Don’t Love Me Yet, is titled after a justly-admired Vulgar Boatmen tune. Intriguing possibility!…

SHUT THE FUCK UP
(277 Words. February 08, 2007, 11:16 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
The Society for Ethnomusicology and especially me, Mike Whybark (although the Society has seen fit to suppress many, indeed, the majority of, specific aspects of their requests in previously published versions of this acoustifesto): * calls for full disclosure of U.S. government-sanctioned and funded programs that design the means of delivering music as torture; * condemns the use of…

Buzzkill
(111 Words. January 28, 2007, 10:40 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Buzzcocks soundtrack for AARP ad. When viewed in the context of a particularly grim Battlestar Galactica, it’s enough to give me the willies. Torture! Suicide! 30-year-old music written by teenagers used to sell retirement planning to 60-year olds! Divorce! Adultery! Heart-numbing use of the drink! I suppose, given the episodes’ topics of faith, loyalty, love and betrayal, a better…

NM Me
(69 Words. January 23, 2007, 06:43 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
As the prez describes his enemies I have to remark that his delineation of an implacable enemy of liberty, driven by a narrow and inflexible ideology which celebrates the sacrifice of humanitarian value in the pursuit of an hegemonic dominance under the banner of a fundamentalist creed, I hearken to what appears to me a thoughtful self-portrait of the…

Band-aid
(31 Words. January 23, 2007, 06:29 PM, Comments: 2) MORE >>>
Maybe I’m wrong, but I swear I just heard that incompetent fuckwit propose to solve the US health care crisis by making employer-provided health-care insurance into a FUCKING TAXABLE INCOME ASSET!…

Sweet
(104 Words. January 02, 2007, 09:01 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
I am so digging king-fm’s broadcast of Alan Hovaness’ Guitar Concerto, Op.325 (performers currently unknown by me). I’m just starting a non-fiction bio about the American West, circa 1840-1880 and the contrast between the solo guitar and the lush symphonic passages, and the loose timing of the solo parts contrasting with the slightly serialist framework of the orchestra make…

Wikipedia Brown
(10 Words. November 20, 2006, 07:34 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Wikipedia Brown and the Case of the Captured Koala….

Zirkonium Crawl
(73 Words. November 18, 2006, 01:06 PM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
Attention Hillians: Orkestar Zirkonium: Capitol Hill Pub Crawl Sat, November 18, 2006 9:00 pm, FREE! Cal Anderson Park and down the Pike/Pine corridor Seattle, WA Come drink and dance away the winter cold and the sorrows of this world—meet in Cal Anderson Park at the fountain at 9 pm to join a roving, barhopping street party with purveyors of…

A License
(80 Words. November 09, 2006, 06:17 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
P-Frank notes “that while The Who has lost a drummer and a bassist, the only surviving members of the Beatles are a drummer and a bassist,” and describes the obvious solution as “a license to print money.” I link to this only in the interests of supporting any subsequent lawsuits seeking remuneration for Mr. Frank as the originator of…

Misterioso
(9 Words. November 07, 2006, 06:51 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
El Misterio de los Pantalones Festivos, at AskMe….

Ghost sheets
(13 Words. October 28, 2006, 10:45 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Haunted Paper Toys, including coffins, a skeleton marionette, and much, much more….

Trainwrecks
(18 Words. October 28, 2006, 10:21 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Trainwrecks trolls the net for unseemly social interactions among the text fora. I’m sorta jealous of the idea….

LyricWiki
(7 Words. October 21, 2006, 01:03 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
LyricWiki. Lots o’ lyrics, no tabs….

Kentucky and Prine
(130 Words. October 01, 2006, 09:37 PM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
Out to dinner this evening, I was surprised and pleased to encounter a salt-cured Kentucky ham on offer. I leapt at the nearly forgotten taste. On arriving home I was pleased to note that American Routes is devoting this weeks’ number to the Kentucky-and-Chicago bred songwriter John Prine, whom I think of as an Austin-school player. I first came…

Cringely on Apple iTV
(122 Words. September 24, 2006, 11:59 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Cringley has some interesting things to say about Apple’s announced iTV strategy. He makes a big deal out of using iTV to bring video-based iChat to the living room TV set and talks some trash in Redmond’s direction. What’s funny about this to me is that I have my Mini set up with my old Firewire iSight for just…

backup integrated into iTunes 7
(40 Words. September 20, 2006, 06:26 PM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
How To: Back up your music using iTunes 7 - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW). I’m otherwise inordinately suspicious of the update and have not done so on any of my machines. This sounds like a pretty decent carrot….

Scratch Acid
(41 Words. September 19, 2006, 10:44 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Austin 360: An oral history, from Scratch. The Austin American-Statesman looks at the once and future Scratch Acid. I have (apparently all) the vinyl, loved it, and never saw the band. Don’t know ifI missed the Seattle show or not….

Sync
(18 Words. September 11, 2006, 10:18 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Unify & synch multiple iTunes libraries, at O’Reilly, via the (for some reason currently unreachable) BrainLog….

Picking at a scab
(60 Words. August 26, 2006, 06:19 PM, Comments: 2) MORE >>>
I hear tell my honorary mentor, The Best Bus Driver in the World, is coming around to my point of view regarding music produced with minimal amplification and internal electronics. I’m glad to hear it - the qualities I hear in obscure field recordings and teenage punk rock singles draw me to the genres as if here was no…

Rekkids
(66 Words. August 16, 2006, 10:07 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
I meant to post this a ways back, but just realized I hain’t as yet. MeFi pointed out Popspike.com, a searchable archive of ebay auction resluts for rare vinyl. My own rarities, “Songs Pictures and Stories of the Fabulous Beatles,” and a VJ promo EP are apparently fetching healthy amounts. I sould temper any excitement, however, as my copies are…

MFT sweetness!
(185 Words. August 05, 2006, 09:36 AM, Comments: 3) MORE >>>
Perusing the ever-expanding wonders of Musical Family Tree, I came across this amazing recording of the Zero Boys live at Ricky’s Canteena in 1983. Rat Rondell intros the band. I was there and boy was it a show. The band must have been right on the verge of recording Vicious Circle, I think. The sound on stage is nearly…

Fair Miss in the Garden
(158 Words. July 09, 2006, 05:53 PM, Comments: 4) MORE >>>
I happened to hear a great old-time tune from my iTunes pile the other day, “Fair Miss in the Garden,” by Roscoe Holcombe from Mountain Music of Kentucky, a fantastic collection of field-recorded tunes laid to tape on the porches of Hazard County in the mid-fifties. To my aggravation, nor Google nor Digitrad unearthed the lyrics. Adding to my…

EyeDrops
(330 Words. July 08, 2006, 02:24 PM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
In the continuing saga of ironing out the bumps in the deployment of the Mini and the EyeHome in the living-room A/V stack, even after the downgrade, the EyeHome has an irritation habit of dropping the audio, stuttering in the annoying manner familiar to internet audio stream listeners. The troubling aspect of this is that the datachannel should be much…

EyeRitation
(75 Words. July 06, 2006, 09:33 PM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
From the EyeHome FAQ: “Originally, EyeHome could also use aliases or symbolic links, instead of full movies, pictures or music.” Meaning, of course, that they’ve pulled features from the software. I’m downgrading immediately. I noticed that the current version also removed the interactive view-by-view option to invoke shuffle and buried it as a universal option for listening to music,…

Neko
(56 Words. June 29, 2006, 09:01 PM, Comments: 2) MORE >>>
Straight.com Case strips it down: an interview with Ms. Case on her career and recent accolades. It’s interesting that she notes that Blacklisted is the record she picks as her first mature piece - while I personally adore everything she’s done, the songs on Furnace Room Lullaby are the ones I respond to most strongly….

Tall
(27 Words. June 03, 2006, 10:13 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Walking around in Ballard tonight, we came across the fiddler of The Tallboys. On arriving home I’m pleased to hear their own version of Henry Lee….

Long White Cadillac
(301 Words. June 02, 2006, 09:34 PM, Comments: 2) MORE >>>
A night ago or so I was flipping stations on the radio when I heard the unmistakable howl of Dave Alvin and the Blasters. I haven’t really written about it here, but Alvin is one of my favorite songwriters and I have an especially strong appreciation of his work with the Blasters, his earliest stuff. Night wolves moan the…

Circle
(57 Words. May 20, 2006, 12:48 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Fremont art walk, last Saturday. Brad made me stand in the round opening and play guitar, and I was just getting started when our wives all walked in. It was a kind of deer in the headlights moment. I tried to post this last weekend, but something was goofy on the new phone and it didn’t take….

Spin
(83 Words. May 16, 2006, 09:27 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
After much fussing, I have our turntable fully operable. It’s amazing what the crackle of vinyl adds and subtracts from the listening experience. I swear that it was bar for the course to get better dynamic range off the grooves than that I hear today, but maybe thathas to do with a few years of gigging in front of…

Prima
(96 Words. May 07, 2006, 07:53 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
As you may have gathered, this is the stack o’ seventies speakers that arrived from that estate sale on Saturday. They had more speakers and some LPs too but I felt uncomfortable pawing though the deceased’s stuff. There was a bocce set that I shoulda snagged too, though. Oh well. This is also the first test of the Nokia…

Tape
(79 Words. May 07, 2006, 05:07 PM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
One of the things that made it into my car at that estate sale was a vintage Sony tape deck with analog VU meters. Happily, it works just fine. I still have many many tapes from twenty years ago, often of LPs I had checked out of the library. It will be fun to pick through them and hear…

Yow!
(23 Words. March 22, 2006, 06:35 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
This can’t last, but: LOTSA GOODIES. Silents, TV shows, copyright violation galore. The stuff I want is outta (c) anyhoo, but, dig….

A-Weem-A-Wep
(16 Words. March 21, 2006, 08:44 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
In the Jungle, the Unjust Jungle, a Small Victory. [NYT]. Sing it with me now….

Scratchy but sweet
(49 Words. March 19, 2006, 09:47 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
In How Pop Sounded Before It Popped, the NYT’s Judy Rosen brings the rest of the country into the secret knowledge of the fantastic greatness to be had online amongst the mp3 transcriptions of early recordings of popular tunes, a topic I have gabbled on about here previously….

Shecky chez Zero
(29 Words. March 12, 2006, 06:50 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
On the occasion of receiving the Zero Boys Live 1984 Reunion DVD, Shecky waxes informative yet grandiloquent upon the topic of Hoosier punt rot. Go, implore the solvent….

Bodleiads
(12 Words. March 09, 2006, 08:32 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
The Bodleian Library’s online collection of broadsheet ballads. [via MoFi]…

Stardust
(32 Words. March 03, 2006, 09:41 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Y2K posts The memory of love’s refrain at MetaFilter, wherein he has collected the most extensive set of links the world’s yet seen on the best-known song penned by one Hoagland Carmichael….

Speeding Mortorcycle
(14 Words. February 19, 2006, 08:59 PM, Comments: 2) MORE >>>
Daniel Johnston, back in the news, this time as NYT-dubbed ‘rising gallery star.’…

Empythree
(238 Words. February 11, 2006, 08:16 PM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
Pursuant to a project, some research. The challenge: identify and install any needed software to support the Netgear MP101. The device requires a streaming server on the local network to connect to; the supplied-and-supported server is, of course, Windows-only. Here’s a meticulous review which notes that as long as the device has the proper firmware, it supports playback from…

heel and toe
(7 Words. February 11, 2006, 09:47 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
elbo.ws is an interesting music blog aggregator….

Money will get you through.. no, wait...
(12 Words. February 09, 2006, 06:17 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
via FLOG: there’s a stop-motion Freak Brothers movie in production. Dear God….

Les Racines
(12 Words. February 07, 2006, 07:23 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
The Roots Music Listening Room. [via MeFi, the Cartoonist (I think)]….

Score
(26 Words. February 04, 2006, 06:53 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
This, I think, should be enjoyable. It’s not clear if the device is Mac compatible, but it would only add to the fun if not….

Shipwrecked.
(64 Words. February 03, 2006, 07:17 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
This week’s This American Life (URL not valid until next week) explores a story that amused me when I saw it blow by in the online edition of the NYT a ways back. Involves Russians, artists, young people, and rum (or cognac). The show’s second half is a melancholy revue of life in New Orleans, post-Katrina, that sounds like…

See you in the funny pages.
(22 Words. February 03, 2006, 06:03 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
BoingBoing links to a webcomic by a fellow whose pal purchased a large number of 99-cent vibrators, and gave them to him….

Ayano Tsuji
(396 Words. January 21, 2006, 06:21 AM, Comments: 21) MORE >>>
I was just pulled out of my weekend slumber by the closing story on NPR’s Weekend Edition a profile of a Japanese alternative pop singer called Ayano Tsuji, who specializes in simply presented songs featuring mostly her voice, melodies with an insistent quality, and a ukelele. The segment may have been originally produced for the NPR afternoon magazine The…

WIUX
(120 Words. January 17, 2006, 07:31 PM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
A hearty quack of welcome to WIUX. Wakka wakka wakka! FWIW, I just had one of those sublime Apple experiences that constitute the technology world’s crack equivalent: I stumbled across our Airport Express for the first time since unlimbering our reciever/amplifer and thought, what the hell, might as well plug it in to see what happens. The led on…

Whar did ye gain yon peculyaar acccent, me bucko?
(10 Words. January 09, 2006, 08:09 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Where did pirate speech come from? | Ask MetaFilter Arrr….

i vid
(211 Words. December 27, 2005, 08:20 PM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
Yesterday I gave my parents a real-time video tour of the house and grounds via the magic of ‘high-speed’ internet and wifi. I must be a seriously negative creep because instead of marveling that we could do such a thing, I most have thunk on how aggravating and infuriating it is to deal with thousand-dollar technology that works as…

Hark
(8 Words. December 24, 2005, 01:39 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Off in the Christmas Cosmos. [via MeFi]…

more Xmas audio
(80 Words. December 24, 2005, 12:07 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
[via Boing Boing] 10 + 100 Creative Commons Christmas Songs. I’ll be paying specific attention to A Medieval Christmas. Greg and I actually worked up a set book of obscure Christmas-related folksongs a few years ago but never really nailed the set. Looking at some really old European source material would be a great place to continue the project….

Jingle
(5 Words. December 23, 2005, 08:09 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
A Very Wierdsmobile Christmas:…

Omie
(11 Words. December 21, 2005, 09:24 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
For a limited time only: Outlaws and Scalawags. Git it!…

Stoney Mansion
(163 Words. December 10, 2005, 07:48 AM, Comments: 2) MORE >>>
As I started work this morning I was alerted via email that some of the live recordings from the recent all-Indiana convocation of independent musicians of the past three generations known as Musical Family Tree Fest had been posted to the Musical Family Tree site. Browsing the site I happily discovered that my old pal John Terrill’s mid-nineties four-track wonder…

Rootabaga ingeniosity.
(21 Words. December 05, 2005, 10:29 PM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
Laguagehat notes some errantry upon a root, in russian, and is amused by the response. It brought Jason to mind….

Indebted
(28 Words. October 20, 2005, 06:44 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
The Shemp Meditation Tape, from the longtime geniuses at WFMU, via one Dr. Alice Dee. Alice, who loves ya, baby? Oh man. It’s frickin’ spiritual, OK?…

The Rest Is Noise
(13 Words. October 05, 2005, 08:18 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Cool! Alex Ross has a weblog. As to the posse, the jury’s out….

Eat the Document preview at Siffblog
(152 Words. October 03, 2005, 05:14 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Over on Siffblog, E. Steven Fried notes that the EMP will be showing D. A. Pennebaker’s Eat the Document shortly. I saw the post title and subject and mistakenly took it for a review of No Direction Home; I had been mulling a review of the film myself but think I said I what I had to say, more…

What We Did Is Public
(149 Words. October 02, 2005, 07:56 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Incredibly, word has belatedly reached me of the wrap on a Darby Crash biopic, which will apparently lead to a Germs reunion tour. Don Bolles, later of Nirvana and in between his Germs time and that with Kurt, was the original drummer for 45 Grave, who also recently were slated for a revenant tour, but have apparently dropped out….

via sumit: boom selection RIP
(7 Words. October 01, 2005, 11:11 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Sumit notes the demise of boom selection….

Dye Land
(577 Words. September 27, 2005, 05:50 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
As I noted yesterday, I first really became a serious appreciator of Bob Dylan about ten years ago, when I first picked up a cutout copy of Good As I Been to You, the first of two stripped down, scratchy-voice-and-guitar records of mostly old-time songs. The other record, World Gone Wrong, is entirely comparable. The records were the occasion…

die LAN
(372 Words. September 26, 2005, 11:23 PM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
I should write a few words on Dylan, I suppose. I have always been puzzled, and not a little put off, by the hulking, derelict infrastructure of the boomer adoration for Bob Dylan, incarnations 2 (folkie/activist) and 3 (imperial achitect of late-sixties rockism). However, even as a youngster, i always had an appreciation for the well-crafted song, and in…

Velvet
(172 Words. September 25, 2005, 04:57 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
The Velvet Underground Web Page. Helpful to me today as I began to assemble a list of the Velvets records I have or once had on vinyl in an attempt to plan for obtaining the missing material in digital format. The most challenging aspect will doubtless be locating the initial, un-remastered CD releases of these records. Why do people…

Dark Was The Night, Illuminated
(106 Words. September 18, 2005, 05:51 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Seattle-area MeFite y2karl outdoes himself with a comprehensive dissertation and linkfest concerning Dark Was The Night—Cold Was The Ground as performed by Blind Willie Johnson and later adapted as the main musical theme for the Wim Wenders film Paris, Texas, by Ry Cooder. Among other things, Karl points to a source who notes that the song is based on a…

Airfoil
(25 Words. September 18, 2005, 11:12 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Airfoil is a $25 piece of software that allows you to redirect any audio source, not simply iTunes’ output, to your AirPort Express’ audio-out port….

Scorsese's sound
(34 Words. September 11, 2005, 10:06 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
The UK Independent runs a lengthy appreciation of Matin Scorsese’s use of scores inhis films, disguised as a preview of the BBC airing of a Scorsese documentary on Bob Dylan originally crafted for HBO….

Free Conference Calls
(7 Words. September 10, 2005, 09:53 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
TidBITS covers FreeConference.com, a free conference-call service….

Wrong number
(138 Words. September 07, 2005, 09:45 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
As expected, today’s Apple fooraw generated a big yawn from me. Another iPod! Imagine that! Whoop-de-doo! And a phone with iTunes but no other Apple-designed user-interface features, except, I guess, the ability to synch contacts with Outlook. Which, one supposes, bemuses the Mac-owning folks out there that have been using Address Book over Outlook lo, these many years. The…

Wash day
(321 Words. September 04, 2005, 02:54 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Taking a break from doing laundry, I noticed that one P. J. Murhpy of Wexford, Ireland had posted his chord transcription for Lousiana, 1927. I can finally scratch an itch I have had for several days. I wonder if Mr. Murphy is any relation to celebrated Father Murphy of song and story? At New Orleans as the storm was…

A Miscellany
(504 Words. August 30, 2005, 10:47 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
ITEM: Both Matt and Bart have updates. The Royal Pendletons are playing a gig this evening in Memphis, which seems a perfectly sensible way to deal with the fate of the band’s city. Bart and company are safely ensconced in a rainy Bloomington. ITEM: Having nothing at all to do with the topic du jour, high school co-conspirator and…

Phantom power
(52 Words. August 21, 2005, 09:07 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Grumblebee opens pandora’s mbox on AskMe, with informative results. His mbox gets shutdown by WinXP as overly powerhungry when he engages a phantom-powered mike. The solution is NOT to add a powered hub, but rather, to add an inline phantom power source. I mean, obviously. Even if I didn’t think of it….

Stardust bond
(49 Words. August 17, 2005, 10:23 PM, Comments: 2) MORE >>>
According to MonkeyFilter user mk1gti and (coincidentally?) Wikipedia, “Author Ian Flemingonce said that he envisioned British secret agent James Bond as looking like Carmichael.” Well, naturally! That whole dapper look originated in Bloomington, in the Book Nook, as I recall. Here, have a dab of my brillantine!…

Missed
(12 Words. August 16, 2005, 08:48 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Had to skip the Onalaska gig and crunch house numbers instead. Bummer….

Kona
(349 Words. August 11, 2005, 10:11 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
After tearassing around North Seattle before confirming that house #4 is one we want to bid on, Viv and I, starving, skidded to a stop in front of the oft-passed, always curiously eyed Kona Kitchen at 85th. I’d read good things about the place, and as we walked in, I was a bit surprised to hear the somewhat loud,…

Traveling backwards
(67 Words. July 24, 2005, 10:34 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
“It’s sort of like hearing someone say that their love for Molly Hatchet and The Yes Group grew out of their youthful enthusiasm for Negative Trend and Throbbing Gristle. ” — The Greatest Bus Driver in the World on my enthusiasm for folk and traditional music. What he doesn’t know is that I have in fact played covers of…

Everybody's Yellin' Hurry Up
(492 Words. July 23, 2005, 01:36 AM, Comments: 2) MORE >>>
Viv and I had the pleasure of attending a show by the notable X spinoff band The Knitters Friday night at the Showbox. The Knitters were a semi-joke band that featured Exene Cervenka, John Doe, and DJ Bonebreak of X as well as the remarkable songwriter and guitarist Dave Alvin. They recorded a record, Poor Little Critter in the…

The League
(7 Words. July 21, 2005, 12:00 AM, Comments: 2) MORE >>>
There has been an invitation, brothers….

Frail
(15 Words. July 16, 2005, 05:30 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Plunkthumping presents aan interesting thesis regarding the relationship of old-time guitar picking and banjo frailing….

South Park
(103 Words. July 10, 2005, 08:03 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Some news and information regarding the neighborhood of South Park in Seattle. Recently, the Stranger featured a charming tale of the neighborhood association’s new meeting spot, a watering hole known as the County Line. Prior to that, the P-I featured not one but two stories concerning gang-related killings and community response in the one-square mile neighborhood directly to the…

Washington Phillips and his multistringed wonder machine
(19 Words. July 06, 2005, 05:43 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Washington Phillips invented his own soundscape with his inventive modifications of the early-twentieth century stringed instrument, the fretless zither….

Pickin
(21 Words. July 04, 2005, 01:06 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Heartwood Guitar, in which Seattle-based guitar instructor Rob Hampton blogs a bunch of guitar lessons, and stuff. Funny and useful….

DB
(21 Words. July 03, 2005, 09:54 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Ol’ Danny Barnes has a new record coming up. He’s got some free music to download in celebration. Git that banjer….

Post Re-Enpsychedelipedia
(38 Words. July 02, 2005, 09:23 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Kenko posts some resources on MetaFilter. They tend to, but are not exclusively about, international 60’s garage-psychedelic music, a la Nuggets and beyond. Added presumably for flavor is a link to Nurse with Wound influences….

iTunes podcasting: feh.
(118 Words. July 01, 2005, 08:15 PM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
As the new iTunes podcasting integration requires one to turn on the music store access in the app, I must say: fuck that shit. Also, what the fuck is up with the visual overload in the store UI, people? How on Earth can anyone with the visual sensibilities of sea cucumber possibly understand when, how, or if they are…

Frail
(19 Words. July 01, 2005, 07:37 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Virtual Banjo Lessons at Plunkthumping. Genius. Maybe this will prompt me to get past the five basic chord shapes….

Mash
(229 Words. June 30, 2005, 09:14 PM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
I spent a part of last spring interviewing participants in and observers of mash-up culture for an overview piece that appears in Now Playing’s current issue, which went into distribution about a month and a half ago. I structured the piece as a history, beginning with Mark Gunderson’s recollections of developing the Whipped Cream Mixes with the ECC in…

Guitar
(414 Words. June 29, 2005, 08:11 PM, Comments: 2) MORE >>>
The time has arrived. I am in the market for a mid-range acoustic guitar. I am considering the current O-series mahogany Martins, but have always played pre-owned instruments and would be thrilled to find an older guitar as well. Currently the Trading Musician has their usual broad selection, including a 1979 Gibson, a 1975 Guild, and a Martin J21M…

Madness and Crowds
(211 Words. June 25, 2005, 03:26 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Spence and I headed to the waterfront last evening with the theoretical purpose of eating vast quantities of marine life while sunning ourselves on the deck of the pier which hosts The Fisherman’s restaurant. Our plans were thwarted by the unwelcome appearance of a very loud band playing very undistinguished top 40 covers on the stage of the public…

The Hut
(31 Words. June 23, 2005, 04:49 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
bart sez: See You at Nick’s. I won’t be there, but in spirit. Pour one out for me, boys! (Update of possible barty interest: Michaelpella, courtesy brother Dan.)…

AWS
(16 Words. June 17, 2005, 09:57 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Amazon Web Services: AWS Zone and blog. Did I already link to these sites? Maybe….

Practice
(58 Words. June 09, 2005, 08:42 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
For over a year, I have played music with Greg and Karel on Thursday nights. Karel has had a raft of scheduling conflicts, and so we have rescheduled. Tonight, that meant that I had the pleasure of watching the Friends spinoff Joey for the first time. It’s truly no wonder that Thursday nights were originally selected for practice….

Noted!
(53 Words. June 08, 2005, 10:58 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
When Matt and Bart both remark on a show, I think it must mean something. Matt, I’m sorry I am tardy with the details of your assignment. I believe I intend to blog it, and what with various housing-related things and my suddenly hyperactive social life, I have been procrastinating furiously….

Quine Nine
(37 Words. June 06, 2005, 07:03 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Attn: VU nerds. totally fuzzy is said to contain the entirety of the Quine Tapes. This is unverified by y.t. Y.T. does own the box set and it is among his mostest favoritest musics. [thankee, neighbor.]…

Battery Suck
(20 Words. June 04, 2005, 10:33 PM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
The DUN works quite satisfactorily, but MAN, does it eat the battery. Next time I will bring the power pack….

Sasquatch
(19 Words. June 02, 2005, 06:26 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Further news in the Canadian Bigfoot invasion includes the information that ex-Runaway Cherie Currie is in on the hunt….

Cowabunga
(19 Words. June 02, 2005, 06:17 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Surf Guitar 101 2005 MP3 Compilation, via MetaFilter. Fire up the download engines and ignite the tiki torches….

MFT
(91 Words. May 30, 2005, 10:46 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Musical Family Tree is working toward the goal of providing a comprehensive archive for independent music stemming from the scenes I grew up in, Bloomington and Indianapolis. There’s a ton on there and I have some stuff that needs to be digitized, such as the amazing live farewell show by the Pit Bulls on Crack circa 1987. I alos…

Ooooguuuuoo o o o
(7 Words. May 25, 2005, 10:26 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Eric dives into a Humpback Song tangent….

Old Crow Meds
(462 Words. May 25, 2005, 05:33 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
As Greg and I stumbled down the street to Conor Byrne’s for a nightcap under a hugely full parchment moon, our ears ringing, we were in something of a state of shock. We’d just left the slightly smoky confines of a sold-out show by the Old Crow Medicine Show at Ballard’sTractor Tavern. I had heard Old Crow about three…

Old crow
(33 Words. May 25, 2005, 01:24 AM, Comments: 2) MORE >>>
Greg and I went to see the Old Crow Medicine Show at the Tractor tonight (er, last night). Kick-ass, far better than I expected. I have a pic, but I’ll post it later….

CC WiFi
(43 Words. May 18, 2005, 10:41 PM, Comments: 2) MORE >>>
The P-I’s Buzzworthy notes the launch sites for a City of Seattle municipal WiFi pilot project: Columbia City and the U. I suppose this may well make Chris, Sabrina, and Dan’s lives easier. Say, when was that Minutemen movie again?…

Sounds
(152 Words. May 16, 2005, 09:05 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
I recorded a bunch of pretty pristine audio this weekend. Bugs chirping and loons whooping and unknown faux feral beast howling in the night. But alas. The signal, though clean, is so low in the mix, I don’t have the time to post a usable selection of mp3s here tonight. Here is the best I can do. Close your…

I keep thinkin of
(11 Words. May 11, 2005, 09:48 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Seattle: We Jam Econo, NWFF, May 27 - June 9….

That essence rare
(98 Words. May 06, 2005, 05:42 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Tonight Spencer scored two tix to that Gang of Four show I blogged about. I have been looking forward to this since he mentioned it to me. Unfortunately, I do not know if I can uphold my obligation to him or not, as I have multiple conflicting engagements tomorrow. I am running a clear sleep deficit and really need…

Clog
(46 Words. May 04, 2005, 08:59 PM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
My ear is so clogged up with wax that it is causing a bursitis-like pain in my jaw. It’s so amazingly painful, I can’t even describe it. So far, I don’t notice any pain-derived personality changes. I sure hope I can get it irrigated on Saturday….

Bell
(330 Words. May 03, 2005, 10:28 PM, Comments: 3) MORE >>>
Thanks to the quick-dialling Dayment, Viv and I attended the symphony this evening. In case that link evaporates, the program featured violinist Joshua Bell in front of a New York-based ensemble, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. There were four works performed. Bell’s featured piece was the violin concerto. Sibelius: Suite from Pelleas et Melisande Saint-Saëns: Violin Concerto No. 3 in…

You say tomato
(7 Words. May 01, 2005, 07:36 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Camp Tomato pics are coming online….

Harlem Nocturne
(395 Words. April 29, 2005, 08:41 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Viv was dining in the tender confines of happy hour, so I placed a few calls and wandered down to the specimen of declining urbanity known as Broadway, the cracked jewel of Capitol Hill. I ended up dining at a small Pakistani establishment, and when I left, I was surprised to hear someone really busting out on a sax. He…

Haze, RIP
(11 Words. April 28, 2005, 09:47 PM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
WFMU’s Beware of the Blog: Hasil Adkins dead at 67. [MeFi]…

Frankenpasta
(47 Words. April 26, 2005, 07:58 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
I’m sweaty as hell from a fast-paced hour in the kitchen cooking up a mean batch of my spaghetti while bending an ear to the majestic strains of In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning. Thank you, New Jersey, for your service to the nation….

Bonnie & Clyde
(19 Words. April 14, 2005, 11:47 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Looking for a real audio copy of British obscurity “the Ballad of Bonnie & Clyde”? Search no further….

I hear you
(219 Words. April 04, 2005, 05:53 PM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
A remarkable collection of “bawdy songs.” UPDATE: actually, the site itself is even more remarkable than I had realized. On March 31, the site author was in B-ton for “Extreme Folklore.” It’s a shame I was unaware of this; I surely would have alerted Holly. The site author’s précis: “This website is dedicated to traditional bawdy songs, erotic toasts…

iSuckage
(234 Words. April 02, 2005, 09:01 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Oh, I noticed an interesting side effect of the iPod and the iTunes music store today while holding for a support rep prior to going in: the music that was played on hold was the same pablum that gets pushed via promo agreements on the iTunes store. It was enough to make me want to rip my fucking ears off….

A Wolf is Gone
(122 Words. March 31, 2005, 10:38 PM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
Matt notes today’s passing of one of his favorite “rock and roll brothers,” Billy (Hideaki Sekiguchi), the bassist for the very kick ass Japanese band Guitar Wolf. Guitar Wolf was in the midst of a US tour, now cancelled, and had recently played both Seattle and New Orleans, where Matt is located. Matt has posted a great picture, taken this…

You don't love me yet
(78 Words. March 29, 2005, 05:02 PM, Comments: 5) MORE >>>
The Vulgar Boatmen Trade List includes at least one recent-ish show from Schuba’s which I have not heard. Found while attempting to determine if the VB’s “You Don’t Love Me Yet” is, in fact, one of Dale’s crafty covers (in this case possibly of a Roky Erickson song) or his own original material. Cars, sitting in the back of the…

Odd I see
(517 Words. March 29, 2005, 03:21 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
I left work early today because of a dental appointment. It was a cold, sunny day and a chilly wind was blowing. I was not dressed for it and the walk to the bus stop took on the aspect of a struggle. I paused and called Viv, and then one Eric, and then another. As I spoke to the…

Victoria
(152 Words. March 25, 2005, 11:30 PM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
I want iTunes to bust in every n tracks and use the “Victoria” speech synthesis voice to say things like “…and that wass Meeles Dahviss with Eena Silent Mood. Right before that we heard…” and so on. Someone must have written this plugin, surely. If not, here’s a set of scripts that nearly offer the answer; the obvious deployment…

iRemote
(13 Words. March 25, 2005, 12:50 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
control iTunes from another computer. Also see iTunes Remote and WebRemote….

Frank
(45 Words. March 24, 2005, 06:09 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Last night, Greg was kind enough to lay In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning on me; he and Stacey were also kind enough to include Chronicles. This eventuality leads me to the ineluctable declaration that this evening shall be Reading Night….

Ben makes his move
(535 Words. March 20, 2005, 06:10 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Ben, one of my dinner partners this evening, displays a well advised interest. (Special geek interest note: This post originated as a 100% remote post, sent from the dining table moments after the shot - sadly, I was not conversant with all of the steps required to create the post with the image embedded. Suffice to note that the…

Scratchy, yet pleasing
(25 Words. March 13, 2005, 07:37 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
tinfoil.com - Early Recorded Sounds and Wax Cylinders, via MonkeyFilter. Did I link to this already? Very well, then, I repeat myself. Repeat myself….

Bobby and Johnny
(13 Words. March 09, 2005, 10:21 PM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
Between thought and expression: Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash. Right click, geezers!…

Paperback Believer
(22 Words. February 01, 2005, 05:42 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Mark Vidler’s Go Home Productions notes a new video mashup of Paperback Believer. Called to my attn. Courtesy Mr. Frankenstein….

Little footprints in the snow
(11 Words. February 01, 2005, 05:41 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
AxMe covers bluegrass and oldtimey music, with streamer suggestions. Aaaah….

the big C
(18 Words. February 01, 2005, 09:27 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Skot just lost a friend after losing touch and is unhappy. Bring a hanky; it’s sad, and moving….

Jingle Rock Bell
(35 Words. December 24, 2004, 10:43 PM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
PinkStainlessTail notes he “drives his wife nuts” with a neo-oulipian version of a well-known holiday song. Moments later, a recording of the song is released: may Jingle Rock Bell warm ev’ry holiday cockle….

Frosty
(40 Words. December 22, 2004, 06:34 AM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
Jason Zada’s Very Rare Holiday Album includes the long-sought “Frosty the Snowman,” by the Cocteau Twins. [via MoFi.] Damn, now all I need to do is dig through some old CDs for that El Vez masterpiece, Merry Mexmas….

Here come the Retail Jets
(56 Words. December 17, 2004, 04:29 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Studies have conclusively shown that shipping infinite quantities of consumer goods is an experience which is best enhanced with the music of Brian Eno’s pre-ambient rock gem, Here Come the Warm Jets. For futher information, enoweb is a handy starting place. Here’s another person’s view. I keep imagining Jerry Cornelius is gonna turn up….

Not Rudolph
(9 Words. December 01, 2004, 07:59 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
A Singular Christmas. Xmas music from the Eigenradio….

Neko
(306 Words. November 28, 2004, 02:02 PM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
Last night we went to see Neko Case at Neumo’s. Click the pic for more blurry pix. I shot a fair amount of video, too. I’ll link to the clips here; they are all in quicktime format. The show opened with the out-of-place on the bill Dexter Romweber, a true southern madman, who was in fine form. Despite this,…

Custard Bottles
(465 Words. November 19, 2004, 07:44 AM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
So, this year, This American Life has run a fascinating show recorded largely in occupied Iraq, titled I’m From the Private Sector, and I’m Here to Help. As I type this, I just now realize that the title is a snark aimed at the hilarious - and offensive, to me - ad that ran back in the Clinton era…

Zounds! Sounds!
(100 Words. November 17, 2004, 10:52 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Dan points out that I might be interested in this antique audio AskMe thread, and verily, he is correct. MeFite tenseone points out a bevy of sites for the gettin’ of the olden-style sound files. An update. Tenseone’s wonderful and mysterious site is highly, highly recommended; it appears to be blog-as-dada, and exhbits the kind of internal, anachronist consistency…

Set out running
(52 Words. November 14, 2004, 12:57 AM, Comments: 3) MORE >>>
Neko Case, Neko Case. November 27, 28 at Neumos. Looks like I finally have a good reason to hit Neumos. The real question, of course, is, “Can Greg and I get Neko to go drinking with us at the Comet after the first show?” Hint: this is an unlikely outcome….

Nevermore
(11 Words. October 31, 2004, 02:50 PM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
One more thing: Nevermore, by the Nevermores. Thanks Matt!…

Mars comes to New Jersey
(275 Words. October 30, 2004, 06:43 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
KUOW is continuing the delightful tradition of broadcasting the famed Mercury Theater on the Air Halloween broadcast of The War of the Worlds tonight. It seems, no matter how many times I have heard it, just as successful (script link) in creating an atmosphere of credible tension and urban apocalypse. Listen. Now I look down the harbor. All manner…

Gathering Blooms
(164 Words. October 23, 2004, 07:43 PM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
Max Hunter Folk Song Collection, at Southwest Missouri State University. An old fave, forgotten due to sloppy bookmarking. Rediscovered when searching for versions of that great old folktune “Gathering Flowers for the Master’s Bouquet,” penned by Marvin Blumgardner. I suspect this of being a nom de guerre considering the song’s subject matter and central metaphor. The lyrics begin, “Death is…

Cue Organ
(16 Words. October 20, 2004, 06:56 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
HAPPY HALLOWEEN! [via BoingBoing, and so certain to be widespread, but too good not to share.]…

Honking Duck
(27 Words. October 18, 2004, 07:23 AM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
Honking Duck is a realaudio archive of several hundred 78s. I posted this to Monkeyfilter, in the hopes of keeping an apparent theme on the roll….

Der Raabe, II
(52 Words. October 06, 2004, 08:08 AM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
B^2 follows up the unholy fascination with Max Raabe. Five tracks, kids, including “Let’s Talk About Sex,” and “Oops… I Did It Again,” all performed in Rabe’s inimitable eye-rolling nineteen twenties crooner style. It makes me feel… dirty, in a good way. *snaps fingers* Waiter! Schnapps, and a side of bunderflesich!…

B^2's 80s Covers day
(41 Words. October 04, 2004, 08:09 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
The All Eighties Cover Version Mix Tape, featuring Max Raabe & Palast Orchester, on whom B^2 has an open plea for more info. (On the Raabe site, navigate to Max Raabe > film for a bit of uncanny eye-rolling croonery.)…

Smile
(26 Words. September 24, 2004, 05:40 PM, Comments: 2) MORE >>>
NPR : ‘Smile’: Greatest Record Never Heard. Certain fellow-Wilsonians who may have missed this will certainly want to hear this. We’re finally gonna hear it!…

Do you remember Rock and Roll Radio?
(23 Words. September 16, 2004, 07:01 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
The Ramones MIDI Collection. This was Googled up whilst searching for the Beatles/Ramones mashup “I Wanna Be Your Sedated Man.”…

Old Time and Burning Slabs
(40 Words. September 01, 2004, 06:45 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
RadioLovers.com, ” Old Time Radio Shows,” free, online. Dig in. Via J-Walk Blog. Which reminds me: WFMU’s The Hound, linked before, also as a secondary item. Seriously, these shows (and the archival work on the site) are amazing….

Big Bertha, The Truck Driving Queen
(74 Words. August 11, 2004, 06:53 PM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
Matt’s wife Kristen picked up a copy of the fine, fine Bud Brewer LP Big Bertha, The Truck Driving Queen for him this afternoon. Matt, in turn, links to the entire album online, and calls our kind attention to the immortal classic “Caffeine, Nicotine, and Benzedrine (and wish me luck).” Matt is a national treasure and he should be ferried…

Annabel Lee; The Banjo - grotesque fantasie; and so forth
(221 Words. August 04, 2004, 07:00 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
The eagle eyed Manuel linkied me via email with ye olde Duke U. repository of American sheet music cover pages, covering the years between 1850 and 1920. Each decade is presented in its’ own browsable gallery, although it takes a few clicks to get to the good stuff. But the good stuff, well, it’s good. A typographical horror representing the…

A New Thing
(217 Words. July 28, 2004, 07:48 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
I live in a heavily rental-oriented neighborhood in downtown Seattle. Renters are not, by-and-large, voters, and thus they are not generally campaigned to. This evening, I stepped outside to take the trash to the dumpster. I’ve been listening to the Democratic convention speeches all week, generally with interest and sometimes with criticisms. Tonight, as I carried my dripping bag of…

the evidence mounts
(15 Words. July 24, 2004, 06:49 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
danelope clearly states: “Brain damage leads to insanity.” I’m mere inches from the abyss….

disturbing
(60 Words. July 19, 2004, 05:58 PM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
About one minute ago KUOW broadcast the emergency broadcast signal over the top of All Things Considered, and immediately returned to ATC with no explanation. If the signal was an accident, freakin’ tell us! Don’t just go back to the regular programming, for the love of God! YES, we noticed! UPDATE: five minutes later, they ‘fessed up….

American Girl
(1169 Words. July 04, 2004, 06:33 PM, Comments: 6) MORE >>>
A day or two ago I somehow happened to hear a song that was unfamiliar to me but obviously by Tom Petty, which included the lyric She grew up in an Indiana town, Had a good-lookin’ mama who never was around. But she grew up tall and she grew up right With them Indiana boys on them Indiana nights I…

old joe mckennedy's
(120 Words. June 11, 2004, 04:17 PM, Comments: 2) MORE >>>
Letter From New Orleans #13: Saint James Infirmary, dug up out de groun’ and spread about in the public square (attn: nawlinzites). Via the estimable devotee of his highness the Turkmenbashi, Languagehatbashi, via MeFi. Remarkably, no titular mention of Lock Hospital occurs in the piece, but it’s clear the author has encountered it. Greg and I have worked on both…

This just in
(203 Words. June 09, 2004, 04:39 PM, Comments: 3) MORE >>>
Reagan, Reagan Youth still dead. Here’s one way to remember them. In other news, the beatings will continue until morale improves. Hey, if the President is exempt from the possibility of violating the miscellaneous conventions, laws - what have you - against torture, obviously there’s been no violation! The current administration’s international and domestic policy is nothing less than an…

Folkies
(266 Words. May 29, 2004, 07:25 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Greg and I spent an amusing afternoon perusuing Folklife, as threatened. As expected, it was lackluster. However, there was a lack of the previous year’s antagonistic air between the street performers and the officious priss personell, definitely improving things. Some notes: 1. I was disappointed in the Crown Hill Billies, a band I’ve long wanted to see. Energy, good. Playing,…

Folklife or Punklife?
(432 Words. May 29, 2004, 10:14 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Greg and I will hit Folklife today, the increasingly listless summer-kickoff festival at Seattle Center that was once my favorite of the local festivals. The demise of the instrument auction, without a doubt the coolest tradition associated with the festival, along with the (now-revised) rules and restrictions governing ad-hoc performers and their CD sales, leaves me with low expectations. On…

ERRANT
(144 Words. May 25, 2004, 12:17 AM, Comments: 2) MORE >>>
THE ERRANT APPRENTICE When I was a young apprentice and less than compos mentis I took leave of all my senses, with a maid I fell in love Her ringlets so entwined me, Aphrodite’s smile did blind me Cupid’s arrow struck behind me, and her father owned a pub It was there I met my nemesis in her father’s licensed…

Banjos, Drums, and Violas
(183 Words. May 24, 2004, 11:45 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
The Viola Joke as Musician’s Folklore was uncovered whilst idly Googling. I sought research on the tradition of genre-specific ostracism-based musician jokes. These jokes are directed at a specific instrument, and are told within a community of musicians who participate in ensembles including the instrument being mocked. The best known of these are banjo jokes, viola jokes, and drummer jokes….

Beginning
(497 Words. May 02, 2004, 04:18 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Some notes on the new Jason Webley CD, Only Just Beginning. At the concert at Town Hall Friday night, I sat next to a man I introduced myself to, but whose name I have forgotten. He mentioned that he’d recently interviewed Jason for a San Francisco-based publication, but did not mention it by name. We briefly discussed the experience of…

Goodbye, Bob
(67 Words. April 30, 2004, 06:25 AM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
Bob Edwards: 30 Years on NPR is the NPR-hosted farewell site. Twenty minutes ago my eyes snapped open just as Bob Edwards began his last on-air interview as host of Morning Edition with Charles Osgood, the same man he began the show with, a quarter century ago. It will be odd in the morning without him, the last day-to-day vestige…

Only Just Beginning
(4 Words. April 29, 2004, 02:30 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
(clicky, speakers on, btw.)…

Reminder
(44 Words. April 29, 2004, 06:24 AM, Comments: 3) MORE >>>
Town Hall, 7:30, Friday, April 30. New CD! Bring some scratch. Potential posse people: leave comments. UPDATE (2p): Sounds like KUOW is playing selections from the new CD RIGHT NOW! UPDATE II: The new album, Only Just Beginning, has been released online!…

American Mavericks
(77 Words. April 28, 2004, 10:32 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
American Mavericks just started on KUOW tonight at 10p. But it’s in the KUOW Presents, which means it might be transient. I still resent the fifteen-year-old loss of classical music programming on the station. I hope they pick this up, but even if they don’t I have at least heard about the feckin’ thing. Check out the audio on the…

Peel
(15 Words. April 28, 2004, 12:17 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
attn: ERIC: the john peel sessions: Every peel session since 1992. (via things.)…

"It Was Great!"
(115 Words. April 16, 2004, 09:28 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Mike McGonigal writes about the Sun City Girls for the Seattle Weekly. He mentions the recent show at Tacoma’s Java Jive, and that he first saw the girls when they toured with eighties skatepunk band JFA in 1984, the same tour I first saw them on. I’ve been friendly acquaintances with the Girls since they first moved here, even designing…

Wait!
(9 Words. April 12, 2004, 12:40 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Tom Waits: MP3 archive. Bootlegs via MoFi….

Heck yeah I will!
(34 Words. April 12, 2004, 11:20 AM, Comments: 5) MORE >>>
Dear God Damn Diary’s Polkapalooza, for a limited time only. But did B^2 know about Weird Al’s tragic loss? You know, I always thought Frankie was Al’s pop. I was certainly mistaken….

The Enpsychedelipedia
(871 Words. April 10, 2004, 01:36 PM, Comments: 2) MORE >>>
A couple days ago I noted that the Seattle Public Library has the magnificent survey of the psychedelic pop era known as Nuggets II. Obviously enough, it’s the second in a series which begins with Nuggets, which I’m happy to note is also available. Nuggets focuses on obscure American rock bands; Nuggets II looks afield to the UK, Europe, and…

Library Love
(62 Words. April 06, 2004, 06:08 PM, Comments: 4) MORE >>>
Hello, what’s this? Friends, the public library is your true friend. I think it may say something definitive about me that I’m far more excited about four CDs of forgotten one-hit wonders than four CDs documenting a single artist’s profound effect on the history of a genre. Tonight, shall it be beer, or shall it be Bombay martinis? The future…

Beat that
(32 Words. April 06, 2004, 05:28 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
User One informs us of Beatallica’s new album. You’ll need a BitTorrent client (I’ve not tried this ‘un) to access the torrent of either. UPDATE: Now also seen on music.metafilter.com….

Hipsters
(34 Words. April 05, 2004, 10:05 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Those of you partial to Chuck Taylor hi-tops, neighborhoodies, and the occasional bowling shirt are strongly advised to drop in on Dear God Damn Diary today and avail yourself of some fine tune selections….

Chordie
(214 Words. March 23, 2004, 02:54 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
chordie provides a meta-base of multiple web sites that contain various iterations of lyrics and chop-chord style marked-up versions of songs, which is the particular format I prefer to learn from. the site makes clever and appropriate use of CSS to send printer data. Alas for Safari’s fixed 1/4” margins. The site offers membership, which appears to provide users the…

Decisions, decisions
(72 Words. March 19, 2004, 08:48 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Girl Trouble’s 20th anniversary show [P-I] will be at the Crocodile on Saturday ($7). But we’ve been invited to see the new Kaufman flick, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Viv actually read the script months ago (in an early draft, mind you). She found it via Kate Winslet’s web site. I found it on the amusingly named Being Charlie…

Bare Knuckle Boxers
(193 Words. March 18, 2004, 01:40 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
The Bare Knuckle Boxers are my old Irish music rock band, in whch I played this electric mandolin. I also ran the old version of the website, which is worth rummaging through. Last night Greg (the other ex-mando slinger of BKB) and Karel (ex-guitarist) dropped in on the current version of the band at Mulleady’s in Magnolia. Mulleady’s was always…

Kind of you-know-who
(12 Words. March 06, 2004, 07:53 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Tonight, my ears are all about Miles. It’s a sweet pleasure….

It'll set your jaw to workin'
(91 Words. March 05, 2004, 05:02 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
bubblegum machine, via The Cartoonist. Alas, I don’t have time (I’ve been, er, hip deep in Plumbing Problem Volume Two) to suck down all the good stuff until Monday. In addition to the week 68 material featured (The Germs’ “Lexicon Devil” being my highlight) I noticed stuff by the Sonics, The Kingsmen, Tommy James and the Shondells, as well as…

My Skin Covers My Body
(55 Words. March 05, 2004, 12:21 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
I have a pal who recently saw the Happy Flowers in a show somewhere on the East Coast. I’m not sure if he knows about their web site. Hopefully he’ll see this and be amused. In a horrible oversight, there are no audio assets available. The music is inexplicable, so I won’t even try….

DIY redux
(133 Words. February 26, 2004, 03:19 PM, Comments: 2) MORE >>>
Irregular Orbit: Narthex - A Small Story From the Days of Punk [via Boing Boing - Mark’s been active lately and it’s a good thing]. “Here is our amazingly obscure story, because all of these little stories added up to a remarkable era — everyone who participated should be telling their own first-hand stories.” Amen to that. Here are…

Smile, and the world smiles with you
(51 Words. February 24, 2004, 09:35 AM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
In this excellent Metafilter post, Quartermass reports that Smile!, the legendary lost Beach Boys album intended to challenge the Beatles for the world-studio-wizard championship, will finally be released, and that in support of this event, Brian Wilson performed the entire album live last Friday. This is very, very cool….

and finally
(219 Words. February 15, 2004, 09:54 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
I’m kind of excited that my turntable is working again and I can listen to a bunch of stuff I don’t have on CD and am too lazy to rip. Right now it’s one of the middlin’ size bunch of classical music records I started grabbing as the vinyl slough commenced. They were your best bargain bet in the early…

Grey Album
(19 Words. February 12, 2004, 10:57 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Waxy.org: Daily Log: Danger Mouse’s The Grey Album MP3s. You read about it, now go get it….

Like a puppet on a string
(30 Words. February 01, 2004, 05:21 PM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
We are only just beginning…: Jason Webley announces new CD with release party, May 11 and April 30, respectively. Does it have to do with the open-heart surgery?…

A Handsome Walk
(506 Words. January 31, 2004, 01:42 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Last night Spence and I went to the Tractor Tavern to see old acquaintances of Spence’s, the entirely brilliant (in the American sense of ‘genuinely original and deep’) The Handsome Family. The band is a husband-and-wife songwriting team; they perform original music that is deeply grounded in American traditions and which benefits from the rich baritone of the singer’s voice….

pretty cool
(67 Words. January 20, 2004, 04:43 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
I just discovered that iTunes can burn to CD from a remote volume if that volume is mounted. My connection to the remote volume is via a 10/100 hub, and both the burning machine and the host machine have 10/100 ethernet ports, so presumably the data was running at 100 - but still, that’s pretty cool. I was burning on…

Blues Dream
(186 Words. January 09, 2004, 09:40 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
A few years ago, my mom gave me a CD for Christmas, because the musician behind the record lives here in Seattle and his mother is my mom’s neighbor. The record is Blues Dream and the musician is local hero Bill Frisell. Nothing long winded here; just that it’s an amazing amalgam of languid blues-based jazz that builds more on…

seisun?
(149 Words. December 16, 2003, 07:23 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Sunday night, walking up the hill from seeing Master and Commander (verdict: excellent if reactionary, a forgivable vice in an historical romance, featuring the best sailing-ship sea battles ever committed to bits’n’film) we ambled by Clever Dunnes, which bravely lofts the orange, green and white in my otherwise unconcerned with tradition neighborhood. I’ve mentioned Dunnes before (the food is good,…

Oh yah
(201 Words. November 24, 2003, 08:33 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
chop chords to ‘We Like tha moon’ Lyrics: We like the moon Coz it is close to us We like the moon But not as much as a spoon Cos that’s more use for eating soup And a fork isn’t very useful for that Unless it has got many vegetables And then you might be better off with a chopstick…

Y2Karl on Bob on Blonde on Blonde
(87 Words. November 19, 2003, 10:29 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
MeFi’s y2karl does his usual amazing thing with The Annotated Blonde On Blonde, setting my musical agenda for the day - Visions of Johanna is fighting for bitwidth versus a backup on my firewire bus at this very moment - Not incidentally, he reminds me, in a week where the world finds itself less one sensitive musical savant, beloved by…

Dale Lawrence on ATC?
(37 Words. November 06, 2003, 04:41 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Dale Lawrence drops a line: “The latest word I’ve received is that my Buddy Holly piece should air tomorrow (Friday 7 November) on All Things Considered (late afternoon in most markets). Here’s hoping.” I’ll be listening, Dale!…

Jason Webley Interview II Part Seven
(856 Words. November 02, 2003, 07:15 AM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
All week this week I ran an enormous interview I conducted in May and October of 2003 with Jason Webley, who played his last show of the season at Town Hall in Seattle on November 1st, 2003. I ran the first four parts of these transcripts in July, just ahead of the Monsters of Accordion shows, which I was unable…

Jason Webley Interview II Part Six
(1806 Words. November 01, 2003, 07:09 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
All week this week I’m running an enormous interview I conducted in May and October of 2003 with Jason Webley, who is playing his last show of the season at Town Hall in Seattle on November 1st. See you there! I ran the first four parts of these transcripts in July, just ahead of the Monsters of Accordion shows, which…

Jason Webley Interview II Part Five
(1763 Words. October 31, 2003, 07:05 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
All week this week I’m running an enormous interview I conducted in May and October of 2003 with Jason Webley, who is playing his last show of the season at Town Hall in Seattle on November 1st. See you there! I ran the first four parts of these transcripts in July, just ahead of the Monsters of Accordion shows, which…

Jason Webley Interview II Part Four
(1276 Words. October 30, 2003, 07:01 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
All week this week I’m running an enormous interview I conducted in May and October of 2003 with Jason Webley, who is playing his last show of the season at Town Hall in Seattle on November 1st. See you there! I ran the first four parts of these transcripts in July, just ahead of the Monsters of Accordion shows, which…

Jason Webley Interview II Part Three
(1816 Words. October 29, 2003, 07:52 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
All week this week I’m running an enormous interview I conducted in May and October of 2003 with Jason Webley, who is playing his last show of the season at Town Hall in Seattle on November 1st. See you there! I ran the first four parts of these transcripts in July, just ahead of the Monsters of Accordion shows, which…

Jason Webley Interview II Part Two
(2484 Words. October 28, 2003, 07:47 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
All week this week I’m running an enormous interview I conducted in May and October of 2003 with Jason Webley, who is playing his last show of the season at Town Hall in Seattle on November 1st. See you there! I ran the first four parts of these transcripts in July, just ahead of the Monsters of Accordion shows, which…

Jason Webley Interview II Part One
(3571 Words. October 27, 2003, 07:39 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
In May of 2003, I spoke with musician – and friend – Jason Webley at great length about his plans for the upcoming 2003 performing season and about his music in general. It was by far the most detailed conversation I’d ever had with him on the topic. I’ve known Jason since sometime in 1999, around the time he released…

Jason
(165 Words. October 25, 2003, 07:08 PM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
Tablet: Goodbye Forever, Once Again. Finally! Remember that I interviewed Jason last May? Well, Tablet’s run an abbreviated version of it. I am responsible for the edits and sequence juggling, as you’ll see (with the exception of the embarrassing first-to-third person shift in the first graf, which happened after I filed the edited version, and the subhead - Jason’s not…

Calvin and Co.
(85 Words. October 22, 2003, 12:40 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
SJ noted a few days ago that Calvin Johnson of K Records and various influential indie bands such as Beat Happening and the current Dub Narcotic Sound System was in an auto accident recently. K Records has updates and info about benefits, as, of course, the musicians’ insurance is limited to nonexistent. <sarcasm> No, we don’t need universal health-care -…

Shall We Drink from The Broken Cup?
(100 Words. October 14, 2003, 05:06 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Jason Webley - Something will fly…: November 1, Town Hall. Jason’s billing this as his ‘last show,’ who knows what that means. Town Hall holds 900 people, which is just about the number of folks that turned up for last year’s event at the late lamented Paradox. He’s selling advance tix online, so buy now! My day began with an…

D. Barnes, back again
(204 Words. October 12, 2003, 07:19 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Tractor Tavern Thurs, Oct 16 DANNY BARNES - CD release show featuring some very, very special guests! 8:30 * $10 adv/$12 dos From Barnes’ website, regarding the new release, Dirt on the Angel: Dirt on the Angel. AVAILABLE NOW At long last. Two years in the making, Dirt on the Angel. The All Music Guide calls this cd “visionary.” Big new…

Seattle show pix
(90 Words. October 10, 2003, 11:14 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Some Girls Message Board - Some Girls in Seattle includes some photos of the show, and a kind nod at my preceding post by the photographer, the capable web pro behind the Some Girls website, Stacee Sledge. The thread includes the set list which helpfully allows me to ID the Mysteries song they played: it was “When I Let my…

the pieces / some girls
(1463 Words. October 10, 2003, 06:36 PM, Comments: 3) MORE >>>
Vivian and Spence and I walked into the Croc at about 9:30 and saw Lora; we sat down and started chatting. Lora is a funny person and our conversation was predictably amusing. She noted that Freda had been kind enough to put us on the list, which was great news because it meant I could afford the band’s CDs. As…

Wide Awake: Bonus Liner Notes
(46 Words. October 08, 2003, 07:26 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
While I was looking up Dale’s Some Girls feature yesterday,The Vulgar Boatmen, annotated also appeared at Nuvo. Dale and Steve Hammer sat down and went over Wide Awake track by track. I’ll amuse myself by thinking of it as somehow related to my version ;)….

Some Girls
(130 Words. October 07, 2003, 01:02 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
nuvo.net / Some Girls rock harder than others, headlines Dale Lawrence at great length in a recent ish of the Indy alternative rag Nuvo. Some Girls is a one-off project that brings Blake Babies Juliana Hatfield and Freda Love together with Indy bassist Heidi Gluck; Freda is also an old high-school chum of mine. Although they only offer one tune…

Becherovka
(15 Words. October 01, 2003, 10:57 PM, Comments: 7) MORE >>>
Greg and I and Karel just had a pleasant, Becherovka fueled evening. I’m quite crosseyed….

Midnight Thunder Express
(843 Words. September 27, 2003, 02:50 PM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
Last night I enjoyed a pleasant pub crawl with my pal Don. Being of a certain domesticated temper these days, I spend far less time in bars than I once did, and a salutary survey of the local watering holes was well in order. We began with the newest kid on the block, Clever Dunnes’, an Irish pub that opened…

West Orange, New Jersey
(39 Words. September 26, 2003, 07:18 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Sounds Thomas Edison sound recordings, hosted at the National Parks website. Ah! Feel that toe-tappin’ noise! Mp3s. Oh yaaas. Mazel tov! La bella Cubana - habanera Snyder, does your mother know you’re out? At the moving picture ball Snazzy!…

Captain, What Be Arrrr Headin' Now
(148 Words. September 19, 2003, 07:06 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Avast me hearties! I’ve been swipin’ the booty from this scurvy site: Pyrates TrArrrslator Well t’streets have been swept, And t’leaves have all washed away, And I find meself stumblin’, On somethin’ I’m tryin’t’say. Ahoy! t’breathin’ has stopped, But t’hair keeps on growin’, T’anchor’s been dropped, But t’crew keeps on rowin’, Captain, what be our headin’ now? Just t’echo remains,…

Using Cron to schedule iTunes
(968 Words. August 30, 2003, 08:20 AM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
So, for reasons unclear to me, I have fallen into the habit of listening to the radio on my computer during the day as I work, playing streams via iTunes. I can play feeds from many stations all over the world, but mostly I stick close to home and listen to KUOW, the local NPR gabfest. I actually would prefer…

Doyon updates
(172 Words. August 09, 2003, 10:03 PM, Comments: 4) MORE >>>
KUOW’s devoting the Swing Years and Beyond to the late Cynthia Doyon this evening; they also added a page with a selection of what are apparently considerable numbers of notes of condolence and shock. bluejack has a little note expressing surprise; and the Little City Journal noted her passing, pointing to the P-I obit. Anita linked to me about this…

oh yeah: Desolation Row
(542 Words. August 08, 2003, 10:46 PM, Comments: 2) MORE >>>
In the heat of battle today, I was listening to my old pal Bob Dylan - who really is more of a Johnny Come Lately than an old pal in my musical tastes, having dropped his battered guitar case in my living room after I had made the acquaintance of Harry Smith and Shane MacGowan for several years. Before that,…

Boatmen wrap-up
(131 Words. July 25, 2003, 01:00 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Forgive me for returning to this topic. I got a bunch of emailed comments on the series and wanted to get them up here as well. First and formeost, the lyric corrections. Both Steve and Mark noted that the line and couplet I don’t understand in The Midwest Can Be Allright is: midwestern air is warm and wet dogs are…

Music and (American) Memory
(975 Words. July 22, 2003, 08:16 AM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
As I mentioned yesterday, Brian asked me to blog a bit on music and memory. He was specifically interested in the topic as a reflection of my series on Dale Lawrence’s music and career from last week. He’s right to ask for a bit on it. It’s an important part of my relationship to Dale’s music. It was part of…

Dale Lawrence weighs in
(1072 Words. July 21, 2003, 08:00 AM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
Last week, as I wrote about my understanding of and relationship to the career and music of Dale Lawrence, I was careful to note that inaccuracies might well be embedded in the accounts. I had constructed the narrative and creative histories largely on my own, from community knowledge and personal close observation. Part of my goal in recording the information…

Jason Webley Interview, part 4
(1234 Words. July 20, 2003, 07:29 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
This is the last of four initial parts of a long Jason Webley interview conducted by Mike Whybark in spring, 2003. The first part mostly discussed Jason’s plans for the July 20 Monsters of Accordion show and tour; the second followed that up and veered into some technical minutia about microphones. In section three, we examined busking for a moment…

Jason Webley Interview, part 3
(1247 Words. July 19, 2003, 07:09 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
This is the third of four initial parts of a long Jason Webley interview conducted by Mike Whybark in spring, 2003. The first part mostly discussed Jason’s plans for the upcoming July 20 Monsters of Accordion show and tour; the second followed that up and veered into some technical minutia about microphones. In this section, we examine busking for a…

Jason Webley interview, part 2
(1715 Words. July 18, 2003, 07:54 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
This is the second of four initial parts of a long Jason Webley interview conducted by Mike Whybark in spring, 2003. M: [continuing, referring to the July 20 Monsters of Accordion show at the Vera Project] Um… let’s see; oh yeah, do you know how much it’s going to be? J: I think it’s eight dollars. And then you have…

Jason Webley interview, part 1
(1686 Words. July 17, 2003, 08:21 AM, Comments: 2) MORE >>>
In spring, 2003, Seattle-based musician – and friend - Jason Webley and I met in Belltown following a performance in which Jason was appearing, Pastor Kaleb’s Sunday Service, at the Jewelbox Theater. Jason was not billed under his name but under a transparent pseudonym, something like Nasoj Yelbewich. After the services, Jason and I walked up the side of…

Dale Lawrence, part four
(2077 Words. July 16, 2003, 08:19 AM, Comments: 3) MORE >>>
Wide Awake Since Sunday I’ve been overflowing the boundaries of length for blog entries with a series covering my relationship to the music and songwriting of Hoosier musician Dale Lawrence and his various performing outfits over the years. This Saturday sees the release of Wide Awake, a compilation of mostly previously released tracks from Dale’s current and long-running project, the…

Dale Lawrence, part three
(2774 Words. July 15, 2003, 01:17 AM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
On Sunday and Monday, I explored the circumstances of my interest in the music of Dale Lawrence. I referred to the music and songwriting itself but in general did not attempt to analyze it. With a big deep breath, I’m going to take a stab at it today. Unfortunately for me, it’s the end of a very busy few days…

Dale Lawrence, part two
(2352 Words. July 14, 2003, 03:35 AM, Comments: 2) MORE >>>
In looking over yesterday’s entry on Dale Lawrence, the Gizmos, and me, I realized a bit of clarity on the information I’m presenting here might be of value. Today, I correspond with Dale via email semi-regularly, and probably could have peppered him – or others – with numerous questions to establish a baseline of recollection against which my tattered and…

Dale Lawrence, part one
(1786 Words. July 13, 2003, 01:20 AM, Comments: 3) MORE >>>
As many of you know, my favorite songwriter is Indiana’s Dale Lawrence, longtime bandleader of the Vulgar Boatmen and before that the most-recognized songwriter for the seminal Midwestern punk band, the Gizmos. The Vulgar Boatmen are re-releasing a subset of their catalog, with the occasional new track, on July 19, as the CD Wide Awake. Dale kindly provided me with…

a new gig?
(300 Words. June 28, 2003, 07:25 AM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
Well, these things come in threes, right? A few days ago I responded to a musicians wanted ad. Accordion, Banjo, Mandolin, fiddle for punk rock sea shanties & Appalachian death polka. Pogues, Tom Waits, Hank Sr., Bad Livers, Clash, (123) 555-1212 or thewages@placeholder.com Well, that more or less describes my musical amibtions and tastes, so, I kinda had to. That…

The Swains at the Little Red Hen, Greenlake
(371 Words. May 31, 2003, 08:07 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
I neglected to blog our Thusday evening visit to Rosita’s and then the Little Red Hen in the seventies of Woodlawn, hard by Greenlake. We had a couple of margaritas at Rosita’s along with dinner, and judging by the scope and scale of my hangover, they were much stronger than I thought they were at the time I consumed them….

Well, that, like, sucked
(395 Words. May 23, 2003, 05:48 PM, Comments: 3) MORE >>>
I went down to Folklife this afternoon, despite having decided against it last year, after all that baloney the enforcement nerds at last year’s Seattle Center events put Jason through. I went partly because (please note, usability engineers) I couldn’t find decent information on the event this year at the NWFolklife web site. (I think it’s interesting from a usability…

Radio weblogs
(146 Words. May 14, 2003, 10:14 AM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
KUOW’s Weekday, a morning call in show for the birkenstock and doc crowd up here in God’s Country, will be featuring weblogs for its call-in topic tomorrow at 9am 10am. Having, I believe, heard Jim Flanagan stump for his ingenious community event, “Drive Yourself to Work Day,” on the phone lines of the very same show I hope to hear…

in-browser Apple Music Search implemented
(67 Words. May 09, 2003, 02:42 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Waxy.org: Daily Log: Search the iTunes Music Store: boom, there it is. Dang, that took, what, nearly a week? Geez, this LazyWeb thing, it’s just, I dunno, lazy! (ahem. In all seriousness, HATS OFF, Andy!) Andy’s offering hosted access to the search script on his site “until it gets too popular.” Meantime you can grab it yourself and install it…

Hair on my face
(461 Words. May 06, 2003, 09:21 PM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
Since I find myself sporting the silly cat’s-tongue goatee again, and Jake laughed and pointed at the song when he saw it in a tracklisting, and a little bird tells me that a Gizmos/Dow Jones and the Industrials reunion is imminently impending (well, Memorial Day) in Indy, may I present a silly, silly button that John Barge and Eric White…

Spring brings
(16 Words. May 03, 2003, 08:51 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Go to www.jasonwebley.com for more information. See you there - say “hi” if you see me!…

Apple Music Store URLs
(136 Words. May 03, 2003, 07:00 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
NSLog(); - itms:// Links - intrepid persons have sussed out the URLs in use by iTunes under the Music Store, now canonically called ITMS after the URL schema Apple’s using. I assume, therefore, that someone will be buildng my requested in-browser review interface to the goods available. It’s worth noting that there’s a discussion on the site concerning the eMusic/iMusic…

We like tha moon
(54 Words. May 02, 2003, 11:36 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Moon Song from the Veitches of rathergood.com. [via Rebecca of the ever-alarming taxidermy-and-disease blog sweat flavored gummi] Turn your speakers down, and get ready to tap yer toes. (hmm-hmm-hmm… not as high as maybe drigibles or zeppelins or maybe lightbulbs… hmmm-hmm-hmmm… we like tha moon… la-la-la…) Take that, Apple Music!…

EMusic v. Apple Music Store
(442 Words. May 01, 2003, 11:13 AM, Comments: 2) MORE >>>
Why EMusic gets it: side-by-side of the older, subscription-based online music service and Apple’s just-out approach. [via Mark at Boing Boing. Cory also notes today that Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom is kicking up some dust in the ring at bookfilter] I’ve been silent this week on the matter as I’ve become a late adopter on my machines…

Mashups remix throwdown
(1475 Words. April 26, 2003, 07:53 AM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
A couple of weeks ago, Dale Lawrence and Jake Smith (of, respectively, each other’s bands: Dale’s The Vulgar Boatmen and Jake’s Mysteries of Life - got that? There will be a test.) were here in Seattle for the EMP’s second annual pop conference. Jake was presenting on the advent of video games as a central pop concern of the kiddies,…

Webley show set
(176 Words. April 13, 2003, 06:28 PM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
One last thing to squeeze in here before I get going on the special. My friend Jason Webley recently announced his first concert of the season here in Seattle on May 3. He won’t be playing in Seatle again until July, so you’d better grab tix if you’re interested in seeing whether or not he lost any fingers or toes…

Indiana audio recording heritage
(643 Words. April 09, 2003, 02:26 AM, Comments: 4) MORE >>>
The Cradle of Recorded Jazz - Gennett and The Starr Piano Company provides a detailed overview of what was at one time one of the the largest audio recording and disc production facilities in the United States. Growing up in Southern Indiana, I often wondered how it was possible that the state had contributed such large numbers of musicians and…

The radio
(282 Words. April 04, 2003, 08:59 PM, Comments: 2) MORE >>>
The Next Big Thing has just been slotted locally on KUOW at 8pm Fridays, following the irresistable undertow of This American Life. The host of The Next Big Thing is Dean Olsher. The show comes from the “new school” public radio tradition that kicked off just before the last Gulf War with the late lamented Heat, a long-format variety show…

Down in the U-17
(248 Words. March 31, 2003, 02:41 PM, Comments: 2) MORE >>>
Jim and Marianne’s Jukebox is a pretty good sized collection of mp3-format recordings of old 78’s, including the catchy Great War ditties, Down in the U-17, I’ve Got My Captain Working for me Now, and Wilhelm the Grocer. I formerly had this collection stored locally, but it was lost in the great hard-drive corruption disaster of two-thousand-ought-three ([homer] stupid upgrades…

Smithsonian Folkways
(272 Words. February 17, 2003, 07:50 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Smithsonian Folkways Dusts Off Titles With New Technology [NYT via MeFi]. Ooooh yeah baby. That’s the way to do it. Especially if as a label you have a huge backlist and archivists already on the case. Interestingly, Spencer and I discussed this quite a bit back a couple years ago, when the depth and success of the LOC’s American Memory…

Duct Tape and Plastic!
(375 Words. February 13, 2003, 05:41 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
I whipped up a new look for Ken over at the Illuminated Donkey a day or two ago… I think it’s an improvement, perhaps you will too. Greg and Spencer and I had practice yesterday evening – seemed like we were both really rusty and coming along nicely. Three more evenings and we should have an idea of a setlist….

Where The Hell is Bill?
(61 Words. December 25, 2002, 11:03 AM, Comments: 4) MORE >>>
Best gift in our house? Viv got the Camper Van Beethoven box set Cigarettes & Carrot Juice which incorporates all the early records by this incredibly influential band. Lucky for her, she’ll be discovering this music for the first time, more or less. Later today, we’re off to stand in line for The Two Towers at the Cinerama; I can’t…

Somebody Got Murdered
(100 Words. December 25, 2002, 07:45 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
mp3.whybark.com: the clash From the vaults. The title of this post is not intended to intimate any sort of conspiracy, but rather the US Festival tune included herein. There’s a thriving trade in booted CD-Rs for these shows. Here’s a poser: Am I violating the DMCA? The recordings are not released commercially, but the songs themselves are copyrighted and rights…

Police Walked in for Jimmy Jazz
(464 Words. December 23, 2002, 09:45 AM, Comments: 3) MORE >>>
Joe Strummer Dead at 50, but makes the front page of the NYT. A “heart attack.” Bummer. I always preferred Stummers’ sense of song construction to his Clash-era songwriting partner’s, Mick Jones (the lead guitarist and later leader of Big Audio Dynamite). The first three records I bought for myself were The Clash’s second album, Give ‘Em Enough Rope (controversially…

Mo' Mando
(667 Words. November 29, 2002, 02:12 PM, Comments: 3) MORE >>>
Given the remarkable responses under my last mandolin post, I wanted to take a moment to point to a few mandolin resources on the net, som of which I’ve long linked in my sidebar. First, and closest to me personally, is Martin Stillion’s emando.com, The Electric Mandolin Resource Page, for which I helped Martin secure the domain and hosted for…

My first mandolin
(1257 Words. November 27, 2002, 05:45 PM, Comments: 12) MORE >>>
I turned to Tod and over my beer said, “I think I want a mandolin”. He looked at me for a minute, not sure of what he’d just heard. “I don’t want to spend a ton of dough on it, though. I’m basically just curious.” “A what?” “A mandolin,” I repeated. “You know, little, acoustic, hillbillies, like that.” He got…

... and some walt whitman
(399 Words. November 13, 2002, 07:57 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
I interrupt my previously announced plans to recycle my own content to recycle content heard yesterday evening (November 12) on the MPR/Keillor ‘Writer’s Almanac.’ There I was, minding my own business, when all my hair stood on end. Damn, that gay old man could write. 8 The little one sleeps in its cradle, I lift the gauze and look a…

Halloween
(363 Words. October 31, 2002, 07:00 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Jason Webley will present a Day of the Dead concert on November 2 at the Paradox in the University District. Online ticket sales are already sold out. Jason recently performed in Moscow, where a theaterful of hostages was liberated - some from all toil, all trouble, and all tears - by an opiate-based gas earlier this month. Jason’s show flyers…

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND LIVE!
(195 Words. October 15, 2002, 04:38 PM, Comments: 3) MORE >>>
I subscribe to the Vulgar Boatman email list, and bandleader Dale Lawrence posted this today: The Boatmen are playing two special Halloween shows next week, masquerading as the Velvet Underground. Friday October 25 at Vertigo in Bloomington (IN): It’s a fund-raiser for the Pin-Up, a local arts publication. The club itself will be masquerading as Andy Warhol’s Factory and the…

No Nostalgia Updates
(386 Words. October 09, 2002, 07:35 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
No Nostalgia has updated their site this week. They are the label-side of both the Mysteries of Life, whom I’ve written about at length here, and the Vulgar Boatmen, whom I’m overdue to write about. As with most things, it’s just a matter of sitting down and doing it. But. Not tonight. Instead, I’ll call your attention to the No…

Blöödhag
(302 Words. October 03, 2002, 07:59 AM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
Blöödhag. It’s an interview with a band I used to practice down the hall from. I saw the link at Boing Boing, and posted the following at the comments thereof. Then I thought, oh, you people would be interested in this. Blöödhag is an “edu-core” band. They play ultra heavy speed-metally thrash. They also like reading. To learn more, hit…

VJ EP 1-903 promo
(142 Words. October 01, 2002, 07:33 AM, Comments: 12) MORE >>>
Vee-Jay covers the interesting story of this label. Here are A and B of a record they put out. I’ll provide you with these tidbits: The record shown lacks a sleeve. I found it in a record bin in the boonies someplace in North Carolina, and paid $2. it was a, like, Mom and Pop antique shop. I still…

A suggested soundtrack to this week's material
(248 Words. September 17, 2002, 07:31 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
It’s a good idea to listen to the music of Right to Left and the Vulgar Boatmen as you read my entries for this week. It was what we were listening to at the time, and the songs seem to be about these events. When we Walk All of My Friends Morgan Says Good Night, Jeanne-Marie Wide Awake You and…

VR Schizophrenia
(272 Words. August 29, 2002, 05:44 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
NPR : The Sights and Sounds of Schizophrenia Man, this is cool. I’d love to get the soundtrack from the sim to put on at a party. I lived wth a schizophrenic man for a couple of years in Bloomington. He was seriously tormented by his illness. Once I awakened to find him inserting another roommates’ discarded medical injection needles…

heatwave
(188 Words. August 15, 2002, 08:31 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Fresh Air for today (Thursday - August 15, 2002) is featuring Eric Klinenberg, author of the just-published “Heatwave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago”, about the horrific heatwave of Summer 1995. I’m listening to it right now. It’s selling the shit outta the book; I’m definitely gionna pick it up. Funny thing about me: when others read horror novels…

andromeda
(79 Words. August 14, 2002, 07:46 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Andromeda is one PHP (or ASP if you’re on wintel) script that acts as a streamer for your digital meda collection. I have a pile of mp3s that are legitimately shared at mp3.whybark.com; until now, I’ve just shared the raw directories and or referenced the files from sites such as modock.whybark.com. I downloaded the tryout from the website above, renamed…

Web-based Uke chord finder
(19 Words. August 10, 2002, 05:21 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Sheep Entertainment - Ukulele Chord Finder Aah! That’s fantastic! Now, why ain’t there one of these online for mando?…

Yeesh! scooped!
(72 Words. August 10, 2002, 07:12 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
…pickhits…: Worlds Collide! Man, you’d think I’d hear about this on the Vulgar Boatmen email list, but noooo… Anyway, Eric notes that Dale Lawrence has an article in the August 8 Chicago Reader. Sadly, the Reader doesn’t do online content. In slightly related news, I actually started my Dale Lawrence piece for this blog last week but was interrupted by…

Alan Lomax RIP
(274 Words. July 26, 2002, 07:43 AM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
Upon returning home from camping, I noticed a deservedly long obit for noted folklorist Alan Lomax. Lomax, along with considerably flakier kook Harry Smith and redoubtable businessman Moe Asch, are the most important and influential record producers of the century. Smith, in addition to performing duties as all-around visionary freeloader on the order of Joe Gould (which entailed, among other…

Arrr!
(95 Words. July 20, 2002, 06:34 AM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
Jason Webley may or may not be taking the ferry to Bainbridge Island on Sunday, July 21, at 3pm. You may or may not be taking the same boat. You may or may not want to don your trusty cutlass, brace of flintlocks, eyepatch, wooden leg, tricorne hat, shirt of East India calico, and thigh-high boots should you choose to…

I DO CARE
(852 Words. July 19, 2002, 07:36 AM, Comments: 6) MORE >>>
In the video for the song itself that comes at the end of ROCK ‘N’ ROLL HIGH SCHOOL, there’s a shot of Joey Ramone in front of a blackboard that the director cuts into and away from over the duration of the song. There’s a phrase written on the blackboard, drawn from the lyrics of the song: “I don’t care…

New Webley CD: Counterpoint
(325 Words. June 16, 2002, 07:03 AM, Comments: 1) MORE >>>
I finally was able to lay hands on a copy of Jason Webley’s new CD Friday night. There are twelve songs, and it’s called “Counterpoint”. Word is that time’s been too short for comprehensive site updates chez Webley, so here’s a scan of the cover, and the songlist: Southern Cross Broken Cup Quite Contrary Then It’s Not Time to…

Blimp Week Followup Pt. III
(733 Words. May 31, 2002, 10:54 AM, Comments: 3) MORE >>>
In my longish story on the Wreck of the Shenandoah, I mentioned the release, and subsequent about face by the publisher, of a song by the same name within a week of the disaster. At the time, I was unable to find words or music to the song, although I suspected that a child’s school paper on the event was…

the BLIMP WEEK theme song
(233 Words. May 06, 2002, 12:26 PM, Comments: 2) MORE >>>
Ken Goldstein, of the Illuminated Donkey has kindly agreed (actully, he’s done no such thing, and will come away from this performance believing it was all some sort of peculiar dream brought on by one too many egg creams) to perform the BLIMP WEEK theme song for us here in the vast and dusty mike.whybark.com Dirigible Theater, largely abandonded since…

Mysteries of Life
(1180 Words. April 28, 2002, 07:17 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Bloomington, Indiana is my hometown. I lived there from 1976 until 1982, and from 1983 until 1990. I graduated both high school and college in Bloomington. In high school and college I was deeply involved in the local music scene, specifically the punk scene. I had friends that played all kinds of music, though, and as I’ve gotten less mercilessly…

Manhattan Research Inc.
(299 Words. April 24, 2002, 10:11 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
As Spencer is wont to do, he made my musical day at Saturday’s dinner by bringing out a couple of discs that I’d known about for quite some time but never located because of incomplete knowledge concerning the records. This entry is about the later work of Raymond Scott on the disc set titled “Manhattan Research, Inc”, the eccentric composer…

The Latin Playboys, "Dose"
(296 Words. April 23, 2002, 02:29 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
One of two discs that surfaced (thanks as usual to the industrious Spencer Sundell) during the weekend’s festival of food is by an obscure offshoot of LA roots-rockers Los Lobos. In a 1995 review by David Levine concerning the first release (“Latin Playboys”) he writes: This music is so original and yet so familiar, it’s almost archetypal. Which begins to…

Jason Webley
(242 Words. April 18, 2002, 11:40 AM, Comments: 3) MORE >>>
Local musician Jason Webley will be presenting his May Day concert this upcoming May 1st on board the retired ferry Skansonia moored in Lake Union. Jason is a gifted songwriter who somehow chose the accordian as his primary instrument, and uses his gifts to craft entertaining, poetic landscapes that express a kind of doom-laden Blakean mysticism. He’s a first rate…

Score! BOX SEATS!
(609 Words. April 16, 2002, 07:51 AM, Comments: 2) MORE >>>
My fabulous neighbor Peter gave us KILLER box seats to the symphony tonight, which featured the Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzbug. They put on a lovely show with two pieces by Mozart, a piano concerto and the “Prague” symphony. Also performed was Beethoven’s Fourth. To my surprise, I couldn’t find a website for the organization. This was the third or fourth…

Happy Birthday, Tiny Tim!
(281 Words. April 12, 2002, 03:15 AM, Comments: 2) MORE >>>
April 12th is TINY TIM’s birthday. He would have turned seventy. I saw Tim in the context of a “golden oldies” roadshow at Navy Pier in Chicago, at the Festa Polonia (or whatever it’s called), in, um, 1988, the day before I got my tattoos. Oh my, there’s a story in that too. There were retread versions of Iron Butterfly…

the MANDOLECTRICK
(6 Words. April 11, 2002, 08:13 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Removed by request of the luthier….

the Velvet Underground
(155 Words. April 07, 2002, 10:58 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
I recently picked up the VU bootleg tapes release, The Quine Tapes and have been enjoying it since. Scott Colburn of Gravelvoice a long, long time ago gave me a tape of some bootlegs from the 1966 “Exploding Plastic Inevitable” tour, and I have always loved the sounds on it; long droning screechy free-improv rock. While “White Light, White Heat”…

ASTOUNDING! ASTONISHING!
(102 Words. April 04, 2002, 06:00 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Jethro Burns Mandolin Lessons: FOUR CD’s worth, all free for the taking, in MP3 format. Truly, the internet provideth all things. “Jethro? Who dat?” Homer and Jethro Jethro Burns was one of America’s great masters of the mandolin. I’m aware that only about three of you are mando players (if you’ll indulge my self-delusion and permit me to call what…

THe GIZMOS: an open letter to Aaron Cometbus
(374 Words. April 02, 2002, 11:49 AM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
(this bounced, from the email address below. I thought, gee, what the heck?) To: aaron@cometbus.com From: Mike Whybark Subject: on the off chance that this works… Cc: Bcc: X-Attachments: Once, long ago, Aaron wrote about walking around Indianapolis trying to find people who knew about a band called the Gizmos that had released a song, “I like the Midwest” on…

JASON WEBLEY MAY DAY details out
(64 Words. April 01, 2002, 12:11 PM, Comments: 2) MORE >>>
Unless it’s an April Fool’s prank, my friend Jason has announced his upcoming return from sea on board the Skansonia in Lake Union on May first. I think that space must be limited. I hope he offers presales. May Day Concert Wednesday May 1st, 8 pm (doors open at 7:30) The Skansonia 2505 North Northlake Way (206) 545-9109 All Ages…

NPR: Yiddish Radio Project
(145 Words. March 26, 2002, 05:51 PM, Comments: 0) MORE >>>
Oh YEAH! Yiddish Radio Project March 26: real audio stream of the episode. When I was a kid, my family used to listen to public radio rebroadcasts of Golden Age classics: Fibber McGee, the Shadow, The Lone Ranger… Well, long story short (hard for me, you know), my tastes were formed to include a deep, slavering love of old-time radio….

ROCK AND ROLL HIGH SCHOOL
(293 Words. March 26, 2002, 12:56 PM, Comments: 3) MORE >>>
In a wonderful serendipity, since I just got off the phone with Classmates.com, I caught the last half-hour to forty-five minutes of the classic teen rocker flick, “Rock and Roll High School”, which features the Ramones, Warhol scenester Mary Woronov, and the inevitable Clint “Balok” Howard (hmm… The Howard family and Star Trek… haven’t I been here before?), Ron Howard’s…