Drummer, percussionist, instrumentalist and composer Glenn Kotche has been prolific in his output lately. Earlier this year, he appeared on his primary band’s release, Wilco (The Album), then recently, on the excellent recent 7 Worlds Collide collaborative project (The Sun Came Out), headed by Neil Finn. With his duo project, On Fillmore, Kotche has released […]
Music
Coverage of the music scene in Humboldt County with upcoming shows from locals and out-of-town acts, reviews, interviews and more.
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Guitar and Whatever
Jazz guitarist Charlie Hunter rose to the top of the Bay Area music scene with a custom 7-string axe and a masterful style that allowed him to play bass and lead at the same time. In the ’90s, he moved to jazz central, New York City, and found more success, landing a contract with the […]
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The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution
November 24 marked the 150th anniversary of the publishing of Charles Darwin’s defining work, The Origin of Species, and for commemoration Richard Dawkins has written his most accessible book to date, The Greatest Show on Earth. With a 2008 Gallop poll showing that 44 percent of Americans believe God created man in his present form […]
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Prince of Truth
Performer, musician, vocalist and composer Carla Bozulich frequently challenges her audiences, her listeners and musical boundaries/definitions. Bozulich’s art is often unsettling. Her reputation as a provocateur goes back to the mid-’80s with the Los Angeles experimental noise band Ethyl Meatplow, and later with The Geraldine Fibbers, which featured guitarist Nels Cline (with whom Bozulich would […]
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No Rules
I’ll probably always think of him as young Bernie Steinberg, leader of RBS Syndrome, Fortuna High’s hottest punk pop band, but these days he’s calling himself Berel Alexander. "Berel is the name on my birth certificate: Berel Alexander Steinberg. Bernie was my grandfather; Alexander was my great great uncle. I went by Bernie my whole […]
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What Will We Be
The 28-year-old singer/songwriter Devendra Banhart has been the figurehead for the wave of “New Weird Americana,” also simply termed, “Freak Folk.” Now, under the banner of a major label, Banhart, whose persona seems to put the “freak” into folk, finds himself in an interesting crossroads. Banhart had reached an artistic pinnacle with 2004’s Niño Rojo, […]
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am I being kind
Michael J. Chase is known as “The Kindness Guy.” As the founder of The Kindness Center, based in Maine, Chase is an inspirational speaker and author of am I being kind, available at TheKindnessCenter.com. The book has a 100 percent life back guarantee: if it doesn’t change your life, you get your old life back, […]
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Zapped
When the late great Frank Zappa died in 1993, he left behind a massive body of work that’s not easy to play for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, his quirky compositions use complex melodies and time signatures, drawing on his love for avant-garde composers, jazz and good ol’ rock ‘n’ roll to create […]
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Two Left Feet Dance Project
In out of the way places, as well as in big cities, dance struggles to stay alive. As a modern dancer in New York, I watched studios, even prestigious troupes like Alvin Ailey, get priced out of their rent, moving from location to location. The Creamery in Arcata has long been a center for dance […]
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Not Out of Love
Last year when Billboard magazine marked its 50th anniversary with a list of the 100 best selling artists of all time, The Beatles topped the list followed by Madonna, Elton John and Elvis Presley. Down at No. 83, in between Bee Gee Andy Gibb and Nelly, came the soft rock combo, Air Supply. Australian singer […]
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Keep an Eye on the Sky
Big Star. Ardent/Rhin. The term, “Memphis Curse,” was bantered around quite a bit amongst musician friends when I resided there for three years in the 1990s. It meant that as soon as a Memphis band reached a plateau, as a unit, it inevitably would soon fall apart, disintegrate. The story of Big Star was often […]
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Say Aye
In a song titled "All in Favor" on the latest disc from The Mother Hips, Hips co-founder Greg Loiacono traces the history of an unnamed band, established under guiding principals laid down by someone called "Wrongway Ray": "He said don’t listen to your heart, instead follow these instructions towards the path of self-destruction: unlimited buffoonery […]