I have probably mentioned here before that I like going for walks, often at odd hours to avoid other people. This isn’t out of any misanthropic impulse, but to stay out of the way of traffic, which is the pedestrian’s natural enemy. They aren’t long walks, either, I just need a space and time where […]
The Setlist
Our picks for the week’s best live music plus interviews and music news.
Posted inMusic
Stormageddon
In the first act of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, when a violent storm is destroying a ship before leaving its occupants stranded on Prospero’s island, the lowly Boatswain marvels at the power of Mother Nature, noting how humankind’s world of hierarchy and political intrigue is nothing compared to her fury: “What cares these roarers for the […]
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Dream Operators
Because I make it a point to listen at home to the music of as many of the artists that I cover here, the algorithms on all the sources and apps I use are completely wrecked, a situation I actually find delightful, even if I don’t personally enjoy all of the music. Another nice byproduct […]
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One World
I’m pretty horrified at the lack of comprehensive coverage of the ongoing vinyl chloride train derailment catastrophe. If you don’t like my bummer intros, skip ahead to a rather dynamic week of live music. For the rest of you, hear me out: At this point, it seems like the original run of HBO’s Chernobyl got […]
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Love Is
People are complicated creatures with a vast catalog of needs that are often compressed, and therefore barely expressed in the gulf of space between thought and expression. I have considered love a lot over the years, and as someone who tends to translate the world through music and literature, I often get the moment wrong, […]
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In Dreams
I’ve been a little out there lately. Mostly late at night, when “the candy-colored clown they call the Sandman” whispers in my ears to inform me of the evening’s entertainment to be displayed in the oneiromantic playground of my dreams. I have a couple events to blame it on, as two of my best friends […]
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Lady Luck
Many years ago, in a Yankee cemetery in coastal Maine, I was pondering the grave of a young man who was taken out of the game by an “unruly bull,” in an incident that I can only imagine was every bit as dramatic and shocking as the gravestone (upon which I was making an etching) […]
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Neither Saint Nor Cynic
In an attempt to better understand the ancient world (which, for the purpose of this article, I will define as any period before my brain came online in the late 1980s), I have been reading about the philosophy of the Cynics of Greece. So far as I can tell, their prime character, Diogenes of Sinope, […]
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Where is my Mind
Having taken advantage of the break in the weather to deliver a load of firewood to my dear friend Pat, I am currently basking in the warm sense of accomplishment, or perhaps that’s the after-effect of the sauna I enjoyed with another friend. Either way, I’m feeling pretty fat and sassy at the moment, gorged […]
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“Dry” January
I’ve done this gig long enough to know the post-holiday hub is the absolute doldrums when it comes to live music. So, bear with me for the next few weeks, please. It gets better, I promise. On another note, I’d like to mention the tragic passing of Lola Mitchell, aka Gangsta Boo, on New Year’s […]
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Facing Forward
Well, it’s the end of the line for 2022. Can’t say that I’ll miss this year too much; perhaps its greatest gift is the ease in which I find myself giving it up. Like many years before it, the nightlife is heavily weighted on the hingepoint of the New Year, which falls on a Saturday. […]
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Happy Happy, Joy Joy
Well, here it is, the first Setlist of winter and the last one whose dates are entirely booked within the year 2022. This has been a rough year for a lot of us. I certainly haven’t enjoyed it much and I look forward to the future as always, thinking about that quote I like to […]