It’s time for the big walk this weekend and no, I’m not talking about the trip into the Pacific Ocean that I’ve got booked for sometime in the next 40 years in lieu of a functioning retirement plan because the world is dying and the previous generations have destroyed the notion of upward economic mobility. […]
The Setlist
Our picks for the week’s best live music plus interviews and music news.
Posted inMusic
Meltdown Fest
It’s been a bad week, to be honest. My news-addicted mind experienced a mild apoplexy at two items I can’t help but treat as related. The United Nations has released a stunning report that humans — and more specifically our exploitative world economic engines — are accelerating the extinction of some million-plus species of plants […]
Posted inMusic
Game of Tones
Early on this week is a great time to catch great bands in the fringes of bigger genres. Noise punk, grindcore, psych rock and various other troubadours of the outré are hawking penillions of perverse metrics. If you are a fan of all things weird and glowing, from now until Cinco de Mayo is going […]
Posted inMusic
In Bloom
It’s the last week of April. May Day is coming and with it comes the right time to watch what is maybe the greatest musical ever filmed, Robin Hardy and Anthony Shaffer’s The Wicker Man (1973). More importantly, nature gets into the whole blooming concept and the average citizen can expect to get a little […]
Posted inMusic
Don’t Let it Burn
I planned on writing something about the environment in this intro to fit the theme of this week’s issue but, like many of you, I spent Monday watching the immolation of Notre Dame Cathedral. So I am listening to a recording of madrigals by the 16th century Italian composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and thinking […]
Posted inMusic
Makin’ Records
It’s that time of year again: The only smudge on the calendar when I will blemish my otherwise pure objection to the ugly forces of capitalism and grudgingly endorse a spending holiday. “You there, boy! What day is it today?” (Responding in Dickensian street-urchin voice) “Why sir, it’s Record Store Day!” “Ah, I see, so […]
Posted inMusic
April is the Coolest Month
This week has a lot of jazz, a decent smattering of heavy metal and some festie-friendly electronic acts in the pipeline. Some big names are in the mix, as well as some promising young upstarts. Local musicians who have done well for themselves in the world play some home sets, while bigger names from the […]
Posted inMusic
Ship of Fools
No intro this week. I’m too busy spending my time reading opinion pieces on Twitter and elsewhere explaining why the establishment heads in the Democratic Party hung all of their impeachment hopes on a career G-Man instead of making what I am sure is the very difficult case that we have in office a mendacious […]
Posted inMusic
To an Oasis, Sprinkled by Stars Above
Last week surf rock icon Dick Dale died. I saw him live twice and was deafened by his massive and beautiful sound both times. Unfortunately, I saw Mr. Dale’s shows because he was forced to tour into his old age and until his death due to medical bills. Dick Dale’s experience was just one example […]
Posted inMusic
Spring Reverb
Spring’s coming and along with it is St. Patrick’s Day, the Vernal Equinox, Purim and the Worm Moon. Also a certain group of my friends — you know the ones — tell me that Mercury is currently in retrograde. So, if all of this change going on — the most chaotic of which for many […]
Posted inMusic
Soothsayin’
There are many great shows this week. I know I say that a lot but I can assure you I always mean it. I am honest in sharing my opinion, maybe to a fault, though my mom often quoted William Blake to me: “A truth that’s told with bad intent beats all the lies you […]
Posted inMusic
Anniversaries
One of the promises I made at the end of December was to spend the coming year with less of a dense layer between myself and you the reader. I have heard from some of you — and I thank you all for the feedback. As I have mentioned here before, I was a resident […]