OK, here we go. This Setlist week sees the transfer of days from one Roman emperor’s month to another’s. From the hot and chaotic days of Julius Caesar’s July to the more august days of — well — August, the month of a much longer-lived Caesar. History, namesakes, birthdays, gemstones and zodiacal creatures aside, there […]
The Setlist
Our picks for the week’s best live music plus interviews and music news.
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Punk Rock and the Beetles
When discussing the origin of life in the universe in the company of his peers, the British evolutionary biologist J.B.S. Haldane — perhaps apocryphally — pointed out that the massive number of stars and beetle species suggested that the Creator would appear to be “endowed with a passion for stars, on the one hand, and […]
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Haunted by the Music
Having missed my chance to see the new much-ballyhooed fright flick Hereditary at the Minor, I decided to feed my obsession with all things horror by doing a deep dive into one of my favorite films of all time: The Shining. After watching film theory videos on Rob Ager’s excellent Collative Learning YouTube channel and […]
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Vinny in the Bardo
Early last week after my deadline had passed, I heard the sad news that Gregg DeVaney had succumbed to the aggressive brain cancer with which he was recently diagnosed. From the outside, it was shocking how quickly it came. I have known Gregg for three decades, since I was a child, and I would like […]
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Bells, Banjos and Puppets
As I write this from my friend’s porch on a hot afternoon in the last week of June, my ears are met with the sweet sounds of summer. No, wait, that’s just a rooster mindlessly screaming in the yard while it pecks around in the dry dirt for snacks. Meanwhile, spreading around me with the […]
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Life is Short but This Week is Long
This is the longest week of the year but there is still plenty of nightlife, despite the absence of our collegiate population. We have noise shows, rock shows, folk and metal galore. I have carpentry and gardening projects to catch up on myself, and I can’t be bothered to waste the sun jabbering away so, […]
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Fathers and Fests
We are creeping toward the salad days of summer, my dears, and this week has some proper preludes for that laziest, grasshopper-ish of seasons. Oyster Fest is here (a truly strange notion to me as no one sensible in my former home of Louisiana eats oysters in the warm months, but we are luckily blessed […]
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Amp Up and Ramp Up
It’s a packed week of great music so I will keep this intro as lean and mean as a vintage WWF wrestler’s rant track. Here goes: The weather’s fine, the music’s good, so get off the couch ya potatoes (hold the last vowel sound before cutting with the sibilant S) and see some dang shows! […]
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Party Like There’s Probably a Tomorrow
Memorial Day weekend has come and gone and with it the inauguration of the summer festival schedule begins. The 42nd installment of Summer Arts and Music Festival is happening in Benbow this weekend and, although I will likely not be there, I will be thinking about my erstwhile Southern Humboldt home and the charming people […]
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Art, Motion and Sound
It’s Memorial Day weekend and the sweet days of Kinetic Madness await all you lucky kiddies by the bay. I’ll be in another bay area missing the sculptured fun but making up for it by celebrating the 97th birthday of a very special lady. So I wish you all a spectacular time behind the magical […]
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Call Me By Your Band Name
The more creatively named bands featured this week got my wheels spinning down memory lane. Despite a preternatural and seething distrust of all things over and done with, I couldn’t help thinking about some of the uniquely named groups I’ve encountered over the decades. I myself used to front a New Orleans-based punk/psych outfit called […]
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Call Your (or Somebody’s) Mother
I will make this short and sweet, like these fragrant May nights we are lucky to share. Your life started with a womb — unless you were hatched like my friend Walt the bearded dragon — and if you are lucky enough to still have its owner as a positive part of your life, you […]