We have certainly entered the part of the summer where our nostalgia for the bright and lazy days of late June is colored by the scent of wood smoke and over-ripened fruit. The kind of sensation that curls over our nostrils and into our brains like the tendrils of cigarette vapors from Rick Blaine’s ashtray […]
The Setlist
Our picks for the week’s best live music plus interviews and music news.
Posted inThe Setlist
Read After Burning
Burnstitch Collective has been attached to many of the murmurs I hear about simple and great ideas around here, and I am going long this week to write about them because it’s both overdue and perfectly timely. They are putting on an all-ages DIY punk festival called Against All Odds at RampArt Skate Park this […]
Posted inThe Setlist
You Want It Darker
I’m writing this around the 90th anniversary of the murder of the Spanish poet Federico Lorca during the Spanish Civil War by the brutal Nationalist forces under the command of eventual dictator Francisco Franco. I say “around” because the actual timeline of his abduction and assassination is still uncertain, as are the whereabouts of his […]
Posted inThe Setlist
Into the Great Wide Open
Everyone gets the blues, they just come in different tones and intensities, and like every color and feeling, appear different in the summer. I am no different in this respect and have recently discovered the need to work on new habits and skills to change the wavelengths a bit. One such trick is writing myself […]
Posted inThe Setlist
Lazarus and Co.
Last Sunday, I found myself with my arms spread against the wood-paneled base of the chromatic brass battlements of the pipe organ at Christ Episcopal Church in Eureka, my left ear pressed against the wood, while the tubes roared out beautiful sounds after the morning mass. I am not necessarily endorsing this behavior — I […]
Posted inThe Setlist
Dog Days and Old Ways
The summer always seems kind of dangerous to me. I could be lazy and credit my years in New Orleans for this feeling but that wouldn’t cover the issue. I can’t seem to enjoy the summer the way other people do, when they share pictures of themselves looking warm, loving, clean and happy like the […]
Posted inThe Setlist
Bold as Love
This month has been, for me, a period of increasing despair and detachment from the news at large, both at home and globally. It’s all so bad. And while I enjoyed the spirit of Spain beating Argentina in the FIFA finals, the whole spectacle itself felt like a stupider version of the 1936 Summer Olympics […]
Posted inThe Setlist
Bye Bye, Badman
I’m going to keep this brief because I am worn out. A little too much fun and sundown by the riverside over the weekend has caught up with me and I am tapped out. All work and no play might make one dull, but I’m not exactly feeling sharp at the moment either. There’s probably […]
Posted inThe Setlist
The Pan Piper
A few weeks ago, I wrote an intro here about a dawn chorus of birds I heard while camping. I titled that column “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn” after a famous chapter from The Wind in the Willows, in which the pagan god Pan appears as a benevolent shepherd of animals to help the […]
Posted inThe Setlist
Born in the U.S.A.
I’m not interested in celebrating another “birthday” for America, particularly at this moment in time, but I think I am in the majority here. Not that a majority matters in a country that pretends to be a democracy while being burdened by wealthy authoritarian minority rule, but that’s not the point. There’s weariness and unease […]
Posted inThe Setlist
Shiny Happy People
A few weeks ago, I came across a new band while reporting on a show at the Outer Space in Arcata. As is sometimes the case, I was first drawn to the group’s name: Thee Olde Druids. I threw out a line about that first impression, something about my assumption of their knowledge of lunar events, […]
Posted inThe Setlist
Life Goes On
Years ago, when I was sluicing off layers of the ooze of deep irony in which I and many other older millennials were minted, I started thinking about the effects of that caul we were born and burdened with. One of the defining qualities of certain seers of my generation is a bitter clarity that […]