Celebrating Community
What a year. Like a lot of eras, 2020 doesn’t fit easily into pre-defined calendar definitions. Did the 19th century end in in 1900 or 1914? Did the World Wars end in 1945 or 1989? The 20th century certainly came to a close on September 11, 2001, or was that just America? And 2020 probably began with the first Democratic […]
The punk ethos was designed to implode, and implode it did (or should have, anyway). Punk was a fiery rejection of the status quo. Once it became status quo, it was time to go. But like a dinner guest you don’t know is dead, punk refused to leave. The problem came with confusing the idea that talent and technique weren’t […]
Marc Ribot’s punkjam trio Ceramic Dog had been playing low key gigs around town for a long time before really finding their voice on their second album, 2013’s Your Turn. That’s when they started to get mad. The sarcastic AF song was about musicians gleefully accepting social media presence over money for their work “Masters of the Internet” was both […]
Back in July, Magik Markers quietly released a four-song digital EP, the first new music they’ve put out in a half dozen years. It was subdued, a little psychedelic, with a title suggesting they’ve been out of our ugly loop for a while. (Magik Markers has always been good at naming). In October, the band followed Isolation From Exterior Time: […]
There is something disorienting and unsettling about experiencing an artist talking about the end of their career in real time. They narrate the end of something that, until uttered, still existed. Imagine reading a book where every word disappears as your eyes move along the line, the only trace the one left in your memory. That is what it was […]
Jorma Kaukonen has played Monterey Pop, Woodstock and festivals all around the world for the past half century plus. On this chilly October, New England night amidst the pandemic, it’s time for him to head towards the stage solo, wearing a mask, under a tent of socially distanced fans eagerly awaiting what is likely several music lover’s first concert experience […]
Deerhoof’s set at last year’s Time:Spans festival was a surprise in even in the midst of 11 days of unpredictableness. The festival has all the earmarks of experimentalism; it’s organized by the The Earle Brown Music Foundation Charitable Trust, named for a contemporary of John Cage and Morton Feldman, and held primarily at the Dimenna Center for Classical Music. Deerhoof […]
54-46 was Toots Hibbert’s prison number. He sang it out loud on the electrifying track 54-46 That’s My Number (1969), one of a crop of tunes that made Toots and the Maytals a household name on the island of Jamaica and soon thereafter in a lot of other places too. Toots Hibbert, the reggae singer, passed away on September 11 […]
Recently, I won tickets from a Hudson Valley radio station to see Margo Price perform live at Brooklyn Bowl via a streaming platform called Fans. It was great to see a concert again and the band was excellent, but the experience was odd as there was no audience, aside from a few flashes of fellow spectators “Zooming” in. While I […]
David Lynch is a problem. A big one. David Lynch is a problem because he doesn’t punish his villains. He’s a problem because he doesn’t explain the motivations of his villains or even so much as resolve his stories. David Lynch is a problem because he won’t tell us what to think of him. Storytellers runs the risk of being […]