Ford & Lopatin
From the band formerly known as "Nails on a Chalkboard" (as well as Games), I did a brief chat with Ford & Lopatin's Joel Ford about jazz fusion and the like for The Voice blog. Check it here.And...
View ArticleThe Shaggs
Today I have a story on the off-Broadway musical based on The Shaggs. My tone might be slightly acerbic, but in no uncertain terms, I have --if not loved-- then admired the music that the Wiggin...
View Articlebetadad
This is yet another Father's Day that I did not celebrate. And when Emusic pitched its writers on songs about fathers, I bristled at the idea, trying to push it far from my mind. And yet, I wound up...
View ArticleMacca
I just reviewed the recent reissue of Paul McCartney's half-baked (take that in many ways) solo album, McCartney II, for Resident Advisor. What's funny though is the adverse reaction from the RA...
View ArticleAmerica!
So good that I have to re-post and re-crank this song for the 4th of July.And some 7 1/2 minutes into this is the official video for it:
View ArticleThe New Age of New Age
This past Sunday, I wrote a large piece for the LA Times about what I dubbed "The New Age of New Age," the wave of new artists and producers drawing on the soothing, chakra-massaging sounds of New Age...
View ArticleOneohtrix Point Never interview
As Oneohtrix Point Never, Daniel Lopatin has staked out a previously uninhabited/ inhospitable ground between bracing electronic noise and the warm washes of New Age. With albums like Rifts and...
View ArticleBlues Control/ Laraaji interview
This fall, the RVNG Intl. label will release another entry in their highly ambitious FRKWYS series, this one documenting a studio meeting between experimental noise duo Blues Control and one of the...
View ArticleGreg Davis interview
Researching New Age music and its reincarnation, it became imperative to chat with Greg Davis. (As introduction, I had to come clean on writing this review of his work.) While gaining renown as a...
View ArticleAnimal Collective New Age interview
The peg for the New Age story stems from a Zamfir sample that Animal Collective used for their Fall Be Kind EP from 2009. Yet their love and appreciation for such New Age fare extends beyond that. The...
View ArticleYoga Records interview
The last of my New Age interviews (finally) and one of the most insightful. Douglas Mcgowan is the force behind Yoga Records and a spate of reissues that have appeared through Drag City and Important...
View Articleschool's back
Nothing says welcome back to school like this series of photos from an Iggy and the Stooges gig at a high school, circa 1970.
View Article“It was a strange year that year and it is a strange year this year. The blue...
In a friend's water closet reading stack sits a book by William Cooper. I don't believe I have seen that name since 1991, the year that punk rock broke, when I religiously read Flipside Magazine. That...
View ArticleKid Creole
Today in the Village Voice is my feature on the return of Kid Creole and the Coconuts. Such a pleasure to chat with the man (my full transcript will appear before long) and revisit his body of work....
View ArticleKid Creole interview
Back in the heat of the New York summer (remember when it was hot out? Me neither), I spoke via Skype with August Darnell, a/k/a Kid Creole. I worried that the distance of thousands of miles might...
View ArticleMasters of Puppets
Propelled by pneumatic valves and nascent robotic technology, and programmed by early Apple computers, the band -- bassist Billy Bob Brockali, singers Looney Bird and Mitzi Mozzarella, keyboardist Fatz...
View ArticleThe Wedding Singer
Souleyman's voice is gruff and coarse, exuding a stoic strength. Yet for those who understand Arabic, his songs are plaintive, dealing mostly with love and its loss. Coming from Syria, a land where...
View Article"Get Lucky"
"Get Lucky"'s real elegance lies in the hands of Nile Rodgers, which is no doubt the Robots’ intent. Pitchfork Media
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