michaeljarmer

#815: N is for Newman, Randy

My first introduction to Randy Newman, as a 13 year old boy of diminutive stature,was “Short People,” and then, probably decades later, it was “You Got A Friend in Me,” the soundtrack tune for the Toy Story film. And then, sometime afterthat, it came to my attention that RandyNewman was a significant figure, not justContinue reading “#815: N is for Newman, Randy”

We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Program to Celebrate the Arrival of the New Turntable Baby

I ordered an Orbit Theory from U-turn Audio last Wednesday (while I was still in Massachusetts) from one of my neighborhood record stores here in Portland, Oregon, and yesterday I drove to The Record Pub to pick it up. It is the first “high end” turntable I’ve ever purchased. Makes me feel like a grown-up.Continue reading “We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Program to Celebrate the Arrival of the New Turntable Baby”

A Single Dispatch from Wally Camp, AKA the Walking Stick* Hereafter, Mt. Holyoke College, 2026

It is Saturday morning. I’m at a tall table in a kind of lounge area inside the Kendade Science Hall on the campus of Mt. Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, and I am living the paradox of finding solitude in community, writing with some of my fellow alumni friends in relative silence in thisContinue reading “A Single Dispatch from Wally Camp, AKA the Walking Stick* Hereafter, Mt. Holyoke College, 2026”

#814: Walking to Breakfast with Mark

for Mark Solomon He had written a note to a friend,inviting her to tonight’s reading on the occasion of being back after a two-year absence from this annual conferenceof alumni from the Warren WilsonMFA Program for Writers. He wrote to her about how he felt to be reunited with his fellow“Wallies.” Mark graduatedfrom the programContinue reading “#814: Walking to Breakfast with Mark”

We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Program to Talk About New Music (A-M), Turntables, and Writing as an Avoidance Strategy Against Writing

I started the listening challenge of moving my way through every record in the collection by artist from A-Z, in large part, because I felt that I was neglecting older records always in favor of new acquisitions. Now, nine months and 13 letters into the project, I’m discovering that I am neglecting my new recordsContinue reading “We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Program to Talk About New Music (A-M), Turntables, and Writing as an Avoidance Strategy Against Writing”

#813: M is Still for The Mountain Goats (20, 21, 22, 23, 25)

Prologue The last five albums in my collection of records by The Mountain Goats bringsme to the end of the letter M and a littlepast the half way point of my entire storeof vinyl LPs, but it brings me also to a place of turntable crisis. Everything sounds likeshit. I can’t get that stylus cleanContinue reading “#813: M is Still for The Mountain Goats (20, 21, 22, 23, 25)”

#812: M is for The Mountain Goats (15, 17, 19)

The next three albums in my MountainGoats collection, consecutively released, serve as a tidy little trilogy. Unrelated to each other, but I’m guessing each deeply personal to the lyricist, we have three concept albums in a row, albums that aren’t narrative necessarily, but all revolvequite specifically and rigorously arounda single subject matter. Not because ofthisContinue reading “#812: M is for The Mountain Goats (15, 17, 19)”

#811: M is for The Mountain Goats (02, 05, 12)

Prologue Rivaled only by XTC, The Flaming Lips and David Bowie, a tie with the formertwo artists and lagging a full mittful of albums behind the latter, I have twelve recordsby The Mountain Goats in the vinyl collection. Like a lot of bands and musicians that have captured my music heart, I was late to The Mountain Goats party. I arrived,Continue reading “#811: M is for The Mountain Goats (02, 05, 12)”

#810: M is for Mould, Bob (with Sugar)

The first in a series of box sets chronicling the entire recordingoutput of the grandfather of grunge, Bob Mould, Distortion: 1989-1995contains his first two solo albums post Hüsker Dü, and then three consecutive records from his next group, Sugar. Despite the factthat Sugar would normally be filedunder S, I decide to listen and writeabout themContinue reading “#810: M is for Mould, Bob (with Sugar)”

#809: M is for Mother Mother

I find almost nothing more exciting than hearing a great new band for the first time. In this case, not a “new” band, but new to me, and my discovery was a completely random internet find of a live studio performance of Mother Mother on a YouTube channel from Musora. The band played a songContinue reading “#809: M is for Mother Mother”