The king and queen of Northwest noise rock, the married couple of Sam Coones and Janet Weiss came to Portland, Oregonand started making records as Quasi in the late 90’s. Interestingly, they ended the marriage but held on to the friendship and the musical collaboration right before their successful career as Quasi got off theContinue reading “#842: Q is for Quasi”
Category Archives: Poetry
We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Program to Reflect on the Lost Art of Memorizing Things
I have embarked on a memorization kick. Specifically, I am memorizing some of my favorite poems, shooting a recitation of those poems with my stupid smart phone, employing my new wireless condenser microphones from Audigo for superior sound, and then posting these little recitation movies to Instagram and Facebook. To date, I have recorded fiveContinue reading “We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Program to Reflect on the Lost Art of Memorizing Things”
#841: On Listening to Everything (By the Numbers)
I thought I’d be done in a year.I thought that in 365 days I could listen to and write about every artistin my vinyl collection. It’s the 370th day and I am just this moment finishing out the P’s. At this rate, I may not finish until the end of the year. Maybe, if IContinue reading “#841: On Listening to Everything (By the Numbers)”
#840: P is for Puleo, Johnny, and His Harmonica Gang
Every time I pull a record from the stacks and exclaim, what the hellis this, I can with some certainty tellyou that the album found its way into mystacks courtesy of my friend Curtis, who loves, more than any music fan I haveever known, to listen to everything, anything, loves the completely unfamiliar,loves the wacky,Continue reading “#840: P is for Puleo, Johnny, and His Harmonica Gang”
#839: P is for Project MA
The second time moving throughthe collection A to Z and findingmyself. Both literally and figuratively, I find myself in the music I make, and I findmy friends, my most favoritepeople on the planet. It’s true. With very few exceptions, my deepest relationships with other human beings have comefrom making music with them. A few yearsContinue reading “#839: P is for Project MA”
#838: P is for Prince
In the late 80’s, during a brief windowin the reign of the artist formerly known as Prince, later formerly knownas the artist formerly known as Prince,I became somewhat obsessed with the guy’s music, inparticular with the stuff he was puttingout then, decidedly psychedelic, unabashedly provocative, musically innovative. This, Sign of the Times,my favorite Prince album,Continue reading “#838: P is for Prince”
#837: P is for Porcupine Tree
I heard Steven Wilson’s solo stuffbefore I ever picked up an album from Porcupine Tree. A shape-shiftingprog rocker, Wilson is the singer-songwriter and guitar player behind this band and its massive catalog of 34 years, a solo artist with a formidable catalog of 26 years, and has become a kind of wizard studio engineer who,Continue reading “#837: P is for Porcupine Tree”
#836: P is for Pomplamoose
I think we have YouTube to thankfor Pomplamoose. Most folks, including moi, came across thispop music duo on their exceptionallywell recorded and filmed DIY videosof their original songs and wildlyinventive mash-up covers. Simpleaffairs, really, just a split screenor a quartered screen, each box featuring multi-instrumentalistJack Conte and his partner NatalyDawn performing live in the studio.Recently,Continue reading “#836: P is for Pomplamoose”
#835: P is for The Polyphonic Spree
Some of us remembera band from the early to mid 90’scalled Tripping Daisy. They had a hit called “I Got A Girl,” a super silly but super catchy post-punk, grunge-adjacent tune rightalong the lines of The FlamingLips’ “She Don’t Use Jelly.” This was their only hit. I likedthe song but never bought the album. IContinue reading “#835: P is for The Polyphonic Spree”
#834: The Polyphonic Spree Gatefold Swallowed One of My Oingo Boingo Records
I recently wondered to myself:it’s not in my CD collection, why don’t I have Oingo Boingo’s Good for Your Soul on vinyl? The notion seemed ridiculous. Somehow, I had never found a copy to replace the one I lostduring the great vinyl purge of 1988, and my record store friendtells me it’s become hard toContinue reading “#834: The Polyphonic Spree Gatefold Swallowed One of My Oingo Boingo Records”
