We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Program So That Michael Can Write About His Own Band

I have a show tonight with Here Comes Everybody, a band my wife and I formed together 40 years ago. This show is remarkable or significant for a number of reasons. It’s a record release party, as we celebrate and release on vinyl for the first time a 20th anniversary edition of our album Submarines.Continue reading “We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Program So That Michael Can Write About His Own Band”

#669: D is for Descartes A Kant

A group from Mexico Citytakes on a band namealluding to a French philosopherand a German philosopher, respectively, and sings exclusivelyin English, while their stage banter, as far as I can tell, is delivered exclusively in Spanish. I can’t remember how I stumbled uponthis band, although it’s only been a few years; perhaps I saw aContinue reading “#669: D is for Descartes A Kant”

#665: D is for The Decemberists

First, I almost violently dislike harmonicas, and it’s the first thing I hear on the openingtrack of The King Is Dead, an album I haven’t listened to in years, not since its release way back in 2011, I’d guess.An early fan, I think I have nearly all of their firstalbums on CD. I liked thatContinue reading “#665: D is for The Decemberists”

We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Program To Write About Joy As A Form of Resistance

I’ve been recording little instagram videos of myself, mostly to promote my various music projects, records coming out, shows coming up, that sort of thing. I’ll do or say something silly for about 30 seconds and then I’ll conclude with some announcement about the music. The other day, though, I recorded a video in whichContinue reading “We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Program To Write About Joy As A Form of Resistance”

#659: An American Sonnet for the Fraction 3/14

I asked google to convert the fraction3/14 into decimals. The artificial intel (default now in a google search),tells me that I am approximately 0.2142857 of the way throughmy entire record collection, andthat the six digits that follow the tenthsare apparently a series of numbersthat will repeat indefinitely, infinitely, forever and ever, amen. I started thisprojectContinue reading “#659: An American Sonnet for the Fraction 3/14”

We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Program to Talk About Usernames and Passwords and Thanksgiving

I’m on the studio computer a couple of days before Thanksgiving while my wife is entertaining a friend upstairs in the living room, and in an effort to be courteous but wanting still to make progress on the music listening/writing project, I decide to listen to music in the basement and record my experience inContinue reading “We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Program to Talk About Usernames and Passwords and Thanksgiving”

#603: A is for Aurora

It’s Halloweenand next up in this October listeningritual is oneof the least frighteningfamous human beingson the planet.But she is kind of other-worldly, sprite-like, impish, adorable, and monstrously talented. Watching her interviewsand clips of her stage banterhas become a favorite pastime. She’s funny, personable, almost awkwardly honest, a kind of personality that is winning, irresistible.It happens,Continue reading “#603: A is for Aurora”

#597: A is for Angel

Let’s say you’re a youngmusician in the early 70’s with big rock star ambition. First, you need a schtick, a look, something glammy, something preposterous. Yeah, Cooper did the make-upthing, but you could go bigger, and you watch as some fellow musicians from neighboring New York Citygo the whole hogon the face-paint, so yougots toContinue reading “#597: A is for Angel”

#592: A is for Arooj Aftab

I go to a tequila bartonight, not for tequila, but for food, in part because it’s right behind the liquor store, where I reallywant to go, but also becauseI need something to eat. No kitchen. Everything on the food menu is preparedhere inside of an air fryer.I can easily go elsewhere,elsewhere, but for convenienceand economicsContinue reading “#592: A is for Arooj Aftab”