Music
Essays, blog posts, playlists, and more focused broadly on music. For more playlists visit my Spotify page, or you can follow along with what I’m listening to at Last.fm.
- The Orb & Orbital ()
The Orb and Orbital have been vaguely conflated in my mind for as long as I’ve been aware of the two groups. Thinking back, I’ve owned Orbital’s 1996 In Sides and the Orb’s 1997 release Orblivion, but can’t seem to mentally reference much beyond a few tracks from either. All the same, the Orb’s 1990 […]
- Moonshake, Rebecca Moore, Sebadoh, Spin Doctors & the Spinanes ()
I don’t know where I came up with the idea that The Trouser Press or Noise from the Underground were to be important in my life, but they’ve certainly proven as much in terms of influence over a lifetime. As best I can remember I came across both books in the late-’90s, but I don’t […]
- William Tyler ()
As William Tyler wrote me for an interview in 2011, “I think anytime I find myself settling into a pattern of consistency I start panicking. So while, yes, there is a certain framework of tools and methods that you need in order to be able to do linear things like touring or even recording an album, […]
- Playlist #19: Having the Neighbors Over For Dinner ()
Playlist A019: 30 songs, 120 minutes (May 2, 2020)“Having the Neighbors Over For Dinner” Music Band “Unknown Pleasure” Life Without Buildings “PS Exclusive” Fever Blush “Maybe” Prince Rama “Bahia” DRC Music feat. Tout Puissant Mukalo & Nelly Liyemge “Hall” Photay “Illusion of Seclusion” Young Fathers “Rain or Shine” Peter Bjorn and John “Nothing to Worry […]
- Nick Cave ()
Several weeks ago a Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds concert played on my TV while I went about my chores around the house. Even at his most vulgar, there’s something comforting about Cave’s voice. For every “Stagger Lee” there’s a “God is in the House,” tugging at heartstrings and easing the mind back to […]
- Beastie Boys ()
Who knows where some seeds get planted, but in the past six months or so I attended a Buddhist temple for the first time in my life. A friend invited me to an open house at his Tibetan temple, and in trying to learn more about Buddhism I took him up on the offer. I […]
- The Chemical Brothers ()
It looks like one of my favorite stores growing up in Calgary, Soundsaround, shut down in 2012. I have some good memories from that place, specifically the Southwest location where I remember picking up a lot of electronica albums that weren’t available elsewhere in town. In the mid-to-late ’90s this meant acts like Fatboy Slim, […]
- Jack White & Henry Rollins ()
I don’t remember the age, but my hunch is I was somewhere in the junior high years, though it might have been late-stage elementary school. Whenever it was, I would ditch hanging with family and congregation members after church to go listen to music in the car. I don’t know why I didn’t listen to […]
- Def Jux, El-P & Aesop Rock ()
The other day I revisited some memories of a 2007 trip I made to New York, which brought to mind a stop I made on that same visit to the office of the now-defunct Definitive Jux record label. For the life of me I can’t remember his name, but a connection I had at the […]
- I Don’t Believe You ()
The night was nearly over by the time she joined the band on stage, but something opened up within me as Tristen encouraged the audience’s participation. With a gentle bob to her knees she stared into the crowd and crooned, “I don’t believe you, I don’t believe you.” It’s just a song, but it’s hardly […]