Though I am unlikely to be alone in this, I have a confession to make. There is a group of artists whom I tend to romanticize because I missed a certain time their careers. I will always wonder what it must’ve been like to see Peter Gabriel, Laurie Anderson, David Gilmour, David Bowie, David Byrne,… Continue reading Book Byrning: Books by and about David Byrne
One of my favorite Hip-hop studio tales is from the recording of “Brooklyn’s Finest.” The story goes that Jay-Z and Biggie were sitting in legendary D&D studios in New York City listening to Clark Kent’s beat, a pen and a pad on the table between them. “They’re both looking at the pad like, Go ahead,… Continue reading Rappin’ is My Radio: New Books on Rap Poetics
Self-identifying as a Rush fan has often felt like admitting that I used to play Dungeons & Dragons or, as I recently proclaimed to the folks at Geekend 2010, that I used to solve the Rubik’s Cube… competitively. Well, I’m coming out of the nerd closet: Rush is one of my all-time favorite bands, and… Continue reading A False Sense of Obscurity: Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage
Having never been and having skipped the bedlam of SXSW last year (the first since I moved to Austin), I decided I’d jump in with both feet this year. I registered for the Interactive side and just hoped my music friends could take care of me on the Music side. Nine days straight of exhausting… Continue reading Context-Removal Machine: SXSW 2010
Described as “the most widely demonized and vilified music scene in rock history,” (O’Hehir, 2009), the Norwegian black metal scene of the late 80s and early 90s took Black Metal to new extremes. The bands and fans all wore head-to-toe black leather, wrist- and arm-bands and boots with spikes or nails, and black and white… Continue reading Black Metallic: Until the Light Takes Us
