Review: Bill Bruford, The Autobiography
I’ve finished Bill Bruford’s obviously titled autobiography, and I’m almost relieved I made it to the end. Bruford is an accomplished, amazing, creative and adventuresome drummer. The names dropped in his book range from the obvious (Yes, King Crimson) to the obscure (Pierre Moerlen) to the overlooked (Allan Holdsworth). While I learned that Bruford’s drum [...]
Concall Blues: The Album
After another evening of later-night concalls, punctuated by the Bubba on lead guitar (with adequate doses of crunch, fuzz, wah and phase shifting), I mentioned in passing that blues guitar accompaniment makes conference calls that much smoother. His response: an all-blues album of songs about conference calls. Here’s my proposed track listing: 1. 65 minutes. [...]
“Fly From Here” Reviewed
Disclaimer: I’ve been a serious Yes fan since about 1976. The release of Relayer was a big part of my musical discovery, and I sit facing a lithograph of Roger Dean’s cover in my home office. They are, without a doubt, my favorite and most-listened to band over the forty years I’ve been listening to [...]
The Price of Addiction
Michael (Mic) Todd, bassist for Coheed & Cambria, was arrested last night after robbing a Walgreen’s in southeastern Massachusetts. On the surface this looks like another entertainment industry partier who has gone a step too far, from addiction to crime, leaving band mates and fans shaking their heads. This particular incident played way up on [...]
Tonight In Jungleland
Clarence Clemons, saxophone player for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, died earlier today. Billy Crystal wrote in 700 Sundays that he felt like an adult when his childhood idol Mickey Mantle died, and tonight everyone who grew up along Highway 9 feels a bit older and much sadder. As a saxophone player in high school, [...]
< Summertime >
“Summertime, and the livin’ is easy.” The first nice late spring day of the year yesterday, and I’m thinking about summer. Maybe it was attending a customer event in Long Branch, and having dinner on the beach, barefoot (I was shocked at the number of people who stomped through the sand in expensive shoes), listening [...]
City Gardens and Billy Tucker
1701 Calhoun Street in Trenton was home to a club known as “King Tut’s City Gardens,” or simply “City Gardens” if you weren’t using owner Frank’s nom du something. It was the place to see up and coming punk bands; what you listen to somewhat nostaglically on XM/Sirius “First Wave” was first-run, fist-hard, slam-dancing and [...]
Music Discovery and Distribution
I’ve had a number of conversations over the past few weeks with established and emergent talent in the music management business. Most of them started with thinking about how people discover new bands or new types of music, and how those processes relate to the more abstract notions of brand. All of this was made [...]
Facebook Is The New MTV
Music is the original social network. Long before the printing press and written books, stories were carried in song, across generations and long distances. Even today, listening to the chazzan during a Shabbat service, I can make some guesses as to his or her age, seminary experience, and position on the reform-to-orthodox spectrum within three [...]
Understanding Phish
After dabbling in Phish-related phanaticism for the past dozen years, I finally saw my first Phish concert in Atlantic City this Friday, opening night in the 3-show set that closes this leg of the current tour. I’ll admit that I didn’t quite “get” the Phish culture at first – definitely liked the few studio albums [...]