The California of my mind is a “magical” place where everybody gets a prize of undetermined value. Likewise, San Francisco is many, many things to me, but most of all, it was home for nine years. And for a long time, I thought it would be madness to live anywhere else. According to a Business […]
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Like every genre of modern popular music, mid-1970s progressive rock has watermarks as well as washouts. Along with a handful of other records – for example, Yes’ Close to the Edge and King Crimson’s Lark’s Tongue in Aspic – Genesis’ The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is quite possibly the most impressive and influential progressive […]
It’s not insanely surprising that somehow this video and in fact The Mike Flowers Pops had escaped my attention. First of all, I am not a huge fan of Oasis, so I was never interested in hearing any more of their music than was required by law. Meanwhile, easy listening was never my thing – […]
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Mike Watt Interview
Mike Watt is two hours early and sounds ever-so slightly irritated, which is alarming since he’s universally regarded as one of the nicest, coolest cats to ever walk the Earth. And it’s not my fault but Watt is totally within his rights. If he was beefing, it was completely justified. Fresh off a 23-date European […]
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Petrology 202: Carol Kaye
If you’ve listened to any amount of popular music from the 1960s and 70s, you know Carol Kaye; perhaps you just don’t know you know Carol Kaye. My apologies to the folks who already have a solid grasp of behind-the-scenes studio musicianship from the era, but this statement could also hold true to the following […]
Welcome to Petrology 202. We’re going to pick up where the 101 course level ended and take things in a more personal (for me) direction. Today we’ll be dealing with a musical hero I’ve actually met, Mike Watt. Over the years I’ve been fortunate enough to meet several of my so-called rock n’ roll heroes. […]
If you’ve ever seen someone go from hero to zero, you know that the fall from grace does not always come with a warning signal or a flashing red light. And it’s really hard to have a hero in a place like Taiwan. So many people I know, myself included, have vested interests and agendas […]
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Petrology 101: Stevie Wonder
We’ve reached the end of the 101 course level and over the years it’s become a habit to wrap things up with a couple of inter-related personal anecdotes which speak to the material, in this case, Stevie Wonder’s groundbreaking album, Music of My Mind (1972). At this point, you should probably stop and ask yourself, […]
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Off Topic: Regulate This
This has never happened before. I’ve been perusing The Financial Times for as long as I can remember, and not once have I ever read something that scared me. Or maybe not scared—struck fear in my heart. Until today. Proposal for global regulation of web (FT) Meanwhile, Reuters is the one place on the web […]
The second to last session of the 101 course level is a double-whammy special, dealing with two of the more obscure recordings in the field of fundamental petrology, Blue Sunshine by The Glove and Dirk Wears White Sox by Adam and the Ants. Let’s begin with the former. Everybody knows Robert Smith as the main […]
Black Sunshine Media 