In a world full of musical copycats, where imitation is often regarded as the highest form of flattery, a musical artist as singular as Sandy Bull truly stands on his own. Born in New York City in 1941, Bull picked up the guitar at the age of 15 and first began performing at clubs and coffeehouses on the folk music circuit in Cambridge, Massachussets in the early 60s. Though he was only in his early 20s at the time, Bull had already adopted a distinctive yet subtle approach when it came to combining elements of different styles, ranging from jazz [...]
I've been thinking about Memphis all day. In light of MLK Day. In light of the excellent Joe Brouwer poem " Lines in Memphis, Tennessee ." In light of Martin Luther King Jr's assassination on April 4, 1968 in Memphis. In light of his speech the day prior where he gloried in having lived through a previous stabbing and a little girl's letter professing happiness that he didn't sneeze when even a sneeze would have killed him. In light of King's joy at having lived to having seen the sit-ins, the Bill, the marches, the [...]
April was the worst month in a year for Swan Fungus. Only 29,000 page views. What am I doing wrong? Am I not being brazen enough with my fuck-the-world attitude? Should I break the law somehow? Look, I'm not going to lie. I'm not surprised that my numbers have dwindled in recent months. I'm working more, I haven't gotten to take any fun day-trips in a while, and - let's face it - I'm just not as funny today as I was six months ago, when Swan Fungus had its best month of all time (47,000 views). I could go [...]
Sorry, I'm too busy watching Ichi The Killer with Nate and Nicci to post some kind of witty introduction to this week's mix tape. Better luck next time! RULES for uninitiated noobs : With roughly 100MB of webspace, I give birth to a weekly Mix Tape to be deposited on your iPods or Zunes or Kingklangs or whatever the industry is currently pushing on you. Sometimes there will be themes that link all the songs together, other times I'll just throw songs at a wall (not literally) and see what sticks. This week's [...]
Tomorrow we'll return to our regularly scheduled updates. You know, rants, interviews, lists and stuff. Antics. Antics too. We'll get started with some good shit tomorrow. Until then, enjoy your Sunday mix tape. RULES for uninitiated noobs : With roughly 100MB of webspace, I give birth to a weekly Mix Tape to be deposited on your iPods or Zunes or Kingklangs or whatever the industry is currently pushing on you. Sometimes there will be themes that link all the songs together, other times I'll just throw songs at a wall (not literally) and see what sticks. [...]
You probably don't remember this post from March 6th, 2007, because it didn't really contain anything important. There was a link a story about how the independent music community received good news in the form of an FCC agreement regarding payola scandals. In the agreement, CBS Radio, Clear Channel, Entercom and Citadel were forced to pay 12.5 million dollars in a cash settlement and provide 8,400 half-hou segments of free airtime to independent labels and local artists. Great success, right? Wrong. The Future Of Music Coalition ( FMC website ) examined four years of airplay from [...]
Oh man, last night was filled with good times. Nicci had a "wrap party" for a student film she acted in, and then it was our friend Thesy's birthday. I absolutely love parties at Thesy's mansion in the hills because it inspires me to try to meet as many people as possible. I put on superficial smiles and get really drunk and chat up as many people as possible. I especially love all the weird looking fuckers that show up. Also, I like annoying the douchey "Hollywood types" that tend to congregate in really small groups and look around at [...]
Sandy Bull: Triple Ballade: Sans Cuer/Amis Dolens/Dame Par Vous , composed by Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377) Sandy gets mediæval on your ass with this intense jam from his Inventions LP. Everything you need to know about life in the 1300s is encrypted in these tones. From the sleeve notes: "The Triple Ballade by the 14th century Guillaume de Machaut is transmuted by Bull into an absorbing play of sonorities as well as of lines. By multi-tracking, he plays the parts on oud, banjo and guitar. The piece is a canon on [...]
Audiversity's weekly column, slightly modified, on random music in a predetermined number of words between 1 & 150. This week's randomly generated number: 85. MA: Though John Fahey seems to get the majority of the props for the genre-bending experimental folk movement in the early 60s, I have always been a bit biased towards Sandy Bull . Released in 1964 (the same year of Fahey's debut album, Blind Joe Death ), Bull's sophomore effort, Inventions , featured the inventive guitarist [...]
All this week I have been stuck in a loop. I have ranted, complained, and cried foul. Now that I've got it out of my system, I think I can start fresh next week with a bevy of new topics. Of course, the week isn't over yet, so there is still one more chance to share my observations with you. If you're reading this for the first time, please take a moment to browse through the previous four days' entries to get yourself acclimated to the pure hatred that has been spewed from the blackened pit of my soul. Then, [...]
My mum has always fancied herself as an amateur opera singer, so I spent a long time avoiding any classical stuff that was even remotely choral. It wasn't until I left home that I got into Carl Orff's cantata "Carmina Burana" via my housemate Jim who used to play it quite regularly and very loudly (regardless of whether i was trying to sleep or not) "In Trutina" was the piece that got me -
The Rising Storm
Noise Narcs: Say Yes to Music
Swan Fungus
Art Decade
Audiversity
Frankosonic
Loreen - Euphoria
Pinkpop 2012 - The Highlights
Oh No – Dues n Dont’s ft. José James & Phife Dawg **Stream**
Listen: Summer Camp – Always
