Stanley Clarke is one of the world’s foremost bass players, and a personal hero of mine. I still remember getting his first solo album and spending hours learning to play “Lopsy Lu”. I have an 8×10 promo of him hanging on my wall right now. Just tonight, I saw a Facebook update from a bass [...]
I only recently became familiar with the duo Justice, when I came across an excellent music video of theirs for their upcoming album. It’s the title track, “Audio, Video, Disco”. I really appreciate the quirkiness and variety of the rhythmic elements, and the vocal arrangement is exquisite. I recently began fooling around with vocoders, so [...]
I’ll be playing a short set in San Francisco to benefit The Rock For Kids Andrew Bird Scholarship. The scholarship is to provide music education to children in need. I love Andrew Bird’s music, and admire his use of looping technology. I will play a few songs using a DL-4 looping pedal, and my brass-bodied [...]
Since this is a music blog, I prefer to write about music. However, there are events outside of music that inspire me to write. Sometimes in a negative way. I read the following in a Los Angeles Times article describing Murdoch’s testimony before the English Parliament, during which he was attacked with a Shaving Cream [...]
I’ve been spending a little time marketing my CD “Rise Time”, something I should have done from the beginning, and I had an idea…I will send you a free CD, and in return I would appreciate it if you would do a few things for me. First, “like” my blog if you don’t already. There’s [...]
I watched this movie on Netflix the other day, and was blown away. How could I have never heard of Scott Walker? David Bowie himself expressed in the film his surprise that Scott Walker was considered a marginal figure by the mainstream public. I had long wondered where David Sylvian had come from. I’ve always [...]
I just saw Thievery Corporation and Massive Attack, at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley. It was a great show! I was a little surprised that Thievery was primarily dub, and they reminded me a lot of The Orb in their heyday, only more energetic. Equally surprising was how industrial Massive Attack has become. I know [...]
From Ravel’s one and only lecture on music, given in 1928 at Rice University: “Another significant influence, somewhat unique, and deriving at least partially from Chabrier, is that of Erik Satie, which has had appreciable effect upon Debussy, myself, and indeed most of the modern French composers. Satie was possessed of an extremely keen intelligence. [...]
I just added a “Links” section to the website. It has links to some of my favorite artists, such as Bruce Kaphan and Zoe Keating, as well as links to equipment manufacturers whose gear I especially love, like Ableton, Wayne Joness and Z-Vex. Unfortunately, I am not currently sponsored by any of these manufacturers. Hint [...]
I uploaded some pictures from the gig on 5/15 at Periscope Cellars to Flickr. Several of the exhibiting artists were caught on camera! I really had a great time playing this show. I had just ordered a pair of QSC K8′s, and UPS dropped them off just as I was loading out. K8′s performed flawlessly, [...]
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