Tarfumes

Carrie Brownstein has a blog?!

No wonder she made the cover of Entertainment Weekly!

Who references + cute animal pictures + absolutely nailing why the new Radiohead record is a(nother) disappointment = the greatest blog that ever blogged (well, ok, it's running neck-and-neck with Holler If Ya Hear Me).  I'm telling you, this thing is silverplating.

Quaff! Quaff! Quaff!

A few weeks ago I played in Philadelphia as part of a quartet including Killick; guitarist Mary Halvorson; and saxophonist Matt Bauder, premiering Killick's challenging and intriguing piece "Ram no. 11."  I had a little trouble finding the place, and took brief refuge in a Starbuck's to get a sandwich.  I almost spit out the first bite as the PA played the "hit" single by the Adult Contemporary Band.  Yay.  Another front on which I'm being stalked.  I needed that.

Anyway, after finally figuring out which direction was south (hint: it's not north), I found the venue: the Powell House.  We played in the same room where Thomas Jefferson gave music recitals.  In the same house where Ben Franklin had his 60th birthday party.  Huh?  Yep.  It went really well, and I was glad to have finally made the musical acquaintances of Mary and Matt (I'd seen Mary play a bunch of times before, usually in duo with violinist Jessica Pavone, and I'd only heard Matt Bauder's amazing work on his MySpace page).

The next night we played at a venue in New York called the Stone.  I think it's co-owned by one of the Blues Brothers or something.  Here's some photos of the event.

Princeton gets James Brown; UMass gets the Grateful Dead

(In case you've been wondering why there's been so little blogging of late, I've been spending all my time trying to create an origami swan out of the space-time continuum so that I could have played my October 21st show in New York while simultaneously attending an appearance that same night by Charles Burnett, who was taking questions after a showing of Killer Of Sheep at the Amherst Cinema.  Yep.  I've only been waiting 17 years to see it, and I had a show that night.)

While driving hopelessly lost around Philadelphia a few weeks ago (oddly enough, "north" and "south" are not the same direction; why don't people tell me these things?), I clamped onto the Princeton University radio station.  They were playing nothing but James Brown, and were taking requests.  I was about to phone one in, but the DJ announced that "Make It Funky" from Revolution Of The Mind was coming up, which is what I would have requested.  Then he announced that Princeton would be hosting a James Brown Symposium that weekend.  That's what Princeton gets: a weekend discussing the most influential musician/composer of the latter half of the 20th century. 

So what does UMass-Amherst get?  We get a two-day symposium on "The Grateful Dead In Music, Culture And Memory."  Ah yes, the thriving subculture of blank listlessness.  I believe one of the sessions was entitled "...uh....wait....um....what was I talking about?"  I hear that provoked a lively debate.