Music

BAM! POW! URK! Gibble, fribber, splat. Hoogahoogahoogahooga boom. EEEEYOWWW! Urk. Urk urk urk urk urk urk urk urk urk urk urk urk urk urk urk urk urk urk urk urk urk urk urk urk urk urk urk urk urk urk urk urk urk urk urk urk urk urk urk. POOT! Uh-huh uh-huh uh-huh. BOINNNNNNGGGG…

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I found a wonderful station in Algiers that we had on through dinner. In the last hour, I’ve been listening to Bulgarian folk music; a classical station in Canton, China; something in Jakarta; Malaysian pop; and some really cool Native sounds on Pow Wow Radio I’m listening to right now. That one, the one in Algiers, and the German punk station from Duisburg are my favorites so far. The latter introduced me to two bands I somehow have missed up to now on my own little path through the world: Rabies and die Toten Hosen (the dead pants). Ahhh.

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I played for 90 minutes just a while ago. You need to play for at least an hour before the guitar becomes optimally playable — after that it has a bigger sound somehow, as if the wood finally wakes up, and there’s more color, resonance, whatever. It’s the darndest thing. But then you have to keep going and going, because it sounds so good…

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I just heard a performance that was so good, it made me cry — can you believe this from something described as “cross-pollinated Gypsy music”? If you ever have a chance to see Fishtank Ensemble perform, take it! Maybe they don’t always play that well, and tonight was a miracle — I don’t know, but [...]

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For your Saturday morning listening pleasure! The following is sociological and historical statement as well as music. It was recorded in around ’72 or ’73 at one of the many gigs I played with John and the band. I’m on rhythm guitar here. This is one of John Clay’s best-known songs, and we played it [...]

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At least one or two of you have been waiting with bated breath to hear how my first rehearsal went with Los Changos del Mar, so here you go: Well, IT WAS A FREAKING HOOT! Much louder and faster than I expected, which I totally enjoyed. I was pretty decent on the songs I knew [...]

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Ah, I’ll bet you were thinking something else! Blasted Mechanism is the name of a Portuguese band that’s more than a little different. When you’re finished with this one, entitled “Atom Bride,” you ought to visit their YouTube channel for a whole bunch more. I recommend “Start to Move” for the fantastic symbolic imagery and [...]

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Somehow I played surf guitar for five hours today. I feel like I’ve been lifting weights or finished 100 pushups. That’s about two and a half hours this morning and again tonight. Fortunately, I can do this inside the old adobe (18-24″ thick walls) and hardly anyone outside can hear. In case you’re wondering, my [...]

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Wow! With any luck at all, I could be playing in a rock & roll band on my actual birthday. Well, sitting in on half a dozen songs, anyway. Is that cool or what?! [blah-blah-blah, edit, delete, toss...] This could be serious fun. It sure does pump me up to play this stuff, too. UPDATE: [...]

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