Heavy-hearted in the Midwest since 2011
There’s a dank haze that emanates from James McKeown’s latest outing as Hawksmoor. After a couple immense and Komische/Berlin School-heavy records with the great Soul Jazz Records -plus an amazing collaboration with Ivan The Tolerable- Hawksmoor has returned to the crypt of Library of the Occult for Yclept Thorn. This is no ordinary electronic folk […]
Read More Hawksmoor : Yclept ThornWe had a great weekend. This past weekend we celebrated my dad’s 80th birthday. It was a surprise party. Our original plan was to have a get together at my brother’s house, but the weather was calling for rain Saturday afternoon, so I decided instead we’d all just meet at one of our favorite Mexican […]
Read More A Fine WeekendI’ll admit, the first couple things I heard from John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter, and Daniel Davies’ latest LP Cathedral I wasn’t that excited about. It was touted as their “heavy metal” album, and while there were chugging guitars and heavy rock drumming going on, it just didn’t seem like a musical trip I wanted to […]
Read More John Carpenter : CathedralThat man or woman behind the curtain, is in fact, you. Or me. Or your uncle Frank or brother Steve. The wizard is behind the curtain according to Dorothy and her farm hands-turned scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly lion friends. But as Glenda the good witch shared with Dorothy at the end of The Wizard […]
Read More Pay Attention To The Man(or Woman) Behind the CurtainYou remember the early 2000s boom of post-punk and new wave bands that came out of the druggy New York lower east side club scene? It was so big there was even a book written about it. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Jonathan Fire Eater, DFA Records, Interpol; as well as bands like The White Stripes, The […]
Read More The Strokes : Reality AwaitsFATHERS is a unique collaboration, in both the artists involved and the music itself. FATHERS features producer Kenny Beats, keyboardist Kiefer, bassist CARRTOONS, and drummer Nate Smith. Kenny Beats is the man behind the board; engineering these tracks into a chromed-out sheen, bulletproof and dense. Kenny Beats list of production credits is too long to mention, but he’s worked […]
Read More FATHERSI go in tomorrow morning to the Cardiology Dept of Parkview Regional Medical Center and have my 2nd echocardiogram. The first was on on April 4th and revealed that my heart had lost 20% of it’s pumping capability thanks to unchecked hypertension, caused by both my lack of regular check-ups and an extremely stressful period […]
Read More Heart Check…Check…One Two, One Two“Music is my saviorI was maimed by rock and rollI was maimed by rock and rollI was tamed by rock and rollI got my name from rock and roll” – Jeff Tweedy, Wilco from “Sunken Treasure” Those lyrics have been a mantra for me since the first time I heard Wilco’s Being There back in […]
Read More “music is my savior” : Record Labels That Kept Me Afloat…2018-2020We’ve made it to another Friday. It’s the working persons favorite day of the week. That is, unless you work one of those 4 day on, 3 day off schedules, then I have no idea what your favorite day of the week is. It’s definitely mine, followed shortly by Saturday. Sunday? Debatable. We’ve been in […]
Read More Gloomy FridayMy first introduction to musician/producer William Adam Jones was with the synth quartet S U R V I V E. He, along with Kyle Dixon, Michael Stein, and Mark Donica built ominous, dark musical worlds with analog machines. Capturing the work of folks like Vangelis, Brad Fiedel, John Carpenter and even Kraftwerk to some extent. […]
Read More William Adam Jones’ “Intrusive Thoughts”