E.A. Pooman : 2012-2018

After over half a decade of writing about local northeast Indiana artists and general cranky indignation towards the outside world at large, I regret to inform you of the passing of music writer E.A. Poorman. He passed away yesterday at the ripe old age of 6 and some odd months old. He wrote for the […]

2018 : The Year of The Record Label

Sitting down and making lists of records may not sound like fun to some, but it is to me. I don’t follow sports, I’m not a triathlete training for my next swim across the English Channel, nor do I hunt as a hobby. I’m too fidgety for gaming as well. My thing is music. It […]

Jeff Tweedy : WARM

Jeff Tweedy comes across as the sage dude quietly sitting at a table in some nondescript cafe, reading a tattered copy of George Saunders’ CivilWarLand in Bad Decline and drinking a vitamin water. Baggy jacket, frumpy hat covering a head of wild hair, and a beard you want to tell him to please shave. Even […]

Writing and Mood Swings

For the most part I keep the writing on Complex Distractions focused on those things in art and commerce that move me. Records, books, films, art, and all those other things that fall under the category of “waste of time” in most public school systems anymore. That’s the stuff that drove me to start writing […]

Ffion : Odyssey

There’s a precise electronic pulse that runs throughout the whole of Ffion’s debut EP Odyssey. The music feels vintage, as if you pulled it from some analog time capsule buried among other ruins from 1972. The music created on Odyssey was brought to life using an ARP Odyssey analog keyboard, hence the name and the […]

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words : Favorite Album Art of 2018 Part II

Seems like only yesterday we were wishing the world a Happy New Year and hoping for a great 2018. You know, getting all excited about those New Year’s Resolutions; big plans to learn another language, lose 30 lbs, and stop spending so much money of vinyl(maybe that was mine.) Well we’re in December now and […]

Alone In The Woods

My first exposure to electronic duo Alone In The Woods was their excellent track “I Never Came Up For Air” off of Burning Witches Records’ RSD 2018 compilation Communion. From that track I knew there was something quite remarkable at play. The band, which consists of Jon Dobyns and Lon Bologna, are production wizards. They […]

The Only Christmas Album You Need : Vince Guaraldi Trio’s ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’

Growing up in the Midwest Christmas was always a special time to me. The family gatherings, the mysterious gifts that appeared under the tree, the spirits both in the air and in my parents glasses, and of course the true reason for the season. There was a mix of happiness and bittersweet, as you thought […]

Too Many Candles, Not Enough Cake

Eighteen years ago I celebrated my first birthday as a father. We had a six-month old going on seven months. It was that spot in new parentdom where you begin to feel a little comfortable with this living, breathing being that can make you feel on top of the world and as if you’re losing […]

Kanaan : Windborne

There’s a certain kind of band that just seems to be connected on the molecular level. A band so in tune with the vibes that their jams are like on a telepathic plane. Without talking they shift tempos or keys without a second thought, knowing that’s what the other is thinking. One such band is […]