Heavy-hearted in the Midwest since 2011
The signs were there earlier in the week. I had a low-grade fever of 99.3 last Sunday and felt pretty run down, but the fever went away by late afternoon. Then on Wednesday I started having body aches, chills, and my head felt like it was on fire. I took some pain reliever, laid on […]
Read More Intermittently Awful…Marginally TerribleOli Heffernan, aka Ivan The Tolerable, makes the kind of drone-heavy psychedelic jams that would be just at home playing in your ears on one hell of an acid trip as they would soundtracking a post-apocalyptic road trip. The songs hang in the air like fog over daybreak waters, or wavering smoke rising off burning […]
Read More Ivan The Tolerable Quartet’s ‘Toft House Session’ Out 3/31; Zone Out To “Mothra II”Christmas, 1988. I was a newly-minted 15-year old, in the prime of a dorky and awkward teenage existence. I didn’t play sports, got bi-weekly allergy shots, had a mere handful of friends(the kind you spend lots of time with, not the kind you bide your time with in Algebra or English Comp), and spent most […]
Read More Christmas, 1988 : The Stockin’ Was Rockin’It’s been nearly two weeks now since the great and legendary jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter passed away at 89-years old. I hadn’t yet sat down to write something about the man I consider to be one of the greatest jazz saxophonists and composers to ever blow a note. Why? Well, Mr. Shorter passed away on […]
Read More Wayne Shorter 1933-2023Every once in awhile an album comes along and sort of rewires your brain. Something or someone in the universe sees fit to gift your head and heart with a little aural magic; a tickle to your psyche that ignites something in the head and heart. For me that came in the form of Paul […]
Read More “Nature, The Cosmos, Music, Art…” : The Sound World Of Paul RiedlAlexander Donat never rests when it comes to music. The German musician/songwriter is always working on new songs; whether it be the post/punk dark wave of Vlimmer, the the shimmering dream pop of Fir Cone Children, under his own name as Leonard Donat, or his most recent project Assassun. Assassun is a kind of post-punk/EDM […]
Read More Listen : Assassun Returns With Chaotic “Unfold On My Chest”; ‘Chronic Quicksand’ Out 3/24My Kroger store is a dump. Every time I go in there there’s some new Hell I have to endure. I almost always have to use the bathroom when I get there because I drink three to four liters of water a day at work, so by the time I reach Kroger I’ve got to […]
Read More My Kroger Is A Dump, And Why I Still Shop ThereLast week was a long week. A week ago Monday my wife and oldest daughter flew out east to New York City for three days of Broadway shows, museums, and subway rides to and fro. While the ladies were in the Big Apple, the boy(well, man now) and I and the four-legged creature who secretly […]
Read More Long Week, 18 Birthdays, Stewing In The FeelingsJonathan Sharp has been busy the last several years putting out next level, Gothic-tinged records as The Heartwood Institute. Hazy, dreamy, and eliciting sonic tales of witchcraft(The Witchcraft Murders) and dystopian worlds(check out the collaborative Concrete Island with HAWKSMOOR), Jonathan Sharp seems to never not be readying a new electronic delight for our ears. NIAVKA […]
Read More Jonathan Sharp : NiavkaMy first experience with MAINE, the all-analog electronic music project of France’s Michel Dupay, was with 2017s V. There was something haunting, enchanting, and all-encompassing about the songs on that record. Dupay records with all analog synths, real drums, and real strings and without the use of MIDI, so the songs sound and feel organic […]
Read More MAINE’s ‘IV’ Gets Gorgeous Vinyl Reissue With Midnight Mannequin Records