Heavy-hearted in the Midwest since 2011
Photos by Casper Schärfe and Jakob Skøtt Of course if you’re a semi-regular here then you know of my love and adoration for El Paraiso Records. This label prides itself on putting out music you’re meant to plug into and vibe with on a molecular level. Jonas Munk and Jakob Skott, co-label runners and Causa […]
Read More “Many Dimensions To Explore” : The Heady And Cosmic Sounds Of London Odense EnsembleI think it was 2017 when I came across Andy Shauf. Binging Canadian power pop dynamos Sloan, Shauf came up as a recommendation. The Saskatchewan-born Shauf’s music was this baroque pop singer/songwriter fare; sadsack tunes that borrowed from cats like Harry Nilsson, Randy Newman, and early Rufus Wainwright. Shauf grew up around lots of instruments […]
Read More Andy Shauf : NormNew Jersey’s Yo La Tengo are an indie rock institution. The three piece which consists of Ira Kaplan, Georgie Hubley, and James McNew formed in 1984 with Kaplan and Hubley. They released their first album Ride The Tiger in 1986, and McNew joined the band in 1992 for the album May I Sing With Me. […]
Read More Yo La Tengo : This Stupid WorldHello, and welcome to the first ‘Long Story Short’ of 2023. Feels like its been forever since I posted one of these, and maybe it has. Regardless, I’ve got a group of albums here that I think you should check out. Labels like Castles In Space, Library of the Occult, Mystery Circles and Noci Miste […]
Read More Long Story Short : Yves Malone, The Psychic Circle, Blank For.ms, Sachi KobayashiHard to believe that January is in the rearview mirror. Where did it go? Did we skip Christmas and New Years, or were they just part of the ever-expanding existential drift known as time? A blur in our collective lives, a smear on the glasses of life, an afterthought in-between anxiety, joint pain, and the […]
Read More Check-In 4 : Percussion Season, The Lone Ranger, Box Sets GaloreBack in 2016 I’d come across this 2-song 10 inch from a band called Victims. The EP was called Form Hell and it kind of blew my mind. I’d never heard something that captured the spirit and sonic depth of early 70s Tangerine Dream quite like that. It wasn’t that Victims emulated Froese, but interpreted […]
Read More “a beautiful conclusion” : Catching Up With Composer Timothy FifeSo when my 19-year old daughter texted me over the weekend and asked if I’d heard the new Lil Yachty album, my initial reaction was “Huh?” But instead, I replied “Well, I’ve heard of him.” So she proceeded to tell me to give it a listen as she thought I’d like it. Given that I’ve […]
Read More Lil Yachty : Let’s Start Here.I’m 49-years old and there are days when I feel I’m falling apart. For a guy who at this time seven years ago was limping around with a numb leg and drop foot because of a herniated disc I’m doing pretty good. No limp and no numbness thanks to a Discectomy in March of 2016, […]
Read More I’d Grade Myself ‘Fair’So Surgery Channel isn’t an album of the Central Intelligence Agency’s greatest hits, but rather this is yet another Ty Segall project. This one in-particular is a project that includes Segall, his wife Denée Segall, and Cairo Gang’s Emmett Kelly. The sound is primitive electronic with touches of post-punk and even riot grrrl in Denée’s […]
Read More The C.I.A. : Surgery ChannelI think we’re all born with the inherent desire to make things. Some parents would say messes might be the first true urge we have to make, but I think that’s a different sort of creation that follows us into adulthood for very different reasons. When I say make things I’m referring to the creative […]
Read More These Are Things I Made Because I Like To Make Things