Switched-On Wendy Carlos

Moog pioneer Wendy Carlos is a musician I’ve always been fascinated with. One, for her ability to emote so beautifully with the Moog synthesizers. And two, for the relative mystery around her. It’s nearly impossible to find her music available to listen to online. None of her albums are streaming, and the only way to […]

Weird Al, Wendy Carlos, and a Prison Town

It’s Percussion Ensemble season here. Nearly every weekend in the months of February and March are spent traveling to different high schools so we can watch our 17-year old perform with the Warsaw Percussion Ensemble. This year their show is horror-themed and called “Eternal Nightmare”. They start out with an eerie rendition of Bananarama’s “Cruel […]

Wendy Carlos, The Maestro

I knew the name Wendy Carlos as a little kid. Mainly because of The Shining, A Clockwork Orange, and Tron. Hers was a name that stood out in the credits of films I watched and sort of rewired my brain as a kid. I knew that Wendy was a musician, but I never quite understood […]

Do Androids Dream of Electric Beats?

My musical tastes have run the gamut over the course of my 41 years. From when I was a kid in short pants soaking up the day’s popular hits in the backseat of my mom and dad’s boat of an Oldsmobile, to forcing Yngwie Malmsteen’s Odyssey down anyone’s ear holes within feet of my bedroom […]