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A recent music playlist of artist and friend Timothy Buckwalter led me to wonder what’s up with The Jazz Butcher (Pat Fish)? Apparently he still plays in a band called Wilson these days and lives in Northampton UK.
Time for me to dig out my long out of print cassette tape compilation called Bloody Nonsense from [...]

Three years in the making, Frowning In Happyland is a new album of songs by my old friend and musical collaborator Mike Ace. The twelve acoustic guitar-based tunes have me on drums as well as some excellent additions from Karen Schmidt on accordion, electric guitar by Chris Unrath, and kitchen crockery by Hugh Hamilton on [...]

I downloaded a few songs by Los Angeles based The Ditty Bops on the recommendation of a friend and then proceeded to buy both of their CD’s. Tight harmonies, retro songs styles (think 1920’s, 1940’s, Texas Swing; plus folky indie-rock goodness), I love it all. Especially this first self titled album—not a dud on it [...]

I can relate to all of this…Stewart Copeland tells us all the funny bits in their second gig of the tour.

What you see are just the 9 out of 28 free for downloading web albums that I played on - available from Mike Ace over at Ookworld.
As Mike says:
Vanity press or public humiliation? Almost all of the music I’ve ever created is available for free download in the Web Album Dumpster.

(A tip of the milk delivery hat to Mike)

The Narthex “Twin Cities” CD is finally available now on CD Baby (on iTunes soon Update 12/31/2006: Now on iTunes!). Twin Cities is a recording by the duo I was in from 1980 to 1983 has been released on CD by Skip Heller’s Skyeways label. Recorded live to 8 track - no overdubs - on [...]

Here’s another batch of Friday links (music related)
From Wired - Justin Frankel Rocks On. The winamp creator continues to make interesting software. Check out his new company, his multitrack recording software, and online jamming program and the jesusonic.
I just heard a story about the The Concerto Table on NPR last weekend. It was linked [...]

Check out these Nice Racks (sfw)
Pod Bop is a cool site that allows you to hear free and legal MP3s from bands playing upcoming shows in your area.
Overlooked Gems of My Lifetime written by frankenslade who runs the excellent Groove Disques (he also plays in the band Nixon’s Head).
A soothing, tension-releasing time-waster.
Paper Thin Walls is [...]

Here’s my new favorite Wikipedia entry:
Guitar Moves
Here’s the related Air Guitar entry.
And don’t forget Headbanging.
I’ll leave you with Mano Cornuta.
Hello Cleveland!!!

One of my favorite bands—Glass Eye—has just released a CD entitled “Every Woman’s Fantasy”. Mostly recorded in the early 90’s and then finished and mixed in the last year or so, the band still proves to be ahead of their time. They actually called it quits in 1993 after a major label deal went nowhere, [...]

My friend Hugh Hamilton is a guest host for this week’s edition of Tony Butterworth’s Home Made Hit Show podcast. I’ve mentioned this podcast before and still think it one of the better podcasts out there. Every week or so Tony features songs by home recording enthusiasts. As he says: “The one stop home for [...]

I’ve knocked together a simple Wordpress blog site for archiving ephemera from the years I spent with the Dead Milkmen.
The Dead Milkmen Archives site will be a collaborative effort with submissions coming from a few folks connected to the band. I’ll be digging in the many boxes of junk I have in my basement to [...]

This one has been in rotation on the car CD changer since I got it weeks ago. Skip is an excellent guitar player and purveyor of guitar, organ, and drums trio jazz of which I’m a big fan. You can hear samples of the whole thing over at CD Baby. Skip’s background is full of [...]

Rodney Anonymous has a great new monthly column in the Philadelphia City Paper.
Aid or Invade will in Rodney’s words:
“Basically I’ll review music from obscure countries and instead of thumbs up or down, we’ll say if and how much aid the US should provide to said nation or if we she just blow the shit out [...]

This is the best CD I’ve heard in years. I saw it mentioned on a few 2005 year-end lists and after hearing to the sample “Good Weekend” track on Art Brut’s website I ordered the disc. I won’t blather on about how awesomely punk rock it is or how it made me laugh out [...]

The first links post of the New Year (w/all Music Theme!). Enjoy!
Little Hits - Jon Harrison and fellow guest bloggers post obscure and out of print songs. We all get to hear some old gems.
WOXY Photo Sets on Flickr. - woxy.com live performance photos taken by Chris Glass.
The Long Blondes - Watch the “Separated By [...]

SONGS FROM THE SIXTH BOROUGH is a Plain Parade third anniversary compilation of 18 MP3’s featuring Philly bands covering other Philly bands of both past and present.
You can listen to an online stream of the songs and then purchase and download the tracks from apolloaudio.com.
Why am I telling you all this? Well for one, I [...]

This article will show you how to make your own microphone pop-filter. A pop-filter is a small screen that goes between a microphone and your mouth to prevent sharp popping sounds (known as plosives) like “P” and “B” words from overloading the mic level and distorting. Commercially available pop-filters are expensive and can often cost [...]

Here are some links to free MP3’s (some are streaming only) by artists on my (short) “gotta get the CD” list”:
On To You - The Constantines - Shine A Light
A Nervous Tic Motion Of The Head To The Left - Andrew Bird - The Mysterious Production of Eggs
Forever Changes Everything Now - Moonbabies [...]

I launched an update of the Dead Milkmen website over the weekend. I’d grown tired of the dark blue background and light blue/white text—like being in a dark and murky cave. I often found it hard to add new content or information that might need text styling without resorting to inline CSS and hacks.
The new [...]

If you’re a musician (or not) who has spent any time in a recording studio (or not), you’ll be rolling on the floor laughing at the tales of Mixerman.
Taken from the online bulletin board postings of the mysterious Mixerman (real identity unknown), we’re treated to the ins and outs of a major label recording session [...]

Yeah yeah, I hate chain letters (and most Internet “memes”) too. At least with this one you might get some exposure to some new music. My post back in February may have given you a sampling of my musical tastes, but here are the answers to the “Musical Baton” that was passed to me by [...]

I went to the sold out Decemberists show in Philadelphia last night. Touring in support of their latest CD “Picaresque“, the band was in top notch form and they played for over an hour and 45 minutes (including the encore).
Band leader Colin Meloy was suitably nerdy and in glasses with a great stage presence. [...]

I was unaware of American Music Club until the early 90’s when Mark Terrill— our first European tour manager mentioned them— he’d been touring with AMC for a while. They’d been active just as long as we had but somehow our bands had never crossed paths. On Mark’s recommendation I picked up Mercury [...]

After waiting for more than 9 years after the release of her last CDs—1994’s “Dead Dog’s Eyeball“—her interpretations of the songs of Daniel Johnson, and the follow up “Sorry Entertainer“—the new collection from Kathy McCarty is a breath of fresh air.
Brian Beattie produced the recording and you can hear echoes of Glass Eye—the former band [...]

This photo of Billy Stewart and his orchestra was taken circa 1936. That’s my grandfather in the upper left with the guitar. I was fortunate enough to get a copy of this photo from my grandmother who filled me in on some of the details about the group.
That’s Billy up front on the right [...]

I must admit I’ve been on a bit of a nostalgia trip regarding the “old days” of my punk rock youth. Here are bunch of interesting links I’ve come across to support my trip back in time:
Philly Punk Page
A nice collection of album and single art from the Philadelphia area ‘77-85. There was a very [...]

Continuum Books “is the trade and academic imprint of the Continuum International Publishing Group, a growing family of religious, trade and academic publishers headquartered in London, with offices in New York, Harrisburg, Denver, Bristol and Poole.” (or so says the website…). Regardless, because of this, I’ve just connected my interests in the indie rock band [...]

Over at Irregular Orbit, Mike has asked for visitors to submit their top 11 desert island discs. Here’s mine (in no particular order):
1. Swordfishtrombones - Tom Waits: Sweet and sour. Unique instrumentation. I remember walking into the old Listening Booth record shop in the Richland Mall and hearing “Underground” over the store’s stereo system. I [...]

Joe has posted some obscure MP3’s for downloading over at http://jacktalcum.com. First up, there are some old Ornamental Wigwam songs from 1988. The Wigwam was a project that Joe and Dave Blood from the Milkmen did on the side. These songs came from a taped performance on Penn’s Cable TV channel. Says Joe:
Band Wagon was [...]