![DVS Mindz: The Twenty-Year Saga of the Greatest Rap Group to Almost Make It Outta Kansas [book review]](https://pages.vassar.edu/musicalurbanism/files/2024/07/DVSMindz-290x290.jpg "DVS Mindz: The Twenty-Year Saga of the Greatest Rap Group to Almost Make It Outta Kansas [book review]")
DVS Mindz: The Twenty-Year Saga of the Greatest Rap Group to Almost Make It Outta Kansas [book review]
How might sociologists engage the music biography genre? Biographical works can shed light on an important concern: the career as outcome of life-course sequence, social reproduction patterns, formal and informal status attainment, and larger contexts that enable and constrain advance through social fields.
favorite music of 2023
2023 saw my continuing drift toward esoteric sounds validated by no less than André 3000, who released his album of flute-based ambient soundtracks only six years after my own band had been plundering that sound. Also of musical significance: this is the year my sprawling album and CD collection became my 14-yo son’s collection too....
1000 day album challenge
“Michael Guerrero challenged me to post 1000 albums that influenced my musical tastes. One album cover per day for a thousand days.” A few weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic, I took to Facebook like many others for what remained of a social life. I’ve always been a sucker for those circulating challenges that dare you...
favorite music of 2021
Wasn’t “music to reflect a pandemic” the theme for last year’s end-of-year-lists? 2021 finds us really thick in music that was made in the pandemic. My self-care regimen involves not wishing away the formless, endless present (my band is still in its ambient phase) and supporting art during economically and politically brutal times (another year...
favorite music of 2020
2020: what a year, right? Under pandemic conditions, without concerts or other in-person settings to share the experience of music with others, my listening became even more isolated and disconnected from whatever else was going on in music. My consumption of ambient music and other forms of beatless experimental music went way up in part...
M+M – “Only You” b/w “Watching the Boys Fall Down” (WAKE 18)
“Only You” b/w “Watching the Boys Fall Down” Current/RCA Records WAKE 18 (Canada) Released in March or 1987 Produced by David Lord, Mark Gane and Martha Johnson Confession: I haven’t heard this on its 7″ recording format, unlike all the other singles I’ve written about in this series. But the time lengths on the labels...
M+M – “Someone Else’s Shoes” b/w “Million Dollars” (WAKE 16)
“Someone Else’s Shoes” b/w “Million Dollars” Current/RCA Records WAKE 16 (Canada) Released probably in winter 1986 Produced by David Lord, Mark Gane and Martha Johnson “Someone Else’s Shoes” is another pop-funk number featuring the Tinker Barfield/Yogi Horton rhythm section. Structurally it’s similar to “Song In My Head” — two chords with variation on the pre-chorus...
M+M – “Song In My Head” b/w “Riverine” (WAKE 14)
“Song In My Head” b/w “Riverine” Current/RCA Records WAKE 14 (Canada) Released in spring or summer 1986 Produced by David Lord, Mark Gane and Martha Johnson For their sixth album, M+M’s The World Is A Ball, Mark Gane and Martha Johnson brought in their widest array of musicians yet that included key contributors to their...
M+M – “Cooling the Medium” b/w “Big Trees” (WAKE 8)
“Cooling the Medium” b/w “Big Trees” Current/RCA Records WAKE 8 (Canada) Released in summer 1984 Produced by Daniel Lanois, Mark Gane and Martha Johnson All album versions for this single… although apparently there’s also an alternate Canadian 7″ of “Cooling the Medium,” even with the same WAKE 8 catalogue number, that swaps out the album...
M+M – “Black Stations/White Stations” b/w “Xoa Oho” (WAKE 7)
“Black Stations/White Stations” b/w “Xoa Oho” Current/RCA Records WAKE 7 (Canada) Released in February 1984 Produced by Daniel Lanois, Mark Gane and Martha Johnson Exhausted by keeping a group of full-time members together, Martha Johnson and Mark Gane informed Jocelyne Lanois and Nick Kent after the final concert of the Danseparc tour (at Toronto’s Ontario...
Martha and the Muffins – “Several Styles of Blonde Girls Dancing” b/w “I’m No Good at Conversation” (WAKE 4)
“Several Styles of Blonde Girls Dancing (Edited)” b/w “I’m No Good at Conversation” Current/RCA Records WAKE 4 (Canada) Released probably in spring or summer 1983 Produced by Daniel Lanois with Mark Gane and Martha Johnson Were you maybe disappointed by Martha and the Muffins’ use of album cuts for both sides of their previous two...
Martha and the Muffins – “World Without Borders” b/w “Boys in the Bushes” (WAKE 2)
“World Without Borders” b/w “Boys in the Bushes” Current/RCA Records WAKE 2 (Canada) Released probably in winter or spring 1983 Produced by Daniel Lanois with Mark Gane and Martha Johnson Martha and the Muffins released two more album tracks for the second single to promote Danseparc. Opening with two thumps on the drums, “World Without...