favorite music of 2022
This month I got my regular biannual dental check-up, where the dental hygienist informed me it had been a year and a half since my last visit. “Whaat?!” I also lost track of the year in putting together this music list. I was preparing to push Jane Weaver’s Flock to the top, having been won...
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...
a Hudson Valley tourist town faces the pandemic: the second Rhinebeck small business survey
For a second time, I was asked to analyze the data from an online questionnaire distributed to small businesses in Rhinebeck, New York. Created by the local civic group Rhinebeck Responds, the survey asked businesses about the economic impacts from the coronavirus pandemic, as well as their opinions of the expanded sidewalk arrangements for dining...
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...
economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic: the Rhinebeck small business survey
I was recently asked to analyze the results of an online questionnaire that was distributed to small businesses in Rhinebeck, New York, over the second half of May 2020. Created by the local civic group Rhinebeck Responds, the questionnaire asked businesses about various impacts related to the coronavirus pandemic and Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s “New York...
new publication: the racialized Brooklynization of the Hudson Valley
An article I’ve co-authored with Joshua Simons (from SUNY New Paltz’s Benjamin Center) has just been published in the academic journal City & Community. Titled “Small-City Dualism in the Metro Hinterland: The Racialized ‘Brooklynization’ of New York’s Hudson Valley,” it’s part of the journal’s special issue symposium on small cities. I’m pleased to report...
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...