The Flaming Lips 2011 Freak Out !!

I haven't made my plans yet but this is very tempting:

Reynold Philipsek - Vienna Blues

Some nice holiday cheer from Reynold Philipsek:

Keep Moogy In Your Thoughts and Prayers

Moogy Klingman wrote some of the more memorable songs from the 70s including Bette Midler's signature "(You Gotta Have) Friends" (with Buzzy Linhart) and the bluesy confessional "Dust In The Wind" which leads off side 4 of Todd Rundgren's magnum opus "Something/Anything."

Moogy has served as Bette's musical director and was the executive producer of the "Music From Free Creek" super-session that featured Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Keith Emerson and many others.

Moogy provided the musical foundation for Todd Rundgren's Utopia with his own group Moogy & the Rhythm Kings and was a very large influence over the first two Utopia recordings.

Moogy played live with frickin' Lou Reed and that's a show worth risking the perils of time travel (you know, wormhole navigation and molecular regeneration) to go back and see!

Moogy jammed with Jimi!

Moogy was kind enough to write and record two wonderful songs for our Medicine Park projects.

Moogy wrote and recorded a plethora of funky, soulful, spiritual, rollicking rock and roll tunes in the 70s and has continued to write and perform in New York City to this very day.

And now Moogy is involved in a very serious health battle and needs our support.

"Moogy wants to play a solo so let's give him a chance."

Please send your thoughts, prayers and positive vibrations to Moogy Klingman. Thank you.

Moogy Klingman CDs can be bought at Moogy Music.

Last Days - The Safety of the North

One of my recent discoveries is the electronic musical unit known as Last Days. Their musical world is one of moody dark passages that border sometimes on the bleak but that suits me just fine as given my disposition I am usually rendered calm and introspective upon listening. The vast majority of their work is instrumental and thus the titling of each song suggests some kind of inspiration or feeling that they are attempting to conjure. Even the name of the musical entity seems to bring a sober reckoning to the table.

the city failed / may your days be gold / new house / fracture / thoughts of alice / run home / life support / your silence is the loudest sound / this is not an ending / the fields remember my father /
missing photos / nothing stay the same, nothing ends / you are stars / blue and white flowers / onwards

Available the Silver Moon aStore.

Adam Marsland says Hello Cleveland, Goodbye Cruel World of Commercial Music?

It appears that Adam Marsland has finally had it with trying to please the fickle music-buying public by actually recording and releasing thoughtful and appealing music for it's blissful mass consumption. At least that's my perception of an e-mail I received from Adam in late 2009 revealing that on a lark his touring band wrote and recorded his last (ever?) studio CD over one day last autumn while still out on tour. What's more, only 500 copies of  the disc were manufactured and are now being sold directly from his web site.

The resulting Hello Cleveland is a caustic poison-soaked musical postcard filled with a bunch of two-minute Ramones-like blitzkriegs with acidic lyrics to boot (see The Worst Thing That I Ever Did, A Town Called Asshole, Fuck Nihilism) and yet sprinkled with enough tasty embellishment and sing-along vocals to keep it all fresh and downright catchy. There are plenty of tunes that offer a nice contrast to the up-yours sonic blast such as the accordion foot-stomper Jolly Joe, the mellow instrumental whimsy of Flight of the Stinkbug (although I miss the juvenile fart noise that I would have tagged on at the very end fittingly marking the subject's inevitable demise) and the appropriate closer, Batesville Casket Company, a moody acoustic dirge that pretty much sums it all up rather nicely. With Hello Cleveland it's almost seems as if Marsland is daring anyone to listen, as if the opportunity to create an uproar in some heartland high school library in the near future it just too tempting to pass up. Hell, if things really get stirred up it might even land him on the front page of Yahoo for a few hours with some headline like Oklahoma School Board Ponders Blasphemous Disc...

Well, it doesn't take a psychological wunderkind to read between the lines. The man appears frustrated, disappointed, tired. And the result is a joyful outburst of pure angst-propelled rock and roll. It's therapeutic, insightful, and comically rotten.

After re-dedicating himself to a professional musician's life a few years back Marsland started fresh by releasing a very nice anthology (Daylight Kissing Night) and at a bargain price in hopes of introducing himself to a wider audience and as a way to consolidate the past while creating a solid foundation for the future. Next he wrote and recorded a double CD set (Go West) filled with a dizzying array of styles and moods that sounded both mature and contemporary. Released in the summer of 2009 I can only assume that the resulting sales were not equal to the effort invested nor the quality of the resulting product. And yet all the while the Dave Matthews party wagon still rolls on! Imagine that?

Marsland's problem appears to be that he's too honest, too uncompromising and maybe even too talented for that aforementioned blissful mass consumption. It might be said that the worst thing that he ever did, as far gaining popularity, was tell the truth.

Obviously I would suggest that after reading this you (whoever you are) immediately click on the below links and acquire some Adam Marsland music. Pick up Hello Cleveland if still available and maybe take a stab at Daylight Kissing Night. And if you've got it in you, then by all means, Go West.

note: Daylight Kissing Night is also available from Silver Moon Music for $5.95.

please ring bell
{ding}

Bearsville Box Set Available from Japan

A Bearsville box set was released in Japan last December featuring SHM remastering. Naturally, the 4-CD set includes plenty of Todd Rundgren material --- solo, Utopia, and a plethora of productions like The American Dream, Great Speckled Bird, Jesse Winchester, Sparks (or Halfnelson as they were known back then), M Frog Labat, Felix Cavaliere and others. No real rarities but it does include the Roger Powell Pipeline '78 single. CD Japan lists it currently at around $105.00 plus air mail shipping of about $15.00. Air mail shipping usually takes 4 to 12 days but sometimes can take longer. Complete track listing is available at the CD Japan link provided below.

**Bearsville SHM 4-CD Box Set**

Thom Brennan - Silver

Thom Brennan Silver


Meditative electronica for the winter season. It's easy to get lost in these smooth aural washes that mingle with the pulsating ebbs and flows turning the cold gray landscape into a beguiling silvery vista.

~~ Thom Brennan music available at CD Baby