Posts by Andy Wagstaff

The image of a cobweb on the front of The Books' Lost and Safe is indicative, as their unique brand of creating random sound collages often reminds me of exploring an old, deserted house, stumbling upon the relics of a remnant past.

With the seemingly endless expansion of musical terms and genres in the postmodern world, I have acquired some favorites, not least of which is a genre called "Shoegaze" music.

When a teenaged Bob Marley began recording in 1963 with The Wailing Wailers, Reggae did not exist yet. Back then Kingston Town, Jamaica was bubbling over with the jump-up-and-down energy of Ska, slowly maturing into the deliberate beats of Rocksteady.

Is anyone else left with a bad taste in their mouths after the Grammys? Are we all really so anesthetized now that we need fireworks, an army of glittery dancers, and trapeze acts just to stay interested in music? There always seems to be a contest to see who can put on the most ridiculously over-the-top stage show, but just seems to me like an adult version of dangling shiny keys in a baby's face. OK, yea, put on a great show and all, but seriously?! It just reminds me of how Top 40 types are just too famous, too rich, too showy to feel legitimate anymore: punk rock bands with stylists; singer-songwriters without in-studio pitch 

My favorite function of air, besides perhaps its ability to keep us all alive, is its ability to move beautiful sounds from place to place. For sound to travel, each molecule in the air must internalize the vibrations and pass that energy on to its neighbors in a fraction of second, and no piece of music can remind the air of this sacred purpose more than Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina's Pope Marcellus Mass.

Afrobeat has been called the soundtrack to post-colonial Africa: reviving the indigenous rhythms eminating from the soil and from the blood, internalizing the best aspects of other cultures and molding them into something new, and making people dance with honest smiles on their faces even while addressing the issues of intense poverty and widespread human rights abuses at the hands of corrupt governments.

The Steve Miller Band's lesser known late 60's-era recordings might surprise you. In 1972, blues-rock guitarist Steve Miller broke his neck in a car accident. It put him out of commission for a full year, a time he used to write catchy blues-influenced pop songs. He emerged to become a huge success, with memorable songs like Fly Like an Eagle, and Take the Money and Run.