As I am a male of a certain age, no series of musical memoirs should be considered complete without some mention of Led Zeppelin. Every young man needs to select a particular British supergroup to obsess about, and my choice was Led Zeppelin. The Rolling Stones annoyed me, Pink Floyd was too full of themselves, […]

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It probably should be said, that in the swirling constellations of music that guided my adolescent life, none shone as brightly nor guided me as faithfully as the brilliant Triangulum of the Police, Rush, and the Cars. Perhaps an odd mix of genres, but that didn’t matter: when I wanted to chill, or jam, or […]

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As I watched the new set emerge from the haze at the horizon, I was struck by the beauty of these fresh rings, and of the older rings slowly passing by overhead. The wispy clouds drifting underneath them gave the scene a vast and stately depth. It was amazing to me that we had only […]

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The instrument was basically a twelve-foot length of silver-gray seatbelt material that would automatically retract into its spool when released, but I was pleased to discover I could still play an excellent rendition of “Eruption” by Eddie Van Halen on it.

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I first became aware of Zoë Keating by her lack of presence in Melora Creager’s thrash-cello outfit Rasputina. Don’t get me wrong: she was definitely a presence on the album Cabin Fever, which is a lovely crazy romp all over the stylistic universe, but nothing that made her stand out from the other two musicians. […]

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It all begins with a bassline. In this case, it’s a solo ascending scale that drops back to E, but that’s merely part of the story. The real story is the reason that bassline is included here. In my early life I was diagnosed with many talents; as a child I would regularly draw cartoons, […]

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A quick snippet: senior year in high school. A milling mass crowded into a cul-de-sac of blue steel lockers, some intent on getting their books and packs for the next class, some proceeding more leisurely. Lunchtimes were staggered in my school, with the student body split between early A Lunch and later B Lunch. There […]

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