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JOSH FREESE is renowned as a studio musician of the first order having recorded and/or toured with the likes of everyone from A PERFECT CIRCLE, STING, NINE INCH NAILS, PARAMORE, THE REPLACEMENTS, WEEZER and GUNS N ROSES to BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN and QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE. and that credits list literally goes on. and on. but id argue that primarily he is known as the longstanding drummer of both the LOS ANGELES PUNK ROCK band THE VANDALS and the legendary NEW WAVE band DEVO.
less known or celebrated are his solo records and the one-off songs hes done over the past few years. they are often very brief, super catchy and hilarious. they are also normally off-the-cuff affairs with an almost FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE-esque POWER POP sense of melodicism and pop construction that seem designed to primarily embarrass his friends or make an ass of himself. FREESE is an uber-talented musician that is literally capable of anything. i just love the fact that when he chooses to write and release his own material that it literally has nothing to do with his day job in tone or demeanor. definitely an artist worth checking out.
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check out HERE this recent streaming video episode of DEER GOD RADIO with a playlist focused on the experimental NO WAVE scene of the late 1970s in NYC.
past episodes of DEER GOD RADIO are available here at the DEER GOD website as well as in the MAKERPARKRADIO.NYC archives. and if you haven't done so already get the FREE PHONE APP for IOS/ANDROID and enjoy listening to MAKERPARKRADIO.NYC 24/7 at your convenience! 
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forget about how awesome the MARTIN SCORSESE film was (review HERE). in my mind opinion reducing the compositions found in PASSION (GEFFEN, 1989) to that of a soundtrack is criminal. this holds up on its own with no need for external stimuli whatsoever. not that i don't adore THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST (UNIVERSAL, 1988). it is one of my three all-time favorite films (the other's being EAST OF EDEN and CABARET).
what makes this PETER GABRIEL album so fascinating and so utterly unique is how seamlessly he blended textures, instruments and vocals from the deep musical traditions of PAKISTAN, ARMENIA, MALI, TURKEY, INDIA, EGYPT, KURDISTAN and SENEGAL among other locales. it still paradoxically sounds absolutely contemporary while being steeped in substantial depth that feels eternal. tracks such as "THE FEELING BEGINS," "IN DOUBT," and "PASSION" are such deeply evocative affairs. they are the aural equivalent of a deep yearning to transcend, which makes sense given the religious subject matter for which it was composed. "A DIFFERENT DRUM" and "OF THESE, HOPE" are pure expressions of joy, elation and ultimately transcendence. you get the sense of being put on a higher plain of consciousness. its otherworldly music. i first heard this album as a child and i still very much hold it very dear. it reminds me of going to church when i was younger and the unbounded enthusiasm and wonder i once took in the world. life seemed magical. im too jaded now, but as an adult id put GABRIEL with this record in the pantheon of great film composers, right there alongside BERNARD HERRMANN and ENNIO MERRICONE. its that great. the ensemble of talent utilized her is likewise incredible, most notably that of NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN (PAKISTAN), YOUSSOU N'DOUR (SENEGAL), BAABA MAAL (SENEGAL) and LAKSHMINARAYANA SHANKAR (INDIA), all arguably at the peak of their powers. there is real sensitivity on the part of GABRIEL to make this music cohesive yet entirely personal, showcasing each artist in the best possible light. if i sound overly effusive, its because this was a singularly powerful musical effort that made a great film an absolute revelation, pun intended. i could not recommend such anymore passionately. 
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MAYOR OF THE SUNSET STRIP (FIRST LOOK INTERNATIONAL, 2003) is a deeply affecting documentary about RODNEY BINGENHEIMER, the influential LOS ANGELES scenester, DJ and entrepreneur who is primarily famous for his early promotion of consequential bands ranging from THE RAMONES, NIRVANA, THE SEX PISTOLS, THE CURE, BLONDIE, VAN HALEN, GUNS N ROSES, NO DOUBT, BLUR, THE GERMS among seemingly countless others. his late night radio show "RODNEY ON THE ROQ" on LOS ANGELES' 106.7 KROQ was required listening for generations of SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA rock fans and music industry veterans. for decades he had a unique sense of the pulse of AMERICAN CULTURE and a preternatural ability to champion various movements in their infancy as they were emerging out of the underground such as PUNK ROCK, INDIE ROCK and even BRITPOP. previous to his radio show he had been known for his nightclub RODNEY BINGENHEIMER's ENGLISH DISCO which in the 1970s played host to GLAM ROCK and POWER POP royalty like DAVID BOWIE and IGGY POP.
full disclosure: my earliest memories of listening to the radio are to that of KROQ in the early 1990s. especially when NIRVANA broke big. for me the playlist of that station during that period is the soundtrack of my youth and what i remember most fondly about living in SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. that BINGENHEIMER was instrumental in the promotion of many of those bands made him immediately interesting to me. which gets to the interesting core of the film: BINGENHEIMER's apparent loneliness. for someone who was universally celebrated as such a well-regarded tastemaker he comes across as a particularly damaged individual, on obsessive and empath who channeled his fandom into a career of sorts. he is not a leech, i want to get that straight. if anything he has had a benevolent effect on the careers of scores of influential artists, gaining little other than access. what is sad is the lack of connection he has with people, no close relationships. there is a scene where he is rejected on the phone by someone who didnt see him as more than a friend. the rejection is excruciating to watch. for all his connections and celebrity acquaintances, he comes across as a vacuous individual. someone who needs validation from celebrity culture. again, i dont think he is a vulture. he has jumpstarted numerous the careers of numerous notable artists and it is apparent he is genuinely beloved and has lots of goodwill in the music industry. but there is that sense of the superficiality of it all. and it feels tragic. this is a documentary well worth checking out. its been film i think about constantly and makes me examine everything my intentions with everything i do with DEER GOD. 
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OCTOPUSES are cool. and yes, i said OCTOPUSES, not OCTOPI which is incorrect (as you can't add latin suffixes to greek-derived words for all you grammar nerds out there).
years ago when i was working in VENEZUELA i had the great privilege of scuba diving in the LOS ROQUES archipelago. not once but twice. saw lots of fish, sharks, eels, crabs and other sea-life, but sadly not one OCTOPUS. which was a bummer no doubt. been fascinated with them since childhood. naturalist SY MONTGOMERY in her book THE SOUL OF AN OCTOPUS: A SURPRISING EXPLORATION IN THE WONDER OF CONSCIOUSNESS (ATRIA, 2016) goes about exploring the inner world of several captive OCTOPUSES at the NEW ENGLAND AQUARIUM in BOSTON. while the book does give insight into the almost alien capabilities of these amazing cephalopods (i.e. tasting through skin, having appendages that are semi-autonomous from the brain, intelligence derived in evolutionary terms not from group relations but in isolation), what make MONTGOMERY's book compelling is her exploration of the emotional and spiritual ramifications of these abilities. what can an OCTOPUS discern about us via tasting our complex chemical signatures via its touch? what hidden knowledge do they possess about CONSCIOUSNESS and the nature of reality this book questions the very idea of what constitutes intelligence. even the very nature of CONSCIOUSNESS. it feels that our own tools of discerning reality are limited in comparison. some might mock such consideration as merely uniformed conjecture at best and ANTHROPOMORPHISM at worst, but increasingly science is becoming more open to the possibility that the nature of CONSCIOUSNESS is more complex and less understood than we have defined such in the past. its incredibly interesting stuff. and what is particularly mystifying about the evolution of said intelligence in OCTOPUSES is that 1) such came from an INVERTEBRATES unlike all other similar organisms (such as VERTEBRATES like horses, dogs, apes, dolphins and humans) and 2) such capacities were not promote and rewarded within a group context (as in all other cases) as OCTOPUSES are defiantly solitary creatures. MONTGOMERY gets into the THEORY OF MIND capacity of being able to mirror empathy an thought processes of other animals in nature and how the OCTOPUS developed such as a defense mechanism, unlike VERTEBRATES who do such to coordinate attacks and develop social relationships with their kin. OCTOPUSES are singular creatures of great intelligence with an entirely unique evolutionary path to the cognitive abilities. they are the closest thing we have to an alien species. just incredible and stimulating to consider. i thoroughly enjoyed this book, not only for its informative deep dive into anatomy, behavior and rituals of these mysterious solitary, shapeshifting creatures, but for its deeper consideration of our own connection to the natural world. not just as stewards of nature, but as partners since it seems we have much to learn from these secretive and seemingly mystical invertebrates. 
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join us TONIGHT at 10PM EST for an all new episode of DEER GOD RADIO on MAKERPARKRADIO.NYC with a playlist celebrating FLAMENCO and its influence on ROCK N ROLL as well as modern SPANISH music.
past episodes of DEER GOD RADIO are available here at the DEER GOD website as well as in the MAKERPARKRADIO.NYC archives. and if you haven't done so already, make sure and download the FREE PHONE APP for IOS/ANDROID and enjoy listening to MAKERPARKRADIO.NYC 24/7 at your convenience! 
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join us TONIGHT at 8PM EST for an all new episode of DEER GOD RADIO on MAKERPARKRADIO.NYC with a playlist focused on the EXTREME METAL genre of GRINDCORE! this is gonna be fun.
past episodes of DEER GOD RADIO are available here at the DEER GOD website as well as in the MAKERPARKRADIO.NYC archives. and if you haven't done so already, make sure and download the FREE PHONE APP for IOS/ANDROID and enjoy listening to MAKERPARKRADIO.NYC 24/7 at your convenience! 
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there was a time seemingly not long ago where in order to hear a song you either had to buy a recording (cassette, compact disc, etc.) or hope to hear it on the radio. when my family moved to NIGERIA in 1996 that isolation from both radio and record stores was pretty intense. its hard to express such now during a time when the internet is a ubiquitous and ever-present reality of daily life. back then you really felt the distance from your home culture. in my subsequent years living abroad, especially places like ALBANIA and MYANMAR, it was a totally different experience. i had a smart phone and internet access with the ability to explore new music and watch films as if i was at home.
i bring this up because it was a big deal when my family went on trips during school breaks, especially when we went to EUROPE. during a trip to ITALY i remember my brother and i getting our hands on records by three bands we kept reading about: TOOL, SEPULTURA and RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE. if my memory serves me correct we scored TOOL's UNDERTOW (ZOO, 1993), SEPULTURA's CHAOS A.D. (ROADRUNNER, 1993) and ROOTS (ROADRUNNER, 1996), as well as the RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE's RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE (EPIC, 1992) and EVIL EMPIRE (EPIC, 1996) records. it was a big deal not just culturally, but spiritually as well. hearing those records made you feel connected to AMERICAN culture. so that was my experience first hearing EVIL EMPIRE. i just remember the sheer ferocity of that tight rhythm section and TOM MORELLO's off-kilter soundscapes and eccentric noise-making. it seemed like a sonic revolution. and then there was ZACH DE LA ROCHA who just sounded pissed off. his rapid fire delivery was something i was not used to at all, since there were no precedent in rock music for what he did, and my knowledge of HIP HOP was pretty nonexistent back then (outside of BIGGY and TUPAC, both who passed on around that time or soon thereafter). it was intense. thematically and lyrically the band stood against corporate and political oppression, which is interesting for both of us as NIGERIA was a corrupt military dictatorship at the time that served AMERICAN petroleum interests. it was an interesting education and re-contextualization of experience abroad as we were living it. in my mind at the time, the message of RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE was not that far off from that of FELA KUTI, who was still alive and playing live shows in LAGOS at the time. years ago i saw a reunited RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE play the ROCK THE BELLS festival in NYC and outside of PRINCE and, yes, GUNS N ROSES, they are one of the better live acts i have ever seen. they did not disappoint. experiencing that show was a visceral experience that took me right back to my time in LAGOS. a time where i witnessed police brutality and began questioning my role in this systematic oppression of a native population ruled by a corrupt government apparatus benefiting off of foreign corporate interests. cant say that about many bands. even THE CLASH. 
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i recently came across the BRITISH POST-PUNK / INDIE ROCK band SHOPPING and have come to appreciate not only their angular riffs and infectious circular melodies, but also their quirky and highly original videos.
to my ears their sound seems to split the difference between GANG OF FOUR and TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB. its also a pleasure to hear and ENGLISH band that does not shy away from their native accents. too often that is the case, which is a curious phenomena dating back to THE BEATLES. anyway, great band definitely worth checking out. 
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check out HERE this recent streaming video episode of DEER GOD RADIO celebrating the MAX CAVALERA and all the brutal METAL he has given us over the years with projects like SEPULTURA, SOULFLY, NAILBOMB, KILLER BE KILLED and CAVALERA CONSPIRACY!
past episodes of DEER GOD RADIO are available here at the DEER GOD website as well as in the MAKERPARKRADIO.NYC archives. and if you haven't done so already, make sure and download the FREE PHONE APP for IOS/ANDROID and enjoy listening to MAKERPARKRADIO.NYC 24/7 at your convenience! 
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its crazy that arguably the biggest band to ever come out of ORANGE COUNTY got big right after my family permanently left the area. TRAGIC KINGDOM (INTERSCOPE, 1995) by NO DOUBT was released the same month in late 1995 when we departed SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA for NIGERIA. cant even stress how much a culture shock that was. in the intervening years i have traveled (a lot) and been in countless crazy situations, but nothing really compares to arriving in LAGOS that first time more than 25 years ago.
in ORANGE COUNTY we lived in BREA, which was due east to where my father worked in neighboring LA HABRA which is part of LOS ANGELES COUNTY. to BREA's immediate south is FULLERTON (home of SOCIAL DISTORTION and FENDER GUITARS) and due south from there is ANAHEIM. in fact, my brother was born in the same FULLERTON hospital as GWEN STEFANI. ANAHEIM of course is home to DISNEYLAND and from my parent's house i could see the fireworks in the distance from their seasonal nightly displays. growing up i practically lived at DISNEYLAND, so the little nuggets such as the MATTERHORN's warning embedded in the beginning of the song "TRAGIC KINGDOM" was never lost on me. the whole send up of THE MAGIC KINGDOM makes total sense, as well as the artwork that references the branding of vintage orange boxes that you can find in my friends' grandparents antique collections. when i heard the record the first i was in LAGOS and it was really the first time i had an intense case of homesickness for SOUTHERN CALFORNIA. i thought it was so cool that a local band, like THE OFFSPRING beforehand, had made it big. so huge that i found the record randomly at a local store run by a BRITISH expat (this was pre-internet). as an album this record slays. my favorite is easily "SUNDAY MORNING." i still listen to that song to this day to get my spirits up. its a traditional sunny sunny pop song with a great melody and an ingenious music video of GWEN going to the store and buying groceries for a summer picnic with the band eating spaghetti. sounds horrible but it really gives the band a sense of grounding in reality, like a 90s version of BLONDIE with a heavy dose of MADNESS and 2 TONE SKA thrown in the mix. "JUST A GIRL," "SPIDERWEBS" and "EXCUSE ME MR." are just great pop songs that feel like they were written by confident musicians unafraid to thrown in a healthy mix of sonic textures that reference everything from 60s PSYCHEDELIA to SURF MUSIC. its a band fully aware of their cultural heritage as residents of SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. its hard to understate the impact of "JUST A GIRL" on empowering women to become musicians. it may be the most consequential song they ever released. before this album the songwriting was heavily influenced by founding member ERIC STEFANI who left shortly before record TRAGIC KINGDOM to become an animator on THE SIMPSONS. previous recordings were much more SKA based and derivative in comparison. TRAGIC KINGDOM saw them come together as songwriters. subsequent albums found the band searching for an identity, which seems to be a common thread in the lyrics of GWEN STEFANI both within NO DOUBT and her solo work. when TRAGIC KINGDOM came out it was right in the middle of the ALTERNATIVE ROCK explosion and its optimistic disposition and sunny vibes as the antithesis of the SEATTLE scene. i was surprised that they followed suit with the gloomier RETURN OF SATURN (INTERSCOPE, 2000), before recapturing and updating their DANCEHALL-influenced sound on ROCK STEADY (INTERSCOPE, 2001) and PUSH AND SHOVE (INTERSCOPE, 2012). regardless, TRAGIC KINGDOM is a classic pop record worthy of further investigation and still an immensely enjoyable listen. 
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due to their complex songs written in odd time signatures with with lyrics that had literary ambition, RUSH has had a cult following since the 1970s and are very much an acquired taste. some people can't get past GEDDY LEE's vocals, others find them pretentious.
in their documentary RUSH: BEHIND THE LIGHTED STAGE (BANGER FILMS, 2010) directors (and fellow CANADIANS) SCOTT MCFADYEN and SAM DUNN lovingly showcase the trajectory of their career both from the perspective of the band and their dedicated fans, which include prominent musicians like TRENT REZNOR (NINE INCH NAILS), TAYLOR HAWKINS (FOO FIGHTERS), VINNIE PAUL (PANTERA), LES CLAYPOOL (PRIMUS), DANNY CAREY (TOOL), ZAKK WYLDE (OZZY OSBOURNE, BLACK LABEL SOCIETY), SEBASTIAN BACH (SKID ROW), MIKE PORTNOY (DREAM THEATER), KIRK HAMMETT (METALLICA), TIM COMMERFORD (RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE), JASON MCGERR (DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE), JIMMY CHAMBERLAIN and BILLY CORGAN (SMASHING PUMPKINS) as well as contemporaries like GENE SIMMONS (KISS) and MICK BOX (URIAH HEEP) and entertainment industry heavyweights like JACK BLACK (TENACIOUS D), MATT STONE (SOUTH PARK) and CLIFF BURSTEIN (Q PRIME MANAGEMENT). for some it was their technical wizardry on their instruments that drew them in while for others it was their expansive palette of sounds which mirrored thematic depths of their lyrics that inspired such devotion. what comes across is their genuine affinity for the honest, authentic nature of these three unassuming, well-adjusted CANADIANS. in GEDDY LEE and ALEX LIFESON you have two second generation immigrant kids that found each other in middle school in the suburbs outside TORONTO. LEE was the son of HOLOCAUST survivors of POLISH descent while LIFESON the son of a YUGOSLAVIAN (SERBIAN) family the immigrated shortly after WWII. in both you had families that instilled hard work and kindness, which in other words meant they had a typical CANADIAN upbringing. i feel like this was a key to their success since, ironically, it freed them from worrying about success. they had a balanced sense of identity rooted from an early age that made them take the successes and failures of their unusual career in stride with a sense of humor, but also intense focus on the craft itself. a very strong puritan ethic seems to mark them. there is a definite sub-narrative throughout the film that gets into the idea of RUSH as a cultural phenomena and the idea of not being "cool" and being an "outcast" that arguably defines the fan experience. most of the famous musicians (interestingly the majority of them being notable bassists and drummers) seem to have a confrontational approach to this subject as they dismissed that and liked them because they liked them. REZNOR in particular expands on his appreciation for the choices made by the band in terms of their inclusion of technology and sense of arrangement to incorporate an expansive set of instruments (including the keyboards, synthesizers, etc). the one voice i could have left without hearing predictably was CORGAN who seemed to whine about how RUSH wasn't properly appreciated by the music critics. at times it seems like he was projecting himself and the legacy of his own band onto RUSH in a visceral way which was annoying and completely self-serving. you really get the sense that RUSH don't care about people in opposition or indifferent to the group. their concern is their own sense of creative evolution and those that appreciate it. CORGAN's whining just seemed completely counterproductive and i resent him for it. that aside one of the things i most appreciated about the band was their sense of mutual respect and genuine love for one another. this was seen when the uncomfortable talk about when drummer NEIL PEART's wife and daughter passed away separately and in quick succession. the band gave him his space and were willing to hang it up. this dedication continues now after his passing from cancer. RUSH is GEDDY LEE, ALEX LIFESON and NEIL PEART. period. quickly about PEART, they go into his awkwardness growing up and discovery of drums as a means of self-expression but for me the most interesting thing about his career was how in his later years he took drum lessons from jazz icon FREDDIE GRUBER and effectively altered his playing style. that amazes me his devotion to evolving and learning new aspects to his instrument that continued until his passing. even when he was celebrated as one of the greatest living drummers, he retaught himself from the ground up. just so inspiring. if you don't like RUSH, i get it. but even so this film may be worth your time, even if it is a love letter to the greatest CANADIAN band by a CANADIAN production company which received grants from the CANADIAN government to make this production happen. i recognize all that and still recommend it. 
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a RHODES SCHOLAR and noted host of her own eponymous show on MSNBC, RACHEL MADDOW in her first book DRIFT: THE UNMOORING OF AMERICAN MILITARY POWER (CROWN, 2012) presents an extended examination of the evolved relationship between the decision matrix regarding foreign military excursions by the executive branch and the public.
in essence the relationship between the power to go to war and the cost of it (in terms of CAPITAL, both HUMAN and FINANCIAL) was an imminent concern going back to our founding fathers, who saw our federal system with distinct powers given to each of our three branches of government, as a means of safeguarding that decision and making sure that such was never made without an engaged citizenry. they feared a standing army during peacetime as gateway to potential demagoguery as the political power of war, or the threat of such, cuts through society like few other forces can. by dividing up responsibilities, mostly between the executive and legislative branches, war was ideally only supposed to take place after an appeal to congress and the public was made explicit and duly supported on the merits. in essence DRIFT is focused on the consequences of the deliberate untethering of our foreign military excursions from said public debate/consciousness and congressional scrutiny by the executive branch over time. the short of it was that up until the VIETNAM CONFLICT, all wars saw a drastic reduction in our standing army post-conflict. the NATIONAL GUARD and the ARMY RESERVE swelled during times of conflict (CIVIL WAR, SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR, WORLD WAR I, WORLD WAR II and the KOREAN WAR) only to see them drop dramatically down as people moved on with their lives and spread out throughout the economy. LYNDON B. JOHNSON wasn't sold on calling up the NATIONAL GUARD and the ARMY RESERVE during VIETNAM, as he thought (correctly) that such wouldnt garner public support because those institutions were filled with more connected, career-driven sons and daughters of the establishment. utilizing such forces would inevitably invite criticism, so instead instituted a draft that swelled the ranks of the army with the less connected and less fortunate of society. in pursuing this unpopular war through the utilization of the draft, he effectively disentangled the military from the population. by skirting criticism and not seeking shared consensus and commitment from all AMERICANS, he badly damaged the relationship of each to the other. essentially after that break in society, every president has sought to minimize the political costs of war without exception. RONALD REAGAN dramatically increased the budget to astronomical heights utilizing fear PLAN B-generated fear tactics during the COLD WAR. it has never decreased in any meaningful manner since. REAGAN also famously attempted to privatize foreign policy with his failed efforts to illegally arm the CONTRAS in NICARAGUA through profits from selling arms vis-a-vis the ISRAELIS to IRAN. this mistake nearly cost him his presidency, but subsequent presidents beginning with GEORGE H. W. BUSH made the privatization of the military into an immensely profitable cottage industry that effectively rendered the BOSNIAN and KOSOVAN efforts under BILL CLINTON and drone attacks in WAZIRISTAN under BARACK OBAMA viable. basically if you divorce our foreign excursions from any real economic or visible costs or consequences to most AMERICANS, then you can have never-ending conflict ad infinitum. which is basically where we stand now. past efforts to reign in control over financing by CONGRESS (WAR POWERS ACT OF 1973) or military brass policy (THE ABRAMS DOCTRINE) are essentially mute at this point in time. its a quite a petrifying scenario that is likely to continue unabated, since no executive is likely to agree to limit their own power. it is a circumstance our founding fathers feared come to fruition. this was a thoughtful, well-constructed book that made it harder to sleep at night. thanks RACHEL. regarding her writing style: i always thought it was interesting how she structured her cable show in that she utilized a storytelling technique in which she introduced the subject of her narrative, usually in the second act of a three act plot. for television this is curious since it presumes that the audience has the patience to stay with you long enough to learn that key piece of information. cable news is notorious for satiating ever shortening public attention spans, which makes such a decision interesting. of course, i think the reason she chose this was to emphasize the specific details of her tale and the broader implications of such without being weighed down by our conditioned reactions to names and faces. again, its a technique she has honed since her show began in 2008. on television it is a bit cumbersome and longwinded but within an extended format such as a book it is perfectly suited for maximum effect, especially since she covers such entrenched topics as NATIONAL SECURITY, FOREIGN POLICY and evolving procedures regarding decisions the legal authorization of MILITARY FORCE. this technique allows her to go after the evolution of said topics without getting bogged down in the inherited hazardous debris of past official propaganda, cultural divides and controversial figures. she is able to see the forest and not the trees, which benefits the reader in understanding scope and context immensely. 
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click HERE for this recent streaming video episode of DEER GOD RADIO celebrating ROOTS REGGAE and all its beautiful rebellious glory!
past episodes of DEER GOD RADIO are available here at the DEER GOD website as well as in the MAKERPARKRADIO.NYC archives. and if you haven't done so already get the FREE PHONE APP for IOS/ANDROID and enjoy listening to MAKERPARKRADIO.NYC 24/7 at your convenience! 
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its super interesting to me that in the last couple of years it appears that various corporate entities are releasing back catalogues of live performance and interview footage on their youtube channels.
corporate ogre LIVE NATION is no different. i imagine GREEN ROOM TALES was a long form interview segment various acts were contractually forced to do when playing their HOUSE OF BLUES venues to be shown in house before future gigs of other acts. most of the ones i located were around the turn of the millennium. most of the videos provided are crap (think BOY BANDS, NU METAL and FAKE GRUNGE bands), but i dug up some gems from various artists either now deceased or early in their career. i'm glad these were made available even if the interviewer was overly enthusiastic and pretty awkward. 
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maybe it comes from them being CANADIAN and not taking themselves too seriously, but HARDCORE PUNK band CANCER BATS to my ears seem to enjoy themselves. there is a real sense of abandon and dare i say it, fun, in their music, which is not often the case with bands that skirt genres such as METALCORE, POST-HARDCORE or even SLUDGE METAL as they do. i always wanted to see them play because they just come off like an inclusive bunch while absolutely melting your face off with prime intense METAL riffage.
that and they are unafraid to acknowledge their influences. case in point their alter-egos BAT SABBATH who tour, record and perform straight BLACK SABBATH covers that basically draws the through line between the iconic METAL band and PUNK ROCK. cool band well worth checking out. 
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click HERE for NUTMEG's latest streaming CLASSICAL-ISH radio show on MAKERPARKRADIO.NYC as she presents "a lot of classical but perhaps even more ambient music by Asian composers. It’s gonna be all over the place."
don't forget that you can also access other MAKERPARKRADIO.NYC shows like MAKE HER SPACE, NOWHERE FAST, THE SYNTHESIZER SHOW and DEER GOD RADIO here at our website. and if you haven't done so already get the FREE PHONE APP for IOS/ANDROID and enjoy listening to MAKERPARKRADIO.NYC 24/7 at your convenience! 
photo & text by nacrowe
HOMOGENIC (ELEKTRA, 1997) by BJÖRK is a magical album for me.
in high school i made what with hindsight was a FAUSTIAN bargain when i rejoined my family in KUWAIT after spending two years in WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS at a private boarding school. i had the option to stay. at that point i was over being around other students of privilege and their bullshit. i also wanted to travel again, especially INDIA. so i rejoined my family in the MIDDLE EAST and was fortunate enough to run around northern INDIA with them on a school break. that trip probably ranks in the top three trips ive ever been on (the other two are RUSSIA and CAMBODIA). i remember watching what must have been FRENCH TV late one night that year in KUWAIT and there was special on the ICELANDIC recording artist BJÖRK (whom id never heard of). i was half awake and i dont speak FRENCH, but i remember being blown away by all the videos they showed. just the thought of "who is this?" and "how have i never heard of this person before?" fast forward a few months and my family are staying at a fort in RAJASTHAN and my brother are essentially sharing a turret. that was the setting i remember listening to HOMOGENIC in. it was like a fever dream. at one point i even had dysentery on that trip. i was completely dehydrated on one of the trip's legs to JAIPUR. it was a long bus ride that i was asleep for most of feeling horrible. in the distance i remember seeing dancing bears on the road while listening to HOMOGENIC. i was dumbfounded. turns out as we got closer there was so poor bears with rings through their noses forced to dance for tips as cars drove by. animal torture. that bummed me out, but at least i wasnt hallucinating. being in that BJÖRK headspace somehow made that seem possible. unlike her previous albums which were more beat driven and veer more towards TRIP HOP at times, HOMOGENIC is a full orchestrated affair. songs like "JOGA," "PLUTO" and especially "BACHELORETTE" have an expansive cinematic sense about them with big, energetic crescendos and long buildups. its still very much an electronic hybrid like previous efforts, but one that is decidedly more deliberate in execution. other songs such as "HUNTER" and "ALL IS FULL OF LOVE" are more downtempo and introspective, but musically attempt to use an expansive palette of both digital and analog to orchestrate the aural equivalent of intimacy and vulnerability. its an incredible record that still feels contemporary, much like her catalogue in general. BJÖRK always seems to be looking around for new ideas to incorporate into her sound with nothing off limits. for me the refinement of HOMOGENIC is the payoff of the jubilant experimentation of POST (ELEKTRA, 1995), her previous major effort. to my ears they are a pair and both should be looked into by anyone interested in expressive, experimental and thoroughly listenable pop music. 
photo manipulation by nacrowe
sometimes bands just materialize organically.
that seems to be how SCOTTISH INDIE ROCK band BELLE & SEBASTIAN bubbled-up from obscurity as a cohort of local semi-serious musicians coalesced around the bedroom songs of leader STUART MURDOCH as depicted in the IF YOU'RE FEELING SINISTER (PITCHFORK, 2013) documentary. largely an oral history with band members STEVIE JACKSON, RICHARD COLBURN, ISOBEL CAMPBELL, CHRISTOPHER GEDDES, SARAH MARTIN, MICK COOKE, STUART DAVID as well as JEEPSTER RECORDINGS co-founders MARK JONES and STEFANO D'ANDREA and recording engineer TONY DOOGAN all contributing to the band's narrative, what becomes apparent is how these tightly constructed and highly literate songs became the focus straight away. fellow singer ISOBEL CAMPBELL was both a muse and a melodic counterpoint to that of MURDOCH. probably most important in that evolution was the addition of the more season local musician STEVIE JACKSON who helped provide a more polished sheen to the material which could have easily been construed as TWEE otherwise. in fact my argument is that BELLE & SEBASTIAN is kind of the middle point between THE SMITHS and CALVIN JOHNSON. the music itself has a naive and intimate quality, as if written by a nebbish bookworm for a small audience of friends in a used bookstore. its almost anti-rock rock music. no swing. no posturing. just bare instrumentation with lilting, whimsically melancholic melodies draped modestly over. makes perfect sense that JACK BLACK's character in HIGH FIDELITY (BUENA VISTA, 2000) referred to them as "BELLE & SAD-BASTIAN." MURDOCH himself was once athletic and outgoing before he became unwell with CHRONIC FATIGUE SYNDROME and largely stuck to his home with his parents. the band proved a reason to get out, physically and spiritually. 
in fact, the evolution of his songs largely follows this conscious reintegration into society, to a point. his songs blossomed as he began writing more and more about everyday observations that he made riding buses around GLASGOW on the way to band practice and local shows. the songs became about normal people from perspective the perspective of a nonparticipating outside observer. this in my opinion made the lyrical content that much more potent, songs became about complicated emotions from someone attempting to understand them as if for the first time. almost childlike. conceptually it is very similar to the creative work of BRIAN WILSON, in that the lyrics are a projection of an ideal and a desire to be like the characters in the songs. its almost tragic in a sense.
what i didn't know about their collective story was that they were chosen by a local college's music business class to be the focus of a semester-long project to promote a local act. when their album TIGERMILK (JEEPSTER, 1996) was recorded with promotional and administrative assistance from this class, the students in fact found representation for the group as they met with labels. it all actually worked! how crazy is that? the more i learn about them the more they resemble THE SMITHS to me in that they signed with an INDIE label (JEEPSTER RECORDINGS) and didn't release singles from albums, didn't appear in press photos and basically didn't do interviews (ok so that last one doesn't pan out as MORRISSEY was a media troll before that term ever got coined). for MURDOCH and the group it was all about leveraging control on their fragile project with as little outside interference as possible, be that record companies, the media or the slippery uphill chase towards fame. great documentary that offers a personal look at a great album by a unique band at the top of their powers. definitely worth watching if you are a fan of the band, INDIE ROCK or intellectually satisfying music in general. 
photo & text by nacrowe
the standalone graphic novel JUST SO HAPPENS (ABRAMS COMICARTS, 2015) authored and illustrated by FUMIO OBATA is an interesting examination of how one's sense of identity and rootedness is transformed when navigating two cultures. in this case the main protagonist is a young JAPANESE woman named YUMIKO who works for a LONDON design firm and is engage to a ENGLISHMAN when she returns to JAPAN for the funerary rights of her recently deceased father. being the daughter of divorced parents and a stridently independent mother who left to pursue her educational goals and a career as an literary intellectual, YUMIKO is caught between traditional JAPANESE cultural prescriptions of passive femininity and the empowered WESTERN model of the self-sufficient woman.
in a sense she sees the benefits of both. this appreciation is seen through the visual metaphor of classical NOH THEATER, which finds a masked actor following her in her dreams. this deeply traditional style of drama, much like other JAPANESE pursuits, is intensely formal to the point that all GESTURES, POSTURES and MOVEMENTS have been passed down for generations upon generations. in fact, the formal elements of these performances are so entrenched that they subsume any sense of ego or expression on behalf of the actor. going through the motions of participating in the traditional JAPANESE BUDDHIST funerary rites regarding her father, there is an implied connection to this sense of extinguishing the ego. these rituals are not about satiating the needs of the living. they are about continuing a pattern, fulfilling an expectation. FUMIKO seems to learn that there is comfort in the formal procedures and rituals not only associated with death, but with life as well. having worked in YOKOHAMA myself for a year teaching LITERATURE at a private secondary school, i think it is quite impressive how OBATA is able to identify and explore this point of tension between EASTERN and WESTERN culture. i remember how seemingly difficult it was to navigate a culture where everyone was so impeccably polite. they werent being INAUTHENTIC, but there always seemed to be this distance. that is until there wasnt. i got the sense that once my JAPANESE peers realized that i was respectful of their culture and embraced the formal elements of their behavior (which is an adjustment for a WESTERNER), it was only then that i found myself joking with people. it was an interesting experience and something i often think about. growing up as a THIRD CULTURE KID, you are perennially stuck between multiple worlds, multiple modes of being and understanding life. i'm still navigating it even when on "home" soil. its still an adjustment much like it is for YUMIKO when bridging ENGLISH and JAPANESE culture. i thoroughly enjoyed this graphic novel and recommend it immensely. 
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July 2021
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