In the court of the Crimson king

Hard to really express what an honor and pleasure it was to travel to London to interview Robert Fripp. Also, here is a report from a daylong Fripp press event that took place the day before the sitdown.

I feel like I'm just now finally getting my head around the entirety of the King Crimson output to date. Just a stunning body of work. Aside from the obvious classics, if you have not spend good time with Three of a Perfect Pair (an album I'd overlooked before) or the recent live albums Live in Chicago or Meltdown: Live in Mexico, I'd highly recommend doing so.

The Heavy Metal Bebop Podcast #3: Kenny Grohowski

The third installment of the HMB Podcast, featuring a long-form interview with drummer Kenny Grohowski — of Imperial Triumphant, John Zorn's Simulacrum and many other projects — is now live. You can listen/subscribe in iTunes or stream/download via the player below.


Photo: Petra Cvelbar

A sincere thanks to anyone who has checked out the podcast so far. I hope you're enjoying this new format for the HMB series as much as I am. And for those who might be wondering: Yes, non-drummers will be featured on future episodes! Please stay tuned.

The Heavy Metal Bebop Podcast #2: Kate Gentile

The second installment of the HMB Podcast, featuring a long-form interview with drummer-composer Kate Gentile, is now live. You can listen/subscribe in iTunes or stream/download via the player below.


To everyone who has listened or sent feedback on the podcast so far, thank you so much for your support. If you like what you hear and are inclined to rate or review the show in iTunes, that would be sincerely appreciated.

More great conversations have already been recorded for the coming months, so please stay tuned!

Lately (3/17/19)

*A review of an awesome four-band death-metal bill, featuring DFSBP faves Cannibal Corpse and Morbid Angel.

*A write-up of an excellent new oral history of the band King's X, with whom I've become fairly obsessed within the past year or so.

The Heavy Metal Bebop Podcast

Some reading this may be familiar with Heavy Metal Bebop, the online interview series I launched back in 2011 dealing with the intersections of jazz and metal. I'm happy to announce that Heavy Metal Bebop is now a podcast. Go here to learn more and to stream or download the first episode, which features a conversation with Bad Plus drummer Dave King. Or just hit play below:



I've had more fun conducting these interviews than I have in just about any other journalistic endeavor to date, so I'm enormously happy to unveil this latest chapter of HMB. The other HMB Podcast episodes I've recorded so far have been a blast, and I can't wait for you to hear them.

Hope you enjoy! And stay tuned for episode 2 sometime in March.

Update: You can now hear and subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.

Lately (2/12/19)

*An interview with La Dispute's Jordan Dreyer about the band's history and new LP. To my ears, this band made one of the best rock albums of the past decade or so with 2014's Rooms of the House, which I discussed a bit here. Their other albums are also excellent, and that includes Panorama, out next month. LD are one of those bands who are already legendary in their niche ("post-hardcore," "emo," what have you), but anyone who appreciates intense, well-crafted, thought-/feeling-provoking rock really needs to check in with them.

*A review of January's Black Flags Over Brooklyn fest. Kim Kelly put together something really special with this one. Caught some extraordinary sets that weekend and tried to do 'em justice.

*Wrote up a couple new tracks by James Brandon Lewis and Angel Bat Dawid, respectively, both very much worth your time.

More soon…

Lately (1/14/19)

Happy New Year, and welcome once again to this little corner of the internet. As ever, if you're reading this, I appreciate your kind attention and do not take it for granted. Cheers to you. Onward!

Here are:

*A rundown of my 2019 Winter Jazzfest faves. I only caught a tiny fraction of what went down at the fest, but still managed to hear a broad array of world-class groups. I'm happy that WJF is now a firmly entrenched annual staple of the NYC concert calendar, and I look forward to many more.

*A piece on the Jawbox reunion, with commentary from three of the four members. I'm a huge fan of this band, and have been for around 25 years, so this was simply an honor and a pleasure to put together. See also an older DFSBP piece in which I delve into some of the reasons I find their music so inspired/inspiring.

*A brief write-up on the latest from Krallice, which I would not hesitate to name one of New York's, and the world's, premier avant-garde ensembles, regardless of genre. More on them, and what they mean to me, here.

Best of 2018: Digest

*Jazz list.

*Metal list.

*All-genres-in-play list.

*Live list.

*All-genres-in-play top 10 list archive, 2005 through the present.

*Jazz-only top 10 list archive, 2008 through the present.

Thank you as always for your kind attention. Cool things are afoot for 2019 — stay tuned and take care!

Best of 2018: Live

Suffocation's Frank Mullen. Photo: Ignacio Orellana Alarcon

Some great shows I saw this year:

Dan Weiss / Starebaby
Jan 5, 6 @ the Stone; Jan 13 @ Winter Jazzfest; April 1 at Nublu 151
Feature.

Demilich + Blood Incantation 
May 4 @ Saint Vitus
At long last. Worth the wait in every way. The openers, a band who hadn't quite clicked with me on record, were pulverizing and awe-inspiring.

Defeated Sanity + Behold... the Arctopus
May 23 @ Saint Vitus
This show was utter mayhem. Defeated Sanity are at the forefront of contemporary prog-meets-caveman death-metal insanity and I have a feeling whatever they release next is going to be a new benchmark in the genre. Behold played their most avant-garde music to date.

The Bad Plus
May 31 @ Blue Note; November 8 @ Village Vanguard
The highest compliment I can pay the new lineup is that these shows were as exuberant and dialed-in as any other TBP gigs I've caught over the years.

40 Watt Sun
June 16 @ Saint Vitus
DFSBP thoughts.

This Is Not This Heat
July 23 @ Pioneer Works
A band I never thought I'd get to see, in any incarnation. They managed to retain both the mystery and the brutality that made the original lineup so great.

Alan Braufman, Cooper-Moore, Ken Filiano, Andrew Drury
BarrSheaDahl 10th anniversary
August 1 @ Greene Space, Market Hotel, respectively
Dual DFSBP write-up.

Newport Jazz Fest
August 3–5
Review.

King's X
August 22 @Sony Hall
Such a warm, communal vibe. Humble masters with an enormous catalog that I really got lost in this year. King's X are one of a kind and should not be taken for granted.

Killing Joke 
September 12 @ Irving Plaza
Review.

Eyehategod
September 14 @ Brooklyn Bazaar
Review.

Robert Glasper, Derrick Hodge, Chris Dave
October 7 @ Blue Note
The most state-of-the-art grooves imaginable. Chris Dave, dear God...

Bonnie "Prince" Billy
October 11 at Murmrr Theater
The most "scripted" show I've seen him do to date, and one of the most joyous too. Speaking to Will at length was a highlight of my year.

Clutch
October 26 @ Irving Plaza
Review.

Suffocation + Krisiun
November 16 @ Gramercy Theatre
Review.

Makaya McCraven
December 2 @ LPR
Review.

Flying Luttenbachers + Reg Bloor / Marc Edwards + Opening Bell w/ Tamio Shiraishi and Rob Mayson
December 7 @ Ceremony
New Luttenbachers were everything a fan might hope for. Rest of the night (that I caught) was a deafening brain-scramble. Loved catching Tamio twice in close proximity.


Esperanza Spalding
December 12 @ Town Hall
A multimedia, genre-transcending tour de force.

Stinking Lizaveta + Azonic
December 17 @ Saint Vitus
I only recently fully grasped how outstanding this veteran band really is. In terms of a grit vs. precision rock-music Venn diagram, they're among the most skilled practitioners on Earth. Buy all their albums. Nice spirit-massage from the openers too.

Clutch + The Messthetics
December 28 @ The Starland Ballroom
Back for more Clutch! There's been a good amount of Fugazi satellite activity going down in recent months, most notably the emergence of the Messthetics. A very cool band on record — call it the post-hardcore version of fusion — that delivered scrappy, undiluted intensity live. I'm really excited to hear where they go next.

Best of 2018: Overall top 10 + songs

Here is my all-genres-in-play 2018 top 10, as submitted to two independent year-end surveys — neither of which is online yet — along with links to my coverage of each album.

1. The Bad Plus, Never Stop II (review)
2. Esperanza Spalding, 12 Little Spells (review)
3. Haunt, Burst Into Flame (review)
4. Dan Weiss, Starebaby (feature)
5. Voivod, The Wake (review)
6. Wayne Shorter, Emanon (review)
7. Peter Brötzmann / Heather Leigh, Sparrow Nights (review)
8. Tomb Mold, Manor of Infinite Forms (blurb)
9. Harriet Tubman, The Terror End of Beauty (track write-up)
10. Tyshawn Sorey, Pillars (review)

Some of these records also appear on my respective jazz and metal lists; some are unique to the above; all hit me hard. (See here for some thoughts on why the Spalding and Sorey discs did not appear on the jazz lists I compiled, despite their inclusion here.)

Here, for fun, is an archive of all my year-end top 10s stretching back to 2005, the first year I was employed as a staff writer-about-music.

And here is a playlist of some songs I really liked this year, some from the albums I've cited and some not.