Thursday, June 28, 2018

Back on the Trane: 'The Lost Album' and more

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Here is my Rolling Stone review of Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album , a newly released John Coltrane session fro...
Saturday, June 23, 2018

"You have to create yourself a new language": Gorguts' 'Obscura' at 20

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  It was well received, but it was a very small audience. It took a while. And people were like, 'What the fuck is...

Goodbye, Vinnie Paul

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Never gonna be another groove like Vinnie Paul's. His playing style + Terry Date's production = a crucial element of a new meta...
Friday, June 22, 2018

The Music vs. the Moment: On "Criticism" and attempting to get a clear look at Kamasi Washington's 'Heaven and Earth'

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I have written before on this blog about my ambivalence toward that thing we call Criticism, and counting myself amon...

Still I'm sworn: Morbid Angel's 'Covenant' at 25

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 Here's my 25th-anniversay tribute to my favorite metal album of all time. Paradoxically, this "41-minute blast of white-hot sat...
Sunday, June 17, 2018

Enormity of song: 40 Watt Sun live at Saint Vitus

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Saint Vitus, Brooklyn's temple of metal, was about as sparsely populated as I've seen it for last night's 40 Watt ...
Monday, May 28, 2018

"You go and you play": On Paul Motian's limitless jazz

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[Postscript, July 2018: After writing the below, I saw a rough cut of Michael Patrick Kelly's thorough and enlighte...
Thursday, May 10, 2018

Recent raves: Immortal, Pat Metheny and more

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Happy spring! A few recent musical obsessions and raves: Immortal I'm generally not a fan of the endless microdivision of music into ...
Tuesday, April 24, 2018

HMB 14: Ben Monder + The Starebaby outtakes

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I'm proud to present the 14th installment of Heavy Metal Bebop, a series of conversations about the intersection of jazz and metal. The ...
Friday, April 06, 2018

The fuchsia-colored awning: What Cecil Taylor taught me

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[Update, April 6, 3:55pm ET: See also this CT appreciation for Rolling Stone .] I thought about Cecil Taylor often during ...