What I've been listening to

yo dudes, been a while. here's some things I've been listening to.

Read "Everybody Loves our Town: an Oral History of Grunge," and it had me listening to all the bands at that time and it took me back. (I asked a younger colleague how old he was in 1991 when I was hanging out with my friends in the 7/11 parking lot trying to score beer and talking about the lyrics in "smells like teen spirit" and he said "4". fuck.) I also checked out some bands that I didn't know that well like Tad and the Melvins, and I've been listening to those bands quite a bit since. Dinosaur Jr. wasn't a Seattle band but been listening to a lot of that lately too. (I once talked to J. Mascis in line at Bayback waiting to cash a check, I wonder if that dude still lives in his mom's basement in Amherst.)

Saw a really killer performance by Peter Evans recently, he's a youngish trumpet player with a nice career going. He did a solo improv thing for about 10 minutes, which showcased his incredible circular breathing skills and did some innovate things getting close to the mic with a lot of reverb on it, washing the room in a humming sound that was hard to believe was from a trumpet. He left the stage after that and two percussionists and a piano player performed the rest of the piece he composed. That had at times a film noir sound, other times a far out Cecil Taylor/Charles Ives vibe, and a also moments of super-minimalist John Cage feel. Evans has some albums up on Spotify, included one called "Zebulon" of his jazz trio playing that much-missed/now closed Williamsburg venue.

other shit: Zomes, "improvisations"(did DC hit this?), really meditative ambient; Alabama Shakes, soul vibe, driving music; James Ferraro, "Far Side Virtual", far out post-modern, electro weirdness (some of his stuff is awful but this works, kind of a social critique, but not hard to listen to); Evan Caminiti, one half of the doom-ambient duo Barn Owl, his solo stuff is deep; Chico Hamilton, spotify is deep on Chico, really liking the compilation album from the mid/late fifties, very regular rotation for months; Indians, "somewhere else", chilled out indie, if you like Cavemen (which I know DC hit), you should feel this.

HotHOTSummer---------________------------           getting into dub again, tis the season-----______