Every week I try to find something new and interesting that is also a bit outside my wheel house. (Obviously, some weeks are more of a struggle than others.) I was tipped of to OLYS new single last week, and found myself spinning it quite a bit. As wheelhouses go, this fits fairly snuggly outside of mine.
I have to apologize, I’ve been sitting on this one for a few weeks. But you know what? This amazing Instructions record I found those few weeks ago has been in regular rotation in my iTunes. Actually, loop is probably a more appropriate word. It is so good that it has eclipsed all new releases for me for the past two weeks!
I get a lot of inquiries as to where I’m playing next (which I am extremely humbled by and appreciative of), but I’m not much of a future planner. I live in the “now.” You know, like a renegade. These things are hard for me to remember off hand, so I made a listing of my Upcoming gigs for this website.
This has been driving me nuts for months—ever since I upgraded to the iPhone 6s from the 5s. I mostly type with my right thumb on my iPhone, but my tiny hands are simply too small to reach the frequently needed number/letter toggle button located at the farthest reaches of the keyboard, just past the useless microphone and irrelevant language buttons.
I’m frequently told that I look young for my age. Yes, hearing that never, ever gets old. I also run in circles with many people that are a few decades my junior. The combination of these two things has lead to many interesting conversations.
In a hasty effort to squeeze as many unique untappd check-ins into the evening as possible, the following mix was concocted at a dinner gathering last night.
Mandrill just announced that they are requiring all of their users to have a paid monthly MailChimp account by the end of April. As a heavy Campaign Monitor user, I completely understand why they are doing this, and don’t fault them in the slightest for it. However, this complicated things substantially for me, and one of my more vulnerable clients.
A few years ago, I was inspired to publish some of my older music on the newer music channels. First I rereleased Moving, a 7 song EP I wrote, recorded, and released one day in May, 2000. Today my EP Stupid World is available on iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, and wherever fine digital music is sold.
To those of you who subscribe to the RSS feed of this website, I just rolled out an improved feed, so you may want to update your RSS reader. The new URL is https://thebigreason.com/feed/
I picked up the ukulele some years back because I wanted an instrument I could bring places with me more easily than I can my double bass. I’ve gotten pretty into it, and recently had a custom instrument built for me. When you have the opportunity to completly spec something out, you really explore the possibilities and form some opinions. Believe me, I have some opinions. But first, some background.
This record initially caught my eye for the awesome watercolor cover. It didn’t really do it for me at first, and I was going to skip this week, but I found myself actually listening to it quite a bit. I think you should listen to it, too.
In which I also played bass some ukulele, and sang some harmonies. This was my first time recording music in many years. Many. As in, before people really used computers to do it at home. This was released last September, so I thought it was about time I mentioned it here.
Another band previously off my radar, Agoraphobic Nosebleed (ANb), has a new EP and it’s a welcome kick-off to the new year; And likely a kickoff to a new obsession for me.
My last.fm scrobbler was half cocked this year. I dove into Apple Music which doesn’t scrobble streaming music, but I think this is still an accurate representation of my listening for the year.
My wife found this record over the weekend. She has a keen eye for wicked shit. I’m not sure how she stumbled upon this one, but I lit up as soon as she did. Drug Cabin’s Wiggle Room is like Ween made a whole record of all psychedelic songs. I consider myself pretty much the biggest Ween fan there is, so this is really saying something. The best part is that this is actually their second album this year, so it’s like Ween made two records of all psychedelic songs!
A few weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal published a piece by Elizabeth Bernstein that didn’t go over very well with the misophonia community. I have been asked for my thoughts on this article by a few friends, and now that I’ve had a few weeks to gather them, I think I finally have something useful to contribute.
Thank Your Lucky Stars is the second album this year from shoe-gazer duo, Beach House. Do people call it shoe-gazer music anymore? I always thought that was stupid. Regardless, their previous album, Depression Cherry, was released just a few months ago. Both records were recorded at the same time. While I do find this to be a pretty bad ass feat, I’m not going to go into comparisons here. I’ll let this one stand on its own.
Confession: I haven’t been following Holly Golightly since Thee Headcoatees disbanded in the late 90s. This was a grave error on my part. Coulda Shoulda Woulda is the eighth release by Holly Golightly and the Brokeoffs. I have some serious catching up to do, and that’s just what I’ve been doing the past few days.
A few weeks ago, I got an alert from my Bands in Town account that Daniel Romano would finally be in Northern California. Kristyn and I have been waiting for him to come around for years, so we immediately jumped on the opportunity before it sold out.