Tag Archives: Music Monday

“Morpheus comes into our dreams…and we woke up and started this band…we’re all wrapped up in these dream messages, and we were compelled to start this band.” — Mark Sandman, lead singer of Morphine

It’s almost too perfect that the man who spoke those words in the title of this post is named SANDMAN. I was never on the Morphine train, although I had one of their albums, and they were ubiquitous in the … Continue reading

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“Be able to keep two completely contradictory ideas alive and well inside of your heart and head at all times. If it doesn’t drive you crazy, it will make you strong. ” — Bruce Springsteen

I’ve always loved Bruce Springsteen’s fervent adoration of Elvis. His fantastic memoir devotes an entire chapter to what it was like hearing Elvis’ music for the first time – and the chapter doesn’t once include the word “Elvis”. That’s how … Continue reading

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“To me, music is no joke and it’s not for sale.” — Ian MacKaye

“People ask me: ‘What is punk? How do you define punk?’ Here’s how I define punk: It’s a free space. It could be called jazz. It could be called hip-hop. It could be called blues, or rock, or beat. It … Continue reading

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“We just always did what we fucking wanted to.” — Kevin Seconds

“We had all types coming to our early gigs – new wavers, stoners, Rocky Horror Picture Show kids, bored and rowdy native kids who lived in the nearby Indian reservation and colony. We always kind of related to a mixed … Continue reading

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“I always hope, with everything we do, that people hear these and they wanna go make their own music.” — Dan Zanes

Dan Zanes came to me through my brother Brendan, who got into Zanes’ music when Cashel – my dear nephew Cashel – now a college graduate – !!! – was a small child. For Dan Zanes’ birthday, I wanted to … Continue reading

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“I mean, that’s the community of what we do, the difference between me and a streaming service. You actually know it’s me.” — Bob Mould

As I said elsewhere, what is the point of having created this embarrassingly massive archive, without finding ways to resurrect some of it, point to it, say “Here. Read this.” The whole birthday-thing is not how this blog started and … Continue reading

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“I had a series of mini-breakdowns where the public persona – this thing, this face, this person who writes this music… I would walk past that person in the mirror or listen to that person playing guitar and I didn’t know who they were.” — Thom Yorke

It’s his birthday today. My associative memories involving Radiohead are a little bit too intense and specific, and so I find it difficult to listen to them anymore. Some music is like that. It’s so associated with something specific you … Continue reading

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“I’ve been to every big city and many little towns in the USA. I really try to soak it in. I love all these little towns – the people and the places. I feel so lucky to see all these places and I truly have a hunger to see and experience them.” — G. Love

G. Love It’s G. Love’s birthday today. Naturally, it was through my brother that I discovered G. Love and the Special Sauce. Bren has a way of discovering people not on my radar at all and then passing on the … Continue reading

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“The problem with taking amps to a shop is that they come back sounding like another amp.” — Stevie Ray Vaughan

It’s his birthday today. It’s a bonus he came along in an era of TV specials, and televised performances, and video-taped blah blah blah, because there are tons of live performance clips – and you can’t really get the totality … Continue reading

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Music Monday: The Old Man, Clara, The Conducator, by Brendan O’Malley

My talented brother Brendan O’Malley is an amazing writer and actor. He’s wonderful in the recent You & Me, directed by Alexander Baack. (I interviewed Baack about the film here.) His most recent gig was story editor/writer on the hit … Continue reading

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