One early evening in the fall of 1981, I put on the leather jacket I had worked all summer bagging groceries to buy, met up with the two other punks in my suburban New Jersey high school, and got on a bus headed into New York City. I was excited and nervous. It was my [...]
Without a doubt, Peter Aaron is one of our most favorite writers when it comes to describing, reviewing, or reveling in cool music. I’m not sure if any other writer we’ve worked with has been as effortlessly able to describe and convey exactly how certain material sounds—and how it fits into the fabric of music history. Peter always makes it look easy!
—Bob Irwin, president, Sundazed Music
Bad Brains: Re-Ignition
August 2010 / Chronogram, November 2006
http://www.chronogram.com/issue/2006/11/arts/music/index.php?&pg=1
Eric Mingus: Mingus Dynasty
August 2010 / Village Voice, December 2007
http://www.villagevoice.com/2007-12-18/music/mingus-dynasty/1/
Maybe you were there, inside the yawning cavern of the Muddy Cup coffeehouse upstate in Kingston on that hot August night. If so, you remember what you saw, what you heard, what you felt. From the stage near the front door, the emcee introduces the headliner. And somewhere deep in the back of the room, [...]
Jeffrey Lee Pierce: Six String Sermon
July 2010 / LP liner notes
http://www.bang-records.net/site/news.php
Despite the undeniable influence the music of Jeffrey Lee Pierce has had on my own, to be honest when I first heard the Gun Club I wouldn’t have predicted this to be the case. People who know about my band, the Chrome Cranks, know that the group was formed in Ohio, but actually until I [...]
Artist bio: Corey Smith
July 2010 /
http://www.coreysmith.com/about.cfm
For Corey Smith, one of the best things about making music has always been getting the chance to hang out and have a good time with his friends. And it’s still that way, more than 10 years after his early days of playing the bars around Athens, Georgia. The big difference now? Well, it seems [...]
Steve Reich: Phase Me, ‘Bro
July 2010 / Chronogram
http://www.chronogram.com/issue/2010/7/Music/Phase-Me-Bro
Called “the minimalist shot heard ’round the world,” Steve Reich’s 1971 masterpiece Drumming is, like several of the revered composer’s works, pretty much exactly what its title promises. The four-part piece, which Reich will perform on July 31 at Maverick Hall with percussion groups NEXUS and So Percussion, utilizes eight small tuned bongo drums, three [...]
Natalie Merchant: The Waking Dream
July 2010 / Chronogram
http://www.chronogram.com/issue/2010/2/Music/Natalie-Merchant-Profile?page=1
Jamestown, New York, situated along the southern edge of Chautauqua Lake in the southwestern corner of the state, was once called the furniture capital of the world, thanks to its being a leading producer of mattresses and wooden furnishings. Today the city of 32,000 is, arguably, better known as the birthplace of two of America’s [...]
