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Monday August 22 2022
August 22, 2022
Here is a report on documenta fifteen from correspondent Annabel Thompson: Though livwutang’s social feed, I found this set from zi! aka ziry. It moves...
Monday August 15 2022
August 15, 2022
Today, Numero Group begins the process of reissuing the Ui recordings: here is “Drive Until He Sleeps.” Our catalog will be doled out in small pieces over...
Monday August 8 2022
August 8, 2022
Livwutang’s Cav Empt Cassette came out on (duh) as a tape in January and now it’s up on SoundCloud. It is tricky, to create a mix that both works as a...
Monday August 1 2022
August 1, 2022
Start the day with Raphael Rogiński and his solo guitar set from the Festival of Endless Gratitude. I saw him at Unsound in 2015 and was converted. Kind of...
Monday July 18 2022
July 18, 2022
I loved Tariq Ali on Johnson and Thatcherism’s legacy and I love this one hour mix from Martyn. They pair well: disdain and syncopation. Martyn’s description...
Monday July 11 2022
July 11, 2022
Nothing but rabid enthusiasms! To start with, one of my favorite writers, Dan Fox, has launched “a newsletter about music, books, art, film, featuring new...
Monday July 4 2022
July 4, 2022
There is no better antidote to July 4 than Usher playing a thirty-minute Tiny Desk Concert: breath control, good humor, endless tone, fellowship. Or, if...
Monday June 27 2022
June 27, 2022
One of the few people I could plausibly call a hero, Mike Davis, is dying. If you want to re-up or get familiar, read an interview from 2018 or watch this...
Monday June 20 2022
June 20, 2022
New essays: on Elizabeth Hardwick, one on the documentary films of Michael Blackwood, and something for Bookforum on Gary Indiana. If you skipped the...
Civilistjävel!
June 17, 2022
The fastest way to learn about Civilistjävel!: try this recent DJ set on NTS and then buy Järnnätter, his fantastic new album. In a world of autopilot drone...
Monday May 30 2022
May 30, 2022
I’ve been a member of Ui since 1990. A nice person with the username @heldopen posted video of us playing at Toronto’s Rivoli in June of 1995. (I look...
Monday May 16 2022
May 16, 2022
Thank you for asking. Yes, all the photos here are mine. If you like them, visit the original blog, which began as a home for images. (I’m approaching 19...
Monday May 9 2022
May 9, 2022
We were listening to this mix of digital dub made in the UK between 1989 and 1999 and Heidi nailed it: “It’s two things at once. Definitely dub, but it’s got...
Monday May 2 2022
May 2, 2022
Let’s cut to the chase. According to my friend Catherine Lacey, the debut album from Wet Leg, which is called Wet Leg, is “NOTHING BUT BANGERS.” Do you need...
Monday April 25 2022
April 25, 2022
Having a rough one, so today’s choices are designed to make it better, hopefully for the both of us. That photo right there was taken at dawn on Route 80,...
Tuesday April 19 2022
April 19, 2022
We saw Wu Tsang’s Moby Dick over the weekend. Though it will probably reach you as a traditional film, it was conceived as a silent film with live orchestra...
Monday April 11 2022
April 11, 2022
I’m going to use a word I don’t even like: civilized. The containment of well-played jazz suggests a civilized interaction, one that can can be imagined as...
Monday April 4 2022
April 4, 2022
The ten JD Twitch mixtapes on Optimo Music’s Bandcamp page create a sublime fifteen hours of music if you scronch them all together. Tones of winter into...
Monday March 28 2022
March 28, 2022
S/FJ 2.0—what you are reading—is now three years old. Revisit our meager first post to see how far we’ve come and reward yourself for sticking with us....
Monday February 28 2022
February 28, 2022
Three pieces I’ve been working on for a while—years in one case—came out in the space of a few days: Surrealism, J Dilla, and Odetta. I’m finishing up...
Saturday February 5 2022
February 5, 2022
Real quick? I love this KIRBY album. R&B in its fullness. Check her last two album titles, in order. If you’re in the mood to keep going, here is a short R&B...
Wednesday January 26 2022
January 26, 2022
Time Is Away is back with their second John Berger episode for NTS, “Pig Earth.” From their description: “In 1974, John Berger moved to the remote peasant...
Two Years of TV
January 21, 2022
Before we get to the TV, a brief moment for a legend. When André Leon Talley died on Tuesday, I thought of something Rachel Seville Tashjian wrote last...
Friday January 14 2022
January 14, 2022
I finally cleaned up my Spotify profile. I’ve got ten years of playlists but have never arranged them in any helpful order. Historically, people have chosen...
Wednesday, January 5 2022
January 5, 2022
This newsletter has been a source of strength and happiness for the past three years and if we get twenty-one more paid subscribers, we’ll be good for a few...
the year of 2021 (not music + music)
December 31, 2021
No homework here—we are trying to catch some fizz and get light. I suggest you put on my playlist of good songs from 2021 and scroll. Not everything here is...
Monday, December 27 2021
December 27, 2021
Seventy-one reflections on 2021
Thursday, November 18 2021
November 18, 2021
A few months ago, I filmed 75 Dollar Bill playing in Columbus Park, which is in Chinatown right next to The Tombs. The clip is below: their big band opulence...
straight up
September 17, 2021
On September 5, 2021 several federal unemployment benefit programs expired across the country, per federal law. They were keeping me afloat. What does that...
Taja Cheek a.k.a. L'Rain
September 10, 2021
A photo taken the day Fatigue came out, in June of 2021. I no longer find it appealing to say things like “here is the albumest album of my year” or “this is...
Lee Perry, "Scratching The Surface"
September 1, 2021
from the August 19, 1997 issue of "The Village Voice"
Tuesday, August 24 2021
August 24, 2021
Reader Sarah Gale told me about the playlist Kieran Hebden has been assembling since 2016. He—Kieran, the Four Tet guy—adds five or six songs every couple of...
Monday, August 16 2021
August 16, 2021
Deborah would have turned 58 on July 31st, which came on a Saturday this year. That morning, before we held a celebratory Zoom, I made a playlist of the...
Monday, July 12 2021
July 12, 2021
Good morning, opulents. Drop something in the hat if you can—we need to meet our prudent reserve. If you’re new here, check out the hits. With social spaces...
Friday, June 18 2021
June 18, 2021
A small thank you to everyone reading and everyone subscribing—a mix for the weekend, more things I love from this year. Subscribe now
Wednesday, June 9 2021
June 9, 2021
Last week was good for Body Meπa. The fantastic people of Hausu Mountain issued our debut, The Work Is Slow, on CD, cassette, and digital download, while...
Tuesday, May 18 2021
May 18, 2021
I made the first mix of 2021 (dirty aqua, awkward, active), and then the second one (flat, composed, freaky), and then the third one (preposterous,...
Monday, April 19 2021
April 19, 2021
As if readers of this blogazine, Vice dropped a short film about Vanessa Carlton and “A Thousand Miles” two days after our last issue. I especially enjoy...
Friday April 9 2021
April 9, 2021
Giancarlo DiTrapano, the founder of Tyrant Books, seemed to care only about doing the thing right, no matter how many times the thing had previously been...
Wednesday, March 17 2021
March 17, 2021
Until April 6, The Kitchen will be hosting Carlota Schoolman’s 1976 video of Talking Heads playing as a trio. Scroll down a bit on that page, and enjoy...
Monday, March 8 2021
March 8, 2021
let's try that again
Thursday, February 25 2021
February 25, 2021
good golly we are back
Deborah K. Holmes (July 31 1963—January 4 2021)
January 25, 2021
I don’t know how to write about Deborah’s death, and it turns out I don’t need to. Chris Black and Jason Stewart invited me to be on their How Long Gone...
five mixes, for you, the subscriber
$ · December 31, 2020
and it's a very short email
Music of 2020
December 30, 2020
words and links and mixes
Friday, December 25 2020
December 25, 2020
Forty-one reflections on 2020
Friday, December 18 2020
December 18, 2020
This 1978 Swedish TV documentary about Don Cherry is pure flow. Don and his wife Moki lark about with their kids (Neneh and Eagle Eye) in Tågarp, Sweden,...
Friday, December 4 2020
December 4, 2020
One true blessing this year was starting a band with three diamonds: Greg Fox, Melvin Gibbs, and Grey McMurray. Their integrity and kindness are matched only...
Monday, November 30 2020
November 30, 2020
I spent November in the past, finishing a memoir. I’ve been having a little trouble coming back. My stop-over island between Now and Then is a documentary...
good luck
November 2, 2020
I’ll stay out of your hair this week but I wanted you to leave you with a resource that’s done me right for the last four years. A brilliant couple named...
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