Page Tuner: Digital Audio in 1960

“Most recordings were like jigsaw puzzles since the advent of wave-matching. Although some old fashioned conductors and performers still adhered to the old hit-and-miss methods, what usually happened these days was that a master was prepared, a blueprint for a particular performance, a sort of picture of the desired orchestral sound. This visual master could be easily transferred direct into sound, but, if it were, it would only be of interest to music students. It would be entirely too mechanical for anyone else.

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68 Songs for Neil Young’s 68th Birthday

To me, Neil Young is the greatest musician who will ever live. He chases down ghosts and makes them sing. He wrenches beauty from brutality. He connects delicate fragments like a wise old spider. He’s a touchstone of authenticity in this false, confusing world. He’s the prairie wind, blowin’ through our heads. He’s just the coolest, most fearless artist of our time.

He’s given us so much over the years that it is difficult to appreciate the scope of his musical output. To prove that point, here’s 68 songs from his staggeringly varied and enormous catalogue, in celebration of his 68th birthday.

Changes: David Bowie Is @ AGO

Icons can influence people in indirect, peripheral ways. Artists who achieve some measure of cultural ubiquity quickly become diffuse and viral, influencing fashion and music and informing the hive-mind concept of what it is to be “cool”. Sometimes you end up becoming a fan without even realizing it.

Interview: Steve Poltz

Steve Poltz is a restless and creative spirit. He is one-of-a-kind.  He’s a true Renaissance man who can change his artistic hat at any given moment. He is a musical shape-shifter who dances between genres. He is a well-spring of creative urges. Since his early days in the San Diego band The Rugburns, he has charted a unique and dynamic artistic path that few others would be able to pull off. Although he is presented as singer-songwriter, Poltz incorporates a wide background in music and the arts into his own unique stew of entertainment.

Searching for Sugar Man

Genius never dies. Sometimes it gets buried under a mountain of indifference. Sometimes it languishes in the wilderness. Sometimes genius has to earn a living smashing things or hauling garbage or some other un-glamorous thing. And every once in a while, genius that was ignored or forgotten is resurrected and earns its rightful place in history. “Searching For Sugar Man” is a documentary that explores the amazing story of one such genius.

Happy Robbie Burns Day!

In tribute to the Bard of Ayrshire…

Scottish poet Robbie Burns wrote the words to “Auld Lang Syne”, a song known by almost everyone. In honour of his 253rd birthday, here’s a version by Jimi Hendrix. Okay, so it’s an instrumental version, but I’ll take any excuse to post Hendrix songs. And this song is undoubtedly the thing that Burns is most associated with.

Happy Robbie Burns Day!

Page Tuner: “Just Kids” by Patti Smith

There are those brave souls who put so much of themselves into their creations that their lives become works of art in and of themselves. This book is the story of two such adventurers.

Happy Birthday, Robert Nighthawk!

Today we celebrate one of the great semi-forgotten masters of slide guitar, Mr. Robert Lee McCollum, otherwise known as Robert Nighthawk (one of the greatest pseudonyms in blues history). 

Album Cover of the Week: “Peace in the Valley” by The Snider Family

Today’s Album Cover of the Week is a throwback to a bygone era of small-town Ontario.

Love Me Don’t

October 5th marks the 50th anniversary of the release of “Love Me Do”, the very first single by an English band called The Beatles.