Blog

For me, browsing the music section at the local book store is a little like an alcoholic ogling the top-shelf at the local tavern, or a sex addict wandering 4th Street in the Meatpacking District. I have an unnatural (though entirely understandable, I think) compulsion to consume rock bios, memoirs collections and compendiums. I’ve read…

In the early days of my tenure here in Hell’s Kitchen, I discovered enthusiastically that two of the world’s most notable recording studios were within spitting distance of my apartment: The Hit Factory and Sony Music Studios. The Hit Factory, on 54th between Ninth and Tenth, produced dozens of legendary recordings, including Stevie Wonder’s “Songs…

It was spring. Everything was in bloom. The pavement was slick from an overnight rain. The bus stop on the corner of Spencer and Fairfield Roads was crowded with middle schoolers. Including me: a tall, bespectacled and braced ninth grader in a blue Land’s End oxford button-down, Levis 501s, and purple Converse All-Star high tops.…

The sun was just breaking the horizon as “The National Anthem” began blaring from a shoddy PA. Nearly two thousand of us stared solemnly across the water when a short, wide rainbow materializing like a Technicolor ghost before us. That we were swimming at all was, of course, a major accomplishment for organizers. Flooding had…

If you like hearing me talk then today’s your lucky day. As I told KPTL DJ Daniel Boseman after we wrapped our 45-minute interview, I’ve been the interviewer far more frequently than the interviewee. See, I talk a lot. Which, I know from all my years at The MTV, is not necessarily the best thing…

Authentic Records’ artists She Swings She Sways, Jason Walsmith and Mike Butterworth (of The Nadas), Will Petersen and Jim Stockberger (of Fat Andy), Andy Fleming (of Brother Trucker), Benjamin Wagner, Stephanie Walsmith, Tony Bohnenkamp and Josh Davis performed Sunday night to raise funds for Iowa flood relief. Donations, silent auction bids plus CD proceeds netted…