Cass Faulconer is an electric bassist who has toured with Cirque du Soleil and Cowboy Mouth, and played with many of the great musicians in New Orleans. We discuss life in the circus, rock and roll touring, auditioning for famous people, fostering a dog, and things you learn moving to a new country.
The Homunculus — Institute for Creativity
the best musicians are not professional musicians or “successful” musicians, but the musicians who struggle to deepen and strengthen their voice.
Brad Walker is a New Orleans based saxophonist who has toured with Sturgill Simpson, makes records with his own bands, and plays with just about everyone in New Orleans. Brad and Jeff discuss recording sessions that we didn’t think produced anything good (but they really did), records that are results of stay at home time, playing solo music, and effects as instruments that need to be learned.
Relevant links:
Brad Walker’s website
Tim Robertson’s “Get on Board!” Re-launch video
The podcast is in the system for most platforms now, so if you would like to subscribe in your podcast program of choice, this page has links to many of them. NB: the Spotify link seems to be a little janky, and I can’t seem to fix it, but if you just search “Scratch My Brain” it should get you there…actually, the search thing works everywhere.
Music theory teaches us how to hear. Can it help us hear each other? — Institute for Creativity
Music theorist, trombonist, (and my former road roomate) Chris Stover writes about how applying ideas from the practice of music theory can help us understand each other.
Remember that music theory is itself a creative practice, that it does not seek “truth” so much as rich modes of sense-making, and that it is first of all communicative.
I never really thought about how studying Haydn and sonata form would help me do a better job of having empathy (or at least understanding) for my fellow humans, but the idea that all meaning derives from context really hit me.
Music Minds: a music industry hub for educational content + resources is a simple website linking to web based music industry events. The events are categorized into business, health, production, technology, and venues.
A conversation with singer, producer and electronic musician Sasha Masakowski. She talks about managing multiple creative pursuits, her recent work with Nicholas Payton, and coming from a family of musicians. https://www.sashamasakowski.com/
Here are a list of things that Scratch My Brain (Jeff) suggests for Bandcamp Day (1 May 2020). For a little context, Bandcamp , the artist focused digital store, is waiving their revenue share on May1, June 5, and July 3 as a way to help support artists who are struggling through the lost work due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It is starting to resemble record store day, in that people are putting together special releases just for the day. All of my suggestions are not Bandcamp day only specials, but they are all things that I think readers of this blog might enjoy, so here we go.
Trionomicon (Brad Walker, Matt Booth, and Paul Thibodeaux) This is brand new music, recorded live at the Sidebar in New Orleans, and the download includes some cool bonus videos. NB: I mastered this one.
Elizabeth Joan Kelly makes electronic music and was the guest on the most recent episode of the podcast.
Breakfast for Dinner Records (my label) is also waiving its revenue share on May 1, so all of the revenue really does go to the artists. There are 17 albums on the label, including the new Unanimous Sources record. You can get the whole catalog for 35% off the regular minimum price.
My friends and colleagues Ohmme have some new stuff out as well. Definitely my favorite band made up of two super creative and lovely humans with guitars.
Trapper Keaper Meets Tim Berne & Aurora Nealand is not new, but it is still very good and a bit overlooked, I think. NB: I produced this one.
Elizabeth Joan Kelly is a New Orleans-based electronic composer. She uses found sounds and MIDI to create lush soundscapes at the epicenter of synthpop, industrial, ambient, darkwave, and classical music. Her new album, Farewell, Doomed Planet!, released October 25, is about the apocalypse. And Chernobyl wolves. Pollution. And space travel. Existential dread. And whales.
https://elizabethjoankelly.bandcamp.com/
There is a new record out by a band that is made up of a former student and sometimes colleague. It is quite good. The record is very well produced slightly quirky pop music. Not my usual space, but I really like it. I was going to write a short review and encourage you all to go listen to it. I prefer to link directly to a band’s website, so they can control how their work is presented, instead of a facebook or youtube page. I finally found this band’s website, even though a search of the band’s name and music did not easily get me there.
When i got to the website, I realized I could not listen to the band. The media page only hosts pictures. There is a link to an Instagram account, but no bandcamp, youtube, spotify, apple music…nothing. The pictures are really good, but I am trying to help people HEAR THE MUSIC!!!! Why is hearing the music not the easiest thing to do on your website?
It is kind of a bummer, because the music is pretty good. Hopefully the next thing that catches my ear will have a website with sounds…