Tag: noise
I like making wallpapers from noise with GIMP
I like to play around with the render filters and noise filters and combine them. I usually then decompose them and work on the colors individually before recomposing and doctoring further. Until writing out my process right now, this didn't feel like real art to me, just playing. But I guess if I have a...
Dream Shake
Memoryhouse consists of Canadians Evan Abeele and Denise Nouvion. The band had a minor hit with their piano-driven live cover of My Bloody Valentine's "When You Sleep" for Yours Truly in 2011. They capitalized on their success with that cover and the well-regarded EP, The Years, by signing to indie heavyweight Sub Pop Records. When...
Cross My Heart and Hope to Die
The evolution of a sound aloft on a breeze.
Dave Kendall, creator and host of MTV’s 120 Minutes, has passed away. The British-born Kendall conceived 120 Minutes after joining MTV as a producer, pitching the network a dedicated program for the punk, post-punk, goth, synth-pop, ska, and other underground sounds largely ignored by corporate rock radio. 120 Minutes debuted on March 10th, 1986, and...
Goran Kajfeš Subtropic Arkestra & Avin Omar
Goran Kajfeš Subtropic Arkestra & Avin Omar by Goran Kajfeš Subtropic Arkestra One problem with posting your listening habits on a periodically updated Now page is that those habits can literally change overnight. A couple of days ago, I updated my /now page, only to get deeply into a new Swedish jazz EP very shortly...
We Might As Well Be Strangers
The last few days have brought with them some serious nineties nostalgia. So it's fitting that Weezer released a video for their new single, "We Might As Well Be Strangers." The song represents a return to the form for the prolific but not always consistent band. Perhaps the best part of the song and the...
Jim Carol New Year
With Life in Small Spaces, the upcoming album from Black Marble, the project's creator, Chris Stewart, taps into one of my semi-obsessions. The album's description on its Bandcamp page has further details on the clue we are given with the album title. It is an invitation to accept and consciously agree to a more minimal...
Quick Hit
Phil Collins invents gated reverb.
Don’t Panic
Saturday's song is a cover of an early Coldplay track by Hoops.
Heart Still Beats
I’ve been on a post-punk x new wave kind of kick the last several days, after I learned Black Marble (who I blogged about last year) are going to be playing nearby in September. The algorithm overlords recommended Castlebeat to me after the end of a listening sesh of Black Marble's Bigger Than Life. I...
New Cans
Trying out some headphones I've been keeping an eye on.
the shape of internet to come.
on the 16th of october 2024, i somehow heard about subvert, a planned co-operatively owned successor to bandcamp. free from the fear of venture capital jumping in and enshittifying the fuck out of it, owned and controlled by it's members. i gegged right in, i was artist no. 72 in what is now 17,792 artists, 2,632 labels and 2,375 supporters across 120+ countries. (at time of posting).
Tapes Of Yesteryear
Niko Stratis writes about the comfort of physical media and older technology. Let us suffer no worries or troubles, we have salvation in our walkmen and their analogue batteries. Never mind the truth of these eras, the 90s and the days before and after are years often cast in imperfect light as moments in time...
The Perfect Indie Pop Song
A few weeks ago, I saw Mark Robinson from Unrest/Air Miami/Flin Flon open for the Wedding Present at the Motorco Music Hall in Durham. Although the bill clearly stated that Robinson would be playing Unrest songs, imagining him doing those songs without the two other band members, Phil Krauth and Bridget Cross was challenging. Whatever...
Olly Thoughts
Olly, the developer of the Pagecord blogging software, just published a post on something I was thinking about with regards to music. I’m not buying a lot of physical media these days, but when I do, it’s usually CDs. I just went to a new record store called Hunky Dory that just opened downtown near...
You Could Do Anything
Shelly Ridenour penned an article for Qobuz on the stellar alternative albums from 1991. One observation that I found particularly poignant from having grown up during this period was around the change that Nirvana’s Nevermind brought to mainstream music with regard to gender dynamics. Within a couple of months, the album was a hit, people...
The Collection
Everyone has been posting about the Aadam Jacobs collection. Since I love indie music from the 90’s, I’m certainly going to spend some time with the massive 10,000 live recordings collection. I went to the page on the Internet Archive and one of the first recordings I saw was neo-classical band Rachel’s at Lounge Ax....
Portland Town
One of my greatest joys in 2026 has been the release of new material by British riot twee band Heavenly. I’ll admit I approached the release of this year’s brilliantly named Highway to Heavenly LP with a certain amount of skepticism. After decades of radio silence, it’s hard to know what to expect from a...
Hurts Like Hell
Charlotte Cornfield is the latest musician to put out something via Durham, NC’s Merge Records. Hurts Like Hell is also the first long player by the Canadian singer/songwriter since becoming a mother. The title track, “Hurts Like Hell,” wallows in a remembered sentimentality with the advantage of looking at difficulty in the rearview mirror. We...
If You Change
Widowspeak has a new record coming this June and produced a video for the lead single, “If You Change.” I first heard the band when they covered Dire Straits' "Romeo and Juliet," a song that never landed with me previously. Widowspeak won me over with the wistful tenderness they gave their treatment of the track. “If You Change” is also sweet and tender with a chorus that implores, “if you change, don’t change too much.” About halfway through the song, a guitar solo shreds the proceedings like J...
Hurts Like Hell
Charlotte Cornfield is the latest musician to put out something via Durham, NC’s Merge Records. Hurts Like Hell is also the first long player by the Canadian singer/songwriter since becoming a mother. The title track, “Hurts Like Hell,” wallows in a remembered sentimentality with the advantage of looking at difficulty in the rearview mirror. We all know what it’s like to try to gain perspective when in the midst of a tough situation. The video immediately endeared itself to me because its protag...
If You Change
Widowspeak has a new record coming this June and produced a video for the lead single, “If You Change.” I first heard the band when they covered Dire Straits’ “Romeo and Juliet,” a song that never landed with me previously. Widowspeak won me over with the wistful tenderness they gave their treatment of the track....
A Side Hustle As The Doors
Field Music We all know by now that it’s getting tougher to make a living as a musician. While tools for producing music have gotten cheaper and more accessible, the ways to make decent money as a professional in the music industry have been drying up. Alex Marshall and Joanna Yee write for the NYT...
here’s a list of the things i released in 2025.
i’m totally just ripping off the text document that territorial gobbing* just sent a link to by email.
100%
The lead track and first single off Sonic Youth’s album Dirty felt like a big deal when it dropped. By 1992, the decade already felt like a dramatic break from the previous one, and videos like the one for “100%” played a big part in setting that perception. The sleek polish that had coated 80s...
Elderberry Wine
The best take on Americana this year.
Falling On My Sword
In honor of Tops’ new album Bury The Key being released yesterday, I’m featuring one of the tracks, “Falling On My Sword,” as the Saturday Night Video this week. “Falling On My Sword” is my favorite among the early singles from this LP and probably the one that most closely matches the 70’s prog rock-inspired...
I Don’t Know
The death of Ozzy Osbourne seems like the perfect opportunity to highlight an up-and-coming doom metal band.
Sky At Night
Though Laura Groves “Sky At Night” was released as part of her album *Radio Red* in 2023, it may be my favorite “new to me” song this year.
Nirvana
Glazyhaze released Sonic in March of this year. The sophomore album from the band has received a lot of positive press for its refined take on shoegaze, with physical copies selling out very quickly and having to be restocked hastily. With shoegaze being such a global phenomenon at this point, you wouldn’t necessarily pick up...
Blessed Adjacency
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the importance of the gatekeepers. Even in an era where doing it yourself has never been easier, the patronage of entities like book publishers and record labels remains important. The case in point that revived my thoughts on the matter is the new EP I Call This One...
Scout Gillett – Enough
Years ago, a friend a colleague mentioned to me how she gets choked up at daddy/daughter songs. I thought to myself that I couldn’t even name a single song that would fit into that description. It’s interesting how our interest in different musical genres put us in touch with varied subject matters. With Scout Gillett’s...
Private Show
Chris Stewart from Black Marble sets his Joy Division-like post punk to footage from a rodeo, what appears to be a county fair and a horse race. He plays his icy synth on the outskirts of a concert crowd watching a band that seems a much more likely rural attraction. Stewart doesn’t stray far from...
Surface Noise
Photo by Travis Yewell on Unsplash When someone complained about the surface noise that came with listening to music on vinyl, the late BBC disc jockey John Peel (a notable lover of the format), was said to have replied, “Mate, life has surface noise.” It’s hard to argue with Peel’s assessment of life in this...
I'll write a hymn again.
High Beams
Brothers Evan and Quinn Seurkamp, who primarily make up the Ohio band The Laughing Chimes, call upon the hauntings of the Appalachian foothills of their native state as inspiration for their gothic jangly post-punk. There is a wistfulness appropriate to the rust belt and its faded glory that pervades their album Whispers in the Speech...
Bandcamp Playlists
Bandcamp's new playlist feature is limited and a bit of a disappointment.
At The Apartment
Tennis released an at home live video with friends just as they embark on a tour to promote their final album.
Vinyl Me? No Thanks.
A record club wasn't able to make things work.
The Hissing of Vintage Tapes
The ongoing fight against tape hiss has proven a useful creative tension for the music industry—even if you’re not into lo-fi music recorded on a four-track.
A Little Bit of Background Noise
Relaxation through audio is more than a mere matter of white noise. Read on for a little history of background noise, and why it’s so effective.
Make Some Noise
Sound cards like the Creative Sound Blaster were the missing element that computers needed to take on multimedia. Then, they faded from view. Here's why.
The Worst Part Of Waking Up
As our alarms went from analog to digital, the noises they made became a lot more abrasive. Here's the story of the technology behind your alarm clock.