We’re a not-for-profit music library and research center in TriBeCa.
There was a time, children, when we thought Nick Lowe would save the world. In the dark days of late ’70s AOR radio programming, when dinosaurs like Led Zeppelin and synthetic prog-sludge like ELP and Styx clogged the FM airwaves like musical… read more >>
Meanwhile, back in the jungle… Freddie’s really been kicking ass, sorting through mountains of 45s for weeks now. Every once in a while he’ll unearth a comedy single which is my meat! When this beauty bobbed to the surface we had to… read more >>
Yesterday, I opened up the gatefold cover of this John Coltrane Ballads album … and I found a crime scene! The death of an innocent fly, probably a jazz lover. You can almost hear the sickening “FWAPP” as the cover is slammed… read more >>
File this as Part Two in an examination of the wonderful world of K-Tel as an instrument of dance education. The kids loved Dan’s previous Pop and Lock post featuring Breakdance (K-Tel NU3360) which helped spread the good word about the hip… read more >>
From CNN’s webpages: “It’s another Larry King Live exclusive! Damien Echols’ interview from Death Row. Does he belong in jail at all? Evidence – or lack of it – has many asking questions in this controversial case involving the murders of three… read more >>
The Damien Echols defense team have filed a new motion which you can read in full here. The DNA evidence, as hinted in the earlier West Memphis 3 post, points to another individual. Also the wounds on the children’s bodies that had… read more >>
If you saw the documentary Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills , (1996) or the 2000 follow-up, Paradise Lost 2: Revelations, you already know about the West Memphis Three; Damien Echols, sentenced to death, and Jessie Misskelley and Jason… read more >>
A couple weeks ago the Susquehanna Industrial Tool & Die Co. played a show at Banjo Jim’s. Hijinx ensued, as always, what was unusual was how much I liked the band following us – Swamp Cabbage. Strange because musically the two groups… read more >>
Today’s blog concerns the evils of the demon weed. Tell your children, Mr. and Mrs. America OR THIS COULD HAPPEN TO YOU! [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHjHFkDZ1nk&rel=1] Well, that’s what we were supposed to believe in 1936. The truth is marijuana can have a negative effect… read more >>
So this week K. and I are wading through decades of accumulated crapola in preparation for the big yard sale (11th Street near First Ave. this Saturday, if you’re around) and we uncovered this vintage Beatles scrapbook. This was given to K…. read more >>
Janis Martin, rockabilly immortal, passed away this week. Sadly, she will forever be known, courtesy of the boys in publicity at RCA, as “The Female Elvis”. That moniker would be plenty for a novelty flash-in-the-pan mediocrity trying to cash in on the… read more >>
To prove there’s nothing new under the sun, witness the Bone Fone. A classic white elephant of the ‘Seventies, you could usually find one in anyone’s basement next to the yogurt maker and the wood burning kit, waiting patiently for the next… read more >>
Last weekend the hillbilly combo I am a member of, Susquehanna Industrial Tool & Die Co., played the Red Hot and Blue Rockabilly Weekend fest in beautiful St. Hyacinthe, Quebec. Kind of a hike for us, but we had a wonderful time. … read more >>
So if you weren’t paying attention to the Spears/Federline bust up, you will have noticed the death of Ingmar Bergman. But another giant of post-war art cinema, Michelangelo Antonioni passed on the same day, bad luck for him because I don’t think… read more >>
Last week the Baroness Von Oomph and I made the scene in the swingin’ Finger Lakes region of New York State. If you are a fan of Coneys (local white hot dogs) root beer, drive-ins and very skinny lakes, go there. Nuff… read more >>
Wandering around the internets recently I found a really well done blog entitled = VITAPHONE VARIETIES = Observations On Film, Music & Imagery of the Past ARChivers, as inveterate fans of antique recording technology (and rabid ukulele heads) will dig these pages… read more >>
This is a watershed Wednesday. Everybody came be-decked in their ersatz Polynesian finery. It’s getting embarrassing. Maybe next week we’ll bring in our ukuleles. Hang loose, wahinis.
Part three, kids, hang in there. In case anyone was curious, the musicologist the Lavigne camp hired is Anthony Ricigliano. He was the expert – on the losing side – when the Isley Brothers sued Michael Bolton. In 1994, a jury found… read more >>
Nifty update this morning on NPR of ongoing progress on a visual scanning technology for reading records that the Library of Congress is funding. A no-toucha-my-vinyl routine which will preserve a whole lotta music without damaging the original artifact. Basically this machine… read more >>
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37Ec9sRh8FI] Nice. Every time I listen the conviction that the “old people,” as the Rubinoos are known on the Avril Lavigne fan forums, totally kick teenybopper ass. In the comments section of part one of the Avy-noos saga HeyHeyYouYou outs producer and… read more >>
Cuba Music Week is ARC's focused look at the music and culture of Cuba. This very long live and on-line week will present concert, lectures, databases, discographies - anything and everything pertaining to Cuban music from sources around the world.
Go here to see ways that you can contribute!
In the past we have looked at the greater Muslim world, Brazil and India. We’re pretty proud of the websites created, among the largest and most complete online pages of information and metadata on the music available.
We will be co-ordinating this project to correspond with Cubadiscos, the annual music meeting and performance showcase in Havana every spring. So stay tuned as this page will offer blogposts and info on Cuba Music Week prior to the posting of the primary website in May, 2016.