A Perfect Mess

I have a tendency to just just completely immerse myself in music that makes me feel. When I come across a sound that has pulled these varieties of feelings out of me, I just want to bathe myself in it until it has made its way into every pore in my body. When I started listening to Giant Panda Guerrilla Dub Squad a few months back, that is exactly what happened. I was so struck by the vibe in their sound. It's not typical. It doesn't feel faked. It's not brooding or overly positive either. It's just hopeful. I was borderline obsessed with how it made me feel. I wrote about it. Of course, then I start wondering how legit that sound is. There are more than a handful of bands peddling a positive sound that is completely artificial. I have fallen for it only to discover upon meeting the artist behind it that it's an act. As much as I get that concept, when it happens, I feel taken advantage of. The world right now is tumultuous and unsteady. Music is what some of us...

Music is this amazing, incredible thing. It can be like a drug, finding you at your most vulnerable and getting inside you to permeate your very being with all that it is - creating this sense of self and presence of mind that you can no longer live without. It changes you. It can be that thing that gets you through the worst times of your life. It can be that thing that seems to narrate the best times of your life like a movie soundtrack. Those songs and those feelings will live in you forever, being reignited every time your hear them. Did you ever have that happen? The other day I was driving with my phone on shuffle and a song came on. It was Today by Jefferson Airplane. This song was such an emotional powerhouse to me as a 17 year old New Jersey girl in the summer, discovering myself and love and creation and everything that lights up the life of a teenager on the verge of adulthood. I played it all the time as I was somewhere between earthy hippy child and angsty punk rock gir...

The festival concept was not one that I was ever familiar with on a personal level. Let me correct that - I was brought up in a home where we watched Woodstock as a family. My parents had gone to see it on a date when it was originally in the theaters and whenever PBS was doing a telethon and had it on, we would actually all sit down and watch it. I pretty much have the film memorized. My parents are the reason for my love (slight obsession) with folk music of that time. They named their dog after Arlo Guthrie who they still go see whenever he comes through New Jersey. This is my background. So for me, the idea of the music festival was always that. The ultimate festival. Woodstock. Then some greedy people stupidly tried to replicate it in the 90's and people set shit on fire and ruined it. I thought that was it. The modern era ruined this beautiful concept with commercialized violence and nonsense. Good job, guys. I had NO idea that there were still magical festivals happeni...

As much as this last year has led me into so much delicious uncharted territory for me musically, there is something so comforting in heading back to what I know. Going and sitting down with the sounds who made me who I am. That is where I found myself this afternoon. I put on a record that was like curling up in a comfy chair with a warm blanket and a glass of wine. A little history: Back in 2012, I took off for Brooklyn to catch The Slackers annual Holiday Show at the Bell House. I was there on a wave of lemon cookies and Brooklyn Brewery beer with my friends in all things ska, Michelle and Chris. It was a good night for so many reasons. Good friends, laughing, getting in trouble for trying to leave Obi Fernandez's flyers everywhere (apparently, they frown on that), being as annoying as humanly possible in front of the stage until the Slackers gave in to my badgering and played Make Me Smile...my favorite song. The first time I ever heard it live. It was an unforgettable nig...

Did you ever sit around with your friends drinking beer and ask one another just completely ridiculous questions? Things like, "If you could have coffee with anyone alive or dead, who would it be?" or "If you could invade anyone's closets for a week and get to wear their wardrobe, who would it be?" Then after a few beers it becomes things like, "If you could be any animal in space, what animal in space would you be...and why? YOU CAN'T PICK SQUIRREL!" Don't say no. You know you have been there. During those conversations, did you ever ask, "If you were setting up a festival and could pick any bands you wanted to be on it, who would you pick?" My husband and I have this discussion all the time. We love the idea of taking different genres and mixing them up but keeping it all dancy and full of good vibes and incredible musicians. There is so much crazy good music going on right now that the options are just all over the place. Well...

I love to find something new that I had no idea I would love so much. It's fascinating to me to think that not long ago, I didn't know this music existed and now I don't know how I would go through the rest of life without it. Did you ever ponder that? Maybe it's just me... I know as an independent music supporter that I am supposed to hate Spotify. That is what I read on Facebook from musician friends and associates of mine. I know I am supposed to hate it, but I can't because it keeps throwing music at me that amazes me. It keeps dishing me music that grows into almost unhealthy obsessions. Mind you, I AM in fact an independent music supporter. I buy albums. I pay my way into shows. I almost always buy merch. (except for you $50 t-shirt bands...too rich for my blood...but I will buy that $2 sticker right there...) I was rocking some Vulfpeck this morning because my job was just eating away at my soul and I needed that groove in a big, bad way. As I occasionally...

Music has an amazing way of creating pictures in your mind. It can pull memories out of the furthest reaches of your soul, no matter how far back they were buried. They can bring feelings you forgot you felt or never felt before at all. It can conjure up images and moving pictures inside your brain that seem to be narrated by those sounds as if perfectly choreographed and scored by masters in the field. Sometimes it's the least likely sounds. Sometimes it's music you had no idea you would ever fall in love with. Sometimes its those pictures in your mind that light the flame. When I was growing up, my father had a Victrola. (he still does, actually) He happened to have a lot of bluegrass music on 78's and used to play them as loud as it would seem that lovely old wooden machine would go. This is my first recollection of hearing what I know to be this wonderful audible slice of Americana. I had largely forgotten about it until now. As I find myself more and more immersed...