by Mark Saleski I’ve been reading bits and pieces of Henry Miller’s The Air-Conditioned Nightmare, Miller’s collection of essays about his travels around the United States. The expatriate writer had wanted to see what his homeland had become, to get to the core of it all. As with all ofRead More

From lowanthem.com by Mark Saleski I have attempted to describe this before (and I even referred to it in a recent preview of The Low Anthem’s Smart Flesh), but the sensation is a difficult one to get at. Without any sort of documentation, the best I’ve ever been able toRead More

by Mark Saleski I heard a short piece on the radio yesterday about the band Cake. Apparently, their new album has hit the top of the charts. The bad news is that hitting the top of the charts doesn’t mean what it used to mean. Showroom of Compassion took theRead More

Photo by Vicki Blankenship by Mark Saleski The phenomenon of crowdfunding is not entirely new, but it appears to be gaining momentum. I first became aware of it a few years ago when jazz artists such as Cuong Vu, Jim Hall, and Maria Schneider created projects through artistShare. The conceptRead More

By Mark Saleski It was about two years ago that me and TheWife™ went to a folk-ish show in the unassuming function hall of a local church. The band was The Low Anthem. We had never heard of them but not long into the set, in the middle of aRead More

by Mark Saleski The area of electro-acoustic music encompasses so many different sounds and constructions that the label itself is nearly meaningless. As the name implies, it is music created with both acoustic and electronic instruments. On my list of favorites are the Anthony Braxton/Richard Teitelbaum collaboration featuring synthesizers andRead More

Photo by David Sokol by Mark Saleski Harmolodics. It’s not difficult to find decently-written descriptions of Ornette Coleman’s musical philosophy. A general understanding of his concept can lead the listener to a deeper appreciation of the music. I thought I understood what Ornette was getting at…until having the opportunity toRead More

“Betsy — I wish you the very very best!” said the note inside Yes’ ‘Tales From Topographic Oceans.’ “Nous Sommes Du Soleil. Peace & Love always, Neal.”

by Mark Saleski “Every man has inside himself a parasitic being who is acting not at all to his advantage.” -William S. Burroughs.This seem true enough, and mine wants to live in that house. He whispers in my ear to leave almost everything behind. We get into these major fightsRead More

by Mark Saleski After years of writing reviews, I have now stumbled into what must be the most embarrassing way to discover music: via a tumblr photo blog. I can’t even remember what I’d been writing at the time, but I had googled the word “geek” and ended up onRead More