In truth, the first half of 2023 in mixtapes fit together to tell the story from the fall-winter transition to the winter-spring transition, a period in which I decided to move back home to Cleveland. Where the Winter 2023//forces at work tape was about returning to the age I was when I got into punk… Continue reading Spring 2023//this is the chariot!!!!!
It's my honor and joy to announce that I was selected to have a monthly radio show on Echobox in Amsterdam. Since I'm gearing up to be working on this book about how Northeast Ohio modernized rock music for a good, long time, this is a way I can regularly share the work I am… Continue reading Sounds Coming Out of the Land Radio Show
I documented my first research trip to Northeast Ohio for the book I am writing in my latest Substack newsletter. If you subscribe for free, you'll get an email or two a month updating you on my life and work! I also sent in my book proposal and just finished my first review for Cleveland… Continue reading Forces at Work: On the Road to the Land
I put the Land on the Bandcamp front page again, talking about the self-titled debut album by Cleveland garage rock institution, New Salem Witch Hunters. Crank that shit. Sorry, not sorry, WMMS!!!! It’s also about how it’s really challenging for bands to try to exist in Cleveland, which seems to be a central force in… Continue reading New Salem Witch Hunters Kept Garage Rock Regional and Obscure
Here it finally is! I worked on this for about two months. It's the opening act of the work I am doing on the book the world needs about how Northeast Ohio modernized rock music and played an enormous role in shaping the last half-century of culture in America. Anton Fier's departure from this realm… Continue reading The Cup, the Dream, and the Tin Can: Kicking Out Half a Century With David Thomas
It was my honor to be trusted with writing up this must-listen solo debut from Kyle Kidd on American Dreams Records, and it is my joy that Kyle feels so seen and honored by it. I'm glad all the time I spent dancing with the bubbles in the the bath to it paid off. Check out the album… Continue reading Kyle Kidd’s Soothsayer AOTD
March was a great month, specifically because I got to write about my simultaneously cursed and blessed hometown of Cleveland twice leading up to my birthday, which is also always very much a celebration of the place I was born. Fellow Aries Clevelander, Ben Baker-Billington, invited me to a Cleveland Tapes Revue show at this… Continue reading March Tape Label Report
It pleases me to announce that my Mark Edwards Lifetime Achievement article finally hit the Bandcamp front page, that it has Cleveland in the headline and the byline, and that many people since its publication have reached out to let me know how much they enjoyed both the article and the city of Cleveland getting its due and its… Continue reading My Dad is Dead Exemplifies Cleveland’s Punk Spirit
This week, I got to see my first feature for Bandcamp go live! I was honored to be selected to write about the Bush Tetras box set and even more honored to get to describe my hometown of Cleveland accurately as an "art punk mecca" feeding directly into the NYC scene in the late 70s… Continue reading Bush Tetras Box Set Feature
COME AWAY WITH EMD 