If I think back to the very first shows of the year—at the Crocodile with Mariko and in Portland with Andrea two days later—and remember what’s happened since, it’s clear that this was a very productive and active year. And while 2014 maybe wasn’t too prolific on the blog-post and/or new-releases fronts, it was actually… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Music Retrospecticus
Subscribe to Music Retrospecticus RSS FeedSilver Gate, Mont., on 7/20/12: A Look Back at the Night That Was
According to the 2010 census, the combined population of Cooke City and Silver Gate is 95, which isn’t all to surprising: both seem more like collectives of cabins/rustic hotel lodgings, simplistic restaurants and log storefronts than towns in the traditional sense, though I envy those who are residents of either — well, during the summer… Continue Reading
Newsfeed Anxiety: How Missoula Was Won … And Lost
It might not seem like much, but those five shows, as well as the release of our flawed-yet-thoughtful album, was almost enough to have me perfectly content with the band, a band whose sole purpose was to play some high-energy shows, release some decent music, and improve each member for future musical endeavors. In that… Continue Reading
Newsfeed Anxiety: Breakthrough, The Holiday Extravaganzer, and The Compromise
More than a year into our existence, Newsfeed Anxiety only had (approximately) 1.25 shows and an incomplete album to its name. The next year and a half would be much different, though certainly not without its share of struggles. But they were glorious struggles, all in the name of free-genre electro-folk rock, which are the… Continue Reading
Newsfeed Anxiety: First Shows, (the album), and the Importance of Recording to a Metronome
The new decade marked the beginning of another golden age for our collective of Billings musicians, one comparable to discovering we could burn .wav files to a disc, those many years back. This time, the revolution came from increased access — and understanding — to/of better recording means, such as Logic, Pro Tools, Reason, and,… Continue Reading
Newsfeed Anxiety: Not Practicing, Solo Acoustic Performances, Home Demos and the Trans-Billingsian Orchestra
The formation stages of Newsfeed Anxiety were, like the band’s conception, long and slow in coming. Naively, I thought all I would need to do is learn four chords, gather the guys in a garage, practice a couple times, play a show for our closest friends, and, if we were lucky, cut an album in… Continue Reading
Newsfeed Anxiety: Origins
We’ve all felt them: the pang from unwelcome updates; the wince from vicarious embarrassment; the twinge from T.M.I.; the #humblebrag-induced bile rise. There’s no way to escape such occurrences — they are simply part of the human experience. But it seems we encounter these afflictions much more often in this digitized, mobilized, tablet-ized age of… Continue Reading
Metal Face: The Beginning
I’ve been involved in a number of musical projects over the years, but the one group that’s stood the test of time, and appears to only be getting better, is Metal Face. Although somewhat of a joke, Metal Face has a mythology worthy of a VH1 Behind the Music episode, or at least a Wikipedia… Continue Reading
Metal Face: Dox 2005 and Justice Lake on Lemons
The years following the loss of Metal Face I were a Golden Age for the collective of young Billings musicians affiliated with the band. Although MF I never saw the light of day, we used the momentum from those sessions, as well as the discovery that we could burn our songs to discs from my… Continue Reading
Metal Face: Dr. Jacuzzi Suit, In 3D and Beyond
A brief note: I understand how it may seem at this point: You’re probably wondering why I’m devoting so many posts to Metal Face. My answers: posterity and timeliness. Sure, Metal Face may be a long-running joke, but it’s an important joke, whose history should be preserved and fleshed out in full detail. And who… Continue Reading