Continuing in our seven day Whole Wheat Radio Artist of the Day experiment here on Rubénerd.com, today’s artist is the awesome jazz pianist and composer Michael Wolff.
Thursday 11th March 2010
Wednesday 10th March 2010
Because of my unexpected two day hiatus from blogging I missed two days of my seven day Whole Wheat Radio Artist of the Day experiment. I’m going right ahead and rectifying this by recommending one of my favourites, Johnsmith!
Sunday 07th March 2010
Part three in the Rubenerd Whole Wheat Radio Artist of the Day (try saying that really fast!) is Esther Golton!
Saturday 06th March 2010
Given I already linked to John Gorka from Whole Wheat Radio yesterday, I thought it’d be fun to do an artist of the day thingy here for a week and see what new stuff I discover. Today’s band is one I’d never heard before, but they hands down do the best rendition of Born in Chicago that I’d ever friggen heard in my life, the Chicago Blues Reunion!
I could transcribe their description, but best to go to their artist page and see for yourself; from there you can also see their links to other social networks and even request some of their songs and the WWR audio stream will accommodate :).
Friday 05th March 2010
Trying out some of these new Whole Wheat Radio share link artist widgets, what an awesome idea!
Saturday 27th February 2010
Spiff: Is it cool if I swear?
Jim: Yeah, we encourage it!
Spiff: Really?! Man I love this f*cking place!
A heads up in case you’ve forgotten, the Melissa Mitchell and Spiff house concert at Whole Wheat Radio will be starting 20:00 Alaska time, which translates to 13:00 Singapore and 15:30 Aussie Central Daylight Whatsit.
Recently I wanted to ask my dad if he’d got his new bicycle frame yet, but I didn’t want to confuse him into thinking I was talking about his motorbike — which he also owns but needs some repairs — so I asked about his acoustic bike. Allegedly he’s still telling his friends about his dopey son :D.
Anyway I’m frantically off down the road to get a cup of coffee before it starts!
Friday 26th February 2010
Having just spent the last few days talking about my own social anxiety, awkwardness and questions about my point in life, the universe, everything and 42, I thought I’d stop being so inwardly focused and address someone else’s post discussing similar issues. We’re a confederacy of introverts here aren’t we? :).
Tuesday 20th October 2009
So I’d just woken up after a terrible night’s sleep and was making coffee when I tuned into The Whole Wheat Radios on my Mac, and within 20 minutes none other than Jim Kloss came online and started chatting on the mic on air with all of us! He talked about a discussion he’d had with Marian Call about Twitter recently, the music that was coming up (in his own classic and imitable style), along with the progress he was making with his nuclear wheat powered ioniser that can bend space time. Unfortunately so far he can only beam one person at a time with his voice activated command processor, but it’s a work in progress.
He also asked a few questions which come to think of it I didn’t answer in the collaboration page chat thingy. To answer them here, Elke and I are in Adelaide until November, and while not technically correct in German, when my dad’s family immigrated to Australia they started pronouncing our last name as "Shade" for English speakers, so es ist gut so :).
As for the image above, this was a photo I took of Jim Kloss himself mowing the perfect green lawns that adorn the surroundings of the Wheat Palace where the independent music Whole Wheat Radio headquarters are located. You can tell it’s not an extremely crappy Photoshop job because I actually did it in The Gimp. I’d be hilarious if I could write and deliver good jokes.
Friday 04th September 2009
Atuuschaaw shared a link in Google Reader to Digital Music News about a sharp decline in music sales in the United States, specifically albums:
How long does this story go on? Surprisingly, the latest CD death-watch report comes from Billboard, typically a label cheerleader. According to an analysis published Thursday, US-based album sales tanked 18.1 percent year-over-year during the month of August. And, compared to the same period in 2007, sales were off by 37.2 percent.
There are several things I could say about this. The first thing would be to slouch over, pick up a walking stick, dye my hair grey, get fitted for dentures and say most commercial, top 40 music thesedays is just… terrible. I certainly don’t like all the music from previous decades, but it’s quite obvious to me there have been far less breakout acts in this decade and far less original, fresh material. That’s flamebait for some people who are diehard fans of the Jonas Brothers or Miley Cirus or what I call “commercial, artificial, mass produced disposable music” for example, but I stand by the claim. Not that I’m bitter.
What I think is interesting though when I read these gloom and doom stories about falling music sales is nothing could be further from the truth with our family, and I can thank two different reasons for it. I’ve talked at length about Whole Wheat Radio before, but they’re an example of a website of artists that instead of complaining about how commercial music is going down the toilet, actually took a stand and released their music independently or with indie labels. I’ve bought dozens of CDs from them, the latest of which only a day ago!
Another way we’ve been different though we have Gramophone to thank for. Gramophone is a somewhat typical chain of boutique CD shops in Singapore that took the opposite approach to HMV (which recently shut their flagship store in Heeren, I remember when they opened there back in the 1990s) by having smaller shops with more friendly staff and an emphasis on variety rather than Billboard charts.
While nice, that’s not the reason why we bought more music because of Gramophone. The reason is Gramophone at The Cathay building on Orchard Road heavily discounts CDs that don’t move off the shelves as quickly. I don’t mean taking a $30 CD and selling it for $20, I’m talking about taking a $30 CD and selling it for $1, or $2! My sister, dad and I when we were all back in Singapore would take baskets down to Gramophone and buy hundreds of these CDs almost at random (NOT an exaggeration), and while some where terrible the vast majority were brilliant. We ripped them all to our music server and have been thrilled with the results! Much of it is world music we would never have heard before.
Sure musicians have to make a living, but even as a 23 year old I’m already sick and tired of the over-commercialisation of music. If labels weren’t greedy arses (HA!) and spent more time with artists who had something new and fresh to contribute, there could be a renaissance. We’re starting to see this without the labels’ help on the Internet.
Thursday 03rd September 2009
If you follow the life and times of independent folk musician, singer and songwriter Esther Golton you’re probably already well aware of and excited by this news, but for those of you who many not be so well versed in the life and times of independent folk musician, singer and songwriter Esther Golton you’re probably already well aware of and excited by this news, but for those of you who many not be so well versed in the life and times of independent folk musician…
Sorry, I got caught in an infinite loop. It’s a mental condition, I’m having it checked out. If you’re not aware by now (isn’t that a Simply Red song?), Esther is releasing a new follow-up album to Unfinished Houses which I’ve loved and in a more personal way has got me through some tough and challenging times in my life to say the least.
Hello Folks, (including everyone in my entire mailing list) -
It was 2 years ago that I released Unfinished Houses and began to immerse myself in the life of a traveling singer-songwriter. It’s been great. Thank you all for your support and enthusiasm, whether you are fan, venue, house concert host, ‘WheatHead’, press, radio, fellow musician, family or friend.
So, two years later, I have an exciting announcement. I have in my hands a brand new CD, ready to go out into the world. It’s called Aurora Borealis: Conversations with Alaska’s Northern Lights. You can listen to samples and purchase pre-release copies directly from my website.
Snow Leopard got me in the mood for preordering stuff, so I’ve gone ahead and preordered my own copy of Aurora Borealis. If it’s even a tenth as enjoyable as Unfinished Houses was I’ll feel as though I got my money’s worth :).
Amongst many of her stunning artistic abilities, my beautiful late mummy was a woodwind, keyboard, harp and dulcimer player, and Esther’s voice, mannerisms and style of music remind me so much of her it brings back tears sometimes, but more often than not it makes me smile. At the risk of sounding overly cheesy and nostalgic, it’s like having a small part of my mum kept alive in spirit whenever I listen to Esther’s music.
Also as a matter of disclosure for legal reasons my solicitors have advised me to inform you all that Esther did not pay me for this post, though I wouldn’t be adverse to her doing so later at her discretion if she chose to ;). Or anyone else for that matter. Terimah Kassih.
I have all the room I need
My bed is wide enough for three
I can stand up tall and stretch my arms up high
I can step outside and wander through the trees
I have all the room I need.
