Hartamophone

Yeah, I used to jam at his house, going back to grade 8. He and his bro always had pretty serious chops. I haven't seen him play in years, though. BradM, any chance this was recorded?

Funny seeing this on here, as Jake von Wurden is the younger brother of an old friend of mine, and a buddy to me as well. I remember when he got his first bass! (As opposed to when he got to first base). Should be a great show.

Bonus points for the fact that these are from the Ukraine. Best to have 'em swept for bugs before taking to the friendly skies. Also, wouldn't you think that a guy selling airplanes would be able to put together a better website than something that looks like a ca. 1995 Geocities job?

That's what she said.

Happy birthday, brah! Been great firing the e-mails back and forth as the Globe toyed with our emotions over the past few weeks.

Wow, I totally forgot about this run (or at least I didn't realize it was already upon us). Looking forward to hearing a big finish to a big year.

Whoop whoop!

Thanks folks! Pretty pumped to have landed in the top-10 and had my story published in Thursday's Globe. Looking forward to seeing Velvet's story in there in the coming days. 2 Skanks in the top-10...hell yeah!

The New York Times is now reporting he has passed away.

All the best, everyone!

Sending only the most positive vibes up Highway 36, and to wherever your mother is. All the best.

Hilarious. Thanks for posting that. "Well, we asked them not to do it but they did it anyway." Really? Never would have seen that coming.

I normally enjoy what Scott Ian has to say/play, but this is a little much.

Looks wicked. Thanks Jay, downloading now.

It starts off well, with discussion of urban renewal in decaying American cities as seen from a bike. As the book progresses, though, it becomes less focused on biking and more on Byrne's own worldview and daily activities. Some of the topics he tackles are ambitious, but his research and writing don't prove up to the task, in my opinion. Also, a huge pet peeve from the book: when Byrne wants to talk disparagingly about the wealthy he uses the term "billionaires." I find this to be a rather conspicuous choice of language. The common vernacular would be "millionaires", but since Byrne himself is no doubt a millionaire, he uses "billionaires" so as not to make sophomoric generalizations about his own economic bracket.

Funny, I'm currently reading Byrne's book Bicycle Diaries where he talks about spending time in the Philippines working on the album. (As for the book itself, let's just say that maybe he should stick to songwriting).

Elephant Revival here in Boulder, I think, if we don't make the trek to Denver for Yonder.

Valdemar Jewellers on Greenbank (though I see there is one in Kanata now, too) was where my parents used to go when they needed anything done. Locally owned, and the jeweler there always treated every piece like it was the British Crown jewels, regardless of its financial value.

I would imagine those shows are going to be off their ass! (And a tough ticket taboot).

I bumped into Aaron at the Umphrey's McGee show, and he said he was going out East to prepare for and do some Scientists Of Sound (the looping duo he has with Craig Mercer) and JSB shows. Aloha, Brad Right, so like I said above, some local (meaning East Coast) weekend shows here and there, but no touring any more elaborate than that, and no word about new music.

I hope you're right, although vague and promotional one-liners are of little consolation. Care to elaborate?

These guys haven't been making much noise lately, and I know that Aaron Collier now lives in Toronto. Tour dates seem to be just sporadic local shows, and there hasn't been much in the way of new music in quite a while, with the "new album" they've been talking about for well over a year nowhere in sight. I no longer live on the East Coast, where for all I know they might still be packin' 'em in and going strong, so feel free to contradict me (in fact please do) if I'm way off base here. That said, I'm worried the sun may be starting to set on this one-time juggernaut.

Velvet, the name of the group didn't originally ring any bells for me either, but you might very well recognize their biggest hit: