Just realized I’ve been made famous over at the Hyde Park Records website, so hello to any of you who got here that way. Also, hello to anyone who gets here via my employee picks (scroll down) in the Portland Mercury, since I think they might be mentioning this blog.
Now that you’re here, you might be wondering what this site is all about. The answer is mostly music, but not just music. You generally won’t find record reviews here. What you hopefully will find is occasionally insightful observations, centered around music but placing it in context, be that geographical (Portland, Oregon), historical, or personal. These peripheral but, to me, equally important parts of the music experience are often overlooked in offline music writing, probably in the interest of space and, uh, you know, describing the music itself. I’ll leave that part to the pros, and get right to the fluff.
About the linkers: The reason I have a Hyde Park Records t-shirt despite never having visited Chicago is dorky. I “virtually” met the man behind HPR, Derek Erdman, after I posted a link to his website featuring the entire Desperate Bicycles discography in mp3 format (also, this is rad). We got to talking about the record store he was opening up, he sent me a t-shirt, a picture was taken, and the rest is not-really-history. Derek seems like a pretty rad dude, the store looks awesome, and I’m all for more independent shops, so more power to him and it and amen.
fig 13: hyde park records, chicago
The Portland Mercury is an alt-weekly here in Portland, OR. They have a regular Employee Picks column wherein experts in various fields dispense insider knowledge (sex shop worker lists porn/toys, wig maker lady lists wigs, etc), and they asked me to do the honors for this week. This is something I’ve been secretly craving for years (another is getting an I Saw U, put I’m pretty over that), so you can imagine my excitement. Hopefully my picks aren’t too hopelessly obscure, and I don’t look like a total geek. Is it just me, or does my head look lumpy?
In conclusion: this makes me happy, this cat is awesome, DIY FREE IPODS.
