The Sorcerer's Apprentice
I'm having such a swell time with your book, Brett. Hopefully if I make it back to L.A. this year we can go hit up Louie's again and reminisce about... well, I suppose about the last time we ate there. I've been fiending for that Chicken Parmesan ever since we scarfed ours down together. Good times, my friend. Good times.
And speaking of online friends who are writers that I have met only once in the flesh, Phil Freeman's new book Running the Voodoo Down : The Electric Music of Miles Davis is out and the reviews are in! Gaaah, so much good schtuff to read these days! At least that's a good thing.
Okay, funny story... er, well not haha funny, really. But I think it's pretty cool anyway.
Back in the last decade I was a huge fan of the short-lived zine Subliminal Tattoos, published by Robert DuPree, which as it proclaimed on the cover featured articles and reviews on "comics, music, video, books, and obscuro culture" with submissions from the likes of Harvey Pekar, Poppy Z. Brite, Ed Sanders, and numerous others. It was this zine that initially introduced me to the likes of Django Reinhardt, Strangers In Paradise, and most interestingly a brief but very effective article on Keiji Haino entitled "Keiji Haino Is A Sorcerer" that made me rush right out to procure a Forced Exposure catalog (this was 1994, before the internet, y'know) and order off for his CD The Milky Way which at that time in my life I don't think I had ever heard anything, ah, quite like it. That article, brief yet so passionate about its subject matter, stayed in my head for years.
Over the past few years I have been hanging out with an extremely learned and lively bunch of music geeks online, and a good portion of what I have been listening to during these years have been through their influence and recommendations. One of these was Phil Freeman, a freelance writer and magazine editor who struck up a conversation with me about Keiji Haino. I told him that I was introduced to the artist by an incredibly moving and influential article I had read almost a decade ago, and soon talks were in the works to make CD trades with each other. I couldn't locate my copy of The Milky Way to send him, but he managed to still mail me some marvelous Keiji Haino and Fushitshusha burns from his own extensive collection. And the last time I was in NYC I managed to met with him and have lunch together. A brilliant guy, and very passionate about what he loves when it comes to music.
Only maybe less than a year ago I was rooting through one of my old comic book boxes and came across ST#3 which I haven't looked at probably since it came out in 1994 and, remembering that it was the issue with the Keiji Haino article that galvanized me so long ago I turned right to that page with "Keiji Haino Is A Sorcerer" and... I stopped. And for the very first time I noticed the name of the man who wrote that article all those years ago: Phil Freeman.
Now you see what I mean about funny? Or maybe the word I'm searching for here is ironic. No, no. Definitely funny.
Anyway, here's one of Phil's reviews for a live Haino performance dating back to 1999. You can find his work all over the web. He also contributes to Wire, Jazziz, Alternative Press, and Spin.
I guess you can see now why I'm pretty jazzed about the new Mile Davis book.
And speaking of online friends who are writers that I have met only once in the flesh, Phil Freeman's new book Running the Voodoo Down : The Electric Music of Miles Davis is out and the reviews are in! Gaaah, so much good schtuff to read these days! At least that's a good thing.
Okay, funny story... er, well not haha funny, really. But I think it's pretty cool anyway.
Back in the last decade I was a huge fan of the short-lived zine Subliminal Tattoos, published by Robert DuPree, which as it proclaimed on the cover featured articles and reviews on "comics, music, video, books, and obscuro culture" with submissions from the likes of Harvey Pekar, Poppy Z. Brite, Ed Sanders, and numerous others. It was this zine that initially introduced me to the likes of Django Reinhardt, Strangers In Paradise, and most interestingly a brief but very effective article on Keiji Haino entitled "Keiji Haino Is A Sorcerer" that made me rush right out to procure a Forced Exposure catalog (this was 1994, before the internet, y'know) and order off for his CD The Milky Way which at that time in my life I don't think I had ever heard anything, ah, quite like it. That article, brief yet so passionate about its subject matter, stayed in my head for years.
Over the past few years I have been hanging out with an extremely learned and lively bunch of music geeks online, and a good portion of what I have been listening to during these years have been through their influence and recommendations. One of these was Phil Freeman, a freelance writer and magazine editor who struck up a conversation with me about Keiji Haino. I told him that I was introduced to the artist by an incredibly moving and influential article I had read almost a decade ago, and soon talks were in the works to make CD trades with each other. I couldn't locate my copy of The Milky Way to send him, but he managed to still mail me some marvelous Keiji Haino and Fushitshusha burns from his own extensive collection. And the last time I was in NYC I managed to met with him and have lunch together. A brilliant guy, and very passionate about what he loves when it comes to music.
Only maybe less than a year ago I was rooting through one of my old comic book boxes and came across ST#3 which I haven't looked at probably since it came out in 1994 and, remembering that it was the issue with the Keiji Haino article that galvanized me so long ago I turned right to that page with "Keiji Haino Is A Sorcerer" and... I stopped. And for the very first time I noticed the name of the man who wrote that article all those years ago: Phil Freeman.
Now you see what I mean about funny? Or maybe the word I'm searching for here is ironic. No, no. Definitely funny.
Anyway, here's one of Phil's reviews for a live Haino performance dating back to 1999. You can find his work all over the web. He also contributes to Wire, Jazziz, Alternative Press, and Spin.
I guess you can see now why I'm pretty jazzed about the new Mile Davis book.
posted by Melissa at 8:19 AM
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