The Best of 2023
This newsletter is based on the idea that no matter what darkness descends upon our world, our individual world or the big ole globe that we call home, that there is beauty and inspirational thought that we can tap into, a brightness, the yin to the yang, to help make it through. Stories to read while the world is on fire, that has been the The Signal’s motto from the onset. In writing the The Signal, the assumption is made that you already know the news of the day…and the opinions of the news of the day…and are looking for something different…looking to celebrate artists, thoughts, beauty….sadness and darkness as well, but through an artistic and philosophical eye. In a year that seems like several years crammed into months, that seems like a decade since Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel and all that has come since, as the world continues to get hotter and hotter, it feels more important than ever to try and make room for something more…something hopefully just a little uplifting or maybe just something that gives a moment of joy.
For me it has been such a major year of yinning and yanging, having so many friends pass, breaking my foot, dealing with other family health issues and how the events of the world impact the day to day. But within the bookends of the year, my daughter was Bat Mitzvahed, the first Shabbat after Oct. 7th, and she shined. 2023 found me going back in the studio in Coldwater Mississippi, with Luther Dickinson, to co-produce Ethan Daniel Davidson’s record (it turned out GREAT). Also with Luther, the ambient guitar record we created together under the moniker Gravel Springs, featuring my kids with a special appearance by Jim Dickinson, got picked up by Single Lock Records, label home to The Five Blind Boys of Alabama, and will be released in 2024. With Reboot, the organization of which I am CEO, we co-produced our first Broadway show, Alex Edelman’s Just For Us, and were just short-listed for the Oscars for the film we produced, The Anne Frank Gift Shop. I wrote liner notes for the beauty-of-a-comprehensive boxset of Greg Dulli’s band The Twilight Singers and my long-time record label, Birdman, released great records by Infinite River and Michael Morley’s Gate (both of which have found there way on year-end top ten music lists, I might add).
And of course, this newsletter continues to be a late-night, early morning haven for my personal expression. We passed 1600 subscribers this month, which blows my mind given the lack of any kind of PR I put into it, and I thank you all for continuing to read and, in some cases (THANK YOU THANK YOU) support.
The Signal is inspired by the work of Sy Safransky and his magazine The Sun. I will write more about The Sun in upcoming Signals, but wanted to say here that at the beginning of the year, Sy Safransky announced both the magazine’s 50th anniversary, and that he would step down as the head of it at the years end. What followed was magazine after magazine, month after month, of The Sun being the best of its self, continually featuring long-form interviews with people whose insight about the human experience is game changing, followed by essays and fiction and poetry that complement the ideas from the interviews. Within the pages of this year’s final edition, Sy wrote his final essay, revealing his battle with dementia. It was a heartbreaking read, as he spoke about always striving to put “out a publication that celebrates the beauty and the sadness of being alive” with the hope that the Sun will go on to do so, even has he forgets what The Sun actually is (and he admits that he has already started forgetting). This year of the Signal is dedicated to Sy Safransky, a hero of mine that I got to meet at an 826 event a few years ago, whose super-power is to celebrate beauty and sadness, whose life work has continually changed me as a human.
What follows is my ramshackle best-of 2023…in no particular order: what got me through the year, besides my wife, my children, my Mom and my dog Emma. And all of you. Enjoy, and see you in 2024!
THE BEST OF 2024
New Music Releases: I have been all over the place with my listening this year. The Free Jazz edition of The Signal definitely took me on a road leading me to some great new jazz musicians and recordings….
James and the Giants (s/t)
Dance to Summon by Isach Skeidsvoll
Furling by Meg Baird
Love in Exile by Vijay Iyer, Arooj Aftab, Shahzad Ismaily
Imaginational Anthem vol. XII : I Thought I Told You - A Yorkshire Tribute to Michael Chapman (v/a)
Marjaa: The Battle of the Hotels by Mayssa Jallad
Plastic Eternity by Mudhoney
For Mahalia, With Love by James Brandon Lewis / Red Lily Quintet
Ill-Fated Cusses by Cheater Slicks
Magic Music For Family Folk by Luther Dickinson
Continuing by Tyshawn Sorey
Salvage Enterprise by The Polyphonic Spree
Foreign Smokes by BCMC: Thank you Jay Babcock for turning me on to this one.
Some Kinda Love: Performing the Music of The Velvet Underground by The Feelies: You can read my interview with Feelies member Bill Million about this new record here.
Great songs from new records not on the list: Teenage Fanclub’s Foreign Land, Natural Child’s Tell Me I’m Wrong, Paloma Faith’s Only Love Can Hurt Like This (not new…but it took me over a decade to hear it, thanks to my son)
Reissues/Archival Releases: While I am still working on that Specialty Records boxset (I think it is coming to the finishing line) I was lucky enough to release two reissues this year that I am super proud of, Derrick Morgan’s 1972 masterpiece Development and a compilation of the Roy Head Backbeat singles…
Jerusalem by Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru
This Is The Place: American Soul Music 1963-1974 Vol. 9 (v/a)
Lost Performances 1966 Revisited by The Albert Ayler Quintet
Segue to Infinity by Laraaji
Evenings At The Village Gate by John Coltrane With Eric Dolphy
Live In Brooklyn 2011 by Sonic Youth: Such a great artifact. Sent me on a Sonic Youth sonic road trip…pulled out my (yes) test pressing of Bad Moon Rising. And the Forced Exposure release of Fall covers. Love that band.
Playing For The Man At The Door: Field Recordings From The Collection Of Mack McCormick, 1958–1971 (v/a)
The Unguitarist: Complete Works, 1969-2022 by Rick Deitrick
Ambient/drone: As I age, I find more and more solace in those ultimate, epic drones. They keep me on course, help me mainline into life’s source.
12 by Ryuichi Sakamoto: The final record from the legend, who passed a few months after the release of this soul washing bath of minimalism.
Dissolution Grip by KMRU: Drones from Kenya.
Landwerk (No. 1, 2, 3) by Nathan Salsburg: Three volumes of meditations released over a three year period of time that channel the elders. Heavy.
Long Gradus by Sarah Davachi
Eliane Radigue by Ensemble Dedalus / Ryoko Akama
Before We Lie Down in Darknesse by The Inward Circles
Distant Intervals by MIZU
Enys Men (Original Score) by Mark Jenkin
Does Spring Hide Its Joy by Kali Malone
Long Cool World by North Americans
Newsletters: It is wonderful being a part of a community of newsletter publishers. I look at many each week, but over the year, these have been my go-to for regular greatness.
David Whyte: His poetic voice shines in his intimate newsletter
Television Shows
South Park Season 20: I was VERY late to the party for this season of South Park, which aired in 2016, with a season-long story arc that had some of the most demented, cutting and (unfortunately) best “funny because it is true” (Homer Simpson line) social-commentary driven humor in the show’s history. A reaction to Trump running for Presidency and winning…making it very topical now…and the negative side of the internet (and so so much more), the ten episodes showcase the show at its absolute craziest. Featuring Mr. Garrison as the Trumpish candidate for President, Kyle’s dad Gerald as internet troll Skankhunt42, and Memory Berries!!!
Music Magazines: Print media…about music…is……back? Over the last few years the music rag has made a mighty recovery. Incredibly. Here are my top 5 from the year.
Maggot Brain: Meticulously curated by music magazine legend Mike McGonigal, Maggot Brain is a celebration of the history and future of artistic thought and expression. Music. Art. Social Commentary. All with a super-smart voice from the important side of the underground.
Wire: The staple of outsider/electronic/alien/trenchant music sounds. I need Wire more now than ever as an escape from the day-to-day (ab)normal.
Head Voice: The newest of the bunch, a ‘zine about outsider music recording and stories by American weird purveyors Ben Chasny (Six Organs of Admittance), James Toth (Wooden Wand, James and the Giants…) and Donavan Quinn (Skygreen Leopards)
Terrascopædia: Phil PcMullen, former publisher/editor of the massively influential psychedelic-driven Ptolemaic Terrascope has turned to using the olde-fashioned letter press to create an ultra-short-run beautiful keepsake of a music magazine once again featuring psych/freaky folk/other musicians.
Perfect Sound Forever: No, it is not a printed magazine…never has been…but this decades-old music publication led by Jason Gross continues, over and over again, to publish stories and interviews that you will not read anywhere else.
Visitor Kjartan Sveinsson, ex-member of Sigur Rós
The Visitors: Another late-to-the party discovery, The Visitors is a multi-media installation by Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson showcasing Ragnar and eight other musical friends…most of which from Iceland’s capital Reykjavík…who filmed and recorded a musical piece in a beautiful old mansion in the New York countryside. The piece has been showing at the SFMOMA (who co-owns it with the NYMOMA) and after seeing it once at the beginning of the year and have gone back many times, bringing as many people who I can drag…just being overcome by the music and the beauty and uniqueness of the presentation, with each of the musicians showcased in a separate, Wes Anderson-esque detailed room, each performing their part of a piece that builds up to full-on dramatic and ecstatic heights.
Books: The best novel I read all year was the final novel I read, originally published in the 1965, Stoner by John William…what has been called a “perfect novel” and I get it: a quiet, but wonderfully told story about William Stoner, an English teacher whose life does not unfold as expected, whose actions and inactions trigger consequences and page-turning poetic literature. Other Books:
Down Home Music by Joel Selvin and Chris Strachwitz
Bunny and Tree by Balint Zsako: A beautifully illustrated wordless book about…a bunny and a tree.
Fulgentius by César Aira: For a deep dive into this novella, check out the past Signal which includes an interview with Aira.
Lover Man by Alston Anderson
Transfigured New York by Brooke Wentz
Mainlines, Blood Feasts, and Bad Taste: A Lester Bangs Reader
Icons, Idols, and Idiots of Hollywood by Bruce Belland
The Cosmic Scholar by John Szwed
East Works Detroit: Musician/artist Joey Mazzola repurposes mid-century objects and makes lamps out of ‘em. Gorgeous lamps. Ours (above) was an Atwater Kent speaker from the late 1920s that he turned into this rotating, warm piece of visual art that brings our living room to life. Just incredible vision and handmanship.
Apsara: I was at my friend Chris and Lyna’s holiday party where they had a Cambodian dance troupe perform the Apsara (traditional Cambodian dance). The dancers, overseen by instructor Charya Burt, performed in traditional garb, and contort and move together in a powerfully fluid, choreographed fashion that made time slow down…that channeled history and the spirits…it was breathtaking.
Spring Training: Doug Sahm initiated me to Spring Training in Scottsdale Arizona and I loved it so much that I started going with my dad…and it became a tradition for us. I haven’t gone in years…since before my dad passed (there were a few years where he just couldn't go). This year my son and I went. We even sat in the seats my dad and I used to sit in. Asher loved the idea of seeing unknown ball players striving for a spot on the team…with each at-bat or defensive play potentially career changing. He more deeply fell in love with going to ball games that weekend…and with The Giants. We went to a dozen or so games during the course of the year.
Live Shows: I got out more this year than last…still missed more than I saw…but with kids and choas, there is only so much time. VERY thankful to clubs like The Black Cat, Peri’s in Fairfax, Thee Stork Club, Rancho Nicasio and The Fillmore (and so many more) for being such amazing venues. The best live shows of the year…
Swinging with the Sun Ra Arkestra (SF Jazz)
Parliament/Funkadelic / Fishbone (The Fox): THANKS JEREMY!
Los Lobos (Rancho Nicasio, The Fillmore)
The Flaming Lips (The Warfield, Stern Grove): The look on my kids’ faces when the Warfield show kicked off with lasers, strobe lights, confetti, a crazed back-light screen…and that iconic Lips sound…
Taylor Swift/Haim (Levi’s Stadium): I could definitely have used 2 hours less of this show, but the high points, especially at the beginning, showcased an incredible star and production (how did those trees grow so quickly onstage?)
Neil Young, solo (The Greek)
Zydeco Flames / Scott Amendola’s Stickler Phonics (San Anselmo Live Stages)
The Cure (Madison Square Garden): Robert. Smith.
Wolf Eyes / Infinite River (Thee Stork Club)
The North Mississippi All-Stars (Lagunitas Brewing Company)
Lucinda Williams (City Winery)
Ron Carter (Blue Note)
Jon Blaufarb’s Ribs: It is no secret that I love good BBQ…brisket, chicken, pulled pork. But my favorite plated BBQ has got to be smoked, rubbed baby back ribs. Smitty’s and Kreuz Market in Lockhart, TX….Cozy Corner in Memphis…Betty Davis Grocery1 in Waterford, Miss. Such great ribs. But the best I have ever had…and I am sorry to say they are not sold in stores or at a restaurant, are hands down the ribs from the smoker at Jon Blaufarb’s house. The tastiest, smokiest, most fall-apart succulent. While he has smoked ribs for my 40th and 50th birthday parties…my brother’s 60th, this year his offering to smoke ribs for my daughter’s Bat Mitzvah was just beyond (she is the president of his BBQ fan club).
Godzilla Minus One: Granted, I have seen very few non-kid-oriented new films this year, so it is probably wrong of me to talk about my “favorite” of the year. But Godzilla Minus One was beyond expectations. Scary. Dramatic. Adventuresome. Hidetaka Yoshioka deserves an Oscar nomination for his performance as Dr. Noda, the engineer who attempts a plan at killing the monster…his pep-speech almost made me cry…at a Godzilla movie????
Thank you for reading The Signal this year…and I wish all of you a great 2024…a year of hope. The world is still on fire…and it is so vital to find the beauty as we walk through.
It turns out that Betty Davis just closed down. So so so sad. https://www.facebook.com/chico.harris.1/posts/pfbid02tVQmEjFUdHB2oM5k6eCMZ9GjbtoKhRDquTR7QuvUWWak1NS4HBAMsbLtmRubYZQbl
Never seen the installation, but "The Visitors" (the song itself) is just gorgeous. One of my favorites from a few years back. 2016, I think?