MUSIC

I assumed my entire life that I was going to be a musician. My dad taught me how to use a record player when I was very young, and exploring the parental vinyl collection was a near-magical experience, introducing me and permanently sensitizing me to the incredible wonder of music. I learned to read and write early because I was making mix tapes and wanted to be able to label their contents. I started playing drums at six, guitar at nine. I started my first band when I was twelve, played my first show on my fifteenth birthday. So integral was music to my life that it formed the soundtrack to every major phase of self-development: through my twenties, I can think of every important thing I discovered, every important change I made, as occurring to at least some degree in conversation with the music I was obsessing over at the time.

All I wanted for the first 30 years of my life was to earn my place among the luminaries who had so powerfully influenced and inspired me. But after 20 years of recording, 20-ish projects, countless shows, and thousands of dollars of investment, I finally had to admit that it wasn't going to happen for me. That's when I began to pursue my other passion, and went to grad school.

Music isn't as central in my life anymore, but I still think it's one of the most amazing things humankind has ever done, and I remain enamored with it. I've even begun to create some more of my own, although I no longer fantasize about it having the significance in the world that much of my favorite music does. Below you'll find what I'm up to as well as some of the stuff I did in the past. I'm very proud of a lot of it, and I hope to share more of it someday.

FEAR OF DANCING

[bandcamp]

Sam Buonavolonta, better known as the force behind Sam Goodwill, inaugurated Fear of Dancing as a strictly tape-based home recording project designed to allow him to explore a noisier, edgier musical personality. After releasing two cassette EPs, he decided to turn it into a real band, and in 2022 he honored me with an invite to join as guitarist.

Discography (*with me):

This Music Never Touched a Computer (CS, Historian, 2021)

Turn Heel (CS, Historian, 2022)

*Live on Tape (CS, Historian, 2022)

MEOWMA

[bandcamp]

Deep in 2020 - you know, that year - my wife Kirsten, who had never made music of her own before, told me that she felt like screaming. On tape, specifically. Fortunately, she's married to someone who has been recording and playing punk rock music for most of his life. We've made two songs so far - both available on the "Let Me Feel" cassingle.

Discography:

Let Me Feel (CS, Bastion, 2023)

RAM'S HEAD (2003-2008)

[bandcamp] [discogs] [facebook] [soundcloud]

Ram's Head was the solo electronic project of my best friend, Karl Steffey (1984-2011). It began as a dark, confrontational, intentionally dehumanized experiment in teaching himself programming. Karl, however, was a person of deep thought and feeling, and as he developed his talents, he couldn't help but insert the poetic intensity of his personality and experiences into Ram's Head's music. The result was music that testifies powerfully - and tragically - to the vivid, lived reality of a man who is no longer here, and was never heard in his time.

When Karl died, I took it upon myself to make the Ram's Head material available, and I have so far released one LP (see below). It captures him on the line, about to transform the original vision for Ram's Head into what it became. That means, at least as far as I'm concerned, that the best is yet to come. I'm the only person who has this music, and I hope I get the chance to make more of it - more of Karl - available to the world.

Discography:

Last of the Lost (LP, Bastion, 2013)

OLDER PROJECTS

Northern Beaches (guitar/bass/vocals, 2010-2013) [link]

Til Heiðurs Um (everything, 2007)

World Line (guitar/bass/vocals, 2006-2009)

Silver Linings (guitar/vocals, 2006)

Sewercide (drums, 2006)

Free Minds Association (guitar/vocals, 2005)

Journey into Darkness (guitar, 2003-2005, 2008)

Orange Alert (drums, 2003)

Shelter (guitar, 2003) [link]

Armed Battery (guitar, 2002-2003)

Laws (drums, 2001-2013)

Run Devil Run (guitar, 2001-2002)

Inner Revolution (vocals, 2001-2003)

Soul Cries (guitar/vocals, 2000-2004)

Proof Positive (guitar, 1999)

Direction (vocals, 1998-2000)

Incite (drums, 1998)

Missing Image (guitar/vocals, 1994-1997) [link]