Hi - welcome to the new site! You’re among the very first people to see this place; thanks for coming!

Here’s what you can do here right now:

- listen to/download/buy music
- subscribe via email or rss to find out about new music, live shows, etc.
- read lyrics, stories about the songs, etc.
- read and comment on this blog to join the conversation about these songs, other music, related issues, and the occasional totally irrelevant but juicy news item

The plan is to spend a couple of months introducing the rest of the world to this music, but after that, I’ll be posting completely new songs pretty frequently on this blog. Look for demos, acoustic versions, and b-sides as well as more “finished” music.

Thanks again for coming by - please feel free to leave a comment, or shoot me an email if you’ve got something to say!

Songs finished. Website finished. Radio Nowhere will now spend a week in seclusion, meditating on the nexus of music and spirit and refusing all sustenance (except pomegranate juice. And Ding Dongs.) while you, dear reader, nose around this blog, hammer all the links and listen to the songs.

If you find anything here that doesn’t work, or anything you especially like or don’t like, please click on that “Contact” tab up there and shoot me an email. Thanks!

So I was in Amoeba Records in Berkeley last week, picking up a Crowded House DVD. I used to be in there several times a week - between 1992 and 2005 I probably bought 50 CDs a year there - but for a variety of reasons ranging from not being in Berkeley as much to hating the record industry to being too busy making my own music, I almost never head in there any more. This time, however, the guy at the counter rang up my purchase, asked me if I was a fan of a band playing in town that night, and when I said yes, gave me a ticket to the show! For free!

And when I asked if I could get another so I could bring a friend, he said “yes”! And gave me another ticket! Now that’s the kind of super-serve-the-customer attitude that might keep record stores (or at least that record store) alive for just a little bit longer. Oh, and the band? A little outfit called Arcade Fire (with LCD Soundsytem opening). Zow.

Long time, no blog. I’d like to say that I’ve been off doing important artsy things, like trekking in Bhutan, or drinking wine and writing songs all night in Montmartre, but I, uh, haven’t. I was at the DMV yesterday - does that count?

One excellent thing I’ve done since my last visit to these pages was a trip to see Crowded House in Saratoga. Are you hip to Crowded House? I’ve never been able to get a handle on how many people are actually aware of this band’s existence: the intensity of my own fanboy-ness for these guys is so intense that it warps the time-space continuum around it, creating an event horizon that I, from the inside, cannot see out of!

Or something. I skipped the astrophysics unit in my high school science class to make out with Shana R. in the nasturtiums by the faculty parking lot.

Anyway, Crowded House is a fantastic band, and they always put on a fantastic show, and this was the most fantastic one of all. See, in the 80s and 90s, they put out a lot of records and toured a lot, but then they broke up, and the drummer killed himself, and when they announced their comeback tour I was very worried that they’d be bald (see: Van Halen) and drunk (see: Van Halen) and would suck.

Not to worry. This post is long enough already, so I’ll spare you the details, but they were every bit as good and funny as they were back in the day, and the show ended with a band/crowd singalong on “Better Be Home Soon” sans electricity (because the power had been cut due to the venues surprisingly draconian curfew). What a great show.

Here’s a pair of handwritten haiku (haikus? Is it one of those singular/plural words, like moose?) from the keyboard player describing the show. It’s almost as good as being there.

P.S. Actually, I’m probably going to the Van Halen show too.

Hi All - I’m checking in from an undisclosed location somewhere on the Radio Nowhere Summer Spokes 2007 tour… What? You didn’t know there was a tour?

Well, there isn’t really, actually. I’m just combining a little summer bicycle touring and music making somewhere in the area hinted at by the photo below - anyone want to hazard a guess as to where this sign is? Correct answer gets a cookie.

Anyway, I returned from several days away from the internets to find my inbox full of Boss-grams from irate Springsteen fans who maybe misinterpreted my previous post a bit.

Just for the record, I want to make it clear that I like Bruce, have several of his records, and think of him generally as a great songwriter and performer. I just wish he’d called his “Radio Nowhere” song something else.

I finally heard the song, by the way. It’s got a good beat, and you can dance to it. Like the guitar too.