Full disclosure: though at the start of this year I was doing everything I could to let folks know I was able and willing to perform live, I didn’t really expect it to happen anytime soon. I have no name recognition and did my best for the majority of my fifteen+ years in this town... Continue Reading →
*"In Internet aesthetics, liminal spaces are empty or abandoned places that appear eerie, forlorn, and often surreal. Liminal spaces are commonly places of transition..." wikpedia.org I recently changed the online description of my music in all the places to "liminal art pop". There's a risk to that. Arguably it's not a description you can "hear" (which places it... Continue Reading →
Following a successful debut at Charlottesville’s Chinchilla Cafe in mid-May, Sold Kingdom is now seeking additional bookings! Here’s the new EPK!
I’ve written about The Carpenters before, focusing on the underlying darkness I always perceived in their music. Todd Haynes’ shadowy, subversive Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (in which his idiosyncratic choice to use Barbie dolls instead of actors actually amplifies the biopic’s emotional impact), as well as Sonic Youth’s hazy, nihilistic cover of “Superstar”, stand... Continue Reading →
2023 saw a lot of me writing about a thing without writing about it. That is what felt right at the time. Now that some time has passed, I think I can say what I’m about to. You see, last summer there was a birthday. A birthday I might’ve been embarrassed to have even remembered.... Continue Reading →
Earlier this month, I strayed back again to the Beacon, that old renovated theater near my hometown - the same one that stood witness to my odd, post-travel storm of ambivalence last spring - to see one of my formative influences, Judy Collins. She is 84 and still touring. I heard about the show only... Continue Reading →
As an Intro to Creative Writing college student back in ‘00/‘01, influenced by certain assigned readings, I developed a thing for writing dramatic monologues. Even before that, as a little school kid, I’d occasionally try writing from the point of view of people I found frustratingly inscrutable. I’ve always felt a bit smarmy doing it... Continue Reading →
This past weekend, the weekend of my forty-first birthday, I took myself out to see the Joan Baez documentary I Am A Noise. The experience might best be summed up by a conversation I overheard between an usher and a senior citizen on the way out of the theater: Usher: How was it? Senior Citizen:... Continue Reading →
It’s amazing how just ending a baseless fantasy and committing to letting mental habits go - which has absolutely no material, quantifiable implications - still feels like a tangible loss that requires a healing process. You become aware how many things you saw through a very particular lens, and how many experiences and activities you... Continue Reading →
So, folks. The last time I wrote about my music gear situation, I had just bought a Music Production Center (the Akai MPC One) to use as the centerpiece of a laptop-less live performance rig. My thought was that building songs from sequences, then triggering them in real-time to create the backdrop I'd perform over,... Continue Reading →
The Sold Kingdom 