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Spoken Word

Prince, Black History Month and The Spoken Word

by Lee Christian

Prince, Black History Month and The Spoken Word by Lee Christian


I have been a Prince fan since I was 8 and first heard Let’s Go Crazy, with its ear grabbing pyrotechnic guitar ending. Since then, I’ve learned from him, copied him and even just ended up doing the same things as him by osmosis or naturally. His work ethic, energy and diversity are three touchstones of my own ‘career’ and I have many strange ethereal intangible links to prince and ‘signs’ attached to many of my fondest moments in music so far that it’s almost as if he’s been a musical guardian angel since his passing in 2016 – an event that hit me so bad that I bought a streaming package, set up a little shrine on screen and DJ’d for 3 days straight, so fans had a place to hang, and I had some way of expressing my own sense of loss and gratitude for him voluminous output and inspiring presence in my own life. My phone went off non-stop that first day, I was associated with him so much by my circle of friends, they were checking that I was ok!

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A Long Journey Over Broken Borders: from the Chicago Tapes to the Digital West

by John R. Campbell

A Long Journey Over Broken Borders: from the Chicago Tapes to the Digital West by John R. Campbell
There were a few years there–the late 60’s and early 70’s–when underground FM radio thrived in Chicago. FM was new then, not yet corporate, and it offered, on weak frequencies, some very eclectic and adventurous broadcasting. I’d stay up late at night and record from the radio—musicians I’d never heard, but who fascinated me: Sibelius, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Skip James, Ornette Coleman, Doc Boggs. The tapes had no genre boundaries or even taste parameters, really–half the time I didn’t even know if I exactly liked the stuff I was recording. I didn’t yet have enough musical context to fully appreciate it. But I craved the soundscapes the tapes created. Avant garde and folk musics seemed much the same to me. It was all musical texture—fresh and new, especially the stuff that was old.

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Meeting Lydia Lunch

by Jack Blare

Meeting Lydia Lunch

photograph taken by Sebastian Greppo

Lydia Lunch is the undisputed Queen of No Wave and is one of the most dynamic and influential artists of our time. She started Teenage Jesus & The Jerks in 1977. Since then she’s been part of numerous bands such as 8-Eyed Spy & Big Sexy Noise and worked with artists as diverse as Sonic Youth, Last Poets, Cypress Grove, Richard Kern, Christine IX, Brian Eno, James Chance, Robert Quine, Nick Cave and Rowland S. Howard of the Birthday Party. She’s published several books and memoirs like Will Work For Drugs, Incriminating Evidence & Paradoxia.

She was a pioneer in the genre of Transgressive Film and is known for her powerful spoken word performances and outspoken feminism. Lydia Lunch has been influencing musicians, poets and artists since she appeared on the scene in 1977 and bands like Sonic Youth and L7 were heavily influenced by her music and ideals. So was I, an unknown 20-something poet and noise musician from a small town in Canada. This is the story of how we first met.

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