Pop, in Service of the Good

Maybe 7 year ago or so, a bar manager for a bar in Columbus that I used to frequent, told me about how their dress code (no baggy pants, no baseball caps) was their way of excluding black clientele.  I was a bit surprised, not just because of the existence of the policy in the […]

People talk about the negative effects of auto-tune on music, but I think it’s hard to actually spell out how auto-tune affects music from an aesthetic perspective.  All things considered, I think auto-tune can be used strategically at the right time and in the right way to achieve certain aesthetic qualities.  But I wanted to […]

I will be performing at SXSW in mid-March, which will be an exciting opportunity to perform with some of the best Asian-American music talent (make that some of the best music talent) in the country. I was pleasantly surprised to see another performer at my showcase who lives in Brooklyn.  Reonda, who also designs her own line […]

This may come as a surprise to you, especially coming from an exemplar of the DIY music industry.  But I believe that many musicians should not release records for general public consumption.  The reasons are of a social justice and economic nature. When I say this, I don’t mean that musicians should not record an album […]

People sometimes ask – what does St. Lenox sound like?  I have a hard time answering that question and reading through reviews, it’s interesting to note that there’s relatively little consensus.  I’ll keep a running log of comparisons, to provide some semblance of a guide. Adam Levine (Cincinnati CityBeat) (Willfully Obscure) Billy Joel (Music. Defined.) […]

It is no secret that emotions can provide insight into important values.  However, the emotions are not themselves necessary indicators of certain types of value.  So, for instance, feelings of sadness can oftentimes indicate a loss of value – you cry when a loved one has died.  However, one might get the same feeling upon […]

Unless you adopt a pure form of an association theory in music (under which the connection between emotions and music is merely one of repeated association), you understand that music expresses human emotion in such a way that is more or less universal, and that an exploration of music and its complexities will inevitably be […]