There is a song that I released a few days with a reference to a Highway 80 in Kansas. The lyric references the experience of trying to drive home over the holidays in a flashback of sorts, with the protagonist trying to make it home in time to enjoy Christmas with his parents. Except, there […]
The Academic Standard for Publication of Music
posted by eponymous
In academia, the minimum standard for publishing work is two-fold. An article must say something novel, and it must say something substantial. In other words, you have to say something new and that new thing had to be important enough to publish. The standard, which we will call “the academic standard” works as a kind […]
Year of Migration Lecture – The Return Home
posted by eponymous
I was invited to give a lecture about my music videos at the University of Kentucky by the department of Musicology and Ethnomusicology, as part of the Year of Migration series. Below are the notes from that lecture, entitled “The Return Home”. ///**// The Return Home: First of all, thank you for giving me the […]
Proposal: The Expenditures Limit on Indie
posted by eponymous
I was talking with a few PR people of some repute a few months ago, and I remarked that the cost of getting any attention in the indie music scene was so cost prohibitive, that it effectively cut out even the upper-middle class from being represented in indie music. The effect of this is that […]
Perfect Strangers Interview – St. Lenox: Indie Music’s Renaissance Man
posted by eponymous
Photo Courtesy of An Rong Xu. Print Version of the Article can be obtained at: https://perfectstrangersmag.com/ St. Lenox is the singer-songwriter alter ego of Andrew Choi, who also happens to be an attorney in commercial litigation; the holder of a doctoral degree in philosophy (with a focus on Kantian ethics); and a former concert violinist […]
The Violin Competition
posted by eponymous
You wouldn’t know this, but a pet peeve I have is when people refer to me as someone who went to Juilliard. It’s an annoyance I let slide, because I think people don’t really know any better. You see, although I did go to Juilliard for a bit, attending the pre-college program, it’s actually not […]
Dog Whistle Programming
posted by eponymous
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 […]
Auto-Tune, Tuning and Emotional Impact
posted by eponymous
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 […]
Music and Social Justice / or Why Many Musicians Should Not Release Records for General Public Consumption
posted by eponymous
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 […]
The Difference Between Emotional Richness and Aesthetic Quality
posted by eponymous
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 […]