This week’s crop of indie releases proves that the slightly amateurish can be more satisfying than the slickly professional(ish) – it’s all about inspiration and having something original to say. – JS INDIE ROUND-UP for April 7 2005 === CD: Tim Young, Red If you pine for the time when …

New York, NY, April 1 2005 Tired of being slavishly imitated by legions of marginally talented singer-songwriters, music legends Joni Mitchell, Ani DiFranco and Tori Amos announced at a press conference today that they are forming a supergroup called The I’s Have It. “Yeah, we’ll be making some music,” DiFranco …

For a well-executed mix of goofball and straight-ahead rock, Wammo is hard to beat.

This is the first regular installment of a bi-weekly review of CDs, performances, news and events that cross my path or strike my fancy. Enjoy! INDIE ROUND-UP for March 24 2005 === Cadillac Moon rocked the house at Cornelia Street Cafe last night in a return engagement. The eight-piece blues …

Marketing Playbook: The Manual for Growing Organizations The world of business is a strange one. Artsy people often think of corporations as drab, soulless places, but nothing could be further from the truth. Companies are home to many wonders and mysteries, as most anyone who’s worked in one will tell …

I've had it with remixes.

MYSHKIN’S RUBY WARBLERS: Corvidae This is an unusual fusion of cabaret, singer-songwriter, lounge-jazz and gypsy music, yet it’s not quite any of those things. Myshkin’s promo material says “Gypsy torch punk” but the word “punk” must just be an attention-grabber, because although there are faint hints of anger and brashness …

Maybe it’s because I work in computers for a living and know firsthand the perils of Version 1.0 (of anything), but when it comes to technology, I’m no early adopter. I’m a Mac specialist, but I learned to use OSX only when I had to support other OSX users. I’m …

Shame on me. For all my complaints about Maureen Dowd, I somehow failed to notice that she was the only regular female columnist at The New York Times. For that, shame on the Times. In her column today Dowd points out that the Washington Post also has only one female …

The Matthew Skoller Band makes solid, harmonica-heavy, Chicago-style blues. Skoller’s husky voice, like Stevie Ray Vaughn’s, contrasts nicely with his ace band’s smooth (but mercifully un-slick) arrangements, while his virtuoso harp playing lends both pathos and sheen to many of these mostly original tunes. This, the band’s fourth CD, opens …