reviewing september 2007 through june 2009

I am happy to report that absolutely nothing happened between September 2007 (when I last posted to Urban Camouflage) and now, June 2009. Hence my silence here.

Perhaps you thought that, like every other music information site, I had begun organizing giant festival concerts rather than writing about music?

The reality is that I landed a full-time gig as Lead Editor at a animation start-up. The harsher reality is that the Global Economic Apocalypse (TM) took that job away after about 2 years. While the gig lasted it consumed a lot of my energy and therefore, there was a long silence here on Urban Camouflage.

During this stretch I kept watching the traffic on Urban Camo and am pleased that the blog has maintained an audience even without regular posts. I guess the blog has been a resource for all those millions of people looking for info about hip hop action figures, obscure musical devices, oblique pastiche rock, and sub-sub-sub-genre music documentaries.

Either way, this post is to say that I will once again be posting to Urban Camouflage, simply talking about musical developments that catch my eye as a writer, musician and consumer of music.

However, I thought I'd also say that you can check out my content in a couple of other places as well. In case you have any interests beyond music.

For the last year I've maintained a blog about the Boston Bruins called Black, White and Gold. I've been a fan of the Bruins since I was about 8 years old, and finally began writing about the club this year. As an adult, I have been part of a community that combines hockey and the arts for a long time now, and while I realize that it may seem like a strange fit for most Urban Camo readers, I recommend you just give Black, White and Gold a try. Maybe you'll learn something...even if that something is just that I'm a jock dork (you would be half-right).

You can also check out my larger-scope content on the Fauna Corporation website, which is where I will be posting my more "legit" multimedia journalism pieces, as well as my thoughts on multimedia pieces by other journalists (and a few references to posts here and on BW&G). I hope you stop by to check it out. As of this writing it is still a work in progress, but progress (especially these days) is really under-rated.

And finally, I want to apologize to those of you who wondered where the eff I had effed off to. The reality of a writer's life is that there is only so many hours in the day and energy in the tank, regardless of how much interest there may be in various topics. I hope you stick around, and check out all three sites.

Thanks for your continued interest in Urban Camouflage, Black, White and Gold, and the rest of my content production through the Fauna Corporation.

The End of Brave New Waves - Your Stories

Canada's premier weirdness radio show, Brave New Waves, has been cancelled by CBC radio.

Since 1984, Brave New Waves has been generating late-night strangeness for insomniacs and underground music fans alike. I happen to be both, so it was perfect for me.

Long before the internet was a household reality for most of us, BNW was the primary source of bringing us the newest music from outside the margins, and filling in the blanks in our music knowledge with their extensive artist features. As a reformed record-store snob, I can say that these artist profiles helped me understand the interconnections and collaborations between artists in different cities: Portland, Oregon; Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Louisville, Tennesee; Cologne, Germany. This kind of stuff used to be really important to me.

Lying in bed in the desiccated suburbs of an Okanagan town, my world expanded every night. In university, we had a party to mark Brent Bambury's last show and Patti Schmidt's first. What I've found over the last few weeks is that everyone I talk to has a similar story. Brave New Waves had a major impact on a lot of people, over the years.

Let's celebrate it.

I'm looking to collect some of these stories from Brave New Waves listeners. I am pitching pieces at various magazines about the end of BNW, and how important it was to us, and I am looking to hear some peoples' anecdotes about the show's impact on their life. This is not about getting CBC to change their decision (that can be someone else's job), it is simply about officially recognizing the cultural impact of this important show.

If you are interested in participating, either leave a comment below or email me. I'm looking for all Brave New Waves tales, be they tales of woe or tales of WHOAH!