Videos for 2009 AAA meeting

Chapters finished

I've sent in final revisions to my chapter, "Free Jazz. Punk Rock." It will appear in the forthcoming volume Nyuu jazu sutadizu [The New Jazz Studies], to be published in Japan. Fellow ethnomusicologist Dave Novak also has a chapter in the volume. Thanks to Dave for solid and challenging critiques and to Scott Carter, as always, for being my primary sounding board.

I've also completed my first draft of an article, "Music, Aesthetics, and the Technologies of Online War," for an upcoming Critical Interventions volume through Berghahn Books. Still some work to do, but it's nice to have the first draft out. I'll present a version of this paper at the American Anthropological Association conference next week, December 6. Looking forward to it.

My music

I have a few different home recording projects linked online.

Sun Silo

• Michael Gallope, synths/samples
• Jason McGrath, guitars
• Aaron McKain, bass
• Matt Sumera, drums/percussion
• Travis Workman, keyboard

Wide Open Spaces

• Matt Tracy, Guitars
• Will Tracy, Bass
• Erik Wells, Guitar
• Matt Sumera, Drums

Giant Panda

• Jack Krebs, guitar, bass, percussion, vocals, production
• Jerry Fess, cello, percussion
• Matt Sumera, drums, percussion, keyboards, vocals

Incinarator

• Scott Hreha, bass, guitar, vocals, keyboards, production
• Matt Sumera, drums, marimba, percussion, vocals, keyboards, production, samples

Aremus
Mostly solo stuff I've done over the years.

Book Chapter

I've been asked to contribute a book chapter to Berghahn Books' "Critical Interventions" series. The issue will be devoted to "Magic and the global war." Working title for my chapter: "Mapping the Auditory Logic of War on Screen."

Music and Violence: A Working Bibliography

The following bibliography reflects my own specific interests in the study of music and violence, particularly the relationships between music, war, and representation. To that end, it includes a fair amount of general literature (especially anthropological in nature) that I have found useful in thinking through these connections. It is almost exclusively a bibliography of scholarship written in English and does not include a number of excellent dissertations published in the last few years that are well worth exploring. If you have suggestions for addition, please contact me at sumera [at] wisc.edu.

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Anderson, Paul. 2006. "The World Heard: Casablanca and the Music of War." Critical Inquiry 32(3): 482-515.

Araujo, Samuel, et. al. 2006. "Conflict and Violence as Theoretical Tools in Present-Day Ethnomusicology: Notes on a Dialogic Ethnography of Sound Practices in Rio de Janeiro." Ethnomusicology 50(2):287-313.

Araujo, Samuel and Grupo Musicultura. 2010. "Sound Praxis: Music, Politics, and Violence in Brazil." In John Morgan O'Connell and Salwa El-Shawan Castelo-Branco (eds.), Music and Conflict, Urbana: University of Illinois Press; p. 217-231.

Avorgbedor, Daniel. 1994. "Freedom to sing, License to Insult: The Influence of Hal Performance on Social Violence among the Anlo-Ewe," Oral Tradition 9/1: 83-112.

________. 2001. "Competition and Conflict as a Framework for Understanding Performance Culture among the Urban Anlo-Ewe." Ethnomusicology 45:260-282.

Baer, Ulrich. 2002. Spectral Evidence: The Photography of Trauma. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Baker, Catherine. 2009. "War Memory and Musical Tradition: Commemorating Croatia's Homeland War through Popular Music and Rap in Eastern Slavonia." Journal of Contemporary European Studies 17(1):35-45.

________. 2010. Sounds of the Borderland: Popular Music, War, and Nationalism in Croatia since 1991. Burlington, VT: Ashgate.

Bannister, Roland. 1996. "Soldier-Musicians in an Australian Army Band: Understanding the Lived Experience of Gender." The Yearbook for Traditional Music 28:131-146.

________. 2002. "How are We to Write our Music History? Perspectives on the Historiography of Military Music." Musicology Australia 25:1-21.

Beckett, Wheeler. 1943. Music in War Plants. Washington D.C.: War Production Board, U.S.A.

Boonzajer Flaes, Robert M. 2000. Brass Unbound: Secret Children of the Colonial Brass Band. Amsterdam: Royal Tropical Institute.

Ceribasic, Naila. 2000. "Defining Women and Men in the Context of War: Images in Croatian Popular Music in the 1990s." In Pirkko Moisala and Beverly Diamond, eds. Music and Gender. Urbana and Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Cloonan, Martin and Bruce Johnson. 2002. "Killing Me Soflty with His Song: An Initial Investigation into the Use of Popular Music as a Tool of Oppression." Popular Music 21(1):27-39.

________. 2008. Dark Side of the Tune: Popular Music and Violence. Aldershot, England: Ashgate.

Cook, Susan C. 1994. " 'Cursed Was She': Gender and Power in American Balladry." In Susan C. Cook and Judy S. Tsou. eds. Cecilia Reclaimed: Feminist Perspectives on Gender and Music. Urbana: University of Illinois.

Cusick, Suzanne G. 2006. "Music as Torture/Music as Weapon." Revista Transcultural de Música/Transcultural Music Review. 10:1-18.

________. 2008. “ ‘You Are in a Place That is Out of the World . . .’: Music in the Detention Camps of the ‘Global War on Terror.’ ” Journal of the Society of American Music 2(1):1-26.

Das, Veena and Arthur Klienman. 2000. “Introduction” to Veena Das, Arthur Kleinman, Mamphela Ramphele, and Pamela Reynolds, eds. Violence and Subjectivity. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1-18.

________. 2001. “Introduction” to Veena Das, Arthur Kleinman, Margaret Lock, Mamphela Ramphele, and Pamela Reynolds, eds. Remaking a World: Violence, Social Suffering, and Recovery. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1-30.

Deaville, James. 2007. “The Sounds of American and Canadian Television News after 9/11: Entoning Horror and Grief, Fear and Anger.” In Jonathon Ritter and J. Martin Daughtry, eds. Music in the Post-9/11 World. London and New York: Routledge, 43-70.

Denisoff, R. Serge and William D. Romanowski. 1989. “The Pentagon’s Top Guns: Movies and Music.” The Journal of American Culture 12:67-78.

Elder, J.D. 1964. “Color, Music, and Conflict: A Study of Aggression in Trinidad with Reference to the Role of Traditional Music.” Ethnomusicology 8(2):128-136.

Farmer, Henry George. 1950. Military Music. New York: Chanticleer Press.

Feldman, Allen. 2000. “Violence and Vision: The Prosthetics and Aesthetics of Terror.” In Veena Das, Arthur Kleinman, Mamphela Ramphele, and Pamela Reynolds, eds. Violence and Subjectivity. Berkeley: University of California Press, 46-78.

George, Kenneth M. 1996. Showing Signs of Violence: The Cultural Politics of a Twentieth-Century Headhunting Ritual. Berkeley: University of California Press. Chapters 4, 6, 7.

________. 2004. “Violence, Culture, and the Indonesian Public Sphere: Reworking the Geertzian Legacy.” In Neil Whitehead, ed. Violence. Sante Fe, NM: School of American Research Press: 25-54.

Gilbert, Shirli. 2005. Music in the Holocaust: Confronting Life in the Nazi Ghettos and Camps. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Gilman, Lisa. 2010. "An American Soldier’s iPod: Layers of Identity and Situated Listening in Iraq." Music and Politics 4(2). Available online.

Gussow, Adam. 2002. Seems Like Murder Here: Southern Violence and the Blues Tradition. Chacago: The University of Chicago Press.

Hill, Errol. 1989. “Calypso and War.” Black American Literature Forum 23(1):61-88.

Hinton, Alex. 2004. “The Poetics of Genocidal Practice: Violence under the Khmer Rouge.” In Neil Whitehead, ed. Violence. Sante Fe, NM; Oxford: School of American Research Press: 157-184.

Hutson, C. Kirk. 1996. " 'Whackety Whack, Don’t Talk Back': The Glorification of Violence Against Females and the Subjugation of Women in Nineteenth-Century Southern Folk Music." Journal of Women’s History 8:114-42.

James, David. 1989. “The Vietnam War and American Music.” Social Text 23:122-143.

Jenkins, Jennifer. 2001. “ ‘Say it with Firecrackers’: Defining the ‘War Musical’ of the 1940s.” American Music 19(3):315-339.

Jones, John Bush. 2006. The Songs that Fought the War. Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press.

Kartomi, Margaret. 2010. "Toward a Methodology of War and Peace Studies in Ethnomusicology: The Case of Aceh, 1976–2009." Ethnomusicology 54(3):452-483.

Kateb, George. 2000. "Aestheticism and Morality: Their Cooperation and Hostility." Political Theory 28(1):5-37.

Kelly, Bruce and Mark Sneel, eds. 2004. Bugle Resounding: Music and Musicians of the Civil War Era. Columbia and London: University of Missouri Press.

Kleinman, Arthur, Veena Das, and Margaret Lock. 1997. “Introduction” to Arthur Kleinman, Veena Das, and Margaret Lock, eds. Social Suffering. Berkeley: University of California Press, ix-xxvii.

Kleinman, Arthur and Joan Kleinman. 1997. “The Appeal of Experience; The Dismay of Images: Cultural Appropriations of Suffering in Our Times.” in Arthur Kleinman, Veena Das, and Margaret Lock, eds. Social Suffering. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1-24.

Lewis, Jeff. 2005. Language Wars: The Role of Media and Culture in Global Terror and Political Violence. London: Pluto Press.

Longinovic, Tomislav. 2000. “Music Wars: Blood and Song at the End of Yugoslavia.” In Ronald Radano and Philip V. Bohlman, eds. Music and The Racial Imagination. Chicago: University of Chicago Press: 622-643.

Magrini, Tullia. 2000. "Manhood and Music in Western Crete: Contemplating Death." Ethnomusicology 44(3):429-459.

Massad, Joseph. 2003. “Liberating Songs: Palestine Put to Music.” Journal of Palestine Studies 32:21-38.

McDonald, David. 2009. "Poetics and the Performance of Violence in Israel/Palestine." Ethnomusicology 53:1(58-85).

McDowell, John Holmes. Poetry and Violence: The Ballad Tradition of Mexico's Costa Chica. Urbana and Chicago: Unviersty of Illinois Press.

________. 2007. “Corridos of 9/11: Mexican Ballads as Commemorative Practice.” In Jonathon Ritter and J. Martin Daughtry, eds. Music in the Post-9/11 World. London and New York: Routledge, 225-254.

McNeill, William H. 1995. Keeping Together in Time: Dance and Drill in Human History. Cambridg, MA: Harvard University Press.

Meintjes, Louise. 2004. “Shoot the Sergeant, Shatter the Mountain: The Production of Masculinity in Zulu Ngoma Song and Dance in post-Apartheid South Africa.” Ethnomusicological Forum 13(2):173-201.

Miller, Terry and Sean Williams. 1999. "Culture, Politics, and War." In Bruno Nettl, Ruth M Stone, James Porter, Timothy Rice, eds. The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Volume 4: Southeast Asia. London and New York: Routledgs, 87-94.

Moynihan, Michael and Didrik Soderlind. 1998. Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground. Los Angeles: Feral House.

Nordstrom, Carolyn and JoAnn Martin. 1992. “The Culture of Conflict: Field Reality and Theory.” In Carolyn Nordstrom and JoAnn Martin, eds. The Paths to Domination, Resistance, and Terror. Berkeley: The University of California Press, 3-17.

Ochoa, Ana María, ed. 2006. "Dossier: Música silencios y silenciamientos: música violencia y experiencia cotidiana/Dossier: Music, silences, silencings: music, violence and quotidian experience." Revista Transcultural de Música/Transcultural Music Review. 10 (December). Available online.

O'Connell, John Morgan and Salwa El-Shawan Castelo-Branco, eds. 2010. Music and Conflict. University of Illinois Press.

Ohnuki-Tierney, Emiko. 2002. “The Field of Meaning, Images, and Aesthetics.” In her Kamikaze, Cherry Blossoms, and Nationalisms: The Militarization of Aesthetics in Japanese History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 27-60.

Pettan, Svanibor. ed. 1998. Music, Politics, and War: Views from Croatia. Zagreb, Croatia: Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research.

Pieslak, Jonathon. 2007. “Sound Targets: Music and the War in Iraq.” Journal of Musicological Research 26:123-149.

________. 2009. Sound Targets: American Soldiers and Music in the Iraq War. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

Radford, Katy. 2001. “Drum Rolls and Gender Roles in Protestant Marching Bands in Belfast.” British Journal of Ethnomusicology 10(2):37-59.

Pilzer, Joshua. 2003. "Sŏdosori (Northwestern Korean Lyric Song) on the Demilitarized Zone: A Study in Music and Teleological Judgment" Ethnomusicology: 68-92.

Riches, David, ed. 1986. The Anthropology of Violence. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

Ritter, Jonathon. 2002. “Siren Songs: Ritual and Revolution in the Peruvian Andes.” British Journal of Ethnomusicology 11:9-42.

________. 2007. “Terror in an Andean Key: Peasant Cosmopolitans Interpret 9/11.” In Jonathon Ritter and J. Martin Daughtry, eds. Music in the Post-9/11 World. London and New York: Routledge, 177-208.

Ritter, Jonathon and J. Martin Daughtry, eds. 2007. Music in the Post-9/11 World. London and New York: Routledge.

Robben, Antonius C. G. M. and Carolyn Nordstrom. 1995. “The Anthropology and Ethnography of Violence and Sociopolitical Conflict.” In Antonious C. G. M. Robben and Carolyn Nordstrom, eds. Fieldwork Under Fire: Contemporary Studies of Violence and Survival. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1-25.

Russolo, Luigi. 1986. The Art of Noises. New York: Pendragon Press.

Scheper-Hughes, Nancy and Philippe Bourgois. 2004. Violence in War and Peace: An Anthology. Blackwell Readers in Anthropology.

Smith, Kathleen E.R. 2003. God Bless America: Tin Pan Alley Goes to War. Leington, KY: The University of Kentucky Press.

Stewart, Pamela and Andrew Strathern. 2002. Violence: Theory and Ethnography. London: Continuum. Chapters 1-3.

Stokes, Martin. 1994. “Introduction: Ethnicity, Identity and Music.” In Martin Stokes, ed. Ethnicity, Identity and Music: the Musical Construction of Place, ed. Martin Stokes. Oxford: Berg, 1-28.

Strathern, Andrew and Pamela Stewart. 2006. “Introduction: Terror, the Imagination, and Cosmology.” In Andrew Strathern, Pamela Stewart, and Neil Whitehead, eds. Terror & Violence. London: Pluto Press, 1-39.

Suarez-Orozco, Marcelo and Antonius C. G. M. Robben. 2000. “Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Violence and Trauma.” In Antonius C. G. M. Robben and Marcelo Suarez-Orozco, eds. Culture under Siege: Collective Violence and Trauma. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1-43.

Sweeny, Regina. 2001. Singing our Way to Victory: French Cultural Politics and Music During the Great War. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.

Taussig, Michale. 1987. Colonialism, Shamanism, and the Wild Man: A Study of Terror and Healing. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Tompkins, Dave. 2010. How to Wreck a Nice Beach. Melville Publishing House.

Urbain, Oliver, ed. 2008. Music and Conflict Transformation: Harmonies and Dissonances in Geopolitics. I. B. Tauris.

Van Alphen, Ernst. 1999. "Symptoms of Discursivity: Experience, Memory, and Trauma." In Mieke Bal, Jonathan Crewe, and Leo Spitzer, eds. Acts of Memory: Cultural Recall in the Present. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England. 24-38.

van Ordern, Kate. 2005. Music, Discipline, and Arms in Early Modern France. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Virilio, Paul. 1989. War and Cinema: The Logistics of Perception. London and New York: Verso.

Whitehead, Neil. 2004. “Introduction: Cultures, Conflicts, and the Poetics of Violent Practice.” In Neil Whitehead, ed. Violence. Sante Fe, NM; Oxford: School of American Research Press. 3-24.

________. 2004. “On the Poetics of Violence.” In Neil Whitehead, ed. Violence. Sante Fe, NM; Oxford: School of American Research Press: 55-79.

________. 2006. “Afterward: The Taste of Death.” In Andrew Strathern, Pamela Stewart, and Neil Whitehead, eds. Terror & Violence. London: Pluto Press, 231-238.

Yudice, George. 2003. The Expediency of Culture: Uses of Culture in the Global Era. Durham and London: Duke University Press.

My courses: descriptions, discographies, etc.

Music of the Americas

Music 400/Afro Am 400
Spring 2011. Undergraduate/graduate course offered at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Syllabus

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Music, Aesthetics, and War after 9/11

Music 497
Fall 2010. Undergraduate/graduate seminar offered at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Course description
Syllabus

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History of Punk Rock: 1967-1984

This was a three-day mini course offered through UW-Madison's student union.

Course description
Discography

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Jazz Sounds: Bop and Beyond

This was a five week mini course offered through UW-Madison's student union. Although I can't find the course description at the moment, I've uploaded the discography, which provides a general listening guide to all periods of jazz although it is heavily geared towards later developments.

Discography

The sound of Iranian Protest?

According to MSNBC, Iranian protest sounds a lot like The Who, "Baba O'riley." Music starts at 6:35.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Recent Updates

I successfully completed my Ph.D. preliminary exams in December 2008. Glad to have those out of the way.

In May 2008 I completed my M.A. in ethnomusciology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. My thesis, titled "Hearing War, Seeing Music: Violence, Aesthetics, and Technology in Online War Music Videos," was based on a yearlong, ethnographically-informed research project on war music videos, their creators and audiences. I plan to expand on this current research for my Ph.D. dissertation.

My article, "Free Jazz/Punk Rock," will be available in the forthcoming collection titled Nyuu jazu sutadizu [The New Jazz Studies] (Tokyo: Kirara shobou), co-edited by Micahel Molasky and Toshifumi Miyawaki. My essay addresses the intersections of the two seemingly disparate genres beginning in the late 1960s.

My current project interests include online military/war music videos; audiovision and violence; avant-garde jazz and the proto-punk movement; sound studies and ethnomuiscological theory; genres of free improvisation and Noise; post-bop jazz drumming; gender and violence in American balladry; and jazz, civil rights, and the black power movements.

Music Reviews

The following are published reviews.

All About Jazz:

• David S. Ware Quartet — Renunciation
• Evan Parker/Barry Guy/Paul Lytton — Zafiro
• Drumheller — Wives

One Final Note:

• Muhal Richard Abrams — "The Visibility of Thought"
• Braxton / Szabados / Tarasov — "Tritone"
• Anthony Braxton — "Solo (Milano) 1979, Vol. 2"
• John Butcher & Gino Robair — "New Oakland Burr"
• Jerome Cooper — "In Concert: From There To Hear"
• Whit Dickey Quartet — "Coalescence"
• Dominic Duval / Joe McPhee — "Rules Of Engagement, Vol. 2"
• The Exciting Trio — "In Chicago There Is Willy"
• James Finn — "Opening the Gates"
• James Finn Trio — "Faith in A Seed"
• Fonda / McPhee / White / Karetnick — "Heat Suite"
• Masashi Harada Condanction Ensemble — "Enterprising Mass Of Cilia"
• Elvin Jones — "The Truth: Heard Live At The Blue Note + Someday My Prince Will Come"
• Koch-Schütz-Studer — "Life Tied"
• Natasza Kurek Group — "Incantation"
• Joëlle Léandre / Mark Nauseef — "Evident"
• Léandre / Maneri / Marguet / Ryan — "For Flowers"
• Lukas Ligeti — "Mystery System"
• Kalaparush Maurice McIntyre & The Light meet Adam Lane — "Paths to Glory"
• Roscoe Mitchell — "Solo 3"
• Jemeel Moondoc — "Live At The Glenn Miller Café, Vol. 1 + Live At The Vision Festival"
• Simon Nabatov Trio — "Autumn Music"
• Kevin Norton — "Ocean Of Earth + Intuitive Structures"
• Parker / Schlippenbach / Lytton — "America 2003"
• Pauline Oliveros & Reynols — "The Minexcio Connection : Live! At The Rosendale Café"
• Evelyn Petrova — "Year's Cycle"
• Phillips / Léandre / Parker / Saitoh — "After You Gone"
• Plunge — "Plunge"
• Sawai / Doneda / Imai / Lê Quan / Saitoh — "Une chance pour l'ombre"
• Sirone Bang Ensemble — "Configuration"
• Soft Machine — "Live in Paris: May 2, 1972"
• Sun Ra Arkestra — "Music For The 21st Century"
• Cecil Taylor — "Algonquin"
• Cecil Taylor — "Almeda + All The Notes"
• Tigersmilk — "From the Bottle"
• Assif Tsahar / Tatsuya Nakatani — "Come Sunday"
• Bertram & Nancy Turetzky — "Music For Flute(s) And Contrabass, I"
• Matt Wilson's Arts and Crafts — "Wake Up! (To What's Happening)"

Trouser Press:

• Sonny Sharrock

Publications

The following publications are organized chronologically.

Academic Publications

• War's Audiovisions: Music, Affect, and the Representation of Contemporary Conflict. 2013. Ph.D. Dissertation. University of Wisconsin-Madison
• "Understanding the Pleasures of War's Audiovison." 2013. In The Oxford Handbook of Sound and Image in Digital Media, Claudia Gorbman, John Richardson, and Carol Vernallis, eds.
• "The Soundtrack to War." 2013. In Virtual War and Magical Death: Technologies and Imaginaries for Terror and Killing, Neil Whitehead and Sverker Finnstrom, eds. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
• Review of Jonathan Pieslak's Sound Targets: American Soldiers and Music in the Iraq War. Forthcoming. Asian Music.
• "Madison." Forthcoming. The Grove Dictionary of American Music, Second Edition. Oxford University Press.
• "Music, Aesthetics, and the Technologies of Online War." 2011. In War, Technology, Anthropology, ed. Koen Stroeken. Oxford: Berghahn Books.
• "Black Rage, White Noise: The Jazz/Punk Connection." 2010. New Horizons in Jazz Research, ed. Michael Molasky. Tokyo: Artes.
• Hearing War, Seeing Music: Violence, Aesthetics, and Technology in Online War Music Videos. 2008. M.A. Thesis. University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Liner Notes

• Notes to Wadada Leo Smith's Ten Freedom Summers. 2012.
• Notes to Harris Eisenstadt's The Soul and Gone. 2005.

Music Journalism

• What's that sound? — Feature story about the University of Minnesota's annual Spark festival. (Winter 2009)
• Wadada Leo Smith: The OFN Interview [part 2] — Second part of hour-long interview with Smith.
• Dropping Acid And Speaking Esperanto, Man!: The Return Of ESP-Disk — Review of the legendary label's not so triumphant return.
• Wadada Leo Smith : The OFN Interview [part 1] — Part one of an hour-long interview with trumpeter, improviser, composer Smith.
• Penguin Guide to Jazz, Seventh Edition — Book review of the now standard jazz guide.
• Albert Ayler: Holy Ghost — Box set review, co-written with Scott Hreha of One Final Note.
• Harris Eisenstadt: The Next Wave — Profile of drummer, improviser, composer Eisenstadt.
• 11th Annual Guelph Jazz Festival & Colloquium — Review of 2004 season.
• The Completist Syndrome, Part 2 : Bootlegs — An off the cuff look into the nature of unofficial recordings.
• The Completist Syndrome, Part 1: Official Recordings — A turn towards the fetishism of music collecting.
• Red Toucan : Then And Now — Red Toucan Records label retrospective.
• The Roaring Silence: In Memory of Elvin Jones — Threnody for the late Elvin Jones.
• Greetings: Poetry Journal — Essay review of poetry/music journal.
• Mixing it up at Northrop — Feature story about the 10th anniversary of the Northrop Jazz Season. (Winter 2004)
• The Healing Power of Music — Reflections on the power of Jazz as embodied by the music of Elvin Jones. Originally published in Modern Drummer magazine.

Conference Papers and Invited Talks

• "Audiovisual Nodes of Musical Destruction." Institute for Advanced Studies Music and Sound Studies Collaborative. University of Minnesota Twin Cities. (February 24, 2014). Minneapolis, MN. 
• "Music and Representation at the Violent Edge of Empire." Music, Race, Empire Research Circle. University of Wisconsin-Madison. (January 31, 2011). Madison, WI.
• "Ethnomusicology and Human Rights." Invited panel respondent to "Cross-Disciplinary Conversations I. Sustained Engagement: Anthropology, Community Collaboration and Human Rights." Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Meeting. (November 11-14, 2010). Los Angeles, CA.
• "Music, Aesthetics, and the Technologies of Online War." American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting. (December 2-6, 2009). Philadelphia, PA.
• "Music, Aesthetics, and the Technologies of Online War." Midwest Chapter, Society for Ethnomusicology. (May 15–16, 2009). Minneapolis, MN. [Winner of JaFran Jones Award for best student paper].
• "Pitfalls in the Study of Music and Violence." Roundtable Participant. Society for Ethnomusicology. (October 25-28, 2008). Middletown, CT.
• "Banal Militarism and Online Musical Culture." Society for Ethnomusicology. (October 25-28, 2007). Columbus, OH.
• "Toward an Ethnomusicology of Violence." National Graduate Conference for Ethnomusicology: New Directions in Music. (July 7-9, 2006). Cambridge, U.K.
• "Teenage Kicks: The Meanings of John Peel." Merging Methodologies 3. Of Global Concern: Communications and Media Research. (February 11, 2006). Madison, WI.
• "Max Roach's Politics of Sound." Improvising America: KU Interdisciplinary Jazz Studies Colloquium. (March 3, 2005). Lawrence, KS.
• "Lone Voices: Solo Improvisation and Vocality". 2004 Guelph Jazz Colloquium. (September 8, 2004). Guelph, Ontario, Canada.

Favorite Recordings

Below is a listing of recordings with special resonance for me. Conceived as nothing more than a bit of fun, this list nonetheless is an attempt at mapping one person's musical tastes and appreciations. To that end, it might prove interesting to some, ridiculous to others. Regardless, here are the recordings I find myself returning to, again and again. [last updated August 1, 2010]

Band/Artist, Recording

• ABBA, Gold: Greatest Hits
• AC/DC, Highway to Hell
• Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Bestial Machinery
• Air, Air Time
• Rashied Ali and Frank Lowe, Duo Exchange
• Hossein Alizadeh, Hejrani
• Turgun Alimatov, Ouzbekistan
• Maryanne Amacher, Sound Characters 2 (Making Sonic Spaces)
• AMM, AMMmusic 1966
• AMM, Nameless Uncarved Block
• AMM, Newfoundland
• Albert Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis, The First Day
• Alcest, Souvenirs d'un Autre Monde
• Anaal Nathrakh, The Codex Necro
• Arcade Fire, Funeral
• Louis Armstrong, Complete Hot 5s and Hot 7s
• Mulatu Astatke and the Heliocentrics, Inspiration Information, Vol. 3
• Autechre, Tri Repetae
• Autechre, LP5
• Autopsy, Severed Survival
• Albert Ayler, Spiritual Unity
• Albert Ayler, Witches and Devils
• Albert Ayler, Live in Greenwich Village: The Complete Impulse Recordings
  
• Albert Ayler, Holy Ghost
• Bad Brains, Bad Brains
• Bad Brains, Rock for Light
• Bad Brains, I Against I
• Bahauddin Qutbuddin Qawwal & Party, Flight of the Soul: Qawwali Music from Pakistan
• Derek Bailey, Takes Fakes and Dead She Dances
• Derek Bailey, Arcana
• Derek Bailey and John Stevens, Playing
• Derek Bailey/George Lewis/John Zorn, Yankees
• The Band, The Band
• The Band, Music from Big Pink
• Barbecue Bob, Chocolate to the Bone
• Bardo Pond, Bufo Alvarius
• Bark Psychosis, Codename: Dustsucker
• Bark Psychosis, Hex
• Bela Bartok, Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta
• Count Basie, The Complete Decca Recordings 
• The Beach Boys, Pet Sounds
• The Beatles, Abbey Road
• Behemoth, Demigod
• Robert Belfour, What's Wrong With You
• Alban Berg, Wozzeck
• Big Bill Broonzy, The Young Bill Broonzy (1928-1935)
• Big Bill Broonzy, Good Time Tonight
• Big Maceo, Big Maceo, Volume 1: "Flying Boogie" (1941-1945)
• Big Star, #1 Record/Radio City
• Big Star, Sister Lovers
• Bikini Kill, The CD Version of the First Two Records
• Björk, Homogenize
• Björk, Vespertine
• Black Flag, The First Four Years
• Black Flag, Damaged
• Ran Blake, The Short Life of Barbara Monk
• Art Blakey, A Night at Birdland, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2
• Art Blakey, Jazz Messengers With Thelonious Monk
• Paul Bley, Closer
• Paul Bley/Evan Parker/Barre Phillips, Time Will Tell
• Blind Blake, The Best of Blind Blake
• Blind Lemon Jefferson, King of the Country Blues
• Blind Lemon Jefferson, Classic Recordings of the 1920's
• Blind Roosevelt Graves, Complete Recorded Works (1929-1936)
• Blind Willie Johnson, Sweeter as the Years Go By
• Blind Willie Johnson, The Complete Blind Willie Johnson
• Blind Willie McTell, Pig 'n Whistle Red
• Blind Willie McTell, The Definitive Blind Willie McTell
• Blut Aus Nord, 777: Sect(s)
• Blut Aus Nord, 777: Cosmosophy
• Bo Diddley, The Definitive Collection
• Olivia Block, Change Ringing
• Bolt Thrower, Realm of Chaos
• Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago
• Bonnie "Prince" Billy, I See a Darkness
• Borbetomagus, Barbed Wire Maggots
• Boris, Pink
• Boris and Merzbow, Sun Baked Snow Cave
• Pierre Boulez, ...Explosante-Fixe...
• David Bowie, Hunky Dory
• David Bowie, Station to Station
• David Bowie, Heroes
• David Bowie, Low
• Anthony Braxton, For Alto
• Anthony Braxton, Coventry (1985)
• Anthony Braxton, Eugene (1989)
• Anthony Braxton, The Complete Arista Recordings of Anthony Braxton
• Brian Carpenter's Ghost Train Orchestra, Hothouse Stomp: The Music of 1920s Chicago and Harlem
• Peter Brotzmann, Machine Gun
• Peter Brotzmann, Die Like a Dog Quartet: Complete FMP Recordings
• Peter Brotzmann, The Chicago Octet/Tentet
• David Thomas Broughton, The Complete Guide to Insufficiency
• Clifford Brown, Complete Blue Note and Pacific Jazz Recordings
• Earle Brown, Earle Brown
• James Brown, Star Time
• James Brown, In the Jungle Groove
• James Brown, Funk Power 1970: A Brand New Thang
• Brutal Truth, Need to Control
• Burial, Untrue
• Burnt Sugar, The Rites: Conductions Inspired by Stravinsky's Le Sacre Du Printemps
• Burzum, Hvis Lyset Tar Oss
• Butthole Surfers, Psychic....Powerless....Another Man's Sac
• Butthole Surfers, Hairway to Steven
• The Buzzcocks, Singles Going Steady
• Cabaret Voltaire, The Original Sound of Sheffield, '78/'82 Best Of
• Can, Tago Mago
• Can, Monster Movie
• Can, Future Days
• Can, Ege Bamyasi
• Can, The Lost Tapes
• Gus Cannon, The Best of Cannon's Jug Stompers
• Captain Beefheart, Trout Mask Replica
• Carcass, Necroticism: Descanting the Insalubrious
• Carcass, Heartwork
• Neko Case, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
• Johnny Cash, American Recordings
• Johnny Cash, The Sun Years
• Johnny Cash, At San Quentin
• Johnny Cash, My Mother's Hymn Book
• Cat Power, Moonpix
• Cat Power, You Are Free
• Cat Power, The Greatest
• Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The Boatman's Call
• Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus
• Celtic Frost, Into the Pandemonium
• Don Cherry, Complete Blue Note Recordings
• Don Cherry, Mu (Parts One and Two)
• Frederic Chopin, Polonaises
• The Clash, London Calling
• The Claudia Quintet, For
• Patsy Cline, 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection
  
• Clipse, Hell Hath No Fury
• Leonard Cohen, Songs of Love and Hate
• Leonard Cohen, The Best of Leonard Cohen
• Ornette Coleman, Beauty is a Rare Thing (Complete Atlantic Recordings)
• Willie Colon/Ruben Blades, Siembra
• John Coltrane, My Favorite Things
• John Coltrane, Africa/Brass
• John Coltrane, Complete 1961 Live at the Village Vanguard
• John Coltrane, A Love Supreme
• John Coltrane, Ascension
• John Coltrane, Meditations
• John Coltrane, Interstellar Space
• Concrete Blonde, Bloodletting
• The Congos, Heart of the Congos
• The Congos, Sun Araw, and M. Geddes Gengras, Icon Give Thank
• Converge, Jane Doe
• Converge, Axe To Fall
• Sam Cooke, Portrait of a Legend: 1951-1964
• Chick Corea, Now He Sings, Now He Sobs
• Chick Corea, The Complete "Is" Sessions
• Chick Corea, Return to Forever
• Elvis Costello, Armed Forces
• Elvis Costello, Imperial Bedroom
• Creedence Clearwater Revival, Chronicle
• Marilyn Crispell, Santuerio
• Marilyn Crispell, Nothing ever was, anyway: Music of Annette Peacock
• Sonny Criss, Sonny's Dream (Birth of the New Cool)
• Culture Musical Club, Taarab 1: The Music Of Zanzibar
• The Cure, Boys Don't Cry
• The Cure, Pornography
• The Cure, Disintegration 
• The Cure, Staring at the Sea: The Singles
• Andrew Cyrille, Metamusicians' Stomp
• Daft Punk, Discovery
• The Damned, Damned, Damned, Damned
• D'Angelo, Brown Sugar
• D'Angelo, Voodoo
• Darkthrone, Transilvanian Hunger
• Darkthrone, A Blaze in the Northern Sky
• Miles Davis, Kind of Blue
• Miles Davis, Complete Live at the Plugged Nickle
• Miles Davis, Live at the Fillmore East (March 7, 1970) - It's About That Time
• Miles Davis, Bitches Brew
• Miles Davis, In a Silent Way
• Miles Davis, Live-Evil
• Dead Kennedys, Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
• Death, Human
• Death Grips, The Money Store
• Claude Debussy, Preludes, I & II (Performed by Walter Gieseking)
• Deicide, Deicide
• Dillinger Escape Plan, Calculating Infinity
• Dillinger Escape Plan, Ire Works
• Dinosaur Jr., You're Living All Over Me
• Dirty Projectors, Rise Above
• Dirty Projectors, Bitte Orca
• Discharge, Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing
• dj /rupture, Gold Teeth Thief
• DNA, DNA on DNA
• Dr. Dre, The Chronic
• Eric Dolphy, At the Five Spot, Vol. 1
• Eric Dolphy, Out to Lunch
• Eric Dolphy, Far Cry
• Champion Jack Dupree, Blues From the Gutter
• Nick Drake, Bryter Layter
• Nick Drake, Pink Moon
• Drive By Truckers, Southern Rock Opera
• Bob Dylan, Bringing it All Back Home
• Bob Dylan, Highway 61 Revisited
• Bob Dylan, Blonde on Blonde
• Bob Dylan, The Bootleg Series, Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live, 1966: The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert
• Bob Dylan, Blood on the Tracks
• Bob Dylan and the Band, The Basement Tapes
• Bob Dylan, "Love and Theft"
• Bob Dylan, Modern Times
• Snooks Eaglin, New Orleans Street Singer
• Einstürzende Neubauten, Strategies Against Architecture '80-'83
• Hamza El Din, Escalay (The Water Wheel)
• Earth, Earth 2
• Earth, Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light 1
• Earth, Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light 2
• Electric Wizard, Dopethrone
• Duke Ellington, Never no Lament: Complete Blanton-Webster Band
• Duke Ellington, The Far East Suite
• Duke Ellington, . . . And His Mother Called Him Bill
• Missy Elliott, Supa Dupa Fly
• Missy Elliott, Miss E... So Addictive
• Eminem, The Marshall Mathers LP
• Emperor, In the Nightside Eclipse
• Brian Eno, Hear Come the Warm Jets
• Brian Eno, Before and After Science
• Brian Eno, Another Green World
• Brian Eno, Ambient 1: Music for Airports
• Eureka Brass Band, New Orleans Funeral & Parade
• Bill Evans, Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961 
• Everly Brothers, All-Time Original Hits
• The Faces, A Nod is as Good as a Wink... To a Blind Horse
• Art Farmer, Blame it on My Youth
  
• Faust, Faust IV
• The Feelies, Crazy Rhythms
• fIREHOSE, Ragin' Full-On
• Fishbone, Truth and Soul
• Flipper, Generic
• Four Tet, Rounds
• Aretha Franklin, I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You
• Fugazi, 13 Songs
• Fugazi, Repeater
• The Ganelin Trio, Ancora Da Capo
• Gang of Four, Entertainment!
• Gang Star, Daily Operation
• Djivan Gasparyan, I Will Not Be Sad in this World
• Marvin Gaye, What's Going On?
• Charles Gayle, Repent
• Charles Gayle, Translations
• Charles Gayle, Touchin' on Trane
• Geinoh Yamashirogumi, Osorezan/Dou No Kenbai
• The Germs, M.I.A.: The Complete Anthology
• Ghostface Killer, Supreme Clientele
• Jimmy Giuffre, Free Fall
• Godflesh, Streetcleaner
• Godflesh, Pure
• Gong, Camembert Electrique
• Guided By Voices, Bee Thousand
• The Gun Club, Fire of Love
• Merle Haggard, Hag: The Best of Merle Haggard
• Herbie Hancock, Madien Voyage
• Masashi Harada, Enterprising Mass of Cilia
• Billy Hart, Enchance
• Harvey Milk, Courtesy And Good Will Toward Men
• P.J. Harvey, Dry
• P.J. Harvey, Rid of Me
• P.J. Harvey, To Bring You My Love
• P.J. Harvey, Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea 
• Fletcher Henderson, A Study in Frustration
• Henry Cow, Unrest
• Andrew Hill, Point of Departure
• Andrew Hill, Black Fire
• Andrew Hill, Judgment!
• Roscoe Holcomb, The High Lonesome Sound
• Dave Holland, Conference of the Birds
• Horseback, Half Blood
• Horseback, A Plague of Knowing
• Mississippi John Hurt, 1928 Sessions
• Bobby Hutcherson, Dialogue
• Bobby Hutcherson, Head On
• Hüsker Dü, Zen Arcade
• Immortal, Pure Holocaust
• Immortal, At the Heart of Winter
• The Jam, All Mod Cons
• Skip James, Complete Early Recordings
• Keith Jarrett, The Survivors' Suite
• The Jazz Composer's Orchestra, The Jazz Composer's Orchestra
• J Dilla, Donuts
• Waylon Jennings, Honky Tonk Heroes
• Jesu, Jesu
• The Jesus & Mary Chain, Psychocandy
• The Jesus Lizard, Liar
  
• Beau Jocque and the Zydeco Hi-Rollers, Git it, Beau Jocque!
• Joy Division, Unknown Pleasures
• Joy Division, Closer
• Joy Division, Substance
• Salif Keita, Moffou
• Killer Mike, R.A.P. Music
• Junior Kimbrough, Most Things Haven't Worked Out
• King Crimson, Red
• King Crimson, Discipline
• The Kinks, Face to Face
• The Kinks, Something Else by the Kinks
• The Kinks, The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society
• Lee Konitz, Motion
• Kreator, Terrible Certainty
• Fela Kuti, Expensive Shit/He Miss Road
• Fela Kuti, Zombie
• Fela Kuti, Original Suffer Head/I.T.T.
• Lady Gaga, The Fame Monster
• Latin Playboys, Latin Playboys
• La Vendetta, Amanece En El Infierno
• Leadbelly, The Library of Congress Recordings
• Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin 
• Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II
• Led Zeppelin, Physical Graffiti
• Led Zeppelin, Houses of the Holy
• John Lennon, Plastic Ono Band
• George Lewis, Homage to Charles Parker
• Dave Liebman/Evan Parker/Tony Bianco, Relevance
• György Ligeti, The Ligeti Project
• Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III
• Lurker of Chalice, Lurker of Chalice
• Loretta Lynn, Van Lear Rose
• Lynyrd Skynyrd, (Pronounced 'Leh-'Nérd 'Skin-'Nérd)
• Madvillain, Madvillainy
• Bob Marley, Catch a Fire
• Bob Marley, Burnin'
• Bob Marley, Natty Dread
• Bob Marley, Songs of Freedom
• Mastodon, Blood Mountain
• Mastodon, Crack the Skye
• Curtis Mayfield, Superfly
• Mayhem, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas
• Meat Puppets, Meat Puppets II
• Melvins, Ozma/Gluey Porch Treatments
• Metallica, Master of Puppets
• Metallica . . . And Justice for All
• Pat Metheny/Ornette Coleman, Song X
• M.I.A., Piracy Funds Terrorism Vol. 1
• M.I.A., Kala
• Charles Mingus, Ah Um
• Charles Mingus, Mingus at Antibes
• Charles Mingus, Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
• Charles Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus
• Charles Mingus, Cornell 1964
• Minor Threat, Complete Discography
• Minutemen, Double Nickels on the Dime
• Minutemen, Post-Mersh Vol. 1, Vol. 2, and Vol. 3
• Misfits, Collection
• Mission of Burma, Signals, Calls, and Marches
• Mission of Burma, The Obliterati
• Roscoe Mitchell, Sound
• Roscoe Mitchell, Composition/Improvisation Nos. 1, 2, 3
• Moby, Everything is Wrong
• Moby, Play
• Modern Jazz Quartet, Dedicated to Connie
• The Modern Lovers, The Modern Lovers
• Thelonious Monk, Brilliant Corners
• Thelonious Monk, Complete Blue Note Recordings
• Thelonious Monk Quartet With John Coltrane, At Carnegie Hall
• Bill Monroe, The Very Best of Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys
• Bill Monroe and Doc Watson, Live Recordings 1963-1980: Off the Record, Vol 2 
• Van Morrison, Astral Weeks
• Jelly Roll Morton, Jelly Roll Morton, Vols. 1-5
• Paul Motian, Monk in Motian
• Paul Motian, Trioism
• Muddy Waters, The Complete Plantation Recordings
• Mudhoney, Superfuzz Bigmuff
• Mujician, There's No Going Back Now
• Mujician, Colours Fulfilled
• Sunny Murray, Sonny's Time Now
• My Bloody Valentine, Loveless
• My Morning Jacket, It Still Moves
• Nachtmystium, Assassins: Black Meddle Pt. 1
• Napalm Death, Scum
• Napalm Death, From Enslavement to Obliteration
• Napalm Death, Fear, Emptiness, Despair
• Nas, Illmatic
• Willie Nelson, Red Headed Stranger
• Neu!, Neu!
• Neu!, Neu! 2
• Neu!, Neu! 75
• Neurosis, The Word as Law
• Neurosis, Through Silver in Blood
• Neurosis, Times of Grace
• Neurosis, Given to the Rising
• New Order, Substance
  
• Joanna Newsome, Ys
• The New York Art Quartet, Old Stuff
• Nile, In Their Darkened Shrines
• Nomeansno, Wrong
• Luigi Nono, Complete Works for Solo Tape
• Kevin Norton/Joelle Leandre/Tomas Ulrich, Ocean of Earth
• Nurse With Wound, Chance Meeting on a Dissection Table
• N.W.A., Straight Outta Compton
• Obituary, Cause of Death
• Sinéad O'Connor, The Lion and the Cobra
• Of Montreal, Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
• Operation Ivy, Energy
• Opeth, Blackwater Park
• Outkast, Stankonia
• Outkast, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
• Tony Oxley Quintet, The Baptised Traveler
• Agustus Pablo, King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown
• Pallbearer, Sorrow and Extinction
• Owen Pallett, Heartland
• Pan Sonic, Kesto (234.48:4)
• Charlie Parker, The Complete Savoy and Dial Studio Recordings, 1944-1948  
• Evan Parker and Eddie Prevost, Most Materiall
• Evan Parker/Alexander von Schlippenbach/Paul Lytton, America 2003
• William Parker, Compassion Seizes Bed-Stuy
• Gram Parsons, Grievous Angel
• Charley Patton, The Complete Recorded Works
  
• Pavement, Slanted and Enchanted
• Art Pepper, Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section
• Pere Ubu, Terminal Tower
• Pere Ubu, The Modern Dance
• Lee "Scratch" Perry, Arkology
• Liz Phair, Exile in Guyville
• Astor Piazzolla, Tango: Zero Hour
• Pig Destroyer, Prowler in the Yard
• Pig Destroyer, Terrifyer
• Richard Pinhas/Merzbow, Keio Line!
• Pink Floyd, Piper at the Gates of Dawn
• Pink Floyd, Relics
• Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here
• Iggy Pop, The Idiot
• Popol Vuh, Aguirre
• Bud Powell, The Amazing Bud Powell, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2
• Prince, Purple Rain
• Public Enemy, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
• Public Enemy, Fear of a Black Planet
• Don Pullen, New Beginnings
• Pyramids & Horseback, A Throne Without a King
• Bahauddin Qutbuddin Qawwal & Party, Flight of the Soul -- Qawwali From Pakistan
• Radian, Juxtaposition
• Eliane Radigue, Eliane Radigue
• Radio Birdman, The Essential Radio Birdman (1974-1978)
• Raein, Il N'y A Pass De Orchestre
• The Raincoats, The Raincoats
• The Ramones, Ramones
• Otis Redding, Otis Blue
• Lou Reed, Transformer
• Lou Reed, New York
• R.E.M., Document
• R.E.M., Automatic For The People
• Marc Ribot, Shrek
• Little Richard, Here's Little Richard
• Sam Rivers/Adam Rudolph/Harris Eisenstadt, Vista
• Max Roach, We Insist! Freedom Now Suite
• Max Roach, Percussion Bitter Sweet
• Jimmie Rodgers, Essential Jimmie Rodgers
• John Stevens, Chemistry
• Rolling Stones, Beggars Banquet
• Rolling Stones, Let it Bleed
• Rolling Stones, Sticky Fingers
• Rolling Stones, Exile in Mainstreet
• Sonny Rollins, Saxophone Colossus
• Sonny Rollins, A Night at the Village Vanguard
• Roni Size/Reprazent, New Forms
• The Roots, Game Theory
• Rova::Orkestrova, Electric Ascension: An Interpretation of John Coltrane's Ascension
• Rudimentary Peni, Cacophony
• Run-DMC, Raising Hell
• George Russell, Ezz-thetics
• The Saints, (I'm) Stranded
• Kazue Sawai/Michel Doneda/Kazuo Imai/Le Quan Ninh/Tetsu Saitoh, Une Chance Pour L'ombre
• Janek Schaefer, Le Petit Theatre De Mercelis
• Alexander von Schlippenbach, The Living Music
• Alexander von Schlippenbach Trio, Pakistani Pomade
• Alexander von Schlippenbach, Monk's Casino
• Arnold Schoenberg, Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21; The Book of the Hanging Gardens, Op. 15 (sung by Jan de Gaetani)
• Arnold Schoenberg, Orchestral Works
• Sebadoh, III
• Sepultura, Roots
• Sex Pistol, Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols
• Sonny Sharrock, Ask the Ages
• Siege, Drop Dead
• Sigur Rós, Ágætis Byrjun
• Slayer, Reign in Blood
• Slayer, Season in the Abyss
• Sleater-Kinney, The Woods
• The Slits, Cut
• Bessie Smith, Queen of the Blues
• The Smiths, The Queen is Dead
• Wadada Leo Smith, Tabligh
• Wadada Leo Smith, Spiritual Dimensions
• Wadada Leo Smith, Ten Freedom Summers
• Social Distortion, Mommy's Little Monster
• Son House, The Original Delta Blues
• Sonic Youth, Sister
• Sonic Youth, Daydream Nation
• Spontaneous Music Ensemble, New Distance
• The Specials, The Specials
• Phil Spector, Back to Mono (1958-1969)
  
• Alexander 'Skip' Spence, Oar
• Spontaneous Music Ensemble, Karyobin
• Dusty Springfield, Dusty In Memphis
• Spring Heel Jack, Amassed
• Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run
• Bruce Springsteen, Nebraska
• Bruce Springsteen, Born in the U.S.A.
• Tomasz Stanko, Leosia
• Cat Stevens, The Very Best of Cat Stevens
• John Stevens, Chemistry
• Rod Stewart, Every Picture Tells a Story
• Stiff Little Fingers, Inflammable Material
• Karlheinz Stockhausen, Kontakte für elektronische, Klänge und Schlagzeug
• Karlheinz Stockhausen, Aus den sieben Tagen
• The Stone Roses, The Stone Roses
• The Stooges, Raw Power
• The Stooges, Funhouse
• Subhumans, The Day the Country Died
• Morton Subotnick, Volume 1: Electronic Works
• Sunn O))), Black One
• Sun Ra, Jazz in Silhouette
• Sun Ra, Heliocentric Worlds Vol. I
• Sun Ra, The Magic City
• Swans, Cop
• Swans, Children of God/World of Skin
• Swans, The Seer
• Craig Taborn, Junk Magic
• Talk Talk, Laughing Stock
• Talking Heads, Remain in Light
• Talking Heads, Fear of Music
• Art Tatum, The Complete Pablo Solo Masterpieces
• Art Tatum, The Complete Pablo Group Masterpieces
• Cecil Taylor, Nefertiti, The Beautiful One Has Come
• Cecil Taylor, In Floresence
• Cecil Taylor, Dark to Themselves
• Cecil Taylor, Leaf Palm Hand
• Cecil Taylor, Remembrance
• Cecil Taylor, Celebrated Blazons (The Feel Trio)
• Television, Marquee Moon
• Richard and Linda Thompson, Pour Down Like Silver
• Richard and Linda Thompson, Shoot out the Lights
• Justin Timberlake, FutureSex / LoveSounds
• TLC, Crazysexycool
• Veljo Tormis, Litany to Thunder
• T-Rex, Electric Warrior
• Tricky, Maxinquaye
• TV On The Radio, Return to Cookie Mountain
• James "Blood" Ulmer, Tales of Captain Black
• James "Blood" Ulmer, Are You Glad to Be in America?
• James "Blood" Ulmer, Odyssey
• U2, War
• Ufomammut, ORO: Opus Primum
• Unwound, Fake Train
• Urinals, Negative Capability... Check it Out
• Various Artists, Anthology of American Folk Music Vol. 1-3
• Various Artists, Anthology of Indian Classical Music: A Tribute to Alain Daniélou
• Various Artists, Atlantic Rhythm & Blues 1947-1974
• Various Artists, Bali: Music From the Morning of the World
• Various Artists, Bamboo on the Mountains: Kmhmu Highlanders from Southeast Asia and the U.S. 
• Various Artists, Benin: Bariba And Somba Music
• Various Artists: Big Brazos--Deep River of Song
• Various Artists, Bulgarie: Pirin (Anthologie De La Musique Bulgare Vol. 4)
• Various Artists, Chess Blues
• Various Artists, The Complete Stax/Volt Singles: 1959-1968
• Various Artists, Country Southern Blues
• Various Artists, El Mero Merengue - Lo Mejor del Perico Ripiao
• Various Artists, Extreme Music from Africa
• Various Artists, Grind Crusher
• Various Artists, Grind Madness at the BBC
• Various Artists, Hitsville USA: The Motown Singles Collection 1959-1971
• Various Artists, Hsaing Waing of Mayanmar
• Various Artists, Improvised Music From Japan
• Various Artists, I Can't Be Satisfied: Early American Blues Singers Vol. 1, Country
• Various Artists, Jazzactuel
• Various Artists, Music of the Baganda People
• Various Artists, Music of Zanzibar: Taarab 3
• Various Artists, New York Noise: Dance Music From The New York Underground 1978-1982
• Various Artists, Prison Songs: Historical Recordings from Parchman Farm, 1947-48, Vol 1: Murderous Home
• Various Artists, Prison Songs: Historical Recordings from Parchman Farm, 1947-48, Vol 2: 
Don'tcha Hear Poor Mother Calling
• Various Artists, Sumatra: Musiques De Batak Karo, Toba, Simalungun
• Various Artists, The Slide Guitar: Bottles, Knives, & Steel, Vol. 1
• Various Artists, The Soul of Mbira: Traditions of the Shona People
• Various Artists, Songs of the South
• Various Artists, Soul Hits of the '70s: Didn’t it Blow Your Mind, Vol. 2
• Various Artists, Tropicalia Essentials
• The Velvet Underground, The Velvet Underground and Nico
• The Velvet Underground, The Velvet Underground
• Caetano Veloso, Caetano Veloso [Tropicalia]
• Edward Vesala, Lumi
• Violent Femmes, Violent Femmes
• Voivod, Nothingface
• Tom Waits, Rain Dogs
• Sippie Wallace, Women Be Wise
• Anton Webern, Complete Webern (Conducted by Boulez)
• Ben Webster and Oscar Peterson, Ben Webster Meets Oscar Peterson
• Gillian Welch, Time (The Revelator)
• Kanye West, The College Dropout
• Kenny Wheeler, Angel Song
• The White Stripes, White Blood Cells
• Sonny Boy Williamson, Bluebird Blues -- When the Sun Goes Down Series
• Tony Williams, Emergency!
• Tony Williams, (Turn it Over)
• Hank Williams, 40 Greatest Hits
• Lucinda Williams, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
• Brian Wilson, Smile
• Wire, Pink Flag
• Wire, Chairs Missing
• Jimmy Witherspoon, The 'Spoon Concerts
• Wolves in the Throne Room, Two Hunters
• Stevie Wonder, Innervisions
• Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, Express Yourself
• Wu-Tang Clan, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
• Iannis Xenakis, Electronic Music
• Dwight Yokam, 3 Pears
• Yo La Tengo, I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One
• Larry Young, Unity
• Neil Young, Tonight's The Night
• Neil Young, Decade
• Neil Young, On the Beach
• John Zorn, The Big Gundown

American Anthropological Association Conference Panel

I'm honored to have been asked to participate in a panel at the AAA meeting in December 2009. The panel, "Virtual War and Magical Death: Technologies and Imaginaries for Killing and Terror" is co-organized by Neil Whitehead, Sverker Finnstrom, and Koen Stroeken. Participants, presentation schedule, and paper titles include:

Robertson Allen, "Virtual Citizen-Soldiers: U.S. Army Video Game Designers go to Basic Combat Training"
Matthew Sumera, "Music, Aesthetics, and the Technologies of Online War"
R. Brian Ferguson, "Anthropology as We Know It--A Casualty of War?"
Sverker Finnstrom, "Humanitarian death? The Lord's Resistance Army (Uganda) and international interventions as magical terror"
Roberto Gonzales, " 'Forecasting' Insurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan"
Jeff Sluka, "Cyber-War in the Tribal Zone: Airstrikes, Drones, and Civilian Casualties in the ‘War on Terrorism’ in Afghanistan and Pakistan"
Antonius Robben, "Chaos and the Techno-Imaginary of Combat"
Victoria Stanford, "Propaganda, Gangs and Social Cleansing in Guatemala"
Koen Stroeken, "Why kill for magic?"
Neil Whitehead, "Torture-Scape: HTS as Human Terror System - Deploying Ethnography and Torture"

Top 21-40

Thought I'd continue this little exercise. Again, no "best of" or compilation albums, effectively cutting out almost all of the non-Western "traditional" discs I love and listen to frequently. Also cutting out many pre-1960s albums: no Blanton-Webster band, no Hot 5s or 7s, and no Sun or Chess Records sets. Rather, this is a list of my favorite albums, recordings conceived of as such, and thereby a more limited list of my subjective listening responses.

40. D'Angelo, Voodoo
39. Sinead O'Connor, The Lion and the Cobra
38. Johnny Cash, At San Quentin
37. Sun Ra, The Magic City
36. Nick Drake, Pink Moon
35. Brian Eno, Here Come the Warm Jets
34. Godflesh, Streetcleaner
33. The Stooges, Raw Power
32. Pink Floyd, Piper at the Gates of Dawn
31. Rod Stewart, Every Picture Tells a Story
30. Stevie Wonder, Innervisions
29. Joy Divison, Closer
28. Tricky, Maxinquaye
27. Ornette Coleman, The Shape of Jazz to Come
26. Can, Future Days
25. Cecil Taylor, Nefertiti, The Beautiful One Has Come
24. Pavement, Slanted and Enchanted
23. Bob Dylan, Blood on the Tracks
22. Public Enemy, Fear of a Black Planet
21. Albert Ayler, Spiritual Unity