NEW SERIES / SHOW

"Planting Seeds"
Debut February 14, 2025

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Early reaction from our Test Audience

Me - "I've always believed that music transcends artificial genres. It's about what resonates with you, what moves you, what makes you feel. In a world saturated with choices, 'Planting Seeds' will be a sanctuary for those who appreciate music on its own terms, free from the constraints of marketing and the pursuit of the lowest common denominator."
Biff Renaldo - "Breaking down the barriers of genre, 'Planting Seeds' will explore the diverse and beautiful soundscape of human expression."
David Bowie -  "If you are pining for youth I think it produces a stereotypical old man because you only live in memory, you live in a place that doesn’t exist. I think aging is an extraordinary process whereby you become the person that you always should have been."
David Letterman - "There’s no business like show business, but there are several businesses like accounting."
Bill Hicks - "I'm just planting seeds, maybe they'll take root, planting seeds.... grow."
George Carlin - "Isn’t it a bit unnerving that doctors call what they do 'practice.'”​
Me (again) -  "​While the music industry has changed dramatically, the power of music to move and inspire remains constant. 'Planting Seeds' is an attempt to reconnect with the essence of what music means to me – a celebration of artistry, a journey of discovery, and a reminder that the most meaningful experiences often lie outside the confines of mainstream trends. Consider it a gift from the heart, and a reminder to cherish every moment."
Carl Spackler -  I'd keep playing. I don't think the heavy stuff's gonna come down for quite awhile."
Hunter S. Thompson - “Music has always been a matter of Energy to me, a question of Fuel.  Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel. I have always needed Fuel. I am a serious consumer. On some nights I still believe that a car with the gas needle on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio.”

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24Bit flac  ./ 16 Bit mp3 DL

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Above sits a 22 minute and 45 second collage sample demo. Intended to display the range and vibe of what the intention of this series is about. Using audio to tell a story. It's vital to understand that although snippets of the pieces are used, regular episodes will employ the full selection 99.6 % of the time. A trick I have used throughout the years when a reboot is needed works more than it doesn't and is a perfect way to explain what I mean. Select a movie that you love and a decent audio system, cue it up and turn off the screen. Use only your ears to experience it. You will "see" it in an entirely new way and most likely will discover plot and story of the art previously hidden to you. The file above is a 16 Bit mp3 making it completely portable. Click the link for free download and a 24Bit file of the same, still portable these days.

Makes me laugh to think back to 1998 when Lars Murray and I at Rykodisc were convinced that in the not too distant future, the computer would be the primary delivery mechanism for music. Lars was far more technically agile at time. I handled the music end, but was far from a luddite with a PC. Conversely, Lars plays guitar, writes songs and his band was gigging around the clubs of Boston, so his musical acumen was way above the norm, and I started drumming at 12 and played my first bar gig at 14. At a decade younger, his Ivy League education was a perfect off-set to my 12 years at Catholic School under the gentle hand (and ruler) of The Sisters of Mercy. Between these two Ferns we already possessed the necessary skillset. At any other place of employment we would have been laughed out of the building and never had the opportunity to give it a shot, But our boss was a man by the name of Don Rose. As the license plates on his VW Bug proclaimed --"007" Don Rose. He felt in his bones we were on to something and agreed with our hypothesis. A company called MP3.com had just opened for business, and these tiny devices called Rio player started sprouting up, light as a feather, containing 100+ songs that you could hold in your palm or clip to your  clothes and go with you anywhere. Even though most of us were more than a bit snobby regarding sound quality once we gamed it out, especially when we learned that you could rip any CD into a 128k mp3 file and have a playlist of hundreds of tunes literally in your pocket. Change them as many times as you like, trade with other CD/Rio owners and put together an extensive library with very little or no money. Computer memory at the time was very bulky, needed an arsenals' worth of controllers, connectors and cable, and very costly. 100 MB went for about $500 (I remember celebrating when picking up a 350MB hard drive for only $300!). Wow, I'll never fill that. It was unfathomable that it was less than a dollar a megabyte.  But what the general public didn't realize was that every 6 months or less, the size, weight and capacity of storage and processing power were multiplying at astonishing rate.

We were all pretty picky in regard to sound quality, but most of the public were not. To be fair, the soundstage of a car is no place for critical listening with the level of ambient noise inherent to the environment. Engineers had been using "math" trickery like Compression and EQ in combination with carpentry, physics and even architecture to literally fool your brain. Bose was a master at it. No disrespect intended  as I still have a pair of real wood Series IV with the tiny Bose EQ box that were workhorses and virtually indestructible. I did hundreds of gigs with them feeding upwards of 500 watts of analog power into their very hungry input chain. Even now as I sell off a lifetime of equipment and media that I'll likely never again use, I'm reluctant to part with them. It's as if I owe them for years of reliable service. And I bought them used in 1982!  I'll wager a rare Zappa pressing that after reading this more than a few will get in touch trying to pry them from my clutch. At the time of this experiment the best audio quality for digital regarding delivery scale was 128kb VBR but we would have to settle for 64kb, although it was stereo-ish.

​We gave birth to Radio Ryko, the first streaming record company radio station. Again, it was the complementary skill set we had, and just as essential, we were true believers when it came to taste. Having outgrown the notion that what you like is good, but everything else sucks. Music is subjective (all art is) and just because one person likes something and the other doesn't shouldn't cause friction or turmoil. There are only two kinds of music, stuff you like and stuff you don't. Nothing is right or wrong. Music is all good and listening to music I believe, is still the only activity that utilizes every area of the brain. Having different taste is good... very good. It wasn't correct or incorrect, simply the way it should be. We would laugh if one of us quipped something like, "Dude, how can you listen to that record from The Al Dente Ginger Patrol, what the fuck am I missing?"  FYI - There is and has never been a band called The Al Dente Ginger Patrol to the best of my knowledge, it's a place holder used for description purposes, and the first fictional band name that popped into my head.

There is much more to the story of the project and serendipitous occurrences such as Lars having a great contact at Microsoft. They were actively testing streaming audio delivery and how to do effectively. They offered to do all our transcoding and hosting gratis if we were game for the experiment. We never could have got the budget if it wasn't for their involvement. In the end we did it, and rather quickly. I'll give you more detail when this first episode of "Planting Seeds" arrives on January 20. And I'll reach out to Lars and see if he would like to jump in. I feel the December Doldrums finally abating and am ready to return to the living. My plan is wrapping this up at 70 years old. Then... who knows. Much love to all.