Spring 2015 - And here come the spring releases! First up, a trio of live performances from the Bottom Line Archive Series, all restored and remastered by me with Gregg Bendian producing: the Brecker Brothers tearing it up in 1976, Kenny Rankin covering the Beatles and more in 1990, and a double album from Willie Nile featuring live shows from 1980 and 2000. Expect more from the Bottom Line Archive in the coming months. I have a stack of tapes in my studio, newly digitized, ready for remastering. Also out this spring, a project I am truly proud to be part of - Los Dreamers, a bilingual mixtape of songs inspired by stories of undocumented youth, written and produced by Ozomatli's Raul Pacheco and Devotchka's Shawn King.

Out soon on Varese Sarabande, Maura Kennedy's lovely collaboration with poet B.D. Love, Villanelle: The Songs of Maura Kennedy and B.D. Love. Maura and I had a wonderful time mastering her music on a snowy day this winter, and I bet it'll sound even better when the sun is shining.

In March, I'll join Magic Shop owner Steve Rosenthal and producer/multimedia archivist/musician Jocelyn Arem at Skidmore College to give a talk on Reviving, Restoring and Re-imagining The Music Archive.

In April, I'm off to Seattle to present on the process of restoring Ata Kak's Obaa Sima at Experience Music Project Pop Conference.

Til then, back to the studio!

We have a twelve year old car. Repairs are part of the game, but I am not interested in learning to fix my own car. When the neutral switch went, I did not crack the manual. When the flex joint was leaking exhaust, I did not google "how to weld new flex joint in 2003 Passat." This is an area where I happily pay my mechanic for his expertise. But, you guys, the car stereo is broken. The driver's side woofer is blown, I assume, as I could hear no low end in Black Sabbath's Paranoid, which was this week's CD of choice for toting kids around Brooklyn. (Come on, of course they love "Iron Man!")

What am I going to do? I can't really justify replacing the speakers in my senior citizen Passat, but I cannot drive around town listening to tinny albums. This may compel me to learn a few car repair skills after all. To be continued...

This joke about the weather never gets old around our house. "It's windy."

"Everyone knows that."