GUEST EDITOR

Perhaps best known for the NPR series From The Top, musician Christopher O’Riley is far more in-tune with music than most of the world. Not only does he host and mentor young musicians, O’Riley also transcribes and arranges songs by Radiohead, Arcade Fire and more for the piano and, more recently, the cello. O’Riley has just released a new album with cellist Matt Haimovitz, Shuffle.Play.Listen. (Oxingale), a tribute to contemporary composers and some of the most modern musicians. Owing to his virtuosic abilities and interesting outlook, we invited O’Riley to guest edit magnetmagazine.com this week. Read our brand new Q&A with him.

O’Riley: Kris Saknussemm’s soon-to-be-released novel of the road and redemption, Reverend America, is centered on the travels and travails of a retired child evangelist albino orphan named Casper (known in his healing days as Reverend America) and his wanderings as guardian angel and inadvertent and occasional avenger. I’d become aware of Kris’ work via his first novel, Zanesville, his subsequent bizarre-noir novel Private Midnight and his exuberant alt-historical Enigmatic Pilot. We’d become Facebook friends, where I found him to be equally knowledgeable and perhaps even more impassioned about things musical more than literary. So when he asked if I would contribute some original work to fill out a CD to accompany the release of Reverend America (I’d not written anything original since high school, being presently and for decades consumed either by interpretations classical or reimaginings on the non-classical side), and with his own keen idea of how music might intersect his prose, I told him I’d have to be an idiot to not know how to write something for him.

The book is filled with lonesome sounds, from the distant locomotive horns to the century-plus refugee from an old-age home fire tootling wisely on the harmonica. I found mp3 transcriptions of locomotive horns, with their distinctively and plentiful variations of piled thirds, and used some of my faves as the harmonic language of the Prelude and Variation.

The other musical thread of the book has to do with all the hymns and indigenous music surrounding the young Reverend’s revival tours. Most of the titles are fictional. “Time Of My Time” seemed to me the most evocative, and so took that as my cue to explore some kind of Southern gospel, O Brother, Where Art Thou? piano (and potentially vocal) work.

Phil Abrams (an accomplished and celebrated actor; lots of recent TV stuff) made the video after listening to my piece more times than I’ve played it.

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Perhaps best known for the NPR series From The Top, musician Christopher O’Riley is far more in-tune with music than most of the world. Not only does he host and mentor young musicians, O’Riley also transcribes and arranges songs by Radiohead, Arcade Fire and more for the piano and, more recently, the cello. O’Riley has just released a new album with cellist Matt Haimovitz, Shuffle.Play.Listen. (Oxingale), a tribute to contemporary composers and some of the most modern musicians. Owing to his virtuosic abilities and interesting outlook, we invited O’Riley to guest edit magnetmagazine.com this week. Read our brand new Q&A with him.

O’Riley: Another of my daisy-chain of recommended writers, Megan Abbott appeared as an epigrammatically quoted chapter head in a Ken Bruen noir novel. Who knew my curiosity would lead me to the richness of her indelible noir contributions, Queenpin, Die A Little, Bury Me Deep and my favourite L.A. noir of all time, The Song Is You? And how would one have predicted, save for the intuitive and exhaustive empathy of her writing, here infusing the mind of her teen protagonist in a novel of, if not for young adults, such a quintessence of horror in lost innocence, of a maturity of such knocks instead of nuturings? A brilliant, beautiful book. Her next, Dare Me, comes out this summer. Thankfully, one can keep up with Megan’s musings at the Abbott/Gran Medicine Show.

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Perhaps best known for the NPR series From The Top, musician Christopher O’Riley is far more in-tune with music than most of the world. Not only does he host and mentor young musicians, O’Riley also transcribes and arranges songs by Radiohead, Arcade Fire and more for the piano and, more recently, the cello. O’Riley has just released a new album with cellist Matt Haimovitz, Shuffle.Play.Listen. (Oxingale), a tribute to contemporary composers and some of the most modern musicians. Owing to his virtuosic abilities and interesting outlook, we invited O’Riley to guest edit magnetmagazine.com this week. Read our brand new Q&A with him.

O’Riley: The horror-king mantle worn for the past century by Howard Philips Lovecraft has found its most worthy successor in Thomas Ligotti, a writer wholly consumed by the unseen, thankfully mostly undiscerned, reality behind the scrim of all our lives, a writer of philosophical depth as well as darkness, the Jean-Paul Sartre of 21st-century existential hell horror. Most recently read Songs Of A Dead Dreamer, which I consider the greatest short-story collection in the genre and includes as lead story “The Frolic,” on which a subsequent film has recently become available. I’ve devoured all his extant, printed works, including Noctuary, The Nightmare Factory, Grimscribe: His Life And Works and my first foray into Ligotti’s work, his own twisted version of The Organization Man: My Work Is Not Yet Done.

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Jason Miles has been around for a long time, programming synths for and jamming with the likes of Miles Davis and Luther Vandross, let alone producing other side projects over the years. DJ Logic has been around, too, working with ?uestlove, Vernon Reid, Marcus Miller and many more. The two have been through a lot together, traveling the world from Japan to Marrakech before finally releasing the first Global Noize album in 2008, later joined permanently by Indian vocalist Falu on their latest, A Prayer For The Planet (Lightyear/EMI). Global Noize will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with Logic and Miles.

DJ Logic: This is a great album from beginning to end, with amazing production from the Bomb Squad. It’s also a soundtrack to what we are experiencing today at Occupy Wall Street and around the world.

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Jason Miles has been around for a long time, programming synths for and jamming with the likes of Miles Davis and Luther Vandross, let alone producing other side projects over the years. DJ Logic has been around, too, working with ?uestlove, Vernon Reid, Marcus Miller and many more. The two have been through a lot together, traveling the world from Japan to Marrakech before finally releasing the first Global Noize album in 2008, later joined permanently by Indian vocalist Falu on their latest, A Prayer For The Planet (Lightyear/EMI). Global Noize will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with Logic and Miles.

DJ Logic: Morocco was one of my favorite places to visit and play. It showed me how global music was in a variety of ethnic culture, food and art. This was also the place my partner Jason Miles and I started the idea for Global Noize.

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Jason Miles has been around for a long time, programming synths for and jamming with the likes of Miles Davis and Luther Vandross, let alone producing other side projects over the years. DJ Logic has been around, too, working with ?uestlove, Vernon Reid, Marcus Miller and many more. The two have been through a lot together, traveling the world from Japan to Marrakech before finally releasing the first Global Noize album in 2008, later joined permanently by Indian vocalist Falu on their latest, A Prayer For The Planet (Lightyear/EMI). Global Noize will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with Logic and Miles.

Miles: The Fillmore East and Cafe Au Go Go were my second homes from 1967 to 1969. I saw so many shows there. Jimi Hendrix, Sly & the Family Stone, Super Session, Paul Butterfield, the Electric Flag, the Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, Chicago, the Mothers Of Invention; the list goes on and on. It set me up to know that along with the great jazz artists of the time, I was turning into a hybrid musician. One who appreciated all great music.

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Jason Miles has been around for a long time, programming synths for and jamming with the likes of Miles Davis and Luther Vandross, let alone producing other side projects over the years. DJ Logic has been around, too, working with ?uestlove, Vernon Reid, Marcus Miller and many more. The two have been through a lot together, traveling the world from Japan to Marrakech before finally releasing the first Global Noize album in 2008, later joined permanently by Indian vocalist Falu on their latest, A Prayer For The Planet (Lightyear/EMI). Global Noize will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with Logic and Miles.

Falu: I love South Indian cuisine. Whenever I’m feeling a little melancholy, I go (usually alone) to eat it. It is simple, but quintessential comfort food for me. My favorite restaurant in NYC is Saravanaa Bhavan on 26th Street and Lexington Avenue.

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Jason Miles has been around for a long time, programming synths for and jamming with the likes of Miles Davis and Luther Vandross, let alone producing other side projects over the years. DJ Logic has been around, too, working with ?uestlove, Vernon Reid, Marcus Miller and many more. The two have been through a lot together, traveling the world from Japan to Marrakech before finally releasing the first Global Noize album in 2008, later joined permanently by Indian vocalist Falu on their latest, A Prayer For The Planet (Lightyear/EMI). Global Noize will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with Logic and Miles.

DJ Logic: This is one of the places I go to on my down time. I love digging for records and discovering new music to listen to and sample.

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Jason Miles has been around for a long time, programming synths for and jamming with the likes of Miles Davis and Luther Vandross, let alone producing other side projects over the years. DJ Logic has been around, too, working with ?uestlove, Vernon Reid, Marcus Miller and many more. The two have been through a lot together, traveling the world from Japan to Marrakech before finally releasing the first Global Noize album in 2008, later joined permanently by Indian vocalist Falu on their latest, A Prayer For The Planet (Lightyear/EMI). Global Noize will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with Logic and Miles.

Miles: I still don’t believe it when I see myself in the various pictures I have with Miles that I got to be friends and work with him. He was so brilliant and many times misunderstood on his comments and stance on many different subjects like music and race. He was warm and generous to me, and I learned a lot about music and life from him. If you went to Europe and performed in the ’50s and ’60s you were treated like royalty. Miles met kings and queens, only to come back to the U.S. and not be able to use the same bathroom and restaurant in North Carolina as a white person. I would be bitter and angry as well.He constantly changed the music, and I can say most of his albums have sparked serious discussion and controversy. He has and will continue to influence generations of musicians and fans for many more years to come.

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Jason Miles has been around for a long time, programming synths for and jamming with the likes of Miles Davis and Luther Vandross, let alone producing other side projects over the years. DJ Logic has been around, too, working with ?uestlove, Vernon Reid, Marcus Miller and many more. The two have been through a lot together, traveling the world from Japan to Marrakech before finally releasing the first Global Noize album in 2008, later joined permanently by Indian vocalist Falu on their latest, A Prayer For The Planet (Lightyear/EMI). Global Noize will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with Logic and Miles.

Falu: I traveled to the Vatican in 2008 and saw Michelangelo’s Pietà, a depiction of the body of Jesus on the lap of Mother Mary after his crucifixion, carved in 1499 when the sculptor was just 24 years old. I felt a huge surge of sadness and serenity at the same time. Though I’m not a Christian, it was a purely spiritual experience for me; tears welled up in my eyes for almost 10 minutes as I stared at the sculpture. The peace on Mary’s face as she stared at her son spoke volumes. I realize this now more than ever as the mother of a one-year old boy.

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As 2011 has come to an end, we are taking a look back at some of our favorite posts of the year by our guest editors.

Exactly 11 years ago, Miles Zuniga was jetting off to Amsterdam with his Austin-based alt-rock outfit Fastball to try to put some touring muscle behind its latest release, The Harsh Light Of Day. Expectations were high, given the surprising mainstream success of 1998′s All The Pain Money Can Buy, which the band milked for almost two years. Fast-forward to today, and Zuniga has humbler aspirations for his first solo effort, These Ghosts Have Bones (33 1/3), a wrenchingly personal, fitfully melodic ode to the breakup of his 10-year marriage. Though Fastball is still very much a working entity, Ghosts’ quirky centerpiece, “Marfa Moonlight,” would’ve undoubtedly been a much different animal with bandmates Tony Scalzo and Joey Shuffield involved. The same goes for the rest of this inward-looking song cycle. Zuniga will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with him.

Zuniga: I’ve spent more time playing chess than almost anything else. Most games involve some degree of luck, but not chess. It’s like Moby Grape sang, “Who’s got the biggest brain?” Actually, you could be very intelligent and still suck at chess. Like music, the chess goddess requires devotion. While others are riding bikes and socializing, you’re sequestered in your room studying the Queen’s Indian Defense. Once I discovered I could play chess online, it was all over. I could play anytime, day or night, because there was always someone in some part of the world who wanted to play. Like a drug addict, I stopped going out and played thousands of games. I finally had to give it up because one game turns into two, turns into 12 and suddenly it’s 7 p.m. and I haven’t done a damn thing all day. Well, maybe just one more game.

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As 2011 has come to an end, we are taking a look back at some of our favorite posts of the year by our guest editors.

John Doe, the guy who formed one half of X’s front line next to Exene Cervenka more than 30 years ago, is still on the scene, doing what he does best on his new solo album, Keeper (Yep Roc). With all four of its original members (Doe, Cervenka, guitarist Billy Zoom and drummer D.J. Bonebreak) on board, the best band to emerge from L.A.’s punk scene is slated to perform an impressive schedule of live shows this fall that includes a South American tour with Pearl Jam. Doe will also be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with him.

Doe: Talking about dogs is a great conversation as long as it isn’t only about one that you own and treat like your child, although even that is excusable in my book. Did anyone else spend hours in his or her youth looking at the dog section of the encyclopedia? (Or whatever kids look at these days.) My new fascination is the rat terrier breed. They have been described as “a Jack Russell with an off switch.” I look forward to meeting some in my future travels.

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As 2011 has come to an end, we are taking a look back at some of our favorite posts of the year by our guest editors.

In commercial terms, Ivy is but a footnote in the career of bassist Adam Schlesinger, who between his duties in Fountains Of Wayne and his work as a prolific songwriter for hire has made far greater claims on the public’s attention. But in a world where diffident cool trumped sugary snark, the trio of Schlesinger, Andy Chase and singer Dominique Durand would have reaped richly deserved rewards. All Hours (Nettwerk), Ivy’s sixth album and its first since 2005, continues the electronic excursions of In The Clear while maintaining the ironclad melodies that anchor early shoulda-been hits like “This Is The Day.” Durand and Chase, who are married with children, will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with them.

Chase: To me, cats used to be just deplorable, boring animals. I grew up having a pet squirrel, a ferret named Sukie and 22 snakes in cages down in my basement. In fact, the only thing I thought cats were good for was as potential food for my boa constrictor—which I never acted on because our family cat was actually my brother’s, so I would have been grounded for probably most of my high-school years. When she was three years old, my daughter started talking about wanting a cat for her birthday. I rolled my eyes and figured like all bad things, this would pass. But every year on her birthday, she would say, “Daddy, I didn’t forget. I still want a cat for my birthday.” The only cat she ever knew was named Ice-Cream Head and belonged to my bandmate Adam. It was a schizoid, ornery little thing that would hiss at you for looking at her the wrong way, and if you got too close, she’d scratch you right down to the bone. Like a “stitches” kind of scratch. And yet my daughter loved Ice-Cream Head. When I finally realized the inevitable, I started doing some research on cats, and the one that jumped out at me was the only one that looked basically like a mountain lion, or the wild raccoon I once caught as a kid and kept as a pet for a while. These cats are called Maine Coons, and they totally kick ass. Their nickname is “the gentle giant” because they’re the largest breed in the world and the most sweet-natured. I ended up buying two of them, and gentle is quite the understatement. I once witnessed my three-year-old son doing an ultimate wrestling technique on one of the cats, pinning her down with his knee and then grabbing the tail and spinning her around with the animal hovering in sheer terror about a foot off the ground. I don’t think these cats even know that they have teeth and claws with which to defend themselves. They’re just like a feline Gandhi with a lot of crazy fur. They meow constantly to be pet and will flop down in front of you to block your path as you’re walking, looking up and meowing at you until you sit down and give them some love. I still haven’t heard a hiss or a snarl or seen their claws come out. I still prefer snakes and stranger creatures, but I’m in love with my two cats.

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As 2011 has come to an end, we are taking a look back at some of our favorite posts of the year by our guest editors.

of Montreal’s music is hard to define, given it changes more often than frontman Kevin Barnes’ sequined and feathered outfits during a live show. One album might be heavy on the drum machine and synthesizer, while another showcases Barnes’ best high-pitched Prince wail with more traditional strings and percussion. The Atlanta band boasts a prodigious body of work; in a decade and a half, Barnes and Co. have churned out 10 albums, eight collections and 29 singles and EPs, including their most recent effort, thecontrollersphere (Polyvinyl). Barnes and of Montreal’s two art directors—wife Nina Barnes (a.k.a. geminitactics) and brother David Barnes—will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with him.

Nina: Radiolab is one of my favourite radio programmes. As most of my day is spent planted in front of a computer, in a fixed physical state, I tend to listen to radio nonstop to help change my intellectual landscape. I have probably listened to all of the Radiolab episodes at least five times by now. It is science and culture presented in a fun and intriguing way. If I ever feel down or uninspired, Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich lift me up again within minutes. Therapy!

David: As a painter, I spend a great deal of time alone. Mostly I fill that void with music, but sometimes you need to hear another person talk. Get some new information in your head. Basically reconnect to the world that is passing you by. Unfortunately you can’t really turn to the news for that, because it’s just the crap opinions of people you honestly never needed to know existed. Luckily there is Radiolab. It’s a radio show that looks to inspire creative thinking by taking an intelligent peak behind the curtain of reality. It’s one of those beautiful things that helps you see how huge our world is by taking a closer look. It’s like taking a free, mind-blowing college course. I suggest these episodes especially: “Lucy,” “Animal Minds,” “Emergence,” “Sperm” and “Oops.”

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As 2011 has come to an end, we are taking a look back at some of our favorite posts of the year by our guest editors.

The great Fountains Of Wayne just issued their fifth album in a career that dates back 15 years. Sky Full Of Holes (Yep Roc) was recorded by the band—vocalist/guitarist Chris Collingwood, multi-instrumentalist Adam Schlesinger, guitarist Jody Porter and drummer Brian Young—in New York City at the studio Schlesinger co-owns, and it may be the quartet’s best effort to date. Fountains Of Wayne is currently on tour, but Collingwood and Schlesinger will also be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with the dynamic duo.

Collingwood: If you have some time to kill and you want to realize how little you know about stuff, go to YouTube and type in “Hitchens debate.” There are hours and hours of footage of the guy beating up on hapless opponents, sometimes politely, more often not, but always with a mot juste and a baffling mastery of the subject at hand. He strikes me as one of the last public intellectuals, an anachronism in the era of evolution denial and three-hour CGI shitfests. Sadly, Hitchens became seriously ill around the time of the publication of his memoir, Hitch-22. You can still read him in Vanity Fair and on Slate.com.

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As 2011 has come to an end, we are taking a look back at some of our favorite posts of the year by our guest editors.

Kitty Wells Dresses: Songs Of The Queen Of Country Music is the fifth full-length from New York City singer/songwriter Laura Cantrell, and as you probably deduced from the album’s title, the LP pays tribute to country music’s first female star. Cantrell recorded the 10-track record in Nashville, the city where both she and Wells were born. Aside from covering some of Wells’ most loved songs, Cantrell kicks off the album with the title track, a song she co-wrote with Amy Allison. Cantrell will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with her.

Cantrell: As the mom of a small child and artist with a new record out and old friends to see on the road, I don’t get to watch much TV. But I reserve some time to catch up with Treme, the HBO series about New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina. Treme has managed to show how the individuals of New Orleans, everyday people who happen to also be musicians, teachers, cops, cooks and politicians were all were degraded by the storm and the stress it put on the whole population financially and emotionally. Strong stuff with a lot of joyous music.

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As 2011 has come to an end, we are taking a look back at some of our favorite posts of the year by our guest editors.

Amor de Días—the duo of Alasdair Maclean (Clientele) and Lupe Núñez-Fernández (Pipas)—just released debut album Street Of The Love Of Days via Merge. (Those of you who speak Spanish know that the band’s moniker translates to “love of days,” hence the album title.) Maclean and Núñez-Fernández worked on the 15-track LP for more than three years, and it features guest spots by the likes of Louis Philippe, Damon & Naomi, Gary Olson (Ladybug Transistor) and Danny Manners. Maclean and Núñez-Fernández will also be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with them.

Maclean: Liam Hayes is a hero of American music. But U.S. critics just don’t seem to get him. He’s far more celebrated in the U.K., but even there he doesn’t have the audience he deserves. Hayes’ music unravels in consistently unpredictable ways; think vintage Paul McCartney or Brian Wilson. People say the genius chess player Bobby Fischer had a method of extraordinary purity and simplicity—but that you only realised it after he’d made his moves. Liam’s songs are dazzling like that. Gorgeous, unexpected harmonic progressions and resolutions, beautiful textural arrangements. “Found A Little Baby” is my favourite song, but Bright Penny, the latest album, is also a classic. He’s been a huge inspiration to me for nearly a decade.

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