Ellen Harper’s “All That I’m Allowed” book is out on Bamboo Dart Press now

Ellen Harper’s first book, Always a Song is a compelling memoir about her life as a musician, activist, business owner (she owns the venerable Folk Music Center which has singed copies of her first book available) and stalwart of independent thought and action who walks the walk.

Her latest book, All That I’m Allowed captures Harper’s idiosyncratic voice as clear and purely as her music does, as she chooses not to be relegated by genres or perceived rules in both areas of her work. This is not a children’s book, though it may look and play with the idea of being one. In All That I’m Allowed Harper takes a wild eyed dig into the relationship between a dog and it’s human roommate, a roommate whose reportage is colored by a perspective that takes the reader a spell to get the temperature of. Marguerite Millard’s one line drawings further define and lift this book to another plane. All That I’m Allowed is out everywhere now.

Goosewind return with new record “The Miracle of Tape”

Goosewind returned to Shrimper after a near thirty year absence with the 2022 release of their limited Grateful 4 the Time We Share cassette release. On April 19th, their brand new record will be issued on CD & digitally as they continue to buck the trends and put out music on the format that whispers for it. And holy shit does this new record of theirs ever whisper, And moan. And howl.

On The Miracle of Tape, which was in fact recorded on analog reel to reel tape purchased from their pals Sonic Youth (who have been selling off the shackles of this planet that they no longer need), the band has put together a record that traverses all of the outskirts of the sound world they are known for, and then some. The thing spins like a reborn Dracula sewn together with dental floss, whirling in the midday sun on a boom box with an errant antenna picking up commercials, odes, funereal fugues, synth pop skeletons and haunted Cadillac exhaust. Preorders are ongoing at the link above, the record hits April 19th.

We have worked together for years, Goosewind and me, punching the time card as we hid the crypt, keeping it all hush hush, to spoil no alerts from our landline graveyard. Our teeth in the long are planning to keep it that way. The mirror has cracked, and the future is that reedy weed taunting your reach. Go ahead, grab that baby by its little hairs, Pull it out out of the rain of glass and ride it to negative infinity.

Trailer for Ellen Harper’s “All That I’m Allowed” Bamboo Dart Press book with illustrations by Marguerite Millard premieres

All That I’m Allowed is a storybook for grownups about learning to live with children and dogs. In this regard most grown people set out to do what’s best for them, to be good examples, trusted companions to dog and child. But often times the lessons we think we are getting across are interpreted very differently by the receivers. All That I’m Allowed is not only a make-believe romp through these poignant and often funny misinterpretations, but it is also a social commentary on coming to grips with a rapidly changing society and how we attempt to make sense of it all. The book is out March 12th and available for preorder.

Ellen Harper is a singer, songwriter, musician, and author. Her memoir, published in 2021 on Chronicle Books Always a Song covers a transformational time in American culture. She received a Ph.D. in Education from the Claremont Graduate University, taught at CSU San Bernardino and abandoned a secure career in academia for the sake of folk music. Ellen has released two albums, currently runs the Folk Music Center in Claremont, California and is a member of the folk trio, Citrus Sisters. Harper has been around dogs—farm dogs, city dwellers, townies and suburbanite dogs her whole life.
Marguerite Millard is a musician and employee at the Folk Music Center in Claremont California, a member of Squeakin’ Wheels a folk/country band, and a member of the folk trio Citrus Sisters. Marguerite has drawn and doodled most of her life—designing, logos, t-shirts, flyers and ad copy.

Check out the trailer below put together and featuring the music of Peter Harper

The Miracle of Tape

All of that quarter inch unused blank tape that was in the rehearsal room, bought with band funds, none of them needed it now. They wouldn’t be congregating no more. No using up one another’s hard drives, sound clouds arid and dry, no eating up data on each others phones, memory now open, vast. Now? Each in a different corner of the world, in another room.

They would each find footing in the years after the break up, side projects that became mains or dead ends, collaborations in pain, sublime moments of sound captured just right or mixed poorly with new hands. Novels, installations, films, performances, but no bonding together, no adhesive, no blood let thick as thieves recording date. moved out, in a box, to the highest bidder. The miracle of tape. Landing, calling ahead, requesting landing. Landing in the right hands. April 19th.

Michael C. Keith’s “Euphony: Micro Prose Poems” book is out today on Bamboo Dart Press

Michael C. Keith’s Euphony: Micro Prose Poems contains works best defined as thoughts, both observational and insightful, expressed in laconic form. The collection delivers the reader through subatomic communiques, electric “jolts of awareness,” about the ever-shifting realm of human emotion and experience—a world both known and exotic. In Euphony over 40 lyrical sketches inspire the reader to thought and inquiry—both familiarly-footed and utterly transcendent—about who we are and why we act as we do. The book is out today everywhere and also available direct from Bamboo Dart Press.

Premiere of Michael C. Keith’s trailer for his Bamboo Dart Press book Euphony

Michael C. Keith’s book Euphony: Micro Prose Poems contains works best defined as thoughts, both observational and insightful, expressed in laconic form. The collection delivers the reader through subatomic communiques, electric “jolts of awareness,” about the ever-shifting realm of human emotion and experience—a world both known and exotic. In Euphony over 40 lyrical sketches inspire the reader to thought and inquiry—both familiarly-footed and utterly transcendent—about who we are and why we act as we do. The book is out February 16th, preorder here. Check out the trailer below.

TraumaFeast 30th anniversary video surfaces

Joel Huschle dug up this time capsule that has rested untouched in his backyard for thirty years, a film he made that centers around a show from way back featuring The Salvation Brothers, Diskothi-Q, Wckr Spgt, The Mountain Goats, Refrigerator, Chicken Damage & Nothing Painted Blue from February of 1994. I recall Mike from Traumatone flying out from the UK and I think he stayed with Catherine and I for a few days, maybe at Joel’s too which is where some of the Inland Empire New Wave/Jacques Rivette shooting by Joel comes in. May your cat stare at the cat staring at the TV herein and find peace in the din of it.

Heroes and Villains

I spent a long time in one corner or other thinking about these things when I was little. Then, I thought about them once the lobes had formed and so much of it concluded the same way then. But now, I am older, and I don’t care, and yeah, a lot of Joseph Campbell can fade and the hull of Mark E. Smith can rise. Someone has to be wrong if someone else is right. Libra, take the scales, as I am exhausted.

Please let Victoria Waddle explain it further, as she has no use for yer bitcoin or big coin. She is one of them that has seen so much that she don’t need no Hollywood Bowl $5 binocular rentals when she is watching Rufus and Chaka, Clinton without a Parliament, Kisses whose decks are missing aces. Here is something gorgeous that she wrote. Victoria Waddle. One of my 21st century heroes:

https://victoriawaddle.substack.com/p/revising-villains

Peter Wortsman’s “Driftwood” book is out now on Bamboo Dart Press

Like driftwood, words, phrases and severed sentences come floating by. Part fisherman, part scavenger, I spread my net and rescue these bits of debris from the deep. I can’t say why certain severed statements catch my eye. Floating fragments of meaning, they sparkle and speak to me. And by a peculiar lure beyond my conscious ken, they sometimes come together. The pairings are not always opportune. Some sniff at each other’s nether parts in passing, as dogs do, and promptly part in pursuit of other more enticing scents. But on occasion something clicks. This is my second published assemblage of such felicitous couplings. Some readers may relish the result. If not, just toss it back into the tide. Available at better independent brick and mortar bookstores (first in line worthy of your support), direct from us and online everywhere.