Back on the grid again, after a holiday week in Amsterdam & Barcelona, which brought some deep thoughts on life online & off as well as some literal fireworks.

Here are some more-poised than usual thoughts on the first ten years of this record label-like thing I've been running. To cover the entire bodily spectrum in a single mixed metaphor, I'd like to think this piece is a bit less of a gut-level kneejerk response than I usually muster, a bit more of a heady, meditative deep thought.

The video below embodies the excitement I've felt recently for exploring a life outside of the Arts, a life that values the application of the Arts in day-to-day life more than Art for Arts sake.

Jai Paul's debut single has been floating around the internet for well over a year now, and the internet claims that it was originally a demo he cut in 2007 -- but I wonder how long it will take for this to not sound like the future? Let's try it out one more time.

About a year ago, I put out on my label Brassland what I think is one of the best records I've ever had anything to do with, a strange & mysterious song cycle called The Creatures in the Garden of Lady Walton by a group called Clogs.

About a year ago, I found myself on the set of a late night television show on the same afternoon as a taping by the California group, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.

In 2010, Sufjan Stevens came out of a self-imposed bout of musical silence. In 2011, Iron & Wine releases his first major label statement. What do they have in common? Here is some musical mathematics.

In last December's issue of the British magazine Prospect, the musician and producer Brian Eno explained that gone are the days of distinct stylistic trends -- "this season's color" or "Abstract Expressionism" or "psychedelic music."

Generally speaking I find Christmas to be a bummer time of year. Quiet too quiet. Friends have headed home. Not enough ambient buzz to distract me from...A few months ago I began advising a young pop musician from New York named Ian Axel. He's recorded a holiday song with an equally young YouTube phenom named Julia Nunes.

I won't pretend like I trust or respect political art. I think it's inherently suspect. Which is not to say that art cannot have a powerful galvanizing effect on politics, or that it cannot be great art.