⭐
R.I.P.
I interviewed him once for this Magnet feature story that I *still* love to read all these years later
Dec 28, 2024
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Hard to believe it's nearly twenty years old now.
Three things stand out for me, reading it again today. Took like 3 months of reporting, or so, to get it all done.
1) The Courtney Love vignette from the Shins' show at the Hollywood Bowl (it was all very Ab Fab and unintentionally hilarious). She is every bit the piece of work she was described to be.
2) James was living in a house in Portland, OR that Elliott Smith used to live in. We smoked pot in the basement and he showed me the washer/dryer that was basically where Elliott four-tracked the "Roman Candle" album.
3) He had a guitar hanging in his home studio that had "You'll be Dead" spray painted on it -- a line from Star Wars (I think his brother, an artist I worked with at Starbucks, did that). I used to have a photo of that but IDK what happened to it.
It was a fun era to be writing about rock music.
Apr 5, 2024
Charles R. Cross was my first music editor ever in his role at the late, great Rocket Magazine, where he shepherded the paper's coverage of the "grunge" movement and defined an era of Seattle music. He was the author of some of the rock genre’s finest writing - bestselling biographies of Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix and others that essentially defined what ‘great music writing’ looked like. Charlie was warm, gracious, passionate and had a wickedly droll sense of humor; when he gathered us for a Rocket reunion in Seattle years after its demise, we all remembered just how scathingly funny he could be (it should also be noted that the Rocket diaspora included writers who went on to found No Depression and wrote for some of the biggest and best publications out there including Rolling Stone, Spin, Entertainment Weekly, Mojo, the NY Times and LA Times, etc -- so clearly the standards were HIGH). Charlie turned my fanboy scribblings and rants into actual writing and criticism and I'll remain forever grateful to one of the best music journalists ever. Condolences to his son Ashland and his many friends and fans. R.I.P. 😇
Aug 12, 2024
I well and truly loved Dave.
Interviewed him on several occasions and just hung out with him in PDX on many others.
It is so rare to meet someone in life who is so open to new ideas, new concepts, new music, new humans.
He will be sorely missed. An incredible musician (with an absolutely GOLDEN indie CV) but also one of the most original minds I ever encountered.
Apr 7, 2025
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The man responsible for dozens of Teenage Symphonies to God
"Sad songs about happy things" (the first time, as a kid, I can recall the sweet/sour combo of melodies that could make you cry attached to songs about endless, bottomless love)
I've long since lost track of how many weddings and funerals I've attended that have featured this song; suffice it to say, "a lot."
God only knows what we'd been without him 🙏🏻
Jun 11, 2025
May 22, 2025
Hey tyler hopefully this doesn’t violate some PI.FYI golden rule
But after nearly two years of writing, editing and arguing, my book about the EP is coming out in May and can be preordered here:
https://hozacrecords.com/product/aifl/
The book is about the origins, history and cultural impact of the EP since these little objects first started coming out in the 50s.
Over 50 of my music biz friends then helped me shape the list and review the top 200 ever released, according to us (ha).
For those of you who are into this kind of geekery/snobbery, I can’t wait to hear what you think. A labor of love, as all books are! ❤️
Mar 27, 2024