Chris Robinson
@chris-robinson.bsky.social
Music writer, saxophonist, steel guitarist, PhD in American Studies, bylines in Downbeat, Point of Departure, Passion of the Weiss, elsewhere. Day gig: Duke University Press.
It's Bruckner 5.
November 10, 2025 at 3:02 PM
It's Bruckner 5.
If you see this, put up an album with a car on the cover. I've always wondered, did Daddy have the Caddy, was this title an imperative to get Daddy his Caddy, did Daddy ever have a Caddy, was it just Daddy's unfulfilled dream to have a Caddy?
November 8, 2025 at 5:14 PM
If you see this, put up an album with a car on the cover. I've always wondered, did Daddy have the Caddy, was this title an imperative to get Daddy his Caddy, did Daddy ever have a Caddy, was it just Daddy's unfulfilled dream to have a Caddy?
I was today years old - 45 - when I learned that John Lee Hooker was from Detroit. I've already listened to this new acquisition twice this morning. His cover of "I Cover the Waterfront" is divine and unexpected.
November 1, 2025 at 4:18 PM
I was today years old - 45 - when I learned that John Lee Hooker was from Detroit. I've already listened to this new acquisition twice this morning. His cover of "I Cover the Waterfront" is divine and unexpected.
I couldn't do the No Kings thing yesterday because I was flying back from Germany. But, I did manage to see Greenland, which was neat.
October 19, 2025 at 2:45 PM
I couldn't do the No Kings thing yesterday because I was flying back from Germany. But, I did manage to see Greenland, which was neat.
I would try The World Goes On. If only for the beautiful iridescent, irresistibly designed hardcover. It's a collection of stories, if you could call them that. I'm not sure what they are. The first one busts me up every time. Seiobo There Below is also good, although I found it a little harder.
October 19, 2025 at 1:09 PM
I would try The World Goes On. If only for the beautiful iridescent, irresistibly designed hardcover. It's a collection of stories, if you could call them that. I'm not sure what they are. The first one busts me up every time. Seiobo There Below is also good, although I found it a little harder.
I went to an international book fair and then a Filipino rap concert breaks out.
October 17, 2025 at 3:50 PM
I went to an international book fair and then a Filipino rap concert breaks out.
If you don't have a Honig Waffeln before you die, you didn't do things right. I wonder if I can get a crate or two of these through customs.
October 16, 2025 at 5:01 PM
If you don't have a Honig Waffeln before you die, you didn't do things right. I wonder if I can get a crate or two of these through customs.
Dear owner of this cybertruck, I would like to call bullshit on your sticker. Didn't we all know he was a piece of shit before these rolling stainless steel coffins hit the streets?
October 10, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Dear owner of this cybertruck, I would like to call bullshit on your sticker. Didn't we all know he was a piece of shit before these rolling stainless steel coffins hit the streets?
Or McKenzie Wark's Raving, which is in like 8 languages now. Here it is in Italian, German, Danish, and I can't remember the others. Czech and Polish maybe?
October 9, 2025 at 10:38 PM
Or McKenzie Wark's Raving, which is in like 8 languages now. Here it is in Italian, German, Danish, and I can't remember the others. Czech and Polish maybe?
Or this kick ass Polish edition of Sara Ahmed's Living a Feminist Life.
October 9, 2025 at 10:34 PM
Or this kick ass Polish edition of Sara Ahmed's Living a Feminist Life.
And often foreign publishers can do fun design things that we can't because it's cheaper to print where they are. Like this Spanish edition of Leigh Clare LA Berge's Marx for Cats, which has tiny little raised kitty shapes on the back cover. Divine.
October 9, 2025 at 10:32 PM
And often foreign publishers can do fun design things that we can't because it's cheaper to print where they are. Like this Spanish edition of Leigh Clare LA Berge's Marx for Cats, which has tiny little raised kitty shapes on the back cover. Divine.
My gig at @dukepress.bsky.social rules. I sell translation rights so our books end up translated all over the world, like these books on this table here. Japanese publishers make beautiful hardcovers with ribbon bookmarks, central and eastern European book designers are scary creative. Books are rad
October 9, 2025 at 10:30 PM
My gig at @dukepress.bsky.social rules. I sell translation rights so our books end up translated all over the world, like these books on this table here. Japanese publishers make beautiful hardcovers with ribbon bookmarks, central and eastern European book designers are scary creative. Books are rad
Beaver Harris's Negcaumongus is a perfect album. The only problem is having to get up halfway through to flip it over, as it's a continuous 50 minutes of music.
September 20, 2025 at 5:21 PM
Beaver Harris's Negcaumongus is a perfect album. The only problem is having to get up halfway through to flip it over, as it's a continuous 50 minutes of music.
It's bananas here in North Carolina.
September 10, 2025 at 6:49 PM
It's bananas here in North Carolina.
I forgot how freaky deaky Herbie's Sextant was. Especially the ARP 2600 on the first track.
September 8, 2025 at 11:29 PM
I forgot how freaky deaky Herbie's Sextant was. Especially the ARP 2600 on the first track.
If you like a little German techno with your Ravel and Mussorgsky, this 2LP deconstruction by Carl Craig and Moritz von Oswald is highly recommended. Straight fire.
August 30, 2025 at 4:05 PM
If you like a little German techno with your Ravel and Mussorgsky, this 2LP deconstruction by Carl Craig and Moritz von Oswald is highly recommended. Straight fire.
1st, this was produced and arr by Ron Carter. Yes. Ron Carter. And the band was stacked. Discogs tells me this is a $20ish album. 2nd, why is it in my house? Does it go? Or does the total lame kitsch make it worthy of staying? I love Star Wars as much as anybody, but this is shite.
August 23, 2025 at 3:12 PM
1st, this was produced and arr by Ron Carter. Yes. Ron Carter. And the band was stacked. Discogs tells me this is a $20ish album. 2nd, why is it in my house? Does it go? Or does the total lame kitsch make it worthy of staying? I love Star Wars as much as anybody, but this is shite.
Get a three neck console steel guitar with 8 strings per neck, they said. It won't take half a lifetime to tune it, they said.
August 15, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Get a three neck console steel guitar with 8 strings per neck, they said. It won't take half a lifetime to tune it, they said.
This cover made me assume that it would be cheesy or lame. No sir. Wade can pick the hell out of the banjo. He is legit.
August 2, 2025 at 9:44 PM
This cover made me assume that it would be cheesy or lame. No sir. Wade can pick the hell out of the banjo. He is legit.
Until just now, this Shirley Scott LP was in my probably gonna purge pile. I hadn't listened to it in forever and didn't remember being crazy about it, but hot damn her harmonic language is adventurous and the Latin Jazz Quintet isn't flat as I remember. And liner notes by LeRoi Jones!
July 29, 2025 at 11:00 PM
Until just now, this Shirley Scott LP was in my probably gonna purge pile. I hadn't listened to it in forever and didn't remember being crazy about it, but hot damn her harmonic language is adventurous and the Latin Jazz Quintet isn't flat as I remember. And liner notes by LeRoi Jones!
For some reason it wasn't behind a paywall for me. One thing that blew my mind is that he has a full time job in finance. He must get 2 hours of sleep a day. I don't know too much of the ins and outs of period instrument debates, but it's definitely something he's not backing down on. This was good
July 26, 2025 at 12:31 AM
For some reason it wasn't behind a paywall for me. One thing that blew my mind is that he has a full time job in finance. He must get 2 hours of sleep a day. I don't know too much of the ins and outs of period instrument debates, but it's definitely something he's not backing down on. This was good
It's Bruckner bitch! But for real though, for all the Bruncknerites, Brucknerphiles, Brucknerati (?), this is THE Bruckner symphony cycle to get. Skrowaczewski must have stood at the crossroads to make a deal with a shady character to get an orchestra to play with such a mix of firepower and nuance.
July 16, 2025 at 8:16 PM
It's Bruckner bitch! But for real though, for all the Bruncknerites, Brucknerphiles, Brucknerati (?), this is THE Bruckner symphony cycle to get. Skrowaczewski must have stood at the crossroads to make a deal with a shady character to get an orchestra to play with such a mix of firepower and nuance.