Kira Grunenberg
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shadowmelody1.bsky.social
Kira Grunenberg
@shadowmelody1.bsky.social
1.3K followers 160 following 170 posts
Music Journalist🎵📰
Words: DownBeat, No Depression, NPR Music, Bluegrass Situation, etc. | Asst. Editor Aromatica Poetica | Writer for Hire📝 | Hot Sauce 🌶️ | Hockey🏒| Puns

ThrowtheDiceAndPlayNice.com
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shadowmelody1.bsky.social
Mood Machine needs to be mandatory reading for collegiate music programs.

@lizpelly.bsky.social’s breakdown of Spotify’s manipulative practices and how it takes cues from other exploitative business models, is eye-opening and infuriating (in a good way).

*Everyone in music NEEDS to read this.
Cover art for the audiobook version of “Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist” by Liz Pelly. The cover has several small squares of different colors lined up in a grid on a black background. The title text is in white, at the top left corner.
May 16, 2025 at 2:13 PM
shadowmelody1.bsky.social
Properly celebrating May Day with floral tea and @kimkelly.bsky.social’s “Fight Like Hell,” read via #audiobook and borrowed from my local library using the #Libby app.

Only a few chapters in and learning a lot; also have so many questions forming as I read.
Screenshot of the audio player for Libby, the public library audio and ebook service. The cover for Kim Kelly’s book, “Fight Like Hell: The untold story of American labor,” sits behind a set of rewind, fast forward, and play buttons — each tinted in gray. A progress bar sits beneath the buttons to show where the reader is in a chapter. There is a smaller bookmark flag beneath a spot on the bar.
May 1, 2025 at 12:51 PM
shadowmelody1.bsky.social
#INTERVIEW ✍️ #BluegrassSituation 🪕

Start your Saturday with some new music and a fresh interview with spectacular #mandolinist #SierraHull.

We talk about what being an independent musician means to her, how music is much more than a job, and more:

thebluegrasssituation.com/read/with-ea...
Excerpt from an article with a header banner for the bluegrass situation. Beneath that is a byline for Kira Grunenberg with the date March 12, 2025. A header portrait of mandolinist Sierra Hull sits beneath that. Hull is photographed against a brown background. Bright green text saying “Cover Story” is in the upper left corner of the portrait. A portion of an introductory paragraph is under the header portrait. Everything is sitting against a white background.
March 15, 2025 at 3:36 PM
shadowmelody1.bsky.social
If your state senator is on this list, CALL THEIR DC OFFICE ASAP.

🔥The DC Office Switchboard can connect you to any Senator:
(202) 224-3121. 🔥

Tell them to VOTE NO on the Continuing Resolution *and* VOTE NO on Cloture.

NO TO BOTH IS THE ONLY ANSWER. FULL STOP.
Screenshot of a text list of US senators who are undecided on the upcoming Continuing Resolution vote. Text reads as follows: These Democratic senators need to hear from their constituents TODAY: Mark Kelly (AZ) Michael Bennet (CO) Brian Schatz (HI) Gary Peters (MI) Tina Smith (MN) Catherine Cortez Masto (NV) Jacky Rosen (NV) Jeanne Shaheen (NH) Kirsten Gillibrand (NY) Jack Reed (RI) If your senator is on this list, use our call page to be automatically connected with their office: indivisi.org/call-now
March 13, 2025 at 8:01 PM
shadowmelody1.bsky.social
If you called your senators yesterday and told the “VOTE NO” on the Continuing Resolution *and* Cloture, CALL AGAIN TODAY.

@schumer.senate.gov is full of it and gave us lip service.

CALL YOUR SENATORS AND TELL THEM VOTING NO AND STOPPING THE GOP AND THIS BUDGET IS THE ONLY ACCEPTABLE ACTION.
Screenshot of three tweets about the Democrats’ plan for the Continuing Resolution vote in the senate. The text reads as follows: Okay, Schumer's speech was a head fake. This is the Senate D caucus trying to fool their own supporters. Sorry to say that but that's what's happening. • • Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social • 1h 2/ The plan seems to be to vote for cloture and then Thune agrees as his part of the bargain to allow a vote on basically an amendment to the bill. Probably something like Murray's bill. So you give up the 60 vote threshold. Have a vote on each version and the GOP one wins. End of story. ••• Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social 3/ The point of this to temporarily confuse the issue so that Senate Ds can say they vote for their version while allowing the GOP version to pass. The critical point is that it's handing the GOP the 60 vote threshold for nothing.
March 13, 2025 at 12:24 PM
shadowmelody1.bsky.social
Happy #InternationalWomensDay! ✨

#Pianist Sarah Cahill (@clusterbar.bsky.social) will be at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, performing a magnificent marathon of works by women composers from the 1600s to present day!

2-8pm, free with museum admission:

engage.metmuseum.org/events/metli...
Pianist Sarah Cahill wearing a sleeveless dress with a vibrant color float print. She is outdoors, surrounded by greenery. Sarah is a Caucasian woman with long bright red hair.
March 8, 2025 at 4:07 PM
shadowmelody1.bsky.social
REVIEW: Waldos Gift - Malcolm’s Law
FEB 2025 DownBeat!

Debut LP from Bristol, UK trio Waldo’s Gift, is technical, addictive, high energy & intriguing. Not only do the hooks grab you but the story of how the album came to be is one wild backstory.

Chon fans: You need this.🎸

SUBSCRIBE: DownBeat.com
Black text on white background sits beneath a square image of album cover art. The black text reads, “Waldo’s gift; Malcolm’s Law, 3 1/2 stars“ Smaller black text showing the beginning of a music review sits at the bottom of the frame. The album cover art is a very visually busy rough collage of many different fractions of images, and especially, portions of different people’s faces, the collage has many different colors.
January 10, 2025 at 7:41 PM
shadowmelody1.bsky.social
Of course, compared to many of the other hectic, flaming hellscapes happening elsewhere online right now, BlueSky absolutely is chill, peaceful, ambient vibes.

Also makes me think of Geotic’s “Abysma” — chill but still with bright energy.
Cover art for the album “Abysma” by Geotic. There is a humanoid figure lying on a light brown floor, in a room lit by a floor to ceiling window. The humanoid figure is multiple colors.
November 12, 2024 at 5:26 PM
shadowmelody1.bsky.social
It was a privilege to speak w/ Terri Lyne Carrington, Aja Burrell Wood, Kris Davis, Halley Elwell & Lara Pellegrinelli about gender equality in jazz ed & administration.

Honored to highlight the work they are doing w/ the Berklee Institute of Jazz & Gender Justice through DownBeat's Oct. 23 Issue.
Two page spread of an magazine article with black text on white pages. Large, black header text in the middle of the left side page reads, "The March Toward Equity and Inclusion" - While some say change has come, new data suggests it's slow moving. By Kira Grunenberg. A horizontal collage of photos of five different women fills the top of both pages from left to right.
September 26, 2023 at 11:09 PM