Quick note that I've created respective ZIP files for the entire Automat Happy Trials EP and Just Imagine Drive CD. I've relabeled the files so you don't have to manually retype all the fields into iTunes. (I hate having to do that with other people's files.)I've yet to add these to the official website, but will try to do so before school starts again next (sob) Tuesday. I'm also working on

It finally happened last night. After 22-odd years of doing band interviews*, I had a tape recorder mishap.Here was the plan: hook up my trusty Radio Shack suction-cup condensor mic to the telephone receiver; plug the mic into my computer's Mic In jack; hit Record on Audacity, and do the interview. I'd never done a computer voice recording before; as it turns out, last night was not the time to

Ever since Abby's birthday, I've been feeling vaguely melancholy about the state of my birth family.We were never the closest family, and it's beginning to show now. My dad passed in 1992, leaving a slew of mixed feelings that I've only now been able to reconcile. My brother and I were estranged for years over some money-lending issue; those have been resolved, but we remain distant and I don't

I'm definitely not down with the grups, nor am I trying to make my daughters into li'l hipsters. But that doesn't mean I can't laugh when I describe something as "so good," and Esther responds with "So good! So good! I got you!" Or when she mishears Beatles lyrics as "La la, how the Legos on" (followed by placing a Lego brick on her head) or "She loves you/You can't be bad!" That's just

Spent New Year's Eve at home and fell asleep long before midnight. Which suits me fine, really. It's been an exhausting year.----------------Those of you who liked the two Virginia Dare tracks posted earlier: you might want to check this new blog out, from which you can download the entire CD from Brad and Mary's pre-VD band, the Wannabe Texans. I listened to it this weekend and really

best non-2006 records i discovered in 2006: Vashti Bunyan, Just Another Diamond Day; Au Revoir Simone, Verses of Comfort, Assurance and Salvation; various artists, One Kiss Can Lead to Another; Syd Barrett, Barrettbest live show: The Mountain Goats/Jennifer O'Connor, The Gargoyle. Second place: The Smittens, CBGB.best small world experience: chatting with the Smittens before the

You are one year old today. One year ago we met you with your crooked smile and deep brown eyes. You were born a couple of weeks early; apparently you were ready to meet the world as soon as possible. Having known you for a year or so, it seems like an apt beginning for a child who's so determined and willing to work.You have faced challenges that Esther, your big sister, did not. For the first

Here are this year's top 10 search terms for appelstein.com:1) young marble giants2) xex3) mitch easter4) jayne casey5) marble6) seattle shows7) shows in seattle8) alison statton9) automat10) lara cohenA little 2006 v. 2005 statistical analysis: YMG continues to hold the top spot, beating second-place xex with almost double the page views and having two related search terms at #5 and

Styx preview in this week's RFT.I tried - and failed - to work in a line about how everyone in America knows at least two Japanese words thanks to "Mr. Roboto." Then again, Tommy Shaw has apparently never lived down the Kilroy Was Here tour, so why harp on a song they're not even going to play? (I did stick in a gratuitous "Mr. Roboto" reference at the end. I mean, how can you not?)As I