The Grey Ledger Society

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Sounds

A collection of 61 issues

Riff and Reckoning

Led Zeppelin moves me. Their riffs—molten, feral, ecstatic—hit like a pulse in the chest, a sound that feels eternal yet impossibly alive. But that thunder, as undeniable as it is, wasn’t born in a vacuum. It was built on the grooves of Black blues artists, often uncredited,

Never Leave the Stream

David Bowie and the Current of Impermanence “I watch the ripples change their size / But never leave the stream of warm impermanence…” — Changes, David Bowie Some artists leave behind albums. Bowie left resonance. In The Current, we speak often of Weathering—how one becomes Frayed, Worn, Unmoored. Of how the

Gentle Cheerleading from the Left of the Dial: 42 Pitches for Noncommercial Radio DJs

It’s fundraising season again. Maybe your station used to have a staffer who handed you a tidy pitchbook—full of “listener-supported excellence” and “community-powered media” in that safe, sleepy tone borrowed from public broadcasting and toothpaste ads. Maybe that person is not around this time. Maybe now you’re

A Hollow Square, Full of Life

On shape note singing, AI, and what fragile voices still hold I’ve sung with a few groups over the years. Some well-oiled, some gloriously chaotic. Once or twice, I stepped into the hollow square. Not because shape note singing is my thing. But because I was invited. And welcomed.

When the Weird Is a Mood, Not a Monster

On Drift, Omission, and the Shapes We Don’t See Until They Echo Introduction: More Than Monsters Somewhere beyond the swampy edge of horror, past the clean-lined architecture of science fiction, a different kind of story waits. It doesn’t leap out. It lingers. It doesn’t explain itself. It

Into the Steam: The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of Finnish Saunametal

An apocryphal entry from the forthcoming edition of Lords of Chaos. “Norway had the fjords. Sweden had the hair. But Finland? Finland had the heat.” — Jukka “Kivikuumu” Miettinen, Saunna O))) guitarist, 1999 While Norway burned its churches and Sweden polished its solos, Finland did something stranger—it lit the sauna.

The Audio Necromancer’s Notes on RSD Eve

Shelves, Static, and the Songs That Find Us Again I. Shelves That Hum When the Lights Are Out The CD shelf still remembers what I forgot. Early pressings from Japan. Peel-off price stickers half-erased. A voicemail from a Japanese grocer announcing the arrival of TEA. A jewel case cracked from

Who’s Having More Fun These Days? (A Galaxie 500 Divorce Retrospective)

What started as a snarky question—“Who’s having more fun these days?”—turned into a reflection on creative survival, divergent paths, and the lingering hum of a show I saw thirty years ago. Dean Wareham is touring ghosts with a grin. Damon & Naomi are holding down the analog monastery.

“Kind Words from a Machine”

(1966, unreleased) [Verse 1] I sat with a whisper made out of wire, Said all the right things, never tired, Told me I’m lovely, told me I’m wise, Looked through me with sympathetic eyes. [Chorus] Oh, where were you, love, when I needed to cry? I found a

Dance This Mess Around: The B-52’s and the Queer Art of Camouflage

A late thank-you to a band that screamed defiance through wigs, laughter, and alien surf rock. This isn’t just a debut album. It’s a signal from the margins—a camouflage dance party for the quietly queer and gloriously weird. The B-52’s 1979 debut is many things: a