The Quietus
, March 17th, 2021 09:10
For the latest instalment of our series that sees some of our favourite musicians interview one another without editorial interference, this month the subjects are Lara Rix-Martin and Mike Paradinas
Music writers. Who needs em? We recently had the opportunity to get Mike Paradinas and Lara Rix-Martin together (admittedly, it wasn t hard, they re married and live in the same house) and left them to have a conversation about their individual practice, without any interference.
Lara releases
Neon Genesis: Soul Into Matter², her third album as Meemo Comma, this week. The album is inspired by classic anime soundtracks and Jewish mysticism and follows on from tQ favourite,
Songs from the City, Stories from the Sea.
Big Day Out’s tireless efforts to secure Harvey for her debut Australian tour were detailed last year in a Double J retrospective piece. It was touch and go for a while, but PJ rose to the occasion. As the festival’s longtime coordinator Sahara Herald put it to Double J: “She brought this incredible element to the Big Day Out which at times could be really bloody blokey.”
Special acknowledgement: Big Day Out moved swiftly to book Coldplay following their 2000 debut album,
Parachutes, and the bet paid off in heartfelt sets featuring ‘Yellow’, ‘Sparks’, ‘Shiver’ and ‘Trouble’. “I feel like Freddie Mercury with all these people,” Chris Martin quipped sweetly while looking out at the huge Sydney crowd. Oh, what innocent times.
[It is with great sadness that we at WFUV share news that we have lost
Rita Houston, our much-loved program director and iconic DJ to generations of listeners listeners who regarded her as their radio friend. Rita left this world this morning, December 15, 2020, in the loving company of her wife and our colleague, Laura Fedele, and her family. Our hearts are with Laura, with Rita’s sister Deb, her brothers Rich and Rob, and their families, and the family of her late brother, Bill. Read the statement from Chuck Singleton, FUV s general manager, here.]
The Oxford dictionary’s definition of music “the art of combining vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion describes Rita Houston too. Over the 26 years that she redefined WFUV’s programming, she also influenced the national scope of public radio. She wasn’t just a tastemaker, but an apostle of artistry: Rita was driven by a singular love of songwriters. Sh