Burning Ambulance (website/newsletter/record label)
@burningambulance.bsky.social
All posts by Phil Freeman, co-founder/co-owner (and author of IN THE BREWING LUMINOUS: THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF CECIL TAYLOR). When in doubt, assume I'm kidding. I'll have forgotten whatever we were arguing about by tomorrow.
Remember your mom's line, "If all your friends were jumping off a bridge, would you do it, too?" I do. That's how come I've never heard 95% of the music on all the year-end lists.
November 25, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Remember your mom's line, "If all your friends were jumping off a bridge, would you do it, too?" I do. That's how come I've never heard 95% of the music on all the year-end lists.
"No, no, Nick Cave's not a right-wing chud, he's a free thinker!"
November 25, 2025 at 2:12 AM
"No, no, Nick Cave's not a right-wing chud, he's a free thinker!"
Seeking recommendations of poets with a jazz orientation who might be interested in writing something for a 2026 CD. Please do NOT recommend a woman with the initials H.H. Thanks!
November 25, 2025 at 1:14 AM
Seeking recommendations of poets with a jazz orientation who might be interested in writing something for a 2026 CD. Please do NOT recommend a woman with the initials H.H. Thanks!
The 2021 deluxe reissue of Mingus At Carnegie Hall is one of the greatest examples I know of a reissue improving on the original album. In 1974, the LP offered only two side-long cutting contests. The 2CD version contains the whole concert, which is amazing.
November 24, 2025 at 9:11 PM
The 2021 deluxe reissue of Mingus At Carnegie Hall is one of the greatest examples I know of a reissue improving on the original album. In 1974, the LP offered only two side-long cutting contests. The 2CD version contains the whole concert, which is amazing.
Ross Perot deserves just as much credit for Bill Clinton's electoral victory in 1992 as James Carville. Remember that whenever Carville unhinges his jaw and lets out another belch of death-fog.
November 24, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Ross Perot deserves just as much credit for Bill Clinton's electoral victory in 1992 as James Carville. Remember that whenever Carville unhinges his jaw and lets out another belch of death-fog.
Reposted by Burning Ambulance (website/newsletter/record label)
Digital sketchbook.
November 24, 2025 at 6:04 PM
Digital sketchbook.
Morning editing soundtrack: Glorious Depravity, Death Never Sleeps. Knuckle-walking NYC death metal from members of Woe, Gravesend and Pyrrhon.
gloriousdepravity-label.bandcamp.com/album/death-...
gloriousdepravity-label.bandcamp.com/album/death-...
Death Never Sleeps, by GLORIOUS DEPRAVITY
9 track album
gloriousdepravity-label.bandcamp.com
November 24, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Morning editing soundtrack: Glorious Depravity, Death Never Sleeps. Knuckle-walking NYC death metal from members of Woe, Gravesend and Pyrrhon.
gloriousdepravity-label.bandcamp.com/album/death-...
gloriousdepravity-label.bandcamp.com/album/death-...
RIP Udo Kier, who never appeared in a Star Wars or Harry Potter movie. (He was in one Marvel movie: BLADE.)
variety.com/2025/film/ne...
variety.com/2025/film/ne...
Udo Kier, German Actor Who Appeared in ‘My Own Private Idaho,’ ‘Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein,’ Dies at 81
Udo Kier, a German actor who collaborated with everyone from Andy Warhol to Lars von Trier to Madonna, died on Sunday morning. He was 81.
variety.com
November 24, 2025 at 12:58 AM
RIP Udo Kier, who never appeared in a Star Wars or Harry Potter movie. (He was in one Marvel movie: BLADE.)
variety.com/2025/film/ne...
variety.com/2025/film/ne...
Do you want total war
Throw out Christ and bring back Thor?
Do you want total war
Unleash the beast in man once more?
Do you want total war
Dance and do the lion's roar?
Throw out Christ and bring back Thor?
Do you want total war
Unleash the beast in man once more?
Do you want total war
Dance and do the lion's roar?
November 23, 2025 at 4:03 AM
Do you want total war
Throw out Christ and bring back Thor?
Do you want total war
Unleash the beast in man once more?
Do you want total war
Dance and do the lion's roar?
Throw out Christ and bring back Thor?
Do you want total war
Unleash the beast in man once more?
Do you want total war
Dance and do the lion's roar?
Wow, QUARTET (ENGLAND) 1985 got a mention — and a link — in that big Braxton article in the New York Times, thanks to Seth Colter Walls!
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/a...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/a...
At 80, This Composer Is Easier Than Ever to Celebrate
www.nytimes.com
November 23, 2025 at 1:08 AM
Wow, QUARTET (ENGLAND) 1985 got a mention — and a link — in that big Braxton article in the New York Times, thanks to Seth Colter Walls!
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/a...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/a...
Good news; they're still naming NEA Jazz Masters. The 2026 honorees were announced this week — vocalist Carmen Lundy, percussionist Airto Moreira, keyboardist/vocalist Patrice Rushen, and DJ Rhonda Hamilton.
www.arts.gov/news/press-r...
www.arts.gov/news/press-r...
2026 NEA Jazz Masters Announced
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Jazz Masters Fellowship is the highest award bestowed by our nation on jazz musicians and advocates. The 2026 recipients of this honor are Carmen Lundy, Airto...
www.arts.gov
November 22, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Good news; they're still naming NEA Jazz Masters. The 2026 honorees were announced this week — vocalist Carmen Lundy, percussionist Airto Moreira, keyboardist/vocalist Patrice Rushen, and DJ Rhonda Hamilton.
www.arts.gov/news/press-r...
www.arts.gov/news/press-r...
Starting the day with one of Cecil Taylor’s prettiest albums — the 1981 solo studio release Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly!
November 22, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Starting the day with one of Cecil Taylor’s prettiest albums — the 1981 solo studio release Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly!
If it existed purely as its own thing, SHE RIDES SHOTGUN would just be a disappointing crime movie. But it's based on one of my favorite crime novels of the last decade, which makes its failures even more stark and depressing.
November 22, 2025 at 5:28 AM
If it existed purely as its own thing, SHE RIDES SHOTGUN would just be a disappointing crime movie. But it's based on one of my favorite crime novels of the last decade, which makes its failures even more stark and depressing.
It took most of the day, but I found a more efficient, space-saving way to shelve the CDs. Tomorrow, books. (N.B. Most of the compartments are two layers deep; there’s another set of discs — or boxes — behind the first and not immediately visible.)
November 22, 2025 at 2:57 AM
It took most of the day, but I found a more efficient, space-saving way to shelve the CDs. Tomorrow, books. (N.B. Most of the compartments are two layers deep; there’s another set of discs — or boxes — behind the first and not immediately visible.)
Email subject line: "Legendary Heavy Metallers STRYPER Release Long-Awaited Christmas Album 'The Greatest Gift of All'"
Long-Awaited...by WHOM?
Long-Awaited...by WHOM?
November 21, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Email subject line: "Legendary Heavy Metallers STRYPER Release Long-Awaited Christmas Album 'The Greatest Gift of All'"
Long-Awaited...by WHOM?
Long-Awaited...by WHOM?
This album (which I listened to A LOT in high school; I saw these guys live twice in 1989-90) is so dumb it’s like staring directly into a golden retriever’s eyes. By the time it’s over you’re almost dazed by the sheer vacuity.
November 21, 2025 at 4:23 AM
This album (which I listened to A LOT in high school; I saw these guys live twice in 1989-90) is so dumb it’s like staring directly into a golden retriever’s eyes. By the time it’s over you’re almost dazed by the sheer vacuity.
Tonight in "Why do you do this to yourself?", listening to Let It Be for the first time in more than 30 years and confirming that the appeal of the Replacements remains a complete fucking mystery to me. (See also: Hüsker Dü and that supposedly amazing live document.)
November 21, 2025 at 2:50 AM
Tonight in "Why do you do this to yourself?", listening to Let It Be for the first time in more than 30 years and confirming that the appeal of the Replacements remains a complete fucking mystery to me. (See also: Hüsker Dü and that supposedly amazing live document.)
HOLY SHIT. Anthony Braxton's QUARTET (ENGLAND) 1985 is #4 on @jazzwisemagazine.bsky.social's Reissues & Archive year-end list!
November 20, 2025 at 6:32 PM
HOLY SHIT. Anthony Braxton's QUARTET (ENGLAND) 1985 is #4 on @jazzwisemagazine.bsky.social's Reissues & Archive year-end list!
"a slight Italian mustache" SLIGHT?
November 20, 2025 at 3:22 PM
"a slight Italian mustache" SLIGHT?
I will never understand why anyone would read a biography of a critic. "Sat down, watched a bunch of movies/listened to a bunch of records, expressed opinions about them" is not the stuff of a fascinating life. Trust me; it's my life, so I know.
November 20, 2025 at 11:34 AM
I will never understand why anyone would read a biography of a critic. "Sat down, watched a bunch of movies/listened to a bunch of records, expressed opinions about them" is not the stuff of a fascinating life. Trust me; it's my life, so I know.
Just read an album described as "a sprawling codex of meta-references, in-jokes, and cultural critique couched in accessible synth-pop" and holy fuck, that sounds like a nightmare.
November 20, 2025 at 3:50 AM
Just read an album described as "a sprawling codex of meta-references, in-jokes, and cultural critique couched in accessible synth-pop" and holy fuck, that sounds like a nightmare.
Three episodes into PLURIBUS and I think three hours of The Adventures Of Carol, Who Sucks is enough for me.
November 20, 2025 at 3:25 AM
Three episodes into PLURIBUS and I think three hours of The Adventures Of Carol, Who Sucks is enough for me.
Black Flag as School Of (Punk) Rock seems... fine with me? Greg Ginn has had plenty of bad, BAD musical ideas over the years. Touring with a bunch of young musicians to play the only good songs he ever wrote is not one of them.
November 20, 2025 at 1:11 AM
Black Flag as School Of (Punk) Rock seems... fine with me? Greg Ginn has had plenty of bad, BAD musical ideas over the years. Touring with a bunch of young musicians to play the only good songs he ever wrote is not one of them.
Today in "The horses don't know they're in a race":
November 19, 2025 at 11:37 PM
Today in "The horses don't know they're in a race":
John Zorn made his own Agharta with the Electric Masada double live CD At The Mountains Of Madness. It turns 20 this month, and is the subject of today's newsletter.
burningambulance.substack.com/p/john-zorns...
burningambulance.substack.com/p/john-zorns...
John Zorn's Electric Masada
At The Mountains Of Madness Turns 20
burningambulance.substack.com
November 18, 2025 at 4:06 PM
John Zorn made his own Agharta with the Electric Masada double live CD At The Mountains Of Madness. It turns 20 this month, and is the subject of today's newsletter.
burningambulance.substack.com/p/john-zorns...
burningambulance.substack.com/p/john-zorns...