Barry Smolin

Barry Smolin (born April 20, 1961 in Los Angeles, California) is an American radio host, teacher, composer, and writer.

Barry Smolin
Background information
Also known asMr. Smolin
Born (1961-04-20) April 20, 1961
OriginLos Angeles, California

Radio

The Music Never Stops

From 1995 to 2012, Smolin was the host of The Music Never Stops, a psychedelic radio show on KPFK in Los Angeles, California[1] for which Smolin won the first ever Jammy Award for "Best Radio Show" in 2000.[2] Smolin's program was also nominated for an LA Weekly Music Award in 2004 in the "Best Radio Show" category.[3] The Music Never Stops began as a program featuring live recordings of the Grateful Dead, but after the death of Jerry Garcia; Smolin expanded the scope of the show to include contemporary jam-rock and miscellaneous psychedelia, paying special attention to music being made by musicians in Los Angeles. The program has been covered in Relix magazine[4] and Jambands.com.

Head Room

Smolin is currently the host of the program Head Room on KPFK,[5] heard every Sunday Night from 8pm-10pm. Head Room is a wide-open venue for exploratory rock and roll, be it psychedelic pioneers such as the Grateful Dead, contemporary jam-rock, healthy doses of vintage progressive rock, new music from myriad experimental, improvisational, accidental, avant-freak, arty-smarty pop, and psychedelic cabaret artists. Special emphasis is given to interesting offbeat local acts currently making art-music in Los Angeles.

Teaching

Smolin is also a noted teacher who has been featured in articles in Time[6] and the Los Angeles Times.,[7] as well as in the Larchmont Chronicle,[8] and the Library Foundation of L.A.'s "My Moby-Dick" tribute.[9][10] In 2014 he was featured in a short film entitled Flying Lessons With Mr. Smolin[11] that highlighted the impact he's had on a generation of students. From 1987 to 1992, Smolin taught English at Fairfax High School (the school Smolin himself graduated from in 1978) in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Since leaving Fairfax in 1992, he has been on the faculty at Hamilton High School, teaching English in the Hamilton Humanities Magnet program.

Music

Pop Music

As a songwriter, Smolin has composed music for the Showtime television series Weeds, with his song "The Earth Keeps Turning On" appearing in Season 3's Episode 7, entitled "He Taught Me How To Drive By."[12] as well as on the Weeds Season 3 Soundtrack album. Under the performance moniker Mr. Smolin he has released four albums, At Apogee (2004) and The Crumbling Empire Of White People (2007) (both produced by Tony Award winning composer/dramatist Stew, best known for his musical Passing Strange), a Los Angeles song-cycle entitled Bring Back The Real Don Steele (2009).,[13] and a collaboration with Double Naught Spy Car entitled Heaven's Not High (2013). In 2015, Smolin released two singles: "Fairfax High School" about his alma mater and "The Man I Met Once." Smolin's songs typically feature complex lyrics set to catchy pop melodies. He is also known for his postmodern explorations of historical/cultural incidents and figures, such as World War I espionage legend Mata Hari[14] and Hollywood actress Veronica Lake,[15] as well as the fictional The Guns of Navarone.[16]

Experimental Music

Since 2016, Smolin has primarily composed experimental pieces, both instrumental and spoken word. With Double Naught Spy Car, he set chapter 1 of James Joyce's Finnegans Wake to music as part of the Waywords and Meansigns Project,[17] which was released in 2016 as was an album of the project's instrumental tracks called "That Tragoady Thundersday." In September 2017, he released an instrumental album entitled The Sooterkin Library, a trio project that Smolin describes as "12-Tone Avant-Freak Mongrel Psycho-Tonk.".[18]

Writing

Smolin is the author of 2 novellas: Narcissus In The Dark (2012),[19] whose narrator is God sentenced to eternity in a dungeon and whose consciousness thinks new universes into being while sorting through the detritus of his troubled past, and the experimental prose project Wake Up In The Dreamhouse,[20] composed one sentence at a time on Twitter. In May 2011, Smolin released a volume of selected poetry covering the years 1988–2010 entitled Always Be Madly In Love.[21] His most recent fiction project is a Trilogy entitled The Miranda Complex, Volume 1 of which was published in 2016[22] with Volume 2 following in 2017,[23] and the concluding Volume 3 in 2018.[24] The Miranda Complex chronicles the unconsummated romantic relationship between Lance Atlas and Miranda Savitch, 2 teenagers in 1970s Los Angeles.

Discography
  • At Apogee (2004), produced by Stew[25]
  • The Crumbling Empire Of White People (2007), produced by Stew[26]
  • Bring Back The Real Don Steele (2009)[27]
  • Heaven's Not High (2013)[28]
  • Fairfax High School (single, 2015)[29]
  • The Man I Met Once (single, 2015)[30]
  • Mutt and Jute (single, 2016)[31]
  • Finnegans Wake Chapter 1 (Waywords and Meansigns, 2016)[32]
  • That Tragoady Thundersday (2016)[33]
  • The Sooterkin Library (2017)[34]
  • The Mookse & The Gripes (2018)[35]
  • Mysterium Fidei (2018)[36]
  • The Mole With A Hole In The Whole Of Him (2018)[37]
  • The Five Decades (2018)[38]
  • The Four Mysteries (2018)[39]
  • My Lunch With Lautréamont (2018)[40]
  • Baby Methuselah (2019)[41]
  • Ancients Link With Presents As The Human Chain Extends (2019)[42]
  • Always Be Madly In Love (2019)[43]
  • unspoken (2019)[44]
  • The Age of Endarkenment (2019)[45]
  • Before You Know It (2019)[46]
  • Water Signs (2019)[47]
  • The Day I Met Blassie & Tolos (2019)[48]
  • The Humpback of Nostradamus (2019)[49]
  • Play Free (2019), with Vince Meghrouni[50]
  • The Fantastic Catch (2020)[51]
  • Eyelid Movies (2020)[52]
  • Outside Norms (2020)[53]
  • Say No More (2020)[54]
  • Antediluvian Future (2020)[55]
  • Lurch (2020)[56]
  • Smoke on the Altar (2020)[57]
  • The Minerva Syndrome (2020)[58]
  • Remember My Chains (2020)[59]
  • Doo-Dads (2020)[60]
  • The God Paradox (2020)[61]
  • Havdalah Sonata (2020)[62]
  • That's What They All Say (2020)[63]
  • Pretend To Play (2020)[64]
  • In the Name of Zarking Fardwarks (2020)[65]
  • Slide Down My Rainbow (2020)[66]
  • Hypostasy (2020), with Vince Meghrouni[67]
  • Strange Fire (2020)[68]
  • Great Seizure's Ghost (2020)[69]
  • Radio Andromeda (2020)[70]
  • Frenching (2021)[71]
  • Ode To Billy Jack (2021)[72]
  • Maps To Stars Homes (2021)[73]
  • A Jew In Space (2021)[74]

Bibliography
  • Wake Up In The Dreamhouse (2011)
  • Always Be Madly In Love (2011)
  • Narcissus In The Dark (2012)
  • The Miranda Complex Volume 1: Munchkinland (2016)
  • The Miranda Complex Volume 2: Poppies (2017)
  • The Miranda Complex Volume 3: The Man Behind The Curtain (2018)

References
  1. "The Music Never Stops with Barry Smolin". Archived from the original on 2008-09-22. Retrieved 2008-09-14.
  2. Jammy Award#Award Winners
  3. "LAWMA 2004".
  4. "Radio Rebels: 6 Shows that Bring Jambands to The Airwaves".
  5. "Head Room".
  6. "Who's Teaching Our Children?". Time. 1988-11-14. Retrieved 2010-04-26.
  7. Ricci, James (2006-06-09). "Yes, He Does Digress". The Los Angeles Times.
  8. "Barry Smolin". Archived from the original on 2007-04-25. Retrieved 2008-09-14.
  9. "The Voice of Ishmael".
  10. "In The Beginning".
  11. "Flying Lessons With Mr. Smolin".
  12. "Showtime – Weeds Music". Archived from the original on 2011-06-15. Retrieved 2011-06-26.
  13. "The Real Don Steele is Alive! Alive!". L.A. Weekly.
  14. "Mata Hari lyrics".
  15. "Veronica Lake lyrics".
  16. "The Guns of Navarone lyrics".
  17. "Waywords and Meansigns".
  18. "The Sooterkin Library".
  19. Smolin, Barry (17 July 2012). Narcissus In The Dark. ISBN 978-1478217602.
  20. Wake Up In The Dreamhouse. ISBN 1460927125.
  21. Always Be Madly In Love. ISBN 1461190401.
  22. Smolin, Barry (26 January 2016). The Miranda Complex Volume 1. ISBN 978-0692614204.
  23. Smolin, Barry (2017). The Miranda Complex Volume 2. ISBN 978-0692797228.
  24. Smolin, Barry (2018-01-16). The Miranda Complex Volume 3: The Man Behind The Curtain (1st ed.). Anomaly Press. ISBN 9780692973769.
  25. "At Apogee". Bandcamp. Mr. Smolin. Retrieved 27 January 2016.
  26. "The Crumbling Empire Of White People". Bandcamp. Mr. Smolin. Retrieved 27 January 2016.
  27. "Bring Back The Real Don Steele". Bandcamp. Mr. Smolin. Retrieved 27 January 2016.
  28. "Heaven's Not High". Bandcamp. Mr. Smolin. Retrieved 27 January 2016.
  29. "Fairfax High School". Bandcamp. Mr. Smolin. Retrieved 28 September 2015.
  30. "The Man I Met Once". Bandcamp. Mr. Smolin. Retrieved 28 September 2015.
  31. "Mutt and Jute". Bandcamp. Mr. Smolin. Retrieved 27 January 2016.
  32. "Finnegans Wake Chapter 1".
  33. "That Tragoady Thundersday".
  34. "The Sooterkin Library".
  35. Mr. Smolin, The Mookse & the Gripes, retrieved 2018-01-21
  36. Mr. Smolin, Mysterium Fidei
  37. Mr. Smolin, The Mole With A Hole In The Hole Of Him
  38. Mr. Smolin, The Five Decades
  39. Mr. Smolin, The Four Mysteries
  40. Mr. Smolin, My Lunch With Lautréamont
  41. Mr. Smolin, Baby Methuselah
  42. Mr. Smolin, Ancients Link With Presents As The Human Chain Extends
  43. Mr. Smolin, Always Be Madly In Love
  44. Mr. Smolin, unspoken
  45. Mr. Smolin, The Age of Endarkenment
  46. Mr. Smolin, Before You Know It
  47. Mr. Smolin, Water Signs
  48. Mr. Smolin, The Day I Met Blassie & Tolos
  49. Mr. Smolin, The Humpback of Nostradamus
  50. Mr. Smolin, Play Free
  51. Mr. Smolin, The Fantastic Catch
  52. Mr. Smolin, Eyelid Movies
  53. Mr. Smolin, Outside Norms
  54. Mr. Smolin, Say No More
  55. Mr. Smolin, Antediluvian Future
  56. Mr. Smolin, Lurch
  57. Mr. Smolin, Smoke on the Altar
  58. Mr. Smolin, The Minerva Syndrome
  59. Mr. Smolin, Remember My Chains
  60. Mr. Smolin, Doo-Dads
  61. Mr. Smolin, The God Paradox
  62. Mr. Smolin, Havdalah Sonata
  63. Mr. Smolin, That's What They All Say
  64. Mr. Smolin, Pretend To Play
  65. Mr. Smolin, In the Name of Zarking Fardwarks
  66. Mr. Smolin, Slide Down My Rainbow
  67. Mr. Smolin, Hypostasy
  68. Mr. Smolin, Strange Fire
  69. Mr. Smolin, Great Seizure's Ghost
  70. Mr. Smolin, Radio Andromeda
  71. Mr. Smolin, Frenching
  72. Mr. Smolin, Ode To Billy Jack
  73. Mr. Smolin, Maps To Stars Homes
  74. Mr. Smolin, A Jew In Space
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