I really dig the Bay Area. Though, I have to admit I have never been there. I have no clue what it looks like. It's just an adolescent dream of mine. Listening to The Doors, Airplane and The Holding Company too much when I was a teenager, growing my hair, dressing up like a hippy. Ten years later not much has changed. People still think I dress like a hippy, and I still dance to psychedelic rock when nobody watches me. I picture something similar for at least half of the Wooden Shjips crew. When I discovered their Shrinking Moon for You 10" and Dance California 7" two years ago, for at least some weeks a third summer of love took place in my living room. That's how I fell in love with this brain-melting combo. Enough reasons to send Ripley Johnson an e-mail to confess my hippy love and ask him out about the band... feature :: by Steve Marreyt

In the late 1960s, guitarist Peter Walker released two magnificent albums of raga-inflected folk music: “Rainy Day Raga” (1967) and “Second Poem to Karmela, or Gypsies are Important (1969). He made a living as a guitar dealer, lived in Mexico for a time, studied Indian raga with both Ali Akbar Khan and Ravi Shankar. In the 1970’s Walker settled in Woodstock, New York and due to a lack of commercial interest in his music, disappeared from the music scene... feature :: by Cory Card

When i read the editorial of the latest issue of legendary magazine Ptolemaic Terrascope, I thought that this would be the perfect timing to interview the no less legendary Phil McMullen, the man behind one of the most fascinating and influential music adventures of the last fifteen years. It would be a great opportunity to look back at a way of living and writing about music that nobody else seemed to care about. I’m not the only person touched by the genius of both Phil and Nick Saloman (a.k.a Bevis Frond)…their courage and vision influenced a whole community of musicians and writers that found in the Ptolemaic Terrascope a chance to share their musical and personal experiences. This is part 1 of 2... feature :: by Nuno Robles

Pumice is Stefan Neville, an unassuming figure in the mind-expanding Kiwi underground. Over the years, Neville has had his hand in a great number of projects, working with his New Zealand peers like Antony Milton, Clayton Noone, Sugar Jon, and others. Over the course of numerous lathe-cut and CD-R releases, Pumice sonic shape began to take form. However, last year saw Neville put his best foot forward on the stunning "Raft" album, co-released by his own Stabbies label and Last Visible Dog. The album was a melancholic journey through the ocean, searching out lost island civilizations. It was the best album to come out of New Zealand in 2004 and remains in regular rotation in our apartment... feature :: by Brad Rose