I love to get music as a gift. Love it. Love CDs or instruments or instrument accessories. This year I got some really special music that was not just your average CD. I got regular stuff, too, like the Jensens gave me the entire Battles catalog. And my dad gave me two essential Neil Young discs I was missing.
But the really special stuff was from my brother.
1. He corresponded personally with my favorite radio host, Bob Boilen to try to get me some All Songs Considered memorabilia for me, a big fan. Bob told Keith that there was no official ASC merch, but he sent a CD of his own music that he'd been working on. It's a CDR of some atmospheric electronic music with cool homemade packaging and a little inscription. Honestly, I'm tickled. What a way to treat your fans. What a great guy!
2. Keith also spent the last few months recording himself, Erin, and my parents singing lullabies as a gift to Lily. It's really great. I love my parents' singing voices and I'm glad Lil' G will always be able to hear their singing voices. Keith also did some really great arrangements on here and did some beautiful instrumental stuff. On it, there's a hymn-type song, a Smashing Pumpkins song, a song that my grandfather sang for a Phillip Moris commercial on the radio as a child, and a James Taylor song, sung by my dad, that is one of my favorites to sing to Lillian. Really special.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Why I Love Project
There are a lot of reality shows out there that are "talent" competitions. Project Runway is not a talent competition, it is an art competition or a creative competition. Project gives us a glimpse into the creative process. How do they do it? What is their inspiration? What was running through their mind?Don't you wish you could ask that of the creator of your favorite painting, poem, song, book, or photo? Or if a camera was on them while they were dreaming it up?
I wish this would catch on and there would be a musical spin-off or a literary spin-off. What if songwriters were given challenges like: make a commercial jingle for laundry soap, write a love song, write a death metal song, write a power ballad, etc. And instead of rotating models, they would rotate studio musicians that had different skill sets. At the end of each challenge, they would present the recording of their song.
Get me a meeting with a Bravo executive now!
Monday, December 17, 2007
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Feeling Old
One of my favorite things to do is read liner notes. You know, those paper things they put inside real-live CD cases. I read them. See who played on them. Who produced the album. Who engineered. Guest musicians? Cameos? It's fun, because you realize stuff about your favorite records that you never knew. Unfortunately, in my case, tonight it was the year that was so surprising. Shocking and appalling, in fact
Conveniently enough for this story, I was pacing my baby to sleep while making this realization. I had her in an earth-momma wrap pacing through the dining room back-and-forth. Grabbing a sip of wine on one end, grabbing a CD at the other end (the office where I have my beshrined CD wall) where I would extract a CD, unsheathe its liner notes, read for a few paces, resheathe, recatalog, and select a new one.
While reading the notes to Mineral's "The Power of Failing", a record that truly changed my life, I realized that it was recorded mostly in the winter of my junior year in Highschool. January 1995. I didn't catch on to this record until 96 or early 97. But man, that's a long time ago. We're talking first girlfriend, driver's tests, community college.
Next, I picked up Starflyer 59's "Best Of" double disc entitled "Easy Come Easy Go". This band is one of my first loves. I think Scott Lehman bought me the cassette tape of "Silver" (their first album) back in the day, but I didn't realized that they were anthologized after 5 records and a slew of EPs with this Greatest Hits record in 2000. That's a long time ago!
(Fun side note: I acquired this record when my old band opened the release party show for this greatest hits album. We traded CDs with the band. A special memory for me that doesn't seem like 7 or 8 years ago.)
But here's what I'm getting at, folks. It's not just the years that have passed that are scaring me, it's what I read in the extensive liner notes in the Starflyer Best-Of album that got me down. A journalist basically wrote a 20 page biography of the band for this one. And in it, frontman Jason Martin is quoted speaking about one of the first records that changed HIS life. He says of The Smith's "The Queen is Dead", "I just could not handle how much I loved that thing."
And that's what got me. I've found records that I love in recent years. But not records that I "couldn't handle" loving. That feeling when you paradigm has shifted and a piece of art makes you feel like the rest of the world could never understand the way you feel. A piece of art like that is cruel and sweet at the same time. I don't have that feeling anymore. And I probably listen to better records now. But I don't feel that way anymore.
And I know I'm not that old, but damn that makes me feel old.
I guess the beautiful side to that is that I get to have that feeling about my wife and my daughter. Learning new things about them, learning about them, loving them makes me feel that way- better even. Writing music makes me feel that way, to an extent. Sometimes work does.
Fittingly, here's the chorus of a Starflyer 59 song called "I Drive A Lot":
Think of me, Jason. I'm getting there.
Conveniently enough for this story, I was pacing my baby to sleep while making this realization. I had her in an earth-momma wrap pacing through the dining room back-and-forth. Grabbing a sip of wine on one end, grabbing a CD at the other end (the office where I have my beshrined CD wall) where I would extract a CD, unsheathe its liner notes, read for a few paces, resheathe, recatalog, and select a new one.
While reading the notes to Mineral's "The Power of Failing", a record that truly changed my life, I realized that it was recorded mostly in the winter of my junior year in Highschool. January 1995. I didn't catch on to this record until 96 or early 97. But man, that's a long time ago. We're talking first girlfriend, driver's tests, community college.
Next, I picked up Starflyer 59's "Best Of" double disc entitled "Easy Come Easy Go". This band is one of my first loves. I think Scott Lehman bought me the cassette tape of "Silver" (their first album) back in the day, but I didn't realized that they were anthologized after 5 records and a slew of EPs with this Greatest Hits record in 2000. That's a long time ago!
(Fun side note: I acquired this record when my old band opened the release party show for this greatest hits album. We traded CDs with the band. A special memory for me that doesn't seem like 7 or 8 years ago.)
But here's what I'm getting at, folks. It's not just the years that have passed that are scaring me, it's what I read in the extensive liner notes in the Starflyer Best-Of album that got me down. A journalist basically wrote a 20 page biography of the band for this one. And in it, frontman Jason Martin is quoted speaking about one of the first records that changed HIS life. He says of The Smith's "The Queen is Dead", "I just could not handle how much I loved that thing."
And that's what got me. I've found records that I love in recent years. But not records that I "couldn't handle" loving. That feeling when you paradigm has shifted and a piece of art makes you feel like the rest of the world could never understand the way you feel. A piece of art like that is cruel and sweet at the same time. I don't have that feeling anymore. And I probably listen to better records now. But I don't feel that way anymore.
And I know I'm not that old, but damn that makes me feel old.
I guess the beautiful side to that is that I get to have that feeling about my wife and my daughter. Learning new things about them, learning about them, loving them makes me feel that way- better even. Writing music makes me feel that way, to an extent. Sometimes work does.
Fittingly, here's the chorus of a Starflyer 59 song called "I Drive A Lot":
"And when I get worked up I think of friends now 35."
Think of me, Jason. I'm getting there.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Sound Opinions
I found a great podcast that's a close second to Bob Boilen's All Songs Considered. It's called Sound Opinions and Chicago Public Radio (a la This American Life) puts it out. It's hosted two famous rock critics: Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot. Greg Kot wrote the Wilco/Jay Farrar book I blogged about a while ago.
These guys pick apart all types of music and, like All Songs Considered, I don't think you have to be a total music nerd to like it. Well Maybe.
They did a show on Midlake that was great. They did a Best-Of 07 show. They did a "Turkey Shoot" show at Thanksgiving where they picked out 07's worst albums. Great podcast.
These guys pick apart all types of music and, like All Songs Considered, I don't think you have to be a total music nerd to like it. Well Maybe.
They did a show on Midlake that was great. They did a Best-Of 07 show. They did a "Turkey Shoot" show at Thanksgiving where they picked out 07's worst albums. Great podcast.
Sunday, December 09, 2007
Saturday, December 08, 2007
Tis the season for bad music.
I dislike Christmas music. What other time of year could I be inundated everywhere I go with Ann Murray, Kenny Loggins, and Barry Manilow back-to-back? I wouldn't listen to Bing Crosby in July, why would I want to hear him now? These people who recorded those classic Christmas songs were the Britney Spearses of their time. Someday, some December a decade from now, we'll be sitting around the old Yule log roasting chestnuts and thinking how Christmas just wouldn't be the same without that one Josh Grobin song. Sick.
And just so I'm not a total Scrooge, I'm going to plug a really great Christmas album. It's called "Light of the Stable" and it's by the legendary Emmylou Harris. This is an artfully crafted album that even has Neil Young (hot!) singing harmonies on the title track. "Light of the Stable" offers an authentic union of the Nashville-style country of the time (1979), excellent songcraft, and hint of traditional bluegrass..... and I don't mean the cookie-cutter supper-annoying watered-down bluegrass we're getting these days, I mean slow, beautiful songcraft on traditional instruments. Some Christmas classics, some originals, some rare old songs. Like one of my favorites: "Cherry Tree" which is a psychadelic impressionistic interpretation of Joseph and Mary's conversation about fidelity. I remember my parents singing it when I was just a little Gidlund.
So next time you are exposed to a music block consisting of Michael Bolton, James Blunt, and some girl who "almost won American Idol" singing songs about figgy pudding and sleigh rides and you start to shout (right there in the shopping mall), "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!", just go remedy the situation by picking up Emmylou's "Light of the Stable".
And just so I'm not a total Scrooge, I'm going to plug a really great Christmas album. It's called "Light of the Stable" and it's by the legendary Emmylou Harris. This is an artfully crafted album that even has Neil Young (hot!) singing harmonies on the title track. "Light of the Stable" offers an authentic union of the Nashville-style country of the time (1979), excellent songcraft, and hint of traditional bluegrass..... and I don't mean the cookie-cutter supper-annoying watered-down bluegrass we're getting these days, I mean slow, beautiful songcraft on traditional instruments. Some Christmas classics, some originals, some rare old songs. Like one of my favorites: "Cherry Tree" which is a psychadelic impressionistic interpretation of Joseph and Mary's conversation about fidelity. I remember my parents singing it when I was just a little Gidlund.So next time you are exposed to a music block consisting of Michael Bolton, James Blunt, and some girl who "almost won American Idol" singing songs about figgy pudding and sleigh rides and you start to shout (right there in the shopping mall), "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!", just go remedy the situation by picking up Emmylou's "Light of the Stable".
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
