4 books

"Drown" by Junot Diaz was a gift from a student and her family, OK, let's say Bora. I liked the fact that it shared a title with a song that made me fall head-over-heals in love with music as a teenager and liked the font on the cover (courier). I devoured it, searching for meaning, searching for understanding. From my paradigm, it was a novel that followed a Latino(?) man who immigrated to the US, no in the next chapter, is this about his dad? next chapter... is this about maybe his brother or his brother's drug-dealing girlfriend? next chapter: we're back in the Dominican Republic, so I think this is like maybe his sub-conscious self imagining what life would be like if he hadn't left the DR, no..... now we're in Florida.... waiting for these characters to connect or something, is this chapter about his father? Well, like a dummy, when I finally finished the book and felt like the novel really never connected the dots from chapter to chapter, like the genius that I am I read the back of the book, which explained to me that this was a collection of short stories about males from the Dominican Rebublic and their immigration stories. Ooooooh, so it wasn't a novel at all and that wasn't the same guy! That explains why the main character had different names in every chapter, was different ages (though in different decades), and (in one chapter) had his face eaten off by swine as an infant and believed he had super-human strength (only to have his face and mortal abilities back in the next chapter). Oh, I get it- those weren't chapters in a novel, but separate short stories: stand-alone. Despite the confusion, upon this back-of-the-book epiphany, I loved the book, felt like I had been a part of several families, and lived several lifetimes. Highly recommended. Highly humbling experience.

Given as a gift by my sister-in-law, "Tree of Smoke A Novel" by Dennis Johnson (author of "Jesus' Son" I didn't know that until I googled it just now, did you?) has been on my bedside table, shoulder pack, and toilet tank for over 6 months. I'm not gonna pretend. It was the longest book I've ever read. Followed about 20 characters on separate sub-chapters over the course of 20 years, the central-most character being a young CIA agent who essentially organized 3x5 cards in a card catalog at a villa in remote Viet Nam during the war. No hero, no plot line or story, just slices of life from 20 characters. No hero, just bystanders. Yet I liked it, entered a different world in my innermost mind. Willing to admit that I might not have fully understood it or that it honestly might have been smarter than me.

(NOTE: I am an educated person and hold both graduate and post graduate certificates despite the fact I did not understand the two aforementioned books, which laugh at me from a shelf I built with my own hands.)

Back to my comfort zone on my week off, snuggling up with Cormac McCarthy and the stomach flu to read "Child of God". Format: western. Reading level: Gid. Premise is blown in the first paragraph- we are all children of God, even the worst of us, even the main character who is a hermit and serial killer and, later, cave dweller. Protagonist as anti-hero. You get it. I loved it. It speaks to me with American language. Done in two days, restoring my confidence after months with the same book.





Now onto "To Live's to Fly: The Ballad of the Late, Great Townes Van Zandt" by John Kruth, a present from Sissy. Just read the introduction under my bedside lamp after an SNL re-run and was moved to write this blog entry about this intro and the last few books I've read and the common theme of anti-hero throughout. This fella's book is about an anti-hero: Townes Van Zandt- rogue singer-songwriter. Yet in the intro to his own book, Kruth sites his beginnings as a creative person and biographer as being spawned by Mickey Mantle, Willy Mayes, and the Beatles. Yeah, you and everybody else my parents' age. Where's the danger? How does the hero turn out to write a book about an anti-hero like TVZ? I loved music like Delta Heymax and thebrotheregg and resent stories about how "life-changing" the Beatles were. That's nice that they changed your life, but they changed every single other American teenager's life in exactly the same way at exactly the same minute of payola-bought airtime. In other words, to sum up this whole thing, here- who is the anti-hero? who gets to write about him? I think heroes get to write about anti-heroes, which is an extreme paradox that hopefully I'll come to understand better than I understand half of the books I read. But for now, though, I'm looking forward to this book about Townes- a songwriter who speaks to me in the most basic American voice and language.

The Elected

In a comment from another post, Ch mentioned I might like the new Jenny Lewis record. Jenny Lewis is the frontwoman of indie darlings / LA hipsters / former child actors Rilo Kiley. And while I have heard some cuts of the Lewis record, I've been really into the side project of the other songwriter/former child star in Rilo Kiley- Blake Senate. His band: The Elected. The Album: "Sun, Sun, Sun". Pretty good. $2.95 at Amoeba. There's one song that will be on all the mix tapes I make this year called "Did Me Good" and it's fantastic.


The Elected's "Not Going Home"


some Jenny Lewis on a kids show

TV (netflix) Recommendation

A lot of my friends like the WIRE and/or MAD MEN and I wanted to precommend this show called Flight of the Conchords because it shares actors from the aforementioned shows.

Kristen Schaal plays a telephone dispatch person on Mad Men, but also plays Mel, the band's stalker and only fan on Flight of the Conchords.
David Costabile plays a newspaper editor on the Wire, but first played Doug, Mel's husband, on Flight of the Conchords.
It's pretty much like a mix between Mad Men and Wire.

talking heads

Been listening to the "Best of" the Talking Heads and among the songs I didn't know before but love is "This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)" and the line:

"It's O.K. I know nothing's wrong."

... sticks out to me. I wait for it every time. How reassuring.

(highly recommended record)

The Wire: just a thought

Here's a thought:

Lester Freeman is "The Wire". In other words, he is what the title refers to. Of course there is the literal wire tap that goes on, but Lester is the one who puts it up. He is also a catalyst or an inner-antagonist... the ominous cheshire cat who insights the other characters. I'm suggesting that Freeman is the unsuspecting, unexpected central character.
Discuss.

Telegraph

Anybody seen Joke Man lately?

Man, Telegraph is really falling apart.

A Skin, A Night

I got this a while back- a double disc of a documentary DVD about The National making "Boxer" called "A Skin, A Night" and an audio CD of B-sides, demos, and live tracks called "The Virginia EP". It is an unusual package showing a cover for the film on one side and a cover for the CD on the other. I saved the movie until I could watch it with some friends who were also interested, which I did a couple nights ago.

The DVD:

This is hardly a documentary. Just some footage of the National recording their masterpiece, but in the most mundane way (which is how recording is done), showing things like the bassist recording his plunk plunk plunk bass line to a tick tick tick clicktrack. This might be interesting to someone who's never seen recording done, but this kind of stuff is supper boring to me. This is supplemented by arty subway footage and psychedelic color swirls and photoshop tricks. The problems with this movie: 1. No narration. 2.During the arty 5-minute subway scenes, there would be no sound (?) , which left me and my four friends sitting in awkward silence watching the screen basically change colors like sunspots.... without any sound. If you're going to put sort of a visual art abstract piece for 10 excruciating minutes in the middle of a music documentary, play some music for corn sake!

The EP:

Not sure why they're calling this an EP, it has 12 songs on it. But they're brilliant. Well worth the price, even iff the movie is a toss-away. As a fan, I love the idea of collecting "lost songs" on hard copy (long live the CD!). Love this collection ending with the song "About Today", which asks the question, "How close am I... to losing you?" and contains the universally familiar dialog:

Hey, are you awake?
Yeah I'm right here.
Well, can I ask you about today?

Love that. Love the National's honesty. It kind of crescendos and the audience claps along and it's great. Great. Great. Great.

Pretty Amazing Performance

P.S. Has anyone tried backwards devilhorns yet?

Raise your hand...

...if you remember these Hamm's beer commercials on Saturday morning cartoons.

Fleet Foxes- "fleet foxes" review

This Fleet Foxes record was recommended to me by my friend, Ch, who always has some great music tips (but also loves the new Mariah Carey record). Well, at first I checked it out online and really wasn't that into the Fleet Foxes. They sort or sound like Band of Horses or My Morning Jacket (the cool kids say "MMJ"), but it never hits. You know the band never crashes in. Being a child of the late 80s and early 90s, I wait for every song to hit- for that moment when the chorus bursts in and I put up backwards devil horns (backwards devil horns are so much more satisfying- try it!). This never happens on the Fleet Foxes self-titled record. So I reported back to Ch that Fleet Foxes just didn't do it for me.

Later I was listening to my favorite podcast, All Songs Considered, and they featured a live performance of Fleet Foxes and I got super into it. No, it never hits. But the Fleet Foxes develop their anti-hooks around polyrhythms, unconventional song structures, and dark vocal harmony arrangements. In fact, this is a vocal record, where the instruments aren't really that essential and the unusual chords that the 3-4 vocalists make are very unusual- in the same way that Midlake had those crazy early Fleetwood Mack harmonies.

Anyway, after listening to the live performance, I was sold and bought the record yesterday. It's been on repeat rotation and we even played it at low volume while having dinner guests and it worked as great dinner music, because it sounds kind of like choral music. I really dig the whole other-wordly vibe that the lyrics give off. Again, it's very Midlake-ish in that way. It makes you feel like you're out in the woods in medieval times foraging for berries and herbs. So, I was wrong, the Fleet Foxes are right.

GOURDICULTURE !

Dear faithful readership,

I've decided to branch out and launch a new blog documenting my adventures and misadventures in growing gourds, curing them, and turning them into a variety of musical instruments. Rather than cluttering this, my music blog, with gardening info- I've decided to create a new blog called:

GOURDICULTURE

http://gourdiculture.blogspot.com/

Hayden: "in field and town" review

Hayden is one of those guys I've followed since I was a teenager. He's sort of the Canadian David Bazaan (of Pedro the Lion) with a Heart-of-Gold-era Neil Young thing going on. I've bought basically everything he's put out, which all has the common threads of being a little folky, all instruments recorded and performed by himself, bedroom-pop feel, etc., but this record was slated to be his "rock record" by journalists/bloggers. This album does not rock. It rolls in the way that Hayden must have rolled out of bed to press the record button while making this record. And that's not to put down the album. It just lulls at the same pace the last few records did and does not achieve the exititng variances of his first two full-lengths (1995's "Everything I Long For" had a Tom Waits rasp and 1998's "The Closer I Get" had sort of an indie-rock Pedro the Lion/Bedhead feel).

"Field and Town's" strong pieces are "Damn This Feeling", which is a simple piano tune where you can actually hear the pedal mechanism inside the piano (sounds like he stuck the mic right in the top of the upright), and the synth in "Worthy of your Esteem" provided the one fresh element on the record. "Did I Wake up Beside You?" has a syncopated electric guitar upstroke that pays homage to Neil's "Southern Man" The disappointment here is "Lonely Security Guard" whic fits the story-telling that Hayden likes to do, but it seems ill-conceived.

Folks, my recommendation is to go out and buy Hayden's "Live at Convocation Hall". It's a double disc live record that covers his best prior to 2002. I've written before on this blog that sometimes live records are better than "best-of" records and this is a fine example. It's just Hayden and a home-town crowd and the interaction between them. A wonderful double-record that I take on road trips and that I strongly recommend to those wanting to check out Hayden.

Amazing Starflyer 59 quote for their near-perfect album, "Americana"

"Time is all you need when you stop to think."

This is funny.

Click here.

The National "Alligator"

I got into this band through their newest release, "Boxer". It made my top ten for 2007. Now I'm dipping into The National's back catalog and lovin it.

"Alligator" finds the instruments coming to the foreground a little more- with more memorable guitar and piano parts, as apposed to the quagmire of sound on "Boxer". At times the band sounds like like early U2 (and folks, it's a musical fact that the first 3 U2 albums are better than their last 4 albums, hands down).

Lyrically, Matt Berninger is a little more Bukowski-esque on this one. But what could be confused as chauvinism is probably a little more like honesty or confession.

Great album. Really into this band right now.

James Taylor (LIVE) 1993

Sometimes Live albums are better than "greatest hits" albums. It's true in JT's case. This is an old double album my parents used to have. Some really great stuff here like the lead-off track, "Sweet Baby James", which is a personal favorite. The country classic George Jones-penned "She Thinks I Still Care" glides along with depth and experience and a funny twist that is apparent upon onset. "Slap Leather" is sort of a JT-style honky-tonk blues song in the finger-pointing/list style of "We Didn't Start the Fire" or "It's the End of the World (and we know it)" ahead of it's time, apposing the Gulf War (I mean the first one) and discussing the phenomenon of phone sex. "Steam Roller Blues" is essential James Taylor and show his breadth and culture-crossing authenticity. It's a bad-ass song with intensity and sexual energy. Each song here is a better version than the studio recordings, which, for JT have always been a little stale unitl the mid 90s.

Humor. Depth. Breadth. Range. and a beautiful voice.

and Amoeba is selling em used for like $6.

"I'm a duh-duh-duh-d-d-d-d-demolition derby boy, baby."

No, I don't work here.

I don't know if this happens to you, but on an extremely regular basis I am approached by fellow shoppers while I'm minding my own business- doing my own shopping, and am mistaken for a store employee and asked for assistance. This happens at a variety of stores; some you'd expect and some you wouldn't.

Sometimes I am asked, "Do you work here?" and sometimes the costumer just makes their request known from the get-go, like "Where would I find Van Halen?" or "Can you have the forklift guys bring down another pallet of two-by-tens?" and "Do you know you're all out of the organic cran-raspberry juice?" ....to which I often reply simply, "Sorry, I don't work here." But the truth is, I usually can answer their question and if I'm in the right mood I just help them out without saying anything about not really being employed there.

Happy Father's Day from Weezer... not

The day after Father's Day, Jill sorta gave me my own father's day on my day off by taking me to the record store- my favorite place. Two Amoeba Records gift certificates were burning a hole in my pocket. Why the gift certificates? Well, my appetite for collecting records does not match my income bracket, so there are two times a year (Christmas and the end of the school year) when gift certificates from my students to big-box book stores and local record stores allow me to indulge... and yes, I spend my book store gift cards on CDs.

Anyway, one of the discs I planned to purchase at Amoeba was Weezer's new "Red Album". I've been a huge fan ever since their first single hit alternative radio (didn't radio used to be so different?). I've collected everything they have- singles, eps, deluxe editions. When we got there, I went straight to the W's and found a special edition digi-pack with bonus tracks. Then I sensed a disturbance in the force. Really terrible music was being played over the PA system and wafted into my ears like stink into a nose. And when I honed in to identify it (a gift I have), I realized it was the very album I was holding. Still, I kept it with me as I looked for how to use the remainder of my gift certificates, hoping that song was just a fluke. But song after song fell flat. I was almost embarrassed for them. I was willing to overlook the cover art I could only describe as weak sauce, but these songs were silly, ill-conceived, adolescent, overly tongue-in-cheek, and every note of it betrayed the way we felt when we listened to "In the Garage" from our own garages in highschool.

My eyes met Jill's from across the record store the way that two strangers do in the movies, when their eyes lock for the very first time and they know it's love. Except this time, the way I knew it was love is that we both mouthed the words, "This is terrible!" at the same time.

I put it back on the rack, feeling the way Wendy must have felt when she left Peter Pan behind. Sorry guys. I've grown up and you haven't.

Vampire Weekend: world's 1st double gimmick band

It's not like me to fall for the "IT" band. It was never my style to have a crush on the popular girl. If I watch sports, I like to root for the underdog or the team that's losing (especially if they have better uniforms or prettier colors). So when Vampire Weekend became Pitchfork's little wunderkinder, I was kind of grossed out. I don't like "IT" bands and I don't like gimmick bands. But, truth be told, I loved a track called "A Punk" that a friend put on a mix CD for me, however swore I would not give in.

And alas, I caved (and for good reason) when I read and podcasted some critique of the album that I felt was off-base. Music journalists were criticizing either VW's borrowing of South African lead guitar style (popularized by Paul Simon's "Graceland") or criticizing them for focusing, lyrically, on sort of a preppy North-Eastern ivy league theme. I think what these journalists do not get is that this is a double gimmick band! And besides that, the two gimmicks are very juxtaposed. Think about it- South African guitars (that means usually means a sound made by using a neck position humbucking pickup with a little chorus and a little slap-back playing fast and melodic single-note runs that are often poly-rhythmic) and rhythms juxtaposed with songs about preppy life in the Hamptons. Hell, there's a song called "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa". Genius!

There are songs about people named Walcott and Bryn, places like Cape Cod and Hyannisport, and name-drop things like Colors of Bennetton, Ivy League schools, Louis Vuitton, authors and painters I've never heard of, etc. The liner notes even contain a picture of a pair of white leather deck shoes! And all this against this shanty-town style South African guitar. It's brilliant.

Jill and I listen to it over and over again. Lilly dances to it more than any other record. And we have anew favorite song with every listen. But I think my standing favorite is "Campus" which has a chorus I can picture Morrissey singing and a bridge with the simple words, "In the afternoon, you're out on the stone and grass. And I'm sleeping on the balcony after class." that I just love and somehow remind me of Chabot junior college. The song also contains a tinge of 90's indie rock that I can't really place.

Mandolin Project

A friend loaned me this mandolin she found in a family member's closet with the sole condition being that I fix it up and put it to good use. Well arright. This is a very cool instrument and a very fun challenge. Here are some pictures of the mandolin and my restoration project. Note: super cool tweed custom case not shown.

Here is the mandolin with the bridge and tuning pegs removed. Replacement pegs shown. Two of the "original" (they're old, but probably not the original tuners) tuning machines did not work, so the main task here is to get them working in order for the instrument to be playable.

When I went to replace the tuning pegs, I realized that the holes in the headstock are slightly too small for modern pegs. Maybe they were metric or something. In order to fit the standard US pegs, I had to bore out the existing holes to widen them.

This is just a cool picture that shows how, at one time, someone had glued on a cheat sheet to the fretboard that showed the exact note of each fret on each string. Over time the paper has disintegrated. Very cool.

Current status: Still working on getting the new tuning machines to line up with the original holes. Takes some coaxing and finding just the right size screws to "suck up" the machines to the back of the headstock. Will post updates soon.

Mates of State

Two days after their new album, "Rearrange Us" came out, I took Jill out for a special date to get some dinner and see Mates Of State- her fave band- at Slim's. We've been MOS fans for about a decade now. One of my old bands played with them at one of their first CA shows, played with them several times since, collected their entire discography, and we often saw them in small, intimate venues around SF.

But standing here in 2008 at an all-ages show in a large venue with kids younger than we were when we "discovered" Mates who are all methed out and lighting cigarettes in my wife's hair, it seemed a little strange. Jill grabbed a strung-out school child by the arm and said, "This is not how we behave in a public place!" as Mates of State rattled off lines from their new album like: "I know when the kids are all grown we will still have this blue and gold print," and "Bought a home, we bartered right. Two kids, two car: delight." Not exactly your standard rebellious rock n roll fare.

And we were right there with them in their domestic state of mind, worrying about keeping the babysitters too late, feeling the indigestion from the Thai food we ate. We headed home early with a special edition screen printed poster commemorating the evening. Blue and pink elephants and giraffes handing each other ice cream cones. We put it up in the baby's room, and in a 29-year-old-going-on-30 way, I thought, "I know when the kids are all grown we will still have this blue and pink print."

Here's a great song off the new album. Haven't adequately explored the rest yet.

The Death of Vinyl

Last week I sold all my vinyl.

Despite the market analysts saying that the CD will soon be invalid and totally replaced by digital files rather than hard copies and even outlived by the vinyl LP, which is becoming a more sought after commodity than ever, I remain faithful to the CD.

Since I moved to Berkeley like six years ago, I haven't owned a record player. All my rare and treasured collection of punk and indie LPs and 7 inches have been cooped up in a cardboard box. Lately I haven't had the budget for CDs the way I have in the past and concluded to trade in the vinyl at Amoeba Records. They offered me a measly sum in trade, but I took it anyway and quickly spent it on those shiny silicon discs that I love.

More reviews in store!

Robert Plant and Alison Kraus "Raising Sand" (Written in April)

We got this record in March to take with us up to the mountains where we hid out in my aunt's cabin for the better part of a week. I had heard about it and thought it might be a good soundtrack to our Spring trip.

I am not a fan of either artist represented here. I like Alison Krauss fine, and you'll find my opinion of Alison Krauss' solo career embedded below. And, though I understand Led Zeppelin's (a little band Robert Plant used to front) place and importance in rock history, I find them annoying and shallow.

That said, what an incredible album this is! The real artist here is T-Bone Burnett, the album's producer and band leader (you know, the guy that produced O Borther?). He's the orchestrator and mastermind on this album. Robert Plant and Allison Kraus just happen to be singing on the same album. What makes the record is really the textures created by the guitars (played partly by Burnett). They produce sounds here that are truly American and can only be described as such. Deep tremolo. Dark overdriven tube amps. Lush reverb. And multiple times does drummer Jay Bellerose conjure the 16th note ride rhythm reminiscent of Ray Charles' "What'd I say".

Gone is the watered-down, Nashvilled-up commercial version of bluegrass that Krauss has branded (haven't we heard enough of that guy playing the slide dobro?). Rather, her voice is the constant here: not a lot of infection or interpretation, and this provides the blank canvas on which to layer the instruments. See, usually it's the opposite- the band provides the background and the singer provides the personality. On Raising sand, Krauss' and Plant's voices are the vanilla ice cream on which to slather the syrup, heavy cream, and maraschinos that are the smart, cinematic American guitars.

Plant's role here is interesting to me because I sometimes feel that the English sometimes really get it right when they interpret Americana. He plays it cool through these numbers and serves the songs rather than himself. Only once or twice does his signature orgasmic squealing come up, but in moderation and at very smart junctures.

Highlights here are "Killing the Blues", Townes Van Zandt's "Nothin'", the opener "Rich Woman", and the tear-jerking closer "Your Long Journey".

Here's a pretty good short doc on the album.

Alison's makeup is a little overdid in this vid.

Negative Lyrics (originally written May or April)

I disagree with people who think that darker, more negative art brings you down. I think it's kinda opposite- like if you're arready down, you sorta connect with negative lyrics or whatnot and that sorta validates you and makes you feel good. Ever since my spring break, I've been connecting with these very negative lyrics. They grab my attention and I connect with them. I guess around about that same time, some personal stuff came up and that probably explains it.

Some are lyrics I just connected with, and some are ones that spoke to my situation.

Being born is going blind. And biting down a thousand times.
--Tones Van Zandt

You say you wouldn't want an angel watchin' over you. Well, surprise surprise, they wouldn't wanna watch.
-- The National

Nothing is best.
--The Byrds

When you think it's easy, just believe you're deceived.
--Damien Jurado

Holy shit, there's a company in my back!
--Wilco

I'm not trying to be a grump here. On the contrare! Sometimes it feels good to here someone tell you, "It's OK to feel the way you feel." And, at least for me, it makes me feel better.

Sun Kil Moon- "April" (originally written in April)

The latest full-length from indie rock slowcore veteran Mark Kezelek and his outfit Sun Kil Moon. It's called "April" and was released the first Tuesday of April. I pre-ordered this at Christmastime and got it before the release date. It came hand-numbered and signed and with a bonus disc that might be better than the actual album.

Lemme just speak of the bonus disc for a minute: it's stripped-down versions of 4 of the songs from the album and provide an intimate, maybe more accessible, route to the heart of these songs.

I was really looking forward to Sun Kil Moon's return to a rocker like "Salvador Sanchez" from the first album, but it is only attempted herein tunes like "The Light" and "Tonight the Sky", but they fall short in being too repetitive and dry.

The jewels here are dreamy acoustic and clean songs that are understated and quiet. They speak directly about the beauty of California landmarks, geography of Spain, and Ohio childhoods and memories that seem starkly only partial. Mark Kozelek, as a songwriter, is obviously exploring here and not emphasizing the editing process in his own songwriting, but letting these ten minute droners tell the journey of his writing process and mental train of thought.

Highlights are the Will Oldham (Bonnie Prince Billy/Palace) guest vocals on "Unlit Hallway" and the spooky classical guitar duet of "Heron Blue".

Probably more of a fan record. New listeners should check out the first two records as an entry point.

Blog Activity

Arright. I haven't been posting lately. Maybe for a couple months, really. Been very busy. My publicist and my crack team of statisticians tell me that my recent lack of posting has cost me one fourth of my readership. And by that, I think they mean I've actually just lost one of the four people who read my blog.

So over the next couple of days I will be posting a couple of blog entries that I wrote, but maybe didn't post or finish. THESE POSTS WILL BE IN BLUE TEXT.

Lily's top 10 songs she likes me to play for her

Having a baby has brought guitar playing back into my home life. For years I've only really played at rehearsals and gigs. Lily has changed that, and I've really enjoyed relearning and playing these great songs for her. These are rated on a scale that is a mix of how Lily responds to the songs and how much I like to play them.

1. "If I Needed You" Townes Van Zandt
She recognizes and responds to this one the most. It's one I feel I'm really singing to her. Even has her name in it.
2. "The Water is Wide" traditional
Rather bleak, but beautiful. Have memories of my parents singing this.
3. "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" Joan Baez
Sort of hippy-ish, but hypnotic and clever.
4. "True Love Will Find You in the End" Daniel Johnston
The line, "Don't be sad. I know you will." has a dichotomy that chills me every time I sing it to her. I don't know if it means "I know you will- be sad" or "I know you will- find love." Both are true and both are incredibly hard to sing to a little girl.
5. "East Virginia Blues" Carter Family
I've been playing both the Damien Jurado and Gob Iron versions of this one.
6. "Motor Away" Guided by Voices
I've made my own arrangement that's slow and sleepy.
7. "Froggy Went a Courtin'/Crawdad Song" traditional
pretty standard. Adapted a verse about her nickname: Chapperoo.
8. "Game of Pricks" Guided by Voices
This was the song that first made her "crazy head dance" start. Punkrock power chords.
9. Murder Ballads like "Waitin' Round to Die" by Townes Van Zandt or "Silo" by Scud Mtn. Boys
Jill prefers I don't play these, but they're sort of upbeat in rhythm and fun to play.
10. "Sweet Baby James" James Taylor
I like this one more than Lily. Reminds me of growing up, learning to play bar chords to this song when I was 16/17 out of my dad's James Taylor songbook.

Kathleen Edwards- Asking for Flowers

On her third full length offering, Asking for Flowers, Kathleen Edwards breaks her sure-thing formula. Rather than bouncing between rockin' bar brawlers and super soft sleepers as she has on her prior two albums, Kathleen keeps it all pretty much right in the middle. Mid-tempo, mid-tempered tunes like the title track and "Oil Man's War" are the bread and butter of this record, with little chances taken. For one, it keeps her from making the same record thrice. But I think the beauty here is that the listener is compelled to find the subtleties and the artful turns of phrase in this record. The tongue-in-cheek Nashville romp entitled "I Make the Dough, You get the Glory" is the the tasty bite in the middle and "Goodnight, California" is the sweet piece you save for last, with Kathleen sounding like she's fronting Wilco. The letdown here is the attempt at recreating that same badgirl hit single with "The Cheapest Key", where she misses the mark, but it's reassuring to know that Kathleen's still got that same good ol' fowl mouth. The sang detracts from the polish gems that make up the rest of the album that prove Edwards is really is a tough badgirl without being so obvious. If you're expecting the third coming of Failer, you're out of luck, but if you're willing to let this seasoned and mature collection of songs grow on you, you're in for a treat.

Curb Your Enthusiasm

Season 6 was hilarious. The ending was so funny, I couldn't believe it. Sometimes the season wrap-ups are a little contrived, but this was perfect, surprising, and funny. Oh Larry....

NCFOM

At least that's what all the kids are calling it.
Netflix sent No Country For Old Men to us even before it came out. We never get that treatment from NF. I've yet to watch it, but you know I read the book. I was just reflecting on a statement I had made to a friend. I claimed that the Coen Bros (I'm a huge fan of them, too. The Big Lebowski?) always make films where the little guy has so much good in him, that he's able to survive ("abide", for you Lebowski fans) and sort of conquer evil; or at least his own struggles (i.e. Big Lebowski, O Brother Where Art Thou). The main theme being that the common man is full of good and can, therefore, abide (in the parlance of our times). I claimed that McCarthy is too dark for the Coens. A common McCarthy theme is the idea of the antichrist as a common character. The embodiment of evil, rather than good. The term anti-hero does not suffice. I originally thought this was a strange project for the Bros to take on.

But I call take-backs. I was overlooking Barton Fink, a Coen Brothers masterpiece. John Goodman's character in that movie was much like the Judge in "Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy. Barton Fink is a film not unlike many McCarthy novels. So I call do-overs and say that I was wrong- this was the perfect project for Brothers Coen to take on. And I'm so excited to watch it.

Friday night to-do idea: rent Barton Fink, or NCFOM, or the Big Lebowski, or read NFCOM, or read Blood Meridian. Basically, I've just planned out your whole weekend!

Looking forward to these...

Sun Kil Moon "April" out April 1
Will Oldham does some vocals on it.
I'm excited.




Mates of State "Rearrange Us" out May 20
Here's what the record co. has to say about it:
"Though conceived as a duo, Mates of State have never failed to generate a trademark wall of sound built on dozens of varied voicings of keys, drums, and alternately lushly-layered and playfully-dueling vocals. On re-arrange us they move beyond these boundaries (their traditional organ sound is a distant memory, replaced with organic piano and synth sounds) with additional instrumentation — not to mention a quantum leap in songcraft apparent on instantly indelible gems like now, jigsawget better. Throughout re-arrange us, Kori's piano and the emergence of both Mates' lead vocals from their trademark harmonizing signal the next stage of Mates of State's evolution."

Funny Blog

Stuff White People Like

Alt. Country in 60 seconds

My hairdresser (don't laugh) asked me what "Alt. Country" is. I muddled through my own definition, but here's a funny video that explains it.

Counting Crows "August and Everything After"

OK, back to the topic of albums that first made me fall in love with albums. Now, mind you, these are not records I would necessarily consider my favorite. These are just albums that I got in highschool that got me totally hooked on being a record collector.

Keith and I often would buy tapes together. If a tape cost $9.99, we'd each pay $5.00. I don't know what made us buy this record. There used to be a great radio station in the Bay Area called KOME. In th early 90s, KOME played new Alternative stuff and they weren't bent on commercial stuff only. They played more stuff and took more chances than LIVE105, but they folded after a couple summers.

I remember the day we bought it, we laid on Keith's double bed and listened to the tape repeat and repeat. This was alternative music that wasn't angry, but full of emotion. It was not there for shock or gimmick, but for art's sake. The lyrics were abstract, but not so abstract that they were silly or meaningless. In these ways, it was so different than the other alternative music out there. I mean, the guitar solos are country telecaster twang solos! It had organ, slide/steel instruments, dobro.

I think the most important thing this record did was get grungy little alterna-boys off of the Nirvana/Metallica teat and expanded people's perception of what "alternative" music was.

JUNO

So it turns out this movie is not about one of the best analog synthesizers ever made- the Roland Juno 106. In fact, it's not about synthesizers at all. It's just about a girl who was named after a synthesizer.

U2 "The Joshua Tree"

I want to stay on this topic of albums I first fell in love with. I blogged below about hearing a podcast on "the death of the ALBUM" and in response to that grim news, I am posting a series of blogs about albums that made me love albums (the Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits post below was the first of these blogs).

In highschool, I was riding in a car with a much older guy and he was just tickled about a new tape he had. It was called "Rattle and Hum" by a group called U2. He was driving on a windy country road and his enthusiasm for rewinding the tape to play specific excerpts for me surpassed his interest in safe driving. "Wait, did you hear that line?!" he would ask, "Lemme rewind it. Did you hear what he said? You gotta pay attention to this part!" I remember that in the spoken word part of "Bullet the Blue Sky" he was so excited as he recited along with Bono, that he even had motions that he did and gestured as if dealing invisible playing cards as he let go of the steering wheel completely and mimicked, "Shhhlappin' um down. One hundred! Two hundred!"

I figured that anything that made someone so passionate was probably a decent piece of art. And I asked for it when my parents asked me what I wanted for my birthday. They replied that they weren't going to buy me "heavy metal" and referenced a time when I requested "anything by Morrissey" and they got to the record store to find that one of his albums was called "Kill Uncle". What could be worse? Morrissey was probably out to convince me to kill one of their brothers. I purchased a Rattle and Hum cassette on my own dime. It and a subsequently rented VHS documentary by the same name won my parents over with its B.B. King cameos, gospel choirs, and songs about MLK Jr.

I needed more and bought the Joshua Tree at a shopping mall music store. I distinctly remember taking off the cellophane and taking in the album art and knowing that this was something magical. Talking about The Joshua Tree and using words like expansive, cinematic, or soundscape is just preaching to the choir. I hope we all know the Joshua Tree to be these things, but hear them in a way that is much more individual and personal.

A deluxe edition was just released like at Christmas time. It was remastered by The Edge himself and a second disc, incredible packaging, and a cool little booklet were thrown in. You know I bought it. A review I read, which claimed that the bonus disc was an album in and of itself and on par with the Joshua Tree, prompted me. That reviewer was wrong. The bonus disc is full of disappointing B-sides and outtakes, which didn't make it on the album for a reason. The better tracks are ones that incorporate a spooky sort of "world" feel, like "Race Against Time" and "Wave of Sorrow". Its downside is the overuse of spoken word, especially on the final track which is just my least favorite poet ever, Allen Ginsberg, reading a poem.

Bob Dylan "Greatest Hits"

I was working as an apartment complex manager/groundskeeper and finishing up highschool when I broke up with my girlfriend of almost two years (or she broke up with me, depending on who you talk to). I dealt with it by immersing myself in the "Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits" cassette tape I had. I wore it out in a maroon walkman I listened to at work while I tended the garden, which contained shaped shrubs, rare tropical plants and trees, multi-level lawns, a pool, and several different courtyards.

I think I understood the cliche' of the first three tracks (Rainy Day Women, Blowin' in the Wind, and The Times They are A-Changin') and took them with a grain of salt, but when "It Ain't Me, Babe" and "Like a Rolling Stone" came on at the end of Side 1, I was sure that Bob had felt what I felt and maybe was even singing about my story! If my 1971 VW Squareback had a tape player, I would have driven past her house blaring the lines:

You got a lotta nerve
To say you are my friend
When I was down
You just stood there grinning

from "Positively 4th Street". But I don't think I ever spoke to her again. I think it was the first time I really fell in love with an album. Not a bad trade at all.

Death of the CD? Death of the album?

On a music podcast I frequently listen to, this morning, they had an entertainment industry analyst on as a guest and this guy said bluntly that the CD was a dead medium and that people who refused to agree with him were crazy. He aslo suggested that the album as an art form was also dead, due to the fact that technology allows people to just download a song or two at a time.

This made me very sad. I love CDs and I love whole albums. The war in Iraq, a failing economy, and now this.

This was on repeat in my ipod for the last 30 minutes.

Morrissey- "The More You Ignore Me"

Sedan Delivery

Last night I was cool at the pool hall.
I held the table for eleven games.
Nothin' was easier than the first seven.

--Neil Young

This is one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Ever.

If Raymond Carver had a band.....

Vampire Weekend- great video, no vampires

Drama

Johnny Drama is definitely my favorite Entourage character. I love how he's so insecure and awkward and full of self-doubt, but he's a sage of wisdom to the other guys. The most complex character in a pretty simple show. Loving it!
Currently Listening to: The National, Dylan, and "Pet Sounds" by the Beach Boys

Once...

is how many times I'll watch it.

barefoot, in the snow, uphill both ways

Yes, this is a "Back in my day...." lecture. Back in my day, the way we got our records (yes I mean records) and CDs went like this:

We read zines that were published by pretty organized and business-wise punkrockers. They were usually printed on newsprint. You might read about a band that kind of sounded cool to you, so you would search through the zine for the advertisement from that band's record label. The ad told you where to send the cash. When you received the CD, inside would be a folded up piece of paper that was a catalog from a "distro" (distribution company) that was just some punks probably running a little business out of their step-mom's garage. The catalog would be in tiny print. You would choose a CD or record and the catalog told you where to send the cash.

Even when the internet came around. Record labels' sites, bands' sites, and distros' sites were just long lists of text [in courrier font] that told you the music they carried and.. once again.... where to send the cash.

What with corporations taking over the the world and all, indie distros on the web have disappeared and basically the only place to get indie music from real live indiekids was on a site called Insound. All that said, I recently read that Warner has bought them out and when I heard that, I thought everyone needed a "Back in my day..." lecture.

The National- "Apartment Story" music video

The National "Boxer"

I promised myself that I would not like this album, due to all the hype it got. It seemed a little too cool for me. But friends and journalists I respect kept suggesting it and I picked it up with a Christmas gift card, because then- even if I hated it, I still just bought it with a gift card.

It really hasn't left my player since Christmas. And I've said this before, but the best albums are ones that you can't stand at first and you begin to fall in love with little bits that you hated at first. There was one song that had me from the start, even before I bought the album. A friend put "Racing Like a Pro" on a mix CD for me and I felt like it told me my life.

You're pink you're young you're middle-class
they say it doesn't matter
Fifteen blue shirts and womanly hands
you're shooting up the ladder

Your mind is racing like a pro, now
Oh my god it doesn't mean a lot to you
One time you were a glowing young ruffian
Oh my god it was a million years ago

Sometimes you get up and bake a cake or something
sometimes you stay in bed
sometimes you go la di da di da di da da
til your eyes roll back into your head

This bit from "Slow Show" is how I feel at the end of a work day:

I wanna hurry home to you
put on a slow, dumb show for you
and crack you up

And I just like the psychedelic side of lyrics like this from "Gospel":

hang your holiday rainbow lights in the garden
I'll bring a nice icy drink to you

And that's just it. It's Matt Berninger's lyrics that make the album. To tell you the truth, the music (instruments) is a blur of mid-range frequency stuff that just swirls behind the vocals. Piano and guitars, but nothing memorable. That is, besides the drums that are quite like U2's "WAR" era drums a la "Sunday Bloody Sunday". And it finishes like a Cormac McCarthy book: The world is a bad place and we're probably near the end. Beautiful.

New Releases in 08

I'm really looking forward to these releases:

Cat Power "Jukebox" Jan 22
Kathleen Edwards "Asking For Flowers" March 4
Destroyer "Trouble in Dreams" March 11
Daniel Lanois "Here Is What Is" March 18
Sun Kil Moon "April" April 1
Jay Farrar soundtrack to a Jack Kerouac documentary
Son Volt- undetermined
Gob Iron- undetermined
Mates of State- undetermined

........am I missing any?

Best Songs of 2007

(Click on the number to hear the song.)

1. "The Underdog" by Spoon
2. "1 - 2 - 3 - 4" by Feist (you've heard it on the iTunes commercial)
3. "Marry Song" by Band of Horses
4. "Mind's Eye" by Josh Ritter
5. "You Got Yr Cherry Bomb" by Spoon
6. "Hello Goodbye" by Son Volt (Beatles cover)
7. "Temptation of Adam" by Josh Ritter (best 'songcraft' on this list)
8. "Racing Like a Pro" by the National
9. "Myriad Harbor" by the New Pornographers
10. tie between all the rest of the songs on the Band of Horses album

Best Records of 2007

1. Band of Horses "Cease to Begin"
This was the best record put out in 07, hands down. Poetic and diverse. What they did here was basically make the same record as their first record, they just made it better. Great.
Postscript- worst album title of the year, hands down.


2. Josh Ritter "The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter"
This guy's genius is in his ironic sense of humor. From the suggestive album title to the gangsta rap lyrics of "Mind's Eye" to the press photo of him slugging whiskey. Joshy isn't a womanizing, violent drunk. He's the sensitive, funny guy we hear in "The Temptation of Adam", but he's smart enough to get a kick out of how silly it is to see himself in the tough guy suit. Smart move. I love it. Not a bad song here. Fabulous artwork. And most of all, the ironic and over-characaturized lyrics, artwork, image, and title are what boosted Ritter out of singer-songwriter boringnessosity. Way to play it like Dylan and invent your own persona.
See my previous blog about this record.


3. Spoon "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga"
Count 'em- 5 ga's. Blogged all about it here. There should be one in every home.





4. Magnolia Electric Co. "Sojourner" Box Set
Four albums in a wooden box. The pine box is fitting for songs that ring somewhere between a cowboy's prairie ballad and a funeral dirge. The movie on the 5th disc is only 20 minutes and nothing to write home about. But this guy's songwriting is nothing less than special. Jason Molina is someone who has made songcraft his life. Geniuses don't write perfect songs. They write songs that bug you.

5. Destroyer "Destroyer's Rubies"
I'll have whatever this guy's having. I'd love to live in Dan Bejar's psychedelic candycane world of Canadian freakiness. Highlight? This album contains one of the best musical moments ever: on "European Oils" when the the lyric, "She needs release, she needs to feel at peace with her father.... the fucking maniac!" is whispered during a pause, then followed by phenomenal guitar solo. Every time I hold my breath until that solo provides the musical resolution to the tension that the song has built up. In a sense, it's the "release" that he spoke of in the preceding line. Genius. Thanks to Matt for getting me into this.

6. Son Volt "The Search"
This one probably didn't make any critics' lists. And I don't think it was totally brilliant. Nor do I think it even ranks on Jay Farrar's own catalog. But let's be honest- I love their stuff. I bought the record 3 times to get all the special bonus EPs and goodies. When you total up all of the EPs, B-sides, iTunes "exclusives", etc., there are about 30 songs. Blogged about it here, too.

7. New Pornographers "Challengers"
I pre-ordered this and it came out right around the time of Lily's birth. I was anticipating it for the sake of still feeling cool and hip even though I was becoming a father. I was hoping that it would be raw and gritty and rule-breaking like their last three releases. Boy, this was the wrong record for that. It's got KFOG (meaning old people who wanna still feel cool and hip) written all over it. But hey, it's fantastic! Highlights here are from the female vocalists (Neko Case and Kathryn Calder) or Dan Behar (A.K.A Destroyer). Slower, polished, refined.

8. Battles "Mirrored"
Believe the hype. This is amazing. Math rock updated for the millennium. This one finds Battles swaying away from the instrumental-only format with some unintelligible lyrics. But even better than this is their 2 EPs. If you're interested in checking out Battles, get those EPs (I have their import double disc that includes those EPs plus the "Tras/Fantasy" single.... did I say that in enough of an indie-snob way?)

9. Rocky Votolato "The Bragg and Cuss"
Rocky is one of those artists I've followed for years through different bands. I have 12 of this guy's CDs and a handfull of 7-inches (vinyl 45s). He kinda started off with Seattle proto-emo band Waxwing and then started a singer-songwriter career that has been his bread and butter. Now, this is his 5th solo record and, as you could imagine, things have gotten pretty stale..... up until now. This is an exciting record full of twists and turns. Has wonderful moments of Rocky's beautiful voice that sometimes goes scratchy and you can just hear the cigarette tar. The best thing this guy did was team up with Casey Foubert who not only produced and engineered this record, but played lead cowboy guitar in a spaghetti western sort of way that really livened up this record and kept it entertaining.

10. Wilco "Sky Blue Sky"
I want a bumper sticker that says, "I hate Jeff Tweedy, but I love his backing band." The funny thing is, who is his band? It seems to change with every record, which is precisely the reason I dislike professional sports. He's got a winning line-up this season, I just wish someone could've pinch-hit for Tweedy in the lyric writing position. See my blog about it here.

Honorable Mention:
The Rentals "Last Little Life" EP (They're back!)
Neil Young "Live at Massey Hall"
Zookeeper "Becoming All Things"
Feist "The Reminder"
Reissue of Sun Kil Moon's "Ghosts of the Great Highway" w/ bonus disc
Iron and Wine "Shepherd's Dog" (just got it)
TheBrotherEgg "Dandelion Wine" EP

Last Year's Top 10 List!