Beckett just gets funnier every day. We've determined that he's "a good egg" and "a keeper". After 10+ years together, Emily and I have never carved pumpkins together. A shame that we finally remedied this season...I love roasted pumpkin seeds for one - actually all things pumpkin, so it's win-win on the pumpkin-carving thing. That's our scary lil' guys below...Beckett was nominally involved but appreciated checking out the lit-up version later.
Some music takes the Love It or Hate It scale to new extremes - Joanna Newsom is one of those artists for a lot of folks. Emily and I first saw her opening for a very food-poisoned Devendra Banhart at the Women's Club in 2004 - her first album was just out and we had no idea...no one did. She flowed on the stage like a hippie Gelfling - long, gossamer white dress and a huge golden harp - that's it. It was the most unexpected music I've heard, which is so hard to do in this day & age. There was that palpable tension that creeps into a room when music is too loud, obnoxious, or just not being dug upon. But everyone was captivated in spite of themselves - Emily said afterwards that she hated it at moments but then she found herself with tears in her eyes a minute later. Later, she put out one of the best albums I know, Ys. with a much matured voice and compositions...now we wait for a new release and another chance to see her live (our friend Joanna - who shares the hometown of Nevada City with J. Newsom, tried to go see her at the 400 Club with us - lines 2 blocks long in the cold dashed those hopes and we ended up drinking beers at Tracy's Saloon instead - good times!). This is a sweet one from her first album...
The Sony Walkman came out in 1984 (couple years earlier in Japan). Unless you made music or carried a boombox on your shoulder, you probably hadn't ever had the chance to walk around the streets with your own personal soundtrack accompanying your every step. If you're taking the time to read this, play the video/tune below and read on, the video's nothing but the tune is a good one from this era of Russell's work.
A corn-fed boy from Iowa and classically trained on the cello, Arthur Russell came to Manhattan in the late 70's when the rents were cheap and the anger of punk had already knocked down the walls - musicians were starting to explore the spaces behind the facades - rediscovering rhythm, picking up new things to make sounds with, and creating new atmospheres to inhabit with their music and their bodies. Loft spaces and derelict buildings were taken over as artist studios and, late night, would turn into furtive spaces for dj's and dancers to congregate and see what was new that might make them want to move. Post-punk, art-rock experimenting was here and still a few years from creating the molds that would soon be filled with hair-gelled, synth-laden pap that makes so many cringe when you say 80's music.
Russell looking out at the Statue of Liberty, listening to his compositions
The advent of the Walkman allowed you to really inhabit new spaces with your music and body...taking with you the soundtrack of your choice that would totally fill your head as you walked around the dirty city streets. We take it for granted now, but sometimes, especially when you're walking through an unfamiliar place with your tunes going, you're able to newly realize how totally transformed the experience is by having a soundtrack for your walk...imagine if every time you walked down the street, Stayin' Alive filled the world or you walk in a room and Superfly booms as the door flys open...yeah. This is entirely the way Russell composed his music - so much music too - some of it throbbing dance beats with simple and suggestive mantras song in his gentle voice, or sawing, ebb and flow cello with that voice, layered and processed over it all, or even country-tinged pop songs that could and should have been all over some radio station that just didn't exist - they're all unquestionably created in his 'voice' though ...he'd record much of it in his apartment (which apparently had piles of studio equipment, his cello, and a few pallets pushed together with a mat on them for meditating), he'd dump the songs onto a mini tape deck and go walking through Manhattan, along the East River, through Greenwich Village, letting the city sounds seep through the headphones and meld with his music. It's Great music to walk to. I like to think of all of them doing this: Lou Reed, Richard Hell, Tom Verlaine, David Byrne, Debbie Harry - maybe they did, these people behind the music - sporting their oversized headphones and walking the streets demo'ing early versions of Marquee Moon, Making Flippy Flop, Sweet Jane, or Another World - when no one else was walking around with headphones on yet, most people's soundtracks limited to the clang and clamor of the city. I don't know, but I do know that this is how Arthur Russell first listened to much of his own music. To me, this is my favorite way to listen to him still - a good pair of Grados' turned up loud on an Autumn walk. Get yourself some and join me on the streets, I'll give you a nod when we pass on the sidewalk, every step is moving me up...
Arthur Russell - Pop Your Funk 7" instrumental ..this is a download link to one of the rarest of all dance/disco singles there is...and a sweet one at that. 150 copies pressed on 7" vinyl in 1980-ish and it's never been repressed! Put this on your iTunes, or whatev. if you're even a bit interested. This amazes me 'cause of its utter-ahead-of-its-time-ness...sounds like Black Dice or some Brooklyn noise/funk band from 2008 but, at it's tweaked heart, has the same song and spirit as all of his lovely stuff. Russell also released this as a single with lyrics in a different mix and it took the downtown discos and clubs by storm...an afro-dub sexuality bubbling up through the gentle-ness of his voice, the bongos and the looped and altered cello strokes taking the dance floor in a direction that, to me, feels so much more comfortable, personal, and home-y than the distant and cold dance-floor stuff that makes so much of this kind of music have the staying power of a birthday cake on a New York sidewalk in a downpour.
Snowing as I write this - little early but whatcha gonna do. Beckett weighs in at over 11 pounds this week! A week of milestones - first taking of a bottle (from me!...being the provider of sustenance is a pretty sweet thing, even if I Am just the middleman), first time he actually slept through the entire night, holding head up with ever greater authority, first time seeing snow this morning, and will have his first evening sans ma and pa tonight as we go swoon with Over the Rhine at the Cedar...lil' B gets to stay with Grandpa.
Emily and I have been addicted to Hem lately (not hemp...times have changed...). It's the definition of lovely, and good music for baby-hanging-out time too - the singer's voice is incredible and all the more so since she didn't really sing prior to joining the band. They put out an ad and she submitted the one recording she had - singing a friend's baby to sleep with a lullabye. The band creates a rich, taut sound with beautifull and poetic lyrics while it all retains the dreamy simplicity of a lullabye - as if it has always existed.
This is what Beck looks like when he hears mind-blowing jams in the daddy/son vinyl spinning sessions we've been doing. I think this was on hearing Third Uncle from Eno's 'Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)'. It's an excellent way to listen to some of my faves because I get to re-live hearing them for the first time by watching Beckett's expressions and response. He's diggin' the slow grooves still but likes some of the heavy goods too.
So, we're planning our first evening out without lil' Beckett (!). It may not work, but if it does, its an Over the Rhine show at the Cedar. We almost opted for the Yo La Tengo show at 1st Ave. but, having seen them a few times, a new experience is winning out. Yo La T. is one of the better shows I've ever seen though but I've also been waay into O.T.R. lately and they don't seem to tour much. Here's a video clip created by 7 different animators responding to the same Over the Rhine song.
New Califone album is due out next month...dusty, rusty shambling rock that's rough around the edges in all the right ways. Like the finest moments of country-era Rolling Stones but as if they recorded in a barn with brooms for drumsticks and an awesome collection of vintage amps and mixing boards. 'Roots and Crowns' from a few years ago is one of my faves from recent times so the new one will be cause for excitement in our house.
As August 28th rolled over on the clock, a new baby boy met the world. One minute before midnight, I looked down at Emily and said, "you know it's..." "I know", she eked out. Her birthday - 34 years earlier. And Beckett's birthday today - in 5 minutes. He's perfect at 7# 9oz. Actually, 1 week later, he's just passing the 8lb. mark, a healthy eater, decent sleeper, and yes, perfect. We've had a blessed string of visitors - family and friends, bringing well-wishes and congrats, food, and helping hands. It's been a surreal and excellent experience so far. I'm sure I'll post absurd amounts of pictures and drivel about the cuteness of the baby and all the things we do with him - looking at him, reading to him, looking at him, etc.
Emily at 39 weeks! Beckett's knockin' at our door... +couple shots of the nursery
I've been thinking of building a concrete bread oven in the backyard...for loaves of bread and pizza's. Got some good designs waiting in the wing...but mostly - my goal this summer - has been to come up with the ultimate Veggie Burger. I've had too many disappointing moments of ordering an $8 Veggie Burger and getting a Boca Burger on a stale, toasted bun. I just finished 5 days of sprouting Adzuki Beans which were then ground with shredded beets, cooked oatmeal, tons of chopped basil, thyme, and oregano, toasted walnuts and sesame seeds, diced garlic scapes, diced Vidalia onions, gnd. celery seed and dry ground mustard. I'll admit that I'm totally impressed with this batch...light, tasting of veggies, and toasty-ness, spicy and satisfying...yum!
I've been really into the new Fiery Furnaces album...it's not quite as Captn. Beefheart-y as their other recent releases but it's got a great groove and is as smart a pop album as you're likely to hear this year.
In other Beck news...I've been hearing about Beck doing covers of entire albums for awhile now. Inviting a bunch of musician friends over and they record the whole album in one day with no pre-rehearsal. He recently did a great cover of Green Light from the awesome EVOL Sonic Youth album (actually this one will always be thought of as a cassette tape for me 'cuz that's how I bought it when it first came out and I still listen the-hell-outta that original copy today). Apparently that's how it was for Beck too, cuz he's putting out his rendition of the entire EVOL album - to be available on cassette only. coolness.
In the meantime, he's releasing his rendition of the whole VU/Nico album, Andy Warhol's Banana, song-by-song on his website with a lil' video of each session. Here's the first 2 songs (seems like a new one pops up every week or so, I'll try to keep throwing them up so they're easily collected for yer aural pleasure).
a gorgeous lil' video of a live Magnolia Electric Co. show from Chicago a few months ago. These guys, well it's mostly just Jason Molina, have made my antlers gone twisty lately. Such great sonics, lyrics, atmosphere, etc. It's very cool to see them live and am looking forward to an upcoming show at the 7th St. Entry in Aug. by them... I'm always amazed when a band plays such a small venue that I personally hold in such high esteem - when I saw Dead Moon play there a few years ago, I expected throngs! Actually, it was just a handfull of us and Toody, Fred, and Andrew were sitting next to me with a pitcher for half the show! its weird that so few folks get into what I see as a Major Event. oh well, enjoy!
Cool video for an even cooler song...weird close-up shots and then,... they explode. Their new album is out now and is absolutely lovely...I'll be going to see Grizzly Bear at the Cedar in June - very exciting. I mean, listen to those harmonies!..it just slays me. Also, we just got a cool lil' video camera from Emily's Dad so hopefully I'll be posting some short lil' clips up here in the coming weeks of house stuff, skateboarding, experimental artsy stuff, etc.
Feeling good (and feeling lots of kicks too). We hear he's about 13" long and getting a full head of hair already. How ya doin' in there?!
I've found the time to make a couple new sculptures over the past couple weeks. I'll be showing them at Art-A-Whirl next weekend and for the following month or so at NE Community Lutheran Church on corner of 13th and Monroe - Open during most days but Definitely on Saturday, May 16th from 12n - 4pm (Art-A-Whirl weekend!). Night Flight
left wanting (detail)
left wanting (detail)
+ Rain which I made a year ago or so...
Monday, May 4, 2009
This is just about the most beautiful lil' haunting song you're gonna hear. I missed Townes Van Zandt playing at the Iron Horse in Eugene in '94 or so...this begins to make up for it. love the woman humming harmony for a line or two...Steve Earle once said something like, “Townes van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that.” That's props.
I also read an interview once with TvZ. and a Rolling Stone guy where the dude seemed really confused/amazed...he had to drive into some seemingly deserted ranch with a 4-wheel drive jeep, Townes was sitting in his 1-room cabin, outhouse out back, the walls festooned with metallic red and green wrapping paper for wall-paper, a cot in the corner and a healthy row of bourbon bottles on a 2x4 shelf.
He tapped into some rich vein of country blues that only a couple others have mined - Dock Boggs, Steve Earle, Elizabeth Cotton, Bob Dylan was a tourist there, and many an anonymous negro men who lived the life that gave them carte blanche to the words that Townes brushed the dirt off of and let folks like me gently bite on with a tentative chomp...just enough to know that this is the real deal but not confident enough to chew heartily...not without some rotgut first to numb the pain.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Erykah Badu. How awesome is her last album?
Very.
It's thoroughly steeped in 70's funk and soul (Parliament Funkadelic'in good) but still contemporary sounding. The production on it is amazing...if it wasn't so good to turn up loud as we cook and cruise around the house, it'd be a headphone album - but it's a hard one to sit still for.
Emily 1 week after the last shot...and we know it's a lil' guy in there now! All is going well and he's growing before our very eyes.
I'm going to see Wavves this weekend at 7th St. Entry. This is definitely my Summer cruisin' song of the moment ('course we're still getting snowed on, so my summer song has time to change...).
this is an awesome 'lil summer song...breezy pop confection from Sweden's Tough Alliance covering the Zombies tune. (clicking above will actually d/l it to your iTunes or whatever you use). Enjoy the sun!
Emily's really pregnant! We go in for the ultrasound on Monday that shows us the organ and extremities development...and the sex. We're excited to assure ourselves of the lil' guy's health and to not have to call it an it anymore. There are more joke names on the list than real ones but there's some good real ones in there too. Due August 22nd!
Actually, I'll do no such thing tonight. I'm extremely tired and think I'll have a drink and watch Lost and Dexter reclined with the pooch on the couch. There was a rash of lay-offs at the MIA this week of which I was spared but I felt the breeze from the axe as it swept past. Scary stuff and brought this recession-thing to a very concrete reality for me and Emily.
plus --->
If you haven't heard, Emily's expecting! with child! preggers!... We're very excited and are looking forward to seeing the revealing ultrasound at the end of this month. Yay!
I see Muppets everywhere I go...I like to think that Fraggles are the things that make the sounds in our walls, certainly not squirrels or mice or what-nots. Our dog looks exactly like Sprocket (from Fraggle Rock) but is named Fozzy Bear. My wife is totally into puppetry and mimes. So, of course, I see Muppets personified in the people I know or see everyday. Not an original idea, I'm sure, but here's some folks who I think look like Muppets...
Mary Lucia from the Current (interviewing Greil Marcus at the Fitzgerald) - hard to tell, but you can sorta see it...& Janice
This is it. The final three songs I'd stick on my iPod if I knew I was goin' down in the Indian Ocean. For the most part, I'd take the original album version, but have stuck a couple YouTube live clips in for good, clean aural pleasure.
All right, so here's a summary of the top ten songs I'd want on my iPod (with unlimited batteries) if crashing on a tropical island. This list is likely to change but not too much...these songs have been near and dear to me for many years - 20+ years in the case of Sonic Youth, Husker Du, Tom Tom Club, and a few of the others.
1) Talking Heads - This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody) 2) Patti Smith - Birdland 3) Sandy Denny - The Sea 4) Henryk Gorecki - Symphony No. 3 (Symphony of Sorrow) 5) Sonic Youth - Shadow of a Doubt 6) Tom Tom Club - Wordy Rappinghood 7) Brian Eno - On Some Faraway Beach 8) Neil Young w/ The Band, Joni Mitchell - Helpless 9) Black Sabbath - Jack the Stripper/Fairies Wear Boots 10) Husker Du - Pink Turns To Blue
Hard to pick a favorite Husker song. I was listening to KGLT, the college radio station in Bozeman, when I was in 7th grade and was into taping music from the radio to make mix-tapes. The DJ said "cue up your tape 'cuz I'm playing 2 consecutive 45 min. Husker Du sessions". I didn't know them yet but did as I was told and recorded it all. Well, that was one of the most thread-bare tapes I had over the next couple years. Pink Turns to Blue was always one of my favorite tunes off Zen Arcade. They had two totally distinctive sounds depending on whose tune was being played (Bob Mould or Grant Hart) and threw in just the right mix of rockin' art-damaged punk, melody, acoustic-ness, noise, and smart lyrics. One of the best bands ever in my opinion...
Like a few other heavy as shit, but oh-so-sludgy slow faves (like 'Dirt' from The Stooges Raw Power), this song is great to me 'cuz it doesn't rock you too hard, just too heavy. It's basically a simple blues tune with a kick-ass bass line and Tony Iommi just wailin'. It's also sort of a funny song - it makes me smile and bounce every time I hear it so it seems like a good Sabbath representer for an island get-away.
In my nerdy life of defining everything by where it falls on an internally ranked list, Neil Young is usually the top of the songwriters list (others that dally near the upper echelon are Joni Mitchell, John Darneille of Mtn. Goats, Gene Clark, and the Lennon/McCartney team). This is one of my fave songs of his and my fave versions from Scorcese's 1978 Last Waltz (the Band, and Joni hiding behind the speakers, c'mon!...plus, Neil's infamous 'cocaine booger'...). I've probably watched this performance hundreds of times and could listen to it for a long time comin' without it wearing down those rough, beautiful, perfect edges.
cheating moment... Being an unabashed Byrds fan, I had trouble leaving a tune by them off my list. This is one that kept trying to creep onto the list but I guess didn't make the cut. I actually got to sit down with Peter Fonda once and talk about Easy Rider and told him I loved this song...he didn't really care.
Besides being the most aptly named song for this list, it is one of the most perfect. There is nary a note out of place (nary), the music is perfect, the lyrics lovely, the production divine. From Eno's first solo album, Here Come the Warm Jets from 1973. The band is essentially Roxy Music without Bryan Ferry but throwing Robert Fripp into the mix on guitar. Eno split from Roxy right before this album and he's finally doing what he wants with the music...still arty, damaged pop but lots of atmosphere and texture and no crooning vocals. Some of the vocals on this album are pretty nasally but I think Eno's voice sounds great on this track. He is probably the most influential music-maker in my world - playing in and/or producing some of the best albums from Roxy Music, Talking Heads, Devo, U2, Coldplay, David Bowie, and David Byrne. I'd say his next solo album Taking Tiger Mountain (by strategy) is in my top couple albums ever list.
Plus, if you were the coolest person ever, you could arrange to play Uno with Eno, Yoko Ono, Bono, (Sonny) Bono, and Emo (Philips) and that would be really funny, no?
I don't know why the video is of Iwo Jima but, it is.
The next installment in my list of the ten songs - and only ten - I would have on my iPod when stranded on a deserted island. If you're not checking out Adam's list too, Do It. This couple of songs I am truly still wowed by and listen to often but are loved nostagically too...these go back a couple years for me.
Really the first 2 T.T Club albums are incredible. This is one of my favorite songs of theirs and one that would be fun to sing along with really loud on the beach (seeing as how I'd be alone and all esp.). Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth from the Talking Heads, Adrian Belew, and a bunch of others went to the Bahamas in the early 80's - right after the Heads Remain in Light came out and recorded the extremely fun Tom Tom Club album. The tunes are goofy but the musicianship is great...the second side of the album is actually a lot more atmospheric and dark, similar sound but like they did the second side late, late at night or something. I picked this up on vinyl in Jr. High, probably 8th grade, and still have it today...and still put it on every month or so (much to Emily's astonished chagrin). I also Highly recommend their second one, Close to the Bone.
The video, I'll admit, is a bit much - don't be too distracted by the blinding neon or the tight moves...
Had to have a Sonic Youth song on this list and, out of all the incredible ones over the past 26 years!, this remains one of my faves. I picked up EVOL, the album its on, when it first came out in 1986 after I saw the video on Night Flight (I hope people remember this great show)...and I still have it too (on cassette). This song has Kim singing, which I love, and has everything I love/evol about SY - the slow burning tension, the release and cacophany, the simmering undercurrent of menace, sex, violence, and beauty. Plus, the first thing I did when I moved to Mpls. was go to the Sonic Youth outdoor show at the Walker. Walking down the hill on Groveland and hearing the first chords of Schizophrenia and later meeting the Choses (just Nicole and Chose back then) and going to the Red Dragon for mega-drinks...good times!
This was only composed in 1976 (just a year after Muskrat Love came out!..). I didn't know too much about it before I recently read up on it, knowing it was on my list. I've found the piece, especially the 2nd and 3rd movements to be some of the most hauntingly gorgeous music I know. The focus is a minimal ebbing of strings and some woodwinds with a woman's Soprano singing in Polish. I knew it had something to do with sadness and, presumably, the Holocaust which turns out to be sorta the case. The second movement (my favorite) is based on the text that an 18 year old girl wrote on the wall of her cell in a Gestapo prison - "O Mamo nie płacz nie—Niebios Przeczysta Królowo Ty zawsze wspieraj mnie" (Oh Mamma do not cry—Immaculate Queen of Heaven support me always). Gorecki spoke of how he was moved by the tone of the plead... "In prison, the whole wall was covered with inscriptions screaming out loud: 'I'm innocent', 'Murderers', 'Executioners', 'Free me', 'You have to save me'—it was all so loud, so banal. Adults were writing this, while here it is an eighteen-year-old girl, almost a child. And she is so different. She does not despair, does not cry, does not scream for revenge. She does not think about herself; whether she deserves her fate or not. Instead, she only thinks about her mother: because it is her mother who will experience true despair. This inscription was something extraordinary. And it really fascinated me."
The first and third movements are from the perspective of a mother who lost a child, one a lament of Mother Mary and one a mother who's son died in a war. The restraint and gentle ebb and flow of the music seem to speak of a resignation and acceptance of the sadness - maybe a coming to terms with it - and then, as the piece comes to a close, a quiet peace is all you're left with as the violins so softly fade out, repeating their note like a mantra.
If you listen to some more contemporary 'post-rock' types of music like godspeed You! black emperor, Mogwai, or Explosions In the Sky, you'll hear a very familiar swell and atmosphere to Gorecki's music. All the loaded history of the symphony aside, it is mournful but absolutely moving and undeniably beautiful to listen to.
I decided to follow in the footsteps of the inestimable Adam Chose and post a couple songs at a time. The challenge was to come up with the ten songs that you'd most like to have on your iPod if you were crashed on a weird island ala' Lost. Here's a couple of my must-haves:
From their 1983 Speaking In Tongues album. They had put out 2 great albums with Brian Eno playing a crucial role and delving into some afro-rhythms and really textured atmospheres (Fear of Music and Remain In Light - probably my fave all around Heads album), but they were a bit oh-so-serious and intellectual. This album, and esp. this excellent song, were a welcome breeze of fun and sunny(-esque) hope. It's the song that I would pick to be the Jonathan Theme Song...the one that plays whenever I walk down the street in the opening scene from some un-yet filmed movie of which I'm the star (this actually happens in my head pretty often). There is also a great version of this song on Stop Making Sense - the rockumentary that Jonathan Demme filmed in 1984 - that I'm including here for your pleasure.
From her debut album, Horses, in 1975. This is/was undeniably punk - from the 'Godmother of Punk' - but not like anything that'd been heard before. Even now, we've heard P.J. Harvey or Liz Phair but, Patti had the poetry, the jazz, the coolness, and the Balls to yell: "...He's gonna run through the fields dreaming in animation It's all gonna split his skull It's gonna come out like a black bouquet shining Like a fist that's gonna shoot them up Like light, like Mohammed Boxer Take them up up up up up up Oh, let's go up, up, take me up, I'll go up, I'm going up, I'm going up Take me up, I'm going up, I'll go up there Go up go up go up go up up up up up up up Up, up to the belly of a ship. Let the ship slide open and we'll go inside of it Where we are not human, we're not human..."
...and when you listen to this, very loud for heaven's sake, possibly while driving on a winding road through the forest, you may cry or yell or orgasm but you will definitely be taken up and if you can imagine hearing this in 1975 (the year Emily was born, the year of Thank God I'm a Country Boy by John Denver, One of these Nights by the Eagles, and this incredible gem that you really have to watch at least up 'til the 1:00 mark...Muskrat Love) well, then you can imagine how startling it may have been. It Still is more intense than most music I know of and is almost more of an experience than a song.
Sandy Denny sang in Fairport Convention (with Richard Thompson singing and playing guitar) and Fotheringay in the late sixties and early seventies. She also was the only person to ever provide guest vocals on a Led Zeppelin album (on Battle of Evermore from Zep IV). Sandy D. has one of the greatest voices I know of...some may think her stuff sounds dated but I say No Way...just gorgeous. I also love how this song sounds like the sea...it's expansive, open and the instrumentation ebbs and flows and crashes with her voice just floating above it all. There are a couple songs of hers I could've picked - esp. "Autopsy" from Fairport Convention's Unhalfbricking but 'The Sea' is one of the most perfect folk-rock songs, nay - Songs, that I know.
Beckett just gets funnier every day. We've determined that he's "a good egg" and "a keeper". After 10+ years together, Emily and I have never carved pumpkins together. A shame that we finally remedied this season...I love roasted pumpkin seeds for one - actually all things pumpkin, so it's win-win on the pumpkin-carving thing. That's our scary lil' guys below...Beckett was nominally involved but appreciated checking out the lit-up version later.
