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Parlour to Parlour, Episode 37: Sean Hayes

2011-12-19T07:08:00.000-08:00

Sean Hayes is sometimes referred to as San Francisco's folk hero. He's well respected and very much loved across the Bay Area, and the feeling is plainly evident in the audiences at his local shows. So, to close out 2011 with a big red bow, Sean gifted us with a Parlour to Parlour interview at his own private studio.

See the full episode at http://popdose.com/parlour-to-parlour-episode-37-sean-hayes

Parlour to Parlour, Episode 36: Bells

2011-11-28T06:53:00.000-08:00

As a band they're quite young, having had their first live public performance only eight months ago. Hearing them play together, however, you'd never know it. This, and perhaps a certain unnameable intangible something else, could be the reason why Bells have become one of the most exciting new bands in the Bay Area.

See the full post at http://popdose.com/parlour-to-parlour-episode-36-bells/

Parlour to Parlour, Episode 35: Magic Leaves

2011-10-31T06:33:00.000-07:00

Joshua Bruner has been making a simultaneously gentle and intense style of music that blends the Bay Area's love of psychedelic and folk music with his own unique African and Eurpean psych rock influences. But as the sound of Josh's music has become heavier, it makes more sense to simply call it by his band's namesake: Magic Leaves.

See the full post at http://popdose.com/parlour-to-parlour-episode-35-magic-leaves

Parlour to Parlour, Episode 34: Bart Davenport

2011-09-26T08:50:00.000-07:00

His visual style is equal parts '60s, '70s and early '80s. His movements are the natural strokes of a born rock star, and he has a voice and a smooth style of playing to justify it all. He's the total package - singer, songwriter, guitarist, producer, solo performer, collaborator, curator, recording artist and stage performer. And while he has fans around the world, he's not yet a household name. Though he should be. Meet Bart Davenport:

See the full post at http://popdose.com/parlour-to-parlour-episode-34-bart-davenport/

Parlour to Parlour, Episode 33: Quinn DeVeaux

2011-08-29T06:42:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, a big voiced, ambitious young guitar slinger showed up at Chess Records in Chicago for an audition. It was sometime in 1964. After belting out one song, a mysterious hooded figure tapped the young prospect on the shoulder from behind, and whispered in his ear: “come with me. I need you 45 years in the future…”

See the full post at http://popdose.com/parlour-to-parlour-episode-33-quinn-deveaux/

Parlour to Parlour, Episode 32: Obo Martin

2011-07-25T09:30:00.000-07:00

Obo Martin is one of a rare breed – that of the native San Franciscan. Born in a hospital next to Golden Gate Park, Obo has traveled here, there and everywhere, weaving tales of adventure into music that blends American and Irish folk music with a little bit of rock to create a sound and voice distinctly Obo’s, and still very music a part of what makes San Francisco so lively and fun.

See the full post at http://popdose.com/parlour-to-parlour-episode-32-obo-martin/

Parlour to Parlour, Episode 31: Michael Musika

2011-06-27T09:30:00.000-07:00

He's a sorcerer, a gangster, a magician, a gatherer of spirits, and sometimes he's known as a world-traveled musician and published author. He holds his audiences in rapt attention, seemingly without even trying. And the surname to which he was born could not have been an accident. Meet Michael Musika.

See the full post at http://popdose.com/parlour-to-parlour-episode-31-michael-musika/

Parlour to Parlour, Episode 30: Anna Ash

2011-05-30T09:30:00.000-07:00

With roots in Michigan and a new home in Oakland, California, singer/songwriter Anna Ash has been quietly building a charming and ambitious musical and artistic vision, one that is meant to be savored and shared. In her first interview of 2011, she talks about the full-length album she is working to complete, along with a much larger community-building project that promises to be as magnificent as Anna’s voice.

See the full post at Popdose: http://popdose.com/parlour-to-parlour-episode-30-anna-ash/

Parlour to Parlour, Episode 29: Ash Reiter

2011-04-25T09:30:00.000-07:00

Though by her own admission she does not feel she is very good at interviews, Berkeley-based singer/songwriter/bandleader Ash Reiter came through in this one with characteristically casual grace, slowly warming up to the whole process as she shared some thoughts on what has made writing come more easily to her as of late, among other things.

See the full post at Popdose: http://popdose.com/parlour-to-parlour-episode-29-ash-reiter/

Parlour to Parlour, Episode 28: The Beehavers

2011-03-28T12:00:00.000-07:00

Led by a charming, long-haired bohemian foodie named Bryant Denison, the Beehavers have existed in various guises for the past few years. Though a regular band eluded him, Bryant’s vision of a gypsy voodoo folk rock collective began to gel towards the end of 2010, in a way that made The Beehavers’ inclusion in the Parlour to Parlour series a no-brainer. And then, something entirely unexpected happened…

See the full post at Popdose: http://popdose.com/parlour-to-parlour-episode-28-the-beehavers/

Parlour to Parlour, Episode 27: fpodbpod

2011-03-01T06:44:00.000-08:00

Though he spends a great amount of time lending his talents to folks like Indianna Hale and especially The Blank Tapes, Sean Olmstead has been quietly stockpiling his own quirky psychedelic garage-pop-soul tunes as fpodbpod. Sean and I were equally happy to turn down the quiet and swivel the spotlight around for his first interview of 2011.

See the full post at Popdose: http://popdose.com/parlour-to-parlour-episode-27-fpodbpod/

Parlour to Parlour, Episode 26: The Blank Tapes

2011-01-31T09:36:00.000-08:00

He was among the first people I met when the door to this year's Parlour was opened up for me by Steve Taylor. He's proficient at every instrument necessary to make a complete album (and others beyond), and he has a mountain of tapes full of songs to prove it. And if you're out hittin' up the San Francisco rock clubs on a regular basis, you've probably heard him play, seen him hangin' at the bar, or even know him personally. Meet Matt Adams of The Blank Tapes!

See the full Parlour to Parlour episode at Popdose:
http://popdose.com/parlour-to-parlour-episode-26-the-blank-tapes

The return of Parlour to Parlour (and other stuff)

2011-01-31T06:47:00.000-08:00

Hard to believe it's been more than half a year since I last posted here, but there you have it. During that time, I've been playing more music, seeing more shows than I could ever keep track of, and making a lot of new friends. In short, I've had little time to blog.

This year, however, does mark the return of Parlour to Parlour - you can read more about that in the announcement posted at Popdose last week. The first episode of the year posts today, and as before, I will update this space each time a new episode is posted. The new scheduled is last Monday of each month (though in December it will likely be the second to last Monday so I can have a break during xmastime).

Beyond that, I'm now playing bass in a band called The Beehavers. I've played two great gigs with them so far (at the Make-Out Room and at Kaleidoscope), and there will be more to come. On top of that, I'm singing backup vocals with a new group called Sugar Candy Mountain, featuring members of The Blank Tapes, fpodbpod, and the Ash Reiter and Anna Ash bands. Their live debut is scheduled for February 20 at the Make-Out Room. If you're in San Francisco that night, come on by and check us out.

That's all for now. More soon, and welcome back to the Parlour.

Not Lost anymore

2010-05-24T20:50:00.000-07:00

WARNING: if you still haven't seen the series finale of Lost, this post will spoil it for you. Read on at your own risk.

The writers of Lost have my respect. They’ve done what I routinely struggle to do: weave a story that satisfies only enough to get folks riled up about how unsatisfactory the end of the story is.

I had that same knee-jerk reaction so many viewers – and some of my own friends – had when, by the end, they were all dead. All we were left with was some sugar-coated allegory based around a theme of “letting go” and “moving on,” while it was never clear what really happened. And the idea of bringing polar bears to the island, while already explained, kind of, is still a big WTF.

But then, that really seems to be one of the points of the entire series I’m seeing. The human imagination itself is something to marvel at, and whether we like the explanations behind the visions, the visions themselves really were enough, weren't they?

Working further down the theme ladder from the highest level – the idea that no matter how lonely, flawed or hopeless one might be, there are kindred spirits all around with whom you can bond and learn to prop each other up – it seems that the island and its opposing forces, Jacob and his miserable nameless brother (you’d be miserable too if the only names you ever answered to were “brother,” “The Man in Black,” “the smoke monster” or the name of whatever dead person you decided to make yourself look like) were using regular human beings as pawns in their power play. Kind of a typical good vs. evil plot line that we grew up watching as kids on cartoons, but this time, we were never really sure which side was the good side until the last season. And even at that, few of us were ready to forgive all the questionable tactics of the “good guys.” Kind of like the real world.

I’ll probably buy the complete 6-season DVD set when it comes out, and then I’ll dig deeper into the little details. But for now, since I’ve cooled down over the surface bits that disappointed me – i.e. seeing Sawyer reunited with Juliet (what a mismatch!); never really finding out what the “real” timeline (assuming there ever was one) looked like upon the return of Kate, Sawyer, Lupitas, Miles and Claire; never knowing whether Desmond did get to leave the island, and if so, how it would have happened – I realize that this was a genius way to end Lost. Just like any other storyline, it could have gone on forever. But leaving it the way it did just reminded me of all the times I’ve felt the same way upon the conclusion of a movie with multiple unresolved plot lines. At some point, you have to call it quits. And when you do, a great measure of success is how pissed off the audience is over their pet plot line not being resolved. In that regard, it appears that Lost was a huge success. We cared that much to actually get pissed off.

From a personal standpoint, however, I’m a bit shook up.

I saw a lot of myself in Jack Shepard. And it hit a little too close to home when, of all the main characters, he was the very last one to “get it.” The man of science finally understood the importance of “letting go” and “moving on” at the end of that controversial “purgatory” scene, the culmination of all the “flash sideways” scenes. And at that moment, in death, he achieved what he struggled to do in life.

It shook me up because there are some things in life for which I struggle in much the same way, and often fear that I will not overcome. But then, intellectually I've always known the answer is to “let go.” That’s why I’m reading Larry Winget. That’s why I started taking swing dance lessons. That’s why I’ve latched on so hard to the music of Ash Reiter, not to mention the vibe and friendship of her entire band, this year. And that’s why, not even knowing how this whole saga would finally end, I bought Lara De Garie’s painting “About Patterns” (pictured above) and hung it on my living room wall just 12 days before the Lost finale aired.

I think I get it now, too.

Thanks to my friend Victoria for steering me over to Screen Rant's take, my fuzzy impressions of the conclusion of Lost have been cleared up even further. This is the best take I've seen so far. Enjoy!

Online privacy is NOT news

2010-05-15T11:03:00.001-07:00

When I start feeling annoyed at reading the same tired rants over and over, that’s usually a sign that it’s time to speak up – either to say “shut up!” or something a little more intelligent. I’d like to think I’m hitting the mark of the latter here.

There have been, and will continue to be, loads and loads of articles about privacy concerns on Facebook. You can find them with little to no effort by entering the words “Facebook” and “privacy” in the search field of Google’s news site. Or you can just click here, since that’s what you really want to do, isn’t it?

The latest, and potentially most explosive, entry in this “news cycle” is the release of an alleged IM conversation between Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and an unnamed friend. The conversation supposedly took place when Zuckerberg was 19, and given his age at the time, I wouldn’t be surprised if the epithet he supposedly gave to his users at the time was true. Kids at that age can be an impulsive, impolitic bunch.

Though Facebook has since issued a statement to clarify its official stance on user privacy, there’s another issue here that few people seem to be acknowledging: online privacy is NOT news!

After over a decade and a half of mainstream news reports of the havoc wreaked by hackers and spammers, have we not gotten the message that no matter what online service we use, we are all at risk for an invasion of privacy when we submit our personal information to an online service?

No matter how secure an online service is, you are *always* at risk for a privacy invasion. If the company isn’t willing to sell the information to third parties, a hacker may still find a way to steal it. It’s the same reality we deal with when we walk the city streets – no matter who is watching out for us, whether it’s the police or privately-hired security officers, we’re always at risk to be mugged or roughed up in some way. It’s a fact of life.

Not to take away from Facebook’s responsibilities towards its users – the company’s users have every right to keep Facebook in a position to prove itself, and if the company wants to be successful, it will find a way to go above and beyond what’s expected, both in terms of satisfying its user base and its bottom line.

But when it comes down to basics, it’s very simple. The best protector of your online privacy is you. If you don’t feel comfortable having your age determine what products are marketed to you on Facebook, don’t share your year of birth. If you don’t want the world to see those pictures of you getting drunk with transvestite hookers, then don’t upload them! Even if Facebook prevents them from coming up in Google searches, who’s to say that one of your “friends” won’t download the photos and then share them somewhere else that *will* allow Google to index them in searches? There’s only so much Facebook can do. The rest is up to you.

If you ever run into a jam trying to figure out whether you should share something online, there’s a really simple test you can apply. I learned this non-technical exercise from a particularly tech-savvy ex-girlfriend of mine. Ask yourself, “would I want my mother to see this?”

There you go. Now stop worrying and enjoy the web. It’s really fun when you realize just how much control of the experience you really do have.

SXSW Adventures 2010 (part 3)

2010-03-26T09:09:00.000-07:00

The home stretch for SXSW began on Friday with another tip from Pigeon O’Brien – this time, it was Jimmy LaFave, another local singer/songwriter/guitarist and a favorite of Pigeon’s, performing at the Red House Records showcase at Mother Egan’s Irish Pub. Josh stayed behind till the evening, but Levi was free so we started the day without him. Jimmy’s set was low key, subdued, and very twangy. His sound made for some really interesting and original Dylan covers (“Love Minus Zero/No Limit” and “Tomorrow Is A Long Time”), and worked especially well on his set closing rendition of John Waite’s big ‘80s hit “Missing You.”

It was the middle of the day, and after a set like Jimmy’s, it only seemed appropriate to kick it up a notch with a quick stop at Hoek’s for some Death Metal Pizza. Actual toppings on my slice were cheese, olives, sausage and sliced jalapeños, and true to the place’s theme, I was welcomed by a sweet blast of Slayer’s “Hate Worldwide” as I placed my order. I had one guy on my left enthusiastically talking up his death metal band, due to play inside that evening, and the guy who was about to give me window service rudely proclaiming “I’ll get to you when I get a chance!” when I asked if it would be better for me to wait in the line that was leading inside. I laughed it off, since the ‘tude was in perfect sync with the music, and he did stay true to his word and actually didn’t make me wait long at all. And the pizza was good. Can’t go wrong with jalapeños.

From there, Levi showed me the pedestrian paths that took us from the edge of downtown by the riverside over to Auditorium Shores. It was a roundabout route, and perfect in length for taking in the natural elements of Austin that you won’t find anywhere on 6th Street. There were folks canoing in the river, bicyclists all around, colorful plants and mounds of large turtles – more than I’ve ever seen clustered together outside of a pet store. I grew up near a pond that had some tiny little snappers, but they were very elusive and didn’t care to be seen much. These big guys in Austin were practically showing off.

By the time we made it to the bicycle valet at Auditorium Shores, the gates were just opening – perfect timing. We found a good spot at the edge of the general admission area, passed on the selection of Stetson hats, and invited gawkers with some huge 2-foot tall “margaritas” – if there was alcohol in there, it wasn’t evident.

The Ray Johnston Band, from Dallas, opened with some really cheesy songs about cougars and texting. At least the sax player sounded good. The less said about everything else in the set, the better.

Next up was Cracker – looking and sounding a little haggard these days, but no worse for wear and tear. The new songs sounded just as solid as the old ones, and leave it to those wise asses to open their set with their best known hit (“Low”) rather than saving it for last. Nice one. Glad to know they're still kickin’ around.

I had heard of the BoDeans, but their set at Auditorium Shores was actually the first time I had paid any attention to them. One song in their set sounded vaguely familiar, but other than that, their mix of rock, Tex Mex, country and folk left me thinking that maybe the guys in Los Lonely Boys were fans. It wasn’t totally my cup of tea, but they gave off a good vibe and they did exactly what a good opening band should do – they got the crowd riled up for the big headliners.

And those big headliners were the biggest draw for me at SXSW – Cheap Trick. I hadn’t seen them perform live since 2004, and lamented every year I missed them. Even with Bun E. Carlos ceding his drum duties to Rick Nielson’s son Dax (who’s far from a slouch and does Bun E. proud), this set more than made up for CT’s refusal to play in San Francisco since the day I moved there. From spotlighting half of their new album, The Latest (Rick reminded us that it's "the number one 8-track in the world!" and he's right - nobody else bothered to release an album in the 8-track format in 2009), to playing exactly half of my favorite CT album (their 1977 debut, Cheap Trick), the band showed more vigor than I remembered they had. They made Auditorium Shores feel like Glastonbury or Coachella, only far more laid back and comfortable than I imagine either of those two places would have been.

Rick also made a point of acknowledging Alex Chilton, who had died unexpectedly two days earlier. Cheap Trick’s cover of Big Star’s Alex Chilton-penned “In The Street” was used as the theme for "That ‘70s Show" and not only raised both band’s profiles, but also became another Cheap Trick concert favorite in the process. So Rick, who by the sound of his voice was clearly moved by the loss of Alex, dedicated “Sleep Forever,” “Heaven Tonight,” and of course “In The Street” to Alex. By the end of the set though, they were in classic Cheap Trick party mode, ending with an encore that included “He’s a Whore,” “Dream Police” and “Gonna Raise Hell.” I’d say it was the best Cheap Trick show I’ve seen since 1998, and I’ve seen them about 15 or 16 times at this point.

But it didn’t stop there. Levi, Josh and I headed straight towards yet another event after Cheap Trick’s set ended around 9:45 or so. We ended up at a party celebrating the birthday and the CD release of a beatboxing electronica artist by the name of Maestro over at a co-op near the UT campus. It was a slow-building event filled with beer, dancing, and people putting things into their bodies that made them act a bit shady. But it was a load of fun, enough to keep us awake till an hour I hadn’t witnessed with my eyes open probably since that night I didn’t sleep while waiting for the Super Shuttle to cart me off to my European flight last August.

Had the temperature in Austin not dipped down into the 30s on Saturday, I would have returned to Auditorium Shores to catch She & Him. It was freezing, and nobody wanted to venture outside in that weather, not even me. By Sunday, it was comfortable enough for a stroll outside again, but most out-of-towners were at the airport or hitting the road to return home, leaving Austin a little quieter and less lively, or as Levi put it, “more like how it really is.”

Cheap Trick's set list - Auditorium Shores, Austin, TX, 3/19/10

Hello There
Elo Kiddies
Welcome To The World
I Want You To Want Me
These Days
Wrong All Along
Sleep Forever
Heaven Tonight
In The Street
Taxman, Mr. Thief
The Ballad of TV Violence (I'm Not The Only Boy)
Oh Candy
Miracle
Miss Tomorrow
Sick Man of Europe
Closer, The Ballad of Burt and Linda
Surrender

Encore:
The Flame
Dream Police
He's a Whore
Gonna Raise Hell
Goodnight Now

SXSW Adventures 2010 (part 2)

2010-03-24T06:57:00.000-07:00

My third day in Austin turned out to be the busiest day of the week, and the first in which Josh joined me for some shows.

Thanks to Pigeon O’Brien, a passionate Austin-based publicist who is not only a friend of Popdose but also one of the funniest people on Twitter, I was tipped to an event she organized at the West 6th Street location of Opal Divine's. She assembled a lineup of local roots and Americana musicians she represents, for the brief period I was there, I got to hear short sets by Betty Soo and Dustin Welch. I also finally met Pigeon in person for the first time. She was so happy to have one of her tweeps in attendance that she even gave me an on-stage shout out, which brought a big smile to my face. Those kinds of things never get old. She was just as cool in person as her online persona led me to believe, and hearing the artists she represents perform live gave me a more vivid feel for what local Americana artists in Texas are all about.

While my heartstrings weren’t being tugged particularly hard by the music at Opal Divine's, the music was well presented and made me feel at home. Basically, there are a couple more artists I feel compelled to check out now, namely the two in the showcase I missed that I wanted to see most – Steve Poltz and Walt Wilkins. That was probably the biggest impact the show had on me, though the proverbial bouncy ball alternately led me and followed me to a couple other places, as you’ll see in a bit.

When Josh and I left Opal Divine's, our intention was to catch a set by Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings at the Mohawk. Unfortunately, they had already finished their set before we got there. On the upside though, we caught an intense, raucous, loud and droney headlining set by an Austin band called the Black Angels. Josh really took to them, and I’m ready to hear how their studio recordings compare to their live sound. They had me transfixed. Always a good sign.

After some roadside pizza and some time to relax, I headed back downtown, this time alone. I hadn’t purchased a badge or a wristband, having missed my early bird opportunities and then ultimately deciding that I’d rather just wing it anyway. Not having that special fancy pass was ultimately what doomed my attempt to check out Damien Marley and Nas at Emo’s at the last minute. But no matter, Louisville’s Wax Fang sounded pretty tight when I saw them instead over at Valhalla. The song I heard outside the venue that drew me in wasn’t topped by what I heard inside, so I’m not sure what happened there. But I wouldn’t be upset if I saw them again opening for a band like the Twilight Singers or Queens of the Stone Age. I’d have to hear more to get a better sense of what I was really witnessing.

Heading back outside again, I grabbed a BBQ brisket sandwich and witnessed a one-man band (bass drum, hi hat, guitar and vocals) covering John Lee Hooker and Buddy Holly tunes, among others in that old time blues and ‘50s rock n’ roll genre, albeit with some punk-ish energy. Dude was pretty damned entertaining, though I unfortunately didn’t catch his name.

After heading back to Josh’s, I managed to drag him out again to catch the final act playing at the Continental Club, a guy by the name of Ian Moore who appears to call both Seattle and Austin home. He had what seemed like a pretty balanced mix of rock, blues and country that sounded perfectly at home after 1am in Texas bar – nothing earth shattering, but perfect for the occasion and I’m pretty certain everyone in attendance was happy with what they heard. The best part for me was when the evening coincidentally came full circle when Dustin Welch, who I had seen earlier in the day at Opal Divine’s, took the stage as a guest towards the end of Ian’s set. And then, outside the venue, Josh and I ended up talking with a local who casually informed us that Frosty would be playing the next night. I asked him, "do you mean the Frosty, the one who drummed for Lee Michaels in the late '60s?" Yup, that Frosty. Unfortunately, his set clashed with the one show I wanted to see most while in Austin, but at least now I know where to look for him when I'm ready to catch up on all things Lee Michaels, something I've been meaning to do ever since I moved to California.

Actually, what was even better than all of this was being able to grab some pizza at Home Slice well after Ian Moore’s set had concluded. It was probably some amount of time after 2 in the morning, and the Home Slice parking lot on South Congress was abuzz as if it was New York City on any given night. After several beers and many miles walked to catch all sorts of music I had never heard before, a slice of margherita really hit the spot. This could have easily been the peak of the week, but that would actually happen the next night.

SXSW Adventures 2010 (part 1)

2010-03-23T09:41:00.000-07:00

It seems absurd on the surface, but I actually made the trip to SXSW as a means of relaxation. Looking at the various schedules of conferences, films and live music events was anything but relaxing, and figuring out exactly how I was going to navigate this behemoth of a festival ended up stressing me out all over again.

I had planned on spending the day before my flight assembling a matrix of events I’d like to see so I’d have an easy to reference road map of what interested me, thus narrowing down the infinite options to a manageable handful or three.

Yeah, right.

My focus was on anything but filtering all the information I had stumbled upon, so in the end I simply marked up a printout of a spreadsheet of unofficial events, referred back to the official SXSW web site when I could, and winged all the rest. Though I missed a few shows I would have liked to have attended (not to mention any and all films that looked interesting to me – maybe next time), approaching SXSW with a loose idea of what I’d like to see and an “anything goes” attitude for everything in between seemed to be exactly what the week called for. And being that I was staying with my friend Josh the whole week, keeping things loose made sense in that regard too. It allowed us a balance between going out and chilling out that might not have been as easy to get into had I ended up sharing a hotel with hardcore festival goers.

I considered the hotel option, but that only would have worked if this was a work trip. I made no plans to cover this festival in any way, and even though this post kind of does that, it kind of doesn’t either. As you’re about to see, my view from the ground is pretty modest in terms of following the pulse of the festival compared to other accounts you’ll read.

Tuesday the 16th was the day I arrived, and rather than head straight into the action, I started off the week away from the fray, with a guitar in my hand. After Josh and I rendezvoused with our friends Nate and Levi for some dinner, we headed back to Levi’s place for a little jamming. We mostly stuck to simple two chord progressions, with Nate setting the tone on an electric keyboard, Levi fleshing out the sound on piano, and Josh switching between another electric keyboard and sharing the piano with Levi. I stuck to acoustic guitar, picking out melodies, scales and progressions to complement the hypnotic minor chords flowing all around me. This went on for a good long while, though I couldn’t really say how long. Time stood still I suppose. Suffice to say, it was a great little session that left me feeling higher than any recreational substance might have achieved. I really couldn’t have imagined a better start to the week.

While Josh took care of some business during the day on Wednesday, I got my first taste of the many completely free daytime shows that were happening all week. First stop was at the Red Eyed Fly, where I ran into all three of the Happy Hollows during and after an awesome set by The Henry Clay People on the Red Eyed Fly’s outside stage. The Henry Clay People are an L.A. band whose name has been dropped around me numerous times, and it's funny that it took a trip to Austin for me to finally see them. They had that fire in their belly, and I’m pretty sure I’ll be seeing them again on the west coast.

Of course I knew the Happy Hollows would be at the Red Eyed Fly (it was the first of eight shows they played in Austin that week), so I made a point of being there to show some support and congratulate them on all the success they’ve had so far (most recently, they had a brief cameo appearance the previous night on ABC’s Parenthood). But before their set (which was typically awesome, no need for me to gush any more than I already do), the Austin band Brazos played a short but impressive set on the inside stage. They’re a trio, like many of the indie rock bands playing the festival, and though I don’t remember many specifics about their set, I can say that for a trio, they had an intriguing mix of subdued vibes and semi-confident energy. I’d see them again for sure.

Not taking notes didn’t serve me well for the last band I saw at the Red Eyed Fly before meeting back up with Josh, but I was moved in a very positive direction by the lead singer’s pronouncement of death to that terrible old feeling called fear. His invective encouraged me to stab that invisible beast a few more times in the heart, and as you’d imagine, a good rest would be needed after such a purging. And that’s just what the rest of the night had in store – chilling out, talking, resting and relaxing. There would be a ton more to come.

A quick Parlour to Parlour alumni update

2010-03-10T06:42:00.000-08:00

With the annual SXSW extravaganza about to let loose down in Austin, Texas, I'm slowly but surely learning of various appearances that several Parlour to Parlour alumni will be making next week. Among them are:

Leopold and his Fiction (March 16 at Art Disaster No. 10 and March 18 at the Beauty Bar.)
The Happy Hollows (EIGHT different appearances, check their MySpace. No excuse to miss them if you plan on attending SXSW this year.)
Correatown (She's got four different dates, check her MySpace.)
The New Up (Playing at the Texas Rock Fest on March 20, which is not part of SXSW, but it's the same city and same week, so I'm counting it.)

And in upcoming album release news, it appears that two Parlour to Parlour alumni have worked on their third albums with the help of a common reputable producer/mixer. Leopold and his Fiction are releasing an advance single from their forthcoming third album, and The Brother Kite (who have played SXSW in the past, but will not be there this year) have finished and titled their third album (which they are calling Isolation) and are streaming a few tracks on their web site. Who produced the Leopold record? Who mixed the Brother Kite's record? It's also the same guy who has worked with two artists I've listened to quite a bit over the last 12 months, Vetiver and Devendra Banhart. His name is Thom Monahan.

Finally, I've heard the Brother Kite's Isolation, and I can confidently say it's a subtle yet stunning evolution in their sound, one I've been hoping would happen for the past four years. Not only that, Patrick Boutwell's songs keep getting better, and I've already got a couple of favorites that are earning plenty of repeat play on my iPod. Only problem is the band doesn't have a label to distribute the record. They've been free agents since leaving Clairecords, so until someone picks them up, y'all are going to have to wait to hear this 12-song masterpiece. Any takers?

One Word Makes All the Difference

2010-03-07T10:09:00.000-08:00

Back in 2008, Brian Wilson released his brilliant follow-up to SMiLE, a song cycle he called That Lucky Old Sun. In the last verse of the last song on the album, "Southern California," there's a lyric that continues to jog the "sick humor" area in my brain to this day:

Surfers in the West
The sun ran into the sea
As we headed home
We drove into a movie

Our brains have this habit of filling in the blanks, anticipating what logic tells us could or should come next. In the case of this particular lyric, my brain, for whatever strange reason, believed when I first listened to this song that the last word in this lyric wasn't going to be "movie." No, not at all. Had Brian's vocal suddenly cut out after the indefinite article and left me to sing the rest, not knowing how he was going to finish the lyric, this is how it would have come out of my mouth:

Surfers in the West
The sun ran into the sea
As we headed home
We drove into a tree

Suddenly, the entire song has a different tone.

Here's Brian performing "Southern California" live at Abbey Road in 2008. It's an abridged performance (he skipped the second verse and the bridge), but the important verse is still there. Somehow I doubt he'd ever adopt my version.

Welcome to the Dance

2010-03-05T19:15:00.000-08:00

Writing letters back and forth to friends - not just simple functional emails - sometimes will jog my brain into realizations or, at the very least, finding a way to articulate realizations I've felt but not yet verbalized. This bit from a letter-via-email I sent today, stemming from a friend's advice to take two months to stop analyzing things that have gone awry for me, is one that I thought would be worth sharing.

When I went to my swing dance lesson on Tuesday, I kept fretting over not getting my foot movements right. I mouthed "shit!" to myself, and the female instructor saw me do it. She was looking at my feet from across the room the entire time, and so she looked back up at me and mouthed "you're OK" and gave the thumbs up.

Later in the lesson, after being corrected a few times by the male instructor while I was dancing with my partner, he came back to me, put his hand on my shoulder, and said, "Mike, forget everything I just told you. Just dance how you feel. You've already got it all up in your head, so just go for it." It was a timely echo of what you had said, and it does make sense in a way – it's hard to allow yourself to gradually ease what you've learned into practice if you don't stop studying for a little while. Even my mother had told me that, back when she was working on her master's – "studying too much can be just as bad as not studying enough." I just hadn't yet encountered a situation in real life where I felt it held true for me. Now I have.

...and I was going to end with a profoundly related music video right about now, but the song I was looking for isn't represented anywhere on the 'net as an embeddable video (at least that I could find). Paul McCartney's "Dance Tonight" isn't related to anything I just wrote, other than having the word "dance" in the title and lyrics, but what the hell. This is a damn cool video, one I hadn't seen till today, that totally enhances the song. It's what a good video should do. Dig those ghosts and the nerve-wracked postman as Paul keeps his cool throughout. The ending is the payoff - it's a party I would have loved to attend.

From Leonardo on Perspective, to the Wilsonian Monument

2010-02-15T22:20:00.000-08:00

A valuable quote by Leonardo da Vinci that was spotlighted in my current studies:

"Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen."

This is especially important for those who, like myself, believe that "harmony is a monument." Dissonance is beautiful in its own way, and I love it in some of its forms as well. But if I had to choose an abundance of one over the other, it would be harmony, all the way.

John Mayer is not as much of a douche as you think he is

2010-02-11T06:37:00.000-08:00

I'm not what you'd call a John Mayer "fan." I only own and enjoy one album of his, the solid live album Try! - it's the one where he plays in a blues rock trio setting with drummer Steve Jordan (Keith Richards & The X-Pensive Winos) and bassist Pino Palladino (The Who).

I've heard parts of Continuum and thought it was pretty good. But his earlier stuff never did much for me other than cause me to feel annoyed. So I was happy when he ditched his breathy acoustic pop schtick for a little while to open up his throat and belt out some soulful, rockin' blues. Everyone deserves a reevaluation when they really "try" and step outside their usual patterns.

Likewise, in spite of the uproar that emerged across Twitter and everywhere else that harbors a distaste for the 'n' word, I think John deserves another reevaluation from the haters.

First though, John was stupid to even bother to say that one offending two-syllable word in his Playboy interview (I've yet to read the full piece, but first heard of the whole affair at Billboard).

Second, John knows he was stupid to say what he said, in spite of his good intentions, and wisely issued a public apology very quickly.

Third, and most important of all, is what I see when looking past his clunky style of expressing himself lately. I did read the full Rolling Stone interview (highlights are available at the RS website) in the February 4 issue, the one where he says he's looking for "The Joshua Tree of vaginas." Eric Clapton, when commenting on John's music, says, "I think he becomes too caught up in being clever." Well, the exact same thing can be said about the way he represents himself to the press.

John understands that "being clever" is a sure way to get attention, and if he's ever going to "close out this life-partner thing," which he really wants to do just like a whole bunch of the rest of us, well, putting himself out there and getting attention is still a whole lot more effective than sitting alone in his room practicing scales all day.

As men, we're constantly thrown mixed signals. "Be nice." "Be yourself." We try to be nice, we try to be ourselves, and then we get nowhere. "Be original." "Be strong." We pull out clever, original words and make strong statements, and then get skewered for it. We can't win.

Looking past his style, I see John as just a regular dude who got really lucky in the music business and is now trying to come to terms with his unluckiness in the love department by stepping up his attention-getting game. And he's stumbled very publicly. Most of us have the luxury of being able to stumble without millions of people around the world knowing about it. But that was a risk he took, and admit it - it took some balls. Now the whole world knows that he doesn't completely have his game together with the ladies. On the flip side, however, he might start attracting sound advice now on how to get this part of his life figured out. If he's wise enough to listen, he might have inadvertently stumbled upon a solution to his problems.

I think deep down, John's a good guy. I bet he'd be fun to hang out with and have a few beers. And I'd welcome the opportunity to interview him, if only to try throwing in some encouragement to do another record like Try! He's got a gift, and has the blessing of masters like Clapton, B.B. King and Herbie Hancock. We gotta fight the good fight to keep great music alive, and knowing that he has it in him to do just that, he needs to know from as many of us as possible that this could be his life mission. Sticking to it and not wavering from it for a second will not only ensure that his career has lasting power beyond first-week sales, it will also very likely help him to "close out this life-partner thing." It doesn't seem like an intuitive thought, but it's one that men much wiser than myself have been saying. It's one to take on faith if it can't be understood right away.

John, dude, hang in there. And yes, do filter yourself a little more, but not so much that you stop being interesting and funny. Just, you know, don't say the 'n' word anymore. OK? Cool.

Two Heads and a Bad Case of the Hives

2010-01-31T21:35:00.000-08:00

One of the greatest gifts my mother gave to me was enrolling me in swimming lessons. Since I lived by water, the line of reasoning went, it was important to know how to swim - not just for survival purposes, but also so I could have fun with all the other kids who would be playing around in the water too.

I'm fuzzy on the specific time period, but let's say roughly kindergarten through maybe second grade was when I took lessons at an indoor pool one town over, starting at a very basic "beginner" level, advancing on to intermediate, and so on. Starting at that beginner level, I would look fearfully at the deep end of the pool - ten feet! It was still a mystery to me at that point how I would ever be able to keep myself from sinking down to the bottom. If my feet couldn't feel the bottom of the pool without my head being above water, the feeling of "danger" took over.

Of course, in time, some of that fear began to erode as I slowly learned to dog paddle, tread water and so on. Still, advancing in my swim lessons was not coming to me quite as easily as my school studies. I still remember the swim instructor at one particular level I was at telling me that I wasn't ready for the next level, and yet, he decided he would advance me anyway. I wasn't sure how to take it - was this instructor being irresponsible by pushing me forward when I wasn't ready because he didn't want to deal with the embarrassment of having one kid who didn't quite pass? Was he trying to build me up by showing confidence that I'd be able to figure out what to do in the next level? Was he afraid of incurring my mother's wrath if he held me back?

Whatever the case, I was advancing. And before that moment came, the kids in my group got to do something we had all been working towards - to swim for just a little bit in the deep end. This mystery was beginning to unravel, and being able to conquer it would be a great source of pride for me if I could do it.

I started off dog paddling, doing the safe thing. Lo and behold, I was making it! I wasn't sinking! But then, I did start sinking. I panicked. Treading water simply did not cross my mind, and I began flailing. My heart was beating fast, my breaths were increasing, and then, my head submerged. I was so close to the edge of the pool, I thought I could grab it. But I wasn't close enough. I sank further. I thought, this is it. I'm drowning.

Just at that moment, a strong hand reached down and grabbed my arm. I was quickly raised out of the water. Saved. It was over.

And I was terrified.

So terrified, in fact, that I never did find out who it was that saved me. I'm not even sure if my mother knew, and I doubt she'd remember now since it was so long ago. But when the dust settled, I was grateful to be breathing air instead of water, and to be walking on the ground instead of sleeping beneath it.

Maybe it was courage, maybe it was stupidity. Whatever it was, I kept going. In time, I became so comfortable with deep water that I routinely sought it out so I could swim down to the bottom of the pool, look around and hang out for a little while, and then come back up when I was running out of air. I loved being able to do that. I still do.

- - -

Last year was, in some ways, like that moment when my swim instructor advanced me before I was ready. Only now, as an adult, I am my own instructor, my own parent, my own coach, and my own savior - I outsource consultation when I feel I need it, but in the end, all the decisions are mine. And in 2009, I dove head first into video blogging with Parlour to Parlour. While holding down a full time job. While freelance writing for another web site too. And testing the limits of my capacity for developing and maintaining new interpersonal relationships of varying degrees of intensity.

I set a bunch of goals, and many of them were met. But the ones I did not achieve - namely, finishing a financial accounting of my video activities and compiling a report of the traffic the series generated for Popdose - are still hanging over my head.

Essentially, this time I *did* drown. I could feel it when I began juggling the filming of new episodes while still editing old ones that I had bitten off more than I could chew. But at that point, it was too late. I had already committed - in a public forum, no less - to complete 26 episodes before the end of 2009. To complete less than that would be the equivalent of telling the world that I was a liar and that I couldn't be trusted to keep my word.

To my credit, I did complete all 26 episodes, and the personal connections I made during that process are still felt now. I've even helped connect others as a result, and hopefully those new connections will be helpful and successful for those who made them. That's really what I wanted to do, in the end - bring people together so they could help each other achieve their goals and realize their dreams. It's a lifelong process, and if I can do anything to help it along, I will.

Unfortunately, my energy got sapped by the end of 2009. The loose plans I had in mind for putting together a scaled back, higher quality second season for 2010 are temporarily on hold as I tackle a whole new challenge.

My father told me recently, as I recounted the year's events to him and how I was feeling about it all, something that was hard for me to accept. "You're not Superman," he said. Not that I ever had delusions of being an all-powerful super human who could fly and save the world, but still, the point was that I took on quite a lot, and I couldn't expect myself to move on to the next phase right away without a rest. And I really do need a rest.

What suffered the most during my intensely paced year was my ability to connect with people on a level deeper than the pleasant, functional, politically correct level that has become my mode of auto pilot, the one where everyone understands we're working towards a goal, and that personal feelings are put aside in favor of the goal. It's the world I've lived in for far too long, to the detriment of all of my personal relationships, from family members, to old friends, and especially women. Occasionally the version of me with all the empathy and understanding and deep personal insight came out, the version of me that has nurtured and maintained my longest-lasting friendships. But it didn't come out nearly enough. And the biggest problem was that I was blind to this most of the time, and with a few exceptions, I'd be in denial when it was pointed out to me.

When all of this finally hit me, that's when the drowning feeling took over. I'm out of the water now, but I'm still pumping liquid out of my lungs, so to speak. And as they free up, new friends are providing me with new insights they probably aren't even aware of, and in turn I'm trying a little harder to reassure them that, yes, I am listening, and no, you are not boring me to tears. Yes, I am enjoying your company. No, you're not making a complete ass of yourself, but maybe just enough so that I might feel comfortable making an ass of *myself* for our entertainment.

Things like that. You know, not allowing the focus on a goal to take away from the joy of the *process*. Simple basic stuff that most people get so well that if you ask them to explain it, they'll look at you like you have two heads and a bad case of the hives.

- - -

In this pursuit, I'm currently reading "Women Can't Hear What Men Don't Say" by Warren Farrell, PhD. Next on the list is Farrell's "Why Men Are the Way They Are."

- - -

And currently soundtracking this moment:

Keith Richards singing "Slipping Away" with the Rolling Stones. This is easily my favorite song off Steel Wheels, and one of Keef's most affecting performances ever. "First the sun and then the moon, one of them will be 'round soon." That line always makes me smile.

Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood performing "Had to Cry Today" at the Crossroads Festival in 2007. I finally picked up their Live from Madison Square Garden live album, and was inspired to learn the riff to this tune immediately after. I almost put the Blind Faith performance from Hyde Park in '69 here, but as it turned out, Clapton and Winwood just sounded so much better 38 years later. Search it out for yourself and hear the difference, but this here is the real deal (thanks to Matt Wardlaw for the tip).

The Smashing Pumpkins' "Thirty Three" just might be one of Billy Corgan's best songs. I haven't listened to the Pumpkins much over the past couple of years, but for some reason, I've found myself drawn back to Adore and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. "Thirty Three" resonates much more now than it did in '95. When Corgan sings "in the same old haunts I still find my friends," I recognize it as a source of comfort in the present. Because, indeed, I know exactly where I can find my friends, and though those "haunts" may be old, they are comfortable and inviting.

Parlour to Parlour: Epilogue and Acknowledgments

2009-12-30T08:27:00.000-08:00

(This entry is reprinted in its entirety from the original post at Popdose.)

And so we’ve reached that final milestone – just as I promised back in June, we have now completed 26 episodes of Parlour to Parlour, one for each week of the second half of 2009.

When I started this project more than thirteen months ago, I was reacquainting myself with the workings of that nifty device known as the portable video camera. My old buddy Scott was in the middle of a 5-week stay at my place (at that time) in San Francisco’s Lower Haight district, and while he was down on his luck and not up to his usual standards of motivation during his stay, he perked up not just at the prospect of working out with me at the gym, but also to exercise some of his camcorder knowledge by helping me transfer some Hi8 video to Mini DV so I could easily import the footage into my Mac. That footage, which I shot as Scott looked on, eventually became Episode 0 – it was meant only as a practice run to get my feet wet again.

Of course, once I started having serious discussions with Brandon Kane, an independent film director and screenwriter down in the Phoenix area who I have considered a close friend since that fateful bonding moment we had on our second day working together at Brown University – September 11, 2001 – it became clear to me that it would probably be OK to use this footage for the actual project. Brandon knows my eyes are pretty good, but his are infinitely better, and if it weren’t for his feedback, Episode 0 would probably still be sitting in a box underneath my desk.

And the subjects of that pre-episode – Chris Robley and the Fear of Heights – were also friends. Scott and I both knew Chris from our formative days growing up in Rhode Island’s East Greenwich school district. I know a lot of us have differing opinions on what it was like going through that system, but speaking only for myself, I can confidently say that, while it wasn’t perfect, it was worth whatever hassles there were if only for the few lifelong friends who came out of it with me. Even if I could only claim one friend from the experience, it would have been worth it.

And so began the Parlour to Parlour journey, ensconced among friends who were enthusiastic about the idea and excited to see how it would unfold.

In a sense, I knew in some general ways just how it would unfold. Most artists I contacted would be game, some would not, and overall we’d all have a good time putting these episodes together. Given that I chose all these artists based on the fact that I actually liked their music and wanted to give them another unique forum to show it off, it was also hardly surprising that, following sessions where I’d be hearing a song played at least twice as I recorded it, these songs would be stuck in my head for weeks after our sessions had ended, effectively providing part of my soundtrack for the year.

I did have a feeling that, given how much energy I was putting into this project, I’d probably not be in any position to wrap my head around a ‘best of the year’ or ‘best of the decade’ contribution to Popdose. Sure enough, when the call came around, I couldn’t be bothered. Parlour to Parlour was the here, the now, and the sole focus. For once, my love of history was put on the back burner, and aside from a small tinge of guilt in the back of my head, I really didn’t mind.

But even with the amount of planning I put into this project from the outset, some things simply could not be predicted. There were some subjects who went way above and beyond the call of duty in their levels of graciousness and hospitality – they know who they are. And of course, when these folks (and all Parlour to Parlour subjects, for sure) are swingin’ through my neighborhood, they all know that they have a place to stay if they need it.

I took a chance with this one, but it paid off handsomely – given how much has been said over the past year about the demise of MySpace in light of the rise of Facebook and Twitter, who would have thought that MySpace would be the single most effective tool I had in reaching out to these artists? In most cases, tour schedules were more up-to-date on their MySpace profiles than on their regular web sites (for those who still have regular web sites, that is), which made scheduling a lot easier. That they were also checking their mail regularly and actually responding was proof positive to me that, while MySpace may have died as the dominant social networking platform, it’s still very much alive and well as a networking community for independent musicians. Plus, how great is it that you can stream their tunes in full with minimal hassle on a MySpace profile and find out right then and there whether you want to spend more time listening, attending their shows, and keeping up with them in general? Don’t count MySpace out just yet.

And then there were all the other circumstantial unknowns… like the opportunity for me to move to a new apartment just four months into the project. Or the giddy feeling that would pulse through me each time I reviewed the footage of my most recent shoot. Or how much stress I would be feeling during that period where I was both editing final episodes on a regular schedule and making arrangements to shoot the last six, yet too proud/stupid/oblivious to do something about it, and failing to speak up and realize how it was affecting at least one very important person in my life. Or how heavily I would rely on the audio mastering expertise of Popdose’s own Ted Asregadoo, to the point where I ate into his Mix Six schedule. Or that I would grow so close to lighting assistant Rebecca Stewart that many of my highest highs and lowest lows during the course of the project would be attributed to her presence. But of course, that’s just how it works – the lowest lows always happen on account of the highest highs, and I wouldn’t trade back those highs for anything (except perhaps the opportunity for a do-over with newly acquired wisdom – to be more present-minded – to make those highs even higher, and to head off those lows at the pass. But of course, that opportunity will never present itself as long as time travel remains an impossibility).

In the end, many more doors opened up on account of this journey than were open in the beginning, both of a musical and personal nature, and there are plenty more subjects I have discovered through this crop of artists that I could wrap into another season of Parlour to Parlour. But I am not quite ready to commit to announcing a second season just yet. You’ll have to wait to find out whether it will actually happen. If it does, you can expect an announcement here in mid-June. If it doesn’t, well, these videos aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, so keep enjoying them as you see fit, and feel free to comment below on what your favorites were, what you’d like to see more of, what wasn’t so hot in your eyes, or anything else that might be on your mind.

Till then, I’m signing off here for a while. I hate to say it, but it does make me sad to see this project draw to a close. Rebecca saw it before I did – that sadness. But I’ve been so forward thinking all my life that – with some exceptions – I have tended to feel like it’s not worth wasting time on sadness. This time, there was no avoiding it.

Thank you all for joining me on this journey, and special thanks in particular to those I have listed below as part of the loose collective I have come to know as the Parlour to Parlour team:

Ted Asregadoo (audio mastering) – you probably had no idea what you were getting into when you offered your help in mastering my audio files. Thanks for being so patient and for never once flinching or losing your cool. Yours is a constitution we should all strive for. And given the varying quality of the sound files I sent you, the results of your work were superb! We are due for a bourbon fest soon.
Jeff Giles (Popdose editor in chief) – thanks for showing so much enthusiasm for this project and for being so supportive throughout the process. That green light you gave me had huge significance, as you can plainly see. Also, you were right – keeping me on camera was a good call.
Brandon Kane (Cosmic Control Productions, consultant and moral support) – thanks for cluing me into all the basic tools I needed to get started, for coaching me early on with regard to positioning and lighting, camera and audio equipment, alleviating my fear of shadows, and for plugging these episodes one by one as they were posted. I probably would not have had the courage to move forward with a project of this scope had you not involved me in your own full length feature project, so thanks for that opportunity as well.
Kelly Low (logo design) – thank you for taking time out of your regular work schedule to collaborate with me on the Parlour to Parlour look and feel. You took my rough pen sketch and turned it into a real brand with a personality all its own, one that reflects both my vision and your own sense of style, which I have always admired. The process was fun, smooth and easy, and I feel a great sense of pride every time I look at our work. And thank you for being so enthusiastic even after the work was done.
Lila Nelson (camera and lighting assistant – Episodes 1 and 2) – though I knew you would probably not be able to stick around for long due to your own gigs and such, I’m grateful that you took the time to lend your enthusiasm, willingness to learn, and comedic personality to the process of creating some of the first sets of narration inserts. Had you not spoken up and asked for the opportunity, I might have trudged on recording these things alone, essentially robbing the series of a subtle yet noticeable extra spark. …and if you haven’t already, get a Mac!

Rebecca Stewart (camera and lighting assistant – Episodes 5 through 25) – there’s so much to say, as no one besides me was more involved in this project than you. It’s no exaggeration to say that nobody was more passionate than you when it came to giving 100% to make sure things turned out not just right, but better each time. You thought outside the box every step of the way, continued to innovate your lighting techniques right to the very end, and I will always be grateful for you making the trips out to L.A. and Seattle to film Episodes 20-23 alongside me. You’ll never know just how sad I felt to finally tear down that paper monstrosity you built around the ceiling light in my office.

…and last but certainly not least, thanks to all the artists involved: Chris Robley and the Fear of Heights, Meredith Axelrod, Leopold and his Fiction, Silian Rail, The Aimless Never Miss, The Parson Red Heads, The Happy Hollows, Correatown, Le Switch, The Purrs, Rachel Taylor Brown, Lila Nelson, The New Up, Norfolk & Western, The Spring Heeled Jacks Original Swinging Jass Band, The Dazzling Strangers, Bill Spooner, The Brother Kite, The Cobra Lilies, The Monolators, Half Light, The Tripwires, Steve Taylor, and Cyril Lepizzera. And also, thank you Tim Ryan – not just for giving us a place to stay, but also for introducing me to Jeff Giles in the first place.

Finally, I leave you with a bonus video left over from the Episode 24 sessions with Steve Taylor. After we had finished filming Steve’s performance of “Mystery,” he asked if I wouldn’t mind also getting some footage of him at the piano playing the song “River,” which was one song I had mentioned before ultimately deciding that “Mystery” belonged in Episode 24. The lyrics of “River” felt like they should end the series – something I wouldn’t have realized until just before filming Steve for Episode 24. So I’m including it here as the last word on Parlour to Parlour 2009. Enjoy!

Parlour to Parlour shreds in France with Cyril Lepizzera

2009-12-29T11:00:00.000-08:00

In spite of my fairly well known (among friends, anyway) appreciation for good, quality heavy metal, it didn’t seem intuitive to chart that kind of territory in Parlour to Parlour. Not on the surface, anyway. But then I received a tip from an unlikely source last summer on a ridiculously talented guitar shredder residing in the south of France. His name? Cyril Lepizzera. And so began the farthest reaching, and most rewarding, leg of the Parlour to Parlour journey.

See the full post at Popdose.

Busking with an actual piano?? Meet Steve Taylor...

2009-12-22T11:24:00.000-08:00

Returning to the Bay Area, Parlour to Parlour comes full circle (though there is still one more special episode to come) with Steve Taylor. Just like Portland’s Chris Robley, Steve is prone to busking, and actually does it quite frequently. And like Meredith Axelrod, Steve also plays music as his sole source of income. In fact, it was a chance run-in with Steve following a set by Meredith Axelrod at the Haight Ashbury Street Fair in San Francisco last June (Steve was busking by some port-a-potties with his piano) that reminded me – this dude has chops and soul, and featuring him here would be a real treat.

See the full post at Popdose.

The Tripwires bring home the power pop to Parlour to Parlour

2009-12-15T10:57:00.001-08:00

Again, I have Jason Milne from The Purrs to thank for introducing me to another great Seattle band. In this case, the band in question is the Tripwires, a no-nonsense power pop collective headed by singer/guitarist John Ramberg of The Minus Five. With the heroes and influences he claimed – personal favorites Badfinger, the Beatles and Cheap Trick among them – I knew we’d instantly have something over which to connect. But first, I had find him.

See the full post at Popdose.

Parlour to Parlour returns to Seattle to meet Half Light

2009-12-08T15:41:00.000-08:00

My original intent in returning to Seattle, after spending some time there with the Purrs, was to interview a band I had seen in 2008 that had left a lasting impression on me. As it turned out, the Purrs’ Jason Milne introduced me to his girlfriend, Half Light’s Dayna Loeffler, who in turn passed me a copy of their 2008 album Sleep More, Take More Drugs, Do Whatever We Want. I quickly let go of the idea of chasing down the other band as Half Light’s music – a spacey, shoegazey take on the kind of slow burning folk rock that was Mazzy Star’s bread and butter – slowly seeped into my consciousness.

See the full post at Popdose.

From the Parlour to the garage with the Monolators

2009-12-01T14:32:00.000-08:00

It was the need to present an acoustic side of Eli and Mary Chartkoff’s music that caused the Cobra Lilies to form. And the band from which they came, the Monolators, embodies much of that same, fun loving spirit – with louder, faster, noisier electric guitars. This true-to-life garage band impressed me with a thread that continued through our most recent meeting, one that is common to every long-lasting and worthwhile rock n’ roll band in existence. It’s a thread we call persistence.

See the full post at Popdose.

Cobra Lilies - banjos and saxes and tap dancing, oh my!

2009-11-24T20:34:00.001-08:00

As we enter the home stretch of the Parlour to Parlour journey, the artists preceding some of these final episodes became important to me not just for musical enjoyment, but also for their suggestions and recommendations, whether intended or not. In the case of the Cobra Lilies, it was Angela Correa who first planted the idea in my head (unintentionally) that they would be a sight to behold, burning an image in my mind of a saxophone-wielding Mary Chartkoff marching into a crowd in clogs.

See the full post at Popdose.

The Brother Kite's Parlour time is here!

2009-11-17T11:44:00.001-08:00

For as long as I have known The Brother Kite, starting when my old friend Matt Rozzero became their drummer in 2004, I have been waiting impatiently for TBK to make a west coast appearance. After seeing them perform at a small club in 2006 in their hometown of Providence, Rhode Island, it became my favorite question to ask Matt. The excellent, shimmering Waiting for the Time to Be Right was about to be released, and with regard to their next album, I suppose they’re still waiting. But they’re getting closer…

See the full post at Popdose.

At home with Bill Spooner, former Tube

2009-11-10T13:05:00.000-08:00

In 1994, I picked up a double CD compilation called The Best Punk Album In The World… Ever! with some credit I had from a return at Circuit City. Sandwiched in between the Modern Lovers’ “Roadrunner” and Richard Hell and the Voidoids’ “Blank Generation” was the Tubes’ “White Punks on Dope.” This was my introduction to the Tubes, and it had me wondering what the compilers were thinking, as this song seemed to be lampooning the “punk” movement in much the same way that Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention’s We’re Only in It for the Money skewered hippies in the late ’60s. Plus the Tubes were clearly better musicians than most punks. Imagine my delight when I learned that I had the opportunity to receive guitar lessons from the Tubes’ own Bill Spooner when I moved to San Francisco…

See the full post at Popdose.

Getting to know the Dazzling Strangers

2009-11-03T14:01:00.000-08:00

At my first Dazzling Strangers show at Kimo’s in San Francisco last year, the Chris Streng-led band ripped through a roaring cover of the Electric Prunes’ “I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night.” I was with a group of friends that evening, and since none of them were familiar with the original classic 1960s psych rock single, they misheard it as “I Had Too Much to Drink Last Night,” and one could hardly blame them. Chris did appear drunk, and a few days later, he confirmed it as fact through an email. This cat became more curious by the minute.

See the full post at Popdose.

The Spring Heeled Jacks Original Swinging Jass Band welcomes Parlour to Parlour to Texas

2009-10-27T13:45:00.000-07:00

I knew that the Spring Heeled Jacks Original Swinging Jass Band’s debut album, The Dicky Comstock Show, was going to be good. The band’s bassist/arranger (and a very good friend of mine), Josh Morrow, had been sending me rough mixes as he and singer/guitarist/primary songwriter Nate Dunton worked on the tracks. What I didn’t know was that the album would be so good, so engaging — magical, even — that it would be one of the most-played albums in my collection during 2007. But as much as I enjoyed the record, it was maddening to know that so few ears had a chance to hear it.

See the full post at Popdose.

The interview you'll never hear with Norfolk & Western

2009-10-20T14:24:00.000-07:00

I actually hadn't explicitly planned on getting footage of Norfolk & Western when I put together my initial wish list of Parlour to Parlour artists. I figured they might be good for a second season, once I had become more familiar with their recordings. I had seen them perform live once before, at Cafe du Nord in San Francisco. Chris Robley was filling his usual role as supporting guitarist and keyboard player in their road band, so it was chance for me to see and hear him in a context other than what I was already used to.

See the full post at Popdose.

The New Up shows us what a "pleasure pad" is...

2009-10-13T12:57:00.000-07:00

The New Up, like Le Switch, was another band whose second time crossing my path felt just like the first. Only difference this time, other than the fact that their name remained the same, was that their sound had changed. Hooking up with noted producer/engineer Jaimeson Durr (Dan the Automator, Chickenfoot), the band had streamlined their studio sound, and after stabilizing their personnel, ended up with a polished modern rock identity that translated equally well on disc and on stage. Hearing them three years after the first live show of theirs I reviewed, I felt like I was hearing a whole new band.

See the full post at Popdose.

Bob Dylan @ the Greek Theatre, Berkeley, 10/10/09

2009-10-11T09:51:00.000-07:00

Saw Bob Dylan last night night in Berkeley. Quick and to the point: best Dylan show of the five I've seen to date (previous shows I've seen were summer of '97 at Great Woods in Mansfield, Mass. with Ani DiFranco; spring of 2005 at the Paramount Theater in Oakland with Merle Haggard; fall of 2007 at the Ryan Center in Kingston, RI with Elvis Costello; and this summer at Banner Island Ballpark in Stockton, CA with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp).

His voice was clear and strong (relative for this period of his career, anyway) and he sounded like he was really enjoying the set. Spent part of the time at the keyboard, part of the time on guitar and harmonica, and part of the time singing without an instrument. Opened with an old Jesus song from his born again days, played some sweet new arrangements for "Mama, You've Been On My Mind" and "Cold Irons Bound," got the crowd all riled up with that "you think I'm over the hill" line in "Spirit On The Water" (just like he did at the Ryan Center), and best of all... NO opening acts, just Bob, with Charlie Sexton back in the band on guitar, and a nice long set in the open air. Show was sold out. He plays again at the Greek tonight (though I won't be there...)

Set list:

Gonna Change My Way Of Thinking
The Man In Me
Beyond Here Lies Nothin'
Mama, You've Been On My Mind
Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum
I Don't Believe You
My Wife's Home Town
Spirit On The Water
Cold Irons Bound
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
Highway 61 Revisited
I Feel A Change Coming On
Thunder On The Mountain
Ballad Of A Thin Man

ENCORE:
Like A Rolling Stone
Jolene
All Along The Watchtower

Parlour to Parlour gets an intimate look at Lila Nelson

2009-10-06T13:15:00.000-07:00

Waiting to get into the men’s room at Mississippi Studios in Portland, Oregon, I noticed a tall (relative to me, anyway), attractive young lady with a guitar standing quietly by. She was soft-spoken, seemed kind of shy, and turned out she was also visiting from California. Based in Arcata at that time, Lila Nelson was playing an early set before Rachel Taylor Brown that Spring night in 2008, and was about to completely rip apart my initial impression of her.

See the full post at Popdose.

Rachel Taylor Brown welcomes you to her Parlour!

2009-09-29T16:54:00.000-07:00

As a member of Chris Robley’s band the Fear of Heights, keyboardist/ vocalist Rachel Taylor Brown had already endeared herself to me with her warmth and unique charm. Then I heard the opening strains of her album Half Hours With The Lower Creatures, and knew that there was so much more to Rachel than I could have imagined. I mean, the woman made music out of cash registers, essentially walking a fine line between serious metaphor and blatant absurdity. And it worked! As I found out, this time and times before, she’s always got something interesting going on.

See the full post at Popdose.

Chris Robley gets his "proper" Parlour to Parlour episode

2009-09-22T12:58:00.000-07:00

When I started this series, I had initially intended for the footage that became “Episode 0” to be just a practice run. After all, I wasn’t yet in the frame of mind to pry open the mind of Chris Robley and his band mates in proper interview fashion. But I always did intend for Chris to have a “proper” episode, so finally, here it is – and filmed in Chris’ home in Portland, Oregon, the way it should be.

See the full post at Popdose.

Parlour to Parlour gets buzzed in Seattle with the Purrs

2009-09-16T06:51:00.000-07:00

Episode 10 marks a couple of big firsts for me. This was the occasion of my first visit to Seattle, which was surprisingly sunny and blue-sky laden in spite of its grey cloudy reputation. It was also the first time I met the members of the Purrs in person, after having continuously enjoyed the band's 2007 album, The Chemistry That Keeps Us Together, ever since it was sent my way by my Performer Magazine editor.

See the full post at Popdose.

Le Switch's Aaron Kyle featured in Parlour to Parlour Ep. 9

2009-09-08T12:39:00.000-07:00

My research skills were not at their best the night I first saw Le Switch perform live. At some point during the show at San Francisco’s Hotel Utah on October 25, 2008, frontman Aaron Kyle began to sing a song that sounded awfully familiar. Yet it was not a cover, that much I could tell. But how could that be? I haven’t heard anything else… wait a minute… THE Switch is how I knew them before! How did this not come up in any of my preparations? God, what an idiot.

See the full post at Popdose.

Parlour to Parlour heads to Correatown

2009-09-01T16:16:00.000-07:00

Back in February of 2008, I was covering a show at the Hemlock Tavern in San Francisco for West Coast Performer Magazine. I had a friend helping out with photos, and second on the bill was another friend, none other than Chris Robley. Following Chris' set, I was expecting a full band called Correatown, but what I got instead was a solo acoustic set by one Angela Correa.

See the full post at Popdose.

More radio exposure for Parlour to Parlour!

2009-09-01T06:20:00.000-07:00

Parlour to Parlour was mentioned yet again on Jon Grayson's Overnight America program on CBS Radio. This time, I was the one who was representing Popdose on the air, and of course Jon asked me to talk a little about Parlour to Parlour. The program aired last night, and is now available to listen in Overnight America's archives. Follow this link, and then click on the 'Micahel Fortes' link once you get there.

Besides Parlour to Parlour (which gave me an opportunity to plug the Aimless Never Miss, the Happy Hollows and the Parson Red Heads), we discussed Ted Kennedy, music producer Tom Werman's final 'Producers' column for Popdose, the weekly Popdose feature 'The Friday Mixtape,' and the new exclusive-to-Wal Mart Foreigner album.

Parlour to Parlour visits the Happy Hollows in L.A.

2009-08-25T18:37:00.001-07:00

After having said my goodbyes to Evan, Brette and Aaron from the Parson Red Heads, I took to the road to make my next appointment. I was due to meet the Happy Hollows, who I had first heard during the same month I was first introduced to the Parson Red Heads. Sarah Negahdari's seemingly boundless well of energy meshed so well with the pulsating, borderline-hardcore rhythms of bassist Charlie Mahoney and drummer Chris Hernandez that I had to meet this band.

See the full post at Popdose.

Part Two of the Parson Red Heads' Parlour to Parlour adventure

2009-08-18T19:54:00.000-07:00

On February 23, 2009, I awoke on Evan and Brette Marie Way's couch in their living room. It was a sunny L.A. morning, one that would be filled with music geek-out sessions, fruity crepes, friendly house cats, and of course, a fine interview for this very series. In part two of our visit with the Parson Red Heads, Evan, Brette and guitarist Aaron Ballard give a tour of their blissfully communal dwelling, and in the process, solidify the personal exchange that made this one of the key "parlour to parlour" moments of the entire series.

See the full post at Popdose.

The Parson Red Heads appear in the first of two episodes of Parlour to Parlour

2009-08-11T15:34:00.000-07:00

To say that I was looking forward to taking Parlour to Parlour to L.A. would be the understatement of the year. Excitement was high for my visit to the city of angels, for I would be crashing with Evan and Brette Marie Way of the Parson Red Heads, one of the bands that had completely rejuvenated me last year. The couchsurfing aspect of the project began here.

See the full post at Popdose.

Parlour to Parlour mentioned on CBS Radio!

2009-08-04T11:42:00.000-07:00

Exciting Parlour to Parlour news! Overnight America's host, Jon Grayson, is featuring 15 minutes of discussion about four different Popdose articles each week on his syndicated CBS radio program. A different Popdose staff person will talk with Grayson each week. For the second spot in this series, Mojo Flucke, PhD, discusses, among other things, Episode 3 of Parlour to Parlour featuring Silian Rail! The program aired last night, and is now available to listen in Overnight America's archives. Follow this link, and then click on the 'MOJO' link once you get there.

Parlour to Parlour Episode 4 captures The Aimless Never Miss

2009-08-04T11:29:00.000-07:00

This episode was the third and final shoot for the day on Saturday, February 15. After our session with Eric Kuhn and Robin Landy from Silian Rail in their Oakland practice space, Robin took off as singer/guitarist Jonny Latimer and bassist Andrew Macy arrived. Kuhn was ready for a second round, and I was ready to finally talk to a band I had been admiring from afar for half a year.

See the full post at Popdose.

Parlour to Parlour goes instrumental with Silian Rail (Episode 3)

2009-07-28T18:37:00.000-07:00

On the night of November 21, 2008, I found myself in the basement performance space of San Francisco's Retox Lounge, which was decked out with busted guitars, as well as seats and windows salvaged from a commercial airliner. The first band on the bill that night was Silian Rail, a guitar-drums instrumental duo that basically became my new Tristeza and Tortoise all rolled into one from the first tune they played.

See the full post at Popdose.

Parlour to Parlour continues with Episode 2: Leopold and his Fiction

2009-07-21T22:05:00.000-07:00

To say that Sunday, February 15, 2009, was a busy day for me is an understatement.

I had decided to devote the entire day to Parlour to Parlour shoots, after discovering that I couldn't spread them across two days. Basically, nobody was willing to give up any of their precious Valentines Day hours for an interview. In hindsight, I should have known better than to propose V-day for anything other than a date. But all was well that ended well: I did have a date of my own on the 14th, and I made the rounds on the 15th to visit three different artists I had discovered through my time at Performer Magazine. Daniel James from Leopold and his Fiction was the first I met that day.

See the full post at Popdose.

Parlour to Parlour continues with Episode 1: Meredith Axelrod

2009-07-15T17:56:00.000-07:00

We now begin the Parlour to Parlour journey in earnest, starting very close to home.

Meredith Axelrod was living just a short block away from my Lower Haight apartment in San Francisco when I was introduced to her. This 24 year old Chicago native was drawn to San Francisco "by the legend that the freaks and quirky people gather here," she told me. "I wanted to meet them."

See the full post (with two videos, two mp3 downloads, and the full write-up) at Popdose.

Parlour to Parlour begins today with Chris Robley & The Fear of Heights

2009-07-07T10:06:00.000-07:00

Parlour to Parlour begins today with Episode 0. This footage, filmed in San Francisco, CA, during the weekend of November 14-15, 2008, on my grandfather’s old analog Hi8, was “just practice” and not originally intended for the series. But we liked it so much that it deserved a place in the series, even if it was out-of-concept in that it was the band visiting me, rather than the other way around. Hence “Episode 0.”

See the full post (which includes two videos, two mp3 downloads, and a full write-up) at Popdose.

Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood, Oracle Arena, Oakland, 6/29/09

2009-07-01T22:06:00.001-07:00

June 29 came up all too fast. Any faster and I would have forgotten that I had a ticket to see Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood at Oakland’s Oracle Arena that night. Fast as it came though, the show itself lasted a good long while – close to three hours by my rough estimate.

I never had much of a huge interest in seeing a live Clapton show. I’ve always felt that there was very little about his music since his Derek & the Dominoes days that truly excited me. There were some good spots in his solo career since then – 461 Ocean Boulevard certainly has its moments (“Mainline Florida” and “Let it Grow” especially), Backless is a once-in-a-while guilty pleasure for the 8-track deck, and the laid back Reptile had just enough variety for me to make it my favorite solo Clapton record of the ones I’ve heard to date (and those sweet backing vocals from the Impressions certainly didn’t hurt). But overall, his career excited me far less than that of, say, Jeff Beck.

But the prospect of seeing Clapton with Steve Winwood, now that had me sold. Clapton seems to be most inspired when working alongside a peer (i.e. Duane Allman in the Dominoes, or as reports from Japan earlier this year confirmed, with fellow Yardbirds alumnus Jeff Beck). Teaming with Winwood worked well enough in Blind Faith in '69, so I couldn't imagine it not working in 2009. I was pretty much right.

Basically, I got everything I was expecting: a hearty dose of Blind Faith tunes (all of side one of their lone album, in fact), some Traffic tunes, the bluesier side of Clapton, and – best of all – a Clapton who was ripping solo after inspired solo all night. He was alternately slow and deliberate, a fleet-fingered show-off, a precise picker, and an infectious riff master. And Winwood was easily the evening's superior vocalist and Clapton's equal on keyboard, occasionally even sparring with Clapton on guitar when he wasn’t perched at either his organ or his piano.

Highlights: Forgot how cool that riff in “Had to Cry Today” is; “After Midnight” was slowed down to a more leisurely pace, though not quite as slow as the ‘87 Michelob version; Clapton and Winwood trading verses on “Presence of the Lord” and “Forever Man”; Winwood’s breathtaking solo rendition of “The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys”; “Split Decision” emerged as a long-forgotten, lost gem from Winwood’s commercial peak in the ‘80s; and the spirited dual guitar jam at the conclusion of “Dear Mr. Fantasy” ended the show on a natural high… though as you can imagine, joints were being passed around.

[RANT: I wish the screaming lady next to me would have taken a toke of the joint being passed around in front of me, because she was just WAY too hyper. She was shrieking non-stop throughout the show, and ridiculously so. I mean, you know you’re drunk when you start complaining that Eric Clapton isn’t singing enough hits or saying anything about Michael Jackson. I think she nearly climaxed when he encored with “Cocaine.” And then she had the nerve to ask me what country I was from! Apparently, if I had answered something other than the United States, she would have wanted to sleep with me, but I like my landlord too much to bring home a woman who could drown out a fire alarm.]

Two more points worth mentioning: it wouldn’t be a Clapton show without some straight up blues, and there was plenty of that to go around. Those tunes (“Low Down,” “Sleeping in the Ground,” etc.) didn’t stick with me as well as the others, but they sure sounded great at the time. The best of these without a doubt, though, was Hendrix’s “Voodoo Chile.” No, not the more well-known “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” that closes side 4 of Electric Ladyland, but the twice-as-long blues jam that closes side one of the original double LP. Winwood sang this one, but it was Clapton who intro’d the tune, singing along with the opening guitar melody: “I’m a voodoo chile / Lord knows I’m a voodoo chile.” It was at this very intro that it hit me: Winwood played organ on the original recording! Suffice to say, these guys did Hendrix proud.

Clapton couldn’t be bothered to say more than “hello!” and “thank you!” all night, but Winwood at least talked a bit to the audience before “Low Spark.” And still, the band wasn’t introduced, and since I didn’t do my research before the show, it didn’t quite register why the way the drummer was hitting his skins looked so familiar to me. It was because the guy was Abe Laboriel, Jr. – Paul McCartney’s drummer since 2001 (I've seen Paul eight times since 2002). Might be time for some glasses.

Thanks to ericclapton-online.com, we have not only a list of the band members, but also an audience-shot video of “Cocaine” from the show (posted by YouTube user taste4phree).

The band:
Steve Winwood (vocals, piano, organ, electric guitar)
Eric Clapton (electric and acoustic guitar, vocals)
Chris Stainton (Keyboards)
Willie Weeks (Bass)
Abe Laboriel Jr. (Drums)
Michelle John & Sharon White (Backing vocals)

The set list:
Had to Cry Today
Low Down
After Midnight
Presence of the Lord
Sleeping in the Ground
Glad
Well Alright
Too Bad
Pearly Queen
There’s a River
Forever Man
The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys
Driftin’
How Long
Layla
Can’t Find My Way Home
Split Decision
Voodoo Chile

Encore:
Cocaine
Dear Mr. Fantasy

Introducing... Parlour to Parlour

2009-06-16T20:05:00.001-07:00

The following announcement appeared this morning on Popdose. I have reprinted it in its entirety below:

A year ago, I was in the midst of an existential crisis. I was functioning fairly well in my day job capacity at UCSF, and pumping out reviews for West Coast Performer Magazine, Bullz-Eye.com, and – on occasion – Popdose as well. But to what end?

I knew there was far more to life than keeping an office running and giving the world my informed opinion on which album had the greatest guitar solo of 2008 (it was actually on the Vagabond Skies EP by Peter Gabriel protégé Joseph Arthur). I had been reading self-help books, meeting with counselors, talking my parents’ ears off, and asking questions of anyone I thought might be able to give me some insight into the question of how best to realign my priorities.

Then, on a particularly odd day when I decided to load up WCP’s MySpace page to serve as my housecleaning soundtrack, I heard a song by a band whose stock in trade was warm, friendly harmonies, a ‘60s folk-rock streak and good vibes. Lots of other bands have these qualities, but something about this one was different. It moved me in a way I couldn’t quite explain. I jumped up from my sweeping chores to see who it was, and then checked the band’s tour schedule.

I’ve lost count of the number of times I have seen L.A.’s the Parson Red Heads since that day.

Maybe a week afterward, I attended a West Coast Performer Presents showcase at a San Francisco club called the Hotel Utah. I wasn’t familiar with any of the bands on the bill, and to be honest, I probably didn’t even bother listening to the samples on the bands’ MySpace pages before attending – I was more tempted by my editor’s offer of a free beer to any WCP writers who showed up that night. And since a) I very rarely got much face time with her, and b) I was almost certain she was joking and wanted to see if I would *really* get a free beer, I decided I’d take her up on the offer.

Not only was she true to her word, the second band on the bill had my jaw falling to the ground with their quirkiness, energy, Dischord-styled rhythm section and Van Halen-esque guitar tapping frontwoman. I had found a hot new guitar hero!

On account of that beer, I confessed as much to the Happy Hollows’ Sarah Negahdari at the end of her set, and fortunately she was not only flattered, but also receptive to granting me an interview (which ran at Popdose last Fall). And what a coincidence, the Hollows hailed from same Silver Lake scene in L.A. as the Parson Red Heads.

Around this same time, I was also lamenting the fact that I had become so busy that I was no longer able to host couchsurfers in my apartment. I had been doing this on and off since 2005, giving both international and stateside travelers (usually students and others traveling on a budget) a free place to crash when they were passing through town. But, as I had remarked in private on a few occasions, I had built up significant “travel karma” and saw a time when I’d be using it in the not too distant future. For what, I wasn’t sure yet. But something told me that I finally needed to get over my attachment to the idea of the desktop computer and finally buy a laptop.

…and a backpack.

Where I was going and why finally became apparent when I happened to wonder to myself one day whatever happened to The War on Them. This web-only traveling video series chronicled the adventures of Eric and Bobby as they demonstrated the virtues of traveling on a budget via couchsurfing. They interviewed their hosts, gave travel and safety tips, and showed themselves having a good time in places like Memphis, New Orleans and New York City. But when they crossed the border for a trip down to Mexico City, Bobby got pick-pocketed on a train, tensions brewed between the two army buddies, who had survived a tour of duty in Iraq together before embarking on their righteous journey, financial backers fell through, and the series came to an abrupt end.

Just another case of naïve kids getting caught up in the realities of real life, right? Well, if it weren’t for the fact that, in 2006, Eric Wooton had stayed in my San Francisco apartment when passing through town, and shared his treatment of The War on Them with me well before the series launched, I wouldn’t have known nor cared about his adventures.

One thing in particular that Eric said had stuck with me ever since. As we sat on the futon and he explained the idea behind his series, he tied it to the larger goal of the couchsurfing community, which is connected globally via couchsurfing.org: to bring the whole world together, one couch at a time. Sound like a bunch of hippie nonsense? Well, as Eric explained, when having personal one-on-one experiences with people from far-away places, especially foreign countries, it suddenly makes you care a little more about news events in those places, things you probably would have ignored otherwise.

Dots are starting to connect, yes? They certainly did for me, but not how I expected. This is how Parlour to Parlour was born.

What Parlour to Parlour is, then, is a cross between The War on Them and the Black Cab Sessions – traveling around to meet the artists up close in their home turf, rather than carting them around in taxis. And I’m not just capturing intimate, exclusive performances – I’m talking with the artists too, and having them do a little show-and-tell in their creative space. And more than just a simple video, I’m giving you a full multimedia experience: there are stories in text for you to read, songs to download, and each episode will also include a full song performance in a separate video (which, unlike the Black Cab Sessions, is done in two takes in most cases, sometimes three). And, in full couchsurfing spirit, I’m keeping costs low by crashing either with friends and family, or with the artists themselves, wherever I travel.

This, my friends, is what I am delivering to you, every Tuesday for the rest of the year, starting on July 7.

So who’s involved? The aforementioned Parson Red Heads and Happy Hollows were immediate contenders for this series, being that they literally changed my life in 2008. As for the rest of the artists featured in this series, the majority of them I discovered via my association with West Coast Performer Magazine. I started writing for WCP in 2006, the same year I wrote my first piece for Master Jefito during the waning years of Popdose’s daddy, Jefitoblog (that would be The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Chicago). Writing for WCP, and especially working with my editor at the time, the passionate and persistent Katherine Hoffert, firmly posited me in the world of West Coast indie music. As such, there’s a definite skew towards the best coast, though I do give some love to New England and Southern Texas. And I’m determined to bring a little international flavor to Parlour to Parlour as well, soon as I can find where I stashed my passport.

As you’ve probably gathered by now, Parlour to Parlour is more than just “behind-the-scenes” peeks at indie musicians, many of whom aren’t particularly well-known outside their own regions. It’s a journey. It’s a path to discovery that anybody can follow, either by living vicariously through the stories and videos you’re about to see, or by going out and meeting new artists yourselves. It’s a tribute to the artists, all of whom I personally handpicked (one of whom, or at the very least the band he co-founded, should be quite familiar to Popdose readers). It’s a tribute to Katherine, who maddeningly lost her job at Performer when this bum economy forced the company to downsize. It’s a show of graciousness and generosity on the part of the artists who opened up their homes and studios to me, in some cases without us ever having formally met prior to these sessions. And as Mr. Giles could see from the very start, it’s a labor of love.

It’s also very real. So real, in fact, that at times you may catch the sound of people chatting in other rooms, birds chirping from nearby, and even the occasional bout of difficulty obtaining the best possible sound during the musical performances. Which is to say, I’m no Ken Burns (though Le Switch’s Aaron Kyle seems to think I’m “the Alan Lomax of indie rock” – keep on drinkin’, Aaron!). But if a drunk fool happens to cause a disturbance at a band’s gig, I’ll make sure you see it.

The Parlour to Parlour train starts chugging on July 7 (don’t need no ticket, you just get on board). I’ll see you then.

Ventresco Axelrod & Foss live @ the Haight-Ashbury Street Fair

2009-06-14T21:11:00.000-07:00

Here's the main reason why I made it to this year's Haight-Ashbury Street Fair:

On Friday night, the young ragtime/jugband singer/guitarist Meredith Axelrod gave me a call to let me know that she, Craig Ventresco and Bill Foss would be playing a short set on the Masonic stage. I had been awaiting a local opportunity to get some b-roll footage of Meredith playing with her jug band, and finally I had it. It tightened up my weekend schedule, but it was well worth it.

Consider this a sneak peek at my upcoming Parlour to Parlour series on Popdose. Meredith will actually be featured in the second episode, and some of the footage from today's set will be spliced in there somewhere. But here, for your pleasure, is a full performance of a hit tune from -- wait for it -- 1875! No, that's not a typo. "Carve Dat Possum", according to Wikipedia, was written by Sam Lucas, and was "very popular" in its day.

This tune does not feature Meredith playing her jug, but it does include Bill on Mandolin and Craig (who has a humorous little quip at the end of the tune) on guitar. Since Meredith's vocals aren't clearly audible in some spots, here are the lyrics to "Carve Dat Possum." Someday I gotta try this dish:

Possum meat is good an' sweet
Carve him to de heart,
I always finds it good to eat,
Carve him to de heart.

Chorus:
Carve dat possum!
Carve dat possum!
Carve dat possum!
Oh charve 'im to de heart!

I retch up an' pull him in,
Carve him to de heart,
Dat ol' possum 'gin to grin,
Carve him to de heart,

De way I cooked dat possum sound,
Carve him to de heart,
I fust parboiled, den baked him brown
Carve him to de heart,
I put sweet potaters in de pan,
Carve him to de heart,
De sweetest meat in all de lan'
Carve him to de heart.

Steve Taylor live @ the Haight-Ashbury Street Fair

2009-06-14T13:54:00.000-07:00

I was rushing on my way out of the Haight-Ashbury Street Fair when I turned the corner onto Cole Street and saw this dude singing and playing an electric piano in a shady spot next to some port-a-potties. The cover of his CD sitting atop his keyboard caught my eye, and it was just enough for me to realize: holy shit, it's Steve Taylor!

I gave his album Has the Size of the Road Got the Better of You a mostly favorable review in last September's issue of West Coast Performer Magazine, being that I really dug his early '70s pop style. His piano playing and voice were unmistakable, and of all the places to find him, there he was, next to some johns as opposed to getting paid to play on one of the main stages. This injustice better be corrected next year!

Steve graciously allowed me to tape him (yes, I just so happened to have my camera on me, how convenient). Here he his performing his song "Felicity," which is the second tune on the above mentioned album. Enjoy!

Top 10 reasons I haven't blogged in 3 months

2009-05-14T06:01:00.000-07:00

10. If it's not on Facebook, it doesn't exist
9. I've given in to the evils of Twitter (follow "frontparlour")
8. I've rediscovered women
7. I'm hiding from "the others"
6. Took on another paid writing gig (seriously!)
5. Mister Ed will never speak unless he has something to say
4. I moved six weeks ago and still haven't decorated my walls. Anyone want to gift me with a framed original John McLaughlin?
3. Trying to figure out what happened to my umbrella
2. I still owe Bullz Eye two reviews that I haven't started yet

...but most of all, this is a biggie:

1. Remember that post I made about "other crap" back in October of '07? Of course you don't, nobody has an attention span like that anymore.

Anyway... I'm working on a video series for Popdose that will run weekly starting in July. It's called "Parlour to Parlour," and that's all I'll say about it for now. Been in production since January, and I'm starting to wind it up with my last few shoots before marathon editing sessions begin in June. I'll seriously have a more detailed update before it runs. Till then, sit tight, because this is going to be a pretty major event not just for me and for Popdose, but also for the 20-plus indie artists I've roped into this project. This is the engine that's driving me these days.

More soon (seriousy).

My ears hurt - thank you, Grammys

2009-02-08T21:28:00.000-08:00

I hate to say this, but I don't think I can stomach sitting through the rest of this year's Grammy Awards to see Paul McCartney with Dave Grohl, even though that's the one performance I want to see the most. Stevie Wonder was predictably awesome with the Jonas Brothers, who I hadn't ever made an effort to listen to until now. It was also very gratifying to see Robert Plant and Alison Krauss win the best pop vocal by a duo or group award for "Rich Woman," and better still, record of the year for "Please Read THE Letter" (that's right, Natalie Cole, you got your definite articles mixed up) [EDIT: Raising Sand also won album of the year! This is truly the best news of all]. But as much as Chris Martin seems like a really cool, down to earth guy, I still haven't softened to his voice, nor do I ever enjoy hearing Jay Z appear with anybody (though he did make Martin sound comparatively amazing on their duet).

Worst of all was Katy Perry's overblown "I Kissed a Girl." The song wasn't subversive when it came out, and it's even sillier now that it's been given a Vegas-style send-up live on national TV. No subtlety in her vocal delivery either -- it's like being hit over the head with a hammer, and that's exactly how I feel right now.

Fortunately, there are bigger talents out there who have the class to take the good with the bad, which is exactly what New York indie Max Vernon did when he covered "I Kissed a Girl" last year as a piano-based semi-doo-wop number. Given the fact that lesbians seem to be somewhat less maligned in American society than gay men, Max's gender-bending cover achieves the subversion that Katy's rendition never had a chance to touch. Plus its execution is just way, way better in general. Somebody sign this guy!

Richard Marx, psychoanalyst

2009-01-25T08:34:00.000-08:00

Aidin Vaziri interviewed mega-selling songwriter Richard Marx for a piece appearing in today's San Francisco Chronicle. Some food for thought from Mr. Right Here Waiting:

"People who are creative are not mentally right to begin with. For somebody to want 20,000 people to watch them every night, there's something not right about that."

Hmmm... I don't know, he could be on to something here. Granted, this was just a small bit from an interview that touched on other topics as well, but it was the bit that struck me as the most provocative. Read the full interview and discuss.

Couple of RIPs: Delaney Bramlett and Freddie Hubbard

2008-12-29T14:13:00.000-08:00

The legends just keep on croakin'...

I took a look over at Billboard.com today, as I usually do every day, and was sad to see that both guitarist Delaney Bramlett and trumpeter Freddie Hubbard have died.

Bramlett, you may recall, had a short-lived band with his first wife Bonnie (Delaney and Bonnie) that was flanked by some of rock's biggest stars, i.e. Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Dave Mason, etc. As it stands today, his best known work is probably what you've heard on Clapton's first solo album, including one of my personal Clapton favorites, "Let it Rain." Bramlett was 69.

Thanks to YouTube user "Morasch," we can relive the experience of hearing Delaney and Bonnie's "Only You Know and I Know" 45, in tribute. This Dave Mason composition was a top 20 hit for Delaney and Bonnie, and was also covered thereafter by both Eric Clapton and Badfinger:

Hubbard was known throughout the '60s as one of a group of jazz musicians often referred to then as the "young lions." His string of releases on the Blue Note, Atlantic and CTI labels are all held in high regard, and several are bona fide classics. At the turn of the decade, with the release of his 1970 masterpiece Red Clay, he was thought to be the next great trumpet legend in jazz, the heir apparent to Miles Davis. Unfortunately, things didn't quite turn out that way. Hubbard sank into contrived mediocrity in the mid to late '70s, and by the '80s, his artistry was at a low point as the next generation of "young lions" (Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Terrence Blanchard, Donald Harrison, et al) seized a golden opportunity to steer jazz back towards its roots.

While many of Hubbard's peers, like Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams, Ornette Coleman, and others, continued to have late-career successes, Hubbard remained sadly quiet and never did follow through on the promise of his early reputation. I've always considered it a tragedy that he wasn't out there cementing the legacy so many of us thought he deserved, and showing the younger generation just how great he could be. His health, unfortunately, was a factor in his absence, and his attempts to get back out on stage earlier this year yielded mixed results. But even as it stands today, his output from the '60s through the first half of the '70s will still secure his place in the pantheon of jazz greats. Hubbard was 70.

Here's Freddie while he was still at his peak and worthy of the Miles Davis comparisons, performing an awesome version of "Straight Life" at the 1975 Downbeat Awards (thanks to YouTube user "eatsleeptrumpet" for making this available):

My top 10 best albums of 2008 at Bullz Eye

2008-12-29T13:39:00.000-08:00

Only a few days left in the year, and it's still hard to believe. 2008 really flew, and the ten albums that were its soundtrack, for me, are recapped for all over at Bullz Eye. For the lazy, I have reprinted all but my intro paragraph below:

1. The Parson Red Heads: Owl & Timber (EP)
There’s a timelessness to the sound and the vibe of the Parson Red Heads that’s beyond explanation. You can single out the familial harmonies, the guitar interplay that recalls the Byrds and the Dead, the irresistibly solid pop songs, or their flowery evocation of a bygone era. But when it comes down to it, this band’s music simply feels good. No other band has released music this irresistible and uplifting in years, and only a select lucky few up and down the West Coast have had the luxury of being able to see and hear them live. With a little luck, this may change, and we’ll be able to look back at Owl & Timber as one of the elements that made it happen.

2. Brian Wilson: That Lucky Old Sun
Following up the 37-years-late Smile with another similarly built song cycle seemed like little more than a fantasy in 2004. But here we are in 2008, and Brian Wilson pulled it off. Mike Love would be proud to hear that there’s only one “downer” on the album (the beautiful, Pet Sounds-worthy “Midnight’s Another Day”), while all the rest are upbeat, aural murals depicting the sunny side of Southern California. It’s Brian doing what he does best, and outside of Smile, it’s easily his best, most enjoyable solo work.

3. Bob Dylan: Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8
Technically, Tell Tale Signs is an archival release, but the recent vintage of the material (1989 through 2006), the abundance of never-before-heard songs, and the fact that most of it was recorded during the same period in which Guns n’ Roses’ 14-years-late Chinese Democracy gestated, qualifies it as new. And even if it didn’t qualify, it would still be listed here, since it does as good a job (if not better) as any of his last three records of proving that, even in his old age, Dylan has lost none of his power to inspire, confound, delight and move his audience.

4. The Gutter Twins: Saturnalia
Mark Lanegan and Greg Dulli have collaborated in the past on a few tracks from Greg’s Twilight Singers albums, and while those duets were pretty good, they were never major stand-outs. Not until the two covered Massive Attack’s “Live with Me” on last year’s A Stitch in Time EP, anyway. As good as that cover was, this full album of originals by Greg and Mark is even better. Dulli stretches himself here, eschewing his usual rockin’ R&B swagger and falling under Lanegan’s dark, spiritual influence.

5. Chris Robley & The Fear of Heights: Movie Theatre Haiku
That straight-laced dude from Portland with the Harry Nilsson fixation strikes again, this time crediting his road band and turning in an even more confident record than last year’s The Drunken Dance of Modern Man in Love. If the 1966 Beatles were a young band today, they’d likely be playing songs like Robley’s “User-Friendly Guide to Change.”

6. Joseph Arthur: Vagabond Skies (EP)
Of the four EPs and full-length album Joseph Arthur released this year, Vagabond Skies rises to the top not only for bearing some of his most captivating and ethereal songs, but also for containing the year’s most memorable guitar solo, in the EP’s centerpiece “She Paints Me Gold.” Plus, the cover art is damn cool.

7. The Happy Hollows: Imaginary (EP)
They’re funny, they’re smart, they’re tight as a conservative’s behind, and they’re the most exciting live indie rock band in L.A. right now. Imaginary is just a short burst of five songs, but what a burst it is – from the simple exclamatory chant of “Colors” to the almost prog-like tour-de-force of “Lieutenant” with singer/guitarist Sarah Negahdari’s Eddie Van Halen-esque guitar tapping, Imaginary tantalizes and teases, just like you want it to.

8. Guns n’ Roses: Chinese Democracy
Yes, it’s bloated and overproduced. No, it’s not the old, sleazy Guns n’ Roses of the late ‘80s. Yes, it should have been out ten years ago, and would have sounded even more contemporary in 1998 than in 2008. But Axl Rose is still the king of tortured, overwrought power ballads and menacing rock n’ roll screams, and on these counts, Chinese Democracy more than delivers – it beats you over the head with its twisted logic.

9. Metallica: Death Magnetic
Metallica sounds like Metallica again! It may be clichéd to say this is their best album since …And Justice for All, but it’s true, and it bears repeating: Death Magnetic is Metallica’s best album since Justice.

10. My Morning Jacket: Evil Urges
Evil Urges goes to great lengths to prove that My Morning Jacket is no typical southern jam band. Not that they ever needed to go so far as to throw some Prince-like falsetto singing and funky R&B into the mix, but as it turns out, it sounds pretty cool.

Honorable mentions:

The Fireman: Electric Arguments
Rachel Taylor Brown: Half Hours with the Lower Creatures
Vampire Weekend: Vampire Weekend
Portishead: Third
Neil Diamond: Home Before Dark
Juliana Hatfield: How to Walk Away
Randy Newman: Harps and Angels
Deerhoof: Offend Maggie
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan: Sunday at Devil Dirt

"Eat shit and die"

2008-12-09T06:13:00.000-08:00

Kanye West got so pissed after a fan threw a penny at him during a gig in Melbourne four days ago, he free-styled his way into minute-long rant culminating in a sing-along of "eat shit and die." And he was singing through auto tune the entire time!

I'm not a fan of Kanye West, but this video is hilarious. This is why YouTube rules:

22 Best Songs of 2008 (in my opinion)

2008-12-06T19:37:00.000-08:00

Like most music publications worth a damn, Bullz Eye (which isn't exclusively a music publication, but does take its music content kind of seriously) will be publishing its writers' picks for best albums of the year very soon. Some of the staff may also be including their picks for best songs in their published pieces on the site, but not me. I did, however, share my picks with the staff, just for them to take in and enjoy. Now I figure I'll share them here, too, as a preview to the best albums features coming up in Bullz Eye. It's actually one song longer than what I shared with the staff, since I recently got caught up with an album I totally missed. Order is not ranked in any specific way - but I did listen to the songs in this order, and it flows well as a playlist, if you're so inclined...

...links go to last.fm, for all songs that have available streams. As for the resr, that's what Amazon is for. Enjoy!

01. The Fireman “Sun is Shining”
02. Brian Wilson “Oxygen to the Brain”
03. The Parson Red Heads “Got it All”
04. My Morning Jacket “I’m Amazed”
05. Joseph Arthur “She Paints Me Gold”
06. MGMT "Electric Feel"
07. Vampire Weekend “The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance”
08. Juliana Hatfield “Law of Nature”
09. Neil Diamond “Home Before Dark”
10. Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan “Back Burner”
11. Rachel Taylor Brown “Abraham and Isaac”
12. Rachel Taylor Brown “B.S. (Beautiful Savior)”
13. Portishead “The Rip”
14. Chris Robley & The Fear of Heights “Atheist’s Prayer”
15. Bob Dylan “’Cross the Green Mountain”
16. Randy Newman “A Few Words in Defense of Our Country”
17. Silian Rail “Not the Wind, Not the Flag”
18. The Happy Hollows “Lieutenant”
19. Deerhoof “Numina”
20. The Gutter Twins “All Misery/Flowers”
21. Metallica “The End of the Line”
22. Guns N’ Roses “Prostitute”

The Popdose 100

2008-11-25T06:33:00.000-08:00

When Billboard revealed their list of the 100 most popular singles of the past fifty years, it was inevitable that readers would take issue with the list's contents, in spite of the well documented method in which it was compiled.

Among those taking issue were my colleagues at Popdose.com, and as a result, we tallied our collective votes for our own favorite singles of the past fifty years. The results were revealed November 24 as "The Popdose 100." Of course, nobody is completely satisfied with this list either, but it sure is an interesting one, not the least because we also compiled write-ups for all 100 songs.

For the record, my votes are listed below. Let it be known that I do not necessarily agree with my own choices today, though at the time, this seemed about right:

1. Beatles "A Day in the Life"
2. Beach Boys "Surf's Up"
3. Beatles "Hey Jude"
4. Beatles "Strawberry Fields Forever"
5. Beach Boys "Good Vibrations"
6. Beach Boys "Heroes and Villains"
7. Bob Dylan "Desolation Row"
8. Bob Dylan "Like A Rolling Stone"
9. Bob Dylan "Tangled Up in Blue"
10. Antonio Carlos Jobim "Wave"
11. Elvis Costello "Veronica"
12. Chicago "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?"
13. Rolling Stones "Midnight Rambler"
14. Nina Simone "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood"
15. Van Morrison "Moondance"
16. John Lee Hooker "It Serves You Right to Suffer"
17. Rolling Stones "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"
18. Rolling Stones "Happy"
19. Juliana Hatfield "My Sister"
20. Afghan Whigs "Gentlemen"
21. Supremes "Reflections"
22. Sonic Youth "Teenage Riot"
23. Pink Floyd "Echoes"
24. Pink Floyd "Run Like Hell"
25. Derek & the Dominoes "Layla"
26. Replacements "I'll Be You"
27. Marvin Gaye "What's Going On"
28. Chicago "Beginnings"
29. Clash "The Magnificent Seven"
30. Norman Connors "You Are My Starship"
31. Cheap Trick "He's a Whore"
32. Cheap Trick "Surrender"
33. Cheap Trick "Dream Police"
34. Slayer "Angel of Death"
35. Neil Young "Cortez the Killer"
36. Byrds "So You Want to Be a Rock n' Roll Star"
37. Byrds "Eight Miles High"
38. The Band "I Shall Be Released"
39. Velvet Underground "Rock and Roll"
40. Randy Newman "A Few Words in Defense of Our Country"
41. Harry Nilsson "You're Breakin' My Heart"
42. Black Sabbath "N.I.B."
43. Allman Brothers Band "Seven Turns"
44. James Brown "Get On the Good Foot"
45. Lou Reed "Perfect Day"
46. Mark Lanegan "The River Rise"
47. Luther Vandross "Never Too Much"
48. Joni Mitchell "A Case of You"
49. XTC "Senses Working Overtime"
50. Pearl Jam "Go"
51. Stevie Wonder "Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing"
52. Screamin' Jay Hawkins "I Put a Spell on You"
53. Guns N' Roses "November Rain"
54. Tubes "She's a Beauty"
55. Stooges "I Wanna Be Your Dog"
56. David Bowie "Station to Station"
57. David Bowie "Heroes"
58. Suicidal Tendencies "Suicide's an Alternative"
59. Neil Young "Like a Hurricane"
60. Guns N' Roses "Patience"
61. Alice in Chains "Would?"
62. Johnny Cash "Cocaine Blues"
63. Marvin Gaye "Sexual Healing"
64. Spandau Ballet "True"
65. Buddy Holly "It Doesn't Matter Anymore"
66. Bob Dylan "Shelter From The Storm"
67. Al Wilson "Show and Tell"
68. Johnny Cash "Folsom Prison Blues"
69. Paul McCartney Tug of War
70. John Lennon "Happy Xmas (War is Over)"
71. Raspberries "Go All The Way"
72. Shuggie Otis "Strawberry Letter #23"
73. Michael Jackson "Rock With You"
74. Badfinger "Day After Day"
75. Blue Oyster Cult "Don't Fear The Reaper"
76. Yes "Long Distance Runaround"
77. Jethro Tull "Aqualung"
78. Billie Holiday "I'm a Fool to Want You"
79. Erykah Badu "On and On"
80. Nat "King" Cole "Somewhere Along The Way"
81. Bruce Springsteen "Brilliant Disguise"
82. U2 "Zooropa"
83. Dramatics "Whatcha See is Whatcha Get"
84. Prince "Let's Go Crazy"
85. Paul McCartney "No More Lonely Nights"
86. George Harrison "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)"
87. Tony Bennett "Who Can I Turn To When Nobody Needs Me?"
88. Prince "Sexy MF"
89. Bruce Springsteen "Tunnel of Love"
90. Lou Rawls "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine"
91. Syndicate of Sound "Little Girl"
92. Television "Marquee Moon"
93. Mamas and the Papas "Dedicated to the One I Love"
94. Friends of Distinction "Love or Let Me Be Lonely"
95. Frank Sinatra "Angel Eyes"
96. Smokey Robinson "More Love"
97. Ringo Starr "Photograph"
98. Nirvana "Lithium"
99. Nat "King" Cole "Route 66"
100 Muddy Waters Got My Mojo Workin'

Vinyl creeping into Best Buy

2008-10-31T06:24:00.000-07:00

Nope, this is not a Halloween post (screw that festivity, I'm watching "Nixon" after I get back from the gym).

The creeping that's happening here is of the vinyl variety. Or "records," or "albums," to those of you (like myself) who still think there was nothing wrong with the old vernacular. I mean, this isn't siding for your home or a cover for the seat of your car. This is an actual document - yes, a record - that we're talking about. Or several, as in this case.

I just find it amusing that there are still folks out there who insist that records don't really exist anymore, as Frank Nicotero recently did on Chelsea Lately in discussing the recent announcement of the imminent arrival of Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy. I believe the exact quote was, "it's been so long since they released anything, their last album was an album!" Um... Live Era was a triple record, in 1999. Yes, 1999.

You kind of have to look at store shelves to know these things, though. And I know it can be hard sometimes, but not at Best Buy these days.

These photos were taken yesterday at the San Francisco Best Buy location on Geary Blvd and Masonic:

Right in the front entrance, here we have a display hawking Elton John's new The Red Piano live album - as a triple vinyl LP. Priced at $39.99. Way to welcome a vinyl hound!

Metallica's Death Magnetic - double LP, $24.99. I'm pretty sure there hasn't been a Metallica album that wasn't released in the vinyl LP format.

Coldplay's Viva La Vida. I'd never buy this one, but still, yay for the format.

This one's a beauty, though you can't really tell from the photos: a 50th anniversary edition of Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, which would be a great coffee table piece for someone with a coffee table the size of a bed. Two CDs, a DVD, a 60 page 12x12 book, and a 180 gram vinyl LP of the original Kind of Blue album on blue vinyl. Sweet! $99.99.

This one here's truly amazing, and a great way to get fans of the original Queen to buy the new album with Paul Rodgers, even if they never listen to it. This $120 box includes the new Queen + Paul Rodgers album The Cosmos Rocks both on CD and double LP, as well as LP repressings of four of the original Queen's '70s albums: Queen II, Sheer Heart Attack, A Night at the Opera, and A Day at the Races. There's a live DVD in there too. It's totally excessive, but looks like it would be a really fun package to tear open on Xma$.

So there you have it - records aren't just for indie retailers anymore. Now go get yourself a turntable and take those annoying, tinnitus-inducing iPod headphones out of your ears!

Office politics

2008-10-30T22:07:00.000-07:00

As seen in the copier/kitchen area of my workplace:

The sign at the bottom reads, "Distressed Homeowners Mortgage Relief Fund"

Palin's here to stay?

2008-10-28T06:12:00.000-07:00

No matter who wins the election next week (and you already know who I'm rooting for), we'll likely be seeing Sarah Palin on our TV sets and computer screens for a long time to come. She seems to have become a pop culture hit, especially with the way Saturday Night Live has taken to her, which will assure her a place in Hollywood for years to come. Bulldog Reporter's Daily Dog reports:

- - -

Hollywood Has Its Eye on Palin: Should GOP Fall Short on Nov. 4, Don't Be Surprised to See Sarah Hosting Talk TV

Issue Date: Daily 'Dog - October 27, 2008

As campaign managers for Sarah Palin plot last-minute tactics to get her elected, Hollywood bigwigs are convening strategy sessions of their own. Their goal: finding the ideal on-air vehicle for the VP candidate if and when she exits politics. But as more and more polls cast doubt on the McCain-Palin ticket, producers and agents across the entertainment world are discussing possibilities for capitalizing on her fame, ranging from an Oprah-style syndicated talk show to a Sean Hannity-like perch in cable news or on radio, the Hollywood Reporter reports.

"Any television person who sees the numbers when she appears on anything would say Sarah Palin would be great," said veteran morning-show producer Steve Friedman, citing the double-digit ratings gains her appearances on "Saturday Night Live" and "CBS Evening News" generated. "The passion she has on each side, love and hate, makes television people say, 'Wow, imagine the viewership,'" he added, report HR writers Andrew Wallenstein and Steven Zeitchik.

Although none of the execs has — at least as far as anyone is admitting — made direct overtures to the Alaska governor, they are readying their battle plans if she decides to give up her day job. Of course, even if the McCain-Palin ticket loses, the Tina Fey look-alike still has a job in politics for at least another two years as governor of Alaska.

But the candidate has undeniable onscreen charisma as her "SNL" performance proved last weekend. And though the Palin Express sometimes veers off the tracks — as it did in her notorious interview with Katie Couric — Americans enjoy celebrities as much for their contretemps as their talent.

Cable news is a possibility, particularly Fox News Channel, if Palin wants to keep her conservative bona fides intact. There's a well-worn path between the Beltway and TV, from Pat Buchanan to as recent an example as former presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, who just began his own weekly series on Fox News.

A weekly cable news berth also could be a less demanding side gig to occupy while still in office in Alaska, though losing the election could dent her credibility among conservatives.

Eric Wattenberg, an agent at N.S. Bienstock, a New York-based agency that counts many news anchors among its clientele, believes syndication is a safer bet. "I could see her getting more traction as an Oprah than as an Anderson Cooper," he told Variety.

Some combination of talk and news could even be in the cards: One agent recommended News Corp. let her hone her chops for a few years on Fox News in anticipation of rolling out a broader-appealing talker over Fox's stations after 2010.

And then there are those who are thinking outside the box, as in reality television. One producer floated the idea — only half-joking — of taking advantage of the curiosity surrounding the entire Palin clan and their Alaska setting and packaging "The Palins": Think "The Osbournes" meets "Northern Exposure."

Catching up: some recent reviews, August-present

2008-10-17T20:09:00.000-07:00

I'd like to draw attention first to the two recent live reviews that ran at Popdose, as well as my most recent Popdose Guide:

SEPTEMBER 4, 2008:
Making a Joyful Noise: The Happy Hollows @ The Knockout, San Francisco
This has got to be the best band in L.A. right now. Check out their fearless leader Sarah Negahdari's blog. The girl's a riot and a half!

AUGUST 28, 2008:
L.A. ’s Best-Kept Secret: The Parson Red Heads @ Kimo’s, San Francisco
This is also the best band in L.A. Seriously, between the Happy Hollows and the Parson Red Heads, my musical soul has been given a major jump-start.

AUGUST 18, 2008:
The Popdose Guide to Juliana Hatfield
Her entire catalog reviewed. Book review coming soon...

- - -

...and here's the heap of analysis I've contributed to Bullz Eye since August. Maybe you can find some early Xma$ shopping ideas in here somewhere:

OCTOBER 17, 2008:
The Clash "Live at Shea Stadium"
John Coltrane "Soultrane" (vinyl edition)
Dressy Bessy "Holler and Stomp"

OCTOBER 10, 2008:
David Gilmour "Live in Gdansk"
Bill Evans "Waltz for Debby" (vinyl edition)
Yusef Lateef "Eastern Sounds" (vinyl edition)
Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane (vinyl edition)
Sonny Rollins "Saxophone Colossus" (vinyl edition)

OCTOBER 3, 2008:
The Replacements "Pleased to Meet Me (Deluxe Edition)"
Santana "Multi Dimensional Warrior"
Do You Remember the First Time? (This is a fun little feature in which the Bullz Eye staff recall their first concert experiences.)

SEPTEMBER 5, 2008:
Joseph Arthur "Foreign Girls"

SEPTEMBER 2, 2008:
Jimmy Witherspoon featuring Robben Ford "Live at the 1972 Monterey Jazz Festival"
Shirley Horn: Live at the 1994 Monterey Jazz Festival
Cal Tjader: The Best of Cal Tjader Live at the Monterey Jazz Festival

AUGUST 29, 2008:
The Verve "Forth"
Pork Pie "Transitory"

AUGUST 15, 2008:
Juliana Hatfield "How to Walk Away"

AUGUST 8, 2008:
The Parson Red Heads "Owl and Timber"

AUGUST 1, 2008:
The Beach Boys "U.S. Singles Collection: The Capitol Years 1962-1965"
Heart "Playlist: The Very Best of Heart"

Guns N'Roses, Obama, a kidney

2008-10-15T19:04:00.000-07:00

In the spirit of employing the power of positive thinking, I am putting out this thought to the universe...

Three things I want to see by year's end:

3) Guns N' Roses Chinese Democracy

Nine years ago, it had already been long enough since The Spaghetti Incident? dropped in '93. That was when "Oh My God" appeared on the End Of Days soundtrack. And the Live Era double live CD came out. But Chinese Democracy didn't appear. In December of 2002, I saw Guns N' Roses at the Fleet Center in Boston (this was the tour that was cut short after Axl Rose caused a riot when he failed to show up for a gig in Philly), where they performed new-ish songs "The Blues," "Chinese Democracy" and "Madagascar" alongside the classics. It looked like they were setting us up for the album. But no... I saw them again two years ago at the Warfield in San Francisco. More new-ish songs were performed ("I.R.S." and "Better"), but still no album. But it looks official now, what with Billboard reporting a November 23 release date (exclusively at Best Buy) and the album showing up in a search on Best Buy's web site. It may not be the same band anymore, and maybe calling this band Guns N' Roses imposes a whole new idea of what "Guns N' Roses" actually is, but I agree with Sebastian Bach -- the songs are epic, which is exactly what I like. I, for one, am glad they're not writing "It's So Easy Part 2" or "Welcome to the Jungle... Again." Not to take away from those songs, but given the choice these days, I'll take the epic stuff like "November Rain," "Estranged," or that mystery song whose real title we'll know in five weeks over most of Appetite for Destruction. That album did sound pretty awesome in 5th grade though, let me tell you...

2) Barack Obama for President

More than his policies (yay to repudiating "trickle-down economics"), more than his stance against the war in Iraq (yay to ending a war that never should have been started in the first place), more than his positive message of hope and change, I'm most impressed by his unwavering ability to keep his composure. I have watched all three debates, and this is what struck me the most. Even tonight, when John McCain was at his most fiery, Obama didn't take the bait. He remained calm, and laid out his words logically and coherently. I was struck by McCain's audacity to point to this very quality of Obama's and try to turn it into a negative. As far as I'm concerned, this is exactly the kind of person I want to run the country. He'll be catching hell from other political adversaries, and he'll be tested by unstable leaders from parts of the world who intend to do us harm. I think his inner strength will allow him to stay calm and think his decisions through in a sensible way, which will minimize the possibility of errors in judgement. This is what it comes down to for me: character. He's got it. The polls are in his favor right now. Let's hope that this translates to victory next month!

1) A kidney

In February of 2007, my parents had to cancel a trip to San Francisco to visit me when it was discovered that my mother's kidney function was dangerously low. She has been on dialysis ever since. She has her up days and down days, but days are looking better since she started working again this year. Not only that, she has moved up to the top of the list of donor recipients in waiting for her blood type (B). My prediction to her was that she'd have a new kidney by Christmas. Anyone want to speed things up and be a living donor? (Hey, I had to ask!)

- - -

Tangentially... one of my fellow Popdose contributors, a dude known as Scraps who ran my favorite Popdose column, the regular Friday feature/game "Name That Tune," suffered a stroke last week. He is a freelance writer and, as with most such people, does not have health insurance. Donations to cover his medical bills can be made here.

- - -

And finally, a public service announcement: if going to a concert is like having sex, then earplugs are your concert condoms (or dental dams or whatever else you choose to use). Wear 'em every time without fail! I say this because I should have known better than to forget my earplugs before going to see Earthless on Saturday night. My right ear is still ringing, and I'm a tad on the worried side... don't be an idiot like I was.

And this concludes the ramblings I didn't have time to make in the first place...

An on-the-spot reaction to Jack White and Alicia Keys' "Another Way to Die"

2008-10-08T21:45:00.000-07:00

I finally caved in to curiosity and watched the official video for the cynically novel Alicia Keys-Jack White "Another Way to Die," commissioned for the latest installment in the James Bond franchise:

It was tough for me to watch this. Admittedly, a lot of that has to do with the pedigree of music that has consumed me lately. Look at the video in my previous post. Listen to the song. Listen to those lyrics. Even though the quality of the video is ramshackle by Hollywood standards, it's startlingly real. The camera lens could have been channeling your own pair of eyes, had you been standing in that very spot in the club. The sound may be less than perfect, but booming bass approximates what you would actually feel if you were standing by the club's PA. The music itself is unassailable. And the words work not only as lyrics, but as advice you can carry home with you, or to work, or anywhere, really.

And then the Nina Simone box set I'm digesting, and the Dylan set (reviews of which you'll be reading at Bullz Eye in short order) have been skewing my perspective. I clearly have a bias right now for music that comes from a place of relative purity.

Jack White and Alicia Keys both possess pure talent on their respective instruments, true. But this combination is... less than pure. I mean, it's technically good. They do complement each other sonically. But it's clearly novel seeing and hearing them together. It's a natural draw just contemplating the two of them collaborating. Wow, what must THAT sound like?

Well, it sounds exactly like what you'd expect - two monster talents with huge egos and powerful stage presence putting all their energy into projecting their musical personalities into a song that has little use beyond serving the film that catalyzed its creation, and enhancing the respective images of the stars who made it. Look at how they prance in the video. See how much emphasis is placed on Alicia sitting at the piano, Jack playing guitar, and Jack playing drums (which is another novel feature - look at how many instruments he plays!) in between sweet shots of both singers together at their microphones. See how little emphasis and few visual references are made to the Bond film.

What does this all mean, and why do I have this repulsive, empty feeling and an ache in my head after watching this video twice?

Why do I torture myself so?

I don't even care for Alicia Keys all that much. She possesses chops I can only ever dream of having. My issue is with how she uses them. Same with Jack White. I kind of dig the last Raconteurs album and the White Stripes' Elephant, and thought enough of Icky Thump to place it in my top ten albums of 2007, but just like the whiskey, a little Jack goes a long way. But I was curious, and even felt some sort of responsibility to know what these two pop culture titans were doing together, just like I had to hear what Timbaland did to Chris Cornell. Hearing those clips of the latter again, I suddenly feel a little better about Jack and Alicia...

The Parson Red Heads "Time is Running Out" @ Spaceland, 10/3/08

2008-10-07T21:09:00.000-07:00

I've got a ton of links to share that have piled up over the last month... but THIS is the mother of them all. The band emailed it to me today. It's what I consider to be the best song by the L.A. group the Parson Red Heads. I've bugged them enough about getting this song out, and now - finally! - you can hear it on YouTube:

Is that an instant classic or what? Few songs have touched me in recent years like this one. I say Rick Rubin ought to foist this one upon Crosby, Stills and Nash and make them add it to their forthcoming covers album.

Here's a review of the Parson Red Heads' headlining show at Kimo's on August 23:
L.A.'s Best Kept Secret: The Parson Red Heads @ Kimo's, San Francisco

Hear more at their MySpace profile.

AND... if you're in the area, go see them at Hotel Utah on October 18. I'll be there eating, drinking, cavorting, and engaging in general merry making...

R.I.P. Richard Wright, Pink Floyd keyboardist

2008-09-15T11:55:00.000-07:00

I had no idea he was battling cancer. He sounded great on David Gilmour's solo tour a couple years back. Here's the story from the Associated Press:

Pink Floyd member Richard Wright dies age 65

By MEERA SELVA, Associated Press Writer

LONDON - Richard Wright, a founding member of the rock group Pink Floyd, died Monday. He was 65.

Pink Floyd's spokesman Doug Wright, who is not related to the artist, said Wright died after a battle with cancer at his home in Britain. He says the band member's family did not want to give more details about his death.

Wright met Pink Floyd members Roger Waters and Nick Mason in college and joined their early band, Sigma 6. Along with the late Syd Barrett, the four formed Pink Floyd in 1965.

The group's jazz-infused rock and drug-laced multimedia "happenings" made them darlings of the London psychedelic scene, and their 1967 album, "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn," was a hit.

In the early days of Pink Floyd, Wright, along with Barrett, was seen as the group's dominant musical force. The London-born musician and son of a biochemist wrote songs and sang.

The band released a series of commercially and critically successful albums including 1973's "Dark Side of the Moon," which has sold more than 40 million copies. Wright wrote "The Great Gig In The Sky" and "Us And Them" for that album, and later worked on the group's epic compositions such as "Atom Heart Mother," "Echoes" and "Shine On You Crazy Diamond."

But tensions grew between Waters, Wright and fellow band member David Gilmour. The tensions came to a head during the making of "The Wall" when Waters insisted Wright be fired. As a result, Wright was relegated to the status of session musician on the tour of "The Wall," and did not perform on Pink Floyd's 1983 album "The Final Cut."

Wright formed a new band Zee with Dave Harris, from the band Fashion, and released one album, "Identity," with Atlantic Records.

Waters left Pink Floyd in 1985 and Wright began recording with Mason and Gilmour again, releasing the albums "The Division Bell" and "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" as Pink Floyd. Wright also released the solo albums "Wet Dream" (1978) and "Broken China" (1996).

In July 2005, Wright, Waters, Mason and Gilmour reunited to perform at the "Live 8" charity concert in London — the first time in 25 years they had been onstage together.

Wright also worked on Gilmour's solo projects, most recently playing on the 2006 album "On An Island" and the accompanying world tour.

"You're a very pretty girl"

2008-09-14T10:59:00.000-07:00

MySpace has this 'Artist on Artist' video interview series going on, of which I just took notice today when I saw Brian Wilson's mug on their site. Check the video below - he's interviewed by the young actress and indie artist Zooey Deschanel, who is clearly star-struck. If you remember Chris Farley's SNL sketch with Paul McCartney back in the day, you know what I'm talking about. It's totally awkward to watch, and funny at the same time. If this interview had taken place ten years ago, I could easily see Brian giving one-word answers to all of these questions (i.e. 'yes' and 'no'). But he's come a long way since he finally got SMiLE finished and released, and he takes it all in stride and appears to be enjoying himself. Best part is the compliment he pays Zooey at the end.

Artist on Artist: Brian Wilson & Zooey Deschanel

Held hostage by wax

2008-09-11T19:53:00.000-07:00

Two greatest things I've acquired this year: my new laptop, and candles. Seriously. I have typically only used candles for two purposes in the past. I've used them for parties, which was just great back when I had a bigger apartment. But I don't have parties at my own place anymore. I could, but I like wide open spaces (not the Dixie Chicks album). So since then I've used them only for romantic mood lighting. Which again, is great, love it. When I'm feeling it. But now? I'm using 'em to ease me out of day-job mode and into after-hours writing mode. There's just something about spinning a record with a flickering flame nearby that helps get the focus back on finishing a review for one of my freelance gigs. I'm constantly telling people "I'm busy" as it is, but I feel far less guilty about it now since I simply can't wait to get home, quickly scarf down my dinner, fire up the laptop and light up a candle. It's like a Beavis and Butthead punchline come true: "if I could [insert euphemism here], I'd never leave the house!" Danger! Danger!!

SLAMMED with music - a few standouts from the pile

2008-08-23T12:20:00.000-07:00

Since I've been writing for Bullz Eye, my email address has been picked up by a bunch of publicists. I get so many press releases emailed to me that it's impossible to keep up with them all.

Sifting through the pile this morning, I went into quick-'n-dirty executive mode to make a dent at what I've missed recently. What I'm seeing is that lots of so-called "emo" pop-punk stuff comes my way. Don't get me wrong, it has value, but for the most part, the stuff from which it apparently descended, the decidedly non-pop D.C. hardcore of Rites of Spring, Dag Nasty, basically anything on Dischord Records, is more my cup of tea.

Take One Small Step for Landmines, for example. They're actually one of the better bands of this ilk, in that their recordings aren't maxed out with volume, and they don't look like they just spent $500 on a hairdo. Actually, the more I listen to this band, they kind of grow on me. But those sweet power-pop harmonies rubbing up against punked-up rock mix in my brain like oil and water. Blink 182 never did it for me either. I dig juvenilia, I dig punk rock, but not the way they mixed it with super-polished punk rock. It can be hard to explain exactly what excites me musically and what doesn't when just one quick listen can give me the answer in an instant, but I suppose it's just like choosing who to date or what to eat. You have a set of criteria that you go by, but on a moment's notice, your choices can confound others and even yourself when some unnamed quality you pick up on trumps all the rest.

Here are a couple other bands that I probably wouldn't go out of my way to cover in the face of the other assignments I have on deck, but still had me listening longer than the others sitting in my inbox. They're actually quite good, so see if they do it for you:

The Ting Tings:
British new wave/punk group, throwback to the late '70s early '80s. Just a drummer
and a frontwoman from the U.K. That crazy hooligan Calvin Harris remixed one of their songs too. From press release: "For the duo's recent limited edition UK single, 'Great DJ,' a Single of the Week in the NME, The Ting Tings recycled old 7" singles, inverted the covers and relabeled the sleeves with the band's name and song title using colored duct tape. Previous limited edition Ting Tings single campaigns have included a four city tour where the band invited the audience to decorate 100 blank 7" sleeves at each show. The lot decorated at each show were sold at the following gig." Sounds pretty awesome to me. Oh, to be a barhopping club goer in Manchester right about now!

Sleepercar:
Alt-country project spearheaded by At the Drive In alumnus Jim Ward. I never got into
the the Old 97's -- they should have been a band I liked, but they just never clicked with me. So by and large, the faster, punked-up Old 97's-influenced material on Sleepercar's West Texas doesn't do much for me. But when they slow it down, keep it mellow, and pull out the pedal steel, they give me that warm and fuzzy feeling I get from really good alt country. Add them to the growing list of bands giving Texas a good name.

There will be more, I'm sure...

I guess folks really are reading these reviews!

2008-07-30T18:26:00.000-07:00

Of the five new reviews I will link and share below, I'd like to draw attention to one in particular:

I wrote Fallen from Grace: Music of Real Life Pop Criminals for Bullz Eye's "Mix Disc Monday" series, in which fifteen songs are tied together in a different theme every two weeks. It appears that a 25 year old "writer and pop culture junkie" from Brooklyn liked it enough to submit it to Digg, where, as of now, it has collected 92 "diggs" and seven comments. It is also, as of now, the Bullz Eye story with the fourth most diggs. If anything, I'd say this says a lot about the kinds of things people find fascinating. Bad behavior is always hot, I guess.

So, if you like it, digg it!

And, here's the rest of stuff you missed from the past couple of weeks, all from Bullz-Eye:

7/29: "The Future is Unwritten: Joe Strummer" DVD review
One of the best rock docs I've seen.

7/25: Joseph Arthur Vagabond Skies EP review
Prolific dude, discovered by Peter Gabriel, talented visual artist too. Greg Dulli approves, and so do I.

7/18: This Car Up Smile When You're Alone CD review
Decent debut from East Coast indie band.

7/18: The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery: Keepnews Collection CD review "quick take"
Classic. Simple as that.

7/11: Return to Forver The Anthology CD review
Yet another compilation from another band that jumped on the reunion bandwagon...

Enjoy!

Steely Dan, the Greek Theatre, Berkeley, 7/26/08

2008-07-29T21:47:00.000-07:00

I hadn’t been to the Greek Theatre in Berkeley until this summer, even though I’ve lived in the Bay area four years now. Steely Dan’s set last Saturday was the third show at the Greek I’ve attended this summer, after Robert Plant & Alison Krauss and R.E.M. last month. This was also the third time I’ve seen Steely Dan – saw them also in 2003 and in 1994. They say three is a perfect number…

Anyway, what do you get at a Steely Dan show other than perfection? Walter Becker and Donald Fagen are renowned for creating perfect sounding records, and their concerts are no different. I suppose it can sound boring if you see them too many times, but going nine years or five years between shows keeps it fresh. In this instance, besides pristine sound, playing, arrangements, etc., we got a fun opener in the Joey DeFrancesco trio. He plays the Hammond B3 like nobody’s business, and since Jimmy Smith is gone, Joey’s the modern day torch bearer for the B3’s place in jazz. The set length was just right, the two keyboards and drums trio setting worked surprisingly well (the second keyboardist, Pat Bianchi, kept his volume just a bit lower than Joey’s and complemented him tastefully), and Joey’s tongue-in-cheek reworking of “Got My Mojo Workin’” left us in an upbeat mood, and ready for Becker and Fagen to go all crabby on us.

Actually, Becker himself proved to be a funny guy as well later in the evening.

Here’s how it went down:

The band, sans Becker and Fagen and the backup singers, started the set with a two-song, unedited instrumental medley, so we could have sung along if we liked, but I think I was the only one who attempted that. First up was Everyone’s Gone to the Movies, in a funky arrangement with the melody played on muted trumpet, and a sweet baritone sax solo. This led straight into The Fez, with a cool horn arrangement overtaking the song’s signature keyboard part, and some guitar and alto sax solos. A short drum solo bridged it over to The Royal Scam and a stately opening trumpet solo. It was at this point that out come Becker, Fagen, and two female singers with huge afros. They sounded awesome, and when they were introduced later in the evening, it became very clear why that was so.

Fagen looks like a balding old man who kind of enjoys being old, smirking his way through the years because he can still sing most of his songs in the same key that was comfortable for him when he was younger. Yay to that. Another drum solo fades the song down (are we sensing a pattern here?) and another segue into…

I Got The News. They were digging deep into their catalog early on, and they just kept on digging! Another drum segue and then…

Showbiz Kids, in a completely different arrangement, much improved over the studio version. A new theme was played to a lightweight James Brown beat, an extra chord was played for the ‘Show business kids makin’ movies of themselves’ line, and then another new chord was added for Becker’s guitar solo. The studio version of “Showbiz Kids” is one of the most boring and disappointing songs in the Steely Dan catalog (musically anyway; lyrics are another story); live, it’s totally redeemed. And after the song’s closing theme, the segue-fest finally ends so Fagen can speak to us. He cheekily proclaimed that “the Think Fast Steely Dan orchestra” would be “playing songs from various stages of our magnificent career,” and he actually wasn’t kidding on that count – every Steely Dan studio album was represented by at least one song (the first three albums and their two recent reunion albums) and as many as five (that honor went to Aja, not surprisingly).

When they played Everything You Did (in a reggae version for a new twist), the line in this jealous lover song that goes “I’m gonna a get a gun / shoot the mother down” reminded me of a story that my guitar teacher told me of a run-in with Becker in a parking lot in New York that sounded awfully similar to the story told in this song. Could it be…?

Two Against Nature was next, and it really breathed with real drums instead of whatever was done with the beat on the studio version. This is another song that I never really cared for in its studio version, but live, Fagen was in the groove, Becker’s solo swung too – it was yet another improvement, with an awesome ‘solo’ spot from the backup singers.

Hey Nineteen was the first hit that we heard in the set. Having seen Steely Dan in the Boston metro area the last two times, it was weird not hearing a huge applause for the “sweet things from Boston” lyric. But hearing Becker riffing on that bit about taking your beloved home and getting her drunk before the ‘Cuervo Gold’ bit was even funnier than when I heard it before. Maybe that’s because Fagen did it last time. Fagen is the voice of Steely Dan when he sings, but Becker just seems more like a naturally engaging storyteller when he speaks.

Godwhacker was the representation for 2003’s Everything Must Go. The breakdown each time on the ‘be very very quiet’ part was a clever touch, and the blues-derived changes set up the bari, tenor, trumpet trombone solos really well.

Fagen then pulled out the disco-fied The New Frontier from his first solo album, which was a good lead-in to the equally faux-funky Glamour Profession. Then came Gaucho in a different key, which seemed strange at first until Becker started singing it instead of Fagen.

At this point, the drum solo bookend pattern that was present at the beginning of the show gave way to a new one. Fagen played a dreamy electric piano solo that led into Home at Last. Then he laid back and let the backup singers take the lead on Parker’s Band. Charlie Parker was pictured on the screen behind the band, but incredibly, there was no sax solo at the end! How can you play a tribute to Charlie Parker and not have your band’s sax player blow a little solo on the alto? Small complaint overall, but still!

When Black Friday started, with its exaggerated shuffle beat, we knew the end was getting near. Fagen returned to his electric piano for another brief solo before the next song, Josie, which sounded like it might have been brought down a half step. Aja, however, was definitely in its original key, and was a high point of the evening.

“It sounds like the ‘60s!” said Becker, as that familiar Motown beat started up and the backup singers teased with a bit of the Supremes’ Love is Like an Itching in my Heart before Becker introduced the band over the band’s vamp. Why were those singers so good? Their names told me everything I needed to know: Cynthia Mizell and Tawatha Agee!! Cynthia sang alongside Lisa Fischer with the Rolling Stones during their Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle tour of 1989-90. And Tawatha was the lead singer in Mtume from ’77 till ’86. I always loved her singing on those Mtume records, especially the very first one from ’77, Kiss This World Goodbye, with “Love Lock” and “The Closer I Get To You” (which James Mtume co-wrote with Reggie Lucas for Roberta Flack). But most folks probably recognize her as the lead voice on Mtume's biggest hit, "Juicy Fruit." Here's the video, but alas, no afro (it was the '80s, boo):

Peg and Kid Charlamagne closed the main set… and when they came back for the encore, it was a somber Third World Man that preceded Fagen’s last electric piano mini-solo of the evening. They took us out with Do It Again, and Becker and Fagen walked out to an instrumental as the band kept playing; strangely, the audience started walking out too, before the band even finished! Weirdness.

That’s right, no “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number,” no “Reeling in the Years,” no “Deacon Blues,” no “Bodhisattva.” It was a fan’s set, for sure, and a thoroughly satisfying one.

Stevie Wonder, Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, 7/5/08

2008-07-09T21:04:00.000-07:00

Stevie’s back on the road, and I was there last Saturday, at the Shoreline, this time with four others. As he did last year, he’s billing these shows as “A Wonder Summer’s Night” and he’s playing straight through the evening with no opening act. Huge band, lots of percussion, and this time he even brought his 6 year old son Kailand to play a little bit of drums towards the end of the evening. The kid was probably the only person in the entire venue who didn’t have a huge grin on his face. Did he not want to be there? Does he take drumming that seriously? Does he not like Stevie’s music? Was he mad at his dad? Who knows… the rest of us were very happy to be there.

Casually strolling out in the early evening light with daughter and backing vocalist Asiha Morris guiding him to his perch, Stevie opened the show with some positive remarks about Barack Obama and, when he got the band started, four songs in a row off Hotter Than July. Talk about digging deep! “As If You Read My Mind” and “Did I Hear You Say You Love Me?” were two of the songs I least expected to hear, and like most of the night’s performances, they were note perfect. Even with this four pack, Innervisions was still the best represented album of the night, with five songs (“Visions,” “Living For the City,” “Golden Lady,” “Higher Ground” and “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing”).

The talk box came out again, as it did last year, after some fun call and response with the audience. This time he only used it for one fun cover tune – the Stylistics’ “People Make the World Go Round,” and it was a pretty complete version too.

Biggest surprise of the evening: a full performance, with band member solo spots, of Chick Corea’s “Spain” (as heard on the second Return to Forever album, Light as a Feather). [Though Lee Hildebrand's piece for the San Francisco Chronicle identified this tune as Joaquin Rodrigo's "Concierto de Aranjuez," in reality, Hildebrand only identified the intro to "Spain," which Corea lifted from Rodrigo's piece. The rest of the tune is Corea's].

Songs missed: would have been nice to hear something off A Time 2 Love. He actually announced “So What the Fuss” at the end of the night, but played “Superstition” instead and called it an evening. Not a bad trade-off, but still.

Most polite audience moment: the crowd actually hushed to listen to Aisha sing a jazzy rendition of “I’m Gonna Laugh You Out of My Life,” and good thing – she wasn’t always easy to hear. Good singing voice, definitely has her dad’s genes.

Most welcome diversion from the hits: we were treated to a new song called “Keep Fooling Yourself Baby Girl,” from the forthcoming album Through the Eyes of Wonder. There’s nothing like hearing a legend who refuses to rest on his laurels. Even though it wasn’t the most memorable tune (can’t remember the melody for the life of me), it certainly sounded catchy at the time and was modeled in classic Stevie fashion. Can’t wait to hear the rest of the album!

Most annoying abbreviation of a song: Stevie performed acceptably abbreviated versions of “Isn’t She Lovely” (I wonder if Aisha ever gets sick of hearing this song?) and “I Just Called to Say I Love You” (1 verse and two choruses do just fine), but when he stopped the band after his harmonica solo during “For Once in My Life” and declared “that’s enough of that,” man, that was nothing short of mean!

Bottom line: the man is still 100% dynamite, a national treasure. Go see him! If everybody could experience Stevie Wonder live, the makers of Prozac would surely go out of business.

Set list:

As If You Read My Mind
Master Blaster (Jammin’)
Did I Hear You Say You Love Me?
All I Do
Knocks Me Off My Feet
Audience jam/People Make The World Go Round
Higher Ground
Spain
Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing
Visions
Living For The City
Golden Lady
Creepin’
Keep Fooling Yourself Baby Girl
I’m Gonna Laugh You Out Of My Life (Aisha Morris)
Isn’t She Lovely (2 verses)
Ribbon In The Sky
Overjoyed
My Cherie Amour
Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours
Sir Duke
I Wish
Do I Do
I Just Called To Say I Love You (1 verse, two choruses)
For Once In My Life (stopped after harmonica solo)
Uptight (Everything’s Alright)
Superstition

"A Day in the Life," Shakey style

2008-07-01T20:35:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Isorski for tipping us off on this recent performance of "A Day in the Life" by Neil Young this past Sunday in Dublin, Ireland. See, the Beatles were full of it when they said that the Pepper material couldn't be done live by a small rock band. So what if you can't fit an orchestra on the stage? Who needs all that lot when you have guitar distortion? Neil shows us how it's done, and it's done quite beautifully. This video really made my evening:

Let's all hope he keeps this one in his set list when he makes his way back to the States...

The reviews just keep on coming...

2008-06-29T09:54:00.000-07:00

More of what keeps me busy outside of the day job:

In the June edition of West Coast Performer, I have a review of the debut EP by Hot Challenge. The band plays the Rickshaw Stop in San Francisco next Wednesday.

June 20 at Bullz Eye, two reviews ran:

A 'Quick Take' on Moreland & Arbuckle's 1861 (fine, tough, no-nonsense blues rock with the sound and purist attitude of the best practitioners from the late '60s and early '70s).

...and a full review of Radiohead's The Best Of. This album bears the lowest rating yet I've attached to a Bullz Eye review.

Also on June 20, Popdose's weekly Friday feature, a fun little game called Name That Tune, featured my input in the form of creating the answer key and acrostic puzzle for the purpose of giving away two copies of Dennis Wilson's just-reissued Pacific Ocean Blue as prizes to the first person to guess the puzzle song, as well as the person who guessed the last remaining song. This is one of my favorite Popdose features, so I was more than happy to contribute. Check it out every Friday. You might be surprised at how many songs you can actually guess from the one-second snippets (or how impossible it is some weeks).

...and finally, a review of the double disc 'Legacy Edition' of Dennis Wilson's Pacific Ocean Blue ran on June 27. Run out and grab this one while you can, before it goes out of print for another decade and a half! Amoeba Records sold out the week of the release...

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, the Greek Theatre, Berkeley, 6/27/08

2008-06-29T08:33:00.000-07:00

I almost didn't go to see Plant and Krauss. I had a late afternoon party to attend, for which I was a key component in both the planning and entertainment, so I couldn't exactly predict if I'd even be able to make it to Berkeley in time for the show. Plus it was sold out. But as luck would have it, I was able to not only get to the Greek just in time, I also scored what appeared to be the lone single ticket sold outside the venue by an unassuming old dude with white hair who parted with it at face value.

I had the welcoming screams of the Greek crowd and Plant & Krauss' opening number, "Rich Woman," as the soundtrack to my entrance and journey to my viewing location. Once I was settled, I saw on the stage a simple set-up with a total of seven musicians: Jay Bellerose on drums, Dennis Crouch on bass, Buddy Miller on guitar, multi-instrumentalist Stuart Duncan (fiddle, mandolin, ukulele, guitar), bandleader/guitarist/vocalist T Bone Burnett, and of course, the show's two stars.

Thanks to Jon Cummings' Popdose Review of the Plant & Krauss show earlier in the week at L.A.'s Greek Theatre, I was kicking myself for not having followed my impulsive idea to fly down south for the show. Fortunately, my last-minute attendance at Berkeley was not among the kind of non-plussed crowd that Cummings experienced. They were pretty chill, but the group of three whose prime viewing space I crashed really seemed to be enjoying the mostly country-bluegrass-Americana set with tinges of gospel. The dudes behind me were really digging Krauss' good looks (as was I), though really, her stunning, pitch perfect vocals would have been enough to satisfy me. And when I say stunning, I mean I really felt paralyzed by the beauty of Krauss' voice on "Trampled Rose." I mean, WOW. And down below my perch, hippie girls were gingerly dancing to the more upbeat numbers in the set. I wasn't hearing any grumbling about the lack of Zep tunes or rock n' roll in general. This crowd seemed to know exactly what they were in for, and loved it.

Plant's presence at the show was maybe a bit less than I expected. I knew that Krauss had some solo space, which was great, but when T Bone sang a couple of songs without Plant or Krauss, that's when the extraneous conversation around me was at its peak. If anything, I attribute this portion of the show to Plant & Krauss' appreciation for the fact that T Bone himself is a modern day master of his craft, and if it weren't for his masterminding of the whole project, we wouldn't even been seeing this show. Or listening to the brilliant Raising Sand album, one of last year's best album releases overall in my humble opinion. Shame that the Zep reunion at the Ahmet Ertegun tribute concert overshadowed it completely in the press.

But back to the show... I haven't checked back against the record, but most if not all of Raising Sand was performed, along with some other covers and a few old nuggets from Plant's distant past that elicited the greatest response of the evening: a bluegrass rendition of "Black Dog," straight readings of "Black Country Woman" and "The Battle of Evermore" (with accompaniment from Krauss that, for my money, bettered Sandy Denny's performance on the original Zeppelin recording), and an awesome rustic recast of Plant's solo hit "In The Mood" done as a medley with the old English folk ballad "Matty Groves."

Even though Plant is clearly immersing himself in the music and going with the flow, he couldn't help but have the strongest stage presence due to his old rock god moves. He was shaking and dancing throughout the evening, having a ball and inspiring others who weren't planted in seats to do the same. He only occasionally let out some rockin' wails that recalled his past, notably on "Nothin'", which earned him some applause that was almost as loud as what the Zep tunes garnered.

I walked away having heard all my favorites from Raising Sand -- "Gone, Gone, Gone," "Killing the Blues," "Please Read the Letter," and "Your Long Journey" -- and feeling only mild disappointment. Why? Well, the show was so good, and I was so transfixed the entire evening, that I failed to engage the hot blond next to me. She was afraid to hop the fence at the edge of the lawn seating area to join her friends, and only joined them after I encouraged her to follow my lead. Man, if only the show sucked as much as some of the observations in Cummings' Popdose Review and comments on Shay Quillan's San Jose Mercury News blog suggest, I might have gotten my head together to ask for her number. Damn you Robert Plant! Damn you Alison Krauss! Come back soon, and try to suck just a little bit more next time.

Defeat Dementia!

2008-06-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

Today marks the launch of the UCSF Memory and Aging Center's YouTube channel. It's part of a larger outreach campaign to educate the public about neurodegenerative diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (aka mad cow), frontotemporal dementia, and the one most of us are familiar with, Alzheimer's disease. The channel contains numerous educational videos featuring several of the major players at UCSF who are leading the way towards new discoveries for treating (and hopefully curing) dementias.

In addition to the YouTube channel, there's also a "Defeat Dementia" group you can join on Facebook, where you can connect with others and learn more.

Spreading the knowledge even further is the little widget (created by yours truly) you can see on the right side of this very blog (and a larger version too, created by Hot Studio). Grab it, place it on your blog, email it to your friends, and know that in doing so you will be helping to further the cause of discovery and developing cures for these awful diseases. If you've ever witnessed a family member suffering from Alzheimer's, you know what I'm talking about.

Please spread the word, and thanks!

Mid-June reviews update

2008-06-15T20:09:00.001-07:00

Not writing so much here only means that I'm doing it more often elsewhere. Some recent pieces from the first half of the month of June:

- - -
West Coast Performer Magazine

Hot Challenge EP -- this young electro-rock band from San Francisco could pick up some serious momentum if they keep their fingers on the pulse, so to speak.

- - -

Bullz Eye:

Priscilla Ahn A Good Day -- you know times are strange when a major coffee shop chain can and does regularly define an entire subgenre of pop music. You know where I'm going with this one...

Cherry Poppin' Daddies Susquehanna -- remember these guys? You know, the "Zoot Suit Riot" band? Forget about the '90s swing revival before you look into this one (just like you had to put all thoughts of trip hop out of your mind when digging into the new Portishead)...

Joan as Police Woman To Survive -- a new set of baroque pop tunes by the former violinist from the Dambuilders. Now she sings, now she sobs... wait, that's a Chick Corea record. This one goes well with equal doses of Antony and the Johnsons and Rufus Wainwright.

- - -

What else awaits us the rest of the month? We shall see, in due time. Or hear, rather. Two from the vaults to pick up, regardless, on Tuesday: the double disc Legacy Edition of the late Beach Boy Dennis Wilson's Pacific Ocean Blue, and Chicago's lost album Stone of Sisyphus. The latter has unfortunately suffered from an ill-advised historical revision by omission by excluding one of the original album's heavy rock tunes, and a reject from one of their worst albums was appended as a bonus track, but at least there are 11 solid tunes on the disc worth hearing...

R.E.M. at the Greek Theatre, Berkeley, 6/1/08

2008-06-14T12:00:00.000-07:00

A couple weekends ago, I had the pleasure of seeing R.E.M. for the first time at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley. Missed the two openers (Modest Mouse and the National), but wasn't peeved. After all, I had seen Modest Mouse play a short set once before and didn't feel like being teased again. Next time I see them, it will be in a headlining slot, playing a full set.

Anyway, I noted that R.E.M.'s audience seemed oddly detached and sedate throughout most of the set, and not just during the 7 or 8 new songs from this year's Accelerate (which is excellent, by the way -- it rocks, but modestly, unlike '94's overrated Monster). Nobody really made much in the way of noise till they pulled out the big guns: "Losing My Religion," "Man On the Moon," "Orange Crush," etc. No "It's the End of the World as We Know It," fortunately. I never really got into that one. "Ignoreland" was a pleasant surprise, and one of my favorites of the evening, along with "Man Sized Wreath." Better still, I walked away having been introduced to one excellent song I hadn't heard before that I particularly enjoyed ("I've Been High," from 2001's Reveal).

For a band that is kind of "legendary" at this stage of their career, they are doing an excellent job of maintaining their signature sound, and still emanating a bit of freshness and youthful vigor. Stipe is still in fine voice and modestly charming as a front man, Buck and Mills still play as if they're enjoying themselves, and only one other guy (Scott McCaughey) augments the core quartet (with touring drummer Bill Rieflin). They're lean, not very showy, very solid, well worth seeing.

A superior, more detailed overview of the evening can be found at The Concert Blog.

I am alive and well

2008-06-05T06:25:00.000-07:00

Contrary to what any of you might have read in the Providence Journal's blog, a) I am not 19, b) I still live in San Francisco, c) I am very much alive and well. What's more, I am not related to the unfortunately deceased, as far as I know. My first name is quite common, though my last name is not, so any time somebody with my name dies, I hear about it. And it's only the second time, in recent memory...

Get your whore on

2008-06-02T19:57:00.000-07:00

That whole "prostitute mix" bit that came out of my interview with Chris Robley last Fall, and which was expanded upon here, has been finalized as part of Bullz-Eye.com's bi-weekly "Mix Disc Monday" feature. I've already handed in a few entries, and "Love For Sale: The 'Prostitute Mix'" is my inaugural contribution. Go on and get your whore on!

An atheist finds religion

2008-05-27T06:39:00.000-07:00

God, thy name is free fall:

A chat with Rachel Taylor Brown

2008-05-20T18:51:00.000-07:00

Last month I had the pleasure of interviewing Portland-based singer/songwriter/pianist Rachel Taylor Brown for Bullz Eye. Not only does she make truly unique, though-provoking music, she's a genuinely nice person on top of it all. The only problem? She needs to get some more live shows booked!

Here's an excerpt from the interview, where she talks about the genesis of her toy piano fetish:

[Producer] Jeff [Stuart Saltzman] has all these interesting instruments lying around in his house, which is a studio, and when he’s working on something, I’d start playing around on different instruments. Like the VSF 30, that’s where I first saw the Yamaha VSF 30 and I had to have one. And it’s kind of the same thing with the piano. A lot of what I have, I’m just copying Jeff Stuart Saltzman (laughs) because he has so much interesting stuff around his house. So that one song on Ormolu, there’s this kind of like experimental tune similar to “Hemocult” on Creatures where it’s toy pianos and Mellotron and things like that. And that was one of the times where I was messing around on the toy piano, and then Jeff is just really good at just silently setting up microphones around me when I’m involved in doing something like that, and that whole tune just ended up being improvised on toy piano and all the other stuff, kind of like “Hemocult” was. And so, yeah, once I played Jeff’s toy piano, I wanted my own toy piano, and I wound up with three or four, ‘cause I’m greedy.

Her latest album, Half Hours with the Lower Creatures, is out now.

Funcrunch live performance videos

2008-04-24T21:32:00.000-07:00

At long last, they're here! Full video clips of all nine songs (ten if you count the opening medley as two songs) from my recent band workshop performance are now up on YouTube, thanks to Julie. Watch, listen, enjoy, complain, comment, relive the night, pretend you were there, etc.

The Popdose Guide to Badfinger is here!

2008-04-15T06:48:00.000-07:00

Head over to Popdose and check out my latest contribution there: an overview of the recorded output of Badfinger. They wrote some amazing songs, had a few hits with them, and met with a lot of tragedy in the end despite being the most successful artists the Beatles signed to their Apple label. Lots of archival video footage linked from YouTube to sift through... Enjoy!

Reviews update, upcoming show, Myspace, etc.

2008-04-13T08:11:00.000-07:00

Another week whirls away... in its wake, I have left behind:

A review of the second full-length disc by Seattle pop-rockers Gary Reynolds and the Brides of Obscurity at Bullz Eye.

A couple of entries in this month's edition of West Coast Performer Magazine, including a small part of their Noise Pop feature, and an online-only review (scroll to the bottom) of a February show at the Hemlock Tavern featuring the Speakers, Correatown, and Chris Robley and the Fear of Heights (pictured above, photo by April Chick).

And speaking of Chris Robley, he will be appearing at Cafe du Nord next Sunday, April 20, with fellow Portland-ites Norfolk & Western, along with openers Weinland. If you haven't seen him yet, this will be a nice, intimate intro.

And in the spirit of shedding light on the absurd, since all but one of the artist links above are Myspace links, I'd like to point you in the direction of Lila Nelson's side-splitting song about Myspace, called "I Accept Everybody," which you can hear... on her Myspace page, of course. Lila is from Aracta, and I heard her perform this song at her early set at Portland's Mississippi Studios back in February, prior to Rachel Taylor Brown's headlining trio set that evening...

- - -

Finally got my hands on a copy of The Last Waltz on DVD. After hearing one of my coworkers talk it up fairly consistently since I've known him, and then recently finding out that he was actually at the '76 concert in question, I had to check it out. Plus I had seen Scorsese's other big concert film, Shine A Light, last week, so it was due to happen. My appreciation for The Band has been upped since watching it. It's very easy to forget, without actually seeing them, that they were all pretty much multi-instrumentalists and singers. I found myself wishing that they were the full-time backing band for all of the artists who appeared at the show. Of course they did their time with Dylan, but would that they had longer associations with Van Morrison, Neil Young and Emmylou Harris. Neil Diamond, eh, he could have toned himself down a bit. I like him much better now as an old vet working with Rick Rubin and the Heartbreakers. But if The Band were all alive and active today, they would have been the ideal choice for Diamond's comeback records.

Now at some point I need to finish watching Alejandro Jodorowsky's Fando & Lis. WOW. I don't know how I'm going to distill that one into a short synopsis, but I will try once I've absorbed it all...

Anyone have a spare $1,300?

2008-04-05T23:27:00.000-07:00

I used to be a ravenous record collector, but my buying has slowed to the rate of what one might call that of a "normal person," i.e. just once in a while. It's not for lack of interest, mind you. It's more a matter of time and storage space. And yes, money.

I have a handful of items I still look for regularly, and have continued searching for enough years that I don't remember when I started. There's the stock copy of Queen's second U.S. single, "Liar" b/w "Doin' Alright" on Elektra. There's the final U.S. edition of Paul McCartney's Tug Of War LP, pressed with the standard stock red-and-gold Columbia labels, as opposed to the custom design labels on the original (I do have a Canadian pressing to hold me over, but I will not rest until I have my hands on a U.S. copy). And then there's the stock copy of the first Genesis single on Atco, and last with Peter Gabriel: "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" b/w "Counting Out Time." Like the "Liar" 45, I do have a white label promo of this last one, with "The Lamb" on both sides (one side stereo, one side mono). I probably paid no more than $15 for it. Sounds like a lot for a 45rpm record, huh?

Well, tonight I performed one of my infrequent eBay searches for these three items, the three remaining records that I care that much about to search for. Lo and behold, I FINALLY found a stock copy of the 45 of "The Lamb"!

There's just one small problem: I'm not exactly thrilled with the price it's commanding.

As of 11:36 PM Pacific Time, this little styrene 7" record, offered for auction by U.K. seller "stairofsirius" on eBay, has a high bid of GBP 625.00.

In U.S. dollars, that's $1,246.69.

And I thought $600 for "Liar" was outrageous!

Granted, this record does have a version of "Counting Out Time" on the b-side with a clean intro (it segues from the previous song on the LP) that has not been issued on CD, but really... $1,246.69? That's $246.69 more than the price of the second state Beatles Yesterday And Today "butch cover" LP, one of the most valuable and sought-after Beatles collectible LPs, currently for sale at Amoeba Records in San Francisco.

(Yes, I know I just pictured a first-state butcher cover, but really, who wants to look at what was pasted *over* the bloody slabs of meat?)

So, needless to say, I'm going to pass on this auction. That is, of course, unless someone wants to gift me with $1,300.00 before the auction closes. Ha!

Funcrunch in review

2008-04-05T21:38:00.000-07:00

Though seeing beyond the bright lights was difficult, we did hear shouts of approval on Monday night when Julie, Ziggy, Mike A., Rex, Steve and I took the stage at Cafe du Nord as 'Funcrunch.'

This was the fifth band wokshop in which I have participated through the Blue Bear School of Music, not counting the one class I took in 2005 where we learned Beatles songs on acoustic guitar, and performed them on stage as a group without the aid of a drummer.

It certainly was what I would call a special group: excepting Steve, all of us knew each other already or at least had met each other enough times to know we were cool with each other. Ziggy was quite adept at switching between a bunch of different keyboard sounds. Mike A. and I locked into a good groove -- I had played guitar with him before, and as I suspected, playing bass with him was a breeze and a lot of fun. Best of all, Rex, Julie and Steve sang in harmony together. I had wanted to play in a band workshop with three-part vocal harmonies, and finally got my wish. I also added some harmony to one song with Rex, since the bass line was simple enough that I could divide my attention without losing track of what my fingers were doing.

As with my last couple of performances, the results were filmed. Video should be available within a few weeks.

If only we could do this every day!

Our set list:

Medley: Money For Nothing/Walk Of Life [Dire Straits]
Doesn't Remind Me [Audioslave]
You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do As Your Told) [The White Stripes]
Edge Of The Ocean [Ivy]
Owner Of A Lonely Heart [Yes]
Working On My Soul [original song by Rex]
To The Tender (Beauty Marks/Blisters) [Mind Science Of The Mind]
I Don't Believe You [Bob Dylan]
Ramble On [Led Zeppelin]

Photos from the evening:

Photo by Eric Zuckerman

Photo by Eric Zuckerman

Photo by Eric Zuckerman

Photo by Julie Bernstein

Photo by Eric Zuckerman

Photo by Eric Zuckerman

Photo by Julie Bernstein

Chart Attack! at Popdose

2008-03-21T06:39:00.000-07:00

Every other Friday, Popdose runs a feature called "Chart Attack" in which that week's top ten singles from a chosen year in the distant past are dissected, lauded and lambasted, all in the name of entertainment. The feature's originator, the witty and talented Jason Hare, afforded me the opportunity to be a guest 'chart attacker' this week, and I invite you to join in the fun too. Check out my guest 'Chart Attack' entry as we look back at the top ten songs for the week ending March 22, 1975.

Enjoy!

New Costello record IS a record!

2008-03-20T18:05:00.000-07:00

Whenever I've talked up the move some indie labels (i.e. Touch and Go, Sub Pop, etc.) have made with new releases -- making free digital downloads available with the purchase of a vinyl LP -- I've gotten little response. Might as well say "who cares," right?

Well, check this out: Billboard reports that Elvis Costello's next album, Momofuku, will be released (for now) solely as a RECORD bundled with a digital download on the Lost Highway label on April 22. NO CD!

There have been iTunes exclusive tracks and EPs released with no CD (Smashing Pumpkins, Paul McCartney, etc.), but these weren't full albums. Prince has released some internet-only downloads, but his site has gone kaput and nobody outside of his die-hard fan-base knew about them. Even Radiohead's 'pay what you want' download scheme eventually gave way to a traditional CD release (which debuted at number 1).

That an artist of Costello's stature is going the vinyl + download route and leaving the CD format out is very interesting indeed. This is one to watch. Will more people feel inclined to buy a turntable so they can "spin the black circle" while waiting for their iPod batteries to recharge? Will other artists follow suit? Is the CD really going to follow the cassette, the 8-track, and the brittle 78 RPM record into media format heaven?

Reviews update & a farewell

2008-03-07T06:48:00.000-08:00

In the crazy hustle bustle hamster wheel that is 2008 Q1, some reviews have nearly slipped off the radar of this little web cubby. Rescued from the very recent past, here they are:

The Gutter Twins - Saturnalia

You read about them here, now read about them at Bullz-Eye and anywhere else that gives these guys some ink. Dulli and Lanegan have created a masterpiece. Lovers of darkly spiritual alt-rock, beware!

Kula Shaker - Strangefolk

Another one for Bullz-Eye. Maybe you remember these guys from 10 or so years ago, back when Brit-pop records were actually moving off shelves in the U.S. They're back, finally, with their third album, and not much has changed - the Eastern hippy-drippy psychedelia is still there, they still rock, and they still make uneven albums. But a good amount of the tunes are worth ripping and keeping.

More to come in the not too distant future...

P.S. - R.I.P. Teo Macero. You made Miles' records the events that they are!

The Gutter Twins at Bimbo's, San Francisco, 3/1/08

2008-03-04T19:37:00.000-08:00

L-R: Greg Dulli, Mark Lanegan; Photo by Julie Bernstein

It becomes increasingly difficult to get large groups together to go out and enjoy a concert, as many of the big names for which our friends share a common love have been pricing us out of the market. I don’t recall a time since perhaps back in college when I was part of a group as large as seven to attend a concert together (and I think the group might have actually been five or six). It might have been a Neil Young show. That’s the one I remember most clearly, and in fact, the Afghan Whigs were set to play first, followed by Jewel. I was a little miffed that we couldn’t get it together to arrive on time for the Whigs, and we missed their set. Fortunately I’d be able to make up for it next time they came to town, and nearly every time Greg Dulli has played within driving distance.

Which brings me to this past Saturday night. A group of seven! I’m still pretty high about it. It was myself, my friend, co-worker and band-mate Julie (taking photos that evening), my ex-girlfriend (but a friend first and always) Jennifer and her friend Alex, my co-worker Derek and his brother, and my friend and band-mate Mike. All of us shared either a curiosity or strong devotion to Greg Dulli and/or Mark Lanegan, who kicked off their first tour as the Gutter Twins here in San Francisco on Saturday night as part of the annual Noise Pop festival.

I’ve had my review copy of Saturnalia playing constantly since receiving it in the mail, and I’m already feeling that it will probably end up as my pick for album of the year. It’ll be a tough one for anyone to top.

Lanegan had been a part of previous tours with Dulli’s Twilight Singers band, but he would only appear on stage occasionally. It was one of those occasions during the last Twilight Singers gig in San Francisco, back in ’06, when the music was elevated to a status one could call ‘magical’ or ‘transcendent’ or whatever your preferred term. Lanegan took his place at the microphone and sang an obscure Massive Attack song called “Live With Me” that only those who picked up the Collected best-of that summer would have known. Fortunately, the Lanegan-sung version was recorded for posterity in the studio and appeared on the Twilight Singers A Stitch in Time EP last year. It was effectively a preview of things to come, and it is now a part of the Gutter Twins’ live set.

Besides Lanegan on vocals and Dulli on vocals, guitar and keys, the band consisted of: Dave Rosser, guitar and vocals; Scott Ford, bass and vocals; Jeff Klein, guitar, keys and vocals, and Cully Symington, drums.

Lanegan and Dulli both remained on stage the entire time, and there wasn’t a single song where either one was silent vocally. When Lanegan was singing lead on a song, Dulli would have some background parts to sing, and vice versa. And on occasion they would trade leads, as on “I Was in Love with You.” This is the one song on Saturnalia where Lanegan is not present, but on stage, he sings most of the leads and Dulli takes some of it later. The best shared leads were saved for the encore, however – the old Twilight Singers tune “Papillon” found Dulli inserting a line from Steve Miller’s “The Joker” (in an apparent acknowledgement of his smoking on stage in a city where smoking indoors in public places is illegal), followed by Lanegan inserting a line from the even older Screaming Trees chestnut “Shadow of the Season.”

Uniquely interpreted covers are always a part of any show Dulli plays, so we got the aforementioned “Live With Me” along with a Lanegan-sung cover of Jose Gonzalez’ “Down the Line,” with Lanegan extracting all the blues out of the song that his gravelly voice can muster.

The entirety of Saturnalia was performed, with few words spoken between songs. Lanegan is typically silent between songs on stage, or as Mike put it, he’s “all business.” Some of this vibe has rubbed off on Dulli, who used to be far more talkative with the audience. But all that means is more music. And given the shorter set times with a total of four bands performing that night, the twenty-song set split between new songs, solo Lanegan tunes and Twilight Singers material was quite generous. And satisfying.

Set List:

The Stations
God’s Children
The Body
Live With Me
Seven Stories Underground
All Misery / Flowers
Idle Hands
Circle the Fringes
Bete Noire
I Was in Love with You
Down the Line
Who Will Lead Us
Each to Each
Front Street

Encore:
The River Rise
Papillon/The Joker/Shadow of the Season
No Easy Action
King Only
Methamphetamine Blues
Number Nine

Saturnalia is out today on Sub Pop, as a CD, mp3 download and double 180-gram vinyl LP (which itself includes a coupon for a free mp3 download of the whole album).

Linked!

2008-03-04T19:18:00.000-08:00

Joy of joys! USA Today's pop culture writer Whitney Matheson linked yesterday's Bullz-Eye feature ("Rock of Pages") in her Pop Candy blog this morning. Even though she did not mention Bullz Eye by name, we are still quite happy. Thank you, Whitney!