Rachel Taylor Brown welcomes you to her Parlour!

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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!

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

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.

Richard Marx, psychoanalyst

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.

22 Best Songs of 2008 (in my opinion)

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

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'

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

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

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...

"You're a very pretty girl"

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

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

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

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...

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

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.

A chat with Rachel Taylor Brown

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

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.