The return of Parlour to Parlour (and other stuff)

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.

Top 10 reasons I haven't blogged in 3 months

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).

Held hostage by wax

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

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!

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!

Mid-June reviews update

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...

I hear the ticking of the clock...

I literally hear the clock tick every day now. The old blue alarm clock that my grandmother gave to me almost 20 years ago finally bit the dust. Much as I would love for time to reset itself to midnight at any given moment, the rest of the world isn't having any of it. I was tempted to pick up one of those CD player clocks, or one of those units that plays music from a portable mp3 player. But I already have enough music playing devices. All I wanted was a time-keeping device and alarm, and I found what I was looking for in one of those wind-up clocks with a real bell alarm. Yes, they are still being made! And if it weren't for the glow-in-the-dark numerals on the clock's face, it could be mistaken for a much older device. The bell alarm is jarring, and since it's wind-up powered, I won't have to worry about waking up late if the power goes out at night (or changing batteries for back-up). Simple solution, quickly implemented.

- - -


More reviews posted since last time... I covered Dengue Fever's new one for Bullz Eye, and a disc by a local band called Diego's Umbrella for West Coast Performer in their current issue. More to come on that front, as always.

- - -

Band workshop is nearing the halfway point. We have now rehearsed half of the songs we've decided on playing, and we're sounding better every time. I had my first shot at singing and playing bass at the same time (on a Dylan tune) in yesterday's rehearsal, which went much better than I thought it would. The instructor encouraged me to immitate some of Dylan's phrasing, and everyone seemed really happy with the results. Our keyboard player, Ziggy, was struggling with the changes, but I'm pretty confident that he'll be comfortably acing 'em in no time. The form of the tune is outside of what he usually plays, and is ironically much simpler than what he generally excells at (progressive, new age-type material). Maybe it's like trying to make Philip Glass play the blues, but fortunately rock n' roll was made for this kind of mixing of musical backgrounds. It's the great bastard genre, and we're finding a way to make it work for us. Being that we all like each other personally, I know it's going to sound great in the end.

- - -

Birthday is coming up (that ticking clock won't let me forget!)... but I have no big celebration planned this time. Nope, just a trip up to Portland next weekend to visit Chris and check out a Saturday night performance by Rachel Taylor Brown (whose new album is excellent, by the way -- look for a Bullz Eye review on that one in the not too distant future). The Portland scene has held my interest since reconnecting with Chris last Fall, so I'm particularly looking forward to visiting the city for the first time and hearing some of the music live, in its natural environment, not to mention hangin' again with an old friend...

I finally did it

That's right. After more than four years of stubbornly clinging to my comfort zone, I've given in and upgraded to Windows XP.

No, not Vista. XP.

My custom built machine suffered an awful crash on Tuesday morning that made it impossible for me to launch just about any non-Microsoft application. To make matters worse, my Windows 2000 disc had some scratches on it that made it impossible to run a new installation. Worse still, my old system was corrupted to the point where I couldn't even run the Windows XP CD to do a standard upgrade and migration of my user settings and applications, so I had no choice but to boot up with the CD and install XP anew.

So now I am re-installing applications and drivers bit by bit, as needed. I'm just glad it happened after I had already completed the Ornette guide for Popdose...

A small delay

Today was the expected day for my debut on Popdose. However, the length of the piece made editing and formatting a bit more difficult than anticipated. Plus, today's excellent guide to Material Issue was already done, and it was an ear opener for me. I had never heard them before, and it turns out they were another band with a tragic ending and since I'm drawn to those stories for some odd reason, it made for a good read. Plus the music's pretty excellent. Go check it out.

So next Tuesday it will be. Reserve some time because you'll need about 4 hours to hear all the music accompanying the guide...

Bursting out the gate: Popdose, reviews (of course), and more

In which the new year gets off to a running start...

Popdose launched on January 1 as the new, improved, much more content intensive second coming of jefitoblog. Some of my fellow Bullz Eye writers have been contributing regularly, while unfortunately my current circumstances only allot me enough time to be an occasional contributor. I just finished my first contribution, which should probably be running next week. I was asked to write what would have been a "Complete Idiot's Guide" in the past, but what is now a "Popdose guide," to the catalog of the artist who, among other things, was a recipient of both a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award and the Pulitzer Prize in music last year. It's a long one, so short attention spans need not apply. Stay tuned...

- - -

Meanwhile, I have three new reviews up on Bullz Eye (actually they're 5 days old now, but who's counting?):


The Brother Kite's new The Moonlit Race EP contains one of my favorite songs from last year, an alternate mix of the title track of their second album, Waiting For The Time To Be Right. Every fan of Pet Sounds era Beach Boys needs to hear this one!

I included the Spring Heeled Jacks Original Swinging Jass Band's first album The Dicky Comstock Show in my top ten album picks of 2007, but didn't get around to submitting a full review of the record till after the first of the year. It's an amazing album, musically diverse, well produced and arranged, and the price is right too.

My review of Leigh Marble's Red Tornado prompted the first artist response to one of my reviews, where Marble called me on misquoting one of his lyrics. The misquote has since been corrected.

- - -

I have one new review in Performer this month:

The Purrs' The Chemistry That Keeps Us Together turned out to be my favorite album reviewed for Performer to date. They sound like drunk yet disciplined Americans who have a thing for the same British influences of the Brian Jonestown Massacre. Big difference though is that The Purrs can write concise, catchy, fully formed pop songs. I'm very curious now to hear their live show.

- - -

And it looks like I'll be playing music again as well as writing about it, getting back into the bass groove in a new band workshop, starting on Saturday. Which means another performance coming up in late March or early April.

- - -

Finally, on a non-musical related note, I'm scratching my head over the fact that it took a chance stroll through a Waldenbooks during my recent trip back East to discover What Color Is Your Parachute? Seems nearly everyone knew about it except me! OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but the number of people who have responded "oh yeah, the classic" when I tell them what I recently read has astounded me. How is it that nobody ever recommended it to me before? No matter, I found it at the right time, and the exercises have begun. My goal now is to have my own personal strategic plan in place by mid-year. And then, the real action shall begin!

30 days till the rock drops; and more updates (always more)

That's right -- on Thursday, June 28, my as yet unnamed workshop band will perform live on stage at the Red Devil Lounge at around 10 p.m. Our set spans twenty years of contemporary rock and pop, with old songs by Prince, U2, R.E.M., and more recent material by Modest Mouse, Queens of the Stone Age, Snow Patrol, Jet, the Arctic Monkeys, and others. We're still a little rough around the edges, but we should be in prime rockin' form in one month's time. Next rehearsal is Thursday...

In other developments, I have nearly completed my third 'Idiot's Guide' for the always entertaining jefitoblog.com. Just a few minor tweaks and it should be ready to go. More on that when I get closer to finding out when it might run.

And, I've started the painstaking process of writing my first ever long-form work of fiction. I have no idea how this is going to turn out, in spite of my rough notes and outline giving me a guide to where it *should* go... I'm subject to changing my mind mid-sentence on this thing. All I will say for now is that I envision it as a philosophical drama with some elements of comedy. I just finished reading Kurt Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle" and I decided it probably shouldn't be quite as damning of the human condition, but there will be some of that, because the human condition is always ripe for damnation.

No word yet on when the Slayer interview will run. But it will run soon...

Heads up: Slayer interview

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Slayer, which ran on jefitoblog.com last March, has led to this: Will Harris at bullz-eye.com asked me to interview Slayer's Tom Araya, and this morning I spoke to Tom for half an hour in an interview that is due to appear on bullz-eye.com sometime soon. I'm about halfway through transcribing it, and I expect to hand it in before week's end. Tom spoke at length about Slayer's upcoming tour with Marilyn Manson, the band's working relationship with producer Rick Rubin, and their history with TGI Friday's, among other things. As I learn of the publication date for the interview, you will too...