It's Been 12 Years...

It's making me feel very old that I was last in Scandanavia 12 years ago. Mind you, I've only been there once before, but "12 years ago" is just too great a distance between now and something I did as an adult.

Here I am having a discussion with Larry Grossberg, who co-edited the CultStuds bible, which came out in 1992. Check out the vintage Esteban here! Pre-LASIK, pre-divorce, pre-union, pre-Ph.D. No hint of irony with that American flag sweater, eh?

Jardins et muséums

We leave for Sweden in about 24 hours. Lots to do around here, but I am also very excited about Paris. Yup, you read that correctly. Renee is airlifting Kathy and me into Paris for 48 hours; and she's keeping the kids with her in Marstrand. What a fantastic gift. The NYT had a great article today about the hidden gardens of Paris.

Here's where we are staying.

With only 2 days, we are going to do non-Louvre museums and Paris gardens. Oh, and food. And wine.

Museums and gardens were on my list, but I was thinking Versailles and Louvre. How can you be so close and not go to those? But given the timeframe, a visit to either seems foolish. The trip out to Versailles would eat up a lot of time; gorgeous gardens are everywhere in the city. The line for the Louvre, let alone its huge collection, would also be a choking hazard.

So I like the non-Louvre museums and gardens idea. Plus, these are places where my nearly non-existent French won't cramp our style.

Dan Brown

I've taken a shine to this kid in Nebraska who regularly video weblogs. Man, I wish I were this together as a young kid.





http://www.danbrownuniverse.com

Headphones Mix Process

So, I'm going to blog about how I do one of these mixes.

First, I get the idea for the theme. This is a mix with songs that include the word "headphones," though I know I am going to make an exception and include Dylan's "Ballad of a Thin Man," which has the word "Earphones."

The idea is songs that use headphones as an image or metaphor (in one case, a simile).

Here's a great quote from one of the tunes:

Life ain't nothin' but a good groove
A good mixtape to put you in the right mood
--Beastie Boys "Professor Booty"

Second, I start thinking of other tunes to put on there. I have my "seed songs," Bjork and Dylan in this case. Now I just need to think up or find other tunes that fit. The Propellerheads song "You Want It Back" comes to mind, but that one might not make it for the next reason.

Third, I start to play with the theme or narrow my criteria. For example, some of these songs don't really make SOLID use of the word "headphones." So, thinking about it, I can see that minimal/unacceptable use would be defined this way: no mere "studio talk" about headphones. The Propellerheads tune fits this: "Give me a little more music in my headphones" is just studio talk that got left in for fun. Sadly, the 1997 Prince song below fits this, too. I really wanted to include that one, because it surprised me. It's an odd little song.

Fourth, I do a "tune harvest." I start with tunes I have on my HD. For these mixes, that's usually not many (it's not uncommon for me to have copies of the "Seed tunes" on hand). Then I go for the tunes I know but don't own. I hunt them up on a variety of sites, pay for some, download others for free. The most fun I have doing a mix is the last type of tune harvesting, and that is seeking out new tunes that fit the theme. Most of this is creative Googling or searching on places like iTunes or Rhapsody. For this mix, I did something totally different; I used a search engine attached to one of the many lyrics pages online. That worked great for this theme, which was focused on one vocab item. I will use that strategy again in future mixes. I have found several new bands that I enjoy during the tune harvest phase.

I usually end up with at least 24 tunes that need to be reduced to 12. I am about half way with this now. Here are 16 tunes:



Now I need to listen to these and remove songs (step 5). Propellerheads and Prince are coming off for reasons said before; The Jethro Tull tune is just awful, so I think it will come off, too (I posted earlier about bad 80s production; some tunes can survive, but this one is DOA). Maybe Aaron will disagree, but this Tull tune is unusable.

Re-ordered and tunes eliminated:



I took this playlist to the park on my iPod and listened while the kids played. I think this order will do. The Bjork tune is very quiet, but that can't be helped--it's supposed to be this way. Now it's time to start uploading the tunes to Muxtape.

Sixth, I create a Muxtape and start uploading. I upload the tunes in reverse order--that way it's done after you upload the last tune. While I am uploading I do other things (such as respond to e-mail, etc.) or I move to step 7.

Seventh, I write up the little snippets for the liner notes. Maybe look for a good image to put on the page (I already found that cool t-shirt thing). So I am about to start that in a new blog page, so this process thing is done. Left over are some lyrics:


Bjork

My headphones
They saved my life
Your tape
Lulled me to sleep


Dylan

There ougta be a law against you coming around
You should be made to wear earphones


Lyrics:

Joni Mitchell:

I'm drinking sweet champagne
Got the headphones up high
Can't numb you out
Can't drum you out of my mind

Ultravox:

On a crowded beach washed by the sun
He puts his headphones on.
His modern world revolves
Around the synthesizer's song.

Fallout Boy:

Tonight the headphones will deliver you
The words that I can't say.

Massive Attack:

Living in my headphones
Sony's what I say to 'em
The surreal boom
Of the Budokan Stadium

G Love and Special Sauce

It's like chewing gum with your headphones on

Modest Mouse

The white trash boys
Listen to the headphones
Blasting white noise
In the convenience store parking lot

Tempie/Boatman

Here's a video from last year of my buddy Bob and I doing "Tempie/Boatman" together. This is a version inspired by Bob Carlin & Bruce Molsky.

Cool Stuff

Okay, I am loving this band Beirut, which Joshua hipped me to recently. Two great videos below: one live in Paris and the other a traditional music video. Love this stuff.












In other news, Jackie is going to help me with some creative writing. I have not done any non-work related writing for several years. In fact, this article I published in The American Organist is the only work I've ever published.

Jackie said she'd help me with my short story about blackmail gone awry on a college campus. She also expressed an interest in helping me with my Guillotine Suicides essay. Perhaps I should create a creative writing blog (I pledged to do a blogging workshop for HS kids later this summer--should be fun; I won't expose them to the guillotine stuff).

The Passage of Time...

The passage of time
Is flicking dimly upon the screen
I can't see the lines
I used to think I could read between.

After a day of teaching, yardwork, feeding the kids (they're home!) and cleaning up, I am spinning the really fine Eno mix I made a while back. It has me thinking about time.

I made friends with these records 24 years ago. Man, it's hard to imagine. The funny thing is that they seemed like really old records when I got them. In 1984, the year 1974 seemed like an eternity before. I was Owen's age when the record was made. I was driving when I first heard it.

These are great records.

Hey, Todd!

Todd called on the drive back from Chicago. Man, do I know that routine! It's the perfect trip to catch up with pals, so I put the papers down and found out what was going on in Toddland. He was at a Perl Conference (Perl is a computer language invented by a linguist--Todd uses this language a lot).

He's listening to a band called The Fiery Furnaces. He recommended this one:



Listening to it now. Great stuff.

Todd's a great pal. I was happy to tell him about Muxtape. It's rare when I can be the one to inform him about a computer thing.

TODD POINTS US HERE. David Byrne never stops being cool.

Anyway, Fiery Furnaces have some fantastic lyrics:

Ex-Guru

One of those blond ladies had a certain hold on me.
I went to all her seminars by the Airport in the Double Tree.
I even let her use nephew’s seaplane in the Bahamas for free.
But she means nothing to me now.

I tell myself that everyday:
She means nothing to me now.
I tell myself every single day,
I’m quite convinced I escaped her sway.

I burned all my clothes with eucalyptus juice;
Ripped out the floors and painted all the platforms puce;
And I went so far as to sacrifice a second snake to Zeus,
So she means nothing to me now.
I tell myself that everyday:

She means nothing to me now.
I tell myself every single day,
I’m still convinced I escaped her sway.
But when she mopes in the moonlight on her mesa in March,
Does she kick up a thunderstorm
When she thinks of my betrayal?
She means nothing to me now

Oh Banjo, Where Art Thou?

My 3 main banjos are out in the living room, ready to play. But I haven't been playing (muxtaping, grading papers, etc.) I happened upon this lesson with Bob Carlin last year; hey, I was making some real progress.

Listening to that lesson, I wonder if I did the right thing selling that Enoch Tradesman. That was a nice sounding banjo, and it weighed NOTHING. Oh well, I'll just have to build one just like it.

Carlin's a great teacher, and one of my favorite CH players. Some of my BHO pals thought he was way too tough and abrasive in this lesson; I disagree. That's what I wanted.

Part of the Week-End Never Dies

A good online mixtape. Oh, and a movie. Um, this could be brilliant...





Maybe it's available.

Stockholm Syndrome

Stockholm Syndrome: 12 Swedish Bands
http://analog86.muxtape.com

Here's the Stockholm bands mix. Should be fun to listen to. We leave for Sweden two weeks from today (I can't wait to see my sister and her family!!!!). Not everything here is created equal, but I didn't have a real good way to sift through the choices. The band name Wired for Mono is so damn good that I can forgive the joke ending to this song, which is otherwise quite nice. This mix has a nice frame: "The Comeback" is a perfect opener, and I think that Hives tune "Well All Right!" works as a closer (its change-ups are a little odd, but fun). There are even a couple of tunes with "radio" in the title--always a plus for me!

There's some stuff here that I think Michele and Kim will really like, especially Lykke Li and The Knife (sounds like Lene Lovich* eh?). These Swedes know their 80s vibe; nice stuff. Some good piano rock with Diamond Dogs (do I hear some Alice Cooper and E Street in there?) and The Concretes. I'll wait a while to drop this over at MTC.

Playlist

1. The Comeback / Shout Out Louds
2. Jerk It Out / Caesars
3. Radio Interrupt / Wired for Mono
4. Down In The Alley Again / Diamond Dogs
5. On The Radio / The Concretes
6. The Chills / Peter Bjorn and John
7. Heartbeats / The Knife
8. Until I'm There / Tiger Lou
9. Chrash / Melody Club
10. Everybody But Me / Lykke Li
11. Fragile / Kamera
12. Well All Right / The Hives

There is something great about English-language pop music by singers whose first language isn't English (even if some of these singers speak better English than we do). Also, is there any doubt that Melody Club is from the country that produced Abba?

Final Thought: this mix could be skewed because of how I selected the tunes, but this is a great collection of band names.

G-Fab

* just Googled Lene Lovich and never knew she was born in Detroit.

Takin' A Vanity Spin

A term I coined--adapted from"vanity Google"-- for listening to your own mix over and over (I prefer it to Narcissus Mix). But there's some definite self love involved in my attachment to my latest mix, the appreciation mix I made for Bill. In particular, I really love the Strokes song at Track #2. I love it when pop tunes use a "destroying burden" or "structural ambiguity." My favorite example of this was Track #1 on my "Black Postcards" mix from early 2005 (gotta post that one, but it's 14 songs). The track is by Luna and the lyric is "If I had to do it all again / I wouldn't / Throw it all away." So, what are we saying? Are those two independent thoughts? (e.g. "not do it" and "throw it all away") Or, is "throwing it all away" the thing you wouldn't do if you to do it all again? For me, that was the perfect Zen mediation on the whole 2004 StateRep race (and particularly relevant as regards Marti's on-again/off-again Supreme Court bid).

So here are the lyrics to "Barely Legal." I'm about to vanity spin this one more time before I transition to the draft "Stockholm playlist" that's been bubbling up. Before I leave for Sweden, I want to post a mix of Stockholm bands. Right now, the list is pretty cool--The Hives, The Caesers, Shout Out Louds, Melody Club, Wired for Mono [fantastic name!!!], and a few others.

Barely Legal
the Strokes (from The Modern Age EP)

I didn't take no shortcuts
I spent the money that I saved up
Aw mama runnin' out of luck
And like my sister don't give a fuck
I wanna steal your innocence
To me my life it don't make sense
Your strange manners, I love you so
Why wont you wear your new trenchcoat?

I shoulda worked much harder
I shoulda just not bothered
I never show up on weekdays
That's somethin' that you learned yesterday
Drive you to work, youll be on time
Your little problems, theyre not yours theyre mine
Come on listen to what I say
Ive got some secrets that'll make you stay
I just want to turn you down
I just want to turn you around
You ain't never had nothin I wanted but
I want it all, I just cant figure out
Nothin'

And all together it went well
We made pretend we were best friends
Then she said oh you're a freak
They ordered me to make mistakes
Together again, like the beginnin'
It all works somehow in the end
The things we did the things you hide
But for the record its between you and I

I didn't take no shortcuts I spent the money that I saved up
Aw mama runnin' out of luck
Yeah like my sister dont give a fuck
I wanna steal your innocence
To me my life it just dont make any sense
Your strange manners I love 'em so
Why won't you wear your new trenchcoat?

I just want to misbehave
I just want to be your slave
You ain't never had nothin' I wanted but
I want' it all, I just cant figure out
Nothin'

And all together it went well
We made pretend we were best friends
Then she said oh I can wait
They ordered me to make mistakes
Together again, like the beginnin
It all works somehow in the end
The things we did the things you hide
Not for the record--just between you and I

Who Taught You How To Do That?

a response to Bill's MTC mixes*

listen here: http://analog87.muxtape.com/

this mix is a response to bill's excellent mtc muxtapes which have made me very happy during these past few weeks. i threw this mix together last night. i listened to it on my morning walk and came up with the following annotations as i listened and later mowed the lawn. it's brain dump time now.

i am tempted to remove the track and artist titles and replace them with the titles below, but right now that doesn't seem fun and i need to clean the basement. i request that you start the mix and minimize the window--save the "reveal" for later.

1. a response to... the beatles singing in german.

you and larry have this german vibe going on with your mixes, and I thought the early beatles tune in german was great touch, great touch indeed. i know that they learned to get a crowd going in germany. before you dropped this tune on us, i had made a mental note to put this song on a mix. this artist did 4 great solo records (and many more, but I especially like the first 4) after leaving a mega group that found its way on glenn's sweet 16 mix (which is one of my favorites so far). tony levin plays amazing bass on this track. i have always liked the german version of this particular song better than the english. no offense to the mother tongue, guys, but it's the perfect language to use when you are telling people they are no longer in the club (the message of this song), so to speak. the fantastic percussion at the end was used for the flying scenes in "birdy."

2. a response to... lou reed.

lots of bands and singers are doin' the lou reed thing, which is really great. this band doesn't sound especially like the velvets or lou's solo stuff, but the vibe is way there. i love the way the vocals are mixed on this track. owen is dancing around the house doing air guitar to this song right now. is it right to let a 6 year old listen to songs with the f-word in them? will cps come and take my child from me?

3. a response to... the carter family and old-time close harmony.

i tried to put a few 30s close harmony tracks here, but none of them felt right. this one from the 50s fit right in. this brother act specialized in what could be called "creepy christian murder music." i love this song. two voices, guitar and mando. that's all i need.

4. a response to... howlin' wolf.

speaking of that's all i need, here is a track from my favorite electic bluesman. it's a different side of the blues than you hear from howlin' wolf, but i sure love it. this is the opening track from one of my all-time favorite records, and the best electric blues album ever recorded in my opinion.

5. a response to... james bond and the beach boys.

this is kind of a weak connection, but the tune really works. this japanese duo is one of my favorites. their best known tune is probably "twiggy, twiggy, twiggy... james bond, james bond." i like hearing this song outside of their record. it's a really happy song; in fact, my favorite song by this band is called "happy end of the world."

6. a response to... tom waits.

there's a great phrase from shakespeare's coriolanus: "there is a world elsewhere." for me, that world is often between my ears when good pop tunes are playing. in this wonderful song, i can picture all my tunes living together in a hidden, underground universe. because of this song, marc ribot is there playing guitar, and vic feldman is there. lots of your tunes live down there, too. when this song comes on, julia says it's scary and wants it turned off (which, of course, makes owen beg to have it turned louder). i tried to explain to her that it wasn't really that scary: "it's just about lots of people living under the ground, doing things that we can't see up here." kathy shouts from around the corner: "sounds kind of scary to me." oh, well.

7. a response to... gypsy punk.

i remember dropping by your office a couple of years ago while you were listening to some good gypsy punk. this week my pals curtis and jamie were here in town and i was playing some random mix with this song on it. come to find out that jamie, who is a graphic artist in nyc, had just finished doing some gig posters for this band. this song is great... they do a fantastic cover of the meters' "look-ka-py-py" which i will need to put on a future mix; it's amazing, but it didn't fit here. there's a section of this track that reminds me of those really great black marching bands from southern colleges. don't much care for marching band music, otherwise. i think i've been to one college football game in my life. but i digress.

8. a response to... your mix method/tom tom club.

i love that this song will fit on a mix. this artist was a tom tom clubber (though he's not mentioned on their current web site, probably because this band is now for couples only), a modern lover, and of course, a talking head. this late 80s record is kind of an historical footnote. i saw him while he was touring for it (the heads were busy deciding how/when to call it quits). the production on this tune is so late 80s, which unfairly links it to a number of really bad songs that you have heard too many times. the lyric provides the title for this mix, "who taught you how to do that?" the violent femmes opened for this guy when i saw them, and if i am not mistaken, they had found jesus or something: their show was mostly gospel tunes and they had a black female singer with them. i have half a mind to google this and see what was going on with them during this period, but to be honest, i am not all that curious about it.

9. a response to... the hives.

i really liked that hives tune and it reminded me of this band which didn't go very far in the mid 90s, despite their excellent choice of influences. 10 years later and their wire/blondie thing would have hit fertile ground. a couple of the tracks on this record are really to poppy for me, but i like this one a whole lot. i also found a great live version played for bbc radio 1, but it didn't have the vibe i was going for here.

10. a response to... lou reed (again).

here's another band that did the vu thing for real (and if you're reading this larry, the vu rock. period. end of story. steve covers his ears and begins saying "blah, blah, blah--i'm not listening" over and over). this is a cover of a not-very-well-known vu track. i think it made it on the 2nd "lost velvets tapes" lps that came out in the late 80s. neither of these records were the true "lost tapes," but they had songs that weren't on previous records. the vu version had no lyrics, but i'm sure these are the real deal; the band recording this cover came closest to carrying the velvets' torch, imho. i saw their 2nd to last gig at St. Andrews a few years ago.

11. a response to... the 50s.

with the exception of your mixes, the 50s are way underrepresented in our mixes. [note to self: put "not fade away" on a future mix.] so i've tried help you shoulder the burden with #3 above and this one (the next tune counts, too, now that i think of it). i have my mother's original vinyl of this one, but it would have been too much effort to digitize it. plus i think it is shot to hell from me playing it over and over. one of the best songs from the 50s, imho.

12. a response to... our jazz lp exchange.

our musical fun started out, as you know, by swapping vinyl jazz records. i don't think i've been happier sharing music in the past several years then when i was able to hit you with the previously out-of-print and amazing charlie mingus lp "charles mingus presents charles mingus," which has the vocal version of "fables of faubus." i need to put that on the jazz primer compilation for aaron. man, now that i see that video (somebody did a nice job), aaron needs to play this song in class. that will be track #1 on his jazz primer.

in closing, you're a great musical buddy. thanks for the tunes. i hope these give you as much as your tunes have given me.

* in order to increase its hip factor, this blog entry was composed without capital letters. i had to go back and remove several... it's next to impossible for me to avoid them. i didn't even try not putting two spaces between sentences.

Mashups & Joshua's Mixes

Joshua has provided me with some quality tunage this year. I misplaced the mix with the "Frontier Psychiatrist" track on it. It will turn up. While searching online for it, I encountered a great mashup of The Avalanches and Gnarls Barkley. The Mashup is a postmodern DJ phenomenon that I find very interesting. Mashups are usually given titles that sound like court cases because they use "vs." to indicate the pairing.





Because Joshua is such a Cure fan, I think he'll dig this Gorillaz/Cure mashup.

Some Recycled Record Reviews

pasted into this post are two record reviews from my banjohangout blog. I wrote several of these and I will try to pull them over here over the next few days. This entry has reviews of two double albums that all old-time music fans should have.

The Early Years, 1958-1962
The New Lost City Ramblers (1991)

I don't think it's possible to overestimate the impact of The New Lost City Ramblers. These guys were an old-time music machine starting in the late 50s. I've always enjoyed the diversity of material on this record, which was drawn from their first 12 Folkways releases. That's not a misprint--they made 12 records in 4 years.

On the banjo front, you hear fingerpicking and frailing styles back to back. Lots of great songs and tunes here, and also a variety of instruments. I love the autoharp on this record, and that's what turned me on to The Carter Family.

Of particular strength on this record are the depression-era songs, such as "No Depression in Heaven" and "How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?" Seeger, Paley, and Cohen are great at tight harmonies on these and the other tunes.

Speaking of tight harmonies. I've never been a huge bluegrass fan, but "On Some Foggy Mountain Top" and "My Long Journey Home." We used to do these tunes in the Frenzy Brothers. Great fun to play bass on these.

I love Mike Seeger's voice. He's almost as good a yodeler as my pal Curtis Eller.

I've often thought that if I could go back in time, New York City between the years 1955-1965 would be an amazing musical destination. I'd try to soak in the New Lost City and all my favorite jazzers like Miles Davis, Bill Evans, John Coltrane, etc.

This record is a must have.

Holy Modal Rounders: 1 & 2
The Holy Modal Rounders (1964)

Real world, real world, real real real world.
Real world, real world, real real world.
World world world world, real real real world
World world world world, real real world.

The first "old-time" recording I remember hearing was "Bully of the Town" by Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber, aka The Holy Modal Rounders. That's when it all started. I was working at Elderly and when I heard this record, it was all over. I just kept going deeper and deeper. This irreverant, drug-induced, hilarious recording truly changed my life.

I must admit that I've always enjoyed a sprig of humor with my fiddle tunes and songs. This music is supposed to be fun, right? Music that is too damn serious just gets me down sometimes. I can just picture these Greenwich Village kids spinning Harry Smith's Anthology, tripping on God-knows-what and jamming to the wee hours.

The new version of this CD has an unreleased take of "Sugar in the Gourd" which is just fantastic. I can't imagine why it didn't get on the original record.

A pal of mine once said, "Some people don't like having breakfast for dinner--you can't trust those people." To paraphrase, if you don't like the Rounders, man there's gotta be something wrong with you...

Stampfel's scratchy fiddle is like euphoria to me (to drop a song title from this record). I've gotta plug another one of my favorites, not old-time, from Michael Hurley and Stampfel called Have Moicy! by the Unholy Modal Rounders. Great 70s country drug rock (my term--don't get mad at me, but that's what it sound like).

Back to the 1964 Rounders. "Hesitation Blues:"

I was born in Pennsylvania
I was raised in France
I'm a dirty old man
And I wear silk pants

These guys play up the grotesque, bizzare, and grusome nature of old-time like in their version of "Reuben's Train." I misheard the lyric "Can't read the letter from his home" when I first heard this, so to this day I sing "Can't read the letter from his mom." People dig it.

I got my razor blade
Laid Reuben in the shade
I'm startin' me a graveyard of my own

Man, it doesn't get better than this. For a 20 year old rock & roll guy, this was the perfect introduction to New Lost City, Uncle Dave Macon, The Skillet Lickers, etc.

I know this record isn't traditional, authentic, or even respectful of the old-time tradition. But it's so damn much fun. Love it, love it, love it.

What I Did Last Night...

Without A Net:
An Evening With My Oldest Pal in the World

• short sleeve shirt
• trousers
• suspenders
• converse sneakers
• open back banjo

Add my childhood friend Curtis to the list above, and you have Curtis Eller's American Circus. (A large crowd of people who love music and a ready supply of alcohol are also nice, but not necessary.) As I write this, The American Circus is in town; his wife and daughter stayed at our house. Earlier in the day, he showed my kids how to juggle. If a unicycle had been handy, he would have ridden it around for them. Fresh off the plane from NYC, he played with his daughter on my front lawn and was overcome with joy to realize that he he'd gotten a grass stain on his pants. I spent yesterday hanging out and talking with Curtis and finished it off by catching his act at a pizza place called Martini's in Kalamazoo.

I'm no movie maker, but I dare say that these little clips capture his act better than any of the others I've seen. Curtis' fans have posted many of these, and a few of them are really, really good. But this turned out to be a great room and a great night for Curtis, who needs plenty of space for his act. Many of the folks in this Kalamazoo crowd were there when he literally smashed through a glass window during his show at a place called Kraftbrau. This crowd knew him, and they were very receptive. And Curtis was "on" in a very big way.



Curtis is often billed as "New York City's angriest yodeling banjo player." He cites Abraham Lincoln and Elvis Presley as his two major musical influences. He brings the nineteenth century to life in a way that makes the present day seem dead. He and I have been listening to music, talking about music, and playing music together all of our lives. I really can't describe what I see when he plays these songs, when he is literally kicking and screaming and pouring his guts out. He is literally doing everything we've always hoped music could be. I think these little clips show you what I see, even if I can't seem to put adequate words to those visions.

With movements that range from an acrobatic bicycle kick to a Charlie Chaplin mustache wiggle, Curtis makes each of his dark, sentimental, and anachronistic songs a truly physical act. Curtis does have the American Circus in his blood. What amazes me about Curtis' live show, as trite as it might sound, is that he does it all without a net. There's nowhere to hide behind that gorgeous Bart Reiter banjo. And even though I have one just like it--got mine first, thank you very much--there's no way I could do what he does. But I sure love to watch.

I captured every number that evening with the exception of his closer (besides, I had to dance during at least one song). I reloaded in time to catch the encore. Enjoy these clips; and if you don't, be certain you never tell me about it. 'Cause we're talking about my oldest friend in the world, here. And I am super, super proud of him.

P.S. Be a dear and go to his website to buy something.

MTC Fantasy Bands

Okay, here's the deal. I was doing yardwork over the weekend; I only do the grunto-destructo type of yardwork. Kathy and I actually have the same division of labor on most projects. I do the mindless, dirty, ugly work that requires little in the way of accuracy, finesse, or aesthetics (all three of which are fairly significant shortcomings for me). She does planning, project management, and the finishing flourishes (i.e. anything that might contribute to how something actually looks or works). We both like our end of this bargain. No sarcasm. I'm serious.

So I am weeding a fairly large perennial island that has been ignored since we bought the house in 2000. This oblong patch of reedy entanglement is an unweeded garden worthy of Hamlet's derision (you know the kind--"things rank and gross posses it merely," etc.). While most would cry "Fie! Ont," I was having a great time writing the following stuff in my head as I mucked with my shovel and rake. So here's what I daydreamed in the dirt that day:

TOPIC: Fantasy bands started with MTC members.
RULES: At my discretion, I can attribute any musical ability to anyone, including myself. I must be in every band. Each band exists in its own alternate reality (i.e. Bill Reich can be the accordion player in one band and the hip jazz guitarist in another).
NOTE: Being in a band is often accompanied by various maladies and personal misfortunes. If you don't fare so well in these scenarios, remember that the life of a musician is a tough one. And besides, it's fiction, right?
NOTE: Musicians are known for using salty language, so the word "fuck" appears here several times. If you are offended by the word "fuck," it simply cannot be helped. Sorry.

So, here are the fantasy bands I joined with you. I take our community members in the order they appear on my "Name Game" mixtape.

MTC Fantasy Bands

1. Bill and I form a small duo called Conscientização. It's hard to call us a band, though, because when we get together to practice we mostly just play records and talk. We will try to write new songs or practice old ones, and the conversation usually goes: "Aren't you glad you aren't the grievance officer anymore?" / "Yeah--oh hey, you like Eric Dolphy? Let's play that record." It's too bad that we don't play much music because our sound is distinctive and original. Our usual method goes like this: I lay down a supple and hauntingly elegant base track on a nylon stringed guitar in true Brazilian bossa fashion. We then each play a single instrument and sing in gorgeous harmony. Bill's instrument is the largest German accordion known to man; this thig is so large that it must partially rest on the table--he improvises brilliant basslines and comps chords simultanously. For my part, I play the viola a la John Cale. We sing every song in Portugese and have the best time with creative covers. The most satisfying song we play is a cover version of "My Sherona." People cry when they hear us play this tune--"Oh my God," they say... "I had no idea that was such a beautiful song."

2. You could say that Jackie and I started a band, but the truth is that I am employee for Jackie in her band, which she runs like a drill instructor a la James Brown. She's a no smokin', no drinkin' "drop-and-give-me-fifty" bandleader (I mean, Jesus, who does push ups and crunches before a gig? Do we really have to do this?). The band is called Sk8 Yer Gutz, and we play the roller derby circuit within a 350 mile radius of Flint (but we're starting to get national press and there's talk of a documentary and possibly a film score). It is certainly the most athletic and theatrical band I've ever been a part of--you've gotta see it to believe it. For each gig, we assemble a large half pipe in the middle of a roller rink. We perform while skating (our amps and gear are under the half pipe, and we all have wireless connections to our amps and the PA). Jackie is the lead singer--probably the best skate-thrash vocalist I've ever heard. Wearing a headset mic, she performs aerial tricks and pumps her fist to the surf/skate/thrash/fuzz of our guitars. I play a small Guild Ashbury bass. Our drummer has this Roy Wooten-type Synthaxe thing to control drum sounds (and he sounds amazing!). One guitarist uses a Razr scooter while the other rides in-line skates. At any given part of the show, we are joined on the half pipe by derby skaters and teenagers riding BMX bikes. Near collisions and actual crashes are part of nearly every song. Recently a prominent skate-punk blogger called us "The greatest thrash band on wheels."

3. Maybe the most fun I've had playing music is doing gigs with Larry in the arena metal band he formed called Oktane. I play a Gibson Thunderbird bass that is slung down below my knees. Glenn has grown his hair down to his ass and plays the drums. Larry has this amazing costume that is really hard to explain. He wears giant Gene Simmonsesque boots: each foot looks like a giant 70s muscle car (real fire actually shoots from the tailpipes). Our stage pyrotechnics are amazing: smoke, fire, and fake blood are everywhere. All of our songs are about the conspicuous use of fossil fuels and the virtues of industry. "Drilling In ANWAR (For Breakfast)" is one of our showstoppers. The song "Mountaintop Removal" has a great razor sharp chorus that I am always singing to myself: "Rip off your head / Take what I want / You got a better idea, you Prius-driving pussy?" Joshua plays guitar in this band--he is an amazing virtuoso, but always interjects his left-wing political views between songs. Part of our act is Larry giving hm a hard time: "Nice solo, Josh. Now would you shut the fuck up, please? Go free Mumia or something." The funny part of all this is that Larry and all of our fans are actually huge environmentalists; most of Oktane's profits go to fund research in alternative energy. We never play live shows anymore because Larry will only play under two circumstances a) sold-out shows at Cobo Hall, b) Pine Knob if they change the name back.

4. By the time I joined Michele's band, it had already cycled through three names: "Crinkle," "Room and Board," and "Tickets, Please." All three of these names sucked, though I will say that Crinkle rather fits our sound. We currently perform as "Recipe Box," which I think is worse than the previous three names combined, but I got outvoted. I play Johnny Marr-inspired jangle guitar on sparkle green hollow body Gretch. Glenn plays double bass (I'm letting him use my 1911 Czech, and it pisses me off that he's much better at it than I am). Larry is our drummer, and we are constantly nagging him to tone it down a bit. We have this great post-punk vibe that is part Smiths, part Echo, part Wire, and Michele's vocals are simply amazing. Edie Brickell came to one of our gigs in New Haven, CT and fell in love with Michele's voice. The bad news is that she hates the rest of the band and our sound; every once in a while she will call Michele and say "Paul will book a studio and produce your next record right now if you just fire that fucking band." All of us live in fear that she may take her up on the offer some day.

5. Joshua and I have a musical collaboration (we are way too sophisticated to have a "band") called "O.R." In this collaboration, Joshua is a turntablist. Not just any turntablist, mind you... he has been called the "Mozart of Decks." I can take partial credit for this; I bought him a pair of turntables (saw a deal on eBay I could not pass over) and he just started playing around. The truth is that he was born to play music this way--it is effortless for him. DJs from around the world send him e-mail asking him how he does it. The turntables don't just sound like real instruments when he spins; they can sound like an entire symphony. The vinyl platters are extensions of his very being. My role is playing a variety of analog synths--my go-to box is the Roland TB 303, but I have all kinds of Moogs, as well as vintage tape decks, signal processors, and even a theremin with me when we perform. The story of our name is far more pointless and complicated than you can possibly imagine. O.R. stands for "Omgekeerde Raadpleging," which is the Dutch name for the telephone feature we call reverse lookup. Anyway, early in our collaboration, we released a track called "Reverse Lookup" and it became a sensation in clubs and discos across Europe. After that, a pair of teenagers in Rotterdam became obsessed with our music and actually became involved with us in an odd way. We really hit our musical stride when these Dutch kids, whom we know as Aalbert and Radborg, started hooking us up with obscure R&B, funk, and rap artists that lived close to us in the US. From across the ocean they would send messages like this one: "You are living close to "Snooky" Riggs, yes? We bet you don't know this. Google says he lives 400 km from you. He will come to see you." In the case of Snooky, he actually showed up the next day as bewildered as we were. But the collaboration worked: we've done three separate projects with Snooky and they are all brilliant. Aalbert and Radborg had been collecting money to fly us and all of our gear to Amsterdam for a series of shows, but we cut off all ties with them when a Dutch police officer alerted us to the suggestion that they might be turning tricks on local cruise ships to raise the money. We'd love the gig, but we can't have that hanging over our heads.

6. Kim and I play in a band called Blood Farm, a goth/vampire/shoegazer quintet that has all the emotion of Sigur Ros, all the flashy exuberance of The Cramps, and all of the piercing beauty of The Cocteau Twins, but with vampires. We've actually received a fair amount of negative press lately. I developed what I thought was a fantastic PR stunt. We attempted to portray ourselves as genuine vampires (or at least very sick individuals who sincerely believed in our own lycanthrope origins). The stunt went like this: we persuaded the members of Vampire Weekend to agree to be kidnapped and held for ransom by us. We holed up in the basement of a 19th century cottage on Martha's Vineyard. We would threaten to kill or torture the members of the band during regular web-cam video streams that were leaked to the news. We were crazy vampire musicians, mortally offended by the sacriledge of Vampire Weekend's name and preppy Cape Cod antics. We would threaten to harvest their organs, drain all their blood, and sacrifice them in odd pagan rituals (the web-cam sessions are among the most visited videos on YouTube--they have a "Blair Witch Project" feel to them). VW went along with the stunt, but according to their lawyers the entire three weeks got "out of hand" and they are suing us for "mental trauma" and "cruelty." We also understand some criminal charges may be pending. Some people can't take a joke. Kim is pretty irritated with me now, because the stunt was all my idea, and now it is costing us time, energy, and money. She just wants to focus on the music, she says. Attendance at our gigs, though, has never been better.

7. I make music with Christy, but it's far too dignified to call it a "band." Our shows are simply billed "Christy Rishoi." She combines a kind of subtle songstress style that is part Billie Holiday, and part Diane Keaton. Because our act was so difficult to peg, we played college bars for serveral years, but this year we've gotten regular gigs at the nicest jazz rooms in major US cities, including The Blue Note and The Village Vanguard. They love us in Sweden: we make enough money on our yearly trip to Scandinavia (Christy got three marriage proposals in Finland alone--and all of our fans know she's married to the drummer). Yes, Larry plays traps in this band, and he is the key to our lyrical dynamics. He's the only one who can really read where Christy is going on each tune. The rest of us have gotten accustomed to taking his lead. I play Hammond B3 organ in this group, and Bill Reich plays a very mellow, Barney Kesselesque electric jazz guitar. The most interesting thing to me is what happened to Joshua. After leaving MCC to become the founding director of The Center for the Study of Digital Rhetoric at Rutgers, he became obsessed with Christy and our music. He is very dismissive of us, but reveres Christy's song stylings above all music. He is constantly contacting us via text messages suggesting songs to add to our book. He will often spend thousands of dollars to travel to our far-flung gigs. Imagine our surprise to discover him casually sitting in the back of this jazz bar in Reykjavik. "What the fuck?" I screamed at him. He acted like it was no big deal. "This place is supposed to be amazing," he replied. "I've been meaning to check it out."

8. Glenn and I wound up in a band with the name Ricky's Boys, the significance of which is fairly amusing. As sad as it sounds, Glenn and I found that our lives turned to absolute shit at the same time. We both lost our jobs at the college in spite of the heroic efforts of the MCCEA (my infraction involved calling one of my colleagues a "Mongoloid" during an e-mail flame war; this was ill-advised, I admit). To this day Glenn will not discuss why he was let go, though I have long suspected foul play and blackmail on the part of a senior administrator. In addition, our personal lives fall to pieces as well, and we find ourselves randomly driving toward California over a period of days. Long story short, we stop in Tuscon, AZ and a very drunk Ricki Lee Jones is doing a solo gig. On the break she very sloppily and embarrassingly throws herself at Glenn in an attempt to pick him up. Not interested, Glenn persuades her that he and I should be her backup band. Glenn plays tasteful Fender Rhodes piano (one of the many 20-something males who live in Ricki Lee's house gave it to us). I play tasteful, impressionistic drums on a very small kit with brushes. Despite her distractions (booze and young guys), Ricki Lee is brilliant when performing with us. She's also loaded and overpays us often, so we decided to take up residence in Tuscon. Mostly we do her old songs, but we have been making some progress trying to get her to write more. She often says very mean things about us to the audience; frequently she tries to pick up guys by taunting us: "Hey man, if I don't get laid, these guys don't get paid" she says. In spite of this, we love her and care for her like an elderly Aunt.

9. I rent a room from Philip and Bob in their gorgeous Park Slope apartment in NYC. We actually work together in a very lucrative business as accompanists for theatrical auditions (Bob accepted a job at The New School). Philip and I have clients all over the city and we help them prepare for auditions and rehearse shows. Most of our clients suck and are never going anywhere in the theatre, but they pay our rates and treat us nice. This work bores us to tears, so Bob managed to get us a standing gig at a really dumpy bar that transforms itself when we play because we've developed quite a following. We are called Threepenny Nightmare, and Philip writes all the material. The songs are dark and haunting but have an oddly-innocent Beat sensibility that make them touching and hopeful. He sings and plays various keyboard instruments--piano and Farfisa Organ mostly. I play drums and sing harmonies. We nearly lose the gig every week because of my excessive drinking and bad behavior. Philip is such a charmer that he usually gets me out of trouble. An organized group is trying to get the bar to fire us by circulating a petition that accuses me of being a Nazi--I have no idea why.

10. Aaron and I started to share a flat in Camden Town shortly after we both left the college and moved to London. We play in a wonderful Celtic folk/pop band called Cwtch, which we heard was Welsh slang for "hug." Most of our UK fans hate the name: "but the music is fucking brilliant," they say. Aaron primarily plays bizouki and wooden flute. I play a variety of Renaissance instruments, especially the viol de gamba and the theorbo. Our first record, "Out for a Curry," was an immediate underground hit. Over the past few years, the band has hardly been able to keep up with Aaron's songwriting. We have enough material for at least three records. Early this year, however, Aaron has been almost impossible to find. He has enrolled in a social work program at the Open University and declared his life-long goal of getting Richard and Linda Thompson back together. Both Richard and Linda have taken out the UK equivalent of restraining orders against him.

I Can Hack Your Muxtape, Man!!!!

Glenn's Mix#4 is quickly becoming my favorite mix so far. In particular, I really like the way he used the track and artist fields to make the journey significant. It also left us dying to know what each of the songs were. (All of this is to say nothing of my gratitude for him slogging it out on the GenEd Committee; I would rather slather myself with Sterno and jump into my BBQ grill).

Well, not only can I download the source mp3 files of Muxtapes; I can also see the tags inside those files. Spoiler alert: here are the tracks Glenn used for his amazing mix:


Oh, and this mix is proof that good selections and transitions can make someone appreciate music anew. For example, I don't very much care for Pearl Jam. Nope. Not really. But these tracks fit here so well. I like 'em here. And maybe I'll start to listen to them and see what I was missing. Glenn, you're a good teacher.

World Up My Ass

It's great to have Aaron with us! Thanks for those cool mixes. You is gonna fit right in here, brother. At any rate, I've put together a couple of short 80s punk mixes for general edification/entertainment/derision/etc.

World Up My Ass: http://analog81.muxtape.com/
No More Riots: http://analog82.muxtape.com/

To celebrate, below is a good clip of what Black Flag felt like live in the 80s (a couple of the Detroit shows I attended are actually captured on YouTube, but the quality sucks--this performance is from a year or two prior to me seeing them).






I couldn't stop at one mix--mostly because neither one of them breaks 20 minutes! I had to do the second one after I got started: the first mix felt like cheating because all the tracks came from a compilation album. The other one is a mix from tracks I had on separate records or cassettes back in the day.

An historical note: I never called this music "punk" back then. We called it "hardcore," which is now really thought of as a sub-classification of punk (and a couple tracks here don't fit that narrow def, especially the wonderful Australian band The Birthday Party). A fair number of these bands came to Detroit in the early 80s, and there were all-ages shows at places like The Graystone and St. Andrews.

All of these songs found their way onto various cassette "Hardcore Mixes" that I'd play in the car as a teen driver.

Oh, and whenever I get exasperated trying to understand what is going on in a young person's head, I should remember that at 15 I loved the Meatmen song "1 Down 3 To Go" (a song about the Beatles that immediately post-dated the Lennon assassination) at the same time I loved Lennon's Plastic Ono Band.

Can you say "cognitive dissonance," neighbor?

Playlists

Mix 1: World Up My Ass

1. Butthole Surfers - Suicide
2. Circle Jerks - World Up My Ass
3. Suicidal Tendencies - Institutionalized
4. Misfits - Sculls
5. Minutemen - Bob Dylan Wrote Propaganda Songs
6. Dead Kennedys - Religious Vomit*
7. The Birthday Party - Big Jesus Trash Can
8. D.O.A. - Fucked Up Baby
9. Meatmen - 1 Down 3 To Go
10. Minor Threat - I Don't Want To Hear It
11. Bad Brains - Joshua's Song**
12. Black Flag - I Don't Care

* The DK's EP In God We Trust, Inc. was taken away from me at age 14 after my grandfather read the lyrics sheet. I think this verse from "Moral Majority" is what put them over the edge: "Blow it out your ass, Terry Dolan / Blow it out your ass, Phyllis Schlafly / Ram it up your cunt, anita / 'Cos God must be dead if you're alive."

** where was this song when I did "The Name Game" mix? Ah, it's okay... I like the other one I found.

Mix 2: No More Riots

1. Killjoy - Rich Plastic People
2. Unaware - Race War
3. Millions of Dead Cops - The Only Good Cop...
4. Social Unrest - Their Mistakes
5. Karnage - The Few, The Proud, The Dead
6. Bent Nails - No More Riots
7. Impatient Youth - Praise The Lord & Pass The Ammunition
8. Dead Kennedys - A Child And His Lawnmower
9. Chruch Police - The Oven Is My Friend
10. Captiol Punishment - El Salvador
11. 7 Seconds - Fuck Your Amerika
12. Intensified Chaos - Intensified Chaos

About To Buy A Mac...

... even though I've long thought that Applefolk are often iArrogant and often act like they are iBetter than you.

So I will probably pony up the cash for a MacMini, because it looks cool. And totally in spite of this self-congratulatory hipster.

Actually, that's a cool idea for a sticker to put on my Mac:

iBetter than You.

Check out the 10 Worst Things About Apple.

No More Riots

Okay, so I've made another mix. This one holds the distinction of "Shortest MTC Muxtape" because it clocks in at under 20 minutes. That can only mean one thing: PUNK LIVES!!!!

Joshua inspired this one. He made a great Muxtape for me, and I listen to it in the car all the time. He put the song "Punk Rock Girl" by the Dead Milkmen on there, and while I must admit that I skip that tune most of the time, it's funny and it inspired this mix. At any rate, the funny lyrics to "Punk Rock Girl" reminded me of the girl's voice saying "Punk's not dead; no it's not" on an Intensified Chaos song. That reminded me of the Not So Quiet On The Western Front compilation LP, which was one of my favorite punk records back in the day. So that made me want to make a Muxtape of my favorite tracks from that really important punk record.

So this mix is called "No More Riots." There are some funny Reagan-era punk lyrics on these; as I they jump out at me, I'll type them here. I'll wait a few days to move this over to MTC because I am posting there too much.

Where do they get this stuff?

I'm super busy this am, so I can't stay and develop this thought. But I want to drop it here in case I have time to return to it.

Where do journalists get these ideas about the Obama candidacy? Kathy thinks they just need something to write about. There are some "ideas" or "topics" that just irk me:

1. White Guilt. Oh God, where do I start? You will be hard pressed to find anyone more in touch with his whiteness or his guilt than yours truly. But the idea that whites (or egghead whites) are backing Obama out of guilt is absurd. I also think that's racist. Nobody ever said that my life-long devotion to Miles Davis was a white guilt thing. It's okay for whites to revere black musicians and athletes, but once we start admiring black politicians, we must be doing it to feel better about white privledge.
2. Democrats are taking a gamble. Uh, yeah. We are. I am a former candidate and a veteran of many campaigns. You've never heard me say that electing a black man named Barack Obama was going to be easy. I just want to know who said it was anything but a gamble.
3. Obama is no longer "post-racial." This is just stupid. Obama never was a post-racial candidate, and the entire concept is preposterous. Anybody who even wants a post-racial candidate doesn't understand race in America.
4. Reverse racism. Kathy said this one best. The term "reverse racism" is code for "I am a racist." Ferraro's notion that white people can't say anything about race without being called a racist is... well, it's racist guys!

Barack & Michelle's Fist Bump

Okay, I'll admit it... I cried when Barack and Michelle fist bumped the other night. Mind you that I had no idea it was called a fist bump. Julia's soccer coach, as he is congratulating the girls, offers up his fist and says "hit my rock." Whatever.

For me, the fist bump in St. Paul was a really significant moment. First, there's something athletic about it (this aspect is lost on me for obvious reasons). Second, it's a generational shift. I imagine it's the first potentially-presidential fist bump, and you won't see Mr. & Mrs. McCain fist bumping anytime soon. Third, there's something about culture and race here. Let me be clear: the fist bump isn't "a black thing" or anything close. But a black man and his spouse, fist bumping to mark an historic accomplishment in front of 20,000 screaming people, has some signficance I can't wrap my head around. It took me back to the night after the Iowa caucuses when the sight of Barack & Michelle, along with their two little girls, celebrating an amazing political victory. How many times have we seen "the campaign family" brought out as a political prop? That night was the same but different, as in good different.

Well, I am still thinking about this and what it all means. Others are making a big deal of it too, so here are some interesting links:

http://www.zachishere.com/2008/05/20/the-10-rules-of-fist-bumping/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGBikSDv4nM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFkwOg2_KsE
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/06/04/moos.political.fist.bump.cnn

Load Blast From Past

I found an old VHS tape in the basement today. Back when I was in Diatribe, we appeared on a local access cable show called "Eat At Joe's." So here is some 22-year old bass playing, i'm-not-drunk-seriously-i'm-not, dancing Steve.

In this first clip, you can see that I spent more energy dancing than trying to be a good bass player. I remember being a better player than this... but my playing is very aerobic, don't you think??





In this second clip, we cover "The Weight" by The Band. This song always went over well. Mike had recently picked up the accordian.





"Eat At Joe's" was kind of a rite of passage for local bands in East Lansing. The volunteer tech crew would do things like shrink the heads of performers, project odd movies on the blue screen during the performance, etc.

This video reminds me of what a "gear head" I am. It's important for me to tell you about some of the equipment we were using.

• Souldaddy has a National-inspired Charvel/Jackson that he built while working at the Jackson custom shop. Goofy looking, heavy, and flawlessly-crafted, that thing was his main guitar (his backup axe was a Fender Tele). On this gig he is playing through a Semour/Duncan combo amp that I hated but he loved. I much preferred his Hi-Watt half stack.
• Tom plays Tama drums here, and all the mics and sound gear was his. He was a great sound guy. He and I never really got along very well, and in retrospect, this was my fault mostly.
• Mike has a cool keyboard setup here. One box is the classic Yamaha DX-7, which was the #1 go-to snyth in the 80s/90s. The other box is a Firstman organ running through a single-rotor Leslie speaker; Mike used a variety of amps to drive the Leslie--on this track he's using a Fender Bassman, which was my favorite. Mike got a much richer organ sound out of this rig than most people could have. Only occasionally did we drag a real Hammond to one of our shows.
• I am playing an 80s Japanese Fender J-Bass with many, many mods. It had EMG active pickups, Shaller tuners, a Leo Quann Badass II bridge, and a vintage J-bass neck position pickup cover (this was before they started re-issuing that early 60s hardware). A couple of years later I would trade this in for a 1964 J-Bass. The rig in the video was perfect for me: the Peavey MegaBass head was the best working bass amp I ever owned. I ran it bi-amped with two cabs: the high end went to a Hartke 2x10 and the low end went to a Messa/Boogie 1x15, which is the best sounding bass box I have ever heard.

Okay, now that I am done talking about gear, check out this video of The Band doing the song 20 years earlier in 1970. Man, were those guys fantastic!

UPDATE: The following came to me in a dream (seriously,
sometimes that happens--not in a shamanistic way, but in a CPU usage efficiency way).

The 40 Year Old Steve Critiques the 22 Year Old Steve's Bass
Playing

Let it be known that the young Steve in these videos not only wouldn't have listened to this advice, he would have disagreed with it 100%. With age comes experience. The funny thing is that versions of the advice were actually communicated to me back then. I didn't hear any of it.

• Tone down the dancing. You don't have to just stand there, but control your movements and focus more on the making the music than enjoying it. We can tell you're feeling it, we really can.
• That fret-crunch thing isn't as cool as you think it is. You have a decent tone, and I know lots of your favorite players mash their roundwounds against the frets and pickups. Here in 2008, though, it sounds like crunching tin foil. Knock it off.
• Use a P-Bass or at least have Souldaddy drop a P-style pickup in the neck position of that J. We know you love the tone of the J. We know all your heroes (Jaco, Marcus, John Paul Jones) play the J. But in a few years you will re-discover Motown and really appreciate James Jamerson. You need to fatten your sound.
• Lose the Hartke cabinet. Trust me dude, the last thing your sound needs is high end speakers made of METAL! Sell that thing and get another Boogie 1x15. Don't bi-amp the rig. Run it in full range and turn up the bottom end. Just so you know, that's what the sound guy does to your signal from the DI box anyway.
• Make room for some space. You're still playing too many notes (and I know what Amadeus said about that, but you ain't no Mozart, so listen to me). These videos are evidence that you can let a tune breathe and inject the all-important rest into your lines. Just do it more often. Go back and listen to your at-the-time heroes Sly & Robbie. While you're at it, re-read the bullet points above and try to get closer to Robbie Shakespeare's shake-out-your-fillings bottom end.
  
  

~

Routes for Marty

The Dimension Program [11.4.84]

VLOG about EP Vinyl Records!!!!

le sixième défi: poésie de bricolage

G-Fab's Parisian Throwdown: Found Poetry!

The idea for this challenge came to me yesterday while walking around Paris. While I have proposed many mix ideas, you will note that this is the first to make it to official challenge status. My other ideas were either too involved, too esoteric, or just plain not good. I really like this one. The idea is to construct a "found poem" from pieces of song lyrics; time to get funky creating some Po-Mo, PopCult bricolage. I know you will have fun doing this! We can all be artsy and creative. I can't wait to read these poems and listen to the mixes.

Here's a chance for us to marry our interests in writing and music. Simply create a 12-line "found poem" consisting of lyrics from songs you know and/or like. Make up your own rules/method for doing this, but post your final poem as a blog entry. When they are all posted, let's do a slam at the Torch. Oh, and share the tunes in a mixtape, too.

Feel free to make liberal use of online song lyric search engines. My poem will begin with the line "We're not here to get bored" from the Stereolab tune "Heavy Denim." From there I will select 11 additional lines and create a poem/mix.

À bientôt,

~G-Fab

P.S. While in Paris, I decided that the city was made for Philip. He's hip, polite, animated, and he smokes! I don't want you to leave Flint, Philip--but you were made for Paris.

P.P.S. Check out the Sziget Festival, which I saw advertized in the Metro. MTC roadtrip to Budapest, anyone?