Welcome to Concert Memories May! All of my Monday blog entries this month will be about memorable concerts.
Toadies had to tread a long and winding road on the way to getting their second full-length album released. That's a strange thing to write, and is indicative of how much nonsense comes with the music business. Toadies had a massive radio single and a platinum album, but still had to fight with their label to get Hell Below/Stars Above released. The release was unsupported by their label, which never made any sense to me. I think it's a stronger album than their debut. For me and a few of my friends, it was certainly highly anticipated. Once the album was released, Toadies hit the road to support it. They played three shows in Ohio. I attended all three.
My memories of these shows are too thick and convoluted to write into a cohesive narrative. I think a bullet list would better fit here. Here are just some of the things I remember:
Driving to Columbus, meeting up with friends, then driving to the show in Cleveland
Meeting Diffuser, conversing with Lawrence, the bass player, and him remembering us at future shows
Seeing "Dollskin" live for the first time
Walking down the street with Toadies after the show because we had parked in the same general direction as the tour bus
Stopping for a snack in Lodi and having that stop be longer than anticipated because the keys had been locked in the car
Learning all of the Diffuser songs by the next time we caught the show
Welcome to Concert Memories May! All of my Monday blog entries this month will be about memorable concerts.
This time we're going to party like it's 1999... well, because this show happened in 1999.
The third Local H album was Pack Up the Cats, and even though it was released in 1998, the band was still on tour to support it in 1999. Local H had a massive radio hit single from their previous album, and I had seen them before when they were on the road touring with that one. They opened for Stone Temple Pilots on an arena tour, and I caught them at the Nutter Center in Dayton. This show though, instead of being in an arena, was in a properly sized venue for a rock and roll show.
Normally at the Newport Music Hall, there is a crowd control barrier in front of the stage. This serves to give a space of a few feet between the crowd and the stage, and this space is populated with security staff and professional photographers for the more crowded shows. Immediately upon entering the big room for this particular show, my group and I noticed that the barrier was gone. Indeed, we could lean right up on the stage, giving the show a much more intimate feel. We were actually able to talk to the musicians during the show, as we were close enough to be heard. I swear that I could even feel the air being pushed by Joe Daniels' kick drum.
If you're not familiar with Pack Up the Cats, well, it's a concept album about playing in a rock and roll band. The band leaned into the album, opening the concert by playing the first 9 songs from it in order. For a group who wrote a self-deprecating song about not being a very good live act, they brought the frenetic, high-energy performance they were known for. These guys have been road warriors for years, both before AND after this date in 1999, going out and earning it night after night in town after town. In fact, Local H are still at it.
One of my favorite lyrics from the album - and from this show - is from the song "Hit the Skids"... . I'm in love with rock and roll / but that'll change eventually
I related to those lyrics when I was 22, and well, it hasn't changed yet... but maybe eventually.
Dad's Album of the Week is back. This is the series where I briefly review my late father's vinyl.
Rush - Exit...Stage Left
Dad was a drummer. He loved Neil Peart and his work, as drummers typically do. Neil Peart outlived him.
This one is a live album, and a double album. Four sides, thirteen songs. Let me tell you, it sounds much cleaner and clearer than I expected for a live album that came out in 1981.
For lovers of rock and roll, there is something here for everyone. There are guitar solos. There are bass solos. (There is plenty of Geddy Lee prowess on display.) There is an extended drum solo and fills just about everywhere. There is plenty of synth. At times it's hard to remember this is a three piece band, because there seems to be more sounds happening than three people should be able to make at a time. There are interesting time signatures and all sorts of musical goodness, and this was all apparently impeccably played night in and night out in front of audiences around the world.
Dad's Album of the Week is back. This is the series where I briefly review my late father's vinyl.
Al Di Meola - Elegant Gypsy
The name of this album has aged poorly, as I understand that the Roma people, elegant as they might be, do not prefer the exonym used here. This album was released in the year of my birth. Yes, I'll make you look that up.
Al Di Meola is a guitarist - which should be obvious from the cover. He was in Return to Forever before releasing his own music. This is his second solo album. It is wordless. There is a great deal of guitar playing, very jazzy, lead bits, and such. It's not my thing. Maybe that's because Stanley Clarke isn't on this album, though I mean no offense to Anthony Jackson. Maybe that's because the music is not as incendiary as what I have heard from Return to Forever. This gentleman is a virtuoso at his chosen instrument, so if you play guitar, it might very well be your thing.
Dad's Album of the Week is back. This is the series where I briefly review my late father's vinyl.
Return to Forever featuring Chick Corea - No Mystery
Another fusion album from my father's collection. There is funk here. There is rock here. There is jazz here. Why did my dad like this so much? Well, he was a drummer. The drums on the opening track, "Dayride", are insane... there are brief periods of frenetic fills and explosivity... it's much more than just keeping time. Oh, and look, that first track was written by bass legend Stanley Clarke.
It's an interesting approach to collaboration here. On the first side of the album, each member of the band gets a song, and the last song is credited to all four of them. On the second side of the album, well Chick Corea wrote all of those, but that's ok, as he put this band together.
The bass lines are awesome, and mostly so advanced that I don't know if I'll ever have the chops to play them. There are blistering guitar solos. There are all sorts of interesting keyboard licks from both normal acoustic pianos and all kinds of electric pianos and synth. Even congas and a marimba show up on this album.
Summary: I very much dig. If you are a musician, go listen to this. The musicianship on display here is outstanding. If you're the sort that is swayed by critical acclaim, this won a Grammy.
Plenty of folks don't use Twitter. If you are one of those folks, you didn't see some brief songwriting thoughts I wrote over there earlier this week. I feel like sharing those here.
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I have been learning Fountains Of Wayne songs on piano recently, mostly due to my love and admiration for fellow bass player Adam Schlesinger and his work... That said, for any songwriter, the catalog of songs written by Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger is basically a "how-to" on the craft... Here are some things that I am taking note of as I work my way through learning the songs from across all of the Fountains Of Wayne albums.
The songs are simple. The country song in the catalog has only 3 major key chords (keeping in mind the axiom about how many chords country songs need to be)... You won't find a great deal of suspended or diminished chords, not a lot of add9 or 13 chords... the occasional 7 chord yes, but it's mostly major and minor triads... Personally, I like messing around with more complicated chords when I write songs, and of course, there isn't anything wrong with that... but these songs are a good reminder that you can keep it very very very simple and succeed.
When there is a bridge, it is exemplary. I would love to just take the Fountains Of Wayne bridge-writing skill and append it to my brain.
The leading chords into a chorus, back into a verse, and anywhere they need a turnaround... their choices with these are impeccable.
The tactic of changing the key for the last verse and chorus of a song... they don't go to that all that often, but when they do, it works perfectly.
Professional songwriting "experts" will tell you to not make specific references to locations or people in your songs. Fountains Of Wayne does this as many times as they like. Places throughout New York and New Jersey are named clearly in their songs. As a Midwesterner, I never had the experience growing up of driving over the Tappan Zee bridge, down I-95, on the LIE, riding the Acela, or being led into Penn Station. That doesn't matter. I don't enjoy the songs any less. The songs would not be better if those specific life experiences were homogenized or made generic. Write what you know. Write for YOU first. They do this over and over again. "Hackensack" is a brilliant song, and someone not having visited it does not change that.
The lyrics have clearly been chosen with care. There are interesting and non-obvious rhymes and near rhymes. For the most part they are all sorts of conversational.
If you write songs, definitely re-visit these albums.
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If you happen to use Twitter, I invite you to follow me on that platform. You can find me here.
Dad's Album of the Week is back. This is the series where I briefly review my late father's vinyl.
Jean-Luc Ponty -Open Mind
If I were to hear this without any context, I would say this is a product of the 80s. It sounds so very 80s. Heavy synth, computerized percussion... well, that's not too terribly different than modern pop and electronic music now, is it... heavy synth, computerized EVERYTHING these days... but this sounds like exactly when it came from... 1984.
Jean-Luc Ponty (who I had to Google) is a classically trained jazz violinist, and his discography is very very long. Open Mind shows up kind of in the middle of it. This isn't my genre of choice at all, so this album name is fitting, as it required that I have an open mind to get through all six tracks. (Can't really call them "songs", as there isn't any singing.) The instrument that takes most of the solos here is violin, but it doesn't often SOUND like a violin. This is probably because they are all electric instruments on this recording, and also because of Ponty's approach, filling the space in the compositions that trumpet, trombone, or saxophone would normally occupy. This is especially the case in "Modern Times Blues", where I would swear that there is a saxophone in there, but no, it's a zeta violin bringing saxophone tones.
"THIS ALBUM HAS BEEN MIXED ON A TWO TRACK DIGITAL MACHINE" is clearly stated in the liner notes. That seems like a lot of work.
I find myself wondering what these compositions would sound like with more traditional jazz accompaniment, but keeping the violin in place as the lead instrument. That's probably something I'd pay money to see. If you are into jazz or the sounds of 1980s synth, you'll probably dig this album.
Dad's Album of the Week is back. This is the series where I briefly review my late father's vinyl.
The Brecker Brothers Band - Back to Back
You're not supposed to judge an album by the cover or inside artwork... but I totally did that here. Ok, so there is the cover above, and here is a picture of the inside of the jacket once you fold it open. (The below picture looks much better because I took it with my phone instead of finding an image on the Internet.)
Look at those guys. They look like an out-of-uniform college marching band. I see a trumpet and saxophone, and from reading the liner notes, I see they are heavy on the woodwinds. Ok, this is going to sound like that easy listening smooth jazz stuff that I can't stomach.
Well, no, all of this album doesn't sound like that. The first two songs are a lot funkier than you would expect from such un-melanated musicians. More careful reading of the liner notes is required, and look here, Luther Vandross arranged the background vocals for this album and also sang on it. (Is that him on the front cover drinking a beer/soda?) The third song is exactly the kind of content I was dreading... and then it moved on to pretty straight-forward jazz, very heavy on the saxophone solos and jamming that isn't going anywhere. I am intrigued by the synth sounds I hear on this, as I'm curious what kind of gear they were using. Full disclosure, I am not generally into this genre unless I am seeing it live.
It turns out that the songs on this album that I actually like were NOT written by the Breckers. No, the ones I like were written or co-written by the other folks in the band. My favorite member of this band I just discovered -which should not come as a surprise to anyone who knows me - is bassist and lead singer Will Lee (the FAQ on his site is great). Check out his work on the song "I Love Wastin' Time With You".
My summary: The songs aren't great - especially the slow ones - but this genre is apparently not about songcraft. The musical performances are fine, and if you're into jazz or saxophone solos, you'll probably dig this.
Let's start by making sure we all pronounce Jenee's name correctly... it rhymes with the French name Renée. Ok, there you go. Jenee Halstead is a songwriter that comes to us from Massachusetts, and her new album Disposable Love will be released THIS WEEK, on Friday the 22nd. I very much dig it, and I think you will, too... when you listen to these songs, you can tell that she feels every word she sings. After the photo, an interview with Jenee Halstead.
1. Let's hear the elevator pitch for your skill set and genre.
Skill set - I have no way or reason to give a skill set. Not sure how to even answer this question. I guess I would call myself an artist. Not considering a skill or ability. I play guitar, I sing my own songs, I seem to get better with each album. It's all about expression. I try to be pure in my expression. Not sure how that relates to my abilities. That is for others to judge I guess.
As far a genre goes I guess I am just a singer-songwriter. I am not glossy enough to be pop, not americana. You could call it indie pop or indie soul. The album is really all over the map. So I think singer-songwriter is the best answer.
2. You've travelled with a choir that performed Gregorian chant music. (I know this because I read your bio.) Are there parts of that experience that filter into your songwriting and performing today? How so?
I guess the Gregorian choir just seeps in as far as purity and sacredness of music. I always want to hear a purity of intention and intentionality if you will in all music. It doesn't matter the genre. If it feels like it is sacred to the person: expressed, meaningful, passionate. Then for me that counts as pure intention. I think there is just a level of sacredness and appreciation in music that I like to hear and experience and witness from whomever I am listening to. If that is not there, it will in no way interest me.
3. What was the first album you can remember buying with your own money?
Maybe Eazy E. I think it was the Eazy E cassette Eazy-Duz-It.. I was a huge hip hop, rap and R&B fan and still am. Oh boy I knew every word to that cassette. Can you imagine a skinny, awkward 12 year old girl from Spokane spitting Easy E on the way to junior high school? Yep. I loved it.
4. Tell me about the last concert you saw.
The last concert I saw: live or online?
I can't even remember. Maybe Lucinda Williams at The Paradise in Boston for the 20th Anniversary of Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. It was great. She was funny. Telling stories of what inspired the songs in between playing. Her stories were mostly about a failed love affair during tour and living on the road. So good. I had accidentally seen her twice that year within a three month span. I think friends offered a ticket each time. So good. She is just amazing when she is sober. I think she has been sober for a while. Three months prior I saw her outdoors at the Blue Pavilion (I think that is the name) in Boston and a fricken fireworks show went off over the water during one of her songs. Amazing.
5. What artists do you consider to be your biggest influences?
My biggest influences? I am going to say Kate Bush. Although my music sounds nothing like hers. It's just her. She is a Master of the highest degree. A sorceress. Her music, expression, songwriting, vocal range, vocal color, vocal ability, all of it is just crazy. I think what I love the most about her is she is working with the elements and mastering the sonic space and alchemizing the planet with her voice, with her lyrics. I can't explain it. Just listen to "Love and Anger" off The Sensual World. I guess she just inspires me in her purity, her intentionality and her ability to heal the world with her music, with the mastery in which she turns a phrase with her voice.
Watch the video here:
Second would be Joni Mitchell. For all the same reasons. The ability to speak and sing of her emotions in a way this is still unrivaled. Her poetry, her insane and gorgeous musical compositions.
Third would be Nick Cave. He is like my soul. He sings and expresses my soul in masculine form.
6. How has the ongoing pandemic affected your music career?
The ongoing pandemic has changed things a lot. It pushed the album release back 8 months. I hadn't really booked a lot of live shows for the release, so that wasn't an issue. I guess for me it was just hard to make the transition online. I didn't want to play online at first. I was focusing on getting singles out from the album, so I didn't have to worry too much about being in the studio or anything. I am finally getting around to playing online and doing a Variety Show through Stream Yard. I just love the live show with people in the room. I work with the energy in the room from people. It felt so strange at first when I was trying to play online in early March. You don't get that energetic interaction. I guess I should have viewed it early on more like a service. Service to others. That may have helped me get over the fear of online playing. I guess it's also devastating seeing some of my favorite stages shutting down. I don't know what to think about a lot of it right now. There is just now way to know how things will be when all of this is said and done.
7. You sound just a little bit different on each release, and it's interesting to me to notice an artist's progress like that. On Disposable Love you seem to have embraced some surprising changes of feel and instrumentation within the same song ("I'll Be Your Man"), showing off influences from blues and gospel at times ("In the Seams"), and even a song that feels like it's a country song except for the really interesting bass line ("Solitary People"). When you started putting this album together, did you plan to cover that much different musical ground, or did it just kind of happen?
When we started this album I don't think we planned on covering this much ground. I have always dappled in several "genres" as a writer. In previous albums I have married folk with Americana, a little bit of Country or Alt-Country, electronic beats and having the album musicians run roots instrumentation through pedals and amps. This was my work with producer Evan Brubaker on my first two full length albums. I knew on this album I wanted to cover more soul and pop sounds. I was clear on that. I was writing songs that sounded more pop influenced and my co-writes with Berklee Songwriting professor Susan Cattaneo (who is a good friend) were each much more soul and pop driven. We co-wrote "In the Seams," "Mother" and "Disposable Love." She also co-wrote the lyrics on "Skin," which to me is truly pop all the way. I think Dave Brophy, my producer, is comfortable bridging all these worlds and in such a unique and masterful way. That was why I was excited to work with him. On any given day he will be working on a Jewish Klezmer album, a soul album, a straight up country Americana album and a high level jazz album. He is a jack of all trades, multi-instrumentalist and he is comfortable swimming in many ponds. We both love Spaghetti Western and noir sounding music and I think that informed and was a thread through a lot of the music...but it also has a fresher pop approach to it.
8. The COVID-19 vaccine is slowly trickling out, which means that maybe - just maybe - touring could be back this year. If we get live shows back, do you plan to go on the road with the album? If we don't get live shows back, what are your next steps?
I honestly am not sure and haven't given this much thought yet. The continual on and off lock downs and insecurity around this whole thing has me table everything for now. If venues start to open in the next six months I may decide to book some shows. I am hoping to at least do one big celebratory show in Boston sometime in the next year (fingers crossed). I just don't think we are going to know for a while how all of this will ramp down (unfortunately) and it's better for my mental health to look at the long game and not get my hopes up too high.
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Trust me on this, you want to listen to Jenee's new album, Disposable Love, and I'd like to remind you that you can do so this Friday. I linked her official website above, but just in case you missed it, click here to visit Jenee Halstead on the Internet. You can also find Jenee on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Dad's Album of the Week is back. This is the series where I briefly review my late father's vinyl.
Mandrill - Mandrill Is
If this were released today, we'd call it fusion. I don't think that term was used for music back in 1972, which is when Mandrill Is was released.
Mandrill was founded by Panamanians who grew up in Brooklyn. That explains the Latin influences heard on this album, as well as the prevalence of the horns. (The founding brothers play trombone, saxophone, and trumpet.) There is also funk and soul here, as well as a track or two that sound like they have been lifted right out of a blaxploitation film... the album is certainly a product of the time, and of the experiences of the musicians.
I think I might adopt the song "I Refuse To Smile" as a personal credo, but my favorite song on this album is "Here Today Gone Tomorrow", which just plain rocks. Go listen to that one.
Welcome to the first installment of a new series over here on my blog. It's called Dad's Album of the Week, to be commonly abbreviated as DAOTW. My dad died a couple of years ago, and I am now in possession of a bunch of his vinyl. I haven't listened to most of it. Telling myself to write about the music will be an incentive to listen to all of it. (Well, I won't listen to any of the Chicago albums. See, that was his favorite band, and I heard them all way too many times growing up.) This series will run on Thursdays, and will generally be brief.
Parliament - Mothership Connection
Even those who have never heard this album have absolutely heard this album, if they have listened to rap or hip hop over the last 30 years. The music here is often sampled, and the vocabulary here is often imitated. (Might "gangster lean" and "the bomb" have originated from this album?)
What we have here is legendary music from a legendary crew (including fellow Ohioan Bootsy Collins), and music that will make you move, all the way from 1975.
Sing it with me now: we need the funk, we gotta have that funk
I released an album in 2020, and of course, have listened to it way more than anyone else has. That's kind of how it works for songwriters, you spend so much time listening and critiquing your own art. I feel obligated to mention that release, because I'd really like you to listen to it if you haven't done so yet.
Curious about some of the other things I listened to in 2020? Be assured, I spent time with music that wasn't actually my own music, and there was certainly no shortage of albums released. Did you know that Pearl Jam put out an album this year? It's true. Guided By Voices put out three albums this year, because of course they did. Some artists who released albums I enjoyed this year are Lesley Barth (Big Time Baby), Lydia Loveless (Daughter), Nick Kizirnis (The Distance), and Local H (Lifers). However, here are my favorites, in no particular order, except for perhaps this first one:
HUM - Inlet
HUM dropped this on the world as a complete surprise. In unison, music blogs everywhere reviewed Inlet with collective awe and near-universal approval. If you’re a music fan who reads about music, and younger than my generation, I’m sure you didn’t understand it. "Why are there suddenly all of these articles about a band I’ve never heard of"? That’s what you surely asked yourself.
HUM hail from Champaign, Illinois, and had a moderate hit song on their third album in the 90s. From the first time I heard that song, I knew this was exactly the kind of band I would love to play in and the kind of band I would love to see. Riff-tastic. Layered. Like shoegaze, but with more driving drums, very subtle harmonies, and some separation in the guitars. A little bit like metal, but not quite as angry or as fast. (Let's take a moment to appreciate some things about that excellent song I linked to that would be generally be castigated today by people in the music business.... introduction of 33 seconds, complete sonic deviation from introduction to the body of the song, all of the instruments are real, the vocals are not pitch corrected, vocals not sitting right on top of the mix, almost two minutes go by before the chorus shows up, total run time is five minutes.)
HUM disappear for 22 years, then drop an album out of nowhere that sounds like they had never left. It is glorious, and is my favorite album of the year. The guitar tones and feel of the songs remind me of my youth, but the vocals are on occasion just a touch more prominent in the mix now than they were a couple of decades ago. There are still lyrics about space and relationships, and there is still all sorts of rock being brought to the table.
Favorite songs: “Waves”, “Step Into You”, “Cloud City”
Punch The Sun -Brevity
If you read my blog, you might remember that I’ve mentioned this album before, when I posted an interview with Shannon Söderlund. Well, here we are near the end of the year, and Brevity remains one of my favorite albums, and I have listened to it over and over and over again. That sweet 90s rock sound will probably always be a soft spot for me, and this album has plenty of it, but also plenty of vocal harmonies and clever lyrics. Go listen to it immediately, leave your ammunition in the junk drawer, and don’t be like Steve.
Favorite songs: “Ammunition", Hey Steve”, “11 Until 2”
Snarls -Burst
I am pretty sure that everyone in Snarls is too young to remember anything about the 90s, but here again, the rock sound from that time period shows up on a 2020 album. These folks are fellow Ohioans, hailing from Columbus. They've had a good year... they've gotten plenty of press from the prestigious and coveted media outlets who we all wish were listening to our music, they signed to a record label, and they released Burst, their debut. Sure, the pandemic nixed their touring plans, and I'm sure that caused them to lose their collective marbles, but as soon as its possible, I think they'll head out on the road in search of world domination. I'd really love to put together a show and play with them in Dayton, but that is probably not enough profile for them.
The songs here are good. A lyric on the album that really resonates with me goes "twenty seems further than it ought to be", which I find to be amusing because there is no way this was written from my point of view. You'll be learning more about a specific member of this band later. (That is what they call "a tease".) For now, let's say that this is another album that lands squarely on some of my favorite sounds... two guitar attack, vocal harmonies, hooks aplenty.
Favorite songs: "Hair", "Concrete", "Burst"
Radkey -Green Room
I discovered this band early in 2020, via their 2019 album No Strange Cats. That’s an outstanding, punchy, punk-influenced bundle of rock. I remember checking the touring schedule to see if Radkey were going to make it to Ohio, and then… well, we all know what happened in the spring, and what that did to touring bands.
Radkey clearly got to work during the months of isolation, and dropped a new album this year. It picked up right where their previous one left off… I mean, check out this video for the lead single:
You’ll be nodding along to everything on this album, and the interpretation of a Bill Withers classic at the end is a nice cherry on top of a tasty rock and roll sundae.
Favorite Songs: “Two-Face”, “Judy”, “Stains”
TINO -Past Due
You know, in my youth, I listened to a lot more hip hop and rap than I do now. Don’t get me wrong, I still very much respect the art form, but as I get older, I find that this genre has stopped resonating with me. Well, TINO is here to bring it all back.
He grew up in Cleveland, but he calls Dayton home these days, and music in the Gem City is better off for it. You can learn more about him in an interview he did earlier on my blog. With TINO, you shall find high energy delivery, intelligent lyrics, and rhymes that you probably didn’t expect. There is plenty of truth spoken on this album, about the 1995 Cleveland Baseball Club (whatever happened to them at the end of the season?), and about the government.
This gentleman takes his art seriously, and he’s got more on the way. If you know of more hip hop like this, point me in that direction.
Favorite Songs: “95 Tribe”, “Gov’t”
The Lees of Memory -Moon Shot
John Davis does it again. You might remember him from previous bands, such as Superdrag, and previous blog entries, such as this one right here. Davis grabbed Brandon Fisher and Nick Slack, and dropped this album in July.
A funk song isn’t the sort of thing you would ever expect here, but you get one on the last song of the album. Other than that, this sounds like a natural continuation of the sounds we have gotten on this band’s first three albums.
If you don’t listen to the lyrics, you might think this is a happy album. It’s not, and really, given what most of us have collectively experienced this year, that’s not a surprise. The lyrics on the album express plenty of problems, but they also comment on something that many of us do to deal with it all. My favorite lyric on the record is from “Crocodile Tears”, and it goes: the radio might help when you feel blue / that’s what rock and roll’s supposed to do / records lift me up when I can’t move / that’s what rock and roll’s supposed to prove.
I thank NPR and their Tiny Desk series for introducing me to Lianne La Havas a few years ago. If you have a few minutes, I cannot strongly enough recommend her enthralling performance from 2015. Here it is:
Two of those songs are from her second album Blood, and the other one is from her debut Is Your Love Big Enough?... but that’s a good sample to show you what she is about as an artist. Lianne writes beautiful songs, and has a strong, otherworldly beautiful voice.
I find the song “Green Papaya” particularly interesting. There isn’t any percussion, so the guitar gives you the rhythm. If you’re thinking that’s the bass player’s job, well, the bass here is sparse, and serves as more of an accent that occasionally moves the feeling along, it’s not actually doing rhythm work. (I happen to very much LOVE what the bass is bringing here.) There is a time signature change at the chorus, but without a steady percussion instrument, I keep having a hard time finding the downbeat, and that really holds my interest.
Lianne has been covering “Weird Fishes” live with her band for years now, so it’s pretty cool to see it show up on this album, and a very interesting choice to cover. Here’s their official video of it, and something that keeps bringing me back to this is seeing the drummer start with the exact beat from the original song, and then change it. Lianne makes this song her own. Also, the a capella bit gives me chills.
Oceanator is the project name for one Elise Okusami… a band and a person from New York City. This is the Oceanator debut album, full of fuzzy guitars for body and catchy lead licks that you might end up humming. Right around the time of release, this album got all kinds of press from just about every corner of the world of online indie rock commentary. (Well, at least I noticed this in the corners of that world that I happen to visit.) I don’t think I can say anything that hasn’t been said already by a ton of writers who are more professional than me. If you want more details, definitely go check out some reviews.
I’ll sum up this way: I dig this album.
Favorite songs: "Hide Away", "Walk With You", "The Sky Is Falling"
Sault -UNTITLED (Rise)
Sault released two albums this year. Many of their song lyrics directly reflect very relatable thoughts and feelings, and are expressed as direct observations or true-to-life quotes. For an example, they have a lyric that goes like this: don’t shoot, guns down racist policeman, don’t shoot, I’m innocent
That particular lyric isn’t on this album, it’s on the other one they released this year. Both of them are certainly worthy of your attention, but this is the one that makes my list of favorites from the year. The percussion sometimes sounds like it comes from some genre of EDM, whereas other times I get a very Afro-Caribbean feel from it. The music over the percussion is a mash-up of r & B, funk, soul, and gospel. I don’t even know what to call it… Up tempo soul? Disco revival? Maybe we should eschew categorization here and just say that many of the tracks here will make you want to move.
The bass groove on “I Just Want to Dance” is great, and I think I’ll spend some time learning that one for the fun of it. The bass on “The Beginning & the End” is also awesome, and I might mess around with that as well.
Favorite songs: “Free”, “You Know It Ain’t”, “Uncomfortable”
Phoebe Bridgers -Punisher
I didn't want to like this album. It has been written about everywhere, and Bridgers has been making so many appearances that I don't know if we can refer to her as "indie" anymore. Being ubiquitous makes you mainstream, doesn't it? She even got nominated for a Grammy this year. (An aside, her nomination is in the Best New Artist category, but she's not exactly a new artist. The lesson here, as always, is that the Grammys are clueless.) So yeah, I didn't want to like this album, and I didn't want to write about it, as I am not generally in the habit of listening to or writing about pop stars.
Here's the thing though... Punisher is every bit as good as people say it is. The pop sheen on the production is a bit much for me, but the songs are strong. Phoebe Bridgers is brilliant, and listening to her songs makes me want to work on my craft.
If you don't feel like reading the story, but are curious to hear the song, please scroll WAY down to the end of this entry, and there will be a link for you.
The Who & Why & What
Some very dear friends were going to move away. This wasn't the kind of move where the prospect of never seeing them for the rest of my life was a possibility (although in the midst of a pandemic now, who knows), but this move was far enough away that visits would be few and far between. So, as one does, I was considering a gift. Here's the problem... gift giving is hard for me, more so in a situation where distance is involved. Food/drink gifts, while delicious, don't last very long. I don't have the wherewithal to come up with practical household gifts, and besides, they were already settled in a home, they were just going to a different home and ostensibly bringing their stuff with them. Not being able to turn my brain off at night is a nearly quotidian issue for me, and many nights the question of what kind of gift to give was the source of my insomnia. What could I - a generally useless and insignificant being - possibly give someone without it being hackneyed or trite? Hey, I write songs. How about a bespoke song? That's unique and that's sincere, which means the proper sentiment gets across no matter how awful it ends up being. Ok, problem solved, now to work...
The Where
I knew the destination of the move. That being the case, I did more reading about the location than I'd like to admit, looking for extra details that I might be able to shoehorn into a song. Relevant lyrics from the song:
Say hello to the Badlands Prairie dogs and Minuteman Needles in the Black Hills Porcupines with their quills
Say hello to the Big Bird
I'm not going to spell the place out to you, I'm going to depend on your profound knowledge of geography and history - or conversely, your Google skills - to tell you The Where.
The How
Brainstorming sessions. Writing text. Editing text into lyrics.
Deciding on a mood. Well, it's somewhat melancholy, but hey, they're not dying - at least not any faster than the rest of us are - and we very well might cross paths again. Ok then, minor key for the verse, then have a pre-chorus that modulates from minor to major, then major key in the chorus in order to give that optimistic and hopeful feeling. Settled. Pick the chords. No, not that one. Yes, that one. Ok. Chords.... find a melody. Agonize over the piano at finding a melody. Have a look at those lyrics. Oh, that's not good enough, and that won't work with the melody. Edit the lyrics again. Gently massage the lyrics and the melody until they are able to combine.
Back to the lyrics. How do I say "I love you and I will miss you" without explicitly saying those words? We're writing songs here, need to be artistic and just a tiny bit oblique. Ok, well, the general purpose of the song is as a goodbye present, how about making that the theme? Enter my interest in etymology. (If you think that word should contain an "n", well, that really bugs me.) The word "Goodbye" literally means "God be with you"... over the centuries English has shortened that four word farewell into one seven letter word. Ok now I have my chorus hook.
Goodbye means God be with you God be with you as you go Goodbye is temporary Just until the next hello
The When
There is more than one When.
The first... well, there was a moving day. I wanted to have the song finished, recorded, and gifted by moving day. I finished the song probably a week before the departure, as far as the final first draft.... then spent time messing around with the arrangement or the lyrics, not liking the edits, revising back to the original idea, pruning here and there again... yeah, it's a process. By no means am I an engineer, but I recorded the song at home the way I do all of my demos... I even threw on some vocal harmonies. I bounced it to mp3, and emailed it to my friends on the day they left. Mission accomplished.
The other When.
I was putting songs together to take to Patrick Himes at Reel Love Recording Company in February 2019, in preparation for tracking on my second solo album. "Goodbye", well, I didn't hate it. It kept growing on me. I thought it had potential given the right instrumentation and production. I brought it with me, along with a bunch of other songs on pre-production day. It survived the initial cut down... and as tracking started on a few songs and an album began to take shape, I ended up thinking that this one absolutely HAD to be on it.
There were obstacles. I wrote this song on piano, but I do not have the piano chops to do it justice. Patrick plays piano - because Patrick plays everything - but he had done that previously on "Convalesce" (from Defacing the Moon), was already playing acoustic guitar and pump organ on this one, and I wanted the chance to work with another talented musician who I admire. I decided to ask Nathan Peters. You might know him from such bands as Vinyl Dies, Lioness, TV Queens, and the legendary Captain Of Industry. Nathan so kindly said yes, and between the chord chart and my very very low quality home recording, was able to figure out what the song needed from the piano part.
Ah, the bass part. Well, I wrote the song on piano, and was unable to come up with an accompanying bass part that I thought was good enough. I reached out to Eric Cassidy for ideas. He had a great idea, and was kind enough to record a video of himself playing the idea slowly enough that I could learn it. One problem, it involved a quick note change that required holding a chord shape for the change... this type of thing is baby easy for guitarists - and for bass players that are much more talented than me - but I don't often play chords, and when I do, I certainly don't slide around from chord to chord. Great idea, how to execute cleanly? It turns out that I couldn't execute it cleanly. Every time I would play it, I'd either mess up the chord shape on the slide, or make too much fret noise, or not have all of the notes held well enough so that one of them wouldn't sound muddy. Here's where the studio magic comes in... I played the root note of the chords, then we used overdubs for the harmony notes. I'm not ashamed to admit it, I'm just not good enough to do it another way, it is what it is. We got the sound we needed to get.
The vocals. Take after take after take. When flat, try again. When sharp, try again. My verse harmonies worked out ok. Patrick had a fantastic idea for an additional harmony in the verse that I hadn't considered... after he sang it for me a few times so I could get it, I went and recorded that as well. What we have now are really nice harmonies in the verse with three parts, and all of the parts are me.
(I feel I should mention and thank community drummer Brian Hoeflich here, but make clear that there was no obstacle whatsoever as far as his part is concerned. He did - as per usual - excellent work.)
The Summary
"Goodbye" is track 3 on Anxious Inventions & Fictions. (If you have the Deluxe Version on CD, it is track 11.) I am proud of it. I said what I needed to say, which is the main point of writing songs. The recording sounds clean, and makes me seem like a much more talented musician than I actually am. Sure, I didn't actually HAVE to professionally record this song... but I thought the song was good enough to deserve it, and the folks I gifted it to deserve to hear it at its full potential instead of only the horrible version I did at home.
I've probably mentioned this before, but I write music first for myself... it's a way to deal with life and emotions and thoughts and such. Sure, if I write something that feels decent enough to share, I absolutely want to share it, but my songs are usually for me first. Music... this cathartic, moving, crushing, heartbreaking thing. As I write, I sometime think to myself that I would like to evoke the same emotions in a listener that Cari Clara's songs evoke in me. If you don't know this artist, let me introduce you.
Cincinnati's Eric Diedrichs is responsible for Cari Clara. He was previously the lead singer of power pop specialists, Simpletons. (An aside: I can't find my copies of the two Simpletons albums. If anyone has them, please reach out. Seriously.) I remember talking to Eric at a show when he had announced that Simpletons was not going to be a thing much longer, and I was somewhat dismayed at losing such great songs and solid performances. He told me that I would definitely not be disappointed in his next project. He was not lying.
Eric Diedrichs kept the poignant lyrics, the pop songwriting sensibilities, the great hooks, and added a triple shot of melancholy, yearning, wistfulness, and occasionally slightly overwrought singing, then started making records all by himself. The first few Cari Clara albums don't have the slick production and sonic sheen that the songs deserve, but the songs are all so good that it doesn't matter. Here is an example from the 2004 album Miniature American Model Society.
Maybe you're wondering what Cari Clara was like when they played live. They were outstanding. This was the first band I had ever seen that had two drummers - something that Radiohead has been doing a lot of the last decade plus - and that really amped up the sonic texture of their shows. Layered guitars, multiple vocalists, and keyboards. Eric made the albums on his own for the most part, but they really came alive on stage with an ensemble of performers.
The last Cari Clara album is Midnight March, and I think it's the best of them. The songs are great, which is standard, but the production is kicked up a few notches. I have very fond memories of heading down to Cincinnati to be there for the release show. My favorite song from the album is this one:
On the Bandcamp page for this album, you'll find the statement "Eric Diedrichs should be famous". I find nothing to disagree with here. As a songwriter, arranger, and lyricist, his work has always spoken to me, and although you probably can't hear it in my music, I consider him to be a strong influence on my sound. This is a talented gentleman with plenty of things to say, and if he's done making music, well, Ohio and the world are both worse off for it.
This show was a long time ago. How long ago? This long ago:
$12.50 for two bands on a national tour! I kind of miss the prices from back then.
The capitol of Ohio, Columbus, has changed quite a bit since 1999. The part of town where this establishment was located is the Brewery District. It used to be a very frequented part of town with bars and restaurants and such... then Columbus got a hockey team with a fancy new arena, and a new entertainment district sprouted forth around it. This spelled doom for many businesses in the Brewery District, and Ludlow's was one of these. Alas, it is no more. I remember it as a cozy place to see a show. Ugh, I miss cozy shows.
This particular night, both bands on the bill were from the state to the north. At some point in the evening, I struck up a conversation at the bar with a gentleman who turned out to be the bass player from Papa Vegas. Many of you have surely never heard of that band. They were excellent. As I write this blog post, I've revisited the album that they were touring to support at the time, called Hello Vertigo. I still have it on CD. The songs are still catchy, I still remember the words even though I haven't listened to these songs in at least a decade (!), and the album holds up.
The band whose name is on the ticket is The Verve Pipe. At the time, perhaps slightly to their chagrin, they had a massive radio/MTV hit single. I owned and loved their album Villians. For some reason, I don't have my copy of that CD anymore, which is a shame, because the version of the aforementioned massive hit song on my copy of the album is very different than the version that went to radio and MTV. I remember picking up that album pretty much immediately after hearing "Photograph". We did not know it at the time, but The Verve Pipe had another album on the way (The Verve Pipe), and they played a bunch of songs from it that were, of course, new to us. The ones that jumped out and grabbed me at this show were "Hero" and "La La"... "La La" remains my favorite song on the album. I will admit that I should have paid more attention to this album, which was their third... like Radiohead before them, they have a song on this album that is a reaction to their big radio hit.
Both bands were sufficiently entertaining that I was sure to catch them later that summer on the same tour. I saw a ton of shows around this time of my life, and not all of them were all that great in retrospect... but this one... I still have fond memories of this one.
Anxious Inventions & Fictions is officially being released this Saturday, September 12th, so yes, I am shouting it from the rooftops everywhere because I would really love for you to at least listen to it, maybe even purchase it. (This is where you can purchase it.) Have you noticed the beautiful cover art for the album? If not, well, here it is again:
Megan Fiely is the artist responsible for this painting that is hanging on the wall of my home, and also gracing the cover of Anxious Inventions & Fictions, both in the digital realm and in hard copy. How about getting to know this artist better? Interview questions after the picture:
1. Let's hear the elevator pitch for your skill set.
I am an abstract artist who works with bold texture and color, simultaneously exploring the celestial and the microscopic.
2. When did you first start painting?
Visual communication, in one form or another, has always been my thing. My parents are both artists so I'm lucky to have absorbed art like a native language. I've taken a lot of different creative paths like music, clay, and quilting (!), but the painter you'd currently recognize as Megan Fiely started happening about 7 years ago. I have older paintings, but I was just fumbling around and imitating other artists, which is very important. I now feel secure evolving my own distinct style.
3. You are best known as a visual artist, but you are also a musician, and maybe folks who are familiar with your paintings don't know that. What instruments do you play, and when did you start making music?
I play the piano and sing at home, and have a guitar for fun too. I started doing all that stuff as a kid: first piano lessons in elementary school and then of course a Fender Stratocaster at 12 or 13, followed by a sanded down but rather nice repainted bass with a fairy painted on it. I had the typical 90s power chord cover band who played for 3 of our friends in the garage. Then in my 20s I dated a musician and one night his bass player didn't show up (again). I got out of the bathtub to go fill in and accidentally became a bassist for several years. Eventually I folded in one of those newer Hammond keyboards that has a built in tube, put it through a Marshall and played bass lines with my left hand on a Korg. I also always contributed back up vocals, and have a good ear for harmonies.
Honestly though, I'm better with a paintbrush. I like leaving the music to all my talented friends and painting album covers for them when I get a chance. And on that note, thanks for including me in the Anxious Inventions & Fictions project Mike!
4. What was the first album you can remember buying with your own money?
Pretty sure it was Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness - Smashing Pumpkins. Or maybe No Doubt's Tragic Kingdom.
5. Tell me about the last concert you saw.
The last official concert while not bartending at Yellow Cab was all the way back in summer 2019 when The Breeders played at Levitt Pavillion. (Mike adds: I wrote about that show in a previous blog entry.) That was a lot of fun because almost everyone I knew was in the audience. I remember rocking out in the audience with you, Mike! Kim and Kelly are cool but Josephine's my babe because tall, bassist, British.
6. What artists do you consider to be your biggest influences, and why? This can include any kind of art... poets, painters, sculptors, songwriters, etc.
Van Gogh is everyone's favorite, including mine. He was more than just a painter though: Van Gogh was a part of the earth, and maybe some kind of human conduit for nature's beauty. My art doesn't look like his, but I think all artists are attempting to tap that same vein.
Also Chagall, Klimt, O'Keefe. Again, my work doesn't look like theirs but I appreciate the spirit of their work, and of course all the color. I like when a figurative piece tells a story.
7. I imagine that artists like yourself face a similar challenge to musicians in that (1) art is generally devalued by the public just like music is and (2) there may be people willing to buy your art, but it can be difficult to find them. How do you deal with those two challenges?
STAY IN THE STUDIO. I had to stop looking for gratification though sales or popularity. I'm a very sensitive and anxious person with big opinions, so I tend to find myself in difficult situations when I'm being too public. I'm happier just living simply and focusing on the actual craft of painting. It seems like putting my energy into the art itself, rather than sales, results in just as many sales anyway. I feel valued and recognized by friends like you, Mike, and I'm seriously not bs-ing you that it's enough. Plus you had me paint your album cover so.... things do tend to work out.
It's important to consider your audience as well. Do I really want to sell my art to rich people or corporations as part of some interior design project? Sure, but you best believe I'm gouging them! I'd seriously rather sell 10 small paintings to my friends at $60 a pop than make one big sale and never see the painting again. I am so fortunate to have a lot of creative and supportive friends and to live in a city that values the arts. I want to encourage regular people to collect and commission original art, rather than seeing it as out of reach because of the art snobs. Understanding this allows me to opt out of the things I don't want to do.
8. How do you know when a painting is done?
Finishing is the easy part, since by that point I've worked out all the technical aspects of the composition, balance, and texture. Perfecting the color happens close to the end. It's the mystical, meditative part of the journey. Once the colors are singing and dancing around the canvas, I know I'm very close to finished and I do some final technical adjustments. I'll dry brush metallics in places that need just a little more dimension, for example. Then I'll set it somewhere in my house for a few days and just cohabitate with the painting, and adjust anything that strikes me as distracting or otherwise bothersome. Then I sign it on the side of the canvas and it's done.
***
Big thanks to Megan for the lovely painting on my wall, being willing to do this interview, and being a genuinely kind and lovely human. Also, look at the colors jump off the screen in those samples of her work! You can browse what she has available for sale at her online store. You can also find her on Instagram.
If you are familiar with my musical tastes, you know that there is a very special place in my heart for Fountains Of Wayne. I listen to them and I think "this is what pop music is supposed to sound like"... plenty of hooks, vocal harmonies, solid songwriting. A bonus with them is many of their lyrics are clearly meant to be a little humorous. Back in the day, I don't think I associated Columbus, Ohio's rock band Go Robot Go with Fountains Of Wayne, but I really should have. I listen to a GRG song, and I think to myself "this is what pop music is supposed to sound like"... there are plenty of hooks, solid songwriting, and plenty of light lyrics. Let's talk about this band for a moment.
Something unique about Go Robot Go is their use of the vocoder. On many of their songs, the vocal harmonies are sung through the vocoder. The opening song to their album Convertible, called "see you on the radio", is a great example... Neal Havener's lead vocals are clean, and the harmony vocals sound robotic. Sometimes they would change it up and put the vocoder up front in the song. Have a listen to "shy (ee ii)" from the same album, and notice that the distorted vocals are there right at the beginning. Of course, the frequent use of a vocoder might seem like a gimmick if the band members weren't actually talented musicians and songwriters... but they are, so while the vocoder is heavily used, I never found it to be distracting.
Some two decades ago, GRG was gigging around the state fairly often, and they played a lot of shows in Dayton. I can think of at least three different Dayton venues at the time where I certainly saw them play, and if I think hard enough, I might come up with some more.
The last album of theirs that I am familiar with is Wait 3 Days... Then Attack! The cover looks something like this.
You might be thinking that the video game looks like it belongs in an arcade, and you'd be right.... they have a song on the album appropriately entitled "At The Arcade". (The high score spells YOU.) As an aside, it looks like there is some Arabic text on the video game, and I never noticed that before. I wonder if Neal and the boys would be willing to tell us what that means.
Sadly, I kind of lost touch with this band in the early 2000s. They released an album in 2007 called LIVE at the Zig Zag. I am pretty sure that's a self-referential allusion to "marmalade 99". There is also an album from 2014 called Good Vibes in Fashion Swimwear, and that one has a song about a certain intelligent cartoon lady in an orange sweater called "Ode to Velma in C Major".
I miss this band. I've taken the opportunity recently to dip back into their catalog, and I am falling in love with them all over again.
Grab some beer, grab some snacks, and discover Go Robot, Go... warning though, these songs will get stuck in your head.
The album title is Anxious Inventions & Fictions, which is a lyric taken from the piano ballad "Insomnia". The album art looks something like this:
Megan Fiely, "Insomnia", 24" X 24", acrylic on canvas, 2020.
This album exists in two versions.
First, there is a ten song digital version. Do you remember my crowdfunding campaign in order to press vinyl from earlier this year? That did not get funded, so the ten song digital version is what the album would have been on vinyl. In order to duplicate the vinyl experience, after the fifth song finishes playing, press pause on your device, get up and walk around the room for thirty seconds to simulate flipping the record over, and then continue.
Second, there is a twelve song deluxe version on compact disc. This contains two additional songs, an alternate mix of the opening track "Your Anthem", and a different track order, for a custom listening experience. The CD also comes with a twelve page booklet, containing lyrics, liner notes, and art. For both versions, the album is sequenced carefully, and the listener is meant to listen to all of the songs in order.
Who?
Mike Bankhead. That's the name/logo on the cover. I wrote and arranged the songs for the most part. I say "for the most part", because TINO wrote lyrics and is featured on one song (you might remember a blog post about him), and Greg Owens co-wrote another song (you might remember a blog post about him as well). Also, two songs feature string arrangements by the outrageously talented Blair Breitreiter. But wait, there is more...
Here is a list of the wonderful folks who lent their time and talents to this album:
Eli Alban Dustin Booher Blair Breitreiter Thad Brittain Chris Corn Ken Hall Valentino Halton Patrick Himes Brian Hoeflich Chad Middleton Kent Montgomery David Payne Nathan Peters Tim Pritchard Tod Weidner Heather York
This album sounds good, mostly because of this list of humans. For those of you who are not familiar with independent music in Dayton, you'll just have to trust me when I say that some of the finest musicians in our area are represented here.
Also, a tip of the hat to Megan Fiely for the beautiful painting, and to Spencer Williams for the photography, layout, and design.
When?
There are some different answers to this question. Let's start with making the album. Tracking and mixing took place between February 2019 and February 2020. That's a year of hard work, not just my own efforts, but also the people listed above, and specifically Patrick Himes as the recording and mixing engineer and David Payne as assistant engineer.
You can order this album on September 4th. That happens to be Bandcamp Friday, when Bandcamp forgoes their customary cut of artist sales. That means that all of the funds spent on Anxious Inventions & Fictions on that specific date go to me, and contribute to my ability to continue making art for you to enjoy. If perchance you don't know where to find me on Bandcamp, here's the link for you to bookmark:
The official release date for this album is September 12th. That is the day that you will be able to listen to it on the Bandcamp page I just mentioned. That's also the day for which a safe, socially distanced, outdoors release celebration is planned.
For those of you who only listen to music via streaming services, you will find Anxious Inventions & Fictions available there on September 15th.
Where?
The album was recorded and mixed at Reel Love Recording Company in Dayton, Ohio. Blair handled some additional recording of string arrangements at Bohemian Trash Studios in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The album was mastered at True East Mastering in Nashville, Tennessee.
The socially distanced release celebration will happen at Yellow Cab Tavern on 4th Street in downtown Dayton. Please note that the owners and staff at Yellow Cab care deeply about the health of our community, and require all visitors to wear a mask. If you do not wear a mask, they will kindly ask you to leave. Yellow Cab also has social distancing guidelines in place. If you wish to know more about the precautions they are taking and how you can cooperate, please give them a call.
Why?
There are those who think that music doesn't need a reason, because "l'art pour l'art", right? I haven't thought about that particular worldview all that much. I certainly have my reasons for making art.
Songwriting is how I deal with stress and anxiety and depression. Songwriting helps me to work through all sorts of emotional turmoil, and the catharsis that it provides is probably a net benefit to my mental health. Songwriting is a way for me to say what I want or need to say, especially when nobody is listening. Not all of those songs get recorded as demos at home, and even fewer of them make it all the way to the studio... but some of them do, and this is what happens when they do.
I still believe in the idea of the album as an art form. That's not popular these days, as music is seen as a resource, a commodity, a value-less product, both by the companies who use it to make profit, and by the vast majority of music listeners. I don't make pop music, so of course, I'm not making music for these people. I make music first of all for me, because it's something I'm driven to do... and all of you other musicians out there, I see you nodding along. Of course, I wish to share my art... well, the subset of it that I get around to thinking is of enough quality to warrant sharing... but if I write something I don't personally like, you won't be hearing it. I won't write in a genre or in a certain way because it's popular, because I'm trying to get rich, or because I think it's what someone wants to hear. You'll only be getting authenticity from me, thank you very much.
The above said, music is also a means of communication. Thoughts, feelings, ideas, the concrete, the abstract, and just about everyone wishes to be heard, yes? Maybe music is kind of a cry for help? Tell you what, as soon as I get a therapist, I'll be sure to discuss this with them.
You know, ever since I was a teenager, if I see that particular word all on it's own, I can't help but sing it. I mean, I sing it inside my own head where nobody is listening, but it has to be sung. How, you said you never would leave me alone....
So, how did this happen? Lots of hard work. I'm not exactly a gifted musician or songwriter, but I work at it, and I have some perfectionist tendencies, which means lots of editing and re-writing. A great deal of singing practice. A great deal of singing the same parts over and over again, until Patrick would tell me that it's no longer pitchy. All sorts of patience from Patrick Himes and the musicians who agreed to play for me. Even more patience from my wife when I would be in the studio for long hours and obsess over details in mixes at home.
New music used to be released on Tuesday. For albums that were eagerly anticipated, local music stores would start selling them at midnight. I happened to be eagerly anticipating Pearl Jam's 5th album, Yield. At the time, I had a job where my shift ended at 11 PM on Monday nights, and I decided to go get Yield as soon as I could. After work, I drove to Dingleberry's in Centerville (a great record store that is no longer with us) and browsed records whilst listening to whatever was playing on the in-store speakers until midnight. At midnight, I purchased the CD, and proceeded to listen to it on the way home.
The only song I had heard from the album prior to purchase was "Given To Fly", which was the radio single. There was a little bit of controversy around it, because of its similarity to a Led Zeppelin song, but since I hadn't really listened to any Led Zeppelin at the time, I didn't notice. The single didn't particularly move me, but there was music industry buzz around the release, and I had read some positive reviews. (See, back then, you had to do your research before buying an album.)
Yield kind of smacks you in the face when it opens. "Brain of J" was the kind of raucous rocker that reminded me of "Once" and "Go". I was all in immediately. The second track, "Faithful" has a steady, meaty riff in the pre-chorus and chorus.... the third track, "No Way" is a place where Jeff Ament demonstrates the groove that I enjoy from his playing (though I love his work on this entire album), and I also immediately dug the lyrics. I fondly remember the feeling of discovery as I drove home... the soaring chorus of "In Hiding", and the sing-along album closer "All Those Yesterdays".
When I got home, I had a chance to really examine the packaging. The CD came in a rather creative digipak, with a triangle cut-out on the cover, allowing you to see the yield sign on the panel behind it. When you open the cover, the sign is in a completely different context. The album also came with a nicely designed booklet where you can read the lyrics and all of the track credits. I spent plenty of time sitting in my room, reading through the liner notes and lyrics whilst listening to this album. It's a fond memory of a long gone time...
You ever listen to an album and immediately love it? That's not something that happens all that often with me, I usually take a few listens to warm up to something. Brevity is an exception. I loved this one right away... the lyrics, the melodies, the nineties rock sound that reminded me of my youth. Brevity is still in regular rotation for me, and that has been the case ever since it showed up in April. The people responsible for this album are Punch The Sun, from New York. The person responsible for writing the songs is fellow bass player and lead singer Shannon Söderlund, shown at the bottom right of this photo:
Shannon has songs. So many songs. Good ones. Great ones. She keeps making more. Remember that songwriting challenge that I previously wrote about where you write five songs in five days? Shannon is part of this same group of songwriters with me, and the songs that she writes for these are so good that I generally question what in the world I am doing.
Ok, you've heard enough from me. Let's amplify Shannon's voice.
***
1. Let's hear the elevator pitch for your skill set and genre.
My elevator pitch, eh? I grew up singing and playing in a family band, so music has always been - quite literally - my life. After us kids grew up and the family outfit wasn't playing as often, I tried out a bunch of different musical areas (Wind Ensemble, Jazz vocals) until I found my home among what I listened to in high school: Alt Rock.
2. You joined Wheatus for a European tour. (For my readers who don't know that band, they are a New York rock band who had a hit single in 2000 that was on radio and in movies.) How'd you get that gig? Can you talk about your experience touring Europe and playing music?
As happens so often in this industry, it was mostly a circumstantial thing. About 2 years ago, I shared a bill with an artist (Gabrielle Sterbenz) who was in need of a singing bassist. And she saw me playing bass and singing in my own band, right after her set! So we got together and I played with her band several times in the following months. Then last year, she needed someone to head out on tour with her, as she was supporting Wheatus. Obviously, I said yes.
Touring Europe and Great Britain was really fantastic. I basically grew up touring with my family, so even though I hadn't done it in years it felt very much like hopping back on a bike, y'know? I love all the parts of a touring production: moving equipment, setting up, soundcheck, finding food in a new city, the show, sleeping in an unfamiliar place (though we had the bus to go back to, which was lovely), meeting new people every day, traveling with the same dozen people for weeks on end. It's one of my favorite things in the world. And I feel so blessed and honored that I got to do it with a truly special group of people.
3. What was the first album you can remember buying with your own money?
Hmmm... either Norah Jones' Come Away With Me or Fiona Apple's Extraordinary Machine. I might've gotten them together? I listened to a LOT of my brother and sister's music in high school until they left to go to college and I had to fill my own silences. Those two albums, along with Hot Hot Heat's Elevator, where basically the soundtrack to my senior year in high school.
4. Tell me about the last concert you saw.
If I'm honest I don't even remember the artist's name; it was a show my friends were excited about, so I tagged along. The music was fantastic - kind of experimental prog-jazz - and I remember there was a female bassist, whose left hand I was staring at literally all night.
5. What artists do you consider to be your biggest influences?
Fiona Apple is a big one. Cake is another. Weezer, definitely. Most of all though, it probably was my parents and the Christian Rock we played (oh yes, it was a missionary family band). I definitely see that 90s-worship-music as defining a lot of the music I write. I think music is about connection and relationships. And in my mind, songs should be catchy and sing-along-able, which is almost certainly a holdover from worship music. I definitely sing more about existential dread these days instead of Jesus, but hey.
6. At the moment, COVID-19 has you stuck in Liverpool. I imagine there are worse places to be socially distant. How are you managing being that far away from home for so long? [Note from Mike: This interview was done in May, Shannon is back on this side of the Atlantic now.]
In a weird way, Liverpool feels very much like home. I'm here with someone I love dearly and consider family. I think it would be much, much harder if that were not the case. But there's plenty about this town that feels familiar - all the flora here is like, exactly what my mom has in her garden in the PNW (that's Pacific Northwest, for those of you who are unfamiliar). And videochatting, both over Marco Polo (hi, Shiree and Danielle!) and in realtime has been life-saving. Being able to stay connected with friends and family has been huge.
7, If you could change anything about the music industry, what would it be?
This... I have complicated feelings about this. Many of the problems I have with this industry have to do with money, and the people on top who want too much of it. It's much the way I feel about our society.
That being said, I think there are a lot of things that musicians (especially ones starting out) complain about that come from a basic misunderstanding of how businesses operate. Money is obviously a necessity for society to function and businesses to run. And there are a lot of ways in which the industry is surprisingly functional, especially when it comes to touring and live gigs. It's hard, but I understand why it's hard. And this has ALWAYS been a hard industry. So... *shrugs shoulders*
8, Brevity probably didn't get the big marketing push that it deserved, due to the pandemic. Assuming the situation improves, will you all re-visit promotion for that album and perhaps tour? Also, what's next for Punch the Sun and for you personally?
I definitely want to tour on Brevity! Once the pandemic is over, that's a route (#tourpun) that we will certainly pursue. I can see us perhaps making some music videos down the road (omigosh ANOTHER #tourpun) to highlight some songs on the album. Ultimately, though, I'm really glad it's out in the world for people to listen to and think, "wow, that's what Punch The Sun sounds like!"
Next up, though, is more music - of course. I'm already working with Campbell (our drummer) on some new songs. We're just in the demo stage, since we're on opposite sides of the Atlantic, but we're deep in the writing process again, which feels fantastic. Music forever!
***
I linked to both the website for Punch The Sun and to Brevity up in the first paragraph. You can also find Punch The Sun on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
The calendar has turned to June. That means this is a great time to tell you about Sarah Rudy, who is a songwriter, guitarist, and singer. Her band is called Hello June. They hail from the State where I was born, West Virginia. Those of you from Dayton might already know about Sarah and her band, as the folks over at WUDR play their music. Sarah might not be all that great at elevator pitches (unless the building is very tall), but is pretty great at writing songs, at playing guitar, and generally being awesome.
Interview below the picture:
photo by Josh Saul
1. Let's hear the elevator pitch for your skill set and genre.
We've been called, "indie rock," but I honestly don't even know what that term means. We're not hard rock, but we're not soft rock either. We're not fast and dance-y, but our shows are full of energy. I/we create every aspect of the music, the videos, the designs, the marketing - if that is what they mean by "indie," we are that (haha).I'm an artist who is drawn to writing and creating songs that mean something to me and that others can relate to. The one thing I can say wholeheartedly is that we are genuine - the music that you hear comes from experiences and stories and real life events that mean a lot to me. My hope is that I gather people around me who relate to the music, regardless of the "genre" it happens to be called at the time. I'm sorry that this was possibly the worst elevator pitch to ever hit anyone's ears.
2. During the time of social distancing in March and April, which albums or artists did you listen to the most?(Note from Mike... I thought some semblance of normality might resume by the time I published this interview, but yeah, not quite.)
I have listened a whole whole lot to TK Blockstar's self-titled album - the way that she conveys emotion in her message is exceptional and even though the genre is completely different from whatever we would be considered, I've found her presentation of emotion very inspiring. On top of that, shes from the great state of West Virginia - her album's have been giving me strength during a tough time. I've also listened a whole lot to The Band's "Music from Big Pink" a good bit and I'm always circulating back around to Big Thief - their music is so genuine and beautiful.
3. What was the first album you can remember buying with your own money?
As soon as I caught wind of Alanis Morissette, I felt deeply empowered in a way that I did not even understand. I bought the "Jagged Little Pill" album and played it a million times. Up to that point, I was just playing stuff that an older cousin of mine had given me.
4. Tell me about the last concert you saw.
We saw Big Thief in Columbus - the last show of that tour. Although I've watched live performances online, I hadn't gotten to see them in person and that was something that I was really wanting to do. I have such a visceral reaction to her songwriting - she has such a genuine realness that you don't see very often. The experience was surreal and beautiful and thinking of it makes me miss the magic of live music.
5. Imagine you have a gig tonight. How do you decide what goes on the setlist?
When I'm creating the list, I consider who's going to be on stage with me that night (some songs just translate better full band), the venue (do I anticipate poor sound quality or will I hear every breath I take?), the likelihood of an attentive crowd, and now, with livestreams, I'll tailor my setlist to what some sweet fans have asked me to play. I've been known to cut a set or song short when the crowd is being rude - so sometimes the decisions about setlist are made right there on stage.
6. If you could change anything about the music industry, what would it be?
This is a hard question because the system is so broken. I've thought about this so many times, but I usually end up running in circles. I wish there wasn't a need for a record label - I wish that independent musicians had a platform that they could use to reach their fans AND find fans that would enjoy their music. Facebook doesn't like to show posts unless they are paid; Spotify, Apple Music, etc gives artists a couple cents for what people are buying, but yet, these are reliably and interestingly enough, our best tools? I also have seen that the problem with a few people having the power leads to the abuse of this power - there is a lot of gate-keeping by powerful people who could "make a career," and so many ways to fall into bad/unsafe conditions due to this. We have a long way to go in a lot of ways.
7. What is your biggest challenge when it comes to making music?
My biggest challenge has been finding good "fits" for our band in terms of long term band-mates. Whit Alexander has been around since day one and together we've played with a revolving cast of characters for years. We actually really love playing with different people and learn from doing this, but sometimes there are challenges to what we have done for most of our time as a band. We've played many shows where the only practice that we'll have with the band would be an acoustic run-thru in the hotel or even no practice at all. Our current lineup is an interesting one - we've brought Travis Evans back to play drums. He originally helped me back in 2013 when I moved back to WV from Baltimore - we didn't even have a band name back then and I was just developing the songs (Whit was around and playing bass at that time). Whit is once again on bass and the way that he plays is so melodic and full that it allows me to play much more lead guitar than I've been able to do in the past. When you're moving your line-up around, one frustrating but efficient move is to keep things relatively simple so that everyone in the band knows where they are in the song, etc. This three piece line up is as freeing as I've ever been able to experience and it's much more true to the songs, I think.
8. How do you intend to keep growing as a musician and songwriter?
My goal is to be able to more fluidly create songs that more accurately depict what is in my head/what is the intent for the song. In order to do this, I intend to keep listening to those who do this well and working on my craft. There is so much good music to consider - the bar is high. I've also got some collaborations coming up - for me, there is always a learning curve to that and I'm always pushed by other people.
***
Sarah and her band have gotten some verypositivepress for their self-titled debut full-length. You should listen to it, and if you dig, maybe by a copy to support them? You can also connect with Hello June on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
I try to run these blog posts on Mondays, and I'm writing this one on Sunday evening, 19th April. I'll start by thanking - from the bottom of my messed up heart - all of the kind folks who have supported this project so far.
$2000 to press vinyl. (Note that I arrived at this number after shopping around and getting quotes from several companies that press vinyl.)
$100 materials required to ship albums. This is basically the boxes and packing material so the records don't break when I mail them.
$500 estimated shipping cost. Each time an album goes in the mail, there is a cost. The farther it goes, the more the cost.
$180 State of Ohio and Greene County tax. Yes, as a business, I have to pay tax on all sales. Pre-orders count as sales.
$130 Kickstarter fees. They take a cut, which is how they stay in business.
$130 processing fees. The folks that handle the fund transfer take a cut, which is how they stay in business.
$360 promotion. I had planned to split this between having a music video done and sending promo copies of the album to indie radio and music journalists.
All of that adds up to $3400. Note that this amount is only for vinyl. I'm going to have CDs made and will distribute digitally, and am paying for that myself.
So, the deadline for raising the funds is this Friday, 24th April, at the auspicious hour of 07:12. Frankly, it doesn't look likely that we'll make the goal. This is the risk you take when you try to crowdfund during a pandemic. If the goal is not reached, I won't be pressing Anxious Inventions & Fictions to vinyl, short of some sort of art grant. That makes me a little sad, as I would love to see Megan Fiely's beautiful artwork on a vinyl album cover, and I'd also love to hold my own music in my hands on wax. Buy hey, the market is speaking, it is what it is.
If you were on the fence about supporting this project, what can I do to move you off the fence? (This is, of course, assuming you are still gainfully employed. These days, I understand that many people are not.) Would hearing the first single from the album help? Ok, you'll all end up hearing that one anyway eventually, yes. Well, did you know I wrote a song called "Wapakoneta" (yes, like city) that isn't on the album? It has an Americana feel... I tried to write a Jason Isbell song... and yes, I know that's not the sandbox I usually play in. I'm going to make that song an exclusive bonus for anyone who backs this project. Have anyone in your life who collects vinyl? You know, Anxious Inventions & Fictions would make a great gift for them Also, this would be a way to support a local independent business (namely You Could Be My Aramis Music, LLC), and also, support the arts.
I invite to you kindly take one last look at the rewards I am offering for pledges to this campaign. Also, think about all that time that we'll probably all be stuck in quarantine again this fall/winter, and of how nice it would be to have another black circle to spin.
Again, for the folks who have already backed this project, I know who you all are by name, and I cannot thank you enough. Thank you. I won't forget.
Making an album is a long journey. The time spent writing and re-writing, then re-writing again at home. The arranging, which often requires another re-write. The demos. The gathering in the studio to discuss and plan. Session after session after session with a whole bunch of really talented people. Take after take after take of singing, repeating the process if you're a little sharp or a little flat. The listening to studio bounces over and over and over and over. The mixing. That's my process and my journey at least. Many musicians probably have it easier. For me, it's a long journey, and it's hard work, and I wouldn't be able to do it without the help of a great many people.
I'd like to celebrate a little more than a year spent working on Anxious Inventions & Fictions by means of a photo blog entry.
Let's begin:
This is engineer extraordinaire Patrick Himes adjusting the boom for Eric Cassidy on June 2, 2019. Eric sang harmonies on "Bright Ideas". Ultimately, that song didn't make it to Anxious Inventions & Fictions, but it is out right now as a stand-alone single. Please click here to listen to it.
Here's Eric Cassidy again, this time holding an accordion. He played this on June 30, 2019, during the outro on "Pauline". You can hear this song on Defacing the Moon, as the songs from that album were chosen from these sessions.
This is Dustin Booher, with me on June 29,2019. He is a fellow Xenian, and we have known each other since we were five years old. He sang on "Sunday (That Pill)", which is on Defacing the Moon. He also lent outstanding vocals to "Never Let Go", which is the 4th song on Anxious Inventions & Fictions.
There is Dustin in the background... and here is Tim Pritchard on July 27, 2019, playing guitar. You can hear his fine work on "I Am a Number" and "Promise".
This is Jackie and Brandon, who are half of Westerly Station. I met them in Austin at the CD Baby DIY Musician Conference. (I wrote about that before.) Brandon is a fellow Ohioan, and we even grew up in the same county. It was quite convenient that they came from their Texas home to Ohio when I was in the studio, and they had the time to stop by. Brandon played mandolin on "Sunday (That Pill)", and it sounds great.
Hello there, Ken Hall. Normally, you can find him seated behind a piano, a task he performs in Shrug and Human Cannonball. I invited him to play a little trombone. You can hear Ken play for about a second and a half on "Your Anthem", which is the first track on Anxious Inventions & Fictions.
This handsome fella is Kent Montgomery. He is the lead guitarist from The New Old Fashioned. He was kind enough to play guitar on "Never Let Go", "Won't Love You Anymore", "Run To You", and "Wapakoneta". That last song didn't make the album, but I will release it at some point.
Here I am with Nathan Peters, who I've known over 20 years. You might recognize him as the lead singer and keyboardist from legendary Dayton band Captain of Industry. These days, he fronts Lioness. He was kind enough to come to the studio and play piano on "Goodbye". I wrote the song on piano, but I don't have the chops to give it the recorded performance that it deserves. Thanks to Nathan's work, it sounds so very good.
The most recent photo. January 23, 2020. As you can see from the wood floors and the walls, this photo was taken after the great Reel Love flood and subsequent remodel. (Scroll up to the first picture for the old school look of the main room in the studio.) This was my last day in the studio for work on the album. There was a mixing session after this, so the official end date was in February, but I didn't need to head down for that. Patrick's steady hand guided me through this process, as he has done so many times for so many other musicians. He has a fantastic ability to hear the song behind my low-quality home demos. I can tell him what I am trying to accomplish as far as the sound I hear in my head is concerned, and he can figure out how to get me there. This gentleman is a multi-instrumentalist, great singer, and true professional.
I hope you have enjoyed this brief photo journey through a year's worth of work. There are plenty of behind-the-scenes photos that I haven't even seen. I have 5 disposable cameras that came to the studio with me, and they are filled with photos. If you are curious as to what might be on them, they are available as one of the rewards on my Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund pressing Anxious Inventions & Fictions to vinyl. Why not head over to the campaign and help me press some vinyl?
This song is on my upcoming album, Anxious Inventions & Fictions. It is the result of a songwriting exercise meant to combat writer's block... but strangely enough, I wasn't actually suffering from writer's block when I wrote this song. Let's set the scene... come to Nashville with me, to the CD Baby DIY Musician Conference in the summer of 2018.
One of the most useful sessions I attended was conducted by Shane Adams. This gentleman is on the faculty at Berklee Online. I had seen him speak the previous year, and he is humorous and engaging, energetic and open, and clearly quite knowledgeable. This year, he was talking about a proven method of defeating writer's block. At the time I sat through this seminar, I wasn't suffering from writer's block... I wasn't really trying to write songs at the conference... but in order to get the most out of the session, if there is an audience participation exercise, you need to participate.
I don't want to explain all of the things that were covered here, but let's briefly say that the method consisted of a series of letters. No, not the twenty-six characters that make up the English alphabet, the method of communication before email, telephones, and telegraphs. When I was much younger, I used to write letters often. I would write to my friends both here in Ohio, in other parts of the United States, and overseas. I couldn't even tell you how many scores of letters I've probably written. That being the case, I took to this exercise rather well.
The phrase "she speaks in metaphor" came out of this exercise. Wanna see? Here it is:
At some point, I thought this would make an excellent song title. Once I decided that, I needed a musical approach. I decided to write this one on my bass instead of on the piano. Further, as the song title seemed to me at the time that it would lend itself to a rather complicated idea, I wanted to make the song simple, and I wanted the bass to carry it. For that reason, the verses consist of only one chord. A minor. That's it. The bass line that carries the verses is moving through several of the notes in the A minor scale. There is a bit more motion in the chorus parts as far as the harmony is concerned. That settled, I used the piano to help me pick out a melody. After I had a melody, then came the work to write lyrics to fit the melody and the theme.
This needed to be a rock song. Ok, not just rock. RAWK. To that end, I recruited one of the finest bass players in Dayton, Chirs Corn. (He has other talents as well.) He used to play in a very loud, chaotic, experimental, post-punk outfit called My Latex Brain... and in this band, he would surround himself and his bass with what seemed like a hundred different pedals, and make the bass sound like a legion of guitars. That's the sound I wanted on this song. I also recruited Thad Brittain for more high frequency guitar work. For the percussion end, I asked Brian Hoeflich to do his best Jimmy Chamberlain impersonation, and he obliged.
I am extremely pleased with the result. If my Kickstarter campaign is successful and we get vinyl pressed, you'll be able to find it as the first song on Side Two of the album. I can't wait for you to hear it.
February 17th, 2019. That was the first day of tracking for my second solo full-length album. A quick aside... it's awfully strange to call it a "solo" album, as I certainly couldn't have gotten it done without a great deal of help. Patrick Himes, the engineer/producer. Brian Hoeflich, professional drummer extraordinaire. The other guitarists, vocalists, pianists, violinists, etc who are on the album: Eli Alban, Dustin Booher, Blair Breitreiter, Thad Brittain, Chris Corn, Ken Hall, Kent Montgomery, David Payne, Nathan Peters, Tim Pritchard, TINO, Tod Weidner, Heather York. That's an awful lot of help for a "solo" album.
(I digress again. This doesn't count the folks who helped out on songs that didn't make the album, but that I still plan on releasing. I'll be thanking them all by name in the future, you can take it to the proverbial bank.)
Where was I? Oh yes. February 17th,2019. Notice how in that first paragraph, I wrote the words "gotten it done"? Yes, February 5, 2020 was the last mixing session. The album is tracked. The album is mixed. A release date is in the future. It is without a doubt my best work to date. Wanna know what it's called?
Anxious Inventions & Fictions
That's a lyric from one of the songs. Would you like to hear it on vinyl? I would surely LOVE to press it to vinyl.
It turns out that you, yes you, can help to get this album pressed to vinyl. I am launching a Kickstarter campaign to offset the expense of pressing vinyl. It essentially functions as a pre-order... if you are interested in hearing my new album on vinyl, by all means, select a campaign reward that includes your very own copy of Anxious Inventions & Fictions. There are a few different rewards that include the physical record. For one of the rewards, I'll list your name in the liner notes expressing my deep gratitude for all the world to see. I have five disposable cameras (remember those?) full of exclusive behind-the-scenes photos of the recording process... I haven't even seen these photos... those are possible rewards as well.
What if you don't have a turntable, but still want to help? Well, one of the rewards is for a digital download of the album. What if you just want to wait until the album is on Spotify or Pandora or Apple Music or YouTube? Well, if you would like to support the effort of getting the album pressed to vinyl for other folks out of the kindness of your heart, there is a donation level for that. Every little bit helps, you know.
Kickstarter is an all-or-nothing crowdfunding platform. If we reach the funding goal, then I'll be able to get Anxious Inventions & Fictions pressed to vinyl. If we do not reach the funding goal, nobody will be charged for any of the pre-orders, and the album will not be pressed to vinyl.
If you didn't already click on the link above to go to the Kickstarter campaign, why not click it here to visit my pre-launch page? The campaign goes live on Wednesday, March 25. Please share with all of your music-loving friends. Let's press some records!!!
