This song started as a voice memo, a brief line of lyrics and the slightest suggestion of melody sung to my phone. The line in question was this one:

tell your teacher I got some bright ideas

Admittedly, that's not much to build a song around. The concept of "bright ideas" stayed with me.  I live in the Greater Dayton area, and this is a place that has seen many inventors and creatives. I decided to build the song into a love letter of sorts to the Gem City and to the thinkers who called this place home. I also decided to try to write a Guided By Voices song.

The second thing I wrote was the riff for the outro. I did the writing on piano, but I knew from the beginning that I would want that hook played on guitar and also sung. I knew from the beginning that I didn't want to include a traditional "chorus" with the song, and that I wanted it to be short and punchy.

This is what it sounds like.

My thanks go out to Dr J at WUDR and Juliet Fromholt at WYSO for playing this song on the radio.

I am also thankful to the personnel who played on this single. Here are the credits:

released March 31, 2020 
Music & Lyrics by Mike Bankhead 

Bass, Vocals: Mike Bankhead 
Guitar, Vocals: Eric Cassidy 
Drums: Brian Hoeflich 
Vocals: Patrick Himes 

Produced by Patrick Himes & Mike Bankhead 

Engineered and Mixed by Patrick Himes at Reel Love Recording Company, Dayton, Ohio 

Mastered by Alex McCollough at True East Mastering, Nashville, Tennessee 

Art by Ashka RA 

©℗2020 You Could Be My Aramis Music (BMI)

 

***

"Bright Ideas" was taken down from global streaming services when I changed distributors, but it will be back TOMORROW, Tuesday 22nd March, 2022.

I found this to be an interesting year for music.  A few artists I listened to in my youth back in the 1990s put out new music this year.  This includes Candlebox, Matthew Sweet, Teenage Fanclub, Garbage, Sleater-Kinney, Liz Phair, Toad The Wet Sprocket, and Quicksand.  None of these made my top ten for the year. Another band from back then from Canada called Big Wreck put out an EP this year, and I really like it... their singer Ian Thornley is about the closest voice I have ever heard to Chris Cornell (my favorite singer), and the songs on it are good.  It looks like this:

A few artists from my music community here in Dayton also put out new music... Looking at YOU: Age Nowhere, Paige Beller, Sadbox, The New Old Fashioned, and TINO.  (I encourage you to click on those links in the last sentence and check out some good stuff from Dayton, Ohio.) Guided By Voices also put out two albums in 2021, because of course they did. 

Another Ohio band who I have expressed my appreciation for in the past, Snarls, also has a new release this year.  They went to Seattle to record the EP What About Flowers? with Chris Walla (who you might know from Death Cab For Cutie), which is a pretty cool thing for a Columbus band to do. 

Elbow is one of my favorite artists, and they put out an album this year.  It's not among my favorites in their catalog, but maybe it'll surge after a few more listens.  My favorite song on it is "What am I Without You".  If you often read about music, you'll surely see the latest Japanese Breakfast album turn up on a few best-of-the-year lists.  I really dug the song "Posing For Cars" from that one.  Some other folks I know also put out fine work this year... Chelsey Coy's project Single Girl, Married Girl , Lauren Light, Baby Molly, and Greg Owens & the Whiskey Weather have new albums that deserve your attention.

Here's a blurb that I wrote for an album that I liked, but as it turns out, it's not in my top ten, and goes into the "honorable mention" category.  The cover art is awesome. Consider this a bonus blurb:

BEAMS - Ego Death 

I had never heard of this band until I started putting together my favorite albums of the year.  I checked in with Juliet Fromholt, music director over at WYSO, to see what she was considering for her end-of-the-year list, knowing that there were certainly things that I had missed.  Juliet sent me all kinds of stuff that she enjoyed, and while I certainly should have heard things from all of these artists on her shows, I don't get the chance to listen to ALL of the shows each week.  Beams was on Juliet's list.  I do my due diligence, working through the artists, and when I got to Ego Death... well, it stopped me in my tracks.  Give me all of that distorted guitar and songcraft and vocal harmonies please, thank you. 

A little Internet research tells me that this band is from Toronto, and that Ego Death is their third full-length album.  Apparently they were leaning in a more folk-sounding direction before, which is fine, but that's not what I hear on this album.  Whatever prompted their evolution into bigger sounds, well, I'm cool with it.  I might get around to heading back into their catalog to listen to their past work, but for now, I'm going to listen to this one a few dozen more times.  I dig it. 

• Favorite songs: "Born to Win", "Break Glass", "A Flower Blossomed"

 

 

All of the above said, here is my top ten, which, other than the first one, are in no particular order:

FAILURE - Wild Type Droid

I'm sure glad Failure are back, and they keep making excellent music.  This one is a little different than their last few efforts.  Think back to Fantastic Planet and The Heart Is A Monster... those are both long albums that sort of meander through a story, complete with instrumental segues to tie pieces together.  Next, they put out In The Future You Body Will Be the Furthest Thing From Your Mind, which was the result of collating four EPs into one album.  All of those are excellent work, by the way, and Fantastic Planet is especially a masterpiece. Failure has noticed that fewer and fewer people care enough about music to listen to an album all the way through, so they've adjusted their art to match.

This new one is only 10 songs.  It's still atmospheric and spacy. The songs that are supposed to sound big still sound big.  The songs that are supposed to be stripped down and more delicate are still stripped down and delicate.  Unlike their previous work, however, you probably don't lose anything from the listening experience if you listen to this one out of order, or put a song on a playlist.  You aren't losing any of the flow or context by doing that this time around.  Failure is still making music that sounds like Failure, but they seem to be tossing an olive branch to modern listening habits.

This is my favorite album of 2021.

• Favorite songs: "Submarines", "Bad Translation", "Half Moon"

 

ERIC BIBB - Dear America

People who know me are going to be surprised to see a blues album on this list.  There is more here than just twelve bar I-IV-V progressions and various solos. There is plenty of folk and americana sounds here as well.  What stands out to me the most here though, is that Eric Bibb clearly has something he still needs to say.  The Internet tells me that this is his 23rd studio solo album, so maybe it's a little amazing that he is still moved enough to keep making art.

Listen to his lyrics.  Eric doesn't live in the United States anymore, but he used to... and of course, we all live in the same world, and see the same appalling things.  Those of us who write songs use the craft to work our way through the feelings that life thrusts upon us, and that is what it seems Eric is doing on this album.  The album title and picture on the cover suggest that this collection of songs is intended as a letter to the United States... a letter complete with solos... a letter with frank declarations like: "what a way for a boy like me to have to die", in a song about Emmett Till.

• Favorite songs: "Born Of A Woman", "Emmett's Ghost", "White & Black"

 

 

ADIA VICTORIA - A Southern Gothic 

The "South" is not my home. I don't feel safe there. I really don't even like visiting. It is Adia Victoria's home, since she is from South Carolina. You can hear the love for her home in these songs. The love is there despite the region's traditional lack of inclusion of voices like hers.  She says this in Rolling Stone:  "I wanted to include myself in the history of the South. I wanted to make this young Black girl's narrative just as emblematic of a Southern experience as Faulkner could write."

Despite the love that Adia clearly shows here, there is also plenty of anger to go around, and the angry parts of the album are the ones that I think I relate to the best.  My favorite example of that here is on "Deep Water Blues". 

Sounds of blues, gospel, and country all collide on this album. If you happen to enjoy listening to any of these genres, well, this album is definitely for you.

• Favorite songs: "You Was Born To Die", "Whole World Knows", "Deep Water Blues"

 

 

 

THE MARS VOLTA - Landscape Tantrums (Unfinished Original Recordings of De-Loused in the Comatorium)

Ok, The Mars Volta released De-Loused in the Comatorium in 2003, and I happen to love that album.  These gentlemen from El Paso reached into the past, grabbed the early progress on those songs, and released them this year.  This album is probably more enjoyable if you are already familiar with the songs in their finished form... however, I think that even if I didn't know what these songs would eventually end up becoming, I would still be blown away.  Sometimes the sounds are frantic, sometimes delicate, there is plenty of playing around with rhythmic elements that aren't necessarily typical in rock music, and the mix is very different than what we got in 2003, so the songs all kind of shine in different ways.

In addition to these mixes being simpler and minimally produced for them (if you can believe it), the track order is different here, and the songs "Tira Me A Las Arañas" and "Cicatriz ESP" are missing.  That's ok, there is enough here to ponder.  Especially if you enjoy this band's work, listen on headphones, close your eyes, and dig in.

• Favorite songs: "Inertiatic ESP", "Eriatarka", "This Apparatus Must Be Unearthed", "Televators"

 

 

 

JACKIE VENSON - Love Transcends

Jackie is an incendiary guitarist from Austin, Texas. Her music usually blends a few different styles, but with Love Transcends, she heads in a more traditional blues direction.  For her, this is keeping it simple. She says this about the album on her Bandcamp page: "Written across a decade, recorded in a pandemic, played in a style a century old."

In addition to her own songs, there's a mash-up of a Sister Rosetta Tharpe song and an old Negro spiritual. She plays her heart out when she is performing live, and you get some of that live feeling on this album. Her rhythm section is outstanding, and the little keyboard licks here and there add nice flavor and texture.  You'll want to turn this one up.

• Favorite songs: "Always Free", "Cover My  Eyes", "Love Transcends"

 

 

 

RHIANNON GIDDENS WITH FRANCESCO TURRISI - They're Calling Me Home

It's folk music gone international.  An American and an Italian living in the United Kingdom, and the music they make on this album shows influences from all three of those places. Strings are here, plucked and strummed and bowed, and they are the backdrop to strong vocals and beautiful harmonies. I don't think I've ever heard anything quite like this, even on the old traditional songs they cover here, and that's probably why it holds my attention.

• Favorite songs: "Avalon", "Si Dolce è'l Tormento", "O Death"

 

 

 

 

VALERIE JUNE - The Moon And Stars: Prescriptions For Dreamers

Many thanks to Greg Owens for telling me to go listen to this album.  I love it.  It's soulful, subtly groovy, elegant, relaxing, moving, and beautiful. I kind of feel bad for not having a few more paragraphs of things to say about it. Go listen. Really.

• Favorite songs: "Colors", "Call Me a Fool", "Smile"

 

 

 

 

YOLA - Stand For Myself

Yola is scheduled to stop by Cincinnati on her 2022 tour, and I currently have tickets.  I very much hope this show still happens.  Yola is English, but when she sings, she doesn't SOUND English.  No, you're getting a very soulful sound out of Yola, and one could conceivably put her music in to the "americana" genre, which is curious, because you know, she is English.

The songs sound classic, as if they could have been released in the sixties or seventies, as if they could have been recorded in Memphis or Detroit. Apart from the music, the subject matter of some of the songs also sounds like it could have been written in the sixties or seventies, which speaks to how little things have changed for Black folks in the grand scheme of things.

• Favorite songs: "Barely Alive", "Diamond Studded Shoes", "Starlight", 

 

 

 

 

LUNG - Come Clean Right Now

Chances are good that you haven't seen anything like Cincinnati's Lung.  Live, it's Kate on cello and Daisy on drums.  That description doesn't do the live sound justice, as the cello is played through an array of pedals and effects, and it's delightfully noisy in addition to being musical. Their shows are loud and punky and energetic and passionate and basically rock.

This here is their latest full-length.  Come Clean Right Now was released in August. It rocks. Taking this great music to the studio allows Lung to layer the cello and the vocals, giving the listener a lush experience together with the nodding along. 

• Favorite songs: "I'm Nervous", "Tick Tock", "Morning", "Arrow"

 

 

 

JERRY CANTRELL - Brighten

You might recognize Jerry Cantrell from such rock bands as Alice In Chains. He's been at the music thing for a very long time, and in addition to being the main songwriter for Alice In Chains, he's got a few solo albums out as well.  If you are familiar with his sound, well, you'll probably think Brighten sounds familiar, as it sounds very much like a Jerry Cantrell album.

That said, I like this one better than his other solo work.  Maybe I should go re-listen to the rest of his catalogue to see if I've missed some details, but the songs here just seem especially well-crafted and nuanced... even when they are simple.

• Favorite songs: "Black Hearts and Evil Done", "Nobody Breaks You", "Dismembered"

The dream I have had most often, since I was young in fact, involves a horrifically violent death in a car.  I even wrote a poem about it once, way back on 24th November 1997.  Here it is:

 

Most Recurring Dream

Silent
Under the shroud of night
Wearing a cloak of blood
Shards of glass scattered about
Trapped in this mechanical tomb
One arm twisted against the window
The other folded into my smashed chest
My final breath a gasp of pain
But not of surprise
Eyes open staring ahead lifelessly
I am wrapped tightly by these blankets of steel
The final sound was metal on metal
Broken at last

 

Yes, I know that's not exactly pleasant, but what can you do?  The brain comes up with what it comes up with.  Also, of course, driving (or riding) in cars is extremely unsafe, and worse when there are impaired drivers about, which there often are.

It's about that time where I link to a song that is relevant to dreams... how about this one?

 

That song is great.  Of course, that's not the album with the cover art that most closely matches the particular horrific dream I describe above.  (That would be Do the Collapse, which is probably my personal favorite GBV album.)

Sometimes I wonder if it's a symptom of my depressed state that a dream this macabre would keep turning up again and again.  

So, if you post this kind of a list after everyone else has already posted theirs, folks might actually pay attention to it?  Yes?  No?  At any rate, here are my favorites, in narrative order (not so much in order of which I like more or less):

 

Shrug - Easy is the New Hard 

Shrug are stalwarts of the Dayton music scene, having been around for 25 years.  This is their first album to be released on vinyl, and as if that’s not enough, it’s a double.  Some of the songs on the track list that showed up in their sets 15 years ago (“New Amsterdam” and “Bender” being the oldest if memory serves) coexist beautifully with new music that didn’t get played live until the album release show (“Powder” and “Follow the Captain”).  The result is probably the best, most eclectic work of their tenure, and certainly my favorite since 2002’s self-titled release. 

• Favorite Songs: “Powder”, “New Amsterdam”, “Follow the Captain”, “Blue Blanket” 

 

 

Sleater-Kinney - The Center Won’t Hold 

About the same time that Shrug was getting going here in Dayton, this band started up in Olympia, Washington.  This is their 9th album, and it heads off in a different sonic direction from everything else in their catalog. This new direction cost them the powerful services of drummer Janet Weiss, as she departed the band just before they went on tour to support the album.  There is synth here, extra slick production, and pop sensibility, but it still sounds like a Sleater-Kinney album. That’s enough for me. 

• Favorite Songs: “Reach Out”, “Bad Dance” 

 

Big Wreck - ... but for the sun 

Here’s a third band that formed in 1994.  Ian Thornley’s voice is the closest I have ever heard to Chris Cornell’s, and it’s still as powerful now as it was when I first discovered this band.  If you enjoyed Soundgarden in the past, I think you would like Big Wreck as well. This new effort is a big, loud, swaggering rock and roll record. You want guitar solos?  There are plenty of them here. You want riffage? There is plenty of that here. You like shouting along whilst driving? These songs are perfect for that.   

• Favorite Songs: “In My Head”, “Give Us a Smile”,  “Alibi”  

 

Guided By Voices - Sweating the Plague 

How about a band that was already more than ten years old in 1994?  Indie rock royals Guided By Voices released three albums this year, because of course they did.  This is the last of the three. I have had a hard time keeping up on all of Bob Pollard’s music over the years, and would only consider myself somewhat well-versed on the albums that came out between 1994 and 2004.  With that caveat in mind, this album isn’t what I was expecting. I heard tempo changes, a brief Boston-esque lead guitar harmony, a song that starts a capella, all paired up with the usual amount of fantastic hooks. 

• Favorite Songs: “Street Party”,  “Your Cricket Is Rather Unique”, “Immortals” 

 

Elbow - Giants of All Sizes 

Apologies to Oasis, but Elbow are now my favo(u)rite Manchester band.  This is their 8th studio album. Lyrically, it’s darker than what we normally get from them, but personal tragedies and these modern times will have that effect.  Guy Garvey’s pristine voice, the band’s orchestral use of dynamics, and at least one song with massive audience sing-along potential on the hook… those things are still here.  Also, Pete Turner continues to bring interesting choices to the bottom end, along with solid grooves from which most of the other instruments hang. 

• Favorite Songs: “Empires”, “White Noise White Heat”, “Weightless” 

 

Idlewild - Interview Music 

Let’s stay on the island of Great Britain for a moment, but head up north to Scotland.  I have five of this band’s first six albums on CD (I don’t have the first one). There was a time when I would listen to something from Idlewild just about every day.  Somewhere around 2008, I completely lost track of them. It wasn’t them, it was me. I’ve missed a couple of their albums, and nearly missed this one, only having discovered that it came out in 2019 in December.  Other than the vocals (not the high ones), this doesn’t sound like the Idlewild I remember… there are plenty of atmospheric additions here, strings and reverb-drenched guitar and piano, and it’s all quite lovely. I need to spend more time with this album, but I know that I’ll like it more with each listen. 

• Favorite Songs: “Dream Variations”, “I Almost Didn’t Notice”, “Forever New” 

 

The Cranberries - In the End 

A short hop West across the Irish Sea brings us to the home of The Cranberries.  This mention is kind of like a career achievement mention, as the band decided not to continue after frontwoman Dolores O’Riordan died in January 2018.  This is their final album, released this year. The vocals come from demos instead of normal studio takes, but if I hadn’t read that online, I wouldn’t have known.  Some of the music would easily fit in among the songs on their first two albums. I feel like most folks probably don’t know this band beyond their hit singles, and that’s too bad, there is some songwriting brilliance in their career, and this is a satisfying final statement. 

• Favorite Songs:  “Lost”, “Wake Me When It’s Over”, “Illusion”, “In the End” 

 

Charly Bliss - Young Enough 

Back much farther West across the Atlantic, Brooklyn’s Charly Bliss dropped their second full-length album this year.  Full disclosure, I really wanted to like this album because I have met the members of this band, and they were pleasant and engaging young folks.  I like them as people.  (They also put on a very energetic live show.) My first couple of listens to this album, well, I wasn’t enthused… lots of synth, some drum machine sounds, the guitars and rock had taken a back seat to sugary pop.  Then I paid attention to the lyrics, listened closer to the songwriting, and focused on the harmonic choices. These songs are painfully confessional and personal, and I wonder how Eva manages to sing them on tour night after night without bursting into tears.  Further, this band’s gift for arrangement and hooks persists behind the pop sheen… and these songs sound excellent live, right alongside their older guitar-heavy work. Go get this album. 

• Favorite Songs: “Capacity”, “Camera”, “Young Enough”, “Chatroom” 

 

John Dubuc’s Guilty Pleasures - Where Have I Been All Your Life? 

Don’t let John Dubuc’s “aw shucks”, self-effacing demeanor fool you.  He is one of the best songwriters in Dayton. His lyrics oscillate between witty and silly, pointless and profound. He doesn’t feel the need to be constrained by the idea of genre, as there are sounds borrowed from reggae and country and fifties rock and power pop and folk.  Several songs from this album will absolutely get stuck in your head.  You have been warned.

• Favorite Songs: “It Ain’t That Far”, “Crazy Days”, “By the Ocean”, “Peace Love and Hamburger Helper” 

 

Me & Mountains - Dream Sequence Volume One 

This a very brief EP, so I feel like my comments here have to also be very brief.  I love everything this band does, their sound is right up my alley, and I want them to give me more music ASAP. 

• Favorite Song: “Demolish Me” 

 

Amber Hargett - Paper Trail 

Amber is lovely and genuine and sweet, comes armed with a powerful voice and a knack for songwriting, and once told a story that will ensure I never look at a submarine hatch the same way again.  Oh, and her album is great. 

• Favorite Song: "Church Mouse", but that isn't on this albums, so let's go with “Broke”, “Carolina Blue”, “Stay” 

 

In order to give you a peek behind the curtain at my songwriting process, I'd like to tell you about my second attempt at the 5 in 5 Song Challenge.  I have written about this challenge in a previous blog entry, so this time, I'll skip explaining the big idea and get straight to the songs.

Day 1, 14th October 2019.  Prompt was to use at least five of these ten words: creek, orange, cider, make, gather, cotton, oak, spinning, poured, without.  Amplifier bonus (which I don't recall being part of the challenge the last time I participated) was to use the chord progression Dbm, Fm, Eb7.

I'm proud of what I managed to write for this one.  I started with the chord progression, as I figured that would be the hardest part.  It was.  If you're not a musician, let me tell you that those three chords are kind of creepy and ominous sounding when used in sequence.  I structured my verses for the song around them, and managed to use all ten (!) of the words, which I believe is a first for me.  Here's the thing... using those specific words, but making it seem natural and not forced... that was tough.  All told, there is one part here that I will re-write.  I didn't like the melody I used in the bridge, so will go back to work on that.  Other than that, I think the rest of the song will stay as-is, and I'll be adding it to my live repertoire next month.  

 

Day 2, 15th October 2019.  Prompt was to use the following idea as a starting point:  It has to come to an end, before it can begin.  What is it?  (If that sounds to you like something Seneca might have said, well, you're not the only person who thought so.)  Amplifier bonus was to use a minor 4 chord.

For this one, I did not write fresh lyrics.  Rather, I used lyrics from my collaborator, Ruth.  She had lyrics that needed music, and when I saw the prompt, I remembered these specific ones, as I thought they fit.  Lyrics in hand, I wrote the music, which I found to be rather easy this time.  I mostly write in minor keys, and if you write in a minor key, your 4 chord is automatically minor.  Easy as pie.  From reading some of the comments in the group, I might be the only person who understood the amplifier this way, as a few folks asked for clarification, and the clarification was to take a major 4 chord and change it to minor... but that's not what the prompt said.  Maybe the default assumption is that people only write in major keys?  

 

Day 3, 16th October 2019.  Prompt was to use "Harvest Moon" as a song title.  Ick.  Amplifier bonus is to write in a key you're not comfortable in.  

Well, I'm not really comfortable in any key that requires me to use more than just the white keys on a piano.  I'm not a competent pianist by any means, so I feel all warm and fuzzy writing in A minor.  For this one, I wrote the song on bass instead of piano... and I wrote the verses in G minor, but the chorus in B flat major.  I leaned toward snarky and humorous for the lyrical content.  I think this song is the best one I wrote all week, and I plan to record it next year and get it ready to release in time for fall.  I'll be playing it in public starting next month.

 

Day 4, 17th October 2019.  Prompt was to use at least five of ten given words.  Now, I don't have the complete word list (oops), but here are the ones that I used: older, settle, calling, pocket, strong, resist.   That's six.   Amplifier bonus was to use this chord progression: F, G, Cmaj7, Am.

That chord progression basically told me to write the song in A minor, which as I mentioned above, is my warm & fuzzy key.  Ok.  I wasn't too thrilled with the list of words, but no matter, I got to work.  I used the fantastic closer from the album The Blinding White Of Nothing At All, "All You Really Want Is Love", as inspiration.  The main songwriter, John Davis, is a strong influence on my songwriting.  Now, the song in question (please listen to it) sounds like it was written in a major key, and I wasn't about to do that, but I did write the B part of the song to have a slight major key feel.  I wrote it in second person.  I also followed a similar structure. A B A B outro.  

I wanted to write a song that I love as much as I love most everything on that record, and I fell short of that goal.  However, I like what I came up with enough to add it to my live setlist starting next month.  It needs some light editing, but there is potential here.  I also feel that this is a good song for We Met In Paris, so I sent it over to Ruth.

 

Day 5, 18th October 2019.  Prompt was to use the following idea as a starting point:  she is strong as an old fallen tree, but hollow inside.  Amplifier bonus was to change key during the song.

This time, let's start with my overall goal.  I wanted to write a Guided By Voices style song.  I did that just a little bit on one of the songs from the last time I did this challenge, and after editing, it ended up being called "Huns of Doubt", and you will be able to get your hands on it soon.  This time though, I didn't want to use any non-sequitur chords or a crazy time signature.

Beyond GBV, I think of the Wright Brothers and aviation when I think of Dayton.  Transportation terms popped into my head.  I thought about calling it "Propeller", but that's the name of an early GBV album, so no, can't do that.  I thought about the airplane imagery in some of their songs and album artwork... then I decided to call the song "Submarine".  Boats are called "she" by sailors, right?  Submarines are strong, and hollow inside.  Ok, title achieved.  For the lyrics, I used terminology related to submarines as a metaphor for a break up.

Musically, well, doing a key change is not new to me.  For Prompt 2 during this challenge, I wrote the verses in minor and the chorus in major.  If you remember "Harvest Moon", I used relative minor/major keys.  For this one though, I did something I've never done before... I just moved the entire thing a whole step up.  I tried to be clever doing this... I have some harmony vocals in it, and one of the harmony vocal lines, I keep it droning on the same note, before AND after the key change.  I think there is some potential here, and I might go to the studio with it next year sometime.

 

***

Summary.  Five days, five songs.  Three songs added to my live rotation, just as soon as I learn them well enough to play them from memory.  All of the songs will need to undergo a little bit of editing, but I don't foresee a major re-write on any of them.  I felt more comfortable doing this challenge than the previous one.  It would seem that all of the songwriting work I have been doing is paying off... I'm getting better at my craft.  That said, there is always always always room for improvement, and I'll probably jump on future challenges like this in an effort to do just that.

If you would like to hear these songs, I encourage you to sign up for my mailing list on the homepage of this website.  At some point, I'll be sending them as gifts to the folks who are subscribed.

It occurs to me that this blog post would certainly fit in my Ohio Spotlight category, as well as under the Concert Review category.

Levitt Pavilion is a open air concert space in the heart of downtown Dayton.  Think of it like a very small amphitheater... there is a stage, a small area in the front with concrete, and a large grassy lawn that extends outward and upward from those first two areas. This space has 50 free concerts each year, in an effort to build community through art. Their schedule of artists is diverse, with all sorts of genres represented.  I am fairly certain that the most recent show this past Saturday was the highest attended they have had, as thousands of people packed the lawn and even overflow areas in the back.

The Breeders are the reason for the crowd. They were introduced to the crowd as "platinum recording artist, The Breeders".  This is a rock band with albums that have received high critical acclaim.  One of the albums contained a single whose video was in heavy rotation on MTV, back when MTV still played music videos.  The Breeders went on the road with Nirvana for multiple tours, and have played all over the world.  They are from Dayton, Ohio.  One could consider this a homecoming show.

This was my first experience seeing The Breeders live.  Back when you could catch them in the friendly confines of Canal Street Tavern, I wasn't into local music yet and was too young to be going to shows.

You can check the show setlist here, but I'll mention a few songs that were personal highlights for me.

The Breeders opened the show with "Saints", which is my favorite song from their second full-length album, The Last Splash.  The second song was "Wait in the Car" from the 2018 album All Nerve.  After briefly basking in the raucous applause, Kim Deal acknowledged that the band is from Dayton, and then mentioned that there are some other bands from this town... and then they fired off their GBV cover, "Shocker in Gloomtown".

Daylight turned into twilight, and twilight gave way to dark.  During this time, The Breeders played all of "the hits", and many other songs from across their catalog.  They gleefully engaged in banter with the audience, which contained many of their friends and family members.  Kelley said "I was born right over there", before looking around to get her bearings, and then pointing in the direction of Miami Valley Hospital.  Both the Deal sisters and Jimmy Mac name checked several Dayton suburbs and neighborhoods before closing the main set with a song that was specifically for Tipp City.

Personally for me, a bass player, the evening ended the only way it could... with Kim Deal playing bass on a song she wrote while with Pixies.  The set closer was "Gigantic".  When I was first learning to play my instrument, I spent a lot of time with Pixies albums, trying to learn Kim's beautifully simple bass lines.

 

After the final song, the band said their goodbyes, and again expressed their thanks at such a large turnout.  Kelley made her way to the front of the stage, shaking hands and giving high fives to the folks in the front ranks, many of whom seemed to be friends.  Jim encouraged the crowd to further support local music by heading a few blocks East to attend the first night of Dayton Music Fest (where he would be playing the following night during the triumphant return of The Mulchmen).  The band surely received "a big big love" from the community.  I was thinking that this was exactly what someone had in mind when making Levitt Pavilion a reality.