Category — Music

Hola, amigos. I know it’s been a long time since I rapped at ya, but I’ve been burning the candle at both ends lately. Hell, if a candle had three or four ends, they’d be burning, too.

I’ve always felt like starting a post like the awesome Jim Anchower, and now I just did.

Stuff is a little crazy and changing in my world, more about that later, but in the meantime, I really enjoyed this little ditty by Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. They’ve got some other interesting ones like “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Life on Mars”, but this one’s my fave. RIP Mr. Shaft / Chef / Isaac Hayes. Enjoy:

A couple of weeks ago Mary and I attempted to get tickets to the sold out Flight of the Conchords show at the Chicago Theatre. There were tons of people looking for tickets and extra tickets were very scarce. Mary was successful in obtaining a single ticket, which she sacrificed to me and I went to the show while she went across the street to Borders. Props to Mary. It woulda been better if she was there, but I enjoyed the show from the 12th row on the center aisle with some NEW lady friends

Here’s Mary offering free “dragon tears” to anyone who can help us out:

Here’s a shot of Jermaine and Brett that I took once inside:

Mary got a hot tip from a security dude that the Conchords were playing a post-show gig at Schubas after the show… We went there and ate dinner, and sure enough, they showed up … but they were quickly brisked off to a private party; no special bonus show for us.

It was a fun night … kind of felt like a stalker like their #1 fan Mel … when we went to Schubas to look for them.

I was thinking that it must kind of weird being a celebrity of medium-level stature … Jermaine and Brett probably would not be recognized by 98% of Americans, but for stalkers like Mel, they’re the #1 rock stars in the world.
Oh, and speaking of medium-level celebrities, I walked out of the theatre next to Jim DeRogatis, rock critic of the Sun-Times, co-host of the excellent Sound Opinions, and soon-to-be R. Kelly trial witness. Being the rock nerd that I am, I recognized him and told him that I loved his show … he gave a curt nervous “thanks” and hustled out the door (I’ll cut him a break for not being more friendly, he probably had a deadline to issue his review for the morning paper).

This post brought to you by Flight of the Conchords Season 1 DVD and the Flight of the Conchords Studio Record!

Trent Rezor released his new Nine Inch Nails record, Ghosts, today under a Creative Commons License. Nice!

I honestly haven’t paid much attention to NIN since the early 90’s. I’ve got Pretty Hate Machine, Broken and The Downward Spiral which are each great in their own way, but haven’t bothered to pick up any NIN releases since. But I am downloading the new record as I write this.

Man, the old school record industry is screwed. I don’t think that ANY kids buy CDs anymore. Early adopting forward-thinking artists like Trent Reznor and Radiohead will probably become forever remembered for moves like this and 2007-2008 will go down as the end of the record industry as we’ve always known it.

Rock on.

photo credit: cinealoido

There’s a great story of Jonathan Coulton on Yahoo: How To Become a Rockstar.

Jonathan is a kindred spirit in that he’s a software geek … and he quit his job to be a rock star. He eventually self-made himself into an artist making more money as a musician than he did at his software job.

One of the keys to his success was that he forced himself to write and release one song every week for an entire year. It is amazing what can be produced with artificial deadlines like this. It’s the same power wielded by nanowrimo and rpmchallenge.

I gotta make me myself some creative artificial deadlines and goals …

Read and watch : Jonathan Coulton’s story on Yahoo’s “People of the Web”. It’s good stuff.

Hi, this is Billy Mays for Zabada the Album, now available on vinyl!

This posting is a joke. There is no Zabada on vinyl and Billy Mays is not my pitchman. I just needed an excuse to work Billy Mays into this blog and shamelessly get you you go listen to the song Zabada!

Happy New Year!

Nephew Jim and I wrote and recorded the beginning of a new original song this weekend called “Devil Dolphin”. Jim wrote most of the music and played all of the guitar.

Last night I made a whacky video for it:

This morning in the shower, I came up with some potential silly lyrics for it … what do you think, Jim?

VERSE 1

This is the story
The story of a man
The story of a man called “Devil Dolphin”

This is the story
The story of a man
The story of a man named “Devil Dolphin”

This is the story
The story of a man
The story of a man called “Devil Dolphin”

This is the story
The story of a man
The story of a man named “Devil Dolphin”

(first dolphin noise breakdown)

VERSE 2

There is no story
Story of the man
Story of the man called “Devil Dolphin”

‘Cause he’s not a man
He’s not a man
He’s not a man,
he is a dolphin.

He puts red horns
Horns on his head
So we call him:
“Devil Dolphin”

But he’s not the devil
He’s not the devil
He’s not the devil,
he’s JUST A dolphin.

But he’s not the devil
He’s not the devil
He’s not the devil,
he’s JUST A dolphin.

(second dolphin noise breakdown)

VERSE 3

He’s not a man
He’s not a man
But if he was,
he would be golfin’

But he’s not a man,
He’s not a man,
He’s not a man,
he is a dolphin

He loves eating fish
He really likes fish
No one likes fish like “Devil Dolphin”

He also likes toast
Jelly and toast
Toast is a favorite of Devil Dolphin

But when he eats toast
It always gets wet, so
Fish is the main meal for Devil Dolphin

This is the story
The story of a man
The story of a man called “Devil Dolphin”

Jim and I are working on a band name, then he’ll design the logo, then we’ll be ready to rock the world, then we’ll be able to buy lots of bling. Then we’ll be invited to sing in some charity supergroup song like “We are the World”. Then we’ll be able to save the world like Bono. But first we need a band name.

Here’s nephew Jim playing Zabada after several more weeks of practice (now with more monorail!)

This post was brought to you by The Simpsons Season Four featuring the great “Marge vs. the Monorail”

There is an indescribably weird, but good, feeling I get when I hear people playing songs that I have written. The first time that I really experienced this was in college. I was in a hack band “You, Me and Carl” and we had a song called “Roast” (the title came from the word Roast on a Folgers coffee can). Our only gigs were these coffee houses hosted by our dorm several times a year. At one coffee house, after performing to our adoring fans (think Mel and the Flight of the Conchords), some of our even-more-hacks-than-us friends performed “Roast” as the band “Me, Myself, & Ormy” (they worked at Burger King and so they wore their uniforms, I think, their alternate name was “Captain Ormy and the Burger Police”). It was horribly played but awesome and hilarious at the same time. I got one of those once-a-year laughs that was so good that I cried. And it was so weird to hear a song that I had written (with my YM&C bandmates) being played by someone else.

Last week I had a similar experience, although it was much less horribly played than Captain Ormy’s performance. I lent a guitar to my 11-year-old nephew only about a month ago. He requested a video iChat and proceeded to show me his progress on guitar. He played my song “Zabada” and was amazingly good, especially for only playing for a few weeks. It’s quite tricky for some people to play and sing at the same time at first, but he’s got it down like a pro already! Here’s a video I shot of his performance:

This really put a smile on my face, both for his great early guitar progress and for his taking to my fine composition!

Reminder, you can hear my original here: Zabada the Song or the whole album here: Zabada the Album.

Zabada!

The studio album as a great artistic piece of work is becoming rarer and rarer. There are good ones out there, but they are not the ones that sell and make the Billboard Hot 100. iTunes, music sharing, and manufactured artists are mostly to blame. And can you believe that Hilary Duff has a “greatest hits” album? ( according to the interesting article Best-of Albums Worst Choice for Some ).

Anyway, my annoyance this week is artists who have more greatest hits albums than actual studio albums. Take the Beach Boys. I love Pet Sounds. I love Smile. A few of their other songs are great. But do they have the right to have a bajilliion greatest hits albums? Look at this partial list of Beach Boys compilations:

• Sounds Of Summer - The Very Best Of The Beach Boys
• The Beach Boys - The Warmth of the Sun
• Beach Boys - 20 Good Vibrations, The Greatest Hits
• Beach Boys - The Greatest Hits Vol. 2: 20 More Good Vibrations
• Good Vibrations: Thirty Years Of The Beach Boys
• The Beach Boys - Endless Summer
• The Beach Boys - Still Cruisin’
• The Beach Boys - 15 Big Ones/Love You
• The Beach Boys - The Greatest Hits Vol. 3
• The Beach Boys - Classics: Selections By Brian Wilson (although, if you have to get a BB compilation, this one is good)
• The Very Best of the Beach Boys
• The Beach Boys Collection
• Best of the Beach Boys: 10 Best Series
• The Best of the Beach Boys

I do realize that the artists are not usually to blame for this (the big record labels are). And it gets really weird if a band has been on more than one major label in their career. Like, look at Aerosmith’s various “greatest hits” collections as they traveled from Columbia to Geffen to Sony (essentially back to Columbia). Take a look at Jimi Hendrix’s discography. He put out the three great Experience studio records, the Band of Gypsies live record, and then you can count the Cry of Love posthumous record as a proper album. And then they put of a kajillion best of’s and collections.

Re-issue ! Re-package ! Re-package !
Re-evaluate the songs
Double-pack with a photograph
Extra Track (and a tacky badge)

“Paint a Vulgar Picture”
from Strangeways, Here We Come

It’s funny that you can’t find “Paint a Vulgar Picture” on any of the following records:

• The Very Best of the Smiths
• The Smiths - Singles
• The Best of the Smiths, Vol. 1
• The Best of the Smiths, Vol. 2

I guess this doesn’t really bother me that much. That’s why I call this the minor annoyance of the week!

Dude, I am totally partying. While I do some work on my laptop I am watching Lollapalooza streaming onto the iMac in my basement. Right now it’s Interpol, they’re okay.

Yesterday, I actually went for an 18 mile bike ride along Lake Michigan and circled the perimeter of Lollapalooza and watched partial sets of STS9 and the Roots over the fence. That’s right, I partied yesterday too!

I am honestly mostly done with festivals of this type, I guess I am just getting older … if I want to see a band I’d rather just see just them at a smaller joint like Shubas or the Metro or the Vic or the Aragon or the Riv … that and my aging body isn’t too keen on 95 degrees and high humidity and being trapped with 40 minute lines for $5 bottles of water.

Bike ride photo from yesterday: