Back In The Saddle

I don't really like the concept of resolutions. Let's call them "resolutions" because they deserve the quote marks. You shouldn't need the act of hanging up a new calendar to find inspiration for making yourself better. It's a constant process. We are fluid entities, we shift and change. Some things are wired in but we as beings are capable of growing and changing and expanding. We don't need to be stuck in a rut.

One of these said "resolutions" is to write more. According to this blog, I last made that resolution at the start of 2016. It did not last long. Sigh. What a waste. OK, done with the looking back, let's look forward. I'm gonna stick to it this year. OK, I am really going to try to stick to it.

Another one is to see more rocknroll shows. That's a big one for me. I have wimped out farfarfar too many times over the years, missing great shows, letting opportunities slip by. That's another sigh, so let's not belabor it. For me, music is as important as air. If god wanted to fuck with me he would take my hearing away. My band has been trying to kill my hearing but I am fighting back these days with dreaded earplugs at rehearsal. Some of the time, at least. So, dear reader expect to see many more show reports here over the coming months. And if you don't you have my permission to call me a loser.

Other "resolutions" aren't quite musical related. Continue to eat sensibly. Go to the gym at least 4 times a week. Start doing yoga and meditation. That one can help with the creativity. I have anxiety but I have no reason for anxiety. I have a smart, funny, beautiful, and loving wife; I have a good job that has a positive impact on people's lives; I have a kick-ass band with three genuine friends. That should be another one, see friends more often. The anxiety I have is self-flaggelation and it fucking sucks. It isn't necessary. I think Trump has a part of doing it. That asshole is bringing my shakes and twitches back. Hell with him, he's not worth the additional characters.

So change is in the the air.

Why now...why today. I watched the new teaser video for Titus Andronicus' new album. And now I am listening to their masterpiece The Monitor. What a fucking record. I saw them when they toured behind it and it was rocknroll at it's most....well, rocknroll at it's most. Energy, passion, the catharsis you get when you just yell "fuck you!" I drifted away from them, saw them again a couple years later but the crowd was bigger and the energy at the back of the room is never like the front of the room. They'll be back in town in April and I will be there.

My advice is put a record on. Or a CD. Or if it's the only thing you got then put your earbuds in and listen to something you love. Something that breathes life into you. Something that makes you want to shake the pictures off the walls and hug whomever is standing next to you. Something that makes you forget about all the hate and all the anger and all the pain and all the fear we have in this country and all across the world. We all have one heart and one body (thanks, Call Me By Your Name). Don't fucking waste it.

Favorite Records of 2013 - Number 7

Arbouretum's Coming Out of The Fog is striking for the classic rock vibe it has. The band that comes to mind is Neil Young and Crazy Horse. Take "Renouncer," it struts along at a slow beat with a thudding bass and heavy guitar run.  It's the kind of song that would play when we first see the smooth not-too-sure-about-this-guy in a movie. There's a sense of dread around it. "All at Once, the Turning Weather" is similar. Nothing fancy in either of these tracks but there is a tremendous heavy vibe. Not a metal heavy but a strong rock heaviness. That classic rock heaviness is balanced by other tracks with a cosmic-American sense like side 1 closer "Oceans Don't Sing." Pedal steel and acoustic guitars come together to close out the side on a warm note.

This record is about mood, it is about texture. I played a couple tracks for a friend who was not impressed at first, but he came back to me a few months later with greater appreciation for it after giving it a chance on his own. When I first heard it the power beneath it struck me. I liked the simple beats and simple bass lines propelling the guitar playing.

Arbouretum are a Baltimore band. I live in DC but even though the distance is not immense I cannot say I have a good feel for the Baltimore scene. A band like Arbouretum makes me wonder about the rock and roll life. Not the nonsense you see on Behind The Music about big-time-bands but the working life of a small time band. I imagine the guys in Arbouretum must have day jobs. They just finished up a two-week tour that took them as far as Chicago and Atlanta. Making a life out of music is terribly difficult, especially a life that has spouses and kids and mortgages and bills to pay. I would love to go out on a tour with my band but a) I know the likelihood of that is slim to none; and b) I have a job and taking a month off to do that is not feasible. We just recruited a new bass player because ours sadly had to move away to St. Louis. He's been in a moderately successful band, especially when compared to what we have accomplished. But he has still had a day job the whole run of that outfit. It is tough sledding I imagine.

Here's the aforementioned "Renouncer."

Up next...Canadians invade the list!!

Passivity and Music

I have mentioned before how much I appreciate the music writing of Steven Hyden. I don't necessarily like all the same things he does, but I do find unsurprising congruence in our tastes. His latest submission for Grantland is about the failure of music in 2013 to take-off, or maybe re-take-off is a better way to put it.

At one point in his article, in the context of troubles within the record industry, Mr Hyden quotes a Forrester Research analyst named James McQuivey from a New York Times piece:  "Music is an accompaniment, to add to your jog, your workday, your prep in the kitchen...But it's not something you're eager to pay for if you don't have to." Mr. Hyden asks his reader if it depresses them as it depresses him. I would not say it depresses me; my parents passing away, the plight of children in Syria, those things depress me. But the idea of a major shift not just in music but in music listening seems to be happening.

Life, compared to 30 years, is much more distracting. The pace of life seems much more frantic. I want to be careful to not verge into curmudgeon territory, but even in high school I do not recall my teen-age life being as filled. Listening to music has an ability to be an extremely passive or an extremely active endeavor. Much more so than other media. You can't read a book in the background. You can't go to the movies and half watch it, well I guess you can but you don't get anything out of it. TV comes close, many people have the TV on at night to help them fall asleep. My wife is expert at this, but I find myself unable to not pay attention if there is any semblance of plot.

Music is both passive and active. People can switch from one to the other on the fly. But like books and TV and movies, appreciation of music comes only from attentiveness. In another Grantland piece, Ernest Baker discusses the new Beyonce record and his reaction to it and passive versus active listening and that once he actively listened it the record changed for him.

One of my favorite activities is to lay on the couch with the lights out, put a record on the hi-fi, slip on the headphones, and just listen. Listen intently to every note, every fill, every nuance of the record. The immerse myself in it. I've written before that I think vinyl is the best way to do this because it captures the essence of the music better than any other medium. Digital and the compression that comes with that fails to capture that. I don't want to drift into metaphysical mumbo-jumbo but good music can be a transcendental experience and that is only accomplished through immersion.

But who has time for that anymore!!! Life beckons! Doing this or that. Going here and there. Tapping away on a smartphone. There are distractions everywhere. I have friends that do SOMETHING every single night. I can't fathom that.  Just from a shear exhaustion level. For me, I cannot exist without down-time. I enjoy spending quiet time with my wife, with my records, with my guitar, with a book, with just myself. My wife and I went to the mall this morning. I knew my iPhone was low on juice so I planned to charge it in the car. Except I and taken the charger out of the car (it's probably in the other car). I expressed dimly and outrage! What would I do without my phone. But then I decided that I would go without. I would find a way to endure a couple hours without my lifeline. And you know what, I survived just fine without it. Waiting outside the stores at the mall I just watched people, looked around, thought things. A constant stream of information was not necessitated in order to pass the time. As I sat down waiting for my wife and her search for final gifts, I sat in a chair and watched a young woman talk on her iPhone while texting with her BlackBerry. During the call and after the call her eyes never left the BlackBerry, her fingers never stopped typing. I am in no way judging that activity, but I find it the perfect representation of modern living.

But to be that tethered, to have that much access, how is there time, how is there opportunity to appreciate a piece of music? I started putting together my favorites-of-the-year list. One record that was on the cusp of falling off the top 10 list I gave a listen to a few nights ago. And in listening through the headphones it was revelatory, it impacted me in a way listening at work or while typing on a keyboard or surfing the web never touched me. By listening to it closely and deeply, it resonated. It was like magic, it was a fantastically enjoyable experience to hear and appreciate the creation within those grooves. I think less folks have that experience anymore nowadays. It scares me only in that music could suffer for it. That bands will no longer be around to create this.

Stay tuned for part 2! Steve's thoughts on the future of rock and roll!

Record Store Day Black Friday 2013

After gorging on food on Thanksgiving Day, I dragged my self to Record and Tape Exchange in Fairfax for the Black Friday special edition of Record Store Day. For those unfamiliar, RSD is when artists will release special stuff, usually 7" vinyl but sometimes 12" selections. A store does not get everything, so it's kind an exciting and sometimes disappointing proposition. But it's a cool way to support local vinyl shops!

I was planning to get in line at 6am but sense took over. I wound up sleeping until 7am. After hopping up and brushing my teeth and throwing on a bunch of layers I drove over to the shop. I brought a blanket to protect my rear end from the cold concrete and my iPad to help while away the time. I was 7th in line with a bunch of high school kids ahead of me. Not too shabby. Nobody showed up after me until the store opened, so one could argue it didn't really matter but whatever.

But MAN it was cold. Like high 20s when I got there. I was warm for the first 30 minutes but it did not last. I was convinced my nose was going to fall off. My toes went numb even through the wool socks and my heavy hiking boots. I talked a little while with the kid in front of me but for the most part is read and listened to my iPod to tune out the talk of the group of 5 kids at the front of the line.

My list included live cuts from Dawes and Band Of Horses, the Albini mix of Nirvana's In Utero, a Rush 10" single, a Townes Van Zandt collection and the latest Brendan Benson which doesn't come out officially until 2014. From that all I got was the Band of Horses 7". But it is very cool. It's two acoustic songs from a Ryman Auditorium gig, a beautiful version of a favorite called "No One's Gonna Love You" and backed by a cover of Gram Parsons' "Song For You." The Nirvana record was there but somebody snatched it. The rest didn't interest me.

I then headed over to the new vinyl arrivals section and happily found a bunch of gold. The Beatles White Album, the first James Gang album as well as their Carnegie Hall live album, One Of These Nights from The Eagles, the last Peter Gabriel-fronted Genesis record The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, Led Zeppelin 1, and three classic Rush LPs. I also got my sweetheart a copy of The Muppet Movie soundtrack, since I wasn't able to find the special Muppets Christmas 7".

All in all a good day record wise!! If you like vinyl you should definitely check out Record Store Day when it happens.