The Living Rockumentary

Why, why am I so jazzed about this Pelicans show at Harry's tomorrow night? I mean, Ari's an old pal and their new CD is great and all but I guess I'm just relishing seeing Ari onstage with another band, that I'm not part of. Kinda perverse maybe. Maybe it's because Ari's kinda carrying the Humbert torch. Even though 3/4 of the last working lineup of Humbert now play in SFTD, The Pelicans is closer in spirit to what Humbert was all about. I love both, don't get me wrong, but there's a punk backdrop to Ari's stuff that Henning's doesn't have and Ari's and Henning's songwriting are different yet equally brilliant. Ari made a comment a little while ago that the members of Humbert are perhaps stronger separately than they were together. That might just be because we all grew as musicians and songwriters in the years since Humbert dissolved. Ari is in love with a tape I made him of demos of songs I wrote while living in New Hampshire and Haverhill post-Humbert, everyone so far who has heard them agrees that Ari's new Pelicans songs are a few steps up from his older material (which was strong to begin with) and Henning has been writing up a hit parade these last few years that has made SFTD a pop song lover's paradise. I know, I'm just patting all of us on the back here and this is a big ego trip but as well-liked and admired as Humbert was in its heyday of '96-99, all three songwriters have just gotten better in the meantime. That almost never happens when a good band breaks up. Anyway, I won't be able to go to the Mass MoCa thing Ken and Brian are a part of but I suggest that everyone who can go, go tonight and stay in town for The Pelicans tomorrow night. That's the way to swing it, win on both ends.

Here's a link to an article in The Advocate on The Pelicans:

http://valleyadvocate.com/gbase/Music/content?oid=oid:1260

Ya know what, though? Some of you know that last year I started making these mix CDs of solo Beatles songs for fun. I'd take a year like 1973 and make a mix CD of tracks from all the Beatles solo albums that were released in that year, pick the best tunes, arrange them in an order where they flowed well into each other and made it seem as if The Beatles had released an album together. For instance, "Beatles' 73" had songs like Bluebird, Let Me Roll It, etc. from McCartney's Band On The Run album, a number of songs from Lennon's Mind Games album and then to make it like The Beatles themselves would've, there were only a few songs by George and Ringo from albums they released in 1973. No filler. Stylistically, the end results could be sloppy- on the "Beatles '75" mix CD, you have a weird mix of arena rock, early disco-like stuff, a Ringo noverlty song and flat-out bad songs by George but I'd still rather listen to a mix of the best from the year than listen to the entirety of "Wings At The Speed Of Sound." Anyway, point being that since Humbert no longer exists, yet all of us, including Brian are still writing and recording new stuff, I think I might make a "new" Humbert mix CD just for the hell of it. It won't be Humbert any more than The Beatles solo stuff was actually The Beatles but the end result will be one cool mix of great little songs. I just have to record some new stuff myself soon to be able to do this but it'll be a fun project when all the pieces are in place.