|  |
| The lyrics from School for the Dead's next album. |
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Free Outdoor Concert (Thursday July 28)
 |
| Main Street Northampton. There shouldn't be any snow on Thursday. |
5:00 - The Primate Fiasco
6:00 - The Fawns
7:00 - School for the Dead
What do you think? Wouldn't Saturday evening be a nice time to take a stroll through Northampton? Maybe get an ice-cream or a slice and hang out with us?
We played here last year and it was one of my favorite concerts of the year.
Monday, July 25, 2011
SFTD Recording Journal (Part 3)
July 23, 2011: This is the weekend when we track Ken's parts for this new School for the Dead album.
Ken and I arrive at 11:00 after stopping at the local Shaw's for some provisions. The piano had been tuned during the week and after we load in our stuff, Ken sits down and starts playing Queen songs. The piano sounds beautiful.
At around noon, we begin recording. The first song is "Jake and Kim Broke Up (Leave Me Out Of It)" and Frank brings out the good old Farfisa organ. That song is so fun and now it is even more so.
By one o'clock the Hammond organ parts for "Turn It Down" are finished, Ken takes a hint from Tony's goofball guitar parts and creates some hilarious parts of his own. This song is so ridiculous.
The heat-wave continues even in the forests of New Hampshire and the room starts to get hot and humid, but we prevail while the dog and cat wander around, occasionally collapsing in lazy heaps on the floor.
We move on to the foreboding, "Waiting for Life" and Ken switches to the alternate electric piano which lives in the other room. He must play the song while avoiding the low C key because it sounds crackly. He powers through and the song takes on a new life (this would happen to all the songs this weekend). As he switches to the Hammond to add some percussion doubles, my iPhone tells me that Amy Whinehouse just died.
After "Waiting For Life" organ, we take a short break while Frank makes some iced-coffee. Ken and I have peanut butter sandwiches.
At 3:00 we resume and I record a new scratch vocal for Waiting For Life, and then Ken adds piano. I'm sitting back on the comfy sofa sort of between the piano and the studio monitors. From where I am I can hear the actual piano and I can also hear it coming through the board. It sounds huge and beautiful, as though it is in a room specifically treated for piano recitals.
At 3:45 we approach "Rumor Mill". I had mentioned that piano might be good on that song as well. Ken sits down to try it, Frank hits record. Done.
4:00 we stay at the piano for "Levitation". After Ken plays his part, we double some of it with muted piano strings. This requires me to stand on one side using the flat of my hand on an octave of strings while Ken does the same with his left hand simultaneously playing the part with his right. It was nice to feel the strings vibrate through my fingers as they were struck.
Ken then adds Wurlitzer to this song and we begin a search for a good mellotron patch on the synths and computers. Ken plays the part on my Emu and Frank records it as audio but also as midi notes so that he can continue adding sounds later. Fancy.
At 5:45, we start "She Does, She Does". Ken plays the intro riff on the Whurly while at the same time I play it on the Emu. It was fun, Ken adds some more Whurly parts and then sits at the piano and plays on the chorus, basically flipping the song over and giving it twice the depth that it started out with. Frank and I shake our heads at the crazy beautiful voicings that Ken finds for this song. Imagine for a moment, if you will, that you wrote a bunch of songs and then a group of friends came along and spent time, and energy, put in thought and heart and they made all the songs sound much better than you imagined they ever would.
Dinner break! Ken, Frank, Sky and I went into town to go out to eat and...you know what? It's a long story that's probably not very important. Lets just say that three restaurants and three hours later, I finally got to eat my pizza.
After dinner (or while I was eating my you-know-what-I'll-just-take-it-to-go pizza on the sofa), Ken and Frank jumped right into "I Don't Know About Anyone Else But" with the so cool Pianet and then acoustic piano. The Pianet sounded really nice and we spent time making sure it weaved in and out with Tony's parts in a complimentary way.
"Saving Your Life Is Going To Be Real Interesting" then came to life with some piano and organ. As we were wrapping up for the evening, Ken picked up the Nashville-tuned acoustic guitar and says he has an idea for a part and proceeds to twist my brain around that song in a new way. Time to go to sleep.
I awoke early the next day in the comfortable guest suite and spent a quiet morning with Dagmar the cat. Frank and Skye appeared made waffles and bacon for us. Delicious.
At around 10:30 we start recording again. The first song is "Infinite Kitchen". Ken fires up the Hammond Organ and the first sound to pop up is perfect. We track through it and double it with the Hammond percussion. While this happens, I came up with a strange little part on the guitar which I then translate to the Pianet and we record it.
My journal notes at this point gets a bit brief:
11:45 percussive organ on "People You See Regularly Never Grow Old"
12:00 "Wrong Way Out Of Town" piano. 12:10 Done.
12:15 Finished organ.
12:20 "I Wasn't Looking For This" piano. Awesome.
12:45 "Somebody Else's Problem" Wurly.
1:00 Frank fixes strap on Ken's accordion, a neighborhood cat prowls through the backyard.
1:25 Start accordion on "Bad Day Done"
1:40 Switch to melodica instead, then piano.
2:05 Nashville-tuned Guitar on "Saving Your Life Is Going To Be Real Interesting". Sounds like sunshine.
2:25 Done.
And that was that. One weekend and we have amazing head-shaking parts for fourteen songs. Frank and Ken make a great team. Next stop, the rest of Tony's guitars and then my stuff. So far, it's all looking good, folks. Thanks for reading.
Ken and I arrive at 11:00 after stopping at the local Shaw's for some provisions. The piano had been tuned during the week and after we load in our stuff, Ken sits down and starts playing Queen songs. The piano sounds beautiful.
At around noon, we begin recording. The first song is "Jake and Kim Broke Up (Leave Me Out Of It)" and Frank brings out the good old Farfisa organ. That song is so fun and now it is even more so.
By one o'clock the Hammond organ parts for "Turn It Down" are finished, Ken takes a hint from Tony's goofball guitar parts and creates some hilarious parts of his own. This song is so ridiculous.
The heat-wave continues even in the forests of New Hampshire and the room starts to get hot and humid, but we prevail while the dog and cat wander around, occasionally collapsing in lazy heaps on the floor.
 |
| Ken recoding piano, Wurlitzer, melodica, Farfisa, Nashville-tuned acoustic guitar, accordion, bells, and pianet. Missing from pitcture: hammond organ, electric piano, and Emu synthesizer |
We move on to the foreboding, "Waiting for Life" and Ken switches to the alternate electric piano which lives in the other room. He must play the song while avoiding the low C key because it sounds crackly. He powers through and the song takes on a new life (this would happen to all the songs this weekend). As he switches to the Hammond to add some percussion doubles, my iPhone tells me that Amy Whinehouse just died.
After "Waiting For Life" organ, we take a short break while Frank makes some iced-coffee. Ken and I have peanut butter sandwiches.
At 3:00 we resume and I record a new scratch vocal for Waiting For Life, and then Ken adds piano. I'm sitting back on the comfy sofa sort of between the piano and the studio monitors. From where I am I can hear the actual piano and I can also hear it coming through the board. It sounds huge and beautiful, as though it is in a room specifically treated for piano recitals.
At 3:45 we approach "Rumor Mill". I had mentioned that piano might be good on that song as well. Ken sits down to try it, Frank hits record. Done.
4:00 we stay at the piano for "Levitation". After Ken plays his part, we double some of it with muted piano strings. This requires me to stand on one side using the flat of my hand on an octave of strings while Ken does the same with his left hand simultaneously playing the part with his right. It was nice to feel the strings vibrate through my fingers as they were struck.
Ken then adds Wurlitzer to this song and we begin a search for a good mellotron patch on the synths and computers. Ken plays the part on my Emu and Frank records it as audio but also as midi notes so that he can continue adding sounds later. Fancy.
At 5:45, we start "She Does, She Does". Ken plays the intro riff on the Whurly while at the same time I play it on the Emu. It was fun, Ken adds some more Whurly parts and then sits at the piano and plays on the chorus, basically flipping the song over and giving it twice the depth that it started out with. Frank and I shake our heads at the crazy beautiful voicings that Ken finds for this song. Imagine for a moment, if you will, that you wrote a bunch of songs and then a group of friends came along and spent time, and energy, put in thought and heart and they made all the songs sound much better than you imagined they ever would.
Dinner break! Ken, Frank, Sky and I went into town to go out to eat and...you know what? It's a long story that's probably not very important. Lets just say that three restaurants and three hours later, I finally got to eat my pizza.
After dinner (or while I was eating my you-know-what-I'll-just-take-it-to-go pizza on the sofa), Ken and Frank jumped right into "I Don't Know About Anyone Else But" with the so cool Pianet and then acoustic piano. The Pianet sounded really nice and we spent time making sure it weaved in and out with Tony's parts in a complimentary way.
"Saving Your Life Is Going To Be Real Interesting" then came to life with some piano and organ. As we were wrapping up for the evening, Ken picked up the Nashville-tuned acoustic guitar and says he has an idea for a part and proceeds to twist my brain around that song in a new way. Time to go to sleep.
I awoke early the next day in the comfortable guest suite and spent a quiet morning with Dagmar the cat. Frank and Skye appeared made waffles and bacon for us. Delicious.
At around 10:30 we start recording again. The first song is "Infinite Kitchen". Ken fires up the Hammond Organ and the first sound to pop up is perfect. We track through it and double it with the Hammond percussion. While this happens, I came up with a strange little part on the guitar which I then translate to the Pianet and we record it.
My journal notes at this point gets a bit brief:
11:45 percussive organ on "People You See Regularly Never Grow Old"
12:00 "Wrong Way Out Of Town" piano. 12:10 Done.
12:15 Finished organ.
12:20 "I Wasn't Looking For This" piano. Awesome.
12:45 "Somebody Else's Problem" Wurly.
1:00 Frank fixes strap on Ken's accordion, a neighborhood cat prowls through the backyard.
1:25 Start accordion on "Bad Day Done"
1:40 Switch to melodica instead, then piano.
2:05 Nashville-tuned Guitar on "Saving Your Life Is Going To Be Real Interesting". Sounds like sunshine.
2:25 Done.
And that was that. One weekend and we have amazing head-shaking parts for fourteen songs. Frank and Ken make a great team. Next stop, the rest of Tony's guitars and then my stuff. So far, it's all looking good, folks. Thanks for reading.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Pre-Order: Henning Goes To The Movies
From Rub Wrongways Records:
You heard it here first. Rub Wrongways Records is offering the chance to pre-order the long awaited new album by Henning Ohlenbusch. If you order now, when the boxes of CDs arrive at Rub Wrongways Records a disc will be pulled out and placed into an envelope and mailed to you immediately. Be the first on your block to hear "Henning Goes To The Movies."
ABOUT THE ALBUM
It's 2011, is it still okay to release a concept album? Celebrated New England songwriter Henning Ohlenbusch thinks so. "Henning Goes To The Movies" consists of nine songs about nine movies. Ohlenbusch describes the album this way: "Like everything in life, movies are experienced differently by each viewer. On this record, I tried to express in music how these nine films impacted me personally. At the outset, I established one rule: I was not allowed to revisit a film until I composed and recorded the song that it inspired me to write. In this way, I hope that each piece genuinely conveys the ways in which each movie has stuck with me throughout the years."
The nine songs on the album are: Joe Vs. The Volcano, The Straight Story, Poltergeist, The Year My Voice Broke, Planes Trains and Automobiles, Logan's Run, Superbad, Amélie, and Meatballs. Though many of these films are widely considered to be comedies, the songs here are mostly gentle and melancholy, touching on the moving aspects of the films, whether they be sympathetic characters or defining moments. It's a relaxed, friendly record. The songs don't try to push the listener, but rather invite them to settle down for the journey. As the chorus of The Straight Story explains, "I don't care how long it takes. I don't mind how slow it seems. I'll get there."
Ohlenbusch sings all the parts and plays all of the instruments (with the exception of the drums on Amélie by Brian Marchese). The album was recorded, during a particularly harsh New England winter, entirely by Ohlenbusch in his small basement studio, buried under the snow, with just him and his instruments. Some songs feature just Ohlenbusch’s voice and his trusted dark red Guild acoustic guitar while others have full arrangements. Listen for melodicas, glockenspiel, warm synthesizers, electric guitars and basses, pianos, organs, and various little percussion instruments. The production, like the rest of the album is personal and intimate with Ohlenbusch's simple and natural voice conversationally riding on top of the carefully selected instruments.
Most noteworthy, perhaps, is how Ohlenbusch's well-crafted lyricism manages to cut to the heart of each film. Poltergeist: "Nobody's acting like they should in the blue-eyed houses of my neighborhood." Amelie: "My apartment might seem real tragic. I’m sitting here scheming secretly, part of me dreaming this magic might find its way back to me." or Superbad, who's song takes place during one escalator ride (a nod to Nicholsson Baker's novel "The Mezzanine"?): "It’s a thought that’s as jarring as the homeroom bells. The next time you see me, I might be someone else."
Though each song is about a movie, the listener need not be familiar with the films to enjoy the album. Ohlenbusch explains, "It was important to me that each of these songs stands on its own merit. For most of them, the listener might have never even known what the inspiration was had the songs not been titled the way that they are." For those that are familiar with the films, Ohlenbusch hopes to "convey the mood and spirit of the films how I experienced and remember them over time." This explains how a movie as goofy seeming as 1979's Meatballs starring Bill Murray could yield a chorus like "To casually and gracefully interact with others, to naturally and easily articulate my thoughts, this seemingly instinctual trait of human nature, confoundingly has evaded me for the better part of my life. Just to have a conversation, what would that be like?"
You heard it here first. Rub Wrongways Records is offering the chance to pre-order the long awaited new album by Henning Ohlenbusch. If you order now, when the boxes of CDs arrive at Rub Wrongways Records a disc will be pulled out and placed into an envelope and mailed to you immediately. Be the first on your block to hear "Henning Goes To The Movies."
ABOUT THE ALBUM
It's 2011, is it still okay to release a concept album? Celebrated New England songwriter Henning Ohlenbusch thinks so. "Henning Goes To The Movies" consists of nine songs about nine movies. Ohlenbusch describes the album this way: "Like everything in life, movies are experienced differently by each viewer. On this record, I tried to express in music how these nine films impacted me personally. At the outset, I established one rule: I was not allowed to revisit a film until I composed and recorded the song that it inspired me to write. In this way, I hope that each piece genuinely conveys the ways in which each movie has stuck with me throughout the years." The nine songs on the album are: Joe Vs. The Volcano, The Straight Story, Poltergeist, The Year My Voice Broke, Planes Trains and Automobiles, Logan's Run, Superbad, Amélie, and Meatballs. Though many of these films are widely considered to be comedies, the songs here are mostly gentle and melancholy, touching on the moving aspects of the films, whether they be sympathetic characters or defining moments. It's a relaxed, friendly record. The songs don't try to push the listener, but rather invite them to settle down for the journey. As the chorus of The Straight Story explains, "I don't care how long it takes. I don't mind how slow it seems. I'll get there."
Ohlenbusch sings all the parts and plays all of the instruments (with the exception of the drums on Amélie by Brian Marchese). The album was recorded, during a particularly harsh New England winter, entirely by Ohlenbusch in his small basement studio, buried under the snow, with just him and his instruments. Some songs feature just Ohlenbusch’s voice and his trusted dark red Guild acoustic guitar while others have full arrangements. Listen for melodicas, glockenspiel, warm synthesizers, electric guitars and basses, pianos, organs, and various little percussion instruments. The production, like the rest of the album is personal and intimate with Ohlenbusch's simple and natural voice conversationally riding on top of the carefully selected instruments.
Most noteworthy, perhaps, is how Ohlenbusch's well-crafted lyricism manages to cut to the heart of each film. Poltergeist: "Nobody's acting like they should in the blue-eyed houses of my neighborhood." Amelie: "My apartment might seem real tragic. I’m sitting here scheming secretly, part of me dreaming this magic might find its way back to me." or Superbad, who's song takes place during one escalator ride (a nod to Nicholsson Baker's novel "The Mezzanine"?): "It’s a thought that’s as jarring as the homeroom bells. The next time you see me, I might be someone else."
Though each song is about a movie, the listener need not be familiar with the films to enjoy the album. Ohlenbusch explains, "It was important to me that each of these songs stands on its own merit. For most of them, the listener might have never even known what the inspiration was had the songs not been titled the way that they are." For those that are familiar with the films, Ohlenbusch hopes to "convey the mood and spirit of the films how I experienced and remember them over time." This explains how a movie as goofy seeming as 1979's Meatballs starring Bill Murray could yield a chorus like "To casually and gracefully interact with others, to naturally and easily articulate my thoughts, this seemingly instinctual trait of human nature, confoundingly has evaded me for the better part of my life. Just to have a conversation, what would that be like?"
Monday, July 18, 2011
The Green River Festival - A Recap
The Green River Festival or as I call it, National Get-A-Sunburn-Day, happened this past weekend and School for the Dead played on Saturday. We had an interesting line-up for this show. It was Brian, Max, Me, and Lesa Bezo.
We were scheduled to play at 6:00 on the Meltdown Stage (thanks to Bill Childs), but Lesa, Brian, and I opted to arrive much earlier so we could enjoy the festival. Rock-star parking brought us in close with a locker-on-wheels to store things like sunblock, water, a blanket, changes of clothes etc. We got to see Terry Adams and the New NRBQ who were quite good. Lesa and I could only handle seeing a few songs though because of the relentless sun on that hot, hot day. We watched for a bit and then strolled off to put our blanket down in the shade of THE tree on the hill overlooking frisbee players, and hot air balloons, and a little train ride for kids.
We ran into many, many people that we knew. Some I hadn't seen for years. I ate some excellent festival food. The vendors at this particular festival were heads above any other fair type things that I've been to. Wood-oven baked pizza, chicken veggie wraps, clam strips, and chicken satay. Brilliant.
After NRBnew, we were excited to see Kermit Ruffins who we know from watching the HBO series Treme. Kermit's first song was perfect, the rest of his set was strange covers of 1970's and 1980's lite rock radio hits. It was a bit of a bummer since we were hoping for some more traditional New Orleans music. But what do we know about anything? Nothing!
Burned out from the sun, we returned to our blanket which was no longer in the shade. Luckily we discovered another hillside with abundant shadows of trees. We flopped down there and stared up at the wispy clouds while being able to hear music coming from all three stages at the same time. It was actually nice to hear it like that. It had the kind of chaotic festival sound to it that made me crave french fries.
 |
| Two little girls parade their crafty crafts across the lower field of the festival. |
We played our set in the little white tent at exactly 6:00 to a very hot and tired looking crowd. The sun came in at an angle and managed to cover half of the grass floor in the tent, so the majority of the crowd sat to my left in the shade as I sang. Others stood just outside the tent. A trio of young and tanned hippies danced joyously to Thinking of a Time and Super Hero. I was ecstatic.
Lesa sang harmonies on all the songs and played guitar on the last two (Periscope and Omnivore). She did a great job and receive many compliments on her boots and cool shirt. We played a very energetic and somewhat rocking set. I'd heard a lot of music that day and we were the first rock that I knew of. It's not like we are Motorhead or anything but I felt like we sent out some nice angst across the vast colorful fields of grass and beach blankets.
We sold a few CDs after our set and I talked to a few nice people with sweat dripping into my eyes. My sweat, not theirs. I think.
After we cooled down a bit in the shade we got some dinner and then weaved our way to the front of the big stage to see Toots and the Maytals. They pulled a we-have-a-secret-opener-in-the-beginning-of-our-set on the audience but eventually Toots came out and he killed in his leather vest and pants. He was very powerful and full of energy. Unfortunately, we were getting crushed by very aggressive reggae fans. The standing/dancing crowd was pretty thick and a whole lot of unfortunate folks held firm to their blankets and chairs and coolers and umbrellas in the midst of it. One older woman near me sat in a lawn chair with a whole lot of other chairs and coolers and folderal, people were struggling to get past or to find a place to stand and she just sat there ignoring it all and working on what appeared to be a crossword puzzle. She was a confused time traveler, perhaps, intent on doing what SHE WAS DOING despite its effect on all those around her. "Who put this concert here?!"
We watched some of the great set but eventually got elbowed out by one too many sweat drenched tie-dyed shirt. Anyway they were starting to light up all the hot air balloons on the other side of the field. We broke free of the crowd and the cooler night air greeted us. We weaved through the blankets and made our way down into the pitch-black otherworldliness of the balloon field. It was beautiful and dreamy.
Then we went home and watched Later with Jools Holland.
A perfect day.
 |
| The lighting of the hot air balloons. Awesome. |
Singer/songwriter
Those that like Elliott Smithy singer/songwriters, you might like the music of one of my former students and musical collaborators. He has just released his third album and I have to admit I'd like this even if I didn't know the kid personally. Produced by TW Walsh.
Cameron Stenger
Cameron Stenger
Friday, July 15, 2011
Short story
A few days ago, I found out that a piece I submitted to a periodical has been chosen for publication (the $250 will be much appreciated!) It's an article about my experience working with students on modernizing Shakespeare in some of my literature classes. I'll share it when it is officially published next January but for now, I'd like to share a short story that I also submitted that didn't get selected but that I'm pleased with how it turned out.
Shakespeare & Poems in Portuguese
Peering through the screen door at John, I explain, “I’m headed back to campus- I just thought I’d swing by…”
Ushering me into the hallway with a clap on my shoulder, John interrupts, “Come in, come in…”
“…I just thought I’d swing by to see if you needed a ride.”
While rubbing Biscuit vigorously on the top of her head as she bounds in and around my stride, whipping her tail excitedly against my jeans, John responds, “Thanks, mang, but Sylvia has roped me into going to her eighth grade open house tonight so I won’t be heading back to the dorm for a few hours.”
“Huh. I thought those engagements were normally intended for the parents,” I whisper, while casting a glance towards a napping Mr. Fialho reclining supine in his easy chair, a Portuguese community newspaper spread across his chest rising and falling with each breath.
“They only have translators for Spanish,” John explains, whisking me into a chair in the kitchen and offering me a snack.
While trying to decide between the box of donuts, plated pile of chocolate chip cookies, and bowl of oranges, I overhear Mrs. Fialho asking John and Sylvia, who are already putting on their coats, “Because my English is so bad, Sylvia, you are… are shamed of your mama?” She attempts to continue but is interrupted by the answer, “Don’t worry about it, Ma” and the dispute is settled as if the outcome depended not on the words spoken but the way in which they were. Mrs. Fialho’s stammering has no chance against Sylvia’s confidently spoken flow of English.
After zipping up her jacket and flinging a tiny matching purse over her shoulder, Sylvia lightly kisses her mother on the cheek, “Love you, Ma” and Mrs. Fialho replies, “I luff you too, Sylvia” above the din of youngest sibling David and several cousins in a nearby bedroom erupting at the consequence of some event occurring on the Nintendo game being played. She starts to add, “And take careful, John, when you are driving,” but the two have left by the time she manages to finish the sentence. Finally, she hurries to the door and yells something in Portuguese to the two before they get in the car.
Just as I start chomping on a honey-glazed donut, John and Sylvia’s brother, Louie, who’s a year or so younger than John and me, plops down in the adjacent chair, smirking. With the dark shoulder-length curls that defy his father’s idea of a real man’s hairstyle and his smooth flow of slang that defies complete comprehension by his mother, Louie looks like he’s just barely tolerated in the household.
“Whassup, Rock Star?” he asks as he lunges for a donut. But before I get a chance to answer, Mrs. Fialho shuffles back into the kitchen and squeezes in between Louie and me, apparently having no idea how uncomfortably close I find this. She brushes her hands on her apron, and with a disarming smile, grabs my cheeks and rubs them with her slightly damp hands. “Tony, such a doll! How you like de food, yes? Such luffly boy, such beautiful blue ice and blond hair. Going to be star just like my Louie, wit your kitars, oh yes.”
I return her smile, but shove the donut back in my mouth to cover it up, self-conscious about how patronizing it may have appeared, as if somehow I should get some sort of credit for paying attention to Mrs. Fialho, whose own kids don’t pay her much at all. Suddenly, Louie takes this opportunity to sigh heavily, then squeeze a duck squawk sound out of the side of his mouth. It’s bizarre, Mrs. Fialho standing still in front of me with her huge smile and bright eyes magnified by the powerful lenses in her glasses and Louie behind her, his eyes wide open, cocking his head from left to right a la Harpo Marx, silently mocking his mother’s good-natured hospitality.
“Sometimes when I eat my lunch at work, I write de…” Mrs. Fialho begins in English, then asks Louie in Portuguese the translation for a word. Louie looks to me, with his mouthful of donut, and mumbles, “Yeah, yeah, the poems, Ma.” When she doesn’t seem to have picked up the word from his garbled utterance, he impatiently barks, “Poems, Ma!” and adds “What the hell, yo?” all the while smirking as he looks at me.
“You know poems, yes, Tony?”
My silent nod is steamrolled by Louie’s exclamation, “Of course he knows what poetry is, Ma!” He caps this with another squawk, this time a slower, lower-pitched one that runs into Mrs. Fialho’s next painfully delivered sentence.
“Dese poems I am writing at my lunchbreak, dey are all in Portuguese. Maybe I can say into English.” With a snap of her fingers, she exclaims “I get dese poems, to try to read into English for you!” and exits the kitchen.
Louie sighs heavily, loudly, and asks again, “So how’s the band anyway, yo?”
I gaze over to see if Mrs. Fialho has returned from the other room yet before I answer. “Yeah, it’s cool, it’s been going pretty well.”
“Dese poems not so easy to say into English for me but I try.”
Squinting through her glasses at the words written on ripped slices of cardboard, she begins. “Wit your long hair (I try to keep my chuckle inaudible as her accent renders the phrase ‘long hair’ to sound much more like ‘lawn care’) and bright red kitar, you are a star…My Louie, I see you on de TV but you… you… can’t, Louie, you can’t see me, inside, when you are inside de TV and I am outside…I can’t say into English. Maybe I try anudder one.”
Louie groans again, shifting in his chair, then lets his tongue slide out over his bottom lip, as the poetry reading resumes.
“OK, I try dis one now. Louie, you are my star. You sing and play your kitar and de house has all such beautiful music. I make your food while you practice and fill you up when de lunch is ready. Maybe you can be star for everyone if God will help fill you up too. OK, maybe I try another.”
“That’s enough, Ma. He doesn’t want to hear anymore.”
That’s not actually true, however. After hearing the last one translated very well, I begin to understand what the first one was about and I’m curious to hear another. It hardly matters, however. Even if Louie was right in assuming I wasn’t interested, she launches into the next one.
“I work in de factory every day. I have my friends here and I like de…” She peers over the chunk of cardboard. “What is de word for de man who gives you work?”
Discarding ‘employer’, ‘manager’ and ‘foreman’ from the thesaurus residing in my native English-speaking head, I offer “Boss?”
“Yes, yes, my boss, Mister Kozub. OK, I start over. I work in de factory every day. I have my friends here and I like my boss. But my Louie will not work in de factory. He play his kitar. He make his mama proud of him when he sing such beautiful music. Now he can play his kitar for his work. Louie my star make happy everybody like he make happy his mama.”
Without a word of intermission, she shuffles the cardboard pieces and starts another. “I write my poems for Louie. I want him to become star. Maybe someday he can play such beautiful music and sing my poem for him. This would be a dream is now true for his mama.”
Yawning, drowsy from the downswing of the sugar rush brought on by the honey-glazed donuts I ingested an hour ago, I reach over to the coffee table to pick up my keys and notice they’re lying on top of a piece of paper that turns out to be a brief composition Sylvia wrote on Shakespeare.
The paper has all the trappings of an eighth-grader’s homework assignment, with impeccable penmanship in red ink at the bottom that reads, “This is good research, Sylvia, but in writing a biography on an author such as Shakespeare, try to concentrate on some of the more important works he wrote and don’t forget to discuss why readers and playgoers still find his work relevant. For example, What would people today think of two thirteen year-olds such as Romeo & Juliet getting married? etc.”
Curious, I begin to read Sylvia’s composition from the beginning. It consists of Shakespeare’s life story starting with the names of his parents and then Shakespeare’s birth date and early life. It goes on to tell about how he met his wife, when he married her and says a little about their life in Stratford, England. Next, Sylvia lists the names, births and deaths of his children and although the information is scant, Sylvia informs readers of what is known of the lives of his children.
At that moment, Mrs. Fialho sits down in the adjacent chair and exhales heavily while smoothing out her apron. I immediately lurch upwards on the sofa, wondering whether it’s rude of me to be practically prone on her couch reading her daughter’s homework.
“Sylvia is good English writer, yes? She make her mama so proud. Just like John, so de same, good students, get good grades. And Louie play such beautiful music, like you. I love for you to bring your kitar and you and Louie play on de porch. And David, still young boy. Mama always like de youngest specially.” She yawns softly and continues. “Father can’t speak into English good. Maybe better than me…” she adds, although I know this is nowhere near the truth.
“How you like Sylvia’s English…write…into English writing? Is hard to learn English. I know. She speak so fast, I can never hear. She talk on de telephone to her friends when we make dinner. Sylvia good inside de kitchen like her mama.” As she says this, she smiles and I nod and smile myself, silently as always, afraid to intimidate her with my fluent English.
“Yes, Sylvia watch David and Pedro and Josue, her…her…children of my sister…when Maria, my sister is working. So she’s such good girl, I let her go wit her friends sometime and not wash dishes after eat.”
Casting a glance towards the still slumbering Mr. Fialho on the other side of the room, she whispers, “Her father not like I let her go wit friends but he not know. Different here, not like in Portugal.”
I nod again.
“Sometimes maybe I like better here too.”
Shakespeare & Poems in Portuguese
Peering through the screen door at John, I explain, “I’m headed back to campus- I just thought I’d swing by…”
Ushering me into the hallway with a clap on my shoulder, John interrupts, “Come in, come in…”
“…I just thought I’d swing by to see if you needed a ride.”
While rubbing Biscuit vigorously on the top of her head as she bounds in and around my stride, whipping her tail excitedly against my jeans, John responds, “Thanks, mang, but Sylvia has roped me into going to her eighth grade open house tonight so I won’t be heading back to the dorm for a few hours.”
“Huh. I thought those engagements were normally intended for the parents,” I whisper, while casting a glance towards a napping Mr. Fialho reclining supine in his easy chair, a Portuguese community newspaper spread across his chest rising and falling with each breath.
“They only have translators for Spanish,” John explains, whisking me into a chair in the kitchen and offering me a snack.
While trying to decide between the box of donuts, plated pile of chocolate chip cookies, and bowl of oranges, I overhear Mrs. Fialho asking John and Sylvia, who are already putting on their coats, “Because my English is so bad, Sylvia, you are… are shamed of your mama?” She attempts to continue but is interrupted by the answer, “Don’t worry about it, Ma” and the dispute is settled as if the outcome depended not on the words spoken but the way in which they were. Mrs. Fialho’s stammering has no chance against Sylvia’s confidently spoken flow of English.
After zipping up her jacket and flinging a tiny matching purse over her shoulder, Sylvia lightly kisses her mother on the cheek, “Love you, Ma” and Mrs. Fialho replies, “I luff you too, Sylvia” above the din of youngest sibling David and several cousins in a nearby bedroom erupting at the consequence of some event occurring on the Nintendo game being played. She starts to add, “And take careful, John, when you are driving,” but the two have left by the time she manages to finish the sentence. Finally, she hurries to the door and yells something in Portuguese to the two before they get in the car.
Just as I start chomping on a honey-glazed donut, John and Sylvia’s brother, Louie, who’s a year or so younger than John and me, plops down in the adjacent chair, smirking. With the dark shoulder-length curls that defy his father’s idea of a real man’s hairstyle and his smooth flow of slang that defies complete comprehension by his mother, Louie looks like he’s just barely tolerated in the household.
“Whassup, Rock Star?” he asks as he lunges for a donut. But before I get a chance to answer, Mrs. Fialho shuffles back into the kitchen and squeezes in between Louie and me, apparently having no idea how uncomfortably close I find this. She brushes her hands on her apron, and with a disarming smile, grabs my cheeks and rubs them with her slightly damp hands. “Tony, such a doll! How you like de food, yes? Such luffly boy, such beautiful blue ice and blond hair. Going to be star just like my Louie, wit your kitars, oh yes.”
I return her smile, but shove the donut back in my mouth to cover it up, self-conscious about how patronizing it may have appeared, as if somehow I should get some sort of credit for paying attention to Mrs. Fialho, whose own kids don’t pay her much at all. Suddenly, Louie takes this opportunity to sigh heavily, then squeeze a duck squawk sound out of the side of his mouth. It’s bizarre, Mrs. Fialho standing still in front of me with her huge smile and bright eyes magnified by the powerful lenses in her glasses and Louie behind her, his eyes wide open, cocking his head from left to right a la Harpo Marx, silently mocking his mother’s good-natured hospitality.
“Sometimes when I eat my lunch at work, I write de…” Mrs. Fialho begins in English, then asks Louie in Portuguese the translation for a word. Louie looks to me, with his mouthful of donut, and mumbles, “Yeah, yeah, the poems, Ma.” When she doesn’t seem to have picked up the word from his garbled utterance, he impatiently barks, “Poems, Ma!” and adds “What the hell, yo?” all the while smirking as he looks at me.
“You know poems, yes, Tony?”
My silent nod is steamrolled by Louie’s exclamation, “Of course he knows what poetry is, Ma!” He caps this with another squawk, this time a slower, lower-pitched one that runs into Mrs. Fialho’s next painfully delivered sentence.
“Dese poems I am writing at my lunchbreak, dey are all in Portuguese. Maybe I can say into English.” With a snap of her fingers, she exclaims “I get dese poems, to try to read into English for you!” and exits the kitchen.
Louie sighs heavily, loudly, and asks again, “So how’s the band anyway, yo?”
I gaze over to see if Mrs. Fialho has returned from the other room yet before I answer. “Yeah, it’s cool, it’s been going pretty well.”
“Dese poems not so easy to say into English for me but I try.”
Squinting through her glasses at the words written on ripped slices of cardboard, she begins. “Wit your long hair (I try to keep my chuckle inaudible as her accent renders the phrase ‘long hair’ to sound much more like ‘lawn care’) and bright red kitar, you are a star…My Louie, I see you on de TV but you… you… can’t, Louie, you can’t see me, inside, when you are inside de TV and I am outside…I can’t say into English. Maybe I try anudder one.”
Louie groans again, shifting in his chair, then lets his tongue slide out over his bottom lip, as the poetry reading resumes.
“OK, I try dis one now. Louie, you are my star. You sing and play your kitar and de house has all such beautiful music. I make your food while you practice and fill you up when de lunch is ready. Maybe you can be star for everyone if God will help fill you up too. OK, maybe I try another.”
“That’s enough, Ma. He doesn’t want to hear anymore.”
That’s not actually true, however. After hearing the last one translated very well, I begin to understand what the first one was about and I’m curious to hear another. It hardly matters, however. Even if Louie was right in assuming I wasn’t interested, she launches into the next one.
“I work in de factory every day. I have my friends here and I like de…” She peers over the chunk of cardboard. “What is de word for de man who gives you work?”
Discarding ‘employer’, ‘manager’ and ‘foreman’ from the thesaurus residing in my native English-speaking head, I offer “Boss?”
“Yes, yes, my boss, Mister Kozub. OK, I start over. I work in de factory every day. I have my friends here and I like my boss. But my Louie will not work in de factory. He play his kitar. He make his mama proud of him when he sing such beautiful music. Now he can play his kitar for his work. Louie my star make happy everybody like he make happy his mama.”
Without a word of intermission, she shuffles the cardboard pieces and starts another. “I write my poems for Louie. I want him to become star. Maybe someday he can play such beautiful music and sing my poem for him. This would be a dream is now true for his mama.”
Yawning, drowsy from the downswing of the sugar rush brought on by the honey-glazed donuts I ingested an hour ago, I reach over to the coffee table to pick up my keys and notice they’re lying on top of a piece of paper that turns out to be a brief composition Sylvia wrote on Shakespeare.
The paper has all the trappings of an eighth-grader’s homework assignment, with impeccable penmanship in red ink at the bottom that reads, “This is good research, Sylvia, but in writing a biography on an author such as Shakespeare, try to concentrate on some of the more important works he wrote and don’t forget to discuss why readers and playgoers still find his work relevant. For example, What would people today think of two thirteen year-olds such as Romeo & Juliet getting married? etc.”
Curious, I begin to read Sylvia’s composition from the beginning. It consists of Shakespeare’s life story starting with the names of his parents and then Shakespeare’s birth date and early life. It goes on to tell about how he met his wife, when he married her and says a little about their life in Stratford, England. Next, Sylvia lists the names, births and deaths of his children and although the information is scant, Sylvia informs readers of what is known of the lives of his children.
At that moment, Mrs. Fialho sits down in the adjacent chair and exhales heavily while smoothing out her apron. I immediately lurch upwards on the sofa, wondering whether it’s rude of me to be practically prone on her couch reading her daughter’s homework.
“Sylvia is good English writer, yes? She make her mama so proud. Just like John, so de same, good students, get good grades. And Louie play such beautiful music, like you. I love for you to bring your kitar and you and Louie play on de porch. And David, still young boy. Mama always like de youngest specially.” She yawns softly and continues. “Father can’t speak into English good. Maybe better than me…” she adds, although I know this is nowhere near the truth.
“How you like Sylvia’s English…write…into English writing? Is hard to learn English. I know. She speak so fast, I can never hear. She talk on de telephone to her friends when we make dinner. Sylvia good inside de kitchen like her mama.” As she says this, she smiles and I nod and smile myself, silently as always, afraid to intimidate her with my fluent English.
“Yes, Sylvia watch David and Pedro and Josue, her…her…children of my sister…when Maria, my sister is working. So she’s such good girl, I let her go wit her friends sometime and not wash dishes after eat.”
Casting a glance towards the still slumbering Mr. Fialho on the other side of the room, she whispers, “Her father not like I let her go wit friends but he not know. Different here, not like in Portugal.”
I nod again.
“Sometimes maybe I like better here too.”
Thursday, July 14, 2011
School for the Dead at the Green River Fest - Saturday
We'll be there hanging out all day, too. Maybe we'll see you?
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Brian and Henning on the Radio
Tuesday July 12, Brian and Henning will be playing an acoustic set of songs at The Tuesday Market in Northampton, MA at 4:00. There will be an interview and song aired later at 5:00 on WRSI. You can tune in at 93.9 FM or listen online. See if you can hear the sweat falling from our brows.
Monday, July 11, 2011
SFTD Recording Journal (Part 2)
On Sunday July 10, 2011 (Debby Harry's birthday), Brian pulled into my driveway at 9:00. As I was bringing my guitar out to the car, I saw him get out and raise the hood. "The check engine light just came on" he said as I walked over to the car, where we saw smoke coming off of the engine.
Since we are both pretty clueless in the ways of cars, we decided it'd probably be best if we didn't take the smoking car up into the nowheres of New Hampshire for the day's recording session.
Lesa was kind enough to lend us her car and we got on the road later than planned but with the knowledge that Tony would arrive before us, and since the day was about recording his guitar parts, things could begin anyway.
The ride was pleasant on a beautiful summer Sunday morning and we listened to Brian's first podcast ever. I learned a bit about Ringo Starr, it was a birthday tribute to him. I recommend a listen.
When we got to Brown Bag Studios (we drove right past it again and had to bang a louie to get back) we stepped out into the silent New Hampshire forest and heard a faint echoing of music. As we approached the building, it was clearly Tony playing guitar. But what song was it? We couldn't figure it out at first. It sounded really cool though, whatever he was playing.
We stood outside the door waiting for a break in sound so we didn't interrupt a good take and after a bit determined it was "Saving Your Life Is Going To Be Real Interesting".
Inside, we found Frank and Tony and the dog and the cat all sitting in the comfortable studio with swirling guitar sounds streaming from the speakers.
Tony was playing a beautiful green Fender something-or-other. Brian and I slumped down on the sofa and watched as Tony and Frank went through song after song. Effects pedals were switched in and out, amp settings were changed, microphones were moved, and through it all Frank and Tony sat stoically, intensely focused on their work.
Brian and I would pipe in with suggestions here and there. Tony played an interesting and hooky finger-picked part for "Saving Your Life" and then moved on to the goofy "Turn It Down" where he had us all laughing during the most absurd guitar solo during the ending. I love when a bit of music can make me laugh. His solo was perfectly bad.
Next up was "I Don't Know About Anyone Else But" where a bit of tremolo was added and I again, had the privilege of hearing clearly the parts that Tony had been playing live. For a few minutes, Tony took a break while I added my part to that song. He was allowed a glass of water but then he went right back into recording.
We dove into "Jake and Kim Broke Up (Leave Me Out Of It)" and Tony got to pull out some of his surf guitar chops. I can't tell you how nice it is to hear these songs coming to life.
"Somebody Else's Problem" was next. It's the green fender on the hooks and the wood G&L on the verses. The Mary-Tyler-Moore solo, gets doubled an octave lower by tuning some strings way down. Frank's got some great ideas, yo.
While Tony has the guitar tuned down, he jumps into his droning open-tuned part for "I Wasn't Looking For This." It was a completely unexpected part, but it grew on me in about half a second.
And that was that. The day's work was done. The songs were coming alive. It was really nice to hear them. We hadn't heard anything since we did the drums and bass. Everything sounded great. They had the right amount of energy. They had the right sound.
As Brian and I drove home, we spoke about how focused Tony was. He never got flustered or distracted. he just patiently moved from one song to the next. His wonderful parts were so different than what I would have added and therefore perfect. Frank was just as tuned-in as Tony, with his intense listening sometimes yielding musical suggestions or ideas for changing things sonically. He's got a great ear for tempo and tuning but he's also always listening for the right musical intensity as well
It's a great feeling to be working on my songs with people who I trust entirely.
Here's Tony playing solo #1 on "Jake and Kim Broke Up (Leave Me Out Of It)"
Here's Tony playing solo #1 on "Jake and Kim Broke Up (Leave Me Out Of It)"
Friday, July 08, 2011
End of year albums list
The music list for this year is comprised of the artists/albums that I found myself playing repeatedly for periods of time.
Bats “Daddy’s Highway”: Bouncy, simple guitar-based pop from 1987 that would satisfy anyone who likes bands like The Go-Betweens or even like Crowded House. Except with a very awkward lead vocalist who doesn’t always hit all the right notes. Still, I’m too charmed to care.
Stephin Merritt: Magnetic Fields “Distortion,” “Realism,” “Holiday,” “Get Lost,” both albums by The Sixths and Future Bible Heroes: Following my 2009 discovery of the masterpiece “69 Love Songs,” I’ve continued to be smitten by the songwriting of Stephin Merritt. His way with melodies you have to hear for yourself but below are a handful of couplets and verses from songs I discovered this year that floor me.
From “You Must Be Out Of Your Mind”:
“I want you crawling back to me/ Down on your knees, yeah/ Like an appendectomy/ Sans anesthesia.” Not only do I love the fact that a lyricist would use the phrase “sans anesthesia” (very poetic and original) but used in context here, very snarky and witty and acerbic. And a singalongable melody, too.
From “I’m A Vampire”:
“Survived the inquisition/ Been a harlot, been a queen/ I’ve lived for seven hundred years/ And I still look seventeen.” With vampires prevalent in present-day pop culture, this song should be a massive hit. It’s funny and catchy but also boasts techno instrumentation and a cool lead vocal by Claudia Gonson.
From “Drive On, Driver”:
“So take me to the airport/ I need to be extremely far away/ So I can forget about her/ I might forget about her someday/ Drive on, driver.” And while Claudia Gonson can do detached/ironic/witty well as heard in “Vampire,” she also can break your heart when given a simple, effectively sad lyric like the bridge in this song. (By the way, Merritt and his various singers gender-bend everything- you have men singing to men, women to women, and both versions of straight as well).
From “Strange Powers”:
“On a ferris wheel looking out on Coney Island/ Under more starts than there are prostitutes in Thailand/ Our hair in the air, our lips blue from cotton candy/ When we kiss, it feels like a flying saucer landing.” When he’s on, Merritt does it all- his songs are clever, original, catchy, witty, romantic, poetic, colorful, and compelling lyrically and melodically.
Cameron Stenger: “Fool’s Day,” “Where You Are,” & tracks from forthcoming third disc: Cameron is a former student from the school I still teach at. Six years ago, when he was a 10th grader, we played in a heavy rock instrumental group where Cam and I collaborated on composing songs that strung together riffs that probably resembled bands like Tool more than anything else. Not being a fan of that music in general myself, I decided to introduce Cam to some other kinds of music and once he picked up on Nick Drake and Elliott Smith in particular, his aesthetics took a drastic left turn. He picked up an acoustic, grew a beard, started writing lyrics and began showing off a decent singing voice. And he didn’t need me anymore. “Fool’s Day” is a 10-track disc that combines a handful of tunes written in his newly embraced singer/songwriter style and were recorded at Henning’s studio, a few tracks recorded on ProTools in his dorm room that rely on ambient textures as well as chord changes/ melodies and also contains an instrumental collaboration with me where we stepped away from the heavy rock riffs and instead came up with a delicious soundscape of two heavily reverbed guitars singing to each other in droney riffs and sumptuous melodic snippets. “Where You Are” finds Cameron staying consistently in his singer/songwriter style and although his singing is much more assured, and he’s found a way to make it so that his great ear for atmospheric production serves the songs more than constructs them, I prefer the first album mostly just because I personally favor eclecticism and variety over 12 songs that basically share a similar mood. Nevertheless, the tracks Cam has shared with me that will show up on his next album demonstrate that this third one has it all: sterling production supporting solid songs with meaningful lyrics, Cam’s gift for melodies & chords plus vocal performances that show that in a previous era, A&R people would be drooling over this unsigned talent.
Yo La Tengo “Painful,” “Fakebook”: Just as with Stephin Merritt, I’ve continued my affinity for Yo La Tengo from last year. “Fakebook” I’ve known for many years and still spin often whereas I just bought “Painful” recently and find they can hit this button in the pleasure center of my brain. For me, guitars/bass/drums can be so intoxicating sometimes, like food or sex or drugs.
The Impressions “Anthology”: I only listened to Disc 2 once all the way through- I can’t seem to get into those long-winded 70’s r&b jams of Curtis Mayfield but the 30 or so tracks that make up Disc One and cover the best sides of The Impressions from the 60s keep the hits coming and my attention span much prefers track times of 2:27 and 3:01 any day. This is where you’ll find the absolutely gorgeous “People Get Ready” and the fantastically catchy “You Must Believe Me,” “Gypsy Woman,” “Woman’s Got Soul,” etc. but some of those early tunes like “Grow Closer Together,” “Never Let Me Go” and “Little Young Lover” are not to be missed, either. Great tunes aside, the group is famous for their recognizable three-part harmony blend but there’s also Mayfield’s spare but fluid, expressive guitar playing anchoring their trademark sound.
The Turtles "Battle of the Bands": OK, this is a pretty goofy record and many of my musical friends might laugh at me for digging it but hey, it does feature two of the Turtles’ biggest and best hits in “Elenore” and “You Showed Me.” A few caveats: closer “Earth Song” may boast a simply gorgeous melody and supple twi-lit production but okay, the lyrics are a tad cringe-worthy, “Surfer Dan” features some tasty guitar licks (the group began their career as a surf-rock outfit called The Crossfires) and I like the late 60’s twist on the free-spirited no-home-address-I-go-where-the-waves-are surfer dude ethos allowing the title character to elude “Uncle Sam” and the draft but I suppose the track is somewhat marred by some silly, shrill vocalizing. Meanwhile, “Buzzsaw” blows your ass out with its fuzz bass and then jacks up the frat-rock intensity with a wailing organ solo but in the end, it is just a tossed-off instrumental. On the other hand, slight psychedelicity aside, “The Last Thing I Remember” yields a (ahem) memorable melody and the groovy “Oh Daddy” sounds like one of those fine riff-based ditties Boyce & Hart used to crank out for Turtles peers The Monkees. The overall concept of the album means that a few of the tracks are novelties: “Too Much Heartsick Feeling” is fine as a country tune but it’s camped up a tad too much to be respectful to either the tune or the genre, and “Food” is “Smile”-era Beach Boys silliness with its recitation of a recipe to make pot brownies (ooh, how scandalous for 1968!). Nevertheless, I never tire of the one and a half minutes of guilty pleasure “Chief Kamanawanalea” (read that word slowly to get the goofy wordplay housed within) and apparently I’m not alone in that, as De La Soul made the most of the track’s relentless beat on their debut album. I dunno. My guess is if you like 60s pop in general, you’re going to be susceptible to the record’s charms (I’m talking to you, Jason Bourgeois); failing that, don’t give it a second thought (I’m talking now to you, Ari).
Gene Clark “Roadmaster,” “White Light,” “Dillard & Clark,” “No Other”: Following last year’s poring through the Byrds catalog, I realized that I’d never fully immersed myself in Gene Clark’s career apart from his first disc with the Gosdin Brothers. And at this moment, I feel like abandoning this blog and cueing up “With Tomorrow” and just submitting myself to the gorgeousity of its serene melody. The first six tracks off “Roadmaster” would do just as nicely. Speaking of which, it was a holy grail of sorts finding “One In A Hundred” from that album, as it featured Gene and a reunited original Byrds lineup playing a track that could’ve easily been a single from 1965. A perfect Gene song, crystalline McGuinn 12-string Rickenbacker, exquisite David Crosby harmony- it’s all there.
Shoes “Black Vinyl Shoes,” “Present Tense,” “Tongue Twister,” “Boomerang,” “Silhouette”: I’ve always liked The Shoes- for example, that “Present Tense”/ “Tongue Twister” two-fer CD was a frequent spin back in the summer of 2007 when I needed rock-to-sleep music for infant Owen. But when I bought my grandmother’s car this last winter and was relegated to slooshying tunes on a car stereo with only a tape deck, I found myself grabbing random cassettes from downstairs that I’d never fully absorbed and “Shoes Best” (bought at For the Record in Amherst as a cut-out for $1.99 about fifteen years ago) was one of the first I gave a spin to (“Will You Spin For Me?”). So for about the next two months, I just kept it in the deck for that seven-minute-long trip to school everyday and gorged upon the many delectable items therein. Became a fan, really, and then started obtaining other albums of theirs, even communicating with Jeff Murphy via email a few times this last spring.
There’s a lot to like about this band. Sure, the catchy power-pop is what reeled me in but the more I learned about them, the more there was to appreciate. I love that the band is made up of two brothers and one buddy who have been musical partners and good friends for nearly forty years regardless of the status of their success (or lack thereof) at any given point and that each member writes and sings an equal amount of songs per album. Unlike, say, Badfinger, where Pete Ham was clearly the most talented songwriter, the democracy in The Shoes works since John, Jeff, and Gary are all equally adept at crafting great melodies and strangely, they all possess similar vocal timbres. In fact, before reading about them, I’d always assumed they only had one lead singer. Beyond that, the band was one of the first truly successful DIY outfits, recording their first three albums on a 4-track in their living room and then building their own studio out in Illinois for many of the others.
Although their first four videos were in rotation in the very early days of MTV, they never really caught on beyond cult status. And when you watch this first video, you’ll know why. The song, “Too Late,” is a perfect power-pop gem but http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifleadhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif singer Gary Klebe looks uncomfortable on camera and his bandmates, despite the then-de-rigeur long locks, add little visually. In other words, heavy MTV exposure at that time wasn’t primarily about great songs, it was about image and The Shoes were no Duran Duran or Culture Club or even Stray Cats or Madness for that matter.
Too Late
And now here’s a tune written and sung by Jeff Murphy:
Tomorrow Night
And just to be democratic as The Shoes themselves would appreciate, here’s a John Murphy track called “Your Very Eyes.” Although there’s one more MTV video of John’s “Cruel You,” which possesses a nice chugging groove to it, John was the one who usually wrote the killer ballads for the band, or at least had the softest, most McCartney-esque touch in the group so I opted for this album track instead:
Your Very Eyes
Bruce Springsteen “Tunnel of Love”: I can’t say Bruce is normally a favorite of mine but this album eschews the epics and workingman’s tales for a thematic take on Springsteen’s failing first marriage, and apart from one clunker, he brought the tunes. You all know “Brilliant Disguise” and the title track and perhaps “Tougher Than The Rest” but “All That Heaven Will Allow” and “When You’re Alone” show that Bruce can pen a hooky melody when he needs to. I wish he’d do it more but it’s not really what he’s known for and that’s fair enough.
Mash-ups: This fall, with the aid of youtube, I found myself falling hard for the charms of mash-ups. I think Ken Maiuri was the first to introduce mash-ups to me about ten years ago, with that great Christina Aguilera/ Strokes track and then I discovered one of my favorites not long after, the Stooges/Salt & Pepa track that is one of the most viscerally pleasing records I’ve ever heard- somehow all vestiges of pop are excised in favor of pure aggression and sexual energy through music. Anyway, youtube is a wonderland of mashup madness, with new faves being the Byrds/Beatles’ “Turn Turn Turn/Nowhere Man,” the one that blends Elvis Costello’s “Watching The Detectives,” Lionel Richie’s “Hello,” The Police’s “Wrapped Around Your Finger,” Peggy Lee’s “Fever,” The Hollies’ “Bus Stop,” Bob Marley’s “Exodus,” Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway To Heaven” and perhaps even others buried in there. Sometimes the DJs create videos as well so that you get this party vibe to the Blondie/Paul McCartney/Jennifer Lopez mashup where everybody’s singing and dancing as if they were all in on it together. Although there’s a video for one of my favorite musical mashups (Madonna/The Who “Like A Virgin”/”Baba O’Riley”), the video-masher missed a great chance to sync lyric to image perfectly when they use footage of Pete Townsend shoving his guitar neck into a busted amplifier speaker but not during Madonna’s repeated uttering of “feels so good inside.” I dunno- maybe my mind’s still in the gutter after having just recalled that Stooges/ Salt & Pepa track.
Patsy Cline “20 Golden Greats”?: I have no idea whether that’s the real title or not but as I mentioned, when I purchased my grandmother’s car, I had to resort to listening to cassettes in it. Gram left a few for me and I’ve always liked Cline so this went down easy for a few spins until “Shoes Best” took over.
Bats “Daddy’s Highway”: Bouncy, simple guitar-based pop from 1987 that would satisfy anyone who likes bands like The Go-Betweens or even like Crowded House. Except with a very awkward lead vocalist who doesn’t always hit all the right notes. Still, I’m too charmed to care.
Stephin Merritt: Magnetic Fields “Distortion,” “Realism,” “Holiday,” “Get Lost,” both albums by The Sixths and Future Bible Heroes: Following my 2009 discovery of the masterpiece “69 Love Songs,” I’ve continued to be smitten by the songwriting of Stephin Merritt. His way with melodies you have to hear for yourself but below are a handful of couplets and verses from songs I discovered this year that floor me.
From “You Must Be Out Of Your Mind”:
“I want you crawling back to me/ Down on your knees, yeah/ Like an appendectomy/ Sans anesthesia.” Not only do I love the fact that a lyricist would use the phrase “sans anesthesia” (very poetic and original) but used in context here, very snarky and witty and acerbic. And a singalongable melody, too.
From “I’m A Vampire”:
“Survived the inquisition/ Been a harlot, been a queen/ I’ve lived for seven hundred years/ And I still look seventeen.” With vampires prevalent in present-day pop culture, this song should be a massive hit. It’s funny and catchy but also boasts techno instrumentation and a cool lead vocal by Claudia Gonson.
From “Drive On, Driver”:
“So take me to the airport/ I need to be extremely far away/ So I can forget about her/ I might forget about her someday/ Drive on, driver.” And while Claudia Gonson can do detached/ironic/witty well as heard in “Vampire,” she also can break your heart when given a simple, effectively sad lyric like the bridge in this song. (By the way, Merritt and his various singers gender-bend everything- you have men singing to men, women to women, and both versions of straight as well).
From “Strange Powers”:
“On a ferris wheel looking out on Coney Island/ Under more starts than there are prostitutes in Thailand/ Our hair in the air, our lips blue from cotton candy/ When we kiss, it feels like a flying saucer landing.” When he’s on, Merritt does it all- his songs are clever, original, catchy, witty, romantic, poetic, colorful, and compelling lyrically and melodically.
Cameron Stenger: “Fool’s Day,” “Where You Are,” & tracks from forthcoming third disc: Cameron is a former student from the school I still teach at. Six years ago, when he was a 10th grader, we played in a heavy rock instrumental group where Cam and I collaborated on composing songs that strung together riffs that probably resembled bands like Tool more than anything else. Not being a fan of that music in general myself, I decided to introduce Cam to some other kinds of music and once he picked up on Nick Drake and Elliott Smith in particular, his aesthetics took a drastic left turn. He picked up an acoustic, grew a beard, started writing lyrics and began showing off a decent singing voice. And he didn’t need me anymore. “Fool’s Day” is a 10-track disc that combines a handful of tunes written in his newly embraced singer/songwriter style and were recorded at Henning’s studio, a few tracks recorded on ProTools in his dorm room that rely on ambient textures as well as chord changes/ melodies and also contains an instrumental collaboration with me where we stepped away from the heavy rock riffs and instead came up with a delicious soundscape of two heavily reverbed guitars singing to each other in droney riffs and sumptuous melodic snippets. “Where You Are” finds Cameron staying consistently in his singer/songwriter style and although his singing is much more assured, and he’s found a way to make it so that his great ear for atmospheric production serves the songs more than constructs them, I prefer the first album mostly just because I personally favor eclecticism and variety over 12 songs that basically share a similar mood. Nevertheless, the tracks Cam has shared with me that will show up on his next album demonstrate that this third one has it all: sterling production supporting solid songs with meaningful lyrics, Cam’s gift for melodies & chords plus vocal performances that show that in a previous era, A&R people would be drooling over this unsigned talent.
Yo La Tengo “Painful,” “Fakebook”: Just as with Stephin Merritt, I’ve continued my affinity for Yo La Tengo from last year. “Fakebook” I’ve known for many years and still spin often whereas I just bought “Painful” recently and find they can hit this button in the pleasure center of my brain. For me, guitars/bass/drums can be so intoxicating sometimes, like food or sex or drugs.
The Impressions “Anthology”: I only listened to Disc 2 once all the way through- I can’t seem to get into those long-winded 70’s r&b jams of Curtis Mayfield but the 30 or so tracks that make up Disc One and cover the best sides of The Impressions from the 60s keep the hits coming and my attention span much prefers track times of 2:27 and 3:01 any day. This is where you’ll find the absolutely gorgeous “People Get Ready” and the fantastically catchy “You Must Believe Me,” “Gypsy Woman,” “Woman’s Got Soul,” etc. but some of those early tunes like “Grow Closer Together,” “Never Let Me Go” and “Little Young Lover” are not to be missed, either. Great tunes aside, the group is famous for their recognizable three-part harmony blend but there’s also Mayfield’s spare but fluid, expressive guitar playing anchoring their trademark sound.
The Turtles "Battle of the Bands": OK, this is a pretty goofy record and many of my musical friends might laugh at me for digging it but hey, it does feature two of the Turtles’ biggest and best hits in “Elenore” and “You Showed Me.” A few caveats: closer “Earth Song” may boast a simply gorgeous melody and supple twi-lit production but okay, the lyrics are a tad cringe-worthy, “Surfer Dan” features some tasty guitar licks (the group began their career as a surf-rock outfit called The Crossfires) and I like the late 60’s twist on the free-spirited no-home-address-I-go-where-the-waves-are surfer dude ethos allowing the title character to elude “Uncle Sam” and the draft but I suppose the track is somewhat marred by some silly, shrill vocalizing. Meanwhile, “Buzzsaw” blows your ass out with its fuzz bass and then jacks up the frat-rock intensity with a wailing organ solo but in the end, it is just a tossed-off instrumental. On the other hand, slight psychedelicity aside, “The Last Thing I Remember” yields a (ahem) memorable melody and the groovy “Oh Daddy” sounds like one of those fine riff-based ditties Boyce & Hart used to crank out for Turtles peers The Monkees. The overall concept of the album means that a few of the tracks are novelties: “Too Much Heartsick Feeling” is fine as a country tune but it’s camped up a tad too much to be respectful to either the tune or the genre, and “Food” is “Smile”-era Beach Boys silliness with its recitation of a recipe to make pot brownies (ooh, how scandalous for 1968!). Nevertheless, I never tire of the one and a half minutes of guilty pleasure “Chief Kamanawanalea” (read that word slowly to get the goofy wordplay housed within) and apparently I’m not alone in that, as De La Soul made the most of the track’s relentless beat on their debut album. I dunno. My guess is if you like 60s pop in general, you’re going to be susceptible to the record’s charms (I’m talking to you, Jason Bourgeois); failing that, don’t give it a second thought (I’m talking now to you, Ari).
Gene Clark “Roadmaster,” “White Light,” “Dillard & Clark,” “No Other”: Following last year’s poring through the Byrds catalog, I realized that I’d never fully immersed myself in Gene Clark’s career apart from his first disc with the Gosdin Brothers. And at this moment, I feel like abandoning this blog and cueing up “With Tomorrow” and just submitting myself to the gorgeousity of its serene melody. The first six tracks off “Roadmaster” would do just as nicely. Speaking of which, it was a holy grail of sorts finding “One In A Hundred” from that album, as it featured Gene and a reunited original Byrds lineup playing a track that could’ve easily been a single from 1965. A perfect Gene song, crystalline McGuinn 12-string Rickenbacker, exquisite David Crosby harmony- it’s all there.
Shoes “Black Vinyl Shoes,” “Present Tense,” “Tongue Twister,” “Boomerang,” “Silhouette”: I’ve always liked The Shoes- for example, that “Present Tense”/ “Tongue Twister” two-fer CD was a frequent spin back in the summer of 2007 when I needed rock-to-sleep music for infant Owen. But when I bought my grandmother’s car this last winter and was relegated to slooshying tunes on a car stereo with only a tape deck, I found myself grabbing random cassettes from downstairs that I’d never fully absorbed and “Shoes Best” (bought at For the Record in Amherst as a cut-out for $1.99 about fifteen years ago) was one of the first I gave a spin to (“Will You Spin For Me?”). So for about the next two months, I just kept it in the deck for that seven-minute-long trip to school everyday and gorged upon the many delectable items therein. Became a fan, really, and then started obtaining other albums of theirs, even communicating with Jeff Murphy via email a few times this last spring.
There’s a lot to like about this band. Sure, the catchy power-pop is what reeled me in but the more I learned about them, the more there was to appreciate. I love that the band is made up of two brothers and one buddy who have been musical partners and good friends for nearly forty years regardless of the status of their success (or lack thereof) at any given point and that each member writes and sings an equal amount of songs per album. Unlike, say, Badfinger, where Pete Ham was clearly the most talented songwriter, the democracy in The Shoes works since John, Jeff, and Gary are all equally adept at crafting great melodies and strangely, they all possess similar vocal timbres. In fact, before reading about them, I’d always assumed they only had one lead singer. Beyond that, the band was one of the first truly successful DIY outfits, recording their first three albums on a 4-track in their living room and then building their own studio out in Illinois for many of the others.
Although their first four videos were in rotation in the very early days of MTV, they never really caught on beyond cult status. And when you watch this first video, you’ll know why. The song, “Too Late,” is a perfect power-pop gem but http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifleadhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif singer Gary Klebe looks uncomfortable on camera and his bandmates, despite the then-de-rigeur long locks, add little visually. In other words, heavy MTV exposure at that time wasn’t primarily about great songs, it was about image and The Shoes were no Duran Duran or Culture Club or even Stray Cats or Madness for that matter.
Too Late
And now here’s a tune written and sung by Jeff Murphy:
Tomorrow Night
And just to be democratic as The Shoes themselves would appreciate, here’s a John Murphy track called “Your Very Eyes.” Although there’s one more MTV video of John’s “Cruel You,” which possesses a nice chugging groove to it, John was the one who usually wrote the killer ballads for the band, or at least had the softest, most McCartney-esque touch in the group so I opted for this album track instead:
Your Very Eyes
Bruce Springsteen “Tunnel of Love”: I can’t say Bruce is normally a favorite of mine but this album eschews the epics and workingman’s tales for a thematic take on Springsteen’s failing first marriage, and apart from one clunker, he brought the tunes. You all know “Brilliant Disguise” and the title track and perhaps “Tougher Than The Rest” but “All That Heaven Will Allow” and “When You’re Alone” show that Bruce can pen a hooky melody when he needs to. I wish he’d do it more but it’s not really what he’s known for and that’s fair enough.
Mash-ups: This fall, with the aid of youtube, I found myself falling hard for the charms of mash-ups. I think Ken Maiuri was the first to introduce mash-ups to me about ten years ago, with that great Christina Aguilera/ Strokes track and then I discovered one of my favorites not long after, the Stooges/Salt & Pepa track that is one of the most viscerally pleasing records I’ve ever heard- somehow all vestiges of pop are excised in favor of pure aggression and sexual energy through music. Anyway, youtube is a wonderland of mashup madness, with new faves being the Byrds/Beatles’ “Turn Turn Turn/Nowhere Man,” the one that blends Elvis Costello’s “Watching The Detectives,” Lionel Richie’s “Hello,” The Police’s “Wrapped Around Your Finger,” Peggy Lee’s “Fever,” The Hollies’ “Bus Stop,” Bob Marley’s “Exodus,” Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway To Heaven” and perhaps even others buried in there. Sometimes the DJs create videos as well so that you get this party vibe to the Blondie/Paul McCartney/Jennifer Lopez mashup where everybody’s singing and dancing as if they were all in on it together. Although there’s a video for one of my favorite musical mashups (Madonna/The Who “Like A Virgin”/”Baba O’Riley”), the video-masher missed a great chance to sync lyric to image perfectly when they use footage of Pete Townsend shoving his guitar neck into a busted amplifier speaker but not during Madonna’s repeated uttering of “feels so good inside.” I dunno- maybe my mind’s still in the gutter after having just recalled that Stooges/ Salt & Pepa track.
Patsy Cline “20 Golden Greats”?: I have no idea whether that’s the real title or not but as I mentioned, when I purchased my grandmother’s car, I had to resort to listening to cassettes in it. Gram left a few for me and I’ve always liked Cline so this went down easy for a few spins until “Shoes Best” took over.
Friday, July 01, 2011
Pop On The Lawn - A Recap.
Last night was the third annual Pop On The Lawn in Florence, MA. Once again, School for the Dead, The Fawns, and Group DeVille shared the gazebo in front of the Florence Civic Center. The weather was perfect and people flocked out in numbers to enjoy the evening. The little park smelled like popcorn and insect repellent. Blankets were strewn about. Folding chairs creaked and clanged. Little kids ran around in circles, or danced, or built little nests out of the grass.Our School for the Dead set was a bit of an adventure. We played some of the new songs, including "Bad Day Done", which we'd never all played together before. It came out pretty good. Tony and I had a little struggle with our guitars, for some reason they just sounded exactly alike. Maybe it had something to do with the acoustics or having a ceiling but no walls. On stage, as we played, it felt messy and somewhat piercing, but I'm told it sounded good on the grass.
I guess it did since a bunch of people picked up CDs at the end of the show. Thanks, everyone!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)