How To Have A Concert In Your Living Room

Invite David Bazan.

This last Sunday I was fortunate enough to host Mr. Bazan (or Dave as he likes me to call him) at my house for one of his living room shows.  For those of you who don’t know – this very blog is named after one of his songs, so to have the man playing in my house was certainly a highlight.  For the past few years Bazan has been playing these intimate venues with about 40-50 people in attendance – alone or sometimes with a friend backing him.  At our show he played an electric into a tiny amp, no mic, and a simple floor lamp by his side.

Bazan played for a little over an hour, with quite a bit of dialogue in between songs where he would answer questions – a practice that he encouraged, rather than was forced upon him.  It was very refreshing to hear someone speak frankly about the struggles of being a musician – most especially in the financial sense.  Knowing my pride, I would have tried to play it up as if I was killing it, but Bazan admitted to performing these house shows because of the practicality of them being more profitable than traditional shows that require a lot more cost and effort – and that it is needed to be able to keep playing music for a living.

He played a selection of songs from Pedro, Headphones, and his solo albums.  His “$300 guitar” didn’t quite keep tune, and the playing wasn’t flawless by any means – but it was more than made up for with the power of his voice, and the overall coolness of such a rarefied show.

After the show, Bazan stuck around briefly and folks were able to grab pictures and buy some albums.  Though I hosted the event I didn’t really talk to him much, other than a couple phone calls leading up the the show – but he seemed like a very genuine and likable guy, and this night only served to enhance my love of his music.

God bless you, David Bazan – whether you want it or not.

Read Full Post »

Sleeper Albums

Sometimes a record just fails to win you over on the first, or second or third listen.  How many listens do you give it before accepting that you just won’t like it?  And once you reach that conclusion, do you sell it back to the store or keep it, in hopes that, at some point in the future, you’re able to appreciate it?  Here, I offer a list of albums that took a long time to take.

The Kinks “Lola vs. the Powerman & the Money-Go-Round, Pt. 1”

Why I bought it: I bought this album because I heard Yo La Tengo cover a song called “Top of the Pops” off this record.  I didn’t particularly care for the song, but I figured that if Yo La Tengo liked it, I probably could eventually too.  I only gave this album one or two cursory listens before putting it back on the shelf, where it sat for years before I came back around to truly discovering it.

Why it took so long:  I think that, when I bought this album, I was very infatuated with the Kinks as the “You really got me” mod, edgy 60’s pop band.  I had no room in my musical vocabulary for a folksy, ironic Kinks of the 70s.  Maybe I just had too big a gap in my Kinks discography.

Why I tried it again: I had a vague notion that I was missing out on vital music with my limited view of the Kinks as a mod band, and “Something Else by the Kinks” eventually became my bridge.  This album still echos of “You really got me” but gives glimpses of the Kinks to come.  It took a few more album purchases (“Face to Face”, “Village Green Preservation Society”, “Arthur”) for me to finally return to “Lola.”  Once I really began to love Lola I couldn’t understand how I missed it the first time.  Music is just like that sometimes I guess.

Superchunk “No Pocky for Kitty”

Why I bought it: One of my friends whom I worked with at Fingerprints told me it was one of his favorite albums.  He seemed to have really good taste in music, so when I saw this I bought it.  I was in college at the time and had a lot of expendable income.

Why it took so long: I listened to this album for about a week before deciding so decisively that I disliked it that I actually sold it back to the store I had bought it from.  I’m not sure what I disliked so much.  It was more noisy and aggressive than anything I had learned to like at that point (I was still just a couple years out of a heavy hip-hop phase, maybe that’s a factor) and Mac’s (the singer) voice seemed strange and out of place.  Maybe it was a little too close to pop-punk, a genre that I was firmly set against ever enjoying.

Why I tried again: For one, when I sold the album back, the clerk at the store (where I also worked- this was in Colorado) seemed really surprised, and told me this was one of the first punk albums that he really dug.  That planted the seed I guess.  Then some other friends told me how much they loved Superchunk and I told them about my experience.  They recommended “Foolish” and, though it took a while, that album got me over the hump.  When I finally got back around to buying “No Pocky” a second time (and feeling very lame doing so) I was a Superchunk fan, and I instantly loved this album on the second go-around.  As a side note, I almost never sell music back to the music store now, in part because of this experience.

George Harrison “All Things Must Pass”

Why I bought it: My brother Dan bought this album for me for Christmas one year.

Why it took so long: I don’t think I had much interest in it from the start.  George Harrison seemed like a relatively minor part of the Beatles to me, and I wasn’t terribly interested in any other Beatles solo material at the time anyway.  Beyond that, it was three records (six sides), and as such just seemed like way too much work to get into.  I think I listened to a couple of the sides once or twice before putting it on my shelf, figuring that it at least beefed up the appearance of my record collection.

Why I tried again: In a word, family.  No, not to appease my brother, who I’m sure is quite unconcerned about it, but my wife and kids, who keep me on a rather narrow range in terms of what will be tolerated in the house.  This limitation has caused me to reexamine most everything in my record collection that is relatively mellow (relegating all of my punk rock to my classroom where I foist it upon my students).  I pulled this out one day figuring it would be a safe bet for the family, and was really surprised to find that I love this record.  I still haven’t listened to the final two sides more than once or twice, but there are great songs littered all over the first four sides.

U2 “October”

Why I bought it: I think I’ve mentioned this elsewhere on this blog, but this is actually the first album I ever bought.  I was probably about 9 years old and Joshua Tree was huge, and I knew that U2 was somewhat of a Christian band.  So, I bought this on cassette at Wherehouse.  I chose this particular album because I didn’t know anything about music, and I was confused by the fact that I had more than one choice in buying a U2 tape.  I had no idea which album had all the songs on the radio.  So I chose this one because I thought the guys looked cool on the cover (can you blame me?).

Why it took so long: October is decidedly U2’s least accessible album (well, maybe second-most next to Zooropia).  Being 9 years old didn’t help in this regard.  I remember listening to it thinking ‘What’s the big deal with this band?’ and ‘This doesn’t sound very Christian’ (my nine-year-old mind was rather ill-suited for gleaning nuance).  I gave up on this tape pretty quickly and, as I recall, just went back to listening to the radio and/or my brother Dan’s new wave tapes.

Why I tried again:  In junior high I heard “Sunday Bloody Sunday” on KROQ and absolutely adored that song.  A friend of mine loaned me “Under a Blood Red Sky” on cassette and this started my U2 infatuation.  In high school I listened to Joshua Tree for the first time (of course, I knew some of the hits at that point, but had never really listened to the album all the way through) and before long I wanted to own every album in the U2 catalog. I bought “October” on vinyl, but it still didn’t take.  What finally did it was when my friend Matt Clatterbuck referred to it as a great album and specifically said that “Scarlet” was a particularly beautiful song, and that the drums sounded like nails going into Jesus’ hands.  I went home that night and listened to that song and finally understood the genius of “October.”

There are others, but I’m sure that most readers will only indulge so many of these personal tales before losing interest.  So I turn it over to you: which albums/bands/songs took a long time for you to appreciate?

Read Full Post »

Plastiki You Say

Ran across this post today about a boat made from 12,500 plastic bottles.  Very interesting to say the least.  Check out the post to read more, and view the video below for a trailer about the project.

Added bonus… the guy who made the trailer and is on the boat filming has a film company in my hometown of Long Beach, and it looks like he’s been filming some cool stuff.

Read Full Post »

Thou shalt have no American Idol before me

Last week I had written post about American Idol, and how I was finally coming around on it after years of hating the very idea of it, reluctantly watching it to appease my wife, and/or guiltily enjoying it with a large dose of self-loathing.  I wrote that this season was different and offered some of the most creative and talented women to ever grace the stage (the men are still pretty boring though).  The show seemed to be embracing a wider palette of expression than ever before.  Then Lilly got voted off and I scraped the whole thing.  Lilly was really incredible- sort of a female version of Devendra Banhart- a truly unique talent and something completely different from the American Idol mold.  Last week she played mandolin and had an ultra-creative (by A.I. standards at least) arrangement of some sweet old-timey song.  But she was voted off, and I’m back to my primary criticism of American Idol- that it sucks any and all creative life blood from the contestants and pushes them to appease the largest American Idol-watching demographic, which seems to be teenage girls and senior citizens.

My frustration with American Idol allows me to identify, on some level, with liberals who wish our policy makers were less beholden to Middle America.  ‘Who cares what 60% of the country thinks- they’re all knuckle draggers anyway!’  I’m reminded that democracy sucks, except that it’s better than every other form of government.  I hate that Lilly went home, but I’d rather it be because of a million teenage girls than because of the whim of a Simon Cowell or Ellen Degeneres.  The only thing worse than the “uneducated” opinion of the masses is the “special” opinion of the “experts.”

Speaking of which, another frustration I have with the show that has really emerged this season is just how arbitrary the judges are.  Randy will say, ‘that just wasn’t a good song for you.’  Then Simon says ‘that was the perfect song for you.’  So who’s right?  What exactly are the criteria of a “good song” for a particular contestant?  What does that even mean?  If the song is too “good”, then there’s a danger that the contestant might be “playing it safe.”  Rarely, if ever, do the judges make a single objective and/or verifiable statement other than the occasional “it was a bit pitchy.”  Here’s another one: “it felt like karaoke.”  Well how so?  Last week one of the judges criticized a 16-year-old contestant for singing a song about a father calling his wife and kids- something he couldn’t really identify with.  Well I’m pretty sure he’s never had a girlfriend, sex, or a political opinion, so what do we want him to sing about?   Studying for his A.P. exams?

And yet, I’m holding out hope that America will surprise me and anoint Crystal Bowersox the winner.  If you haven’t seen Crystal perform then you owe yourself a viewing.  She looks like a hippy, has bad teeth, and is all around unpolished by pop standards.  Yet she sings incredibly, plays guitar really well and has a bit of a punk edge to her- sort of a streak of cockiness that is strangely refreshing.  I have zero confidence that she will win because of this demographic problem discussed earlier, but I’m stoked she’s made it this far.  I actually kind of hope she doesn’t win, so that she wont be forced into the American Idol recording mold.  She needs to form a band and get signed to an indie rock label.  There’s another girl that I really like- Siobhan Magnus.  She may not be as roundly talented as Crystal, but she’s kind of bizarre and unpredictable, and, as demonstrated with her version of Aretha Franklin’s “Think,” has some serious pipes.  All in all, there’s a lot of interest with the women, so I plan to continue to watch with great disappointment until all the interesting ones have been weeded out and we’re left with that insipid 17-year old girl as the winner.  I really can’t complain- I don’t vote.

Read Full Post »

Faerie’s Aire and Death Waltz

Release the penguins!

Ironically, my brother Greg was writing a post on our Uncle John at the same time I was.  However, as he is an infinitely better writer than I am, I would suggest you check out his post over at Lost In the Cloud.

Our uncle was a reclusive, witty, and highly intelligent fellow who has become a bit famous posthumously because of his wit and absurd composition ability.

RIP uncle John.

Read Full Post »

Weekend Sendoff

Have a great weekend everyone.  Enjoy “To Kingdom Come” by Passion Pit. Thanks again to Greg for the introduction.

Read Full Post »

Bon Iver – Blood Bank

Thanks in part to lists from Elijah and Greg, I checked out Bon Iver.  I have been addicted to this song for a couple of weeks now.  Enjoy.

Read Full Post »

Death to Pete Records

My family and I moved last week, in part because of a foolish interest-only loan we took on four years ago, and in part because of some utterly contemptible behavior on the part of Chase bank, and in part because of the fact that my parents are really cool and are allowing us to rent a sweet house from them at a great price.  All of that, however, is the topic of another post.

My point here though is to discuss the way that moving can sometimes force us to confront a reality that we’ve stored in an attic or garage.  For some, it means debating whether to load up that exercise apparatus into the loading truck, or throw it away, since it hasn’t been used in ages.  For others, an expensive tool that’s been collecting dust or a hobby that never took off.  In my case, it meant confronting a failed business endeavor.  As I stared at roughly 20 boxes full of lp covers sitting in my attic, I had to ponder the likelyhood that one of the records I printed 5 – 6 years ago as a would-be music mogul might somehow start selling in such a manner that 500 blank lp jackets could come in handy.  With some quick mental math I determined that it would be somewhere under 0.01%.  With much encouragement from my friends helping me move, I dumped them into the trash.  My friends were probably trying to save themselves the effort loading and unloading these boxes, plus they wanted to use the boxes for moving other things that still need packaging.  Still, I knew they were right…it was time to let it go.

What they don’t know is that we didn’t even trash the half of it…There’s at least 1000 more actual lps sitting in my old bedroom closet at my parents house (I suspect this was part of the motivation for my parents getting me into a house with a garage, since lp storage is not exactly their ideal use for a closet).  There’s also CDs, posters, stickers, T-shirts…whether I’ll be able to stomach all of this going to the trash is another story.

Tonight I decided to listen the Seamonsters “Turning Tide” album for the first time in years.  I still think it’s got some great songs, though I don’t know if I would release it if I owned a successful label and had the resources to do so now.  I think it must be impossible to have any objective idea if your band is any good when you’re playing in it.  Has anyone ever played in a band (not paid) that they thought sucked? I don’t know where the other 700 or so copies are, maybe Matt’s house?  I don’t know if I even own a single copy of the first CD.  I never think about these things, which must be one of the great hazards of access to storage space.  Cleaning out my attic caused me to ponder these things…it was one of the most depressing tasks I’ve had to perform in a long time.

The dream is over.  If anyone wants the Pete Records catalog, just let me know.

What reality awaits confrontation in your garage/attic?

Read Full Post »

21 Artifacts from the 21st Century

The end of the decade has resulted in a number of best of the decade lists.  We’ve kind of OD’d on best of lists here already, but Elijah and I wanted to throw in our votes for those works of culture from the 2000’s WE think will/should stand the test of time.

I feel somewhat presumptuous putting this out there, as if my vote actually mattered, but what I have found is that my friends, acquaintances, and YOU dear reader, often find your interest piqued by something that has been declared “the best.”  I know that some of Elijah’s musical selections caused me to listen to albums I had not heeded before…so perhaps you may find something here that causes you to want to experience, reconsider or even maybe avoid (?) the following creative endeavors.  Hope you enjoy…see you next decade!

Albums (Sgt Grumbles | Elijah)

1. Illinois/The Avalanche (2005/2006) Sufjan Stevens | Kid A/Amnesiac (2000/2001) Radiohead
2. The Texas Jerusalem Crossroads (2001) Lift to Experience | Greetings From Michigan: The Great Lakes State (2003) Sufjan Stevens
3. In Rainbows/Bonus Disc (2007) Radiohead | Figure 8 (2000) Elliott Smith
4. The Midnight Organ Fight (2008) Frightened Rabbit | The Sophtware Slump (2000) Grandaddy
5. Greetings From Michigan: The Great Lakes State (2003) Sufjan Stevens | Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant (2000) Belle & Sebastian
6. Figure 8 (2000) Elliott Smith | Songs in A & E (2008) Spiritualized
7. Kid A/Amnesiac (2000/2001) Radiohead | Jane Doe (2001) Converge
8. Lifted, Or The Story Is In The Soil, Keep Your Ear To The Ground (2002) Bright Eyes | Turn On the Bright Lights (2002) Interpol
9. Feels (2005) Animal Collective | Illinois/The Avalanche (2005/2006) Sufjan Stevens
10. Funeral (2004) The Arcade Fire | Blood Money (2002) Tom Waits
11. Takk (2005) Sigur Rós | Control (2002) Pedro the Lion
12. Boxer (2007) The National | Veckatimest (2009) Grizzly Bear
13. Asleep in the Back (2001) Elbow | We Are the Only Friends We Have (2002) Piebald
14. A Rush of Blood to the Head (2002) Coldplay | The Midnight Organ Fight (2008) Frightened Rabbit
15. Merriweather Post Pavilion (2009) Animal Collective | Hot Shots II (2001) The Beta Band
16. Gang of Losers (2006) The Dears | The Life Pursuit (2006) Belle & Sebastian
17. Control (2002) Pedro the Lion | Tyrannosaurus Hives (2004) The Hives
18. The Last Broadcast (2002) Doves | The Argument (2000) Fugazi
19. The Invisible Band (2001) Travis | Hail to the Thief (2003) Radiohead
20. Oh, Inverted World (2001) The Shins | Sea Change (2002) Beck
21. Retreiver (2004) Ron Sexsmith | How It Ends (2004) DeVotchKa

Books (there were so many that we didn’t read [Elijah read only a handful of novels from the 2000s], so this list is incredibly subjective and limited in scope)

Novels:

• Cloud Atlas (2004) David Mitchell
• House of Leaves (2000) Mark Z. Danielewski
• 2666 (2004) Roberto Bolaño
• Atonement (2001) Ian McEwan
• The Book of Illusions (2002) Paul Auster
• Black Swan Green (2007) David Mitchell
• American Gods (2001) Neil Gaiman
• Thinks (2001) David Lodge
• The City & The City (2009) China Mieville

Misc:

• Blankets (2003) Craig Thompson, graphic novel
• A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (2000) Dave Eggers, memoir
• The Book of Other People (2007) ed. Zadie Smith, story collection
• The Perry Bible Fellowship: The Trial of Colonel Sweeto and Other Stories (2007) Nicholas Gurewitch, comic collection
• Box Office Poison (2001) Alex Robinson, graphic novel
• The Rough Guide to Cult Fiction (2005) literary survey
• Wall and Piece (2005) Banksy, art collection

Religion/Christianity:

• Free of Charge (2006) Miroslav Volf
• Jesus of Nazareth (2008) Pope Benedict XVI
• The Sacredness of Questioning Everything (2009) David Dark
• Renewing the Center (2000) Stanley Grenz
• Across the Spectrum (2002) Gregory Boyd & Paul Eddy
• The Mosaic of Christian Belief (2002) Roger Olson
• The Shaping of Things to Come (2003) Michael Frost & Alan Hirsch
• These last three Tom Wright books are included for their effective introductory appeal rather than any necessary anticipation of ‘classic’ status.
• Paul: In Fresh Perspective (2005) N. T. (Tom) Wright
• Simply Christian (2006) N. T. (Tom) Wright
• Justification: God’s Plan & Paul’s Vision (2009) N. T. (Tom) Wright

Film (Sgt Grumbles | Elijah)

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) Michel Gondry | ditto
2. Amelie (2001) Jean-Pierre Jeunet | Lord of the Rings (2001-03)  Peter Jackson
3. Children of Men (2006) Alfonso Cuarón | There Will Be Blood (2007) P. T. Anderson
4. Lord of the Rings (2001-03)  Peter Jackson | The Pianist (2002) Roman Polanski
5. The New World (2005) Terrance Malick | Dancer in the Dark (2000) Lars von Trier
6. Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) Wes Anderson | The Royal Tennenbaums (2001) Wes Anderson
7. All the Real Girls (2002) David Gordon Green | Memento (2000) Christopher Nolan
8. Waltz with Bashir (2008) Ari Folman | Adaptation (2002) Spike Jonze
9. In the Mood For Love (2000) Kar Wai Wong | Big Fish (2003) Tim Burton
10. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2001) Ang Lee | ditto
11. The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford (2007) Andrew Dominik | Zodiac (2007) David Fincher
12. WALL-E (2008) Andrew Stanton | The Proposition (2005) John Hillcoat
13. There Will Be Blood (2007) P. T. Anderson | Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) Wes Anderson
14. Memento (2000) Christopher Nolan | The Prestige (2006) Christopher Nolan
15. Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) Guillermo del Toro | Elephant (2003) Gus Van Sant
16. The Royal Tennenbaums (2001) Wes Anderson | A Beautiful Mind (2001) Ron Howard
17. The Proposition (2005) John Hillcoat | Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) Guillermo del Toro
18. The Prestige (2006) Christopher Nolan | About Schmidt (2002) Alexander Payne
19. The Lives of Others (2007) Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck | Capote (2005) Bennett Miller
20. Moulin Rouge (2001) Baz Luhrmann | Lost in Translation (2003) Sofia Coppola
21. Donnie Darko (2001) Richard Kelly | American Splendor (2003) Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini

[ELIJAH ADDS] This is pathetic, but I have actually yet to see Children of Men, WALL-E, The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford, In the Mood for Love, Waltz with Bashir, The Lives of Others and  All the Real Girls. I’m guessing that my list would look much more similar to Sgt Grumbles’ if I had seen them.

Read Full Post »

The Top (Two Thousand and) Ten Films

Dear reader,

I give you these 10 suggestions (from the 35 films I saw this year) to consider as eminently watchable and deeply worthwhile cultural experiences…

10.  The Road:  It was bleak and heart-wrenching and so difficult to watch…but it was unflinchingly truthful and often had a kind of tarnished beauty.  An amazing film that I never want to see again.

9.  (500) Days of Summer:  I think I was dead center in the sights of this film’s demographic appeal.  Indie soundtrack (& Smiths shout out to boot!), check.  Ernestly romantic guy, check.  Lack of ambition as virtue, check.  Creative, non-linear, brain-teasing narrative structure, check.  By all accounts, a non-conformist, iconoclastic, incredulous contrarian such as myself should have seen right through this.  But I ate it up.

8.  District 9:  The Office with aliens.  Original and touching beyond all expectation.

7.  Avatar:  Utterly predictable storytelling, but I was almost literally transported into the world of Pandora (course, I DID see it in IMAX 3-D, which made this almost a given).  The mythic instinct come to life…

6.  Adventureland:  This film tapped into something pretty nostalgic for me, but it also is an amazingly honest portrait of summertime post-teenage angst in low-pay limbo.  Performances from main & minor actors hit me in the melancholy bone…and the songs made me shudder with recollection of an adolescence lived to that soundtrack (ROCK ME, AMADEUS!).

5.  Up in the Air:  My only criticism of this very fine and relevant dramatic comedy is in the casting of non-leads:  actual unemployed people as the victims of redundancy came off as schlocky & the hip actors (Zach Galifianakis, Danny McBride, Jason Bateman) in minor roles felt distracting (see The Invention of Lying for the most egregious use of this type of “pack casting”—i.e. “if I show up in your movie, that lets everyone know I’m in your crew”)

4.  Up:  I did not want to like this in order to resist the Pixarification of my soul, but alas my brain is fully washed and my heart is clay in the hands of these masters.  I saw it once with my wife & once with my kids.  So great & unforeseeably ingenious.

3.  Inglourious Basterds:   I really did love this movie, though my reservations of whether I SHOULD have loved it still haunt me.

2.  Where the Wild Things Are:   Never was a fan of the book…creeped me out.  Didn’t particularly want to like the movie, though I am a fan of Jonze & Eggars.  But after viewing, I could not get it out of my thoughts for days.  I feel like I lived that film somehow.  Moved me in profound ways on many different levels.  It will gain the recognition it deserved someday…

And in FIRST PLACE:

The furthest thing from the cluster cuss this could have been.

1.  Fantastic Mr. Fox:  The dialogue, the look, the details, the heart, the growling, the outfits, the voices, the humor, the pacing, the panache, the feel, the stillness, the child-likeness, the tears, the speeches, the GENIUS.  I will see this film many times more before I die…

Note: It’s fascinating to me to see THREE (ostensibly) Children’s films at the top of this list.  Regression?  Longing for a care free world?  Return to innocence?  My only response is to ask what the cross is between an elephant and a rhino.

Honorable mentions:  I Love You Man, Watchmen (the credit sequence alone was among the best looking cinema this year), Star Trek.  ADDITION:  Zombieland!

Wish I could have seen:  The Hurt Locker, Bright Star, Moon, A Serious Man, In the Loop, It Might Get Loud, The Informant!, The White Ribbon, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Thirst.

Biggest disappointments (and my respective “microview”—aka review with minimal words involving some sort of pun on the title):

The Brothers Bloom                                  The Brothers Wilt

Away We Go                                                Eww, Go Away

The Invention of Lying                             The Venting of Denying

Ponyo                                                            Panyo

Not as bad as everyone said it was:

The Box (from Richard Kelly, writer/director of Donnie Darko):  which had some genuinely creepy, intriguing and touching moments, solid performances, lovely sense of time/place, before it crapped out.  And a score from (pretty much) The Arcade Fire!

Read Full Post »