Nominal Coincidences

Most of my free/thinking time has been about the new film idea. While doing some research I came across some interesting name coincidences. First, I discovered a Colonial Era composer by the name of Justin Morgan. Also, since the film may involve some form of time-travel (due to the anachronistic notion of the colonial synth-rocker) I decided to read A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, whose central character is Hank Morgan. Additionally, the book I'm reading about the history of music in New England makes several references to the Newport Mercury, which has been in publication since 1758 (albeit with a rude interruption for the American Revolution;-) and in whose pages I have appeared on more than one occasion. Several of the Mercury citations are taken from a book by Henry M. Booth. (Henry M.? Hank Morgan?)

An interesting snag

After filing a decent chuck of new-ish stuff I noticed that the next disc up is the newly purchased Nico Muhly disc, and not the Gordon Mumma, as previously reported.

All I hear is

Here's a potentially not-so-little update on what I'm listening to these days.

To start, the actual "Listening Project" proper, as it were, has been dragging its heals. One reason, mentioned previously in this blog, has been the presence of so many artists that I want to take my time with. Along side that, is that time has been short what with working and all. The other, and possibly bigger, problem has been the lack of a system. When the project started I was commuting to Providence, so I had my car time as project listening. Then last summer I was painting a house in the woods and had all that time to devote to the project. I currently have no system, so things are moving slower. Next up: Gordon Mumma.

Today (or yesterday if I don't publish this before I go to bed)* I basically bought and/or ordered 17 discs. Here's the break-down: 2 I had ordered awhile ago via Amazon and they hadn't come in yet. I called and they are re-sending them. They are Nico Muhly~Speaks Volumes, and Joe Jackson~Rain, the latter of which is the only non-classical disc. Through work I ordered two new releases from Naxos, an Ives and a Varese. And what really kicked things into over-drive was the fact that B&N brought back their buy two get one free sale. So. Online I ordered Time of the Templars (3 discs set) a Lou Harrison disc, and a Ruth Crawford Seeger disc. At the store I bought, Monteverdi (2 disc) Carl Nielsen (2 disc) Steve Reich~Early Works, Kronos Quartet~Early Music, Terry Riley~The Cusp of Magic, and Philip Glass~Symphony #2. The Monteverdi and Templars discs are really representative of my increased interest in early vocal music.

And now, for what I'm being forced to listen to.

ay ya yay ya ay....

At work we listen to mostly crap. I knew this going in. I mean, god forbid we should be a music store that plays cool music. And we listen exclusively to full albums, so you know within a few seconds what the next 40-60 minutes is going to be like. There are a few discs we play that I like, mostly leaning towards the old-guy-rock category. Mudcrutch (Tom Petty's old band) Robert Plant & Allison Krauss, the new Bruce Springsteen. Although some in that range are pretty boring. Steve Winwood sounds like he's been dusting off his old Dead records, and Van Morrison sounds like a Cialis commercial. The most telling moment on the Van disc is when he literally sings "Blah, blah, blah..." for about a minute. The biggest, and most annoying, category we listen to is the female pop singers. Musically, most of them are just a highly produced beat and female voice with very little music. Almost all of them have these moments where the singer hits the highest, loudest, longest note she's capable of. Why? Why is that necessary? Most of them I find to be indistinguishable, except for the fact that I'm starting to learn which songs are certain singers. And the worst offenders are the old broads. Mariah? Who let the dolphins out? Madonna? Hard Candy is basically an admission that her music no longer gets played anywhere other than gay night clubs. The disc I probably like the best right now (at work) is Duffy. She's exploring the same 60's territory as Amy Winehouse, but without the drunken bad girl attitude. I just hope I don't get burned out on it, like I have with Amy (which I like, but we listen to too much.) Now if I could just get Hannah Montana out of my head....

*So I started writing this on Thursday, and I'm just finishing and publishing it on Sunday. Most of the discs I've gotten are pretty damn good, but I have to say that the Nico Muhly disc is quite possibly the most amazing thing I've heard in quite some time.

A little past, some present, and a bit o' future

Last Friday was an interesting gig up in New Bedford. It started out as a double gig with both Banter/3.1 and CockSlap on the bill. Also on board was a noise band called Chaos Character. About a week before the show, Harry texted me to say that House on Fire had been added to the bill. A few days later I got the poster from the promoter and it listed a band called Cyanide Dependency, but no HoF. The day of the show Harry talked to Jason (the promoter) and C.D. had dropped out so they re-added HoF. We get to the show and it's a slowish night. The guy from C.C. was whining to Jason about the attendance, saying he didn't want to play, wah, wah, wah... Harry goes on first and during his set Jason and I decided that b/3.1 will go next and then CockSlap, and that he's making the other guy wait because he's pissing him off. Somewhere during either my set or the CS set the other guy just left, so the entire night ended up just being me and Harry.

As far as the performances were concerned, over-all pretty solid. Harry's House on Fire set was good. A few lost moments, but some interesting surprises as well. My Banter/3.1 set felt very comfortable, but not so much so that it became boring. And CockSlap was way more fun than we had anticipated. I wish we had gotten pictures of Harry in his spelunking head-lamp.

Skipping ahead to the future, I have decided what my next big project is. For right now all I'm going to say is that it is a five part silent film with an all original soundtrack. It will most likely revolve around the character of the Colonial Synth-Rocker.

And now, for now. What may be the most interesting thing for me currently is working on a children's website. Eh? Lemme 'splain. Through work I've re-met this guy Chris who lives above the store next door. Chris is an old punk rocker and a graphic designer. He's currently working on a flash animation website for kids, but funky, like for kids whose mom's have tattoos. The site will have a musical element to it as well. We met the other day in his studio and he wants me to help him out with the project. We didn't discuss any specifics about what I'd be doing (composing? engineering? both?) or about financial compensation, but I figure that stuff will work itself out eventually. If nothing else it will give me a way to keep my skills active. Additionally, this will give me the opportunity to learn Logic. He has a Pro Tools set-up, but he also just got Logic which has a very nice set of integrated virtual instruments. and since you can use Reason inside of Logic, but can't use Logic's instruments inside of Pro Tools I'm suggesting that he just keep it all in Logic and I'll learn that program.

So there you have it. Soon I'll try to post a blog about what I'm listening to.

...the Musical!!

So, the work report. Since the beginning of the month I've been working in a record store. It was not without hesitation that I applied for this job. I've had a love/hate relationship with this particular store for about twenty years now, but I knew when I saw their ad that I could walk in and get hired. When I "interviewed" my boss actually said "You've worked for us before, so you know what you're getting into." How's that for an admission of being impossible to work for? Another downside is working for a retail wage again (oof) but still don't think I'm ready to go into a restaurant job yet. And of course, there's the fact that I would much rather be doing something related to what I just spent nearly six thousand dollars learning. (more on that some other post) However, there are some positive aspects to my job.

To start with, I really like most of my co-workers. I'll refrain from discussing any of them by name or in detail in this public forum, but suffice it to say that they are good people. Another thing that I really enjoy is the standing-around-talking-about-and-selling-music part of the job. It feels good to put my knowledge to some degree of use and to maybe turn someone on to something they've never heard before. Plus I had forgotten how much of a good salesman I am. I can often tell a complete stranger "You should buy this" and they do. And yes, people do still buy music. In fact, we have a vinyl section and that sells quite a bit. On the other side of things, we have all sorts of Krap with a capital K. That part gets really annoying because it's the kind of stupid small junk that you have to constantly straighten out and watch over kids as they sit there and play with it forever (with no real intention of buying it.) And some of that junk sells, but mostly it distracts me and the other sales people from actually helping customers who want to buy music. I consider it a wasted 15-30 minutes if I'm hovering over the wig section, making sure people don't take pictures, knowing they're not going to buy one, when I could be helping someone find a Hawkwind album, or turning someone on to Django instead. Another down side is the majority of the music we listen to in the store. Again, this was something I knew going in, but boy-oh-boy is there a lot of garbage. I just take comfort in the fact that the moment I punch out, the iPod goes on and I can listen to something good.

And one final thing, which is, as Uncle Bill once said, "Neither good nor bad, but thinking makes it so," is the fact that this puts me in a noticeable position within the community once again. I had spent the last two plus years slipping from the view and even trying to escape this town, and now I'm back in a fishbowl where anyone who happens to wander in can see me. But that will have to wait for another post, as I now must get ready to go see Pete's recital. And beside, two posts in twelve hours after two weeks of nothing... what more do you want from me people!!???

Do not go quietly

So I've spent the last couple of weeks listening to lots of Morphine. Which is not to say that there is a lot of material, but that I listened to all of it multiple times. It's basically impossible for me to be objective about this band. They were a huge part of my life during some very significant times, were one of the best live bands I've ever seen, and since Mark Sandman died nearly a decade ago, that moment in time is gone, thereby making it an even more treasured memory. I really shouldn't even be writing about them, all I'll end up doing is gushing. I will say this one, non-musical thing: the very next disc in my collection, Joe Morris Quartet ~ A Cloud of Black Birds, features Jerome Dupree, the original drummer for Morphine.

Thoughts on the AS220 gig. Over-all I was very pleased. There were about 30 people there, which wasn't bad for a Monday night with four bands that nobody's ever heard of. A good turn out from my friends, and I think more people watched my set than any other that night. The positive reception seemed to be genuine, (including direct feedback from said friends) and the video element worked as well as I had hoped. Which has actually gotten me thinking about what my next step is, both in terms of output and performance. The biggest question I'm looking at right now is "What exactly is a b/3.1 performance?" As I move towards a more integrated film/music experience, I wonder if I'm creating a film to be marketed as such, or am I creating a live musical performance that happens to have a visual. To create something that I present as a "film" is not such a bad idea. Lots of people in this community know me as a "filmmaker." In fact tonight at work someone asked me if I was working on any new films. On the other hand, music gigs are a way to gain new audience. Another thought that has been in my mind lately is that perhaps I should concentrate more on the studio music than the live music. As a solo performer I have to either work with backing tracks (as I've primarily done up till now) or create systems for triggering, looping, etc.. in order to make a passable "live" performance. With a film, I can take my physical self out of the picture, as it were, and ask the audience to just concentrate on the images and the sounds. I think ultimately (or, at least right now) I'm less interested in sound that can be re-created every night, and more interested in sound that can be perfected to the best of my current abilities. Which is somewhat ironic, considering my love of improvisation, but perhaps that love was meant to open the doors to different sound worlds. Perhaps what I love the most, what I strive for, is to start with the freedom of improvisation, to capture it as the fleeting moment it is, and to then manipulate and massage it into something even more beautiful. In other words, I want to be Wah Wah, with an accompanying film.

Film at Eleven

Just a few snippets about what's on the horizon.

Project-wise I'm about to do Morphine. I do not go lightly into this territory. The importance of this material in my life both past and present can not be overestimated. The likely ensuing review will be anything but objective, although may contain some interesting personal insights.

On the Banter front, I have my first as220 show in less than a week. I had been trying for the better part of a year to get a gig there to no avail. Recently, Harry mentioned that they have a new booker and I should try again. So, I filled out their stupid online form again and, surprise surprise, they got back to me within a day and offered me a spot on April 14th. One of the other funny aspects is that my friend Daniel, who I've played shows with before, was already on the bill for that night. Aside from the fact that this show might be good exposure for me (crosses fingers) there are some other factors in my looking forward to it. For starters, it will be my first Reason-based gig. And the other main thing is that I will be adding a visual element to my performance. For the last few weeks I have been working on an ambient video that will be projected behind me as I play. Today I sat down and watched the video while listening to a mock-up of the set and I have to say, I think it works. And not to get too far ahead of things, but I think this might be the next evolutionary step in the Banter Cycle. What I'll be presenting on Monday is sort of random, but next on the plate is to more tightly integrate the music and the images.

And finally, I'm back to work. ...yeah... Not crazy about it ("it" in this case being both the place and the idea) but it will suffice for now. Perhaps as I get deeper into that particular mud I'll give a more detailed report.