Category: tunes

Music. Bands. Songs. Concerts.

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a five-by-five weekend

It's gonna be fine right?Sunday afternoon and I just put Keaton down for her nap.

Sharaun’s also asleep and so I’ve got the place to myself. I put George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass on the iPod and am currently enjoying the sound of the massive triple-album opus. If you know nothing about this album, I implore you to seek it out. Put simply: It may be the best solo album any ex-Beatle has ever made.

It was a good weekend; the kind I’ll find myself replaying in the highlight-reel in my head to break the monotony of the work week. Come Wednesday, our Saturday morning family bike ride to the park for a picnic lunch will have passed into legend. By Thursday, the beautiful weather we had for church on Sunday morning will have joined it. By 2019, provided I make it, they’ll both have joined the blurred apocrypha that will be these years. Yeah, a family-tight weekend; makes me appreciate what I have; and that’s good because, on occasion, I’ve been known to forget…

Saturday my brother called me from his home in southern Washington. “Hey lil’ bro,” I answered, “Whatca doin’?” “Not much,” came the reply, “I just went over to REI and went a little crazy; bought myself a backpack.” “Yeah?,” I asked, curious. “Yup. I think I want to try and take up hiking.” “Wow,” I said, “That sounds awesome. One of the better passtimes I ever got into myself.” He then mentioned that he was planning on taking a week off work in September, around the time of his birthday, and was considering a multi-day outing in the Columbia River Gorge. “What are you doing in late September,” he asked. “I’m flying to Oregon to go backpacking in the Columbia River Gorge,” I answered, “How about you?”

And so was planted the seed of the three-day, thirty mile loop that we’ve pretty much settled on. With about half of the miles on the locally famous Eagle Creek Trail and half on the globally famous Pacific Crest Trail, the loop goes through some of the most gorgeous waterfall country Northern Oregon has to offer. I’m excited; my bro is excited; we’re both looking forward to it. So that helped make Saturday enjoyable. A dinner with friends where the kids were allowed to run free-range wild worked to further the goodness.

And Sunday evening tied a bow on the whole weekend. After a nice meal up at the church building, Keaton and I had to drive home separate from Sharaun (who had to be there early for a meeting). On the ride home, the free limited-time XM that came with the new car was really on a roll and the weather was perfect. In a fit of spontaneaity, I turned the car up into the foothills close to where we live. Up to the crest of one of the more prominent ones we went. Once we reached a good vantage point, I pulled the car into the shoulder, flicked on the emergency flashers, and popped the tailgate so we could climb into the back and watch the sun set.

Fantastic. Goodnight internet.

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my applesauce

Who got da Motts?Hey there internet, what’s brewin’ with you?  Me, who knows? … who could ever know…

If you guys picked up page A1 of a newspaper this morning… you’re probably over fifty.  If you instead read an aggregate of socially-upvoted AP headlines via an RSS reader on your iPhone, you likely came across a story that broke last yesterday: the Cash for Clunkers program might be busted; flat broke.  That’s right… a week into the program and the rumor is that the Fed is going to pull the plug because they’re afraid the backlog of already-done deals might burn through the remaining funds and then some.

Personally, I agree with some of the bloggers (and others who are in the know) who think this may just be a tactic to secure continued funding for the program.  Perhaps a legitimate tactic, in that the program may really be going like gangbusters, but a well-placed PR type of tactic to show 1) how well the program is actually stimulating the industry and 2) make a plea for additional money and facilitate additional stimulus – hey, who doesn’t like more stimulus?

Seems we did our part; thanks for the stimulus, Americans.

Hey let’s switch gears…

Remember a while back when Michael Jackson died?  Oh, what’s that?  You can’t not remember because the story still dominates the news, even though there are tons of other real newsworthy stories we could be discussing?  Well, either way…. Michael Jackson did die a while back now.  And, when that happened, the radio stations went MJ crazy.  Remember now?  Yup, they played Jackson’s stuff (which, by the way, was pretty dang brilliant pre-’87) wall-to-wall.  Michael was on every station, filling every minute of every hour.  No, I’m not writing to bag on this adoration – I think it was fairly appropriate given the man’s status.  I’m writing to tell a story that all the MJ hooplah made possible.

See, during the MJ marathon, Keaton became quite familiarized with the King of Pop’s better numbers.  I mean, who wasn’t struck by a bit of nostalgia and didn’t play some of their own favorites in memorial?  Me, I rocked some of the better numbers that I think he ever did for a day or so, just to kinda fit in with the nation or something.  Sharaun, too, got her dosage via her radio habit.  So, through our couple Jackson-drenched days, Keaton learned his stuff fast.  In fact, during those days it was not uncommon to hear her singing snatches like, “… ♫ the pain is thunder! ♫ …” or “♫ pretty young thing ♫ …”  It’s amazing how fast kids can pick up on things when they’re indoctrinated for hours a day, y’know?

Anyway, Keaton’s quickly established her favorite song as Jackson’s “Wanna Be Startin’ Something,” a track written in 1978 and intended for inclusion on 1979’s Off the Wall album but instead released on 1982’s seminal Thriller.  She was drawn to the gibberish style ending, where Jackson repeats a nonsense phrase that I’ve always sung as something close to “Mama-say, mama-saw, m-ma-coo-saw.”  (Wikipedia says I’m not far off from what he’s actually saying, either.)  Anyway, what Keaton hears and sings is different in one key way.

In what I deem one of the cutest three-year-old misheard lyrics ever, she sings “Mama-say, mama-saw, my applesauce.”  I absolutely love this; what a brilliant interpretation from within the context of a three-year old mind.  I mean, surely he’s saying “applesauce” right, no other word in the three-year-old vocabulary sounds anything like that…

Well, not only did Keaton have her own interpretation, she apparently tied that interpreted phrase to the artist singing the song.  In other words, she thinks Michael Jackson’s name is Mamasaymamasawmyapplesauce.  Yup, all one word like that… that’s his name.  To the point where when she hears any track that’s a Jackson track, she says, “Hey Mom!  It’s Mamasaymamasawmyapplesauce!”

At some point, Sharaun must have told Keaton that Michael Jackson passed away.  Those were her words, I’m certain.  Probably something like, “Did you know the singer of this song passed away?”  Well, maybe something like that… but one thing’s for sure: Keaton remembered that the guy who sings mamasaymamasawmyapplesauce “passed away.”  It’s not likely she even knows what “passed away” is, but it sure is hilarious to hear her say, whenever a Jackson track comes on the radio, “Hey Mom… did Mamasaymamasawmyapplesauce really pass away, or are you just joking?!”

Yes babe, Mamasaymamasawmyapplesauce really did pass away…

Goodnight internet.

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surgery

This I'm OK losing...Halfway through another week.  At work, we refer to this as “workweek thirty-one.”  Not sure about you guys, but all I can think about when I see that number is the fact that, somehow, we’ve made it more than halfway through the year of Our Lord two-thousand and nine.  Think about that; more than halfway.  It boggles.

Today I had a small cyst removed from my left leg.  I’ve had this thing since high school (when it was much smaller, about the size of a BB),  but in the last five years it’s grown a little too large for my comfort.  So, after talking to one reluctant surgeon (why remove it if it’s not causing me pain or suffering?) I found one who was willing (you wanna get cut?, OK) and went in today for the super-fast super-easy procedure.  The only thing is, with me, anything involving my own blood or “fleshwork” is always a trial.  Why?  Because, as manly as I consider myself to be… when I’m personally involved in the gore, it’s almost a sure bet I’m going to want to faint.

No joke.  It’s happened almost as often as I’ve been exposed to personal carnage, however controlled the environment.  It happened when I had an ingrown toenail cut out as a teenager; they had to go old-school that time and break out the smelling salts to bring me back out of the ether.  It happened when I split my head open diving into a too-shallow springs.  It even happens, to a much lesser degree, anytime I have to give blood (I can feel the symptoms coming on, but they never fully manifest).  Here’s how it goes down: First, I begin feel a bit “off,” disconnected.  Next, I begin sweating; just a sheen of perspiration to start but soon enough turning into full torrents of gym-worthy sweat.  Finally, I can actually feel the blood draining from my head and face – to the point where I eventually realize: “Uh-oh, this ain’t gonna end good unless I lie down fast.”

Anyway, I’m familiar enough with my reaction in these situations that I now warn the doctors in advance that I’m a lightweight.  Universally, they seem to appreciate the heads-up.  Today, the doc smiled and said, “Yeah, a typical man.  Males have a much harder time with it than do women, for whatever reason.”  Humph.

In the end though, I bravely maintained consciousness (mostly by choosing to not even watch the procedure, lest I see any messiness and completely lose it).  And, after about fifteen minutes of sweating and metered breathing while I felt my skin being tugged and heard tissue being snipped with scissors – it was all over.  I had to recline fully on the little doctor’s table and concentrate on not passing out.  I tried singing a song in my head to take my mind (and ears) of the hacking and snipping that was going on in my filleted leg.

OK, so I’m a wimp.  I just can’t handle it.  Goodnight.

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best of 2009.5

The tops.Happy Friday folks.  I know I’ve been ready for it.

Real quick before I get started, to update you.  The car deal is supposed to go down today (as you read this, Friday).  Still not 100% sure though, as the dealership that has the vehicle we want is the only one around here not offering “early” C4C deals.  Patience… I’m having issues with it.

Hard to believe it’s that time of year again, but we’re halfway through the 2009 and we’re at a good spot to critically cast our ears back over the last six months.

So then, presented here for you without further pretext, my picks for the best releases between January and now.  My ears only, so take the recommendations with a grain of your own aural salt.

And yes, I erred on the side of over-inclusion (makes the year-end choices easier with a larger midyear field).

Enjoy.

Wilco8. Wilco – Wilco

Yes, Virginia, they do still make plain-and-simple good music.  Just American heartland; just traditional sounds; breezy and making it sound easy.  With the good bits recalling Dylan or Harrison or some similarly poppy, maybe rooted in country, Americana… this record comes off to me less as a masterpiece and more as just a solid slice of consistently good music.  The band even takes the sunny stuff and flips it from time to time, getting the hackles up and bringing the gruff – but not to the detriment of the overall feeling.  An album you’ll want to listen to with the windows down and the sun on your face.

Most Serene Republic7. The Most Serene Republic – … and the Ever Expanding Universe

While not as immediately unstoppable as some of the MSR’s previous efforts (which have all, unfailingly, ranked here on previous blog toplists) – the Canuck collective’s latest release is nothing to turn away from.  Still layered and dense and thickly sung by many voices, it still seems a tad bit dialed back from the all-out cacophony of their earlier stuff, and might benefit from being a little less unapproachable this time around because of it.  For me, it may be that this band continues to do no wrong… but I liked this album from the first time I heard the first few seconds of the first song.  Good stuff here folks; good, exciting stuff.

Mew6. Mew – No More Stories/Are Told Today/I’m Sorry/They Washed Away//No More Stories/The World Is Grey/I’m Tired/Let’s Wash Away

Now that’s a title.  I’d never been into Mew before this record; never even really heard of them, to be honest.  Curiosity got this album onto my iPod; I had to grab it when it hit the top of the charts on the 100% legal pay-to-acquire-licensed music website I frequent.  Then, when I spun it for the first time and realized the first track is actually two completely different songs – one called “New Terrain” when you listen to it normally, and one called “Nervous” when you listen to it backwards… I knew this was going to be interesting.

Sure enough, the tunes here don’t disappoint.  Sometimes as simple as enjoyable as the clean hippy stuff that guys like the Band of Horses do, other times as dense and trippy as the most avante garde of the art set – there’s something here for the whole hipster crayonbox.  But more importantly, it’s a fun listen and would make for a good BBQ soundtrack come August.  If for nothing else, you might want to get it for the occasion…

Phoenix5. Phoenix- Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

Man, if “Love Like a Sunset” didn’t come in and break up the near-unflappable punch of this record, it might’ve jumped up a full spot in the rankings.  Phoenix has ranked for me before, and back then I wrote about them that, “Every summer deserves a summery album. Like a sweet, dripping ice-cream cone, It’s Never Been Like That plops perfect little circles of melted goodness all over your favorite Hawaiian shirt.” And, aside from that being a pretty decent descriptive sentence, the underlying statement works for Wolfgang… too.

I want to bring this album back in time with me when they invent the machine; use it as the soundtrack to the saccharine over-emotion of a tweenage bout of puppy-love.  The smiley songs could bounce along like a mirror image of my infatuation-fueled heartbeat as we held hand for the first time.  Does that make you want to hear it?  It should.

Grizzly Bear4. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest

OK so here we go with the Grizzly Bear thing…  I talked about how the Mew album would be good for a summertime BBQ.  Let’s get it straight up-front, this record would be better suited for a summertime opium party.  Lounging around on satin pillows letting lethargy drive an academic listening.  It’s no secret that “Two Weeks” buoys the record from a broad-appeal perspective, or that the rest of the tracks dazzle more through subtlety than fireworks – but there’s a wall-to-wall beauty of perfectionist production here that demands intent listening throughout; even after things seem to “slow down” off the high that is “Two Weeks.”  And yes, I’ll admit that I just plain don’t like “Dory” at all… but that’s no reason to shun this sparkly, sometimes slow, quiet beast.  With each perfectly placed strum or beat or whisper, it proves it deserves the spot.

Decemberists3. The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love

What can I say about this record that won’t make you automatically write it off as just some pretentious concept album?  Oh, that’s right: nothing.  That’s because this, moreso than any loosely cohesive so-called “concept” record of the last few years, is indeed a supremely pretentious album-length story-arc.  A shamelessly complex tale starring a multi-character cast built on the foundation of Meloy’s trademark wordy, arcane songwriting.  Through a hefty dose of “thou” and “wilt” and “irascible,” you’re treated to a classic tragedy involving a maiden, a shape-shifting animal-man, a wicked forest queen, and… uh… yeah…

And, as much as that whole mess above might turn you off (and believe me, Sharaun could barely bring herself to listen to this thing after I’d ranted and raved about the story and concept), the music on here is just piss-pants brilliant.  Thematically tight, brilliantly instrumented, and entertaining throughout, you’ll want to hear the album if only to dismiss it as trying-too-hard smarmy art-rock.

Wild Beasts2. Wild Beasts – Two Dancers

I currently can’t get enough of this music.  I don’t even know how to describe it to you, but a flood of adjectives come to mind and I figured that might be as good as I’m gonna be able to do.  Seductive; slippery; effeminate; growling; dirty; taunting; young; full of sex.  Yeah, these plucky harmonics, sparse woodblock percussion, and the should-be-offputting-but’s-instead-entrancing female/male range of the lead singer – it’s all somehow evocative of all those things (and then some).  It’s not going to be Top 40; and it’s not really typical for what I dig, but I’ve fallen head over heels in love with the sound.  And, besides, when you can have a lyric that goes, “This is a booty call; my boot, my boot, my boot, my boot up your asshole,” you know you’ve got a classic on your hands.

Animal Collective1. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion

Nothing, not even a whole other top-ten list, could bridge the gap between this record and the previous entrants.  It’s in a whole other league.  So I’ll sound like all the other indie fawners and say that I really do think this is what it sounds like to hear rock music evolving.  And, though haters will say it’s innovation akin to “selling out,” it’s nonetheless the kind of approachable envelope-pushing that can bend the ear of the casual listener.

Kids singing songs about their new families and the joy of having children; the carefree escapism of walking around a city at night; the merits of simply staying in bed: themes that seem almost tailor-made for the me of now.  With unmistakeably Beach Boy styled harmonies and arpeggio-drenched, mechanical bassline-driven thumpers that get you moving, there’s nothing on this record not to like (OK, you could argue about the lengthy fade on “Daily Routine”).

If you missed it; get it.  There won’t be another record like this in 2009 and you owe it to rock and roll to just peek in on it and see how things have been moving along since Bill Haley.  Get it.

And there we go.  Start to finish in one evening, post-gym, with no pre-planning or sketched out ideas.  Atypical for a “best of” deal, but I think it worked well to knock through it all at once (with the help of the iPod to make some split-second decisions on list landing zones).  Hope you enjoyed it or, if you’re not a music person, safely ignored it.

Have a good weekend; until Monday, I love you internet friends.  Nite.

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busted with spots of boon

Feast.Monday evening and I’m writing from my folks’ place up in Oregon.

One bright spot about having them way up north is getting to stay with them when work takes me up to the local sawmill up here.  Didn’t bring Sharaun and Keaton along this time as the visit is a quick one and wasn’t a good candidate for a weekend-buildout.

Yesterday you may have seen a spurious blog posted here for a few hours.  And, today, you may see the usable bits of that mistakenly published entry recycled here.  See, I schedule all my entries to auto-post at midnight on the day I intend to publish them.  Sometimes, if I’m fairly far along with a draft, to the point where I’m pretty certain I’ll be able to put the polish on it and make it a real entry, I’ll go ahead and schedule the midnight posting.  Occasionally, even being fairly well developed, I may not ever get to the polish and then subsequently forget about the scheduling.  Such was yesterday.

Sorry about that.

Today was the meeting that was the main motivator for me coming to Oregon this time around.  And, luckily, I scheduled other worthwhile activities tomorrow to coincide with the trip… because… today’s meeting, while having a couple worthwhile moments, was by and large a bust.  Well, I should qualify: Considering the sawmill-funded trip as a sawmill shareholder, today was a bust; considering the trip as an opportunity to do what “marketing” types do, today was a boon for “building rapport” with the customers.  I’ll leave it up to the shirts to tell me which of the two honors my salary more.

As I write, I’m listening to a record I “discovered” last Friday called Two Dancers by a British band called the Wild Beasts.  Not my typical kind of album, but I’ve become completely addicted to it.  It slinks and swaggers and the singer’s voice is high and odd… the combination works perfectly though.  The record isn’t out for a few weeks yet, but you can preview some of the leaked tracks over at the Hype Machine‘s aggregator.  I would recommend it, were I you.  Yeah, been digging on that and the new Mew record… finally some new stuff to listen to…

Oh man I’m sleepy.  Nothing much more to write today anyway.  I’m just going to call this a night and talk to you guys tomorrow.

Love ya, goodnight.

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sights and sounds

Seeing and hearing.Thursday, huh?  Great.  I guess that’s almost Friday.  Right?

10:30pm and I’m just now sitting down.  Fresh back from our standing Wednesday night gig and sleepless since last night’s 1am return from the Coldplay show… it’s a wonder I’m even attempting to knock out an entry tonight.  But, I wanted to get some more flashback photos posted and I captured a hilarious bit of audio on the drive home that I just had to edit and share.  So then, without any unnecessary flourish, those two things.

First up, here’s another batch of vintage images from our recent photo scanning masterplan.  Some good ones in this bunch, but I’m still finding it hard to choose from the 1,500 we had scanned.  I’ve got another batch queued and almost ready and hope to get to them this week.  Yes, for me this is kind of a big deal… Enjoy:

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Lastly, before I go I wanted to share a little audio clip I took tonight in the car on the way home.  It’s Keaton singing.  She sings a lot, actually… and mostly songs which have been drummed into her brain from the radio’s ten-song playlist.  Tonight, she was singing the Ting Tings’ song, “That’s Not My Name.”  Bordering on novelty, the track is actually pretty dang catchy… and I even find myself singing along with it when it comes on in Sharaun’s car (which is our only car, at the moment… so it’s been often).  Anyway, I just loved the way she sings it.  Check it out, I even edited out the road noise for ya:

[audio:notmyname.mp3]
I mean… they call me huhh…

Did you guys hear how she totally stopped and restarted the song so she could pronounce the word “her” with a strong British accent?  Listen to  it again.  She sings it all American as “her” and then restarts and sings it as “huhh.”  Now that’s some attention to detail; a little music lover just like me.

Goodnight.

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mostly about old stuff

Vintage.Happy Monday folks.

Sunday night and we were all just kind of sitting around doing nothing.  Sharaun had the TV on for a bit, but none of us were really paying attention.  Since I hate that kind of time-sucking activity, I called a stop to it and instituted some family banana-bread and popsicle making (two separate activities, mind you).  A double batch of bread (lots of overripe bananas hanging out in the freezer) and some still-freezing lemonade popsicles later, and everyone agreed it was much better than stinky ol’ television.

This week, I’m going to try and post some pictures from our recent scanmyphotos.com experiment each day.  Personally, I find near all of the 1,500 images interesting in one way or another (which is good I suppose, since I chose to pay to have them digitized) – but I’m trying to pick and choose some which might be the most fun to post on the old blog.  You can find those later down in the post, but now I’m gonna talk about music.

Y’know, the more I think about it… the more excited I’m getting for the upcoming release of the remastered Beatles catalog.  Finally, the powers that be have awaken to the fact that the current CD masters are outdated and poor-sounding, and on September 9th (09/09/09, how numerologist of them) we get the entire catalog, in both stereo and mono, by way of two elaborate (and wholly separate) deluxe box sets.

You may think it odd that someone would buy, then, perhaps in the same click of a mouse, turn around and re-buy, all the Beatles albums just to get both the mono and stereo mixes… but it’s something that us Beatles fanatics have been doing now for years.  In fact, the bootleg marketplace is awash with  different needle-drop remasters of the original vinyl releases… you’ve got the “Mirror Spock” releases, the “Millennium Remasters” versions, there’s “den0iZer,” “Sir Esquire,” “Silverking,” and “McCanno.”  Most, if not all, of these grey-market releases have improved sound (and some sound far better) over the 1987 mixes on all  commercially available CDs.

But, probably the most famous of these many grey-market needle-drop masters are the so-called “Dr. Ebbetts Sound System” versions.  Over the past ten plus years, those folks who live double lives in the world of underground Beatles’ recordings have come to adore the Good Doctor for the amazing sonic pieces he’s able to produce.  Like the other needle-droppers mentioned above, the Doc gets his stellar results by simply recording, then “doctoring,” pristine pieces of vintage vinyl.  I, too, collected the DESS versions of the Beatles’ canon, and also rejoiced in the amazing “warmth” that’s plainly missing from the current CD mixes.  Oh, and, lest you doubt… they really do sound better than what you’d buy on CD today… even you could tell the difference, I promise.

I bring up Doc Ebbetts’ efforts here for a reason.  See, the other day, the Good Doctor announced his retirement from the homegrown Beatles’ remastering business.  And do you know why?  Well, apparently he was able to hear a sneak preview of the forthcoming September remasters and he decided that, because they sound so damn good, his work is no longer needed.  And, for all the Beatles purists who put the DESS remasters on a pedestal above all other mixes – this is fantastic news.  Since so many folks consider the Doc to be the fella who’s been able to make the Beatles sound just about as good as they ever have (albeit only by re-showcasing the warmth and presence which has been in the recordings all along), to hear him say he’s  been outdone is like a promise of heretofore untold sound quality to come.

Better then the Ebbetts stuff?  Yeah… I’m getting more and more excited – and the Doctor’s retirement is like a big log on that fire.  I better start saving money now… to buy these CDs twice ain’t gonna be cheap..

OK, music-talk over.  Let’s get on to those pictures I was talking about.  Here are twelve hand-picked images from the batch.  I tried to do some minor color-correction and touch-up, but I’m no good at it (at least I somewhat removed the orange cast from some of the worst of them, albeit likely only exchanged for a bluer cast).  I took some time on the commentary for each one, so if your browser has problems flashing them up or offering the next/previous/close links let me know and I’ll change the way their posted tomorrow.  Enjoy!

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OK folks, I’m outta here.  Goodnight!