Another musician on the Internets
Well, I’m on the train to the airport, and then… Austin! Bucharest Drinking Team is headed to Honk Texas for 5 days of hedonism. We’ll be all posting stuff online all week, so it’ll be just like you’re there.
Things kick off tonight at the Russian House, and then well be playing in the streets the rest of the week. Meow!
So far, I have discovered that I forgot my important sash that ties together my whole fashion ensemble. At least I have my tupan….
My pal Sean Downey has set up a monthly Gamer Jam, where a live band plays the soundtrack to video games as people play them on a huge screen. There are also homemade games, and songs inspired by games, and some gamers like Louis who show their mad skills in games like Mega Man. I got to play in the “house band” last time, and took some major risks. Apart from learning all the music for Street Fighter 2 (including Thailand in 11/8), I organized the band to play two songs off of Katamari. Susan played the levels live! It was so awesome! But scary, because I had never performed as lead vocalist before. I really took advantage of the 80/20 rule to prepare, because there was so little time! But the other musicians, Steve, Louis, and Sean, totally pulled together and made the whole thing work! And of course, none of it would have worked without Susan on game controller. So here’s my first attempt at leading a band. Please be gentle. ;)
The next Gamer Jam is coming up on April 4th at the MIX in Georgetown (Seattle). I hope you can make it out! Come over and say hi.
While driving to the airport, getting ready to leave the big island of Hawaii after an amaaazing trip, I was dreading the inevitable long wait at an ugly airport (being in Hawaii does not do much to improve it) (As Douglas Adams once said, and I am paraphrasing, “In no human language can you find the phrase, ‘As pretty as an airport'”) and so I was already in a critical mood when I heard “One More Night” on the car radio for the zillionth time. That’s when it occurred to me just how really bad the lyrics are.
Like a river to the sea,
I will always be with you
And if you ever sail away,
I will follow you
These are not good lyrics. He rhymed “you” with “you”. And the metaphor is confusing, yet also cliche. But seeing as I am no longer in the hating mood, let’s look at the good news: It did reach #1 in the US.
So maybe we shouldn’t worry so much about writing good lyrics.
In the meantime, Turn it On is a good song with a good message. And so is Land of Confusion. Good video, too. Really captures the height of the Cold War. Watch it to the end. Hopefully these two songs are how he’s remembered.
Having discovered this amazing, free PDF that charts out how to be creative, I feel like I’ll have nothing to add on the topic ever again. It’s an amazing read, and I highly recommend it. It is by Hugh MacLeod.
http://changethis.com/manifesto/show/6.HowToBeCreative
Every one of the 26 points has an illustration, so you don’t even have to read much if you don’t feel like it.
This is the kind of thing that should be part of the process within a consistent plan for integrating innovation into our art.
There is a great article about the areas in science and technology that are going to explode with innovation. Areas like biotechnology, AI, robotics, nanotech, etc.
What grabbed my attention is that there is an image (you have to click on it to enlarge it) that shows some interesting statistics about how companies that have an executive in charge of innovation tend to be successful with it. The reason they are successful is because they have a plan, and someone at the top is accountable.
How can we apply these lessons to our artistic personal growth? Are we haphazard about innovating in our art, or do we hold ourselves personally accountable for some kind of process for brainstorming, discovering, and integrating new artistic ideas?
I think this would go much farther than just subscribing to Modern Drummer.
If no one in your band is arguing, then no one cares–and that’s bad. The question is: do you take dissent personally, or do you respect their passion? So, at the end of the day, let’s be glad we play with passionate people.
Here are 10 songs I discovered on Spotify in 2012
Listen Now: 2012: Top 10 (NSFW: explicit lyrics)
This was the year of Spotify for me. The ability to legally listen to virtually any song for free was intoxicating. I used to use GrooveShark, but audio quality is all over the map and it’s annoying to find the right version of the song you are looking for. Youtube is great, but the ads are so intrusive, if you can find a non-live version. So Spotify it is!
In no particular order:
Dubstep hit the mainstream two years ago or so. Love it or hate it, it’s still going strong. This is actually the first song that I heard that was released in 2013, and I just like the obnoxiousness.
This song has actually been around for years. I think I saw a link to the youtube video years ago, but the song is officially released in 2012–whatever that means. Maybe that’s just when it showed up in Spotify. At any rate, a great example of pop music that still pushes the boundaries. Chairlift artfully takes the retro 80s keyboard thing, and then pushes the boundaries of pop music. Their songs are almost non-catchy, more a certain sound than a specific melody. And yet, they don’t quite go so deep into it, so that it’s still accessible. This is some well balanced pop.
Another dose of blatant lyrics, in an extremely lush, yet minimal, Flaming Lips package. It’s a beautiful example of that feeling that you’re listening to music beamed from a satellite in orbit around Mars. And the words are that compelling feeling that you’re hearing something autobiographical and relatable.
With Frank Black, it’s now all about his voice. No one sounds like him. And the sparse, digital background arpeggio is a contrast that brings out his low, hypnotic crooning even more.
I like everything Trevor Dunn has ever contributed to. He’s the bassist that every drummer dreams of playing with. In this edition, he tosses in his bow into the Melvins mix to create something that sounds foreboding and epic and creepy all at once. I love it. I got to see them play live last year, and Trevor was a complete rock star. At some point he deftly dodged a stage diver, almost dropping his massive standup bass to the floor but not quite–and kept on rocking without any distraction. Another time he was so amped up that he literally swung the bass vertically up in the air and balanced it there for several seconds with one arm. Metal.
Another track that was released years ago on youtube, but finally made it onto Spotify. Seems like a common pattern now. Upload for free on youtube, then submit a batch to Spotify. Anyway, this band was a mystery for quite a long time, due to their ongoing series of videos that seemed to tell a story while revealing very little about the musicians involved. A slow and pretty track. I’m a sucker for this kind of song.
I’m so glad they’re back! After a long spell of the mediocre, they return with solid songwriting. This song takes me back to my years in the Bay Area, driving down the Pacific Coast out on Highway 1. The setting sun. Deserted beaches. Lush forests. Rocky crags. The endless ocean. Solitude.
More pretty, lush crooning! This band shows up on my list every year, mostly due to her unique and emotive voice that calls to me. They narrowly beat out many other bands from this expanding genre: Goldfrapp, Boy Friend, LadyHawke, etc.
They almost made it on the list last year, and this year they inched up to the top due to the badass beat that busts in after the first minute. I’m digging the 80s influences that some electro-pop bands are drawing from, and again they do it tastefully.
There’s this whole thing that I just discovered early last year, where Black Metal is passing through a magic portal and coming out as some kind of brooding, grooving, beautiful emo post-rock. I don’t know what it’s called, but there are some great bands in this genre that I’ve come across lately, like Les Discrets, and Nachtmysium. It’s great when metal bands become more musical.
Check out all of my Spotify favorites from 2012: 2012: Great Music
Locally from the Northwest: My favorite releases last year were from local bands like Sandrider and Asva.
Here’s the list from 2011: 2011: Top 10
So… what did I miss?
We are taught that when you graduate 8th grade, you are a 9th grader in high school.
But if we look at it like the real world, then it’s really a 2 year process.
7th Grade: You are performing at an 8th grade level, and learning to be a 9th grader.
8th Grade: After a year of performing at 8th grade, you have now earned the title of 8th grader. Now you are performing at a 9th grade level, and learning to be a 10th grader.
9th Grade: Congratulations! After consistently performing at a 9th grade level for a year, you have earned the right to be called a 9th grader. You are now starting to perform at a 10th grade level, and learning to be an 11th grader.
This is how it works in the business world. You don’t receive a job title until you prove that you can do it consistently. Job titles aren’t aspirational. You don’t get a job title because you have potential. You’re hired because you have potential, and your job title is based on your previous consistent actions.
I think the lesson here is that we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves, even in art. We need to prove our worth for 2 years before we receive recognition. Recognition only comes in hindsight, and you can’t wait for it. Don’t fall into the trap of letting recognition be the source of your inspiration.
I try to stay away from making posts about the music business or marketing, but this post by Seth Godin really caught my eye.
He talks about what people find interesting, and how it’s easy to do things that our friends find interesting. But it’s much harder to do things that strangers find interesting.
There are so many bands that I’ve been in where I mostly just saw my friends show up. I was fulfilling the first part. The hard part is appealing to strangers, if that’s what you want to do with your music.
But the first thing to do is: be yourself. Be earnest.
When I think of “earnest”, I think of Mark Ostler and his Ivar the Boxer epic poem. The poem is about an immigrant to Seattle who falls on tough times. The fact that the story is written in rhyme, might be an instant turn off to many people. But if you were there at the reading, sitting (or standing at the bar in my case because the room was packed) in the dingy, poorly lit Funhouse, you would have heard a man who was completely absorbed in the art. On one hand, he was baring his own soul. A punk rock singer, speaking in poetry. A fragile moment. On the other hand, he was so incredibly wrapped up in the characters and the story, that he would pause and exclaim things like, “Okay you guys, this next part totally kicks ass! This is where Ivar kicks some butt!!” He was like a fanboy, but of his own work. It was infectious. That night, everyone in the room was caught up with Mark in the story, and we all lived the tragic life of Ivar together. Most of us where surprised to be there–we had no idea this punk rocker was even working on any kind of writing, let alone poetry. But Mark’s earnest reading of his very personal epic poem inspired our imaginations and suspended our disbelief. Mark cared, and so we cared. It did totally kick ass.
That’s one way to make strangers care about you. So focus on the art. Do what you love, be earnest, share with others–and strangers will have no choice but to notice and care.
Okay, so a deep thought here. Over the course of many years of tutoring and teaching on the side, I’ve noticed this pattern. I haven’t quite thought it all through to the conclusion yet, but here’s where I’m at.
It seems like children primarily learn in an intuitive fashion. They pick up on their surroundings and on what they’re doing, and soak it all in like a sponge. But this isn’t a deliberate action. It’s a matter of convenience. So they get really good at video games, and playground politics, and riding bikes. And they know all about what commercials are on TV, and who’s hot on iTunes, and the latest fashions. Ask a kid why or how they learned all this, and they will look at you like you’re an idiot. It’s because it’s all part of life, as far as they are concerned.
Then at some point in the course of our lives, it seems like most people start to disconnect and live in two worlds: work and life. And we have to deliberately choose what to learn about, and go and execute on some kind of plan to do so.
I don’t know if this evolution in people’s life is necessarily a bad one. Being deliberate is certainly a sign of maturity. Yet, maybe the things that matter to us should feel more intuitive, and should just happen automatically. If you have to go out of your way to learn something, then maybe you’re out of balance or disconnected. Maybe you have the wrong priorities, or maybe you’re unhappy.
Like I say, I don’t know where this thought is going. It’s just an observation.