Category: Music

Because Amy demands it, a music meme:

Amount of music on your computer?

A lot, but probably not as much as most people I know, as I haven’t really downloaded many tunes since the demise of Napster. I’m always snowed in with CDs, so I don’t have time to download anything. That would just lead to more CD purchases, and that’s just not what I need right now. I mean, have you seen this ridiculous thing?

Currently listening to?

Sonny Landreth – Grant Street (live)
Steve Vai – Real Illusions
Stereolab – Margarine Eclipse
The Perceptionists – Black Dialogue
The Mercury Program – Confines of Heat

Five songs that mean a lot to you?

That’s too broad. How about:

Songs that make me want to roll down the windows and sing like a carefree, overly caffeinated nerdboy:

“New Mistake” – Jellyfish
“I Won’t Worry” – Jason Mraz
“What a Drag” – Sugarbomb
Everything by the Merrymakers, Tories, and Churchills

Songs that tell great eternal truths:

“People are Strange” – The Doors
“Everybody Hurts” – REM
“You Can’t Always Get What You Want” – The Rolling Stones

Songs that reduce me to a sobbing blob:

“Inconsolable” – Jonatha Brooke
“Dreams to Remember” – Otis Redding
“The Lighthouse’s Tale” – Nickel Creek

Songs that have described my life in startling detail:

“Neon”- John Mayer
“1983” – John Mayer
“Beautiful (Coulda Woulda)” – The Churchills
“What a Drag” – Sugarbomb

Top five albums (7 because Moses Leroy and UNKLE will not be silenced by arbitrary numerical conventions):

De La Soul – Three Feet High and Rising
Steve Vai’s Passion and Warfare
Dream Theater – Images and Words
Jellyfish – Spilt Milk
The Merrymakers – Bubblegun
UNKLE – Psyence Fiction
The Incredible Moses Leroy – Electric Pocket Radio

Last album bought?

The new Churchills and Jackdaw4 from NotLame.com
4th Avenue Jones – Stereo: the Evolution of Hiprocksoul
Jupiter Jazz – Jupiter Jazz
A couple Of Montreal discs

Recent discoveries?

4th Avenue Jones
Jupiter Jazz

Tremendous fun I had behind the scenes at the Triple S Alarm stage at Riverfest this weekend. I had the honor of picking up guitar heroes Sonny Landreth and Richard Thompson from the airport, fetching beer for Grease Factor, and stealing deli trays for 4th Avenue Jones. All the artists were excellent players and ego-free performers. This was the stage for the musicians. You can keep your REO Speedwagon, Black Crowes and Wallflowers, give me Richard and Danny Thompson, Sonny Landreth, Jeff Sipe, Shane Theriot, Timmy Shakes, and Gailybird. These are people for whom I would gladly dig out all the light brown M&M’s (not that they would ask me to, because that’s how great they are).

Richard and Danny Thompson (no relation) and their manager Simon were hilarious gents. Stuck in traffic coming back from the airport, the group’s conversational topics took on a very Spinal Tap dimension as Simon narrated the thoughts of a mockingbird hopping from car to car: “I think I’ll have a poop on this one now.” Also discussed were the vicissitudes of being a bail bondsman: “not a lot of work in the afternoons, really.”

As a musician I had a field day getting tips on slide playing from Sonny Landreth (the absolute master of the craft, in my book), pentatonic licks from Shane Theriot (the guy who won Dweezil Zappa’s guitar solo contest a couple years back), counterpoint ideas from Richard Thompson, and listening recommendations from Jeff Sipe. Oh, and pointers on the proper pronunciation of “half and half” from Danny Thompson: “auff and auff.” And to think it was all for the low, low price of absolutely free. All I had to do was stand around, drive a golf cart or a van, and get more beer for Johnny Neel[1].

The weather was unpredictable, as Friday gave us a scare with a good hour of downpour before clearing up just in time for Brave Combo. Saturday was unspeakably fantastic, with furry seeds raining down like snow. Sunday was overcast but the rain didn’t start until the final set. Trooper that he is, Sonny Landreth just kept on playing. Fortunately the brief storm was not electrical.

Good times. And to think I owe it all to my obsessive knowledge of musicians – I got this job through my friend Randall, who I met at a record convention when he asked a dealer who all was in Frank Zappa’s 1988 band, and I just started rattling off the names[2].

1) Johnny, though blind, hears everything. And since Grease Factor’s music is mostly improvised, he will make up his vocals as he goes. I had mentioned that the food out front was all good, but that the burgers were pretty bad. So, later while he’s onstage playing, he’s riffing on Little Rock and what he’s heard about it, “come to Little Rock, stay away from the cheeseburgers.”

2) Mike Keneally, Scott Thunes, Ike Willis, Chad Wackerman, Kurt McGettrick, Walt Fowler, Bruce Fowler, Ed Mann, etc. etc. I only know this because Frank introduces everyone on the first track of Make a Jazz Noise Here, the first or second Frank album I ever bought. That track was “Stinkfoot.”

The Alan Lomax Archive is now online. Well, most of it is. Well, 40 second cuts of most recordings are available. More is on the way. In case you’re not aware, Alan Lomax was the world’s leading field recording archivist. He has been all over the world recording the sounds and music of planet Earth in the mid 20th century. From prison field hollers in Mississippi to Moroccan spirituals, Lomax amassed an important library of historical audio. Naturally I’m partial to the Arkansas and Mississppi recordings. If you’re the type of person who enjoyed the period music of Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? or Moby’s Play, then by all means sign up for a free account and log into the database.

One of the many great things about Vh1 Classic is that very often all sense of context is removed. While watching the All Request Hour the perky hostess actually used New Kids on the Block and The Church in the same sentence. It’s as though all semblance of genre or demographics has been completely cast aside.

In short, it’s how I would like the world to be.

I spent almost the entire weekend in the house, recovering from illness. I watched Billy Wilder’s Irma La Douce (mmm Shirley MacLaine circa 1963) and finished reading Steve Martin’s beautiful novella, Shopgirl. Katherine brought me some Vietnamese food last night, which was so good. Today I took a walk around the neighborhood in a warm light rain. I stopped off at Juan and Heather’s to say hi; their daughter Tori just passed the one year mark. I worked in the yard a bit, and washed the car. Matt ordered a pizza and we watched The Big Bounce.

And last but not least, Odie joins the ranks of the Pointed Stick blogs.

Last weekend Superflux had a gig in Tulsa. It went pretty well; we made some new fans with the Women’s International Bowling Congress. I drove over to Fayetteville on Sunday to catch soul/funk legends Tower of Power at George’s Majestic Lounge. I have to say it was one of the single greatest musical experiences I have ever had in my life. Real soul music the way God (i.e. Otis Redding) intended, with the tightest horn line anywhere in the world, plus my all-time number one rhythm section: David Garibaldi on drums and Rocco Prestia on bass.

On the way home I took the scenic route along Highway 64 in search of interesting photos, so that’s the new plog today. I only drove from Alma to Russellville, as the remainder of the route I covered last June.

I went to see Buckethead and Galactic last night. The former is an insane guitar player who wears a white mask and a KFC bucket on his head while playing bizarre yet funky techno-metal (he was raised by chickens in the coop) and the latter is a funky instrumental jam band from New Orleans. The Galactic fanbase appeared to be mainly collegiate hippies and the Buckethead fanbase appeared to be weird metal kids (Gwar fans, shred guitar players – you know, my kinda kids).

Now, for those of you who may have seen the recent episode of South Park where the town was overrun by hippies and the only thing that would disperse them was face-melting heavy metal guitar solos, you may be familiar with the scene last night at Juanita’s. It wasn’t all that bad, really. Although most of the Galactic fans just seemed confused – who is this masked maniac, why does he have a rubber chicken, why is he doing The Robot and playing with Nunchucks, why is he playing a Willy Wonka, Star Wars, and Mr. Sandman medley and then handing out toys? Why do I feel like I’m watching Texas Chainsaw Massacre meets This is Spinal Tap?

It was inspired insanity. I took some pictures and posted them over at Flickr. Why Flickr? Because it’s quickr. And because there’s a new plog already.

I decided not to wait on my tax refund to buy The Drums. Last month, Musician’s Friend had a one-day deal where you get a free splash cymbal and stand with your order, and I regretted passing it up. I’ve been checking back periodically, and today the offer was there, so I pounced. That’s what credit cards are for, I figure. I should have them next week sometime.

For those who may have been aware of my trip this weekend, it’s off. Which is OK. Plan B will go into effect, whereby I bring Jamie here for a weekend later this month.

FM 101.1 The River is no more. KDRE is now some anonymous bland modern rock station. The saddest part about radio is the impersonal departures. You never know when you’re going to wake up one morning and find your favorite station has switched formats. FM 101 was oldies/easy listening, but at least the songs were varied and interesting.

Colter the former shred guitarist now stands with all the old fogies in perplexed disgust at the loss of a great old station taken over by dumb rock, which is more a comment on my disdain for the whiney glossy crap that passes for rock and roll today, than about my age or fondness for oldies.

Some weeks ago I happened upon several copies of World Party’s Egyptology for sale super-cheap at Hasting’s in Conway. 50 cents each to be exact. AND, each copy had a World Party Best-Of sampler attached to it. So two discs, a quarter each. Fabulous albums. I knew that these CDs needed to go to the right homes, so I offered them free to the first takers on the Jellyfish mailinglist. I didn’t even charge for postage. I did it for no other reason than generosity and the fact that seeing great albums sitting in the bargain bins hurts my soul.

One of the lucky winners was a bootleg trader and offered me anything from his collection as a thank you. I chose a DVD of the Grays live at the 40 Watt Club in Athens, Georgia. This DVD is so marvelous. I got it tonight and as I’ve been watching it, I realized that I was being karmically rewarded for my acts. The cost of buying and mailing all those CDs was easily worth paying for this DVD. So there you go. Helen Hunt and Haley Joel Osment weren’t kidding.

Also, in case you weren’t aware, new Tori album coming out soon:

I spent Friday evening, all Saturday and some of Sunday at Barry Poynter’s home studio in my neighborhood. Pictures in the new plog. Superflux has been recording demos of our original songs, as well as some covers for club demo purposes. It was a neat experience – I learned a lot about the recording process, and my own musical abilities (or lack thereof). Turns out the first Sugarbomb record was recorded at the studio, so I was all pop-nerd excited about that. Barry burned me a copy of it.

On Sunday, I found an incredibly cool house, and I’m going to go make an offer on it today. Also, Jessica and I went to see the new Jean-Pierre Jeunet/Audrey Tatou film A Very Long Engagement. It’s a sweeping World War I mystery drama. It’s every bit as good as their last work, Amelie, but not an outright comedy. More like Cold Mountain but not nearly so cold.

On Friday night I had dinner with my dad. He brought me 12″ Star Wars figures of bounty hunter 4-LOM and Princess Leia in the Jabba Dancer bikini. I’m not sure how I feel about owning something like that. It feels dirty. He also gave me a Star Wars comic and a Kid Colt comic, as well as an Empire Strikes Back glass. It’s like 1983 all over again…