Every now and then there is something, whether it’s a toy, a phrase, a movie or a song that wins over fans of all ages. For your consideration, the Rubik’s cube. Not only is my spell check familiar with the word, but so is anyone who was alive in the ‘80s. Some people got it for their 40th birthday, some people got it for hitting a home run in little league, but we all loved it or hated it at some point. Also, “Ain’t no shame in my game.” I remember listening to Guru say it in the early ‘90s, and I just heard a sixty-something lady say it while she was cleaning up a campsite bathroom about a month ago. Consider further that Surf’s Up is one of the two best films ever made about penguins not only to me, but also to my 6-... read more >
I was born in a big town. Now I live in a small town. These are not the first two lines of a John Mellencamp tribute parody, but more or less my current musical situation. I could probably come up with a lengthy and comprehensive list of both pros and cons of big city versus small town, in which no clear winner would emerge. But in terms of musical culture, big city takes small town out behind small town’s very own red barn and gives small town a big city whoopin’. At least until last week, when small town enjoyed a fleeting but momentous musical victory, bestowing upon 300 lucky concertgoers the best show I’ve seen in at least 3 or 4 years.
The band responsible for this life-affirming experience was Bon Iver (though th... read more >
I would watch Grease fifty times straight and listen to every Steely Dan song back to back just to have any one of my songs on any movie soundtrack. It could be a kid’s movie, an adult movie, a terrible movie, or even a completely lame documentary. As long as some portion of one of my songs was played at any point of the movie, I would be totally pumped, for many obvious reasons. There is perhaps no better way to be taken out of context. Unless you wrote a song specifically for that movie, or even more specifically, for that movie moment, chances are your song had a message or a feeling that somebody wanted to put in their movie. The intention could simply be to maximize the moment with a feast for the senses, or it could ... read more >
I don’t have a TV, so it’s a rare moment when I find myself in front of one, forced with the mission of finding myself something to keep me entertained for a brief period of time. One such rare moment arrived just the other day. I was at the gym because the weather sucked, and I decided to watch TV as I exercised on the cross-training thing instead of listening to my iPod and watching people watch themselves. The person using the machine before me had left the TV tuned to VH1, and as I could find nothing else to intrigue me, I decided to stick around and watch 31 through 40 of the best 100 songs of the ‘90s. I remembered all of the songs, but over half of the artists were either fads or one-hit wonders. They mentioned how that so... read more >
Adam and I had kept in touch over the past year, both hoping that our worlds would collide again for a full-length session. I knew in a matter of minutes the last time around that we would work well together in the studio. Adam stood well above his peers in the paradoxical simplicity of his lyrics; much like Bruce Springsteen could turn a pair blue jeans and a plain-white T into the uniform for a guilt-ridden war hero.
Adam’s aversion to digital sounds was also exciting for me, as it required for more creative workarounds that usually led to unique sounds. Both of us liked the organic approach to recording, using mic techniques and room treatments to achieve the desired results. We continued talking about a recording session of gran... read more >
