Tools for my Muse

I am not much of a musician, and I am only a mediocre designer, I would never call myself and artist and lately I am finding that fact hard to reconcile. When I was younger, that is all I wanted to do, was to paint and write and draw. I did well in high school art class, I won some ribbons and even a best of show one year. I competed in the county fair and placed 3ed with an honorable mention. I was even accepted to a very prestigious art college in San Francisco when I was 17. Alas, the fancy art school was way to expensive to attend and I did not have the motivation to make it happen. Since then I have had the odd artistic renaissance every 10 years or so. I will dust off the brushes and the paints, knock the rust off of my decaying skills and try to do a serious work of art. It has been over a decade this time since I did a piece of art work I was truly proud of.

I do most of my work on the computer now, and I find that I am the jack of all trades and the master of none. I am a web designer, meaning I can manipulate pixels and make a cool logo or design. I have a knack for getting dramatic colors, but I also realize I am not as skilled as I could be. I know HTML and some programming languages, I can manage a project and I know how to deal with customers. All of this has served me well enough being self employed but it leaves me wanting more.

I have been told that it is a rare person that can design, write content, program, and construct the HTML on a web site while also leading the project, managing the help and dealing with the customer. Yet I take little pride in this skill set, I would rather be very, very good at one thing. I suppose now that I am 41 I long to be an expert at something. Every day I learn something else about my graphic program or I figure out another line of code. At this rate I will be 60 before I am truly excellent at either.

I bought a nifty tool not long ago, I have already used it several times to solve a graphics problem I was having. It is a Wacom Bamboo Pen Tablet. An input device that allows me much more control than a mouse does. This thing is very powerful and instantly all of the possibilities jumped into my head. Of course it takes time and practice to master, and it works great with a piece of software I do not understand very well (yet). I am hoping that this new tool will inspire me to learn what I have to and practice more.

Then there is the creativity issue, I do not feel very creative any more. I am not sure how to get it back, perhaps to immerse myself in art and view others creativity and hope some rubs off on me. I once read a book titled "My Name Is Asher Lev" and while I do not remember all of the plot, at least part of it dealt with art vs. illustration. A work of art should communicate something to the viewer (or reader or listener etc.). An artist has the ability to feel something and make that feeling come through in his art. I realized I was just an illustrator mostly. I could draw the lines, but I seldom came up with emotion. What I do on the computer has all been done before, and I copy a technique or method that someone else created.

I like to play my guitar, I do not claim to be very good at it, but I love to sit and strum. One of my favorite things is to drink beer with a group of friends and try to jam on some old classics. Once again though, I am only playing the chords someone else put together. In any case, I just put a Martin D18 in "Lay Away" at my favorite music store. Someday soon I will have an amazing instrument with which to play my sad 12 chords and scattered finger picking. It is fortunate that I enjoy collecting guitars as much as I do playing them. Daisy says when I bring this one home I have to sacrifice an older one. This I will do, gladly, to have the D18 but it would have made way more sense to learn to play the old beater I have first then get the awesome git fiddle.

My toys and my tools, my muse should be pretty occupied for a long time to come. If only she would wake up and give me a new vision to execute, instead of always being what has gone before.

Immaculate

Like I don't have anything better to do in the middle of a workday. I am listening to my new satellite radio, on a station called "Fred" that plays early Alternative Rock and I got to thinking about an old tradition among my friends and me. We are pretty much all either musicians or lovers of good music, guitars, stereo equipment. Personally, even though I play guitar some, am more an audiophile than a musician. I was thinking about my list of "Immaculate Albums". This list is very hard to get on and has been around for over 20 years.

The Criteria is as follows. The album must have a strong enough concept to withstand the test of time. Meaning not all the albums on the list are old, but in another 20 years we will still be listening to it. Most of the music on the list however is considered classic at this point. Next, every song on the album must be consistent with the over all work as a whole. In other words each song is great and fits in well with what the artist intended for the entire work. The album should be one of those that you pop in the player and listen to, not skipping through the songs you don't like. My Immaculate albums do not have any clinkers.

Some Albums I would like to put on the list have small flaws, a clinker or an afterthought that some producer put on the record but doesn't fit well into the context of the rest of the work.

The list is totally subjective, I am the arbiter and judge on this list, it is totally mine. However; I would love to hear your list of Immaculate albums. Send them along, and we can all be judge and jury.

There is no "number one" on this list, as all of them could be number one at any given time. It is just a list of albums that have, at least in my ears, a place as essential and perfect in every way.

Here we go.

Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of The Moon
The Afghan Whigs - Black Love
The Cure - Disintegration
Led Zeppelin - Presence
Robin Hitchcock and the Egyptians - Perspex Island
Pure Prairie League - Bustin Out
Neil Young - Harvest
Neil Young - Rust Never Sleeps
Radio Head - The Bends
Guns and Roses - Appetite for Destruction
Beck - Odelay
The Talking Heads - Burning Down the House
The Cocteau Twins - Heaven or Las Vegas
The Blues Brothers - Briefcase Full of Blues
Camper Van Beethoven - Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart
The Cars - Candy O
Johnny Cash - American 2
The Doors - L.A. Woman
Echo and the Bunnymen - Flowers
The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
The Parliament Funkadelic - Greatest Hits
Morrissey - Bona Drag
Nazareth - Hair of the Dog
Norah Jones - Come Away With Me
Kenny Wayne Shepard - Live on
Stevie Ray Vaughn - Couldn't Stand the Weather
Stevie Ray Vaughn - Texas Flood
The Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street
The Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
James Taylor - James Taylor
ZZ Top - Tejas
Crosby Still Nash and Young - Deja Vu
Meat Puppets - Too High to Die
Johnny Cash - Live from Folsom Prison
REM - Murmer
Foo Fighters - Nothing Left to Lose
Dandy Warhols - 13 Tales From Urban Bohemia

I am sure I forgot something, but I can always add to it later. Hope you enjoyed my short list of immaculate albums. Now that I have wasted an hour of my workday, I need to put my nose back to the grindstone, while I fire up Itunes and enjoy some of this music.

I know it's only rock and roll... but I like it!

The Twilight Singers
Southgate House, Newport, Ky
November 3, 2006


Back in the 90's when the world was new and dinosaurs roamed the land, there was a popular local band that called themselves the Afghan Whigs. They were a standout in a sea of competing proto-bands that formed an early 90's class of musicians in the Cincinnati music scene. I had friends that were in bands during that time, so I saw the Whigs, and many others both on and off stage. I remember seeing printed paper flyers stapled to sign posts and telephone poles promoting the latest gig at such spots as Sudsy Malones on Vine st. The Afghan Whigs scored a record deal and started a climb out of obscurity to hit a national stage. While the history of the band is beyond the scope of this blog post it is important to note my connection to the scene in those days.

I remember hearing the tongue in cheek rumour that Greg Dulli, the leader of the band, had sold his soul to the Devil and that is why they were so successful. I wonder which crossroads this deal might have gone down on, Gilbert and Macmillian Ave? It is funny just how pervasive this rediculous bit of gossip was at one time. While Mr. Dulli did trade in a brand of soulful slease, I doubt Beelzebub had any thing to do with it.

The Whigs came and went, and broke up officially in 2001. I have been a fan since the old days and collected all their albums, to this day I love to throw in "Black Love" and turn the volume all the way up. Enter "The Twilight Singers" the latest incarnation from Dulli and company.

I own both studio albums and they are both very good. So when it was announced that they would be playing at the Southgate House, my friend PC Badass and me were all over it. Now the Southgate House is a blog post all it's own. I have been there several times in the last 20 years or so, I have many memories of this venue, albeit hazy ones since there was always alot of alcohol involved. The place is a Cincinnati / Newport landmark, being a historic property and also as a long standing new music venue. Larger shows are always in the "ball room" a 1930's addition to the 19th century house where the lounge is located. The ball room is cool and one can still imagine the grandness of it at one time, but now there is a patina of decadence, squalor and decay that nearly obscures what it must have been like at one time, think the Newport Music Hall in Columbus. There is a balcony two thirds of the way around the large open space on the ground floor that provides excellent views of the stage. We were seated right above right stage and had a very good view. I was encamped in a decrepit vinyl covered chair that like all the others in the gallery, seemed to have had asses in it since the place played host to grand balls, and catered to the Newport gambling scene, the Sin City Era. It was perfect. (take a moment to read the content at that link, absolutely fascinating, in a sleasy sort of way, much of Newport's history seems to be buried, just like the new, clean city of today, is but a veneer over the much more organic and frankly more interesting past.)

The show opens with the piano player from the Singers, I missed this fact at first but the badass pointed it out later in the show. This opening act was quite amazing as it was a one man show, but he was able to produce a full band sound by sampling his own guitar in real time then looping the groove while creating another.

The next act "Stars of Track and Field" took the stage wearing all black and sporting ascots. I found this pretty amusing but a nice touch nonetheless. This band did a very nice job as a power trio, the drummer handled loops on a Mac while integrating his live percussion duties. One of the guitarists also played the keyboard. The lead singer would riff on a wall of sound style groove then kick into a lead part all the while jumping and gyrating spastically about the stage. It was good showmanship. To my ear the bands influences sounded like "Sterolab", post 'The bends' Radiohead, and some "Smashing Pumpkins" thrown in for good measure. I very much enjoyed the sound of this band and would recommend them in the future.

Finally, after a long pause in the action, our mainline act arrived on stage. Greg Dulli and the boys were in top form, although I thought the vocals were buried in the mix on some songs. The crowd was boisterous and into the set. The music was tight and inspired, with a mix of songs from both albums, a good show. Dulli was his soulful, sleasy self and the other band members were rocking with verve. After about 80 minutes it was over, and the band left the stage.

There was a pause, the crowd seemed to quiet down, maybe expecting another set, or an encore. It seemed to me to be just a sigh after a very good hour and a half of show. It turns out our little rest was mis interpreted by the band and made some news in a small way in various blogs. The crew started unplugging the amps and packing up the gear. Most of the folks were standing pat, cheering, finishing drinks, and chatting among themselves. Finally, the badass and I decided it was over and sought to outrun the 500 or so people that were about to make a break for it.

Starving, we made our way to a frou frou, pretentious restaurant that served upscale Asian cusine. We ordered a rather passable Pad Thai, and dined in cheesy faux splendor at 2AM in Newport. Try that 30 years ago, it would have been a Waffle House or a hole in the wall shit on a shigle joint. I think I would have prefered the later.

There was a cab ride back to the hotel, and some minor adventures trying to find snacks and soda pop at 2:30 AM in downtown Cincinnati, but that is probably better left for a new blog entry. Still smarting over the encore issue, we chilled out and discussed the show in the room. It was assumed that becuase Dulli has connections and roots in Cincinnati we would have been treated to a fabulous encore, and maybe even some Whigs material. It turns out that this attitude of entitlement is what got the crowd at the Southgate House in trouble. I later found a blog entry on the Twilight Singers site that explains it in the bands words. Encore O Rama.

All in all, I am very pleased with the show we got, and even though I missed an eventual encore with only the singers and a piano, I feel like I got my moneys worth and a rocking good time. Rock and roll is fun, dont forget as you get older just how fun rock and roll can be. I am 40 and have been rocking for a very long time. This was rock and roll at its raw and wonderful best, yeah I know its only rock and roll but I LOVE IT!

slf 11-06

Love Songs

I like music, some would say I am obsessive about it. I like all kinds of music too, rock and roll, blues, vintage country, jazz, new age, the list goes on. I own 600 compact disks and almost 10,000 MP3’s so one would think my collection well represents every genre and type of music there is. I also play guitar, just rhythm mind you, and some flat picking, a sprinkling of finger picking, but no blazing lead crescendos. I have a repertoire of a few dozen songs I can sing and play, adequately at least. I even managed to play in a band not long ago.

I very much enjoy playing my guitar and recently I have had the opportunity to serenade a special lady, my girlfriend, she smiles when I play my songs, she doesn’t criticize my left hand technique or my time keeping ability, she just tells me how good I am and of course I just humbly state that I can’t carry a tune in a bucket nor play the guitar well but I try. Still I love to play and sing for her, I am starting to get a “best of” list of tunes she enjoys hearing.

Most of what I play is of the roots rock variety, and some folk tunes. It occurs to me that nearly every song I know is sad. I recently learned a song from my collection by the Marshall Tucker Band, it is a classic rock staple, with easy chords, opportunities for emotive vocals and some cool walk downs. I couldn’t wait to try it out on her last weekend. I started out with the finger picking at the beginning and then launched into the chorus with some verve. I wasn’t missing my chord changes much, and I had the lyrics in front of me when I realized this song was about a man that had been jilted by his lover and he wanted to “find a hole to crawl into” and “take a freight train to Georgia and never come back”. This is not a love song, and being just the opposite of a love song means it probably isn’t the best thing to serenade my lover with.

This problem extends to my massive music collection as well, oh sure with tens of thousands of songs to choose from, I should have hundreds of love songs to listen to, at a minimum. However I do not, I have trouble finding a good love song in my collection. See, when we are apart I want to listen to something that will remind me of her, I wish to hear a good tune with lyrics about happy love, and blissful nights in each others arms, or winsome expressions of longing and desire. Instead I have a giant collection of songs that when the subject is love, are morbidly concerned with broken hearts, cheating lovers, unrequited love and loss.

I understand that I never noticed because all those negative things comprise what my experience has been for the most part up till now. My head just isn’t there any longer. Even the drinking songs sound hollow today, because I am not lonely, I don’t drink to kill any pain, I am not spending nights alone.

For most of my life I have regarded love songs as smarmy, sweet and a bit self indulgent. They lacked realism, in my world love always ended in some bad heartbreak or at best ended in apathy and nothingness. In my world, love usually meant I was going to get hurt, and spend a lot of time drinking and listening to music about some pathetic character in the same mental hell I was in.

So as I embark on this new relationship, as I have surrendered my heart to this remarkable woman, I seek love songs, and I will find them. The new soundtrack to my life will be a happier one, and I will save the other stuff for the audiences that want to hear it, there are plenty of them out there, but today I am not one of them.