Matisyahu

Matisyahu is one amazing reggae artist. Check it out:



And the live version:



So on August 27th we're going to see Modest Mouse. The very next day 311 and Matisyahu are playing the same venue. We're going to try and turn this into a little trip and maybe see both shows. We'll see.

Husk Gig

We played at Sam Bond's Garage on Friday night. Irie took some cool pictures and made this animated gif:



Play this song and you'll get the virtual Husk experience:

bMuze.com
Title: Hoosier Sunset Artist: Husk

Hoosier Sunset (Early Mix)

Update: The Rhodes keyboard part has been added to this mix. Jeremy did a great job in capturing the mood of the song.

We recorded again last night and here is a super early mix of "Hoosier Sunset". The lead vocals are probably going to be redone, backing vocals need to be added and the piano part is not in there either. This is my favorite song of all the ones we do so I'm excited to even just have this little mix and to be able to hear it. Stephen is such a great song writer.

bMuze.com
Title: Hoosier Sunset Artist: Husk

Graduation Day

Here is another song from our recording session. This one has a more refined mix. The choir at the end is great.

bMuze.com
Title: Graduation Day rough mix Artist: Husk

Finally Recording an Album

The band I'm in (Husk) is finally recording an album. It's going to take a while to complete but we got our start this week and here is a rough mix of "Any Old Thing In The World". It doesn't have the piano piece yet and the mix isn't final but I'm really impressed with Jeremy's recording skills. Studio recording is a strange experience and it doesn't feel natural at all. The way we did this song was we recorded the bass and drums first with Stephen softly singing and playing the guitar in the background to give us vocal queues. Then the bass and drums track was used as a foundation to record the rest of the song over. We have to do it this way because there are limitations to our recording equipment and space. We're so used to playing our songs as a band all at once so doing it like this just feels weird and I have to say I was skeptical of what the final result might be but after listening to this early sample, I'm excited. What do you think?

bMuze.com
Title: Any Old Thing in the World rough mix Artist: Husk

Kid 4077

I recently found out that Johnny Marr (ex Smiths guitarist now with Modest Mouse) has a son who is a budding musician and goes by the name of Kid 4077. I really love this song.

bMuze.com
Title: Get Me Out Artist: Kid 4077

Serious Coffee

Irie and I are really enjoying our road trip north. We started in Eugene and spent the first night in Portland with some friends. The next day we headed to the Olympic Penninsula and spent a couple of days there enjoying the rain forest and the most north western coast of the continental U.S. After that we took the ferry across from Port Angeles to Victoria, BC on Vancouver Island. We love Victoria. We're enjoying the incredible food and the many coffee shops. One local coffee shop chain is called Serious Coffee and here is Irie in the doorway waiting for our Soy Mochas to be made.



Speaking of soy mochas, Victoria is very vegetarian/vegan friendly. We found the ultimate restaurant: The Reef. The Reef serves Caribbean food and has vegetarian options for almost everything. I had the Tofu Jerk and it was unreal. Usually Jerk is chicken so I've never had it before. Along with the tofu jerk I got some rice and beans and the tastiest vegan coleslaw ever. The Caribbean atmosphere is accented by sweet roots reggae music playing all the time. Rastafarians tend to replace part of a word with the letter "I", for example, "natural" is "ital". At The Reef they used "ital" on the menu to refer to the vegetarian options. We loved this of course.

Today we drove up the coast checking out more of Vancouver Island while taking sort of a knitting shop tour. Tomorrow we head to Vancouver (the city) where Irie will stay for two months doing her yoga teacher training and on Saturday I'll head back to Eugene.

Modest Mouse

As previously mentioned, the new Modest Mouse album features my favorite guitarist from The Smiths, Johnny Marr. I also said I wasn't a fan of Modest Mouse but would check it out anyway.

The album is out now. I listened to samples over and over on Itunes trying to get it. Then all of a sudden I was getting it. I started hearing Marr's guitar and his influence and then suddenly the singers voice wasn't so bad. I bought the CD yesterday and I just love it. I haven't been this excited about a new CD since I got Coldplay's X&Y.

I already missed the Portland shows for this tour but since it's their home town perhaps they'll play again there soon. I never got to see The Smiths live and I once had front row tickets for a band called Electronic that Johnny Marr was in - that show was canceled so I've never seen Marr play live. I will do my best to get out to a Modest Mouse show.

Asylum Street Spankers

I went and saw the Asylum Street Spankers tonight. They are a really great band from Austin, Texas. See them if you can.

The other bonus to this band is that 2 members were in my favorite-desert-island-movie-of-all-time-ever: Slacker. I'm telling you I've seen this movie tens of times and quote it often. Love it. You should see if you haven't although you probably won't become obsessed about it and have almost every line memorized .... um, yeah. So anyway. Most of the people in this movie were not actors and pretty much played themselves. It has a unique narrative structure and no plot. Richard Linklater made this movie for $23,000 on maxed out credit cards. It has made millions and he has gone on to make big time movies; most recently, A Scanner Darkly.

I was uneasy about approaching either of them and professing my love of this obscure movie that they each had a small part in back in 1991 but I decided it was probably my only chance and I went for it. I approached Scott Marcus and said that I was really embarrassed but Slacker is my favorite movie and I wanted to say hi. He was really cool about it and told me how he got his part and we talked about drums and music a bit.

I tried to find Scott's scene on youtube but it's not there. Instead here is the scene with the character called "We've been on the moon since the 50's":

Climbing

A few years ago my friend Gye invited me over to his recording studio to create and play a bassline (with a fretless bass) for a song he was working on. He had already recorded the drums and all the guitar parts. Here is the end result which sounds kind U2ish.

bMuze.com
Title: Climbing Artist: Ecklemetz

Reactable

Here is the music instrument of the future: Reactable. What an amazing concept.

Black is the Color

Iriewoman loves to sing the traditional song Black is the Color. I love when she graces our house with her singing and this song makes me think of her. Here is an interesting and modern version of this song:

bMuze.com
Title: Black Is the Color , Artist: Misha Cardwell

Dan Bern

Sitting here working listening to music and Dan Bern came on. I've seen him live once and he's just a song writing genius. Here are the lyrics to one of his songs:

Talkin' Al Kida Blues

It was a beautiful day in New York town
Folks jogging, biking, walking 'round
When a couple of airplanes came around
Hit the big towers, knocked 'em down
Worst disaster on US soil ever!
'Course, there's the Indians... a few million slaves... Enron... Anyway, it was worse than Pearl Harbor!

President W. was flying around
Far away from New York town
When finally he came on TV,
He said "Why do they hate us? -- 'cause we're free."
Free to round up dark-skinned bearded guys... Free to detain anyone who might have ties to Osama... Al Qaida... Somewhere in Cleveland there's some guy named Al Kida -- K - I - D - A... He's freaking out!

Congress quickly rang the bell
And tried to fight those terrorist cells
With laws designed to never let
Our country fall to a terrorist threat
Anyone who knows anyone who knows anyone who knows anyone who knows anyone who knows anyone who might be a terrorist -- is a terrorist!

There's terrorists using your email name
Sitting next to you at the ballgame
Terrorists hiding in your bed
Terrorists borrowing your head
Never seen so many terrorists... I had to turn in my own Mom... you know what they say... unpaid parking tickets aids terrorists

There's laws for this and laws for that
To keep those terrorists under wraps
Some folks disagree with these
And talk of civil liberties
But it's like the Attorney General says... If in times like these you can talk about individual freedom... you're probably a terrorist

If you're planning air travel soon
You might want to think about a weather balloon
Nothing gets past those X-Ray Peekers
And don't carry nothing in your sneakers
Sorry for all the delays... if you want to get there so dang fast you oughta take the train... "I have never been so insulted"... "Shut up, Dale."

Well India and Pakistan
Are thinking of trading nuclear bombs
Israel and the PLO --
Suicide's the way to go
Meanwhile the lessons of 9-1-1 are clear... Let's blow up the Middle East... Smoking marijuana aids terrorists... Cuba's our enemy unless we
need a prison camp... John Walker Lindh could be your kid unless we get an economic stimulus package... And let's get that guy in Cleveland - AL KIDA!

Husk

The band I'm in is called Husk. Here is a track called "Roman Candles at Walnut and Main." This is a demo track recorded live with the original trio of the band: drums, bass, guitar and singing. Since this was recorded we have added a couple more members to the band. We just booked our first Eugene gig for January 2007. We're very much looking forward to it. Enjoy this song:

Update: The below now plays the entire Husk Demo. You can choose which song you want to hear or just hit go and they will all play.

bMuze.com

Ukulele Version of "There is a Light .. "

Here is a cool video of a girl covering "There is a Light that Never Goes Out" by The Smiths. It's just her voice and ukulele. I love it.

Music I'm Listening to Lately

As I previously wrote about, I'm really digging the solo Richard Butler album. When I first heard it I thought it was good, but now it's really grown on me. I absolutely love it. Songs of note are:

Good Days, Bad Days
Maybe Someday
California
Milk

I recently rediscovered a great Talking Heads song: "(Nothing But) Flowers". I saw the video on Youtube and noticed that Johnny Marr was playing guitar. I gave it a close listen and it is vintage Marr. He's a genius. The lyrics are really cool too. They're about how the way we live changes things forever. He does it in a clever way by reversing the situation.

There was a factory, but now there are mountains and rivers
There was a shopping mall, now its all covered with flowers

Mourning the loss of strip malls. Got to love David Byrne.

Here is the video:




I also have to mention "Breathe Me" by Sia. This song played at the very end of the last episode of Six Feet Under and it was perfectly chosen. The first time I watched that episode it had a powerful effect on me and now this song forever reminds me of that.

Blogmusik

Blogmusik is a really interesting and strange site.

It is like a virtual IPOD done in Flash that streams music. It has a huge searchable library. The strange part is there is no information about it including nothing about licensing so it's probably illegal.

There is a blog associated with it that is equally vague.

Is this just someone sharing their music collection through a cool interface?

Johnny Marr now the guitarist for Modest Mouse

According to Rollingstone, Johnny Marr (the genius guitarist from The Smiths) is now the guitarist for a band called Modest Mouse. I have to say I'm not a Modest Mouse fan but when this album comes out I'll have to check it out anyway to see what Marr has done.

A Letter From Morrissey

The Morrissey fanzine "True To You" has posted a letter that he wrote. It seems the Ringleaders tour is coming to close without including the States. The letter is interesting and here it is:

21 July 2006

From Morrissey:

Firstly, thanks to Julia for allowing me to write something for TTY.

I wanted to thank everyone who had turned up - or turned out - for the Ringleader tour; very appreciated by all of us. I know many of you traveled extensively, and in return, all we can do is our best - which, believe it or not, is what we do. So, thanks to all of you. In retrospective trance my favorites were:

.....Zagreb Grimsby Stirling Cheltenham Whitehaven Turku Helsinki Budapest Istanbul..oh, all of them, really (except Gateshead!@! And IMOLA!@) ... the final London Palladium night left me in a bit of a dream state.... However, I'm sorry the sound wasn't quite anchored for the first London Palladium or the first Dublin Olympia. I am only a spout.

The tour, I hope, has kept the right people in touch with one another. I am honestly thunderstruck to see so many familiar faces night after night.

We hope to place a final August date in Luxembourg City - we are still trying to prove to the promoter that we're worth the gamble.

Thanks to everyone who bought Ringleader of the Tormentors; I'm sorry it remains classically ignored by radio, not to mention those delightful awards events - but, if you really think the Mercury or Brit awards have anything at all to do with musical merit then your brain is probably 75% plutonium-proof concrete. Yes, it's a snake pit.

I remain very happy with Ringleader of the Tormentors; it has the demeanor of distinction and pleases me more than anything else I've done. It's the Scottish terrier I'll never have.

I'm sorry that the press is frozen in time; open at the bottom but jammed at the top. It is an eternal conundrum. God forbid the world ever moves on! God forbid I can ever refer to "the audience" without it being printed as "my fans" - a term I would never use - not even under anesthetic. It's annoying how each interview bounds its way into print emerging as, in fact, a Smiths piece. I wish this wasn't so, but there it is. It's doubly annoying because, if the Smiths reformed tomorrow, the loudest yawn would come from the press. Similarly frustrating is the way in which each solo album is compared to Smiths albums. This would only make sense if the solo albums and the Smiths albums had been recorded during the same period. We are eight lifetimes away from the 1980s and earth is now a completely different planet. On the subject of the Smiths, I thought it was very lazy of Warners not to commemorate the 20th year of The Queen Is Dead without a special edition CD - or boxed CD, or tea towel - or something! We can only assume that those highly paid and magnetically talented people at Warners are far too busy rolling their own tampons to allow art and creativity to take them away from their work. As always for the Smiths, another poignant moment wasted.

I have heard that the CDs Viva Hate, Kill Uncle, Your Arsenal and Vauxhall and I are to be re-presented/re-mastered/re-whatevered. I have no involvement with this project, and whatever I learn about it is via the delightful gossip chain. I am sorry to hear that Bona Drag is not included because it is such a complete body of work and one of which I am most proud. However, if The Very Best of the Smiths is anything to go by I think we are all justified in expecting the worst. Having said that, I am not even sure whether it's EMI or Warners-Reprise who are doing the re-issues, but neither company are particularly bright when it comes to such things - as they consistently prove. For example, when Warners in London sent me the final proof of the Very Best of the Smiths I wearily pointed out to them that there were 18 typo errors on their artwork and that, in any case, they shouldn't release the CD in such an awful sleeve. They completely ignored me, of course, but they corrected the 18 errors. Typical!

Back to the tour:

Thanks, as always, for the military rigor of the band; the best yet, the most enjoyable yet; they magnify me and I'm honored. Anyone who tells you that previous line-up's were better probably has hormones that can't settle down.

Thanks to the mesmerizing Kristeen Young, and also to Sons and Daughter and Tiger Army and The Boyfriends for filling in the gaps. Kristeen, I think, will soon be bigger than life. To me, she already is.

I am writing this in the city of Barcelona where, many years ago, I discovered the American writer James Baldwin sitting alone and somewhat lost in the darkened lobby of one of the city's oldest hotels. Surprised at being inches away from such a great man, I froze in sheepish clumsiness, circled him eleven times, before I realized that he could not possibly have any interest in being approached by someone who had spent all 25 years of their life locked in an attic because too awful to look at. So, I did nothing, walked on, and shortly thereafter he was dead. Yet another lesson.

Thanks as always to Julia for facing all of those check-ins and checkouts so squarely and bravely; I honestly have no idea what could possibly make it worth it.

I recently had a film offer to appear for roughly 20 minutes in an American film starring Alec Baldwin wherein I'd play the part of a potty music teacher. It's ideal casting, of course, but hampered by the slightly minor detail that I cannot actually act. I couldn't even convincingly play the part of a dead person even if I were actually dead. So that, sadly, is that. The world is spared.

Finally, and most trivially, thank you to the British television person (I'm not exactly sure what it is he does) Richard Madeley who, at least, made me laugh recently by referring to me as an "insufferable puffed-up prat". This comment may or may not be true, but I think it's a bit much coming from a man who actually married his own mother. But that's life ...

Here's to the future when all's ..... well?

Morrissey
Barcelonely, July 2006.

Richard Butler

The Psychedelic Furs were one of my favorite bands growing up. The lead singer Richard Butler has just released a new solo album. You can read a review of it here.

I'm digging it.

Here is a short clip of him performing recently.

Forever Young

I can remember my freshman year of High School and I had a Walkman and the tape that was always in there was "Forever Young" by Alphaville. Since my formative years were in the 80's, music from that era is always special for me. I listened to "New Wave" and "Alternative" stuff and Alphaville was especially exotic because they were a German band.

The early 80's was also the beginning of the video era. I love the way they were shot and how they captured the style of the time and the newness of the video medium. Many videos from that time are available on the internet now and I'll be putting some of them on my blog.

The title track seems to be about how short life is. The backdrop is the cold war and living with the idea that nuclear holocaust could happen any day. "Forever Young" was also the original name of the band before they changed it to Alphaville.

1984: The Smiths on a children's TV show

This video is incredible. The Smiths are one of my favorite bands of all time. In high school they were my favorite band.

This video is amazing and sort of bizarre. Morrissey and Johnny Marr are on a children's TV show in 1984 taking a bus trip to meet Sandie Shaw (one of Morrissey's heros). The background song while they are traveling is "Heaven knows I'm miserable now". The opening line from the song is:

"I was happy in the haze of a drunken hour, but heaven knows I'm miserable now"

On a children's show??

The Return to Innocence

"The Return to Innocence" is my favorite Enigma song. I find strength in the lyrics. The music is great and so is the video.

Enigma - Return To Innocence Lyrics


Love - Devotion
Feeling - Emotion

Don't be afraid to be weak
Don't be too proud to be strong
Just look into your heart my friend
That will be the return to yourself

The return to innocence

If you want, then start to laugh
If you must, then start to cry
Be yourself don't hide
Just believe in destiny
Don't care what people say
Just follow your own way
Don't give up and miss the chance

To return to innocence

That's not the beginning of the end
That's the return to yourself
The return to innocence
Don't care what people say
Follow just your own way Follow just your own way
Don't give up, don't give up

To return, to return to innocence

If you want then laugh
If you must then cry
Be yourself don't hide
Just believe in destiny

That's the return to innocence



Via: VideoSift

The Bass

Irie Woman took some cool photographs of my Christopher 3/4 Upright Double Bass that I love so much next to the roses in our garden.

Nice shot Irie! The lighting and reflections on the bass look really cool. And the composition is primo.

"Take on Me"

The "Take on Me" video by A-ha that came out in 1985 was definitely innovative using rotoscoping.

In movies like "Waking Life" (a must see) and the upcoming "A Scanner Darkly" we see where this art form has arrived today with computers.

I love this video and this band. The 80's rule! Enjoy.



Via: VideoSift

Grant-Lee Phillips: NINETEENEIGHTIES

I recently found out about Grant-Lee Phillips who is a folk musician. I came across his site because he recently released a record called NINETEENEIGHTIES that is all covers of 80's alternative music (back when alternative actually meant something) done in a modern folk style. I found this site because it was linked to from a Smiths/Morrissey blog that I follow. They linked to it because he covers a Smith's song on the album.

I am a big fan of the original songs and I really like his covers which are available on Itunes. When you search on Itunes use "Grant Lee" instead of "Grant-Lee". "Love my way" is probably my favorite.

This is a really cool album for those who grew up on these songs and hopefully younger folks will hear it too and maybe go back and discover some of the best stuff of the 80's.

Top 25 Songs

I love the song tracking feature in Itunes. I've had my IPOD mini for over two years now and every song played on it and in Itunes has been tracked. It's been interesting to watch the top 25 songs change over time. Here they are as of today: