Random patter from one easily amused and more easily confused.
I'D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU
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On a rainy Sunday we visited a grad school professor of mine, Diane Mitchell and her husband Marko Gosar at their studio in YOHO, a wonderful cooperative gallery space in a converted prewar factory building in Yonkers, N.Y. They work, sometimes collaboratively and other times on their own, in a variety of media. In this show, they featured a number of panoramic prints from their travels in Europe and the Chesapeake Bay area. Diane works predominately in digital art, and Marko is a photographer and printmaker, and also creates decorative textures for custom interior designs
After checking out some of the other art, we headed back into Manhattan for our first Girlyman concert in a while, at City Winery. This is a fun venue if you pick your seat carefully and don't mind sharing a table with strangers. You can have dinner during the show if you want to, but this time we hit Bubby's Pie Company beforehand instead.
The opener was new to us, a singer-songwriter named Edie Carey who is touring with Girlyman this time around. Her banter between tracks was light-hearted and self-effacing, contrasting with a somewhat melancholy set. A stand-out for me was "Lonely" off her 2006 collection Another Kind of Fire. She is definitely worth further exploration.
Girlyman also brought a few guests, including cellist Julia Biber and Ingrid Elizabeth from Coyote Grace, whom we "discovered" when they opened for Girlyman in this same room last year. Carey also joined them on a number of tracks. Rather than a typical box-format, the foursome-plus were set up in a line right at the front of the stage. I was happy because I love watching drummers ply their trade, and Girlyman's percussionist J.J. Jones was at our end of the stage, moving in a hypnotic dance with what seemed like eight limbs producing a wealth of sound. Jones joined the band in 2010 after they were well-established (percussion used to be a shared task with Ty Greenstein frequently playing the djembe) and I was a little bit concerned about the effect the shift would have in their sound. Luckily it was for naught; Jones complements the others without giving the band an outright rock feel. On this tour Nate Borofsky introduced a keyboard to the line-up, producing some effects that were previously only included in studio versions of their songs.
Maybe it was the weather but Girlyman's set was also a little downbeat, dipping heavily into their newest release Supernova. This offering was shaped in part by band member Doris Muramatsu's recent experience with leukemia (she's in remission, thankfully) which she relays in the title track. Towards the end they brightened things up a bit, including their tribute to the Andrews Sisters, "My Eyes Get Misty" and Greenstein's rallying cry to tomboys everywhere, "Young James Dean".
The band's rapport with its NYC audience remains strong despite moving from Brooklyn to Atlanta and signing with Indigo Girl Amy Ray's Daemon Records. The crowd hollered out requests and laughed knowingly at the inside jokes between songs. I was glad to see that they haven't forgotten about us amidst their success; after a stint in Europe they will be back for a show in Brooklyn in July. Check them out if you can.
Two friends and I saw a concert by the punk/rock bands Rise Against and Bad Religion at Terminal Five, a large event space on the west side of Manhattan. The name has intrigued me since it opened, since it shares that moniker with the former TWA Flight Center at JFK, a building that was preserved due to its unique architecture but has stood empty ever since an art exhibition in 2004 apparently brought out the worst in people. The show, which was supposed to last months, was closed after only a few days when guests at the opening littered the iconic building with broken glass, graffiti, and vomit; and someone opened an emergency door leading out to the tarmac, alarming the jittery post-9-11 Port Authority enough to cancel the exhibition for good.
In retrospect the concert venue has none of Eero Saarinen's grace or charm, but the guests -- and there were a lot more of them -- were equally unruly to the point where it was hard to enjoy the concert, keep yourself from getting knocked over, and stay out of a fight all at the same time. Despite arriving early to claim our places, our little group was pushed aside as people shoved their way towards the stage. We were jostled by a shirtless, sweaty guy headed back to the mosh pit, who then threatened us for not getting out of his way fast enough. I wondered if I was just too old to be there, but I go to concerts (including punk concerts) all the time and have never dealt with such a selfish and mean-spirited crowd.
The bands were both great, though. I didn't know much of Bad Religion's music beforehand. Their name and "crossbuster" logo might make you think they are anti-theists, but in fact they state they use "religion" as a metaphor for blind faith in either institutions, people or ideas. The energy they put out there makes it easy to understand how they are still drawing crowds after over 30 years. I have been listening to them ever since.
Rise Against by Marms RTT on Flickr.
Used by Creative Commons license. Some rights reserved.
Rise Against was the reason I was there. I have been listening to them for three years, and was very impressed by their recent track "Make It Stop" which talks about the rash of bullying-related suicides among teenage boys this past September. Unfortunately, my favorite song of theirs, "Paper Wings" did not make the setlist, possibly because guitarist Chris Chasse, who wrote it, is no longer with the band.
Both bands make no bones about their progressive politics and strong belief in social responsibility, which just made the selfish rudeness of the fans we encountered that much more disappointing.
I am supposed to be going through the giant jumble of CD's, shucking them from their jewel cases and installing them in a giant album, along with the little booklet that accompanies most of them. Needless to say, tedious work. I have the attention span of a fruit fly under the best of circumstances, but this is just plain eye-crossing, and the little booklets really don't want to fit in the little pockets, so instead I keep getting up and finding other things to do. Then there is the problem of what to do with the jewel cases, which have an annoying tendency to slide off their stacks into a jumble of 'eighties synth-pop chaos that fuels my desire to eject them from my home. But do I just throw them out? Surely someone, somewhere can do something with them, since they sell new empty ones in the store. There must be a market, but who? Where? Thus, the project has been oft-delayed.
And if I didn't feel bad enough about the entropy that surrounds me, I see that in a New York Timesinterview, folk legend and community activist Pete Seeger, 91, feels guilty if he stays in bed past 8 a.m. "There's letters to answer," he explains, and in my head I hear it in the voice I know so well. "There's logs to split." My association with the Seeger and Guthrie families goes way back, so of course I let Rhythm Nation (don't judge!) slip off the pile and sat down to read.
Grabbing whatever is handy from the "icebox", Pete is out the door to tackle whatever project the day brings. He is still writing and recording music, and active at the Beacon Sloop Club, which he "tricked people" into helping him build several years ago by promising (and presumably delivering) a pot-luck dinner. "Food is one of the great organizing tools," he confides.
Seeger's association with boats goes back a long way: in the 1960's he and Toshi-Aline Ôhta (his wife of 67 years), along with Don "American Pie" McLean and others raised the money for the construction of a handcrafted sloop, the Clearwater, which they sailed from her birthplace in Maine to the South Street Seaport and then up the Hudson in 1969. The Clearwater Foundation has had notable success in driving the cleanup of industrial contaminants, and a report two years ago noted a "significant decline" in the mercury found in sampled fish. The Clearwater is now joined by the gaff sloop Woody Guthrie and at times by the schooner Mystic Sailor, in providing educational cruises to schools, environmental groups and the public. Funded in large part by the annual two-day Clearwater Festival, the organization is credited with influencing much of the progress in local and national environmental policy.
GARDEN STATUE of ST. FRANCIS
G.E. (the company who bore much of the blame, and the cleanup expense, for the Hudson River mess) notwithstanding, Seeger is not without his critics: His early concerns about the rights of workers drew him to a brief involvement with the Communist Party. That and some recordings he made prior to WW2 landed him in front of Joseph McCarthy in 1955 and eventually in contempt of Congress, although the ruling was later overturned. In 1995, Seeger told the New York Times Magazine, "I still call myself a communist, because communism is no more what Russia made of it than Christianity is what the churches make of it."
Politics aside, it's difficult (and probably unwise) to argue with a 91-year-old man who heats his house with wood he chops himself. I couldn't help but notice the coincidence of reading this on the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, an Italian who shunned the comfortable circumstances into which he was born as Giovanni Francesco di Bernardone, choosing instead extreme poverty and charitable work. We know from his writings and the folklore that surrounds his legacy that he loved animals, referring to them as brethren.
The life of St Francis is of course enacted and vivid theology. To understand him we must be careful not to detach him from his context and refashion him as a kind of non dogmatic, leftist eco-freak. He was nourished by the praise of God as seen in his creation which is one of the great themes of the psalms and the canticles which he used in daily worship. Francis does not use the word “natura” and instead talks of the heavens and the earth, the world and all creatures under the heavens. Unsurprisingly he does not have a modern concept of nature as a complex of scientific laws governing the universe. Instead he was profoundly aware of the communication between creatures and their creator as we participate in the God-spun web of life."
- THE RT. REV. RICHARD JOHN CAREW CHARTRES, BISHOP OF LONDON (2005)
Francis exemplified putting the greater good ahead of personal desires, sacrificing much in the process. According to a 2005 sermon delivered by The Right Rev'd Richard John CarewChartres (Anglican Bishop of London), in the early 1200's, Francis traveled to Egypt in the midst of a Crusade and attempted to win the conversion of the present Sultan. While unsuccessful, he did earn the leader's respect and a trusted role for the monastic order which he established that remains in the region to this day.
Seeger and his family are not churchgoers, but "we use the word God quite often. One of my most recent songs has God in every verse. Every time I’m in the woods, I feel like I’m in church." Wherever he is, I like to think St. Francis would look with approval at all he has managed to (and continues to) accomplish.
Now, can either of them clue me in on what to do with these CD cases?
I've grown more musically in the past two years than in the previous ten (at least) for a number of reasons.
Part of it was due to Henry's influence: upon joining the band I was exposed to and expected to learn a lot of classic rock that I had been peripherally aware of, but never really studied or tried to play. Also, Henry didn't read music, so we learned by listening and doing, which is a very different process than starting with sheet music and reading notes and rests as if they are a fractions equation. A lot of songs were an ongoing experiment: When we play live, I still my binder full of printouts from chordie.com with crossed-out chords and handwritten notes, many in his distinctive scrawl. Even when I know the song by heart, I play better having it there.
The other factor in my ongoing education has been some of the new web-based tools that are designed to help expand your musical horizons. The first of these was pandora.com, whose motto is the "the music genome project". On this site, if you put in the name of a band or song, it won't play that band or song, but others that are like it based on a number of characteristics. You can "thumb up" or "thumb down" the choices, and -- over time -- it will hone a "radio station" based on your choices. You can save these channels so that this doesn't have to occur all in one session. If you ignore it, Pandora will just continue to provide background to whatever else you're doing. The biggest limitation is that -- due to their licensing -- you can't just think of a song and play that song. Your "station" may eventually play it, but not necessarily. Also, it seems that it plays the songs you have not nixed, in the same order, each time you rejoin a channel.
The second site, which my friend Mark turned me onto, is called last.fm. When I first joined, you could play any song in their catalog three times for free, but also features "radio stations" based on a particular artist, with the ability to say yea or nay to each track. More of a social networking site than Pandora, last.fm allows you to "friend" people and view your musical compatibility with them, and share songs, artists and playlists.
For the statistics minded, last.fm also has a "scrobbling" feature that keeps track of how many times you listen to each song or artist, and allows you to see the same data for your friends and listen to . If you want it to, it will calculate this data not only for songs you play on last.fm but also Windows Media, iTunes, Winamp and your MP3 player. Why anybody needs to know this, I can't say for certain, but it's kind of interesting to watch the trends. It can also be alarming: when one friend's feed repeated the same Slipknot song for two full hours, I got concerned and reached out to make sure he was not in some kind of crisis. He just laughed at me.
The free-preview feature on last.fm went away this spring, and they suggested a new site called mog.com. For a flat fee of just $5.99 a month, you can listen to whatever you want, whenever you want, which I consider a phenomenal deal. Recently they added the ability to do so on a smartphone, which increases the fee to $9.99, still less than the cost of one CD. Theoretically, if you have an unlimited data plan on your phone, you could do away with satellite radio (if you have it) and never buy a CD again. Or almost never; while their catalog is huge, they don't have everything, and I still buy CDs from the unsigned and indie bands I like because I know they get paid more that way.
The net of all this is that I have become far more adventurous with what I listen to. It is easy to get into a rut with the same artists you grew up with or what-have-you, but something about these sites saying with some authority "based on this, you might like this" has gotten me exploring more options, and I've had a great time with it.
Probably the best example of this is Honor by August, a DC-based band which both last.fm and mog.com gave a ringing endorsement. That reminds me: another feature of last.fm is an alert when an artist you like is in your area. As I gave them a preliminary spin, the site advised me this band would be in my area for two shows that same week! Something told me to go check them out.
The first attempt was a bust: I arrived at the Saint in Asbury Park way too early (although the guys were actually milling around their bus outside) and was told by the doorman to come back at 10pm. I had dinner with friends and got back just in time to hear them end their set! Apparently the door assumed I was there to see the headliner, Red Wanting Blue.
Next night at New York's Mercury Lounge, was more successful. Ten minutes in, I was hooked! I don't know how to explain their sound: to me describing music is like describing wine... it's really easy to sound ridiculous. But it is straight-up honest rock, a lot of power without being overwhelming or sloppy, and you just want to hear more. Subject matter runs the gamut from the requisite lost love ("Johnny") to war ("Say It's Over") but even the "heavy" topics are delivered with an enthusiasm that's hard to resist.
Clearly someone has been paying attention: by winning contests, they have opened for Hanson and Bon Jovi at arena shows, and are regulars at a number of New York and DC's better-known club venues.
Meeting the guys on the sidewalk afterwards, I hope I did not sound like too much of the breathless fangirl; but their live show just floods you with positive energy. Had I been with my sister or the right friends instead of running solo, I would have been dancing for sure.
A few weeks ago, word came out via their Facebook page that the band was throwing themselves a benefit: the aforementioned bus needs some attention, and they're working on a new video. The venue seemed unlikely to me: a well known Jersey "wedding factory" known as the Brownstone House (recently introduced to the wider world courtesy of the Real Housewives). I knew two of the guys are originally garden-staters, but I wondered if three weeks was enough time to get enough people to fork over $50 (admission also included a beefsteak and all-you-can beer and wine) to make this a cash-positive venture.
Well once again, I need not have been concerned. I showed up a bit late and walked into a full ballroom being entertained by Jersey's own Sunda Croonquist, and ducked into a seat next the merch guy I met in New York before she could tease me for interrupting her show. I was quickly made to feel at home among fans from NY and DC.
The band took the stage shortly thereafter and once again ruled the night. Here, lead guitarist Evan Field showed off his wireless skilz by touring the room as he cranked out his intricate solo to "Good Enough":
Honor by August perform "Good Enough" at the Brownstone in Paterson NJ 8/12/2010 - Thanks to The Riz Experience
As you can hear, the fans keep up with charismatic frontman Michael Pearsall because they know every word. Bassist Chris Rafetto is kinda the low-key one, but there are no slouches in this band. Even drummer Brian Shanley gave a long and elaborate solo early in the night.
(From left) Brian Shanley, Michael Pearsall, (Michael's aunt),
(Sunda Croonquist's daughter), Chris Rafetto, Evan Field
Talking to the guys, it's quickly apparent why people were willing to drive five hours each way on a weeknight and stick around to help until the last guitar was back on the bus before starting their long trek home. You really do feel like that not only do they love what they do, but they very much appreciate the people who come to see them. For starters, I met them once on the street for two minutes but Pearsall immediately came over and greeted me by name when he saw me. Field smilingly endured one of my long-winded stories, and everyone is insisting I haul my cookies down to DC the weekend of Sept. 11th for a special show at one of their favorite venues.
I think I'm gonna do just that! And if the guys are taking the stuff out of the bus when I get there, Instead of heading for the bar I'll grab an amp or a crate and muscle it inside for 'em. But that says more about who they are than who I am.
Tonight a group of us attended the Lilith Fair. In case you're not familiar, it's a concert tour created by Sarah McLachlan featuring female performers at various levels of commercial success. The lineup changes a bit over the course of the tour, but this year's biggest performers (besides McLachlan) herself were the Indigo Girls. Performing together under that name since 1985, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers are both lesbians, but have never been romantically involved in spite of (or perhaps resulting in) their longtime musical partnership.
My own history with their music goes back nearly to the beginning, when they collaborated with Michael Stipe from INXS and Hothouse Flowers on songs like "Closer to Fine" and "Kid Fears" which still get the fans to their feet today.
But the song of theirs that resonates with me the most from those days is "Least Complicated" written by Saliers for the 1994 release Swamp Ophelia. It tells the story of a shy kid who develops a crush on someone from the "in-crowd" and impulsively makes these feelings known via a touching but inappropriate gesture, only to learn that the feelings are in all likelihood unrequited, thus further cementing the isolation.
I always liked this song, despite the lack of a happy ending, because I feel like all of us are -- at any stage of life -- that little kid at times. Not necessarily in a romantic setting, but just prone to occasionally misread a social situation or maybe just give someone a little more credit than they deserved. And we withdraw the slapped hand, maybe get a little cynical, but hopefully we don't give up. Despite the somewhat melancholy subject matter, the melody to this song is catchy and upbeat, and the oft-repeated chorus is one the crowd joins in with relish every time I hear the song performed live. I like to think that each one of those people singing is thinking something along the lines of "Yeah, I get that. I can be a goofball like that too sometimes." And maybe we go home promising to be a little easier on ourselves, and try to handle it with a little more grace when someone enthusiastically presents us with some awkward token of misplaced affection.
"Least Complicated" Words & Music by Emily Saliers, from the Indigo Girls' 1994 Album Swamp Ophelia
I sit two stories above the street It's awful quiet here since love fell asleep There's life down below me though the kids are walking home from school
So long ago when we were taught That for whatever kind of puzzle you got You just stick the right formula in a solution for every fool
I remember the time when I came so close to you Sent me skipping my class and running from school And I bought you that ring cause I never was cool
What makes me think I can start clean-slated? The hardest to learn was the least complicated
So I just sit up in the house and resist And not be seen until I cease to exist A kind of conscientious objection a kind of dodging the draft
Boy and girl are holding hands in the street And I don't want to but I'll think you just wait It's more than just eye to eye learn things I could never apply
I remember the time I came so close with you I let everything go it seemed the only truth And I bought you that ring it seemed the thing to do
What makes me think I can start clean-slated? The hardest to learn was the least complicated What makes me think I can start clean-slated? The hardest to learn was the least complicated
Oh I'm just a mirror of a mirror of myself All the things I do And the next time I fall I'm going to have to recall It isn't love it's only something new
I sit two stories above the street It's awful quiet here since love fell asleep There's life down below me though the kids are walking home from school
I remember the time I came so close to you Sent me skipping my class and running from school And I bought you that ring cause I never was cool
What makes me think I can start clean-slated? The hardest to learn was the least complicated
I begin writing here from a very "good place". Anyone who knows me well is aware that last summer was, for lack of a better expression, a shit show, bookended by the diagnosis and subsequent death of my friend and bandmate Henry from Leukemia, and punctuated in the middle by eye surgery which left me unable to drive, lift weights or read for the better part of a month. Thanks to the generosity of some close friends I was able to get out here and there but for the most part it was an isolating, unhappy time.
Thus there was nowhere to go but up, and -- being a summer person by nature -- I vowed that this year I would make up for it. Unlike George Costanza, I have thus far not been disappointed. In fact, looking back at what's happened so far, I feel as if someone up there has been stacking my deck in my favor.
Case in point, I found out a few months ago that a band I have loved for years, Chamberlain, had signed on to tour with The Gaslight Anthem this summer. Since they live in Indiana, aren't on a major label and broke up in 1998, I had pretty much assumed I would never see them live. Yesterday, I did, and it couldn't have been better. We got great seats, the weather cooperated, and they started out with one of my two favorite songs of theirs, "Try for Thunder" that had helped keep my spirits up when all the aforementioned stuff was going down last year. Also, I found out while writing this that they released a single "Raise it High" which hopefully means they're planning on doing more work together.
None of this should eclipse the fact that they were opening for Gaslight, the main reason most of the audience was there. I have to say that the audience, which was pretty young, was extremely receptive to both Chamberlain and the opening-opener, Tim Barry. Hailing from Richmond, VA and also the once-and-future(?) frontman of a punk band Avail, Barry is unapologetically rough-hewn and commented that he rarely performs anywhere "as nice as this". At one point he got off the stage with his acoustic and climbed partway up the amphitheater where he performed a song unamplified. Just about everybody quieted down so he could be heard, interrupting him only by clapping along at the chorus. He sheepishly thanked everyone for indulging him, calling his stunt "selfish" when in fact the audience seemed to love it.
I won't go on about Gaslight Anthem, both because I'm sure there will be tons of reviews of their show and I don't know their music that well, but they were pretty energetic and connected well with the crowd, who knew every word of every song. If only their teachers could get them to study so hard! Now I want to go see them again at the Stone Pony next week, especially since (Gaslight lead singer) Brian Fallon is a huge Springsteen fan. The Boss appeared at the Pony last Friday night to play a few songs with buddy Alejandro Escovedo, on whose album he appears, so you never know.
Anyway, I'm going to bed feeling very blessed. "Try for Thunder" By Chamberlain (written by David Moore & Alex Rubenstein) from the CDs The Moon, My Saddle and Five Year Diary
I haven't smiled in a long time but I've learned how to look impressed, learned to lose the dreams I had when I was at my best. When I was a boy on the back lawn, faith, like a gun, I'd find and be it loaded or not I'd keep it at my side.
This voice inside keeps saying: "congratulations on what you've done, on all you are and all that you won't become." But even when it's hard I guess I'm never where I don't belong and I'll get there by knowning I'd get there all along.
This life to me it's like a try for thunder. This sky that I'm under it's the best sky for me.
I've learned less from daylight than from night threatening to leave. All along my voice goes after what my hands cannot reach. I ran through the fog without you, through the low hard language of rain, afraid that if I caught what I came for I'd never want it again.
This life to me it's like a try for thunder. This sky that I'm under it says God's been good to me.
One night in the rain you set me straight. You said I have everything I need, and for every slow day in the sun there's two storms in between. Where I am is where you'll find me at the edge of many things, hands outstretched, doing circles in the rain, grinning like a thief.
This life to me it's like a try for thunder this sky that I'm under it says God's been good to me.
