a free form jazz odyssey in front of a festival crowd

I spent the last part of this evening doing a Year In Review. I’ve never done one of these before, its all thanks to the previously mentioned Moleskine planner notebook. In conclusion, it scared the hell out of me. These things don’t feel like they happened a year ago, they feel like weeks, sometimes less. I was eating a delicious Bison burger with some friends recently, and said “That reminds me of that time a few months ago we went to that place and hung out with that guy, remember that?” they responded, “Steve, that was 2 years ago…and why are you wearing a red satin bathrobe? we’re in a restaurant for god sakes.” Well, I don’t know, that last half may have been made up, but the other certainly did occur. Its like time is a big giant line, and all the important events on that line are little dots, so all I did was remove the space between the dots…………. Thats just how I roll, only the important things stay. I feel like time is my enemy, and I am here to defeat it.

Looking at this notebook really freaked me out. I remember writing little notes by certain dates, I remember things I didnt write down because of events before and after, little ideas that led to bigger ideas, half assed schemes never even attempted, 1001 awesome band names, among them “Solid Gold Lobster” and “Every Betakey Ever”. Yeah, thats right. I saw a lot of music, which was a wonderful thing, one show that still sticks out is Joseph Arthur at Maxwells in Hoboken, also the Bob Dylan tribute at Lincoln Center. Yes there are others, but these were two unexpected gems.

This afternoon my associate David B and myself worked on our Prog Electro Pop Of The 1980’s project, Finding Alan. (what else are Jews going to do on Christmas?) It led me to another important conclusion. My favorite pieces of music which I have been a part of, occur in very brief periods. From inception to completion they maybe take 2 hrs. This makes sense in an odd way. Sometimes you slave over a project, revision after revision, and you’re never as happy as you were at that initial moment. If thats the most important creative lesson I’ve learned this year, I can live with that. I think this applies to anything, music, writing, painting, scrimshaw, civil war re-creations, its all the same. One goal which was planned in July (thanks moleskine!) but never completed, was the 2 day analog album between myself and my friend/resident electronic madman BUD. This will certainly be done my mid 2008 (I’m being realistic) and it will be fantastic.

There are resolutions to be made and taken with a grain of salt, no one pays attention to those after mid January anyhow. So, I’m comfortable closing out 2007, taking the good, the bad, and whatever else occurred, combining it into a delicious gumbo, and seeing what happens from there.

Yesterday, my boss needed a ride to the train. Why you ask? He was attending a session at Sear Sound. If there had ever been a point in my life where I thought of pulling some crazy mind games, switching identities a-la Face Off, this might have been one. I have 2 important New York music related goals in life. One is to make an album at Sear Sound.

This is by far the greatest studio ever created. The dude who owns it believes fully in the analog side of things, owns the 2nd Moog Synth ever built, and has truckloads of vintage gear, which he has owned since before it was vintage. The 2track tape machine for mixing down (quick exp; in a studio, you record instruments to separate tracks, then using a mixing board and various processors, sum these individual tracks down to a Left and Right channel) comes from Abbey Road. It was one of the ones The Beatles used on a little thing called Sgt Pepper. I would kill for 3 hrs in there. He also told me the day rate….$2000…ouch. Now, don’t get me wrong, its perfectly possible to make an incredibly shitty sounding album in any studio. Gear will only help something good sound better. But I mean…I just want to play with the stuff anyway.

Well, this inspired me to listen to my favorite album recorded at Sear…a band which I occasionally like just a bit…Wilco. They did 2004’s A Ghost Is Born there. Its one of the most delicate and quiet records I have ever heard, but its got this incredibly mysterious quality to it. Maybe thats because this was the height of Jeff Tweedy’s pain killer addiction…who knows. Either way, they made an amazing piece of music. The greatest rock show I have ever seen was the debut of their new lineup, just after The Tweed got out of rehab, just before this album was released. It hits you hard on the opener, some intense guitar riffs a la Neil Young…then vaporizes you with a crazy ass stun gun, into “Hell Is Chrome” one of their 4 greatest songs, one I have often overlooked. Listen to this vocal performance. If it doesn’t give you some chills, there are problems with you. His voice is shaking all over the place, basically whispering, yet still attacking your ear drums with the fury of a thousand buffalo, galloping on the planes. yeah, thats right.

So, I’m going to need to make this goal happen, sooner rather than later. I think i lost my train of thought, so lets just end this right here, I’ll see you later compadre.

I’ve been a supporter of the Moleskine Notebook for a very long time. They’re durable, the paper is excellent, and they have a totally awesome pocket in the back to store things. I’ve lived out of my Weekly planner for all of 2007. Its an excellent way to look back, see what you accomplished, what you slacked on…things like that. Cuica Sugimoto feared the ultimate fear had occurred- losing her weekly moleskine, but luckily it was recovered. So, as we near the end of the year, I replaced mine yesterday. I have some complaints. I think they made the pages thinner, and the binding smaller. This is a problem because it does not sit flat open as easily. As other problems arise, they will certainly be noted in these pages.

So, pro tools came though, no hiccups, all was well in the land of Narnia (yeah, thats right). I ran around, ate some lunch, looked at a new rehearsal space. That in itself is stressful. I’ve written about it before, but the last straw has been broken. Well, part of my hi hat stand was broken as well, not by myself, so, there’s that. We really have to get out of there, and options are not too a-plenty. Later in the evening I was walking a dog, which was quite an experience in itself. He seemed to be able to sense some evil on n4th street by the river, which is kind of a sketchy industrial area. This freaked me out way more than being alone down there, he kept looking back with this scared expression, like some crazy shit was going to go down in this empty warehouse. BUT, my shoes were then soaked, and by bag smelled like wet dog.

(I’m still on the same point, stay with me) I’ve made a resolution to wear more suits, and I’ve been doing ok with it. On this occasion, that was not possible, as you could imagine. There was a show happening afterwards, so I still had to hold it down. I realized this too late, by not bringing an extra pair of shoes. I rooted furiously through my car, remembering some old gym shoes, meant to be thrown out. SUCCESS! well, not so much. I went into American apparel, and bought some green socks. Now, this looked silly. Sure, looks don’t matter too much, but when you got on bright white nike’s, and everything else is black…ya look a little awkward. Well, life continues.

I feel like I was just held over the edge of a cliff, forced to look over, held there for an hour, and then pulled back in.

This is all because of the state of recording technology. UGH. There is a necessary evil these days known as Pro Tools. It is a software and hardware combination that has changed the way we hear sounds. You’ve heard of auto-tuning vocals? Thank Pro Tools. Editing to the point of ridiculousness making anyone into a decent musician? Same thing. The thing is, they pretty much have a monopoly on the industry, forcing you to pay their insane prices, follow their rules. I own 2 rigs, because of different work needs, both working with the same computer. NOW, Pro Tools is kind of lazy. When an update comes out for a computer type thang, they wait, like, a year before catching up. Thats just how they roll, no rush dudes, we have nothing to do over here. I’ve been in a panic before, mistakenly running a software update then realizing nothing works…but it has never been like this.

Its 12:56, tuesday night. In the past, I have done some work for the BBC, a great bunch of dudes. They call last minute, give you a location and time, and thats pretty much it. You show up, ready to record. Tomorrow at 10:30am, the gig is at The Late Show, so I get all psyched. This afternoon…I ran a battery update, thinking nothing of it. Then, at 11:00 this evening when I returned home, I decided to be safe and test the rig out.

Nothing.

This is the worst nightmare of a person who does not enjoy stress at the last minute. Its 11:00, every support system is closed, web sites are confusing as hell…I have no idea what to do. I repaired permissions, I verified, I restarted, I downloaded pro tools cs updates (wtf are those??) I did it all. still nothing. It turns out, you have to pay $50 to upgrade to the latest version and that fixes these problems. Greedy Bastards. Well, it worked. Oy Vey

I took the day off of the normal gig to do this one…It was supposed to be a stress free day, maybe 2 hrs of work, then wander around midtown for a bit. But now I will most certainly be on edge. What if there are bugs and glitches? there certainly must be…man, I’m gonna be shaking. Sometimes I wish I were a farmer, perhaps a goat herder. If a goat is not compatible with the herd…you let him go.

I nearly pulled my hair out, 2 hrs later, the problem was solved. Thats just not right. This was the result.

Have a good evening.

Well, its tough trying to go back in time. Sometimes it works, and you’re having lunch with Galileo while Einstein makes a soft boiled egg in the next room, and sometimes you just end up at your kitchen table 2 hrs later, a little confused. In this particular experience, I attempted a circa 99 destination. My friend, Ross “The Sauce”( a name he earned in a spanish class, for his willingness to be the subject of a photograph, covered in tomato sauce in a kiddie pool for an album cover) and I decided to see the afore mentioned Deep Banana Blackout. Come to think of it, DBB’s first album cover was the guitar players father covered in Thousand Island Dressing, which he later passed out from. Maybe we subconsciously stole that idea.

Before the show, The Sauce was a bit late, so I had a few beverages at a nearby drinking establishment. I’m sitting, minding my own, when who walks in, but the guitar dude from The Hold Steady. I wanted to give him a hi five, but I was on my way out, and he was pre occupied with a lady friend. So we met up, continued on our way, and reminisced a bit about our old music days before the show. It turns out, we have gotten kind of old. I never imagined saying “remember that show, ten years ago…” that just sounds wrong. But the first time we saw these bands was around then… And its a little different now.

First off, the instrumental section of the band is as tight as ever. Perhaps they have matured a bit more as players, with other musical projects in the years since the DBB. The drummer, Eric Kalb, I had forgotten was one of my top 3 influences in the percussion world. Just behind the Billy Martin and the Stanton Moore. From watching Kalb, I learned how to play a “ghost note” the miniature rolls you play in between the beats to create some ambience. James Brown’s drummers were the kings of this, but I had never seen it done so well as with Eric Kalb. Show that to a 16 year old kid, and you’ve got trouble on your hands. I was briefly known in the Ska scene as the king of the ghost note. No dear, I’m not making that up (ok, one drummer from a band I respected called me that, so I choose to adapt it lo these many years) But anyway, I had forgotten that until this moment.

Moving on, the sad part was the Vocal situation. Jen Durkin, the queen of the Funk, is not up to her previous level. Perhaps again, its the years gone by, shes had kids, moved on to other things, or mabye she is just out of practice. Of course we still love her, and she gets a great response from crowds, but vocal wise, I was slightly heartbroken.

I’ve gone on another Amazon book buying binge, I think its a problem. Its difficult to find time to read, so I try to read multiple books at once. Like one will be my “if I get somewhere early, I’ll read this” one is my late evening before sleep, the other is the Train Commute Book, but it gets a little jumbled, and I wonder why Bob Dylan decided to record his 1987 album in North Carolina while attending speech therapy classes. But I’m pressing on. My new years resolution is to wake up early, perhaps before dawn when the world is still frozen, and read, or accomplish other things. New Years Resolutions make for better posts than they do resolutions, so that will be for another day.

I finally got a parking spot at the lovely 10 Huron, but there seems to be someone occasionally parked in it. They seem to have a legit sticker, yet the doorman and management tell me this spot is supposed to be empty. Its a wonderful stress remover to be able to have a place to put your car. I feel years younger already. Maybe i can leave them an intimidating note if they’re still there. I would slash their tires, but I mean, then they couldnt really get out of the spot. Last week I was told of a friend whose sister deflated his ex girlfriend’s tires when she would stay at their house…and I could not help but chuckle. Ah the cruelty of siblings.

Well, its kind of what Paul said, with a few minor differences. Cake is an interesting beast. Their songs have that spoken word, full of sarcasm, slight bitterness, laid back feel. On record, this is genius- so few have even attempted it, let alone pulled it off. But when you translate that to a few thousand people, something gets lost. The main thing is the vocal performance. While they are certainly a tight ensemble, the intimacy of his vocal delivery just doesn’t come across. He had to sort of jump up an octave in some cases to be heard over the band. Eric Tarn and I also just discussed, that if the TB were a singer, he would be the dude from Cake. He drops the social awkwardness bombs in between songs, with uncomfortable banter, and looks like he only 50% wants to be on a stage, in front of people.

They did not play “Mexico” which would have made my night. They did play “War Pigs” the Black Sabbath tune, which was nice…but could have been more intense. The Flaming Lips pretty much wrote the book on covering that one, and its not like you can just churn out multiple versions of the same shit, a la Harry Potter, or Will Smith movies.

What if I moved to Germany? I was talking to Cuica Sugimoto about this, and thats my new alternate life plan. Thats the “if it all hits the fan” plan. I feel like its important to have one of those. I used to be able to move from an apartment in 2 hrs, but I’m a little more rooted in the JC these days. But I’d like to think that I could Ebay or CL 85% of my belongings, and have enough to live off for a few hours.

I saw a Mitch Hedberg video at a gathering recently, and it made me very nostalgic. A friend of mine once actually used a line from mitch in a job interview, and it was the stuff of legend. The woman in charge asked “where do you see yourself in 5 years?” He responded “Celebrating the 5 year anniversary of you asking me this question!” She responded “thats not funny” But I, and Mitch in Spirit, would beg to differ.

I’ve worked at a studio in new york for 3 years now, which is mind blowing to me. Sure, I switched from full to part time last year, but it still counts. Thats a long time. Throughout the tenure, many great and interesting things have happened there, many wonderful meals were eaten. I hung out with Paul Motian for an hour, just chatting. I’ll remember this for the rest of my life. Its also the reason I met Charlie Watts. I brought Elvin Jones’ kick drum there right after buying it, as a temporary holding location. I ate a chicken sandwich with chipolte mayo, discovered the wonders of Turkey Bacon and Avacado in addition to chicken…the list just goes on and on. But last night, while working late, something strange happened.

Someone pissed in the elevator.

Now, this is no giant elevator, it maybe fits 3 people. Its also incredibly slow, so the 7 floor trip takes way longer than it should. And when that elevator smells of piss…well…its not that pleasant. They’re tearing the building down in February, so maybe someone thought “well, fuck it, I’m just going right here”

Fridy night an old friend known as The Sauce and I are going to revisit an ancient tradition, a band known as Deep Banana Blackout. Its an eerie feeling. We first started seeing this band our junior year of high school, at what was undoubtedly their peak. They were an 8 piece unstoppable funk band. Jen Durken, the original singer, owned the stage in a way I imagine Janis Joplin did, just complete energy explosion. We drove all over the place to catch them. We traveled to Long Island, to this place called “The Vanderbuilt” which was by far the creepiest venue ever on earth, it reeked of Long Island-ness. We did multiple night runs at Irving Plaza, before it was call “The Fillmore” (wtf?) And got rides in before we were old enough to drive to the city. One night at Waterloo Village, some weird native american preservation type theme park in south jersey, it was DBB, Gov’t Mule, Bela Fleck and The Flecktones, and Medeski Martin Wood. It was in a tent, and was raining so hard, giant sections were nearly caving in from the water collecting. Needless to say, it was one of the greatest shows in history.

Well, The DBB parted ways with Jen Durkin, replaced her with a vocalist/ flute (flautist?) Hope Clayburn, who was by all means good….just not the same. Somehow, by a bizzarre twist of fate, our old Ska Band was asked to open for them in Pennsylvania. If you’ve never played Punk music for a bunch of hippy jam band kids…let me tell you…you have not lived. I was so incredibly nervous, that I kept probably the best time I ever have. The crowd certainly did not like us, but thats irrelevant. Benji the bass player, hit on my girlfriend at the time, and it cracked me up.

In a discussion with Web Master T Bone this morning, he said maybe it will blow the dream. I mean, they haven’t played in many years, and will certainly will not be as tight. Its like the Phish reunion of 03 i believe it was, which Sucked, and in theory cost me $1200. Either way, lets hope for the best, and expect the worst, we’ll see what happens.

Those who know me are aware that I am nothing short of a wildlife enthusiast, perhaps even a fanatic. I’ve seen it all in my day. If “all” counts as 2 bears, a fox, several frogs, numerous dear, and an array of birds- In their natural habitat. In the case of the bear, one was not in its habitat, but thats a different story. This afternoon, I saw what I’m pretty sure was a turkey vulture. This thing was a monster, on the side of the road, in front of a house, eating a squirrel. I got a picture on the cell phone, but I have no idea how to get it off the cell phone, and since me and technology are kind of on a break right now…it’s probably going to stay on the cell phone.

Some of my non-jew-crew and I had a Channuka gathering last night, and made some traditional Jewish cuisine. It was no Challah Back Channuka Part Dos, but it was some sufficient deliciousness. It began with matzoh ball soup, and just escalated from there.

You know we don’t mess around when it comes to this stuff. There were some Latkes made, but the photos have not leaked to the internet yet.

Notice Mika “Cuica” Sugimoto’s use of foreground and background focus in this image. Thats some serious business. And you definitely don’t want to mess with these 2 while using the food processor.

This is an eventful week, Cake is coming to town, and I’m excited to see how the songs translate to a stage…it could easily go either way. I recently heard their song “Mexico” and love it for several reasons. One is its waltzy old time feel and its use of pedal steel, the other is the use of the word Mexico. Some locations in songs always sound great. Tom waits used to say he likes to load up a song with things people need when they travel, a place, a way to get there, and something to eat. I wish Jersey City sounded way cooler in lyric form, I’d fill up entire rock operas with it. Memphis…LA….even Staten Island sounds cooler (Billy Joel used it…while that not may be the coolest use out there…he still pulled it off). Its they “ersey” in the middle that messes everything up. You just can’t make that sound good. Dylan said something about Patterson, Bon Jovi even left it out of the lyrics. Album titles totally do not count. Well, what are you gonna do? Move to Ronkonkoma?

Two things severely affected me today, which I did not expect. The first is obvious, the second not so much.

One being Bob Dylan’s book “Chronicles”. Sure, it sounds like a given, but I really didn’t expect too much from this book. And I also recall a review somewhere claiming that Dylan skips over many extremely important events in his professional life. But when you think about it, who cares? I’d love to hear Dylan’s observations on a chinese takeout menu. The NY Times once said that Jeff Tweedy’s fans would line up to hear him read the phone book. That is certainly true, so we can only imagine what Dylan fans would do. Even in the opening chapters, he just gets right to it. He discusses Greenwich Village in the early 1960’s, and the words just dance on the page. He speaks a mile a minute, just like his lyrics. Sometimes while reading, I’ll zone out and just continue over pages, but you can’t do that with this one, its too easy to miss some little comment of amazing insight. Its like “I lived off 4th street and stumbled into a room containing a blacksmith’s workshop and the complete writings of Faulkner, Balzac, and Hemmingway. This is how I write my lyrics….” Its just mind blowing. I know, I know, this should come as no surprise, its Bob Freaking Dylan, but I truly didn’t expect this much insight, given how mystifying and cryptic his lyrics tend to come off.

I did skip ahead for a moment to the chapter on “Oh Mercy” an often overlooked, but one of my favorite albums. I randomly came across a line about the guitar player G.E. Smith- Dylan wrote, “He surveyed the world with a set of unblinking steel blue eyes” I took a workshop once with him, and we sat next to each other on a plane once and had a great talk. this now makes me feel way cooler than before. If Dylan wrote, “Steve Weiss attacked the world with a hunger for cheesesteaks like a lion attacking a polar bear” I could probably die happy. He could also say “Hey Steve” and it would have the same effect.

The second thing being Josh Ritter. He has a strange ballad on his new album about living in a bunker during world war three, what a great songwriter. I heard it on the radio this morning, and it just clicked. I never paid him much attention, but you can feel some serious stuff coming through. He also does a mean version of “tonight you belong to me” as seen in The Jerk, on a starbucks compilation I found somewhere (not at starbucks). It probably has the best Melodica Solo I have ever heard, which I will one day cover on my debut opus, and you can bet it will change the whole game.