Author: h

Email prompted more discussion this week; I’ll take the questions one-by-one…

Mad props on Sally Ride. Does it sound like the first record, or has the sound kind of evolved since then? You and Cory both write songs and then compare them, right? Or else is that what Ventura is? How do you two differentiate between all the different groups you’ve been in? Is it all kinda Shackerish but just different names, or can you definitley tell how stuff changes between each band moniker?

The new Sally Ride (It’s A Trap – a collaboration between Cory and I with Uncle Charlie and Hank) is a real evolution. Sixteen years between Don’t Let Them Take Us… ALIVE! (when Cory and I were 8 years old!) and now. So it sounds like Sally Ride, but it sounds different too. The songs still tell stories with dark and ironic twists, but this time some politics is mixed up with the relationship stuff. Tempos tend towards that same 70-to-80 b.p.m. bounce that I think has just a tinge of funk. There’s a big increase in our use of weird scale degrees and chromatic figures in both the guitar and the melodies, and it’s all in standard tuning (instead of drop-D). I think the new songs are catchier, with hookier choruses. The songs are more varied, and they work pretty well acoustic, which I didn’t expect. Probably the most obvious difference is that we’re programming drums from a snythesizer. Maybe it’s like the Postal Service + …ALIVE! x Hail to the Thief.

As far as my songwriting, and Cory’s… I’m always writing eight different things. When I’m writing something that I want Cory to help with (which I’m doing more and more) I tell him about it, show him what I’ve done so far, and then maybe he will have or write a song or three to go with it. I also give him guitar ideas that I’m stuck on (no melody) and often he’ll write a killer melody. “Coast & Plains” from Ventura is exactly that. The score for Ventura is something like howie:7, Cory:1, together:4. It’s A Trap is headed towards howie:7, Cory:2, together:1. Of course we arrange and embellish each other’s stuff, but I’m taking “write” in terms of chords/melody/lyrics. Ventura is just the project that so far has pushed the farthest into collaborative territory. It’s an exciting direction for both of us, and I think we’ll keep moving into it. It will probably be put out by “echoes + Beach-Puppy” or something, because it definitely feels like an echoes thing to me but I want Cory to be recognized.

Lastly, differentiating between bands. It’s not all Shackerish to me. Shacker is something specific; the three or four of us playing Cory’s folk-tinged power pop (or pop-tinged folk). Names are boxes that help listeners know what to expect; if It’s A Trap were by Shacker, it would be confusing for everyone, including me. You might like the acoustic “Fully OK” and hate “A Come-On,” and it would be strange if it were the same band sounding so different. So from Sally Ride, you sort of get paranoid alt-rock anthems. From echoes, snappy punk-inspired songwriting with unexpected twists & turns. Axeface/BP is pretty straight modern folk. I just really enjoy playing among different styles and sounds, not being tied into any one thing but a free agent looking for interesting music and words. Different albums or bands have different approaches and themes, and I think naming things appropriately helps people understand it.

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PS – We were linked from here this week; Japan!

The National Review, a conservative magazine, published a list of the “Top 50 Conservative Rock Songs” earlier this spring.  You can get the list via this post at the Lincoln Journal Star’s Ground Zero blog.

“The magazine says it based its selections on ‘a broad criteria: the songs had to be well-liked and express classically conservative ideas such as skepticism of government or support for traditional values.’

The Review used a completely surface-level reading of these tunes in order to co-opt them for their conservative agenda.  It reminds me of Ronald Reagan using Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” as a campaign anthem; Reagan liked the chorus, never mind that the verses were all about the struggles of working-class Americans.

Their # 1, The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” isn’t about government at all.  Pete Townshend talks at length on his VH1 Storytellers episode about how this song is about “losing yourself – that thing we used to to a lot of in the ’60’s” through “a football game, a great party, or making love to somebody” and not letting uptight squares like the National Review talk you out of having those experiences.

The Review obviously misses the irony of the Beach Boys’ “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” at # 5.  The same on “Wonderful” by Everclear at # 43.  Conservatives tend not to understand subtleties like “irony,” preferring to force the world into black-or-white.  That worldview doesn’t jive so much with rock music, or art in general.

This list is just example # 4, 592, 371 of conservatives staking claim on typically progressive pop culture for their own agenda.  It’s transparent, and it doesn’t work; the National Review and its readers make lists while classic liberals/Enlightenment-types/progressives/Greens/etc. make ROCK MUSIC.  I’ll take that difference and see it play in the media any day.

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In FuriousSound studio news, I’m mastering Robot, Creep Closer!‘s debut album for Lone Prairie Records this weekend.  I’ve also demoed nine songs for Sally Ride’s upcoming It’s A Trap, and am working on drums.  In a way, this relates to the main post, because the new SR will include songs about the NSA domestic-spying program, net neutrality, David S. Addington, and Ohio 2004.  -h

Sometime, write about some of the ways that songs “come to you.”  As someone who has never had that “flash” for word/song/art etc. I marvel at the “nothing to something” process – and I know that at some point the WORK element kicks in to formally shape the project.

– email to howie, 5 July

My songwriting is always a blend of intuitive “flash” and conscious craft.  The best tend to happen when the initial idea is shaped quickly into final-draft form; these seem to be the most integrated to me (but that may come from my own experience, and not be shared with listeners).

The flash comes in three different ways I can think of, one more than the others.  Most frequently, I’m doing something regular – reading, dishes, email, working – and I become aware of a bit of music that’s been bubbling through my mind for awhile.  It could sound like anything, from guitar or piano to orchestra.  I run to the nearest instrument and start playing along, humming, figuring it out.  Sometimes I get it almost exactly, other times I can’t seem to parse my own imagination so I try to pull something that catches my ear out of it anyway.

This also can happen from a sort of dream state, either right before I fall asleep or when I wake up (flash type # 2).  Thirdly, once in awhile when I’m playing guitar, I’ll be noodling around with no aim and happen on a series of notes or chords that strike my attention, and that will become the raw material for a song.

When I’m working with a new flash, I first try to put off my conscious, crafting self and allow the flash to do its thing and play over me.  That’s hard because my nature is to jump right in and shape it immediately, instead of letting it find its own shape.  The whole intuitive side of songwriting is opposite of most of the rest of my personality, which makes it kind of mysterious, fun, and fragile.

The flash yields anything from a couple guitar ideas with no melody to several different instrumental sections (3-5) with some melodic phrases attached (rarely any lyrics).  The “craft” then is to take those raw ideas, and turn them into songs.  For any given song, it can take a day, or months and months.  Lyrics usually start from a single “flash” phrase that pops out of me while I’m humming a melody, and are built around that.  Arrangements of the various parts are determined by the lyrics, trying to make the whole thing tell a consistent story – I try to be pretty open to unorthodox arrangements, stretching verses, cutting choruses, having six different parts in a song, as long as it all works together.

“Nothing to something” is true to my experience.  The flash, paradoxically, does and does not come from “me” – it’s not magic or metaphysical, but from a subconscious place that can feel like “other.”  And after shaping it (think of a potter), it becomes something – a song.  I’m kind of in awe if I think about it; it feels like a gift – not that my particular songs are a gift to anyone – but that we humans are so complex that such things can happen to us, and we can participate in them.  Maybe we are such things as writing songs (or baking cookies, or teaching children, or any of the other miracles we perform daily without even noticing).  -h

We three played Kate’s house on Saturday night, making music, looking at her fine artwork and Jon’s photos, and collecting cash for a Mexican man’s hernia operation.

I kicked off with an hour-plus set of Ventura material, “I Don’t Even Know How Right This Sounds,” Cory’s “Where Did I Go Wrong?,” Derek’s “Race Car Driver,” “Hey Ya” (at Jon’s request) – and BIG UPS to the “Unwritten” CHOIR!!!111 It was a super good time and reinforced my faith in the new s&*#, which stood in pretty stark contrast to what I would have played one year ago (last time I was in Wayzata). In the last 12 months I’ve grown much more melodic, and play almost everything in a sort of quick folk-strum rhythmic pattern versus a more rock style (like on the nickel and Be A Ska Rat EPs).

Arcola (Jon + Jon – www.myspace.com/thearcola ) are a local acoustic/cello duo. They opened with two original tunes, which were my favorites of their set (write more songs Jon P!). Songs by Feeder, Bright Eyes (“Landlocked Blues”), and the Pixies followed. Arcola is very far ahead of my learning curve when I was just leaving high school…

I can’t say enough here about Andre Rodriguez; look him up ( http://www.isound.com/contact/andre_rodriguez/ ). He usually performs jazzy piano-rock-pop with his band, but came over for a short solo set that I dug entirely. The songs are a great mix of exciting harmonic development and hooky vocals + lyrics. We chatted for awhile about different possibilities for music together, and while we of course haven’t done anything concrete I hope this isn’t the last you’ll here about Andre.

I’m visiting Uncle Charlie for a couple days before heading back to KC; he’s up in arms about the NSA’s domestic spying, net neutrality, Ohio 2004, and murdering cowboys (that’s cowboys who kill, not Charlie killing cowboys). So there’s lots of potential for the new Sally Ride we’re doing together. see you -h

This Saturday, June 24, 7:00 pm.  Wayzata, MN.
email  goeswithyoureyes@hotmail.com for DIRECTIONS!!!111
echoes / Arcola (Jons Shrader and Peterson) / Andre Rodriguez / art by Kate Frisbie

*Benefit show, two dollar cover charge, and a word from Jon: “all proceeds go to help fund a man’s hernia operation. He lives in tijuana mexico and does not have the means of financing this operation on his own. I (Jon Shrader) met him last week while helping to construct a 2 bedroom house for him on a mission trip for a week and a half in tijuana. And i want to help him further. So the more people that come to this show the better!!”

-h

From this morning’s Puritan Blister column at Pitchfork ( www.pitchforkmedia.com )

Any metacompilation from the 2000s would also have to include Brakes’ “Heard About Your Band”, any of the (early) Stills’ cleverly-titled metatunes, the Cribs’ “Hey Scenesters”, the Format’s “First Single”, the Echoes’ “God Bless the Strokes”, and Desaparecidos’ “Hole In One”, during which Conor Oberst informs you that “You can buy my records down at the corporate chain.”

Link: http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/columns/puritan-blister/06-06-09.shtml

This is pretty wild, it sort of gave me a little head rush. One thought; it seemed after “howie&scott”* that I should choose a band name that wasn’t confusing at all. How we got from echoes to “the Echoes” escapes me, but no worries at this point. Somebody heard the song. Ripples.

It’s true that the next sentence is “Have you noticed that such a metacompilation would not be, um, very good?”  I can’t speak for any of the other tunes, but I like “…Strokes” for what it’s worth, and in terms of Bowers’ conclusion that we need to write more original, honest songs, I’m doing my best.  Hang in there until Ventura. 

-h

* Known variously to reporters and promoters as “Howie and Scott,” “Scott + Howard,” “Howie & scott,” “howie with scott,” and “howieandscott.”

Cory, Jaimie, John, and Gina were interviewed by StarCityScene.com for their June feature; check out the story here.

In other news, their full-length record is all recorded, and mixing is scheduled!  It will be out later this year on Lone Prairie Records.

The two really interesting things about Saturday’s show with 5*C didn’t happen during our set.

I rolled down all three blocks of downtown W-burg early and popped in to the used CD store.  Purchased The Lemonheads It’s A Shame About Ray and Dead Prez Revolutionary But Gangsta.  But something in the “H” section shocked me; a copy of near and far.  I don’t know anyone in Warrensburg or who might have gone to Central Missouri State; it’s a mystery.  An ego boost mystery that made me feel like a rock star!

Freaky occurance # 2 was that I had actually played at the Setlist before, three years ago or more, with Shacker.  James had booked the gig and rented a minivan for it (why Warrensburg?!  We forget!) and we listened to Speakerboxxx/The Love Below on the way down.  We got there super early and ate across the street, James changed clothes in the van.  After a weird shoegaze band, we played a short set because the owner/sound guy told us we had one song left after only 20 minutes.  Nobody was there.  And we drove all the way back home that night, rocking out to The Colour and The Shape to feel better.

Funny thing; nobody was there for our set this time either.  We played OK, and introduced a rad new song we wrote just Friday at practice.

But if you need a used copy of one of my old records, I can tell you where to find it.  -h