Author: h

Wednesday morning I wasn’t sure if I wanted to spend the evening releasing D-Rockets on mrfuriousrecords.com, or playing the 3rd Street Pub’s open-mic night. Ended up going for the both/and; ran home in the afternoon and made the upload for Matt Wisecarver’s Secret Fantasy, wrote a short email to the list, and called up Nick to ride shotgun into Lee’s Summit.

We cruised in just after nine to a small local pub, half-filled with co-eds still home from school in the last days of summer. And Jody with Jimmie, a couple friendly faces who didn’t know what they were in for. One guy was trying to bartend and set up sound, so it was slow going.

Around 9:30 it seemed like the speakers were coming to life. But up on stage, plugged in, all we had was nasty, amp-fried distortion; after twiddling for a few minutes, I cut the cords and stepped off the stage onto the bar floor. From that point, straining to strum and sing louder than the background noise of the club, I played for a solid 45 minutes: “America Votes 2032,” “I Don’t Even Know How Right This Sounds,” “With A Little Help From My Friends,” “Corrupting The Youth,” and a terrible cut of Goldfinger’s “Superman” – I plain forgot the second verse, crashed, and burned. Only the friendlies heard, though.

Eventually somebody with the 3rd Street brought in a new amp and re-wired the sound. I played a short plugged-in set of “SOS,” “Market Stress,” and the “J. Cougar Mellensong.” A cat named Micah followed up, playing some killer originals and a cover of Chris Cornell’s “Sunshower” – the only other person I’ve known who plays that song.

Last week was my first-ever open mic. I’ll be heading back to the 3rd Street Pub eventually, and maybe others around town; I like the idea of calling out a “guerilla gig” and descending on a place for the night. More time to chat, no sound gear to move, no pressure to be entertaining for two consecutive hours; everybody wins.

Archive.org is a massive digital library project that collects and preserves digital resources: web pages, images, audio files, video, etc. I stumbled on the link (and not for the first time, though I’d forgotten about it) the other day, and was drawn to a news announcement stating that the group had reached a milestone. Along with eTree.org 20,000 concerts and netlabel-albums have been compiled and are freely available to download and share. Read the announcement here.

“Self,” I thought, “aren’t you looking for more server space for Mr. Furious Records’ music? That many archived shows implies significant stroage abilities. Plus exposure to an entire network of people who love free, tradable music.” After learning about the technological side of preparing a “seed” (eTree’s word for a digital audio project/show/recording) I wonder if MFR should move the nuts and bolts of our operation to Archive.org/eTree.org. mrfuriousrecords.com would of course stay, looking and working the same as now; the changes would be in the music files. From eTree, the songs would be availalble in lossless FLAC format, as well as VBR-mp3 and lo-fi mp3. I imagine the direct links on the MFR page would link to the VBR-mp3s (about the same audio quality as the 128-bit m4as we use now, maybe better) and each album would have a link to its page at eTree for users who want the FLACS or lo-fi files. For example, look at this Matisyahu show page; every MFR album would have a similar one.

SO I PUT IT TO YOU, MFR LISTENERS AND ARTISTS; WHAT DO YOU THINK??? WEIGH IN. HELP US PROCESS THIS: Post a comment.

While I’m looking for a new favorite record shop in Kansas City, here’s the skinny on my last trip to Cheapo in Uptown, Minneapolis. A place I hate to love, because I can never leave for less than 40 bucks…

Some good finds in the “Recent Arrivals” made this trip A) solid from an economic standpoint (only paid full price for Vicious Vicious) and B) a good example of my listening habits, which are quirkier than you may imagine.

Vicious Vicious / Don’t Look So Surprised – You must see Erik Appelwick to fully appreciate his solo act plus guests, Vicious Vicious; 6’6″ or more of pale WASP small-town South Dakotan, with gangly hands that I imagine could palm medicine balls, or reach about two octaves on piano. This man makes weirdly soulful pop-funk music that you won’t believe until you see him do it.

Gatsby’s American Dream / Volcano – Their first record, Why We Fight, arrived at KDNE for radio play and I got hooked. Volcano sounds more like Ribbons & Sugar, but with less self-conscious effort and more color.

311 / Evolver – Was the only studio album I had missed; problem solved. Then, just this morning, 311 was the featured album on the iTunes new music email. Guess I didn’t know how big they still were; it was a happy surprise.

Presidents of the United States of America / II – I like everything Presidents’ frontman Chris Ballew has ever done.

Kanye West / The College Dropout – Cory listens to this record constantly. Of course, he listens to Faith Hill too…

Ozma / Rock and Roll Part Three – Ozma is as over-wrought as Pinkerton, sounds like Blue Album b-sides, and writes songs about things like “Apple Trees,” “Natalie Portman,” and being “In Search of 1988.”

Ozma / The Doubble Donkey Disc – A combination of the band’s Russian Coldfusion and Bootytraps EPs.

Q Rocks Sampler – Tracks from Foo Fighters, Hot Hot Heat, System of a Down, The Donnas, My Morning Jacket, and Muse are certainly worth a buck.

US3 / “Cantaloop” single – $1 (instead of 99 cents at iTunes) bought 2 remixes, an instrumental version (I’ll probably freestyle over it later tonight to impress girls) and the radio edit (!!!111) for this mid-90s pop oddity. I have a vivid memory of eating lunch with Muff at Runza on Main St., the “What’s up?” sample perking my ears for reasons unknown.

Monsters of Rap – I have a thing about not buying records that have been advertised on TV (not that I’m often tempted) but for Wreckz-N-Effect, A Tribe Called Quest, Sir Mix-A-Lot, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, and Tone Loc, I was pleased to make an exception.

I’m surprised nobody has anything to say about Paul Anka / Nirvana – I called the most hallowed album of the alt-rock era unlistenable! I also can’t believe we’re still in that era (stuck in the doldrums, it seems… Save us, M.I.A.!)

Playing first was all for the best last night; Lincoln’s only world-famous nightspot, the Zoo Bar, was full for Axeface’s set. Playing with Axeface was so good, I was on stage for all but the first two songs. We were halfway through practice earlier that evening when I realized that the four of us (Cory, Annie, Tucci, Howie) were Shacker-redux.

I told James something that only crystallized in my mind in the telling; the longer I make music, the more important it is to me to be at least a little entertaining for the gathered audience. When h&s started writing, our songs were intended as art/expression, without much thought to the listener’s experience. Now, I actively work with that experience (live and through recordings) and try to frame art/expression as something a person might like to listen to. Novel!

Credit goes to the second band, with an incredibly long name (includes “Vs.”), for making this clear to me. They were not entertaining, or expressive in a meaningful way, or even listenable. Props – you taught me something!

-howie

The golden drum kit (Shacker, echoes) is functional again, after a trip to the instrument-consignment shop in Uptown a couple weeks ago. The old hi-hats were shredded (they were old and corroded when I got the set) and it’s never had a ride cymbal, just my thin crash.

I found a new (to me) vintage Zildjian cymbal, exactly like Scottie’s that I had on loan for Knowing Her Best…, …Blackbeard’s Birthday, nickel, and all the gigs surrounding those albums. Beautiful, and an incredible find, both in terms of the deal I got and that I already know how it plays and responds. The hats are Sabian AAs, 14″ – I spent a long time testing different sounds, but these were definitely the best bang-for-your-buck. I’m really picky about hi-hat sounds, but I love these to death.

It wasn’t easy to cough up the change for decent cymbals, but the mission for these couple weeks in Nebraska has been to track drums for upciming signs in winter, Be A Ska Rat, and the XMAS tunes I’m working on. If I’m going to be playing drums again, I need a full kit (even if not quite full-sized!).

Doing 2 1/2 records at once is a logistics thing; I can probably play guitars in a Kansas City apartment, but not kit, yeah?

More of a storytelling than a review, here’s a few snapshots of the sets last night from MFR bands at the BL/ROCK PARTY.

echoes / My set was kicked-up acoustic versions of songs from nickel, the upcoming Be A Ska Rat, and some other projects that aren’t albums yet (“Market Stress”, “We Are 1nes”). Closed with the “My Time” Blacklight Sunshine cover. It feels good to have all fast songs to choose from, and I really like playing sans mics/PA/all that stuff – just voice and guitar, raw.

Shacker / Cory and I did the duo thing on a few songs from The Dimly Lit Room. We didn’t practice, and it didn’t matter; I play Cory’s songs all the time, even just hanging out at home by myself, so we probably sounded like auditory gold dipped in LL Cool J’s private chocolate supply.

12:00 Fence / Like Shacker (short a bassist – Jake in this case), Justin and Jeremy brought the rock. The Fence’s songs range over some broad territory, from melodic hardcore to strummy pop, with some punk edges from time to time.

GILMO / Scott and Allen’s free jazz manages to bring together their considerable technical chops with a non-verbal lyricism that makes their music colorful, beautiful, expressive, and highly entertaining. Their set was my favorite listen of the night, and I don’t think I’m alone in that.

Beach-Puppy / Though I’ve worked a ton with Cory and with BP, I’d never seen him perform before. It was something different, and I loved it. He improvises changes in the lyrics, which is very cool if you know the words from Creepy Eepy (MFR listeners will get a taste of that in a week or two, when an alternate version of “There’s Something To Be Said” is posted to the Furious Instance.

“Sally M/S Ride” / Last night Cory and I announced that we’ve finished editing uncle Charlie’s tapes from his old band, and we played a couple Sally M/S Ride songs. It consistently surprises me that they work acoustic, but somehow they seem to (at least to us… the reaction among the gathered was minimal).

howie&scott / Covered by the Nebraska night and barely backlit in red and blue, we played a couple hits (“Major & Minor”), broke our own hearts (“Stop Walking”), and closed, as promised, with a finale worth the wait; the live acoustic version of “Was I In Bon Jovi For A Second?”

Now I’m drinking leftover Lemon-Lime and thinking about getting back behind the drums for the afternoon. We’ll have to do it again sometime. See you… -h

Last night’s Late Show was probably a repeat; Gladiator was on the couch, not talking about “Cinderella Man” but some trouble he’d gotten into. I’m sure I missed most of it, but apparently he hit somebody? at a hotel? and went to jail.

But Paul Anka was on to promote a new disc, Rock Swings, and he’s been singing for five decades. Nobody told him about The Bad Plus; he covered “Smells Like Teen Spirit” with his big band in a fast lounge style, playing up the “My libido…” line and linking it to the “Hello, hello…” parts by his stage moves. Your opinion how successful he was (or was not) at making the song sexy is probably proportional to your age.

I know most of us kids-to-30-somethings still get into “Teen Spirit,” but hearing the original track makes me a little sick. Watching Anka perform, I realized that Kurt’s suicide really shouldn’t have been a surprise. He saw what the world was doing with his music (on which hung serious ideological weight), co-opting Nirvana’s operating ethos for the sake of greed. And it hasn’t stopped. Why else would Paul Anka be covering it? Don’t tell me it spoke to him on a deep level, and he had to pay tribute. More like get paid, in order to cover the bill from his plastic surgeon.

Nevermind was a good album, and it has had some impact on the course of pop/indie music, but I can’t listen to it. Breaks my heart, like Orwell’s 1984. To be confronted with such idealism and striving, corrupted and turned towards profit/power, is unbearable. If anyone did that to signs, I would be broken.

All this is not Paul Anka’s fault. He’s just a face to put on a larger trouble.