Rob Spectre, formerly of Arturo Got The Shaft and currently of (dream) Not Of today, ended his songwriting drought on Monday with “Sarah Palin is Qualified (To Go Out With Me)” via YouTube.

Indeed she is, Rob. And as you sing, it’s the only thing she’s qualified for!

A couple weeks ago on a Monday, Lara and I went to the Nebraska State Fair to see Boyz II Men play for free at the outdoor theater. There was an awning, but I don’t want to get into semantics on a Sunday.

Lara was really excited, because Boyz II Men’s “II” was her first CD, and she spun the living crud out of that bad boy, probably while crying over 12-year-old boys. I didn’t own any Boyz II Men CDs (or tapes?) and I never cried over any 12-year-old boys, but I did know the singles pretty well, and definitely liked them as a youngster. But I don’t think I would have gone to the concert if it weren’t for Lara’s insistence.

We ate some weird food (toasted ravioli, onion blossoms) and drank some 20-ounce lite beers (hurray for the fair!) and stood on the side of the stage to wait for Boyz II Men to take the stage. The place was PACKED. According to a friend, the crowd waiting to get in at 6 pm was gigantic, even though the Boyz didn’t take the stage until 8 or so. But when they did take the stage, Holy Fishsticks; the crowd went NUTS. They started right off with half of “Motown Philly” (which they later played in full as the encore), and people were flipping out and singing along. The crowd was so consistently enthused that the Boyz repeated a few times throughout the night that “it’s been 14 years since we’ve been to Nebraska, but believe me when I say that it won’t be that long between visits ever again!” The crowd was a grateful one.

The perils of being a come-back band at the State Fair is that people want to hear the hits, even if you’ve put out 487 new CDs since your last radio single. However, the Boyz handled this very well. They spaced their hit singles out so that the crowd never got restless, and they introduced new material by saying things like, “We know most of you won’t know this song, and that’s okay; we just like this song so much that we think it’s worth playing it for a bunch of people who’ve never heard it.” And the new songs were GOOD. They didn’t have the same sentimental value as “End of the Road” (graduation/prom, anyone?) of course, but how could they? Give them time.

Apparently, a few years ago, Boyz II Men put out a CD with covers of classic Motown hits, stuff from Smokey Robinson and the like. They played a chunk of about 4 or 5 of these songs at the show, and everyone sung along, especially the older set. During the night, I was constantly amazed at the breadth of age of the people singing along to the hits; there were kids who must have been in middle school singing along to “Water Runs Dry” while their 40-year-old parents did the same. Which proves, I think, that Boyz II Men really did make classic music, even though they were unfortunately grouped in with bands like New Kids on the Block.

Most of all, Lara and I were just impressed with how good they sounded, and how meaningful and awesome the songs were 10+ years later. If it weren’t for that show, I wouldn’t be buying “II” et al in the coming days. And I wouldn’t be planning on covering “Water Runs Dry” and my next solo show. I hope people give their new stuff the same chance that they gave “II” years ago.

“Boyz II Men; ABC, BBD! The East Coast Family!”

…how much of a sap I am for Billy Joel’s “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant.”

Hearing it tends to make me physically helpless for its duration plus at least a few minutes more, and emotionally helpless for anything from a half-hour to the next day. And the effect is not wearing off. So I’m starting to wonder about this song and its power over me.

Two old friends, long out-of-touch, sitting down to dinner and remembering “sweet romantic teenage nights… hanging out at the village green” and we’re rolling our eyes, right? Right. But still. There’s something about the way Joel completely inhabits the point of view of a guy who is starting to notice his age, who thinks he’s been working hard on his career and second marriage, and is seeing in this moment that it doesn’t mean to him what he thought it did. He dismisses ten or fifteen years of life with

I got a good job, I got a good office
I got a new wife, got a new life
And the family is fine…

The friends fade into a memory…

Brenda and Eddie were the popular steadies
And the king and the queen of the prom
Riding around with the car top down and the radio on
Nobody looked any finer
Or was more of a hit at the Parkway Diner
We never knew we could want more than that out of life
Surely Brenda and Eddie would always know how to survive…

Of course, they wouldn’t. “The Ballad of Brenda and Eddie,” the middle section and beating heart of “Scenes…” is what I love most in it. Brenda and Eddie are human after all, divorcing when “the money got tight.” Maybe our singer feels better knowing that nobody’s life is turning out perfect, or even as they expected to.

“Scenes…” is a meditation on change – big life changes – and the struggles of broken people as they try to navigate them. The key for me is at the end of “The Ballad…”

Then the king and the queen went back to the green,
But you could never go back there again

It’s a bittersweet moment of clarity that home, if we’re ever going to feel it again, lies ahead of us.  Never behind.

And really, it’s only with that insight that the possibility of home reappears.  Attachment to a past that “you could never go back” to actively prevents the realization of home.  All of a sudden, I find myself in very Buddhist territory.  (This is also how I read Genesis 3:22-24.)

That’s the truth that draws me back to the story of Brenda and Eddie over and over.  -h

…you made hip-hop beats at a faster-than-usual 130-135 BPM?

And then sang new wave vocals over that?

As of today I have a new Mac mini, including GarageBand, and I intend to find out.  I’m telling you because maybe you will take this idea and do something awesome with it, and I could feel good about that, too.

In related news, I got a 160 Gb iPod as well; I’ll keep you posted on its impact on my listening habits.  Right now I mostly listen to full albums on CD and don’t skip tracks, and I don’t make mix CDs.  -h

Just a short what’s-going-on today.

Jill and I saw The Combine at Davey’s Uptown in KC last night; this hip-hop duo are friends of mine.  I mastered their new album (still unreleased) back around November and they’re still slotted to put out an exclusive EP on MFR.  Big ups to opener Jus Kos from Denver
B is coming over in a couple hours to record his vocals for SR’s “You Have To Wear The Boots”!  I’m excited to be making progress on “…Boots,” and it’s been fun to have the songs bubble back into my consciousness after a long break.

5*C has been playing shows, with two new songs in our set.  We’re hoping to arrange two more at our next practice.  It’s too early to say anything about recording, but a 10-song disc with remastered tracks from both EPs, “Bang! Bang!” and an interlude by Danny is available at shows.
Fifty Bears in a Fight worked up a new song at our last practice based on a riff I wrote in Mexico in June.  We’re going to demo five (!) new instrumentals at our next get-together.  We’re also collaborating with a local singer who is interested in working alongside Tim to provide us with vocals.  The shape of that relationship is still being formed.

Matt is working on a customized kick drum stand for me that will let me mount my kick with the heads facing up and down, so I can hit it with sticks from one side (like a floor tom) and a reversed pedal from the bottom.  Clear as mud?  This is a necessary piece of equipment for the way I envison the rhythms for “Ventura” will come together.  I’m pretty stoked.

I was working on a new tune last night, nothing finished, but in the vein of “Cooky” (see lyrics posted below).  Looks like my album after “…Not Nothing”/Sleepover?/”…Boots”/”Ventura” might be a kind of straight-up pop like I haven’t done since the echoes stuff.  It would probably be less punk and more eclectic than those EPs.  Also, Cari Ann sang some harmonies with me the other day, and that was pretty kicking.  We were singing “Ventura” songs, so I’m not sure how much sense it makes to have guy-girl vocals matched with those lyrics, but there’s some rich potential there for something.

I have website ideas too.  I’m getting super-itchy to get a new release out; Matt and I just need to block off some time and wrap up “There is Something and not nothing.”  Then we’ll have a killer release party at my house, I have it all planned out.  Including a treat for you guys who won’t be able to make it to KC :-)

-h

For your Saturday pleasure, here are lyrics to a brand-new song, “Cooky.” I haven’t been writing a whole lot for myself lately, but this is a fun one. -h

I was wrong
You were right
#$*%&# (Go on) you can spell it how you like
Common sense be damned, full speed a-
Head; conventions never were your thing
Type those pretty thoughts into the
Night
Talking hard
I used “proscribe,” you called me out
You know I love to argue, babe, I
Don’t take prisoners but I’ll fight you fair
Maybe I’m the lunatic you’re looking for…

I don’t need to win, don’t ever walk away
From an honest debate
Hey, it doesn’t matter, doesn’t mean a thing
When did we stop having fun in here?
My Heart, I’m yours
And your sketchy spelling doesn’t change a thing about us
Trust me when I tell you…

She
Doesn’t know
Your name – I didn’t tell her who was
Talking like a cookbook from the
Fifties, I just said you were a friend
Anonymous as ever
At my job
Slacking off
Can we sharpen wits without it being
Hurtful? God I hope so, kid
I need to feel we’re cool with repartee
Holding back holds us apart…

Are you coming out tonight? I want to sing,
Run my hands through your hair
Your taste is like a tide that’s sweeping over me
When did this become a fight worth fighting?
Love, I’m yours
And your quiet, casting eyes don’t change a thing about us

Cowboys, Beastie Boys, crazy boys
All have a better claim on you than I can make my case for
Love, the dictionary has defeated me
We lost the battle, let’s win the war

I wuz rong
U wer rite
U kan spel it how u lyke

Because I don’t need to win, don’t ever walk away
From an honest debate
Hey, it doesn’t matter, doesn’t mean a thing
When did we stop having fun in here?
My Heart, I’m yours
And your sketchy spelling doesn’t change a thing about us
Trust me when I tell you that
My Heart, I’m yours
And your sketchy spelling doesn’t change a thing about us

My crew was standing on the street outside Main Street Cafe when the maroon Dodge van with Nebraska plates rolled down Wyandotte.  It had been at little more than three years since I’d seen JVA at the 7th Street Entry in Minneapolis; during that time the band had released “Girls Forget Your Boys…” in Japan, toured the US, taken a year off, and recorded their new album “Take Me Back To Spectre.”  I’d moved to Kansas City, had three jobs, joined Five Star Crush, and written three records.

The theme of distance – geographic and relational (and the title of the band’s first full-length) – has kept JVA beautifully and almost achingly relevant for me as I’ve moved around the midwest, through circles of friends, away from some of the things I grew up with, and recognized that for better or worse I’m not particularly good at keeping in touch.

“Well, it’s wrong to say I wish you would stay;

Good luck in Boston,

I’ll see you around…”

The All*stars are heading up a four-band, 10-day package tour.  Young openers Get Down!, Four Word Cause, and Avery all played serviceable, appropriately impassioned pop-punk.  Sets seemed short, which I assumed was the venue’s responsibility but found out later from Eric Mellow is just the way these bands play shows.  Jill noted that keyboards are apparently the new necessity for the genre.
Avery’s rhythm guitarist cranked out a nice, rich tone with a borrowed Telecaster that, on its own, made their set sound 50% better than it would have otherwise.  Punk bands take note; rediscovering the midrange of your guitars and amps can make you sound bigger and better in a hurry.  It’s probably the best bang-for-your-buck sonic enhancement you can make!

It’s never less than thrilling to see four quirky, unassuming Lincolnites* shuffle around the stage, plugging gear in, checking mics…  and ripping into their first loud, fast, catchy-as-hell tune.

JVA tore through tracks from “Take Me Back To Spectre,” closing with a brand-new tune (“Prevention Kids,” demo up on their MySpace) and two from “Girls Forget Your Boys Forget Your Girls.”  The sound was good, though Mikey and Eric’s vocals weren’t loud enough (not too many bands have three lead singers, but the guys have gradually come to share songwriting and vocals almost equally).  I rocked out, sang along where I could, and generally lost myself in a moment that blended the new and the old.  New and old friends, new and old music, and an honest but hopeful look at the distance we’ve traveled and the road ahead, embodied in sound.
Afterward Nick was talking about when the All*stars played what seemed at the time to be their last show, which was howie&scott’s “signs.comets” CD release in 2004.  I remembered the show but not the weight it carried at the time.  Eric told me his grandma has had some issues with meds but is doing well now; we used to practice in her basement and eat leftover pizza with Milford kids.

We went to Jill’s house, where the band spend the night (Thanks, JG!), wrapping something like nine years of life and music into one moment, and it was heartening to think about time and friends and songs.  -h
*Mikey and Matty are originally from Wayne, how punk is that?!

The other day Cory and I had an email discussion about Vampire Weekend, and one friend’s (KM) criticism of the band. Cory insisted that I buy the record a few weeks ago, promising to reimburse me if I didn’t end up liking it. He wins.

To: Cory2008@kiblerfamilybeekeepers.uk
From: Howie@supernerdy.informationsuperhighway/AOL
Subject: Why would you lie about anything at all?

I’m internalizing Vampire Weekend, and liking it. I love that they start changing it up after the first four tunes; I like tracks 5-9 way better! “M79,” “Bryn,” and “I Stand Corrected” are my favs. -h

To: Howie@supernerdy.informationsuperhighway/AOL
From: Cory2008@kiblerfamilybeekeepers.uk
Subject: RE: Why would you lie about anything at all?

Howie!

I just think that every single song on “Vampire Weekend” is just so solid of a pop song. My initial favorites were the first 4 or 5 songs on the CD, because that’s what I’d hear first when I listened to it… “Mansard Roof” and “Oxford Comma” are SUCH GOOD ways to start off a record. “A-Punk” and “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” just continue the pop-assault. But then I started loving the sweet baby bejesus out of “I Stand Corrected” and “M79.” Every song is different enough to make the record varied and interesting, but similar enough to make it a cohesive, complete thought of a record.

(Side note: I hung out with my friend KM recently, and she said she hated the record, and she had two reasons for hating it. I think her reasons are bad reasons, but I didn’t tell her so. I’m not going to get into that discussion unless you want me to, but I’d love to hear what you think.)

LOVE!
Cory

To: Cory2008@kiblerfamilybeekeepers.uk
From: Howie@supernerdy.informationsuperhighway/AOL
Subject: Why would you lie about anything at all?

My feelings on Vampire Weekend are pretty solid, so I think I can discuss KM’s criticisms without it ruining the record for me! :-)

To: Howie@supernerdy.informationsuperhighway/AOL
From: Cory2008@kiblerfamilybeekeepers.uk
Subject: RE: Why would you lie about anything at all?

Okay: KM had two criticisms. The first was that Vampire Weekend is completely ripping off Paul Simon. The second is that they are a bunch of privileged trust-fund kids from Brooklyn who are presumptuously appropriating African pop-music for their own purpose, and bastardizing it in the process. I think these criticisms actually help negate each other, but anyway, here’s what I think:

Having heard “Graceland” as well as other Paul Simon stuff, I don’t think VW sound enough like Simon to call “BS.” I can see some similarities, but not enough to take any issue whatsoever. But, let’s say that one thought that VW was ripping off Simon. My response is: who cares? They’re clearly not taking chord progressions/lyrical ideas from him, so it’s not outright plagiarism. And, if you want to hate on every band that sounds really similar to another band, well, you’ll have to hate on every single band in the world (except for maybe Buckethead or someone). Every band I’ve been in or liked or seen live or whatever has sounded similar to some other band that came before it. That’s just how music works.

As for the second criticism about them being white kids from Brooklyn who’ve appropriated Afro-pop: well, it’d be one thing if they were mocking it, or trying to pass their music off as *authentic” Afro-pop. But I don’t think they are, and I think it would be just about impossible to prove that they were. Also, Paul Simon is a white kid from Brooklyn; what made it okay for HIM to do it? The fact that he did it first? I don’t think so. If VW is guilty of it, so is Simon. So I don’t think you’re allowed to call out VW on it without calling out Simon on the same thing. But as it stands, I don’t think it’s an issue that they’re influenced by Afro-pop. If it is an issue, there are some cruddy consequences: if one did think it was uncool for one culture to appropriate and interpret another culture’s music, you and I aren’t morally allowed to play rock/blues music any more, and KM’s not allowed to play tuba for a hip-hop group.

Thoughts? -Cory

To: Cory2008@kiblerfamilybeekeepers.uk
From: Howie@supernerdy.informationsuperhighway/AOL
Subject: Why would you lie about anything at all?

I agree with your arguments. Specifically,

1) Ripping someone off is not *in itself* a reason to discredit an aesthetic work. As you point out, if it were, all art ever would be discredited (reduction to absurdity). There may be a legitimate criticism of a work as *merely* derivative, but I agree that Vampire Weekend avoids this.

2) KM’s criticism here is actually a special case of #1; a ripping-off with colonialist undertones. In general, the same counter-argument applies. Specifically to the colonialism, I think the burden of proof is on her to show that Vampire Weekend has actually done concrete harm to the African musicians/music they’re ripping off, and I doubt she’ll be able to make a convincing case. For example if Vampire Weekend’s success totally destroyed sales of West African music, or if they plagarized stuff, or sampled indigenous music without giving credit/royalties. I don’t think they’ve done any of those things.

No harm, no foul. -h

Hat tip to Mom for sending me this short article. My comments below.

TUNES IN OUR HEAD: Oliver Sacks on the power of music to heal us and transform our lives (From AARP Magazine Jan-Feb, 2008)

“I’d always suspected we were a musical species,” says Oliver Sacks, 74, the famed neurologist and author of Awakenings, explaining how he decided to delve deeply into understanding the role of music in the brain. But his research turned up more than he’d anticipated. “I’m actually amazed at how much of the brain is recruited for musical experience,” he says. The ability to appreciate music, he believes, is a defining quality of our humanity. In his new book, Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain (Knopf), he shares his discoveries. He talked to us about music’s astounding potential.

*Music as medicine– “In music therapy for Parkinson’s disease, where my interest got kindled, the rhythm of the music is crucially important. People with Parkinson’s misjudge time grossly and have difficulty coordinating speech with their movements, so they tend to stutter or stumble, or just come to a stop. While the music lasts, it gives them precisely what they lack, which tempo and rhythm and organized time. The music doesn’t have to be familiar or particularly emotionally evocative for them. For people with alzheimer’s, it’s a different story. For these patients, the evocativeness of music is primary-the music has to recall emotions and scenes and memories they seem to have lost. Even for those with advanced Alzheimer’s who have lost language, music can grab them and calm or stimulate them. It’s enormously powerful.”

*Compensating– “Blindness seems to enhance many people’s appreciation of music. And many deaf people are able to analyze very complex experiences in the peripheral visual field, which sighted people can’t do. I think whatever sense one loses, there’s a sort of compensation. You can see in scans how, when one part of the brain isn’t getting its normal input, it won’t be wasted. It will be pressed to another use.”

*Musical hallucinations– “Imagining music can activate parts of the brain almost as vividly as listening to music. But our enormous sensitivity to music also has certain dangers, including those catchy tunes that infuriatingly repeat in our heads. These musical hallucinations evaporate eventually, but probably the best relief is listening to other music.”

*Music haters– “An emotional response to music is very strong and almost universal, yet there are a few baffling exceptions. Sigmund Freud, for example, lacked appreciation for music altogether. I actually think something was missing in Freud’s life, and perhaps his analytical communications would have been richer with music. But he’s a puzzle because, at least from the few things he says, one wonders if in fact he was suppressing an emotional response because it mystified or angered him.

*Beatlemania?– “I didn’t respond to the Beatles, probably because I was 30 when they appeared. But I think if I’d been 15, it would have been very different. It’s such a passionate and impressionable time in life. And I don’t think it’s just music. It’s the poetry, the landscapes, the paintings. I can recall novels I read at 15 or 20 in boring detail. But I don’t remember what I read at 60 nearly as well.”

*Transcendence– “I surround myself with music-Chopin, Bach-and it takes me places I can’t take myself. The last concert I went to, I watched the most amazing conductor, David Randall, who is in his 90s but as agile and energetic as someone in his 20s. He leapt up onto the podium and conducted a wonderful Mendelssohn’s Walpurgisnacht. I see a lot of sad, sick, aging people, but I also see people like Randall. He gave an amazing impromptu talk. Resilient, witty. There was just no age there.”

I’ve always remembered my high school band director Mr. Palensky wistfully reminding us that playing music requires us to use 90% of our brain, compared with about 10% for most other activities.

Sacks’ research with Parkinson’s patients is especially interesting; it points toward the idea that humans have a deep inner pulse, a beat that helps us organize time, and that Parkinson’s involves the loss of that pulse but it can be externalized and regained through music.  I like that the pulse seems to be something innate within us; we don’t have to learn it, it is already there, we just discover what’s inside.

Musical hallucinations – This reminds me of something kind of weird I’ve been experiencing lately.  When I’m listening to “…not nothing” in the car, I can often feel my throat moving.   I’m subconsciously subvocalizing to my own music!  It can be uncomfortable, especially for the parts where I sing loud, because my throat really tightens up as if I were belting out a pure tone.  (Bad technique, I’m sure…)

The Beatlemania thing seems to have less to do with music than with memory, though they’re related (as the Alzheimer’s research shows).

Transcendence.  Yes.  Ego-less-ness.  Magic.  These are The Reason I make music. -h