I’m pleased to be trying out Tumblr at the new address. Weird coincidence: I moved into a new office today too.
I watched another tranche of “It Might Get Loud” this evening. Very satisfying. While watching, I pondered whether there might have been a good sub for Jack White. Not saying White isn’t an interesting, documentary worthy dude. It just might have been cool to have Trey in there is all. You know?
Speaking of Phish, Mike Gordon is touring in March. No DC dates, unfortunately, and the Baltimore date is on a Tuesday night. Yeeeuh. I don’t know. If the gig started early enough, I could swing it. But last time around, Mike and the guys went on at 10:15pm.
“[ideas] are cheap. You can think of a million ideas in a minute, and it’s the following through that counts. I spent the first fifteen years of my life typing up very elaborate schemes, even when I was six years old. Then finally when I was 15, I saw the value of following through and finishing something. I just decided from then on, I would plan a lot less and do a lot more. So it’s definitely all about the following through.”
This April 2009 story from the Wall Street Journal, “The Green House of the Future,” just came to my attention. Nothing much related to music, but it falls under the category of stories that help me believe humanity is not doomed.
The surface of his house, like a leaf, contains a photosynthetic layer that captures sunlight. Unlike today’s solar panels, which are often pasted above a roofline, these are woven into the fabric of the exterior. They heat water and generate electricity for the home — and create oxygen for the atmosphere, to offset carbon produced in other areas of the home.
Mike went on at 10:15pm which, given the rather early start our household gets these days, meant that the Sturj and I didn’t stick around for the whole show. We saw a few good numbers: “Another Door,” “Andelmans’ Yard,” a new one, and the Allman Brothers Band’s “Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More.” That doesn’t look like much, but the tunes were all extended to accommodate some jamming. It was enough rock to satisfy my jones.
Apologies for the horrible quality in the video, captured via my iPhone. Even with the lame recording, however, one thing comes through – Mike was plenty loud in the mix, which was great. In Phish lore, there’s a history of complaints that you can’t hear Mike. In fact, some concerned Phish fans at one point put together an advocacy group called “People for a Louder Mike.”
Anyway, Mike sounded terrific, his band was solid, and I liked the State Theater. Not so much personality inside the joint, but the venue is like the 930 Club in that there’s not a bad seat in the house. There’s also a decent bar/restaurant right next door.
One thing Sturj and I talked agreed on after the show – Scott Murawski is an exceptional and versatile player. I guess I’ve known this for a while – at a Max Creek show I went to back in the early 1990s, I remember two guys standing right behind me, mulling over who was better: Murawski or Jerry Garcia. He’s certainly got those chops down, and his slide playing on the Allman Brothers number was perfect.
Another thing that surprised me was that Murawski played a Languedoc G2! Very interesting, given that guitar’s very close association with Trey.
Bottom line: it was nice to get out there and see some live music.
Via Phish.com: Mike spent two months working alone, all day, every weekday, playing all the parts, when he wrote and recorded Andelmans’ Yard from his album The Green Sparrow. Here is a secret porthole into the process. To find the ten examples, you will navigate through an online scavenger hunt. You’ll have access to the original demo, practice runs, guitar lick mastering, keyboard choices and more. The deeper you get, the more you’ll hear. Welcome to, if you will, the Andelmans’ Yardsale.
I know I’ve made something like this observation before, but I wonder how I would have reacted in 1986, when I had about 40-50 records and tapes, if you told that 23 years later I’d be able to keep the lot on a handheld computer that would also serve as a telephone, camera, video camera, notepad, calculator, address book, and so on. Would I have flipped out or shrugged? It’s conceivable that, as a 14 year old, I might have had loftier expectations for 2009, like space travel or invisibility or something.
Speaking of the iPhone, on the way home from work today, the iPod served up a few outstanding songs. One was “Subway to Venus” by the Red Hots, a fitting tune for riding along in an absolutely packed Metro car. Exiting the station, I was about take off the headphones, when Genesis’ “Keep it Dark” came on. I’ve loved that big riff since the eighties.
Tonight, I got out there on the information superhighway and conducted some business.
First, I ordered a pizza via www.papajohns.com. Very exciting. That’s a first.
Next, I ordered up two tickets to see Mike Gordon, pictured above, at the State Theatre in Falls Chuch, VA on September 12, 2009. That’s also a first, in the sense that I’ve never ordered tickets from www.thestatetheatre.com or seen a gig there. I have seen Mike, of course, both with Phish and Leo Kottke.
After two highly acclaimed runs last year touring on the release of his album The Green Sparrow, Mike returns with the same five-piece lineup, including longtime collaborator Scott Murawski on guitar, Vermonters Craig Myers on percussion and Tom Cleary on keyboards and Brooklyn drummer Todd Isler.
Scott Murawski, for anyone wondering, is of Max Creek fame. I’ve seen that band twice. The first time was at my high school, where I only remember them putting on a killer show and a student administrator complaining about their backstage demands (I think their contract stipulated a bunch of random things, like spaghetti and meatballs). The second gig was at some club in Providence, RI – I’m pretty sure it was the Living Room – freshman year. That was a good show too, although I remember not much about it. They played “Just a Rose.” You can find that number here.
Haynes is also enthused about the eventual release of a solo album he recorded that he says “hearkens back to my earliest influences…soul music but it also kind of sounds like when Freddie King and B.B. King and Albert King did their more crossover records, where they were mixing funk and soul with blues.” Haynes recorded the album with Meters bassist George Porter, Jr., Ivan Neville and Ian McLagan on keyboardist and Ron Holloway on saxophone. Neville and Ruthie Foster sing, along with Haynes.
