Invitation To The Blues.

So much Tom Waits lately. What a goddamn genius. He's one of those guys who can just keep cranking out innovative, beautiful music for decades and decades... fuck, man. Also an amazing ballad performer.

Speakin' of which, I was just having a conversation with Malik about the decline of the ballad. You really don't see many bands coming out with ballads today (or if they do, they're typically pretty awful and without feeling). There's Radiohead with "Nude," but you can't really put that in the usual ballad pigeonhole. The White Stripes do an amazing cover of Dolly Parton's "Jolene," but it is a cover, and they only do it live--never on a studio album. Where'd they all go, man? The ballad form has so much power to move the listener... though it's true they are hard as all hell to write, when done right they can be some of the best songs in an artist's repertoire. I know when I play a jazz gig a lot of the time the ballads are the ones which get the crazy applause... and a lot of the songs that move me the most are ballads.

Been craving ginger beer so badly these past few days. Unfortunately I presently have precisely $88.33 to last me the remainder of the semester, so I really can't go out and get any.

Should really be writing The Essay and not on here.

robot parade.

"WALL.E, Pixar’s highly anticipated new film from Academy Award winning FINDING NEMO director Andrew Stanton, is the adorable, heart-warming tale of a robot in space."

I dunno, man. Maybe this movie is going to be groundbreaking and will speak across generations. I can't imagine anything more heart-warming than a robot in space...

Come to the cabaret...? agh.

Suitemate Steven is drama major. Tends to sing in shower. No problem except when it's loud enough to wake Malik and I, who both sleep like rocks. Ugh. Hopefully I can get back to sleep after this, but I'm not convinced it'll happen.

Guess Malik got arrested last night. No worries, he's back here and no problems, was just put in a holding cell for like 2 hours with Connor while they sorted it out and then they brought him right back. Kind of a pain... cheered him up with good music, then we got delicious food at the corner store so 's all good.

Would like to take a moment at this juncture to comment on how delicious ginger beer is. For those of you who don't know, ginger beer is a beverage made sort of like ginger ale... but with a hell of a lot of ginger, so it has crazy kick to it. If you ever want to get me really, really pumped, send me a case of the stuff. It is so goddamn good. Agh. If had money would get me a case right now. But.... do not.

shiiiiiiiit. desire for ginger beer overwhelms.

just.

Really don't get too much of a chance to read out here at school, which is weak. Am a big fan of taking like a whole day and just consuming a long-ass book. Oh, well. This summer I'll attack the library once more.

Malik's got the latest from Babyshambles playing right now, which he aptly described as "incredibly British." The guitar sound is disgustingly good. Kind of whiny, but crunchy at the same time. Very solid... good, sloppy music.

Realized yesterday I had a pile of jazz records I hadn't loaded onto my computer yet. Did so with some Sarah Vaughan, a bit of Bix, a smidge of Sims, etc. Also dug on the Anita O'Day version of The Lady Is A Tramp... it kicked my ass just a little. So, so good. Anita is probably my favorite jazz vocalist these days. Such an organic delivery... agh. If you don't know her, check ye out this video.

Makin' grilled cheese, I take my leave.

This can't be love.

Dante came down last night, and we recorded 3 tracks with Christea for a jazz vocal competition she's doing down in Maryland. Really simple live setup--2 mics on piano, 1 on vocals, through a mixer into a single recording input so I couldn't mix later except for some EQ--but it came out stompin' ass good. Good enough that I've pretty much spent today since I woke up listening to Anita O'Day and Sarah Vaughan. This is going to make me get back into doing more jazz, which is a very good thing--I've been kind of focused on my rock and popular music influences lately, but bringing back a jazz sensibility should even help out that aspect of my writing a lot.

So, lately I've been thinking more seriously about an idea that sprung up from the floor I'm on in my dorm, which is what's called at NYU an "Explorations Floor"--based around a specific theme, people apply to get into the floor and a community results. Mine's the music floor, but it's not all musicians necessarily. We have everything from aspiring music video directors to producers such as myself, plus of course seven thousand guitarists (most of which are actually really quite good; that, I guess, is the difference between this floor and your average college floor).

So last semester sometime, in a fit of appreciating the people around me, I got to thinkin' about applying the same principle to a post-college situation. Specifically I was thinking about something like this: get 10 to 20 people all in the music realm in different ways--some on the business side, some on the artist side, some A/V types--and get some sort of space to live in, splitting the rent. The idea would be that eventually between the group, we'd be able to set up sort of a whole music enterprise. A few people could head up a label and publishing sort of company, through which everyone's music would be released... all the songwriters would collaborate, and play on each others' records... we could pool our equipment and skills to pull off things we would never be able to do otherwise. Ideally, depending on the sort of space we were in, we would have shows each Friday and/or Saturday with our artists and other "guests" which would gradually grow to the point where they provided the rent money. Just imagine the sort of cult following a group of musicians like that would get. You'd have absolutely rabid fans.

Of course when it started out everyone'd probably have to keep day jobs for some time in order to keep up the rent and food money. But gradually, something like that could legitimately be a way to make your music work--and the artistic growth coming from an environment like that, particularly after the shows started bringing in the rent money so you could ease up on the outside work a bit, would be just monstrous. It would be, in a way, sort of like the early days of SNL, back when they all lived 5 days a week or so in the studio together, just fuckin' around.

Just something I'm thinking about... but actually just beginning to legitimately consider. It's workable, you know? Between that many people, a house in Brooklyn wouldn't be that expensive to rent... I'll keep thinking on it.

I am hungry so I take my leave of thee. Begone!

Is there anybody going to listen to my story?

I take bass lessons with Ron McClure, who's basically the man. He's played bass for Monk, Miles, Wes Montgomery, Blood, Sweat & Tears, and basically everyone else. He's really not into the sound I'm getting from my fretless, though... most of last lesson was him telling me it sounded like an asshole. I'll change up the strings, see what that does.

I've been getting pissed off lately about U.S. nuclear policy. I guess not just U.S. but rather most of the developed world. Even having a nuclear bomb in your arsenal... How could you possibly justify that? There is just no scenario in which it's acceptable to cause so many horrific civilian deaths and so many lives to be ruined... there's always an alternative, and it just doesn't make any sense to have these bombs around "just in case." In case of what? Again--I honestly cannot think of any scenario in which it would even be morally ambiguous to destroy innocent people in such a heinous, vile way.

Agh. More on this later, I've got shit to do.

Dear lord.

Christea was kind enough to show me this just a few moments ago. It is necessary that I post it here.

You never give me your money.

Now people are reading this?! Oh noes! I shall have to carefully consider the words that I say!

Yeah, right.

So, Electric Six has been one of my favorite artists since their first album, Fire, taught me what sex was. I would just like to briefly mention that I'm pretty sure I Shall Exterminate Everything that Comes Between Me and Being the Master, their latest offering, is their best album yet and one of the best albums to come out recently. "It's Showtime," the album opener, is just absolutely insane--the mixture of Dick Valentine's usual ridiculous vocal stylings with a tin pan alley swing beat (but only for the verses) and the most nonsensical lyrics of their career ("Hey mister! Put a little mustard on that mustard!") make it an amazing, amazing track. "Sexy Trash" is my other favorite--a big ole funky mess of 5/4 insanity.

In my songwriting, I've been helped a lot by studying the techniques used both lyrically and musically by some really kickass songwriters (Frank Black, Lennon, McCartney, Thom Yorke, etc). Whenever I decide that what is needed is a heapin' helpin' of camp, I immediately consult Dick Valentine. He is absolutely the master, and is the reason for Tony Smokes' song "Total Disco," which is basically an unofficial tribute to Fire.

Got to get to class now. See yous later.

workin' up a black sweat.

Much more relaxed having returned to school from spring break, interestingly. Am feeling more at home here than at home. Guessing that's because people here are used to me as I am, not as I was before college.

First thing my mother says to me upon my arrival:

"Hey Owen! What's that jacket? It doesn't go with your pants, or your hair. It doesn't look like you. Take it off."

Did not take it off, to her chagrin.

Realizing that I miss driving when at school. On plus side, am not paying for gas when at school. On minus side, am paying $2 per subway ride. Win some, lose some.

Wrote a song in 6/4 which sounds kind of like a cross between Modest Mouse and the song "No Pussy Blues" by Grinderman (if you don't know the song, it lives here and is very worth your time to check out.) I'm liking it a lot thus far. Switches between fairly happy, chill groove and over-the-top oh-my-god-loud rock.

In other news, Prince is a beast. Been revisiting a lot of old Prince lately... one of the more talented musicians to walk the earth, no question. Lately though, his 2006 single "Black Sweat" has been stuck in my head pretty constantly. Amazing, amazing song. The video is here, and you should check that out as well if you don't know it. So, so goddamn good.

Have noticed that I occasionally address things on here to "you." Am fairly sure that nobody reads this, upon further reflection; however if you do, and you dig on these songs or whatever, leave me a comment so's I know, man.

Would play some Red Norvo Trio at this juncture but roommate, Malik, is a shleep. Instead, shall do some homework for Econ & Legal Settings of the Music Industry (ah, the things we do as music biz majors).

Good day to you.

This ain't the planet of sound.

When I get the chance I enjoy spending my Saturday nights watching the latest Sci-Fi Channel Original Movies. My new favorite: Rock Monster. Such a horrible movie, it's almost frightening--yet, in a group, so very entertaining.

I get to spend half my Easter Sunday on a Greyhound bus. Which is pretty awesome. Whatever, not too worried about it. You always tend to meet somebody interesting on the Greyhound, particularly if you go at weird hours (I always take the 12:30 AM bus from New York back to Portland).

Running, as usual this week, on four hours of sleep so I'm headed for the sack.

Stay sweet.

I wanna be your dog.

So that post from earlier today was much angrier than I meant it to be. Ah, well.

Applying for more summer jobs today... got to get something lined up before I get back or I'm pretty fully screwed over.


For whatever reason, for over a week now I haven't been able to sleep more than about 4 hours at a run, regardless whether I'm incredibly tired (with the exception of Monday, which I almost slept through). As I'm sick, this is not helpin' much. It's truly obnoxious, and you could set a clock by it--last night for instance, I kept checking my watch until I fell asleep at 1:15. I woke up this morning and sure enough it was 5:20. Beautiful. Laid there in bed two hours, then the sun came up and I got up.

I don't want to turn this into a gripin' blog, though (regardless of the fact that I'm pretty sure nobody reads it, certainly not yet). I'm actually pretty chilled out these days. Life's just sort of going along, I dealt with most of the drama that I had to deal with and now I can relax a little. I've got some pretty kickass friends both in Maine and New York who keep me really grounded, and I'm dealing with my work for NYU okay. On the whole, not so bad.

Wrote a song last night in the middle of the night that I thought sounded vaguely Velvet underground-ish until I realized it was in 6/4 and the instrumental sound was more of a cross between Grinderman and My Bloody Valentine, if you could imagine that. It has the same sort of vibe as Velvet Underground records, though, despite the weird, distorted instruments. (Also follows the VU format by containing only two chords: I and IV. Should be really interesting when it comes to fruition.

Pacem.

sexy trash.

Interesting how it pays these days to pigeonhole yourself in the music biz. Most successful artists, indie or otherwise, pull off making their living by getting a very distinct sound and style, or else falling squarely into an established genre; that way they get a core fanbase who they then have to avoid alienating by never straying far from the path they beat on their first record.

As someone who really values artistic growth, that just kind of pisses me off. Artists are capable of being multi-faceted. Those who manage to get past their initial success either flop or do amazingly well; Radiohead, for instance, is the critics' band of choice, but initially when they switched over from rock 'n' roll to, well, Radiohead, they had no idea what to think. They were expected to stay on the emo-grunge of "Creep," and instead put out "Paranoid Android," a track comprised of three half-written other tracks which happened to come together to make something nobody had ever heard. I have a hell of a lot of respect for Radiohead. But why can't anyone else do that?

What bothers me more, though, is when one act becomes famous for sounding new--and then sixty others latch on to that and turn it into some kind of "sound" recognized by the critics and easily digestable, as opposed to the innovation it originally was. Often the original band gets stuck in that pigeonhole, forcing them to stick with their original innovation and not keep moving. I think that's sort of what happened with the Strokes. They had their sound, sort of a classy, catchy revival-style garage rock, and they did it very well. Within something like a year, The Killers were blasting "Mr. Brightside" over the airwaves, successfully ripping off the Strokes' success, while simultaneously making me want to kill myself (that song is in my Top Ten Most Annoying Songs Ever List, which I'll post here at some point). Incidentally don't give me any crap about "BUT OWEN, THE HIVES STROKES VINES WHITES STRIPES ARE ALL THE SAME." If you have listened to half an album by those artists you will realize that none of them sound even remotely similar; they just happened to kick off the garage rock boom at the same time.

Fuck it, man. I'm putting out whatever the hell music I want to, and those who listen will hopefully be down with experimentation.

hello world

Have created this as a place to talk about things nobody else cares about. Should be fulfilling in a spiritual sort of way, I guess.

Thoughts of the moment:

-Aerosmith's eponymous (1973) is excellent blues-rock... what happened?
-There are so many extant lyrics that it's becoming hard to not sound like you rip someone off even when you make no sense.
-Should be devoting more of my time to working against genocide rather than working on Advanced College Essay papers.
-Need a job. Have been Wayne's Worlding it over Gibson Les Paul Doublecut in Faded Yellow ('it will be mine'). Costs much more money than I have right now (namely none), NYU has sucked me dry. Hopefully if summer job goes toward school I can put gig dollars into LP fund.

Must leave before this album ends and 1993 crapfest "Get a Grip" starts.