Archive for July, 2009

Bison Rides Again for Vera

Thursday, July 30th, 2009
bison-5

Duff looks cool, per usual

The Vera Project is exactly the kind of place that didn’t exist when I was 15 years old.

All-ages shows, summertime rock school, lots of music for young people.

I’m all for it.

Last summer and again a few days ago, Duff McKagan, Mike McCready, Kelly Van Camp and I (collectively known as Bison) got together to play a few songs and answer questions for the kids who attend Vera’s Rock Camp.

One of the only known mammals cooler than Duff

One of the handful of known mammals cooler than Duff

We do it for two reasons.  One, getting together and playing some songs you like with guys you like is fun.  Two, I think we all feel some sense of responsibility or obligation to share whatever wisdom we’ve gained in our years in the rough-and-tumble music business.

Why Bison?  It’s an old joke band name that my friend Kermit and I came up with many years ago.  We also had a career’s worth of album names: Stampede, Put Your Ear to the Ground, Over the Edge, etc.

Vera is a community-driven project backed by the City of Seattle.  If we can do it here, you can do it in your town, too.

No Shortage of Talent

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
Beaumont stud

Beaumont stud

Or charisma.  Or energy.  Or work ethic.

There are so many incredible songwriters and musicians out there that you’ll never hear or even hear about.

One evening spent listening to pickers and singers in New Orleans or Austin or Nashville will tell you that.  So many guys and gals who can just plain rip.

Why do some become stars and some don’t?  I sure as hell don’t know.  Maybe ask Jesse Dayton.

I met Jesse Dayton sometime in 1995 or 1996.  He was friends with our friends the Supersuckers and he sang lead on a track we did for Twisted Willie, a compilation of younger artists doing Willie Nelson songs (that’s another story for another time).

I shan’t forget the first time I saw him play, at some bar in Hollywood.  Goddamn!  Here was a guy with George Jones’s voice, Elvis Presley’s supercharged sexual charm and guitar skills from James Burton to Jimmy Page and beyond.  He literally blew me away and I felt very small indeed as a singer and player myself for a long time after that night.

I was able to get Jesse on a bill with the Presidents a few months later, opening for us on a three- or four-show swing through his native state of Texas.  Our audience didn’t know what to do with him.  I couldn’t understand why people didn’t get it.  To me he was, and is, a huge star, just plain to see if you watch him for even a few minutes.

Dessert Bar Disc #4

Tuesday, July 21st, 2009

picture-13Maybe it’s the exceptionally hot and dry summer we’re having here in Seattle, but I’m enjoying light and lovely pop confections to an extreme degree right now.

I absolutely love this song (see bottom of post).  In fact, I absolutely love this whole album.  It’s magic.  Get over yourself and go buy it now.  Then listen to it from start to finish, in sequence.  On a summer afternoon in a sunny, warm bedroom with all the windows open and a breeze blowing the drapes around.

picture-3Except for doing a favor for someone, I never would have given Edie Brickell and New Bohemians a second listen, other than hearing “What I Am” on the radio.  When I was teaching high school English at the Kent Denver School in the late 80s, a student wanted me to back her up while she sang the song “Nothing” from this album.  She gave me a cassette of the album.  I learned the song.  I listened to the album.  And then again.  And again and again.

I have a massive crush on her voice.

I have a massive crush on her voice.

My understanding of how the band formed is that the fellas were a bunch of loose jammers and Edie joined them impromptu and started making up words and the next thing you know they had an album or so worth of music.  Like most great albums, it’s a snapshot of a brief, beautiful moment.  You can tell that all the pieces just fell into place.

The fantastic guitar solo from Kenny Withrow (the greatest Jerry Garcia solo Jerry Garcia didn’t play) is icing on the cake.  Just added this song to my playlist from yesterday’s post on great guitar solos.



Great Songs With Great Guitar Solos

Monday, July 20th, 2009
Underrated, overlooked

Underrated, overlooked

Just built a playlist of great songs with great guitar solos on nuTsie.

As opposed to just great guitar solos.  These are solos that take the song to another level.  Kick in the afterburners, so to speak.

I tried to avoid the obvious heroes and wankers, the noodly guitar workouts that hopelessly hopeless 14 year-old boys spend hours in their bedrooms trying to learn.

OK, there is one Stevie Ray Vaughan solo here, but it’s on a David Bowie song.  The great wankers are so often better on other people’s records.

These are real songs…mostly real POP songs…that happen to be set apart from the pack by containing incredible guitar solos.

Only one guy gets three tracks: Elliot Easton, from the Cars.  Hard to say enough good things about him or to describe how hard it is to do what he makes sound so easy, which is to create a tidy little musical statement within an already great song…and to take that great song to an even higher level of excitement and engagement.

Give me your suggestions and I’ll add them to the list.

If I were going to go for total guitar geekery, I would only make one stop, and that would be with Jeff Beck, who blows everyone else away.   Because he’s not a guitar geek, per se; he’s more virtuosic than any of his peers yet always sounds like he’s actually playing music instead of just playing the guitar.

Dessert Bar Disc #3

Saturday, July 18th, 2009

picture-4Another in a series of guilty pleasures.

This one is way out there on the taste scale.  Can’t help it.  When I hear this in the car, like I did today, I absolutely crank it.  Can’t get it loud enough, really.

This is a great sounding recording, great arrangement, super songwriting with a really memorable melody and the pre-chorus that builds up and up, blah, blah, blah.  It’s just one of those songs that jumps out of the radio and grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go for three minutes fifty-six seconds.

Pop perfection.


Britney Spears Hit me baby one more time
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Great songwriting translates across formats and styles:

Rock in a Hard Place

Thursday, July 9th, 2009
picture-11

The most sparsely populated country in the EU

Real rock and roll still exists.  Just in funny places, played by funny people.

Places like Finland.  People like an Argentinian expatriate singing in English and Spanish in front of a bunch of Finnish guys with odd names (e.g., The Punisher on bass).

The Flaming Sideburns’ Save Rock and Roll is one of my top 10 albums from the last 10 years.  Here’s a live version of the lead-off track, “Loose My Soul.”  And, no, that’s not a typo.

This is the real thing.  Nobody does this to get famous or make money.  Just to rock.

Why would anyone move from Argentina to Finland?

New Jack White NOW

Wednesday, July 8th, 2009
rockers

rockers

I love Jack White so much I’m willing to send you to a player powered by one of our nuTsie competitors just so you can hear The Dead Weather’s new record streaming for free for the next 24 hours.

Since I was kind enough to do you this favor, plz promise to spend some time on nuTsie ASAP.

Led Zeppelin IV, Side Two

Wednesday, July 8th, 2009

Why do I love rock?

Led Zeppelin IV, side two, that’s why.

Just listened to it as an “album side” for the first time in many years.

Misty Mountain Hop > Four Sticks > Going to California > When the Levee Breaks

Perfection.  I laughed (”Misty Mountain Hop”), I cried (”Going to California”), I dropped my jaw in awe of the power and swing of John Bonham (”When the Levee Breaks,” my favorite Zeppelin song).

First heard this record when I was about 10 years old, 1974 or so.  It was in my mom’s boyfriend’s record collection.  A friend saw it, put it on the turntable, dropped the needle on “Black Dog.”  Holy shit.  But side one gets old after a while — you have to listen to “Stairway to Heaven” to close out the side.  I soon discovered side two.

U2 Launches Smartphone App; Gimme More Apps

Monday, July 6th, 2009
When they were fab

When they were fab

U2 is launching an app for the BlackBerry to accompany their U2 360 tour, which kicked off June 30 in Barcelona.

App users can stream the recent No Line on the Horizon album, get news updates and share user-generated video footage of concerts on the 360 tour.

As noted in the linked CNN article, we were ahead of the curve on this at Melodeo/nuTsie HQ, with apps for The Presidents of the USA and Nettwerk Records artist State Radio that stream the artists’ entire catalogs.

I think this is a huge opportunity for major artists and labels.

Imagine the 15 year-old who hears “Like a Rolling Stone” on the radio.  “Gee, Dad,” he says, “that song is f#@%ing amazing!  Who is that?”   Dad:  “Well, son, that’s Bob Dylan.” Kid:  “Wow, Dad, when we get home I’m going to use my iTunes allowance to buy some Bob Dylan songs.”

Kid gets on the computer.  Kid sees that Dylan has something like 93 albums available from Columbia Records on iTunes and has no idea what to buy.

But WHAT IF there were a Bob Dylan app for $9.99?  His whole catalog in streaming mode.  Links to buy every song and album.  Bio and history, a few videos.  The app is updateable and becomes an open conduit to market to this new fan.   Everyone wins:  Kid learns to love Dylan and buys more songs and concert tix and merch.  Columbia gets $9.99 off of a new fan plus the opportunity to market directly to that fan through the app.   What’s not to love?

5th of July Thoughts: Ain’t That America

Sunday, July 5th, 2009

Where else but in America can one of the most harshly critical anti-American protest songs of all time become a Top 10 hit and one of our best-loved patriotic chants?

Where else but in America can the singer who sang that protest song turn the song, album and images associated with that song into one of the most durable and iconic brands in American commerce?

Where else but in America can an already-successful entertainer transform himself from a scrawny New Jersey street rat speaking out for the underdog into a buffed-out, Okie-wannabe superstar well-loved for his wholesome “American-ness?”

America is dead. Long live America. It’s a beautiful place.


Bruce Springsteen - Born in the USA @ Yahoo! Video