In musical news, I got the opportunity to see my friends Cirkestra last Friday. Here’s a video of their song “Philomena”, which is one of my favorites, and the video was shot at that actual show.
Even more important than that, however, is the fact that IrishBand now has an animated video for one of our songs. Please check it out and enjoy it, and feel free to share it with each and every one of your friends.
Thank you.
Well.
This is the infamous Super Bowl Sunday, and I for one could not care less about that. In fact, if it wasn’t for Twitter, I wouldn’t have known that today is the day. That’s how little I follow sports.
I know what I said a couple of weeks ago about how ‘the hiatus is over’ and all that, but life seems to have gone into overdrive since then, and I haven’t had two minutes to rub together to write anything new.
Two weekends ago, I went to Waldport, Oregon to spend the weekend with a childhood friend whose job is about to end, which will force him to move away from that pretty little town. (Photos to come, as soon as I get the chance to go through them.)
IrishBand has a friend who’s creating an animated video for one of our songs, and it’s tremendous! It should be done within a couple of weeks, and then I’ll be able to share it here. It’s been quite a process, and very exciting to watch it all come together. We needed to create an ‘intro’ section for it (you’ll see what I mean) that featured the sound of the band setting up their instruments and tuning up and whatnot. Since two of the band members are busy in school, we weren’t able to schedule a rehearsal, so I set up the instruments (drums, bass, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, and cello played up high to simulate a violin) in my living room and recorded them using one microphone to simulate a camera person walking in and recording us that way. (Photos to come, once I have a chance to go through them.)
I spent last weekend in Seattle to see a pipe organ concert at my brother’s church and to celebrate BabyNiece’s first birthday. It was really fun, and super cute, and a bit stressful all at the same time. (Photos to come, as soon as I get the chance to go through them.) I drove back late Saturday night so that I could attend the Oregon Symphony the next afternoon. They were featuring Jean-Philippe Collard performing Ravel’s beautiful Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, which I love and didn’t want to miss. (Extra-special thanks to Kelly V. for making it possible for me and my companion to go!) Hmm. . .’companion’ makes it sound like I’m gay, which I’m not. For the record, my companion was a girl.
Anyway.
I couldn’t find a video of Collard playing the Left Hand, but here’s one of him playing a similar piece by Ravel, for solo piano.
It was an incredible and beautiful show. The orchestra started with a piece by Thomas Adés called “Powder Her Face”, which was very colorful and enchanting. Next up was the Ravel concerto, followed by Gustav Holst’s “Egdon Heath” and one of the lesser-known Mozart symphonies, number thirty four. The Ravel was the only piece either of us (and I daresay the majority of the audience, as well) was familiar with. I love the way the conductor, Carlos, Kalmar, chooses music for his programs. This is the second one I’ve seen so far this season, and he likes to blend the familiar with the unfamiliar in an intriguing way.
Speaking of the Oregon Symphony, next season promises to be world-class. Yo-Yo Ma, Joshua Bell, Hillary Hahn, Emmanuel Ax, Lang Lang. . .and that’s not even close to a complete list. We are in for a treat multiple treats!
I had the opportunity to play with two nationally-known songwriters this week, in the same venue, on different days. The first was Tony Furtado (a friend with whom I play fairly regularly) and the second was Dan Bern, who I had just met earlier in the day, when I helped my friend John by engineering and sort of co-hosting a podcast for KZME Radio called Hello Cruel World. This was the second time I’ve had the opportunity to do that, the first being a couple weeks prior, when we interviewed an excellent new songwriter from Seattle named Tamara Power-Drutis. Anyway, we were talking with Dan about the times we’ve seen him in concert. John mentioned to Dan that I play accordion and multiple other things, and Dan asked if I know his music. “Yes, I do,” I answered. He asked, “Do you want to come play at the show tonight?” “Absolutely!”
This picture was taken during the song God Said No.
So yeah, between the multiple out-of-town trips, the stellar gigs, the birthday parties and the nights out, it’s been quite a fun couple of weeks. Now I’m off to meet a friend for dinner, and tomorrow I’ll be mixing some more songs for IrishBand.
I’m off of blogging hiatus, but we’ll see how long it takes before I have time to write again. I don’t imagine it’ll be this long.
I’m kind of obsessed with this song lately. I first heard it when my friend played it on his radio show one night. The singer’s voice sounded familiar, and the pianist clearly had classical chops. I was mesmerized, and I called my friend at the station to find out who that was. It turned out to be a new song by Regina Spektor called “Machine.”
The song’s subject matter and the detached quality of Regina’s perfomance always remind me of a beautiful, enigmatic and very dark anime series called Serial Experiments: Lain, which I recommend whole-heartedly, although I would add the caveat that its darkness and strangeness is not for everyone; certainly not for the faint of heart.
[UPDATE: Click on the picture, and that will take you to the first episode of the show.]
In other news, I spent this last weekend at the coast for a much-needed getaway. It allowed me, among other things, the luxury of enough time away from all of the usual nonsense, so that I could cut out the noise and think about the people and things that are important to me, and one of them was this blog. I needed some time away from it to appreciate how much I enjoy having this particular outlet, and you’ll be glad to know that I plan to write much more often, like I used to.
The hiatus is officially over.
In the gentle art of music production, it’s almost always the simplest instruction that gets the best results. Naturally, that always reminds me of the scientific principle known as Occam’s Razor. For the last few days, I’ve been working on a very fun project with a couple of my neighbors (who are very busy professional musicians) and an excellent singing bassist with whom I’ve played with a number of times before.
This evening, we were working on vocals, and Singer took a few takes of one of the songs, but the vibe wasn’t quite happening. It’s a very strong, haughty song, and she felt she was being a bit too gentle with the vocal. When you’re working with amateurs or people without much experience, sometimes you have to hold their hands a bit, but when you’re dealing with professionals you can push them a little bit harder. I told her simply to “Step back from the mic a little, and just sing the hell out of it.”
She did, the song completely came to life, and we had our vocal take.
Occam’s Razor strikes again.
In no particular order (Actually, they’re in reverse chronological order):
wedding, play, garden, hike, learning
Catherine Burton (Bunton?), R.I.P.
lots of big musical news, and links galore
Enjoy!
Lately, I’ve made a resolution to be more engaging with people I meet. It’s safe to say that introverts have a harder time than most other people do, but I’ve been making a conscious effort to reach out more.
Last night’s gig with Susie was a good example. The event was hosted by someone with an unusual enough name that I’d better create one of those clever pseudonyms to anonymize her; I’ll call her BlondeSinger. Since I’ve played with lots of songwriters over the years, I’ve played probably five or six shows that she’s been a part of. I’ve never played with her onstage, but I’ve played plenty of evenings like last night, where she’s been a part of it and so have I. Also, she once performed on my friend’s radio show, on which I was a regular co-host, including the day of the show she appeared on.
Last night, I was one of the first to arrive. I set down my accordion and went over to say hello to her. She clearly didn’t recognize me, so I said, “Hey, [BlondeSinger]. We’ve met before, actually. I’m friends with [RadioFriend], and you played on his show, and I co-hosted with him. I’ve been playing with Susie and [short rundown of songwriters] and we’ve played together a handful of times. Good to see you again.”
“Yeah, you do kinda look familiar,” she said, and asked if RadioFriend was still doing a show, and I told her that yes, he is. “Cool.” She looked down at her phone and started texting like mad. The silence stretched out longer and longer, and it started to become a bit awkward, so I asked, “Who’s performing tonight?”
She grabbed the list of eight or so and explained each one. There’s GuitaristGirl who’s kinda folky. . .GuitaristGuy who’s kinda like Tom Waits, there’s Susie – she’s really good and has a band (“Uhh, yes, I know,” I said, “I’m IN that band.”)–” I just felt like an invisible, silent blip on her radar screen, so I decided to be done with that particular conversation. After I got the scoop on the performers, I got a glass of wine and came back to find Susie and our group of friends instead.
On the way to meet them, I ran into another songwriter who I’ve met a time or two, and once my two friends and I even spent an evening hanging out and chatting with him at Jarra’s Ethiopian restaurant a while back, when we were all there to watch a band play. I’ll call him Dreadlocks. I wandered over and said, “Hey, Dreadlocks! Good to see you.” He also showed no sign of recognition, so I prompted him with the RadioFriend thing (cause that’s also how I knew him), and the Jarra’s show, and all that. Still nothing, and I could see that this was headed for another disaster, so I cut it short with, “I’m playing accordion with Susie tonight, and I’m looking forward to hearing you play too!”
Just then, Susie and the rest of our group of friends appeared and saved the day. We sat together and talked, and watched the first couple of performers, both of whom were really great. The second performer was the Tom Waits-y guy, and he did a brilliant version of Rainbow Connection, which he followed up with one of my favorite Tom Waits songs, Hoist That Rag.
As a side note, it was brilliant of him to do Rainbow Connection, but for him to do a Tom Waits cover (despite the fact that he did it very well) when he already is so clearly influenced by Tom Waits, just seemed like a No-Duh. There’s a girl in town who sounds remarkably like k.d. lang, and who even performs a couple of her tunes, which also seems like another No-Duh. The point of all this is that I’d rather see her do the Tom Waits tune, and him do the k.d. lang tune. It adds a bit of mystery and depth to a show, instead of leaving the audience thinking, “Gosh, they sure sound like somebody. . .but who? Oh. . .right. THAT person,” instead of sounding like themselves. Just some food for thought.
After he was done, it was our turn to rock the house, and I should mention that we totally did. Just before we started, however, someone said to me, “Look up there,” and pointed at the ceiling, where an accordion was hanging, completely defiled, gutted and torn to pieces. You get used to stupid jokes like that; they just give you more incentive for veni, vedi, vici. “It’s okay,” the guy continued. “The owner of this place is an accordion player.”
“I know, actually,” I said with a smirk (because I’ve played that venue many times before, including one night when the owner was running the sound, and before I had even stepped up to the microphone or played a note, he called out, “Less accordion!” to a round of slightly drunken laughter. O, the hilarity.) “. . .but it’s still sad.”
We played four songs, and we brought down the house, if I can take the liberty of saying so. The sound was great, and the two of us performed great.
Afterwards, when Susie and our friends and I were waiting in line at the bar, a SuperCuteGirl came up and introduced herself. She was very engaging and flirty, and said she loved our set, and thought that the accordion was great. We each got a drink and sat down to talk for a while, and after about twenty minutes or so, TomWaitsGuy and his friend came over and joined us. The three of them knew each other, and we talked about the show. While we were talking, the next performer came up to me and said he was about to go on, and that he really wanted me to hear his set. He had introduced himself to me earlier, and he’d befriended me via my music page on MySpace, thanks to a couple of my mates from another band. So I told SCG that I wanted to go listen to the guy, but I’d be back. “Cheers!” she said, smiling, and we clinked our glasses together.
I watched the guy, who was very good, and talked with our group. Afterwards, we all went outside to the smoking area, where I quickly discovered that SCG was married to the friend of TomWaitsGuy. It was a bit disappointing, to say the least (especially since she wasn’t even wearing a ring!), but at least they were both friendly and cool people. In a funny, only-in-Portland way, we discovered that they had looked at an apartment in the complex in which I used to live. We had a good time talking about that.
As another side note, there’s a funny story about that apartment, actually, and the girl who used to live there when I first moved into the complex. Her cat, Hooligan, got in a fight with another neighborhood cat a couple years before, and the victim cat’s owner sued her for the vet bills. They settled in court, but not just any court. . .The Peoples’ Court. She totally lost the case, by the way, when the judge asked, simply, “What’s your cat’s name again?”
“Hooligan.”
The audience laughed, and the judge banged the gavel. “Court finds for the plaintiff.”
All in all, it turned out to be a pretty dang decent night, after kind of a weird and awkward start. There’s nothing like a gutted accordion and a really great performance to make you forget about the weird stuff.
Man, I swear this blog gets more hits when I don’t post for a week than when I post all the time. I guess it’s a good thing I’m still feeling un-bloggish lately, then, in order to give everybody a chance to soak up a bit of beauty, humor, sadness (although there’s been precious little sadness lately!) and truth.
Times have been good, overall. Had a great gig on Friday, at which I got the chance to see many friends. I started mixing the EP for IrishBand (our goal is to finish mixing some time in December), and I had an excellent birthday. Got some new clothes. My friend LJ returned from three weeks in the U.K., so we went to brunch and then came back here to my place where she could upload the pictures and explain the stories behind all of them.
I had another excellent day yesterday, which involved a new friend and much random fun. We met at Powell’s, then watched a bewildering theater performance at Pioneer Square (we left after about ten minutes, scratching our heads with confusion), watched some buskers outside Nordstrom, bounced around between a bunch of closed restaurants (which finally led us to get sushi at Sansai), then we walked clear up to Vivace for coffee and dessert. Lovely day.
NewFriend is a piano teacher, so we’ve been looking for classical music we’ll be able to play together as a duo. I found a book of ‘easy to intermediate’ cello solos at Powell’s, which consists of classical pieces arranged for cello, with piano accompaniment. Perfect! It’s part of a two-book series; Book One is the piano book, and Book Two is the cello book. I bought the piano one because A) it was the only one they had, B) it had both the piano AND the cello parts on it, and C) I figured we could track down the complementary book at some point, or just photocopy whichever pieces we intend to learn.
When I pulled up at home, CellistSkip was standing next to his car, and he said hello. I brought the book over to show him, and he said, “No way. . .I think I used to have that book when I was a kid.” FlutistSusan came down the steps just then and I showed it to her too. “That sounds familiar,” she said. “I think I may actually have the cello book in my files somewhere.” She ran into her office, rummaged around in a drawer, and after about ten seconds pulled out a tattered copy of the companion cello book. The cover is gone and about half of the pages are missing, but it’s the same book. What a crazy coincidence, no?
So here are a few pictures. I wish I would’ve taken more, but I was too hungry to think of it when we got our sushi. The sushi was excellent, by the way, but the sunomono salad (with octopus, red onions, bell peppers and daikon radishes) was the hit of the day.
Perhaps I could recruit your help in locating a piece for NewFriend and me? We’re looking for Antonin Dvorak’s Slavonic Dance #2 in E minor, Opus 72, arranged for piano and cello. You know, it’s this piece (and what a beautiful performance this is!):
I could watch that all day. Thanks in advance for your help!
Last night, my friend Ania invited me to my second concert in as many days, as another early birthday present. The lineup was of two bands I’d never heard before, Damon & Naomi and A Hawk And A Hacksaw. I checked them out on MySpace and got very excited by what I heard and saw. AH&AH’s main instruments are accordion and violin, and I would describe them as an instrumental gypsy klezmer band. I had no idea what I was in for.
Their sound was fantastic, and you don’t normally hear a lineup like that. When’s the last time you saw a band with a tuba player? Add a trumpeter and a clarinetist who also plays the bouzouki, and you know you’re in for a treat.
Occasionally the violinist would play a Stroh violin (we asked her about it after the show) instead, which had a loud, thin, metallic sound. I commented to Ania that it sounded like a recording from the 1930’s, and just now when I looked up the Stroh, the article said that they were in very common usage on early recordings, up until about the 1920’s or 30’s when microphone technology changed.
They ended their set, and walked offstage to thunderous applause and shouts of “Bravo!” They came out for an encore, but they told the sound person to turn off the PA. The band walked down the steps to the back of the room, right next to where we were standing. They launched into a few faster songs in crazy time signatures, and that’s when the dancing and clapping began in earnest.
One girl was whirling particularly fervently (and beautifully), and everyone cleared a space for her to dance. There were a couple of guys who joined her at various times, and she even grabbed me to join her for a few whirls, which was quite a nice surprise for shy but irrepressible me. I was more than happy to oblige.
What an excellent and surprising show. Many, many thanks to Ania, without whom I would have missed out on a completely wonderful evening. This is turning out to be quite a week. Saturday I had a fantastic gig at Mississippi Studios, Sunday was the Pogues, last night was this incredible show, tonight is another gig of mine, and on Thursday a few friends are going to the dress rehearsal for a circus in which our friend is performing, and after that I’m heading to the Woods for Classical Revolution and inviting people to celebrate my birthday.
Definitely a great week, all around.
In other news, today I made my very first omelette! No idea why it took me so long to learn, or why I thought it would be so difficult, but it came out really great. Roasted bell peppers, tomatoes and cheese on the inside, with spicy guacamole (which I made yesterday!) on the top. I recommend that combination highly, but I might use green peppers instead, just for the sake of a more interesting color. Sliced black olives would be nice too.
Anyway.
Time to take a shower and get ready for tonight’s gig.
