beautiful, funny, sad & true

After a sick day I had not too long ago, when I stayed home and spent endless hours watching videos on WebSiteLikeTV, I mentioned my idea of doing a series of entries about 80’s rock, and some of the bands I used to like back in the day. I have to confess that I don’t exactly know where to start with all of this; the natural place would be at the beginning, but since rock music is a bit of a continuum, I guess I’ll jump in by starting with the music that I came across first.

I didn’t grow up in a major metropolitan city, I grew up in an isolated little town in the middle of Washington state. No cable TV, no live music or touring bands to speak of. I’ve played piano since I was three years old, so I grew up listening to classical music, and then a little bit of stuff from my friends, but not much. The majority of my musical childhood was spent listening to whatever my parents had in their record collections. My dad had a sizable collection that was all classical. My mom had about 50 records, including some Simon & Garfunkel and Beatles, and some classical, and some folk, but nothing really earth-shaking.

I’ve always hated 70’s arena rock and all that boring blues-based stuff. I’ve always hated that wispy 70’s folk that was the antithesis of arena rock. I didn’t discover rock music that I actually liked until I was about ten or eleven years old, but that was pretty much just whatever was on the radio at the time. Nothing particularly earth-shaking there either.

When I was twelve or thirteen, my parents had been divorced for a couple of years, and my dad moved to the Portland, Oregon area. That was when I finally got to hear some new and different music. Portland had two whole radio stations devoted to classical music. They had jazz, all kinds of different pop music and dance music, as well as hard rock, which was what I took a particular interest in. My dad also had cable TV, which included the still-fledgling MTV, which was just beginning to have a huge effect on popular music. I will never forget some of those exciting, innovative and strange early videos. Here’s the obvious choice to show first, the Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star.”

Lots of things were happening in the early 80’s that affected music greatly. Cable TV, particularly MTV, led the way in creating a new look and style for the changing times. Technology was changing daily as well, which meant that computers, synthesizers, camcorders, VCR’s, cassette recorders were all inexpensive and readily available, which meant that almost anyone could create things at home that could be seen by lots of people, relatively easily and cheaply.

That, combined with the all-pervasive ‘bigger than life’ ethic that exemplified the 80’s made for some interesting music and videos. Duran Duran were one of the biggest bands of the time, and deservedly so. They combined intelligent, catchy songwriting with youthful good looks, and the ‘exoticism’ of being English. Here’s “New Moon on Monday.”

And it wasn’t all new groups, either. More, um, seasoned bands like Yes and Kiss breathed new life into their careers by ushering in new members and taking advantage of the new technology to update their sound and look.

Here’s “I Love It Loud” by Kiss, and “Owner of a Lonely Heart” by Yes.

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This was also the decade of the widening “generation gap” between adults and their kids. Unlike the “My Generation” kids of the 1960’s and 70’s, kids of the 80’s seemed to have a completely separate existence that was entirely their own. Times were changing at a breakneck pace, and many parents seemingly had no other choice but to abdicate.

This seems like a good start, and there’s plenty more to come.

Wow. . .I don’t know where this week went. How can it have been four days since I wrote last? Well, I suppose it hasn’t been a very eventful week. I’ve been enjoying a few days of relaxation before next week’s craziness starts.

My favorite incarnation of all the groups I play with had a gig on Thursday night. It was the Breanna/cello/violin trio, with Justin singing harmonies. It’s very exciting to be part of such an eclectic and wonderful group, doing our own particular blend of music that incorporates elements of folk, rock, classical and country, seamlessly and beautifully.

Last night I went to see two different shows. The first was a band called Thunder Flea. They were bass/drums/melodica/ukelele, and then electric guitar. The electric guitar was supposed to be a ukelele, but apparently the ukelele wasn’t working, so he had to bring the guitar. They were something of a ‘supergroup’, made up of people who are all in other bands, some of which are quite well-known. Very fun. BoringFish and a couple of her friends were there, too, which made it even more fun.

The second show was a tour kick-off show for a group called the Dimes. Haven’t seen them play in a couple of years, but they’ve been around for probably five or six years now. When Crystin Byrd still had her electric band, we played with them a time or two, and they were really great. They’ve stripped down their sound a little since then, and I think it suits them. They’re just as melodic as ever, but they kinda rock a little harder now. Really a good show. I met up with Shelby and Brian, who had been there since the early part of the evening, and then afterwards we went up the hill to Crush for some hummus.

Speaking of Crystin Byrd, today is going to be a rehearsal for an upcoming show, in which she’s going to be too pregnant to hold her guitar, so she asked if I’d like to play guitar or piano or something, and she would just sing. I agreed, but stipulated that it will probably be best if we do her older songs, instead of the newer ones that I’m not as familiar with. So today’s the day we pull the old songs out of their leather cases, blow the dust off, and then decide which ones to perform. I’m really excited about this.

The rest of the weekend should be pretty low-key, which I could certainly use. Next week I’m busy every night from Tuesday clear through until Saturday. I found the DVD of After Life yesterday, which I’ve been trying to find for years. Excellent and beautiful movie.

Oh, and you’ll be glad to know that there are no Hitler references in this entry, and no mention of chronic or terminal diseases either. Oh wait. . .I think I may have inadvertently slipped one in. Oops.

And for the record, the title ‘red star’ has nothing to do with anything. I needed a name for this entry, and for some reason, that’s what popped into my head. So there it is. What do you think it means? Come on, all you Jungians!

It seems that I’m not alone; these last couple of weeks have been extremely strange and emotional for almost everyone. Unfortunately, the things that have been happening are not subjects that are appropriate for me to write about here, especially not with a certain someone slithering around. Family issues, friend issues, money issues…all seem to be par for the course at the same time. I suppose you know what they say about rain.

Let’s hope the worst is over.

Here’s a short list of some statistics for the week, though. It certainly ain’t all bad, either, by any stretch of the imagination:

• number of distressing phone calls from close friends in tears: 3
• number of best-in-my-whole-life drum recording sessions: 2
  
• number of cockroaches seen in my building: 1
• number of cockroaches seen in my apartment: ZERO
• number of days home sick from work last week: 2
• number of excellent Wes Anderson movies seen in the theater: 1
• number of excellent new anime’s I’ve watched online, for free: 4
• number of nights in which I got fewer than three hours of sleep: 3
• number of interesting and deep phone conversations, today alone: 3
• number of hilarious conversations today involving Hitler’s love life: 1

Clearly, if I’m able to incorporate Hitler–let alone his love life–back into my humor lexicon, I’m starting to feel like my usual self. I mean (with all due respect), the subjects of brain cancer and full-blown AIDS can almost always provide good fodder for comedy, but I generally have to be feeling at my tippy top in order to find humor in Hitler.

So. Moving on.

I’ve finally been feeling like writing again lately, and by that I mean writing about real and important subjects. Six months or so ago, I was poking around online, trying to find out information about all my old favorite guitarists and bands from the 80’s. I spent many hours sitting here alone, laughing out loud at the ridiculous clothes and videos, and of course, the music. But at the same time, it was a little more complicated than that, because I could still see and hear what I liked about them back in the day. Ever since that night, I’ve had the thought in the back of my mind that it would be fun to write a series of blog entries about some of those people and what my thoughts about them were, both then and now. Naturally, I would put up whatever videos I could find, so that you too could get in on the fun.

I’ve also needed to create a music-related e-mail list for a while now, so that people who are interested can keep up with my gigging and recording schedule, and this seems like the perfect time to do it.

But definitely check back here for the Eighties Röck Blög or whatever I end up calling it. I think that’ll be a fun project.

Yesterday was just. . .a great day. I can’t remember the last time I’ve been able to say that.

I took the day off from work, and slept in until ten-thirty. Around eleven, Breanna and the other two band members came to my place to rehearse. We sounded great and had fun, as per usual, so we drove down to Wilsonville to do the radio show. I was expecting a little pod-cast out of someone’s house, but boy, was I in for a surprise.

It was in a house, it’s true, but once we got inside and went upstairs, we were in a professional radio studio. Couches, chairs, two computers, a satellite uplink, a mixing board, speakers everywhere, and one huge desk. The host, Mitchell, was sixteen years old.

If you didn’t see him, you’d never know that he’s sixteen. He sounds forty. Really deep voice, with complete confidence; he’s a total pro. He told us he’s been doing the show professionally since he was ten. Ten! AND he’s had some of the biggest-name people in country music on his show. It’s not some cheesy little show, either; he’s on XM, and lots of NPR affiliates and commercial stations all across the country. Crazy!

Their house, coincidentally enough, was in the same subdivision of Wilsonville where MostRecentExGirlfriend’s uncle and aunt–who I’m still friends with, and who actually read this blog (Hi, TFG & 9!)–live, so I went over there afterwards. Her uncle was at work, but aunt and I drank tea and talked for almost two hours, and had a tremendous time.

I came home long enough to change my clothes, and then I had to get over to the southeast part of town for one of the play readings. Instead of getting stuck in horrible rush-hour traffic, which is what usually happens, I took a different way, and finally figured out how to avoid all of the busy streets and sneak down through Reed College from the north. Brilliant!

I brought my cello, expecting to play that, but since there was a shortage of guys last night, I actually got invited to read one of the parts. It was SO much fun! The play had excellent dialogue, and it was about three friends who’ve grown up together in Boise. (There were even a few scenes set in a club called Neurolux–where I’ve been and played!–so that was particularly interesting.) One of the friends falls on hard times, and the relationship between the three guys is tested to its core. Very well-written and fun to be a part of. I played the part of the stoner musician. Typecasting, no? Well, minus the stoner part, anyway.

After that, it was time to relax and watch another fine episode of Mushi-shi–one of these days, I’m going to post one of the episodes up here, so you can see it for yourself–and then I went to bed, satisfied from having one of the best days I’ve had in the last few months. I genuinely enjoyed every minute of it.

“Don’t look back; always look ahead.”

Hm. Particularly apropos lately. Even my dream the other day seemed to be saying something similar; if you’re going to go back the way you came, watch out. Trouble awaits you there.

Tomorrow I’m taking the day off from work to play an internet radio show with Breanna. No, I don’t know what the name of it is yet, but Breanna was very excited when she heard about it, so it sounds like it could be a great opportunity. I’ll keep you posted or take some pictures or something.

[EDIT: I should’ve waited until later to write. I got a call from DrummerAdam this afternoon, saying that he came across an ad on ListNamedAfterOneMan about a Portland band with a style similar to that of Arcade Fire and the Decemberists who are looking for a tasteful lead guitarist and drummer. He responded, and gave them our names so they can look into our musical resumés. I’m definitely intrigued. I can’t wait to find out who they are, so we can see whether or not we’re interested.]