beautiful, funny, sad & true

After months of hard work, I have two new songs to share with you. Turn up your speakers, click on the links, and enjoy.

The first is one you’ve seen me mention here in my blog before. It’s by Crystin Byrd, and it’s called “Blue Angel,” from the upcoming independent film of the same name. She wrote the song, sang, and played acoustic guitar, her cellist Scott Allen played the cello parts (that I wrote), and I played drums, bass, electric guitar, and keyboards. The weird sound effects that show up occasionally were all done with electric guitar pedals. Believe it or not, we recorded it entirely in her basement.

The second is by the Young Immortals, and it’s called “The Fever.” It’s not the same version that’s on the Starbucks CD, which is me and Jake playing everything. This version is from the band’s album “When History Meets Fiction,” which just came out on Wednesday. On this song, I played piano, organ, keyboards, and the electric guitar solo.

I hope you enjoy these songs. I’m glad to finally be able to share them with you.

String arrangement – written

“Once” – seen. It was very good, very touching, very ‘real’, and the music is great.

The gig with Steph was really fun. It was at a middle school, to celebrate their last day before summer. We played two half-hour sets, took a short break, then played a third set. It was very unlike most of the other shows we’ve played, for lots of reasons. It was in a gymnasium, we had a whole corner of it to ourselves, so we (did I say ‘we’? Cause I meant ‘I’. ha ha) had plenty of room to run around. Another fun thing about it was that playing in a gym is very different from playing in a jazz club, and you get to play louder and act weirder. DrummerCharlie was having a blast getting to play in a way that he rarely gets a chance to, and I walked all over the ‘stage’ (really it was a corner blocked off by wrestling mats) like one of the Rolling Stones or something. BassPlayerKeith played with us for the first time. You may know him from being in Dirty Martini at the same time I was. It was really great to see him and play with him again; he’s just an all-around great guy. The kids were amazing. I think the second set of the three was the most fun. We signed T-shirts and yearbooks and somewhat surprisingly, even gave a few hugs. There was a group of boys who asked their teacher if they could dance. She said, “Of COURSE you can, that’d be great.” They replied, “No no, we want to dance with HER.” Meaning Steph. It was hilarious. We left the gig completely exhausted, with ringing ears from all the screams and cheers.

After that, I drove home to unload my instruments, then raced back downtown to the DMV to get new license plates. After having the car for six months, everything is finally legal and accounted for. Emissions test passed, registration in my name, Oregon license plates. Relief.

Crystin’s song – e-mailed. Now I’m just waiting for the verdict on the mix to see what she and the filmmaker think of the new-and-improved version.

This morning I’m going to take my cello in for Part Two of the repairs that it needs. It’s going to get the neck wedged up a little bit, because for some reason it’s not at the standard cello neck height. At the same time, it’ll get a new bridge, which is the little wooden tower-shaped thingy that the strings rest on. I’m also going to get a ‘wolf’ eliminator installed (it’s too complicated to explain what that is), and last but not least, I’m getting a new set of strings, because it’s time for that too. All these repairs are going to make my cello easier to play and stay in tune, make the sound ‘ring out’ better, but most of all it will make me a much better cellist. I’m going to have to un-learn a lot of weird habits that I’ve acquired, because of playing such a non-standard instrument for so long, but I’m very ready for that. I guess If I wasn’t, none of this would matter. I’ve improved a lot as a player, and I keep finding myself limited by my instrument, which is unacceptable. So off it goes to the shop, to get what it needs.

It’s time to go do that. I need to get off the computer, get into the shower, and start the day. And of course, some coffee would be good too; hmmm.

And now, finally, a little good news I felt I should share.

The song of Crystin Byrd’s that she and I are working on for the movie soundtrack is coming along amazingly well. I was going for an Elliott Smith kind of sound, like from “XO” or “Figure Eight.” Full band, dark and intense, with really low electric bass, drum set played with brushes, and hooky, sparse keyboards and electric guitars interspersed throughout.

The drums, bass, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, (including some weird guitar effects) and mellotron keyboards are done. We still need to do the real vocal track, the cello tracks, and maybe some piano or glockenspiel for a solo section. We’re trying to finish it by this weekend. The filmmaker has a deadline for an important screening, and far be it from us to make him miss an opportunity.

And speaking of opportunities, this song has been just what I needed to boost my sagging musical confidence. I can’t wait to hear it in the theater, and I can’t wait to be able to share it with you.

It was a really nice weekend, but really super busy at the same time.

I took my cello in for Part One of a two-part major overhaul. It’s getting lots of little things fixed and upgraded, and it’s going to get its body re-glued, because the glue’s so old that the thing is barely able to hold itself together anymore. Having that fixed will make a huge improvement in the sound of the instrument, and all the other little fixes will help with its playability. It will sit at the correct height and stay in tune better now; both very important things. Part Two of the overhaul will require major surgery on the fingerboard and neck, and will be much more expensive, so I’ll have to save up a bit for it.

We did more Susie Blue recording with Jason Roark last Saturday. We tracked drums, accordion, and hand claps. After I got home and unloaded my car, Kelly and I went to Urban Outfitters, and I got a cool new pair of pants. Very exciting. I was supposed to go to a show that night, but I was pretty beat after working hard in the studio, so I went back over to Kelly’s, intending to crash, but instead we stayed up really late, drinking chardonnay and watching “Young Frankenstein.” (That’s FRAHNK-en-shteen. . .)

When I got home on Sunday morning, I spent the next two or three hours washing, vacuuming, and detailing my car. Afterwards, I sat in the sun on the front steps of my building to eat lunch, when Kelly arrived. She walked over to Lloyd Center to look for some new clothes, and I met her after my laundry was done and I’d taken a shower. We walked around for a long time, and were both exhausted by the time we got home, so we took a nap while listening to the jazz trio rehearse next door. Pretty dang nice way to spend an afternoon. Then she went home and I went over to rehearse with Stephanie.

Came home all jazzed after having two cups of tea over at Steph’s, so I watched the first episode of the new This American Life TV show. What an amazing program. As a long-time devotee of the radio show, I’m glad they’re doing the television version the ‘right’ way. It has everything I like about the radio version, plus some other elements that just aren’t possible to achieve on the radio. Well done. And as a hopefully interesting aside, did you notice the show’s tag line? ‘Funny, real, surprising, unscripted, true.’ Don’t forget ‘beautiful’ and ‘sad’!

This week is getting a little crazy. (So crazy, in fact, that I can’t seem to keep up with my blog entries!) Rehearsal with Crystin Byrd, CD release with the Young Immortals for the Starbucks compilation, gig with Stephanie Schneiderman, cello back from the repair shop, and rehearsal with Jaime and Becky.

Next week should be a little less crazy. . .

Spent a few hours on Saturday playing drums on a couple of songs for the next Susie Blue CD. Total blast. We’re recording with Jason Roark, at his newly completed home studio. Great guy, who’s doing a great job. (Incidentally, that’s the same place where the Pete Krebs Trio is in the process of recording their CD as well. To refresh your memory, go here.) I’m really excited to hear how it all turns out. The most exciting thing of all is that there’s finally going to be new stuff from Susie! This album is going to sound very different from her last one, but I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.