I Blog What I Hear

Wow, where did my blogging go?    Ok, we don’t have time for that now, much to discuss.  Well, not that much, but some.

There will be some upcoming shows, which will then be reviewed, all of which I am very excited about.  The first will be Tuneyards, Feb 5th at the Bell House.  If you read my original tuneyards review opening for the Dirty Projectors, you understand that this is a significant event.  I believe it is their first large headlining New York show, and I expect nothing less than pure genius, 100% mind blowing ukulele jams.

The next will be Wilco at the Wellmont Theater in Montclair.  If you know me personally, you know of my great love for all things Jeff Tweedy, so this will be an important day.  But like any true obsessed fan, I’m just as ready to denounce anything new in favor of the old which will never be recreated.  In other words, I’m just a loose cannon, accept me for me, thank you.

Then, Nada Surf at Music Hall of Williamsburg.  This is a band I am not that familiar with, but I have been encouraged to check out by a trustworthy source, so its on.

Also, if you’d like to take a listen to the Bad Plus New Years Eve broadcast, as written about in a recent post, it has now been posted here.  Although I did not take this photo, John Rogers did, this was our view the entire evening.  Also notice the ghetto sound foam we gaff taped to a mic stand next to the drums.

Much has been happening in the music world recently.  Our band continues to record various demos, and the results are overwhelmingly positive.  We’ve gone head first into the Logic world.  My goal for this project is to never be tainted by the evil of Pro Tools for as long as the songs exist on a hard drive.  We’ve overdubbed shakers while fighting the heinous bleed of a drummer practicing out of time lame ass fills in the rehearsal room next to us, we’ve eaten many a box of Entemans mini cookies, the bridge pickup is dying on both my SG and Telecaster, we’ve triumphed in the face of adversity.  And I still don’t know how to punch in using Logic, so nearly everything has been one complete take.

In Addition to band recording, I took part in a film scoring session last night for a documentary on that guy in the question mark suit who tells you how to avoid paying taxes or something, I’m not even going to google his name, because I was told he is one of the least trustworthy people in America.  Anyway.  We were emulating the classic 70’s guitar sound, and it was the perfect opportunity to break out the seldom used, often secretly desired, Wah Pedal.  Now dear reader, I’m about to blow your mind with the eternal secret of guitar tone.  Are you ready?  Sit down, have your feet on the ground, and relax.  Take a small amp, we used a 50’s Danelectro, turn it to 10, plug in a phaser, and turn on the wah.  Thats it. You’re done.  You might as well burn everything else you own.  I have no doubts this tone will never be recreated again,the battery on the phaser was nearly dead, and as we all know from esoteric message board posts, that is essential for the sound and is as elusive as the white rhino and giant squid combined.  You know what?  Don’t even try it.  I take it back.  Lets leave it mysterious.

This weekend I was at a friends birthday party, enjoying some food and beverage in lovely Jersey City.  Things were progressing normally, TV sporting event on part of the time, Computer playing iTunes at others.  At the end of the evening, when the location was about to change, someone turned on some Velvet Underground.  I’m not going to go into some hipster rant about Lou Reed or the positives and negatives of Nico, this isn’t even about a particular band….wait, one quick side note.  I once had a Velvet Underground CD which perished in a spectacular car fire.  But there is no time for that now, I have a point here.  I turned to someone and said “is this coming from an AM radio? That’s fucking awesome!”  In fact, it was coming from one of those little ipod dock type of things, with one small speaker.  Pure mp3 sound, made fantastic by the context.  Had this been playing through much larger and more expensive speakers, the effect would have been not nearly as intense.

I read an interview with Paul McCartney once, who was asked what he thought about Mp3’s and quality issues.  He responded with something like “well, you know mate, before I was a billionaire, in our early days we used to take the little battery powered radio to the beach and turn on the old AM to hear the latest hits, before I was the one writing them because I’m awesome, and we had a jolly old time, with just that one tiny speaker, before i was bathing in gold coins like Scrooge McDuck!  So what really matters is the song!”    Quote me on it, those are his exact words, with possibly a few more ego maniacal rants thrown in.  But Sir Mrs John Lennon has a point there.  Maybe there are even those among us who recall listening to a cassette walkman, cranking out the hits in lofi questionable speed control tapes, getting all we could from the song.  Bob Dylan made that amazing and relevant statement not too long ago that everything recorded recently sounds like garbage.  It kinda does, with a few notable exceptions which we do not have time to discuss in this post, but lets say T Bone Burnett is producing most of them.  So what if we make a drastic move to bring things back into perspective.  Ready?  Lets get rid of the 2nd speaker.

Ringo, probably trying to steal emerick's grammy.

In Geoff Emerick’s fantastic book “Here There and Everywhere” he discusses his philosophy on mono in the days of early stereo.  Emerick was The Beatles engineer for the majority of their career.  He created most of the sounds everyone has tried to emulate since.  George Martin was a bitch, this kid was the brains of the operation.  But an interesting point he made, is that stereo was pretty much a joke when it came out.  They would do silly panning effects just because they could, nothing to further the strength of the song, they would just mess around.  If you feel like dropping several hundred dollars on these new Beatles reissue box sets, just listen to the mono recordings and there is no comparison.  In fact, I encourage you to choose your friends based on which box set they would go for, mono or stereo.  If we can consistently learn anything from The Beatles, its that limitations of technology can enhance creativity.  Those kids had 4 tracks, and mono.  Look what they came up with.  If they had a pro tools rig and surround sound, Idon’t think the albums would have been as good, and I don’t think many people would disagree.

For the greatest of all Wintertine Jewish Octetular Present Presentations…Hannukkah, I got an Tivoli Model One Radio.  Its a small, well designed box, featuring one 3.5 inch speaker.  With all this hi-fi hubub going on recently, I felt the need to give 1 speaker a chance.  There is an intimacy in mono that you just don’t get from some giant hifi system.  I think the first night i plugged it in, Little Feat’s “Willin” came on a WFUV show very late, and it heightened the experience.  It also has one huge tuning knob, no digital anything, and a 1/8″ input, should you choose to put a turntable or ipod through it, which I do intend to do.  Obviously I feel conflicted about playing some mp3’s through a well designed analog box, but we are children of technology, so lets just selectively embrace it, ok?

For about 2 years I would only record drum overheads using one mic.  I heard somewhere that all of the Rolling Stones “Some Girls” album was recorded with only one overhead, a kick and snare mic, reinforced with a PA system. That’s how it should be done.  KISS Method, not Gene Simmons.  Why has this trend not come back into fashion?  Why does no one release mono LPs or something anymore?  Can’t we start a hipster trend in the depths of bushwick, and take away every home studio’s left speaker?  Lets start a crusade.

New Years Eve.  Its the one holiday that I completely understand.  Once you start mixing religion into things, it just gets confusing, so lets keep it secular around these blog related parts.  We have all agreed to observe the same calendar, so lets all have a party when it turns over, world wide, time zone abiding.  Its a recurring opportunity for disappointment, when the whole world is counting on you to get out there and tear it up.  But the older we get, the less that seems to matter, so once my Quarter Century had passed, I don’t feel I need to bear that burden anymore.  This year, it was time to get some work done.

As mentioned in my previous post, I was on the crew for the NPR Toast Of The Nation Broadcast.  The producer of the show mentioned that he had seen this here blog and referred to me as “Bilbo Bloggins”, thanks Josh, I feel good about that.  There were a few shows broadcast throughout the country, but the New York Crew was in charge of The Bad Plus at The Village Vanguard.  One of my favorite bands at one of my favorite venues, it was win win.  Since there is always the likelihood that you will have to work while at work, I made reservations earlier in the week to see The Bad Plus at the Vanguard, just to relax and see the show.  My previous experiences with this band at this venue have always been fantastic.  Exactly one year ago, they played a stellar version of “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” which completely blew my mind, followed by an encore of Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” which I would bet is the only time that particular song has been played at that particular venue by any band at any time.  I also witnessed owner Loraine Gordon completely put an obnoxious tourist in his place for complaining about the line outside, which was one of my favorite New York moments of all time.

What Jazz Group Has A Press Photo Like This?

But that was then, this is now.  And the Bad Plus is a “Now” band.  They are most widely known for their interpretations of cover songs, everything from “Smells Like Teen Spirit” to Rush’s “Tom Sawyer” to Wilco’s “Radio Cure” but they go far beyond a novelty act.  I feel like they are the leaders of a very small number of jazz artists actually doing interesting and relevant things, rather than just repeating the past.  I’m sure they could play every standard known to every professor at Berklee School Of Music, but they don’t seem to be interested in doing that.  Covers aside, listening to their original material, you feel yourself being pulled forward into new territory.  There is all sorts of rock influence in the backbeats drummer Dave King throws in, Reid Anderson’s  rhythmic and melodic basslines always remind me of Motown meets Led Zeppelin, and Ethan Iverson is pretty much the Eddie Van Halen of Jazz Piano.  They must have some type of telepathy with the way they change time signatures and tempos on a dime, they never seem lost.  Go youtube some Bad Plus and you will agree with me.  That is a statement, not a suggestion.

Ethan Iverson

So we settled in on the opening night of their week long run to see some craziness.  Was I surprised they delivered?  No I was not.  Was I 3% disappointed we did not hear any covers?  Yes, I might have been.  But the musical virtuosity more than made up for it.  Reid Anderson took the prize for the night, with some innovative bass solos, never lacking melody.  I think the fact that he uses a kick ass bass amp in addition to being miked (something i have not always seen at the vanguard) gives him a little push, but I’m just as sure he’d be fine without it.  I saw Iverson and Anderson with drummer Paul Motian there not too long ago, and it was the same situation, the bass really made the whole night.  King on the drums just went nuts.  You could spot the drummers in the house, who would all give a little laugh every time he pulled some crazy shenanigans.  King laughs along with the crowd, which I always find reassuring, I always respect a musician who doesn’t take themselves to seriously.  So it was a short hour long early set on a tuesday night, I left feeling good and ready for more on Thursday.

Dave King

My plan to stay up all night on Dec 30th in preparation, fell through when Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings sold out Brooklyn Bowl, preventing me from having anything exciting to do, so I went to bed at a reasonable hour, woke up, made some Cheese Grits (take that Matt Shampine, Iblogwhatieat too!) and headed to the venue.  At their soundcheck, King introduced a new tune, and the band learned it well enough to play it that night.  Lets just say, it solidified the fact that I will not likely be a jazz musician.  I’m going to think of that next time I’m in a musical situation where someone cannot pick up a 4 chord progression. (that someone might be me, I’m just puttin it out there)  We had a good low key dinner with the band and crew, and returned, ready to tear it up, in a slight food coma.  At this point, The Bad Plus did something that will make them forever hold a special place in my heart:  They got us Magnolia Cupcakes.

Magnolia Cupcakes

Now let me explain.  No disrespect to Matt Shampine’s list of cupcake supremacy, but Magnolia fucking rocks, I don’t care what you say.  Dessert is such an essential part of a meal, its like the roof on a house.  Calls were even placed while at the dinner table to see if Magnolia would still be open.  Any band that is down with this concept, is a band I can respect both on and off stage.  Beyond that, an essential professional rule I learned early on, is to always make sure the crew is fed.  They actually taught us this in college.  A film professor once mentioned, if you feed your crew well, they will work harder, and in the long run it will save you far more money than you would save by not feeding the crew.  I have had one boss who did not believe in feeding his crew, and for that I wish many bad things upon him,  such as fishes and other items in his piano, but lets move on.

The crowd band and crew all seemed in good spirits upon returning to the venue.  This was definitely the “loosest” I’ve ever seen this band on stage.  I dont mean musically, but more in terms stage presence.  They discussed which songs to play for a bit, made some jokes to the crowd, everyone was feeling good.  The production assistant and myself were perched in the best seat in the house, recording the first set.  Things moved along well, no standout musical moments come to mind, everything just seemed to be working.

Anderson and King

The live broadcast was for the entire 2nd set, which started at 11.  By this time, the crowd had a fair amount of alcohol in them, and its never fun to be sober around a bunch of drunks, I find myself easily irritated.  But in this case, everything was kosher, I was hanging out next to a serious band, just kickin it with a bunch of mic pre-amps, settled in for the night.  It seemed as soon as we went on air and the host did the band intro, they just kicked it into high gear.  Especially Dave King, he just went completely nuts from the first tune of the set.  Even Iverson commented “Nice Drum Solo!” between songs, he was clearly feeling it.  Sitting maybe 2 feet from him, I was especially psyched to watch what was happening.  It gave me some new insights into the way they play, especially watching his bass drum foot.  I can’t explain it, because I am not that technical of a musician, but the way they keep time made more sense after being able to see the bass drum pedal.  Anyhoo, they were on fire.

The actual countdown to midnight was on time and went well, the house was alive, everyone feeling good.  I might have been the only new years eve when I did not actually acknowledge the fact that the calendar had just turned over, I was keeping an eye on that recording gear!  This brings me to my next point.   I got to be on stage with the bad plus.  “WHY?” you ask?  “You sat in because you are totally awesome!?”  No dear reader, no.  Although please rest assured of my awesome-ness.  At 12:13, the recording gear went dead.  The power off, the lights dimmed.  I did not want to crawl behind the narrow passage between the rack of gear and the drums, but that shit was live, and dead air was happening.  The power supply fell out of the outlet during the soundcheck, we re-secured it and everything was cool, but apparently it happened again….although when i was at the back of the stage near the power, everything seemed to be plugged in.  I have no idea what happened.  By the time the gear had been turned on, there was a sync error with the master clock….you wanna talk Digital Audio?  I didn’t think so.  That being said, we lost 2 minutes of the broadcast, the important part happened.  That shit is stressful man, 2 minutes feels like an eternity in that situation.  I was using my phone as a light to make sure everything was plugged in, and it kept vibrating with “Happy New Yrr!” text messages, from people far drunker than I, and it was getting slightly irritating.  By that time, the set was nearly over, and our work was done.  I think we all felt a little defeated, but it was nearly 1am, and there are worse things in the world.

Loading out of a venue is never fun, but on new years eve, when there is evil ungodly freezing slush raining from the skye, and everyone on the street is at the tail end of their wildly intoxicated evening, things are certainly interesting.  I had entertained plans of gallivanting well into the wee hours of the morning, but at 2:00am, there is nothing on earth I wanted more than to be at home.  I would have battled a wild rhino to get chicken sandwich at that hour, but alas, nothing was open.  So, I rung in 2010 back at the house, with some chocolate covered raisins after a night of great music and technical snafu’s.  If thats anything indicative of the year to come, bring on the music and the drama.

Yes, I am aware its called I Blog What I Hear, but I see things as well as hear them, so this is going to blur the party line a bit, ok?  Jesus, relax already.  Christmas is an interesting time for those of us in the Jewish faith, “The Chosen People” as some call it.  There is NOTHING to do.  I don’t know how to express this is any other way.  Imagine going out, and EVERYTHING is closed.  You can’t get food, other than Chinese, you can’t buy anything, trains are empty, everything is just plain quiet.  Its an eerie feeling.  I greatly dislike it, and it has always been this way.

As is the tradition, I woke up Christmas Day with nothing to do, and decided this is the year to go with tradition.  This is the year, not to break the mold, but to fit into it!  Ladies and Gentlemen, I saw a movie.  After calling every person I could imagine would not be involved in family shenanigans, it was determined that I would be braving the streets solo.  I’ve only seen one other solo movie in my life, this was while living in LA.  I drove to a sketchy part of downtown, to a weird looking mildly abandoned theater to see the Moog Movie.  I was one of 3 people in the theater, and it was fantastic.  IF you have never seen this movie, netflix that up.  Bob Moog truly believed in what he did, and made an interesting spiritual connection with the electronic instruments he built.  Anyway, this was an overall positive experience, So I was ready for round 2.  So on Christmas Day, I braved the rain and disgusting slush, and went to see The Imaginarium Of Dr Parnassus.

Much mythology has surrounded Parnassus long before it was ever released.  This was Heath Ledger’s last film, he died halfway though the filming.  With nowhere else to go, and the money quickly running in the other direction, director Terry Gilliam (of Monty Python fame)  called upon his friends Johnny Depp, Collin Farrell, and Jude Law to fill in for the role, with only minor rewrites.  But all this is just Hollywood trivia.  What I was concerned with was the role of The Devil.  Not A Devil….The Devil.  Played by none other than Tom Waits.  Up until now, Waits has had a few minor film roles.  He played Renfield in Braham Stoker’s Dracula, Had a walk on in The Fisher King, another cameo in Wristcutters, and probably a few others, what am I, IMDB?  But this is by far his most significant.

The first thing I noticed about this film was Gilliams Python style animation.  It was the soft focus style of drawing (think the giant foot in Holy Grail) that most defined his signature style.  His films have a unifying look as well.  He does this one camera move in every film.  Its kind of like a shakey wrap around shot, he uses it in the hotel check in scene of Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas (one of the greatest films ever made) as well as all over 12 Monkeys.  Visually, Gilliam never fails to disappoint.  Its no Baron Munchausen (one of the other greatest films ever created) but it certainly is exciting to look at.  His fantasy sequences have the look of the greatest and most psychedelic school play you could ever imagine.  The sets are incredibly detailed and real.  My least favorite thing about the films of the last 10 years is the heavy reliance on CG.  Gilliam embraces this, yet details the sets with enough actual substance to fully bring you in, rather than just admire some shit done with computers.

But you don’t come here to listen to that type of talk, no.  We all knew this post would really be about the greatest man to grace the earth and beyond, Tom Waits.  Now, my undying love for Waits aside, he OWNS this role.  There was no better choice for the mythical devil role, named Mr. Nick,  than Tom Waits.  Every step is a little dance, he puts soul into every word.  Every scene he acts in is like hearing a spoken word Waits piece.  Have you heard “What’s He Building In There?”  off Mule Variations?  It’s just like that. Of all the great stage performers, Waits may be among the most believable.  It seems he never breaks character.  One advantage a musician has over a stage or film actor, is that everyone believes the persona they adapt.  Not for one moment would you question the fact that Keith Richards is a heroin addled vampire, but what if that was just some persona he adapted?  Whereas looking at Brad Pitt in Fight Club, you can kind of tell he’s putting it on a bit.

Lets talk specific scenes.  By far, the best, is the dance sequence.  The basic theme of Waits’ character, is that he’s always there to make a bet with Parnassus, ready to take advantage of him in his weakest moments.  When it looks like he will inevitably win one of these bets midway through the film, he takes Parnassus’ daughter by the hand and says “Dance with me baby!”  and they go into a surreal ballroom sequence.  Its like the dream sequence of Big Lebowski.  They display serious moves, old school tango style.  The runner up would be, the first introduction of Waits, where he visits Dr Parnassus hundreds of years ago when he is a monk in an ancient temple.  Waits enters with a cigarette holder and a clarinet type contraption, and proceeds to suck the voice out of every monk chanting an ancient tale, in an attempt to prove that the world continues, even if no one tells its story.  Amazing.  A bird then shits on his hat, but that is neither here nor there.

My only complaint is that Waits had no songs on the soundtrack.  Come on, how cool would a musical sequence be, with The Devil on lead vocals and piano? I sight Shrek 2, when the used “Little Drop Of Poison” for the bar sequence, and Captain Hook sings the Waits parts.  Overall, the movie was not the best I have ever seen. The story did drag a little bit, and it felt a bit long, despite the powerful cast and beautiful imagery.  But lets hope Gilliam gets some ideas from this, and casts Waits in the lead for his next project?  Lets hope so.

So there are several theories on instruments vs talent.  The bottom line I feel is this:   The greatest player in the world will sound fantastic on a 25 Dollar Wal Mart Guitar.  You can’t prevent that.  To the other end, a shitty player will sound better on a multi thousand dollar Les Paul than the aforementioned Wal Mart ax, but still, they will not sound good.  I believe there was a Nike or something commercial back in the day which said something like “Talent will only get you so far, you need the right tools”  And this too is true.  Now take that great player, remove the Wal Mart instrument, insert the multi thousand dollar instrument, and to borrow a phrase,  its business time.

I’ve been part of many theoretical discussions on price vs quality when it comes to instruments (as may be evidenced by my previous post on NY guitar stores).  Lets say the breaking point is $1000.  Anything for that price should have reasonable quality control, have solid components, and was at some point touched by human hands during the building process.  You can certainly get some badass stuff for less, but you would have to do serious research, and try the exact instrument you are purchasing (since quality varies greatly on less expensive instruments).  But once you get up into the crazy price ranges, it starts to get a little iffy.  What really is the difference between a $1000 guitar and a $3000?  As price increases, quality increase becomes more marginal.  I’m sure there is some economic term in there, anybody know it?

I bring this up for a reason, not just to talk about guitars more.  Come on, who do you think I am?   The point is, I have recently returned an instrument to it’s owner which was on loan to me for many months, and my life feels a little more empty.  It was a 1930’s D’Angelico Excel Archtop.  These guitars are pretty much mythical in the instrument world.  John D’Angelico built every instrument by hand, in a small shop at 40 Kenmore St in Manhattan.  He had very few employees, and made at most 35 Instruments per year.  He made maybe 1500 instruments total.  As you could imagine, the value of these is around that of a small Honda.  Its worth more than my Honda Fit, look up the MSRP, homes.

Playing an instrument like this changes your whole approach.  It plays a game of chess, or Uno, with you every time you pick it up.  It puts weird ideas in your head, it challenges you to do things differently.  Its like “Come on man, stop playing major bar chords, you’re holding  half a years tuition at an Ivy League College, turn it up!”  and you go “Ok, lifeless piece of wood and other components, I will listen to what you have to say”  and it says things!  Obviously I’m getting slightly philosophical here, but only slightly.  An instrument like this carries some history, it lived through WWII, The Jazz Age, Jimi Hendrix, Hair Metal, Everything!  These factors cant help but play some mind games with you.  All you can do is fight back, and hope to not pull out any lame ass jazz shit.

There are no words to explain how a well made instrument performs, though I will attempt to translate.  Maybe its like driving a sports car, I dont know, I don’t like cars.  Maybe its like eating a fantastic meal over and over?  But food changes every time, so that’s not completely accurate.  It’s probably all science, but not an exact science.  The combination of wood, lacquer, paint, and whatnot, can have amazing results.  Some claim, the thinner the finish, the more a guitar can breathe and the more sustain it will have.  Is that true?  If you can tell me the difference between a guitar with paint and a guitar with thin nitro cellulose lacquer on it purely by sound…then dear friend, I owe you a cheesesteak.  But back to the matter at hand.

Upon returning this instrument, I missed it dearly.  Maybe its the mythology I associate with it, but nothing I have played before or since has replicated it.  Well, I haven’t played much since, but you get the idea.  While the band has been recording several tracks, I relied on the D’Angelico heavily.  It sat perfectly in a mix.  A traditional acoustic can sometimes have too much bottom end, and just not work.  But the archtop is the secret weapon which I will use from here on out.  I guess it’s not really so much of a secret now, but I trust you to keep this just between us.

Instruments have a “Vibe”.  You can’t deny this.  A 1950’s Telecaster plays differently than a 2009 Telecaster.  They just feel different.  Its the years of playing which impacts the instrument not just physically, but lets call it “spiritually”  It makes you play different and appreciate different sounds.  This particular guitar made me feel like I was wearing a tuxedo, sitting behind a big band podium, comping some chords behind some tenor sax.  I don’t think you could get this feeling from an ESP Screaming Skull.  So now, the quest begins for a replacement.  It will be a long arduous road, but we, dear reader, will persevere together!  OK, here we go.