Assholic Comment of the Day

I just helped move my brother out of college, and somehow we ended up talking about the song used in a recent Dockers commercial*. We googled the song, and found it on this message board. One user who comments on the song says:

I love songs with live musicians playing in the background !!!!!!!!

?!??!?!

Is there any other kind?

*I will attempt to launch an advertisement immunization program here soon.

Proclivities Live

It must be noted here, on this "gravestone in the ether," that db and rb did an impromptu performance of the grindfolio "Proclivities" at db's house party in Middletown, Conn. last weekend.

We were sitting in the darkened living room, where a few xeroxed copies of "Proclivities" (2004) and Dan's "Sticks and Rocks and Stars" (2003?) beckoned from the bar. As usual, I wasn't sure what was happening when someone handed me an acoustic guitar. Its action* was so poor that only the first two frets were playable. "Get me a real fucking guitar and a beer," I said, then resumed speaking to the people around me. Within seconds, people I don't know handed me a phenomenally expensive Yamaha acoustic and a fresh cup of Long Trail from the keg. So something had to happen.

Dan demanded blues, so I did some standard riffs and all the new Infrastructure material. Once I started playing, I noticed that Erich was now playing basslines on the busted-ass guitar. Dan thrashed about the living room awkwardly, reciting such grind classics as "i can't talk; i'm too busy remembering the alamo" and "same dead animals, great new taste" in a nerdy, loud monotone. Sometimes people clapped.

I don't know what anyone thought, but I don't care**. We didn't perform under a name, but this was as close to a Future Suicide Heroes show I've gotten since 2003.

*Distance between strings and the fretboard.
**I didn't even remember that this happened until this morning. Since doing this show in Middletown 8 days ago, I've been to dinner in the Bronx, home in Queens, in my office in Manhattan, back in Boston, presenting stuff in Guelph/Toronto, at a function in Austin, spent the weekend in Austin, and got back last night. I am very happy that I actually do things while I'm getting things done.

cul-de-sac people

are not really trying
not really trying at all

from the debut INFRASTRUCTURE album, The Price You Pay
Fall 2008!!!

Early Retirement Plan

Form awesome, three-piece blues-rock-trauma-pop band to tour Texas college towns/cities like Denton, Lubbock, Austin, College Station, etc.

Achievable as early as: summer 2008.

Playing music in the spring in Boston...

I can't wait (it's not here yet). Spring in Boston feels more earned than in NY. Coming of age is awesome when you end up who you wanted to be.

Just so you know...

The Rudds show at the Lizard Lounge this Saturday should be fucking sick.

Best Practice Ever #12

Every single music practice with brother is the best yet. This is really moving forward, and has only been happening for 6 months! We need a name!

Playing Music All Day

We started by meeting in Allston, in a partially abandoned warehouse studio inhabited by hoodie-wearing couch-sleepers and countless mice running up and down the walls. We got pretty far finalizing two songs there, then got Indian food. After that, we walked to Guitar Center, got predictably mad at all the Berklee kids, and then got chai and stared at girls in the BU campus center. Then to Cheapo Records in Central, where we bought nothing, and then back to Teele for gin and Chinese food and more music. We probably walked five or six miles with instruments strapped to our backs.

Three songs are in a very advanced stage, with partial lyrics. Two more should follow soon. Then we find a drummer.

Sounds Like

"Elvis Costello meets ZZ Top"

I give CMike credit for issuing this truth.

Wally's on Tuesdays

Wally's on Tuesdays is the place to be for serious music. They don't carry name-brand stuff; instead, the heavy r&b-funk-jazz that is played seems to come from far deeper in the well that commercially sanctioned music is skimmed from. If you are a musician or aspire to be one, the effortless actions taken by the players, who change week-to-week, can often damage your ego (in a way that can only be repaired through practice, practice, practice). At Wally's, talent and legend well up in the brownstone walls nightly...and there's never a cover.

Wally's at Closing Time on Flickr (rb).
Wally's official site (redesigned).

Percolation

As I sit and work and watch the bizarre townie-world happening of Teele Square, I listen to music all day. Whether it's WFUV, streaming audio from local bands, or stuff from my own huge collection of American music, some type of blues/jazz/instrumental '40s R&B/soul/souljazz/funk/rock/folk/etc is always on. It is my hope that this will teach my brain to write songs as opposed to parts of songs.

$100 at Cheapo Records

• Earth, Wind & Fire, The Eternal Dance (3 CD set)
• John Lee Hooker, The Ultimate Collection: 1948-1990 (Rhino 2-CD set)
  
• Ernest Tubb, The Complete Live 1965 Show (2 CD set)
• North Mississippi Allstars, Shake Hands With Shorty (repurchase)
  

Stevie Wonder!

Dear Pete Lesser,

Thank you for imploring me (again) to purchase Songs in the Key of Life--a remarkable $8.99 at Amazon for DRM-free MP3s!

These songs transport be back to my childhood. Maybe they were there in ambient car radio noise--likely from other cars since my parents only listen(ed) to 1010 WINS--as we drove regularly to McDonald's in Flushing. A great soundtrack for remembering and looking forward.

The amazing positivity, the synthesis, the beat. How could I have lived without this in such a concentrated form for so long? I listen at least once a day, and I can't wait to see how the album ends up influencing my thought and music-playing processes.

Yours,
Rob

BROTHERS

completed first studio practice last night. The results were VERY, VERY GOOD.

Going to keep working on a few songs, then bring in a drummer.

I'm seriously considering buying $10, one-hour solo studio sessions to practice drumming. It'd be worth it; I have an eerily natural knowledge base to develop.

Also, I love how people at my job don't take me seriously when I say I play music.

Guitarplex

On the rack: three Kays, two Guyatones, one Galanti, and my Mexican Tele.

Bassplex

RB's Four-String Fleet: Ampeg Little Stud, 90s Danelectro, Fernandes Jazz bass ripoff.

Post-Operative Bass

Bass Revitalization

Mid-70s Japanese Ampeg Little Stud undergoing soldering, cleaning, setup.

Saturday Nights at the Cantab Lounge

I've drunkenly described the Cantab Lounge in Central Square as a "Noah's Ark of humanity," where on a weekend night you'll see one of every type of human imaginable, except for college students (thankfully, the whole 21-plus thing tends to keep them away). You'll see the crazy African-American lady in an Indian headdress with Bluetooth headset. You'll see two short, gray-topped men in black sport coats--the identical twins who play bass and drums in the Fatback Band. You'll hear many heavy townie accents, and you'll usually see quasi-hipsters embarrassing themselves.

Walking into the upstairs bar, you're greeted by off-color cream, blue, and green everything--almost the exact same colors my grandparents painted the basement kitchen of their tiny Queens bungalow. You'll see paintings of halfnaked women and brewer's memorabilia straight from the mid-70s, the period that almost all of the songs in the set will be taken from.

When the band strikes its first note around 10, all the old people hit the floor. Diane Blue, the lead singer/harp player, is usually just showing up with her coffee (the bassist ably handles vocals for a bit). As the scene heats up and the youth arrive, many old people leave around 11 to pass out or mate drunkenly. Then the paradoxes or ironies or coincidences truly begin.

You're in an amusingly decayed, musty warp zone where musically, it's 1975, young and old and black and white dance together, and pretty, apparently single girls amass at the back corner bar too nervous to hit the floor until that third or fourth drink. A feeling builds--excitement? pleasure? enjoyment? Which fits best? The band never runs out of covers. The funky old dude on the strat never hits a bad note; in fact, he actually shreds. Shreds. Sax and harmonica work together to churn out thick melodies that keep asses shaking and mouths smiling.

I always wonder: did I accomplish enough on this visit? Should I have stayed until they kick you out at 2? Should I have flicked my introvert/extrovert switch and spoken to people (girls) I don't know? When will I have the opportunity to go again? It's like being at a high school dance where everything is right and everything is sound and everyone is grown up and they almost know how to be happy, almost.

As a serious realist (which many interpret as "pessimist"), the Cantab gives me hope. To see the musical and sexual and even just observational possibilities amassing is a treat worth the $5 cover charge. The whole atmosphere is like your mother's most loveably flawed dinner recipe: you're not sure whether all the ingredients make sense, but it's home.

New Stuff

I probably practiced guitar/wrote music for about 5 hours this weekend (for me, this is a lot). I'm trying to write stuff that I would want to see.

Soulive is worth seeing again.

Given the band's performance at the Roxy last night, I have to question whether they were ever not worth seeing. Maybe that New Year's show at BB King's in 200X was just a fluke. Back then, the the guys seemed exhausted and unispired.

But they've found new energy. Soulive has followed the same career trajectory (thus far) of Kool and the Gang. Jazz band goes ghetto, then gets singer(s) and starts cranking out heavy-ass soul-funk. New singer Toussaint seemed right at home on the stage. Drummer Alan Evans has evolved into a monster, powering the band through every subgenre worked into the show. He's become a great soloist to boot. Neal Evans is still a madman, and Krasno is now shredding on a Telecaster in addition to his Ibanez semi-hollow.

There was a liberal dose of their best jazz material, like "One in Seven," and many, many new songs featuring Toussaint on vocals, like "Don't Tell Me" and "One of Those Days." The ethereal "Bubble," a jammy, yet soulful instrumental, stuck in my head strongest. Too bad the studio version doesn't do it justice--the band's rediscovered energy was palpable last night. That they closed their set with "The Ocean" (yes, Zeppelin) proved that they were there to rock the fuck out.

So what if 50% of the crowd was college dudes with bad afros? It was worth being around them to be part of the communal, eardrum-destroying experience.

New Fountains of Wayne (Traffic and Weather)

Musically sound and lyrically hilarious. Great songcraft. That's what I need to learn.