Blue October

I worked another show tonight.

I remember seeing Blue October when they were playing the duck pond at UNM. I remember they played there an awful lot. And despite all of the criticisms shared among Jake Tittmann and me between classes, this band still “made-it”.

But what does “making it” even mean with bands?

I work these shows at Sunshine, I get to see the bands pre and post-show, and… I see the fans they have to deal with.

There is a distinct boundary between each fan-demographic, from show to show. After tonight, I’m not sure I’d ever want to be Blue-October.  I also realize that I’m not sure Blue October wants to be Blue October either.

I remember working at the radio station (103.3 The Zone! FM). We used to do these things called “sound check parties” where a group of listeners were entitled to show up early enough at a show to watch the band “sound check” some special songs for a select group of “contest winners”.

Apparently another pop-rock FM radio station called “The Peak” did the same thing for this Blue October show, only the singer and the band didn’t appear to like doing it at all. They douched around playing whatever they felt like, including a half-assed cover of the oldies classic “Blue Moon” while the singer kept his back to the “winning crowd” of 20-or-so gawking radio contest winners.

It was sad, but reasonable, because…what would I do in that situation? Clearly, being a one or two-hit band means performing a lot of mini-concerts like that to “contest winners” who see you, not as a human performer, but a prize that was won for a “rare exclusive group” of “lucky” people.

Admittedly, I have certain aspirations for a rockstar-like status. But it is strictly (I hope) for reasons that isn’t a stigma to being a “rockstar”. So seeing this kind of stuff makes me want to re-evaluate what it entails to be a popular musician at all.

Of course, it all depends on the demographic. Clearly these guys felt that being a simple pop-rock band was the answer. But when a group of these fans (drunk, asinine human-beings) howl nonsense from the stage and drown out a piano/pizzicato violin solo that took you years to master, have you ever questioned what-the-hell-happened along the way?

The answer is compromise. The universe smells it on your band, and so shall ye receive its due audience.

The Dead Weather

Finally, a Sunshine show I was stoked to see.

I didn’t go to Coachella after all. Of course, William let me know about how enlightening, inspiring, and beautiful the 3-day festival was. I tried to ignore the fact that I spent most of the weekend focusing on non-enlightening things. I also got a temp staging job setting up lighting rigs, unloading ungodily heavy equipment from a truck.

The Dead Weather is Jack White’s newest project with chanteur de femme exquis, Allison Mosshart of the kills; Guitarist/keyboardist of Queens of the Stoneage; Eccentrically fat-toned bassist of the Raconteurs.

The best part was the sound check, involving them practicing jams from the new record, plus not-yet-recorded jams.

And just because I’m pompous and music-righteous, I’d like to add that this is the first show where I didn’t have to deal with the low-intelligent results of drunk humans who spew fluids from both ends, putting the cherry on the top of their night, as well as mine. So, my egotisticality likes to point out the inverse relationship to the amounts of bodily evacuations with the level of intelligence to be found in the demographic, and hence, the intelligence of the music.

Cheerio, mates!

Riley Guy Video Shoot

Over the last five days, I’ve been using Dustin’s house to shoot a music video for Will’s solo electro project called Riley Guy.

Day 1 was simple because I only needed to take photos of a series of eyes and mouth positions at the park with Will and Allison.

Day 2 was by far the biggest headache. I hadn’t planned so much of what kind of props and set we would be using, only the visual tricks I wanted to pull off.

Day 3, we began to hit a little more of a stride.

Day 4, we got nothing done as Will’s body gave up while his liver was trying to process half a fifth of rum.

Day 5… I hope to St. Pete that we got enough footage.

So now editing begins. I haven’t looked yet, but I think it will involve going through 1,500-2,000 photographs (it’s a stop motion video), which actually isn’t too bad, considering that normally every video is between 24-30 frames per second; 1,800 frames/minute.

I’m also thinking I need to go to Coachella. Tickets are sold out, and they’re selling circa $700 on ebay right now. Where do these kids get the money? I hope to get mine for $150. Crossing proverbial fingers…

Jamming with the Alien Baby

Tonight I jammed with Joel and his new/temporary side project, Holy Shit! Alien Baby.

It consists of musicians who practice, and who don’t, who decide to rehearse, or who decide to just plain ol’ hop onstage on impulse during shows.

Joel told me about it, as they are playing during Flood The Sun’s last two shows before he moves to Los Angeles with his lady, Ashley.

I came up with the brilliant idea to bring my saxophone to practice and play through this harmonizer called a voice box to see if I’d be down to play a show with them, reverting to my unfledged high-school roots as a jazz saxophonist.

Joel is rather more fledged than I, and it was the first time I got to see him put the sexy vibes through my not-so-sexy student alto horn. We missed each other by one year from being in the same jazz band class. Too bad, so sad.

They play two shows. I didn’t know there was one so soon, so I’m bailing on tomorrow night. Maybe I’ll play the next show, just maybe… that is, if my 10-years-out-of-practice mouth, and ego, can handle it.

Rock, Film, Rock

Tommy and I met up to rock some bass and keys ideas I’ve had rolling around in my skull, including the same tune I was messing with two days ago.

Later, a location scout for the T.V. show In Plain Sight stopped by my (parent’s) house and arranged taking pictures of the house as a possible set location. My parents approved, then let her take panoramic shots of the inside and outside. Eventually I asked her how to get a job on her show. She didn’t say that it’s an easy task, but she was friendly and didn’t seem to judge me for my underlying fragrance of desperation.

Shortly after, I went to go play drums at Brian’s house, watch Battle Royale again, and eat all of his Sweet-tarts that have been in the same place since Halloween.

Pogo

Last night, I saw this Alice in Wonderland remix music video. I’ve watched it over and over and realize how much I miss old-style cell animation.

The guy who makes these calls himself Pogo, and takes mostly sounds from movies and mixes/loops them to make songs.

There’s people all over youtube remixing stuff, but I think this is one of my favorites.

His channel has some movie remixes like Terminator 2, Hook, The Secret Garden, and I feel like I’ve had a moving cinematic over-dose with each one.

The Train Car Jam Space

For about the last year, this is where I’ve been practicing with my mates. There are rows and rows of empty train cars, and we pay rent to play music in one of them.

It’s the weekend, so that means I’m back in Albuquerque for a couple of days. Today Tommy and I jammed; Tommy on drums, me on bass. I think it’s been about 6 months since he and I worked on some of my ideas. Sometimes I feel fresh and ready to rock. Other times, I realize I should have brought my allen wrench set, having left my bass in the freezing-cold train car for over a month. So, the entire jam session was laced with a lot of fret-buzz.

After that, we went to Noel’s grand opening for her make-up studio.  The majority of interaction involved sipping wine out of styrofoam cups and talking to parents about how making a living with music is dying unless you are somehow an artist who is independently marketing-inclined, or already at the brandable status of U2, Nine Inch Nails, or Radiohead.

I thought this article was fascinating about how the internet ruined music.

Björk: Charlie Rose Interview

I first saw this in May 2009, and hope you also find it to be well worth watching.

This interview was vital for me to see a few months ago.  It takes place in 2001, during the release of Vespertine.

Bjork puts forth a rare, vibrant presence as if her mind constantly swims in imagination. She’s definitely on the list of my most admired human beings of all time.

One Thing

Occasionally I meet up with Brian to play drums while he plays guitar. It’s apparent that our jam sessions are not frequent enough for me to remember how we played any of the songs. I usually just wing it on drums anyway, sort of like throwing paint at a wall.

Brian showed me a selection of websites, most notably sites with amazing cheap wholesale electronics from China that I never knew existed, such as cell phone watches. But, for the less-consumerist approach, I think you should check out these rather moving photographs inspired by children’s drawings.

After Brian’s, I drove straight to band practice where Coma worked on a new song. I captured the last minute here.

I finally got to see Man on Wire tonight, English subtitles in tact, and was deeply satisfied. The theme has haunted me; you pick your one thing, no matter how outrageous it is, and all that matters is that it means everything for you to do it.