Loquacious Music

Weird day today. Oh well.

Download this:

It’s great. Not as great as musicforthemorningafter, but what is?

I almost barfed today when I read an article in the New York Times about some prick who posted an “amazing” guitar video on YouTube. You can view the video here and read the article here. Obviously, Virginia Heffernan has nothing better to do than investigate this crap and write about Will & Grace.

This guy is playing a “rock” version of Pachelbel’s “Canon,” perhaps the worst piece of “classical” music ever written. But the thing is, he isn’t even very good. There are some posts on the site that he’s recorded the song at half speed and sped it up, which I don’t buy. But his technique is none different than any other guitar virtuoso out there. Here are some songs you could download, if you wanted to.

“This Is What I Believe In” by Adrian Belew…

Anything by Mike Oldfield…

Jay Graydon’s guitar solo on “Peg” by Steely Dan…

Dave and Andy’s back-and-forth guitar solos on “Books Are Burning” by XTC…

Vernon ripping it up in “Type” by Living Colour…

And that’s just five songs. C’mon, guys. These are the real virtuosos.

My mate Karel has just put two new Babybird tracks on the Official Babybird site. The first, “Old Skin,” is acoustic and sweet. The second, “Dive,” sounds a bit like “The F-Word.”

Of course, I love them both. And so do you. Just like Stephen loves his little skull.

Or his sunglasses.

Or his microphone.

Or his ducky.

You get the picture. Just go listen to the songs, okay?

I can’t sleep. I had one of those weird days when it seemed like something was lurking around every corner. Perhaps that’s because I got my stitches out this morning — all nine of them. Perhaps it’s because I’m out of my routine and feeling a bit peckish.

Whatever the reason, I tossed and turned after turning off tonight’s Colbert Report, finally getting up and moseying into the other room at about 12:35. My computer was on and, as I occasionally do, I started reading old stuff.

I have some really old stuff. Papers that date back to college. Papers that date back to high school. Everything is on my new iMac, having been dragged from one machine to another as I have upgraded over the years. One of the folders that remains on my hard drive is a collection of opinion pieces I wrote for the Bowdoin College Orient during the 2000-2001 school year. I thought I’d reprint one of them, “Why I Love Napster,” below. Remember the days? I’ve even linked all the songs to iTunes for your downloading pleasure! (By the way, before you start complaining, I have since deleted all illegally-downloaded songs from my computer. My CD count is now up to nearly 1,500, and I have bought nearly $2,000 worth of songs from iTunes since April 30, 2003. So there.)

“Why I Love Napster”
February 9, 2001

I didn’t go to Napster to download the new Dave Matthews Band song because I was excited to hear it. I downloaded the song because I was afraid. You see, after recording a majority of songs for the new album with veteran producer Steve Lillywhite, Dave and the band went on vacation and, on their return, promptly fired Lillywhite. I’m not sure what brought on this crisis of modern music (Lillywhite practically invented the “big drum” sound that has characterized much of the Dave Matthews Band’s sound during his work with XTC and Peter Gabriel during the late 1970’s and early 1980’s), but that wasn’t what made me the most afraid. What made me the most afraid was that, in Lillywhite’s place, Matthews hired Glen Ballard.

When I found out that the Band had replaced Lillywhite with Ballard — co-writer of Alanis Morrisette’s “Jagged Little Pill” album, Michael Jackson’s anthem “Man in the Mirror,” and The Pointer Sisters’ synthesizer-laden mid-1980’s classic “Jump (For My Love)” — I was shocked. I was further shocked to learn that Dave Matthews had hired Ballard not only as a producer, but also as a co-writer. Was this the end of the Dave Matthews Band we knew and love, complete with complex, beautiful songs like “The Best of What’s Around” and “Stay (Wasting Time)” broken down to three-minute segments of repetitive choruses, a-lá “Ironic”?

Despite my fears, I downloaded “I Did It,” a song available exclusively through Napster, when I returned to Bowdoin. On first listen, I was nearly speechless. The song is short, is full of electric guitars, and is incredibly poppy. After a few more listens, though, I was hooked. Ballard, it seems, has consolidated Dave Matthews’s jams into something much more concise. Thanks be to Napster for allaying my fears.

Like most college students, I use Napster for more than the occasional Dave Matthews download, however. (Now, before all you copyright hounds start sending angry letters to the Orient editors, please note that, at this moment, I have 617 CDs. That’s a lot of money going to record companies, managers, distributors, and (yes) artists, so back off. I also write and release my own music on MP3.com, and I would gladly reinvest my $2.00 a month in royalties to poor Lars Ulrich.) In any case, I tend to use Napster to download those “guilty pleasures” that I can’t quite bring myself to buy; in fact, the first song I ever downloaded was Bobby Brown’s theme from the second Ghostbusters movie. And now that I apparently have all this free time, what with my student teaching allowing me to slack off, I’ve been hitting Napster more than ever. Here, for public consumption, are some of my most interesting downloads:

Eddie Money’s “Take Me Home Tonight”: I heard this song on the radio the other day, and realized how much I absolutely hate to love it. The only problem was that — of course — I couldn’t remember who it was by. One night, a few weeks ago, Mia, Curtis and I were watching “The Making of ‘Thriller’” on VH-1, and I asked them if they could think of a song “sung by a guy, but with a woman on the chorus.” I proceeded to sing “be my little babyyyyyyy” while making “So?” gestures with my hands, to which Curtis replied, “Um…You mean, ‘Take Me Home Tonight’?” He gets the gold star for power-ballads, that roommate of mine.

Michael Martin Murphy’s “Wildfire”: This epic AM radio staple is a favorite of my roommate, Chris, who also listens to Mel Tormé and Frank Sinatra, which is perfectly fine, but a little weird. In any case, Chris and I especially like the verse where Murphy sings, so emotionally: “Oh they say she died one winter / When there came a killing frost / And the pony she named Wildfire / Busted down his stall.” Run, Wildfire, run!

Michael McDonald’s “I Keep Forgetting” and Warren G.’s “Regulate”: Mount up! “Regulate,” the great mid-1990s rap tune from Warren G., is comprised entirely of a sample of former Doobie Brother Michael McDonald’s early-1980’s AM radio hit. (What is it with me and old AM radio hits?) Both songs are so fascinatingly odd that I had to have them — and it’s especially funny to listen to them in quick succession. Here’s a fun exercise: try to sing the Warren G. rap along to the original song. You’ll feel the power, baby.

Chaka Kahn’s “I Feel for You,” Michael Jackson’s “Wanna Be Startin’ Something,” and Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing”: There’s something so soulful about 1980’s R&B hits, isn’t there? I think that’s all I have to say.

So, as you can see, my use of Napster is limited to songs that would have otherwise disappeared from my life long ago. I like to think of this type of file-sharing technology as my own little time machine, allowing me to go back to the days of my youth when I drank Kool-Aid on a regular basis, had sleep-overs, and thought that Phil Collins was a good musician. Aah, the glory of Napster.

(A necessary post-script: over Winter Break, pop music lost two of its greatest stars. Kirsty MacColl, an angelic British singer-songwriter who sang with The Smiths, Van Morrison, The Rolling Stones, The Pogues, Billy Bragg and so many others, and Robert Buck, guitarist for 10,000 Maniacs and co-writer of such songs as “These Are the Days” both died within a few days of each other. To find out more about Kirsty, visit http://www.freeworld.demon.co.uk, and to visit Rob’s Chautauqua Region Community Fund, a scholarship fund formed by the band in Rob’s memory, go to http://www.gottabuck.org.)

On an unrelated note, FreeRangeMusic has returned to the northeast corner. I got an e-mail from this dude a few months ago; it turns out that we’re both big fans of the New Jack sound and Tears for Fears. That’s right. There’s someone else out there! But seriously. Visit his blog to see the 50 Greatest Hip-Hop Tracks of All Time. You won’t be disappointed. (Although I would’ve stuck “911 Is A Joke” in there somewhere…)

Yeah, Ned Lamont! Lieberman did make noise in his concession speech about how he was going to run as an “independent democrat.” What a nuisance.

So that’s the good news. The bad news is that I cut myself badly on the leg tonight while I was taking the trash out. After driving myself to the hospital (but not bleeding all over the Jetta), they gave me a tetanus shot and nine stitches. Yeah. Doesn’t that suck? Anyway, I’ve got antibiotics to last five days and a lot of gauze. Yuck-o.

Time to go back to CNN…

Here are some pictures of my new wall-to-wall carpet in the living room and the kitchen floor I laid today:

My Letter to the Editor made today’s Norwich Bulletin.

Tuesday, a group of college Republicans sent a letter to their members across the country asking them to come to Connecticut to campaign for Joe Lieberman.The letter read, in part, that “people interested in campaigning for Lieberman in the Democratic primary will have lodging accommodations paid for (by his campaign), as well as food and transportation.”

Republicans campaigning for Joe Lieberman? The same Joe Lieberman who promises to run as an independent if he loses the Democratic primary? The same Joe Lieberman who promises Connecticut he’s the “real” Democrat?

Give me a break.I’m supporting Ned Lamont, the Democratic candidate who doesn’t pay for Republican support.

BEN GOTT
Pomfret

How cool is that?

This music-related blog is going to take a short break to become political. Music will return soon.

This afternoon, I ventured down to Zip’s Diner in Dayville, CT to catch Joe Lieberman on his Joementum tour. I wanted to see whether or not there, um, was any Joementum.

There wasn’t.

It was hot. Very hot. I started out early so I could case out the diner. What a surprise to find this song playing on XM as I pulled out of the driveway:

“Change,” indeed.

On my way to Dayville, I noticed some interesting stuff. I noticed how hot it was outside:

I noticed how high gas prices were:

I noticed the shopping plaza across from the diner, which has been vacant for over two years:

When I arrived in the Zip’s parking lot, I noticed that it was pretty much empty. By 5:15, not many people had shown up:

I went into Zip’s for a vanilla frappe. The diner was pretty full, but it was almost early dinnertime. There were a number of older folks there, and there were a few journalists (including my friend Chuck from the local paper). The Lieberman “supporters” didn’t start arriving until about 5:25; the bus pulled up soon after. I figured that, if I stood outside, I would have a better chance of beating the crowd.

But the crowd didn’t come, and it was hot. I decided to returned to the air conditioned comfort indoors. I had already met a handful of Lamont supporters outside, including this lady, holding a “Bye, Joe!” sign:

Inside, I met another three Lamont supporters sitting at the counter. We all agreed that we were there because we wanted everyone to know how awesome it was to live in a democracy; to have a choice between two candidates.

I went back outside, again to find a good spot. But I didn’t need to rush. Here is a photograph of everyone who came to support incumbent senator Joseph Lieberman:

That was it. The dude on the cellphone is from WINY, the local radio station. The guy with the hat got off the bus. The fellow with the video camera on the right is talking to a Lamont supporter. I stayed far back so that the clean-cut youth (who got out of an Audi with Connecticut plates) didn’t try to hand me a Lieberman sign. I wanted to leave of my own accord, not to be kicked out.

The bus stood still for a few minutes as reporters disembarked. (I’m sure that the Lieberman campaign’s pictures will end up on his website.) This was the weird part: a man started shouting that everyone with signs (which had been provided by the guy in the Audi) should stand in front of the bus in order to create a photo op when Joe got off. I don’t know about the rest of you, but my mommy always told me never to stand in front of a bus.

I went back inside so that I could get a better view of Joe:

He was wearing khakis and what looked like a Member’s Only plaid shirt. The sleeves were rolled up. “He’s trying to look like the ‘common man,’” the man next to me remarked.

As Lieberman made his way around to the entrance, the lady with the sign got pushed back to the periphery of the crowd:

I stood by the door so I could shake Joe’s hand and get out of there. The whole thing was so depressing that I didn’t want to stay. No one in the restaurant cared that Joe Lieberman was there. The only people who did were Lieberman’s supporters, who were nearly outnumbered (if not completely outnumbered) by the press.

But I did want to shake Joe’s hand. I didn’t wear my Lamont shirt; I didn’t wear a bumper sticker on my forehead. I wore my Clinton/Gore Inauguration ‘93 t-shirt:

As Joe walked toward the steps, I held out my hand. He shook it.

“Nice to meet you, Senator,” I said.

“You too,” he said. Then he looked at my shirt. “I remember that; I was there,” he said.

“Yup,” I said.

“We’ll do it again,” he said, and then walked inside.

Like I said, I didn’t stay. I neither wanted nor needed to. My mind has been made up for months. I support Ned Lamont because I agree with him and because I feel that Joe Lieberman no longer represents me. I have lived in this area for six years. This is the first time he’s come anywhere near me. Ned was in Killingly this past winter. People remember things like that.

As two great English pop stars once wrote, “What has happened to the friend that I once knew, has he gone away? / When it’s all too late, it’s all too late…”

Change.

UPDATE: Anonymous claims that WINY reported that there were 80 Lieberman supporters at Zip’s. I certainly didn’t see 80 supporters, but I have contacted a friend who is a local reporter. I hope he can clarify. I’ll keep you posted.