Archive for May, 2009
Track #4: If You See Something
There are no secrets on the origins of this tune. If you travel in or around New York City you have probably seen the signs. They’re everywhere. They say, “If You See Something, Say Something.” The point, of course, is that if you notice anything suspicious – a stray untended backpack for example – go tell a police officer. It’s actually a very effective little campaign.
I was riding the subway home about three years ago when I started dropping the phrase into a song and singing the slogan over and over to myself (as is my tendency). I got home, picked up my guitar and figured out the chords, starting in C.
Songs of the Decade
SpectrumCulture did a feature asking indepedent artists to comment on songs of the decade. Believe it or not, we’re almost at the end of this one. No surprise here, I chose to talk about ‘All My Friends’. It continued to be a wonderful piece of music to me [here's our cover if you like]. Although ‘Someone Great’ is a close second and the combination of those two songs in sequence on the record is very lovely.
I mostly like what I wrote but, in hindsight, it’s maybe a touch pretentious and ponderous. But, you know, sometimes you gotta drop the snark and get a little real.
Here’s a quote:
We will get old. The air will leak out of the balloon. In that space and spirit, James Murphy uses his own maturation into adulthood as a metaphor for all of us, for the gradual letting go of our youth and foolishness and the acceptance that we now enter an era of consequence.
I suppose one of the cooler bits about this piece is that I’m sharing the stage with Hutch Harris from The Thermals, Alan Sparhawk of Low, Franz Nicolay of the Hold Steady, Michael Zapruder, and a bunch of other great artists. Also, Chris Colthart is on there. Chris worked with Kelly Pushy White on the artwork for the physical packaging.
VIII
Meanwhile, release date or no, we’re still putting together videos. This is the last “Broken Bow” video and it’s centered around the image of the white pelican that I think is one of the most striking we’ve seen. Monte is having an art show built around these images and we’re crossing our fingers that it’s a big success.
Release Date Recap
Well that definitely seemed to work. I’ll be posting more because there are a lot of lessons to be gleaned and ruminated over. But bottom line was that a lot of people came out of the woodwork and contributed their voices to help spread the word about the album and the music. A couple hundred people downloaded the album, a couple hundred people came by the website to check things out, and so many good people and music lovers had great things to say. It was kind of overwhelming. A special (digital) moment that was highly/completely dependent on technology that is still pretty nascent (Twitter/micro-blog/status messages).
Thank you to everyone.
Follow the Twitter thread here to get a glimpse of the people that stood up and passed the word about the record and the music. It was really a special experience.
#painisareliablesignal
The album is out today. If you’re on the mailing list you got a free copy. If you follow me on Twitter, you got a free copy. Really, the only way you didn’t get a free copy is if you’re reading this but don’t follow me on Twitter and aren’t signed up for the mailing list. These things are easily remedied.
There will be lots of press, including a tour of the Upper West Side by yours truly, but for now, do yourself a favor and put that album on your iPod.
Track #3: Dirty White Coats
What are the lessons from Dirty White Coats? There are a couple. One is Dylan’s credo, “First thought, best thought” and perhaps the other is that simple is often better. Listen, the song is really not very complicated. Although many great songs, when picked apart and laid bare on the stones are about as simple as this. Two chords with a third thrown in there whenever you want it. C to F.
