Archive for March, 2010
Tonight at Rockwood
Rockwood Music Hall
196 Allen Street
New York, NY
9pm
FREE SHOW
We’re playing another show at Rockwood. It should be fun as always. The band is
me – I wrote the songs, I sing them, I play a smattering of guitar
Bronwen Exter – stands next to me, sings, dances occasionally
Paul Brill – produced the record, sings, plays lots of guitar, plays samples on laptop, etc.
Matt Ray – plays piano, glockenspiel, sings, helps arrange the songs
Flavio Gaete – plays viola, claps and says “say something” when required
Katie Scheele – oboe, English horn, takes her dog to dog bars which is a Brooklyn thing apparently
Dan Levine – trombone, euphonium, arranges
Stan Harrison – saxophones, flute, funny jokes
Marc Dalio – drums and percussion
Rich Stein – percussion
Rob Jost – bass, singing, smiles, other gigs
Noah Lebenzon – electric guitars, glasses, funny stories
Hope to see you there.
Back to Rockwood
We’re heading back to Rockwood this Thursday at 9pm. Had our first rehearsal in a few months last night and it went quite nicely. The set continues to evolve. Slowly but surely. Little bits and embellishments here and there as old songs take on new forms and new songs begin to grow.
It’s an interesting thing because about half the set now is a group of songs that I wrote many years ago, taken off our debut record. And at some point, it’s not just me that is looking to do something new or different with them, but I imagine the people that have been coming to see us live for awhile are now ready for some new things and some new sounds.
But, then again, we’re not U2 and we’re not on the radio, and I bet many of the people come like hearing those old songs because, if anything, those are the ones they’re going to know. And, truth be told, songs like “Broken Bow” are great songs and can have a permanence in the set for a long time to come.
And then on the other hand, there’s a whole batch of other songs that have been written over the last year plus and at some point we want to start arranging those and figuring out how those will sound.
So, again, the process is taking the older tunes and working with them and breathing some new life into them. An organ intro for “Broken Bow”, a bass solo for “Burning a Horse”, a stripped down vocal chorus for “St. Marys/Vicodin”, an extended outro for “Hold My Heartache”. An off-mic vocal coda during the instrumental section of “Colorado Drugs”. Those kinds of things.
And then beginning to introduce new tunes into the mix. ”Life Is Hard” is basically an old song at this point. But a great example of a song that has grown. We’ve added the horn/string bookends at the beginning and end of the song and given it that resonance. The lyrics are starting to sit in one place a little bit.
Last night we worked on this song called “Everyone Is From Somewhere”. I wrote it in my head over Thanksgiving. Driving down to Virginia. On 495, the Beltway, outside DC, there is a sign that says, “Northern Virginia”, and I thought to myself “everyone is from somewhere”. Which basically means that everyone has their baggage and their past and their history and nobody comes into any situation free of issues or free of their past and, in some ways, we’re all beholden to the things that have happened before us, and, in our own manner, culpable for the things that befall us. At least as far as relationships go.
We played the song for the first time last December and it was okay but you could also tell that the song would grow as we performed it and that it would achieve more resonance and we’d figure out parts for everyone in the band and the thing would evolve. So now we’re playing it for a second time this Thursday and, true to form, it’s somewhat bigger and we’ve got more definitive sections and the it sounds lovelier in many ways. Funny how those things work out.
We’re also going to playing a tune that rips off Digital Underground for the chorus. Another song that is currently in the process of achieving whatever form it will finally achieve over the next period of time. It is still becoming. It has not yet become.
So we’ll see you at Rockwood this Thursday. Should be a good thing.
Bad Metaphors
I was out at an environmental conference in California last week for my other gig. Here’s what’s happened in the cleantech/environmental movement over the past six or so years – many of the largest private equity and venture capital firms, especially in Silicon Valley, have made a conscious decision to invest massive amounts of money in new alternative energy startups.
I think they’ve been the victims of a bad metaphor.
