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Day 57. Pink Martini, She & Him and M. Ward.

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

So – tonight I have been plugging away on some new code, trying to learn a bit more abbot programming interfaces for Apple’s Interface Builder (which creates the visual part of an application that we usually see when we launch an application). Fun. Kind of. But – I didn’t get to rip any discs. BUT I did buy a couple new ones. She and Him Volume 2 came out ‘today’ at 9pm (midnight east coast time) and I discovered that Pink Martini also has a new one. Or a newer one… at least one I hadn’t seen before. Not sure what to think about the new Pink Martini so far… one of the songs just ripped of the first Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto. And I don’t mean it quoted it… I mean it used bits of melody with a ‘wrong note’ every six or seven notes. The song before that sounded like ‘Cantaloupe Island’ by Herbie Hancock, but again, not quite. I’m hoping it gets better though. Pink Martini’s first album absolutely stunned me with how great it was. It came out in 1997 after the group had been together for a few years. It was, and still is, amazing. ‘Hang On Little Tomato’ came out 7 years after that, and was a great second album. ‘Hey, Eugene’ came out 3 years after that, and it was a little ‘eh’. The new one took two years. I’m concerned after just a couple tracks. I’ll listen to the rest later and hope it gets better… on to the new She and Him for now (so Tamiko can hear it as well right now as she sites next to me).

I thought the first She and Him was brilliant. It really grew on me, and there were a few weeks this last summer that I had it on just about everyday. So far, number 2 is sounding good as well. So melodic. And M. Ward really can do almost no wrong in my book. My friend Charles sent me a mix disc a couple years ago with ‘Chinese Translation’ on it and that was one of those songs that I immediately tracked down so I could buy the album. This was right after I started to use eMusic – and there he was. I went ahead and purchased a few other albums from him over the next couple weeks and he has been a steady part of my pop musical diet ever since. I eagerly await his (and their) new releases. I would even go so far as to say that if you are serious about pop music in the 00s, you need to have an opinion about M. Ward. (If you are serious about pop music in the 90s, I think you need to have an opinion about Yo La Tengo). These artists I think show that you know more then just what the music industry ‘tells us’ to listen to. If my musical snobbery is a mountain range, it is probably statements like these that are some of the peaks. I know this is not necessarily an attractive side to me, but I would also lie if I didn’t admit to it. Anyways, so far so good on the new She and Him… and that’s it for tonight. I’m beat.

Tags: M. Ward, Pink Martini, She & Him
Posted in Jazz, Rock / Pop, Tamiko | No Comments »

Day 56. Mark-Almond, Liszt and more Vivaldi.

Sunday, March 21st, 2010

Just a short post tonight. I plowed through the rest of my Vivaldi discs, grabbed Michelle Campanella’s recording of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies, and Mark-Almond’s Greatest Hits (no, not Soft Cell, but the British duo that played with John Mayall at one point). Of course, I can’t help but think of Looney Tunes when I listen to the Liszt (though there is SO much amazing music in this set of 19 pieces that it is also hard not to become completely engrossed in the piano writing), and I can’t help but think about being a really small kid in a dark rental house in Ohio when I hear the Mark-Almond. I put it on the other day because I had ‘The City’ stuck in my head for some reason, and Tamiko shot me a look that I interpreted as ‘why in the world are we listening to this 1970s old sad bastard music?’. When I said ‘hmm… are you wondering why we are listening to this 1970 old sad bastard music?’ she said – ‘yeah … I’m want you to hear something else) at which point I quickly took off Mark-Almond so she could play me her faves off a new mix discs she got from Bryn. Tamiko was right. BUT – I did put it on today while I had a little time alone, and I forgot how great some of that song is. There is also a cover of Billy Joel’s ‘New York State of Mind’ on it that doesn’t conjure up the stadium sized crowds that would cheer when Billy Joel would sing it, but more a run down slummy tenement in pre-Koch New York that is gritty and great. What a wonderful cover (even if listening to it may be depressing).

On the software front, still not sure what to replace Simplify Media with. So sad. DOT.TUNES really seems to have its CPU problems. I tested it at Origin 23 this afternoon, and running the laptop on battery power I saw the CPU spike and the ‘remaining time’ shrink to about an hour on full battery. Well – that just won’t do. And it is really too bad, since the interface in iTunes is EXACTLY what I would want. It mimics the playlist layout exactly (something the Simplify Media, for some reason, couldn’t seem to do). Hopefully more on this front later in the week.

Tags: Antonio Vivaldi, Liszt, Mark-Almond
Posted in Classical, Rock / Pop, Tamiko | No Comments »

Day 55. Stravinsky (happy Spring everyone).

Saturday, March 20th, 2010

In honor of the first day of spring, I usually listen to Stravinsky’s ‘Rite of Spring’. A little cliche, but it also makes sure I get some Stravinsky in on a yearly basis. Well this year was a little different since I decided I would copy the 22 CD Stravinsky performs Stravinsky box set that Tamiko got me a couple years ago for Christmas. I remember my conductor at UC Berkeley (David Milnes) saying that Stravinsky conducting didn’t provide the best performances of his works. And I pretty much agree, but they aren’t bad either. Some are quite fun (Petrushka especially!). There is often this misconception that simply because a composer is performing one of their works, that it must be somehow definitive. The thing is, just because someone composes doesn’t mean they should be conducting theirs, or anyone else’s works. Conductors spend their lives shaping / creating other people’s music, and just like any creative pursuit, the creator doesn’t always see the big picture. And – like any other skill conducting is one that takes years / decades to learn. So – why would we expect a composer who may not have much conducting experience to be able to conduct there work? Much less something as a difficult as ‘Rite of Spring’?

So – couple quick Stravinsky stories. First – I had Music History with one of THE Stravinsky scholars, Richard Taruskin. He just finished his HUGE two volume book on Stravinsky’s works through the opera Mavra. He told the class that he had sent it off… and that it had been the focus of his work for 12 years. ‘I guess I just go and die now’, he says. Then after a beat: “Beethoven!”. The second actually took place around a performance of ‘Rite of Spring’. We played that, the Mass and ‘Symphony of Psalms’ for a concert program one semester (amazing concert). The first night was ok – but the second night hit and hit hard. It was amazing. We finished the ‘Rite of Spring’ to a full house, and for about 5 seconds, there wasn’t any applause. It was the most amazing sound I have ever heard. A hall full of people after one of the most intense performances I had ever heard – then silence. When the applause started, it was thunderous. What a moment.

I am 16 CDs through the 22 CD set right now, but I have also been trying out a new streaming app (and thanks to Eric Flesher for testing it with me). Looks like ‘SimplifyMedia’ is selling out. They pulled the app and sharing for the most part. Quite disappointing. So I began the search again tonight and found DOT.TUNES. So far, it seems OK. Eric got connected, and I seem to be able to connect as well. A little buggy though. Crashed once for me and once for Eric. And – it is Mac only (which won’t do for my PC friends). And when the host computer is streaming, the CPU jumps to 100%. I imagine it will get a bit warm as a result. So – this may not be the solution, but for now it will work.

Tags: DOT.TUNES, SimplifyMedia, Stravinsky
Posted in Classical, Tamiko | 2 Comments »

Day 54. Charlie Parker.

Thursday, March 18th, 2010

I came across Charlie Parker the first time in high school jazz band my freshman year. We played ‘K.C. Blues’ and I went out and found a compilation that afternoon (“Bird: The Original Recordings of Charlie Parker on Verve”). It was also my introduction to Verve Records and Bop. As I got more and more into jazz, Charlie Parker was one of the artists I explored first. I was playing alto sax at the time and had access to a few transcriptions of solos (which I simply couldn’t play).

During my years at the Tower in Roseville I would pick up discs as they would come in (and eventually order the ones I wanted). And he became on of the artists that Tamiko and I liked to listen to together. One of the best finds came with a box of Japanese imports that were just sent to the store. We didn’t know what was in the boxes – they were just packed together by Tower’s import department and sent to us. In one of these boxes was ‘Charlie Parker with Strings, the Complete Master Takes’. $35 for the disc and I took it to Tamiko the day I got it. This isn’t Bird in Bop mode, but Bird in melodic and romantic mode… great date music. This was the only copy of the disc we got as well (and I didn’t see it again for close to 10 years until it was re-issued in the states)

Tamiko had an old Datsun B-210 that, like most cars from the 70s that survived into the 90s had quirks. The B-210’s quirk was that, when cold started, would stall on a hill. And it just happened that her house in Roseville sat on a road that rose in the middle (creating a kind of hill to the curb). Well – someone broke into the B-210 and tired to steal it. Luckily, the car died. Unluckily a box of CDs that was in the back was taken, and along with it the Charlie Parker with Strings disc. Tamiko felt horrible about it, but I was just glad everything else was ok. About a week later I get to work and sitting in the return bin at Tower is the Charlie Parker discs along with a few others that were taken! The crook had returned them for store credit!!! No one remembered anything about the guy, but I was able to buy the disc back again.

Just now I put the recording on (after ripping it) and in just a couple of notes Tamiko shot me a smile. In the first couple of notes, I was hit with the image of the two of us in her apartment on Arch Street in Berkeley, listening to the disc with the windows open and the cool sea breeze streaming in. Sure – I have a good amount of Charlie Parker to rip tonight (lots of Bop especially – and a great disc with a VERY young Miles Davis playing backup) but I wonder how many of the discs on my shelves will create such a vivid memory for me (or make Tamiko smile so quickly). Probably not many.

Tags: Charlie Parker
Posted in Jazz, Tamiko | No Comments »

Day 52. R.E.M.

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

Events of the past few days have kept me from ripping CDs until this morning. The days have been filled with a mixture of things – anniversaries and adversaries, bugs external and internal, comfort, family and smoking melted combs. It is also the end of a quarter and the beginning of spring (break). My friend Christina suggested we ‘smudge’ the house with a sage burning to begin again – get rid of the evils of the past few months and start fresh. The idea is appealing, but as I was discussing with my friend Jill the other day, even the bad has its purpose and I feel like with all that has been going on with us here at the Parmura household, me, Tamiko, Celia and Mira have learned and are figuring out quite a bit. These past months have been pretty rough in different ways for all four of us. When it comes down to it I wouldn’t get rid of the crap we have had to deal with. I know we are growing because of it. But I have also found myself with music from my ‘angry young man’ days running through my head off and on. So today I ripped a good chunk of my R.E.M. CDs (‘Life’s Rich Pageant’, ‘Document’, ‘Green’, ‘Out of Time’ and ‘Monster’). If all is calm after tonight’s class listening session, I may try to work in the first couple Violent Femmes albums as well, maybe some early Cure. While I did have a good amount of Ministry and Nine Inch Nails that I played during my senior year of high school, I am glad that the mostly melodic and ‘angry’ alternative 90s staples mentioned above are what I still listen to when I feel a little agro and need to get some energy out. I’m more comfortable with my masculinity now then I was in 1992.

I have ‘Life’s Rich Pageant’ on at the moment, but earlier I had ‘Green’ on with the girls. Mira (who is recovering from a stomach bug, as well as a hard night at the urgent care to make sure she didn’t have a bladder infection) started to dance in my arms when ‘Pop Song ’89’ came on. I actually hadn’t even listened to ‘Green’ or ‘Out of Time’ for awhile. Then main exception is my yearly mix-disc ritual where I rip ‘Losing My Religion’ as part of the first round of cuts for that years disc (only to have it weeded out as the music is cut down to the 80 minutes needed for a blank CD). It’s a great song, but too obvious to just have thrown onto a mix disc without carefully leading into and out of it. Maybe this year. Probably not

For the most part now I tend to put on ‘Life’s Rich Pageant’, ‘Document’ and ‘Automatic For The People’ now when I listen to R.E.M. Yes, I know which one doesn’t belong with the others but I will unapologetically say that it is a great album, And I think you can be a good R.E.M. fan and like songs like ‘Drive’ and ‘The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight’. Along with the first Violent Femmes album, one of the Cure greatest hits albums and the Pixies ‘Trompe Le Monde’, this album was part of the soundtrack for a getaway weekend with some high school friends to Fort Bragg. Tamiko and I were going through our ‘He’s still in high school and a loser and being WAAAAY to immature for his college girlfriend’ break-up (complete with my purple hair) and a few good friends (Josh, Cheryl and Molly) decided we needed to head to Molly’s families beach house in Fort Bragg. And we all (just friends) spent a good chunk of time jumping off sand dune cliffs, hiking around and relaxing on the beach between figuring out what we could find at the grocery store to eat. Later in the year, some tension was created among the four of us because of someone else I dated and the other three, as well as other teenage tensions among the four of us towards each other. The four of us, by the end of the school year pretty much weren’t talking much to each other (and looking back now, I imagine uncertainty about where we would be ending up after high school was probably a big part of the problem). But for that weekend and a couple months afterwards, we had lots of fun together just hanging out.

One thing that is hard about the ‘soundtrack’ for this weekend in Fort Bragg though is the fact that, for me, lots of things sucked. Tamiko and I were breaking up and it was really hard (though we obviously get back together and I think we both see that time now as a great period of growing up for both of us – though especially me – and I also think that we were a much stronger couple afterwards). If I ever tell Celia this story, she would probably say – ‘Dad, this sounds like a horrible time for you! Would you want to remember it? No!’. (Celia has begun to rhetorically answer her own questions) But the fact of the matter is, these three friends really kept me together that weekend and, while they may not know it, I am very grateful for this. And while the break-up sucked, lots of good came from it eventually.

Like almost any real thing that happens in life, it is difficult for there to be clear-cut good times and bad times. I remember times when I was a kid and really sick (especially one very scary trip to an ER because of a severe asthma attack when I was 4 or 5, another time when I had a finger nail ripped off of my finger). And I have a feeling that Celia will remember when she is older about the time Mira seemed really sick and we needed to take her to urgent care. Celia was terribly worried about Mira last night, and very sad that she couldn’t go with us… but for now (and maybe in 20 years?) I have the image of a slightly feverish Mira in my arms dancing to R.E.M. with Celia smiling at the table while she is eating jammy toast. Celia knows her sister is feeling better. Maybe R.E.M. will subconsciously trigger this memory for her.

Tags: R.E.M.
Posted in Celia, Mira, Rock / Pop, Tamiko | No Comments »

Day 48. Yo La Tengo and The The.

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

Tonight’s grabs were a couple of discs by ‘The The’ and a few from ‘Yo La Tengo’. ‘Dusk’ and ‘Hanky Panky’ were both released in the early / mid 90s. Matt Johnson (the only constant member of The The) puts a group together, makes a record and may do a tour. Dusk’s most notable contributor was, by far, major contributor Johnny Marr. And like just about anything Johnny Marr touches (The Smiths, The Pretenders, Modest Mouse) the album was golden. I still remember getting to work at the Tower on Sunrise early on morning to hear the ‘Dogs of Lust’ blasting on the stereo. The harmonica opening leading to a great heavy bass riff caught my attention pretty quickly, and I was listening to ‘Slow Emotion Replay’ on my car stereo on the way home that afternoon. While Johnny Marr wasn’t on the next album (Hanky Panky) his sound lingered a bit with the group. ‘Hanky Panky’ was an entire album of Hank Williams songs. What I liked most about the album was the sound it created. Like most good covers the songs don’t sound like Hank Williams, but like The The taking the poetry and lonesome feel and creating a The The record.

Along similar lines is the CD single Yo La Tengo released of multiple versions of Sun Ra’s ‘Nuclear War’. It was the groups first Top 10 single. The versions are all pretty much brilliant, starting with just the group singing with drums (though there is some bleed through from the second tracks tapes … if you play it that loudly you can hear it, and yes, I have played it that loudly), where version 2 features a chorus of kids singing the backing parts. Version 3 features an extended jazz jam that is simply phenomenal. To read about how this single (perhaps the most profane disc I own) became such a sensation, it really is best to just read it from Yo La Tengo themselves:

http://www.yolatengo.com/billboard.html

That same year also saw the release of ‘The Sounds of the Sounds of Silence’ which is an instrumental soundtrack based on performances by Yo La Tengo over film viewings of Painleve films. Painleve’s films are French documentaries about sea life, many filmed under water. The music is stunningly beautiful and it became even more so when I finally was able to pick up Criterion’s release of these films with Yo La Tengo playing over them (different versions of the songs even!!!). Tamiko, me and our friend Bryn watched the films a few months ago and were blown away by the marriage of film and sound. Between these two discs alone, I think 2002 may have been Yo La Tengo’s most creative year. These followed up ‘And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out’, a moody, mostly quiet album. Except for possibly my favorite Yo La Tengo song ‘Cherry Chapstick’ which can get me going whenever nothing else will. But the last track ‘Night Falls on Hoboken’ is probably my favorite tracks on the album… a 17 minute instrumental mood piece that makes me feel floaty. It reminds me of ‘Green Arrow’ (from 1997’s ‘I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One’ – the best album of the 90s in my opinion). And it definitely looks ahead to ‘The Sounds of the Sounds of Silence’.

Yo La Tengo is one of the few bands that I eagerly await new releases from, and will buy them the day they come out. Yo La Tengo is one of my favorite bands. Ever.

Tags: The The, Yo La Tengo
Posted in Rock / Pop, Tamiko | No Comments »

Day 46. The British Are Coming!

Sunday, March 7th, 2010

The 3 CD box set ‘The British Are Coming’ is a decent compilation of mid-60s British acts. Of course, The Beatles aren’t represented (and I imagine that just about anyone who would buy a 3 CD set of British Invasion acts would probably have most of the Beatles discs anyways). The Kinks, Donovan, Peter and Gordon and The Zombies all have a few tracks (since the set would have to sell a few copies on pop recognition), but the real gems on the set are some of the more obscure acts. There is a REALLY early Bowie tack (‘I Dig Everything’) and a few tracks by The Foundations that really borrow more then most from the American R&B sound. It also collects together a number of number 1s. ‘Bus Stop’ by the Hollies is followed by ‘For Your Love’ by the Yardbirds which leads into ‘A Groovy Kind Of Love’ by The Mindbenders. Overall, a really nice set of pop hits from across the pond in the 60s.

My favorite part of this set though is how quickly Celia took to it. When she was about 2 or 2 1/2, we would put it on the CD player in her room, and she would dance like crazy to it. By the time my daughter was 3, she could ask for ‘She’s Not There’ by The Zombies, and hum along. This is a rather proud parenting moment for me. ‘Love Potion No. 9’ was get repeat playings, and Celia would jump along on her bed. And for the most part, this is all pretty kid friendly music. It’s mostly at a good tempo, repetitive and fun. And it has a good back beat. Tamiko and I have pretty much always played ‘our music’ around the girls and I think this has actually turned out for the best for all of us involved. Both of the girls dance like crazy to Kylie Minogue and ABBA, and while there is no Barney the Dinosaur in our playlists, there is T. Rex. Celia used to request ‘White Swan’ even, and there is nothing more adorable then a video Tamiko shot of Celia and Mira (in a jumper chair hanging in the kitchen) both dancing to ‘Children of the Revolution’. They have a love for music that I couldn’t have forced onto them, and I think a large part of that comes from the enjoyment they see in me and Tamiko when we play music. I’m not sure I could have faked it with Barney or Raffi. But there is no faking needed when the Kinks’ ‘Sunny Afternoon’ or The Foundations ‘Build Me Up Buttercup’ comes on… we can all dance quite happily.

Tags: David Bowie, Donovan, Peter and Gordon, The Foundations, The Kinks, The Zombies
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Day 45. Chris Isaak and Oingo Boingo.

Saturday, March 6th, 2010

I had a small ’79 Honda Accord as a second car in high school (after I rear ended someone with my small little Chevy Sprint). It was an odd little 2 speed automatic but it had a tape deck and I was able to hook an adapter into it to play CDs. The night before a friend was going to head off to the Marines a few of us went out for a little goofing off around Sacramento. I actually can’t really remember what we did that night, except for a drive down a stretch of I-80 while playing Oingo Boingo really loudly. While driving down the freeway, everyone else in the car was bouncing left and right along with ‘No One Lives Forever’ testing out the shocks in the car. We wound up at a Taco Bell in Roseville, played the song even louder and danced around the car. Ah – early summer in the Sacramento area, where it was warm enough at 11pm to be outside in shorts, dancing to Oingo Boingo while waiting for a rather poor excuse for Mexican food.

Oingo Boingo has been a favorite band of mine for a long time. And one of my favorite aspects of the band was the horn section. I think horns in a rock band often makes the difference between good music and great music. During my Berkeley years, my friend Eric and I talked for a couple of years about putting together a band that would try to grab the best elements of Oingo Boingo (ska sound and horns) and start doing classical music covers at local open-mic nights. We pictured a room jumping around to arrangements of Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody #2 and Rhapsody in Blue. Eric figured his Buster Bloodvessel like proportions and my horn arrangements would be enough to start getting us gigs. The trick was finding horn players that could really rock. We lived just north of Oakland (home of Tower Of Power) and couldn’t seem to dig up 4-5 decent horn players wanting to play some rocking classical covers with a big guy in front of them screaming ‘pick it up up!’. I still think something like this would be a lot of fun to do but I also think I wouldn’t have the energy to pull it off. And without Eric, half the gimmick really would be missing.

It has been a few months since I’ve listened to Oingo Boingo though, so I look forward to seeing if Mira and Celia dance around to … hmm… not sure what I can play for them. Celia is paying close attention to words these days.

Maybe Chris Isaak will be a better choice? Not as rocking… certainly, but his Roy Orbison like style is much more family friendly. ‘Heart Shaped World’ and ‘San Francisco Days’ have some good songs, but a number of dogs as well. But ‘The Baja Sessions’ I think is a solid album that escaped the notice of most people. I remember Tamiko and I taking this album on a couple of road trips along the California coast. It was a great soundtrack for lazy days by the ocean. The stripped down feel of the ‘Baja Sessions’ also suited the ‘let’s get away from it all’ feeling that often accompanied these trips. Tamiko and I are needing another trip like that pretty soon – it has been a very hectic few months. Maybe I need to make sure I get Chris Isaak into the glove compartment again.

And Tamiko just reminded me that on one of those trips to the coast we had breakfast a couple of tables away from Chris Isaak… he took off to surf after breakfast, we probably put his disc into the player and kept heading north up Hwy 1.

Tags: Chris Isaak, Oingo Boingo
Posted in Rock / Pop, Tamiko | No Comments »

Day 37. Harry Connick Jr., and Paolo Conte.

Friday, February 26th, 2010

Tamiko and I first heard Paolo Conte in the movie ‘A Couch In New York’ where ‘Via Con Me’ is used a couple of times as a mood setter. A greatest hits collection came out here in the US a couple years after the movie and I was able to pick up a promo of it. The rest of the disc mostly consisted of cool vocal jazz standards mostly in Italian with smatterings of English here and there… but it was all fun. There are a couple songs on this disc that are dangerous to listen to though. ‘Happy Feet’ WILL get stuck in your head… ‘Boogie’ probably will as well, and since it is mostly in Italian I usually just find myself phonetically making up words to go along with the song. Until the chorus:

HAPPY FEET! DADADA HAPPY FEET! DADADA HAPPY FEET! OH OH I LOVE YAH!

What is he singing about? The chorus doesn’t even make sense! But it doesn’t really matter… so much of his music is driving and infectious, and when there are words that are familiar I feel like I just need to sing along with them.

Whenever I hear him I tend to think about ‘Couch In New York’ which really is a sweet movie. Or rather, I think about me and Tamiko cuddled up on a couch watching it. So I think it is kind of funny that the other artist tonight (who was next to Paolo Conte on the shelf) was Harry Connick Jr. And of course I am talking about ‘When Harry Met Sally’ which takes me back to the earliest years of me and Tamiko dating. We have always been home bodies, and prefer PJs and a movie to going out (especially once we had our own place!). And for New Years Eve, we had a tradition for some time of watching ‘When Harry Met Sally’ up to midnight. I imagine I would have liked Harry Connick Jr. even if he hadn’t done the soundtrack to the movie, but he adds so much to it that I know I liked him more because of his association to it. There is a nostalgia for an older New York in his Sinatra-esque earlier style, and as ‘complicated’ as the story for ‘When Harry Met Sally’ seems to be, it is really very simple and elegant (much like the older couples who are telling their stories throughout the movie).

The three albums I ripped tonight were ‘We Are In Love’, ‘Lofty’s Roach Souffle’ and ‘Red Light, Blue Light’. ‘We Are In Love’ really does seem to try to be a Sinatra record, even down to the Nelson Riddle sounding orchestra in the background. Not much of the New Orleans Harry Connick shows up on this disk. But it is actually a smaller group recording of ‘It’s Alright With Me’ that I think is the stand out track on the disc. Russell Malone has a great role in the tune… starting off with a great strumming accompaniment that leads into a pretty hot guitar solo that is reminiscent of Atlantic Records John Coltrane. Then Shannon Powell and Ben Wolfe trade some short bars between each other before Harry Connick gets his turn. And he really can play some good piano. Part of the reason I think this is my favorite track on the disc is because it really focuses more on the playing of each member of the group (where I feel like the rest of the album is more of a vocal album that feels more like Frank Sinatra). And there is nothing wrong with the singing… but it doesn’t feel as unique to me.

‘Lofty’s Roach Souffle’ was released at the same time as ‘We Are In Love’ (certainly capitalizing on the ‘When Harry Met Sally’ success from the year before). I don’t necessarily think it is a stronger disc musically, but I like listening to it quite a bit more. ‘Lofty’s’ is a trio only disc, and I think you get more of the musicianship that is evident on ‘It’s Alright With Me’. You certainly get much more piano playing and I think that is a good thing.

I still remember the first time I listened to ‘Red Light, Blue Light’ quite vividly though. I got it to surprise Tamiko with, but had to listen to it when I got home from work. So I cracked it open and it starts of with a soft little clarinet melody… and I though my stereo was just turned down low. So I turn it up just in time for the HUGE big band blast. I shot back away from the stereo (I’m a pretty jumpy guy) and landed on my bed, then scrambled to turn the stereo back down again before my speakers blew up on the next hit. The orchestration on this album seemed to be a little more fun to put together then ‘We Are In Love’. Little looser in some ways, and certainly a bit showier. Lots of fun though.

Whenever I put these discs on, the nostalgia I mentioned earlier certainly kicks in. In many ways, these are part of the soundtrack of the early years of Tamiko and Josh (and I even remember putting some of these tracks on the discs that would be played when the band at our wedding was taking a break). Tamiko has asked me a number of times what songs would be on the mix disc of our relationship. The version of ‘A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square’ (with Branford Marsalis singing along with Harry Connick Jr.) would certainly be on that disc. And we’d be in sweats, all cozy on a couch, listening to the song. And ‘Heavenly’ would be the next track – sure, that breaks some serious mix disc rules, but the two songs really do belong right next to each other.

Tags: Harry Connick Jr., Paolo Conte
Posted in Jazz, Tamiko | No Comments »

Day 33. Pearl Jam, Pet Shop Boys and Singles.

Sunday, February 21st, 2010

I would call myself a mild Pet Shop Boys fan. I certainly wouldn’t collect every disc of theirs, but I am sure I’ve heard them all at one point or another. I have a pretty good disc of their greatest hits, and while I can go years without hearing them I do have to say that I think ‘West End Girls’ is one of the best songs of the 80s. Yes, it sounds a little dated, but I think it has actually stood up better then a lot of the music from the ‘early synth years’. I can’t listen to anything off ‘Like A Virgin’ without wincing at the crap synths on that thing. But the Pet Shop Boys had some good songwriting, and some nice attention to sonic detail. And I certainly don’t slap my head and think ‘ugh – bad 80s music’ when I hear most of there stuff.

At the same time, hearing Pearl Jam right after the Pet Shop Boys helps remind me of how refreshing it was to hear some grittier sound in the 90s after the pristine sound of the 80s. If you don’t believe me, dig up ‘Appetite For Destruction’ and throw on ‘Paradise City’. Then listen to ‘Spin the Black Circle’ from ‘Vitalogy.’ by Pearl Jam. Which one, based on quality of sound alone, rocks harder? And I say this knowing quite well that Guns ‘n Roses was THE mega-rockin-band of the 80s. But all I can say with the above comparison is ‘thank goodness for grunge’ (and yes – I have listened to ‘Nevermind’ recently and yes – I do realize how slick it sounds).

I started to work at the Tower in Roseville the year ‘Ten’ came out. Before it really hit though I remember putting it on in the store and we would maybe sell one or two copies. We had like 5 copies on the shelf, and those lasted us for a few good months (we’d sell one or two a week then replace them). When the album hit however, I remember ordering 30 for our small little store (30 was a lot for the Tower in Roseville!). We sold those in a few hours after they came in. I then tried to order 150 copies… and it was already back ordered. Didn’t matter though, when those 150 came they lasted us maybe three days.

I still remember the store artist Jude putting up the display sign for the ‘Singles’ soundtrack (and Jude looked like he came off the cover of the ‘Singles’ soundtrack). The disc came out a good 4 or 5 months BEFORE the movie, and we played (and sold) the hell out of it. While ‘Ten’ was a good album, I remember liking the changes Pearl Jam had made by the time the soundtrack for ‘Singles’ came out (‘Rearview Mirror’ is still one of my top 5 Pearl Jam songs, if not my favorite). But the music on the rest of that soundtrack was amazing as well (especially the Smashing Pumpkins’ ‘Drown’, complete with four minutes of feedback and delay to end the song). Over the year or so after ‘Singles’ came out, I probably played that disc in my car 3-4 times a week. I also remember that during my senior year of high school, I was determined to move to Seattle. This was during the few months that Tamiko and I were broken up, and I figured getting into a school up in Seattle and getting a band going would be a great way to make a fresh start. Problem was, I spent more time being concerned with dying my hair then I did thinking about college applications. And a good thing too… since by the end of that school year my future wife and I were figuring things out and I was determined to move to the Bay Area with her. Seattle and my flannel grunge dreams would just have to wait.

One of my fondest record store memories though happened that year. I had moved to the Tower on Sunrise after the store in Roseville closed, and I remember staying open late for ‘Vs.’ the day it came out. At midnight we had a line of a couple hundred people there to buy the new disc, and we played it LOUD while people filed in. What a way to hear the new album – loudly in a large record store while you are selling it to hundreds of eager fans who all made it to Tower Records at midnight.

My friend Charles refers to ‘Ten’ as Pearl Jam’s stadium rock anthem album, and I can see that. But after ‘Vitalogy.’ came out Tamiko and I were lucky enough (through the non-Ticketmaster lottery system Pearl Jam was trying out) to get tickets to the show at Cal Expo in Sacramento. It was the first concert in some time that I wanted to go to and I wasn’t sure if I could get there (since I didn’t have the Ticketmaster machine at my disposal to grab some tix before the selling to everyone else). But we got a couple and the concert was amazing. The stage was filled with candles, and the warm early-summer Sacramento evening was a perfect back drop for the show. They played their asses off as well. The next day Eddie Vedder came down with food poisoning, and the day after that he only sang a few songs in Golden Gate Park before he couldn’t take it any more. Neil Young came out to finish the show (which I would have LOVED to have seen as well). But I remember that after that show, and the cancellation of most of the tour afterwards, I though that Tamiko and I had seen the last Pearl Jam show that would ever happen. The band talked about how the whole fight with Ticketmaster had drained them, and I thought for sure that they were done. I was quite glad to be proven wrong, and am amazed at the band’s longevity and creativity as their career reaches into its third decade (!). And as I work MY way through my third decade, I’m married to Tamiko with two great kids, living in Tacoma and working in Seattle. I may not be very grunge, but neither is Seattle really. And – I get to make music. It all worked out just fine.

Tags: Pearl Jam, Pet Shop Boys, Singles
Posted in Rock / Pop, Tamiko | No Comments »

Archive for the ‘Tamiko’ Category

Day 57. Pink Martini, She & Him and M. Ward.

Day 56. Mark-Almond, Liszt and more Vivaldi.

Day 55. Stravinsky (happy Spring everyone).

Day 54. Charlie Parker.

Day 52. R.E.M.

Day 48. Yo La Tengo and The The.

Day 46. The British Are Coming!

Day 45. Chris Isaak and Oingo Boingo.

Day 37. Harry Connick Jr., and Paolo Conte.

Day 33. Pearl Jam, Pet Shop Boys and Singles.

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