art is the new religion

The Johnny Cash Show

Our local PBS affiliate KLRU was having a fund drive this weekend and I caught part of their broadcast of "The Johnny Cash Show" (1969) on Saturday night.  They showed performances by country legends including Tammy Wynette, Kris Kristofferson, Loretta Lynn and Merle Haggard.

I grew up knowing who "Waylon, Willie and the boys" were, thanks in part to the song "Luckenbach, Texas":

But I'd always pictured Waylon, Willie, Johnny and Merle as crusty, bearded old cowboys hewn from the rough country landscape, as iconic and weathered as the faces on Mt. Rushmore (I'm not the only person to have pictured this). 

So seeing them forty years younger, circa 1969, was a bit of a revelation.  They were actually quite dashing back in the day.  Just look at Merle with his artfully combed coif, canary yellow button-down and jaunty kerchief tied about his neck:

I was really inspired when I saw this clip of Waylon singing "Only Daddy That'll Walk The Line."  Yes, the song is cool, but there is so much amazing style in this two minute clip I can hardly stand it:

• Waylon's guitar is gorgeous
• That double-necked electric guitar - 12-strings on top - is out of control
• Who is the sassy, beautiful keyboard player in that awesome red dress?
• The hot pink and yellow set design is totally hot
• Waylon's positively suave in that suit and shiny, shiny slicked-back hair

I'm also fascinated about how loose the first performance is - the bass player keeps screwing up on his backing vocals and Waylon just has a good laugh with him about it.  They're thinking, Oh it's just the Johnny Cash show on television, not that big of a deal.  Could you imagine a band today casually laughing off a few screwups on Letterman?  No, it'd be an all-out crisis, with their record label and management team calling emergency meetings in a panic.  Everyone seems to be just having fun with their pal Johnny on this show. (How weird was that little interlude when Johnny sidled up to sing about taking Waylon's woman out when he wasn't around?)

I keep wondering what the modern-day equivalent of this show could possibly be.  Which of today's artists could land a TV show where she or he could bring friends on to play, and have any hope for it all to be culturally and musically relevant four decades later?  I'm stumped, but if you have ideas please comment. 

• Buy the two disc DVD set of The Johnny Cash Show: The Best of Johnny Cash 1969-1971 from Amazon.
  

"480 Minutes": Every Friday on BAGeL Radio

Hands up if you're in the market to discover some new music!

Lucky for you, every Friday you can tune in for eight hours of new indie rock and noise pop courtesy of DJ Ted at BAGeL Radio.  He listens to hundreds of CDs each week and hand-picks the very best to play on his internet radio station BAGeL Radio, and on Fridays he presents a live broadcast curated with the freshest stuff he's got to offer.  All of this is free of charge!  Can you even believe it?  Here's what he's got in store for you today:

"Today's '480 Minutes' show will feature new songs from The Breeders (Dayton, OH), The Wombats (1st US release, Liverpool, UK), Tapes 'n Tapes (Minneapolis, MN), The Black Keys (Akron, OH), The Black Box Rebellion (Brussels, Belgium), R.E.M. (Athens, GA), Finest Dearest (San Francisco, CA), Doctors & DealersFoals (Oxford, UK), Mono Taxi (London, UK), Cut Copy (Melbourne, Australia), Eric Avery (of Jane's Addiction, Los Angeles, CA), Moby (New York, NY), Neva Dinova (Omaha, NE), The Parlor Mob (NJ), plus Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (UK) and The Raconteurs (Detroit, MI)."

Here's Ted recording a station ID with one of my favorite humans of all time, before the X show at SXSW (more X, Ted, John & SXSW on my Flickr):

No idea what he's pointing at.  Caption, anyone?

"480 Minutes" runs live every Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time, and is rebroadcast on Saturday if you missed it.

• Tune in to "480 Minutes"
• Visit the BAGeL blog
• Read why SF Weekly calls Ted "the John Peel of internet radio"

Game Night @ The Dog & Duck

Some of my friends have a weekly Tuesday night Game Night that's been ongoing for months.  There's a different location and turnout of people each week, and this past Tuesday I joined Richard and Dylan at the Dog & Duck Pub for some fun and pints.

We grabbed a picnic table on the deck and started out by playing the card game Sh*thead. Richard and I used to play this game with friends back in college at the Draught Horse Pub, but Dylan had never played before so we walked him through a test game before playing for real.  Dylan picked the game up very quickly and I unfortunately ended up winning (via losing) the title of sh*thead.

The wind was picking up and threatening to carry our cards off with it, so we moved inside for a quieter environment.  I'd grabbed my bag of Scrabble letters before I left my house, and the guys were interested in learning a new game.  I think I first played this game with a guy I dated years ago, and I never did find out what it's called.  (If you know the name, please comment.)

All you need to play is the letters from a Scrabble game (no need for any of the rest of it), a flat surface and at least one other person to play with.  The object of the game is to spell words that are three letters or longer.  Words can (and should) be stolen from other players -- you can steal a word by adding and rearranging letters to create a new word, but you can only add letters (not subtract or break them up into smaller words).  At the end of the game, count up the point value of the letters in all the words you've collected and the person with the most points wins.  You can play with 2-6 players.

Here's how the game is played:

• Place all the Scrabble letters face down in the middle of the table.  (Remove the two blank tiles when you come across them.)
• The first player turns over one letter.  (For example, "B")
• The next player turns over one letter. (Example, "D")
• The next player turns over one letter.  (Example, "E")
• The first person to yell out "BED!" gets to take all the letters and spell the word out in front of them, facing the other players.
• The person who just formed a word resumes play by turning over one letter. (Example, "P")
• The next player turns over one letter. (Example, "A")
• The first person to yell out "BEAD!" (or "bade") takes the A and adds it to B, E, and D.  Any player can yell out the new word, meaning you might be able to add to your own word or it might get stolen by someone else. Stealing words from your opponents is highly encouraged and half of the fun of the game!

I find this game way more exciting, stressful and action-packed than traditional Scrabble.  You're constantly looking back and forth at your words and everyone else's, anticipating the possibilities that each new turned-over tile can create.  You end up playing offense and defense by shouting things out as quickly as possible, as words are rapidly created, built upon and stolen. 

You can also get into some rousing disputes over the validity of words, just like in the original game.  Richard tried to pass off several made up words and British slang words, which Dylan and I promptly denied.  We did let him get away with "qis" though, which I still think was way too generous.

Being the most experienced, I won the first game, but the guys were keen to play again immediately.  At which point Richard proceeded to absolutely kill us.  At the end, Dylan and I ended up with I think two words each, and Richard scored an impossible 133 points. 

However, I did feel quite good when I stole Richard's word "maim" to spell "maxim".

We took a brief break for the guys to walk me through the complexities of Cribbage, with Dylan keeping score on that bizarre little peg-board racetrack, but after three rounds we were ready for a final game of Scrabble-letters, a.k.a. the grudge match.  I'd rested up and calmed down enough to focus on bringing Richard down a few notches by winning!  There's no doubt we have created a monster though, and I apologize in advance to his friends and loved ones.

Slow Music

I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by the varied and complicated management and methods involved in listening to my music.  So I've decided to simplify until some brilliant mind out there removes the obstacles for me.

These are my peeves:

• Management and storage of CDs
• Management and storage of mp3s
• Management of music files amongst multiple mp3 players (in my case, an iPod nano, iPod shuffle and iPhone)
• Management of mp3s amongst multiple laptops
• Having amassed (and continually pruned) over two decades a large and beloved music collection across different formats: mp3, CD, vinyl (and yeah, I still have some cassette tapes)
• Having my car stereo stolen for the second time

I know, boo hoo, poor me - really this is a great "problem" to have.  I totally realize that.  But come on, someone's got to be working on building a better musical mousetrap?

I'll admit I'm still bitter about having my car stereo and about 20 of my favorite CDs stolen recently.  So now I can't listen to anything in my car.  Lately I only use my iPod when I'm running, and I've been listening to audio books or podcasts on it, not music.  This means I'm usually listening to music while I'm on my laptop at work all day, but the last thing I want to do (or should do) is bog down my work laptop with a ton of mp3 files.  To top this all off, I've completely lost track of what exactly's ripped to my personal laptop, my work laptop, my old dying laptop that I don't use anymore and my external hard drive. Say I want to listen to Patty Griffin's Living With Ghosts.  I know I have it on CD, but where?  I seem to remember ripping it a long time ago, but to which laptop?  Could it be on my Shuffle or my Nano?  I have no idea!

Whatever amount of music I have digitized, it's probably not even 10% of the 1000+ CDs I own.  Just looking at my CDs stresses me out -- after three cross-country moves, I've whittled them down, discarded and sold and given away, shucked the keepers of their jewel cases and made a valiant attempt at alphabetizing them before double-stuffing them into cases designed hold 100 or 200 CDs each.  Looking at my seven bulging CD cases, I have a vague recollection of what year I started each case, which might give me an indication of where to start looking for a certain album, although more often than not I end up rummaging through two or three of the cases before I locate the CD I had in mind.  And then what, I pop the CD into my laptop so it can whirr and/or overheat? 

I used to say that I cared about owning physical CDs and I was one of those people who thought downloading a record online didn't give the full experience.  I still do believe that, and I really do care about artwork and lyrics and I comb through the thank yous on every album made by someone I know (and can attest that being thanked in a record is one of the best feelings ever).  And some artwork needs to be experienced in person, like the art on the last Menomena CD.  I even lug around from city to city, apartment to apartment, probably 300 CDs I keep in their jewel cases for some sort of sentimental reason.  But at this point, if I never see another CD again, I think I could live with that.

And the thought of ripping my entire music collection, disc by disc, onto...some machine large and expensive enough to fit all of it...makes me want to hork.

So I'm simplifying.  For now I will only use four methods to listen to music:

1. Subscription to a music service which has at least 80% of the old, new and indie music I'm interested in hearing.  Lacking a stronger alternative, the $12.99 a month I send to Rhapsody suits me fine.
2. Vinyl albums on my portable record player.
3. Clicking a link online to download or stream.
4. Live performance.

Yes, I realize these methods don't solve my problems.  I can't download any music from Rhapsody to my iPod, but I'm OK with that for now.  They have almost everything I ever want to listen to and can cater to my tastes, whims and curiosity.  From Aloha to Phil Collins to Robyn (only because Anil asked me to) to Rahsaan Roland Kirk to the new Gnarls Barkley - Rhapsody's got almost every artist or album that occurs to me during any given day.  And of all the things I'd like to listen to on occasion, 80% of it is stuff I don't feel the need to own forever.

And I'm not set up to rip vinyl to my iPod or laptop either, but I don't really want to.  These days most savvy indie labels give you a code or coupon to digitally download for free the vinyl album you purchased (genius!)  But I like the whole process of listening to records.  There's something strangely calming and satisfying to me about looking through my long shelf of albums, tilting my head to read the titles on their skinny spines, plucking one out, gingerly shucking it from its cardboard shell and paper or plastic inner sleeve, leaning over to lay down the needle in just the right spot, and later taking the time to flip between sides A and B.  It's like the slow food movement:  Slow music?

So that's it.  I've gone to extremes.  To cut down on the crazy.

I really don't mean to whine about all the great music there is to listen to.  I'm lucky.  I'm grateful.  Who's complaining about the burden of too many choices?  Not me!  But I'll admit I worry about music because it matters so much to me.

When a very kind soul offered someday to rip all of my CDs to a central server that I could access from any computer, it gave me a little pang in my heart.  Simple, logical, convenient access to my music sounds positively romantic.

Monthly Mixes

Ydnar posted a Spring Skiing mix this weekend over on his blog.  I listened to all 67 minutes this morning and, along with my homemade soy latte with Blue Bottle espresso beans, it put me in a really good mood.   It segues from dance to indie rock and back.  Check out the playlist:

Spring Skiing:

• College - Teenage Color
• Buddy Akai - I’ll Know
• Holy Ghost! - Hold On
• The Whitest Boy Alive - Golden Cage (Fred Falke Remix)
• Mystery Jets - Young Love (The Shoes Mix)
• Autokratz - Last Show - Original Mix
• The Gossip - Yr Mangled Heart (Guns’N’Bombs Trashbags Remix)
• Belle & Sebastian - Piazza, New York Catcher
• Frank Turner - This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The One Of ME
• The Helio Sequence - Hallelujah
• Earlimart - Answers & Questions
• AmpLive - All I Need
• Breakbot - Happy Rabbit
• Purple Crush - Shopping on the Dancefloor
• Teenagersintokyo - Very Vampyr
• Steve Aoki - Justice, Waters of Nazereth (Erol Alkan’s Durrr Durrr Durrrrrr Re-Edit) (with Pase Rock guest drop)
• Justice - Phantom II (Boys Noize Unreleased Turbine)
• Sébastien Tellier - La Ritournelle (Mr. Dan’s Mix)

Go listen.  I've requested that he share a mix each month.

Speaking of monthly mixes, mixfreq. makes a monthly mix of mostly new indie rock with some great older songs thrown in.  Steve started making his monthly mixes ages ago, as a way to keep his friends updated on what he's listening to.  If you can't get Steve to hand you over a burned CD personally, you can now purchase the mix from iTunes.  Sign up to his mailing list to get notified when the new mix goes up.  Here's the mixfreq. tracklist for February 2008:

1	Jose Gonzalez	Teardrop	In Our Nature
2	Radio Citizen	The Hop (feat. Bajka)	Berlin Serengeti
3	Morphine	You Look Like Rain	Good
4	Cowboy Junkies	My Little Basquiat	At the End of Paths Taken
5	RJD2	Smoke & Mirrors	Deadringer
6	The New Pornographers	The Bleeding Heart Show	Twin Cinema
7	Vampire Weekend	Mansard Roof	Mansard Roof
8	MGMT	Electric Feel	Oracular Spectacular
9	The Chemical Brothers	Battle Scars	We Are The Night
10	I Am Kloot	No Direction Home	Gods and Monsters
11	Josh Joplin Group	Matter	Useful Music
12	Gnarls Barkley	Run	Run (Single)
13	The Veils	Lavinia	The Runaway Found
14	The Helio Sequence	Broken Afternoon	Keep Your Eyes Ahead
15	Gustavo Santaolalla	Deportation / Iguazu	Babel (Soundtrack)

The Catbirdseat posts a great monthly mix as well.  Are there any monthly mixes you recommend?

Are you SOBP?

Case is.

mmmmichelada

I should be telling you about the music I saw during SXSW, but I'm slightly more excited to tell you about the Tex-Mex and Austin culture I foisted upon my friends during their week here:

• Number of people I introduced to queso:  3
• Number of trips to El Chilito for delicious breakfast tacos: 5
• Number of breakfast tacos purchased from El Chilito for the kickball game:  200
• Number of cowboy boots I encouraged the purchase of at Allens Boots on Congress: 2 (that's 1 pair)
• Number of people I introduced to the michelada at Red House Lounge: 2

Most of these things you can only experience in Texas, but the michelada* is a cocktail you can make yourself at home.  Learn how to make a michelada.

If I could do anything right now, I'd head to Red House to enjoy a michelada before the sun goes down.

* To give credit where credit is due, I had my first michelada in San Francisco at my favorite bar The Homestead with Jeff when he was on tour with Twilight Singers.  But it's more fun to drink one when it's hot and sunny outside.

Don't look down, just look up

Phil Collins: Singer, songwriter, drummer, actor.

I started my day by opening up Rhapsody, searching on Phil Collins, and clicking on their "Top Tracks" for him which queued up 25 songs in my player. 

Phil Collins has sooo many great songs:  "Easy Lover", "In the Air Tonight", "One More Night", "Against All Odds" - the list goes on.  When I mentioned on Twitter that I was listening to Phil, a few of my friends piped up with love for him, so I thought I'd share with you the most Phil Collins you could possibly experience in four minutes:

Listening to "Separate Lives" from the White Knights soundtrack (mmmBaryshnikov), I realized I've never known who the female singer is in the duet.  Turns out her name is Marilyn Martin and according to Wikipedia she was involved in several cool projects in the 80's (singing & touring with Stevie Nicks!!), and though she's still singing it appears she's also a realtor now in Tennessee.  Marilyn, if you see this post, we salute you.

Phil's receding-hairline mullet in this video sure is a lot to take in.  It's bold like Dale's receding-hairline fauxhawk.

• Buy Phil Collins' Hits from Amazon.com.

The Gutter Twins on Letterman

My roommate Jeff Klein has been off on tour non-stop since early February, and I've only had the occasional text message or IM to remind me that he's alive and kicking.

Well, fire up your DVRs because there should be a honest-to-goodness Jeff-sighting when The Gutter Twins play Letterman on Wednesday night.  The Gutter Twins is a collaboration between The Afghan Whigs' Greg Dulli and Screaming Trees' Mark Lanegan, and is therefore spooky and sexy at the same time.

Look for Jeff tomorrow night behind the keyboards!

Update 3/20 -  Harold pointed out that the video is available now:

Listen to The Gutter Twins

See The Gutter Twins on tour

• Buy The Gutter Twins' Saturnalia from Amazon.

Whomping can only come from the inside

My good friend Ryan Junell has created his third video for Spoon, this time co-directing/animating along with Double Triple a video for "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb":

Ryan describes the "2d stop motion animated music video":

Neither of us had done stop motion or green screen before so there was a big learning curve, but it was super fun and some of the best hardwork I've done in awhile. This was done entirely in collaboration with long time friend Phillip Niemeyer of Double Triple.

We invented a production ethic called "Whomping" (alt. "Wamping" or "Womping") where you just take what's in front of you and Whomp/Wamp/Womp on it til its done. Phillip explained to me that you can't pay for whomping... because whomping can only come from the inside.

I love the way Ryan looks at the world.  He's always got me laughing, scratching my head and/or seeing things from a different angle.

Check out the other videos Ryan directed for Spoon:

• "The Two Sides of Mssr. Valentine" featuring Charo!  (Ryan, you are not the only person who appreciates this fact.)
• "Jonathon Fisk"