Brilliant Corners

While I kind of agree with a few of Garrett Murray’s criticisms of music concerts, most of them leave me scratching my head.

His first couple of points on Ticketmaster (#1) and exorbitant fees on tickets (#2) is pretty spot on. Unless another big ticket vendor comes into the action, there’s not much we'll be able to do about the ridiculous fees that Ticketmaster (and sometimes even smaller ticket vendors) charge. Luckily, in many cases there are alternatives. Unless you're going to a show at a large arena, you may be able to buy your tickets at the venue in advance without having to pay fees. Some venues will have deals with local record shops where tickets can be purchased, but then you will likely pay a fee, but a fee much smaller than Ticketmaster charges.

He does have a bit of a point about credit cards (#3), but maybe from going to so many shows before debit cards were so common, I think it’s a habit to stop at an ATM before a show to make sure I have pocket money for drinks or the occasional tour t-shirt. And unless it says it’s an “All Ages Show” then I think it’s pretty safe to ignore the suggested show times on tickets (#4). Ticketmaster is more interested in making sure their fees are collected, than getting all the information on the ticket correct. If you really need to make sure, call the venue ahead of time and they will probably be able to tell you the correct time the bands start.

That’s about where he loses me with his arguments. I can’t imagine having every concert having assigned seating (#5). It’s certainly not essential, and depending on the band playing, almost inappropriate. In 21 years and over 125 concerts, there have been maybe a handful of exceptions where I wish I was sitting instead of standing. I can’t imagine a better way to see a show than standing among the other fans, being able to shift position around the floor while trying to find the best sound in the venue. You have the freedom to get close enough to have your ears sting or far enough away that you can still enjoy the music without it pounding your ears. Not having that freedom would drive me crazy if every venue and every concert had seating.

To add another point to the seating issue, if you've ever been on the other side (on stage, that is) having an audience that’s seated is a whole different ballgame than having a moving (even if they're just swaying) mass of people. In one case, you have to provide all the energy in the place, while with an active audience you can definitely feed off of their energy and emotions. It can really be a night and day difference when you're performing on stage. Having a standing and engaged audience right in front of you can turn a good show into a fantastic one.

And while I'm not much of a fan of the overeager concert-goer singing at the top of their lungs (#6), with a standing room only show, you can easily move somewhere else on the floor, not to be bothered. Same with the dancing (or moshing or whatever). If it bothers you that much, you can move back or to the side or wherever. More than likely, the sound in the club is loud enough, that no matter where you're standing, you'll be able to hear just fine. Now, if every single show had assigned seating—like Garrett proposes—what would you do then? You'd be stuck next to the super fan. ;–)

I don’t think that “we as concert goers have let it get this out of hand.” I'm pretty sure that shows have been going on like this since before the both of us were even born.

100 Essential Jazz Albums from The New Yorker

My pal Joey (and his friend, Ben) have started a comedy podcast called The Ben & Joey Show. Give it a listen, it’s good.

I wonder why we haven’t seen DVR-like ability on car radios yet, because I would love it. I don’t actually drive much—taking my daughter to school in the morning is the one constant—but the times I do, I find myself wanting to either

1. record a song (or NPR show) to playback again later,
2. “bookmark” a song (which saves the artist & title) so I can buy the album,
3. set up a certain show to be recorded (such as a show that comes on once a week when I'm not sure if I'll be in the car, like Piano Jazz).

For the computer there are hardware options like the RadioShark, which can do some of these things. But getting recordings from that into the car seems like it would require too much effort (especially since I don’t have a decent way to play my iPod in the car).

Car radios seem to be getting more and more complex, with voice-activated controls and whatnot, but we still don’t have any DVR-like abilities. Get on that people!

Okay, maybe Jeff isn’t that famous (yet!), but his solo music project, Myopic, is featured on NPR’s “Open Mic” program. I played in three(!) separate bands with Jeff many, many years ago. Way to go, Jeff. The music is wonderful.

I'm only around halfway through Michael Azerrad’s book Our Band Could Be Your Life and two things are becoming more and more apparent as I complete the book.

One, there are a lot of bands I never gave a true listening to. Of the many bands covered in the book, I have only listened to a few: The Minutemen, Sonic Youth, and Fugazi. I have heard of all or most of the other bands mentioned in the book, but for some reason I never picked up an album of theirs. I now want to own the full catalog of Hüsker Dü, The Replacements, Black Flag, Minor Threat, Mission of Burma, and The Butthole Surfers. And I haven’t even finished the book yet.

Second, I'm inspired. Damn inspired. Spending months in a cramped van or car traveling the country, city to city, sometimes playing for an audience of five for one thing only: doing what they love, making and playing music. Yes, bands have been doing this for ages, but the case with many of the bands in this book is that they were playing music that wasn’t popular at all. Punk and hardcore bands faced harassment from the police, the clubs, and by the population at large.

In order to get their music heard, they created their own music labels, booked their own shows, and played the PR game with radio stations and zines. The networked amongst themselves, promoted each other, and worked menial jobs so they could eat, since they often made no money from the music they played. It was all for the music; that was what was most important. They didn’t wait for anything to fall into their laps. They had to work hard for everything.

Oh yeah, and that photo at the top; that’s me from years and years ago playing in a band called Tarlo. I'm rockin' the Telecaster in the basement of a music store in Wichita Falls, TX. We opened for a band that played Metallica covers. The photo was taken by my good friend Chip Somodevilla, who has since moved on to taking pictures of more famous folks.

When I watched You're Gonna Miss Me at the SXSW premiere last year I had heard of Roky Erickson, but I had never really listened to his music and I had no idea of the troubles he had been through in the last decade or so. Two of my great friend happened to be the producers of the documentary and I was there at the premiere to help celebrate the happy occasion with them. Then the film started.

It’s amazing how much Roky had suffered while in the “care” of his mother. In a sense, this musical genius was wasting away and if it wasn’t for his brother Sumner helping out, who knows what would have happened to Roky. It’s inspiring to know that he’s back and playing music again. Because of the documentary, I bought a recent compilation of his music (I Have Always Been Here Before), both solo and with the various bands he played with over the years.

While the doc was on the festival circuit, I put together and maintained the website for the film. The version(s) I put up have been taken down (but here’s a snapshot from the Web Archive of the first version of the site) and replaced by another. Watch the trailer at the site, and you'll definitely get sucked in to his story.

The reason I bring this up is that the documentary is now available on DVD, and it seems to be packed with loads of extras. So, congrats to my friends; I know they've looked forward to this day for a long time.

Update: Via coudal’s Fresh Signals blog, a new music video for Spoon’s song “The Underdog” directed by You're Gonna Miss Me’s director Keven McAlester. More of his music videos here.

Another year is now (just about) over and I guess it’s about time I did a yearly media roundup. I've done similar things in the past, but I let the tradition lapse a few years. Since I don’t have the last few years' roundups available for comparison, I'm not too sure if I did any better (consumed more media) this year or not. These lists will just have to stand on their own.

So, without any further ado, here are the lists…

Literature

Thanks to my English classes at school, I've had to read more than I normally would in a year. Here’s the full list of books I've read this year (in the order read):

1. The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne (for ENGL 4400)
2. The Polysyllabic Spree – Nick Hornby
3. _The Crying of Lot 49_ – Thomas Pynchon (for ENGL 4400)
4. Cat’s Cradle – Kurt Vonnegut (for ENGL 4400)
5. The Big Sleep – Raymond Chandler (for ENGL 4400)
6. Native Son – Richard Wright (for ENGL 4400)
7. The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck (for ENGL 4400)
8. The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald (for ENGL 4400)
9. My Ántonia – Willa Cather (for ENGL 4400)
10. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain (for ENGL 4400).
11. Moby Dick – Herman Melville (for ENGL 4400)
12. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
13. _Shutterbug Follies_ (Graphic Novel) – Jason Little
14. _Blankets_ (Graphic Novel) – Craig Thompson
15. _The Tipping Point_ – Malcolm Gladwell
16. _The Postman Always Rings Twice_ – James M. Cain
17. _V for Vendetta_ (Graphic Novel) – Alan Moore
18. _Freakonomics_ – Steven D. Levitt
19. _Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone_ – J.K. Rowling
20. _Alias Vol. 1_ (Graphic Novel) – Brian Michael Bendis & Michael Gaydos
21. _Spring Snow_ – Yukio Mishima
22. _Ice Haven_ (Graphic Novel) – Daniel Clowes
23. _Y: The Last Man Vol. 1: Unmanned_ (Graphic Novel) – Brian K. Vaughan
24. _Superman: Red Son_ (Graphic Novel) – Mark Millar
25. _The Fortress of Solitude_ – Jonathan Lethem
26. Stranger Things Happen – Kelly Link
27. _Men and Cartoons_ – Jonathan Lethem
28. _Tricked_ (Graphic Novel) – Alex Robinson
29. _Gary Benchley, Rock Star_ – Paul Ford
30. _More Box Office Poison_ (Graphic Novel) – Alex Robinson
31. _Magic For Beginners_ – Kelly Link
32. _Double Indemnity_ – James M. Cain
33. _The Golden Compass_ – Philip Pullman
34. _The Pragmatic Programmer_ – Andrew Hunt & David Thomas

Film

I didn’t see as many films this year as I wished I had. We subscribed to NetFlix for most of the year, but we were horrible about using it, and eventually cancelled. That being said, here are some of the better films I saw this year (in no particular order):

• Howl’s Moving Castle
• Hotel Rwanda
• Me and You and Everyone We Know
• Serenity
• City of God
• The Incredibles
• The Bicycle Thief
• Maria Full of Grace
• Vera Drake
• The 40 Year Old Virgin
• Mad Hot Ballroom

Music

I definitely stubled onto (or was introduced) to some fantastic new music this year. Here’s a list of bands or artists that I first heard of, and began listening to this year:

• Emiliana Torrini
• M.I.A. (I think she was this year)
• Diplo
• Keren Ann
• Built to Spill (yes, I'm late to the game here)
• Carla Bruni
• Spoon (late, yet again)
• Klint

Well, that’s about it for 2005. I'm looking forward to many more good books, good films, and some new music in the coming year.

Okay, now off to the New Year’s Eve party!

John Densmore explains why he doesn’t want to use The Door’s songs in advertisements.

I just now finished watching the archived performance of Pink Floyd at the London Live8 concert (which you can download for yourself over here). And boy did it bring back some memories.

Pink Floyd was my first, big musical obsession. I had brief infatuations with The Beatles, Rush, and Jesus Christ Superstar, but it was Pink Floyd that really sucked me in. I bought, and still own, all their records on vinyl (of course). I even tried to keep up with the less-than-satisfying solo careers of Roger Waters and David Gilmour. I also watched Pink Floyd: The Wall at least thirty times over the course of five years. Through junior high and most of high school, Pink Floyd was my soundtrack.

The first big concert I attended was Pink Floyd at the Pontiac Silverdome, outside of Detroit, in 1987. I thought it was fantastic, but looking back, the over-produced and extra-flashy effects were only there to cover up the fact that Roger Waters wasn’t playing with them. Still, it was almost all of Pink Floyd, and there I was, sucking it all in. I was in heaven.

My interest in Pink Floyd took a back seat in my senior year of high school once I discovered “alternative” groups like Jane’s Addiction, harder bands like Bad Brains, and funkier ones like Fishbone. I kept the Floyd records around, and would play them occasionally, but they didn’t command my attention like they used to.

Now, jump ahead to a few weeks ago when I heard the news that Floyd was going to reunite for the Live8 concert. I didn’t want to believe it at first; I mean, come on, I don’t even think Waters and Gilmour had talked to each other in fifteen years. And now they were going to get onstage again? Together? Yeah, right!

But, in the end, it did happen. And this morning I watched the videos from the Live8 concert. There they were. Although they all look like grandfathers—which they probably are—and their voices aren’t quite what they were twenty years ago, they sounded great and they did seem to be enjoying themselves on stage. I don’t hold out much hope for them permanently reuniting and touring together, but, oh man, wouldn’t that be great?