more life lessons from music school

At the end of last quarter we had a quirky substitute in my reading class, while the real teacher was on the road for a week. He pretty much started class by telling us that he doesn't read all that well and that we don't really need to either. The more complicated stuff we were looking at, like 6/8 (i think he was just to lazy to change the metronome) and cut time he just sorta glazed over. The second day i walked into class to him telling a story about how he became an Honorary Citizen of New Orleans. He was just there playing a gig and then the mayor wanted him to come to a banquet for which he didn't have the right attire. Apparently when you become an Honorary Citizen all you get is a plaque, which my teacher was to drunk to remember receiving until he found it in his closet a few days later. The story ended something like this, "So, remember to always bring a necktie...and don't get too drunk."

This is why i pay the big bucks people.

And here's another quote from Schroeder. "Pop Schlop! Nobody ever lost any money by underestimating the taste of the populace."

mojo monkeys

my roommate and I saw the the coolest band last night at this great bar called Busby's where a Capt. Jack Sparrow look-alike (not impersonator, i have to make that distinction here...) was the bar tender. They're called Mojo Monkeys. the from man was the drummer, standing front and center behind this dirty 3 piece with just a crash and a little trash cymbal with a bite taken of it. He wore a sequins black top hat and a black tank top tucked into belt-less jeans. the guitarist played this beauty of a Gretsch with some vibey tremelo. how cool are these dudes? I heard some Stones, Spoon, Wallflowers, Tom Waits in there = good. then they pushed back the drums and this great country band called 29 mules did a set with four singers all trading lead and great harmonies. dig it.

Contrast

Today in reading class I performed Mozart's Eine Kleine Nacthmusik as part of a guitar quartet. Later today in the Hard Rock Live Playing Workshop I performed One Armed Scissor by At the Drive-In. I love rock'n'roll school.  You can enjoy either of these wonderful tunes below.

Happy turkey!...and potatoes, and green been casserole, and gravy (oh gravy), and candied yams, and ham maybe too, and definitely stuffing, and oh yeah, enjoy the music.

some good news

For some reason I couldn't get the lyrics to copy in here right, but here for your enjoyment is a song by the band Frightened Rabbit called The Modern Leper. I can't get enough right now.

Sometimes the Boss sings my life

There's a man on the corner singin' my life
And he's playing guitar with a rusty old knife
Each song that he sings rhymes with the true
And reminds us of something beyond the Blues

-Peter Case "Beyond the Blues"


On a rattlesnake speedway in the Utah desert
I pick up my money and head back into town
Driving cross the Waynesboro county line
I got the radio on and I'm just killing time
Working all day in my daddy's garage
Driving all night chasing some mirage
Pretty soon little girl I'm gonna take charge

(Chorus)
The dogs on Main Street howl
`cause they understand
If I could take one moment into my hands
Mister I ain't a boy, no I'm a man
And I believe in a promised land

I've done my best to live the right way
I get up every morning and go to work each day
But your eyes go blind and your blood runs cold
Sometimes I feel so weak I just want to explode
Explode and tear this whole town apart
Take a knife and cut this pain from my heart
Find somebody itching for something to start

(Chorus)

There's a dark cloud rising from the desert floor
I packed my bags and I'm heading straight into the storm
Gonna be a twister to blow everything down
That ain't got the faith to stand its ground
Blow away the dreams that tear you apart
Blow away the dreams that break your heart
Blow away the lies that leave you nothing but lost and brokenhearted

(Chorus)
I believe in a promised land...

-Bruce Springsteen "The Promise Land"


This is my life right now. I pray I'll have the faith to stand my ground.
Who Sings your life?

a mustache brotherhood 2

I hadn't intended for this originally, but it turns out the mustache brotherhood might me a series! I love mustaches. and brotherhoods.

Yesterday I started what I'm calling the 24 days of awesome. Awesome because i'm done worrying about getting out of my house, i don't have a job, my folks have a lake cabin, there are friends in Spokane that I rarely get to hang with but now I do, I like road trips, there are friends in other towns that I'll get to visit. Anyway, back to the mustaches...Sarah and Jo talked me into staying for one more day and the 24 days of awesome started with Goldy's!..correction: it started with me waiting at Goldy's for and hour before either of them got there. I saw a brother. I realized it was the guy from the record exchange with the really grandiose mustache, the kind that you wax up the ends of. wow. so much bolder than I.

me: "hey was that your mustache that got called out at the Wilco show?"
Guy from the record exchange with the gradiose mustach: "I don't know. Maybe it was yours."
me: "i told my friends [at the show], it could only be the guy from the record exchange."
GFTREWTRGM: "It was nice to be recognized by Mr. Tweedy."
me: "no doubt. no doubt." [laughter]
GFTREWTRGM: "what's you name?"
me: "Marc." [a shake]
GFTREWTRGM: "i'm Bryan" (i assume the 'y' in Bryan. not really sure why.)

We talked on about music and other shows we'd seen at the winery. By the end of our wait, Bryan's lady friend asked me to join their table, but i told them i had friends coming. Inside, I passed them on the way to the restroom. He called me by name and we joked a bit.
instant brothers.

listen. to music.

So most of my roommates moved out. Kyle still remains, but who knows when he'll be gone again off to wild fire fighting...Anyway, last night I had the house all to myself. After watching a little TV while eating leftovers, I turned it off. [sigh] that's nice. I think the TV has been on for a great majority of the in-house waking hours (some sleeping too) in the last year of my life. With a quick little patch job, I plugged my computer into the surround sound system that Vinnie left us and just listened to music. The lamps seemed a little too bright so I grabbed some candles that Jeff left us and just got to listen. So often we play music in the background, a soundtrack to our lives while we drive, work, play, talk, cruise the internet. That's great. I've got some playing right now. Life would be a little dull without it. But it's nice once in a while to bring music to the front of our perception and enjoy it like we'd enjoy an art show or a movie. I think one of music's jobs is to bring justice (more on this later. I'm still trying to wrap my head around this idea) to our souls. It can help make things right. So let it. Do it. Listen. to music.

I want to try out a little something new here too. We'll call it 'song of the season,' because i'm not sure i would keep up 'song of the day' or even 'song of the week' (and because of the nice alliteration!) This one is "Blue Rondo a la Turk" from the 1959 Dave Brubeck Quartet album Time Out. check out how these brilliant geniuses mess with time and make you like it. Just when you think you've had enough of trying to figure out what meter they're in they bust into this smooth swing, Paul Desmond's sweet tone just soothing away all those thought of, "oh, i could never make music this good."

Stella...er?

Ok, I know, I haven't posted in over a week. Don't worry, I've been both verbally and blogally abused. Part of the reason was I was working on a scholarship application (if you didn't know i'm going to Musicians Institute in LA in the fall). It's a performance scholarship and it required video of me in a few different contexts, one being a solo number. I haven't done that since school...so I dusted off the old jazz chops and here's what you get. Time was limited at the shoot and I needed to mail it off today, so there are some flubs...but hopefully Marcus made me look cool enough that they'll forget that I messed up...