Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Book Reviews on a Music Blog

Creators: From Chaucer and Durer to Picasso and DisneyCreators: From Chaucer and Durer to Picasso and Disney by Paul Johnson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"All the same, creation is a marvelous business, and people who create at the highest level lead a privileged life, however arduous and difficult it may be. An interesting life, too, full of peculiar aspects and strange satisfactions. That is the message of this book."

The abbreviated biographical stories in Johnson's Creators are brush strokes in a much larger painting, individual pieces of a mosaic (pun absolutely intended). Opening the book with the notion that creativity is inherent in all human beings as a result of our own creation in the image of a creative (and yet uncreated) God, Johnson proceeds to take snapshot looks at the lives of some of human history's most well-known & notorious creative personalities (I would have liked to have known what his thought process was for selected those he did). Searching for any semblance of pattern or recurring characteristics, Johnson delves into the world of music, literature, art, and even fashion & decorative glass to see if he can't put his finger on some undeniable creative gene.

What he finds might surprise some readers, but most creative types will probably conjure up an affirmative and familiar smile & nod. Along the way, however, Johnson makes some interesting observations about the nature of creativity: that it's not necessarily tied to intelligence or genius or moral decency, that it can be both largely derivative or highly original, that it can spring of intense education & wealth or relatively little of either. His conclusion is a refreshing and satisfying one:

"The truth is, all creators are highly individual and have different views about what helps or hinders their work. Often their views are confused, or are formed so slowly and tentatively – after setbacks and failures – as to come too late materially to influence their careers, when options have closed and energy flags. It is not easy to be a creator at the higher levels, and at the highest it is often agony. All creators agree that it is a painful and often a terrifying experience, to be endured rather than relished, and preferable only to not being a creator at all."

Basking in the lives of some of humanity's most powerful creatives makes for a fascinating, interesting, and thought-provoking read. My only (small) issue with the book was the very occasional editorializing that occurred without further explanation. (I'd like to know, for instance, why Johnson seems to assume that everyone already knows that Monet and the other Impressionists were so universally "dull".) Other than that, however, I found this to be a marvelous jaunt through artistic history, even during the chapter on Dior & Balenciaga (caring about fashion is simply not my thing). And, believe me, the final chapter juxtaposing Walt Disney & Pablo Picasso serves as a brilliant payoff.

I love Johnson's writing and this book is no exception. Highly recommended, especially for artistically-inclined types.

View all my reviews

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Remembering Mr. Horner

Two nights ago, I was saddened to read the news that legendary film composer James Horner had died in a tragic plane crash. I wrote on my social media feeds that the music world was less for having lost such a masterful talent. I write here to attempt to pay tribute to one of my favorite contemporary composers.

When I was 13, my parents took me to see Braveheart (with a brother who was five years older than me, I grew up pretty fast). Suffice it to say, at 13, I had never before seen a movie like it. I was completely blown away by the size of it, the power of it, the Arthurian-style story and the depth of meaning & philosophy the film conveyed.

And it was just as impossible to be unmoved by the music.

Horner's magnificent score for Braveheart served to lift and further empower an already outstanding movie. He not only bolstered Mel Gibson's grand vision, he encapsulated it within the music. He captured the very heart of Braveheart with his concepts of melody, his instrumentation, and his amazing sense of texture and vibe. He somehow managed to pack Scotland, warfare, romance, heartbreak, heroism, freedom, and sacrifice inside the very notes he wrote and to this day the music stands as some of the most powerful and well-loved Horner ever conceived.

 

The 13-year-old me was clued into the music of James Horner that day, and it was a clue I've followed ever since. Aliens. Apollo 13. Glory. Deep Impact. A Beautiful Mind. Titanic. Legends of the Fall. Clear and Present Danger. Quite simply put, Horner wrote some of the greatest soundtrack music in the history of motion pictures. He was a master at using music to make films better (even if, as with Braveheart, the film was already great), and sometimes, as is the case with Titanic, stole the show by writing music that wound up becoming the very best part of the film.

Horner's melodies were beautiful constructs, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes haunting, often epic and most always memorable. His soundtracks were ones you could (and wanted to) sing, and yet he always managed to retain certain elemental characteristics of the films within the music itself. The militaristic drums in Aliens; the Scottish whistles and pipes in Braveheart; the turn-of-the-century frontier at the heart of Legends of the Fall. As Edward Zwick, the director who hired Horner for both Legends of the Fall and Glory put it, the goal of the film composer is to "give voice to [the] inner life [and] soul... of film". And this is exactly what James Horner spent his career doing: uncovering and displaying the soul of the stories the films were made to tell.

I will always appreciate and love the music James Horner brought into my life and I love the movies he worked on that much more for his contributions to them. So, here's to the memory of a man who's work will (and should) always be remembered and emulated by those who come after him: it's been nothing less than a privilege to get to listen to such wondrous and unforgettable music.

~

(photo credit)

Friday, June 19, 2015

Comin' Back Around

Man, I love the music of the '80s.

From the moment I really fell in love with music and wanted to make it a career, I've loved the tunes that came out of that decade. For me, the crescendo of great rock and pop music began somewhere in the late '70s, hit hard in the early and mid '80s, plateaued and diversified for awhile, and then started to fade somewhere around 1995. Two classics from that era - U2's The Joshua Tree & The Police's Every Breath You Take - are the records that most directly compelled me into becoming a musician. And, if pressed, I can make a pretty strong argument for the idea that that particular 15-20 year span marked the brightest shining moment in the history of pop & rock music in terms of consistency, musicality, performance, and artistry. You just got more bang for your buck if you were tuning into radio then.

This is not to say there weren't other timeless & legendary artists, records, and songs released before that time - of course there were. But let's consider just a partial list of the artists around releasing records, writing hits, getting radio play, and touring the world during the period of the 1980's: Van Halen, U2, Rush, Toto, Phil Collins, Aerosmith, Metallica, Guns 'n' Roses, Michael Jackson, Depeche Mode, Peter Gabriel, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, The Police, Sting, Genesis, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Prince, Whitney Houston, Steve Winwood, Huey Lewis & the News, Don Henley, Dire Straits, Marvin Gaye, Queen, Bruce Hornsby... and we're just scratching the surface.

Honestly, even the bad stuff was better back then.

Despite all of this, I grew up in a time when most of this kind of music was considered passé, out-dated, and irrelevant. And, really, I've never stopped hearing about how the music of the '80s was lame, uncool, and a relic of the forgettable past.

Well, readers, I'm glad to report that, apparently, I wasn't the only person in the world growing up with a fondness for truly great pop music. The sounds and vibes of the music of the 1980's are storming back onto the scene and achieving some notable success - and it hasn't been lost on me. What's hilarious about all of this, of course, is that most of the younger kids listening to this stuff probably don't realize where the influences for it are coming from, and that's fine. What's more important is that a lot of the things that made the music of that era so great are beginning to reappear in some really cool modern music.

Dig on this:

The 1975 - The 1975
If you can listen to the huge drum beat of 'The City', the opening synth of 'Heart Out', the dance-y guitar riffs of 'Girls' or the groove of 'Robbers' and not think to yourself, "1980's", then you're definitely hip to something I am as yet unaware of (that, or you're completely unaware of musical history). Matt Healy has been honest about being influenced by cats like Prince, Phil Collins, and Joy Division and has talked about being a big fan of John Hughes movies. The groovy drums, the big electric guitars (Adam Hann is an underrated monster of a player), and the layers of synth unabashedly scream '80s, and, from the looks of things, plenty of people are all about it.



Bleachers - Strange Desire
Jack Antonoff plays guitar in Fun. (a band with its own obviously massive Queen influence). While they were blowing up a few short years ago, Antonoff was secretly constructing a project on the side called Bleachers,
and the first album dropped a little less than a year ago. And basically, it sounds like the soundtrack to a John Cusack movie. It's a great record, with traces of The Hooters, Peter Gabriel, and a bunch of the British new wave bands. If you don't know this record yet, you need to get it and start rocking some air drums and belting out the choruses. There's an epic quality to Strange Desire that makes it unforgettable and you won't regret picking it up if you haven't already.


Walk the Moon - Talking Is Hard
A few years ago when I was touring with Tyler Ward, we ended up playing the same venue on the same night as Walk the Moon. They were in one room, we were in another. They hadn't finished by the time we were done with our set, so I got a chance to catch some of their performance from the balcony. I hadn't heard of them at the time and, to be honest, nothing really grabbed me that night. Fast-forward to a few months ago when I was perusing iTunes and ended up listening to a few clips from their Talking Is Hard record. I downloaded the album right then and there, hearing even in the short previews the kind of sounds this entire blog has been about. And Talking Is Hard did not disappoint. You'll hear Bowie, Talking Heads, and even a smidgen of The Police throughout the songs. Great, great, GREAT hooks on almost every track. Yeah, I know, 'Shut Up & Dance' is everywhere right now, and it's a solid single. But there's depth to this album that the single only begins to hint at. It's a strong offering start to finish and, like the other albums I'm talking about here, loudly, blatantly, flagrantly '80s.


Matt Wertz - Heatwave
This one's a year or so older, but it's a personal favorite of mine so I'm going to include it. Wertz is one of those vastly underrated singer-songwriters that world really needs to get hip to. All he's been doing for the past 8 years or so is writing and releasing great music, but for some reason, he has yet to receive anything even remotely resembling his just due. He put out Heatwave in 2013, deliberately trying to release an '80s album. This record is so genuinely fun that so far, it's been impossible for me to grow tired of it. It's easy to hear the Kenny Loggins & Bryan Adams influences on this one, and believe me, that's a great thing. He gets into more classic Wertz on the back half of the record, which somehow only adds to the timeless feel of the more '80s-saurated tunes. (He also released Old Flames in 2014, which features some B-sides and cuts that didn't make the original release of Heatwave.)




So, for all the people back in the day who tried to tell me that the beanie-wearing, coffee-drinking, soul patch acousti-rock was the wave of the future and better than the stuff I was listening to at the time: this one's for you. Of course, I wouldn't be surprised if the Doc Marten & flannel jam bands made a comeback sometime down the line, too. But, at least for now, I'm gonna revel in the fact that the music I've loved my entire life is back in the limelight, makin' noise, reminding people of what the pairing of solid musicianship and great songwriting can do.

It's been too long.

~

Monday, June 15, 2015

The Most Important Thing To Remember About Playing FESTIVALS

....something's gonna go wrong.

Always. Without a doubt. Set your watch by it. Count on it. Take it to the bank.

Something's not going to work. Something's going to break. Something's not going to get checked. Something won't sound right. Somebody won't hear everything. Everybody won't hear something.

Something.

Something's going to go wrong.

Unless you're fortunate enough to be the headliner of the event and you happen to get that nice, cozy sound check 7 hours before you even take the stage to perform, just plan on everything not quite functioning at 100%.

Festivals are cool events. Loads of people come out (potential fans), there are usually a ton of sponsors at the event (people to network with), there are other cool bands playing (more people to network with), and all the extracurricular activities are usually pretty great, too (I just had one of the absolute best Philly cheesesteak sandwiches I've ever had... and if you know me, you know that means something).

Bart gettin' it with Modern Suspects.
But, inevitably, with so many bands, so much gear, a tight schedule, and so many things that could potentially go wrong, something will almost certainly actually go wrong.

Such is the lesson I've been learning recently playing with the guys in Modern Suspects. They've booked their summer solid with awesome festival gigs up and down the front range here in Colorado, but getting to play so many great events carries with it the unenviable price tag of festival participation: having to expect the unexpected and to perform in less-than-optimal conditions, 'cause something's about to go nutty.

Our crowd at the Taste of Ft. Collins festival
Thankfully, the guys in the band know the set well enough that they can still throw down pretty hard in the midst of the distractions and frustrations. This past weekend at the Taste of Ft. Collins festival stands as another example of this timeless lesson. As always, the show must go on, and it did, and it ended up being a pretty great afternoon for us. We only had to cut a song or two from our planned set list (unlike our previous festival experience at the Denver Day of Rock where, due to inclement weather and abnormally hefty traffic density in downtown Denver, we only got to perform 50% of our set), and I'm pretty sure the FOH (front of house) sound tech was able to get everything running through the system that needed to be there. Of course, there was no line check on the drums (which means that I had to play the whole gig without being able to really hear my kick drum... definitely in the top ten of my pet peeves), but I still managed to have a great time with the rest of the guys.

So make sure to get yourself out to one of the festival performances they've got lined up over the course of the next few months.

The Westword Music Showcase is next up (this weekend), and I'm sure something technical will go haywire there, too. (And you know you don't want to miss the opportunity to see what it happens this time.)

~

Friday, June 12, 2015

Stuff Goin' On


So, as should be the case with blogs like this, I feel compelled to inform everyone about what I've got going on these days. Musically, that is. (After all, this is supposed to be a music blog, right?)

Truth be told, I've got several irons in the fire that I am really excited about, so I'm gonna take some time to let you all in on them.

First of all, the incomparable Hillary Hand has an EP coming out in about a week that I can't wait for everyone to hear. We've been working on it for several months now (well, Hillary and her producer have been working on it for months... I basically just jumped in & out whenever I was needed) and the finished product is something truly great. It's definitely one of my favorite projects that I've ever been a part of: the songs are awesome, the arrangements & instrumentation are awesome, and getting the opportunity to form a rhythm section with the legendary Matt Bissonette is all kinds of awesome. I'll definitely be posting all about it both here and on my Fbook when the EP drops, so be ready. There are some other exciting things coming up for Hillary in the near future, as well, so stay tuned-in to everything she's got going on.

I've also been performing along with one of the Colorado music scene's most notable up-and-coming bands, Modern Suspects. They recently released an EP of their own and sought me out to help them perform the songs live. (I know, I know.... what in the world could they have been thinking?) Truthfully, though, this
has been a great experience already in the first couple months that I've been working with the guys and we've got a slew of shows & festivals coming up all across the front range. If you're in the area, be sure to connect with them and come out to a show. The Suspects have been getting some radio play here, too, and are really close to cracking into some of those larger markets, so it probably won't be long before you're hearing their stuff all over the place.

Oh, yeah... there's also this.

The North American dates haven't been posted yet and I haven't gotten the call to go to Europe, but... come September, I will be on the road for at least some of Alex G's first solo tour. So, please, make sure you come and check out a show. Especially if you happen to live in places like Canada or San Diego or anywhere on the east coast. It's been too long since I've gotten to play for all of you.

Anyway... that's what's going on these days and I'm going to try to keep things nice 'n' updated here on the blog. Keep tuning in, my friends. I'm hoping to see every last one of you very, very soon.

~

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Soundtrackin'


I love to admit it: I am a ginormous Jurassic Park fan. I have been since I first read the novel when I was a kid, and then saw the movie (released the same summer my family moved to Colorado, incidentally), and then purchased a copy of the soundtrack. Almost everything about that movie was perfect as far as I was concerned - including the music. John Williams hit one of his timeless grand slams with that one. People are going to remember and be listening to those themes for decades and decades to come.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/jurassic-world-original-motion/id996702871And so, massive fan (and purist) that I am, it was with a certain amount of hesitation & reticence that I received the news of yet another Jurassic Park sequel. I was let down by the second and third installments, to say the least, and have found myself convinced that the pursuit of the almighty dollar was allowed to outpace the one interested in great art when it came to this franchise. Still, the lesser sequels never ruined the original for me, and I had to admit that over the past couple of months, my excitement to at least give the new film Jurassic World a try has been steadily building.

And then along came the soundtrack, which I pre-ordered this past weekend and eagerly tore into over the past couple of days (I'm even listening to it as I write this). So, let me put it to you this way: listening to the music isn't doing anything to temper my childlike enthusiasm for the upcoming film. It's a marvelous soundtrack and Michael Giacchino - whom I first noticed while playing through a PS2 video game back in the day (Black), and who then went on to construct the signature sounds for the TV show Lost as well as the marvelous soundtrack for Ratatouille - has not only done Williams' original masterpiece justice (he incorporates the legendary themes, I'm happy to report), but has also taken the idea of Jurassic Park music into his own signature realms. I have no idea where any of the songs fit in relation to the plot of the movie, so I'm just listening to it as music-in-the-raw, but I still love it. If the songs are any indication, there's going to be a lot of action in this flick, and if the emotion of the film matches the emotion contained on the soundtrack, it's going to be a movie with some real heart and not just a mindless roller coaster.

We'll have to wait and see, but if Jurassic World is as entertaining as its music seems to suggest, than I, for one, am finally going to really enjoy a Jurassic Park sequel.

-

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/nightcrawler-original-motion/id924734188When you watch Nightcrawler, you can't help but notice the music. It's mixed loud and is very much in the forefront of the movie, grabbing your attention right at the opening credits and making its presence known through to the end. What I found so interesting about the music to this creepy satire-ish flick is how unexpected it was. It has loads of attitude and coolness to it, and it somehow reinforces the heart of the film (which is quite dark) while not sounding much at all like what you would think music for a thriller like Nightcrawler would sound like. The music rocks. It is melodic and guitar-driven and moody and introspective. It's a soulful sound in the midst of a movie intent on depicting the soullessness of its subjects. I enjoyed Nightcrawler but have found myself enjoying James Newton Howard's soundtrack even more.

-

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/hatfields-mccoys-soundtrack/id530497026The wife and I recently watched the History Channel's three-part dramatization Hatfields & McCoys about one of American history's more Shakespearian moments. The mini-series was well-done and, from what I can tell, pretty true to life in regards to what really went down between the two star-crossed families. John Debney (who also did fantastic work for Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ) crafted some truly heartbreaking & romantic music for the series, which masterfully blends 19th century soundscapes with some more modern and familiar melodies. The music feels familiar and powerful at the same time, and Lisbeth Scott adds some vocalization to the tracks that just takes your breath away. This soundtrack, like Nightcrawler, was an unexpected find: you don't tune into a History Channel mini-series expecting to hear wonderful music. Alas, Hatfields & McCoys brought the soul.

-

I've also recently gotten my hands on Harry Gregson-Williams' soundtrack for Man on Fire, which I've been waiting for iTunes to sell for a long, long time. I haven't gotten around to listening through the entire thing yet, but if you never thought a piece of music could move you in less than a minute, I implore you to check out the cut entitled 'Smiling', which is 51 seconds of sublimity.

Monday, June 8, 2015

"...and back again."

I don't know what's wrong with me, folks.

Instead of eagerly devouring the top songs on iTunes or schlepping out money for some big arena tour I'm supposed to want to attend, there I was: at the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, taking in exhibits about some of the genre's most notable luminaries and the city's indelible effect upon both the artists themselves and the music they created.

Kansas City, a retro take
Truth be told, I've never liked the cool kids' table. I've never felt welcome or comfortable there and it seems that I am still managing to find ways to extricate myself from the transient nuisance that is the majority of popular music by surrounding myself with things that are still beautiful and awe-inspiring half a century (or more) after they've been released.

So, hold on... Let's back up a step.

My wife and I had decided on a quick weekend excursion to the City of Fountains (more than any other in the world with the exception of Rome) for more reasons than just jazz history. We took in a baseball game at the home field of my all-time favorite team, sauntered through a number of museums (not just the one dedicated to American Jazz, but the national World War I and Negro Leagues Baseball Museums, as well), ate some fantastic local cuisine, and spent time with family.

Architecture a la KC

You see, a sort of revelation occurred to us a little while ago when we journeyed up to Seattle to meet Harry Connick, Jr.: namely, that there are a lot of fascinating, beautiful, and memorable experiences waiting to be had within just a short drive of most of us... and yet most of us never take advantage of the fact. Here we are, living in one of the most wondrous times in all of human history, when a simple day-or-two-long drive or the purchase of a train or plane ticket can get you to some of the world's most interesting places and many of us seem all-too-willing to let the opportunities pass us by over and over again. It is easy to open yourself up to the wonders of history and art and music and food and architecture... it remains even easier to close yourself off from them, apparently. So the Family Burns has decided to become a bit more deliberate with its free time. When schedules allow and work doesn't interfere, we've agreed to spend the money and invest the time necessary in order to try and see what we can see, one piece at a time, of this great world we find ourselves in.

Kansas City became one of our first targets, and we were able to get quite a lot accomplished in two unplanned days.

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