Modern Suspects - 'Just Watch Me'

The new single from Modern Suspects is out today! Be sure to check out 'Just Watch Me' here on iTunes.

I'll be performing this song with the Suspects all around the Colorado area over the next few months and, hopefully, in the days to come, all across the planet. Be sure to tune-in to these guys, follow them on social media, and dig on their music as they continue to release it. And if you can catch us at a live show, I guarantee that you'll have a good time!

But, for now, here's to Garrett, Bart, and Tyler and the release of their new single!

'Batman v. Superman', the consumer culture, and Artistic Appreciation 101

So here I sit, on the Monday after Easter, attempting to enjoy a much needed day off for my hands and ears after a weekend of double drumming celebration at church. I can't help but notice how often physical exhaustion and spiritual nourishment go together. Anyway. How's that for a random introductory thought for everyone? Take it for what you paid for it.

Besides the annual celebration of human history's single most dynamic, beautiful, and important event, something far less notable took place this weekend. The highly anticipated or highly dreaded (depending on your response to things like Batfleck and some inordinately revealing trailers) arrival of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice came to fruition at movie theaters. Being a lifelong Batman fan, a lifelong movie fan, and a seriously interested cultural analyst, I couldn't resist the opportunity to seize the moment and beat the drum (pun intended) of one of my own oft-repeated philosophical mantras.

For anyone unaware, the movie is, according to the vast majority of reports, not very good. (And that's putting it lightly.) Full disclosure: I haven't seen it. I don't plan on seeing it. And while I don't consider myself particularly taken most of the time with what critics have to say, I have found myself intrigued by the overwhelming and homogeneous nature of the reviews. A lot of people are agreeing about a lot of the same things when it comes to why BvS doesn't work, and, as of this writing, the film's Rotten Tomatoes score is below 30%.

Warner Bros.

And yet, despite the almost universal panning of the movie by most of the people seeing it, BvS has still managed to break a handful of box office records. As far as weekend openings go, it's the seventh-most successful of all time, the biggest DC movie release of all time, and with the inclusion of international markets, it generated over $400 million.

Which brings me to my point.

Movie Music Monday: 'Legends of the Fall'

Few composers capture the vibe, theme, philosophy, and character of the movie they are composing for as well as James Horner did. When you listen to his soundtracks, you can hear what the movies are about. You hear the romance, the heartbreak, the terror, the violence, the grandiosity and the epic sweep. You can sense the period of time and the mood. Horner, like precious few others, had the ability to truly capture in notes, melodies, harmony and percussion what the films were created to say through dialogue, cinematography, plot, and action. He was a magnificently gifted composer and Legends of the Fall is one of my all-time favorite Horner scores.

Edward Zwick's Legends..., based on the Jim Harrison novella, is the story of a Montana family's battle to stay united through the early years of the twentieth century. Horner's score beautifully and terribly captures the dynamics of the Ludlow family's saga, from the idealism of young men heading off to fight in World War I to the catastrophic loss of loved ones and the eventual discovery of the family's need for one another. The soundtrack masterfully incorporates elements that bring to mind the Americana of the newly settled frontier, the chaos of trench warfare, and the spiritual appreciation the characters hold for the land and time in which they live. The film is a multilayered and complex story, and the music is similarly diverse.

But Horner never leaves a listener stranded for long. He was clearly a big believer in theme and accessibility, and the soundtrack for Legends... contains a handful of some of his most memorable lines. You may even hear hints of other Horner films and recognize traces of instrumentation that were prominent in some of his later scores. His signature was a memorable one, and Legends... certainly marked some of his most potent work.

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Buy This Album - 'I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it' by The 1975

The sophomore slump is a real thing. After you've had your entire life up to the point that you write your first record, the new deadlines of being an already established artist tend to quench the flow of a substantial amount of artistic juices. Add to this the dynamic of a successful first record, and now you've found yourself with the added pressure of living up to (or even exceeding) expectations. Even more rarely do you hear real artistic growth between a first and second record.

Well, it seems that The 1975 has defied all of those tendencies with their second label release, I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it.

The band's self-titled debut took me by surprise and blew me away. The retro '80s influences, the great playing, the hooks... it was an unusual breath of fresh air in a market oversaturated with disposable pop detritus or artists trying too hard to be important. It rocked, it grooved, it was singable and accessible with just the right amount of artistry to remind everyone that these cats weren't looking to be anyone or anything but themselves.

I'm glad to say that the new record has picked up right where the first left off, but with enough twists on the original idea to verify the notion that these guys aren't settling. They're not over-extending themselves, either, but they're moving in directions that indicate growth and a lack of contentment with where they left off the first time.

Whereas the first record featured short sound effect-y interludes between songs, I like it when you sleep... has taken things a bit further, featuring entire instrumental pieces built on the foundations of those earlier clips. These might not be welcome news to everyone, but they're an interesting touch on a modern pop/rock record. The instrumentals on this record are pleasant and intriguing, and they allow you to disappear a bit into the soundscape while wondering just what the guys had in mind when they were orchestrating them. They bring to mind composers like Hans Zimmer or James Newton Howard, and they demand another layer of attention: this is a record designed to be listened to. Imagine that.

As for the more conventional tracks, the band is back to their proven process of drawing from artists before their time. There are traces of Bowie and Prince here, with hooks for days and electronics that manage to keep from becoming annoying or obtuse (a notable feat in today's music scene). And I, for one, can't wait to see if Adam Hann (the band's guitarist) manages to reintroduce the guitar solo back into popular radio. The guy is a monster player and the band doesn't shy away from showing him off here and there.

I like it when you sleep... has been a great trip for me since its release last Friday. If you like solid, groovy, melodic pop/rock from real musicians who understand their heritage and seem more interested in their art than succumbing to the machine of industry celebrity-ism, be sure to give it your undivided attention. The 1975 are proving they've got plenty to say and, hopefully, are just getting started.

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Movie Music Monday: 'Fantastia'

Alright, alright, alright... today's movie music pick isn't technically movie music. Or, maybe it is technically movie music. Either one. Whatever.

Disney's timeless animated musical, Fantasia, features the performance of classical music tunes that have become - at least in part because of the popularity of the movie itself - some of our culture's favorites. The Nutcracker Suite. Ave Maria. The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. These are all pieces that most people recognize and love, regardless of their exposure to or education in classical music. They have simply become part of our cultural understanding of what the genre sounds like.

The soundtrack for Fantasia features Leopold Stokowski directing the Philadelphia Orchestra through these masterpieces (and more) in what is surely one of the most popular classical music recordings in modern history. For fans of Disney, for fans of soundtracks, and for fans of classical music, this collection is one to own. It's a deep and moving progression, as well, even if you haven't seen the film. This one's a treasure, people. Be sure to check it out.

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This is your brain on music.

The people at TED have put together an interesting video about the effects of both musical performance & simply listening on the brain. Basically, playing an instrument is like a full-body workout for the muscles of the brain and enables people to deploy those muscles in other ways that have nothing to do with music, too. Check it out:

How Playing an Instrument Benefits Your Brain
A look at the neurological wonders behind playing a musical instrument: http://ow.ly/SDkts
Posted by TED-Ed on Saturday, September 26, 2015

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Joel's Annual Grammy Renunciation Post

Seeing as how tonight millions of people will no doubt tune-in to watch the annual travesty that is the Grammy Awards, I couldn't help but share with you the following relevant passage from Llosa's Notes on the Death of Culture:

Art preceded all other expressions of cultural life in laying the foundations for the culture of the spectacle, by establishing that art could be fun and games and nothing else. ... [Today is] a time in which insolence and boastfulness and empty provocative gestures are sometimes enough, with the collusion of the mafias that control the art market and with complicit or half-witted critics who confer false prestige, giving the status of artist to illusionists who hide their poverty and emptiness behind counterfeit insolence. ... In our times, artists are not expected to show talent or skill but rather affectation and scandal, and their daring statements are nothing more than the masks of a new conformity. What was once revolutionary has become fashionable, a pastime, a game, a subtle acid that erodes art... In art this frivolity has reached alarming extremes. The disappearance of any minimal consensus about aesthetic value means that in this field confusion reigns and will continue to reign for a long time, since it is now not possible to discern with any degree of objectivity what it is to have talent or to lack talent, what is beautiful and what is ugly, and what represents something new and durable and what is just a will-o'-the-wisp. This confusion has turned the art world into a carnival where genuine creators, sharp operators, and conmen all intermingle and it is often difficult to tell them apart.

Buy This Album - 'The Epic' by Kamsai Washington

Those of you who have been keeping up with this blog know that I am all about promoting jazz. But, in an attempt to be sensitive to both my audience and the spirit of the times, when it comes to modern jazz music, I'm always on the lookout for one of the genre's more elusive qualities: accessibility. I understand that a lot of jazz these days just goes over people's heads and recommending it probably does more to damage people's impressions of the art form than to bolster them.

The album I'm plugging today is one of those rarest of examples: one that is both innovative & original while retaining an accessibility for the vast majority of interested listeners. The Epic by Kamsai Washington is real jazz. Make no mistake. But it is not a difficult album to listen to. If you're at all interested in the genre or just wondering what great contemporary jazz music sounds like, than you should give this album some serious attention.

I don't think I'm alone in thinking that Washington could very well be one of the next huge names in American jazz music. He's already compiled a resume of gigs that reads like an old veteran's (including Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, and Harvey Mason, for instance, as well as arranging the horn parts for Kendrick Lamar's latest release), and his Epic record has certainly been turning heads for the past 6 months or so (his snub for a Grammy nomination is just the next in a long list of facepalm-worthy nonsense from the association). But, dig it: $11.99 on iTunes gets you 17 songs and just a shade under three hours of music. When he named it The Epic, he wasn't being facetious.

I can't say enough about this album, people. Whether you're a serious jazz fan or you're simply interested in beginning to learn what it's all about, check this record out. It's a great one.

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Peter Gabriel & the point of music.

Alain de Botton over at The Guardian has a written a very interesting piece considering the question, "What's the point of music?" In it, he draws from the example of one of my all-time favorite artists, Peter Gabriel.

The article contains some great thought food on the purpose music plays in our lives and highlights two of Gabriel's great songs, one of which I've posted below. It's always good to consider just why it is we give so much credence and attention to the things - like music - which are so ubiquitous in our culture. Thinking deeply about music makes music more to us than simply a background soundtrack to all of life's other activities. To really experience the beauty of music, we need to start thinking about it like this writer at The Guardian:

[A] clearer handle on the theoretical role of music may at times enhance rather than impoverish our capacity to appreciate music. Knowing what music does for us can give us a sharper sense of which of its varieties we might be in particular need of, why and when.

And, hey, you could do a lot worse than analyzing an artist the caliber of Peter Gabriel. Check it out here.

Movie Music Monday - 'Burnt'

The wife and I checked out the Bradley Cooper flick Burnt a few days ago, and, while we both felt like the movie was alright (not great, not bad, but worth watching), the soundtrack definitely had some notable highlights. There's some beautiful, introspective, and melodic pieces throughout this film, and I took to iTunes to grab some of the tracks that I couldn't ignore. The piece posted here is included on both the soundtrack album (which features some of the instrumental score along with some other tracks from various artists) and the score album (which is comprised of only Rob Simonsen's music), and adds a wonderful texture to one of the best scenes in the movie.



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Book Reviews on a Music Blog

Resilience: Hard-Won Wisdom for Living a Better Life by Eric Greitens
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"The question is not whether you have a philosophy. Everyone has a philosophy. ... The question is, are you aware of the philosophy you have – the assumptions, beliefs, and ideas that drive your actions? Are you aware of the way those assumptions, beliefs, and ideas add up to shape your life? Can they stand exposure to the light of day?"

A book about philosophy and worldview written by a former Navy SEAL? Yep, this one is right up my alley.

The good news is that this book delivers. In everything from its structure (letters exchanged between the author and another former SEAL friend of his), to the topical ground it covers, to its accessibility, this book provokes thought, challenges, and inspires without the usual hand-holding that usually seems to accompany most contemporary books written about worldview and purpose (RE: 'self-help').

This is not a self-help book. This is not a book interested in communicating to each of us just how special of a snowflake we all are. This book does its level best to convey the wisdom of the centuries in light of the reality of how the world works and how difficult life is. Greitens is interested in the time-tested, the ancient, and the bonafide, not in the flavor of the month or the flash in the pan.

As I so often like to say, stop trying to reinvent the wheel - give me the old stuff.

There are some things here I disagree with. For instance, I like much of Stoic philosophy (of which Greitens seems to be a big fan), but I find it incomplete. That's ok. It's good to think through why you disagree with something - especially when you're reading a philosophical work. This is the one and only reason for my lack of a perfect 5-star review. Not quite everything in this book can be completely imbibed, but maybe that's good, after all.

Nevertheless, despite my lack of complete, 100% endorsement of every point and conclusion reached in this book, I can't imagine anyone to whom I wouldn't recommend it. We are all going to go through seasons of life in which we will find this kind of wisdom and philosophy invaluable. Getting our minds right on why we think what we think in the midst of the chaos and noise of modern life is an important venture for everyone.

Do yourself a favor and read this book.

View all my reviews

Movie Music Monday - 'Nightcrawler'

I watched Nightcrawler inside Bob Hope Airport waiting for a delayed flight. It is a provocative film, definitely not for everybody, but from the moment the opening credits begin to appear, the thing you absolutely cannot miss or deny is the power of the music. James Newton Howard's score is vibey, cool, atmospheric, and melodic. It's one of the most listened to soundtracks in my collection and definitely worth checking out regardless of whether you have any intention of even seeing the movie. Great, great stuff here.

Favorite Friday - 'Hell Freezes Over' by Eagles

New things happening here on the Electric Medicine Blog, my friends, and it seemed right to kick off Favorite Friday with a little tip of the cap to the recently passed Glenn Frey.

Frey was one of the greatest singer-songwriters in American history and together with his band cemented one of the most memorable musical legacies in all of rock 'n' roll.

In November of 1994, the Eagles released one of the greatest live performance albums of all time. Hell Freezes Over (so named because it was the precise time when an Eagles reunion was predicted after a backstage brawl between members split the band apart in 1980) marked the return to prominence of a '70s classic rock band in the midst of the grunge revolution. A group of old guys got together on MTV and showed all the wipper snappers how it was actually done.

This album has meant a lot to me for a lot of years. It introduced me to the music of the Eagles and, consequently, created a lifelong fan. It's probably as close to a perfect live record as you're ever going to get (and it features a handful of new studio recordings, as well), and masterfully demonstrates the power of magnificent songwriting mixed with mature and deliberate instrumentation. If you're at all in the dark about the media hoopla surrounding the death of Glenn Frey last week, give one listen to this record and it will all make sense.

Movie Music Monday - 'Saving Mr. Banks'

Had this song playing in my head all day yesterday... there are worse things, I assure you. It's from a great movie and Thomas Newman is one my favorite movie score composers. This soundtrack is just one of many examples why.

Rock 'n' roll, vinyl stores, and the hyporisy of COOL.

A few months ago, I was on tour in Toronto with Alex G. A handful of us had decided to take in the town before the afternoon's setup and soundcheck duties, and we happened upon a vinyl record store in a particularly pretentious sector of the city's downtown. One of the members of our little crew decided that he wanted to see if he could find a certain record, so we moseyed on into the shop.

Upon asking about the album, however, the employee who had found his way over to help us wasted no time in revealing himself to be a troll of the ugliest distinction. The conversation went something like this:

"May I help you all?"

"Yeah, I was wondering, do you have any copies of the Escape album by Journey?"

"I think you need to leave the store."

"Uh, what?"

"Yeah, I think it's best if you just leave."

Now, this wasn't the complete verbatim total of our conversation with this individual, your honor. Someone else in our group asked if he had Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road in store, which, I believe, he did. And there may have been one or two other albums asked about, too, but the main gist of our conversation centered around asking about the Journey recording and promptly being asked to exit the store without the slightest sense of humor or irony.

This guy? Not nearly as hilarious in real life.

Once my brain caught up with my ears and I actually realized what was going on, I looked my friends in the eyes and told them something along the lines of, "I'm leaving, because if I don't, something very bad is going to happen and you're all going to be really embarrassed of me."

Ok, stop, reload real quick.

I've spent my entire life despising condescension. As long as I can remember, I've hated conformity, trendiness, and the cult of COOL. And being confronted with it in such a naked, unabashed way is something I am not at all equipped to abide. That day in Toronto, the record store employee with the hipster clothes and nerd glasses awakened something primal and dangerous in me, and it was probably best for everyone involved that we just walked away. (You can ask the people I was with: I think I remember saying something about how it would be well within the boundaries of common sense and moral justice for the Canadian authorities to allow me to firebomb annoying, ostentatious businesses. Or something.)

My first night at the Gothic, a retrospective. OR, "Some Things Never Change".

"Alright, you ready?" I ask, looking at Garrett. He nods.

"You?" Looking over at Bart now, and then Tyler, and then Joel.

And with a nod of affirmation from all four bandmates, I press play on the backing tracks. Here goes nothing.

And there it is: the click track and electronic drumbeat that signals the beginning of 'Told You So', our first song of the night. Too distant for my taste, but our rushed get-the-other-band-off-and-get-our-own-stuff-on setup was just a step or two away from being a total nightmare and the tech wasn't thrilled about having to run our in-ear monitors, anyway. The tracks and click are quiet, but it's nothing I can't handle.

The band kicks after the requisite first four bars, and everything seems to be alright. Not great, but alright. And then, Garrett starts singing.

The prevailing theory post-show is that the monitor guy got his channels switched around and Garrett's mix was now coming in through my monitor line. Meaning, of course, that his voice was now screaming over everything else in my lame excuse for a hastily thrown together monitor mix.

I adjust my wireless pack's onboard volume. Garrett's voice drops, mercifully, but, so does the click track. Uh-oh. Time to dial-up the focus.

Nevermind that I can't really hear my kick drum (staying strong on my all-time top 5 pet peeves list) or even my toms from time to time. It feels like I'm playing with no real feel at all; no real sense of enjoyment of what I'm playing. I'm just kinda going through the motions, playing what I know needs to be played and trying to find a few spots to shine. It feels like I'm a noob up there, playing to a packed house at the Gothic Theatre for my very first time.

It's become obvious fairly soon into the set that this is definitely not going to be some of the most fun I've ever had playing drums.

But, half an hour later, almost everybody seems to have been really into it. Good crowd reaction (they have to tell me, because I wasn't really able to tell from behind the chaotic cacophony that was my in-ear mix). The guys from the other bands have nothing but nice things to say. And the Suspects themselves are psyched that our first show at the Gothic seems to have gone over really, really well.

Ain't that just the way of things.

I can't remember how many times I've come off the stage frustrated about this thing or that thing only to be told that the show as amazing. Just like I can't remember how many times (many, many fewer times, I assure you) I've been psyched about a performance, feeling like I was in the pocket and in command the entire time, only to hear crickets afterwards (aside from the perfunctory "Good show, man" that seems to be more of an acknowledgement that I made it out alive rather than anything related to my competency on the instrument).

Ah, well. Some things never change, I guess. I suppose it will probably forever and always be a quest of mine to finally play that show where both the crowd and the band feel like a show was all that it could be. Maybe one day. We'll see. Until then, I'll just rest contented with the facts that Modern Suspects' trajectory seems to be more-or-less consistently upward since I was asked to join and that I can now check the Gothic Theatre off of my list of Denver venues at which to perform. Not many more left until Red Rocks.

Here's hoping, anyway.

2015, the year that was.

I'm not really one for New Year's resolutions. In all honesty, I'm not really one for goal setting. That's not to say I don't have a sizable list of things I want to accomplish, but putting timelines on things I know are beyond my control is not really my style. (Cue the tut, tut's from the motivational speaker crowd.)

All of that to say that I've never really been one to write big, important, beginning-of-the-year blogs, lists, or year-in-review posts. And yet, here we are. Not because this kind of thing is something I always do or even see the need for, but because it feels appropriate given what I've been going through as of late.

On the one hand, I find myself still struggling with frustration because I'm still not where I want to be. As much as I see and recognize the lies of the culture in regards to what makes a successful and meaningful life, I still find myself combating the angst of not possessing what the world would classify as a "career". The money's not great, regular, or dependable at this point.

But then, I'm an artist. What was I expecting?

I was expecting to be THERE by now, that's what. THERE, that place along the journey of life where you get to pitch your tent for a nice long season and enjoy steady work and steady income from the job of your dreams. Because, after all, you've earned it. You've worked hard, you've been passionate, you've maintained focus and vision and direction while others around you checked out and faded away.

Or something.

This all coming from the guy who walks around repeating the mantra, "There are no equations". Inconsistency, thy name is Burns.

And so, today I take a step back to remind myself of what just one year has done for the formation of my career, for the realization of my dreams, and for my life.