The building I live in is inhabited entirely by very busy professional musicians, and we seem to have a bit of a reputation in our neighborhood. This evening, while I was loading the accordion and the acoustic guitar into the car for tonight’s show, a woman I’ve never seen before was walking along the sidewalk and noticed what I was doing.
“Are you going to a gig?” she asked.
“Yup,” I replied.
“I hope you’re able to be self-supportive from your contributions to the group.”
I was dumbfounded, taken completely by surprise. “Thank you for that,” I finally managed to stammer.
A couple of friends and I went to see the documentary film Mellodrama last night, which was all about my favorite musical instruments, the Chamberlin and Mellotron.
When you press a key on one of these instruments, it plays a tape of a cello (or a flute, or an orchestra, or various other instruments) playing the note you want to play. They were invented with the idea that organists could play the sounds of the orchestra in their homes, but they quickly found their way into recording studios and rock bands, who liked their haunting, ethereal sounds.
The most famous example of a Mellotron sound is the flute at the beginning of Strawberry Fields Forever. . .
. . .but there are countless other famous examples, like the flutes in “Stairway to Heaven” and the lush string parts in “Nights in White Satin” by the Moody Blues. It’s all over the Fiona Apple albums, as well as Aimee Mann, Micheal Penn, Led Zeppelin, Crowded House, and. . .well, maybe you should go ahead and check out this playlist on Rhapsody. Listen to the music around the vocals, and the way the instruments interact. If you hear things that sound like flutes, or lush orchestras, or solo cellos and violins, or vibraphones, it’s probably a keyboard instrument like this instead.
I wish I was lucky enough to own a real Chamberlin, but for now I’m content to have the sample CD from Mellotron Archives, which gives me a ‘best of’ collection of the most widely used sounds, without the expense and hassle of owning a famously unreliable and cantankerous instrument. Those sounds continue to be my not-so-secret weapons on many of the songs I produce and play on. This documentary is a fascinating look behind the scenes of a very interesting set of instruments, which was the first incarnation of the idea of sampling as we know it today.
Whether you’re a musician yourself, or simply a music fan who likes to know how music sounds the way it does, this will offer you some great insights into one of the most influential instruments out there. Lots of well-known people are in the film, including Jon Brion, Brian Wilson, Michael Penn, Patrick Warren, Brian Kehew, Matthew Sweet, and many others. I urge you to track the film down and watch it.
2010 has been very strange. At the beginning of the year, I was still on blogging hiatus, so it took a while to get back up to speed. Springtime was crazy, with lots of great musical endeavors and memorable trips. By the summer, both my life and this blog went into overdrive, when I really started writing again, and found my full stride while sharing a bit too much about my childhood. Suddenly it was October, which is the month of my birth, but this year was also the month of my stepdad’s death, which has sent everything into a tailspin since then. A surreal trip to Yakima for the funeral was followed by multiple trips to Seattle, both for gigs and for family functions.
There were some standout moments from this last year that didn’t manage to make it into the blog, for various reasons. For example, here’s a video of a particularly interesting recording session that I was lucky enough to be involved with, albeit in a small way. A local singer-songwriter, who is also a friend, put the word out on SocialNetwork that she wanted to create a cacaphony of 50 pianos, all playing an F chord at the same time. I jumped at the chance. She rented a piano showroom downtown, and my friend and I (and forty eight or so other people) joined in to participate. I brought my camera to capture a bit of the action.
Another memorable moment from this last year was Trek in the Park. This theater group gets together every year to re-create a famous episode from the original Star Trek television series. This year’s was Space Seed, in which we meet the infamous character Khan (who returned in the movie The Wrath of Khan). It was a very well-done production, with live music and everything. . .and it was all free of charge. Here’s the climactic fight sequence between Kirk and Khan.
IrishBand released our self-titled EP this year, as well as an amazing animated video that a friend created for us. I would post that here, but our band name is very unusual, hence the pseudonym. To celebrate, we went to Port Townsend, Washington (the hometown of three of the band members, and an adopted home away from home for the rest of us) to play a CD release party and catch the Rhododendron Festival and parade and everything. It’s always a huge party weekend for PT, and this year was the tenth reunion for PT High School, which included Violinist and a bunch of other friends, so I actually went to the reunion barbecue in Chetzemoka Park during the afternoon, since I knew so many of the people there. (God forbid that I actually go to any of my own class reunions; I haven’t yet.) I also performed in the parade, in disguise, as an honorary member of Nanda. I’m the guy with the Mexican wrestling mask, playing the bass, miming along to the dance music that was blaring from the speakers in the back of the truck.
I had the opportunity to see the Oregon Symphony perform many times this last year, with some pretty big-name performers. Violinists Midori and Hilary Hahn, violinist Pinchas Zukerman and his cellist wife Amanda Forsyth (who, incidentally, gave a cello master class at the Old Church that afternoon, which I also attended, even though I’m far from being a cello master) who performed Brahms’s Double Concerto together, and a number of others. This month, I have a ticket for pianist Emanuel Ax’s concert, which I’m very much looking forward to. Yo-Yo Ma performed here a month or so ago, but his concert was sold out in the spring, only a few weeks after tickets went on sale. Curses.
So it’s been a good year, overall, but I’m really hoping that 2011 is better, or less confusing at the very least. I have lofty goals for the upcoming year, which include finding a job, finding love and a real relationship, taking care of some things that have been dogging me for a while now, and producing more CD’s. I have a bit of news on the music front, actually. A friend of mine hurt her arms a year ago, and has since been unable to play the piano, but that hasn’t stopped her from singing, or from writing lyrics and melodies, or from having tons of ideas. She e-mailed me at some point to ask what people in her position do in the music business. I told her I don’t know about ‘the music business’, but I’d love to give the songs a listen, and that maybe I could put music to them. She sent me some mp3’s, and I instantly felt like I knew where the songs should go. They felt familiar without being predictable, which is always a good sign. That was about two months ago, and we already have five or six collaborations in the works. Pretty awesome and exciting.
In other news, December is the fourth anniversary of this blog, so it seems appropriate to have a little birthday party, no? Come on, let’s have some sis-boom-bah.
So anyway, on to the Best Of. Here are the lists of what I consider to the best entries BFS&T has to offer from this past year, which naturally includes a list of the most interesting dreams, as well. Enjoy!
THE ENTRIES:
SteamCon – the steampunk convention in Seattle in which PolishCellist and I played, and had a total blast doing so
Just in case this wasn’t enough for your insatiable appetite for blog entries, here’s the Best of BFS&T 2009 entry, for your gluttonous pleasure.
Thanks for being here and reading all this, and for supporting this blog for such a long time now. I really appreciate it. I hope we all have an excellent New Year’s Eve, and Day, and that 2011 allows us to learn, and to grow, and to change for the better, a little bit each day.
This past weekend I did something for the first time; I attended SteamCon, the steampunk convention in Seattle. I had only an inkling of an idea what to expect, but I have to tell you that it was amazing.
I found out about it when PolishCellist (her name is unusual and therefore requires a pseudonym for blogging purposes), with whom I play accordion, was asked to perform there. I’m pretty easily put off by large crowds, but I’m familiar enough with the ideas of steampunk (I have a handful of friends who are super into it), and I’m definitely familiar with the type of circus and cabaret culture with which it shares many similarities and ideologies, so it sounded like it would be, at the very least, an interesting experience. Plus, we had free all-weekend passes.
I’m interested enough in anime and cabaret and stuff that I knew the convention would be full of more than just teenagers dressed like comic book characters, but I have to admit that the wide range of ages was a surprise to me. Young and old alike roamed the halls and congregated in the lounges and rooms, and the garden area by the pool. There were whole families, each clearly interested in different aspects of the culture. If you’re not familiar at all with steampunk, look it up it stems from the idea that the Victorian Age was the height of creativity, and culture, and technology. There are a myriad of sub-genres within that simple idea, though. There are people who simply like to dress in Victorian style, and there are people who are fascinated by the elaborate gadgets that were created before electricity was in common usage. There are people who are interested in cabaret music, and people who are interested in the popular entertainment of the time, such as burlesque and circus acts. There are people who build weapons using this antiquated technology, and there are people who build elaborate mechanical body parts for themselves. There are people who are into early flying machines. There are people who are inspired by the Gothic and vampire novels of the time. You can see how there’s plenty of room for interpretation, and all can fit under the umbrella of steampunk, albeit some more naturally than others.
The best thing about a convention like that is the people-watching. Just about everyone was dressed stunningly. It was interesting to see the lengths to which people would or wouldn’t go. One girl wore a beautiful blue ‘peacock’ dress, and one guy simply wore a polo shirt and jeans with his aviator goggles. One guy doctored up an electric guitar, and a husband-and-wife team (who led one of the panel discussions) arrived with an amazing brass electro-mechanical dog that could actually roll under its own power and lift its head, and probably did various other tricks as well. Its eyes were lit up in blue.
There was an art room, which did double duty as a silent auction. There were pictures and sculptures, as well as the requisite gadgetry. The antique bicycles modified into antique motorcycles were particularly well done, I thought, and as a typewriter enthusiast, I love the fact that people have figured out ways to modify them with USB connections, so they can be used with their more modern counterparts.
I feel sorry for the ‘regular’ people who just happened to be staying in those two hotels at the time this was all going on. It was hilarious to watch and overhear people on their cell phones trying to describe what they were witnessing. “It’s some sort of convention,” they would say, “or maybe a fashion show. . .”
All I can say is that it was a total blast, and I’m hooked. I’m into old music, and antiquated technology, and I do love to dress nice. My usual attire owes more to the 1970’s than to the 1870’s, but there are enough cool places in town (not to mention garage sales) that it wouldn’t be too hard to find clothes. It would be nice to go to a different meet-up at a turn-of-the-century hotel or club or something, rather than the ultra-modern hotels. Not that there’s anything wrong with those hotels; it should be noted that they did a tremendous job of hosting the enormous convention.
I think it would be funny and awesome to buy a cheap cello and doctor it up. I would never do that to the cello I have, but it would be a great experiment on a different instrument. Maybe a violin would be better, since it’d be a lot cheaper, not to mention easier to carry around as a prop. Only problem is, I don’t know how to play violin, and I know I’d get tired of constantly having to refuse people when they’d want me to do something with it. Cello for the win (I accidentally typed ‘wine’ just now), as The Kids Today would say.
Why don’t I have any pictures in this entry, I can feel you asking, after gushing about how amazing and beautiful everything was? Because I couldn’t find my camera when I was packing. After I got home, it turned up in the glove compartment of my car, buried under CD’s, where I had left it the other day. I wanted to punch myself in the face when I saw that it was in the car with me the entire time, and I didn’t even know it. Curses!
As a little aside, I have to confess that after dressing quasi-Victorian for the weekend, it was really nice to slip into a comfortable sweater and jeans today.
P.S. – If you should ever find yourself passing through the tiny town of Nisqually, Washington (an hour or so south of Seattle), you owe it to yourself to stop in at Norma’s restaurant, for a great time and an amazing burger. I don’t eat very many burgers, let alone recommend them, so that ought to be a pretty good impetus. While we’re on the subject, Violetta and The Hop and Vine here in Portland have excellent burgers as well.  Seek ’em out.
P.P.S. – I hate to end this entry talking about burgers, even really delicious ones, so I thought it would be funny to tack on this completely unnecessary paragraph. I stand by my decision to do that, even though it doesn’t add anything to the blog.
P.P.P.S. – There is no third post script. Please move along.
P.P.P.P.S. – There’s also not a fourth one. Sorry.
P.P.P.P.P.S. – There IS, however, a fifth post script, and this is it. There will not be a sixth, unless I decide to add one later. Who knows, maybe I will.
P.P.P.P.P.P.S. – Yup, looks like I did add a sixth one. Okay, now I’m really done.
P.P.P.P.P.P.P.S. – Or AM I?
[Edit: P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.S. – Here and here are some great pictures (including some of the dog!), many of which are from the fashion show on Saturday, which required a separate $50 ticket to attend. Also, PolishCellist is in a couple of those pictures. HINT: She is without her cello.]
I just realized that in my blog hiatus I had forgotten to share some pictures and stories from a few weeks ago, when the Portland Folk Festival was happening here in town. IrishBand played a sweat-drenched set that the reviewer from WeeklyAlternativeNewspaper favorably compared to a “grange hall punk show” that was “a fine balance of exactitude and slop,” which sounds about right. That’s pretty much our modus operandi.  Our friend Dr. Something from Crappy Indie Music was there, and she sketched us, as well as the other two bands who played that night. Totally amazing! (I’m the one with the accordion, by the way.) She seems to have a thing for our rhythm section, and who can blame her? They’re strapping young lads, as you can see. I love the way she made each of us look like our real selves, particularly Drummer and Violinist.
That was one of the most rockin’ and fun shows we’ve ever had, quite honestly, and certainly one of the sweatiest. My tie was still damp the next morning.
Another cool thing about that night of the Folk Festival was that a couple of us got the opportunity to see a tremendous new documentary called Roll Out, Cowboy, which is about Chris Sand, a.k.a. Sandman the Rappin’ Cowboy. It’s a very well done, sympathetic, and touching story about his interesting, bucolic, and somewhat disparate life. I got to meet the filmmaker, Elizabeth, at the screening, who returned the favor by coming to our show later that evening. Next time she’s in town, she said, she’d like to do a short interview film about us. Naturally, we’re going to jump at that opportunity.
I don’t quite remember the chronology of everything, since in addition to all this, I had a ton of other things happening, including a huge birthday party for at least four friends and a gig/birthday party all in the same weekend, so it’s a bit of a blur. Be that as it may, I’m gonna give it a shot. My friend John and I got to see Sea of Bees downtown at Backspace, and we both kinda fell in love with them. I particularly fell in love with the lead guitarist, who was a beautiful blonde girl, and a very cool and tasteful guitarist to boot, which is always nice. Their show was great and very ‘low-fi’, but the CD is very polished and tight in a way that the show was not. Both incarnations are excellent, and I highly recommend either or both.
John and I also made it a point to catch the inimitable Dan Bern on Misssissippi Street, doing a set of his childrens’ songs, after which we kidnapped him and took him to the food carts a bit farther on Mississippi to catch up and talk. John got sushi, while Dan and I opted for some deliciousness from Native Bowl. I don’t know if you remember this or not (and due to the blogging hiatus, I wouldn’t be surprised if you don’t), I got the opportunity to play with Dan when he was in town about six months ago, thanks in a large part to John. I played accordion and sang harmonies, until one of my accordion straps broke (which made it unplayable), so I set it down and turned around to jump behind the piano instead. Here’s a blurry picture; the blob in front with the guitar is Dan, and the blob sitting at the piano is me. I think this picture was taken during the song “God Said No”, which I thought was particularly beautiful that night.
Anyway.
Another huge highlight of the festival was Matt Keating, a guy with whom I was not previously familiar, although he had appeared on John’s old radio show (which has since found a new lease on life in podcast form, thanks to the up-and-coming KZME) once or twice a few years back, so the two of them were friends already. John and I arrived at the Jade Lounge at the appointed time, to find that we and Matt’s family were the only ones in attendance. The bartender told us that they had pushed back the performance by an hour, so the group of us decided to eat dinner and hang out together. With lots of other families, this would have been awkward at best, but Matt’s family is so outgoing and fun that we felt completely welcome and at ease. After a while, we somewhat hilariously split off by gender; Matt, John and I discussed music and things at our own table, and Matt’s female family members talked about whatever ‘girly’ stuff they talked about.  :)
Matt was scheduled to be on John’s newer radio show later that night, and since we’d all had such a great time at dinner, John proposed that I bring my accordion to the station and accompany Matt, despite having only heard the three songs I’d heard at his gig. Matt was game to let me sit in, and showing up with an instrument and improvising is a hobby of mine, so I was excited too. It turned out great, and Matt even invited me to play a show with him later that week, with a guitarist friend of his, John Vecchiarelli (who is an amazing and talented songwriter in his own right) on snare drum, and me on accordion. Matt called our impromptu band Freedom Tickler, which is just plain brilliant.
See what happens when I don’t blog for a while? It’s not that I haven’t had things to write about, I just haven’t felt like writing, and I haven’t had two spare seconds to rub together in order to process all the things that have been happening.
In other news, keep your eyes on this space for the short film in which my friend Danielle and I acted. It should be edited and available for viewing (and hopefully for sharing) within the next week or so. I’m really excited to see that.
