Getting out

J’avais joué beaucoup de musique… I have been playing a lot of music. I don’t know how long these other engagements are going to last, but for the moment, my chops feel “stretched” and it’s a good feeling. I’m exercising my various musical skills for the first time in a while.

Thursday night I finally hit the Pleasantville jazz jam, over the river, like 20 minutes away. It was better than any jazz jam I had been to previously. Instead of only one or two decent players, I’d say there were six or seven (most of the group, really). The drummer was excellent and apparently lives in West Nyack; the bass player played electric bass, not my favorite for jazz, but soloed like a motherfucker; a handful of great trumpet players, “older” guys and probably professionals in areas other than music, reminding me of Dad… there were even –three- guitarists, and usually that means at least two of them are hacks (ha), but –all three- were, outstanding, and on average the younger guys in the group. Unbelievable. No other pianists, so I could just play whenever I wanted. I had such a fun time, just playing jazz standards with such great casual players, and was well received. I’m sure I’ll be back.

Then Friday night, Glint had a gig in Brooklyn. It was a real diamond-in-the-rough venue, “The Hook,” in the Red Hook district, on a decidedly dead/sketchy street. The stage was huge, there was a great lighting set-up… we didn’t bring out a whole lot of people, but we sounded good and made some new friends and fans. We even got to play a little longer than expected, a full hour instead of the usual there’s-bands-on-before-and-after-you 40 minutes, which was nice… and I could –hear- myself, finally! At recent shows, the monitor mixes had the keyboards pretty quiet, which was frustrating; my playing, I think, -sounds- “frustrated” when I have little or no aural confirmation of the notes I’m clearly playing. The moral of the story here is, if you want something done right, you’ve got to do it yourself… I brought an extra amp and “wired” it up so that only keyboards were coming out of it, and placed it right next to my rig, facing up at me so as not to futz with what Dylan, Jase, and Mat were hearing on stage too much. As a result, I felt a lot better about the performance in general, being able to hear a more balanced Glint on stage.

Other randomness: this venue had a creepy downstairs lounge/green room, eerily reminiscent of our beloved Worcester firehouse… Jilly showed up, not even a day finished with school for winter break, to see us… worst/cheapest dinner ever, consisting of 2-packages-for-a-dollar cookies, Lay’s mesquite barbecue potato chips, and one of those Starbucks frappucino drinks. Thank you (but not), cheap Brooklyn bodega. Dylan wouldn’t shut up about the SIX 24-ounce 99-cent Molsons he got there.

In other Glint news… the album has been sent off for duplication! YES! 1000 copies headed to our lil’ Nyack apartment… ETA: January 11th, which is also Rob’s birthday, so if they really do come on that day, I may not be at work on the 12th.

Thanks to Wikipedia I figured out the meter/time signature pattern/whatever to that Radiohead song, Pyramid Song… it reads like some kind of bizarre (and illegal, since there would be too many men on the field) soccer formation: 3-2-3-3-2-3. But even the placement of the chords isn’t consistent (read: I haven’t figured it out yet). I was mildly excited to put that one to rest, though. It would be a challenge to work up with a trio. Part of this challenge would of course be having a trio to even attempt working it up with.

Also watched a lot of movies… Mateus and I watched “Rockstar” in all its 80’s rock glory; quite in contrast to that, I watched Life is Beautiful the day after the gig and, I loved it; Saturday night consisted of an all-star movies-on-TV lineup of Home Alone, Mean Girls (yes Dylan you DID sit through the whole thing), Groundhog Day, and the end of the Matrix, really just to hear that Rage Against the Machine song over the credits.

Sunday was great. My friend Sabrina Stone (see previous entries) is a singer/songwriter from Manhattan, on break from Brandeis, where I met her, to pursue her music career. She is returning to school in the middle of January but before then wanted to jam with Dylan, myself, and a drummer friend of hers and possibly record a demo. Sunday was the day… Dylan and I hopped on down to the Upper East Side in my Volvo and worked on two of Sabrina’s tunes with the drummer Chris. It sounded… so tight! The tunes are acoustic rock in nature but the band provided a rockin’-slightly jazzy “oomph” to them. Chris was great, playing a minimalist set of bass drum, snare, hi-hat and ride cymbal (maybe not even by choice, I didn’t ask), and I got to spend the afternoon playing on a grand piano. The tunes really locked in, and later on a friend of Sabrina and her mom’s named Paul Scott Goodman, a NYC writer/composer/singer from Scotland who is interested in producing Sabrina’s demo, stopped by to hear what we’d been working on. From what I can gather, it will be up to Sabrina how she wants to proceed with the recording, either via Paul and some studio musicians or with her not-quite-professional-musician friends (Dylan, Chris, and myself), but I think the point of Paul’s visit was to see if any or all of us could possibly work with what he had in mind for her musically. So we’ll see. Anyways, I’d always thought some of Sabrina’s music would sound great with a band, and Sunday I finally got to hear it this way.


All topped off with… what else… a taco night. It has become a loose Sunday night tradition to spend the evening in with our neighbors Kevin and Rob, cook something, drink, watch the Matt Groening-Seth McFarlane TV lineup, and be morons. Adam pioneered the sangria-making initiative this time and it too was great, this time with a burgundy wine, apples, oranges, brandy, and triple sec. Another reclaimed Sunday.

Monday, Monday...

First, some pics from the recent video shoot weekend…

Mateus and I hucking around the frisbee by the Blankfort’s house

Mateus, first up for filming individual shots

Oh, Dylan…

Jase watches the action, Adam watches the monitor

Dylan’s turn!

The band (minus me) gets ready for the group shot

In other news, I “got” the gig at Wasabi… looks like I’ll be playing there every other week, on Tuesday nights. The trial gig went well; employees and patrons alike paid Doug (the bassist I found on craigslist not days prior) and I some real nice compliments. In hindsight, and according to Rob, Kevin, and Dylan, I probably could have handled the gig on my own, and I just may do that on subsequent Tuesdays, but I also like having a group to play with. I realize it would be less money most likely, but I’d love to have a bassist and drummer in there with me at some point. I would also really like to work up the Radiohead tune “Pyramid Song,” spurred on by Adam suggesting I play some pop/rock tunes, in a “jazz” fashion… but first I have to figure out the damn time signature, ha! It is a complicated tune in that regard…

The Glint NYC show at the Lion’s Den went well. The drive… is a bit annoying. Parking… same thing. But that aside, the show went pretty well… lots of familiar faces, made some new fans too… I particularly enjoyed the Corsairs, one of the bands on before us, who sounded a bit like Jet. Pretty tight. We sounded pretty good… played a new song, “In the Underground,” among other things… yup. More shows to come. Brooklyn is next.

Hm, what else… culinarily (ha!) a pretty good weekend… we made hot mulled cider again on Friday night, and this time spiked it with brandy, a better choice than rum… Sunday Rob and I hit Natraz (Indian food, across the street from us) for the $10 lunch buffet, AMAZING… and that night we decided to make everyone’s favorite, tacos. Rob and I decided to try making some sangria and it came out really well… I think we used merlot, lemon juice, limes and oranges, and some of the leftover brandy… quite good.

Got some shopping done at the Palisades on Saturday, too… not quite as crazy as I expected. The Charlie Brown Christmas album was playing in Barnes and Noble… much appreciated.

Yup!

Gentle Rain

…which apparently will turn into some thunderstorm action later… nice. But seriously, -this- is December weather?! Oy.

Sooo… Glint is indeed making a music video this weekend, ha! Actually, a couple. We met a guy named Jonathan last year in Boston who had some real (music video) chops and until now we really haven’t “used” him for much besides the occasional website clip and filming some live shows. Now, teamed up with Adam’s friend Bob from Wasabi and all his technical expertise (and sweet equipment… why was there a –crane- in my living room last night?!), we will be working through the weekend on videos for “From Me to You” and “One of a Kind.” We’ll probably put them on YouTube once they’re done. I am interested to see how they’ll turn out…

Here is us practicing in the new Orangeburg studio…




Something I think about every now and then… memories, nostalgia. What’s the point? Other than short-term happiness? The value of which I question sometimes? An uncle once advised me to “not fill my head up with memories because otherwise there won’t be room for other things.” I remember not loving the idea upon first hearing it, but over the years I guess(?) it has started to make sense…? I don’t know. I think, on a personal note, sometimes I can get a tad swallowed up in trying to recreate a certain feeling/state of mind based on some old book, movie, place, what have you… so maybe there is some truth to Uncle Ol’s words.

Kind of on a related note… we used to rent this movie when we were little, “The Wizard.” …well I can probably sum this one up without being too wordy: most of the movies I enjoyed as a kid and make a point of watching again as an “adult” just aren’t the same. Exception, off the top of my head: the Ninja Turtles movie –actually- was still pretty awesome. Heh. But seriously, I think it depends on who you watch these kinds of things with, too… I see the movie through the other person’s eyes, in a way, probably since I’ve seen it through mine so many damn times. …I guess the point is I –do- make a point of watching, reading, and going to these movies, (kids) books, and places…




And speaking of memory (this is the last tangent, I swear), tipped off by my visit to the MoMA… I didn’t know the famous Salvador Dali painting was called “Persistence of Memory.” I knew that title as one to an Afro Celt Sound System song I really liked. So now I know who was ripping off who. …anyways. Admittedly, I don’t quite get the title (of the painting)…




I didn’t make it to the jazz jam in Pleasantville last night. :/ It goes from 8:30-11:30 and, I don’t know, it was 8:00, I hadn’t eaten dinner yet, and I just, vegged. This happens a lot. There’s even a keyboard all set up for me there, 88 keys, weighted, the whole bit… I guess I’m just too tired from working all the time, from my usual 6-ish hours of sleep. It sucks because, I could really use the extra bucks (I mean, assuming I can “break into” a local jazz scene and get some gigs out of it). On that note, I –do- have an “audition,” playing at Wasabi on Tuesday night. I’m excited, this could be my chance for a weekly gig. Since we live practically right next to the restaurant, I (with others’ help, no doubt) will bring down the Clavinova piano from our apartment to use. And… a Nyack jazz jam just started up. I think Sundays from 4-7 or something. So now there’s one in my hometown.

We have a mock-up of our liner notes made… I bet the CD will be sent out for duplication shortly after this weekend, when video shooting should be done…

Thanksgiving was alright, lots of family at my house, the usual goofiness and singing-showtunes-and-jazz-standards-around-the-piano… excellent food… the commute is a bit annoying, but at least my car stereo is back to normal (just don’t get me started on how much said car is costing me of late… no, not because of the stereo)…

"What's with 'today' today?"

(...we watched Empire Records this weekend)

First just let me say… it is frustrating to not be able to post whatever I want here. There are certain things I just can’t/won’t talk about and I guess that’s just inherent to having a public “journal” like this. It feels like 60% of Phil sometimes. But, this won’t stop me from posting, at least for now…

I had a fun weekend… a little expensive, but fun. We’ve been practicing a lot more recently, now that our new studio is set up, and because we are getting more and more NYC/Brooklyn gigs (whoo!). After practice on Friday, I packed up my keyboard in hopes of being able to sit in with our friend Michelle V.’s blues/cover band that night at Casa del Sol (mentioned in many previous posts; the bar/restaurant right below my apartment). Dylan had told me she was playing and if nothing else I wanted to check out some of her set and enjoy a beer at the bar but secretly I was hoping to talk my way into jamming with her. My dad does this kind of thing sometimes, with his trumpet. I wanted to do it, I knew I could, so I prepared for it and showed up, ready to shmooze my way in.

Long story short… it worked, it happened, and it was wicked fun. She does a mix of originals and covers, mostly blues, but also some Alanis, U2, and Sheryl Crow tunes. She’s got a great raspy voice for the more mellow stuff but can also belt it out. Anyways, I sat in on basically the whole last set and got to flex my organ chops on about 5 tunes. Good stuff. It’s what I’d been envisioning all day. Michelle, her friend Tara and I stayed at Casa until closing and then hit Luna, a smoky dive bar for some dancing/chilling before heading back to our apartment to play a rousing game of… charades?! Bed at 4:30… oy. Hardly “rousing,” as Mateus and I were yawning the whole time. Heh.

The next day, Glint had some album art business to take care of… local artist Paul Kostabi is creating artwork for our album and wanted to do some more photos with us. He lives in a tiny little house in Piermont, one town over, and had us… well, I won’t tell you what the photos involved, but they are SO damn cool, and you’ll see them once the album is out. His house was so neat… art, canvases all over the place… a Hammond organ(!) and a bunch of other musical odds and ends (Paul is also a producer and was a founding member of White Zombie!)…

That night, Rob, Dylan, Mat and I decided to have a lil’ barbecue. We picked up one of those Magic Hat “Feast of Fools” variety packs… have I said how much I love Magic Hat? We experimented with this weird charcoal-in-a-box thing that unfortunately yielded some undercooked burgers. Between that, the beer, and Dylan’s almost-White-Russians, it was an… interesting night. At the end of the night (11:30, hehe) I grabbed my guitar and Rob and I began making up songs about Ally Sheedy (the actress from the Breakfast Club who’s not Molly Ringwald)…?! Exactly.

Aaaand Sunday… we decided to hit up the Museum of Modern Art. Thanks to Kevin, Rob’s apartment-mate, we got in for –free- since he works at Chase bank and they have some kind of corporate deal there. Sweeeet. We (Rob, Jase, Adam, Yael and I) hit the Stage Deli afterwards for some ridiculously oversized sandwiches. Everybody finished everything… I was proud of us. On the way back we played a rousing (for real, this time) game of “Rhetorical Answers” (a bit of a misnomer, admittedly), where someone starts by stating an answer and the rest of the group tries to come up with a wacky question to fit. Heh. “Every Friday.” “…Phil, how often do you shower?” You get the idea.

Psyched about Thanksgiving! Heading home to NH!

...huh?

How did Adam score a free lunch for 15 at his own workplace...?! Hey, free sushi, I'm not complaining... now we just have to convince them (probably some credit card company) that we all work for Rely Records... hehe.

More gigs, already! In the city! Another at Arlene's (they apologized for the door fiasco) and one at the Lion's Den, both in December, both on weekends! Solid. Even though they may prevent me from getting home for Chanukah.

And... I meant to post this last time... I will be shadowing a couple medical physicists at home in NH over the holidays. It's kind of a whole separate "kettle of fish," but suffice to say, I have been feeling a little restless about things and just, if nothing else, would like a "plan B."

Reminiscing about mod 10 days and goofiness with Sam, Becky, and Leah(nardo) my last year in college... good times... playing in the snow, disco-dance underwear(!) parties (fine, just the one, but still)...

Alright, off to practice.

Here's That Rainy Day

I think there's probably only one person who reads this blog (and I'm not even sure if he does) that gets these jazz standard blog titles I use sometimes.

...I like this weather we’re having. I’ve always liked the rain.

The left side of my car stereo stopped working. It’s a bit annoying, hearing only the right side of mixes for all these songs... maybe one of these days I’ll take some time and investigate. I’ve fixed things in my day.

I had a nice little night to myself last night. Took care of some car stuff, then cooked for myself. I concocted a marinade from some of the wine leftover from the wine and cheese party and some random spices in our cabinet and let the chicken I bought sit in that for a while while I spoke to Roberta, who just returned to Rio, on MSN. Mashed some potatoes... made some green beans (a little overcooked)... not too shabby. And now look who has a sweet homemade lunch at work today. Heh. I also spoke to Shara, who is working at a medical clinic in Brazil herself (in a state in the northern part of the country called Para that my Brazilian-Nyack cohorts laugh/shudder at whenever I mention it... suffice to say, not a nice part of the country), via Skype, and on the phone. Technology is pretty amazing.

The Arlene’s Grocery show went well. I couldn’t really hear myself, which was admittedly pretty annoying, but could tell we sounded pretty good to the audience. I think being a keyboardist, people (sound engineers at clubs) assume I’m playing less important parts or something... ?! I dunno. Anyway, we brought a lot of people out: the Nyack/Wasabi crowd, some old Brandeis peeps now relocated to NYC (Lindsay, Jordan, Nate, and my recent apartment-mate Becky)... I think due to a minor scuff with the door girl about money we may not get asked back to that particular venue (heh), but we made a nice contact on the Tuesday night before the gig that will help us get other NYC/Village gigs.

The Wednesday night big-deal-manager-guy showcase went pretty much how I expected it to. This guy works with Panic! at the Disco in some vein (I think business manager), as well as Warren Haynes/Government Mule, so I went into this hoping we could at least get some sound advice out of this guy. And that’s pretty much what happened. We played 4-5 songs and talked for a while afterwards about signing with a label and how it’s smartest to have a decent following/”buzz” before doing so. He talked about playing out more. I mostly nodded... it all made sense to me. If nothing else, it was good to hear these things reaffirmed by someone like him and cool we brought this guy out at all.

...why on this radio station do they play the –entire- Steve Miller Band “Fly Like an Eagle” intro and outro with all its silly drawn-out synthesizers and NOT the entire Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen jam by Santana?! It’s a TRAVESTY

Ahem. Intentionally leaving that without punctuation at the end bothers me. But I’m going to try and let it go.

Tyler called yesterday and told me my old music school in Concord wants our Celtic band to do an alumni concert sometime over winter break... this could be fun.

Our video guy Jonathon is coming down from MA at the end of the month to work on a video with us...

Can you believe they have an energy drink called “Cocaine” on the market?!

Fine, here’s a picture, to change things up a bit... this is Mat, Rob, myself, and Ines at the joint Mat’s birthday/wine-and-cheese party at our apartment last weekend.

Where has he been?

I’ll tell you where he’s been.

Well… the band has moved studios once again. This will be the fourth one I’ve been in since joining them, first in Boston, then the infamous Worcester firehouse, then the space above the Eisen’s garage in Nyack, and now, adjacent to Adam and Jase’s parents’ house in Orangeburg. This place is like a whole separate mini guest house, where Adam and Jase’s grandmother used to live. We just got a new PA system and things sound really clear through it. And I want to say this is the first studio we’ll have been in without extreme temperature problems… roasting in Boston and Nyack, freezing our asses off (or inhaling propane gas all day long) in Worcester.

Rob and I are going to see this ridiculous concert tonight, check this out… John Medeski, solo, on acoustic piano… and Kid Koala (DJ) on the same bill. I know little about the latter, I’ve only heard one track of his on a compilation disc, but he sounds cool. It sounds like they’ll perform separate sets first and then join for a duet at the end. Medeski is being billed as performing the “music of J.S. Bach and Ornette Coleman.” Heh.

Some noteworthy (pun intended?) events last weekend… I have been guesting with Dylan’s classic rock cover group from around here, Zero Volume Division (how much of a BAND NAME is this?), on some recent gigs. And by gigs I mean an impromptu balcony performance at our neighbors’ apartment (on a Tuesday night, no less) where we played to a crowd of about 30 people below on Main Street before getting cut off four songs in (the police guy came in and literally pulled the plug on us)… and one actual gig this past weekend in New City. The group plays Zeppelin, Doors, and Pink Floyd covers with some other random choice tunes thrown in. I played on Another Brick in the Wall, Comfortably Numb, Peace Frog… L.A. Woman –killed-, I’m sorry. I took the time, I learned the parts (mostly), I found the right sounds, and it really showed on that tune. There weren’t even a whole lot of people there, mostly Nyack-ers we brought with us, but it was just so fun to play with musicians (my age) who take covering songs like that seriously (enough). Andy, the guitarist, is ridiculous… he sounds just like the original recordings. It was a pleasure playing with all of those guys… Dylan, Andy, and Jaime, who is unfortunately returning to Chile very soon. I now have a greater appreciation for that kind of music, which until recently I had only listened sparsely at best… it just ROCKS.

Suffice to say, with a lot of these entries… life day-to-day is pretty good. The long-term freaks me out. Per usual, I guess. Glint has a show coming up next week on the 9th in the Village at Arlene’s Grocery, and is possibly playing a showcase before that for some big-deal manager, so, we’ll see…

Pianos

Well… Friday was fun. The Non-Commissioned Officers sounded good. It was cool to hear (some of) the movie soundtrack tunes performed. A lot of Lehnings were there… Jordan and Eric on stage, their mom (who guested on vocals on the band’s last song, a Joy Division cover), and Jason who mixed our album. I was impressed with Eric’s vocals… I had met him in Nashville when we were down there for mixing and didn’t take him to be the lead singer type, but he proved me wrong. You just wait… those Lehnings will take over the world someday.

The band they opened for, though, blew me away. “Detachment Kit.” They rocked so hard, and unexpectedly so. The band’s myspace claims they are a “jam band” and I’ll call that quite a misnomer. “That was the hardest I’ve rocked with a turtleneck on.” –Rob. Exactly. The music was “smart,” too, not just rockin’… I don’t really want to try and describe it, but it was pretty innovative. And they really looked the part (I’m sorry but that did add to the show). They had a guy who I would have said was the keyboardist, except he played tambourine for 95% of the show with the keyboard laying untouched in front of him. And by “played tambourine” I mean “totally freaked out on tambourine.” Yeah. Again, adding to the show.

There was also a brief visit with Sabrina outside the club pre-show and some crepes at a hole-in-the-wall joint up the road from Pianos post-show. The music there was way too danceable for a hole-in-the-wall crepe place.

Saturday night I made hot mulled cider that came out a little too sweet… then some of us went out, first to Bruxelle’s and then to the Old Village Inn for a bunch of appetizers and a bunch of discussion about life, jobs, and music… Sunday Rob and I hit Hook Mountain for some picnicking and Philsbeeing (our beloved paper plate frisbee). We watched The Squid and the Whale at night, which Rob built up to be “the lighter side of divorce.” Jeff Daniels was great in it… overall I liked the acting but the subject matter was, maybe needless to say, uncomfortable. …overall it was a pretty low-key weekend, the first in a while, and mostly consisted of apartment-ing and playing with the kitties.

And here I am, back at work on Monday. Exit without looking: PEACE!

Back to the Village

So looking forward to this: tomorrow night we're going into the city to see a band called The Non-Commissioned Officers at a place called Pianos. Why are we going to see this band? Because it has 2 Lehnings in it (see recent entries), Jordan and Eric. Eric has written/directed and acted in an independent "zombie" movie called Make Out with Violence, and Jordan scored it, and this band will be playing selections from said score. Totally stoked. When we first interviewed Jordan last year he brought in a 9-song demo including some tracks he did for the movie, and I've been listening to it ever since.

Wouldn't it be cool to spend some time in Canada (he said to himself)? Montreal-ish? Toying with the idea of more school in the future and where it would be. The European culture, I could work on my French... I don't know, just musing, but it's a neat thought, living there for a while, having that be a chapter in my life...

Work is work. The band... has finally, FINALLY, received its final mastered copy of the CD. We have been working with local artist Paul Kostabi on album artwork, so once we complete that, along with the liner notes, and send it off for duplication, we should be good to go... in the meantime, we are meeting with our "booking guy" Mike Branning about playing shows around New York (city and state) this fall, branching out from Nyack. Stay tuned...

Make Out with Violence

Type this into YouTube.com... it's a trailer for Eric Lehning's movie. It looks... way more legit than I imagined it, I have to say. And you can hear Jordan's music in the background.

The autumn leaves...

Man… I miss a rhythm section. No bassists or drummers to play jazz with around here. I mean, other than posting a couple ads on craigslist, I haven’t really looked, but… eh! We have this legit Clavinova at our increasingly-more-apartment-y apartment (kitties, new kitchen table, restaurant-style pepper mill… heh) and… I’m just jammin’ on it by myself. It’s a travesty, I tell you.

Best idea ever (credit to Rob on this one): a STEERING WHEEL WITH A KEYBOARD IN IT. Picture it… 3 octaves or so, not very long keys obviously, but… you could comp along to your favorite tunes –and- still have your hands on the wheel! Genius.

Lehning madness

So… a “plug” for two bands I’ve been listening to lately.

Our producer for “Mode to Joy” (the Glint album) was a guy named Jordan Lehning. We met Jordan in Boston last year when we were interviewing potential producers and engineers for the aforementioned album. He came in and totally blew us away with us hip, Beck-meets-Brian Eno original music. He is a multi-instrumentalist to say the least, studied film scoring at Berklee, and comes from a very musical family: his dad Kyle is a well-known producer down in Nashville (where the family is from); his older brother Jason is an “everything man” (Jordan really is too, to be fair) and does producing, runs a mixing studio and has worked with Guster and Alison Krauss in this capacity (he also mixed our album), and plays keyboards; another brother Eric(?) makes movies… bottom line, I’m just a fan. I’ve met the guys, heard the music, and I totally support what they do. I just think they’re great. I was so encouraged, particularly after meeting Jordan and hearing his stuff, that someone our age was creating such intelligent and mature music. I am also in awe of both brothers’ mastery of a certain vintage synthesizer, the Juno 60, most notably used by the Cure, Flock of Seagulls, and the Eurythmics. Both Jordan and Jason very tastefully incorporate it into their music. I bought one months ago and am definitely not (yet?) of Lehning caliber.

Jordan fronts a band called Eureka Gold and Jason plays in a group called The Bees. Both have a bit of a Nashville twang to them but I wouldn’t call either a country act. Alright… one at a time.



The Bees (U.S.) – They have two albums out, “Starry Gazey Pie” and “High Society,” both of which I recently bought, the first of which I’ve been listening to these past few days. It’s pop, sure, but acoustic pop, -smart- pop (ha! …product placement), and without an “I’m-the-shit” lead singer… rather, most of the band sings, and the sound is very reliant on (vocal) harmonies, a big plus in my book. Some critics have compared them to the Beach Boys in this regard. Jason plays acoustic piano as well as the Juno. The guitarist/songwriter Dan primarily plays a 12-string guitar, which is a nice alternative. Fave cuts… “Gravity,” which I’ve been listening to non-stop for the past 48 hours, the slightly Floyd-ish “Sea of Stars,” and “High Society.” (P.S., they added the “(U.S.)” on to their name because there was a band in the U.K. of the same name)



Eureka Gold – A bit more “bombastic.” I’d describe the sound as indie rock and alt-folk-ish, even Beatles-esque at times. Jordan’s group adds an extra guitarist to the lineup, totaling 5 members. They rock more than The Bees but (like his brother’s group) also rely on vocal harmonies, and absolutely know how to mellow out. They’ve got one album out, “When I Was Golder,” and the whole thing is excellent. Very cohesive. Part of the maturity I see in both groups I’m sure comes from the fact that their songs average 3 minutes in length. And not (necessarily) because they’re trying for radio hits, no… because both understand and execute the “less is more” notion. Brevity is the soul of wit, and Jordan is musically a very witty guy. Eureka Gold is like the Mozart of modern rock… I feel smarter listening to them.

“Gooooood stuff!”

Oh, and… last night I went to see my friend Sabrina Stone (-not- the one that comes up on a google search) play at the Bitter End in the Village. She is a guitar-playing singer/songwriter with a real unique voice and some very well-written original material. For those that don’t know, this a pretty famous venue for acoustic music… Bob Dylan used to play there, among others. Sabrina was on after a pretty mediocre chick rock band and really sounded very good. She had gotten a little sick just days before and was forced to alter her setlist to accommodate her limited vocal range, but she definitely rose to the occasion. I think my favorite from last night was “Smurfette,” a tongue-in-cheek blues song about being a 16-year-old white girl living on the upper east side. She had mentioned that she was considering doing a Jamiroquai cover, “Cosmic Girl,” which would have been –killer-, but opted for an Ani DiFranco cover instead (which she totally nailed). Anyways, she brought in a nice crowd and I was glad to be there to support her.



You love cats
And I love ice cream
And since cats like ice cream it’s kinda like you said “I love you”

…heh. Something like that. She’s got some clever lines. She has a newer song with a line like “you’re like that dream that I forgot… but woke up smiling from” and the phrasing of it is just, genius. I have to say.

Look out for these bands/artists in the future… my money is on them.

Oh! Eesh! We have CATS now at our apartment! Heh… really in response to our mouse problem, but cats are cats. They’re little guys… one female who was up for adoption, “Stella,” and one male who was bought as a friend, “Draven(?)”… don’t ask, I missed the naming ceremony. Anyways, they’re freakin’ cute as hell and currently reside in our laundry room.

Stella!

Happy 5767

Well first a l’shana tovah to anyone celebrating the Jewish new year…

For the past 5 or so years, September has been a particularly busy month for me. School starting, multiple weekend festival gigs with Clan Du, and the High Holidays. Now college is over and Clan Du is on hiatus, but I still attend Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services in some form, somewhere. This year was one of the very few spent away from home (I think I only went to services at Brandeis my first year, and didn’t so much care for them) and to try and sum it all up, while I did miss some aspects of my home temple “scene,” the change was very welcome. A new town and community, a new “service buddy,” my Uncle Sam, a new rabbi and cantor with new things to say. I even got to be glilah yesterday afternoon at services and dressed the Torah. I don’t remember the last time I did that, or if I’ve even done it –ever-, but I had help. It was nice to be even a small part of the services at this temple I had been going to these past 10 days.

Rewind to Friday night… some excellent Indian food at Natraz with Rob. The dance room at Bruxelle’s was –scarily- dead later on when we went out, but at least Rob, Dylan and I got some choice renditions of the Doors’ “Alabama Song” in, wandering around Nyack from bar to bar (as we had been planning… you think I’m joking…).

Saturday we hit an Octoberfest at Bear Mountain Park. The weather wasn’t great, but we made the most of it. It started out as Rob, Mat, Kevin, myself, and Rob and Kevin’s friends Dan and Casey. But then Adam and Yael drove up and joined us, followed by Caroline, her daughter Emma, and Renia. We had a nice time, drinking good beer, eating knockwurst, potato salad and some rather profound WAFFLES, and hucking around the (real) frisbee, thanks to Dan. What else… I must’ve heard the “chicken dance” 5 times throughout the day… Dan got screwed on this contest he entered where you got to jam along with the band on some horn instrument that looked like a long hose with a… well, horn, attached on the end… Rob was the superstar of the afternoon, successfully playing frisbee with us as well as outfielding for a nearby family baseball game… yup. Goodness. We left when it started raining, but the good times kept rolling for me… that night Ines, Mike, Roberta and I hit the Cheesecake Factory for diiiiins. “Really, the only word for it is… mmmmgaaaaahhh.”

Kevin, Dan, Casey, Rob.

Mateus chugs!

And Sunday night to Monday was Yom Kippur. Services and fasting from dinner to dinner. Uncle Sam and I caught the tail end of Kol Nidrei being played by a cellist and violinist prior to Sunday night services, which was nice, especially since this is a tradition at my temple, although the violinist had some slight intonation issues. Monday morning we decided to walk to the temple since it was so damn nice out. The rabbi continued his sermon theme from Rosh Hashanah and this time spoke about the importance of loving the stranger “within.”

Two friends are in a bar, drinking, having a good time. One turns to the other and says, “I love you.” The other looks slightly puzzled and responds “No you don’t. How can you say such a thing when I have not bared my soul to you?"

I’m not going to delve into this any further here, but suffice it to say, this really strikes a chord with me.

And finally… I beat my cousin Josh at ping-pong (albeit “General Grievous”-style… don’t even ask) which means I am now RANKED! Whoo! Number 8 baby!

This entry is a bit like an episode of Scrubs, huh? The abrupt juxtaposition of the fun and the serious? It even throws –me- off a bit… but that’s how it came out of my head.

Arizona smells funny

And by Arizona I mean Brooklyn (Simpsons reference? Anyone?). I went in to the “city” last night to jam with these guys I found on craigslist. “KEYBOARDIST FROM MARS WANTED” the ad said, so I had to check it out.

After a rousing rooftop photo session with Glint, from which I’m sure you’ll see pictures soon, I hopped into my car and headed to Brooklyn to meet Johnny Mox, a drummer who wanted to jam on some original “soul/punk” music. There was a guitarist as well, whose name I don’t remember, as well as a singer. The music I had heard on Johnny’s myspace reminded me a bit of Bootyjuice, a Boston/NYC band that I saw open for Soulive years ago and fell in love with. I would describe the music as predominantly instrumental, bizarre, and frenetic. Creepy at times. Unison bass/guitar lines… funky yet rocking… fun to play. The guitarist and I locked in on a few choice riffs he and Johnny had written. Johnny is returning to Italy for a couple months but the guitarist and I may get together to jam at some point again while he’s gone. The rehearsal space was cool, a little room on the ground floor of a brownstone.

Friday at work… things are crazy at the end of the month here. Ready to start the weekend. The “crew” may hit an Octoberfest tomorrow a little ways north of here.

Yom Kippur Sunday night and Monday. Back down to Montclair with the extended fams.

…

Autumn in New York

At one point I considered trying to name every post after a jazz standard, but I realized I wouldn’t get too far before resorting to titles like “Upper Manhattan Medical Group” or “General Mojo’s Well-Laid Plan.” Whether that meant I had actually run out of pertinent song names or I was just trying to weird out any readers. Heh.

Changes at the apartment… two of our guys are moving next door. This will be a good thing.

More antics with the guys from next door… Sunday night Dylan, Rob, and I really wanted to throw the frisbee around but unfortunately said frisbee was nowhere to be found. In desperation, Rob approached me with 10 or so paper plates stacked on top of each other… 5 minutes and some carefully applied duct tape later, we had our very own homemade novelty flying disc that worked so well, none of us believed it. We must have played for 45 minutes. No joke.

Anyways, the Vertigo show Friday went well… what a –crazy- venue! I can see why some residents of Nyack are “scared” of it…it really looks like it was designed by someone on drugs. I am not apt enough with architectural terminology to describe it, but I’ll say this… if Lewis Carroll were to design a restaurant, this is what it would look like. Weird ambiance aside, we sounded pretty good. The stage was wide and not deep, much to Mateus’ dismay, but we managed a decent 4-across setup. There was some –sweet- lighting. And we had a real nice crowd, a lot of people came out, including some old familiar Nyack faces… Michelle V., Tara… even some of Russell Crowe’s(!) “people” showed up (but not Russell himself), since he lives around town, and even partied with us afterwards. Adam had seen them at Wasabi (the Japanese restaurant where he works) earlier that afternoon and invited them to the show.



Raging party afterwards at our place, per usual… 200(!) jell-o shots, among other things… my original plan was to go right to sleep so I could get up at 7:30 to go to Rosh Hashanah services, but I decided to party just for a little while. I’m glad I did, and getting up the next morning proved to be no problem… it was a bit of a trip, walking around in my towel, getting ready for my day while people were still up and partying that early/late, heh…

(There’s currently one jell-o shot left over from the weekend in our fridge… I can’t help but think of the Lorax and truffula trees… “the very last of the jell-o shots…” –sniff-)

Services were really nice. I joined my Uncle Sam and cousin Josh at their temple in Montclair. I was raised going to a reform temple and this was a conservative one, but I was familiar with most of the service. I liked the rabbi… pretty straight-ahead with just enough joking around. The theme of his sermon was “is it possible to love a stranger?” really in reference to American Jews and learning to love and accept the “stranger” land of Israel, using the relationship with his adopted Indian son as a personal example. And the cantor was outstanding. That can really make or break a service and she made it. I did miss the high holiday melodies sung at my temple in Concord though, and harmonizing with dad and Jeff. Anyways, afterwards, uncle, aunt, 3 cousins and Phil all hit brunch, followed by the cousins beating me at ping-pong… again. Apparently there are household rankings, with cousin Ben as the number one seeded player, his brothers and some of his friends beneath him… I was informed I am “unranked.” Heh.

Saturday was a bit of a lost day… Sunday was the most satisfying clean-up day I’ve experienced in a while. The whole damn apartment. Granted, there were jell-o stains everywhere, so something had to be done. Call me a nerd, say what you will, but it just feels so damn good to –clean- like that, have the laundry done, reorganize the room a bit…

Wikipedia… love it. Pointless musing #135… how much does an average Wikipedia browsing “session” look like a Phish setlist? With all the inevitable clicks on links to related articles? For example…

Flat tax, Max Weinberg, Peter Gabriel -> Genesis -> Phil Collins…

(…Wilson, David Bowie, Mike’s Song -> I Am Hydrogen -> Weekapaug Groove…)

…you get the idea. Did you know that the same team of 9 core animators, colloquially referred to by Walt Disney as the “Nine Old Men,” worked on twentysomething animated features in a row? From “Snow White” to “The Rescuers,” spanning almost 40 years?

And last night I discovered you can download sheet music from Amazon.com. I had been wanting to try my classical chops at Chopin’s Nocturne in Eb and had been fooling around with what I could pick out by ear for a while, so I figured, what the hell. $2.75, 6 pages, in .pdf format available for immediate download, printed on neon green paper from Adam’s printer, now sitting on my desk in my room, waiting to be attempted.

Blah blah… bye!

80% Jewish

Well, I scored an 8 out of 10 on MSN.com's "Jewish holiday quiz." I didn't know the traditional food to eat on Shavuot or that Xerxes 1 had anything to do with Purim. Hm. What are you going to do. Well, at least I passed, I needed a %70 or better to qualify for High Holiday services this year. Phew!

Practices of late have been leaving my ears -ringing.- In an effort to curtail this I tried wearing cover-the-ear headphones last night and it totally worked. Practice was fine (er, except for the out-of-this-world ending jam on Don't Leave Me, which was beyond "fine") and although the headphones were a little tight and made me look like an air traffic controller, I now may not go deaf when I'm 24. Which would be swell.

...Glint @ VERTIGO tomorrow night! 9/22. Main Street in Nyack. 10:00 PM. $10 unless you're cool enough.

The Jew and the Ex-Vegetarian Cook Sausage

...and if I do say so myself they came out pretty damn well. Rob next door is a writer for a local paper and, in addition to doing music reviews, does food reviews, and gets to go to all these food tasting event-thingys, so after attending a Food Network-sponsored shindig, meeting Emeril, getting free shit, and having risotto cooked for him... he decided he was going to cook (risotto) for us. I volunteered to be his sous-chef, but in a last-minute lineup change, due to the fact that I had cooked before at all, Rob was demoted to sous-chef and I stepped into the spotlight as lead cheftarist. Together in our "e-kitchen of the future" (read: with Rob's laptop set up on the counter so we could google things like "how do you cook sausage?"), we rocked both the risotto -and- the sausage. And since we had/shredded way too much cheese, we ended up having an impromptu wine and (shredded) cheese party while we were cooking. Classy. Except for the shredded part. All this after an exhilarating bike ride to and around the nearby Hook Mountain Park with Mateus. Reclaimed Sunday #455.



"The Jew and the Ex-Vegetarian..." sounds like an Aesop fable... heh...

Man, it would have been a great weekend for camping up in Mohonk... I doubt we'll get to do it now.

The Olive's show was alright. Lots of technical difficulties, but we actually still put on a pretty good show. Decent crowd given that it was raining a lot prior to show time. We've got Vertigo this Friday night, which should be better in the sound equipment field at the very least. The gear there is top-notch. It?s a cool venue... 3 stories high, with only a ceiling on the very top, with the stage jutting out from the 2nd story. It should be quite a party actually... drinks and hors d'oeuvres (seriously)... the kicker is that I'm heading down to Montclair, NJ the next morning, getting up around 7:00(!) to join my Uncle, Aunt, and three cousins for Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish new year) services. I'll be tired. But it'll be good to spend the holiday with the (extended) fams. Phil (uses) too many (parentheses).

Yael bought a live Pink Floyd DVD yesterday at Target, "Pulse," I think from a show in 1987, and we watched some of it last night on our big screen/wall... man. Tom used to call them the "perfect band." I see where he's coming from... everyone gets a say. David Gilmour fucking -kills- on his solos but the drums and thumping bass on "Another Brick" kill as well. And don't get me started on the keyboards. My point (and Tom's) is that it's very much an ensemble cast, performance-wise. They can shred, they can take it slow... they always move you. Pink Floyd. I was just, taken in last night, as I'm sure the other guys were. Nodding my head in disbelief. Maybe some of it was because I hadn't listened to Floyd in a while... you know how that happens, you give that one band or song a little time, then you revisit it and, whoa! I love it! This concert is ridiculous, though... huuuuge stage setup, lights and lasers, backup singers... and none of the band members are showmen. They're making this ridiculous music without breaking a sweat, completely matching the size of the venue, crowd, and show with their sound. Creating something much larger than the sum of the band's parts. The music just speaks for itself. "Shiiiiiiiine on you craaaazy diaaamond..." anyways. Every now and then something hits you.

Being without a cell phone for two weeks... yes, it's been a pain in the ass at times, asking for Dylan's phone to call home or check my messages or order something for dinner... but at the same time, I want to say it's made work a little more tolerable...? When I have my phone next to me on the desk, I'm constantly, constantly checking it for the slight possibility that I may have missed a call or text message or something, even though I know damn well in the back of my mind that I would have heard it vibrate or ring! Without the phone, my hopes rise and fall less.

Fall is coming... there's so much I want to do while the weather's nice. Apple/pumpkin picking, frisbee at Hook Mountain, or soccer, or a picnic... other stuff I can't remember... I like this time of year.

Before I go, some quick product placement: the new french toast Pop Tarts are pretty damn good.

-Phil "New England Slim"

Hi-ho...

We had a super good practice last night... one of the best I remember. Kro sounded excellent, In This World was real tight... and the jam at the end of Don't Leave Me -killed-. It's hard to have everything "just right" for a good practice like that... the two biggest factors, I would say, are a) attitude and b) being able to hear everything well. That last one may sound like a throw-away statement but it's almost more important than mood and attitude: it has to be there -first-. If everything sounds good, clear and not too loud, nothing wrong with any cables or anything like that, that -allows- a good practice based on a good attitude and focus. If the attitude and focus are there to begin with but the room sounds bad, the latter trumps the former.

Quick weekend update (last weekend)... got into the city with Mateus, Rob, and Kevin. There was a pub crawl in the Village. Fun stuff. I really like those guys from next door. Not to go off on a tangent but I really appreciate them as (guy) friends that I didn't meet through music. I hardly have any of those anymore.

Anyways, yeah... Kevin wanted to watch the Notre Dame/PSU (my school!) game so we hung out at this one bar for a while and nailed some $4 cheeseburgers. I also swung a free Sam Adams and some chicken fingers, so my day was complete. There were 15 bars we could hit and I'd say we hit 6 or 7. Multiple rousing renditions of Journey's "Don't Stop Believing..." a visit to the 80's throwback bar Culture Club... putting our bags down at Alibi and, just -dancing-... heh. Anyways.

Sunday night Jase and Caroline hosted a dinner party at the castle Caroline lives at in Piermont. Yes, a castle. She and her dad live downstairs; an older couple owns the castle and live upstairs. By castle standards it's not that old, about 150 years, but still...! Said couple was gone for a few weeks, so, we took over for a night. This place was... ridiculous. So many damn rooms. It was a bit of a surreal evening. I suppose the surreal cooking had something to do with it.

For those that don't know: gig this Friday at Olive's; gig next Friday at Vertigo.

Staying busy. Bye!

List #1: Significant Songs of the Past Year

…and my associations with them. Why I’m calling them memorable.

Note: Pretty literally “of the past year:” I started staying at Hogan’s place in Boston September of 2005. I’m calling that a good starting point. Effectively moving out of NH.

In no particular order:

Everybody Wants to Rule the World – Tears for Fears
See last entry.

Sultans of Swing – Dire Straits
Worcester and being downstairs in our lounge at the firehouse; the bar in Nashville; saving me from the mind-numbing oldies at work.

Black Betty – Ram Jam
Being ridiculous with Rob from next door; watching Blow way too many times.

Hollow – Glint (hey, I’m entitled to a little self-indulgence, right?)
A great opening track. Hearing those backgroundish tremolo guitars being recorded on the first part of the song was a real turning point for me. I thought, “wow, we have the potential to record some really moving stuff.”

Now I Know – Glint (so sue me)
I think it’s just my favorite song we currently play.

Don’t You (Forget About Me) – Simple Minds
Walking around a cold, wintery Boston at night… Hogan’s place by Kenmore Square.

Trouble Man – Marvin Gaye
That disturbing movie “Four Brothers” I saw on the plane ride to France; the power of music in a film. I just love the bluesy, slow, soulful feel to this tune.

Kids With Guns – Gorillaz
It’s been with me the whole year.

Glosoli – Sigur Ros
Nailing that interview at EMC. Such a powerful damn tune.

Over Now - Alice in Chains
Moving out of the Boston studio with Glint, laughing about the “yeah we pay our debts sometime” line since we were bailing on the last month’s rent.

Ain’t No Love – Paul Carrack
Am I really putting this one here? One of the many muzak-songs they play at work. I walked in on my first day and heard this song… “they play music over the intercom here? Huh?” Just, the cheesy “come on, let’s go to work!” feeling-high, get-motivated nature of it. Just to be clear: I do -not- like this song. But I am calling it significant.

So that's it. My personal soundtrack for the past year. Sweet.

Everybody wants to rule the world

:) Oh, this song. It just came on (at work). I've had quite a history with this song.

To me it just, epitomizes the image I have of the 80's and 80's-ness. The "mood" of the song just, saddened me, I remember, when I was little. It had such a specific feeling to it. Emotional, new wave. Suffice to say, I didn't like it.

Sometime in the past year I just wanted to hear that song again. So I downloaded it, liked it, and had my "phase" with it. Looked up the lyrics. Been caught playing it on the piano. I had reclaimed the song.

Then this past spring I was driving to work from Worcester one rainy morning and crashed my car just as this song was ending on my stereo. Needless to say, a bit of a negative association with the song followed, again, albeit a very different kind. I definitely avoided listening to it for a while and even now still avoid it when I'm driving.

And now it comes on KMSR Konica-Minolta Shlock Radio on a rainy Friday morning after a painful and introspective past couple of days and, still taking into account the context in which I'm hearing it (buried amongst what I'll simply call old dumb pop), it's just nice to hear. A song I'm familiar with, a song I've been through a lot with.

Things that will be with me through anything: music, and my family. No matter what.

The fams and the friends

So much to write about. Alright, well, it was another good weekend, for starters.

We (Glint) were supposed to have our CD release party this past Friday at this big ol’ club called Vertigo here in Nyack, but the booking guy forgot he had booked the last Friday of every month for this DJ, so we got ousted (that and, the CD’s not finished yet… more on that later, maybe). We couldn’t do the next night because Adam was at a wedding, …it just got rescheduled to September 22nd, but the point is, mom and dad were supposed to come down for the gig. I have two uncles in the area that got word of all this and were planning on coming to see the band themselves, so in the end, since we had all blocked off the time anyway, we met up in Manhattan for a swanky dinner. Uncle Sam, Aunt Alex, and cousin Josh came from NJ; Uncle John and Aunt Stacey came from NY, just across the river from me. Just a nice mini-extended family reunion.

And the night before, I showed mom and dad around Nyack. We hit Casa del Sol for dinner (the entrees… eh, not bad… the chips, salsa, and tableside-prepared guacamole… awesome), and were planning on returning there later to rock the open mic night (as much as bossa nova music can rock anything) but it turned out they had scheduled a band instead. No matter... we had a jam session at our apartment instead, featuring dad on trumpet. Ines, Jamie, and some other peeps stopped by so we ended up having a bit of an audience anyway. I think mom and dad had a good time. They got to see my new “stomping grounds” and meet some of my new cronies.

After dinner on Friday we drove back to NJ for the night and the next day I got to hang and be a moron with my cousins, Josh, Ben, and Jordan (age 15, 13, and 10, I think). Highlights…

-Bagels for breakfast
-Walking to get bagels for breakfast (just a nice cool and overcast morning to be walking outside)
-Getting beat by all three cousins at ping-pong (last but not least by ten-year-old cousin Jordan)
-Beating Josh at this Star Wars video game (yes! redemption!)
-Uncle Sam donating a bunch of Stella Artois to me upon our departure

…which leads me to the party Saturday night. It was our friend Jamie’s birthday, so we let her convince us to have a party at our place, especially since she and her friends took care of the keg(s). Overall a fun time. The obligatory jam session started off with some bossa nova… “Wave,” I think… then mutated into some Santana, with yours truly trying to sing above the party banter (until Roberta shoved a microphone at my face, hehe). Oh and some guy was –breakdancing-. To Santana. Yeah. I mean if that’s not a sign of a good party, I don’t know what is.

Sunday:
-Slept wicked late
-Avoided cleaning
-Too much laughing with our neighbors Rob and Kevin
-Ran outside in the rain storm with Rob and Kaley
-Watched “Half-Baked”

…again, am I really allowed to have this kind of fun on a Sunday? I feel like I’ve reclaimed the day as actually just another day in the weekend, not having to do any homework or be at work-work. This newfound freedom is strange.

I’ve had some silly musings, mostly musical, I’ve wanted to write about… but this post, like most of my others, is too long, so, later…

Casa-taco weekend

Alright, well, I don’t like to brag, but… I think that was pretty much the best weekend ever. I don’t know if they get better than that.

The show went well. We played at this Mexican restaurant/bar, Casa del Sol, right below our apartment on Friday night. I think one of my favorite moments was actually during soundcheck, when we were playing to people that were just finishing their dinner and (I would have guessed) not intending to stick around for this rock band that was about to take the stage. We played “Now I Know,” which is just, a catchy, disco-dance-y head nodder of a tune and, we really got peoples’ attention. They gave us a nice earnest round of applause. Sometimes I get a little down about the fact that we’re playing in the band’s hometown, if even maybe just “for now,” and getting compliments from friends and family, which are nice, but not objective… so this felt pretty good. Anyways, the rest of the show went well. We’d been practicing all week and it showed (except for “Loneliest Motel,” heh).

Raging party afterwards at our apartment…

…I am starting to learn what my criteria for a good party is, and I think at the top of the list is dancing to Jamiroquai with a small group of people. With some MJ thrown in. Hell yeah.

I also did my first keg stand(s).

Sunday, I played tennis for the first time in, years. Beautiful day for it. Adam and I drove down to the courts by the Hudson and played a (wimpy) 45 minutes, then Mateus and I met up with Roberta and Ines later that afternoon at the pool where Ines lifeguards and swam and hung out there until dinner time. We got to talking about tacos, and good beer, and I started preaching the word of Magic Hat #9, and… boom, the idea for a taco night was born. It had been a while since the last one, in Worcester… months!

Playing cards and looking cool... by the pool.

Boats on the Hudson.

Mateus and I went shopping and went right to work when we got back. We had just cleaned the apartment that morning… the girls got dressed up… jazz and salsa music playing… it had a real dinner party vibe to it. Roberta’s impromptu black bean, cheese, and scallion concoction was amazing. And finally I was drinking Magic Hat out of the Magic Hat pint glass and not Natty Ice. I’m still buzzing from it all Monday morning. I felt like, “is this really allowed on a Sunday night?” We hosted a pretty damn nice evening, Mateus and I, if I do say so myself.

Roberta and hippie Phil.

(and for those that know me and my taco-eating history, no, I definitely didn’t break any records)

It feels so good to be making something of my weekends like this. This is a reflection of a few things… being out of school and not having homework, the fact that Nyack is a “cooler” town than Worcester, Waltham, or Concord, but also definitely because of the full time job. If the downside of being the only one in the apartment in such a situation is the clashing of sleep and party schedules, the upside is the contrast I personally get to appreciate between work week and weekend. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not getting much sleep, but I am having fun. And I’m 23 so that’s o.k. for now. ☺

Also, P.S., just so “everyone” knows, due to my neurotic organizational nature, I’ll be posting some pictures from past shows, the wedding, etc., in the post I originally talked about those events. So uh, keep scrolling down. Cool.

Hm, title...

“I’m against picketing, but I don’t know how to show it.” – Mitch Hedburg

Hehe.

I’ve become a Wikipedia fan. Good stuff.

I have been busy… good busy, but busy. I got back to Nyack Sunday night after the wedding and we’ve been practicing every night since then for the Casa del Sol show this Friday. –And- having people over after practice a couple of those nights. Crazy. I half-jokingly think of Oregon Trail, when you’re setting a pace for your wagon… “grueling: you go non-stop every day and your health suffers.” Not that my health has been “suffering” per se, but man, I sure could use some more sleep. It reminds me of my lab-by-day, radio-station-by-night summer a few years ago in school. Except everything then was within walking distance. Heh. So goes the life of a… just check my tagline.

Over and out…

Moonlight in VT

The wedding! Was, awesome. For anyone that doesn’t know, I’m referring to my buddy and former bandmate Myles and his longtime girlfriend Dominique.

A successful canoe ride(!) from the church.

Dylan (bassist from Glint) needed to get to New England that weekend as well, since he had a gig back in Braintree, so we found ourselves scurrying around New York Thursday evening with our respective weekend luggage, trying to make the 8:00 “Fung Wah” Chinatown bus to Boston. I do like any excuse to get into the city... it was a nice day to be outside and nice to have a travel companion to shmooze and take in the city scenery with. We met a yoga instructor on the train from Nyack… if I may make a generalization here, I’ve found that people involved with yoga tend to be very socially comfortable people.

Right. The wedding. It was such a nice change of scenery (and weather… in the 70’s!). It took place in the rural Vermont town of Greensboro, in the northern part of the state, probably only an hour from Canada. We’re talking, don’t-leave-the-water-running-too-long, “take a left down the dirt road and follow that for a mile or so” Vermont. Very pretty, and peaceful… right on a lake. The ceremony took place at the town church, but the rest of the weekend was centered around the Matteson’s summer house, just up the road. This thing was built in 1912 by (I’m guessing) Myles’ great grandfather (maybe great-great?) and is –huge-. The Mattesons will tell you it sleeps 22 people. They had done a lot of work on it since I’d seen it years ago and it looked amazing.


I got a real kick out of being a groomsman. Being part of that “team,” not just a guest. There were –seven- of us (including my brother), more than I’ve ever heard of at a wedding. It was fun being an usher, all spiffed out in my suit, seating aunts and grandmothers. Heh. Myles had asked me to play piano for the processional, a song off of Dominique’s recent album (she is an excellent singer and harpist) and it went off without a hitch. And I don’t think I’ve ever been to a wedding where church bells actually rang after the ceremony. I was kind of tickled at that one.

La famille Selesnick.

It was one of those days where you felt tired before your normal bedtime because of all the activity (er, for those of us going to bed around midnight). Lots of contra dancing… a short-lived but nice Clan Du reunion set… Dad, Jeff, and I played some jazz, again at Myles’ request, amongst all the Celtic and folk music and musicians, which was well received… kegs of Smuttynose beer, a New Hampshire microbrew… some frisbee action… nice to see my family again… don’t try mixing white wine with fruit punch because it’s about as good an idea as mixing Magic Hat #9 beer with vanilla ice cream (what moron and his friend Hogan would do such a thing?)… awesome. At night we had a huge bonfire on the back lawn, complete with a very Wet Hot American Summer/Napoleon Dynamite end-of-the-movie-weird-guy-proving-himself-at-the-talent-show fire dancing exhibition by the day’s token weird kid, backed up by Mike MacNintch, friend of the Mattesons, on bagpipes. It was actually pretty cool, kind of like a raver with glowsticks, except with three-foot long ball-and-chain things on –fire-. Yeah. I was impressed.

The new extended family.

Oh! Heh. And the bachelor party. No, no strippers, nothing like that. The groomsmen and some friends “kidnapped” Myles from an all-too-peaceful Friday evening post-dinner shmooze session, blindfolded him (read: someone threw a t-shirt over his head), threw him in the back of the van, and drove off to a field to have a bonfire and cookout. We toasted and “here-here”-d, told stories and limericks, drank good beer (a nice change of pace from all the PBR and Milwaukee’s Best at the Nyack apartment parties) and ate way too many s’mores and American cheese-topped hot dogs.

Jeff and Ted in the van after successfully kidnapping Myles.

Overall, a great weekend. Congrats to Myles and Dom. And props to the Mattesons for putting on such an affair.

Is it really August?

(I'm going to throw something at that woman who coughs all the time... stop smoking, hon, do yourself and everyone else a favor... honest to god...)

Ahem. Anyways.

Pretty good weekend. The show went well. We spent almost all of Saturday setting up, moving the Clavinova digital piano (kind of a pain in the ass, admittedly, but worth it in the end sonically), soundchecking, and pimping out the stage with tapestries and candles. Adam wanted to give it the "Alice in Chains Unplugged" vibe (which apparently meant lots of candles) since it was an acoustic show. We even had some sweet lighting, thanks to Evan and Jonathan's help. It was a long and at times stressful afternoon... Jase's guitar was feeding back and he broke a couple strings... I cut myself shaving (who needs to know this?!) and wasn't too thrilled with the outfit I picked out, although it did involve some pretty stylin' pinstripe pants (thanks Vicky)...

...in the end, our patience and persistence paid off. We finally got a nice sound out of everything and rocked the show. The Marilyn Manson(!) cover sounded good, "Coma White," as did Jase's new tune "One of a Kind." Some of our jammier tunes are good, yes, but songs like these last two sound more professional than the others because everyone's parts are more set in stone. We also worked up an older Glint song, "Don't Leave Me," one I've always been a fan of. The local radio guys were impressed and have rebroadcasted the show a couple times since Saturday night. And we were asked back on a monthly basis. I'll try and post some pics when I get them because the stage really looked awesome.

And before all that I had a nice little Saturday morning to myself strolling around sunny Nyack. After the haircut (god it's nice to have short hair again) I hit up one of the thrift stores, got a shirt and some nice bookends (for my growing Dr. Seuss book collection) for $5 total, then hit the library to apply for a card. I've almost finished the book I've been reading for (too embarrassed to say years) and have been amassing a small list of books I want to read in the meantime, so I figured, what the hell. Once I get the Volvo down here in a couple weeks (if I decide it's really worth the extra $$ for gas, etc.), I won't have that reading-on-the-bus-ride-home time anymore, really the only time I -have- been reading, but I'm hoping I will make the time. Besides that, the library has a pretty nice DVD collection, and for those that don't know, we just happen to have a totally sweet projector and large white wall for watching such DVD's with/on at the apartment. Hell yes.

Alright, enough for now. Oh and Jonathan's Nashville documentary rocks. It's 12 minutes long and nicely chronicles our time there (although I wouldn't have minded seeing footage from the bar, eating local "po boy" sandwiches, playing darts, and listening to the all-too-appropriate-sounding for Nashville "Sultans of Swing" by Dire Straits, one of my new favorite tunes, on the jukebox... such a complainer Phil!). We're going to try and post it on the site soon.

Wednesday night I am -finally- going to this jazz session in Orangeburg, 10 minutes away, that I've been hearing about for weeks now but until now couldn't get to because I didn't have a car (I'm borrowing Adam's car this week, since he's in Nashville [yes, again] with Jase mixing the last two songs we added on this past month and mastering the whole album once more). I'm excited to network with local jazz guys, to finally strut my stuff, to play that kind of music again.

There are good things in my life right now. Some neat people and lots of things happening. Our apartment is great, our neighbors are cool guys and Nyack is a cool town. Sometimes it's hard to focus on what's positive because my future is still uncertain and I do have my doubts and frustrations with the band. And the job, the job is alright, it's not excellent. The living situation is a little crazy at times... that's a topic for another day. But I'm sticking with all of this because the bit of "life" I experience here is nice... cooking for myself, open mic nights, being able to go into the city... even the little things like shopping or applying for a library card... and also because I believe -someone- will take notice once this album is out. I can't wait to be on the other side of that fence. Having a CD, a product (and a pretty damn good one at that), will make such a difference.

Bossa nova!

Well I'll be damned. We open mic'd it last night and, killed. I mean, kind of. It went over well. I'm just surprised we ended up doing it so soon. Roberta sounded more confident on all the tunes in practice, so we made some arrangements and convinced ourselves tonight was the night. Er, last night. Right.

Mateus and I lugged the Clavinova downstairs and in the back door of Casa del Sol... some of the house band musicians joined in, on acoustic guitar and hand drum... everyone was smiling and having a good time.

Our setlist (ha!):

Wave
The Girl from Ipanema
Tarde de Itapoa
Desafinado

These are all bossa nova standards, mostly by a guy named A.C. Jobim.

It feels good to be playing something remotely close to jazz again. I impressed one of the house band guys too, which was cool. Anyways.

Acoustic gig (Glint) this weekend at the Hudson House. Apparently they make a ginger martini there. May have to try it. And I just got word that Jonathan, our video guy, is coming down for the weekend to record the show but also to show us a DVD he made of all the footage we shot in Nashville last April (while we were mixing the album)! Again, stoked. We've been waiting to see this stuff for a while.

This damn muzak...

Seriously. They pump muzak through the intercom where I work. I'd say I like 1 song for every 20 they play... Sultans of Swing comes on every now and then, Oasis, Sting... but mostly it is SHLOCK (I've really been liking that word lately... shlock!). Would I rather it go away completely, though? Hm. Adult-contempo music or none at all?

Anyways... here I am at work, about to start the day, ...I guess this is when I feel like posting the most, for some reason?

Last night Mateus and I watched "Be Cool" (is this a sequel to something?). I think I liked it, but there was something about it I just couldn't put my finger on... a -tad- bit cheesy, way way too many cameos/big stars... yeah, there was some pretty lame acting. We tried to watch Wayne's World 2 first, but like most of Adam's DVDs (heh), it skipped to high heaven.

Thursday! :) Awesome. Thursday means open mic night at Casa del Sol, right downstairs, and $2 Coronas. I wish it were easier for me to take part in one of these things... I guess all it'll take is keeping the Nord (keyboard) at the apartment instead of the studio, and just bringing it down... I don't know. I don't think I'd want a bunch of other guys playing it, to be honest. But it would be cool to add some ORGAN to some of those Santana/latin jams the house band does...

And before that, Roberta is coming over to jam on our usual 3-4 bossa nova/A.C. Jobim tunes. She is a little shy about singing into a microphone, so I'm not sure if performing at the open mic is in the near future, but we'll see. I was saying to Mateus, I like the "instrumental exclusivity" of our little trio... piano, hand drum, voice. Chords, rhythm, melody. Everyone's got their own "thing." It reminds me of that one gig Tyler, Alissa and I played years ago at one of the Concord auditoriums with Ty on cittern, Alissa on cello, and me on conga drum. Technically an offshoot of Clan Du but the vibe was more Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (mostly thanks to Alissa). Yeah. Anyways. Alright, time for work.

Three little things

1) The "Tappan ZEExpress" bus gets me to work faster, giving me 40 extra minutes of sleep in the morning.
2) Haircut this Saturday. This long hair is frustrating. Time to chop it off and look all good for Myles' wedding.
3) Tom says he's recovered some video tapes of the last few Edition shows and is putting them on his computer! I'm really pretty stoked about this. Our last Chum's show, in February... our outdoor Springfest show... awesome. Nothing with dad or Jeff, unfortunately, but hey.