2012 Resolutions

Here is my to-do list for 2012. Some are huge projects and some are little things that I've just been wanting to do. Some are things I've already committed to do, so that's kind of cheating but who cares? Last year was about staying the course but I think there will be more innovation and growth this year.

Election night plus show review: Adobe Book

The show at Adobe Books was the lowest key show I have ever played. It felt like playing in my living room except with more books. Olen played like a champ and to those of you willing to play percussion, I salute you even if the only time you played was in lieu of clapping. Notable exception to my wife, who, by virtue of living with me, knows the songs more than most, even if she doesn't listen to the words. It's never a bad idea to play guitar for the ladies.

So the best part about the show being acoustic was that afterward, all I had with me was a guitar in a case. The election must have been called right at we were exiting the bookstore around 8:00 pm. A dive bar next door was standing-room-only packed with all televisions blaring and all patrons cheering loudly. My wife, my pal Regina and I went to a restaurant across the street (fancy pub with a beer list about ten times longer than the menu, if you must know).

We tucked into the back booth, guitar case easily fitting underneath and right before we ordered, McCain came on the television, perched in the pub's front corner, to give his concession speech. Yes, it was gracious even if the crowd was not. I don't like angry crowds, which I know, is a really strange thing to have an aversion to. The pub was cheering wildly as the speech began and even continued to agree with some of McCain's points, politely clapping because we can be gracious winners too.

Now, I have my deeply cynical moments but I was solidly on board during Obama's speech and resolved to do more in the community (yeah, we'll see how that goes. Don't count me out yet). I totally teared up and had an overwhelming urge to call eveyone I knew (which I ignored). There was such electricity in the air combined with relief. Like we had all just had one little orgasm together.

This was all before I found out about Prop. 8, and equally un-American measures passing in other states. I have more to say about this but not just yet.

Albums That Changed My Life

I had an idea to write about the music that has influenced me so I'm starting with my favorite album, which is:
Neutral Milk Hotel, In The Aeroplane Over The Sea (Merge, 1998)

My old band-mate worked in a record store and she brought home music I'd never heard of all the time. Some I loved instantly (Nick Drake, very pre-Volkswagon commercial), some I couldn't wait to be turned off (what's their name? Buffalo something?) and others just kind of didn't register with me. In The Aeroplane Over The Sea fell into the last category.

I'd heard the album a few times but didn't really get it until one unbearably hot van ride in Los Angeles. Our band was on tour and headed to downtown Los Angeles. Of course, we were stuck in traffic. The van didn't have air conditioning and we were nearing the end of a mostly disastrous, two week tour during a record-breaking heat wave. In short, there wasn't much left to say, the sun was mercifully going down and the van was finally quiet. I listened and listened. The imagery of "fingers through the notches of your spine", his voice, my failed life on the cusp of changing forever. Love, sex, death, family and freaks. All of it. It changed something in me. It made me want to write a different kind of song.

The band had been broken up for about six months when I finally purchased my own copy. At the time, I was going through a bit of a transition. I knew I still wanted to play music but was having a really hard time finding my voice. It was the first time I'd picked up a guitar in a while and I was trying really hard to change my style. Trying too hard. I was sick of all the songs I'd written so I decided to learn other people's songs and leave my own behind for a while.

So I'd bought In The Aeroplane Over The Sea and now that it was mine, I could read the words so I learned those songs. Most involve no more than six chords and it struck me how much they did with those chords. I didn't need to make a song complicated to make it good. It seems to me that I wrote the first part to The Current Or The Undertow? shortly thereafter and finally felt like I was heading towards the things I wanted to keep.

Next time: Let's talk about Ted Leo.