Forwarding Address

Looks like future lack-of-posting is going to happen at: onelittlesong.net

One More Day

I think the posting hiatus will probably continue for another couple weeks, but this was too good to miss:

Hmmmm

Hey, what's this!!?!?

... well, it’s something I’ve set up for a project I’m trying to work on this month. Depending how much I like it, I may decide to relocate over there. But for now, I’ll just continue not posting here!

Saturday is YouTube Day

No real theme this week except for ‘things that I’ve been listening to recently’. First up, Willie Nelson’s collaboration with Wynton Marsalis’ band, Two Men With The Blues. It’s a really interesting album, that works a lot better than I thought it would at first. Here’s “Georgia On My Mind”:



Next up is a band I had convinced myself that I didn’t like for some reason or another, but actually realized I did like once I sat down and actually listened to them. Here’s Wolf Parade’s “Kissing The Beehive”:



Finally, I couldn’t go too long without something from PJ/MMJ/The Who, so here’s Eddie Vedder and Pete Townshend performing “Heart To Hang Onto”:



There's a bit of backstory for that last one here if you're interested.

A Quick One For Christie

I promised someone I’d put something up here since there’s been so much nothing lately, so here’s something I think she’d enjoy: Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-Long Blog. That link might only work until tomorrow.

No One's Ever Hacked the Internet Before

I wasn’t crazy about the recent Transformers movie, though a lot of my friends loved it. I think a lot of it had to do with the script’s relentless exploitation of every cheesy action movie cliché: the beautiful blonde who’s also the world’s foremost computer hacker, the no-nonsense soldier who doesn’t have time for some bureaucrat’s regulations, etc., etc. This parody script, imagining if Michael Bay (the director of Transformers) wrote The Dark Knight gets it pretty well, and is pretty funny to boot:

George Carlin, RIP

Saw this quote floating around:

The most unfair thing about life is the way it ends. I mean, life is tough. It takes up a lot of your time. What do you get at the end of it? A Death! What’s that, a bonus? I think the life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, get it out of the way. Then you live in an old age home. You get kicked out when you’re too young, you get a gold watch, you go to work. You work forty years until you’re young enough to enjoy your retirement. You do drugs, alcohol, you party, you get ready for high school. You go to grade school, you become a kid, you play, you have no responsibilities, you become a little baby, you go back into the womb, you spend your last nine months floating …and you finish off as an orgasm. -- George Carlin

EDIT: Turns out it's not actually his.

Cello Cello Cello Cello Cello Cello (Cello Cello)

I think, since we’ve had videos by The Who, My Morning Jacket, and Pearl Jam on here, I’m somewhat obligated to post this clip of My Morning Jacket with Eddie Vedder performing “A Quick One While He’s Away”:





I think it captures a lot of what’s awesome about MMJ: huge amounts of rocking out coupled with quite a bit of silliness. Their new album Evil Urges came out a few days ago, and is also pretty awesome.

On To November

What to say? A huge, important moment for America and the rest of the world.

Hmmm

I don’t seem to have much to say these days! I’ve seen this in a lot of places though, and it really is pretty cool:


MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

SMIIIITTTTTHHHH

You’ll rue the day.

Another Year...

Five years ago today...

GO HABS GO

The playoffs are here in Montreal, and there’s tons of energy in the streets. I’ve abandoned (for now) my beloved Canucks and hopped on the Habs bandwagon. All that’s just an excuse to post one of my favourite clips from Slapshot...

Remixes

Thomas Dolby remixing Radiohead - how cool is that?

Saturday is YouTube Day

...Special ‘Vancouver or associated-with-Vancouver artists only’ day. Alright! Here’s the New Pornographers...



And Black Mountain...



And Devin Townsend!



p.s. Today is Record Store Day. I think I'll wander over to Zulu Records.

Danny Federici, RIP

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

The view from the entrance of the new apartment:

Apparently Diploidy Is The Way To Go

I’d wondered a few times over the last few years what had happened to the research project I worked on back as an undergrad. It being a very small world, I ended up meeting the person who took over the project and found out that it eventually got published in PLoS Genetics - and I’m even in the acknowledgments. Cool!

Where to Buy Whore Presents?

Great list of domain-names-gone-wrong.

D.R.Adams Films Inc.

Ryan Adams is now blogging from the perspective of his computer over at D.R. Adams Films Inc. The blog itself is kinda interesting if you’re into his work, but it’s mostly just pictures of him hanging around in his apartment, half-done songs, puppet theatre, etc.

Sunday is Not YouTube Day

...but I was away yesterday, so I thought I’d write this today instead.

I’ve been working a fair bit recently getting a bit better at fingerstyle guitar. I’ve always loved the sound of it - at first it sounds so complex, notes coming from all over the place. But after a bit of listening, the patterns emerge.

One of the most predominant styles is called ‘Travis Picking’, after the late Merle Travis. The defining characteristics of the style are the alternating bass (played with the thumb), and the melody and accompaniment played on the upper strings with the other fingers.

Here’s a compilation of Merle Travis songs:



And here’s an absolutely stunning tribute to Townes Van Zandt, called “Ft. Worth Blues”, written and performed by Steve Earle:



And finally, Josh Ritter’s “The Temptation of Adam”:

His Name Is Jonas!?!?!

Welcome to the world Jonas Hendrix Smith, born to my good friends Clarke and Leanne on March 31st! He joins his big brother Julian Bowie in having a great, rock-inspired name. Here’s Weezer’s “My Name Is Jonas”:

Mucking Things Up

There’s a new site called Muxtape that lets you make online mixtapes to share with your friends and random strangers - seems like a cool idea!

I put together a quick mix to try it out - it’s definitely fun to think of different themes to organize a tape around. My first muxtape can be found at http://onelittlesong.muxtape.com , and, if you’re RSS-savvy, you can get updates here.

This first set of songs has the boring theme of ‘My Favourite Artists Who Are Still Active (or Who Are Recently Deceased)’. Here we go:

• Wilco - ‘Misunderstood’ (from Being There)
• Pearl Jam - ‘Marker In The Sand’ (from Pearl Jam)
• Band of Horses - ‘Monsters’ (from Everything All The Time)
• Josh Ritter - ‘To The Dogs Or Whoever’ (from The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter)
• The Decemberists - ‘After The Bombs’ (from The Crane Wife - b-sides)
• Iron & Wine / Calexico - ‘History Of Lovers’ (from In The Reins)
• Elliott Smith - ‘Whatever (Folk Song in C)’ (from New Moon)
• Queens of the Stone Age - ‘Regular John’ (from Queens of the Stone Age)
• Radiohead - ‘Reckoner’ (from In Rainbows)
• Neko Case - ‘Star Witness’ (from Fox Confessor Brings The Flood)
• M. Ward - ‘Radio Campaign’ (from Transistor Radio)
• Gillian Welch - ‘I Made A Lover’s Prayer’ (from Soul Journey)

I’ll probably leave this one up for a week or two, then replace it with the next theme: Songs About Space. Or a different theme, if anyone has a strong opinion!

Recently

Katie Loves Pain did indeed play their final show a little while ago, and it went off quite well. Kristine St-Pierre opened the show, with a surprisingly good-looking backing band (featuring Shawn and Katie of KLP on guitar and violoin, and me on drums). Due to the layout of the venue, I was actually playing the drums sitting in the middle of the crowd!

For our final show as KLP, we wanted to have a lot of fun with the audience. Some of our biggest fans have been requesting AC/DC and Bon Jovi covers for months, so we happily obliged them with “Dirty Deeds” and “Livin’ On A Prayer”. We were thrilled to see people coming out in home-made AC/DC t-shirts, and in one case, even shaving “AC/DC” into their heads!

Sound-wise, it probably wasn’t our best outing - we were quite cramped, and the sound of the various instruments was inconsistent through the evening. In the end though, I think everyone had a good time. I played a lot of drums during the show, which I really enjoy - something about not actually knowing what I’m supposed to be doing, and relying mostly on intuition makes it a really fun challenge.

Last Saturday, we were in Ottawa, helping Kristine audition for the Ottawa folk festival. Ironically, our audition took place at Rasputin’s Folk Café, located a block away from the apartment I lived in when I first moved out East a few years ago. Our set there went well, though the talent level at the auditions was pretty impressive. If we make it the next round, we’ll be playing at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa - how Canadian Idol of us!

O Danny Boy, O Boy O boy

Happy St. Patricks!



Hopefully we’ll return to our regular schedule of infrequent posting soon.

I Almost Forgot Again

Tonight, 9pm, KLP plays their final show at Le Buddhi Lounge. Bon Jovi covers may ensue.

Practicing

I’ve been trying to get better at guitar lately. I guess I’ve been playing off and on for almost thirteen years now, but still don’t consider myself to be very accomplished. The guitar is a bit of a tricky instrument, in that it really can’t be learned just by reading books and thinking about it. Which is probably true for most things, but somehow took me a long time to figure out!

One thing I tell people who ask me about picking up the guitar is that it can be very frustrating at first, because so much time in the early learning stages is spent just developing the finger strength and muscle memory necessary to get the notes to form cleanly. And once you’ve got that, then you have to spend even more time getting the strings to be quiet when you don’t want them to make noise!

I’ve been trying to put together a bit of a practice routine, gradually building things up as I get a bit better. I thought I’d post it here because a lot of the resources are online, and it’s often pretty difficult to sort the useful training stuff from a million “Learn how to play in ten minutes!” lessons. The thing about guitar, is that it does take a lot of time. But it’s like science in a way - as soon as you learn one thing, five new questions present themselves.

1. Stretching. Often overlooked, but a pretty good idea. I usually start with the stretches recommended by John Petrucci (yes that John Petrucci) in this video.

2. Warmups and Finger Exercises. As I mentioned above, learning to play the guitar involves lots of workouts for your hands (both left and right). Your fingers need to be able to fret notes cleanly, to bar strings, to move fairly independently of each other. You also need to commit several types of movement to muscle memory: switching between common chord types, switching between strings, etc. Unfortunately, the only way to develop these skills that I know of is just lots and lots of practice. I think I read this joke somewhere else, but if someone wanted to write an accurate guitar book, the title could be something like “How I Learned How To Play The Guitar In Just 10,000 Gruesome Hours”.

Anyways, there are tons of exercise books out there, and most will probably get the job done. The one I’ve been using is called “30-Day Guitar Workout”, which has been good for me because it really breaks things down to the simplest level possible (chromatic scales on a single string), and builds from there.

3. Fretboard Navigation and Ear Training. The guitar neck is pretty big. My electric guitar has 22 frets. Including the open string, that makes 23x6 = 138 possible positions to play a note in! It would be helpful to know what each of those notes was! I’ve found Fretboard Warrior to be useful for this. I started out doing 5 minute stretches on this, now I just do 2 minutes at a time.

Ear training is important for any musician. It’s fundamental to figuring out what other musicians are doing, and also for your own playing. To be able to correlate your fingers with the sound you want your instrument to make, you need to have your intervals down. One good online trainer is at Good Ear. I recently downloaded the Phobia Bundle from Major Third, which has nice Mac trainers for Chords, Scales, Intervals, and Inversions.

4. Scales. Learning scales is quite different between the guitar and the piano. Whereas on the piano you need to learn a new major scale for each key, on guitar if you learn, say, a C major scale, you can play a D major scale by moving your fingers up two frets. So in a sense it’s easier to play in different keys on a guitar. To pay for our sins though, we have to learn each of the different scales in different positions on the neck - it’d be quite limiting to only play a C major scale using a single position.

Learning scales is something I’ve been lax about, but am trying to get better at. Right now, I’m doing mainly major scales in CAGED positions, but also natural minor and minor pentatonic scales. Next up, modes of the major scale and the other minor scales!

Like learning how to make the guitar make noise, then spending more time to make the guitar not make noise, learning scales can be frustrating. The goal is to learn them so well that when you’re playing a melody or solo you don’t sound like you’re just playing up and down a scale.

5. Chords and Harmony. Playing more than one note at a time. This is an area that I’m still developing in my practice routine, so I don’t have too much to say here. But it is important to practice the basic open and barre chord shapes until you can move between them easily. That’s probably where I am now. Going forward, you need to be able to build chords all over the neck, and to do that, you need to really understand chord construction and music theory - this music theory book is a good one aimed at guitarists.

6. Video Lessons. A lot of guitar playing is difficult to learn from books, or just figuring out by yourself. To really “learn how to make it talk” you need to go beyond the ‘words’ (i.e., just the chords and notes) and really develop your phrasing. There’s a million little tricks and phrases that are part of the guitar lexicon, but can be difficult to pick up by ear. The best thing to do, I’ve heard, is to find a good teacher. There’s lots of videos on the web as well, but the quality is decidedly mixed. One site I like a lot is Justinguitar.com - he’s got a lot of really good video lessons, and a killer Australian accent!

7. Real Books. A lot of time learning guitar is spent learning other people’s songs, exactly the way they played them. That’s helpful to a point, but it’s also useful to be able to figure out how to play something your own way. This kind of study is common for other instruments, but not so much for guitar. One thing that’s very common in jazz, not so much in rock, is Fake books - books with basic chord progressions and melodies, that still leave a lot of room open for interpretation (here’s a good start). On the guitar, I think a good exercise is to go through a chord chart and try to figure out voicings for the various chords. This is really good for building your chord vocabulary and your sense of harmony. I like to figure out chord voicings with the help of Guitar Pro, then try to play the melody along to the chord voicings I’ve picked. Here’s an example of voicings from “Autumn Leaves”:



OK, that ended up being a lot longer than I had expected! This routine usually takes me about an hour. I’ll say more in other posts - this is really just warmups and technical exercises here. But to wrap up, some caveats and closing advice. As a caveat, I wouldn’t recommend this kind of routine to anyone just starting out, or people looking for different things out of their playing - it’s important to match your practice routine with your goals as a player.

Get a metronome (either online or software or hardware), use it! Keep track of your progress. Record yourself if you can. Do it every day if you can. Don’t cheat. Get it right at a slower tempo before you go faster. When you get frustrated, remember that most rock, folk, and country songs can be played knowing only four chords. Remember that this stuff is just the groundwork that you need to lay down to allow yourself to get to the music - playing scales really fast isn’t an end in itself. End your practice by rocking out to some AC/DC.

Will.i.am vs. John.he.is

This video was making the rounds a week or so ago:



I thought it was really well put together, if maybe a little cheesy. In a long campaign, there’s definitely room for sentimental arguments like this one. This second video, on the other hand, is dead-on and totally hilarious:



The first one is G-Bm-Em-C for any budding guitarists out there.

They're Totally Cheating Here

M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel making an album together? That’s totally cheating.



Album’s not out til March, but there’s a preview here - sounds pretty good!

After-Action Report

We played a show last Thursday at The Pound. It was my first time there, and I was surprised just how cool the venue was. It’s a converted warehouse, not in the best part of town. The owners/tenants/promoters have totally decked out the inside though, with a bar, living quarters upstairs, a stage down front, and a big screen for projections. The floor is filled with nice couches and bean-bag chairs, giving the big room a pretty cozy atmosphere - it felt good with around twenty people there, and with four times that amount.

Our set started, unfortunately, at the same time as the Habs game went into overtime. From all reports though, we played pretty well - a quick 50-minute or so set. We played mostly original songs this time, which was nice (none by me though). We also had the benefit of a soundman controlling our levels, so it was much easier to hear ourselves than in gigs past. Our next show is March 7, at Le Buddhi Lounge - booked by the mysterious Tej!

I Almost Forgot

Hey, we’re playing a show tonight!

Where: The Pound (377 Richmond, Montreal)
That’s here:


View Larger Map

We’ll be playing from 9:30-10:30, followed by an open mic. Check it out if you’re around!

By The Second Verse Dear Friends, My Head Will Burst, My Life Will End

Alright, time to finish this series off. The last record in my Top 5 for 2007 is Okkervil River’s The Stage Names.



It’s a great rock record, but it’s mostly on this list for being one of the few records to make me sit up and start laughing as I listened to it for the first time. After an album filled with songs that convey a deep sense of uncertainty, and fear, and confusion, halfway through the final song they just say “fuck it” and break into the chorus of “Sloop John B” by the Beach Boys. Awesome.

Here’s the first track from the album, “Our Life is Not A Movie Or Maybe”:

I Don't Have To Even Ask Her

Next up in the Top 5 of 2007 is Band of Horses’ Cease To Begin

I’ve written about Band of Horse’s before in this space. Their last album, Everything All The Time, was one of my favourites of last year (though it came out in 2006), so I had high hopes for the new one.

The new album carries on their trademark sound with lots of reverb, Ben Bridwell’s high clear voice, and spacy guitars. The biggest difference, I’d say, between the two albums is the increase in confidence in both the songwriting and playing: the rock songs are rockier, the cheesy songs are cheesier.

The debut album had a lot of gorgeous, intimate songs laced with uncertainty - whether about a career, or a lover, or whatever. On the new album, there seems to be a lot more confidence, and joy. For example, on the first album, we get “I’ll love you always / Even when I say / You distract me” (from ‘Part One’) while on the new album we get “I’ll marry my lover in a place to admire I don’t / have to even ask her I can look in her eyes”.

My favourite songs on the new album are the opener ‘Is There A Ghost’, the incredibly fun ‘The General Specific’, and ‘Marry Song’. Here’s ‘The General Specific’:

I Will Try To Understand, Either Way

Next up in the Top 5 for 2007 - Wilco’s latest, Sky Blue Sky.



I was initially a bit disappointed with this album - it seemed a bit too laid-back, not to sure of itself. Over the last few months though, those qualities have really endeared the album to me - it’s shaky, not quite sure of itself, but not afraid of just going with that rather than trying to ignore it.

At the end of the video linked below, Jeff Tweedy (Wilco’s songwriter) describes the album as him talking directly to his wife, which seems pretty apt - most of the songs are straightforwardly about relationships. But whereas on earlier albums, Tweedy’s problems would be masked with poetry and strange sounds, everything is direct here, both in the words and the instrumentation.

This is also the first Wilco album to feature the new seven-man lineup (which has been touring together since 2004’s A Ghost Is Born). The band is definitely tight, and that’s one of the real pleasures of the albums - hearing songs that feel like there’s a push-and-pull going on between seven people in a room, rather than the more methodical production of the previous albums.

Having said that, the album does get a bit monotone, and lulls seriously in the middle after the strong opening trio of ‘Either Way’ / ‘You Are My Face’ / ‘Impossible Germany’. The album does end strongly, with ‘Walken’, and maybe Wilco’s most hopeful song ever: ‘What Light’.

Here’s Wilco in the studio performing ‘Impossible Germany’. I love the way this song starts straightforwardly with a few verses, then breaks into an incredible guitar solo from Nels Cline:

And Weeeeeiiirrrrdddd Fiiisssshhhes

This isn’t turning into the daily series I’d imagined. But anyways, the top 5 albums of 2007 continues with the obvious choice: Radiohead’s In Rainbows.

Initially released for ‘pay-what-you-want’ on the internet, to great hype, the album is certainly Radiohead’s most interesting aurally, and best produced. The songs build from simple drum loops or beats, accompanied by swirling guitar or keyboard arpeggios, all topped off by Thom Yorke’s unmistakable voice.

Thematically, the songs seem at first glance as bleak as ever - from ‘I only stick with you because there’s no one else’ in “All I Need”, to ‘Don’t get any big ideas / they’re not gonna happen’ in “Nude”. But coupled with the music, the album ends up being quite optimistic - the music rises above the initially bleak lyrics, offering escape and solace, or just walls of noise to drown everything else out.

It’s hard to pick a high point, as with most of the best Radiohead albums (OK Computer, The Bends, Kid A), because they’re such cohesive albums. But I’d say my favourite tracks are ‘Nude’, ‘Reckoner’, and ‘Faust Arp’.

Radiohead have been doing a ton of web publicity for the new album, so there’s lots of good clips to pick (More can be found at their YouTube channel). Here they are, playing the whole new album live in the studio:

Did I Mention How I Love You In Your Underwear?

First up in the top 5 is Josh Ritter’s The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter. I only recently came across Josh, and I’ve recently become a bit obsessed: the music ranges from sparse folk to stomping rockers, though the real attraction for me is his lyrics. Sometimes they’re immediate, lusty, and joyful, sometimes a bit more abstract, but there’s always something to dig into.

For example, the lead track “To The Dogs Or Whoever” probably best illustrates the title of the album, and the way he blends poetic imagery with more immediate concerns. In the song, Ritter compares a lover to “Florence, Calamity and Joan of Arc” immediately before saying “I love the way she looks in her underwear”.

Other standout tracks include the ballad “The Temptation of Adam”, which imagines a romance in a nuclear missile silo, and “Rumors” - a great, frustrated breakup song. Here’s a recent complete concert, starting off with the aforementioned “To The Dogs or Whoever”:



For more Josh, also check out The Animal Years, which is even better but came out in 2006!

LATER EDIT: I forgot to mention that Ritter's from Moscow, Idaho - right near where I grew up.

Music in 2007: The Best of the Rest

I’ve been a bit late in posting my year-end favourite music list. For awhile, I thought it was because there weren’t that many albums I was very crazy about in 2007. But, with a bit more reflection, there actually were quite a few great ones. I’m going to write separate entries for each of my top 5, but here’s the best of the rest:

I’m Not There Soundtrack
Iron and Wine - The Shepherd’s Dog
The National - Boxer
White Stripes - Icky Thump
Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
St. Vincent - Marry Me
Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger
Bright Eyes - Cassadaga
Feist - The Reminder
Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?
Elliott Smith - New Moon
Kings of Leon - Because of the Times
Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
The New Pornographers - Challengers
Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Bruce Springsteen - Magic

If the me of a year ago could see that list, I think he’d be very surprised to see new records by Iron & Wine and Ryan Adams not in the top 5, and even more surprised to see a Bright Eyes album anywhere near the list! I’ve linked to a decent YouTube or other sample if you’d like to check any of them out. Any guesses as to what’s in the top 5? Some of them are obvious.

You've Got The Future In Your Hands

Watching Barack Obama’s concession speech last night after the New Hampshire primary results came in, I was surprised to hear him leave the stage to Stevie Wonder’s “Signed Sealed Delivered I’m Yours”. Y’know, the song with lyrics like:

Like a fool I went and stayed too long / Now I’m wondering if your love is still strong?

And:

Then that time I went and said goodbye / Now I’m back and not ashamed to cry

And especially:

I’ve done a lot of foolish things / That I really didn’t mean

I’ve actually heard this song used at political rallies a few times, and it always seems like a strange choice. Anyways, I’m not quite ready to change my prediction on the Democratic side (and I did predict Iowa!), but it looks like I can be happily wrong about Rudy Giuliani!