music

Encouraging Creativity

It was a rare moment of sibling collaboration—when all the kids put aside their squabbling, grabbed their markers, and made something.

This scene used to happen more often, especially before Aiden became a teenager. Our kitchen table was the family art studio, and the kids would take on a three-marker challenge or create handmade birthday cards for friends. 

Early on, we encouraged creativity. My wife is a talented musician, and I have a background in music and photography, so we made sure to give our kids a solid artistic foundation. All the kids took early childhood music classes, and we enrolled the girls in the local art school’s preschool program. Aiden is a talented musician in the middle school band, and the girls are musical theater performers. 

We know it will do them good. Art for art’s sake is a perfectly fine goal to me, but there are other benefits—like civic engagement and writing skills. And the arts are social: most of Aiden’s friends come from marching band (so did mine, back in high school!). The arts, combined with a love of reading, an appreciation of the outdoors, and a bit of Midwestern kindness, are a pretty good recipe for an enjoyable childhood and a successful adulthood. 

For some families, it’s all about sports and competition, or pure academic achievement.

Our kids? They were cursed with art lovers for parents. They didn’t stand a chance. 

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Swim Surreal

Neat new music from the Zero 7 universe.

Their first three albums were amazing, then they just kind of fell off the Earth for a bit. Nice to see them collaborating with talent like Swim Surreal.

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Background Music

Bush Wackers

Lately, life – and especially working while at home – has been full of background music channels on YouTube.

Take this Coffee Beats channel. Or this Acid Jazz & Grooves channel. YouTube is full of these kinds of background music channels, with styles ranging from low-fi to chill to jazz to whatever your brain needs. There’s the famous lofi hip hop girl. You can even find some background video game music (just about anything with Animal Crossing works). 

I’ve noticed that I’m listening less and less to my kind of music: progressive, metal, rock and roll – the kind of stuff I’d usually listen to on Spotify or my iPod.

With all that’s going on in the world, what my brain needs is something simple – something that can hang out in the background and not get in the way, yet enjoyable enough to not be annoying. 

Luckily, YouTube is full of just what I need. 

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A Coney Island High

All these years after Peter Steele’s death and I’m still discovering fantastic Type O Negative tunes.

“Why buy a greatest hits album?” I asked myself at the time. Now I hear these unreleased tracks and I’m kicking myself. 

Autumn is Type O season, and thanks to the YouTube rabbit hole, I’m finding some great stuff. 

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Twenty Six Minutes

Just because I have to put this somewhere for safe-keeping: Frost do “Milliontown” live in the studio.

Twenty three minutes in, just as you think the boys are wrapping up – POW. Three more minutes of prog soloing greatness.

A modern masterpiece.

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‘The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’ Original Soundtrack

It’s been a year of Zelda at our house.

One year ago today, I purchased a Nintendo Switch, and made The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild the first game in our library. That first Friday night I stayed up until the Switch’s battery ran out, playing this wonderful adventure game.

Since that adventure started one year ago, I’ve been a bit of a Zelda collection hound, grabbing books and figures and merchandise where I can find them. The music, though, has been elusive.

And BoTW’s soundtrack is amazing – one of my favorites ever. Finally, Nintendo released a deluxe package, five discs strong, in the spring. The kicker? It’s only available in Japan right now.

Not that that stopped me.

I’ve been playing the “Hateno Village theme” nonstop for a year now, but now I own a copy – along with all the other great tracks from the game (some standouts include Tarrey Town, Waterside, Riding at Night, and any of the other village themes) in this beautiful collector’s package. After loading the tracks into iTunes, the set makes a nice edition to my Zelda-theme bookshelf.

The set even comes with a little playbutton: like a mini MP3 player that holds the Hyrule Field theme from each Legend of Zelda title. A nice bonus.

With this soundtrack set, it’ll be another year filled with great Zelda tunes at our house.

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Serving The Song

My first experience with the Tragically Hip was a memorable one. My friend Driver invited me to Pine Knob, the summer after our freshman year in college, to see this amazing Canadian rock band I had only barely heard of, with an enigmatic lead singer and bluesy vibe. I was really going to see the opening band, Guster, but the Hip were a new, added bonus. I had no expectations.

Then they opened with “Tiger the Lion,” a booming, slightly psychedelic rant on a hot July night, and I thought, “My God, where have these guys been?”

The rest is personal history. I’ve since seen the Hip more than any other band (more than a dozen concerts, easily), traveling back and forth over the Canadian border to see the North’s favorite rock and roll band. The last time, in January 2015 at the Windsor, Ontario casino, was just months before lead singer Gord Downie was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.

The news hit last week that Gord passed away. I’ve spent the last week in mourning. It’s been rough.

Last Wednesday I loaded up my Hip playlist, grabbed my camera, and hit the streets for some fresh air and therapy. It’s all I felt like doing: playing music, and making pictures. What else can one do when a music hero dies?

All of Canada mourns Gord’s death. But we sure sent him, and the guys in the band, out on a high note last summer when the Hip headed out for one more tour.

Thanks Gord, for everything: the music, the memories, and that magical summer night in 2000 that gave me 17 wonderful years of your performances.

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Under Peruvian Skies

Twenty years ago today, Dream Theater gave a name to the music I loved so much as a kid: progressive.

With Falling Into Infinity, they made an album that was also approachable, with a touch of metal, and it became one of my favorite albums of all time.

It’s supposed to be their “accessible,” radio-friendly album. That’s probably what helped me pick it up so easily. And then jams like “Peruvian Skies” here, with its crunch and twists and turns, sealed the deal.

A memory: driving up into the Black Mountains of Arizona, on my Route 66 road trip, with Falling Into Infinity as the soundtrack. Me looking over the edge into the desert void, wondering if I’d make it to the other side and on to California, with “Hell’s Kitchen” blaring and keeping me sane. Magic.

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