music

Inevitability Of Death

Tragically Hip in Windsor, Ontario

Saturday night, The Tragically Hip played the last show on their most recent “Man Machine Poem Tour” in their hometown of Kingston, Ontario.

The show was notable because Gord Downie, the Hip’s lead singer, was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer earlier this year. Saturday night’s show, broadcast on the CBC to a third of Canada’s citizens, could be the Hip’s last ever – capping a 30-year career.

Imagine that in America. What U.S.-based band would garner a national broadcast on its last show ever? Bruce Springsteen, maybe? What modern music act can unite a country on what night in the way the Hip did this weekend? It’s amazing when you think about it.

I have a great history with the band. My friend Chris took me to a Hip show in the summer of 2000 at DTE Energy Music Theater (Pine Knob to those who remember the good ol’ days), north of Detroit. Since then, I’ve seen the Hip more than a dozen times: in Detroit, in Grand Rapids, in Sarnia, in Toronto, in Windsor (photo above). Their country and my own, I’ve seen them on almost every tour since 2000, sometimes catching them on several dates on a given tour.

Saturday night was emotional for me. It was especially difficult watching Gord, obviously frail and tired, giving it his all. He was spent emotionally, physically, and perhaps even creatively. But he went out with a bang. Here was a guy who has dealt with terminal cancer, on the last night of a country-spanning tour, deliver a three-hour performance in front of his hometown crowd and his nation. That’s grit.

Not that I think about death a lot, but watching my musical heroes pass away over the years makes me think about mortality, and the limited time we have.

It’s hard not to dive into the live-like-you-were-dying cliché here, but hear me out.

What would you do, artistically, if you knew you were on borrowed time?

And what’s holding you back from doing that, right now?

I try not to be morbid about this stuff. But it’s hard, having kids, not thinking about being taken away suddenly, and what kind of situation I’d leave behind. The unexpected happens all the time. Any of us could get a diagnosis that changes everything.

We can’t think about this stuff every day. That would be paralyzing in a way. Then again, that’s the whole point of the your-life-changes-after-you-get-the-news storyline – hardly anyone young-ish sees death coming. Saturday’s concert was a good reminder.

I mean, if a guy with terminal brain cancer can hit the road with the band one more time, travel the country and give it his all every night in the name of art and performance and duty, surely I can get that undone project completed. Right?

Watching Gord’s exhausted face melt into anguish at the end of a barn-burning song? Yeah, there aren’t too many excuses left after seeing that.

 

 

, , , , , , ,

Spock’s Beard, ‘The Light’

By 2008, Neal Morse had been away from Spock’s Beard for the better part of the decade.

But here, he returns, full force, to perform “The Light,” his first Spock’s Beard song, with his former bandmates.

So great, so celebratory. And the piano interlude at 9:30 is Morse at his beautiful best.

, , ,

On Greatest Hits

 

Ghost, performing in Grand Rapids, Michigan

You know that new thing where a band goes out on tour and plays an entire classic album of theirs live?

For the fans, it’s great, especially if it’s a truly beloved and well-known album. It’s a well-worn reminder of why you love the band and their music.

What if we could go back and try our hands at an old project, and reinterpret it years later?

William Christenberry made a career out of it, coming back to the same location year after year, watching it fall apart.

I often wonder what i would do if I took my life-changing Route 66 roadtrip and did it all over again, but with the photo skills I have now. It would probably be a longer trip out of necessity.

Pulling over, after all, takes time.

A greatest hits in photos, knowing what I know now? Let’s hit the road.

, , , , ,

365 Singles

365singles:

Blackest Eyes, Porcupine Tree

Many, many years ago, this post by @365singles led me to one of my now favorite bands. All because I gave it a chance (and the artwork was so cool).

It’s fine to share your own work. But it’s worth sharing the stuff you dig, too.

,

Ghost

Had a chance to see one of my favorite recent discoveries, Ghost, in Grand Rapids with my pals Don and Joe.

Ghost put on a great show in a small venue, and Papa was in rare form chatting with the crowd and encouraging us to enjoy our Friday night.

As Don pointed out, it was one of the calmest, most respectful crowds we had ever seen. Everyone was there to have a good time. And there was even a kid! That’s good parenting.

I haven’t been able to shut up about Ghost since discovering them last summer. It was so great to see them perform live. They have the Satanic shtick, but deep down there fantastic musicians and great songwriters.

, , , ,

Funeral In My Headphones

“Instead of slashing my wrists, I just write a bunch of really crummy songs.” – Peter Steele, Ink19 interview

I remember it like it was yesterday: Freshman year of college, walking to work at the local elementary, World Coming Down spinning on my portable CD player.

It was 1999, and Type O Negative had a new album out – a gloomy, doom-filled prophecy. It was hard to get in to it at first, especially after the glam-goth love songs of October Rust.

Take “World Coming Down.” It’s basically a dirge, in rock form. Very hard to listen to sometimes. It’s sonic depression.

I remember walking to my job at the school, shuffling through the leaves, trying to make heads or tails of this funeral in my headphones. Everything’s wilting around me, I’m having trouble adjusting to life at college, the weather sucks, and here’s Pete in my ears singing a suicide note.

But now, all these years later, I play this album every autumn, and those slow, death-march songs stick. If you survive eight minutes in, the payoff is just fantastic. Peter Steele really was a fabulous song writer.

,

Ceremonials

I feel like Florence + The Machine’s second album, Ceremonials, is probably perfect. Nearly every song on the album could be a single, and it’s full of hooks, melodies, and drama.

But get this: almost every song on the album is a video.

“Shake It Off,” above (and my favorite). “What the Water Gave Me.”

“Lover to Lover.”

“No Light, No Light.”

“Never Let Me Go.”

And then there’s “Spectrum.”

Ceremonials is one of those albums where every song almost was a single. Six videos out of a 12-song album? Jiminy.

, , ,

One Sunday Morning

Wilco – “One Sunday Morning”

Wilco just dropped a free album on us this week. It’s a good time to revisit one of my favorite songs, “One Sunday Morning,” on a Sunday morning.

Ten minutes of sad, sad joyfulness.

Brian Vander Ark Live

Brian Vander Ark is one of my musical heroes. He’s a local guy (from Grand Rapids, Michigan) who has worked awfully hard to get where he’s at.

It starts with The Verve Pipe, of course. Everyone’s heard The Big Hit, but the whole Verve Pipe catalog is great. I catch them (almost) every year in Ferndale, Michigan, for their holiday concert.

Brian takes his solo show on the road, and a few weeks back he came to Albion to perform at the restored Bohm Theatre.

Channing and Quinn joined him on stage for a few trio songs, too, and the whole show was really great. Brian snuck a few Verve Pipe songs into the set, and lot of his solo songs and covers.

He put on a great show for the audience that turned out on a spring Sunday evening, and it was great to shake hands with him before the show and introduce myself.

, , , , , , , , , ,

Tycho in Concert

I always describe Tycho as sounding like a day on a California beach set to music.

And not just the audio; their visuals tell a definite story. So I was pretty excited to see them last Friday in Royal Oak, Michigan, at the Royal Oak Music Theater.

For one, they don’t come to town very often. Heck, they don’t tour often. As soon as I saw they were heading to town, I snatched up a ticket.

But two, I love shooting live music, and any chance to photograph a band with such a visual vibe is an adventure.

Tycho did not disappoint. They drip with cool summer days, surf-side acoustics, and enveloping color and sound. They’re great musicians as well.

The problem? Concert goers who lit cigarettes and try to shove their way to the front row. I was second row, and felt a responsibility to those in front of me to help them enjoy the show unmolested. One 17 year old girl who tried wedging her way to the front, after a few shoves and blocks, called me “old” and said I looked like her dad. Fair enough – but you’re still not getting up front.

I’ll say I’ve never had a worse concert-going experience than I did at the Tycho show. The music and performance? Great. Perfect. The crowd? Miserable.

Still. Tick this one off the photographic bucket list.

, , , , , ,

Day For Night Tour

A full concert from Spock’s Beard’s Day For Night tour. Their next album would be the Beard at the height of their power, but this one shows them off pretty well.

And it’s not like they just come out and play their 10+ minute songs. They’re entertainers. Just check out when Nick the drummer comes out for a trio guitar attack. That’s what a good concert does: it gives the audience a little something extra, a view of the personality of the band that you don’t find on an album.

Spock’s Beard was the pop prog band. Intricate and catchy, with a great knack for a melodic hook. That’s what made them so fun.

, , ,

‘Feel Like Falling’ Tab by Riverside

Finally submitted my first guitar tab, featuring the song “Feel Like Falling” by Riverside.

It’s taken me a while to find the right combo of (a) a song I could sit down and teach myself and (b) a song that hadn’t already been tabbed. But this ear-worm of a tune made me want to learn it on guitar. I failed to find any tablature for it, so I thought, “What the heck?” I went home that night and fingered(!) it out on my own.

It took a few days to get the phrasing just right, and a day or two to get the tab just how I liked it. But now it’s been approved at Ultimate Guitar, so I’m officially a tabber. 

Enjoy the song, because it really is damned catchy.

, , , ,

Music As Commodity

Soon there will be no such thing as your music library. There will be no such thing as your music. We had it all wrong! Information doesn’t want to be free, it wants to be a commodity.

On Death and iPods: A Requiem | WIRED

I’m not shy about it: I still buy my music. Gladly.

Part of it is philosophical: I like the artist to directly benefit, however small their slice of the pie is. It’s like a vote for them.

Also, I’m old school in that I like to collect and organize my music library. My music belongs to me. I paid good money for it. And if I stop paying for it, my music will still be there – either on CDs or in iTunes. It doesn’t vanish to The Cloud™.

I know, I know, I’m old school. And it’s hard to fight trends like this one. We don’t watch TV via antenna signal anymore, no one signs up for Netflix’s DVD subscription service (except guess who!?), etc. The world of music is changing.

But for artists, they still have the same bills and responsibilities. They need to make money, and selling t-shirts doesn’t work for everyone.

I’m not sure what the answer is, exactly, but if you care about the artists that make the music you like, buy their stuff. Vote for their music with money.

, ,

Top Music Picks for 2014

This has been a pretty memorable music year for me. I can’t think of another year, except for maybe 2004-2005, or 1994, when things have lined up so well (maybe you need a 4 in the year number?).

Here are a few albums/songs/artists I enjoyed this year.

††† (Crosses) – The Epilogue

While not exactly new this year, and maybe not so witch house, Crosses is a great mashup of the best of Deftones and electronica. Grab a few samples and check it out – definitely sexy stuff.

The War on Drugs – Under the Pressure

This was on a lot of people’s “best of” lists this year, including mine. It only took about a minute into the lead song on Lost In A Dream for me to hit “buy.” Even better is “An Ocean Between The Waves.”

Flyings Colors – Mask Machine

I’m actually a bigger fan of their first album, but Flying Colors – a prog super group I should’ve known about their first go-‘round – had a second great album with Second Nature. The breakdown at 3:28 is great with Neal Morse taking over vocals. Also check out “One Love Forever,” my favorite from the album.

Mastodon – The Motherload

Definitely NSFW after the 0:40 minute mark, but man – what a song, and what an album. I finally got to see Mastodon live this year, and while there was little to no twerking, they’re a great band.

“If you want you can will it. You can have – I can put it right there in your hands.”

View on YouTube

TV On The Radio – Careful You

Apparently everyone else has heard of TV On the Radio except for me. But now I get it. Especially with “Careful You” on their latest album.

Tycho – See

Pretty amazing video for a great song – just like all of Tycho’s stuff. Think early morning on a west coach beach, set to music. Great for working, or relaxing. Tycho does a great job of mixing analog with digital to build these lovely soundscapes – all to a catchy beat.

Beck – Waking Light (Live on The Tonight Show)

The whole “Morning Phase” album is a gorgeous piece of mellow gold (pardon the pun), but it starts so perfectly with “Morning” and winds through “Waking Light.” A lot of people are calling it the spiritual successor to Sea Change – I like to think of it as Beck doing John Denver.

, ,

Not Even Jail

Can’t you feel the warmth of my sincerity?

Interpol at the height of their powers, during the Antics era. “Not Even Jail” is one of those non-single songs that makes the album a joy to listen to from beginning to end.

And while I’m enjoying the new album, nothing beats the swagger and epic-ness of those early Interpol days. Think about the outro of “PDA” – those last few minutes are some of the most beautiful music made in the modern rock era.

, , ,

Flying Colors

I’ve been really digging the new stuff from Flying Colors, the supergroup pop band made of prog virtuosos – and it doesn’t get much better than the group doing Spock’s Beard’s “June.”

The second Flying Colors album is great, but the first album hits some emotional high points for me, like “Blue Ocean.” Just stellar work from a group of fantastic musicians.

, , , ,

1 2 3