Last night I went to see what I thought was going to be a Paul Simon concert at BAM. It mostly wasn't... he was occasionally on stage, but for the most part only to watch a bunch of sad sacks bludgeon his tunes into poo.
A great song is a great song, yes - until you change everything about it that makes it great. A band (from Brooklyn, of course) called Grizzly Bear surgically removed the hooks from both "Mother and Child Reunion" and "Graceland" and replaced them with... reverb, lots of reverb. I actually wasn't sure if they were covering Paul Simon or Arcade Fire.
Like all bands currently named after animals, Grizzly Bear had a frontman who tried to put himself across as cute and childlike. At one point, he explained to the crowd that the reason the bassist was crawling around on the floor during songs was not because anything was wrong, but because he was "creating textures" on a pedalboard roughly the size of my living room rug. Wow, twee hipster frontboy, thanks for taking the time to explain that for all us morons in the audience who were not from Brooklyn. During "Mother and Child Reunion", the virtuoso pedalboard player rolled over to a flute, picked it up, blew into it once and set it aside. Like everything else our mad sciencey friend attempted, this had no discernable effect on the song. But boy, that pedalboard sure tied the room together.
Josh Groban sang two songs that I myself have covered live - "America" and "Bridge Over Troubled Water". I was a little surprised that he used Paul Simon's original lyrics instead of substituting some other crap, like he did on "Danny Boy", but it didn't matter much either way - clearly, Josh Groban has no idea, ever, what the words he's singing mean. They are just sounds coming out of his mouth, to be enunciated with operatic gravitas. He could have been singing his grocery list to "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and his delivery and inflection would have been exactly the same.
For most of the show, Paul Simon was little more than a ghostly bystander (or rubbernecker). But at the end of the night, the dude stood up, rocked out, and showed his guests how his songs are supposed to be performed. So refreshing - like cool, cool water, if you know what I'm sayin.
Then we went to Junior's and had some cheesecake.
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Work proceeds on both Failing Upwards and the Amy Willey tracks. Willey's stuff is almost done, as are the first four tracks from FU. Whoa, FU... awesome, I had not realized that until just now.
Failing Upwards features a combination of new and old material. There are two or three tracks on there that everyone has heard in demo form, included because they've never been given the full studio treatment and I thought they fit appropriately with a number of newer songs. I'd like to keep most of the tracks a surprise until the album comes out, but I just swapped in two brand-new (like, written this weekend) tunes - maybe I'll share one here in raw demo form and then update it through the recording process. Would that be something anyone is interested in?
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Some of you may be aware that I've had an album called The Cutting-Room Floor mastered and ready to go for about two years now. I've been holding onto it for various reasons, mostly Hanslick Rebellion-related... I wanted to give the band my full attention. With the Rebellion now rolling under its own power, I feel I can concentrate on my solo stuff and extracurriculars again.
CRF is very special to me - wonderfully mixed by Dave Fridmann, Tony Doogan and Pete deBoer, it's one of my few finished albums that I've been completely happy and satisfied with - and it was important that everything about its release be just right, down to the packaging. Eschatone Records' decision to begin producing vinyl got me excited to finally move on the release, and now I think we have a cover artist who can do the album justice. We'll see...
What a fun Sunday night at The Knitting Factory! I had just come from a deadline shift at ESPNmag with no idea what I was getting into, but I was kindly greeted by a big, loud, awesome crowd. Thanks, Hudson Warehouse, for having me in to play, and thanks, all the folks I didn't know who were so nice to me.
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On Saturday LB and I hosted a Passover Seder. As the only Jew in attendance, I didn't want to force my friends into any weird religious bullshit, so rather than conducting a traditional Seder we just went around the table and everyone made up a round-robin story. To help inspire the storytellers, I had put together a sort of Seder plate with a number of items found around the house: some leftover mashed potatoes, a package of Valomilk candy, a guitar pick, a Martian Manhunter action figure, and a piece of matzoh.
The story itself had nothing at all to do with the Hebrews' flight from Egypt... instead we came up with some crazy shit about Ringo Starr getting a bunch of dinosaurs high and J'Onn J'Onzz impregnating lots of ladies. At the end of the tale, the eldest person in attendance (Neal Buccino's mom) hid the Valomilk somewhere in the apartment, and whoever found the rare and delicious candy would get to eat it. Unlike the traditional hiding of the afikomen, you were allowed to sneak away from the table to find the Valomilk early, as long as you re-hid it.
Then we ate a bunch of awesome food from Daisy May's BBQ. All in all, I'd have to say it was the best Seder ever, narrowly beating out the Last Supper.
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I had this fantastic can't-miss idea for a movie. Are you ready? E.T. II.
Seriously, that shit just popped into my head. Now I understand why Science! Science! Science! magazine recently gave me their "Most Best Genius of the Past 100 Centuries" award.
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Here's something else I'm psyched about: Tchad Blake is doing a brand new mix of "The Bowery Electric" for Failing Upwards. As a fan of irony, I love this pairing. As a fan of stuff that is cool and sounds awesome, I love it even more.
After The Ramones struck out commercially with End Of The Century despite having Phil Spector's name attached to the record, Johnny Ramone decided to cut the band's producer budget and just work with friends who wouldn't charge them all that much money. The Ramones were lucky to have friends like T. Erdelyi, Ed Stasium and Daniel Rey, but still... the idea of an engineer of Tchad Blake's caliber working on a Ramones recording is almost unimaginable, and thoroughly excellent.
I've been trying to post something in this space every Monday, but yesterday I was wiped from the busy weekend in upstate NY (plus I was on deadline, and in the middle of the day I got called to pick my mugger out of a lineup). I needed six Diet Cokes just to update the songs in the MySpace player.
Old Soul recording studio is in Catskill, NY. The place came recommended by Brian Dewan, and he's never wrong about anything, so I booked two days there. The goal was to layer all manner of early folk instruments on top of the Amy Willey rhythm tracks, and if there was time I'd add piano to Failing Upwards.
LB and I drove up to Albany on Friday night - it was a gametime decision as I got out of work a little earlier than expected, and we saw an opportunity to eat breakfast at Cafe Madison. Which we did. The red raspberry oatmeal pancakes, always as good as you remember them. Then we drove down to Brian's place in Catskill, which is full of all the wonderful junk you'd expect: old organs, half a dozen 8-track players, oscilloscopes, books with titles like Old Time Punishment, and a whole neighborhood of handcrafted wooden shrine buildings like the one on the cover of They Might Be Giants' Lincoln.
Speaking of which, Brian confirmed that the dude who looked exactly like John Linnell at the Eschatone Night Of Wisdom last week was, in fact, John Linnell. How about that shit?
Old Soul is housed in a giant cartoon-red Victorian with all of its original floors and windows. The place is jam packed with old instruments - the best selection of classic keyboards I've seen (including the collection at Brooklyn Recording). There is also an enormous white dog that looks like a polar bear.
We really only had a day and a half to work because I needed to bring the rental car back on Sunday night, but in that time I was able to track piano, Rhodes, spinet harpsichord, and clavinet; Brian cut electric zither, vibes, accordion, Wurlitzer organ, autoharp, and theremin. We tag-teamed on a Mellotron; I played it while Brian worked the tuning knob. Even with all that, we just barely tapped Old Soul's vintage keyboard arsenal. That place rules.
I'm not good at remembering to take photos - I'd usually rather just be doing something than taking pictures of doing something - but LB and I did manage to snag a couple shots here and there. Check 'em out yo!
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I'm playing this weekend in the Old Office at The Knitting Factory. I'll be flying solo, though a certain Mr. Dom will be there to sing a couple tunes with me. The show is on Sunday night at 8, and it's a benefit for Hudson Warehouse, a theater group that performs outdoor Shakespeare. The Knitting Factory is located at 74 Leonard Street, NYC and that's all I have to say about that!
Mike Bassett is coming to the States at the end of May to promote his new release, soft verges. Mike, Brian Dewan and I have a number of triple-threat gigs planned, with announcements to come over the next couple days.
Ohio friends (Joshkook n' Aaron and Rootstown Vinnie, I'm talkin to you): keep your dance cards open the weekend of May 24-25. Rootsy, we might just be coming to Dontino's for dinner...
I notice that the Indians are home for a day game on May 25. I've never been to Jacobs Field, but let's see if I can still stomach baseball after another month and a half of watching these fucking Mets bore themselves out of contention.
On May 28, I'll be heading over to the UK with Mike to do a week of gigs across the country. I'm pretty psyched - my first European tour. (Also my first trip out of the Americas.) Yanks on parade!
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Because I know you pay attention to these things: you're aware that I am working on a new album, Failing Upwards, while I selfishly sit on not one, but two completely finished and mastered records. I refer to the Skyscape reunion album Zetacarnosa and my solo record The Cutting-Room Floor.
Back when I was afraid to put my name on an album cover (trust me, you'd feel the same way if some assholes named you Jed), I had planned on issuing both records under the pseudobandname The Congregation Of Vapors. Not anymore - I'm finally over my issues with taking credit and blame for my work, and though I wish my name were less stupid, it's the only one I've got. So here's how this works:
Cutting-Room Floor is an official Jed Davis solo record and it may be Eschatone's next release.
Failing Upwards is an official Jed Davis solo record, and while it is going to be soulcrushingly awesome, I'm only five songs in (out of ten).
Zetacarnosa is a Skyscape record again, and it may be Eschatone's next release.
The Hanslick Rebellion has completed a brand-new three-song single, and it may be Eschatone's next release. The great LB has come up with a very interesting new way to release singles. You'll dig it.
It's an album art issue, really... we're waiting to see which cover art comes to us first. You win either way, because Zetacarnosa is Dom Maltempi at his Skyscapean best (and it includes "Break Your Fuckin Balls", freshly added to my MySpace player yo!); The Cutting-Room Floor features shimmering Dave Fridmann/Tony Doogan production and some of the best songs I ever laid down (including "Enough", also in the MySpace player); and that Rebellion stuff is explosive (check the aforementioned MySpace player for "Ground The Paper Planes").
There's a bunch of other stuff I want to tell you, but as much as it kills me I'm just gonna wait a little while longer and then show you instead.
Awesome. I just want to post the set list for posterity, as I unfortunately did not record the show:
Before I Was Born
Long Long Gone
Seven And The Ragged Tiger
Little Tumors
I Hate All The People At My Party
A Place Where No One Goes
Interesting Times
Stepping On My Shadow
Piece Of Crap
The Bowery Electric
Saratoga
Joe and Rob made for a fantastic and tasteful rhythm section. Best of all was Brian Dewan, who kicked off the night by performing Words Of Wisdom in its glorious entirety for the packed house.
CART
