Pete Yorn: The Fillmore, San Francisco (2-13-07)

There was a lot of buzz about Pete Yorn back in 2001. None of my friends had heard of him, but I kept hearing the name come up in circles, so I took a chance and bought Musicforthemorningafter. It quickly became a favorite, and not only has it remained a favorite, but his subsequent albums Day I Forgot and Nightcrawler have also become favorites. So naturally when the opportunity presented itself for me to see Pete Yorn live, I jumped at the chance. Not to mention he was playing the Fillmore which is a great venue with legend status. The show was a sell out so I got there as early as I could to make sure I could at least see, and ended up just feet from the stage. There were two bands opening Charlotte Martin and Aqualung. I'd only heard one of Charlotte's songs before last night and thought it sounded a lot like Tori Amos, I got the same feeling from her live performance. Aqualung has been in my rotation since my preparatory collecting I did for ACL in 2005. He gained some popularity between then and now with some exposure on Scrubs, The O.C. and the single "Brighter than Sunshine." The set was solid and Matt Hales band was very tight and I enjoyed it a lot...much more than the last time I saw him play in Austin. He played some new songs from his album that will be out in March and it made me look forward to its release.
Pete Yorn put on a great show. The sell out crowd was very excited and really into the music and Pete and his band were equally enthusiastic. When done correctly, the 5-piece band is a beautiful thing, and Pete Yorn and his band did it correctly. He started off the set with a quick hit of "Friend of the Devil" which at the time I thought was an homage to the Fillmore/Grateful Dead connection, but when I saw a bootleg I got from Heather (the biggest Yorn fan I've seen on the internet), I noticed he kicked off a Denver show last summer with the same song. They were filming the show last night, but there were several technical difficulties that may either require some creative editing or bump any DVD performance to a different venue. Other than "Lose You" (which might have lost the crowd's enthusiasm) I can't think of a song that I wanted to hear that he didn't play. The 5-piece band allows for multi-instrumentalism to be utilized so Joe Kennedy jumped between lead guitar and keys, whereas rhythm guitarist whose name escapes me (edit: Tim Walker) jumped on the pedal steel when the songs called for it. Something that makes Pete's live performance different from his albums is he generally tries to play as much of the music on his albums as possible. I read an article that said that he was such a perfectionist that he had a hard time working with other musicians, but it didn't seem like there was any problem giving up the control last night. Perhaps the quality of his backing crew made all the difference. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Pete's music, the only word I can use to describe it is that it's rock. The second you try to put him in a genre or category is the second it doesn't fit. Last night reminded me that he's pretty brilliant as a songwriter and very talented with his guitar. He involved the crowd a lot in singing along and his drummer Malcolm Cross got the crowd energized when it seemed that they'd cooled. In looking up some other information, I noticed that several members of the backing band last night make up the California band Minibar, who I'm a fan of, but know nothing about other than loving their song "Road Movies." I'd give the performance 5 stars and highly recommend checking him out if he comes to your area...and if you can get a ticket. Oh and in case you didn't already know...the chicks dig the Pete Yorn.

Buy Musicforthemorningafter
Buy Day I Forgot
Buy Nightcrawler
Buy Live From New Jersey

Coming to a venue near you?

Rick Rubin: Producer of the Year

If you've been reading MKinMotion.com for a while now, you will know that I have a fascination with the role a record producer plays in the creation of music. I've written posts about T-Bone Burnett, Daniel Lanois, George Martin, and the title producer Rick Rubin. While Rubin won the Grammy for Producer of the Year, he also produced the Dixie Chicks album that won in several categories. He produced Stadium Arcadium, Johnny Cash's American V: A Thousand Highways, Neil Diamond's 12 Songs and a track on Justin Timberlake's album. Shakira performed at the Grammy's too , and her album has production credits from Rick Rubin.
The track record speaks for itself with such albums as Tom Petty's Wildflowers, The Chili Peppers' Blood Sugar Sex Magik, LL Cool J's Radio, The Beastie Boys' License to Ill, and Run DMC's Raising Hell. Along with this year's Grammy attention, Rubin is a pretty solid lock to produce the next U2 album. 2007 will also see a new Rubin produced Metallica album and the final Johnny Cash set of American recordings.
His ability to take artists as diverse as Justin Timberlake, The Dixie Chicks and Red Hot Chili Peppers and improve the sound of the elements of their music has been well documented, but is not more recognized by the industry than ever.

The Presidential Voice,Part Three: Timing and Rhetoric

As I'm sure you're aware, Barack Obama (D-IL) officially announced his intention of running for President in the 2008 election yesterday. There isn't much suspense between when a potential candidate declares they are setting up an exploratory committee and when they announce they're going ahead with their campaign, but don't think for a moment that yesterday's announcement isn't significant. Senator Obama will be a key figure in American politics for years to come.
I was watching Tim Russert's interview show on MSNBC last night and he was interviewing Terry McAuliffe (former DNC chair and current Hillary Clinton campaign chair) and he pointed out that Bill Clinton didn't enter the 1992 election until October of 1991. Translate that fact to this year's election cycle and the precedent is there for someone off the radar today entering the race 8 months from now. While I know "the event of the internet" has made it less and less likely for someone with presidential credentials to be even relatively unknown, the possibility remains. This might be a particularly hopeful thought to the Republican Party, considering their lackluster cast of candidates.
This is an interesting time for the candidates, too. While the most exciting time might be as we get closer to November 2008, this time period between candidates declaring their intentions and the actual primaries is rare. The candidates are messaging to define themselves which sometimes gets lost once the "eating of young" starts. I've always thought the most fascinating part about a Presidential election is when the non-incumbent party's candidates shred each other to bits for the nomination, but this year both party's are in that position of not having a predetermined candidate. The rhetoric today is not a foreshadowing of things to come. When Senator Obama says, "Each and every time, a new generation has risen up and done what's needed to be done. Today we are called once more — and it is time for our generation to answer that call" Hillary's campaign will counter with something about the lack of experience in Washington. It's all rhetoric and the toughest thing is to try to disseminate who the candidate really is through the message of the people behind the candidate. Barack Obama's speech had a great deal of energy and genuineness to it, and I admire that. Like Reagan spinning the age question back on Mondale in the 1984 debate, Obama has spun the inexperience question to be a genuine message of change. I'll be interested in the coming weeks to see who joins the Obama campaign.

Stealing Julie Moffitt, Part Two

"All You Need Is Love" is track 11 on Magical Mystery Tour, "Bohemian Rhapsody" is track 11 on A Night at the Opera, and "Nightswimming" is track 11 on Automatic for the People. While many artists use track 11's to close down their albums, Paste Magazine has used track 11 on their sampler for issue 28 to help give a boost to Julie Moffitt's career. Being featured on a national music magazine's sampler isn't the end all be all, it sets the stage for what looks like a very bright 2007 for Julie Moffitt. A bit of internet synchronicity occured over the last week or so. I am a regular listener to Coverville, and I made a suggestion for a Clash "cover story" with Matthew Ryan (I received a very nice message from MRyan for the effort) covering "Somebody Got Murdered" and Living Colour covering "Should I Stay Or Should I Go?" Just days after that show was released, Brian who runs Coverville posted Julie Moffitt covering R.E.M. and mentioned he was trying to get an audio version of it to feature in a show. That show (290) was released this week. Check out both at Coverville. Continuing my email conversation with her, she talks about the Paste Magazine sampler, her plans for 2007, and the (now obvious) impact of the internet on the music industry.

MK: The Paste Sampler is a big step for anyone, what's it like to be featured on a compilation with The Shins and Lucinda Williams?

Julie Moffitt: I was actually giddy when I picked up my copy of Paste at Borders. I opened up the plastic around the magazine, looked at my name on page 32, and showed it to the guy at the coffee counter (he wasn't nearly as impressed as I wanted him to be, but what can you do).
The best part of it, aside from having my name associated with people whose music I've enjoyed and respected for a while now, is that it's a solid reference - a little bit of weight behind me. There's a kind of checklist of achievements in my head, guiding me up the path to where I want to be in this career, and "nationally distributed magazine" was on that list somewhere after "college radio" and "indie label." Now I get to look ahead to things like "opening act on tour for Jonatha Brooke" and "song on Grey's Anatomy." (On a related note, if anyone knows Jonatha Brooke or Shonda Rhimes, feel free to burn a copy of my CD for them - I won't mind.)

MK: Your EP (The Stolen EP) is amazing and leaves me wondering: when I can expect more?

Julie Moffitt: I'm wondering the same thing! :) Honestly, I'm planning to have a new CD out this fall. It might be a live CD, depending on how planning goes - I've got a ton of new music that I really want to put out there, but I don't want to rush through a studio recording if I can't really make it kick more ass than the last album. So look for something new by September, and in the meantime, I've got videos going up on YouTube pretty regularly.


MK: How is your touring going? Do you expect to make any West Coast stops (I have a high percentage of readers on the West Coast)?

Julie Moffitt: Touring is going great. I tour the Midwest for the most part, just because it's easier to drive to Minneapolis from Chicago than to Los Angeles, but I have a lot of friends out on the west coast and am planning to come out and do a tour again toward the end of this year or early next year. I'll have new CDs and T-shirts by then. I'm happiest when I'm on the road, so the more I do it, the better.

MK: I read an article about a remix contest you were involved with, how did that get started? You found me and I found you on Myspace, what are your thoughts on how the internet has changed the way music is distributed and marketed? Do you feel like you have an advantage over a major label artist or do you think the internet has leveled the playing field?

Julie Moffitt: Hmm, loaded question...this subject comes up with relative frequency in the music community, and I've noticed that it can cause just as much tension as topics like religion and politics. I won't pretend to be fully informed on every aspect of the music industry in relation to the Internet and indie marketing - even if I could somehow absorb every book on the subject overnight, I'd still have a ton to learn through experience and experimentation. But in the 2 years since I started recording my own albums and concentrating on succeeding in the industry, I have formed a few opinions.

The freedom that the Internet has given to indie artists is astounding. Imagine 20 years ago when there was no public Internet like there is today, when music was spread through radio and MTV and movie soundtracks. All of those things require a chain of approval, and that chain was most likely chock full of people who wanted to be paid (a lot) for giving the green light to a new artist.

Now, so many things are cheaper, easier, and possible to take care of on your own in an afternoon instead of hiring someone or waiting or spending wads of dough. Recording an album used to require a studio, a producer, an engineer, studio musicians, lots of money to pay for it all. That's definitely still an option - or I could just go home tonight and record a few tracks on Garageband, mix them myself, and burn them to a CD. I could have a new album ready to go by my show next Friday. I won't pretend to have the knowledge base to make it a fantastic album, but it's possible.

Consider mailing lists. These things are integral to a small artist - posting flyers, putting listings in the paper, those things rarely bring in any kind of result. I've seen talented artists waste hundreds of dollars printing and posting beautiful promos for their next show all over town - and then playing for 5 people because they didn't bother to contact the fans who had already heard and enjoyed them enough to come out again. An old mailing list would have involved collecting addresses, money spent on postcards or letters or flyers, stamps, envelopes, printing costs. Last night I clicked on "Chicago mailing list" in my Gmail account, spent a little time composing a quirky email about my show tonight, and sent it. Less than an hour of work, no money spent, and people have the information in their Inboxes instantly.

On the other hand - the Internet makes it possible for ANYONE to put their stuff out there, and it makes things very, very crowded. There are, at any given time, hundreds of thousands of musicians in this country, to say nothing of the world at large. And it feels like each and every one of us are out there on MySpace and YouTube and Epitunes and Sonicbids vying for the attention of the same audience. We're reaching people directly, we're having a more personal relationship with them, but we're also spending hours a day on our computers at home or Starbucks doing it. Instead of focusing on the music and letting someone else handle the business, we're doing it all solo and spreading ourselves thin in the process. Not all of us, of course, but a hefty majority of the "indie" artists I know are in the same boat as I am.

I do think that the Internet is an indispensable tool for musicians today, though, in spite of my doubts and frustrations with the process. Without MySpace, my shows would be about half as packed as they are now; there's a touring dance teacher who would never have choreographed to one of my songs, and hundreds of teenage dancers who would never have performed to it; about a third of the shows that I play wouldn't be happening, because I do about that much of my booking through MySpace. Without iTunes, there are people in Japan who wouldn't have bought my album because they found it while browsing. And with the right support (a small record label with a little financial backing, a few friends or family members who will help with major projects, a PR girl who believes in me enough to do some promoting for free), the Internet is offering chances that would never have been possible before. The remix contest, for instance - can you imagine buying a Debbie Gibson CD in the late '80s, taking it home, and putting the vocals for "Electric Youth" over your own beats and instrumental tracks? People in Sweden and Australia enjoyed my songs enough to spend hours creating their own versions of them. That kicks ass.

Well I want to thank Julie again for taking the time to answer my questions. The internet and technology do make many things easier to accomplish, but without the talent of singing, songwriting, and playing instruments that Julie has, even the latest technology would be obsolete. So in light of that, again check out the links below for more information on Julie's great music. Also if you're in the Chicago area, I'm listing her shows below, as well.

Julie Moffitt @ Myspace
Julie Moffitt @ Burst Records
Julie Moffitt on YouTube
Julie Moffitt on iTunes
Julie Moffitt on CD Baby

February 16 - Bird's Nest Bar (Chicago)
February 24 - Chicago Street Pub - Breast Cancer Benefit
March 1 - Davenport's Piano Bar (Chicago)
March 10 - Uncommon Ground (Chicago)
March 16 - UHL Battle of the Bands @ the Sears Centre (Hoffman Estates [suburb of Chicago])
For a complete list of her shows, visit her myspace page.

Stealing Julie Moffitt, Part One

Truly a rising star, Julie Moffitt has all the elements of a seasoned professional. She was brought to my attention when she sent me a message on MySpace. I get a lot of friend requests from musicians and usually accept them after giving their profile a peek and a listen. What was unique about Julie was she sent me a message that in really down to earth words, just simply said that we were both fans of a particular musician and that I should check her stuff out. I’m sure she sent similar messages to lots of people, but it seemed much more personal than the typical request from a band or a musician, so I checked out the profile and listened to her stuff. It’s been quite a while since I’ve been captivated with a singer on first listen. She’s a self-described "chick singer"; and not only is she amazingly talented but to go with her mesmerizing voice, she’s also adorable and accessible. Her song "Let Him Be" is featured in Paste Magazine alongside works from Lucinda Williams, The Shins, and Of Montreal; a huge step for any musician and exposure to a national audience.

I had a chance to conduct an email interview with Julie where she discusses her history, her songwriting, making the Paste Magazine Sampler, and the power of the internet for today's artists. This is part one of the interview and part two will follow shortly.

MK: Where does this music come from? Did you grow up playing music and singing? Did your parents get you started? Who are some of your musical heroes? In your videos you're playing piano, do you play any other instruments?

Julie Moffitt: My parents are not musicians, though they do both have some musical skill. Mom sang me lullabies when I was very little, and she taught me how to harmonize along with them before I knew what harmony was. I took piano lessons for a few years in elementary school, but was never consistent about it and ended up teaching myself for the most part. Then there were the years in children's theater, classical voice lessons, and school band, choir and orchestra. I pretty much lived music growing up. I play piano and guitar, and I used to play the French horn. As far as musical heroes, singer/songwriters like Jonatha Brooke and Sheryl Crow, the ones I grew up listening to, are definitely in there.

MK: A lot of musicians leave the small towns to head to New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco or Nashville, but from what I read you left LA to end up in Milwaukee, WI, is there something I missed, is there a thriving music scene in Wisconsin?

Julie Moffitt: No, there isn't really a thriving music scene in Wisconsin. There are people who are really putting forth a great effort to bring the musical talent there out into the public eye, like Daniel Holter in Milwaukee and Brian Sauer in Marshfield; but honestly, it's a tough crowd and not generally someplace I'd recommend going to start a music career.

I ended up there on accident, honestly. I grew up in northwestern Wisconsin and, at the time, hated it. I bailed and went to Los Angeles for 5 years, which was wonderful and, in a lot of ways, still feels like home; I went to college there (USC), performed in a few different cover bands and groups, and spent a lot of time roller blading in Santa Monica and Hermosa Beach. But a year after I graduated, I started to feel restless and knew that it was time to try something new.
My intention was to move to Hawaii for a few months - I had a reserved hut at a yoga retreat on the Big Island, and I'd gone to visit and spent a week falling in love with the entire place. So I sold most of what I owned, packed up what was left, and drove across the country to Milwaukee to leave my car and possessions with my family, who had moved there when I left for college. Except that once I got to Milwaukee, I kind of got stuck. I started singing the blues a bit, got nervous about the idea of being removed from civilization for an extended period of time, and a year later I realized that I was still in Milwaukee, waitressing and spending a lot of time in blues clubs and bars. I wasn't happy, except for two things: my family, who have been endlessly supportive of me, and performing.

Because it was a small pond, it was relatively easy to meet people who had some connections and wanted to help me out in Milwaukee. Five months after landing there, I was performing at Summerfest; less than a year later, I'd recorded and released my first album. I still didn't want to commit to Wisconsin, but everything kept falling into place there - Burst Records, based in Wauwatosa (just west of Milwaukee) signed me, we started recording my second album, I went on tour, etc.

I'm currently living in Chicago, which has a far more thriving music scene than Milwaukee. I will have been back in the Midwest for three years in March. I still miss the west coast, and this cold snap we're enjoying isn't very fun, but I'm pretty sure that if I'd stayed in LA, or gone to Hawaii, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing now. It was the right choice.

MK: I'm fascinated with the art of songwriting. How does the writing process start for you? Do you write songs perpetually or do you set aside times/days to focus on writing?

Julie Moffitt: I know people who write intentionally, with a set time and place. I've tried that method and failed miserably - it just felt horribly contrived and I wound up with songs that sounded like high school extra credit projects. In all honesty, I do most of my writing when I'm driving. My mind wanders, I get the idea for a melody or a lyric that catches my attention, and I just play with it from there. I love words and am a voracious reader, and I was actually accepted to Sarah Lawrence's Nonfiction Writing program before I decided to become a full-time musician, so I really enjoy trying out different combinations of words, different approaches to whatever emotion I'm feeling, and matching the words to a rhythm and a melody. Most of the time I hear a melody in my head at the same time as the lyrics, so I go from there using the original idea as a base.

Subject matter has always been actual events in my life. A large portion of my music is about relationships and my difficulties in making them work, because it's when I'm frustrated or upset that I'm most inspired. Lately, I've been more interested in writing playful songs, approaching the same ideas (insecurity, love, fighting, fear) from a new perspective. There are an infinite number of ways to say any one thing, and I don't ever want to repeat myself.

The other aspect of the songwriting is, of course, the instrument. I play both piano and guitar, so when I start writing a song, I can generally determine immediately which instrument will suit it best. When it comes time to sit down in my room and flesh out the music, sometimes I'll just mess around for a couple of hours improvising until I hear something that not just fits the song, but adds another unique quality to it. Other times I've got the background clear in my head and I know exactly what to play.

I am totally rambling. Sorry for all the editing you'll have to do...

Well, no apology necessary Julie, I only made one edit so far. The rest of my interview with Julie Moffitt will be coming to you soon, and will cover the Paste Magazine Sampler, the future, and the internet...but in the meantime check out and buy her music with the links below.

Julie Moffitt @ Myspace
Julie Moffitt @ Burst Records
Julie Moffitt on YouTube
Julie Moffitt on iTunes
Julie Moffitt on CD Baby

On Blogging Part Two Point One (2.1) Linking and Deep Linking

I know that I've promised to return to my series on blogging, and I will, even more than this addendum. Over the past couple of months I've been linked to by some odd places. My post about Coffee People was briefly linked on Diedrich's Google Finance page, which generated some traffic. As previously mentioned, I was linked on Joseph Arthur's website for calling his album and his song "You Are Free" one of the best of 2006. On the other hand, I was also "scraped" for my hands on experience with the Zune for an ad farm and for my essay on the fall of the Portland Trailblazers.
Linking is what makes a blog have more authority in search engines, which aside from having a large family or circle of friends is one of the biggest factors in making your blog feel like it's worth it to spend the time on. Links can come in Blogroll form or just name dropping in a post. Most bloggers obsess over traffic on their blogs, whether they're attempting to make a living at blogging, just being creative, or just blowing off steam. An indirect way of gaining attention from other bloggers is to link to them. This implies you're reading blogs outside of your family and your circle of friends, of course. A number of times when I've linked to someone, the blogger I've linked to has noticed traffic coming to their blog from mine, which leads to them reading my blog, which at times has led to them linking to me (if for no other reason than to say "MKinMotion thinks this about what I think"). I'm pretty horrible about keeping up with a blogroll, but I am working on getting my Google reader organized enough to set up the sharing function of it which will give anyone who wants to know what I'm thinking is cool out on the net. So the lesson of linking is if you want to be linked to, the first thing you can do as a first step is point out who/what you are reading either in your blogroll or in your posts.
Deep linking is a somewhat controversial topic. It's most commonly used to refer to the use of media. For example say you see the latest leaked track from the upcoming Arcade Fire album on someone's blog, deep linking would mean you put a link on your blog not to the other blog or the other blog post, but to the file itself on the other blogger's server. People oppose deep linking because they make their ad money based on how many people visit their site or by the odds of people clicking ad links on their site...basic math says: more people equals more clicks. I don't deep link to text based "Printer Friendly" articles or to media files. I am guilty of deep linking to photographs. In fact most of the photos you see on this blog are deep links from other sites. I generally try to find AP pictures or grab from the biggest source (i.e. Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated, Amazon and big news sites) or from Wikipedia (I read somewhere that pictures uploaded to Wikipedia become public domain or at least fair use, so that's the story I'm sticking with). Occasionally I link to a photo on Flickr or on a similar site, and even less occasionally I link to a photo on another blog. If I do, I try to figure out who took the picture and give them credit, but it isn't always that easy. If you subscribe to the MKinMotion RSS feed, you'll notice that my post from December of my review of Glen Hansard's show was updated this evening. If you read the comments associated with that post, you'll see Jana say that the picture belongs to them (I'm unsure of Jana's gender and don't want to make any assumptions as the IP address is in the Czech Republic). I knew something was up when I saw several hits coming from a Czech forum for The Frames, but I can't read Czech so I was in the dark until the comment. I updated the post to reflect the photographer and location, and would have included that had I been able to figure it out in December. Most people have the same philosophy as Jana and just want credit. I'd link to Jana, but I was only given a link to the photo and not to a flickr page or a blog. I have the same philosophy about the photos I take, and I know someone out there is deep linked to my photo of the saddest care bear, because I see the traffic floating by.
And now back to the rest of your surfing....while you're at it, check out this for a link.

Obligatory Super Bowl Recap Post

As the title suggests, I feel a little obligated to reference the Super Bowl. After all, it's the self described greatest event in American culture. I'm very happy with the result. The conditions of the game favored offense and Indianapolis out executed the Bears offense easily. Why do poor conditions give an advantage to the offense you might ask? When the ground is slick and vision is impaired, the advantage goes to the team that knows where to go and what the play calls for. The defense is forced to chase and react. When the opening kick off was returned for a touchdown, I thought out loud, this is just like Ohio State. The results were similar. It was the first time in 41 games that it has rained on the Super Bowl. I admire Peyton Manning, I have since his rookie year, and I'm happy for him to get that monkey off his back. While his advertising mojo will likely only increase, don't expect the haters to stop hating. Speaking of advertising, I'm not going to play armchair creative director and critique the ads, as I have no professional advertising experience...which apparently doesn't keep the rest of the non-professional advertising world from sharing their non-professional opinions. If you want perspective from professionals, I suggest catching up with American Copywriter and their post Super Bowl podcast.
Prince's halftime show was a highlight for me. And while my dream of a 15 minute rendition of Purple Rain would have been even more amazing than what we got, I like that he did his thing and also mixed in the covers of "...Watchtower" and "Best of You." And I did get the poetic "Purple Rain" to close out the set.

I've always had tremendous respect for Prince as a songwriter, guitarist and performer. He showcased his guitar playing last night and it led me to a great idea. I think Rick Rubin ought to contact Prince and make a rock album. Think Blood Sugar Sex Magik with Prince's songwriting and guitar...tell me I'm wrong, but Prince would be huge again if he released a rock album, and Rick Rubin is the guy to strip it down and yet keep it true to Prince. I know, I'm pretty brilliant.

The Day The Music Died

It's been 48 years since Richie Valens, Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper died in a plane crash in North Dakota. Plane crashes are one of those things where there's always a story about who could have been on the plane and who wasn't supposed to be on the plane. An event like a Run Lola Run moment where going back and having one little thing change causes the whole situation to change in the future. Waylon Jennings was supposed to be on the plane instead of The Big Bopper and Dion of Dion and the Belmonts was also offered a place on the plane. In his memoirs, Waylon recalls the conversation that happened after he gave up his seat. He and Buddy were razzing each other about having to take the bus. Buddy said something to the effect of hoping the bus breaks down and Waylon replied that he hoped the plane crashes. The type of joke friends share all the time, but it haunted Waylon for some time. No one can say for sure what would be different had the plane not crashed and killed these musicians, but you have to concede that the music world would be different. Buddy Holly was easily one of the great talents in his generation and with his life cut short at 22, it's hard to imagine where his career would have gone. He was already on a similar career path as Elvis. His music was influential to the Beatles the Stones and the Beach Boys, and Paul McCartney even owns the publishing rights to Buddy Holly's music.
Richie Valenzuela (Valens), was pioneering the music world too. Seventeen at the time of the crash, he had already began to blaze a path for other Latino rock and roll. Although he might be more well known for La Bamba, Donna and a Lou Diamond Phillips movie, studio outtakes as well as his produced music show clearly that he was a phenomenally gifted guitar player.
Something in the music did die on February 3, 1959, but the legacy continued despite the tragedy.

The Mixtape, Part Three: I Sink Like A Stone

So I applied just about every principle discussed in parts 1 and 2 of this series to make this mix. The glory of the iTunes is that I can publish the entire playlist as an iMix and the whole thing is available to sample and buy.

Applied Principles
I broke the rule of having a movie clip simply because it couldn't be uploaded to iTunes, but I probably would have bookended the mix with the two quotes from High Fidelity. The title comes from a lyric in the Ryan Adams song. And it goes with the theme of some songs that tell the story that it isn't always good and it isn't always bad. Luminous Times is a pretty obscure U2 song, but lovely. New stuff to be exposed to could be the Swell Season song, the Julie Moffitt song, Regina Spektor and Feel. The Pixies track qualifies for the 80's song. I'm missing a motown or bubble gum retro song, but I have the vocal standard in "Moon River." You're cringing at Journey, but I guarantee it will be the most played song on this list. The Mates cover isn't necessarily rare, because it's pretty recent, but it qualifies. Creedence will always qualify as the classic rock song. It closes out with perhaps the low point of the compilation which drives the nails deeper. All links are to iTunes.

I Sink Like A Stone: A MKinMotion.com Compilation

1. The Arcade Fire - Wake Up (from Funeral)
2. Kings of Leon - Slow Night, So Long (from Aha Shake Heartbreaker)
3. Athlete - Street Map (from Tourist)
4. The Swell Season - Leave (from The Swell Season)
5. Journey - Don't Stop Believing (from Escape)
6. U2 - Luminous Times (Hold on to Love) (from With or Without You - Single)
7. Julie Moffitt - Slow (from The Stolen EP) [More on Julie Moffitt in a future post]
8. Louis Armstrong - Moon River (from Hello, Dolly!)
9. The Pixies - Where is My Mind? (from Surfer Rosa)
10. Death Cab For Cutie - This Temporary Life (from Future Soundtrack for America)
11. Cary Brothers - Forget About You (from Waiting for Your Letter)
12. Creedence Clearwater Revival - Wrote a Song For Everyone (from Green River)
13. Keane - Nothing in My Way (from Under the Iron Sea)
14. Cat Power - The Greatest (from The Greatest)
15. Band of Horses - The Funeral (from Everything All the Time)
16. Feel - Got Your Name On It (from Feel)
17. Regina Spektor - Better (from Begin to Hope)
18. Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - Meadowlake Street (from Cold Roses)
19. Mates of State - California (from Music from the O.C. 6 - Covering Our Tracks)
20. Drive-By Truckers - Goddamn Lonely Love (from The Dirty South)

Little Miss Sunshine

I've had Little Miss Sunshine at the top of my Netflix queue for weeks and I finally had a chance to watch it. I had pretty high expectations because it seemed like the type of movie I would enjoy. While I did enjoy it, I was also disappointed. I know the disappointment stems from the high expectations and not from it being a bad movie. It's a good movie. The story is unique and the characters are even more unique. Though each of the other characters try to put themselves in the center of the story, Olive, the seven year old pageant hopeful is the center of not only the plot but the emotional center of the group of misfits. I was surprised at how easily I was able to accept Steve Carell as a suicidal, homosexual former professor. In some reviews I'd read, the reviewers couldn't get past Michael Scott, Andy Stitzer, and Brick Tamland when watching him be sad. Alan Arkin was phenomenal and deserves his Oscar nomination, the scene in the hotel room with Olive is worth the win, especially if he did his own stunts under the sheet. I guess there were only two things that I felt were a let down and thus led me to be disappointed; I was let down by a real lack of development of Toni Collette's character as a wife, sister, and mother and by the scene at the pageant. I'm purposely being vague, as I know many of you might not have seen it yet. I do recommend you see it, because it's a rather beautiful story about how like I said before the youngest member of the family causes change in the rest of the characters. The music by DeVotchka is perfect and helps pace the action as well as set the tone. I'm glad to see Abigail Breslin was nominated for her performance as Olive because I'm sure there was a lot of her in that role.

The Presidential Voice,Part Two: A Question of Age

I've been developing an idea for a novel for years now wherein the central character wakes up on his 35th birthday with a neurotic borderline psychotic obsession with the idea that he's now eligible to be President of the United States. 35 is the minimum age, though the youngest president to be sworn in was Theodore Roosevelt at 42. It's a common misconception that John Kennedy was the youngest president, but he was the youngest elected president. Teddy was VP and took over office when McKinley was killed. Why is it that anyone 35, or 42 for that matter would be laughed out of the race? Well the average age of a POTUS (President of the United States) sworn in is 54.9 years old, and the average age of a POTUS leaving office is 60, which takes into account the 1 term Presidents and those that left office prematurely for whatever reason. The oldest president to take office was Ronald Reagan who was 70 when he was inaugurated in 1981. The next oldest was William Harrison, who was sworn in at 68, but died a month later. To look at the field of candidates for the 2008 election, something that immediately stands out is that if elected, John McCain would surpass Ronald Reagan as the oldest president to take office. McCain will be 72 on Inauguration day, January 20, 2009. McCain would also become the first president born in the 1930's to become president (the 30's are the only decade between 1810-1819 decade to not produce a president). Does age set him, and perhaps his party, back in the race for the Oval Office? I think it plays a part. Hillary Clinton will be 61 on the next Inauguration day, whereas Barack Obama will be a spry 47 and John Edwards will be right in the median range with 56. On the other side of the aisle, Rudy Guliani will be 65 and Huckabee will be 53. If you're a stickler for averages, your candidate that will battle it out in the 2008 election will be John Edwards and Mike Huckabee. Joseph Biden who just entered the race, is the oldest Democrat in the conversation at this point and would be 66 on that January day in 2009. Someone anonymously commented on my last Presidential Voice post asking about Mitt Romney and why I left him out of my post (I won't reveal where their IP address came from). I'm willing to include him (he'll be 62 in 2009, btw), but I don't think his religious affiliation will play well nationally. The religion question is a big one for Huckabee and Brownback, too. 2004 proved that the religious right still had a big influence on the election, but 2006, though not a Presidential election, showed that there's a shift happening, even in traditionally conservative districts. Religion is a whole big topic that can easily be a separate post, but I will point out that the traditional religious right has pretty strong negative feelings about Hillary, whereas Edwards and Obama have strong connections with the red states.

Critic of Critics: Jim Harrington Is At It Again

You might remember the discrepancy between my review of Damien Rice's Oakland performance and the review that Inside Bay Area staff writer Jim Harrington came up with. Well, supposedly he was at the Keane show Saturday night, and he's back with a review that is mostly not about the performance but rather all the things he doesn't like about Keane, but considering the crowd was loud and on their feet screaming along to the songs, I don't know when he left. I know I'm not going to agree with all journalists, nor do I expect them all to give positive reviews, but I think as a professional you are held to a higher standard than a sloppy review where all you do is rip everything about the band and it's members. Hey, Jim, I'll be at the Glen Phillips show on Feb 9, let's compare reviews, shall we? We might actually agree though when the Decemberists come to town in April (he's apparently a fan). He did enjoy Brian Wilson, and Coldplay (sort of), two former Floyds in Roger Waters and David Gilmour, Streisand, and Lionel Richie. I'm sure we can agree to disagree on musical preference, but whether I enjoy a band or not, I would much rather focus on reviewing the music and the performance rather than attacking the performers...especially if my employer were paying for me to attend.

The Mixtape, Part Two: There Are A Lot Of Rules

The following are a few ingredients for an ultimate mixtape. The first thing you need to establish is a theme or a message. Generally it's best to pick whether you are going to have a theme or a message and not try to do both. I prefer to go with a theme, but if the compilation is going to be given to someone, you have to accept that they will look for a message regardless of your intentions.
Ingredients for any good compilation I make will have the following features.

• Your compilation must have a name. The names I recommend are generally a line from one of the songs that sums up your theme or your message.
• Sound clips from a movie that are either funny or thought provoking. The shorter the clip, the more recognizable it has to be. Big hits for me have been random lines from Wes Anderson films, Napoleon Dynamite works, even the occasional Buffy the Vampire Slayer clip.
• An obscure U2 song. All good compilations have a U2 song, but the best have something off of October or a B-Side or a rare track.
• At least two songs must be fairly recent new releases that will expose your listener(s) to music they haven't heard before.
• An 80's song.
• All compilations must have at least one Motown and/or early 60's bubble gum song.
• A classic rock song.
• The first song is one of the most important songs. It is appropriate at times to have a movie clip start the compilation, but generally unless it really sets the tone, the first song needs to be a hook. As Rob Gordon (John Cusack) explains in High Fidelity:

  "The making of a great compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do; it takes ages longer than it might seem. You've got to kick it off with a killer to grab attention. Then you've got to take it up a notch...you've got to cool it off a notch. There are a lot of rules."

• So your first song is a rocker, it can at the same time fit one of the other requirements, for example, Jackie Wilson's "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" fulfills both Rob Gordon's requirement and also the retro song. I tend to think that the perfect song one for a compilation is also track one on an album. Think "Zoo Station", "Where the Streets...", "Bittersweet Symphony", "Round Here", or "Black Dog."
• At least one song on the compilation must be something you know your listener is going to cringe at upon their first listen, but it will end up being their favorite song eventually. I have a genre tag in iTunes called Cheese that has songs like Pat Benetar's "We Belong," or Styx "Lady" or anything by Bonnie Tyler. Their guilty pleasures and if they subtly fit your theme or message, they are gold.
• A jazz or vocal standard song is also a requirement; think Dean Martin or Sinatra, even Judy Collins will do, but again it must fit the theme or the message.
• A rare cover song of a well-known song is also a requirement.
• Your last song must bring closure to your message, similarly to the opening track, tracks that close an album work well to close a compilation.

Coming up next, I follow my rules and compose a compilation.

Again from Rob Gordon:

"The making of a compilation tape is a very subtle art; many do's and don'ts. First of all you're using someone else's poetry to express how you feel. This is a delicate thing."

New Music Tuesday: Delays, Tributes, and Things I Hope You Haven't Forgotten

This week's new releases aren't nearly as exciting as last week's releases from the Shins and Of Montreal. Two albums released in the US this week have been available in the UK and elsewhere for quite some time. Lily Allen is the darling of the internet and she's also playing SaturdayNight Live this weekend, so check her unique style out. Paulo Nutini's album has also been out in the UK and is just now hitting US stores. A tribute to the Band (The band called The Band, I know it can be confusing) is released with contributions from Death Cab For Cutie, Jackie Greene, Gomez, My Morning Jacket and Jack Johnson among others (it isn't available in iTunes at the moment, "various artist" albums generally are harder to get loaded). Norah Jones finally releases another album. Clap Your Hands And Say Yeah were one of the indie darlings of 2005, and this is the follow up to the beloved self titled album. And Harry Connick, Jr., who happens to be a partial answer to a MKinMotion trivia question, releases an important record of songs from New Orleans (Connick's hometown), the proceeds benefiting the continued rebuilding of New Orleans through the Musician's Village. Previews of the Connick album are promising as he has mixed New Orleans jazz with the big band sound that put him in the mainstream back in the 90's.

Lily Allen - Alright, Still (iTunes)
Paulo Nutini - These Streets (iTunes)
Endless Highway - The Music of the Band (Amazon)
Norah Jones - Not Too Late (iTunes)
Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah - Some Loud Thunder (iTunes)

Harry Connick, Jr. - Oh, My Nola (iTunes)

Called Out

Pat called me out on two things in an email this week. He mentioned that I was falling behind on my resolution to post at least once a day everyday in 2007. He also mentioned Left Arm Tan, my potential podcast. He mentioned them will all tact, so don't get the idea that he was mean spirited, just an aside in some other discussion. As far as the resolution to post once a day, resolutions are always a challenge to uphold and while I don't consider these multiple posts today to be making up for days I was silent, I do have more time today than the average day. I have a number of posts that I've written and haven't published as well as several rattling around in my head, it's all a matter of having time and whether the material ends up here or in other forms. As well as the podcast, I've been having some technical difficulties getting started. I have plenty of topics and I actually have a few people already lined up for interviews, but something is still missing that I don't want to get into too much, not to mention a lack of time. I appreciate the prodding by Pat, though, as it has bumped Left Arm Tan up a bit in priority.

The Presidential Voice,Part One: Disclosure

With all the candidates throwing their hats into the ring of the Presidential Election of 2008, I've been looking a lot at the major candidates and stacking them up against history. I definitely haven't decided on a candidate. To kick off my series on this topic I feel it necessary to make a few disclosures. I've traditionally voted and supported the Republican Party, though I've always considered myself an Oregon Republican in the vein of Mark Hatfield. I'm excited that there isn't a legitimate front runner from either party, and I am open to lending my support to a candidate of either party if their values line up with mine. The title of this series, The Presidential Voice, is in reference to the idea that through their life experiences as well as grooming and coaching, a candidate starts to sound like a President rather than a candidate for President. In my opinion, The Presidential Voice has been missing from this country for many years. Since perhaps Ronald Reagan left office, the presidential elections have ended up being a contest for the lesser of two evils. While I have reverence for the presidents since Reagan, I think both Bushes and Clinton lacked the Presidential voice, even though the term was coined with reference to Clinton's rise in public image from Bubba from Arkansas to a legitimate answer to George H. W. Bush. The candidates that have stepped forward to declare their intentions to seek the presidency will, over the course of the coming months, define themselves and their policies. We will get a better idea of what they stand for and who they stand for. Like I said I don't see a front runner at this stage in the game, but the early favorites are Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill), Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), fmr Senator John Edwards (D-NC), Senator John McCain (R-AZ), Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS), fmr Mayor Rudolph Guliani (R-NY) and fmr Governor Mike Huckabee (R-AR). All 7 of these leading candidates have things they stand for that I can buy into, but they also have things that can hurt their chances to be inaugurated on January 20, 2009. I will explore both the strengths and weaknesses of the candidates in this series. The primaries leading up to the election in 1992, showed that a candidate who wasn't even on the early radar could emerge as the president, when the nationally-unheard-of Clinton gained the nomination of the Democrats over previous national figures of Al Gore, Paul Tsongas, Jerry Brown, and Bob Casey. So, based on that precedent, our next president might not even be on the radar, but in this new age of information, I imagine one of the 7 candidates I listed above will end up being elected the 44th President of the United States.

The Mixtape

While the technology of cassette tapes has been long gone for years, the idea of the mixtape has never died. Cassettes were the first medium that allowed a normal person to be able to take songs of their choosing and put them together on one tape. In the old days this was done with records, other tapes, and even recording radio broadcasts. I got my first CD burner in 2001; it was an external USB burner that burned at 4X. The CD burner in combination with the evolution of programs like iTunes made making your own CD's brainless. With the age of iPods and other mp3 players, it's now all about playlists. Sharing playlists is the new mixtape.
The Mad Fishicist emailed me recently inquiring about some CD's he stole from Noveau Riche. To make a long story short, he thought they were blank CD's and seeing as Riche wouldn't need blank CD's he decided to take them off of his hands. They weren't marked and because they were burned as standard CD's iTunes can't figure out what songs are on them. It got me thinking about the rules for mixtapes/playlists. I'm working on a playlist right now, so when I complete it, I will post the track listings and the reasons for each song and in doing so will define what makes a great mixtape/playlist.

Apology Accepted: Keane Live in Berkeley

I still have my ticket to Keane's original show for the Bay Area back in October. Ticketmaster was nice enough to automatically refund my money for the show that was canceled, but I kept the ticket. If you're not familiar with the situation, the band canceled their fall tour in order for Tom Chaplin to go through rehab. Something I've found remarkable about the whole situation from the start is how open and transparent the band has been. The announcement was made on the band's website by Tim Rice-Oxley the piano player, and perhaps the musical genius of the band. Last night redemption occurred. The original show for October was scheduled for Berkeley's Greek Theater, which is an outdoor venue, so the rescheduled show was moved to the Berkeley Community Theater. Still a very large room, it provided for what has made Keane one of the better received live acts to come around recently; intimacy. I saw Keane play at ACL in2005, and thought they stole the show. From September 25, 2005:

"The amount of music is somewhat overwhelming. You definately have to just pick a couple people to see and dodge the heat the rest of the time. But we did manage to see Keane play. It was incredible. They are soooo good. Seriously, it's been a long time since I've seen a band pull a crowd that far in...at least a band not named U2. They were tight on their songs and looked like they were having the best time playing together. Can't say enough good stuff about Keane."

When Keane played ACL, it was late enough to be dark, but the heat was still there and the pre-hurricane wind of Hurricane Rita was pushing extremely hot air through the area, so it amounted to 30 mph winds blowing through what felt like a hairdryer blowing in your face. Tom made the comment that from where they come from (the UK) if the weather were to be like this, they'd assume it was the end of the world. The heat didn't bother them then and they were able to energize a crowd that had been battling the heat all day. But back to 2007, before I digress too far.
Last night's show in Berkeley was incredible, but I expected it this time. Not only did the band engage the crowd with their anthemic music and contagious energy, but there were several times when Tom Chaplin discussed their time away from music. At one point he said that he apologized for missing the last show in Berkeley and he said "I raise my hands because..." he held him self responsible. At one point he explained that the three guys in the band grew up together in music and that Tim wrote "Hamburg Song" as a sort of intervention asking Tom where the old Tom was. It was encouraging to see the transparency and I think it may have engaged the crowd even more. But as far as the performance it was top notch. I imagine Keane rarely disappoint.
The analytic side of my has a hypothesis for their success and their amazing shows. But I will spare you that. The show was spectacular and if you're in Portland or Seattle, sell something to get a ticket, you won't regret it. See their site for dates, times, and tickets.
Rocco DeLuca and the Burden opened the show, and while I have a few tracks from their 2006 album I Trust You To Kill Me, their performance has forced me to check out more of their stuff.

Keane recently released a live album on iTunes. And their albums Hopes and Fears and Under the Iron Sea are both must haves.

Who's In Your Entourage?

I have a habit of abstaining from watching serial TV shows if I miss the first episodes. But some of my favorite shows have been serial and many of them I've had to figure out how to get engaged to the storyline midway through arcs. I've avoided a few shows because I can't figure out what the larger arcs are. I've mentioned that I've used Netflix to catch up on The Sopranos, but I've also caught on to Entourage too. I remember when the show premiered, but I can't remember why I didn't watch it. Anyone who has HBO knows that it isn't because the time slot conflicted with something else, because they have a habit of over exposure. The first season of Entourage engaged me, but it seemed to go pretty fast. It's not deep stuff, even the Sopranos has several layers to the stories. Entourage is all about is its characters and the cameos. I'm enjoying the second season more than the first because the characters are even more emphasized. You have to love a show in which one episode involves Rainn Wilson (Dwight Schrute from the Office) playing a geeky blogger and closes with the guys in the audience of a U2 show in which Bono wishes a happy birthday to Johnny Drama. If you're not familiar with the show, it's about a young actor in Hollywood, two childhood friends that fill the roles of his manager and his driver, and his former A-list acting older brother...and his agent played by a longtime MKinMotion favorite, Jeremy Piven. The principal character, Vince Chase, is intriguing because he's equally interested in the craft and art of acting, as well as the inflated lifestyle of a big star. I highly recommend renting the DVD's and starting at the beginning. It's been nominated for Emmy's for casting and writing and this year Jeremy Piven walked away with the supporting actor award, a role he's been nominated for a Golden Globe for 3 years. It's nominated for the ensemble cast Screen Actors Guild Award, as well as another nomination for Jeremy Piven. The show mocks as much as it celebrates in the entertainment industry, and its apparent parallels to Executive Producer Mark Wahlberg's experiences in Hollywood, make it appealing on several levels.

New Music Tuesday: The Cover of Paste Magazine; It'll Change Your Life

It's a line, of course, from Garden State when we as an audience are indirectly and Andrew Largeman directly are promised that The Shins "New Slang" would change his and our lives. In a way, I'm sure it made an impact and a step in the right direction for indie music, but I'm certain that cinematic moment changed the lives of the Shins. There's been a lot of hype about Wincing the Night Away for a few months now, and nothing can be better for your career than hype about an album that ultimately lives up to the hype. Playing Saturday Night Live can't hurt your cause. Wincing the Night Away can go ahead and make it's reservations now for Best of 2007 list in December. The Shin's latest release combines the solid indie sound of their previous work with some polish and thoroughly kept my attention on my iPod today. I'm not ready to say "You gotta hear this one song - it'll change your life," but I'm ready to say, you'll regret it if you don't buy this album. The song "Split Needles" is one of the tracks on the lastest Paste CD sampler, but all the songs on the album are worthy of your time and money.

Buy Wincing the Night Away (iTunes)
Buy Garden State (Amazon)