9GiantSteps

Really nice to read Merlin Mann’s 9 rules on what makes for a good blog. I say this, because as he lays out his rules it not only made me feel better about sometimes being vexed by his own blog (which I truly do love), but also better about posts like the one I wrote the other day on instrumentals. I clearly went down the rabbit hole of my own …uh… “unique” interests/obsessions and had felt a bit guilty about dragging you, dear readers, down with me. Alas, I shall lament no more (I also won’t break into vaguely Olde English speak/type anymore either).

Here is the rule that made me feel better about things, but all of them are excellent.

Good blogs are weird. Blogs make fart noises and occasionally vex readers with the degree to which the blogger’s obsession will inevitably diverge from the reader’s. If this isn’t happening every few weeks, the blogger is either bored, half-assing, or taking new medication.

David Byrne and Brian Eno’s most recent collaborative album is now available. You can listen (and embed on your own blog) HERE. Or you can listen right here:

The site is powered by TopSpin. I’ve written about TopSpin’s CEO, Ian Rogers, before, and while I’m pleased to see some of the innovations they’re making (and am certain more are to come), and am glad that he’s giving props to people like Billy O’Connell and his CASH Music, I gotta believe that certain functionality was left out in the interest of iterating (totally understandable, by the way).

Specifically, what I believe they will do shortly is, rather than just give people the opportunity to embed albums on their blogs, the bloggers will be able to be little retailers; i.e. sell the album from their blog, have TopSpin do the transaction in the background, and divide up the proceeds, with the majority going to the artist, a bit to the blogger, and ToPspin will get a cut for the transactional assist.

I’ve prattled on about this concept in too many blog posts to even link to them all at this point. We’ll see. Maybe I’m wrong.

New aggregation blog covering, “rights, clearances, ip news & resources.”

Nice design, and certainly an important topic.

I’m seeing more and more of these aggregation blogs (not a new concept; just seems people are catching on to how easy they are to set up, and how they can be decent traffic generators). I worry that if they are basically automated (not saying that The Licensing Plate is or isn’tupdate: Happily, as you can see from the comment, TLP is not an aggregator, but rather its content is carefully curated; right on!), you sort of have a glorified RSS reader masquerading as a blog. Blogs, imho, succeed or fail based on personal point of view, not aggregation. Of course, filtering is a form of point of view expression, and if that’s what TLP is doing…good on ya.

I’m a little late to the party, but am completely obsessed with Mad Men. Of course, they had me with the homage to Hitchcock (NxNW and Vertigo) via their Saul Bass-inspired title sequence. I’ve written of my love of Mr. Bass’ work, and it’s fantastic that a whole new generation may discover the genius of his work (and see what utter crap passes for most title/poster design today).

But, to the point at hand, the Mad Men blog has a very good Q&A with music supervisor, Alexandra Patsavas. The show, in my opinion, is successful because of the details. This includes not only the obvious visual details, and just unbelievably great writing and acting details, but the music as well. Ms. Patsavas just nails it every time. There has not been one episode where I’ve not thought, “I gotta find out who that is” with respect to some piece of music.

What’s interesting, of course, is that while 90% of the music is of the period, not all of it is. The RJD2 theme is the most obvious example, but others crop up. While other shows might use such devices as sort of post-modern winking-at-the-audience moments, Mad Men never does. Rather, like the themes addressed in the show, these musical moments subtly (almost subliminally - hey, it is a show about advertising) remind the viewer that the show is not nostalgia, but rather - in the way all great art is - a lens to better examine both our past and present.

I teach many students who aspire to get into the world of music supervision. To them I say, study the work of Ms. Patsavas; she’s knocking it out of the park. Here’s a question/answer exchange that sort of sums up why:

Q: Can you talk about a song from an episode and why you chose it?

A: A good example would be “Manhattan” by Ella Fitzgerald. Anytime you get a music supervision gig, you begin to delve into the world, especially if it takes place in another era. It’s an exciting research project. We focused on songs about New York and that was one of the first things that we really looked into — a song from the era about the city — and that was one of the gems that I came across. It’s the vocal performance; it’s the timelessness of Ella’s voice and the lyrics. I find that it’s about how a song feels first and then the lyrical content next. Because even if the lyrics are perfect, but the song doesn’t feel right, you never get to that point.

Here’s Ella Fitzgerald singing “Manhattan” (I could listen to her all day):

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It’s an Onion A.V. Club kind of night apparently. I like their list of “29 Terrific Instrumentals by Bands that Usually Sing.”

I was delighted to see not only my all time favorite instrumental, “Sandusky,” by Uncle Tupelo, but also a few others that aren’t real well-known but are great; such as, The Meat Puppet’s, “I’m a Mindless Idiot” and The Red House Painters’, “Cabezon.”

Certainly the list would have been better with REM’s “Rotary Ten” or “New Orleans Instrumental #1.” (Or, while strictly speaking not an instrumental, it’s hard to top the evocative “Underneath the Bunker.” Or - better still - the little interstitial interlude on the LP and cassette of Reckoning (I think it was called “Left of Reckoning” (I know that’s the name of the film…but…my albums aren’t with me…anyone know what I’m talking about?)).^[*]

Clearly, I’m a fan of the instrumental, and have actually written many myself. Here’s one:

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And now, to hear how the pros do it, here are the Meat Puppets:

And, of course, no list of instrumentals is really complete without this one from that other band from Ga.

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I’m a huge Woody Allen fan and believe that - as with the films of Wes Anderson, the records of Sonic Youth, the books of Dennis Johnson - even his less successful work is far better than most people’s best.

The Onion’s A.V. Club has a really great overview of the oeuvre (oeuvreview? Sorry, couldn’t resist).

Great line about Annie Hall:

Annie Hall is to romantic comedies as Halloween is to slasher films—a great achievement that spawned a lot of bad movies.

My wife turned to me after her dance recital tonight, which took place in a church, and said - doing a perfect Diane Wiest in Bullets over Broadway - “This church…this theater.”

My dear friend Tanya’s father is a wonderful cook, and an Italian. He taught me how to make puttanesca many moons ago.

As I live in a vegeterian household, and puttanesca requires anchovies, I don’t get to make it often.

Tonight, the cat was away….

Puttanesca

Many anchovies (use good ones, and use like ten per person)

Some San Marzano canned tomatoes (don’t use some crap canned tomatoes; find these) - half a can for 2 people

Couple cloves of garlic

Some good olives

Some capers if you have them

Some chopped onion

Some grated parm reg

Linguine

Some of the good red wine you’ll drink with it

While your water is boiling for your pasta, pour the oil from your anchovies into a sauté pan.

Add your chopped garlic, onion, anchovies, olives, and capers

Cook over low heat until the anchovies dissolve and the onions, etc. are cooked

Add some wine

Cook down the wine until it’s about half gone

Add the tomatoes

Make a ceasar salad

Stir the sauce

Add a ton of salt to the water you’re cooking your noodles in; cook the noodles

When they’re done, use tongs to get the noodles and some of the pasta water in the sauce. Stir

Eat.

…well, what I do.

Pretty cool list, HERE.

Psyched to see Wolfgang’s Vault on the list, though it’s hard to imagine it’s really that “undiscovered” with the amount of traffic it gets.

Maybe it’s the Vineyard, but, man, I’ve been deeply into, for lack of a better term (and, Dear Lord, please give me a better term), stoner rock this summer. I’m not talking about faux Stoner Rock like QOTSA (which seems more like mushrooms-laced-with-LSD-rock to me). Nah, what I mean is best summed up by the blissed out work you hear on David Crosby’s debut solo record, “If I Could Only Remember My Name.”

Sort of unceremoniously shit upon when initially released (Christgau gave it a D-; but do consider the time (1970), and what “The Dean” was digging at that point), it’s held up remarkably well, and, to my thinking, no IICORMN = no Devandra Banhart, no Fleet Foxes, no Joana Newsome (dig the harp on “Traction in the Rain”), maybe no Elephant 6, etc.

The record is particularly cool because it not only captures the bliss of the stoner vibe (”Laughing” - amazing use of dulcimer), but also the deep (justified?) paranoia of the times (check out “What Are Their Names”).

I can’t recommend it enough. And, lest you think I’ve gone all hippie on you, I was reminded to go back to this record by reading the excellent Sonic Youth biography, Goodbye 20th Century, in which Jim O’Rourke waxes eloquent on the album.

Try this out:
“Laughing”

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For more, check out this from one of several outstanding concerts on Wolfgang’s Vault from around the same era:

And, if you want to sort of follow the narrative to its (perhaps) logical conclusion, here’s a song from the Fleet Foxes Daytrotter session:

[Disclaimer, I'm delighted to work for Wolfgang's Vault and Daytrotter.]