JUMBOTRON!

On Saturday, Amy and I took a short drive down 290 to the UIC Pavilion where I was scheduled to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” before the Windy City Rollers‘ bout against the traveling Colorado team. I admit to fairly large butterflies in my stomach on first entering the place. I hadn’t been there since one of Ralph Nader’s rallies (!!!) back in 2000, and I’d forgotten how big it was. Especially in comparison to Cicero Stadium, where the WCR used to play, and where I did an anthem before a regular local derby event in 2008.

But actually, the pressure was off a little as I came to understand that I’d be singing before the first bout, where the “B Teams” square off. Turns out a lot of people usually skip the first bout, and thus the Anthem. But I’m not complaining. The Windy City Rollers are crazy good people, we had fun, and I was honored to do my patriotic duty. Many thanks to Kevin for forwarding along my info, and to Polly, who took a chance on me and was completely gracious. Also thanks to Amy for “talking derby to me,” and capturing the magic on film like so:

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Dog Shown Actual Size (Small)

Liam already records a bunch, so he had his own microphone set up, and the lyrics all printed out, with his parts highlighted and everything. Professional. After assembling and plugging everything in, and taking a couple minutes to discuss Ryan Adams, Liam crushed it. I must say, playing/recording with others is truly rewarding. The way Liam sang it was different than I would have done, and it was awesome. When you’re exposed to other folks’ methods, it invites you to approach things in a fresh way yourself. I mean, I haven’t mixed the thing yet, but just trying to replicate the part for Amy afterward proved that I’m really stuck in my own singing style, you know? It’s cool to get a glimpse outside of that box I always hear people talking about trying to think outside…of. Yeah.

Anyway, thanks to Liam for the hospitality and ass-kicking. This thing is really shaping up!

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ALSO just for fun, I’ve decided to re-paste all the “liner notes” I posted per-song last week. Like so:

1. Johnny Boy – “You are the Generation That Bought More Shoes and You Get What You Deserve”
Johnny Boy is (was?) a U.K. duo known most (if at all) for this song, a Phil Spector-like girl-group production with a bombastic title to match. It came out in 2004 and scraped its way into Pitchfork’s top 50 singles of that year, but then it came in at #121 for their decade list, so it seems to have grown in estimation over the years. With good reason. Between that chorus and the first line (“I just can’t help believing / though believing sees me cursed”), I knew I had to at least try to learn the song. I actually took a stab at it a few years ago, but I couldn’t believe the lyrics I was finding online. I basically had to wait until their debut album came out to trust that they really were singing exactly what it sounded like they were singing (“Burberry Beamers beakheads gleaming / Addidas sleek mystique reversed”, etc.). After a while, at about the same time I stumbled across a guitar rhythm that I think fit well, I came to really appreciate the stream-of-conscious wordplay. It actually sounded fantastic, and it fit the fevered blur of consumerism I assume they were attempting to skewer. The way I play it, I’m trying to make it sound like a long lost Billy Bragg song. Not sure I got there, and this thing has consistently worn out my arm, over the last few months. But it’s hella fun to play.

2. Pulp – “Common People”
The first time I heard “Common People,” it was the William Shatner version, the one recorded with Ben Folds and Joe Jackson for the Has-Been album a few years ago. Say what you will about William Shatner, he really commits to a lyric. And sure, with “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” it’s going to sound silly and surreal. But with “Common People,” it just underscores what is already a lyrically devastating song. And so he’s already sneering in his maniac spoken-word way when Joe Jackson comes in and out-bitters him on the best parts (“You will never undersdtand / how it feels to live your life / with no meaning or control.”) I literally had goosebumps the first few times I heard it. Eventually I got the Pulp version, brilliant in its more arch, British way, the nonchalance of Jarvis’s delivery almost camoflauging the “Like A Rolling Stone” bitterness of the words. Genius, envy-inducing stuff. The chords were easy to learn — quite similar to my own “Johnny Without June,” and I saddled it with the same slow country swing. I was so excited about it that I chose to play it at a friend’s weding reception happening during the same week I’d learned it. I got halfway through and cut myself off, realizing I was probably bumming everyone out. Great song, though.

3. The Bevis Frond – “He’d Be a Diamond”
The Bevis Frond is really just one guy (how pretentious!) named Nick Saloman. He’s been releasing albums for decades now, all of which are mixtures of long, sludgy, proggy jams…and brilliant, concise, British-invasion pop jems. (When I first moved to Chicago, I sold all my CD’s and just had some cassettes, including a Bevis Frond mix made by my friend Mark. It cut out the sludgy stuff and kept all the pop, so for a while I was in the dark about the schizoid nature of the ‘Frond.) So yeah, it can be a confusing listen, and in all honesty, I usually skip the long stuff. “He’d Be a Diamond” is probably the song most Bevis Frond fans would say is his “best,” a harmony-rich tale of a chronic screw-up who can’t get his girl back. Told from the perspective of a third party, I love its almost conversational asides (“And he told me just last night / that if he had his chance again”) and overall sense of humor (“Though you feel like shit / he says you look beautiful”), which only makes the sentiment of the song feel more genuine. For some reason, as soon as I learned this song, I started playing it faster and faster. I just thought it was more fun that way — like the Hamburg version of an early Beatles song, eh? My brother Scott came through town and we did it together at a show, and he thought the speed took away from the lyrics, but I kindly disagree. Anyway, feel free to judge for yourself…

4. The Killers – “When You Were Young”
The Killers are and always wanted to be a big band, and as an indie kinda guy, I’m sure I’m not “supposed” to like them, but I do because of songs like this. Sam’s Town was a notoriously crtitcal flop, yet its first single, “When You Were Young,” sounded brilliant to me. This in spite of the undeniably over-reaching lyrics (“He doesn’t look a thing like Jesus”)…but then again, also a little because of the over-reaching lyrics (“On the back of a hurricane / that started churning when you were young”). I have no idea what possessed me to try this song out, since the thing I really love about the original is the overwhelming wallop of the guitars. There was no way I could reproduce that. But I first got a clue that this could be a more refelctive song when I played the guitar lead on my parents-in-laws’ piano over Christmas break. Then when I learned the chords, I was pleased to notice how similar they were to “Hey Jelousy” by the Gin Blossoms. Once I turned the guitar lead into a Simon and Garfunkel style “lie-lie-lie” thing, it was all over. I happened to be learning the song at the same time my high school class was staging a reunion, and everyone was getting absorbed in Facebook, and…the thrust of the song just resonated with me. Time flies, etc.

5. Oasis – “The Shock of the Lightning”
I basically love Oasis because I think they’re sort of idiot-savants, songwriting-wise. As they’ve gone on, they’ve indulged in overlog intros and outros, and they’ve always recorded everything at max volume, a non-stop supersaturation of color. I happen to like these things — a sound as obnoxious as their interviews is kind of fun. But I maintain that under all the noise are some of the most brilliant, catchy melodies rock music has ever known. The “idiot” part is, of course, the lyrics — but even there, they get my respect. Noel Gallagher has always admitted to being far more interested in how a lyric SOUNDS than in what it MEANS, and for a nerdy songwriter like myself, I often forget how effective that approach can be. May lyrics like the ones in “The Shock of the Lightning” (“Love is a time machine / up on the silver screen”) ever remind me. And, as with many an Oasis refrain, the “Shock” chorus ends up producing a mantra I can fully get behind in terms of both sound AND meaning (“All in good time”). Like with the Johnny Boy song, this was an attempt to take something completely beyond the scope of a solo performance, and squeeze it into a Billy Bragg framework. As such, it’s a workout for me, but I hope it still brings out some dynamics missed in the onslaught of the original. I will say, as a rabid fan, that this song is from what’s turned out to be their last album, Dig Out Your Soul, the first side of which is, in my opinion, some of the best stuff they’ve done in years…though the rest of the record falls apart in short order on side two. Geek!

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All next week, leading up to Friday, August 13th (!!!), I’ll be celebrating / promoting the new covers E.P., I Didn’t Want to Say Anything by posting a song a day to Twitter and Facebook (links in the right sidebar.) That’s one for each weekday — and at the end of the week the whole E.P. will take its place among the “Recordings” on this site, and the streaming players on my Facebook, MySpace and ReverbNation profiles (right column again) will be stocked with all the tracks.

I’ve been listening to these songs in various settings, on various systems, and I’m pleased. Again, as usual, I tend to agonize over nothing, in the end. I also think these are sequenced well, and they make a cool little bouquet of song, if I do say so myself. It’s been fun to crank something out, no muss, no fuss. I hope you enjoy it — I remind one and all that this is going to be FREE all way round. Ooh-wee!

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It's Daniel, Son!

Well, that was weird. And yet at the same time, it makes perfect sense…

This past spring and into the summer, I homed in on a handful of cover songs, ones where I felt like I’d put a personal stamp on them. At the same time, with the arrival of my new guitar and some semi-regular gigging, I’d improved (slightly) as a player, and these covers seemed to showcase it (at least in terms of sheer speed and stamina). I wanted to record these songs, and make it snappy, have something to put out there just for fun. Only it wasn’t snappy. It was humid and my guitar kept going out of tune, week after week. And it was bringing me down.

And I was still down just earlier this week, and so I told Amy about it. She joked that rehearsing other peoples’ songs maybe wasn’t as fulfilling as rehearsing my own, since they couldn’t possibly be as good. There was actually a kernel of truth to the joke. Not that I have or ever will write a song as good as “Common People” (for example). But, you know, “personal stamps” aside, in the end the thing is written in someone else’s voice, and coming out of my larynx, those words and melodies will never quite resonate the same as my own.

I don’t know. I think maybe covers are meant to be one-offs. Learning one on a lark, seeing how the chords mesh, being surprised by it and then throwing it into a setlist to spice things up — that makes sense, it’s fun AND educational. Keeps you limber as a composer, and they’re (usually) crowd-pleasers. But playing a cover over and over again… It can be a drag. (Unless it’s a Feelies song, of course, heh.)

Plus, I’m serious about that humidity thing. I’ve been riding my bike to and from work four days a week, 10 miles each way, and the last thing I’ve wanted to do when getting home was heading to the basement and sweating some MORE. But I’d been doing it anyway, and between my overheated dispiritedness and the strings going out of tune every two minutes, it just felt like a huge uphill battle.

Then Thursday I got up and it wasn’t that humid for a change. I had regular coffee instead of iced for a change. And then, just to have something to do, I changed the strings on the guitar. Had some more coffee. And then, trying not to get my hopes up, I set up the microphone in front of the amp. Played with the dog and had some more coffee. And then I dialed up GarageBand and set up a click track. I’d been thinking a mechanical approach might help me finish the recordings. The click track lasted thirty seconds until I turned it off.

After that, it was like Karate Kid, like I’d been painting fences all summer, and now I was waxin’ on and off and on again. All that uphill battling had me more familiar with the songs than I’d realized, and all I had to do was relax into it and have FUN. And that’s exactly what I did. I did guitars, vocals, and harmonies for all five covers in about two and a half hours. I cranked the box fan between takes, dried my brow regularly with fresh bandannas (wow, which Daniel AM I?), drank plenty of water — in short, did everything I could to keep myself comfortable, and by golly. I got it done.

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Yeah, Deans, I Stole from Ya.

And then it fit well onto Liz’s kitchen table, like so:

Mini-Mission Control

It was an easy operation from a technical standpoint, so I was kind of left wondering why I didn’t (don’t) do this more often. I mean, duh, this is what laptops are for, right? And Elizabeth made the session just fly by. She’d not only learned the melody and harmony for the part I’d sent her — she threw in a lower harmony AND an octave-up from the original part. That’s right, I got QUAD FIDDLE on this piece! I might not stack all of them for each passage…but we’ll see.

I rang the buzzer at 7:30, and was walking back to my car at 8:28. That’s what I call pro-fessional. Thanks much to E.L. for her good spirits and excellent playing!

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Well, it’s been hot. And yet I’ve been riding my bike to and from work with a vengeance. It’s just that time of year when I kind of run myself ragged, physically. This tends to temporarily slow down my functions, almost to the point of discouraging me. I don’t feel like picking up the guitar, and when I do, I flub chords and forget lyrics, and it all compounds the less often I do it. So I have to commit, of course, to doing it anyway. Which makes me think I might just become one of those “gotta practice every day” guys after all. We’ll see…

But aside from just putting in the time, I have to adjust my attitude. I’ve lost some focus, I think, since the last show. That show was a little disappointing, I have to admit. I just practiced a lot, and was playing guitar better than I ever have, and I guess I foolishly got my expectations up there in terms of how many people would show up. (In case any bookers are reading this, yes, I did promotion.) It’s a shame that in spite of all the psychological steeling I do, telling myself it’s the great unknown of gigging that’s fun, I can still dissolve into pouty diva-tude if a show isn’t as boss as I’d hoped. I guess I’m only human.

Anyway, I went from that show straight into recording. And the overdubs and vocals for the trio songs went well, if I do say so myself. But — and I don’t know why I did things in this order — when I turned around to work on the EP of rough-and-ready covers, I found myself under-rehearsed and frustrated. Again, I wanted the guitar tracks done in a snap, I was pushing for magic when it just wasn’t meant to come.

So I lowered expectations in the recording arena, too. I actually wrote out a setlist with all the covers I want to record, along with newer stuff I need to keep fresh anyway, along with some especially difficult pieces, just to keep me limber. I’m doing that set every day, as though I have a show coming up. (Which I don’t, but I’m working on it.) I’m not rushing myself, I’m not getting impatient. One day I’ll feel like it’s time to set up a mike, and I will. And soon after that, a digital-only covers EP, the first “release” of mine for 2010, will be all yours.

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Once More with Feeling

So I’m deep into recording now, which currently entails overdubs and vocals for the six songs recorded with John and Larry (the “trio songs”). I’ve forgotten what an emotionally herky-jerky experience recording can be. One day I’m convinced my guitar lines are garbage, the next day I think they’re pretty keen. One thing’s for certain: it’s best to record overdubs before vocals. This isn’t a hard and fast rule, but having to listen to a song several times over before singing it gets you more intimately familiar with its dynamics, which better prepares you to sing. Or so the sub-par, all-in-one-day vocals from a couple weeks ago lead me to believe…

I have most of the non-vocal tracks done, which is the good news. The bad news is that I’m a tad under-rehearsed for cutting vocals now. I took a break from practice after that last show, a solid week of not playing except to record. I kinda wanted to immediately record some of the faster covers I’d learned…but I just got caught up in other business. Not to worry. I plan on playing and singing every day until I feel comfortable enough to sing on the one hand…and to lay down some covers on the other.

Yeah, I don’t want to jinx it or anything, but I’m planning on a digital-only, totally-free EP of stripped-down covers. Considering all the design work and mixing to be done on the trio songs, the covers thing should be ready well beforehand. I’m just excited that some of the covers I’ve done over the last year or two have reversed my usual trend of slowing down something sprightly to find its melancholy core. (Wow, there’s a turn of phrase. Must save for future press release.) The Bevis Frond, Shakespeare’s Sister, Johnny Boy and Oasis songs are actually quite brisk, and I’d just like to capture them while I still have the stamina. I hope to dial up a boomy, room-heavy guitar sound, and then just roll tape. (Or megabytes, I guess.)

And then, after THAT, I still have the scruffier solo stuff I’ve been tooling around with since Soda & Sympathy. Those songs will form a more kitchen-sink release — some instrumentals, some fake drums, some of the slighter or goofier ideas I’ve had, plus whatever “proper songs” didn’t make it to the trio sessions.

Can I get all this done before 2011? While still playing shows? Oh, the drama.

By the way, because everyone needs a goofy name for their studio (even if said “studio” equals a basement with a handful of microphones and a years-old iBook), mine’s called French Excellence.  It was inspired by a video Scott and I were appreciating / imitating a lot during his 2009 trip here, which was the first time I’d ever used my set-up to record someone other than yours truly. Ever since, that Orson Welles picture (above) has been my screen saver on the iBook, and I continue to thrill to the man’s poetry, captured here:

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Mowed 'Em Down

So the last time I played here, I had a massive cold, and was pleasantly surprised by the decent chunk of folks who came to see me. This time I wasn’t sick at all, and I was so well-rehearsed it was scary…but a lot of people simply couldn’t make it. There were other shows going on, and I was playing first, and Rogers Park is sort of a haul for a lot of friends. Still, Amy and Aselin and John and Steph were there, which was heartening. And sound guy Doug remembered me. And the Goose Island beers were on special, and the Summer Ale was quite tasty. And one of the bands dropped off the bill, so I was allowed to start at 9:30 instead of 9:00:

Here Comes the Sun / Get on With It / So Says the Captain / West of Western / You are the Generation that Bought More Shoes and You Get What You Deserve (Johnny Boy) / The Condensation / The Shape of the Machinery / From Cleveland to Eternity / Terrible Things / The Next Thing You Know / The Shock of the Lightning (Oasis)

“Generation” was and is a sort of litmus test for how well rehearsed I am, in terms of sheer stamina. It’s a great song, and the way I play it is pure downstroke, like an early Social Distortion song or something. Earlier in the day, I’d played it without error for the first time ever, and I did so again on stage. Victory! My new songs went well, too – especially “Terrible Things,” in my opinion. And that Oasis song is bananas. I might have to close with that one for the foreseeable future.

Khanzir’s Cake was on after me, a trio from the area that sort of melded electronic sounds with a singer-songwriter core. The guitarist had a candy-apple Gretch that made me (a little) jealous. John and Steph had to split after a minute, so me and Amy and Aselin enjoyed a few more Goose Islands and had some laughs in the corner booth. When I got home, I stayed up listening to some of those Soul Stirrers 45′s I picked up at Out of the Past. It was a perfect way to unwind.

As of right now, I have no shows booked at all. But I do have a plan for future shows…and future recording…and how the two relate. Stay tuned.

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Playing solo definitely has its downsides, and at some point in the future they may outweigh the positives, and I’ll break down and assemble some players into a “proper band.” But until then, I’m still coasting on what is the biggest positive by about a mile: Coordination of band practice. Such a satisfying chunk of headache is immediately sidestepped when all I have to do to rehearse is walk down a dozen steps and plug in. Bands need to juggle multiple schedules and spaces, and I’m glad to be free of that hassle…for now.

One of the downsides to playing by my lonesome, I think, is that people (bookers, bloggers, and all) don’t take me as seriously. I mean, a guy by himself is just not a very exciting proposition. People gravitate towards bands because there’s always the potential for something magical in the chemistry between two or more players. And even if sparks don’t arc that high from a given combo, even at barely-competent levels, there’s just something about guitar, bass, and drums filling the space and felt in the chest.

Attempts to fill that gap between the solo self and a full-band sound are few and far between, but the best example I can think of is Billy Bragg. I’ve been a little obsessed with the guy lately, as various circumstances seem to be pushing me into the same one-man-band setup as he had at the start of his career:

• My new guitar, with its perfected string selection, makes bar chords easy and can handle higher volumes while staying clean
• Playing louder clubs makes you want to play louder anyway
• Recording with John and Larry had me penning more rocking songs for a while
• The covers I’ve discovered lately are pretty Braggish
• Thanks to semi-regular gigging, I’m playing better than I ever have
• It’s a challenge to play faster/longer in general, so why not challenge myself?
• Amy got me the Billy Bragg ‘Volume 1′ Box Set for my birthday, and watching the bonus DVD stuff depresses me / eggs me on

Don’t worry; I still play slower stuff for breathing room. (Presenting slow stuff to a pool hall is its own sort of challenge, of course.) But for whatever reason, my current setlist is mostly a weird endurance test for me. I’m just about getting comfortable with it now, in time for the Red Line Tap this weekend. Sometimes I despair. I think maybe I ought to save up all this preparation for if / when I get a show at a bigger / more established venue. But then the other day I realized what a dumb idea that was. I mean, why wait to get better? Why not just get better now?

So that’s what I’m (hopefully) doing.

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