Accidentally Alternative!

"I guess my life has been a series of flukes in the record business. The first thing I ever did was the biggest record that I'll ever have." - Alex Chilton

Terry Flamm over at Broken Hearted Toy did a majestic three-part review of "A Man Called Destruction," a biography of Alex Chilton.  I just got my copy of the book. I've moved on from The Smiths & Morrissey, and am now immersed in the amazing and confounding r&r journey of Alex Chilton.

There is some kind of odd continuum. The Smiths were always in the spotlight, whereas Alex's career was birthed in a blaze, and then he seemed to spend the rest of his life on the margins, in the shadows. 

I've just started the journey and it's a totally captivating read. I'm in the middle of the early years in Memphis and the wild ride of "The Letter." At 16, a young Alex Chilton & the Box Tops topped the charts with "The Letter." An almost "accidental" hit. I remember listening to the song on my little transistor radio. I knew it was a hit, but had no clue how massive (over 4 million copies sold) it really was at the time.

And here's maybe the best definition of real "alternative" rock: 

"Somewhere along the line I figured out that if you only press up a hundred copies of a record, then eventually it will find its way to the hundred people in the world who want it the most." - Alex Chilton

Hello Radio!

Yes, my band, whitewolfsonicprincess  is working with Danie Cortese Entertainment on an international radio promotion.  As I wrote yesterday in our r&r diary:

Today we are releasing "Inner Light" as the first official single from our record 10+1. The single is being launched out into the international radio universe by Danie Cortese Entertainment. The full album is available as a limited-edition CD, or high-quality digital download, on bandcamp! We are so excited to be working with Danie and DCE. "Inner Light," features just the four of us: Carla, Tim, Rich and I. The song is near and dear to our hearts. It's a little message in a bottle. Wonder where it lands? What's the sound of "one hand waving free?" 

Most of the world, and most of the people in it, have no clue we have a band, a record, and have never heard any of our music. So we are hoping Danie can get us a little more "visibility" in the radio world.  We shall see. It's kind of exciting, not sure what to expect. I guess you can say I have "high hopes" and "no expectations." My emotions are bounded by quotation marks.

Why did we pick "Inner Light?" It was actually our second pick, but Danie and her crew thought it crossed lots of genres, and it's "got a good beat," and if Dick Clark was still around, well, I don't expect he'd dance to it, but you never know. It's also just our core band. No special guests. It's all just us. That's my "white beauty" Stratocaster in the instrumental break.  Love that sound.

We would have loved to do a double A-sided single, but the matter of $ kind of makes that untenable. But in the ideal world (which is what my blog is all about) we would be releasing "Shadow Boxing" too.  Our band really is kind of yin/yang collective. This one sounds a little bit like Rolling Thunder Revue, with the amazing Steve Gibons on violin.

Mistakes!

Barack Obama: "Some of America's Most Costly Mistakes Come from Relying Too Much on the Military."

That's the President. Saying it. A most obvious and glaring understatement. So glad he verbalized it. In my lifetime, I think of the human wreckage on all sides from Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan. Long, grinding, demoralizing wars.  At least two of them probably illegal, and certainly unnecessary and trumped up.

Just because we have the largest military mammoth ever conceived by man, doesn't mean we really have to use it. Sometimes wreaking death and destruction really doesn't solve a damn thing.  That's worth keeping in mind.

Driving Dream

You took a wrong turn on the highway. You missed your exit. You ended up in the wrong place, far away from where you were supposed to be. And you were supposed to be some place. People were waiting for you, you had things you were supposed to do. You had responsibilities. Responsibilities which you were now blowing off. People were gonna be upset and disappointed in you. There was nothing you could do about it, nothing to do but drive. Drive down streets you didn't know. Streets you didn't want to be on. And really you were basically lost. You had no idea where you were. But you didn't want to admit it. You just drove. And you knew you had a long way to go.

Living in the Analog!

In music, there is that on-going debate: analog vs. digital...

What about in our lives?

We are seduced by the digital world. It is bigger, bolder, flashier, more colorful, and it's all at our fingertips. It thrills us with it's ability to keep us occupied. Our attention deficit disorder mentality is totally rewarded, one mouse-click at a time. CGI is dazzling, and is only limited by computing power and our imaginations.

Analog - "of, relating to, or being a mechanism in which data is represented by continuously variable physical quantities"

But really the analog world is so much the better world. We don't own it. Or control it. Can't click through it. We can only live in it. Sometimes you forget, but it's our natural world. The only one worth living in. Yes, and it's "represented by continuously variable physical quantities" - that's our lives baby! 

Done with Panache!

Longevity... a long life, a long individual life, there's something to be said for longevity. Although for some reason, we tend to celebrate those who get cut down, or cut themselves down early. Think James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Ian Curtis, Kurt Cobain, David Foster Wallace, Jim Morrison, John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Holly, Nick Drake, Heath Ledger, etc.  There's nothing quite like a young dead rock star, or dead young movie star. We remember their youth, we lament their lost potential, we romanticize their short lives, and give them some kind of immortal status, just because we remember them.

But there is something to be said for living a long life. If you are an individual, it's kind of appealing to do your best to maximize your years. Now, maybe longevity is really a matter of good luck, or good genes, or being cautious and timid. Or, well, we really don't know.  Why does someone die early, and someone else live into a ripe old age? I mean, we can come up with a million reasons, stray bullets, cancerous cells, pure bad luck... but does that really explain why someone gets cut short, and someone else doesn't?

And how many of us really want to be old and decrepit? I mean who wants to be frail, lame, creaky, hooked to a ventilator, clinging to a life with all their might?  

There is a guy in our neighborhood, an Asian guy, he's 80 years old. He looks like he could be in his 50's, he's slender as a reed, he has snow-white hair, but he's limber, bright, alert, full of energy. He is a long-distance bike-rider. I was talking to him a couple days ago, we were sitting at a coffee shop, he had just completed a 35 mile bike ride. This guy is my new hero. I mean, hell, he's 80 and he's more fit than people I know in their 20's, 30's or 40's. And he has a style, a grace, a gravity. Yes, longevity, done with panache. It can be done.  Remarkable...!

The Other Thing...

This really great guitar player I know, I mean, he's a wizard, a maestro with the instrument, used to play a Les Paul guitar, he was known for, and famous for, playing his Les Paul, and he has said that he always spent his time trying to get it to sound like a Stratocaster guitar.  

Now he plays a Stratocaster, he's famous for, and known for, playing his Stratocaster, and now he says he tries really hard to get it to sound like a Les Paul.  And there is a lesson there, right? You're always going for that other thing... that other sound, that other tone... that other thing in your head, that thing you want to make real, and can't quite make real...

And then also, surprisingly, unaccountably, like any great guitar player (maybe all guitar players, great or not?), he sounds always like himself, no matter the guitar, no matter the effects pedals, no matter the amplifier... and really, no matter what. Can that be true?

Summing Up, Down to Basics...

Morality.  Well, I never killed anyone.  At least that I can remember...

Everything else is a little bit sketchy...

Still alive. Not dead yet. So I guess that is a sign of optimism. Or maybe just a basic recalcitrance. 

I find that meditation and a daily aspirin can get you through a lot. But not everything. No. Not everything.

I do agree with Morrissey. "Meat is murder." And it's best not eat the flesh of animals. It's a dead-making business. And if we live on dead flesh, we too carry that deadness inside us.

Is my daily morning optimism based on the quality of a cup of coffee? Well, yes, it is... such a slender thread.

Speaking of threads. I do think I'm am hanging by a thread.  Like a spider dangling from one slender silky tendril. 

We just don't know much about luck. Good luck. Bad luck. And how it rules our lives... so much is predicated on a simple roll of the dice...

Catching a Wave in a Tin Cup!

A strobe tuner.  This is kind of an esoteric subject. I mean, if you don't own a guitar, and you don't spend time tuning it, this subject probably means nothing to you. I have tuned guitars for most of my life, I actually once had a job tuning guitars. I tuned for a living!

Being in tune is really the first step to playing a guitar. An out of tune guitar will just sound bad, unmusical. So yes, I have spent lots of my time tuning guitars. Some guitars stay in tune for long stretches, some guitars easily go out of tune. And there are many devices one can use to tune.  I've used tuning forks, and electronic tuners, and sometimes just my ear...

Anyway, I own a strobe tuner, I've owned it for a few years, and I do think this is a device made for crazy people. Or maybe a device made to make people crazy. 

"The problem is that the waveform of a musical instrument is very complex..." 

Yes, and in that simple sentence is the conundrum, and in that complexity is madness. Trying to find that point of "perfectly in tune" doesn't really exist. You can get close, but usually you will also see overtones and harmonics. And the strobe tuner just vividly displays this fact. I mean you can go mad just trying to get that waveform to come to a "steady state." But it's like trying to catch a cloud, or catch a wave in a tin cup. 

I know. I've tried. Over and over again. And if you do the same thing over and over, and never quite get there, I mean, you get so close, so close, just ever so close.  And you do it over and over. Well, that is madness. You can resolve to just trust your ear, "isn't it good enough?" But that little strobe device is flashing, spinning, sort of laughing at you, daring you to try to get to the state of perfection... yes, madness...

Questlove on Hip-Hop!

I've been reading Questlove's series on Hip-Hop... if I was to sum it up, (which is a sort dumb thing to do, I mean, it's probably best to just read it for yourself), he's exploring how a musical form which started out as kind of a radical, underground voice of the dispossessed, became ubiquitous, and pretty vacant. I always thought the celebration of bling has always been a little bit ridiculous, even if it was intended to be sort of ridiculous. Hip-Hop has become another form of vacuous Pop which equals lots of $. People can't seem to get enough of mindless catchy grooves about bling and partying. I mean it's fun, right?! Once it's ubiquitous, it's basically dead. Anyway, Questlove says it all much better than I, and with a lot more insight and detail...

Canned Loneliness Around the World!

Yes, Mark Simpson's book on Morrissey is quite the enjoyable read (see previous post). How to convey it's beauty? It's probably best to just quote a passage, you can open the book just about anywhere and find something funny, thought-provoking and insightful...

"Above all, Morrissey's loneliness is quintessentially American: All Americans are strangers in their own land. The Native Americans were wiped out or forced onto unfamiliar reservations not just to steal their land but to make them as rootless as the white man -- to make them "American." The "United States" is a big, drafty, empty place without enough history or public houses or fish and chips shops to go around, and so Americans wrap themselves in the flag, hug the cross, huddle on the sports field, or religiously attend the movies. From time to time, they even invade foreign countries, hoping to make friends with the newly conquered/liberated people. Most famously they invented popular culture and consumerism to keep them company and have very generously exported this form of canned loneliness around the world." - Mark Simpson - "Saint Morrissey"

The Anti-Pop Pop Idol!

I followed Morrissey down the rabbit hole. I mean if you're into the Smiths, you have to take up the Morrissey trail.  I stumbled upon "Saint Morrissey" by Mark Simpson a really strange bird of a book. Simpson calls it a "psycho-bio" and really it does sort of put Morrissey on the analyst's couch. It's a very funny, very insightful little book. It's a perfect companion read to the Smiths biography.

Simpson calls Morrissey the "Anti-Pop Idol" and highlights how Morrissey actually has made high art out of little pop songs. If you really want to know how the Smiths and Morrissey have "changed peoples lives" through their music, and (in the case of Morrissey) through interviews, this is the book for you.

Simpson himself comes across as supremely funny, thought-provoking, audacious, and brilliant. A perfect author to tackle the life and mind of Morrissey. And Morrissey's music and life are the gifts that keep on giving. The more you explore, the more you delve into, the more you discover, the more there really is to enjoy and contemplate.

I have a lot of catching up to do when it comes to the music of Morrissey. I spent most of my time in Smithsville, but Simpson makes the case that if you want to understand Pop, and the importance of Pop, you must study Mr. Anti-Pop!

"Beyond the perimeter of pop music, there was a drop at the edge of the world." - Morrissey - 1981

All You Need

Sometimes the sun is shining, and the day is warm and embracing.  Those kind of days come along, and just sitting on a rock, and looking at the waves slowly lapping up on the sand is just the thing. There's not a lot to think, or to say. You just sit and watch. Let the day sort of pass through you. And it's really all you need.

Lost in Smiths-ville!

So yes, I finally finished Tony Fletcher's great, shimmering, definitive biography of the Smiths. I was a fan before I read the book, and now I'm a hopelessly lost and rabid fan. A tragically lost and rabid Smiths fan. I reside in Smiths-ville now. And am forever lost in that great zone of emotion, intellect and rhythm that is their music. I feel sorry for my neighbors. The last few weeks, it's been all Smiths, all the time. The deeper you go into the music, the deeper you go, the richer it all sounds, the harder you fall, and the more you discover.

Can listening to the Smiths music make you smarter? Deepen your heart further? I believe the answer is yes.  The creative marriage between Morrissey and Marr is profound, enlightening, overwhelming. Their songs are just perfect vehicles. They enter you, they explode inside you. Sometimes in the past, I think, I just glided on the surface of the music, it was always so musical, shimmering, sparkling. I got lost in the beautiful, shimmering surface. 

But the book helped me to go deeper. And there is just so much to the music, Morrissey is such the wonderful lyricist, a modern-day Oscar Wilde, and he always has something, interesting, brilliant and usually subversive to say about what it means to be human - to love, to desire, to fall. And Johnny Marr conjured up such a joyful, shimmering, beautiful noise. Such a great creative collaboration. 

And the band never made a false artistic move. They recorded all this amazing music from 1982-1987. They disbanded still at their peak. There was no diminishment in their brilliance. Yes, like a shooting star... a bright shiny light that never goes out.  And the music stands. It's alive now. Just put a disc on and sink in... joy, pleasure, beauty, intellectual brilliance and subversive wit... it's all there.

Russell Brand the Awakened Man!

Yes, this video montage is quite extraordinary... I don't know a lot about Russell Brand. He's a British comedian, he's appeared in a bunch of movies I'm not really interested in seeing, he was married, briefly, to Katy Perry.

He has a somewhat manic, adrenalized presentation. But you must remember, he's here primarily in the belly of the media beast, speaking to a pretty much hostile or clueless media horde, and he must say what he wants to say quickly. And his message is quite amazing, I mean, it's probably the whole thing. The real thing. What we all need to know. He may be an imperfect vessel, which he isn't afraid to admit, but to me he is charismatic, funny, brilliant and preaching the essential. You should watch it.

I myself, practice meditation, religiously, although I don't really subscribe to a religion. I meditate just about every day. I do know what brand Russell Brand is pitching. I too have felt that powerful connection to everything. It can be glimpsed, it can change you. But you do have to do the work...

Waiting in the Darkness on the Edge of Town

Hey, well, you find pearls of wisdom where you can. This is from Bruce Springsteen via Handsome Dick Manitoba of the Dictators... "Don't spend your life waiting for a moment that just won't come."

Mercurial Morrissey

Almost done with that Smiths book...

Mercurial. Morrissey. "Having qualities of eloquence, ingenuity." And "characterized by rapid and unpredictable changeableness of mood." You have to give it to Morrissey. He was really true to his character throughout the life of The Smiths.  That was the band where the art transcended everything else. Business and business people were no match. Unmanageable. 

You could not read Morrissey's heart, his head. Except in the songs. Where it really mattered. The life was unfathomable. Follow the art. Follow Morrissey's work. You can understand why Johnny Marr finally gave it up. But it was an incredibly creative collaboration.  A unique body of work that transcended everything else. And that spark, that fire, that blaze can not be contained.

Normal/Ordinary

Repo Man and Morrissey... have something in common... first Repo Man: "Ordinary fucking people, I hate them..."

And here's Morrissey: Q: What are you driven by? A: Hate largely. This will sound almost unpleasant but distaste for normality. I've never really liked normal people and it's true to this day. I don't like normal situations. I get palpitations. I don't know what to do. - Morrissey (1987)

Now, I'm in the camp where I don't think anyone is really normal/ordinary. Normality/Ordinariness is a pose! We are all a little bit twisted. More twisted than we like to let on, although some of us aren't afraid to reveal a bit of the twisted-ness. And then there are those who revel in flaunting their twistedness.  Which can be hideous. Still there are those people who are posing as normal/ordinary and well yes, they are sort of distasteful. And then, alternatively, there are those exotic birds who are just different, they can't help it. Sometimes we make them stars...

Losing the Narrative

A narrative. A story. What happens when you lose the narrative? What happens when events don't connect? What happens when it all sort of rushes by in a blur? Or it all looks like an unconnected mess? What if you can't really make out a "story" at all? It all becomes a jumble of events? And you can't see yourself in the story at all? Not even sure what "self" is anymore?

The noise machine of our culture is so big, so overwhelming, so dominating. It's easy to get washed away. And you are carried along, and you have no time to make connections. And there's nothing to hold onto.  That is a feeling of being lost. Totally lost. Lost.

War - What is it Good For?

I was reminded that there is a war going on. Maybe there is always a war. There is the battle between the dark and the light. And maybe everything else flows out from there.

I hate to think that conflict undergirds everything. Can it really be that…

Love is War by other means.
Relationships are War by other means.
Business is War by other means.
Politics is War by other means.
Art is War by other means.
Life is War by other means.

Do we embrace the conflict? Or ignore it? And if we ignore it, is that just a secret and covert War? And what of our warring minds, our warring hearts?