Why Ride?

Q: Why do I still ride a bike?

A: Because I want to.

One of the reasons I wanted to move downtown was to be able to ride my bike all over the place. Now its important to note that I have both a mountain bike and a city bike. My mountain bike has shock absorbers, was expensive and has more gears than I can count on my fingers. My city bike is a different story. My city bike is an all black 10-speed from the early eighties that I bought at Goodwill last fall for 12 bucks. I took the gears and shifters off first thing and then spent 30 or 40 dollars "fixing it up". It's perfect for the city: it's cheap, light and in some areas of town faster than traffic.

I took the picture on the top of the page on a midnight bike ride last summer from the top of an unnamed parking structure. It somehow captures the feeling of experiencing the city on a bike.

Different modes of transportation make the city feel completely different: On my bike I feel connected to the city, like I'm a part of it. In my car I'm usually just looking for parking. Last week when I was given the keys to an oversized SUV to get it washed I couldn't believe how disconnected I felt from everything. I felt like those guys you see traveling to the bottom of the ocean in those little glass bubbles, observing but not being a part of it. I could see the resentment on the faces of strangers on the sidewalks. The grid of streets stopped being a thing in and of itself and became nothing more than a way to connect to a destination. I wasn't in the city anymore, I was in a self-contained environment on wheels, I could have been anywhere.

I just don't see any reason to bring 3 tons of metal with me everywhere I go. I still drive because of necessity, but biking is where I want to be - its how I want to experience the world around me. There's other reasons for riding a bike, too:
-I don't have to spend all my money on gas
-No more parking tickets, in fact the money I've saved by not getting parking tickets has more than payed for my bike
-I get daily exercise which makes me a healthier and happier person
-I'm living a more efficient lifestyle, I'm not creating as much waste and I'm not polluting the air that I breathe

In the spirit of keeping the blog all multimedia and what not, here's some footage of a New York bike messenger race.

Its been a long time.

Let's see, how much has changed in a year?
-I moved, quit my job and retired at the early age of 26
-I moved into my car and onto couches for several months
-I made plans to move to the pacific northwest then didn't follow through
-I came out of retirement like Michael Jordan, except now I'm better
-I somehow settled in downtown Denver, where I guess I was heading all along -

Strange, after all of the moving around only thirty miles and three hundred days separate me from my last blog post a year ago. No matter how far you travel in a day when you're back in your bed you're back where you started.

It's kind of like playing certain songs, they're always in the same time and when you play them you're back where you were long ago. I used to associate those songs with the time and place they became so meaningful to me, and I'd feel nostalgic over the growing distance between now and then. Now I see that some songs don't have their context in time, but in something much bigger than that. I wonder how it felt for Joe Strummer to play this next one some decades after he played it with The Clash. This song will likely be on my top five favorite songs list for the rest of my life.

Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros - White Man in Hammersmith Palais


If you get the chance you should check out "Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten", which I sadly can't find a good link to at the moment.

Ben Kweller - kicks more ass than kung fu

First time I heard Ben Kweller was back in high school when I saw a music video of a song called 'Little Pink Stars' from his then band called Radish. I thought it was a good song and he looked like a grade school friend of mine so it was pretty cool. All these years later he's still writing songs and is kicking more ass than ever, some would even say more than kung fu. I really dig his last album (it was self-titled), I don't have any fancy way to explain it...its just good songs one after the other. It puts me in a better mood on crappy days and its perfect for headin down the road with the windows down on the nice days. Here's a video of Mr. Kweller breakin ya off a little somethin:

Ben Kweller - "Thirteen" and "Falling"


Heck yes. and here he is with guitar in hand and sweet hat on head:

Ben Kweller - Sundress


There's some songs on his myspace and videos and songs on his webpage.

Regina Spektor - oh hell yes

So different people have different ideas about how to write a blog about music...the most popular thing to do is to try and find the newest coolest most indie band and tell everybody about them. Or some people find really obscure stuff from the past. I figure I'll just rant about whatever I'm really feeling at the moment, even if most people already know about it, and today that means I'm talking about Regina Spektor. Because she's awesome.

I've decided she has alot in common with Andre 3000 from Outkast. Not so much visually as lyrically. See, they're the only two songwriters I can think of off hand that actually tell little jokes as part of their stories. Whether its Andre 3000 talking about how a girl looks like a brown stallion on roller skates or Regina talking about how everybody said "eww" when a guy stepped in a big fat loogie, the absurdity of humor in the music changes it a little bit. Its a literary tool most writers are smart enough not to attempt but for some its so natural that it would take effort to remove it, and for Regina Spektor its just part of her style. Its one of those things you can't talk about too much without ruining it so I'll just say I like it.

Regina Spektor - Fidelity (and a little interview)


Moral of the story: Regina Spektor = really good songwriter. Sovet Kitsch = really good album. Begin to Hope = really good album.
At her homepage you can stream some songs and watch videos and such.

Architecture in Helsinki - are more fun than a barrel of monkeys

Architecture in Helsinki put on one of the best shows I have ever seen. Well, twice. The first time I saw them was at the Hi-Dive with like a hundred other people and then I got to see them a year later opening up for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah last year. Now CYHSY, as the cool kids say, was the cinderalla band of 2006 and I don't think anybody had more buzz surrounding them, and we'll talk about them some other time...but when the bands came through Architecture blew the roof off the Gothic Theater and I was a little pooped by the time CYHSY came on. To top it off we hung out with them after the show and even did a acoustic freestyle rap of "Kites kites kites" with them, awesome. The point is they are a really fun band and I wanted to post this video of them as a celebration of springtime, because the snow a few days ago and the snow thats supposed to happen Thursday night have me feeling that springtime needs all the support it can get right now.

Architecture in Helsinki - Do the Whirlwind


and can't forget their myspace page.

Alela Diane

Alela Diane. Like I said before, I'm a sucker for fingerpicking...and for songwriting. Alela's a very genuine songwriter who grew up in Nevada City, CA and recently moved to Portland(probably for its thriving music scene). What can I say, I'm a fan.

Alela Diane - Tatted Lace


Tatted Lace is my favorite song of hers so far and since I don't have the album yet I have to listen to it off youtube because I can't find a good copy of it on the internet(I just found out its vinyl only right now). I should take a moment to note that if I had the money I would gladly show support and fork out the dough, but I need to eat and pay some bills first. You can also find five(ish?) other songs from this same recording session as the above video on youtube and there's a short interview vid with her here. Alright, have fun with the links

Alela Diane's myspace page
Alela Diane's webpage

Alexi Murdoch...really good winding down the day music

I like Alexi Murdoch. He has a little bit of a Nick Drake thing going for him which is pretty much all I need, but I think without having heard Nick Drake I'd still really like him. He has this album called Time Without Consequence that I listen to quite a bit late in the day, or when I'm going to sleep at night. Its not an album that you have to listen to at night, but its just so calming that that's when I end up putting it on. I have a lot of respect for him both as a writer and as a musician...everything just works so well together on the album. Plus I'm a sucker for good fingerpicking and as a guitar player Alexi Murdoch has a really nice subtle style about him. And his voice is amazing. Much respect for Alexi Murdoch. Much respect.

Alexi Murdoch - All Of My Days


Alexi Murdoch's Homepageyou can stream some songs here

A Celebration of Pop

In some music circles nobody really admits that they like pop music, there's a stigma there that pop equals premanufactured crap and that popular music is suck while indie music is golden. But from a musical perspective almost all indie-music is shameless pop, most punk is pop played with power chords, and even metal and hardcore bands use basic pop structures and melodies as a jumping off point. The point is I listen to pop, you listen to pop and everybody you know listens to pop so you might as well start enjoying it openly. If you don't want to listen to pop you're gonna need to listen to jazz, classical, baroque, some types of folk, or pretty much any non-western form of music. But if you're okay with your love of pop music perhaps you'd like to join me for a celebration of pop post.

When I Realized There Was Nothing Wrong With Pop

One rainy autumn day a year or two ago I realized I was getting depressed and needed something to pick me up a bit and remembered getting into a Kelly Clarkson song on the radio, and being too ashamed to buy such a 'pop' album at my regular indie record store I headed to my local $uper-Target where I wouldn't have to make up an excuse at the register, "uh, its for my little sister, she's in the hospital OK? Leave me alone I don't want to talk about it." Safely back in my car with my windshield wipers on I unwrapped the CD and played it through my CD-to-tapedeck adapter because I'm high-tech like that and you know what, I loved it. I didn't admit this to anybody for some time because I was embarassed but since then I have found out that that same album is highly regarded by a lot of people I know who have really high music standards. The album is called 'Breakaway' and even if you haven't bought the album you could probably recognize four tracks off of it. You know you sing along when you hear it on the radio. Its okay, you're in a safe place here, nobody's gonna make fun of your love of pop music.

I've even been known to make anybody in or near my car listen to 'Can't Escape My Love' by Enrique Iglesias. Unfortunately I just can't bring myself to put the video on this page, but if I ever do a "where did they spend the ten million dollar video budget" post it'll be there. That song was way better than Hero. And yes it is okay to listen to premanufactured pop as long as you know what you are doing(which apparently is selling out and being a total lame-o).

But don't stop there, there are other kinds of pop, too...and I'm here to be your guide to one or two of them today...

Indie-Pop
Okay, we'll start off easy with indie-pop because you know why? Its fucking awesome. Thats why. This is where we enter the realm of pop that you can admit liking without seeming lame to all the cool kids.

Asobi Seksu - Thursday
..

What can I say about Asobi Seksu....I've known of this band for three or four days now, and I'll give you the main ingredients: 1.New York indie-rock and that big indie-rock drum beat 2.Japanese lead singer 3.a giant wall of fuzzed out noise 4.songs in both english and Japanese 5. dynamite 6.hang gliding 7. COME ON! This album is the musical still shot of that romantic feeling you can only get in the middle of the city surrounded by all the lights and concrete when even if for just one moment anything seems possible and life is just one big adventure. I can see this being a big album for me this summer. Its called Citrus. I'm liking it. Yeah. I'm really liking it. Here's some links to get you a little more of the band:

Asobi Seksu's Homepage which is very nice
and their myspace

Gutter-Pop
The motherfucking DeathSet. First off, go to their myspace page and listen to 'Intermission'. It'll bring you up to speed. Seriously, you have to hear it to understand it. When you feel the need for the DeathSet no other set will do. I don't know a whole lot about this band other than this hell-yeah feeling I get for what they are doing. Its rare that a band will sound like nobody else and be interesting at the same time. The fact that bands like this exist makes me feel good about music's future. I'm not totally sure why..... And its just nuts. Pure nuts. Yeah, and I don't know if 'gutter-pop' is a widely accepted term. Yet?

Electro-Dance-Pop-Stuff
The Knife. OK, the Knife was 'that band' last summer. The first time I heard them was standing below the second story window of a friends place downtown where we would all meet on friday nights. I was standing on the sidewalk looking up at them and feeling like, what the? But it grew on me as I got used to the new sound. Here's the video for the song I heard:

The Knife - Heartbeats
..
You can't really hear it here but the synth sound is HUGE in this song, its really something when its blasting. So I ended up liking the song. Alot.

Sooooo, The Knife are from Sweden, and there's a really talented acoustic guitar player from Sweden named Jose Gonzalez and Jose decided to cover that same song in a real bare-bones format. And then Sony picked it up for a ad-campaign they were doing. Putting the two together, here's this video which looks to be a live recording(the vocals on the album are double tracked and all super-polished and what not) of the song with snippets from the commercial added in:

Jose Gonzalez - Heartbeats
..

OK, now for the links:

Jose Gonzalez Homepage:you can stream a lot of songs on the front page here
Jose Gonzalez's Myspace Page
The Knife's Homepage
The Knife's Myspace Page

So maybe I got off track a little, and maybe its harder to write a 'celebration of pop' post than I thought it would be. Oh well. Eff it. I'm gonna try to cover slightly narrower subjects in the future. Yep.

Hiromi Uehara and My First Jazz Album

OK, this is the post I started writing but lost last time, but I think I need to force myself to change songs now...done. Right. So I've hated jazz since high school. Hated it. I thought it was some elitist members-only club of people with vast musical backgrounds who looked down their noses on the rest of us and I've never wanted to be one of them. Somehow, I ended up backing my way into this next artist called Hiromi Uehara on youtube....I'm gonna tell you something you might not know about me: I really enjoy watching random stuff on youtube. One of those random things I like to watch is a japanese string quartet called Vanilla Mood. They play a really strange mix of songs like 'A Whole New World' from Alladin or 'Blowin in the Wind' by Dylan. Here, watch this:
Vanilla Mood - A Whole New World(Alladin)

I'm not trying to say its the most groundbreaking stuff in the world, but it is entertaining.

Being a sucker for the 'related' links on youtube I stumbled onto these clips (11 minutes total)of Hiromi Uehara's jazz trio and was blown away.

Hiromi Uehara - Love and Laughter (parts 1 & 2)


.
The word is she's been playing piano pretty much her entire life, came to the US to study at Berklee and formed this trio with two of her classmates. This is really the first jazz music I've ever really gotten into, and it actually does change your ear to the point that other music sounds different, which is crazy. I've been listening to her 'Spiral' album lately and would say its better than her newer album 'Time Control' because on 'Time Control' there's a "jazz-fusion" guitar player who's playing all over everything and pissing me off to no end. We'll get into my feelings about lead-guitar players some other time but suffice it to say I generally don't like listening to or playing music with them. I will try to put up with it for 'Time Control' however because I know the piano's gonna be mind-blowing. Moral of the story if you want to give jazz a try 'Spiral' is a good place to start.

Hiromi's Website
her Myspace page


Edit:
I just visited one of the MP3Blogs I like to visit every now and again and apparently jazz is in a big downswing. I guess I haven't been the only person in the world to think it can be a bit 'elitist'.
Check it out: Songs:Illinois talks about jazz

Change of plans...now its a Broken Social Scene post

So I just spent a bunch of time on a post when my browser decided to close itself...so from now on I guess I'm saving drafts. But I'm changing artists that I'm posting about because I just can't stop listening to this song by Broken Social Scene called 'Anthems For a Seventeen Year Old Girl'. Yes, the song title does seem like something I wouldn't listen to but its good. Check it out on their myspace: http://www.myspace.com/brokensocialscene, its the second song down on their music player


Did you listen to it? Its infectious. Over and over, I can't stop listening to it. Its off the album 'You Forgot it in People', I haven't listened to it yet but I'm going to really soon. All I know about this band is I got a burned CD of theirs from a friend a a year or two ago and it bounced off my face but this time I think I caught the bug...I was just looking at a friend's myspace profile and this song was playing and it got to me.

Here's what they look like in the supermarket:
I like how that one guy is jumping.
http://www.myspace.com/brokensocialscene

I'm back?!?

OK, so I'm kinda one of those people that finds new music and lets other people in on it like its some kind of secret(I know people with broader musical tastes but whatever, I'm not trying to be the best). Since I've had a few people ask me about how or where I find music I've decided to use this blog I created/abandoned last fall to document my musical meanderings and let people know what I've been up to. Think of it as my musical journal. I'm not trying to compete with MP3Blogs and probably won't do much if any MP3 posting just 'cause I don't know how. I'm just gonna be here if you ever need some new ideas of some good music to get into. That's my only criteria, the music has to be good, doesn't matter if its new or cool or not, just good.