This evening I took a walk on Belle Isle.  The sun was in the hanging spot.  I have watched the sunset from Belle Isle before.  The light never falls behind the city but just off to the side of it.  Like it’s avoiding the point.  Which happens a lot with people which is why I tend to personify something as benign and distant as a sunset.

I think I am going to name the band “the ghosts” so I get to be patrick davy and the ghosts.  I like the and the something’s part–I bring this up because I booked a gig this weekend.  While we haven’t rehearsed yet, I can never pass up a chance to make noise at the Detroit Music Hall.  The next couple nights will be long rehearsals.

But that is the best way to get something rolling.  To really jump in.  And when a place you love is in a pinch, it’s almost irresistible.  Check out the venue here Detroit Music Hall.  There is a small performance space below the main theater.  It’s like a jazz grotto with food and drinks–a really killer place.  And it has fantastic history.  Occasionally, I play there with The Strange and I always get a good feeling.  Not to mention the fact that it has a real grand piano–a total rarity.

Anyway I am excited to get the full band rolling.  It’s a feeling I remember but not one that necessarily repeats.

http://www.thiswinkis.com/2009/04/fool-me-once-shame-on-you-fool-me-twice.html

So it’s time to build the band.  I have settled on a three-piece:  drums, guitar and bass.  I have been looking for players for a long time but was unable to find the right fit.  Going from the recording/mixing mindset to the live performance mindset can be difficult.  But the actual creation of this record has been extremely diverse.  The material begs to be played live.

Then again, the live show is going to be a little heavier than the record–not emotionally, just sonically.  Which is the way it should be.  I need the performance to be a little different than the recording.  There is so much fear these days about misrepresenting a project by playing it differently live.  That’s ridiculous.  It’s idiotic to assume that a song, even a recorded one, should or could be replicated live.  A real song is different each time through.

But lately, live shows have been walking down the other path.  Most of the time I see a band these days, they do their best to mimic the record.  Sometimes they play to their own cd–does anyone else feel insulted when that happens?  Like I just came to your show to see you play your music almost exactly how it sounds on the actual disc?  Except, of course, that everything will be a little out of tune.  And I might even catch a few moments where the temps don’t sync.  How wonderfully inspiring…  Unless you’re playing to 2ok people, leave computers out of it.

Some groups warrant playing to beat boxes or drum machines.  Sometimes a tour calls for a particular vibe–and in those cases it works.  But not rock bands.

Needless to say I am nixing the loops, beats, macbooks, drum machines, and play alongs of modern “live” music.  Because it’s bullshit karaoke.

A still from a video shoot.

I spent Saturday shooting a new video for The Joke.  We are not quite finished but this image describes how everything felt.  In a good way, of course.

Because it's spooky

I spend a lot of time thinking about the Aral Sea.  A catastrophe.  Read about it here.  There are places around the world like this–places that should be well known.  Places with histories that need to be considered.  History is only boring when people don’t mess it up.  Which is rare.

I used to frequent this greasy spoon called “Linda’s Breakfast”.  And actually it was a group of friends that would go.  There is nothing unique about that.  Lots of people go there.  Plenty of groups.  Plenty of nights.  And then it gets a little boring.  And then the reunions feel good when everyone is back in town.  And then I imagine that the trips to Linda’s Breakfast just die down like mine did.

Eventually my group of friends stopped going to Linda’s Breakfast.  For various reasons–people move around, change jobs, change schools, etc.  I think I kept going there for a while–which means I had to go alone.  It was a strange feeling to sit at the counter or at a small table and not at a large booth.  And it was strange to sit and listen to the words of people I did not know.  I was accustomed to focusing on the voices of friends, of being a part of the discussion.

So I don’t go to Linda’s Breakfast anymore.  It has literally been years since I set foot in the place.  Frankly, I don’t even know why I feel the urge to write about a diner I no longer frequent.  But the place has made its way into discussion a number of times in the last couple weeks.  I was even invited, late one night, to go there for a western omelet.  But, as I said, I don’t go there any more.

Maybe it’s just an example of how people eventually just let memories be what they are:  memories.  Maybe because I know the place would make me a little lonesome.  Or just that I don’t want to go eat in a greasy diner.  But it was a place I frequented with people I once knew well.  I don’t know those people well anymore.  So that must be it.  Just driving past the place conjurs up all the ghosts and the memories.  Sometimes, if it is night when I drive by Linda’s Breakfast, I can see inside from the stoplight.  I always look inside for anyone I might recognize.  Not that I would go in and join them–but just to know they’re actually in there.

I was contacted a couple days ago by a music blog–from Iran, no less–regarding the video for The Joke. It’s cool.  Speaks for itself.  Below is a grab from the blog itself.  Or check out www.thiswinkis.com

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About This Winki’s

Every living particle has its day. This blog talks indie music big time but sometimes deliberately deviates and goes too far. Make yourself at home as you surf through our reviews, lists, and sometimes news, all written by yours truly. Please don’t take our opinions too personal, you may get pneumonia. And in case you were wondering who’s this Winki creature and why this joint sounds so out of tune, watch Mulholland Dr. and you may get a clue! Stick around.
P.S. There’s almost no illegal material here so stop spying around. If there’s something to download, it’s declared free by the original artist.

Lately

Well it isn’t snowing but maybe there will be an inch or two on my car in the morning.  I drove through the half-rain tonight.  From downtown.  The lights on the trees were telling me it was the holidays but I know better.   Something about the bleakness got me thinking that it’s time to get back to NY and do a show.  Maybe at Joe’s Pub or Pianos.  The weather can have that effect.  It can evoke anything.  Because it touches us directly.  It can bring back feelings and memories.  It can make you want something.  It is a part of one’s environment.

So I was driving on the 10 and the half melted snowflakes were falling quickly.  The lights of downtown are diminishing in my rearview and the periphery of the freeway is dark.  Silhouettes of houses and buildings lean back from the rushing lanes of traffic.  I have to wonder why all this traffic on a Sunday night in early April.  Because it only makes sense–people are out and antsy.  The last almost-snow of the year.  One step better than a simple cold rain–still a little beauty in the process.  Even if you never see the crystals themselves.

When I got home I put on an Interpol record (Turn on the bright lights) and played “NYC” 5 times.  Ok, so I miss NY.  Strong memories of particular seasons.  Nondescript events and friends I have long since lost touch with.  There was a time and place for that Interpol record; it was and is monumental in my life.  Like so many others that resurface a long with all the memories.   And it’s good to go back and remember things the right way.  Which is really the wrong, partially inaccurate way.  It’s better.

Car Crash Eyes is an old song.  I remember writing it in music school–the process being a bit of an affront to most of what I had been working on.  I booked time at Mike Dixon’s home studio the following spring.  That was in Bloomington, IN.  And really it was just an old house.  The “control room” was up stairs and the session room was the living room of the main floor.  Wiring for microphones had been dropped through the electrical lines in the ceiling, and the microphone sat completely isolated in the empty living room.  We only used one.  There was a natural reverb to the room.  It was square with no carpet.

I stumbled across that recording a couple of days ago.  I can remember the song sounding fresh to me–the emotions were still significant in a visceral sort of way.  Now it is something else.  Maybe a little deeper, maybe a little more prolonged.  But the song is an entity, separate from me or any particular recording.  Because I ended up taking that song to studios all over the place.  There are five or six serious recordings of Car Crash Eyes.  But if the song is done justice, it is in a live room.  These days, anyway.  The recording of Car Crash on Brave the Walk is a live recording.  It was one of the first pieces we did, probably because we knew how to approach it.  Almost all of the album is built on live recordings.  That is how albums are made.  The other option does not create an album, it creates a collage.   A performance is a performance.  Period.

So I think of Car Crash Eyes each spring.  Once the temperature outside reaches a moderate warmth (albeit, usually a temporary situation) I start to remember how it felt to write the song and then to perform it.  It was one of the first times I knew what a song should be.  It’s far from perfect, thankfully.  That’s why it lives on in performance and why, in many ways, it is bigger than my efforts to pin it down.

This letter was attached to my newspaper this morning:

March 23, 2009

Good Morning,

My name is Jane Doe.  I am your newspaper carrier.  I deliver Detroit News, Detroit Free Press, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, Investors Business Daily, Financial Times, Barons and Automotive News.  It saddens me to tell you at the end of March I will not be delivering any of the financial papers any more.  There will be a new carrier bringing those papers to you.  Just to let you know, I am staying for the 3 days delivery.  It was a hard decision to make because what is going on with the Detroit News.  I am losing a lot, 4 days and all my financial papers.  That is half of my check plus some.  But I have to keep this job because the economy is so bad.  There are not many jobs out there any more.  I’ll just have to get an extra route to make up some of my big loss.  I thought I would put this letter out to let you guys know what is going on, as a lot of my customers are asking.

Last day of delivery for me is:

Automotive News and Advertising Age 03-23-09

USA Today 03-27-09

Investors Business Daily & Financial Times 03-28-09

Wall Street Journal & Baron’s 03-28-09

New York Times 03-28-09

It has been my pleasure to deliver your newspaper.  I try to give you excellent service and early service and put your papers outside your doors.  if anyone has any questions, please feel free to give me a call.

Thank you for allowing me to deliver your newspapers to you.  I truly enjoyed it.

Sincerely,

Jane Doe

0000 Blank

Blank, MI, 00000

000-000-0000

I had to put this on the page because it is a testament to a number of issues.  These are desperate times.  Hopefully Jane will be OK.  She seems willing to do what she needs to do in order to get by.  But what does that mean?  Because empathy and compassion are not exactly low hanging fruit at the moment.  So I bring this up because it exists in direct conflict with those who so confidently proclaim that a person out of work is lazy.  Or incompetent.  Or that their industry is defunct.  Because this treatment exists in direct conflict with the thought that if you work hard you will do well.  These are lies.  The terrible fact is that there are very few certainties in the world.  Stability is an illusion.  An industry can become history rather fast.  And there are real people on the ends of those capillaries.  People that eat, live, and work.  Individuals who, if you could just see them laugh, are alarmingly in keeping with everyone else.

So come on, really.  Not everyone can be a doctor or a lawyer.  It doesn’t work that way.   Funny, though, is that it sure seems like everyone can be a lawyer.  But that is a different piece.  The point here is that the changes we are facing are very serious.  Most of us will see some difficult times.  Or maybe we already have.  That said, the difficulties are liable to increase.

Compassion can help assuage the pain inflicted by ignorance.  Relative ignorance is natural.  We’re all in that boat together.  A little more compassion can’t hurt.