Hopeless Jack, His Handsome Devil, and one Hopeful Heart

Hopeless Jack. "What's with the name?" I ask. Of course he gives me a sheepish grin, the one that always precedes sly charm.  "A friend called me that after I had a string of bad luck with women." I perse my lips the way I always do when I'm around him.  Jack Biesel has a way. I was about to write "a way with women" but he just has a way.  I can't quite describe it.  People either love him or hate him and the reason people hate him is because there is something about him they want and wish they had.  I think Jack likes being interviewed.  As his friends listen in on our conversation in a dimly lit, Americana-esque decorated music recording studio, I feel nervous but suddenly special that I have the attention of his audience as they intently listen to every question, carefully taking mental note of every carefully worded response.  Revolver Studios is unlike no other.  It is a spacious hardwood warehouse room with more depth than I have ever felt in one space.  It has years of energy embedded in its walls, heavily sprinkled with vintage equipment and one-of-a-kind memorabilia, some from bands recorded in years past, some recent - small local bands worth a damn. 

I ask Jack about influence.  He gives me a blank sort of look and says he knows very little about what's out there.  He says for someone who loves music and sure loves to perform, he is influenced by a small handful of people.  "Johnny Cash probably being the main one".  Johnny Cash.  Now I get it.  Watching Jack on stage as the man in black is something else. With his long rockabilly hair and his tattooed fingers on the frets of his black guitar, you read "h-o-p-e l-e-s-s" and realize at some point, you ended up fortunate enough to view the insides of a starving soul.  "So how did you and Pete meet each other?" Jack chuckles and says they met at a gay bar.  I find this funny because for the short time that we have known each other, I have always referred to Pete as his lover, his bromance partner, or some affectionate term for the endearing couple touring together in a van for weeks at a time.  Jack agrees to all terms, insisting that we all understand that they both happen to be beautiful straight men and that they happen to meet at a gay bar, being of course the only straight men working there.  When I ask Jack about his first impression of Pete, he says that it was instant, that their smoke breaks became times of reflection, hopeful daydreams about their futures, what they like to do in their spare time, what music they like, and then the proposition to play together, jam on their instruments some time soon.  As Jack recalls the next morning, as if they had stayed up all night eager to see what "jamming" together might feel like, he plays with his hat, adjusts himself into his seat, gets wide-eyed and tells me every minute detail of this happenstance from arriving with two coffees through the progression of their sessions to their current state basically stumbling into what is now known as "Hopeless Jack and the Handsome Devil".

Jack's heart and soul is written in every line of every ballad, some heartbreaking and some playful, and then there's Pete, the ever-present counterpart banging away like a flathead V8 with lake pipes at 7,000 revolutions per minute.  Jack's bourbon-soaked vocals and sultry tracks draws you in, makes you want to hear what else he might want to share with us, what window we will be allowed to see into.  You see the sweat, the excitement, the handkerchief dangling from his back pocket, you think he must have had practice - a long time to perfect this craft.  But when I ask Jack how long he's been at it, he gives me his devilish grin and says "not long darlin', only a year and a half-ish".  I am shocked. You are recording your second studio album? This guy won't stop. He lives for this shit. As well he should. The two piece band is a spectacle, a performance to be taken on the road, a band you could book for your rock festivals, weddings, and even retirement parties. "We do well in small towns and especially to older crowds but what's cool is you have parents come in with their kids and everyone loves it but the parents are really loving it."  "I could've guessed that. I'm thinking about how much my dad would love Jack. 

Promotion and marketing - the two weaknesses for the band.  I ask him why he thinks he has a poor turnout for big city shows.  "The [metropolitan] cities are heavily saturated with rock and roll".  I wonder if it might be that his version of blues is a bit older than what his generation is listening to or if the poppy songs are played out in variations of a lot of other tunes.  I can't help but wonder what I could possibly suggest to "Hopeless Jack and the Handsome Devil" to get them to stand out above the rest, get the notoriety they so deserve.  This band works harder than almost any other band I know.  They sweat, bleed, and cry it out in every performance, taking it on the road most of the time seriously underpaid and starving through it all just to have people come and dance for a night, where new girls can have the chance to get on stage with the kind-eyed tattooed stranger.

It's not all sex. Don't feel like Shallow Hearts – Shallow Graves is a one-dimensional album; it's quite the opposite. This album, their debut record, gives us a unique insight into the heart and soul of this two-piece outfit. It plays like a teenage love story - full of pitfalls, emotional battles with raging hormones, love lost, excitement, fear, anger and soulful sex. It is a raw, reverb-laden quintessential rock & roll recording filled with contemplative lyrics, dipping hard into the complexities of love, anger, loss, and playful relationships.

When I hear Shallow Hearts – Shallow Graves I am reminded of the reasons I loved hearing “The White Stripes” first few albums, where I fell in love with the old guitar rock all over again, the joy I felt hearing bands rekindle that garage-style element that has been lost in pop culture today.  The rawness percolates through the record even down to the last track, where Jack offers a heavy mesmerizing, drowsy ballad only someone who has felt for another could really relate to.

The two of them offer a muscular, almost brutish sound throughout but yet the recording is handled with such finesse that you embrace the foreboding emotional undertones that startle the audience with a sort of eclecticism. Shallow Hearts – Shallow Graves is a well-executed debut that most certainly falls under the rock & roll umbrella with such vigor that only a hard-working breakthrough band can offer. Buy it and you won’t be sorry.

The Lost Sound of Soul and The Dark Corners of a Sunlit One

Song of the day is..."Sunday Kind of Love" by the beloved Miss Etta James.

The Queen of Soul has died.  Born Jamesetta Hawkins on a cold January night while the world was struggling to comprehend the beginning of what would inevitably be one of the worst wars this world has seen.  The persecution of the Jewish peoples in Europe was taking place and Los Angeles was flooded.  The world was welcoming the new diva with open arms in the harsh winter of 1938. 

Growing up, James was raised by multiple caregivers after being born to a 14-year-old girl she later referred to as "The Mystery Lady" and never knew of her Caucasian father who left before she was even born.  Upon entering adolescence, Jamesetta discovered doo-wop and formed her first all-girl band "The Creolettes" named for the girls' light-skinned complexions, and took on her new title as Etta James, her given name reversed.  With a string of boyfriends including B.B. King, she was discovered by men twice her age who promised to make her a star.  Unfortunately for Etta, all she could show from this was a serious drug addiction that inevitably killed her career and pushed her illness along which resulted in her death January 20th of 2012. 

With a career blossoming in the 1950's with a surge of rhythm and blues and a high demand for soulful vocals, Etta James found her niche.  She met the right people and climbed her way to #1 with her ever famous "At Last" topping the charts in 1960 and "Sunday Kind of Love" soon to follow as a Billboard topper.  Unfortunately for James, her star burned out and her career took a hard hit in 1965.  The world waited in anticipation for James' return but was nowhere to be found...until the 1980's where she made a strange comeback, not releasing any hits but touring as if her life depended on it.  And it did.

I would say something like "we will miss you, Miss Etta James 'Queen of Soul', 'Princess of Pop'" but I can't because it was not my time.  She was here and now gone leaving behind a legacy of doo-wop all grown up.  I was fortunate to have seen her perform in her older years and feel grateful for the experience but my journey with her was led by movie soundtracks and car commercials.  But nonetheless, she has given me plenty of hits I have sung my heart out to in the shower all through my 20's. 

Goodbye, Etta James.


IN OTHER NEWS:  My waiter just told me to check out "Black Lips". He said they are a drug. Sounds worth checking out. I could use a high.  I just read that they are a self-proclaimed "flower punk" band from Georgia.  And that they are "the raddest band right now" according to Matthew, my Doug Fir hipster musical guru.

Time to freak out! Memorial Day weekend might have one of the best concert date lineups I've heard in a long time. The Shins are headlining for both The Head and the Heart with Blind Pilot at the Les Schwab ampitheatre.  Super stoked.

If you're a Pitchfork follower, such as I am, you will see some of the best headlines in music right now.  Check it out and get inspired.

Discovered The Middle East last weekend at the beach for my birthday and have been pretty stoked on this for a few days now: 

I know it has been a while since I have written. God bless you dedicated readers who hound me incessantly for an updated post but I have been busy living and balancing and celebrating and juggling and gaining and losing and everything in between.  I'm trying to write a book people! I moved to a wonderful area of town, had to get settled, struggling with the loss of regular Internet usage, gaining a new job as a company co-owner and director, making my way through the ever difficult court reporter course schedule and have now discovered how giddy I can be flirting my way with someone special into my 30's.  I celebrated the big day last week with a group of amazing women, surprise treat sharing collective awesomeness and beautiful first kisses on bridges atop the city at midnight. Couldn't have been better. And so I thank you patient readers, for hanging in there with me and feeding the dark corners of this sunlit soul of mine.

xxx.

Black Keys, White Stripes, and Gray Days

Song of the Day is..."You're the One" by The Black Keys

I have felt, for the greater part of the last couple of months, like one big Black Keys album.  I realize I am not "introducing" this band to anyone, but I feel the need to give them some mad props.  I haven't listened to much else in a while.  They are definitely going to get me through this winter.  I choose this song because it reminds me of Scarlett.  It's a perfect mellow ballad for these gray days in Portland.  They have started and will not stop for quite some time.  Sometimes blustery, sometimes freezing, sometimes wet, sometimes bone-chilling dry, and always gray.

If you are an avid Pandora listener, and love blues rock, I highly recommend The Black Keys radio station.  It will hook you up with John Lee Hooker (another favorite), The White Stripes (popular and not so popular tunes), Masters of Reality, Benjy Ferree, The Steepwater Band, Led Zeppelin, Dan Auerbach (The Black Keys lead vocalist's solo work), Wax Tailor, Jimmy Hendrix, Grizzly Bear, Passion Pit, and many others.  It's really a phenomenal station, mixed with old time, country blues, blues rock, eclectic electronica/soul/drum and bass mix, and delta blues.  I dig.

As I hoof it around town 135 blocks from my house to my daily meeting, I find myself content in my urban surroundings, at peace and stoked to have these bluesy city sounds ringing in my ears.  I have been through hell and back this last month and I feel brave, edgy, free, and raw with every step over the puddles in my worn-out Chuck Taylor's.  I crinkle my lips to touch the septum of my nose and feel its chilled and soft.  I can feel the soles of my feet getting sore as I walk quickly over the Burnside bridge to reach the west side of town before it's too late.  Auerbach's guitar chords and bourbon-soaked vocals send electric shocks through the hemispheres of my brain and I feel stoned.  Music is a drug to me.  I feel like I am settling comfortably into my addiction, riding the high through the city feeling like nothing else matters except keeping in time with the bass with every step I take and every blinking hand at the crosswalk.  I look up and I feel unafraid of anything and everything around me.  I look back down, paying attention to the lyrics and humming the melody.  This is my city.  This is what makes me happy.  I love feeling this way.  I owe it to these bands for making that possible for me.  I hear The White Stripes next and I revert to college days, driving through the Wyoming flat roads, bloody nose from dry air while coming down from something, cigarette out the window, and black Carharts slicked up from weeks of being unwashed and worn heading to Colorado by way of big Montana sky to help my friend see about a girl.  

Now it seems to be that no matter what music you like, no matter where you come from, whether music is your life or not, people from all walks of life LOVE The Black Keys.

The Black Keys consist of Dan Auerbach (lead vocalist and guitarist) and Patrick Carney (drummer/producer).  Now, these guys have been BUSY.  From their foundation in 2001 in Akron, Ohio to becoming Grammy nominees in 2010 and wrapping up their latest album of seven set for release this year in December, it has been nonstop hard work and a series of accomplishments only some independent rockers dream of.

The name The Black Keys comes from a schizophrenic acquaintance the both had where he would leave incoherent messages on their answering machine in times of distress referring to their fathers as "black keys" such as "D Flat" to show disrespect.  They got a kick out of this and decided to go with it.  I find it one of the most suitable band names for these guys.  After finding a name for themselves, they set to work and immediately released their first album The Big Come Up in 2002.  This was a successful record for independent rockers who had not yet found their footing in the mainstream music industry.  From their on out, they have worked tirelessly to spit out an album and special edition records each year.  Their second album (not technically an album but as an EP), spawned two singles "Leavin' Trunk" and "She Said, She Said" (both covers), recorded in Carneys' basement on an 8-track tape recorder.

Finding joy in laying down tracks with abstract, unique modes of recording equipment, they went on to produce their second album Thickfreakness in 2003 on a Tascam 388 (for those of you who don't know what that is, it is the king of all-in-one analog recorder/reproducer multitrack tape devices).  Rubber Factory, their third album released in 2004, was recorded in an abandoned factory which was later bulldozed to the ground in 2010.  In 2005, they released their first live album, Live.  In 2006, they would later produce their second live album titled Live in Austin, TX, which was from a performance done in 2003.  And to make a sweet contribution to this wonderful city I call home, they recorded and released their third live album, making a live musical video titled Live At The Crystal Ballroom from their performance in 2008 at The Crystal Ballroom located on Burnside here in Portland, Oregon.

A Tascam 388:

2006 was a breakthrough year for Auerbach and Carney.  They were starting to gain worldwide recognition and eventually were asked to open for bands such as Pearl Jam, Radiohead, Beck, and Sleater-Kinney.  They started contributing to a wide variety of soundtracks as well as movie trailers and in 2010, their songs were featured in a slew of corporate commercials including Victoria's Secret and Zales.  In 2010, we were graced with a 15-track LP titled Brothers and with that, many singles were introduced over the airwaves for popular radio and their songs were then brought to the commonfolk.  Many people I talk to say all of a sudden, they were hit like a bomb with The Black Keys.  They were suddenly just there, being played in everyone's car during rush hour traffic and in the background at some of their favorite hotspots.

Along with many other special side projects including the iTunes Sessions in 2010 and Record Store Day Black Friday double 12" vinyl with six bonus tracks, we were finally able to cheer them on knowing them intimately by the time they were nominated for four Grammy Awards for Best Rock Song and Best Alternative Album simultaneously being acknowledged in Rolling Stone Magazine for #2 Best Album of 2010 with Brothers.  On our television sets, we were graced with their musical appearance on Saturday Night Live and enjoyed watching their first short musical film for "Howlin' For You" revealed earlier this year.

Their SEVENTH studio album (that's right) will be released this December 6th which was officially wrapped up in March.  We have been given sneak peeks into this album with two major singles already released and we can only wait with extreme anticipation of what new feeling this exciting album will generate for us.

IN OTHER NEWS:

For those Smiths fans out there, they have released a special edition of remastered album sessions that should be a nice little addition to your melancholic collection.

Radiohead has just announced their European tour.  Maybe that's another push for me to get over there (as if I really need one).

And speaking of Jack White (drumroll please)...

Jack White would like us to "give thanks for Third Man Records' winter bounty," as his label has announced a slew of new releases and a number of giftable TMR items. And what a bounty it is. Deep breath...

On November 29 the label will release two singles from actor John C. Reilly (Step Brothers,Talladega Nights, Boogie Nights). Jack White, Reilly's co-star in Walk Hard, plays on both. The first single features Reilly duetting with Tom Brosseau on two Delmore Brothers tracks. The second features Reilly covering Ray Price and Dolly Parton/Porter Wagoner tracks with Lavender Diamond's Becky Stark. On November 22, they'll put out a new spoken word single from Edgar Oliver, the actor, playwright, and poet from the Discovery Channel program "Oddities".  [taken from Pitchfork.com].

HOW EXCITING!

Florence and The Machine came out with a new video and Bon Iver is releasing a deluxe edition of his album Bon Iver (two little things to keep us hanging on). 

With these gray days, comes a time for reflection and also catastrophic loneliness.  However, it is a great time in this great city to become inspired to write, listen, walk, meditate, read, and dream.  I have always had a difficult time, as do most Oregonians, during these long winter days.  But if you have bands like The Black Keys producing more albums to be released during these harsh times, it feels bearable and exciting. And I feel fortunate to have had The White Stripes as a part of my past and The Black Keys as part of my future.  

Keep fightin' the good fight.

Stories From Electronica Valley, Spiritual Deviance, and Crazy Adventures

Song of the Week has been..."Hayling" by FC Kahuna.

Last week, I decided to walk a lot. I walked four miles through the city one day, five the next and then topped off the week with a six mile walk from my house on NE 60th and Burnside to NW 24th and Kearney for my daily meeting. On these walks, I felt free and strong and clear and inspired. Music is a massive part of my existence. It is actually something I would die for (in whatever context that could possibly happen and on no certain terms). During one of my walks, I decided to give my will to spiritual forces that be (whatever they may be and again on no certain terms). Between a church and the Tibetan monks, I requested a song from the universe. This is what was given to me. And I think it to be absolutely perfect.

There are many things about this tune that I love and that resonate (well it doesn't hurt that I can really pin down the lyrics as they are repeated over and over much like the monks I chose to spend my afternoon with), but that it was simple and perfect and carried a message I needed right at that moment. I realized I had been walking with a lot of fear (and am continuing to do for some reason).  Fear is something that pinned me to addictions and also pinned me to bad people and self-destruction.  So why, with all of this progress, do I get the feeling I'm on hot coals again, being stabbed by hot pokers, or feeling imaginary pangs of dread?  In the hours of walking and praying and chanting and more walking, there was relief and it lasted for the entirety of this canticle.

What's interesting about life for me, are the constant circular movements the universe creates.  We always say "that comes full circle" or other variations meaning to come around, linking things, people, places to each other.  This happens for people who "get it" as it requires attention to detail when things happen, why they would happen again, etcetera, and what it all means.  Total awareness.  Lately, I have found that I have been drawn to electronica duo pop bands.  This isn't where the reader laughs at how oddly profound I sound when stating that this has serious spiritual significance, but it really does.  It's not my fault I find extreme beauty in tiny things.  But this band is new and beautiful to me.

FC Kahuna is a British DJ and electronica music duo consisting of Jon Nowell and Daniel Ormondroyd.  They feature different artists for vocal contribution namely Icelandic singer Hafdis Huld, who is a beautiful tiny blonde pixie singing barefoot at the piano for this ballad.  Their first mix album Another Fine Mess is a followup album of the Another Late Night compilation series featuring tracks by Blur, The Polyphonic Spree, Green Velvet, Josh Wink, and others.  They have remixed for bands including New Order, Felix Da Housecat, Mellow, and The Faint.

Not only do they mix for some pretty kick-ass bands and have an Icelandic frontwoman, but they were also featured in the show Six Feet Under, a show I live and breathe for, and also Riding Giants, a movie I cannot live without.

I realize I have been very drawn to electronica pop duo bands for a while now, really gravitating toward them.  Among the most popular in my life right now are Air, Zero 7, Broken Bells, Holy Ghost!, and now FC Kahuna. Speaking of full circle, Zero 7 is also featured in Six Feet Under with their track "Distractions" which is a painful, heartbreaking ballad that I just so happened to be listening to with a friend of mine the other night.  Sia, featured vocalist for Zero 7, also features her ballad "Breathe Me" for the season finale. And on that same night, I reconnected with Air, whom I have written about in previous entries, and also with Broken Bells, who everyone knows I obsess over. If it's a James Mercer project, it's my new favorite. If it doesn't get anymore connected than that, I don't know what does.

IN OTHER NEWS:

Black Keys came out with a new song today that is only available digitally, titled "Lonely Boy", Kirsten Dunst stars in R.E.M.'s new video, and Tom Waits, the one-of-a-kind singer-songwriter and master storyteller talks to Mark Richardson in an exclusive online interview about his first proper studio album in seven years, goofing off with Keith Richards, killer robots, and why "the truth is overrated".

Divine energy. It exists and it is all around me. I experienced my first divine intervention the other night with two people very close to me, expressing that somewhere in my spiritual quest for peace, I have attached myself to something oppressive.  Maybe so.  Maybe I just continue to make bad choices, whether I am "healthy" or not.  I live in a suffocated darkness right now.  But at the very least, I have synthesized psychadelic rock and electronica loveliness pushing me on through.  No more crazy adventures for a while.  I'm done with my distractions.  (For now).

The Album Leaf, The Album of Summer, and Albums of Times Past

Song of the Day is..."Wherever I Go" by The Album Leaf.

Yesterday against a backdrop of golden sun and monkey puzzle trees lining the streets I now call my new hood, I found myself humming a lot of The Album Leaf songs.  They have an eclectic mix of indie beats with a sort of synthesized ambiance.  With an album titled In a Safe Place it seems an ideal album for my summer.  Not to mention that this album was recorded with Sigur Ros and feels...well, safe I suppose. On a wagon ride with the love of my life in tow, I pull effortlessly down cobble streets with the sound of her tiny voice reading an old century fairy tale to her "baby".  I pass Mt. Tabor school and see two hip ten-year-olds swinging on rusty bars chatting quietly with their hipster shag and skinny pants, aware that I feel intimidated by them as even Portland kids can be hipper than most adults I know.  I can smell slow-simmered marinara sauce inside a home I can only imagine serves gluten-free pasta and says pagan prayer before suppertime.  I stumble across my favorite house on the block, sort of a dream house, with porch furniture and beautiful landscaping and I wonder if they have a perfect life. I feel like it's a life I have never known and I imagine they don't have drinking problems and have many friends with them to laugh in the kitchen, sipping red wine, nibbling on stinky cheese, cracking hazelnuts into a beautiful African bowl sharing stories about their last trip to Italy where they took an olive marinating workshop. There would be conversation of how pottery classes are going and what new festival they will all be attending.  I snap back into reality for a brief moment and realize that it's in my head.  All of this has always been in my head, this idea of pure light and love and no scratches or dents.  I take a deep breath, watch a large spider weave an intricate web in the setting sun high up in an old pine tree.  I feel still.  And I realize that I have had an adventurous three weeks of job lay-off, car accident, moving out and into a cramped apartment space with my best friend and her new wife.  I fell in love briefly in this time and then lost it.  I see that my insides are a bit ripped up and it's because I feel I cannot make things grow that I go to this place in my mind.  But I turn around, flash a smile to my co-pilot, my sidekick, my sidecar hero, and see that I have at least made some progress.  Okay, a lot of it actually.  I think of this love I thought I might acquire and close my eyes, hearing beautiful sounds in my mind that sound like this.

Big changes. Deep breath.


Living life sober is no picnic.  It is difficult. Very difficult. You do not realize how much you run away from uncomfortable emotions or delve way too much into the good ones with a little "celebration".  I have to stay centered and aware and stable and careful and tender and light.  It is hardcore. This album is helping.


The Album Leaf is an American solo musical project founded in San Diego, California in 1998 by Jimmy LaValle. I sometimes wonder how many dates he has been on where people have told him he's so intense. I think I am a visceral person, feeling and interpreting and experiencing and analyzing and dissecting and thinking.  This music is all of that, all of those emotions, all of it.  I imagine him to live a life with purpose, with strong intent.  I could totally be wrong but for now, I do not feel so alone with his music by my side.  His performances often feature projected visual art.  Jimmy LaValle started an instrumental post-rock band called Tristeza and eventually found his way through several other bands before settling on his solo project called The Album Leaf.  

Before Tristeza released Spine and Sensory on Makoto records in 1998, the band was talking with a handful of different indie record labels. There was one in particular, he chose to hound about releasing his solo material.  They accepted his request and in 1999, Jimmy revealed An Orchestrated Rise to Fall.  

LaValle played his first official Album Leaf show at the Che Cafe in the winter of 1999. Band members for this show consisted of Rafter Roberts, Jimmy Lehner (of Tristeza), Leilani Clark (of local San Diego band, "the Straight A's" also with LaValle), Benjamin White (of GoGoGo Airheart), and John Pham.

LaValle started performing solo concerts worldwide and Sigur Ros decided to collaborate.  Together they performed on stage as a group and were found to be contributing to similar projects in their off-time.  They both felt they had a vision of incorporating the synthesized dream world unitarily.  And what a dream it was for the rest of us. 

I have decided to forego the technical explanation of The Album Leaf's structural position within the music world and allow my reading audience to just feel and experience for themselves.  In a single phrase, I sum up Jimmy LaValle's successful mind-blowing project to pure genius.  Artists like this inspire me to keep going, doing what I love to do, to keep writing even if no one is reading or to keep dreaming even if I have no one to share them with.  

IN OTHER NEWS:  Bjork came out with a new video for "Moon".  Hot.

Bon Iver has graced Portland with his presence at Edgefield tonight and I am sure to hear that it is an amazing show.  

Who woulda thunk it but MGMT and The Shins are collaborating to cover Pink Floyd hits.  Say wha? I'm going along with a positive attitude.  I do love them both. We shall see.

R.E.M. is to release another Greatest Hits album as they bring their career to a final close.  Thank you for all of the wonderful years of amazing music.  What an amazing band they were and how fortunate am I to have been around for most of it, witnessing their musical progression and successful experiments unfold onto my television screen as a child and onto the NPR airwaves as an adult.  Thank you, thank you, thank you. I will be sure to purchase your last album. 

Portland, you are good to me. And you have been surprisingly comfortable but difficult. I am excited to be here, even in the chaotic mess that has been set before me and I feel brave.  As terrible as moving is for most, I have managed to sell most of my belongings in my life and was left with a few boxes living like the nomad that I am, like a college-aged girl most of my life.  As much as I feel excited to daydream about this perfect dinner party, olive growing, pottery class going life, I am also one hell of a loving bohemian who feels and thinks and is okay with herself. No matter how many people, even those I care about, who call me disingenuous, self-involved with my blog and otherwise, doesn't matter.  I feel perfectly okay. The other day I went through the boxes of my life and found photos from my childhood.  There are two large albums from my past that mark my "achievements" in school, my dance classes, my sports teams, and adventure camps up to my exchange programs overseas and giving birth at home to my little one.  These albums put so much in perspective for me.  It has been quite the journey thus far. 

i can't write. i can only listen.

My Summer of Love with Pete Yorn and Heatmeiser.

Song of the Day is..."Strange Condition" by Pete Yorn.

I so need this. I need Pete and I need Elliott and I need to write. It was my sophomore year of college that I fell in love with Pete Yorn. I was home visiting my parents for the holidays and we were watching t.v. when I saw a Red Cross commercial come on where people were rushing to help others and the song "On Your Side" was on.  It was like a commercial of my life.  Soon after I changed my major to help others and the album musicforthemorningafter was coming with me.

Pete Yorn taught himself how to play drums at age nine and then eventually picked up the guitar rocking out in high school to Neil Young and The Replacements. Coming into the music scene without a lot of experience is an understatement. While attending Syracuse University, he studied Communication and Rhetorical Studies.  He joined a fraternity and became your typical college student. After some time, Yorn's restless nature caught up with him and he booked it to Los Angeles. After playing at a cafe there for a select audience, he was eventually signed to Columbia Records in 1999. How does one get so lucky? He had some material, most of it just so-so,  never having stepped foot in a recording studio and to be signed by a major label was well, major.

His debut album, musicforthemorningafter, was a hit and catapulted him to stardom quickly in the underground scene. I think of Pete Yorn as sort of a take-off from the amazing Jeff Buckley, extending himself as the grunge garage shy kid meets guitar meets pretty vocals.  I love it.  He has this sort of heir about him that is just cool, like really cool.  The musicians that work with him are real alternative rock lovers' fan favorites and the people that praise him are the people you respect because you never hear them praise anyone really.  He just has this thing.

After being recognized for his music in film and with a successful record at hand, he was able to branch out in the business completing what he calls a musical trilogy with the album Nightcrawler, in 2006,  to complete his three phases-of-the-day songs (reminds me of a certain collection of Pablo Neruda sonnets) and aptly named musicforthemorningafter, Day I Forgot, and Nightcrawler.  When asked in an interview, how he could have known that this trilogy would represent a sort of diary, he chuckled realizing that people might look at this series of LPs and take it seriously.  He responded expressing that it just so happened to be a tri-phase of musical evolution but nothing more.  Three more albums have been released since and in September of 2010, he released a self-titled album produced by Frank Black of Pixies that has gone platinum in France while Pete Yorn has been responding to a strong demand for U.S. and Canadian concert tours which have been his primary focus for this 2011 year.

Switching gears completely, I was remembering major symbols in my life lately. I have discussed the crow countless times in my posts but I am not sure I have discussed the bat.  I was housesitting for my dear friend, Annie, in Eugene a few weeks ago (well, actually I was just squatting as I needed a place to stay so I could see The Shins for an exclusive concert).  I was having a rough time with no vices in a city that reminds me of way too much. I asked the Universe to send me a sign and there it was. I saw something flickering in the mirror across the living space into her bedroom.  I couldn't tell what it was and I swore to myself I was going crazy. I thought this might be it for me. After seeing something skim my head and land on a pile of clothes in the dark in her room, I realized I had company. I was deathly afraid as I knew it probably was not a bird.  For people close to me, they realize birds are my thing. Now a crow can be my power animal but a bat??? I didn't want this to be my sign. I watched this good sized bat crawl with its hook-like claws up the side of her bedroom chair and perch atop her pile of clothes.  Needless to say I had a hard time sleeping, even after I had the neighbor kid help release it into the wild.  I of course dreamt about them all night.  The bat is a symbol of intuition, dreaming and vision. This made the bat a powerful symbol for Native American shamans and medicine people. Often the spirit of the bat would be invoked when special energy was needed, like "night-sight" which is the ability to see through illusion or ambiguity and dive straight to the truth of matters.  It is a symbol of communication because the Native Americans observed the bat to be a highly social creature. Indeed, the bat has strong family ties. They are very nurturing, exhibiting verbal communication, touching, and sensitivity to members of their group.  Upon further investigation, I read that the bat is a symbol of illusion, rebirth, dreams, intuition, initiation, journeying, inner depth, and communication.

To keep a long story short (or keep a short story long), I was listening to Heatmeiser at the time. Now I also realize that I have previously mentioned my power animal, the crow, to be witnessed while listening to Elliott Smith, so I think this is quite fitting.  Heatmeiser is Elliott Smith's old band and I have not been able to stop rotating Mic City Sons since.  So I've got a bat, a crow, and Elliott. Things could be so much worse.

IN OTHER NEWS:  SUMMER IS HERE. Finally our Indian summer has arrived.  I am sweating it out through the days and loving it.  I am sun-kissed and tired. I am happy to be hot for once and I am soaking it up as it is already September.  I have windows down and music up. I have water to splash in and finally my season of hiking.  I have places to explore and skirts to wear. I have outside time and fresh fruit always on hand.  

I'M FLIPPING OUT.  Sigur Ros is releasing a new album and video.  They have been my favorite band for 12 years now. I am so excited.  More than when I found out there was no Santa Claus and I could actually open all of my Christmas presents early and then re-wrap them so I knew what to be excited for.  This is heaven for me.  Here's a little sneak preview to the corresponding concert video they will release with it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dDTAQV6mgs

I will have another video of theirs soon.  I think I have watched Heima about 50 times, all for comfort.  It takes me back to the country I belong in and miss dearly and also allows me to feel connected to my innards, as that is the place Sigur Ros lives.  Lovely and exciting. 

For those of you who have not witnessed the miracle, here is your chance:

Other exciting stuff:  Thom Yorke sings on Modeselektor's album, a couple of tracks anyway, which is btichin news.

She & Him are apparently releasing a Christmas album. Now I only listen to Nat King Cole sing Christmas carols but how cute will this album be? Perty dern cute.  I'm sure I will purchase.

Explosions In The Sky just released a video for their song "Be Comfortable Creature" involving a man wearing a large furry orange suit.  I have only witnessed a clip. It has not even been exposed to YouTube land so I was unable to embed for you but check it out.   I am sure it is a little stroke of genius.


Took Scarlett to her very first day of school ever. Started Kindergarten at her granola school today and I was able to walk her to class and then pick her up. It was such a huge moment and of course she went, unafraid.  She said that she was excited to learn and that she was happy to have met her first friend, Jacob.  When asked why Jacob is so special, she remarked "He is nice. And we were both really hungry".  Sounds like this year will be a success.  For both of us.