Parcematone

Instant reportage of transient moments can be problematic. As a fan of considered reserve and thoughtful process, I side with Brian Wilson, “I Just Wasn’t Made for these Times“.

Plus it’s not always confidence boosting to see oneself on a bad hair day, to borrow a phrase, captured and posted (#1stworldproblem). But this is the web, these are the days, and I like how these photos from the show at Maxwell’s are a little dreamy/blurry. It’s how the business of music feels at the moment. Courtesy of Kevin Bannon.

Maxwell's April 12, 2001 Photo by Kevin Bannon

Maxwell's April 12, 2001 Photo by Kevin Bannon

You’ll note the Sounds and Store pages of this blog aren’t active. At this point I’m doing a lot of work myself, including booking….too much actually (more on that later). I owe Jesse Von Doom a ton of thanks for helping me get this site started. He does great work and took time away from his amazing Cash Music (more on that later) to set me up. I decided I’d rather build slowly, otherwise nothing would get done. So store soon, sounds soon, all as I can.

The Consortium. It changes shape. It’s the nature of the business and the way we play. It’s the nature of what I can support or not. It’s like walking into an elevator full of genius that shifts, allows me to step in and then agrees to step out with me onto whatever floor I choose. It’s a floating ensemble with a brunette prow.

Tomorrow I get to fly across North America sitting next to one of my favourite people and musicians. She’s a private person and as dirty as I feel writing my own meandering “Deep Thoughts“, I wonder if she’ll mind I mention her here. I guess that what this is for, yeah? Joanna is a Jick, a Quasi, an amazing musician. She’s one of the people I turn to for honest and trustworthy feedback on tunes. In 1996 she, along with John Moen, joined me and Scott on a US tour supporting “Strand“. She’s all over “Arches and Aisles” and plays on my new album. I’m excited to drag her up and down I-95 this next week. Along with…

I met Ji Tanzer through Nate Query. I’d decided to return to Portland and record for a day, asked Nate to play bass on the track and to recommend a drummer who had a jazz and rock vocabulary. Golden. Ji’s main drum throne focus is as a member of the Blue Cranes. The only song we’ve recorded together that’s been released is for a tribute to Led Zeppelin. Four Sticks. There are a lot of reasons I’ve decided to step up my music activity, meeting Ji’s one of them. Most of the shows this week are with Blue Cranes so he’ll be doing double duty. He’s a band namer, MC, temporary actor, and amazing drummer. The “i” in his name is a long one.

I’m not really sure how to start this process. Over a year ago a friend of mine said “You should write a blog.” Blog. Such a bad word.  Weblog. I aspire to bringing the “we” back in weblog. “What did you do this morning?” “I scribbled my welog.” We talked about what shape it could take, what I resisted. I’ve been thinking. There are a lot of welogs I read and enjoy, so there has to be a good way to do it. Will see. I’m not a fan of over-sharing, I’m not an incisive writer. I’m not a schooled essayist. Maybe I’ll work on learning the proper essay form. Maybe I’ll turn into an angry old man standing on his front lawn in boxers spraying a hose at passers-by yelling GET OFF MY LAWN. Maybe I’ll turn words foggy glass negative or just slap in my skint Tumblr feed. Maybe I’ll actually update the mofo more often than once a year.  I’m still not sure what shape this will take, or if it will be of any value but am going to try-it-out. Dangling phrases, malapropisms, ellipses (the dots, not the spheres) & fauxsperanto guaranteed.

APRIL 2011 TRENDS

OUT / IN

WAR / PEACE

MEDIA / ACTION

CONSUMPTION / NEED

HOPE / TRAINING*

BARE BRANCHES / BUDS

*courtesy of Jess Vacek

The consortium is teeming with Rebeccas: Gates on guitar, vox, etc., Cole on keys, vox, etc. & then there’s Ji (Tanzer) on drums. His wife Rebecca Sanborn plays in The Blue Cranes and Bastions (US) (as does Ji), and occasionally in the consortium. Occasionally it sounds awkwardly like one is speaking in the third person when one says “I went with Rebecca…”. It does help at times, as most people point out, saying “Well, that will be easy to remember”.