I'm a HUGE music junkie, and am always on the lookout for new, weird stuff I've never heard before.

A few months ago, I "discovered" Blip.FM, which is basically "Twitter for Music"; the two services are pretty tightly linked, as "music Blips" can be crossposted directly to Twitter, which serves the dual purposes (for me, anyhow) of giving me access to random music from around the world AND giving me something to do with my mostly dormant Twitter account.

I rarely use Twitter, but I do occasionally go on these music jags.

I'm having one right now, for probably the next half hour or so. So, if you have a Twitter account or a Blip.FM account, weigh in. Music suggestions welcome; Jerwa just turned me onto "Fleet Foxes" which is just amazing music.

I do this irregularly, so if you are into this kind of sort of collaborative DJing stuff, do join me:

On Twitter
On Blip.FM

Originally posted on erictrautmann.vox.com

After the last couple of weeks of solid crunching away on various projects, it was nice to spend a relaxed Sunday with Gabi; generally Sunday is the one day off a week where we're both home, and it is time we jealously guard. Typically, we see if there's a movie playing at the Raymond Theater.

The Raymond Theater dates back to the 1920s, and apparently had fallen into disrepair some years ago. The town purchased the theater, and have hired a local woman and her husband to caretake the facility; the new manager's first job ever was working in the theater, and it is clear that she adores the place, and it is easy to see why.

There are elaborate wall decorations, amazing chandeliers, and these fabulous oak doors with brass fittings; the whole place is still "in progress" but is still making visible progress toward restoration.

Among the renovations are, in this tiny little 200-300 seat theater, a Dolby DTS sound system, a new screen (albeit a very small one); plans are afoot to add a digital projector.

I love this theater, I truly do.

To offset what have to be comparatively meager ticket sales, the theater also rents time out for folks to use the big screen to play -- on one occasion -- a Halo 2 tourney; there's also a bluehair program called "Sunday Afternoon Live," where music acts are brought in.

I'm a minor jazz fan, not a hugely knowledgeable one or anything, but I like a fair range of jazz material.

Imagine my surprise when I walked down Main St. in Raymond and saw on the movie theater marquee, "Pearl Django, Jan. 25."

Pearl Django, if you are not aware, is a Puget Sound-based jazz quintet--a national touring act--that performs "Hot Club"-style jazz, in the same vein as their namesake, Django Reinhardt.

Tickets were a measley ten bucks. So, Gabi and I went out on a date. For jazz. 

I was pleased to see the show more or less sold out--very few empty seats in the theater--though mostly an older crowd.

After a brief, folksy intro from a retired middle school principal, the show began, and for about two hours, the band was just astoundingly good. Perfect volume, wonderful tone, amazing guitar and violin work.

The encore was a bit hokey -- La Vie En Rose -- but the Pearl Django version is quirky, uptempo and not at all saccharine.

All in all, just a terrific afternoon. And, though it usually closed on Sunday, the Chinese restaurant next door to the theater was open to accommodate the turnout for the concert, so we got to check it out for the first time. Great food; Gabi's sweet and sour and crispy chicken combo was extremely tasty, and my szechuan beef was delicious as well.

Rounded out the evening with some badly needed couch cuddle time and bad comedy movies. It is very rare to see Gabi really relax and I tend to treasure those moments.  Hard to imagine a more perfect way to spend a Sunday.

Originally posted on erictrautmann.vox.com

Blues legend Robert Johnson has always been something of an enigma--notably where the cause of his death is concerned--and only two images of him have been made available to the public.

This Vanity Fair story examines a guitar enthusiast who discovered, on eBay, what may be the third Johnson photo--as well as the controversy and mystery surrounding the life and death of arguably the most influential blues artist of all time.

Fascinating stuff.

I've been heads-down on the Vertigo project for the last couple weeks, trying to get a lot of pages in the can before I depart for the frozen Northern wastes I hail from (think Cimmeria, but with more French-Canadian accents).

Work is progressing slower than I'd like, but I'm reasonably happy with the work I've been turning out. The opening scene is fairly complex, despite a seemingly simple set-up, and a lot has to be communicated by ambient background dialogue and character "acting," stuff that generally makes my fearless editor absolutely nuts.

(I fully expect to get the initial note from her that I got on damn near every complex scene I wrote in Checkmate: "I'm not sure that's going to work." Moo hoo ha ha.)

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Also, I'm an IDIOT. I mentioned last week that I'd gotten a new iPod. What I forget to mention, because, as I said, I am an idiot what's got no brains, is that my wife arranged for the purchase of said device. So, yes, BEST. WIFE. EVER. Despite being slammed with work -- and the normal grind of dealing with taxes and bills and whatnot that goes into maintaining both the store and our "civilian" lives -- she took the time out to treat me to the iPod Classic I've been lusting over since it came out.

Week Two with the new device, and I have to say I am quite pleased with how it's working. Every scrap of music I own, plus 100 or so podcasted old radio dramas, a season of BSG, a handful of videos, and a bunch of other crap and it's only half-full.

I'm still re-ripping a bunch of old CDs; when my external drive at home had a massive failure a while back -- thus decimating my complete archive of work from Microsoft -- I also lost my .mp3 library.

Most of it had been backed up elsewhere, but coordinating between two remote computers, one of which is about 8 years old, and completely unconnected to the internet has been, um, challenging.

Started really monkeying with Smart Playlists -- which have been a feature of iTunes for, like, forever -- and I'm starting to really like them. Any iTunes users, feel free to share your Smart Playlist setups in the comments. I'm interested in seeing 'em.

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Jerwa and I had a notion (not even an idea, really) for a sci-fi "thing." Plus we've had a sudden windfall in contact from people at various publishers suitable for such a project. So, that's proven distracting, but an interesting distraction.


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That's about it. Work. Music. Jerwa. Oh, and Greg Rucka is sick, and that makes me sad.

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That is all.

So, my friend and fellow comic-scribe Brandon Jerwa (along with his lovely bride) are members of an electronic music act called SD6.

I'm late to the party on electronic music, though I'm developing a real fondness for it, in large part due to SD6's most-recent album, "Beyond Noise and Transmission." It's moody, atmospheric stuff, and quite excellent.

To that end, I'm gakking this entire post from Jess:

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Jess writes:

It's election season, and sure enough - WE NEED YOUR VOTES! We're up against some heavy hitters here, but with your help we can win the music category in Evening Magazine's Best of Western Washington! You do have to sign up to vote, but we'd REALLY appreciate the support. And remember - a vote for SD6 is a vote for all electronic artists in Western Washington. Plug-in pride, baby!

Just head over to http://best.king5.com/sd6/biz/115898 and click the "vote" button above our photo! It only takes a minute.

If you haven't heard SD6, pay a visit to www.myspace.com/sd6 and listen to tracks from our debut album "Between Noise and Transmission."

To celebrate the nomination (and SD6's unique economic bailout plan) 23db Records is offering the full-length "Between Noise and Transmission" CD for the outstanding price of only $8.00! This offer is available exclusively at http://www.assemblage23.com/store.html#sd6 - just click the link and drop one in your basket!

Thanks in advance for your support! Together, we can make a difference!

www.myspace.com/sd6
www.sd6online.com

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Hit the links, check out the music, and if'n you like it, drop them a vote. Better yet, snag a copy of the discounted album, because it's really, really good and they deserve your attention and support.

That is all.

Ahhhh.

Brand spankin' new 160 gig iPod Classic is currently chugging away. It'll be nice to have something that'll carry ALL of my music on it, allowing me to dump tunes off my laptop.

It's shiny.

Pretty good weekend, all told.

Finished up the vast majority of the first draft (as I'm SURE there will be revisions) to Final Crisis: Resist, which was liberating.

With a brief break, I was able to finally set up the Gabi's birthday present, her Wii. She seems to like it, generally the party games she borrowed from some friends.

I had a pretty sleepless night Saturday night; could not get to sleep, so ended up playing Wii Sports 'til 3:00 or 3:30 am.

(And how pathetic is it that I actually have pulled muscles in my shoulders from nearly an hour straight of Wii Boxing? Jeez.)

Gabi and I actually had a weekend off together, where we got to hang out, putter around the house (which inevitably led to clean up from the water pump which croaked, AGAIN, mildly flooding the basement, AGAIN), watch movies, and generally be all married and stuff. VERY relaxing and invigorating.

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Recently, I've been reconnecting with some old friends from high school (and trying to not be completely despondent that my 20th High School reunion is NEXT YEAR. AGH!) via, of all things, Facebook.

I lost contact with virtually all of my high school friends, save for a couple I've exchanged e-mails with. It's weird getting to know the adult versions of them, but weird in a completely delightful way.

I was fortunate enough as a freshman to be accepted into a large social group of upperclassmen, seniors and juniors mostly; good folks, took me under their collective wing, and managed to tolerate my ... less than polished adolescence. I'd forgotten how much of my personal ethical and moral code was shaped by my friends back then, and it's been most gratifying to see how the old group dynamic has clicked right back into its old groove, as if a day hasn't passed.

We're even contemplating a reunion of sorts (since I'd rather shoot carpet tacks through my scrotum than attend my 20 year reunion; I couldn't stand MOST of the folks I graduated with, with very few exceptions).

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I've also become ridiculously enamored of the show "Scrubs." I'd seen episodes here and there and thought they were funny and generally of high quality, but it wasn't until Frank loaned us seasons 1-5 on DVD that I realized what an amazing show it is.

The Dr. Cox character in particular appeals to me, because I always love a good misanthrope, but good lord what a performance.

The Season 2 episode, "My Screw Up," was just a complete gut-punch. I NEVER get too emotionally affected by movies or TV, but I am unashamed to admit that episode made my cry like a baby; just a masterful script, and a powerhouse performance by John C. McGinley. Had I not watched the series build, it would've been a good and emotional episode. Having watched them all, the sudden reveal of Cox's inner life was just breathtaking.

Possibly the best episode of a network show I've ever seen. I'd kill to deliver an emotional punch like that in my own work.

And whoever the music supervisor on the show is? I wish to send him kittens and wishes, because the music is amazing. I was particularly amused by the use of former Men At Work frontman Colin Hay's tunes showing up in the show, and Hay himself appearing in an episode, playing his song "Overkill."

In fact, here it is. Enjoy.

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And my regular reshuffling of my LJ's layout continues. I actually really like this new layout quite a bit.

Your mileage may vary.

Though here's a question for the peanut gallery:

I've been having a recurring problem with my LJ; the LJ "navigation strip" at the top of the page has, recently, started trying to populate itself, under my userpic, with a popup link for the Yahoo! music player, which I have never used, nor never even tried to access.

Does it in Firefox, Safari, and an IE cludge for Mac.

Turning off the Nav strip works, but is mildly inconvenient, because the "home" link was useful.

Anyone else experience this?

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In health news, my father had a recent health crisis -- the details of which I shall spare you -- which may or may not have been related to his diabetes (he was diagnosed a few years back), and his not taking, strictly speaking, the best care of himself.

My dad has diabetes, my paternal grandmother has diabetes, my maternal grandfather had diabetes, so, it doesn't take a crystal ball to predict that I probably have 4 or 5 years before I end up diagnosed with it.

As a show of support while Dad was recovering, and in anticipation of the inevitable for me, I started heavily altering my diet to something a lot more diabetic friendly.

Chips, soft drink, sugary snacks are just gone now, as of a month or so ago.

Apparently, I'm shedding weight; people have been commenting on it, though I haven't noticed any pronounced physical difference. Still, I've been cooking for myself a lot more, since fast food is pretty much out, and eating a lot more veggies than I generally like, and more or less acclimating myself to the time I'm going to be forced to subsist largely on food I hate.

Not fun, but necessary and I'm pleased that I'm sticking to the diet with very few lapses.




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Now playing: Joshua Radin - Winter
http://foxytunes.com/artist/joshua+radin/track/winter

Moog -- of early synthesizer fame -- has apparently branched out into specialized electric guitars, with infinite sustain and ridiculous muting controls.

Because, of course, I freaking need yet another guitar.

VERY cool.

Bo Diddley died.

Damn.

Another musical hero of mine passes away.

Interesting. My musical tastes seem to be shifting into, of all things, electronic music. I blame Carl; he's the Daft Punk fan.

...today has been far less productive than I'd hoped, and I'm hungry and tired.

Checkmate 21 pages will (hopefully) be done tomorrow.

Also: Happy Birthday (tomorrow) to Tim O'Brien.

Also also: Happy Birthday (today) to Elicia.

Here. Have a barrage of badly connected music. No butt-rock this time, though.

Enjoy! Missed a week, but hopefully I'll have something really neat to post next week.

Ronald Reagan. Skinny ties. Saturday Night Live was still funny. Oliver North. Michael J. Fox. Real Genius.

In upstate New York, right on the Canadian border (where I grew up), music was precious and scarce. There was a local AM station that played the finest Jurassic period "solid gold", "adult contemporary," and, of course, (shudder) the dreaded "country" music that's all the rage these days.

If you wanted anything even remotely "cool," you listened to CHOM 97.7 FM out of Montreal. Great stuff -- lots of classic rock, new wave, and a ton of HORRIBLE English- and French-language material on the "New Music Hour" (hosted by a guy named Claude Rajotte, who sounded sort of like a Quebecois version of the "Higgins" character on Magnum, P.I.).

That guy's accent was, put charitably, impenetrable. And he had HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE taste in music. Except maybe the Blow Monkeys. And, let's face it, the Blow Monkeys? I mean, the BLOW MONKEYS?

You're in luck. I'm feeling nostalgic. Enjoy. (Note: no Blow Monkeys in the playlist below. You're welcome.)

Mostly middle of the road pop-stuff today.

Next week: It Came From The Eighties.

You have been warned.

Testing out yet another online music system.

Here's a blues playlist.

Enjoy. Or don't. But if you could post comments so I can tell if this thing works like I hope it will -- wherein, I can set up playlists and post them here for others to listen to, at no charge -- I'd appreciate it.

Busy as hell, as usual.

Sigh.

On the plus side -- the first milestone in the video game story bible I'm working was hit; of the 50 pages I was supposed to turn in this past weekend, I turned in roughly 71. Nice to have the decks clear for a few days to work on the comics project.

Some websurfing this morning on a quest for music yielded some great treasures, which I commend to your attention:

I'm late to the party on this one, but the Q-Unit mashup album (mixing Queen's Greatest Hits with 50 Cent) is rather significantly entertaining, albeit filled with NSFW naughty language. As was this weird blend of The Beastie Boys' "Intergalactic" with the disco Star Wars medley.

Found some electronica pieces I quite enjoy, especially given my general lack of interest in electronica. One is here, the other here, and I hope you'll try them out.

Harvey Danger released a recent album online for free. I have not yet listened, but, it's Harvey Danger (which is good) and it's free (which is also good).

I have a notion for the first piece to put on Outpost:Remote. Look for it next week.

I suspect O:R will be a twice-a-month sort of place, but also tracks recent del.icio.us links and music tracks I'm monkeying with, so if that sort of thing tickles your fancy, well, it'll be kept live over there.

As always, music links welcome in comments section.

Not sure how exactly this works, but if you're a last.fm user, I suspect you can listen to my "personal radio station," should you have a desire to hear bad eighties pop and a slew of blues.

Let me know what you think, either of the music, or the software.

It seems like, since it's a fairly pricey service, last.fm hasn't been muzzled by the stupid legislation of internet radio.

Anyhow...

Not a ton here, though I've recently migrated my .mp3 collection from home to the 'net-connected computer at the shop, so that'll broaden the selection of available tunes.

Unsurprisingly, very blues heavy. Again. :/



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Recent stuff.

A recent NPR "Fresh Air" installment featured an interview with the band, The Smithereens (probably best known for the radio-friendly 1980-something single "A Girl Like You," which charted reasonably well). The band's latest project is called "Meet the Smithereens," which is, unusually, a painstaking recreation of The Beatles' first US release, "Meet the Beatles."

Some snippets from the album were played, and they sounded promising, so I picked up the album.

What an odd, odd little thing.

On the one hand, it's a reasonably solid series of covers (though Smithereens' lead singer, Pat DiNizio, lacks the vocal range and control of McCartney and/or Lennon). And for the most part, it's an almost note-for-note recreation...

...except for the one or two notes or phrasings here or there that just, well, aren't.

As background music for pop-friendly listeners, it's solid. Not great, not awful. Just solid. Where it falls flat is due largely to the rougher, less-polished vocals on top of some first rate instrument work.

The band just lacks the right quality of sweetness and innocence that made The Beatles The Beatles. The cover of "All My Loving," one of my favorite Beatles tunes, lacks the substance, and the meticulous harmonies, that make the song a pop gem.

On the other hand, the rougher stuff -- "I Saw Her Standing There," and "I Wanna Be Your Man" in particular -- really sounds great. It seems The Smithereens just work better for the seedier material. There's something to be said for knowing one's niche, I guess.

What I find odd is how seriously the album seems to be taken, both by the band itself, and by critics (many of whom should simply know better). It isn't groundbreaking, but, at least in the initial (and sparse) coverage I've seen, it's lauded for the reverent handling of the source material. Weird, considering that The Beatles made themselves famous by taking some familiar riffs and sounds and converting them, through some wild convergence of luck, talent, and timing, into music that has withstood the test of time, true masterpieces of pop sensibility, structure, and harmony.

As a tribute album, it's okay -- but it really smacks of an almost Pop Cultural Necrophilia. "We love this, and must possess it and make it our own," (in a somewhat unsavory way I can't quite define), while, in so doing, they fail to make any relevant or meaningful stamp on the music.

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