Behind the Kit

When I was in the band Dryve I had the experience of touring on what many call the ‘Christian music circuit’ -or the ‘CCM’ (contemporary Christian music) circuit.

Often it was cool, often it was lame and often it was just downright surreal.

For some reason in the Midwest -the ‘bible belt’- as it is often called- the water park seemed to be the hip place to have an all day Christian music festival sort of thing. So I got to play a number of those with some of the big wigs in CCM like Michael W. Smith and Steven Curtis Chapman as the headliners. We in fact played so many of these that when people asked what kind of music we played we began to tell them, “It’s pretty much your average ‘park rock'”.

One day as we were waiting around -which you do A LOT in a band*- for our turn to ‘rock the park’, a nice enough, normal looking, mid to late thirties radio guy came up to a few of us Dryve dudes and said, “Hey would you guys like to do a spot on a local radio station?” Of course we said yes as any promotion is great, so he took us on a long walk past the kids with the giant cotton candy and the dads with the “dc talk’ shirts and the frumpy mid west moms with the 1985 hairdos. (Not that there’s anything wrong with all that…) [continue reading…]

I’ve got two things to say about ‘Black History Month’.

One: Martin Luther King and Thomas Sowell are two of my heroes.

Two: Morgan Freeman speaks the truth-

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” -MLK

Amen Dr. King. So do I.

A composer who soothes my savage inner beast on an almost daily basis is a 16^th century pre-Bach gent named Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. What I love about his music is it is not as demanding a listen as much of Bach’s stuff can be (although hands down Bach is my favorite composer) and it is not stark and sometimes boring as the earlier medievel/Gregorian chants can be.

Like I said, it’s perfect for soothing the beast.

What I find fascinating about much of the work of this era, is the writers considered their work to be entirely an act of devotion to God. As ‘All Music Guide’ contributor James Reel puts it-

“The majority of compositions written through the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance are by people long forgotten, and attribution often remains a problem. In fact, it is not known who was responsible for the foundation works of  Western classical music.”

[continue reading…]

I realize I’m a little late on this but oh well.

So Robert Plant and Alison Krauss won a boatload of Grammys for their record “Raising Sand”. Not that I really care too much about Grammys or Oscars or whatever, but in today’s day and age where music is less and less an ‘us vs. them’, ‘cool vs. uncool’ world, winning a Grammy is no longer considered a sell out. Not that it’s a golden validation of ‘real’ music either, but at the very least it says some group of elitists recognizes something cool is going on. Never mind that past groups of elitists were too stupid to recognize a band called, um…Led Zeppelin? But anyway, their golden wand graced the heads of Plant and Krauss and dubbed them best this and that.

What stands out for me in this, is Plant’s heel dragging on doing the whole Zeppelin reunion thing when the other Zepsters where getting all whiny about his little ‘project’ holding up plans for some massive Zeppelin world conquering tour gone wild.
[continue reading…]

As I posted elsewhere, two of the coolest online music apps are Pandora and Lala. Of the two, Pandora is my favorite as I grow quickly tired of my ten million song personal library.

Pandora just plays stuff for me that I might like according to my station of choice and I am totally cool with that.

There is a glitch though.

If you hear a song you like and give the ‘thumbs up’ sign Pandora thinks you want to hear that song nearly every time you pull up that station. For me, that is not the reason I frequent Pandora, I go there to listen to variety and discover new music -not to hear the same stuff every time.

So here is the key to a better Pandora experience.

Never give ‘thumbs up’ on songs. Only give ‘thumbs down’.

It will listen when you kick a song to the curb but will keep the variety coming if you do not admit you like something.

I hope they work out this glitch someday -perhaps a ‘frequency of play’ sliding scale?

“Jacob wrestled the angel and the angel was overcome.”

I am going to start a series called the “Sunday Wrestle” which will deal with things of the spirit.

Why the Sunday wrestle? Because to deal with the things of the spirit -to truly deal with them -you need to wrestle. It is often a struggle.

Yes, there will be breakthroughs and times of clarity, but oftentimes it is an exertion in one form or another. Everything of worth requires effort and exertion- the toning of the body requires sweat, the sharpening of mind and increase of knowledge requires the discipline of study, growing communication with the ones we love requires uncomfortable confrontations. Anything of value does not come with out struggle of some sort. We wrestle to achieve the goals we desire that which matters to us. Why should things of the spirit be any different?

Let us shed our fat and entitled mindsets that do nothing but promote sloth and move towards a fuller existence.

Who said the abundant life is supposed to come easy?

The Sunday wrestle will be the place these truths are thrown to the mat.

Or, the truths throw us to the mat.

So I just got a new computer update yesterday and as I describe elsewhere -I inhaled deep a fleeting vapor of new digital life.  A momentary glimpse of the great beyond. But as the update completed I felt a void, and wished this whole update obsession could take one step further.
It’s a wish I know can never be fulfilled due to the nature of my mortal coil, but I wish it nonetheless. I wish that, just like my computer software/hardware/firmware updates, there was such a thing as what you could call ‘Life updates’. Or for short –‘Lifedates’.

Yes, every once in a while I would get a little balloon pop up somewhere –perhaps in my bathroom mirror when I am shaving, or in my rear view mirror when I am driving, or on a hand written little note atop my pillow when I lay my head to rest that says “You’ve got a lifedate –PRESS HERE.”

Just imagine, communication in the marriage has been a little rough, you feel like you are not understood and you can’t understand what the spouse is trying to get at, and then there’s the note – ‘You’ve got a communication lifedate press here to download”. So you press, you download and you go broach that uncomfortable subject with the misses and…it just comes out RIGHT. And you FINALLY understand what she is getting at.

Or, the back has been stiff and achy. So you go to the gym, sit down on the machine and there it is- “Lifedate –‘BODY’ press here”. Good bye back ache.

You really want to ask the boss for that raise you think you deserve but you don’t have the kahones to ask for it. Just as the gumption melts away, there it is on your desk- “Lifedate – ‘KAHONES”- press here”. And then you charge right in leaving your boss so impressed he gives you twice what you asked for.

The possibilities are endless.

Maybe someday that warm fuzzy I get will be because that lifedate feels so smooth going down the pipe…

…Or you’ll sound like an idiot. You’ll sound like you don’t know what you’re talking about. And the reality is, if you are slagging these artists in public,  you probably don’t know what you are talking about- especially if you are a musician.

1.    The Beatles

Hands down the number 1 band you can never talk schmack about. Ever. If you don’t get them, read a book about them. Or watch a documentary. It is imperative to know and understand that they were pioneers in modern rock and pop as we now know it.Were they the right thing at the right time? Yes, there was an element of that. But when they had the chance and the time to show what they were really made of they came through with music that still stands the test of time. Never, ever, talk trash about the Beatles. I admit, I talked trash about them until I was…14. Then I got The White Album. And I listened to Helter Skelter. And I listened to it again. And again and again. Now that is some hard rocking -in spite of the low fi production. It possesses the seeds of Punk, Thrash, Metal, Grunge, and a downright ferocious angst. It’s all there. Listen and listen loud. [continue reading…]

I’ll start with the war.

World War II that is. The survival of freedom was a stake. We won. Thank God. We were glad to be alive.

The 50’s were the celebration of that gladness. No need for any cultural movements really. School, houses, prosperity, football games, Grease, sock hops.

There was Elvis of course. He was a precursor of things to come, but still, very much a ‘good time’. With hips to be banned.

Then there was JFK. Young. Handsome. Hot wife. Young people looked to him-looked up to him. Idolized him. Then he was shot. Dead. And with his death there also died much of what young people were looking to. But then…

There came the Beatles. As a young, oblivious punk I used to ask, “What on God’s green Earth was the big  deal about the Beatles?”, as I ignorantly banged my head to ‘real’ music like Zeppelin, AC/DC, The Who, Aerosmith and Queen. I had no clue they were all affected by the Beatles in some way. But they started it-

The mass explosion of Youth Culture.

And then came Vietnam. The death. The lies. The friend getting called to serve and coming home in a box. And then the other friend. And then you. What?! Why?! Because the government is EVIL. It lies. It’s fake. So we retreat into our own world-our own subculture and look to the ‘true’ leaders to show us the way. With some damn good music, by the way. Take us Bob. Take us John, Paul, Ringo and George. YOU carry the torch of truth and light. How can we not follow when the music resonates with our souls, confirming truth? Not to mention with the help of chemicals…

Then the suspicions were CONFIRMED. Dead rock solid confirmed. “I am not a crook”, Nixon said. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight. It is US against THEM. Us against the lying, cheating ‘MAN’. Serve? Never. [continue reading…]