Working Title

Category: Misc

Essays, assorted nonsense.

  • Posted

    It’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything, sorry about that. Things have been busy, with not much time for writing. On the work front, I’m starting a new job soon. On the band front, Sun Tunnels is a 4-piece and we’ll be playing at Folklife in a couple of weeks. On other fronts, there is more stuff going on, some of which I’d like to post about. Eventually.

    In the meantime, here’s a picture of our cat being visited by a neighbor cat where they’re staring at each other.

    Birdy and OJ

  • Pinback, Deep Sea Diver, etc.

    I work at a music radio station, possibly the best one there is. I’m not as big a music fan as most everyone there, which is a bit weird what with being a musician and all, but there it is. Actually the two facts are related, as being a songwriter and recordist has ruined me as a music fan, because it’s made it harder to be a passive listener, and/or an active listener not distracted by minutia.

    So actually, working there is perfect, because I hear everything, songs are constantly playing in the background even if I can’t put a name to them. Consequently I’ve developed a process where if I notice something on the air I like enough to look it up on the playlist, and it’s the same band/album/song twice or more, then I’ve found what may become my next thing.

    Sadly, I don’t get into nearly enough next things. End of the year is top ten list time, I’ve got maybe.. Four? I don’t know.

    Regardless, I’ve added at least Grimes this year via the above method, and now Pinback‘s new album Information Retrieved. I’m listening to it now, on vinyl, natch, because our yearly bonus is at a music store and I may as well get the vinyl. Lost Lander was also great this year, but I know that guy and contributed to the Kickstarter so it doesn’t count.

    Grimes - Visions Pinback - Information Retrieved Lost Lander - DRRT

    In almost related news, I saw Deep Sea Diver on Friday at a packed Neumos and they were great. Jessica Dobson is decidedly badass.

    Finally, I had a run of indifferent luck with most of the shows I mentioned in my last post. The Kennewick gig was canceled earlier in the week (for good reasons, butstill), then I had dumb last-minute car trouble and missed my Portland show, and finally Centralia was, uh, how to put it. Not great. I’ll try again, certainly, but it’s real hit or miss there.

    That said, the show at the Copper Gate a couple of Sundays ago was great — many thanks to Kubby Casual for inviting me and then playing drums for my set. After taking so much time off from consistently playing solo I forgot that it’s a lot of ups and downs. I’m remembering now.

  • Fuel efficiency

    Back in high school I placed in some essay competition and got $50 by writing about alternative fuels in cars and what plans for efficiency looked like at the time. It was library research then, and I recall covering things like flywheels and, uh… I forget what else. Hydrogen maybe? I’m a bit surprised now that anyone on a judging panel cared in 1995, when gas was cheap and cars were getting bigger. At any rate, I read this today in Ars Technica, and it’s worth checking out for a look at the state of the art today.

  • I remember this

    I remember this. Has it been ten years already?

  • The New Boss

    Here’s an excellent article by David Lowery of Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker that totally explodes the premise (and promise) of how artists can expect to benefit from digital distribution. His arguments underscore my lately festering opinion that we’re moving to a patronage model of artist compensation, where entities like Kickstarter are going to play a bigger role in funding recordings and tours than album and ticket and shirt sales. The Renaissance is new again, though instead of having single wealthy patron families funding art we’ll have pledge drives from our fans. I’m not sure this is a good model.

    On a related, petulant note, I was having this conversation with a friend recently about how Web technology has pushed past the place where it was fun. That is, in 1999 or so he and I were both inspired by DIY indie pop artists and labels, where the technological barrier to entry (recording, making CDs, websites, zines, etc) was pretty low but was high enough that not everybody did it. It felt more special. Is there anything more pointless in 2012 than making a website?

    At the same time, some of the best music is being made now, precisely because the tech is so ubiquitous. Then again, an album like Rumours would probably never get made today. It’s all very complicated.