my favorite new music site

i may have posted on this before, but i don't care. i love amiestreet.com. it's a fantastic way to discover new music and purchase at a price that rewards experimentation, as songs start at a lower price which increases as popularity and recommendations increase. it also serves as a great means of going deeper into bands' catalogs when they were on indies.

i discovered the hold steady a few years back with "boys & girls in america", and their two previous records, "separation sunday" and "almost killed me" are at amiestreet for about $5-$6 each. want pre-"friend opportunity" music from deerhoof? amiestreet is the place. what's more - there are scores of free tracks and albums to browse and sample.

amazon is a minority investor in this site, which was started by three friends from brown university. nobody knows where online music is going, but for the time being i loves me some amiestreet. enjoy.

justin nozuka is talented ... and has short fans

last week i surprised michele by taking her to the famous belly up tavern in solana beach to see a fairly new singer-songwriter named justin nozuka. michele had seen him on a direct tv concert special and was blown away by him, so i was able to keep the word that he was coming to san diego from her.

usually when i work on some "aww, that's so sweet" type of thing for michele something happens in the process that aggravates or just plain pisses her off, because i'm doing something irrational to keep it a secret and it's not until there's a "reveal" that she puts it all together. this one went remarkably smoothly, and the only way that even guessed that it had to do with live music was that our friend moira showed up at the restaurant we had dinner at before the show.

nozuka is in that john mayer / david gray / jason mraz vein, which i find pleasant if not entirely satisfying. he's got a great voice and a more soulful approach than any of the others i mentioned, which helped me go along with the show much more. his band was good. great guitar / keyboard guy, and a solid rhythm section that i wish could have stretched out some more.

at many, if not most shows, my 6'1" frame gives me a good view of things, and michele has hit or miss experiences. well, this night even michele towered over his adoring and diminutive fans. i'm not sure what that's all about, but it was strikingly obvious and really humorous. so if you're 5' or less, justin nozuka may be the dreamboat singer-songwriter you've been looking for.

recent read: what would google do

i just finished jeff jarvis's new book, what would google do?. it's an insightful study of how google's core principles have re-imagined myriad industries and means of doing things, and jarvis takes time to imagine what other industries would look like if they google-fied themselves. a few themes that were predominant and that make such sense, imho:

- trust your customers and they will trust you: open up information, process and rationale and customers, constituents, etc. will find new ways to utilize things as well as trust you more.
- determine what business you're really in (ex - zappos is not a show selling site but a customer service company), and then build platforms for others to do that.
- do no evil. even with a mind-numbing amount of information about their users, there is a challenge at google to utilize that for good purposes, to leave some money on the table and define what is enough.

there's certainly an almost worshipful tone that jarvis expresses toward google, and about 3/4 of the way through the case studies started to get repetitive, but it all makes great sense and reflects many conversations i've had in the music world, in talks with non-profits and certainly at ys. i also appreciated his quick chapter on the two things you can't google-fy: god and apple.

aside from the business side of this book, the overall study of how people are using resources like google and their suite of products to build creative and commercial outlets is a fascinating look at participative and collaborative trends of connection and expression.

i was given the book to read for a group of marketing folks at zondervan and i've gotten copies for my team at ys as well. certainly a recommended read.

a coffee shop without wi-fi? really?

if i were to open a coffee shop, i have to think that one of the basics, aside from say, coffee and a source for lots of clean, hot water, would be a wi-fi setup for customers. i mean, i'd probably need it for business anyway, but for the $50/month it would cost i have to believe that it would be a sensible investment to find some local customers who would set up shop and more than pay for the investment.

so surprise when, early this morning when i needed to find a space for an hour or so, the new shop that opened 3 blocks from my house has no wi-fi at all. and this isn't some neo-luddite, principled stance, they just had not even thought of it, and i think they looked at me like i was an alien when i asked.

shame, because it's a nice little spot, super-convenient and i don't need change to fee a meter, but for now they have ceded the space for my business to other, less convenient places.

it was good to jar me into asking what basic expectations i have of sites, businesses, etc. and whether or not my role in them (ys, specifically) is helping to exceed those expectations. well, at least that's what i was thinking of as i drove away.

pillow fight!

i just read about the nashville group, "optimist manifesto", and the public pillow fight they staged last week in centennial park. unfortunately this grass roots gathering to have public fun in the midst of such ongoing bad news was shut down mid-stream, as the group had apparently not secured the proper permits. with all due respect to public officials, this seems like the kind of thing that should have been allowed to go on for the sheer good will of it all. here's a fun and nicely edited video piece of the goings-on:

obama is being called the "first internet president", and something that struck me today in thinking about that was the correlation between the way that bush's administration operated (and how mccain campaigned), and how the music industry has shifted during that presidency.

you see, music has shifted almost entirely to a pull economy, from what was historically a push economy. no longer do music lovers have to sift through what the more powerful components push to radio stations or video channels. we go out and find what we like, engage with it and go deep if we really like it. anything else rolls off like water on a duck's back. the popularity of gift cards for itunes and the post-christmas digital rush shows that no longer are people accepting the blockbuster releases that well-meaning family and friends give them on cd. instead, we get gift cards, load up our account and get what we want, how we want.

the bush presidency and mccain campaigns ran like old-school, push-delivery media. control the message, control the information, control the campaign workers and volunteers and believe that they actually get to set the tone and pace of the campaign. obama, in contrast, spent a great amount of time distributing the campaign info to passionate volunteers, and the listened to them when they communicated what was working and what wasn't. what's more, they then had those volunteers go find others and train them, allowing for greater involvement of people, not just in numbers, but in ideas.

for a fascinating view on this, read zack exley's article here

what really strikes me about this is the sense that trust and confidence have been placed with the quality of ideas, of music, of content. if a band can make a connection and keep an audience engaged, they have to place a certain amount of trust that those fans will stay with them, which offers far more freedom than relying on the music being given as a gift and the end listener not having any investment in them. similarly, for a candidate to do things like let their supporters run with ideas and tactics when all history says that they should control the message is astonishing.

the implications of this across so many areas are huge, and while it is disruptive, destabilizing and downright terrifying for some, it is a signal of things to come, and i embrace that. best of luck, mr. president-elect - thanks for trusting us.

12 Days a capella

I just found this clip of the group Straight No Chaser, an a capella group at Indiana University. Great stuff. When my friend Brad was at IU he clued me in to an annual musical extravaganza called IU Sing. Brad arranged an a capella medley of Def Leppard songs for his fraternity. Enjoy this one.

Adrian Legg: mild mannered guitar savant

Virtuosity is a rare thing that surfaces in unique places. In the fall of 1988 I spent a semester abroad in Cambridge, England, and while there I picked up a music magazine that reviewed an album called Guitars And Other Cathedrals by a guy named Adrian Legg. The review raved about his flexibility of style, attention to melody as well as outright speed when necessary. I immediately went to the record shop and snagged a cassette. It opened my eyes and ears to a type of guitar playing I'd never even considered, and the record remains a favorite. By the way, the US version didn't release until 1990 and had a horrible cover compared to the original UK version.

Just yesterday I found the clip embedded here of a beautiful piece from that record. I saw Adrian Legg play in Nashville about 10-11 years ago at the Bluebird Cafe and he was amazing, endearing and wholly inspiring. I'm not sure who the Brad Jones guy in the leather hat is on the tail end of the clip, but I'm glad to be able to spread the love about Adrian Legg. Enjoy.

R.I.P. Hilly

While most cities have their own musical epicenter clubs, it's hard to think of many other venues in the US that have had such an impact on modern music as CBGB. The Roxy and Troubador in LA had their own scenes, and of course the Fillmore in SF did great things. And while CB's glory faded over the years, the impact and inspiration it continues to provide is not replicable anywhere these days. I still remember NEEDING to go by there on my first visit to NYC in 1989 - just to take a look at this crappy little place that launched a thousand bands.


Hilly Kristal, whose dank Bowery rock club CBGB served as the birthplace of the punk rock movement and a launching pad for bands like the Ramones, Blondie and the Talking Heads, has died. He was 75.
Kristal, who lost a bitter fight last year to stop the club's eviction from its home of 33 years, died Tuesday at Cabrini Hospital after a battle with lung cancer, his son Mark Dana Kristal said Wednesday.
Last October, as the club headed toward its final show with Patti Smith, Kristal was using a cane to get around and showing the effects of his cancer treatment. He was hoping to open a Las Vegas incarnation of the infamous venue that opened in 1973.
"He created a club that started on a small, out-of-the-way skid row, and saw it go around the world," said Lenny Kaye, a longtime member of the Patti Smith Group. "Everywhere you travel around the world, you saw somebody wearing a CBGB T-shirt."
While the club's glory days were long past when it shut down, its name transcended the venue and become synonymous with the three-chord trash of punk and its influence on generations of musicians worldwide.
The club also became a brand name for a line of clothing and accessories, even guitar straps; its store, CBGB Fashions, was moved a few blocks away from the original club, but remained open.
"I'm thinking about tomorrow and the next day and the next day, and going on to do more with CBGB's," Kristal told The Associated Press last October.
Kristal started the club in 1973 with the hope of making it a mecca of country, bluegrass and blues, called CBGB & OMFUG, for "Other Music For Uplifting Gourmandisers," but found few bands to book. It instead became the epicenter of the mid-1970s punk movement.
"There was never gourmet food, and there was never country bluegrass,'' his son said Wednesday. Besides the Ramones and the Talking Heads, many of the other sonically defiant bands that found frenzied crowds at CBGB during those years became legendary, including Smith, Blondie and Television.
Smith said at the venue's last show that Kristal "was our champion and in those days, there were very few."
Throughout the years, CBGB had rented its space from the building's owner, the Bowery Residents' Committee, an agency that houses homeless people.
In the early 2000s, a feud broke out when the committee went to court to collect more than $300,000 in back rent from the club, then later successfully sought to evict it. By the time it closed, CBGB had become part museum and part barroom.
At the club's boarded-up storefront Wednesday morning, fans left a dozen candles, two bunches of flowers and a foam rubber baseball bat, an apparent tribute to the Ramones' classic "Beat on the Brat." A spray-painted message read: "RIP Hilly, we'll miss you, thank you."
Other survivors include his wife, Karen, and daughter, Lisa. -- Associated Press

Neutralizing Al-Qaeda | a Letter from Kamp Krusty

Saw this brilliant poston a friend's site and had to do my own little part in spreading it around.

ht to Jim Hancock for this awesome post.

366 Days Until I'm 40

Today I turn 39. Half of the time that makes sense, the other half makes me feel that there must be a mistake! I mean, when I go to see bands I usually feel like the oldest person in the room. At least half of my peers have no idea what I'm talking about when I talk music, movies, actors, web sites, etc. But then I talk with the majority of my co-workers, most of whom are under 30, and it comes into focus. Clinton era and prior political commentary, SST, 4AD and Twin Tone Records band are obscurred, and references from Caddyshack, Bachelor Party, Fletch and a hundred other places are met with blank stares. It all makes sense, of course. I laugh when I think of the marriage pact I made with a friend in high school - you know, the one where if you both reach a certain age and aren't married you'll go ahead and seal the deal. That was if we reached 30. Had I not met Michele I'm fairly convinced I'd still be single and trying to convince myself I'm not 39.

But as I type, the Cubs are in 1st place, it's raining for the first time in weeks (music be because I watered the lawn for the first time all summer) and I'm still in the "shiny-new-toy" phase of admiring my new tattoo - pics included here. It was done 2 weeks ago by Jason Longtin at Deluxe Tattoo in Chicago. He did a fantastic job and I couldn'tbe happier. It's a design drawn by Captain Bret at Captain Bret's in Newport, RI. The snake in Celtic art represents rebirth, and the peacock represents purity. I got these to represent my feelings about and hopes for Sydney and Max. Each of them has made me feel like I have been given new life in some way. And I wish for them purity - in their thoughts, their actions, their words, their intentions and the way they live their lives.

So that's where I am as the clock prepares to turn and start my birthday. All the best and peace to you.
dp

Dick Cheney Was Correct

OK, so it's been all over the news, but still, this 1994 clip of VP Cheney explaining why it was the right decision not to continue on to Baghdad in Gulf War 1 is stunning in its foresight, and horrific in accuracy as to where we find ourselves today. Talk show guests have said, "but that was pre-9/11", ignoring, of course, that Iraq wasn't involved in 9/11 (our Saudia Arabian friends have the most engagement there).

10,000 secrets

Check out this cool ad for the book POST SECRET. It's a book by the guy that invited people to send in their own personal secrets. He received thousands upon thousands of submissions, and the fragility, honesty and emotion is astounding, imho. It's amazing to see just what sort of things came in to a complete stranger - people obviously feeling more comfortable sending these to someone they don't know. While I'm sure that some folks had friends or family they could tell, and that many of the things were secrets only in their unspokeness, it's a powerful testament to the power of confession.

Oh yeah - the music is "Breathe Me" by Sia, a fantastic artist in her own right as well as with the ultra-cool electronica collective Zero 7.

Whiter? Brighter?

Today I begin to test the new Listerine White Strips to see if I can get any of the youthful, alabaster glow of my teeth to return to the surface. A few things about this experiment:

1) FULL DISCLOSURE: I received the strips as part of a word of mouth marketing campaign that Listerine is running through BzzAgent.com. It's a volunteer marketing company and I've been involved in one other campaign that they've worked on - a business book. I'm not sure if I helped them on that, and it was several years ago.
2) If it doesn't work you'll know and see it.

I'm going to post a picture each day of what my chompers look like and see if the week long trial makes any difference. The first hesitation I've had with these things is whether they cause pain as they strip the enamel off of the teeth (or if that's even how they work). I'm pleased to say that one dose in, there is no pain. The strips are clear and they really don't show up much.

I also feared horrible taste, though the Listerine brand made me think that at least I might get an overlypowerful mediciney mint taste. Neither proved true. They really don't taste like anything, but I know there's something there. Something not quite bland or bereft of flavor, but nothing I can pin down. Maybe paper, but without the advantage of being able to make spit balls.

Anyway - picture #1 will be added to the post when I get home tonight and I'll update daily. What fun my blog is! "Watch my coffee affected teeth get incrementally lighter! Hot damn!"

Alternate Kanye

Check out the new Kanye West video for "Can't Tell Me Nothing" by comedian Zach Galifianakis , who has, apparently, also done alternate clips for Fiona Apple and Anita Baker. Appearing with him in the clip is indie rock guy Will Oldham. Go Kanye!

Now this is dining in high style

Now this looks like an insane dining experience. Hoisted on a crane 50 meters (164 feet) in the air, seat-belted into the table. I'm not sure what the menu looks like, but the experience must be amazing. I showed Michele the site and she said, "if you ever want to have me die of a heart attack, take me to dinner there. Of course the $8,000 Euro price tag might be an impediment as well.

Our most amazing meal was for our 10th anniversary last year when we visited MOTO, an engineered food restaurant that has to be experienced to be believed. Truly fantastic.

The iTunes Shuffle Challenge

OK, so I'm taking up my friend Marko's challenge - list the first 15 songs in iTunes Shuffle mode - no cheating to make things look cooler. Here we go:

1. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, by U2 from The Joshua Tree
2. Illumine, by Venus Hum from their self-titled album
3. If I Was Your Girlfriend, by Prince, from The Hits/The B-Sides
4. Highway Song, by James Taylor from Mud Slide Slim And The Blue Horizon
5. In A Sweater Poorly Knit, by mewithoutyou from Brother, Sister
6. Now In This Hush, by The Innocence Mission from Umbrella
7. Crazy Beat, by Blur from Think Tank
8. Mary's Boy, by Alathea from their new CD, My Roots Go Deeper Available July 3rd - go get it!
9. And I'm Free, by Judson Spence from his as-yet unreleased and untitled CD
10. S.O.U.L. by Slum Village from Trinity (Past, Present and Future)
11. Just A Test, by The Beastie Boys from Hello Nasty
12. The Rooster, by Big Boi from Speakerboxxx
13. John TheRevelator, by The Dirty Dozen Brass Band from Funeral For A Friend
14. Flesh And Blood, by Solomon Burke from Don't Give Up On Me
15. Come As You Are, by Nirvana from MTV Unplugged
and out of moral duty I will list:
16. Back Together, by Lewis Taylor from Stoned (the title track is one of my favorite songs of the past 2 years)


And for reference I'll list Marko's playlist as well - a nice, diverse list. I commend Marko for not cheating with the Creed inclusion:)

a couple weeks ago i was tagged by stacy for an itunes shuffle meme. first 15 songs on shuffle mode (with a no cheating commandment). here’s mine:

1. alegrias, by pepe romero, from the album viva guitar, vol. 4
2. christmas time is here, by vince guaraldi, from the album greatest hits
3. over the rainbow, by ray charles and johnny mathis, from the album genius loves company
4. tears in the rain, by joe satriani, from the album the extremist
5. call me when you’re sober, by evanescence, from the album the open door
6. atmosphere, by tobymac, from the album welcome to diverse city
7. burn in hart, by danielson, from the album a prayer for every hour
8. missing link, by squirrel nut zippers, from the album bedlam ballroom
9. they came to die, by lisa gerrard, from the album whale rider soundtrack
10. say i, by creed, from the album human clay
11. can you be true?, by elvis costello, from the album north
12. da funk, by daft punk, from the album homework
13. jokerman, by bob dylan, from the album greatest hits, vol. 3
14. please don’t talk about murder while i’m eating, by ben harper, from the album both sides of the gun
15. overcoming lies, by jeff johnson, from the album a thin silence

so, there you have it! i’ll tag tash mcgill (get a little kiwi in the mix), dave palmer (ooh, a ccm exec who doesn’t listen to ccm), damien o’farrell, and christian dashiell.

Amazing public art

Discovered this public art project in Liverpool. An egg-shaped hole cut out of a building and fixed on a pivot so that the outside of the building can rotate and become the inside, and vice versa. Amazing visual and fantastic engineering. An article on the project is found here and if you scroll to the bottom you'll find a downloadable video of the piece making the full 360 degree turn.

Ninja Warrior! Thanks G4 TV

Like many people, I get into a flow of what TV channels I even surf by. I have my surfing pattern down pretty well, but several weeks back I happened upon the channel G4. And while I initially signed on for their reruns of the brilliant Arrested Development, what I find myself really into lately is the bizarre and captivating Ninja Warrior. What initially seemed like a localized competition in Japan has surprised me with the appearance of international athletes, olympians and more. For anyone who liked the ridiculously hyped American Gladiator, this is one step beyond. Hail Ninja Warrior!

Ninja Warrior! Thanks G4 TV

Like many people, I get into a flow of what TV channels I even surf by. I have my surfing pattern down pretty well, but several weeks back I happened upon the channel G4. And while I initially signed on for their reruns of the brilliant Arrested Development, what I find myself really into lately is the bizarre and captivating Ninja Warrior. What initially seemed like a localized competition in Japan has surprised me with the appearance of international athletes, olympians and more. For anyone who liked the ridiculously hyped American Gladiator, this is one step beyond. Hail Ninja Warrior!