Running on empty

Sitting here watching an old Jools Holland rerun that I tivo'd and one of the guests is Jackson Browne. It's been a while since I've seen a performance so inspiring as when he just played "These Days." It was sobering, really. To hear him sing "These days I seem to think a lot about the things that I forgot to do," and "Don't confront me with my failures, I have not forgotten them," makes me look back over the last decade with a little regret. I think, "did I work hard enough?"

It can be so confusing when you realize the thing you thought you were meant to do, might be holding you back from the rest of your life. How in the world can you cut ties with what you love? I don't think I'm supposed to, but it is sad to see Jackson Browne celebrating a beautiful song that he wrote years ago, and for the first time think, "i might not ever get where I want to go."

I've always had high hopes for me and music. I always thought the the best was still to come. Maybe it is, but this is the first time in my life that I doubt it.

Maybe I should take a lesson from Mr. Browne, "Gotta do what you can to keep your love alive."

more on drums...

I guess it should come as no surprise after writing a blog about musical skill, that I sit here humbled in Blackwatch Studios in Norman, OK. Levi and I made a weekend trip to start work on his new solo record.

For the few of you who have never recorded drums in a studio, the process is simple. Levi records a "scratch track" as a metronome keeps him in time. After that, I sit down and play along to Levi's track and the metronome. Then the engineer, Chad, performs a sort of audio surgery, in which he zeros in on and corrects each beat that is out of time. It turns out that my performance was stuffed with those things.

Chad's extended time fixing my out-of-pocket rhythms certainly put me in my place...which is a good thing. I'd like to work on that area of my drumming, but in the meantime I will console myself by taking a lesson from my last entry.

Art vs Ability

I'm a professional drummer... well, semi-professional. It sounds braggy until my part-time job at Starbucks enters the equation. When I'm not slinging lattes, I can usually be found behind the trap-set in several capacities. I play at churches. I play in bars. I play in studios. I play for punk bands. I play for pop bands. There is nothing I'd rather do than play the drums.

I cross paths with a lot of musicians with different ideas on what makes music "good." Many of them can be found on the wrong side of the battle between Art and Ability. 

People devote their lives learning how to shred like Steve Vai. The drummer for Dave Matthews Band spends most of the song letting you know that he is better than you at the drums.... and for some reason people love it. Unfortunately for these misguided souls, somewhere along the way they forgot that music is not a sport. 

But, those of us who are not so great at our instruments (true story) can breathe a sigh of relief, because music is art. That means Flea can slap his bass guitar until his fingers bleed and the Red Hot Chili Peppers are still bad.

I'm not saying that skill is a bad thing. I'm saying that it's not the most important thing. Ever since the Velvet Underground's debut, musicians have been shaking off the idea that you need skill to make great music. 

From the mom that hums as she sweeps the floor, to the little girl who sits in the back seat of the car and sings a weird, out of tune song, great music is all around us. It's usually not coming from the people we call Virtuosos. Heck, the Beatles were not great players, but they are the fundamental artists of pop music. 

If I want to watch someone with great skill, I will watch Tony Romo throw a football... er, nevermind.

Until then, tune in next time for my take on Art vs Commerce!!!

My ghetto history with technology

When I was a kid, all of my friends had compact disc players, nintendo, cable television, and cordless phones years before I did. I remember the embarrassment when over at a friend's house one day I was asked to put a CD in the player and I put it in upside down.

It's no wonder that I'm just now getting an iphone, but there's a catch: it's not activated, nor will it be. My brother gave me his original iphone when he received his iphone 3GS in the mail the other day. 

I'm not sure how long my pockets will tolerate so much technology with my ipod, normal phone, and now the iphone, be we're going to try to make it work.

I'll keep you updated.... riveting stuff I know.

daniel

Dallas Observer Review

Here's a link to a review I wrote for the Dallas Observer.

For me it's kind of like the first time Radiant played at Trees. I wanted to play there since I was fifteen, and when it finally happened, I was ecstatic. Hopefully there will be more to come.

Daniel

The Plan

Recently, I've decided that I'm going to take my writing to the next level. I'm not sure exactly what that entails, but my short term goal is to get one article published per week. My long term goal is to transition from my job at Starbucks (which has been a terrific place to work) to a serious writing job by 2010.

I'm not sure how this is going to happen. In the meantime I'm hoping you'll see more articles by me in various newspapers and magazines around here. I love you. I'm tired. Goodnight/morning.

Air Review- Concert Review

Air Review might be the best band in town, but there’s a reason you haven’t heard of them. They’ve only played one show. 

Last Friday night, Air Review took their place in a short line of Britpop-inspired Dallas bands as they played in front of a full room at the Curtain Club. I had forgotten that the balconies were lined with Cabe Booth’s brilliant paintings of Dallas’ top bands over the past few decades, which created the perfect atmosphere for Air Review’s first concert. This showcase was an opportunity to prove that they are already just as good as any band up on that wall, and that’s exactly what they did.

As the first few notes were played, it was obvious, these guys aren’t joking around. Each member of the band is a seasoned player, every note was deliberate, and everything down to the lights went according to plan. The arrangements resembled Radiohead’s darker side, while lead singer Doug Hale summoned the energy and drama of Muse’s Matthew Bellamy. This is the first time I have ever seen a band’s first show when every part was so calculated but they still maintained a sense of spontaneity and energy.

There were a few lulls, however. More than once the chatter from the audience was loud enough to match the band during mellow moments like on the intro to “All Because.” But the band always managed to fight back with huge hooks and choruses, often with all five guys shouting their guts out into the microphones, like on “Chasing Corperate,” which is an obvious choice for the first single.

With their next show on June 5 at the House of Blues, and an album release set for sometime this summer, Air Review is already generating a lot of buzz around here.