Category: Blog

so, I finished posting that. and I checked my email.

And there’s an email from David Bash, asking if I’d be interested in coming out to do IPO again this year.

IPO is the International Pop Overthrow festival, held every year in LA. I played there two years ago, just after Slumberland came out. I was one acoustic singer-songwriter surrounded by endless power pop bands. The crowd was kind, but I sold nothing, got no sign ups, and clearly was out of place. I had warned him that I wasn’t sure about doing the acoustic thing but he loved my CD and really wanted me to play. It was not good for me, and I was iffy about myself at the time anyway, I had no band and wasn’t really enjoying being the acoustic guy in general.

So it came as no shock when he didn’t invite me back this past year.

What did come as a shock was being asked back again now.

I’m such a different person, and I could do this acoustic, and plan a better, more power-pop friendly show. But god, I would much rather do this show with a band. My band would never travel out to LA to play for free for 20 minutes.

Well, I mean, not many people would, I’m not faulting them for that. 🙂

More on this soon, as it dovetails nicely with ideas that are percolating wildly right now.

So, sixteen hours later and $50 spent I have a Wurlitzer 200A.

The fuller story is this…

I have a show booked on March 23. It was booked back in January, and at the time my band was indeed free. However, since then, my drummer had to bow out due to a history paper he had to give that day in South Carolina and my guitarist is now in New York producing Josh Joplin’s new record. I debated internally for some time about whether I could just do the show without a lead guitarist, meanwhile running through the list of drummers who have played with us before who might be able to help out. But one is about to have a baby any day now, and the other will be back on the road with Michelle Malone by then. Meanwhile, I couldn’t get a response back from my bass player and keyboard player about what sort of rehearsal schedule they could manage.

I began to enter crisis mode. I had an epiphany. So I went out Saturday night to see some friends of mine who are in a band called chain poets. I took them each a CD of the songs that would be played during my set, and asked them if they would be interested in backing me for that show. They seemed excited and agreed. So we’ll start rehearsing soon. It should make for an interesting show, and will, if all goes well, include an ELO cover no one has heard either band do before.

So, I came home from that at 3am. I laid down to try and sleep, and then woke at 5am to leave for Orlando to get the Wurly. It was an eight hour trip down, I slept off and on for about two hours early on. We got there without incident. He works at Lockheed, and judging from the heroic oil painting of him on the foyer he was previously in the air force. His wife immediately disappeared when we arrived, I suppose to go protect her baby from the weird looking interlopers. I bought the Wurly. He had it in his garage (which was immaculate). I don’t think he really had a clue what it was he was selling, although by the end I think he had begun to suspect something was up. He had an offer before me from some guy in Texas who was willing to pay $300 to ship the item (that he was paying $50 for) out his way. But the guy decided to sell it to me, the guy who was willing to drive down immediately from Atlanta to Orlando and buy his $50 electric piano and then drive back home. When we were leaving he actually said, “I guess this is sort of a deal, huh?” I replied, calmly, “yeah, it’s a pretty good deal.”

Yeah. Just today one sold on eBay for close to $800. It’s a pretty good deal.

We finally made it home at midnight. Before I went to bed I hooked the thing up just to test it out again. When I played it at his house I could tell there were some keys out of tune, which I had expected would be the case. But it has a singular new problem, of which I cannot determine the seriousness as of yet. There are about 30 keys (on a keyboard of 64?) that permanently sustain. Which means, if the volume is up or the vibrato is up they begin to slowly feedback. I’m hoping there’s a simple fix for this, but I’m still waiting to find out. The lower keys do make the speakers rattle, which is something I am beginning to suspect must be a common problem.

But still, it sounds beautiful.

I know there are some of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, so here are a few really common examples of this particular Wurly in action:
“I Am the Walrus” by the Beatles
“You’re My Best Friend” by Queen
“One” by Aimee Mann (the song that begins the movie Magnolia)

If that doesn’t clear it up I can offer other examples.

Just an open letter to Michael Greene, President/CEO of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences…

Sir,

If anyone is marginalizing this particular less-established artist out of the music industry, it is not that computer geek chimera you’d prefer I lost sleep over during the night.

It’s you and that industry that you represent that do artists like myself the most harm.

People downloading files and trading music only HELPS an unsigned, struggling artist. Its effect on your bottom line is negligible at best. No matter how much you might try to bowdlerize your facts, it seems clear to me that your biggest fear is that your established artists may come to realize what an anachronism your system is quickly becoming.

Don’t ever pretend to speak on my behalf again.

**********
(The following is a transcript of Michael Greene’s address to the audience at the 44th Annual GRAMMY Awards telecast. Greene is the President/CEO of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences.)

Good evening, and on behalf of the Academy, we hope you are enjoying the 44th Annual GRAMMY Awards. Perhaps at no other time in our history have people so passionately turned to music for comfort, solace and sweet celebration, and this year’s Life Achievement and Trustees Award honorees are indelible reminders of the power of music.

You’re tuned in tonight because you are passionate about music, you’re fans of these great artists. That very special connection between the fan and the artist is an historically important partnership, one which enriches and entertains the public, motivating and sustaining the creator. In recent years, industry consolidation combined with the unbridled advance of the Internet has created a disturbing disconnect in our relationship, and trends say it promises to get worse.

No question the most insidious virus in our midst is the illegal downloading of music on the Net. It goes by many names and its apologists offer a myriad of excuses. This illegal file-sharing and ripping of music files is pervasive, out of control and oh so criminal. Many of the nominees here tonight, especially the new, less-established artists, are in immediate danger of being marginalized out of our business. Ripping is stealing their livelihood one digital file at a time, leaving their musical dreams haplessly snared in this World Wide Web of theft and indifference.

You’ve seen glimpses of kids backstage working on computers throughout the evening and are probably wondering what they’re doing. Well, we asked three college-age students to spend two days with us and download as many music files as possible from easily accessible Web sites. Please say hello to Numair, Stephanie and Ed. In just a couple of days they have downloaded nearly 6,000 songs. That’s three kids, folks. Now multiply that by millions of students and other computer users and the problem comes into sharp focus. Songwriters, singers, musicians, labels, publishers – the entire music food chain is at serious risk. The RIAA estimates that – now listen to this – an astounding 3.6 billion songs are illegally downloaded every month.

This problem won’t be solved in short order. It’s going to require education, leadership from Washington and true diligence to help our fans – that would be you – to embrace this life and death issue and support our artistic community by only downloading your music from legal Web sites. That will ensure that our artists reach even higher and, deservedly, get paid for their inspired work.