Mending The Moment

mending the moment

that i’m only partly there

while conversations drift off around me

i’m settling in to this

i’m setting the table even with the weight

of my pint glass

like if it wasn’t there

the table would just topple over

and the smooshed carcasses of cigarettes smoked

would stumble onto everyone

the sun peaked out

so then did my arms

so then did the insecurities

that come with them

laughter

is happening in the discussion that is happening

around me

somebody said something funny again

i smile like i know

take a drink from my glass

and watch the table wobble without its weight

30 Days of Music. Day 12: A Song From A Band You Hate

Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings are played way too often around here. I don't understand. Her "soulful" voice seems so put on. The whole act just seems so played out.

The final straw for me with this band is when I heard their atrocious cover of "This Land Is Your Land". Way to suck the entire meaning out of the song. You can listen to it below. But, really, you shouldn't. There are much better things you could do with your time.

Learnings

I’ve only been at this music thing for just over a year. My first gig was in a stairwell at the St. Paul Art Crawl, completely unplugged. Since then I’ve played coffee shops, bars, events, living rooms, festivals – all offering up their own teachings of all things sound. I was never picky. If they didn’t have a PA, I would just bring my amps and plug in the guitar and mic and just play. I wasn’t worried about the mix, never thinking it mattered. I was just a girl with an acoustic guitar, after all. How much mixing did I really need?

Even a gig I played with my drummer at a bar that did not have a sound system, I still just plugged in and played. I’m sure we sounded terrible. I couldn’t hear myself over his drums (and all the conversations happening around me). But still, we played on and I learned some new things.

Harm's Bar, with drums, sans PA.

Last night I played at a coffeehouse that did have a sound system. The venue is big enough where they allow a full drum set; they even have full rock bands play there. But after my set, I’m not sure how they manage that. I couldn’t hear a thing. Maybe it’s because I’m playing an acoustic and it’s just generally quieter. But they had the monitors cranked and I could just barely hear my guitar and since I couldn’t hear it, I knew Shawn couldn’t hear it back there banging away on the drums (and I later confirmed that he couldn’t).

It’s crazy how much not being able to hear everything clearly can affect how you play. You’d think that just knowing your songs is enough. I mean, I play these songs all the time. I know them inside and out. Yet, if I can’t hear my thumb hitting that bass note, then it throws me all off.

I used to be one of those live music watchers that would get so annoyed with the overextended soundcheck. Just play already! It doesn’t have to be perfect! Or giggle at the folk singer asking for “more guitar in the monitor”. Come on, you can’t hear that? It’s you and a guitar. Just play.

Tuning and soundchecking at Acadia.

The first time I saw Dan Bern play was at a coffee shop in St. Paul. His whole set (which was excellent) he kept asking the sound girl over and over to turn the vocals up, turn the guitar down, wait turn the vocals down, turn the other guy’s guitar up, etc, etc. I felt so bad for this girl. I thought, I could never do that. I would just deal with it and move on.

But I wasn’t a musician then, out there playing shows, trying to sound my best so that people want to listen to me and maybe see me again.

I didn’t think Dan was being a dick by asking for those things. I just felt bad for the sound girl.

But, now I understand why he did.

When Shawn steps out from the drums to play electric guitar, it is so important that I can hear his guitar. Otherwise, I don’t know where he is, he doesn’t know where I am and the whole thing is a big mess.

The music sounds different from the stage. Without the monitors, your sound is being projected away from you. Shawn’s guitar is mic’d to go out to the audience, not to me. If the mix in the monitors isn’t right, I can’t hear it at all. Then we aren’t playing together, we’re just kind of up there hitting strings each on our own.

So, last night, I asked twice for “more guitar in the monitor”. I still have to suppress the laughter when I say it as I can’t actually believe I’m saying it. When I realized that it just wasn’t going to get any louder, I played on. It certainly wasn’t my best set, but it was a set and I learned something new.

Set List

-Good

-The Paul Simon Song

-Can’t Even Tell

-The Party

-Good To Know

-Cohabitate

-Here

30 Days of Music. Day 11: A Song From Your Favorite Band

This one was way too easy.

My favorite song of the moment by my favorite band.



I love this version of this song. It gives me shivers and makes my stomach do flip flops.

And, what would The National be without their drummer? My goodness that guy is insanely good.

A Visit From the Goon Squad

I recently finished A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. It had been a while since I picked up a book. I tend to go in spurts. I’ll read 5-6 books in a row, hit a bad one, and not read again for months. Goon Squad was a great book to get me back into the reading spirit.

Each chapter is its own little story – which made it easy to pick up, read a chapter, then go back about your day- yet they all tie together. Each chapter brings a character from the previous one into focus. Maybe you weren’t really paying attention to that secondary character in the background that maybe had a few lines, or was maybe just mentioned off-hand, but maybe you should have as the next chapter could be all about them and how they helped shaped one of the two main characters, Bennie and Sasha.

The book follows the lives of Bennie and Sasha by criss-crossing back and forth throughout their history and future and all the people who’s paths they’ve crossed either individually or together or sometimes without even knowing that they each knew these people. It takes place amongst the seedy world of the music industry and how it can just destroy you in so many different ways. Whether you’re making it, loving it, working in it, or just following around your friends/lovers who are making it, loving it, or working in it.

It left me feeling sad, wistful, a little empty, a little scared for our future, a little wondering what’s it all for. Especially with my recent foray into the music making scene, it’s makes you realize you really need to remember what you’re doing it all for.

I could see a lot of people I know in these characters and it made me sad for them.

Don’t get me wrong, the book isn’t that depressing. I highly recommend you read it. But, this is just what I took from it, which is the beauty of books and art – everyone gets a little something different out of it.

30 Days of Music. Day 10: A Song That Makes You Fall Asleep

Back when I was a teenager and had my own room and my own bed, I would listen to music to fall asleep. Throw my most easy listening albums in the CD player and dream away. It got to the point where I needed that background noise in order to fall asleep. And when I did meet someone and live with them and share a room/bed with them, it was difficult to get used to not having music playing when I went to bed.

My go-to album for sleep time was Sarah McLachlan's Solace. It's about as easy listening as you can get without actually listening to WLTE Light FM. There are no crazy electric guitars, no pounding drums. Just some light and airy vocals over massively produced arrangements of strings, acoustic guitars, pianos, and brush stroked drum beats.

This is the first track off of that album.



Hmmm...I think I'm asleep already.

Lovely Weekend

This was my weekend. It was awesome.

Friday dinner:

Pad Thai at Ruam Mit Thai in St. Paul. The atmosphere leaves a lot to be desired, but the food is ridiculously good. So much so that even after having leftovers for 2 more meals this weekend, I'm going back for lunch today.

Friday night record release show for Adam Svec’s new album Weak in the Waves:

Solid album. You should pick it up.

Saturday night:

We rode the bikes to Art-A-Whirl. Always starts out as a good idea, but then you have to get home. I have a hard time with that.

Especially when this is the weather we were dealing with.

Dinner at the new Psycho Suzi's. It was packed. Service was terrible. Getting a table was nearly impossible. But we did and had a lovely evening out with friends.

Sunday night:

Art-A-Whirl Part 2. First stop: Shuga Records for Party of One....

Then the Fuck Knights...

Then a pit stop at the 331 Club for Zoo Animal...

And then back to Shuga Records for Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles who closed out the event with an upbeat, get everybody dancing set...

...so upbeat that a circle was started with everybody holding hands and dancing in a circle. It was so beautifully spontaneous that I got a little choked up.

Also of note:

-No rapture! Not that I really thought anyone was going anywhere.

-During band practice we began work on another new song. So excited. Also, I might have a bass player soon. Double excited.

-Slept til noon on Saturday and Sunday. That needs to stop happening.