Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Off to Sweetwater. Great questions today!
  

    
How did you guys get into the Apple Music Store?  

> Great SF bands like Deefhoof and
 BRMC completely bypassed the SF scene on their way to international
 recognition and stardom.


That is interesting...  How did they do that?
  

    
Have a great time at Sweetwater!
  

    
We basically self released our 3 EP's under the Redgummy Records
label, which is just me without a plan. We digitally distribute our
music through IODA (Independent Online Distribution Alliance) which
then services it to Apple iTunes as well as all the other major pay
download services.  They are a great resource for small labels, because
they bundle the music together and are able to get a better rate for
the artists than they could negotiate individually.

I have no idea how those bands pulled that off, other than that they
are super good and deserve the success they have achieved.  
  

    
That's cool, Gabriel, thanks.

A two-sided question:  What frustrates you guys most about the state of 
music these days?  And what makes you happiest about the state of music 
these days;  how are things in excellent or promising shape?
  

    
Hmm...I'm teaching all day tomorrow, so won't be able to get to those
questions in-depth until perhaps the evening...but it'll be good to
think of them all day. 

But I will say that my favorite things about music today are probably
#1: that (unless you're some manufactured artist like In Sync or
whatever) you really have to earn your keep by being a great live band,
because record sales ain't what they used to be. 

And #2: that there is SO much amazing original music going on in this
country right now it's impossible to describe or even to completely
follow. Which brings me to the #1 thing that frustrates me about the
state of music today:

that virtually none of this music can be located on your FM radio
dial, which is owned by Big Brother, or on MTV, which apparently no
longer plays music.
  

    
Gabriel mentioned being influenced by Bob Dylan. Adam just talked
about Big Brother.  I wasn't able to find any lyrics from TLXN online
so it's hard to tell from the CD if you guys are carrying forth that
folk tradition of writing biting lyrics with socially relevant
allusions.  I was so pleased when I heard John Mayer's song "Waiting on
the World to Change" because I thought my own son's generation, your
generation, no longer did the Dylanesque thing:

and when you trust your television 
what you get is what you got 
cause when they own the information, oh 
they can bend it all they want

Can you share one of your stanza's for us that maybe carries on this
tradition?  Gabriel and Brett, since you are the lyricists of the band,
what are your thoughts on sending social messages with your songs??   
 

  
  

    
Gabriel actually went into a poignant diatrabe about this subject last
night on the way to the Sweetwater gig, when talking about the effect
Broken Social Scene has on him. Hope he can share those thoughts here
today. Meanwhile, I have to go teach preschool to Italian kids.
  

    
We're patient!  Have a good teaching day.
  

    
I'm not sure we quite have the biting socially conscious lyrics that
carry on the folk tradition in the vein of Dylan.  (If you click on the
song titles on our website, the lyrics will appear, except for Into
the Fire, but maybe I can get those up today).  The first record is
entirely about a loss of connectedness to the physical earth, so the
consciousness is a bit more spiritual and environmental in nature.  At
the time I was religiously reading Neruda's Stones From the Sky, and
was heavily influenced by his end-of-life grasping for the physical
manifestations and connections to the earth.  #45 is one of my proudest
moments, and I think that lyrically it can hit pretty hard, but it
doesn't bite.  Both Cold Thoughts and Spill the Ink (from Into the
Fire) have a lot of back-at-the-man disgust in them...

"Simple lies we idolize
throwing passions from our lives 
as if they were disease"

...but it's hard for me to pull lines out that are direct enough to
use as examples.  I'm no Dylan, but this conversation has me inspired
to better incorporate my disgust in some current material.
  

    
I just posted the lyrics to Cold Thoughts and Spill the Ink (from ITF)
on our website (just click on the song title) and maybe Brett will do
the same for his two songs from that record as well.  Cold Thoughts is
written to "the man" so you might find a sentiment there that is pretty
direct.  I try to affect change through my music and lyrics a bit
differently than protest singers do though.  It's not as direct, but if
you can stir up someone's emotion properly, their mind will often
wander to the types of places that are systematically buried and
repressed by very calculating practitioners of stupidity (our political
and economic leaders).  This liberation of spirit runs through our
music, and if this spark creates a fire in someone else's soul, then it
can be just as effective as a direct lyrical challenge in the style of
Dylan's Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll or Masters of War.  (ok,
maybe not quite as effective, but we are not followers, we our pioneers
of our own paths).
  

    
>  I just posted the lyrics to Cold Thoughts and Spill the Ink
wow, from my unspoken wish to your website.  thanks!
  

    
<<<<I try to affect change through my music and lyrics a bit
differently than protest singers do though.  It's not as direct, but
if you can stir up someone's emotion properly, their mind will often
wander to the types of places that are systematically buried and
repressed by very calculating practitioners of stupidity (our
political and economic leaders>>>

I'm immediately thinking of Coltrane here. Instrumental protest music.
Or as a more modern example, the absolutely astoundingly powerful
Arcade Fire, whose songs are about rebellion (and inspire the same) but
were virtually devoid of popular culture references until the line
"MTV, what have you done to me?" on their current album.
  

    
>>> Neruda's Stones From the Sky

This is one of my favorite poems!!  Reading evocative poetry like this
can only help your lyrics.  

You guys are in a very enviable spot of being able to share your words
with a wide audience.  (You don't need to be didactic), but may your
lyrics become mantras for positive change.
  

    
Great point about Coltrane.  The Dead were another "protest" band who
rarely had current or obvious references in the lyrics.  "The only war
that matters is the war against the imagination." -- Diane DiPrima

A public service announcement:  TXLN's song "Sympathy," linked on their 
MySpace page, is a really cool song.

A question:  Who are your favorite SF bands and why?  (Mark Kozelek/Sun
Kil Moon utterly rules my world, though Koz is not at his best live and is
probably an utter dick to his million girlfriends.  But still -- the man
is possessed.  Nick Drake meets Crazy Horse in a Tenderloin hotel at 3am.)
  

    


alright ya'll talkin' about "the man".  i'm realizing i write from a
more personal viewpoint.  a pervasive theme about personal
rebellion/revolution.  the experience of the soul held in the body that
runs all over wondering "what the fuck?".  how does the individual
come to terms with the enviornment they're thrust into without being
asked?  what are the highs and lows that measure our stay here?  what,
in retrospect, was meaningful?   

'into the fire' is about someone returning to the city after the city
spit them out.  someone who had been over-run by the extremes of the
urban experience, went away to purge them, then returns and views their
city with an-comfortable clarity.  knowing they're on the edge of
being swallowed once again.

the pursuit of 'the un-defined' is the spirit that drives this
person's passions, sometimes to places not so savory.  also the process
of creativity, idea fishing.  the open ended nature of possibilities. 



into the fire

once kissed, can't come back now. 
twice shy and i don't know how to 
express an inward riot
settin' sail for the the firmament

ferris wheel, helicopter
9 to 5 and the here-there-after
stone skippin' cross a dry lake bed
a thud in the dust

        into the fire
        'cause it's par for the course
        it's just a matter of time
        before you're there on the floor
        i need more
        you'll never fill it up
        it's spilling over the side
        it's goin' over the top

side-step what you should be facin'
fear's on and your heart starts racin'
it's so easy just to blow it off
but everything you resist persists

city-wide degradation
bad vibes, but who knows where from
it's comin at you but it won't let up
back in the fold...

        ...and into the fire
        'cause it's par for the course
        it's just a matter of timing
        before you're there on the floor
        slide it under the door
        so that i can write
        so that i can riot
        signin' off to the night

        
the un-defined
  

    
although not on the recording of 'spill the ink', we do a verse at the
begining of the long instrumental jam.

     parafin
     you know their hearts are sterno red
     the only world we know
     has come a-light and all must pay
     a heavy price
     the price of life in paradise
     if you want to spill the ink
     amplify and consecrate

this speaks to "the man", for sure.  then to the responsibility of the
artist to work with this world in order to create.
  

    
>> The Dead were another "protest" band who
rarely had current or obvious references in the lyrics.

Hunter relished the edges of ambiguity, but I would say that
"Truckin'" was a pretty vivid statement of Big Brother stompin' on the
longhairs. 
  

    
That, "New Speedway Boogie," and "Throwin' Stones" are obvious exceptions, 
but my point was more along the lines of Adam's:  that even free 
improvisation is a form of protest.

> the experience of the soul held in the body that
 runs all over wondering "what the fuck?".  how does the individual
 come to terms with the enviornment they're thrust into without being
 asked?  what are the highs and lows that measure our stay here?  what,
 in retrospect, was meaningful?   


Nicely said.
  

    
Speaking of "the man," if you could recast and redesign the music industry
-- everything from venues to delivery of recorded "product" -- what would
you Build?
  

    
Favorite SF bands? It's really tough with so many current greats, but
I'll name a few absolute favorites off the top of my head: Deerhoof,
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Gris Gris, and Rum Diary (who live in
Cotati, not SF but they're truly magical)

I love Deerhoof because they sound like the more explosive elements of
The Who if interpreted by Blonde Redhead. Greg Saunier is a virtuoso
drummer and their tiny Japanese frontwoman/bassist Satomi is to die
for.

BRMC is a band I love because they play the indie blues. A friend of
mine from the local band Elephone (their 16-year old keyboardist
Sierra, who also fronts Two Seconds) summed up the genius of BRMC
recently when she told me "I love them because they created their own
genre."

Oakland's Gris Gris really can't be explained without a listen to the
"For the Season" album, but they represent a lot of what I love about
the sixties. The genius of frontman/ringleader/boy-genius Greg Ashley
is that (with Gris Gris) he brings to life the What-If of Syd Barret
fronting the Mothers of Invention. It'll freak your shit out.

Rum Diary barely ever play live anymore, supposedly because of in-band
fighting...or so I hear. But just one listen to "Assassins in
Mocassins" and you'll get all googly-eyed and fall for them. And, for
you Deadheads, Rum Diary has two drummers *and* two bassists. U

And some transcendent current bands I *wish* lived in the Bay Area so
I could see them more: Helio Sequence, Black Angels, Midlake

And just FYI: Midlake's first album was basically enjoyable
psychedelic rock and they recently released the undeniably brilliant
follow-up "Trials of Van Occupanther," which is a heavily Fleetwood
Mac-influenced song-cycle (read: masterpiece) based on the fantasy of
being born a man named Roscoe in 1891 who lives with his wife in a
house built by mountaineers. 
  

    
> "Trials of Van Occupanther,"

Heh, I noticed that name at Amoeba (best. music store. on earth.) the 
other day.  Thanks for the great tips, Adam!  I will have to check this 
stuff out.
  

    
The whole reason for asking about lyrics in the vein of Dylan's which
could pierce the  social consciousness, is not that all or even most
songs should protest the "the man," but, more in line with Steve's
question about how the recording industry might be revamped, I would
ask why it is that there are so very, very few mainstream rock stations
that play contemporary songs with lyrics that take us to the edge. 
(Other than Rap), is it that they are not being written by the younger
generation, or is there a subtle form of censorship in play under the
guise of more centralized "program management"? 
  

    
> is it that they are not being written by the younger
 generation

I think there's a more pervasive, but less verbal, rebellion among young
people now -- almost an *emotional* form of protest.  Like DiPrima (again
with the DePrima) told me, the Beat aura of "cool" was not an emotional
bluntedness, but an active refusal to simulate societally dictated ersatz
sentiment.  I think behind a lot of music young people like these days,
there's an affective disobedience, expressed in phrases like "We Were Dead
Before the Ship Even Sank." I'm not that big on Isaac's voice, but 
Modest Mouse certainly delivers with those titles, and Johnny Marr rocks 
-- the Smiths' "How Soon is Now?" is maybe my favorite rock title ever.)
Rebellion a la punk -- a revolution of attitude.
  

    
That emotional form of protest is exactly what Arcade Fire tapped into
with their hugely popular debut album "Funeral." And it's no accident
that they dress much like the London Calling-era Clash onstage. Punk
rock army fatigues. 

I'm also wondering what are the favorite current San Francisco bands
of everyone here who *isn't* in The Love X Nowhere.