So, if y’all didn’t know, I recently attended the first-ever Minneapolis Indie Expo (MIX), and boy-howdy was it a totally great time!
It was my first-ever tabling experience, too, so I guess it was a double-trouble good place to go. I couldn’t have asked for better table-mates, too, what with Ben Bertin and Lale Westvind being so great and talented and all!
I think it went pretty well. While I don’t have any prior experience with tabling, so I don’t have any experience to base it on, I feel totally satisfied with how it went. I sold a slew of Low Sparks, at least one of every other book I had for sale, then made some phat trades, met some phat people, had a phat time! It was great. I’m sure I’ll post some of the photos I find around soon. I’ll let you know.
But now! Here are some of the far-out books I got! (I also got a T-shirt from Jeremy Tinder,) but I don’t have a picture of it, cha).
I seem to be the only person who hadn’t read this one already, but I’m sure glad I have now! I traded a Low Spark (and a Cyber Winter, too, I think) with a fellow at Sparkplug Books for this gem, a most far-out trade if you ask me.
Oh Boy, Comics! by Neil Brideau.
A new compilation by Neil, a fine chap, who was on the megabus back with all of us (and also Sam Sharpe and Aaron Reiner, no less!) This is a fine-looking book with a great cover, and a trade I made that’s worth it for the “Laundry” comic within by faar. Check it out sometime!
Poo and These Yams Are Delicious by Sam Sharpe.
A one-two punch of great comics here from Sam Sharpe, another stellar guy (Man, maybe every comics artist is stellar. Or maybe I’m good at meeting the stellar ones?). Poo has a slew of great gag comics, and Yams is a really great and funny sci-fi story. Totally great!
Errand Service by Will Dinski.
This one is put together so well, and has such a great story! This might be my fave acquisition (Ferengi much?) from the day. It was so good I went and gave him a Low Spark in thanks. He’s also really nice. (duh).
These are all pretty meager descriptions of some fine work all around. I’m just still very excited by how great the whole weekend went, really. I think I’m definitely going to make the ‘con circuit next year, I felt so great about the whole experience. See you then!
P.S. Oh, and Minneapolis, WAY TO GO for being such a great town filled with lovely people!
Sometimes, really. It may seem like I’ve been doing nothing, like this site is an old one, one you’d find by accident, check the dates and maybe feel a twinge of sadness.
Well, I assure you that’s not the case. I do, in my defense, post things often to my Tumblr, and while that’s not very professional (or whatever), if you’re wondering how I’m feeling at any particular moment about David Bowie, then you should still read it.
But I am doing things, I swear. Even music, now! Music is the hardest things to keep up with since graduation. During school, it was the pipe-dream of “what if,” you know? A thing to do in my spare time that could end up being my real outlet in life, maybe even a career!
Which isn’t to say I still believe those things. It’s still a dream, maybe even a goal. But, when school was replaced by “a job” (and what I have as one barely counts, productively speaking), my “free time” is now taken up by my “work.” So I have to choose what I work on in my free time. And, sad to say, it has to be the “work” that is more likely to “pay the bills.” And, sadder to say, music has less chance of doing that than comics and other drawing does (it doesn’t actually do that either).
But! I still work, still consider myself a musician, still am working on albums. Number five is coming along, slowly, but maybe a little more surely. And here’s a little taste of it— something old made new, no less!
“Let’s go,” Prince declares on “Bonus Track #77.” It’s followed by total silence: the end of the album. So where are we going, then? It’s almost certainly giving him too much credit to be this smart and self-aware, but the answer is right there: we’re going nowhere.
It’s safe to say at this point that Prince’s 2000’s comeback, that started with “Musicology” and hit its peak with “3121″, is over. His latest album, “20Ten,” if remembered at all in his once-unflappable canon, will most likely be remembered as the album where Prince declared the internet as “over.” It was a silly remark, one that made it’s rounds in internet memes and tumblr posts, but even then, didn’t make much of a splash. It was just more nonsense coming from Prince, more of the same, more of his increasingly predictable jabber.
“20Ten” is an album that reflects this “more of the same” attitude that a new Prince album radiates, but steers that reflection in an admittedly surprising way. When (and if) people listened to “MPL5OUND” and heard that he was using his old drum machines and synths again, they were confused by his willingness to look back and scratched their heads at the reasoning behind it. Was it a cash-in to the old glory days at the top of the charts? Was it a joke? A shameless bid to His Purple Majesty’s Nostalgic Side?
What no one could have expected was that “MPL5OUND” was actually the sign of Prince’s next move. “20Ten” takes the retreading of retro drum/synth and runs far off into the mountains with it, leaving us with an album that tries excruciatingly hard to sound like it was made in 1981.
“20Ten” takes “MPL5OUND”’s retro-activity and leaps it into the next level, removing almost any traces of modernity to the sound. Prince has even produced it to sound much more raw than his oily-slick last few albums. The lack of sheen, instead of adding a sense of urgency to the songs (like it did on “Dirty Mind,” an album that, sad to say, is “20Ten’s” best companion piece), makes them sound empty and incomplete.
Another difference between Prince’s 80s sound and this mess is his choice of sound. Prince’s early albums had their energy because of his careful choice of instrumentation, often steering away from the more cheesy or kitschy sounding synth noises of the time unless they distinctly applied to an aside or a joke he was making in the song. Prince’s early albums were strokes of genius for their melding of loose-sounding grooves disguising a very well-woven song.
Of course, the other thing missing from “20Ten” is the tight composition that made his older songs so danceable (or at the very least, listenable). Prince has been getting looser in his jams for years, but they were more fitting to the slow-adult-contempo-jazz numbers he was working with. Applying that looseness to these new retro-jams makes them all plod along at dirge-like speed.
“Beginning Endlessly,” personifies almost all of the problems with “20Ten.” It’s a song begging to be played fast, but here on the record it sounds like it’s played through molasses. Prince further derails it by adding auto-tune and the worst kind of “I’m writing a techno song” kind of sounds on top of it. Then, to top it off, the increasingly boring slog stretches out to almost six minutes. Where is the restraint?
That last question is one that keeps cropping up when listening to “20Ten.” Prince’s older songs often were quite lengthy, like the album cuts of “Controversy” or “1999,” but they were content to stay on a similar groove for most of their seven-plus minutes. On “20Ten,” it sounds like Prince is getting bored with his own songs, and chooses to add more and more and splice in another movement here and add twelve more choruses there, so on and so on— by the end of each and every song, you don’t even know what you’re listening to anymore.
All that said, it just proves the point that when Prince keeps the songs short, they shine (however dimly). “Sticky Like Glue” has a tight groove, well-placed harmonies and a head-bopping and catchy chorus, and a manageable length. Of course, Prince then throws an inane rap on top of it, ranting about going to see a movie with a girl but not really watching it. I’m sure he means because they were kissing, but his delivery makes it seem more like he went to see Avatar and forgot his 3D glasses.
“Lavaux” and “Everybody Loves Me” are as close as he gets to achieving the compositional prowess of his earlier work. Prince was always at his best when you had to remind yourself that it was often only one man playing every single instrument. Most of “20Ten” sounds like Prince is performing the album by himself in his fur-lined basement, and didn’t bother to do any second takes if he missed the beat. “Lavaux” is pleasant and danceable, but he’s not really saying anything. “Everybody Loves Me” really does manage to sound like an outtake from “Controversy,” but the kind that gets buried on the lowest-grade bootleg.
It seems virtually impossible to divorce discussion of “20Ten” to his older works. It inevitably happens whenever he releases a new album, and similar to the constant tag on new Bowie albums of “his best since Scary Monsters,” every Prince album since “Purple Rain” has either “his best since Purple Rain” on it, or just “New Prince Album. Again.”
Yet this time, Prince is driving the comparison into our faces. He’s using all his old sounds, all his old tricks, and barely even trying to make them sound fresh. What does it mean that Prince, once upon a time the most impressive innovator in popular music, is now looking back so ardently? It’s difficult to say what is more depressing: that Prince is finally out of ideas, or that he’s fully put himself in “American Life” territory with terrible “raps” about ordinary things (for rich people) and declaring himself “The Purple Yoda.” The Purple Yoda? What does that even mean? That he’s 900 years old? That he’s a puppet?
And he ends his worst album yet with the words “Let’s Go.” And after trying to listen to this fan-baiting mess for a second time, I think I know where we’re going: to sleep.
So, it’s been a while since a post. This is a drag! Especially since there have been many things happening!
First off, earlier in the month I (and a fantastic companion) visited Toronto. Toronto is an absolutely wonderful and beautiful town, and I heartily recommend you to go there, all of you (grammar much?) Anyways, whilst there I went to The Beguiling, which is an absolutely amazing comic shop!!! While there, I managed to sell them a few copies of Cyber Winter and Good-Bye The Pig, so now, if you are in Canada, it is that much easier to get my comics!!! :D
Later in the month, the Comics Symposium of Chicago took place, and I must say it was a runaway success! I participated in a panel with Joey Jacks, Sarah Becan, and Anders Nilsen, moderated by Jeremy Tinder. WOW! I think it went well, and I heard that it’s going to be podcasted or some sort of “you can hear it” thing, so I’ll keep you posted.
Lastly, the newest issue of SAIC’s Xerox Candy Bar comics anthology is out, and I contributed a one-pager foldy zine to it. If you attend SAIC, you probably already have it, and if you don’t, sneak in and try to steal one. My one-pager is called “Getting To Know You Better,” and I may post it online here in the near future.
As for me? I’m fine. Working hard/hardly working. (I am penciling page 105 of Birds & Wolves, and have inked up to 101. Those are incredibly large numbers.)
Oh, yeah! Got a show coming up. April 16th, I believe, at the Happy Dog Gallery: 1542 N. Milwaukee Avenue Chicago, IL 60622. I’ll keep you posted.
Here, two weeks after the fact, is my personal faves of the last year. It’s the songs from last year, rather than the songs I listened to the most then (they’d be different lists). Naturally, there’s some omissions, because I don’t want to go too nuts with y’all. I’ve appended youtube videos with the songs, but I’m choosing this list for the music, not any visual accompaniment.
1. St. Vincent- The Strangers
There was a lot to love on “Actor,” but this song’s got what I want. It’s something about that “prettily sung but actually real dark” vibe, and the repeated line of “paint the black hole blacker” works in a way I could never understand.
2. Beirut- On a Bayonet
Funny maybe, that I choose the instrumental from “March of the Zapotec,” and also that I didn’t choose something from the better half of that album, the electro-pop “Holland,” but this little piece just has a charm and depth that’s kind of incredible for it’s minute and a half.
3. YACHT- Psychic City
This summer was certainly the summer of YACHT for me, with it all peaking at their Fantastic show at the Empty Bottle. There were a few stellar candidates for “Summer Jam,” with this one nearest to the top.
4. Animal Collective- Guy’s Eyes
It was obvious Merriweather Post Pavilion was going to be everyone’s favorite this year, but oddly enough it just didn’t hold up for me. It lost it’s personal importance to me after less than a month, which was pretty strange. It’s not that the songs weren’t great (they were!), so I don’t know whaat it was. In any case, my favorite was definitely this one.
5. Julian Casablancas- 11th Dimension
I wouldn’t have thought this song would be so great, but it totally is, and it is totally also Todd Rundgren for the new millenium (which is probably why I like it so much).
6. Fever Ray- I’m Not Done
I could have chosen any song from Fever Ray’s album, but I went with this one. That incessant beat drives right through my heart, won’t let up, then seals the deal with those close-mic’d strings at the end. But that’s a terrible explanation of how great and haunting this song is. I’ll leave it up to the line “how do you say you’re sorry, and there’s nothing to be afraid of.” What.
7. Neko Case- This Tornado Loves You
One liner— a love song from the perspective of a tornado!
8. Atlas Sound- Walkabout
I loved this song from the moment I first heard the crappy bootleg of some show somewhere. The quality was terrible, but I still listened to it over and over. This jam was that good. Another candidate for “Summer Jam,” obvi.
9. Dirty Projectors- Stillness Is The Move
BAM. If you needed any more reason to love this band after Rise Above (I didn’t), Bitte Orca delivered. ON EVERY TRACK.
10. Pains of Being Pure At Heart- Stay Alive
An easy-to-like “epic song,” which seems deliberately written to be “epic,” but they’ve done their homework, and hit all the right notes.
11. Smith Westerns- Imagine, Pt. 3
Hey, did you guys know? I worked at an ice cream store this summer with the lead guitarist from this band! I was so jealous. Especially when I heard this song.
12. Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Soft Shock
At first, I hated “It’s Blitz!” Then, pretty soon afterwards, I loved it completely. Naturally, I will choose the slowest (second slowest? third?) jam on the album. Why am I using the word “Jam” so much? Ugh.
13. Pool Holograph- Fireworked Beach
Sadly, I can’t find a youtube video of this fan-tastic song by my friend Wyatt. But trust me, it’s a winner. I assume the song I mean to show you is five-ish minutes in, but you certainly don’t have to skip to it!
14. Grizzly Bear- Two Weeks
Veckatimest was an odd album, because every song on it was golden, yet it was hard to listen to as a whole (I am the only person who thought that). I was discussing it with some friends, and I think the reason the album seems to plod a little is that they blew their Pop Jam load too quickly. This song, or “While You Wait For the Others,” should have been the centerpiece! Then the album would Peak instead of Valley.
15. Thom Yorke- All For The Best
What a surprise! When the beat first started, I thought “oh, an Eraser b-side. I hate The Drunkk Machine.” But then as soon as the organ came in, I knew this would be my favorite song of the summer, my defining “repeat song.” It didn’t let me down.
16. Cold Cave- Love Comes Close
It’s a drag the album this comes from only has one other song as great as this one. This, and “Life Magazine,” are two great goth-pop masterpieces. This one has a killerkiller chorus, so I’ll choose it.
17. The xx- Crystalised
I hesitated before I listened to The xx, mainly because I was put-off by the hype, but then I remembered that I originally refused to listen to Deerhunter for the same reason! Likewise, I discovered the hype wasn’t misplaced.
18. Atlas Sound- Quick Canal
Bradford Cox’s dream comes true, and we get a great new Stereolab song. Just kidding. But anyone who heard the instrumental version of this when Logos originally leaked was very much Not Disappointed.
Those have numbers (put them in a mix, they sound good), but what’s the numberless Best Song of The Year? It comes from my favorite album of the year, too. And, of course, its:
Antony & The Johnsons- Aeon
When this song first started playing, I though “ohh, that’s a nice little piano bit,” then the song kicked in and my mind went “woah, I should listen a little closer.” When he hits the “his arms are warm” line, I was frozen in love. That line means so much to me, especially for the time that I heard it in, and still sends shivers up me. Damn.
Erasing is a pain! Erasing 40-odd pages, making tiny corrections (with more to be made later), while trying not to spill toooo much coffee because your table shakes… it’s all a pain.
Anyways, that’s what I’m doing right now. In New Mexico, the hometown from whence I just was (?), I finished inking Chapter Two of Birds & Wolves. A milestone, soured by bittersweetness. Sometimes I wonder if people read more sadness than there is in the story, but then again, it may just be very sad, and I’m adult enough to not feel the sadness anymore. HA!
So, Chapter Two’s almost finished. After that, some slight revisions to it, little fixes here and there. Then hopefully, more fixes to Chapter One, then the creation of the purchasable copy. Revised Chapter One, Chapter Two, and an in-progress Omnibus edition of both Chapters. So, stay tuned, I guess. And do me a favor and listen to Side Two of both Low and “Heroes”.
So I’ll do a little thing here. I’m inking page 79 right now. For reference, Chapter 2 has 81 pages, so JUST THINK WHAT THAT MEANS! It means that I’ll likely be done with Chapter 2 by the end of the year. It won’t be out quite then, though. I think I’m going to do some more revisions to Chapter 1 first, then put them both up online for consumption! There’ll be a Chapter 2 stand-alone thing, and a Chapters 1 and 2 omnibus thing, which is sort of a thing for me so that I can see how the book is reading. Hopefully it is reading well!
I’m listening to a lot of David Bowie, as you may know if you know me. It’s starting to hanker me (did I use that word right? Whatever. In working-on-planning-on-working-on Album #5, I keep saying to myself “It’s got to be like Scary Monsters,” or “It’s got to be like Low,” or “it’s got to be like Hunky Dory.” The other day I realized that what I’m really saying is “It’s got to be good.”
I listened to “Never Let Me Down” today, which is often regarded as his absolute nadir (more so than Tin Machine!) My official opinion is “it’s not actually bad, y’all.”
Here’s what I wrote about it on my tumblr today:
“I’m listening to the much-maligned ‘87 (and Cry) Bowie album, “Never Let Me Down.”
I’m shocked, honestly. Because I don’t think it’s nearly as bad as it’s cracked up to be. I think it’s a lot better than “Tonight,” the album that came before it! Sure, it’s wayyy 80s, and it’s very very busily produced, but I think it’s got a lot of great moments in its 80s production. And the songs aren’t bad, either! They still have catchy melodies! What’s the deal, universe? Just because a Bowie album doesn’t sound like “the future” doesn’t mean it’s bad.
Thus far, the only real “UGH” moment is the monologue that begins “Glass Spider,” but the song that follows is pretty great!”
It’s true, it’s a far-out album. Give it another chance, guys! You all used to hate Lodger, too, and now look at you! (Never Let Me Down is not as good as Lodger.)
Lastly, a couple of weeks ago I played a show with Pool Holograph, Granny Frost, and Renee-Louise Carafice. It was quite an exciting night, lemme tell ya, since I’ve listened to Renee’s song “House on Fire” on repeat for most of the last two months. She is a very nice person, too! It’s so great when people you like listening to are also people who are nice to talk to! Anyways, my usual policy of “video taping my own shows” fell through (due to a cable pressing the record button off, I think), and there’s no video proof of the show.
But someone at ElasticArts, where the show happened, bootlegged it! With mic stands and everything! It’s like my first bootleg, guys! A recording I didn’t do!!! Be stoked.
And, because I love you, here’s the set. It’s one file, but the tracklist is in the “comments” section of the info. Also important about this set is the return of “All Things Being Equal” to the set, and the inclusion of a brand-new song, “Burque Spirit!”
This post is going to be totally unrelated to me, so I’ll begin it by saying “I’m penciling page 72-73, and I might be 10 pages away from finishing Chapter Two.”
Okay, now, the speculation. Kerry Brown, producer, etc of the new Pumpkins album, “Teargarden By Kaleidyscope,” just tweeted (I can’t believe I just used that word here) that the first track will be released in the next week. So, does that mean Tuesday to Tuesday, or Sunday to Saturday? That’s speculation one.
Speculation two is which song will be the first? The fan community is pretty sure which ones are among the first four, so let’s hear ‘em:
“A Stitch In Time”
This song is supposed to be “more psychedelic” (IE, more sitar) in it’s studio incarnation. That makes me nervous, I like it as is, but we’ll see!
“Widow Wake My Mind”
This is my personal fave of the bunch. It’s poppy and catchy, but is it strong enough to make a huge first splash?
“Astral Planes”
This is the one that we aren’t 100 percent sure on, but it’s probably one of the four. This is a good rocker, a psychedelic (I only overuse that word because Billy does) barnburner that can satisfy the rockers, right? Meh. It’s pretty good.
“A Song For A Son”
This is the one people think will most likely be the first. Honestly, it isn’t my favorite song, but it’s about the only New Song from the 20th anniversary tour that wasn’t instantly derided, so it’s got the critics on it’s side? I doubt it. Honestly, I feel like this song sets Billy up for more failure and derision that it’s worth.
So, fingers-crossed, Teargarden begins in a week. Will it be The Smashing Pumpkins’ stellar return-to-form, an album widely praised by everyone just like the old days? Or will it go the way of TheFutureEmbrace, Zwan, and Blinking With Fists?
Read a blog about Bowie, listen to pre-Hunky Dory Bowie, read about either Hunky Dory or 1977-1981 Bowie, and now, I guess, listen to John Cale covering LCD Soundsystem?
Whatever. Point is, I try to continue work on songs, have ideas. Think they’re great. And they might be. But it’s possible I’ve overstepped myself? I want to do more than I now can, by myself. I need someone to throw ideas to, who can extrapolate them and know what I’m talking about, because I know so hard! but can’t articulate them into music. I know how I want “James Dean Aurr,” the song, to sound. I want some sort of cross between a Nuggets-style-glam stomper and “Low,” in general. But what do I get? Over-reverbed, over-done, crap. I can’t play the drums, I can’t even figure out my own guitar parts to play them well enough.
It’s a mess.
I’m not even posting the drummed up version I made today.
It’s a time of being confused and wondering where to go. As for Birds & Wolves, I’m slowly starting again, and I’ve just inked page 65. My keyboard is terribly disgusting from my inky dirty fingers.
I’ve been waiting to hear back from people. Not my fault (it is my fault). I don’t want to go into it.
I started recording a song I’ve been trying to write for over a year, now. I don’t think it came out very well, but what do I know? I’ve thought every album I’ve started was absolute crap at the beginning, so I don’t know nothing about it.
I’ve had a few ideas about this next album. Right now, it’s to be called “Burque Spirit,” and either will be a twenty song double album, or be a song-stiched-Furnaces-esque collage album. I’m pretty into both ideas. Feedback?
“Intentional detail in everything although sometimes you had to dig for it. Budget dictated reduced quality in many choices, endurance preferred over luxury or eye appeal. Compromise, and like most compromise, satisfying no one.”
—Reverend Mother Superior Darwi Odrade, in Frank Herbert’s “Chapterhouse: Dune.”
The reason, though, that I find this quote from Dune (above all others) so interesting is that it sums up better than I ever could how I feel about latter-day (say, post Batdance) Prince records. The genius is there, the albums are still dense and interesting, but they sound terrible and are confusingly bad. It’s tough sometimes to listen to things on, say, Chaos & Disorder, or Planet Earth, but when you do, you start to pick out the little things, and you start to get a picture of what Prince is trying to do.
Of course, comparing Prince to a Guild Navigator, encased in a tank of Melange Gas, is also pretty funny.
PS EVERYONE I FOUND PAGE FIFTY TWO IT IS NO LONGER MISSING.
If I did, that’s cool, too. Here’s a loop that I made. It’s one track, no overdubs, all looping. I left the microphone on so it would feedback sometimes. It’s all made with the microphone, the sound it makes when you turn it on and off with reverb is really nice. It makes the clicking drum sound.
It’s a weird thing. It’s funny, trying to describe it make me sound like one of those dudes who make beats. I am no such dude.
Now, what exactly is the tragedy when something like this happens? Is it the hard work that went into the penciling being lost forever, right when I was feeling that I was getting back into it? Is it the hour or so of time that is now lost and wasted? Is it the loss of paper, something I’m already starting to reuse the backs of old comics for? Is it the waste of liquid that is now all over the floor and makes my room smell like mildew-y coffee-substitute?
I don’t know, some sort of mix, I assume. Still, this, coupled with the either missing or never-done page 52, I am getting my first taste of setbacks in a project I already know I’m committing two years to.
Bright sides? I shouldn’t have been drinking that mildew-y coffee-substitute anyways, and now maybe the redrawn page will be better?
I don’t know. Also, I still haven’t found that missing pen.
ANYWAYS,
Here’s something that is NOT a drag. A little bit of a song, some sort of bizarre surf demon trance.
Which means, of course, “David Robert Jones 4 Life.”
Sorry I spend so much (all) of my time blogging here about David Bowie, but the man is fresh on my mind. I do owe a lot of my personal and intellectual freedom to the man. That freedom to be yourself, and all. In high school, you know (when I was in it, the way I wrote that, you’d think I’m IN high school. i just got my COLLEGE ALUMNI ID CARD for goodness’ sake). Anyways, there’s no one to look up to to put up a fight for. Like when I grew my hair out (and wore fur coats and petticoats for shirts), and kids threw me into lockers, it’s easy to think yourself friendless. But then you have the age-old moment of staring at a picture of Ziggy Stardust and knowing it’s all okay.
HA! That is the funniest thing I have ever written.
Anyways, I had a point to all this. Recently a tape reel went up on eBay, declaring itself recorded on August 13th, 1974 at Sigma Sound Studios, and also declaring itself to be a recording of a rehearsal by David Bowie. (all images and audio files are hosted and found by the lovely people at The Illustrated DB Discography)
Now, all the song titles check out in Bowie lore. Young Americans and After Today we all know, of course. I Am A Lazer is a song Bowie wrote for Ava Cherry, one of his backup singers he was a little involved with. Shilling The Rubes is an exciting name to see as it’s long been known to be a working title of Young Americans, the album.
But still, too good to be true, right? Yes and no.
The no, first. Snippets were then culled from the reel. And they are so 100% and Fantastically real that it’s chilling! The glimpse into the working world of DB is astounding to have, not to mention the fact that the songs themselves sound INCREDIBLE. Shilling The Rubes in particular sounds like the beginnings of a great lost-classic-type of song. Here are the snippets (again, hosted by the DB discog site):
It certainly is not every day when we get to hear songs culled from the Bowie archives that aren’t intended to ever see the light of day, let alone when we encounter songs we didn’t even knew he wrote!
So, like I said earlier, there is a part of this that’s too good to be true. Before the auction could take place, and before a supposed second reel could be put up for sale, word is that Bowie’s lawyers got involved and asked for the reels to be returned. It looks like these minute-snippets are all we’re going to get, unless some divining angel intervenes.
Who knows, though! We did get those Trident ‘72 sessions last year, and the recent Space Oddity 40th Anniversary edition had some unreleased jams on it (the whole set sounds incredible, by the way. Hearing “Conversation Piece,” one of the top five, in a new stereo mix, was totally mind-blowing).
But still, we got what we got, and what we got is terribly exciting!
Occasionally I still check BowieNet, David Bowie’s official website. Over the many years since Reality, his last album, and in the light of his increasing doing-nothing (of which I can not fault him for, the man has done more than 10 of us non-superhumans put together), I’ve let my subscription lapse.
It’s a shame that I’ve had to do so, but honestly, the only thing it could do for me now is give me the chance to win some contests. I’m mildly interested in having a signed t-shirt he looked at once (not interested), but really. It’s 60 dollars spent better elsewhere.
Anyways, the point is that it’s “hours…”’s 10th birthday. The last album of Bowie’s 90s period, and as such, is often similarly derided as every other 90s album. I, of course, don’t really buy into it. I love all the 90s albums, with Buddha of Suburbia being one of my favorites (and an oft-forgotten gem), and 1. Outside and Earthling being some daring and exciting pieces of music. Bowie was truly making music for himself in those years, after the previous decade of playing to the masses. Nile Rodgers said of the recording sessions for Black Tie White Noise that Bowie was, much to Rodgers’ chagrin, uninterested in bettering their previous collaboration, Let’s Dance. While one could read that as laziness on Bowie’s part, the resulting decade’s output really shows it as independence, a willingness to make music that he would want to listen to himself.
But everyone says “hours…”, the final Bowie album of the 90s is boring, a misstep, an in-between piece of music. I will agree with the latter in this. It’s certainly an album that finds Bowie changing where he wants to go with his music. The daring collaborations with Reeves Gabrels that Outside and Earthling birthed are clearly of waning interest to him. Now, I doubt it was so clear a decision (”oh, Reeves, I just don’t want to be edgy anymore”). Certainly there is still much avant-noodling sprinkling this album, and of course, it’s history is also a little unique.
Most of the songs on hours… (from now on I’m dropping the ellipsis) started as songs that were written for the soundtrack of a video game, namely Omikron: The Nomad Soul, which I’ve never played or been able to, but it’s certainly an interesting concept for a game (inhabiting different characters dimensions, a melding of action/puzzle/fighting), and it also certainly fits with Bowie’s pro-technology stance of the 90s as well, what with his pioneering use of the internet.
I don’t know exactly why DB got involved with the game, but he makes appearances in it, and does the soundtrack. A few of the songs on Hours, “New Angels of Promise,” “The Dreamers,” come from it. As such, they’re a little more strangely composed than the other songs. They have the feeling of being written for aliens, which is fine, because they were (plus, writing songs for aliens is nothing new for the man).
The fact that these songs are alien though, makes them not mesh with the earlier songs on the album. These form a bit of a theme, which was oft-discussed at the time of its release. For the first time, everyone said, Bowie is looking back on his life! As
Anyways, it’s true. The earlier songs are imbued with a sense of loss, a loss yet to come, but still felt. It’s aging, through and through. It’s like DB’s running to catch up with the future is finally catching up with him, and the realization of this gives him pause.
Hours (at least the non-Omikron songs) is Bowie making an album not only just for himself again, or for the kids, or for the masses, or for experimentation’s sake. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with any of those options, but honestly, it must have been tiring to keep making albums ahead of a curve no one knew was coming yet. Like he says, “I’m dreaming my life away.” It seems like an apt phrase for Bowie’s 90s output (hell, for his entire output). Hours seems like one of the first times that Bowie was writing about himself, unfettered with character.
The thing about Hours is that it’s full up with a lot of great songs. Very nice songs, nicely written, nicely performed. While it seems like Bowie and his new band (the beginnings of the band he would continue to perform with for his next 2-3 albums) are trying to find their feet in this new Bowie-as-Bowie world, it’s fun to go on the ride with them. And Bowie’s lyrics, touching on age, can be moving, as is his delivery, stunning as usual. They aren’t as up close and personal as his next album Heathen’s are yet, the cards are still a little close to the chest.
In a way, that makes it a lot like R.E.M.’s Lifes Rich Pageant, where Michael Stipe’s vocals are finally turned up in the mix, but his lyrics are still in the fog. It’s an interesting midsection, a slice of almost-there. More appropriately as a comparison, even, would be to Bowie’s own Lodger, the other misunderstood runt of Bowie’s mega-litter. Lodger was also caught in both the middle and the end of a phase of his career. He had stretched the compositional anti-formulas of Low and “Heroes” too thin over a batch of songs that might have been better served cut as straight pop-songs.
But still, despite this, take a fully-realized pop song like Thursday’s Child, with it’s touching singalong chorus, or the growing-up feel of Seven, or the adult-contempo-yet-no-less-touching pop of Survive. They’re all golden! Even the experiment of the fan-written lyrics in What’s Really Happening isn’t a total dud. It’s a cybersong, through and through. There’s nothing as easily-digestible or as easily made into an anthem as “Rebel, Rebel,” but the subject matter on Hours is more adult, more difficult (or just inappropriate) to really throw your arms in the air for.
Yet still, despite the chilling cover of 1999 Bowie holding the exhausted (or dead?) 1997 Bowie in his arms, it’s really Heathen, the next album, that is the true beginning of the next phase of Bowie’s music, where his goals, his emotions, his latter-period vision, truly came in to focus. But Hours remains as a completely enjoyable and exciting album, one that makes little demands of its listeners. Such a thing is never a bad thing in music. I’m a staunch believer in “harmless without being pointless.” Sometimes, a melody is enough.
It’s just still and always (until it isn’t) a shame we haven’t heard anything from him since 2003’s (!!!) Reality.
So, now it is time for an update on Birds & Wolves!
To be brought up to speed, B&W (Bee an’ Dubz? No thanks you) is the book I am working on right now, which is looking to be something of a 400-page epic.
The way I came to that estimate is: seeing as the first chapter came out to be around 40 pages, and there are 10 chapters in this book, that should be around 400. It’s a total estimate, though. I don’t know if every chapter will be the same amount of pages. And as I work on it more, you know, maybe there’ll be only nine chapters? No, I don’t know, that’s giving too much (nothing) away.
So, the biggest problem that I face in my day-to-day-i-am-working-on-this-book is “how do I explain it?” Like, what’s a good snappy one or two sentence description that encapsulates everything it will be while also sounding really interesting? From a purely dollaz point of view, I need a good sentence so if someone google searched “Birds & Wolves” on google and found Chapter One on Lulu, they’d read it and say “sounds interesting,” ka-ching! But of course, there is more to it than that. I need that sentence so I can guide myself along, too! Working on a book of this magnitude is a long and arduous process, one I know next-to-nothing about. But I enjoy doing it.
Anyways, it’s about death, seeing your mortality for the first time. Obviously more happens than that. The lead character, Arden, is emotionally bruised on a day-to-day basis by his gf. He has dreams of a forest, with a Cat that goads him into sticking it out. He remembers an old friend from high school, one who was very important to him.
I mean, technically, it’s the first sentence that encapsulates. I don’t know. Here’s the thing: at one point in my tenure at SAIC, someone said comics with people are boring and that’s why people draw animals (actually, i think i totally made up that they said it was boring, it’s just the gist i got from it). Well, there are few animals in my comic! Does that make it boring? No! It doesn’t. But I worry about writing a melodramatic comic book.
I guess it’s a familial thing. My dad writes screenplays that are dramas about people. People don’t buy screenplays about people. I’m just worried that people don’t buy comics about people, either (this is not true— Jimmy Corrigan is a person, but I can’t draw as flashy as Chris Ware can [bad example?]).
Well, no matter. All that whining masks an important milestone: I penciled page 60 today!!! That’s huge! It’s of course the longest thing I’ve done. But still, a good number. I’m excited about that.
Now, some samples of pages I’ve been working on. I’m afraid they’re all lousy Photobooth pictures, but that’s the best I can do right now.
The page I’m working on this moment (note the whited-out wine stain):
Some other select Chapter 2 (Birds) Pages:
Stay tuned for other things. Hopefully soon I’ll go downtown and scan some things, and I can show you all some high-quality ANYTHING.
Over the summer I played A show. I think it was one, I don’t think I played any more than that. Anyways, it was a fun show! I played some songs I’ve never played before (which i try to do at every show), and some covers (that always seem to sneak in). Soon I’ll put up the most recent show I played, but I have to find the DV tape first. :D
Anyways, there’s much more on my channel, so do take a look!
I was listening to both Stereolab and Purple Penguin (a close friend of mine) at the time (very late in the night). The first band made me want to use chords I’ve never used before, and the second made me want to write beautiful melodies over intricate and wonderfully composed songs.
I don’t know how much either of those inspirations came out (and plus, it’s like a 30 second song), but still, it’s something! And it’s something that I really want to use in another song. Now to find the rest of the song! Such a puzzle. Is that the chorus? The verse? The end? A completely arbitrary part of a more complicated suite of songs?
Typing that title makes me want to listen to Genesis. Peter Gabriel-era Genesis, of course!
Now that I am a man (which I’m defining as “done with school”), I must keep my blog up more! I’ve got the time! You want to know! (Don’t you? Yes.) So I’m going to try to do a few things.
A) Keep up with this blog
B) Get more people a-reading it!
C) Have more reasons to read it!
Yes. These are what I will do! And you can help with them! Well, B, at least. Once I get this honey up and running to how I believe it’s potential 2 B (thanx Prince), hopefully you will enjoy it. Well if you end up enjoying it, tell your friends to enjoy it! It will be much fun that way! :D
The third is still in the planning stage, but I have ideas and I will implement them in like an hour or so.
One idea is progress, of course. Either by song or by comic page. Y’all deserve to see what I’m working on/working with! And you will.
Did you know I am penciling the 54th page of a book called Birds & Wolves? EXACTLY! Now you do, and you will know more. :D
Another thing I will do is have a kind of feature where I will let you in on what’s driving my daisy (ew?). By that I mean what I’m listening to, what I’m reading, what I am experiencing as a Man. (I mean human, of course.) Yes.
I am excited. You should be, too! And you will, I promise!
I can also say that I am thinking of an idea for how you guys can get my music in a sassy digital package, but that’s all I’ll say. Much thinking to do, and ruminating on the recent Teargarden by Kaleidyscope announcement. I am intrigued and inspired by this.
Anyways, that’s all for now, until later in the day, when I begin these pledges I have promised.
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