Here at THE VINYL DISTRICTwe're good consumers. All Mp3's are posted to promote and give exposure to the music and are linked for a limited time. Please download to preview, then head promptly to your local vinyl vendor (or - OK, CD store too) and fork over your hard earned cash. You'll appreciate the piece of mind.
Got something you think we should be listening to or reading? thevinyldistrict (at) gmail.com
Washington, DC’s creative community is uniting in force over the innovative arts initiative, the ‘Twelve Days Project.’The ‘Twelve Days Project’ is a unique twelve month long campaign which focuses on artistic collaborations, charitable partnerships and media exclusives surrounding the monthly release of tracks from DC folk-rockers The Dreamscapes Project.
This month the band will be releasing their new single “Hymn” via The Vinyl District for twelve days. Artistic “re-imaginations” will be provided by visual artist Kayti Welsh, producer and remixer Blake9 and creative writer Janice Kephart. A single release show will take place on June 3rd at the Light Horse Tavern, with all proceeds going to local charity Dance4Peace.
Since its launch in January 2010, The Dreamscapes Project have raised nearly $3,000 for local charities including N Street Village, Food and Friends, Pink Jams and Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Each month the band have released a new track via local DC media sources such as metromusicscene.com, TGRIonline, K Street Kate and revolution magazine. Artistic interpretations of the tracks have been converted into short films, creative writing pieces, re-mixes and visual artwork created by a variety of local DC artists, including school children from H-B Woodlawn school in Arlington.
This month’s single ‘Hymn’ will be exclusively available for twelve days on The Vinyl District from May 24th 2010. Artistic interpretations of this track, provided by local DC artists, will be showcased via the Twelve Days Project as one collective virtual installation piece.
A single release show will be taking place on June 3rd at the Light Horse Tavern, in partnership with Socialize Better. Socialize Better is a nonprofit organization that raises awareness and inspires service by providing social opportunities for young adults in Washington, D.C. The organization specifically aims to support the efforts of philanthropic causes that have limited resources to fundraise for themselves. The ‘Socialize Better’ chosen charity of the month is Dance4Peace, an organization which implements programs in Washington, DC public schools and community centers, encouraging social responsibility and understanding through dance.
Hello Folks, Paul Collinshere! I am happy to have been asked to do a 5 part blog series for The Vinyl District. I want to start with a bit of a recap of my career in music for those of you who may not know me.
I knew from a very early age that I wanted to be a musician, even before I knew how to play an instrument. When I heard "Big Girls Don't Cry" by Frankie Valli and "Lightning Strikes" by Lou Christie when I was just a tike in Saigon, Vietnam of all places I was hooked! Later on I fine-tuned my musical tastes by listening to WABC Radio in Long Island, NY every night as I went to sleep.
When I was 17 I left home and went to California to seek my fortune and that is where I met Jack Lee and Peter Case and we formed The Nerves and I was on my way! I never looked back and I have been making music ever since. It has been a blast and I have had the good fortune to be apart of some fantastic bands, The Nerves, one of the founders of the DIY movement in America and then the short lived transitional band with Pete Case, The Breakaways and then onto The Beat one of power pop's most enduring groups!
I love playing music and as I started as a fan I never thought I would have the opportunity to tour and make records so for me it has really been a dream come true. Nowadays I am very busy recording, writing and touring after a long absence from America (I lived in Madrid, Spain for almost 8 years.)
I have a new record I just recorded with Jim Diamond at his studio Ghetto Recorders in Detroit, which will come out on Bomp/Alive Records in August. All in all it has been a fantastic trip, from rehearsing in burnt out basements to performing on world famous stages with world famous bands like The Jam, Eddie Money, Joe Jackson, The Cure, Devo, The Police, South Side Johnny all the way up to new bands like Gentlemen Jesse and Reigning Sound!
The one thing that has remained a constant for me is that I love music and I am a fan! I hope to see some of you out there when I tour the US this summer...if I do please come up and introduce yourself as that is why we do this...for the fans!
Typically this is where I do my Record Fair sales pitch, but for this go-around I thought I'd let the Washington City Paper handle the duties seeing as the Fair took a 'Best of DC Award'last March.
(And is it me or did they just make up a category for us?)
(Click to enlarge!)
The Washington, DC Record Fair| Sunday, May 23rd | The Black Cat (1811 14th St., NW, Washington, DC 20009) | Mainfloor & Mainstage area (Upstairs) | 12pm-6pm | $2 entry fee per person | 32+ Record Dealers (coming to you from FL, NC, PA, VA, MD, NY as well as DC) | Full Bar upstairs and downstairs! | Food (available in the downstairs cafe)
Confirmed DJ Set Times: Noon to 1: Alec MacKaye 1-2: Cobruhhh (Windian) 2-3: Emily/Susan from Exit Clov 3-4: DJ Dredd 4-5: Fort Knox Five 5-6: John Foster (BYT)
“Who’s Afraid of the Dark?” | The death of Ronnie James Dio feels like a dark and strange muse for this week’s Idelic Hour playlist but upon hearing the sad Dio news, a few things came to mind.
First was that both my parents have outlived the singer of Rainbow. I guess we all will eventually make the journey up “the silver mountain” but “Dio dead at 67” was a reminder of just how temporal we all are. Well at least in a mystical, magic, 70’s heavy metal kinda' way.
Funny, I have more of sentimental connection to Rainbow than many albums in my collection. It’s ironic that Blackmore decided to name his band Rainbow too. I don’t recall seeing any color other than black at a Blackmore show. Save of course his white boots and Strat, everyone wore black (crowd and band!) Maybe Ronnie and Richie never realized their audience was comprised of petty thieves, drugstore cowboys, and juvenile delinquents.
What’s so scary about the “dark?” When I was young “darkness” seemed so cool. Now older, the colors of the Rainbow brighten up my day and warm the soul. With this in mind I set out to create a spirited playlist inspired by thoughts of life and death, darkness, and the color black.
Songs of note: new Black Keys and The Hundred In The Hands on Warp Records as well as revisiting a couple of cool releases from 2009—Telekinesis and Magic Wands.
A last batch of mystery DC Record Fair tracks is posted below, this time from this past February's post-blizzard event which saw close to 1,500 snow-weary vinyl fanatics leaving their frosty confines and thawing out together at The Black Cat.(That's the poster art up there rendered by our pal ElJefe.)
We're back at The Black Cat on Sunday and while we were thrilled with the turn-out and the enthusiasm shown the event last time, we did receive a few complaints:
The lighting: Right, it was dark. But leave your spelunking helmets home this time, we're doing our best Sunday morning to remedy the lighting issue and bringing in additional light sources.
The crowd size: While we can't control the number of folks who show up, last time the downstairs Red Room was closed and not an option for decompressing with or without a pint. This time we're opening it up and making it available throughout the afternoon to hang and enjoy a frosty beverage.
All the vinyl vendors will still be upstairs in the main stage area but we're hoping by providing an option downstairs, we can lessen the crowd size a bit to make it easier to move around and get where you need to go.
There's been a little tinkering with the DJ's set times, but this is the final schedule:
Noon to 1: Alec MacKaye | 1-2: Cobruhhh (Windian) | 2-3: Emily/Susan from Exit Clov | 3-4: DJ Dredd | 4-5: Fort Knox Five | 5-6: John Foster (BYT)
Lastly, have fun and happy hunting. Let us know how we're doing and what you scored on Monday. If you've taken photos, we'd love to see 'em and share them right here.
Our experience with the Ardent Sessions was just awful. (Completely joking!)
We had an amazing time. The tour through Stax was incredible. The history behind the place is magical and I felt like some of the good vibes wore off on us for the performance. I know that I personally felt like there was a positive energy to the place.
However, I will say that Tom was sick as a dog that day. Sick with a flu that we all caught just before our next tour. Thanks Tom. The people couldn't have been more hospitable and professional toward us. They gave the run down of how the session was to go down and we felt comfortable with what they were asking of us. I had the privilege of playing on their grand piano, something that rarely happens for me when playing live. I think I can actually count on my hands how many times it's happened.
When we got the recordings back from the show and sent them to some friends we heard a lot of the same comments: you should release this as a live album. We're not really at that stage in the game and have a lot of other material to release, but the quality of the recordings is that good and I would be proud to put that out on the market. I am thankful to their great staff, the wonderful coffee and the wizard store across the street. Thank you for an experience that I will never forget. —Josh Foster, Parachute Musical
You can purchase Parachute Musical's latest album Everything is Working Out Fine in Some Town for just $8.99.
Enter to win a Parachute Musical T-shirt by simply leaving a comment, your name, and a contact email address in the comments to this post. We'll choose one winner each Friday for that week's giveaway which ALSO includes the entire Ardent Music catalog. (That's just 2 artists at this point, but who's counting?)
To hear more great Ardent Sessions please visit Ardent Presents.
It's another double (mystery) dip into the grab-bag of vinyl purchases from previous Washington, DC Record Fairs in advance of Sunday's Spring 2010 edition, and here's a serving from last Fall's soiree at Comet Ping Pong.
That's a Mingering Mike original up there too in case you were curious...
Forty years from now when people look back on our generation’s music consumption (providing we haven’t all drowned in oil by then) I wonder what musical artifacts will be remembered fondly… I certainly can’t imagine anyone lining their shelves with old iPhones, iPods and external hard drives and proudly saying “I stored a good 2,000 songs on this bad boy and another 10,000 on this one here! If it still turned on I’d play you Lisztomania, I used to love that song and the cover looks great at 600x600 pixels!”
On the flip side, anytime a friend comes over to my place they always gravitate towards the shelves lined with vinyl records in my living room. They enjoy taking the time to look through them, admire the cover art, peruse the liner notes and make a conscious decision (keep that thought in mind, I’ll come back to it in a bit) of what music they’d like to listen to.
The White Album, a favorite of mine and my guests, is certainly more striking at 12”x12” with it’s yellowing corners, pullout headshots of the Fab Four and my mom’s maiden name inscribed on the cover in blue ballpoint pen (yes, I did appropriate it from her) than it is on my iPhone. Sound quality aside–as we all know how delicious vinyl sounds–when I take The White Album off the shelf and hold it in my hands I get it. The juxtaposition between the minimalist art offsetting the fact that The Beatles had caught Ryan Adams syndrome some 35 or so years early in India circa 1968. That kind of immediacy certainly isn’t there in digital form, no matter how quickly it can be acquired. Hipgnosis’ darkroom tricks on Houses of the Holy and Ummagumma are drastically more impressive when they don’t look like photoshopped thumbnails. Ralph Steadman’s art for Oasis’ latest Dig Out Your Soul comes to life in the vinyl size and Emma Richardson’s paintings not only adorn Band of Skulls’ album cover, but also now hang on my wall in the form of a poster kindly included in the vinyl release… and all of that, well it makes me love music even more.
Okay, so I’m talking a lot about “art” and not “music”, but I think it’s quite unfortunate that the two get separated. As “zenned out” as I’d like to imagine I am, I like physical things. I like sitting down with a record to digest it and I like the concept of an album as unified work, a complete thought from start to finish; sonically, lyrically and the same goes for its visual accompaniments. I like to see the whole package, the whole picture presented in the way the band intended rather than fragmented pieces floating around in some high-tech little enclosure. Sure, I’m guilty of downloading some stuff illegally (thanks Vuze!), but the albums that I love I need to have on vinyl.
To continue a thought that I started earlier, something else that I truly appreciate is people making conscious decisions. For example the conscious decision to put on a record and listen to it from start to finish as an entire piece rather than to hit shuffle in iTunes or bounce from track to track as the chorus ends at a minute and nineteen seconds to another tune for the outro at two minutes - thirty eight. As we all know, we’re the ADD Generation: between the tools at our fingertips and all that we’re constantly bombarded with via these tools, it’s increasingly easy for our experiences to be fragmented.
At this point music is essentially available a la carte, take a piece of this and have a piece of that. Even individual songs have been marginalized to 30-second clips with their value determined by whether or not they can be used in a promo spot. *Note to anyone who would like to license our songs, yes they are available as we need to pay off our van, but please be trying to sell something chill. Yet at the same time as the musical landscape becomes more and more fragmented, it’s both fascinating and encouraging as a music lover and musician to see how many people still do appreciate “the record” as a complete piece of work.
Every morning when I wake up I check my email on my phone while I listen to music. When I get to my computer I’ll have one tab open for gmail, one for YouTube and another for Facebook. I’d like to think of it as multi-tasking, but in reality it’s all part of the constant stimulation that I think we’ve all grown accustomed to, where one thing at a time is never enough and the realms of music, art, commerce and socializing have all blended into one. Every once in a while it’s nice to step away from this and enjoy music for being music as a complete all-encompassing experience and for me vinyl certainly helps do this. No offense dear iPhone, because I do love you, you make my life very convenient, but when I want to get serious about some music there’s nothing like putting on a vinyl record.
With love to everyone, especially those who love vinyl. —Ben Rice | Blackbells, Guitar/Vocals
Blackbells play DC9 on Tuesday (5/25) with Crash Kings and we've got a pair of tickets just for the asking. Get at us in the comments to this post, tell us why we should pick you, and the most convincing get in on us. Remember to leave us some contact info! We're closing this one by noon on Monday (5/24.)
Is it me or is Bluebrain—brothers Ryan and Hays Holladay—continuously raising the creative bar around DC?
We heard from Ryan earlier in the week about their latest endeavor:
"Bluebrain have created an audio companion to the Sant Ocean Hall in the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum. It's a twenty minute piece of music that we've written to be played while exploring this section of the museum.
It's not an event, per se, as it isn't happening on a specific time or date...rather we will be putting the Mp3 on our website starting Thursday morning (5/20) so that people can download it and tour the exhibit at their leisure, by themselves or with others using a set of headphones and an mp3 player. It's a free download and will remain on our site for the entire summer."
Grab the Mp3 here, info on Smithsonian's Natural History Museum is here, and more Bluebrain music is here.
(...and between you and me, Bluebrain's audio companion sounds just as fine coming out of your home speakers. —Ed.)
I’ve received quite a few emails and notes in regard to yesterday’s City Paper blog post on the future of TVD in its present incarnation. And actually the answer is – we’re not going anywhere.
Well, wait—that’s only half true. We are moving where the threat of the plug being pulled is removed and where we can offer far more than our present confines will allow. We’ll reestablish ourselves elsewhere with the trappings you’ve come to expect each day...y’know mindless rambling with doses of free shit. That’s the patented formula.
And I’m retaining a tiny bit of optimism that TVD here at Blogger won’t meet a miserable fate and the archives can stay live and subsequently linkable for future postings. I’m proud of some of the stuff we achieved thus far and of some of the writing that may have been a little less mindless than this bit right here.
But this week there are more important fish to fry which is the incessant flogging of the return of the Washington, DC Record Fair this Sunday (5/23) by way of airing out some of the purchases yours truly made at earlier Fairs.
So, in keeping with yesterday’s bit of mystery meat, here’s a sausage made from vinyl scored at last May’s event at Warehouse. Click on through to the other side...
I was fortunate to be introduced to The Fab Faux, the brilliant Beatles tribute band, in the most perfect manner—on the radio. On the Howard Stern Show to be exact where they performed tracks from Sgt. Pepper ...flawlesssly.
And it's not just a performance of the classic Beatles music alone, it's a performance of the recordings, the musicianship and the personal nuances of the players, the vocal harmonies and the sound effects such as the menagerie of barnyard animal noises tagged onto the end of 'Good Morning, Good Morning" for example. It's all there. Performed live.
Tell you what - don't rely on my word. Check out the band doing the classic, side 2 medley on Abbey Road in its entirety and we'll meet you below when you're done.
Go ahead, I'll wait.
The Fab Faux will return to Washington, D.C. for the fourth year in a row, with a May 22nd concert at Lisner Auditorium. The May 22nd event will feature a ‘Glorious Hodgepodge’ of Beatles music, as The Fab Faux are joined by Creme Tangerine Strings and Hogshead Horns.
TVD's got a pair of tickets to offer one person in exchange for your cheeky note in the comments to this post. Keep it Beatles-centric and the one that moves us most will be attending Saturday night's show on us. Contest ends Friday (5/21) at noon and remember to leave us your contact email address!
There was a point during the very first Record Fair in February ‘09 that I realized we were onto something.
It was when I was waiting in line to wait in line to browse through the crates of records. I mean, I knew there’d be enthusiasm for the event – just not that much.
That’s also the first flier up there too rendered by yours truly before we really had a sense of the vibe these would ultimately take on. I wouldn’t risk that DC-shaped LP on your needle by the way.
I guess with all the hassles Google and Blogger have thrown my way recently with the take down notices and the disappearing posts, I’ve gotten a bit down on this endeavor and the irony hasn’t eluded me—this blog exists to promote the purchase of physical product—records!—and to enlist the masses in supporting the brick and mortar record stores.
The last thing we want to do is obscure that mission so I/we go out of our way to make sure any current act with new music authorizes the downloads. We honestly do want you to buy the thing.
That said, between setting up and breaking down the fairs, I actually found time to buy some records along the way and we’ll be sharing the fruits of those crate dives this week as we count down to the fifth Washington, DC Record Fair on Sunday.
You’ll note the mystery tracks too ...lest the bastards win.
Every morning recently I wake in fear of clicking onto TVD and seeing this:
...which happened to one of the very best music blogs out there last week and the one perhaps most responsible for the blog you're reading this very moment, Retro Music Snob.
It's said that sites like the Hype Machine or Elbows are music aggregators, crawling through the music blogs and linking to live Mp3s from whoever's hosting them at the moment. Retro Music Snob on the other hand is/was an individual, the Snob, who'd do this work personally. With unerring good taste.
So, upon my daily check-in to see if he'd returned from a brief self-imposed hiatus, I was met with the above sad screen and shot the Snob a note.
"Uh, what happened, man?"
"Blogger...blew it up unfortunately. They came after me after I stopped posting. I wasn't checking the blog regularly because I started a new job, and I am back and forth on the move between Dallas, and California. I cleaned up a few notices on some old stuff...but I guess they figured they warned me enough...funny in all of my years of doing the blog...I probably had 2-3 takedown notices.
When I started RMS...I had no idea what I was doing when it came to blogging. Finally I found my niche where I could find music, and music websites that caught my interest. Websites that like the old stuff...music from our childhood, from high school, and tunes only found on good old vinyl...I liked it so much I had to tell people about these sites, and give them a "heads up" about a tune that they probably haven't though about in awhile. I also hoped that my little blog made other blogs stronger by sending people their way. Allowing the network of music blogs (that I liked) to get the appreciation they deserved."
...and they did and this one in particular.
And TVD in particular has been the recipient of quite a few takedown notices in the past two weeks and methinks Blogger might have its sights set on this site. In close to three years, I've never had one - now I'm in receipt of many.
Even more aggravating is that the tracks posted which seemingly violate the DCMA copyright law have been OK'd and sanctioned for posting by either the label, the PR firm pushing the band, and/or the band itself.
Feel like you'd want to dispute the charges of copyright infringement? Google, Blogger's backbone, makes the process akin to a legal brief, in writing, while they sanctimoniously yank an offending post or in the case of Retro Music Snob, the blog entirely.
Options? Well, you can cease posting music despite the OK from the people behind the track.
I hope this week’s Idelic Hour finds you well. Just wanted to let you know I didn’t totally space Mother’s Day. I bought you a cool card that has a drawing of a teddy bear holding a lollipop but did totally jell on getting to the post office. I’m sure the card would have come way late so I thought I’d just give it to you with some fresh flowers when you come up to the canyon for a visit next month. As I was writing you I got to thinking of all the times I’ve forgotten Mother’s Day and your birthday and decided to dedicate this week’s Idelic Hour mix to you and all the Mommas, who got didn’t get a card or a phone call.
It’s not that we don’t love you, dudes just space sometimes.
So, now on to The Steelwells' Top 10 Records of All Time. One of my favorite things about this list is the genres it spans.
Robbie - The Jackson 5 (the Greatest Hits album) and John Scofield (Uberjam)
Jon - The Beastie Boys (Ill Communication) and Miles Davis (Kind of Blue)
Billy - Django Reindharet (Paris 1945 and Brussels 1947) and Ray Lamontagne (Gossip in the Grain)
Andrew - Department of Eagles (In Ear Park) and Rilo Kiley (More Adventurous)
Joey - Jeff Buckley (Live At Sin-é) and The Beatles (Abbey Road)
This definitely explains our jam sessions. In our jam/writing sessions we tend to cover a multitude of musical styles. Inevitably I wind up screaming at the top of my lungs like a demonic version of James Brown; or in a free-style rap contest. No, we can’t rap. But I do enjoy making my lyrics up on the spot or just scatting as nonsensically as possible not unlike Jeff’s cover of The Way Young Lovers Do. Of course his actually sounds good.
My final assessment of all of the top influences of the band actually does leave me a bit more enlightened. I did have an idea of where we all stood but this just puts it all in a bit a clearer light. If there is one thing we all have in common it is the simple idea that music is powerful and can be just as powerful with one person or five or fifteen. What matters is honesty, hard work, and constant introspection.
It has been a pleasure sharing with you our music and our thoughts. If you from Orange County or are passing through town look us up and come out to a show.
I will leave you with some great places to go around here like Burger Records (link to ) that has the best selection of vinyl that I have found in Orange County. Another great place for vintage anything at a fair price and just one of the nicest businesses (owned by a member of the band Middle Class an old Fullerton punk band that changed punk rock) in Fullerton is Out of Vogue.
We also buy as much of our music gear as we can afford at Jim’s Music in Tustin, Ca. No, we do not get special deals for promoting them we just really, really like this music shop. Good people, good gear. I think I might sell that slogan to them if they want it. Finally, my favorite place to eat local and organic food is at Rialto Café in Fullerton, Ca. Eat and make love.
Memphis 2009. I was in town from my then-hometown of Jersey City for the North American Folk Alliance Conference, a three day extravaganza of acoustic music, showcases and meetings and panels and workshops and late night (or early morning, depending on your perspective) hallway and stairwell jams. I was invited to Ardent Studios to play an acoustic set they would record for their “Ardent Presents” series. Having been confined to a hotel for days, it was nice to get outside, out into the bright Memphis sunshine and take a “field trip.”
I was definitely sleep-deprived, at 2am the night before having found a group of the best musicians around in a smoky stairwell, trading Townes and Woody songs. I think being half-awake/half-aware helped me when Jody Stephens pulled up to the hotel to pick me up for the session. When I was just starting out playing guitar, my college boyfriend, who was in a rock band, was obsessed with Alex Chilton and Big Star and the double CD “#1 Record/Radio City” was the soundtrack of my early 20s (and that to-be-doomed relationship).
“I’m In Love With A Girl” was the song that boy sang to me every night from stage. And there was Jody picking me up, just as down-to-earth and welcoming as you’d hope for from a rock star/studio manager. I couldn’t resist texting my ex, who sold his Gibson for a wife, 3 kids and a picket fence.
On arriving, I got a brief tour of the studio, got to meet John Fry and hear him tell of how Ardent began the studio in his family’s garage. I’d just finished a record with Mitch Easter who had started his studio in his mother’s garage. (Makes me start to think about the space in my own parents’ garage…, my father doesn’t need those racks of tools and the old bikes could go…). The entire staff of Ardent were so nice and welcoming and really enthusiastic about inviting a few folkies into their studios to perform. I felt like I’d been invited to a cool party, been slipped in the back door with the ghosts of greatness hovering above.
I walked into this great big studio. A few microphones. A table with candles burning. A stool. Nothing fancy, just vibe. There was a camera and a clock reminding me of the time. I think there were a handful of people just sitting on the carpet of floor of the studio in front of me. Like playing a show in someone’s living room—just me, the microphone, and the cross-legged audience leaning into my songs.
I actually forgot I was being filmed or recorded. It was just pure intimacy. I have to say, standing in that studio and singing for Jody and Rachel and the few others, I was thinking of all that music recorded in that same place, Isaac Hayes, Booker T, Big Star, Cat Power, their voices still hopefully carved somewhere into those wooden walls. It was really a special day for me and makes me want to get back to Ardent soon, to record in that studio, in that funky town filled with history and music and soul and good ribs and a river of mud and music seeping out of its cracked sidewalks.
Enter to win Amy Speace's 'The Killer in Me' by simply leaving a comment, your name, and a contact email address in the comments to this post. We'll choose one winner each Friday for that week's giveaway which ALSO includes the entire Ardent Music catalog. (That's just 2 artists at this point, but who's counting?)
To hear more great Ardent Sessions please visit Ardent Presents.
For his first studio album in seven years, Grammy-winning guitarist and rock n roll legend Jeff Beck returns with an eclectic mix of tracks that find the guitar virtuoso accompanied by a handpicked cast of talented musicians, as well as several songs accompanied by a 64-piece orchestra and we've got the new LP, 'Emotion & Commotion' to give away to one TVD reader.
Bob Lefsetzrecently nailed my thoughts on Jeff Beck when I saw him live 11 or so years ago:
"...You should have been there. To see Jeff tapping, putting Eddie Van Halen to shame. And the band was so locked in! The drummer was incredible and when the keyboard player showed his jazz chops during the interview segment, his versatility was astounding, like Jeff said, he could PLAY!
Yes, there was an interview segment after Jeff not only played songs from the new album, but "A Day In The Life" and BRUSH WITH THE BLUES! My all time favorite Jeff Beck song.
And Jeff had some interesting things to say. About how the records we love most were done in a fit of pique, in one take, how we’ve got all this technology today, but it actually works against us. And then he said artists repeat themselves out of cowardice. And that he started in ballrooms, where he never got paid. Ain’t that interesting, the best rock guitar player of all time (he said Segovia is the best GUITARIST of all time) started off playing for free and the hacks working harder at social networking than music are whining "where are the bucks?" And he ragged on the critics too. Saying he doesn’t win things. And when a questioner from the audience said that he plays slide in G, Jeff put him down to the point where the whole audience was aghast, then laughed. WHO CARES?
Yup, who cares about the wannabe. We’ve only got time for excellence.
And the most fascinating bit of insight came as a result of another audience question, another guitar player asking…why does Jeff no longer use a pick?
Because the great rockabilly players, the great Segovia did not. It gave you options, you could play triplets, and it was clearer than ever at this point that the man in the sleeveless outfit might be a star, but first and foremost, he’s a MUSICIAN!
What a concept!"
What a concept indeed. Get at us in the comments to this post with your thoughts on JB and why you should take home this LP (with contact info!) and we'll choose one winner from the best of the bunch next Tuesday (5/19) and mail the record right out to ya!
Washington, DC’s creative community is uniting in force over the innovative arts initiative, the ‘Twelve Days Project.’ The ‘Twelve Days Project’ is a unique twelve month long campaign which focuses on artistic collaborations, charitable partnerships and media exclusives surrounding the monthly release of tracks from DC folk-rockers The Dreamscapes Project.
