Cheevyjames’ Musical Roundhouse

Possum is playing as I type, thus the subject.

I’m listening to Live Phish05, a show from 2000. I borrowed these 2 Live Phish albums from Don and today I’m going through #5. Yesterday I devoured LP #18, a show recorded in Dallas back in ‘94. Unfortunately I wasn’t at that show, as I wasn’t listening to the band yet. But DAMN! I wish I coulda been at that show. It might be my favorite of the series (that or #11, a show from ‘97). It’s just stellar. Let’s see, it was May 7 1994 (13 years ago!), a Saturday night. What was I doing? Heh, who knows. Probably hanging out at home, or possibly at a Dah-veed show. But probably at home. The differences between the ‘94 Phish and the 2000 Phish are quite noticeable. Unfortunately. Man, they were just ON FIRE back in 1994. Not to say they were awful in 2000 or anything, but they just had such a fire and drive back in 1994. They were willing to take more musical risks back then. This show from 2000 is decent, enjoyable stuff, but it’s nothing like 1994.

It’s all about the HUNGER.

Don and I have discussed this a lot, the ups and downs of bands. We agree that it really comes down to how hungry a band is and how they handle their music once they “make it”. Most bands have this trajectory… up up up up, peak, and then slowly down and *hopefully* they just level off. There are obviously exceptions. I think as musicians both Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew flat out refuse to sit still and keep on pushing all envelopes this late in their careers. I will admit that King Crimson isn’t as “good” as they have been in the past, but I absolutely can’t accuse them of resting on their laurels. There are others too, who refuse to just coast. Zappa never did it. Mike Keneally certainly isn’t coasting. I think Iron Maiden is heading in a much better direction than they were 10 years ago, but they’ll still never be up to the level they were in 82-88. I think most every musician goes through that trajectory. Up and down.

I will always love Phish. As much as I love them and miss their music immensely, I hope they stay “dead”. I hope they keep that integrity. And while Undermind wasn’t the peak of their career, it’s a great enough album to end their career on. (if you care more about my thoughts on the subject of Phish, I wrote a rant on it a few years ago)

The band is finishing up Tweezer Reprise so I figure it’s time for me to go…oh wait! I forgot to mention (DUHR!) the main reason I wanted to post was to say that I actually worked on album reviews this weekend! Hooray! If you care, do go check it out.

Step into the freezer…

Current Location: hizzy

Current Mood: normal

Current Music: Phish - Live Phish 05 7/8/00

Released: 1971
Tracks: One of These Days; A Pillow of Winds; Fearless; San Tropez; Seamus; Echoes
Best track: Fearless, I think?
Tracks to skip: San Tropez & Seamus

In listening to this (twice in row, woo-hoo!) I got the feeling that the album, and probably the band, was still a bit directionless. No, maybe that’s not right. I think there might’ve been “direction”, but they just didn’t know which direction to take. Some of my most favorite albums are ones that are very eclectic. I like that stuff. I like all of the songs sounding different from each other. I think it’s a bit weird for me to say, “oh, I love eclectic albums”, but then turn around and say, “Meddle sounds directionless”. I think it’s true…and it doesn’t quite make sense to me, but I have accepted that as an answer. Huh? Yeah, exactly. OK, what I mean is this: yes, this album is eclectic and yes, they don’t stay in one place and yes, it’s absolutely unpredictable. However, everything doesn’t necessarily *work* on this. 4 of these 6 songs are great and they definitely display different sides of the band you probably wouldn’t know just by listening to Dark Side, Wish You Were Here and The Wall. OK, I’ll grant you that’s further expanded by San Tropez and Seamus, but I’ll get to those in a second. Those four songs are really good and in a way they don’t make sense that they’re all by the same band. I think individually the songs are good, but I don’t think all of them work together…especially when you throw in San Tropez and Seamus. Those two just confuse the whole thing. I think the eclecticism is good in general, but in this specific instance it doesn’t work the way it should. Yes, I realize that doesn’t make much sense. I’ve accepted it.

One of These Days kicks off the album and it’s the only song that’s usually heard on the radio from Meddle. It’s a great, driving instrumental and possibly one of the darkest and heaviest tracks the band recorded. It’s a great way to kick off the album, even if it hasn’t anything else to do with any other track on the album. It gets your attention that’s for sure. A Pillow of Winds is a slightly creepy, but very chilled track. It’s a nice break after One of These Days, even if it’s still a bit unnerving in a way. I like the finger-picked guitars combined with some very cool fretless bass work from Roger Waters. He doesn’t have any need to show off on the fretless, but his playing on the instrument is always right on. Fearless…man, that’s a cool song. Right now I think it’s the best one on the album, but that can change at any time. Gilmour sings some great melodies on this track and I’d go so far to say that it’s the best “unknown” Pink Floyd track out there. It’s not played on the radio, that’s what I mean. Fearless presents Gilmour’s acoustic playing in a totally different way from A Pillow of Winds and further shows that he’s not just great on the electric and slide guitars. The soccer chanting is…kind of strange on this track. I don’t really know *why* it’s there, but I guess it adds more to the “what?” factor of this album. As for San Tropez and Seamus, the dreaded “skippers”, San Tropez is cute, but it’s really not substantial. It’s just kind of a goofy, lounge-jazz track that doesn’t do too much and ends without resolving anything. It’s silly and obviously a throw-away, but to me it doesn’t add anything to the album at all. Seamus? I really, really can’t stand listening to this track. It’s a very boring acoustic guitar-based blues song anyway, but throw in a yelping dog (for the whole track) and it becomes unbearable. It really sounds like someone is abusing the dog in some way. I’ve always hated it.

The last track on Meddle is Echoes and it’s the one that seems like it points to what the band would do in the mid-70’s and what would make the band superstars. Not necessarily in the length (since it’s 23 minutes long after all), but in the feel and texture. It’s very spacey and mellow and just a little bit sinister. That middle bit is trippy. It does take patience to get through the track, especially that middle part (the “screaming” bit), but once you get to that *really* cool guitar part around the 18 minute mark and then back into the song proper it all really comes together. I just love that guitar part. I think that’s my favorite moment of the whole album. Yeah, Echoes is a LONG song and sometimes it is rather plodding, but when taken as a whole I think it’s enjoyable. It’s certainly *different* and you’re not likely to hear anyone make music like that. The sound effect of the SONAR “ping” is a wonderful addition to the song. It’s a small thing, but it adds a lot of weight to it.

So, what about the album as a whole? Like I said, it’s certainly eclectic, but I think everything doesn’t necessarily work together. It’s unbalanced in a way. I think it’s definitely an essential Pink Floyd purchase, because the four good songs are all quite good. Meddle isn’t a perfect album, and it’s not sure where it’s going, but there’s enough enjoyment in here and enough different ideas to change your mind that Pink Floyd is just a “space rock” band. Of course, then there’s Echoes and that’s nothing BUT space rock. Still, I like it.

Rating: 86

Released: 2003
Tracks: Cristal; Chega de Saudade; A Lenda do Caboclo; Doce de Coco; Dansa Brasileira; Apelo; Dansa Negra; 1 X 0 (Um a Zero); Menino; Samambaia; Carinhoso; Alma Brasileira; O Amor Em Paz; Bodas de Prata & Quatro Cantos; Brasileirinho; Salvador
Best track: Cristal, Dansa Brasileira, Bodas de Prata & Quatro Cantos or Brasileirinho
Track to skip: Salvador

It was difficult; I had to pull myself out a few times. I think I managed, though.

OK, well, yes, I love this album. And….ARGH! It’s so hard to write about it! I love it, I love it, I LOVE IT. This is such a wonderful album to listen to, with headphones or without. How to convey it? Well, the music on here is Brazilian (you probably could’ve guessed that by the title) and they’re all traditional Brazilian songs, with the addition of Yo-Yo Ma on the cello. Most of time he hangs around the in the higher range of the instrument so that it sounds closer to a viola or a violin than a “normal” cello. Yo-Yo Ma is primarily known for being a classical musician, but it seems he’s really been stretching out in recent years. On this album the mixture with him and the other musicians is just wonderful. It’s a perfect mix.

The album is primarily instrumental, with the only vocal tracks being Chega de Saudade and O Amor Em Paz (the two Antonio Carlos Jobim composed tracks) with Rosa Passos providing the vocals. The songs are a nice mixture of full-band things, and then some tracks are duos/trios. One of my favorite duos on the album is on Bodas de Prata & Quatro Cantos where Ma duets with Egberto Gismonti on piano. It’s a gorgeous track and a nice mellow piece before the album closes with the upbeat Brasileirinho, another great tune. It’s difficult for me to pick the “best track” on here, since those 2 in addition to Cristal and Dansa Brasileira are just *excellent* songs. I think Cristal is a fantastic opener. It definitely lets you know what you’re in for. The last track on the CD, Salvador, is listed as a “bonus track” and I’m kind of unsure why. My only guess is that this might be a special Barnes & Noble edition of the album (that’s where I got it) and thus it was tacked on at the end. Frankly, Salvador is the only track on here I don’t like. There’s a cool bit in the middle of it, but mostly it’s just rambling and kind of noisy. It’s a very strange way to end the album. I suppose you (or me) could just stop it after Brasileirinho and everything would be fine. So, besides that one minor thing, this album is really great. Certain songs make me want to dance (Dansa Brasileira) and certain songs just make my insides smile (Menino). I highly recommend this album.

Rating: 96

Released: 2006
Tracks: Medley (O Come O Come Emmanuel/O Come All Ye Faithful/Little Drummer Boy/Angels We Have Heard on High/Hark the Herald Angels Sing/We Three Kings/O Holy Night/It Came Upon a Midnight Clear/The First Noel/What Child is This?/God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/Silent Night)
Best track: all
Track to skip: none

This was only available as a download on DG’s website for the 2006 Holiday season. Good timing that it coincided with this batch of Christmas album reviews. What I like about this release (in comparison with the non-legitimate This Euphoric Christmas) is that it’s only Davíd playing solo piano and that’s all. No guitar and no vocals. It’s perfect in its simplicity. The medley is 17 minutes long, more or less continuous and goes through a bunch of what I call “sacred” Christmas songs. You know, the ones actually having to do with Jesus. I’ve always enjoyed these songs way more than the “secular” ones. I don’t know why. I guess they just reflect what I feel “Christmas” should be, and not really how it actually is here in 2006. It probably hasn’t been that way long since before I was born, but I like to remember my childhood Christmases as being “pure” and not obscenely commercialized. So, yeah, that’s why I love this. It’s just these great Christmas songs played on piano. They’re all simple arrangements, no showboating or flashy runs or anything. It’s really just the way it should be. And you might have a different opinion of all this, but this is mine. This release makes me feel good, which is what Christmas music should do. I guess there’s not much else to say. I really, really like this.

Rating: 96

Recorded: 2002/2003?
Tracks: Winter Wonderland; Christmas Don’t Be Late; Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire; Silent Night; Christmas Time is Here; Little Drummer Boy
Best Track: Silent Night
Track to skip: Chestnuts…is grading because of the vocals, but it’s OK

This is a nice album, and I like Davíd Garza playing Christmas songs since he’s pretty low key about it all. The album is definitely low-fi, so it’s literally just guitar, piano and voice with very little “production” involved. That gives it a great feeling of honesty, but I also wish the production was better. Minor complaint though. The only real issue I have with this is Davíd’s singing. He sounds fine on most of these, but as his voice is quite scratchy these days, at times it’s just kinda bad. This is especially evident on Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire. The arrangement of the song is nice (and it’s one you don’t hear that often), but his voice cracks way too many times during the course of the song. It’s very irritating. The main saving grace of the song is actually a random dog barking at the end. Mr. Dog provides a nice bit of hilarity and “realness”. He really probably was recording this in his living room with the window open.

On the whole, I enjoy this and I’m glad I have it. I think Davíd’s low-key delivery works on Christmas songs and the music is especially good. Not his best stuff, nor the best Christmas stuff out there, but I like it.

Rating: 85

Released: 1979
Tracks: Twelve Days of Christmas; The Peace Carol; Christmas is Coming; A Baby Just Like You; Deck the Halls; Noel: Christmas Eve, 1913; The Christmas Wish; Medley: Alfie, the Christmas Tree/Carol for a Christmas Tree/It’s in Everyone of Us; Silent Night, Holy Night; We Wish You a Merry Christmas
Best track: probably Twelve Days of Christmas
Tracks to skip: The Christmas Wish, the Medley, a Baby Just Like You & Noel: Christmas Eve 1913

Rating: 94

Released: 2002
Tracks: Carol of the Bells; Oh Christmas Tree; Greensleeves (What Child is This?); Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring; God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen; Unto Us a Child is Born; Jingle Bells; Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence; Happy Xmas (War is Over); Silent Night
Best track: Greensleeves
Track to skip: none

OK, I’m being a dork; I know. As hinted at above, the CGT are 3 acoustic guitarists and I think they are perfectly suited to play Christmas music. As a unit they have a slight harpsichord sound so it’s not too far off for them to do this kind of music and have it sound *right*. There are occasional guests (sax on a couple of songs and bells on Jingle Bells), but you hardly notice them so most of the focus is heading toward the Trio anyway. I have to say, this is a great headphone album. All of their albums are always enhanced by listening with headphones (and listening to an actual CD, not on an iPod) and this certainly fits into that category. Most of these songs are pretty solemn so it’s nice to get the lively version of Jingle Bells before heading back into more “serious” material. I really, really love the arrangements of this material on here. Just fantastic. And that’s where the headphones help – they really bring the fullness of the arrangements out in the open.

In addition to the arrangements, I also really enjoy the inclusion of a couple of solos here. The slide solo in Jingle Bells and the ebow solo in Greensleeves – that one is especially cool (and the background guitars sound like falling snow; a perfect touch). That track may be my favorite; they do such a great job with it. Also, the versions of Happy Christmas and Silent Night are beautiful. OK, nearly everything on here is. My complaints are few, but some do exist. For one, the CD is just too short. Especially in something like God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen…it’s a great tune and sounds wonderful, but they only play the main melody once before ending the song. I’m not sold on the inclusion of Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring as I don’t think it really fits. I suppose that’s a similar reason why I didn’t completely enjoy Handel’s Unto Us a Child is Born. It sounded “good”, but it didn’t move me and seemed a bit out of place. Still, a few minor complaints about an otherwise great album. I’m really happy the CGT released this album. It’s a great listen as background music and even better with headphones. Highly recommended.

Rating: 92

The weekend trip to Dallas was great, although too short as all vacations are. We had an early start off and landed at DFW around 10:30 am. Sweet, a full day. After the checking in a Julie’s parents’ place we borrowed the car (thank you, Susan!) and headed downtown to meet Jeni at Sonny Bryan’s BBQ in the West End.

Ah, the delicious beef brisket sammich with yummy sides. And the 24oz Ziegenbock. Yeah!

Jeni and Julie outside in the West End

C’est moi.

So yeah, the food was awesome. Texas BBQ is the best and that is not up for debate.

We had a great time hanging with Jeni and catching up with just the three of us. There’s talk of Jeni visiting us sometime in the future and I think it’s a great idea. The rest of the day was spent meeting up with the “Dallas Crew” and hanging out all night with the night culminating in Matt’s Celebrity Hot Tub Party. Good times.

Saturday was the day of Mom’s wedding and everything went off perfectly. We were all disappointed that my aunt and grandmother couldn’t make it up from Austin, but it’s understandable since they had pretty bad flu junk the previous week. I did indeed make my “world famous” CD mixes for the ceremony and reception and everyone seemed to enjoy them. So, yay, Julie and I did a good job. I manned the stereo so that was fun. The ceremony itself was really nice with both Mom and Chuck getting kind of emotional at various points. It was sweet to see that. I didn’t have any weird reactions like I mentioned in the last entry. I guess I got all that out of my system when it was Dad’s turn. All in all, a great day.

Here’s a pic of nephew Kyle showing his school spirit:

Sunday was a relaxing day catching up with Julie’s parents, her brother and his girlfriend. Julie’s Dad fixed his excellent pancakes for breakfast and all was good.

Like I said, a good trip back to Dallas, even if it was so short.

Last night’s band practice was a bit odd for me. It was cut short due to food issues, but that’s OK. We were kind of “brain-farty” about what we had agreed to practice from the previous week. Of course neither of us had much time the past week to practice ourselves (travel for me, general family madness for Jenn) so that made things not go as smoothly as I would have liked. We didn’t get a chance to go through Lady Pilot and that disappointed me, since I’m really looking forward to getting it worked up. We did, however, work on Matte Kudasai. It’s slowly getting better, but we have a long way to go before it’s presentable to anyone. We spent most of our time working on my vocal part for Amnesia. I hope it’ll sound good, as Julie has her doubts that my voice works on there. We’ll see. Still though, something was a bit strange about the practice and it wasn’t just the shortness of it. Musically something was weird. I hope that our next one (probably in 2 weeks since Jenn’s heading up to NYC next week) will be more productive and hopefully we’ll have time to run through everything. We did talk about the possibility of adding 2 more of my older tunes to the set, so I’m going to send her some MP3’s tonight and see what she thinks. She also noted that my latest tune, “The Italian Riff”, has some potential. I just need to write more of it!

OK, dinner’s ready and after that Julie and I will be devouring the latest Zappa DVD - Classic Albums: Overnite Sensation/Apostrophe. Well, *I’ll* be devouring it!

Current Location: home

Current Mood: fine

Current Music: Phish - Wolfman’s Brother

Hullo! I was planning to write this morning anyway, but I have been further inspired by reading sister Jenn’s newest journal.

Our band practice last night was interesting.

Interesting, in that we didn’t once pick up our instruments, but just talked the whole time. After the usual recounting of the past week for both of us we normally get down to playing, but when Jenn told me about the stuff going on with her brother I made the decision that I wasn’t going to press the “we have to play” issue and just let her talk about whatever she needed to. We talked about her brother, and his impending separation/probably divorce and that lead to a lengthy and interesting conversation about her own parents’ divorce and specifically her father. This is familiar conversational territory for me as my parents are also divorced. I think that those of us who’ve gone through that have some sort of strange bond that people whose parents stayed together can’t understand. While Jenn was 22 when her parents divorced, I was much younger - probably around 13 when it was finalized, although the entire process (separation, all that) started somewhere around when I was 10.

It’s interesting to me that I can’t recall a lot of the details about Mom and Dad’s divorce, even though I can remember plenty of other things from that time in my life. Obviously I blocked most of it out. I’ve talked with my brother about this a few times and he always tells me about things that happened that I just CAN’T remember. Without his re-telling, I’d have no idea that they happened. The things I do remember about the whole process aren’t my fondest of memories. Divorce sucks. There’s no other way of saying it.

Another interesting angle to this story is that my Mom is getting married this Saturday. My Dad remarried when I was in college, well over 10 years ago. It’s one of the most surreal experiences to see your parents get married. I clearly remember at Dad’s wedding thinking “I am NOT supposed to be seeing this”. I love my step-mother dearly and she’s a wonderful person, but it’s still just *weird* to see one of your parents get married. And thus, I get to see my Mom get married on Saturday. I guess that means I’ll have to start referring to Chuck as my step-dad, and that’s kinda weird. Mom and Chuck have been together for a long time, definitely longer than the 10 years Julie and I have been together. I’m really happy for my Mom and Chuck’s a good guy. I’m also happy that my Dad could find someone that fits him so perfectly as Ann.

In talking to Jenn about her Dad, it of course made me think about my own Dad and how I’m so thankful that he could really turn his life around and look inside himself and do everything he needed to do to fix HIM. I think Dad succeeded with flying colors and I’m proud of him for the person he’s become since he and Mom broke up. I really hope that Jenn’s Dad can get to that core and fix himself and that Jenn and her father can have the conversation they’ve needed to have for the past 9 years, but yet have not. I think Jenn doesn’t realize how similar she is to her father and hopefully she can face that as well.

In talking with Mom yesterday about wedding plans, she told me that an old family friend, “Aunt Jean”, died recently. This was a shock for both of us since she, her husband and children were great friends of ours. Aunt Jean’s husband, Dr. Jim, was our family doctor and their son Jay was probably my brother’s best friend growing up. They were some of the nicest people I’ve ever met and I always loved hanging out at their house. I always enjoyed the wonderful conversation that happened there. Great friends, and I’m sad that Aunt Jean has passed and that Dr. Jim is now in a wheel chair and probably won’t be able to attend the wedding.

So, back to the wedding. I’ve volunteered to make a CD or two for the ceremony and reception. Julie and I are going to make them tonight and I’m glad she’s going to help since I trust her input. Knowing me, I’d try to be too esoteric in my music choices. She’s good at grounding me a bit! Mom’s only request yesterday was that I didn’t put any “heavy rock” on there. Ah, this makes me smile! Mom had to endure two sons who listened ENDLESSLY to heavy metal during our high school years (and since we’re 5 years apart, that’s a long stretch of time) and I’m sure she’s heard enough “heavy rock” to last her a lifetime. It didn’t need to be said, and I’m sure she was probably just kidding me, but there’s no way I’d put any Maiden or Ozzy onto her wedding CDs. Still, it made me laugh yesterday when she said it and it’s making me laugh right now.

Of course since the wedding’s in Dallas, it means that Julie and I are once again heading back to Texas. I’m excited to see our friends again and of course our families.

Last night I had a strange dream. It involved Liberty Lunch, a great music venue in Austin that’s no longer there. I guess in the dream they built a new location in North Austin and it just had a HUGE amount of space and also served food at the bar during the day. I remember talking to Julie in there after I realized where I was and going, “dude, do you know where we are?” She goes, “yeah. We’re at the corner of highway something and highway something or other”. And I said, “no, we’re at LIBERTY LUNCH!” and then she says, “well DUH!”

In addition to seeing a lot of great shows at Liberty Lunch, I played on that stage (awesome time) and so the venue popping up in a dream, and ALIVE again made me really happy this morning.

I received a new pair of headphones yesterday and that’s one mental block that’s been removed from me getting back to work on some things. I haven’t had adequate headphones for quite a few months now and it’s given me a lame excuse to not work on my album or do album reviews for my website (I always use headphones for reviewing). Now I have no excuse. Tonight I’m going to re-listen to what I’ve recorded so far for the album and take stock of what I have and what else I need. It’s been clawing at me a lot recently to get it done and I’m honestly excited to get back to it. I think a year-long break is enough.

Current Location: hang a left, hang a right…

Current Mood: good

Current Music: Yes - Starship Trooper + a lot of other cool stuff