Your Window - Great Aunt Ida cover - June 25, 2012

So it looks like A Song A Week  might need to be renamed to A Song Whenever I Get To It.  I have my reasons/ excuses....

1. The Company - Kingfisher Painting Services, it's our busiest time of year.  When I started the blog it was our slowest part of the year.

2. The Dog - Dinah, the blue-eyed she-devil.  This dog walking business eats up your free time!

3.  Euro 2012 - a Man must have his footy.

Ida Nilsen was a force on the Vancouver music scene for many years before relocating to Toronto.  One of those musically intelligent multi-instrumentalists who is capable of bringing something unique and critical to every project she gets involved with.  I knew her best through The Sugar Refinery, that magical venue of lore, where one of my fondest memories involved me clumsily  banging out a boozy Blue Christmas on the notoriously out of tune piano, Ida behind me, whisky-soaked clouds emanating from the bell of her drunken trumpet, while a rare heavy and silent snow fell on Vancouver.

Your Window, the opening track from her most recent Great Aunt Ida album Nuclearize Me,  is insanely catchy, infused with an internalized melancholy, and is lyrically clever.  "I see trouble looking through your window" she sings at the end of the first stanza, while the last verse ends with "I think of all the things I saw through your window."  Hmmmmm...what does it all mean?  Send Ida a message and find out. And while you're at it check out the Great Aunt Ida album I originally got obsessed with How They Fly - Great Aunt Ida

Okay, here's my version of the song

Here's a live version of Ida doing it

Your Window by Ida

Find her on Facebook

Your Window - Ida Nilsen

Lover where's your smile

I haven't seen it in a while

what's made you so blue

I see trouble looking through

your window

Lover I'm not scared

I have got myself prepared

I've been watching you so long

I know every break-up song

I am listening

Did you say your heart's gone

do you think that it will come back

I'll take you to the airport

put you on a fast track

Then I'll go walk around

rain is different in this town

falls on faces I won't meet

crossing every major street

I can think of

Did you say your heart's gone

do you think that it might be here

have you looked in all the places

you've been to for the last year

Then I'll go walk around

fill the emptiness with sound

watch the streetlamps turning on

think of all the things I saw 

through your window

The Blog Faltered - To The Ghosts - June 13, 2012

The blog faltered.  I failed to adhere to the construct. There was no song last week.  It was a busy week, but the real problem was my wife was away and all order, routine, and structure crumbled.  Subsisting on all meat pizzas, salt & pepper squid, and salisbury steaks; unclothed, unshaved, guzzling red wine by the box, subscribed to the 24 hour Charlie Sheen channel, marathon phone sex with a Moldavian heiress, filth, squalor, freestyle farting.  I meant to do the blog one night, but instead drank a bottle of wine and played sad songs for 3 hours.  There were two rehearsals during the week for the show we had with Cloudsplitter and  I recorded this song at the end of one of them....I had the potential to do the blog last week but never did!

Our friend Clifford Doerksen died an untimely and tragic death in December 2010 and flying home from the memorial service in February 2011 I composed this song, in its entirety, in my head.  When I got home I typed it up and promptly forgot about it for 6 months, until I stumbled on it again and started working on it.  Realizing the melodies I was coming up with referenced The Carpenters' Top Of The World, I checked out those chord progressions and messed around with them. I believe this is the kind of secret songwriting shit I'm not supposed to reveal.

Amongst many other things, Clifford was a brilliant, hilarious, and ruthless writer and reviewer. Here's an article remembering him that also contains many links to his writing:  

click here: CLIFFORD

And here it is, To The Ghosts, to Clifford....

with Rachelle Reath - violin and backup vox,
Emily Goodenough - viola
Marek Tyler - drums 

To The Ghosts

His heart lay panting on the floor

his mind just walked out the back door

into the winter's night

to fight the good fight

if he could still distinguish wrong from right

Did someone step on a crack and break his back

did someone say give up, turn back

The stolen years

will not be restored by our tears

and our memories will fade from grey to black

Whether we say yay or nay

the night is followed by the day

To the departed and their ghosts

we raise one too many toasts

then stumble numbly on our way

Seahorses - Improvised Soundtrack with Eric Gallipo - May 28, 2012

Last week Eric Gallipo and I performed a live soundtrack to Jean Painleve`s film Seahorses as part of The Olio Cooperative`s Sound and Vision night.  Sound and Vision is an evening of silent film shorts with live soundtracks performed by local Victoria musicians and artists.
I had become fascinated with the films of Painleve after seeing an excerpt at the surrealist show that was mounted at The Vancouver Art Gallery; having participated in past editions of  Sound and Vision I vowed to do one of them.  Little did I know at that time that Yo Le Tengo has scored at least eight of Painleve`s most popular  films!

I have always done this project solo, but on this occasion I invited Eric Gallipo to join me. Eric is an attentive, empathetic improviser and one of the most eclectic, original, and talented musicians I know.  Whether it`s the harsh noise of CSTL, the classic bebop stylings of the Eric Gallipo Ensemble, or whatever the fuck you ask him to do in whatever situation, he brings a fresh creative perspective, humour (sometimes twisted), and musical chops to spare.

A few nights after the show, we set up with my crappy laptop webcam filming a DVD on the TV That`s what you call postmodern image degeneration, don`t you know.   We did one take and here it is

If you are interested in Jean Painleve, I would suggest racing down to Pic A Flic (located in scenic Cook Street Village) and renting the 3 DVD Science Is Fiction compilation of his work issued by Criterion.  Sadly, Criterion has had a lot the Jean Painleve stuff taken off youtube, including most of the Yo Le Tengo tracked films

Check out some noise!

Skeleton - May 23, 2012

Though I wrote this song about a year ago,  it still feels a little fresh and new, maybe because I haven't performed it live a zillion times. This version of it is recorded with Rachelle Reath on violin, Emily Goodenough on cello, and Marek Tyler on the drums. We have been rehearsing for our first show in this configuration June 9 at The Fort St. Cafe with Vancouver band Cloudsplitter.  Emily just learned the song tonight, so kudos to Emily I say.  Anyone got a name for this sweet combo? Bring it on - let the blog comments rain down.

Here we are playing the song

Skeleton - David P. Smith

The skeleton in my closet he knows how to party

down by the river amongst the debris

There we discuss alien conspiracies

trailer park lesbians, UFC

How it feels to see your reflection in a glass of whiskey

Whiskey rivers swum like public pool lengths

dreamlessly sinking in quicksand beds

Unresolved nights became resolute dawns

the angry sparrows twittered as the sun grew strong

Days begun orange, then turned to blue

with periods of brown forecast for the afternoon

Fat robins feast on freshly turned worms

starlings flit and swoop like sci-fi insect swarms

A little brown bird lies still on the street

near the passenger door to the left of my feet

Maybe, maybe, maybe he's asleep

The skeleton in my closet likes to go out on the town

likes to paint it red, he really likes to get down

Sometimes he gets so down I find him crawling around

And I say

if you piss in the carburetor, the car will stall

if you piss on the temple floor, the walls will fall

you can piss your pants, buddy it's your call

You can do what you want, I'll pick you up when you fall

The digital satellite unit casts a hideous shadow on our house

while I recline on the sofa in the costume of a louse

While on the TV, weeping women flee

the good doctor eats a live chimpanzee

and the air is alive with fleas' disease

The skeleton in my closet pulls me aside

he says 

brother got a minute, I need to confide

you see, my dreams all cower like scared cats in the rain

and I don't mind feeling numb, it means I don't feel pain

but it scares me being numb, in case I don't feel again

It was a sad good-bye to the jugglers and clowns

went working for the man in a jackhammer town

Now I have a daughter and I have a wife

and this is the foundation on which I build my life

The skeleton in my closet says he's feeling tired

says it's hard to care, says he feels uninspired

And I say

put your pants on one leg at a time

open the curtains and let the sun shine

every minute in the world a hundred ten people are dying

Sing a song, stop crying

Sing a song, stop crying

you 

Positively 4th Street - The Inevitable Dylan Cover - May 15, 2012

Here's the inevitable Bob Dylan cover.  Going to high school in rural Alberta there may have been some people listening to Dylan, but it was no one I knew.  The soundtrack to drunken teen-age parties was comprised of Led Zeppelin 4, Nazareth's Greatest Hits, Frampton Comes Alive, Styx - The Grand Illusion......well you get the drift.  My first exposure to Dylan was when I left home and went to university.  I promptly became obsessed, borrowed a copy of the first Greatest Hits record and playing it incessantly.  I have a memory, I'm not sure I would classify as fond or not, of leaning inebriated out my dorm window screaming the chorus of Like A Rolling Stone at befuddled passers-bys.  No one can match the almost joyful exuberance of Dylan's self-righteous venom.  And one of the most venomous is Positively 4th Street.  My version has some tempo and melody variations to the original....here it is:

Positively 4th Street - Bob Dylan

You got a lotta nerve

To say you are my friend

When I was down

You just stood there grinning

You got a lotta nerve

To say you got a helping hand to lend

You just want to be on

The side that’s winning

You say I let you down

You know it’s not like that

If you’re so hurt

Why then don’t you show it

You say you lost your faith

But that’s not where it’s at

You had no faith to lose

And you know it

I know the reason

That you talk behind my back

I used to be among the crowd

You’re in with

Do you take me for such a fool

To think I’d make contact

With the one who tries to hide

What he don’t know to begin with

You see me on the street

You always act surprised

You say, “How are you?” “Good luck”

But you don’t mean it

When you know as well as me

You’d rather see me paralyzed

Why don’t you just come out once

And scream it

No, I do not feel that good

When I see the heartbreaks you embrace

If I was a master thief

Perhaps I’d rob them

And now I know you’re dissatisfied

With your position and your place

Don’t you understand

It’s not my problem

I wish that for just one time

You could stand inside my shoes

And just for that one moment

I could be you

Yes, I wish that for just one time

You could stand inside my shoes

You’d know what a drag it is

To see you

There's a lot of not that awesome covers of this song out there.  Dylan's versions are so idiosyncratic and definitive, it can be hard to pull off.  I liked this one by Jerry Garcia with Merl Saunders.  

The Beast In Me - Johnny Cash - May 6, 2012

I have had a terrible cold and sore throat this week and consequently I'm able to sing two or three tones lower than I normally could.  A perfect opportunity to do some Johnny Cash.  The Beast In Me appears on the first American Recordings album and was written by his then son-in-law Nick Lowe.  If you're not familiar with Nick Lowe, he is a gifted and orginal songwriter.  His haunting version of The Beast In Me appears on Impossible Bird, an album which song to song is one of the consistently best written records I've encountered.  Nick Lowe wrote the song specifically for Johnny and at the bottom of this page I've put a link to him talking about how the song came about.

Okay, so here we go.  Here's my rendition on accordion

The Beast In Me - Nick Lowe

The beast in me 

is caged by frail and fragile bars

restless by day and by night

rants and rages at the stars

God help the beast in me

The beast in me

has had to learn to live with pain

and how to shelter from the rain

and in the twinkling of any eye

might have to be restrained

God help the beast in me

Sometimes he tries to kid me

that he's just a teddy bear

and maybe even manages to vanish in the air

and that is when I must beware

Of the beast in me

that everybody knows

they've seen him out dressed in my clothes

patently unclear

if it's New York or New Year

God help the beast in me

God bless the beast in me

An excellent live version by Johnny in the period following the release of American 1.  He was really in a career renaissance at this point, at the height of his powers.

Nick Lowe's version from The Impossible Bird album

Nick Lowe talking about writing The Beast In Me

Whiskey, You Are Not My Brother - New Song - May 1, 2012

Remember that post about a month ago before we played with Black Valley Gospel at Crace Mountain?
Whether you do or don't, the night of that show David Chenery proposed a collaboration of a sorts between us.  He wants to record some of my older material and give it the f*@!#!?! Black Valley treatment!  I was both honoured and excited about the proposal.  Initial song ideas include some Dogbreath Brothers tunes - Stay Away With The Whiskey, Look In Your Heart, and Bent, Broke, Busted 'n' Blue - plus Last Trip To Vancouver from the Eelgirl EP and a heavy version of the instrumental Jackass Path from the Hurtin' Dance Party album possibly with a spoken word piece.  Crazy shit!

I started working on a song this week and it seemed like maybe it could fit this project.    I've keyed it so Chenery could easily do manic vocals an octave above what I'm doing.  This is really a sketch of the song. We'll run it up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes.

Check out the video - my head looks like a sock puppet

******Stardate January 13, 2016:  the collaboration with Chenery did not come to fruition.  However, I did a minor tweak on the lyrics, a major tweak on the arrangement and feel, and went on to record the song with Mike Hall in a combo with drums (Marek Tyler), cello (Hank Pine). Live off the floor don't you know, to fabulous 1/4" reel to reel.  Stay tuned....I'll post it soon!

Whiskey, You Are Not My Brother

Whiskey, you are not my brother
do not stand so near
take your hand from my shoulder
do not whisper in my ear

There is a place
where black is dark
dark, dark blue
where you are misshapen and made obese
by all that does not fill you

Whiskey, you are not my brother
do not stand so near
take your hand from my shoulder
do not whisper in my ear

There is a place
where the river is deep
deep, deep green
the waters are opaque, they are viscous
they appear to be serene


Whiskey, you are not my brother
do not stand so near
take your hand from my shoulder
do not whisper in my ear