Blah Blah Blog

Dig some live performance and discussion of new adventures in home studio recording 7 p.m. Friday (TONIGHT!) on WEXT 97.7's "Local 518" hour, hosted by the great Chris Wienk.

I'm splitting the hour with the bad-ass Ramblin Jug Stompers - so there's an actual reason to tune-in.

Show repeats Sunday at 11 am.

PS: Zoe's really digging NYC.



And Jason's got the proof.

Labels: live, music

1. A TELE FOR MOTHER



I played guitar last night for MotherJudge in a band that included Bob Buckley (bass), Sten Isachsen (mandolin) and Mitch Elrod (vox, acoustic guitar). I don't think I've had a chance to play guitar with a band like that since - a Middlebury reunion? Mid-nineties? The three guitar licks I know worked out okay, and served as only an occassional distraction from the awesomeness of Caroline and the rest of the band.

• REVIEW: A frail Odetta is strong, sure, confident

2. ODETTA: ROARING AND SOARING



We were in Washington Park, opening for the great Odetta. Who killed it. Frail and wheelchair-bound but positively glowing when she smiled and still fierce when she opened her mouth to sing - growling, roaring, whispering, soaring.

Glory Hallelujah, indeed.

• REVIEW: A frail Odetta is strong, sure, confident

3. GREEN ROOM MEMORIES

The last time I hung out with Odetta we were alone with Tommy Makem, Pete Seeger and his wife Toshi, catching up, sharing songs and talking about old times together.

Okay - this is a horrible attempt at name-dropping.

THEY were hanging out.

I was but a lowly PR assistant at WMHT, assigned to pick Odetta up from the airport for a taping of this show:



But I WAS in the room.

Just me and them.

Surreal.

Upon our arrival:

"Odetta," said Toshi Seeger, "I see you're accompanied by a handsome young man, as usual!"

As usual.

4. MUSIC FOR MAYA



This was Maya's first concert. Not a bad way to start out: Odetta and MotherJudge. With daddy noodling on guitar.

5. NAME-DROPPING

And speaking of "Maya" and name-dropping - about that car ride from the airport to the WMHT studios:

It was one of the most intense conversations of my life, which started with a discussion of classical music, as my radio was tuned to WMHT's FM station when Odetta sat down in the passenger seat.

At one point, she referenced a recent conversation with a friend of hers by saying, "I was talking to Maya the other day and..."

I assumed that she was talking about Maya Angelou, even though she hadn't used a last name, but she stopped herself mid-sentence and immediately apologized - unnecessarily, of course, but with sweetness, grace and humility.

"Oh my, that sounds pretentious doesn't it? It sounds like I'm name-dropping!"

Remember: This is the woman who literally inspired Bob Dylan to pick up the guitar.

And she's genuinely worried about coming off as a name-dropper.

While sitting in my car.

Surreal.

6. IN A HOLE IN THE GROUND SOMEWHERE IN DELMAR...

I have next week off and plan on heading into a certain basement bomb shelter/studio to do some recording. You've heard some of the demos but I'm fleshing 'em out, in some cases re-recording altogether.

From the dozen or so I've been working on I'm hearing 6 or 7 songs that make enough sense together sonically and thematically to... maybe... even... call... an... album.

Wish me luck.

7. LIVE ON WEXT FRIDAY at 7 p.m.



More on this quasi-album thing - and some live performance, too - will be revealed at 7 p.m. this Friday on WEXT 97.7's "Local 518" hour, hosted by the great Chris Wienk.

I'm splitting the hour with the bad-ass Ramblin Jug Stompers - so there's an actual reason to tune-in.

Show repeats Sunday at 11 am.

I'm out.

B.

UPDATE:

8. A LITTLE GIRL TAKES MANHATTAN

While Maya was enjoying Caroline and Odetta, her older sister Zoe escaped to Times Square with her uncle, her aunt, her grandma - and a favorite baby doll. She'll be hanging in NYC with them all week.

We miss her.

Labels: family, hiddencity, live, music, photos

Thanks to all who came out to the Colony Cafe in Woodstock last night for an evening of musical mayhem with two geniuses named Brian Dewan and Jed Davis... plus little ol' me.

And thanks again to Brian and Jed for havin' me.

PS: Speaking of Woodstock, here's a little something from almost exactly 10 years ago:

Anymore | Download MP3 - 5MB


...Next day Tuesday open mic nite Woodstock Tinker Town.
Levon's setlist beneath the glass, it should be inspiration.
Applause is good tonite but soon it's gone, I'm all alone.
Driving back up 87. It's masturbation.

It's getting too late. I'm getting less alive.
It's getting too late. Tomorrow back to nine to five.

Tomorrow smothers.

What the hell'd I come here for?

I don't need to be here anymore.



Photo by Jed.

Labels: live, music

Presenting Matthew Loiacono and the Upstate Kentucky Choir, live from Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs. Because it's been, like, 3 minutes since I've posted photos of Mr. Loiacono.

Another amazing night of music in the Five-One-Eight.



FLICKR: Photo Set | Slideshow

MORE: Matthew Loiacono

Labels: hiddencity, music, photos

"We saw them sing at the gallery. No microphones. No lights. An explosion underground." - Ben

Flick: Set | Slideshow

Learn: CollarCityRecords.com

Labels: hiddencity, music, photos

At the Colony Cafe in Woodstock last night with Brian Dewan, Jed Davis and Michael Bassett.

Eschatonalicious.

• FLICKR: Pix | Slideshow
• WIKILICIOUS: Dewan | Davis

Labels: hiddencity, music, photos

Round up the usual suspects: Here's pix from the 10th Annual Dylan Celebration, which went down at Union College's Old Chapel Thursday night:

• FLICKR: Slideshow | Set

Admittedly pix were an afterthought for me that night: I spent most of the evening listening and hanging with friends. Fancy that. Wish I'd swapped out the zoom for the wide angle, gotten a nice overhead shot of the room, included more of the performers on the bill, blah blah blah, yadda yadda yadda, life goes on.

While I'm sharing: I dug up this rehearsal of the song I performed, captured with the little MP3 recorder about a month ago.

Mozambique (rehearsal) | Download MP3 - 6MB


Props again to Dale, Mr. Eck, Mr. Haymes, and everyone else who kicked my butt that night.

(NOTE: This entire post was created by typing with only one hand while holding a certain sleepy 7-week-old in the other. God bless keyboard shortcuts.)

Labels: hiddencity, music, photos

Erykah's New Amerykah is killing me. In a good way.



In particular the zen of Master Teacher, a brilliant collaboration with Georgia Anne Muldrow:

A beautiful world I'm trying to find...

What if there was no niggas, only Master Teachers?

I stay woke.

Damn. Stay woke, y'all. No glitter. No beeper.

Labels: music

New music for ya - inspired in no small part by the ongoing nonsense, which gets worse with each passing moment. I'm so mad I had to play drums. In 6/4 time on the chorus no less. Pseudo-snare and can-drum courtesy Zoe's toy collection.

Kick | Download MP3 - 5MB



And the next time former President Clinton or former Rep. Ferraro make every effort to assure you that they're not dog-whistling, that they're just "stating a fact", that hell, some of their best offices are in Harlem, please ask yourself how their so-called facts might resonate with this activist Democrat:

J. K. Patrick, a retired state employee from a neighboring county, wore a button on his shirt that said "Hillary: Smart Choice."

"East of Lexington she'll carry seventy per cent of the primary vote," he said. Kentucky votes on May 20. "She could win the general election in Kentucky." I asked about Obama. "Obama couldn't win."

Why not?

"Race," Patrick said matter-of-factly. "I've talked to people - a woman who was chair of county elections last year, she said she wouldn't vote for a black man." Patrick said he wouldn't vote for Obama either.

Why not?

"Race. I really don't want an African-American as President. Race."

What about race?

"I thought about it. I think he would put too many minorities in positions over the white race. That's my opinion. After 1964, you saw what the South did." He meant that it went Republican. "Now what caused that? Race. There's a lot of white people that just wouldn't vote for a colored person. Especially older people. They know what happened in the sixties. Under thirty - they don't remember. I do. I was here."

Yes, he "thought about it."

And yet after eight years of George W. Bush excreting on the Middle East, the Constitution, the Department of Justice and the global economy, Mr. Patrick (a Democrat!) is more worried about the vague threat of "too many minorities in positions over the white race" than he is about Sen. McCain going full speed ahead with four more years of Bush policy.

And Mr. Patrick is not alone.

God. Bless. America.

PS: Analysis here.

Labels: in the news, music

Good stuff in today's Times Union, via Mr. Eck:

This musician rarely misses a beat
By MICHAEL ECK, Special to the Times Union
First published: Sunday, April 13, 2008

He's certainly best known as the hairy guy holding the mandolin (and occasionally the banjo) in the popular upstate porch-rock group the Kamikaze Hearts. But local music insiders also know Matthew Loiacono as the former drummer in saxophonist Brian Patneaude's jazz combo and singer/songwriter Bryan Thomas' lean, tight band; or they've seen him hitting skins or strumming strings with a host of others....

Loiacono spent February writing and recording new music as part of the nationwide February Album Writing Month project. He'll release the results, a collection called Kentucky, online later this spring...

TU Article | Kentucky Record & Contest | Matthew's Blog

Labels: hiddencity, music

Or not so happy, as the case may be.

Please rewind to March 2003 for some music to weep by.



Thank you.

Labels: in the news, music

This is something I cranked out quickly last night. It's my cover of "Know" - a rare, unreleased song by a certain female singer-songwriter. Can you guess who she is?

KNOW (Cover Version)


Hint 1: Legend has it that she improvised the lyric and melody to "Know" on the spot, live to tape in the studio, with her father on guitar. Hint 2: The song does not appear on any album. It's only recently available as a bootleg. Hint 3: It ain't Joni. Which should be obvious once you hear it.

Here's the original.

KNOW (Original by Guess Who)


Hers is better.

So give it up, give it up, give it up...

Labels: family, music

Guess what?

Every. Song. Is. Free. Now.

So go get your MP3 on.

PS: How you like my clean ass shit?

Labels: music

UPDATE: Sunday, Jan. 27. 8:00 p.m.



I feel a song coming on.

Developing Developed: 080127light.mp3

Light

My hole is warm and full of light.
Yes it is full of light.
There's no brighter spot in all of New York than this hole of mine.

This does not exclude Broadway
Or the view from the Empire State.
These two spots are among the darkest in our so-called civilization culture.

I have one-thousand three-hundred sixty-nine lights.

There's only one radio
I plan to have five
Playing the same song at once to overcome the acoustical deadness

Pour me some sloe gin
Over vanilla ice cream
As Louis bends his military instrument into a beam of lyrical sound.

I have one-thousand three-hundred sixty-nine lights.

So I fight Light and Power with light.

This is how the world moves.
No arrow. No spiral.
Prepare for the boomerang of history. Keep a steel helmet handy.

Immature poets imitate;
Mature poets steal.
I stole that from Eliot. I stole it just to prove him wrong.

Stealing one-thousand three-hundred sixty-nine lights

Truth is light.

Labels: music

Two Four super rough demos for y'all.

• Sticky
• BoomChicka
• DreamSong
• Mind

STICKY. Believe it or not, this is a co-write with a 4-year-old. We were in the car after her first soccer game and Zoe, post-popsicle, was washing her hands with a wet-wipe. Out of nowhere she blurted out the main melody for the verse and the chorus, all at once, with that curious off-beat: "Give me another wipe: I'm still sticky, my hands are still sticky!" I raced home, grabbed the Tele, and turned it into Lady Macbeth. If you picture Lady Mac being played by the current First Lady instead of Dame Judy I won't hold it against you. The beat box was killing me in a bad way - so I remixed without. I would go all Macbeth on Duncan with someone to be able to do this with a real band. Oh well.

BOOMCHICKA. Jean Luc's been looking for the muse. Julia's been looking for the muse. And her name is Jennifer. Where she been hiding? She ain't been turning tricks downtown again, has she? Ashes to ashes, funk to funky - we know Jenny's just a junkie. My hand drumming is worse than the beat box. Oh well.

DREAMSONG. This groove came to me in a dream (duh). About a year ago. As a mother was chasing me through a mall with her young child. I was racing to get to my little MP3 recorder. And then I woke up. There's a sleepy version of me trying to re-create the groove with my mouth saved on my PDA, followed by me trying to make sense of the nonsense of what was going on in the dream. Somehow the mother in the dream became "Mary, Mother of God" - and, as they say in the biz, the rest wrote itself.

MIND. Another co-write with Zoe. She came up with the words and melody for the first verse about a year ago - at age 3. The rest wrote itself. 50 percent novelty song, 50 percent The Story of My Life in Two Minutes.

Labels: music

[Photo by Luanne Ferris appears courtesy of the Times Union.]

See all of the musicial celebrations of the Capital Region tonight at 9 on WMHT.

Including yours truly.

Preview it all here.

Follow along with the lyrics here.

Labels: hiddencity, music

[Photo by Luanne Ferris appears courtesy of the Times Union.]

There's a party going on at Tess'
Every Wednesday night
Of the "Best of" hers is The Bestest
Mother Judge's Open Mic

That's right: we're celebrating all things MotherJudge for the Times Union's "Best of the Capital Region" 2007 edition.

• Videos here. In good company. (Why do I always have to follow that bad ass Raneri?) Also: the backstory.


• Lyrics here. With links o' fun.

Big ups, thanks and all that to Casey, Greg, Luanne and all the folks at the TU, to my peeps from a past life at WMHT - and especially to Sweet Caroline.



And now I'm getting on a plane. Have a good party y'all. Cheers,

B.

Labels: hiddencity, music

...about the party going on every Wednesday.



And that's all that Yours Truly - a crazy hair, four-eyes, brace-face, big black behind havin', semi-retired from the music so-called business, thirty-somethin' somethin' pushing forty, union webmaster by day, husband and daddy by night who's chilling cold chilling free to be put in a cage livin' in the acoustic soul rock 'n roll capital of the world a.k.a Delmar - is sayin'.

UPDATE: Okay, okay. One. More. Little. Hint.

See ya Thursday.

Labels: hiddencity, music

Again I pose the question: See ya there?

From today's Metroland:

The Last Conspirators CD-release party

Savannah's, Saturday

The Last Conspirators are fronted by former Morons and Ghostrunner singer-songwriter Tim Livingston, who has been making music locally for three decades. The Conspirators are celebrating the release of their new disc, Warparty (Driving Rain Records), the first in 14 years for Livingston. The band describe their CD thusly: "Ten cutting, socially-charged blasts, served up as a potent molotov-cocktail of garagey-punk and soulful, electric-folk." They’ll perform a bunch of shows to support the release of the disc; the first will be this weekend at Savannah's. Admission price includes a copy of the CD. Local soul rocker Bryan Thomas will open the show. (March 24, 9 PM, $6, 1 S. Pearl St., Albany, 426-9647)

More good stuff from Mr Haymes in today's Times Union.

Peace,

B.

Labels: music

...are somewhat premature.

See ya Saturday at Savannah's?

• SATURDAY MARCH 24
  THE LAST CONSPIRATORS
  Savannah's. 1 South Pearl Street. Albany, NY.
  I kick things off at 9:30 p.m. Sharp! Conspirators at 10:30. As a bonus, they're giving away their new CD Warparty. Sweetness.


• SATURDAY APRIL 14
  STEP IT UP, CAPITAL!
  Washington Park Lake House. Madison Avenue, Albany NY.
  "Honest Weight Food Co-op will host a local foods picnic, free and open to the public, from 11 am-2 pm in Washington Park at the Lake House in Albany. Speakers and musical performers include David Yarrow, Hakim Steward, Fred Braglia, Bryan Thomas, and many other local community members who are making a difference towards, and spreading the word about, climate action. At 2:00 pm we will rally, make music, noise, dance, talk, and make our way to the NYS Capital Steps. Legislators and elected officials have been invited to speak at the Steps about what they can and plan to do to take climate action. Sandy Gordon from Abany County Legislature will join us as a speaker at the Capital Steps."

And, um, have you purchased your Sugarcookie CD today?

Labels: music

Sugar Cookie is a band by proxy; none of the musicians on this recording performed in the same room at the same time. Instead, each phase of the recording was transferred between contributors via the internet and US mail.

Album producer Dan Sorensen conceived of a unique way to make music with artists he admired but whose schedules did not allow for a more traditional collaboration. He recorded complete drum arrangements and passed them on to 4 songwriters: Bryan Thomas, Ben Karis, Martha Kronholm, and Troy Pohl. Each writer applied a unique treatment to their respective pieces and returned them to Sorensen. Olivia Nix then provided supporting vocals to both Karis tunes. From there, the tracks were passed on to Bob Buckley to record bass. Finally, Frank Moscowitz, (in addition to his duties as co-producer, engineer, and mixer) provided guitar, vocal, and keyboard tracks to complete each recording.

The result is a surprisingly cohesive record, and a warm representation of the vibrant Albany, NY music scene. Please enjoy.

Learn more at the official site. Stream the full tunes at MySpace. And enjoy. Special thanks to Mr. Sorensen for allowing me to drop some slop on his beats. (And have no fear, DS, we will rock out in person eventually! Thanks for hanging in there with me.)

Labels: music

Pics are up from this week's Unity Stage show at the BTCam.

By the way: the beat box came out of the closet that night.

UPDATE: The audio documentation of live Liquefy is at the Bootleg Blog.

Labels: hiddencity, music

Unity Stage
Wednesday, September 13, 8:30 p.m.
The Mason Hall. 120 Madison Ave. Albany, NY.

(And nope, no Spike Wednesday night, just little ol' me.)

Peace,

B.

Labels: music

Why? Because I'm in the mother effin' H-O-U-S-E.

So, apropos of this week's adventures in TV propaganda, the Bootleg Blog now offers Diznee for download, written and recorded in 2000 for the previously unreleased Tele Sessions.

Photo: Jesus' General.

Labels: music

Reporting from the still-in-progress basement studio on:

THE STATE OF THE BOOTLEG BLOG: From 1998's Wafers and Wine EP, I offer downloads of Apartment D and Seachange. Both songs were written for Carl Liss' first feature-length film.

THE STATE OF THE STUDIO: I spent most of my vacation last week fine tuning bryanthomas.com and thehiddencity.com, but I had also hoped to finally finish setting up the studio in the basement. I got most of what I wanted done with the Web sites (blogifying for easier site management and syndication) but I got stuck on the studio when I started going through old audio cassettes and camcorder tapes. The good news is that I've got a lot of fodder for Bootleg Blogging. The bad news is that cataloging old tapes takes a long ass time, so most of the recording gear is still mothballed. Which means I'll have to continue using the Edirol R1 for recording new stuff, solo-acoustic style (which is how I recorded Sam). For now anyway. I have four songs in mind to record this week, and that may or may not include a solo-acoustic version of a song written for the forthcoming Dan Sorensen project. I consider Edirol-blogging my way of gigging without actually picking up a phone to beg convince a club to give me a gig. (Gig blogging?) Wish me luck.

THE STATE OF THE NEWS: It sucks. A little worse every day. So lately the energy that went toward maintaining Reality Based News has been re-directed to posting Albany arts news at TheHiddenCity, which is so much more uplifting than linking to, for instance, this nonsense, three years after a nation of zombies cheered President Codpiece's declaration of mission accomplished. Sigh.

THE STATE OF THE KID: New pics at Chez Zoe. She gets a little cooler every day.

Labels: music

Kicking it off with some live Stones covers. So have at it.

Labels: music

Did I mention that yet? I s'pose not. So there you go.

New stuff is coming in February, including two shows: a late-nite set February 3 in New York City, and Valentine's Day at (where else?) Valentine's in Albany.

Both very different, but very cool gigs. The kind of themed, mix-it-up gig I really dig lately.

Mark your calendar, I should have more info for ya next week.

And, if you haven't heard - we moved. Just outside Albany. If you need the new contact info, lemme know.

Peace,

B.

Labels: music

From the Oct. 17 edition:

It's hard to imagine an artist more prepared for the evolving nature of the music industry than Bryan Thomas.

The singer, songwriter, who works for New York State United Teachers by day, has used a variety of talents, from online business savvy to his design skills creating Web sites, and a solid understanding of the importance of networking to become one of the best known local musicians.

He's a mainstay of "best of" lists throughout the Capital Region, and even as far as the Village Voice in New York City, something the likable and self-effacing songwriter seems embarrassed talking about.

The full embarassment is here.

:-)

Thanks, Mr. Leavitt.

Peace,

B.

Labels: music

Did someone at Metroland hear my whining about not having a pic (again!) on the Hidden City web site? Now I feel stupid. From this week's Metroland.

Photo Credit: Chris Shields.

FASHION ROCKS. Saturday night (Sept. 24) at the Lark Tavern saw the blending of two worlds: the rockers and the fashionistas (we’re guessing it made for one hell of an after-party). Local designers presented their clothing lines while Bryan Thomas soul-rocked-out wearing a Liability T-shirt (by local designer Tommy Watkins) in between models strutting their stuff on the catwalk. For more pictures of this event (and the before-and-after craziness), check out www.thehiddencity.com.

Labels: music

TheHiddenCity has photos up from this weekend's Fashion Rock show at Tess' Lark Tavern in Albany and the Hanslick Rebellion reunion show at CBGB's in New York City.

You should see them.

At Tess' insistance, we showed the Babylon music video as a warm up for the Fashion Rock show - but better yet, later that night I got to do some loud, solo electric guitar wanking as a rowdy rock n' roll intro to designer Tommy Watkins rowdy rock n' roll set for his Liability line. Totally fun because I so rarely get to play guitar like that, but also an honor to be part of such an amazing and creative show.

(And yet, once again, you wouldn't even know I was there based on the photos at Hidden City. What's up with that?)

Also: Mr. Smith documents the adventures and misadventures of going down to NYC for the Hanslick show Thursday evening. (Follow the link and scroll down to the entry for Friday, September 23.)

You should also check out the Hanslick's musical mastermind Jed Davis' account of the full history of the band - which he started posting to his blog back in January. Dig the marketing genius behind the promo for their first show, and work your way from there.

All in all, it was a great weekend that even allowed time for packing for the move (yes, we're moving, long story). But my one big regret was having to miss John Powhida and his merry band of Rudds at their Albany CD release party Friday night with the Day Jobs.

Go buy his record. You won't regret it.

Labels: music

Acoustic soul rock, that is.



Here are the liner notes.

Spy Love Box.
The Babylon B-Sides.

1. Spy (4:23)
2. Love (American Style) (3:33)
3. Box (5:33)
4. Harder (6:09)
5. Beatitude (5:28)
6. Julia (8:48)
7. Babylon (reprise) (2:21)

All songs by Bryan Thomas copyright 2004, 2005 Radical Plastical Music.

This collection of bootleg demos recorded in Bryan's bedroom is the sequel to the Babylon album. Bryan sings and plays acoustic guitar. Jennifer plays electric guitar. Baby Z plays the bass guitar. Julia produced the album. Larry DeVivo mastered the album at Silvertone Mastering, Saratoga Springs, New York. Unlisted track #8 is "Out," written for Jason Thomas' short film In the Alley. Photography and design are by TheHiddenCity.com. Lyrics, notes and the music video for the song "Babylon" are online at bryanthomas.com. You should see them.

"Ye are the light of the world; a city that is set on a hill can not be hid... Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Matthew 5:14 and 16.

SPY LOVE BOX. Copyright © 2005 WT3 Records. All rights reserved.

For Mommy and Daddy. Jason and Justyn. Cindy and Zoe.

Special thanks to Carl W. Liss, Ben Spillers, GoPicture Productions, Bionic Media, Tess' Lark Tavern and cast and crew for the extraordinary video for "Babylon." (So go see it already - it's at bryanthomas.com.)

On a long drive back to Albany from Buffalo Wednesday night, I forced myself to listen to Babylon and Spy Love Box back to back.

And in a weird way, it all made perfect sense.

MP3s of the newly mastered tracks are now at the music page. Stream the whole damn thang.

You've been warned.

Peace y'all,

B.

Labels: music

That's right. SPY LOVE BOX gets an official release July 30. Really. I'll elaborate here in the coming weeks about why I've given up on the concept of "online-only" (for this record, anyway). For now, let's just say that I've found a way to do both. A happy compromise.

So be at the Lark on July 30, see the Babylon video on the big screen, and get your own limited-edition copy of SPY LOVE BOX for free.

Also: I've opened the blog up for comments.

Don't make me regret it.

Peace,

B.

Labels: music

Photo documentation of the Abbey Lounge fun is all at the webcam right about now. Thanks to the Fluttr Effect friends for the flowers, Mercy James Gang for the CD and laughs, Thirsty for pushin' me, Carl for making things easy (once again), and to J-Po for rockin' my rock world.

Johnny slipped me a preview of Get the Femuline Hang On Friday night, and I've been saving the inaugural headphone listen for tomorrow's morning run. I expect to be very, very jealous by the third track in. Wish me luck.

Update Monday June 13: Did I say by track 3? Try the first verse of track 1. Johnny Potato just gets better and better. Femuline is a rock 'n soul response to everything that's wrong with the radio today - without being retro or reactionary. It's knowing how to steal while lesser artists just imitate. It's smart without being smug, funny without being a joke, sad without being self-pitying, loud when it needs to be loud, soft when it needs to be soft, and ripping your heart out no matter what the volume.

John Powhida's heroes could learn a lot from the creature they've spawned.

• pix from friday night
• the rudds
• thirsty
• mercy james gang
• fluttr effect
• abbey lounge

Labels: music

So I have a MySpace page now.



It's like being in high school all over again.



Still getting the hang of it.



myspace.com/bryanthomas

Labels: music

A discussion on Derek Sivers' Musicthoughts list prompted by the recent Wall Street Journal article on Joni Mitchell inspired me to post the following.

There are many, many, many things I love about Joni Mitchell: one is the fact that when she finally gave in to the pressure to write a so-called hit for radio, she got through it by making the song a joke about writing a so-called hit for radio.

She's long since admitted that she wrote "You Turn Me On, I'm a Radio" as a love song with a cheesy radio metaphor because she knew that deejays would be inclined to spin a song that was ostensibly about deejays and radio. But even then, she assumed that the song would not be a hit just like all the others were not hits.

And peeling back the layers - always so many layers with her stuff - the song is not just a lyrical listing of radio metaphors, simple rhymes and sophomoric sexual innuendo ("broadcast towers"), which anyone could come up with to write a hit with a radio conceit. It's really Joni lyrically flirting with the deejays (and the industry, and the masses, for that matter), saying here I am, here's my music, come and get it. The so-called weak/confessional stuff may bore you, and the so-called strong/experimental stuff may scare you.

"But if you've got too many doubts
If there's no good reception for me
Then tune me out, 'cause honey
Who needs the static
It hurts the head"

It's one big "Take it or leave it, y'all." And she's bitter and funny about it at the same time. For all of the confessional stuff, and for all the talk about how bitter she is about the way the industry's treated her, we tend to forget how much of a sense of humor she's had about it all, too, laughing about it even in the music itself.

And if you're going to give in to industry pressure, the least you can do is give them what they think they want while simultaneouly giving them, and everyone else - and yourself - so much more.

And in the end, it was a hit. The joke's on them.

Lessons from Joni.

I'm a recovering English major (with the same alma mater as our dear Mr. Lefsetz, no less) so you know I've got it in me to go on and on about this, but I won't, I'll just offer up this link to the lyrics and go back to lurking.


(Big ups to Mr. Les Irvin and the gang for maintaining the greatest Joni Mitchell resource on the 'Net.)

Peace,

B.
- - -
BRYAN THOMAS. Soul Rock.
http://www.bryanthomas.com
New web site. New free music. Enjoy.

Labels: music

Radio star.

Yeah, right.

How about the "only in his tiny little mind" star?

Anyhoo, this just in from Mr. Liss.

From: cliss@bane-of-bryan's-existence.com
Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2005 12:39 PM
Subject: "Babylon" is Finished! And it's great!

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I just wanted to send word that Nate and I recieved the final edit of Bryan Thomas' "Babylon" video from the post-production house in NYC.

We are more than pleased; we are thrilled with the final piece. Scott's editing efforts were certainly worth the wait.

Where I derive the greatest satisfaction is that everyone's talents are clearly present, from Gina's set design to Dan and Jonesy's lighting work. It was a truly collaborative effort, all of which has finally been rewarded.

Bryan isn't too bad, either. ;^)

Nate and I are creating a version that carries a credit roll at the end; this is what we want to send out to you. A few people (i.e., Bryan Thomas, Matt Fabiano) will be getting the current version ASAP, for obvious reasons.

Please send me any change in addresses so that your copy is sent to the correct location.

I can't thank you all enough for your time and patience. I hope all is well with your lives.

Sincerely,

Carl W. Liss

Also: see if you can guess the name of the Albany poetry queen who dropped me this note this morning.

P.S. Tess wants to have a party for you and the video. I heard you protested. Give it up, you can't fight both of us. Let us do this for you or while she is putting a curse on you, I will be beating your narrow ass. K? Love ya...

To which I reply:

Narrow?

Labels: music

It's official. I'm the worst audio engineer on the planet.

Julia hides in plain sight. She's rough. Prole-like, even. (But don't tell her that. She'll cut you.)

She's also a bit bottom heavy. But that ain't necessarily a bad thing.

And she'll never be as bottom heavy as Jennifer.

(See ya at Why Can't I Be You Friday night at Chez Tess?)

Peace,

B.

Labels: music

Still no glasses. Headed to Dr. TJ Eckleburg's today though for the hookup, thanks.

I posted MP3's of what I hope are the final mixes for the new song "Out," which I wrote and recorded last week for my brother Jason's new short flick In the Alley. They're for Jason's ears only - unless you can figure out the name of the directory they're in. Which shouldn't be too hard. Have fun guessing. (Hint: It's a top-level directory. And it's in the alley.)

It was supposed to be a love song. And I guess it is. In as much as a love song can include a line like "When you and me is up and outta here/then we won't be niggas no more." In the chorus, no less.

Also: after I tweak the final mix on "Julia" tonight, she'll be done, too.

Both "Out" and "Julia" should be online for real Friday night. Just in time for "Why Can't I Be Ye, Three."

Went through the usual recording hell this weekend to get to the finish line, natch.

For one, I got in a fight with a piano Thursday morning at 3 a.m.

And lost.

I also broke a bass string just as I was about to record the line for the evil "Big Man" theme. That turned out to be a happy accident: it forced me completely change what I was going to play, and the result is decidedly more evil. Overdrive overdrive overdrive: it sounds like a broken bass with all that fuzz and buzz.

But while I'm happy with the outcome, there was certainly a lot of fear and sadness when the string first snapped. Indeed.

Labels: music

The bad news: my glasses snapped in two last week. Still haven't had a chance to replace them. Busy busy busy. Put out his eyes. Apologise.

The good news: thanks to a lot of late night sessions in the home studio, the new song 'Julia' is almost done. Acoustic and electric guitars, bass, a simple 4-on-the-floor kick drum, lead vocals and yet another army of backup vox. I'd like to add piano and/or organ, but something is telling me to keep it simple. I'm actually deconstructing the mix for the second movement of the song, when initially I thought I'd be building it up. Uh-huh.

What's slowing things down is that I'm simultaneously building a coupla mo' songs: 'Out,' which will serve as the main theme for my brother Jason's new short flick In the Alley; plus the bad guy theme for the same project; plus the tentatively titled 'Jealous' that's going on top of the drum tracks Dan Sorensen laid down for me a few weeks ago.

And those are just the tunes I've actually started multi-tracking. Waiting in the wings is a second drum track from Dan (no lyrics yet but the beginnings of a melody) and a solo-acoustic version of 'Babylon' that I think will finally put Spy Love Box to rest.

I have Friday off, and that's when I plan to finish recording all of this stuff. Especially the piano that drives 'Out.' The engineering end of things scares me. Maybe I should say right now that I meant for the piano to sound lo-fi.

So there you have it: I'm gonna try and record it lo-fi. Edge! Grit! Warts and all! I meant for it to sound bad! That makes it good! Indie, even!

Wish me luck.

Labels: music

That is the question.

After much toying with the idea of an official CD release of Spy Love Box - and even after the rush and satisfaction and sense of closure that's come with recording 'Julia' as the final track on the project - I'm back in the "it's only available for download" camp.

Feels good to be here.

At a later date, I may elaborate on the merits of professionally mastering and duplicating the record. For now, let it suffice to say that the songs are already out there for free. As is the cover art (which will be updated come April 1). And the video will be online, too - which weakens the incentive for releasing Spy Love Box as an enhanced CD.

So as of now, Spy Love Box remains online-only.

You think I should release is for real?

Convince me.

Labels: music