Noli Me Tangere

Louisiana 1927

This is probably one of my favorite RN songs. Thanks to ED for remembering the words. Thanks to Randy for writing them.

underpowered

Sadly, 16 Horsepower has called it quits.

It's a loss, not just for fans, but even for the Kingdom, I think. It makes me sad, not so much because I will miss them, but because they will leave such a void. Who can replace them? I don't think anybody even approaches them in sound, scope or vision. Honestly, who would think to blend cowpunk, bluegrass, ambient grunge and eastern European folk music to deliver christian goth hellfire lyrics? Does that make any sense at all? And why were these Denver country gentlemen with the fundamentalist ideas so popular in Northern Europe? I'll never understand it, but that's why they were great. I saw them once about six years ago at the Cotton Club, and it was easily the single most riveting concert performance I have ever witnessed. I don't think they ever came back to Atlanta.

There are many words we use to describe music, but their's was as close to indescribable as I've ever heard.

full coverage

Question for the masses:

Were you to soon find yourself in a local coffeeshop listening to Abe and his mates play nothing but covers, what would you like to hear?

(this can be read, "what would you like to hear abe sing?" or "what song do you think would be fun to cover?" or even "what is your favorite song?")

for the record, vol. 4

Some of you have asked me, "how's the recording coming?" I never know how exactly to answer this, but I can offer some insight into the recording process:

-Pro-Tools is my friend.
-I'm very boring.

Andrew has played several of his other projects for me, including a couple young punk rock bands with terrible singers. When I say that they are terrible, I mean that they are habitually off-key, and largely unaware of it. As Andrew and I agreed the other night, there are two kinds of off-key, and one is very acceptable and could result in a multi-million dollar recording career, while the other will likely ensure your band will only get gigs in small town teen punk clubs, unless you are really, really good-looking.

The alpha example of the former is Sir Mick Jagger. While his pitch is never really spot-on, it's never really off, either. This probably has as much to do with his speak-sing phrasing as it does his pitch. He stands in contrast to Stephan Jenkins, the statuesque lead singer for Third Eye Blind, whose stardom was really only made possible through the miracle of modern pitch-correction software.

I'm not a singer who needs a lot of pitch correction, at least not by rocknroll standards. But there's something in my vocal takes so far that strikes me as a bit listless or uncommitted. My friend Christa says I sing everything too pretty. Andrew says it's just cerebral. I say it's boring. And while a producer can clean up all sorts of pitch and rhythmic inaccuracies, there is no such thing as a passion plug-in, unless you count the Virtual Studio Visitor (this is really funny studio humor).

I am excited about the tracks. Better 2 Believe came out pretty strong. A little more rawk than the demo, and trimmed to be more concise. I'm trying to convince Andrew that it needs his guitar. Stick Around has taken on a really smooth, laid-back flavah that may or may not work better. Impossible is still something of a mystery, and perhaps appropriately so. We're batting around ideas. Dobro? Harmonium? Swamp gas? It's a blank slate at this point, folks, and the suggestion box is open.

My Buddy

I always swore I'd never have a blog that consisted of "this-is-what-i-did-today" entries. But not much else seems to be getting posted these days, so today I proudly give you "Scenes from an Inter-Species Intra-Office Romance", starring yours truly and Gillian the Mediterranean Gecko.

A JP security camera catches Abe and Gillian in a tender embrace.

Abe, infamous for his violent outbursts, is seen here trying to console Gillian after one particularly nasty domestic dispute.

Post-fight kissing and making up. Get a room, you two!

Eventually, Gillian meets the same sad fate that awaits so many other Mediterranean geckos who get involved with men.

~~~

I'm not sure how our friend got in the building, much less how a Mediterranean gecko ended up in Stone Mountain, GA. But there she was this morning, on the lobby carpet, looking a little lost. I chased her around a bit, finally landing my hand on her tail, which prompted her to take off, leaving the tail thrashing under my hand. The ladies in the office were universally thrilled to see this.

It had been a long time since I last handled a lizard, and it reminded me of how much I loved them when I was younger. I'm still fascinated by reptiles. I've never found reptiles to be repulsive (though some argue the converse). Lizards are like pocket dinosaurs, and Geckos in particular are the most amazing athletes. Not only are they lightning fast, but scientists have long sought to understand the adhesive mechanism that enables them to walk upside down on bare glass. As I recall, there have been many theories over the years including tiny suction cups, hooks, even electrostatic attraction. As it turns out, it was some combination of tiny hairs and pads. According to this fascinating article I found when I should have been working, if we could harness their secret to make adhesive, an area the size of a dime could support a 45-lb child. This would probably put the makers of superglue out of business.

Depending on your perspective, this will either make you marvel at God's creativity or the effectiveness of evolution. But either way, it's a bit humbling to see our brightest and best taking taking lessons from little lizards.

Heads Up

Those of you who know me know that I generally stay away from anything that reeks of Nashville or CCM. But the Jars of Clay hymns CD "is really good", my friend told me, and there was even a Blind Boys of Alabama cameo. "That sounds good," I thought to myself. Plus, I need to learn some more songs for church, so I bought Redemption Songs, the latest let's-make-hymnody-rawk project.

The first song is a massive miscalculation, I believe. Psalm 51 and peppy, commerical pop do not mix. There are several other tracks that don't quite work as well as they might. But track 3 compensates, and then some:

For once, comforting does equal comfortable. This is not a ballad, which is how we might be tempted to interpret Paul Gerhardt's words. The Jars borrow heavily from Bono and crew, but it doesn't matter because it works. So. Well. It's everything a rock/hymn hybrid should be: anthemic, singable, and full of conviction. And for whatever reason, it was what I needed to hear yesterday. Sometimes, I think, comforting words are best shouted through a megaphone. Sometimes, we don't really hear "i love you" until we've been shaken first.

finito, vol. II

Back when I was taking an International Finance class at the North Avenue Trade School, I was in a study group that undertook a massive research project on the correllation of international currency exchange rates. During one delerious last-minute all-nighter, someone decided to test whether the prof actually read the reports or not through the use of colorful financial language, replacing,

"...as illustrated in fig. 3, the value of the peso increased five-fold in the early 1980s,"

with

"...as illustrated in fig. 3, Mexico experienced a kick-ass increase in the early 1980s."

We never heard a word about it from the prof. I can't say the same for Dr. Orr, however. And to my surprise, he actually has a sense of humor:

In other news, I'm finished with all my projects for this semester. Here's the intro for my Fieldwork project for you to ponder.

"Why do we sing? This is a short question with a long answer. For all of mankind’s diversity and progress, music occupies a strangely universal place in the human experience. It remains a mostly irrational expression that serves no concrete purpose for the survival of the species. In essence, music is nothing more than controlled sound, which is nothing more than vibration. To re-phrase this question, why do we vibrate?

According to string theory, the entire universe may actually be vibrating. Sub-atomic particles—electrons, quarks and the like—have long been thought to exist as irreducible points of matter. But proponents of string theory suggest that these particles are not points but rather oscillating, dancing filaments. If true, this would mean that the universe is made of energy, and more importantly, the substance of the entire universe is vibrating. This carries fascinating implications for the musicologist.

In the Genesis account of creation, which is accepted by Jews, Muslims, and Christians, the universe begins with a word—a particular vibration—from God. Hindus have a similar idea that the world was created when a goddess began to dance and play. In four of the world’s five major belief systems, creation and vibration are fundamentally linked.

While psychologists and sociologists may offer explanations for the continued existence of music in our world, perhaps astrophysicists and theologians have more to add to the discussion. Across the span of human history, music consistently appears tied to the religion of that culture. In the western tradition alone, the sheer volume of sacred music is staggering, and for hundreds of years, the only music that survived is that which was produced and preserved by the church. This interconnectedness is not a purely Judeo-Christian phenomenon; all the major faiths employ some form of chant, even in Islam, where “music” is forbidden.

Music, especially the sacred variety, is evidence of man’s quest for transcendence, an attempt to reflect realms of glory that are lost in spoken word or silence. One might say that sacred music is the sound of souls reaching for God..."