Last Thursday I went to see Tortoise at Metro. It was my first time at Metro, and my first time seeing the band. I was really impressed. When I first heard an album of theirs back at CMU, I wasn’t sure what the fuss was about. Their somewhat atmospheric instrumental rock didn’t really grab me.
In the years since, I’ve warmed up to them considerably, and this show was the culmination of that time. Their front line on stage is two drum sets, a set of vibes, and a Marimba Lumina. Across the back there were two guitars, two electric basses, two Powerbook G4s (actually, one of these was setup at the drums, with a keyboard attached), and a bunch of synthesizers. You couldn’t ask for something more up my alley.
Everyone in the band plays more than one instrument through the show, and at any one time at least two people are playing the same kind of instrument. This sometimes meant two guitarists (typical of many rock bands), two drummers (not unheard of), two bassists (not at all common), or two mallet (even three!) percussionists (in a rock band?). There was also a little bit of two instruments at once, like keyboard and drums, or melodica and keyboards.
The music was excellent, even if Metro’s sound was weird and too loud (I had earplugs). They played several from their new album, and several more from older recordings. There were times where I felt like they were playing some kind of cross between classical chamber music and rock. The energy level was sometimes very exciting, sometimes relaxed. I liked the mix, although I did sometimes wonder how much fun certain of the tunes were to play. John Herndon, one of the two drummers, was a powerhouse, really high energy the whole time. John McEntire, the producer and other drummer, is a marvelous musician and looked like he was sort of leading things technically. It was watching him that gave me the chamber music idea.
At any rate, they made a big fan out of me with this show. Tony was with me, and as many shows as he’s seen in town, he’d never seen them before either. It was a good night.
If you want to hear Tortoise live but can’t make a show, you’re in luck. They’re a taper-friendly band, which means people can be authorized to record their shows as long as the recordings are traded, not sold. I downloaded a couple shows using BitTorrent and the etree BitTorrent tracker, and have been listening to them on and off over the past several days. I think they pretty much stick to one set list throughout a tour, or at least blocks of a tour, since their setup is so elaborate, and there are only five of them. So you could listen to the show from April 24 and get a pretty good idea of what we heard at Metro.
I wasn’t going to write about this, but a couple people told me it was funny, so I should. So I am.
I tend to have exciting dreams, in an action movie kind of way. There are lots of chases, lots of evildoers out to get me or my loved ones. I frequently have flying dreams, and occasionally have dreams where I have superhero-like powers.
The other night, I had a dream where I was invulnerable, and super-strong. The fact that we watched Superman: The Movie recently had nothing to do with this, I’m sure. Anyway, at one point in this dream, I got into a punching match with Mimi Smartypants.
Who is Mimi Smartypants? She’s a woman here in Chicago who has a weblog that is quite popular. So popular, in fact, that she got a book deal out of it. We’ve never met, and I have no reason to think she is either wonderful or evil.
In my dream, she was evil. She also had bright blue hair, shaved most of the way up her head. I don’t know why we were fighting, but it was one of those movie-style, trading punches fights. Where each punchee savors the pain, growls menacingly, maybe spits out blood or some teeth, then winds up for the next blow to their opponent.
The first time I took a swing, Evil Mimi stuck a syringe in my arm. Ha ha! It was some kind of poison that would make my arms limp and useless, devoid of punching skillz.
But, ah ha! I was invincible. I distinctly remember clenching my fist, flexing my arm, and making manly noises as I neutralized the poison with my superpowers. That’s when the punching started. I woke up after each of us had punched the other a few times.
Mimi Smartypants (I could look up your real name, but you weren’t even a real person in this dream, so I’ll keep your real persona out of this), my apologies. If we ever meet somewhere in town, I promise not to punch you in the face if you promise not to punch me in the face. Deal?
In a feat of promptness, I have a few photos posted from our mini-break at Indiana Dunes last weekend. It was a lot of fun, and a scant hour drive out of town. For late spring, it was pretty much perfect weather, if a little on the cold side.
We stayed at the Dunes Shore Inn, which we recommend without hesitation. Unless you need a private bathroom. Just make sure you accept the offer of directions they will give you when you call — Beverly Shores is a rather small town, and the roads are not well signed, so your online directions won’t cut it.
One of my, and every other musician’s, biggest influences died last night. Elvin Jones was a magnificent drummer for his whole life. Lisa and I saw him a few years ago for the one and only time at Yoshi’s in Oakland. As sick as he was near the end of his life, it’s good that he doesn’t have to suffer anymore.
Elvin is one of the drummers that we only need one name to refer to. His playing approach was unique — you could almost hear the split when people first started hearing him. He was like a rhythmic tornado, but always very musical. He had complete command of the drums, and was a great accompanist and soloist.
Musicians love Elvin. When I go to sessions, it’s not often that I’m specifically told, by other musicians, to play like a particular drummer. But when I’m told to play like somebody specific, it’s always “play like Elvin”, or “this is like an Elvin-latin kinda thing”. I know what they mean, so I do what I can, but it’s impossible to play like Elvin.
The most famous group Elvin was in was John Coltrane’s “classic quartet” with McCoy Tyner and Jimmy Garrison. They recorded A Love Supreme, which is universally regarded as one of The Great Albums. I have a great box set that captures all of that group’s studio efforts, and it’s great.
I highly recommend picking up some recordings of Elvin. Here are a couple places to download his music. * iTunes * eMusic
link /
They asked, so here’s my answer.
On chellman.org, I have five main weblogs.
I was also going to have Trackback aggregation weblog for Chicago bloggers, but that project never really took off.
Finally, there’s the weblog for my web design business. It’s really more like a personal weblog where I can post things related to web design (to keep it out of my personal site), but because it is related to my business, it’s not covered by the personal license under which I’ve been using MT. I don’t make enough money in that business, and the weblog isn’t important enough, that I can afford to pay for a commercial license. It will also give me an excuse to try some of the other tools that have come out since I started using Movable Type (at 1.0).
All told, I currently have five-seven weblogs running, and I can easily see myself making more. I am a musician, and might want to create new journals for tours I’m doing, or create weblogs for various other pursuits I get myself into. I would like to see the number of weblogs I create for myself be unlimited, or at least larger than it is now.
I don’t anticipate making more weblogs like the one for my brother, where it’s a totally separate author posting on my MT install. There are three active authors right now — I would have liked to see more, but it hasn’t worked out that way so far.
I donated some amount of money (I don’t remember how much) back when Six Apart was Mena and Ben, but I don’t remember how much it was.
The house concert was a great success. I played with Lis and we rocked it, and Girlyman were their usual wonderful selves. I made a recording which is going to be exclusively available to people who were at the show. I’m working on the tracks over this week to smash them into shape. Cramming over 20 people into our living room didn’t make microphone placement very easy. Not that I’m complaining.
We got a hilarious birthday/anniversary package from my brother today. I haven’t listened to any of the CDs he sent, but I’ll tell you that one of them is by Pigmy Love Circus, and is called “The Power Of Beef”. The best part is the pictures, and the best part of the pictures were the captions.
Of course, the candy and soap bars were also pretty funny. Maybe I’ll post a picture.
Michael Moore has a new movie coming out called Fahrenheit 911. It’s about what you might expect: how Bush is sending the country down the toilet with his warmongering, disregard for people who aren’t rich, terrible environmental policies, disregard for separate of church and state, and all the other things liberals find wrong with this administration.
I tend to think his movies are really entertaining, and thought-provoking. What I tend to think they aren’t, is completely true. It drives me bonkers how he has racked up a track record for being the guy who misleads as often as he points out interesting truths.
His press release about the censorship of his new movie is just another example. He says Disney is blocking their subsidiary Miramax from distributing his movie because it might anger Jeb Bush, brother of George W, and governor of Florida. He says this is covered in an article in the New York Times.
If you actually take the time to read the article he quotes, you see something a little different.
Hey, it’s my birthday!
Hey, wait, it’s also my anniversary!
Fun!
Yes, married life is treating us quite well, thanks for asking. I assume you would ask, since everyone else does. We’re healthy and happy about each other. You could ask for more, I guess, if you wanted to. But not today.
We celebrated my birthday with friends yesterday. We went to brunch at Lula, which continues to amaze. There were thirteen of us there for most of it (we were expecting up to four more — two arrived much later, the other two didn’t make it), which is kind of an outrageous number for Sunday brunch at this restaurant. It’s so popular, even couples can be waiting for half an hour. We got there at 10, though, so it more or less worked out.
Bowling followed. The alley (Waveland Bowl) was inexpensive, the people were pretty cool, but the lane we started out on sucked. We had a two to five minute wait between players while clogged pins were removed, balls retrieved, pins re-racked. This is not a great hardship, of course, but when you have almost forty lanes available, it stinks to get a dud. After we moved, it was much better.
Lisa and I will be going out to a favorite Thai restaurant tonight for some tasty tamarind curry in celebration of Year One. Being the sort of people we are, instead of buying paper things for each other, we decided together, and have bought the three Calvin and Hobbies treasuries.
Lisa also fed my Homestar addiction. Presenting: The Cheat Hoodie!
It’s a medium, which fits my body more or less perfectly. However, my enormous head barely fits through the neck. I hope it doesn’t shrink!