What makes the caged bird sing?

This week, while in Colorado with my wife's family, I read a bizarre graphic novel entitled "As the World Burns: 50 Things You Can Do to Stay in Denial". Derrick Jensen wrote it and it was illustrated by Stephanie McMillan. Very bizarre. And good. And, as Anna noted, possibly ok with eco-terror (I think I am saying that right).

So, there is an easy comparison between the way those alien robots and corporations devoured all the plants and trees and fishes and rocks... to the way I consumed new music this week. I studied, for the first time, David Bowie's "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars," Randy Newman's "Randy Newman (Creates Something New Under the Sun)," The Kink's (I need to listen more, yet) "Lola Versus Powerman," and did some connection making and researching on Van Dyke Parks' "Song Cycle". Apparently, Ziggy Stardust is Jimmie Hendrix. That's what I'm told. I will study on.

I am listening to all of this to find the sound. We are finding it, it is in us.

www.myspace.com/ohvoices

my musical gifts

I have many musical gifts. I received some new gifts yesterday from my wife's family in Colorado. Especially exciting was the set of headphones I received from J.P. I will no longer tape my old headphones together every day. I also received a book I asked for, The Blues Line. It is a collection of blues lyrics edited by Eric Sackheim. In the past, a library copy I've checked out has given me lots of insight into how modern songs utilize structures and themes from traditional works. I've reaped a few ideas from it myself.

I also got a card from my amazing cousin Rachel saying that Van Dyke Parks' debut album Song Cycle (1968) is in the mail. Very exciting. She also gave me Randy Newman's first album Randy Newman(Creates Something New Under the Sun). I have to learn how to post pictures on here, the album covers are remarkably similar. Also of note: these albums came out during the same year, Van Dyke co-produced Randy's album, and they have a similar archaic orchestration/grand concept song writing style on these albums. As I understand this, Randy's songs strayed a bit from this afterwards, while Van Dyke continued in this vein. I love these albums. I'm soaking them in.

Check out the covers here until I figure out how to do it (go on, look at them):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Dyke_Parks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Newman_(album)

They both wear glasses and write notable music.

Thank you David for introducing me the the Parks. It only took me a year or so.

"This is a song about a bear and a boy."

I woke up with this song in my head this morning: “Burn On”, by Randy Newman. It came in 1972 on his amazing album Sail Away. There are several tracks on Sail Away that stand out: the title track, “Lonely at the Top”, “Political Science”, “Dayton, Ohio - 1903” ( I really love that one), and "God's Song (That's Why I Love Mankind)". I understand that he is especially popular these days for his movie soundtracks, but don’t let him slide past you on the screen. He is a remarkable songwriter.

Briefly, it seems to me that in “Burn On” Randy sings about Cleveland in a fashion similar to what Sufjan Stevens is getting praised for these days. It is straight forward, and that is why I woke up with it in me. Nice strings too. See the lyrics below.


Burn On

There's a red moon rising
On the Cuyahoga River
Rolling into Cleveland to the lake

There's a red moon rising
ON the Cuyahoga River
Rolling into Cleveland to the lake

There's an oil barge winding
Down the Cuyahoga River
Rolling into Cleveland to the lake

There's an oil barge winding
Down the Cuyahoga River
Rolling into Cleveland to the lake

Cleveland city of light city of magic
Cleveland city of light you're calling me
Cleveland, even now I can remember
'Cause the Cuyahoga River
Goes smokin' through my dreams

Burn on, big river, burn on
Burn on, big river, burn on
Now the Lord can make you tumble
And the Lord can make you turn
And the Lord can make you overflow
But the Lord can't make you burn

Burn on, big river, burn on
Burn on, big river, burn on

briefly, Jelly Roll Morton

Jelly's Blues: The Life, Music, and Redemption of Jelly Roll Morton
By Howard Reich, William Gaines
Published 2003 Da Capo Press

I read this book in the fall and will be pondering it regularly. To get you introduced, google some pictures of Jelly. I don't know how to publish pictures on here yet.

gurgling cow nectar

milk. foam. shots. pitchers. sinks. citrus bread. hot water in a paper cup on a counter with steam billowing from its mouth like smog from a sick factory. ahem: I (nicolas hartzell of oh voices Fame) was steaming a small pitcher of gurgling cow-nectar (yes milk) for a balding man draped in veiny skin which stretched across and wrapped itself around the top of his body to complete the architectural ingredients of a head. He had a dry voice, reminding me of some rare desert wind, blowing from lips that shook like rattlesnakes. he was a walking desert, bereft of anything wet.. but before the foam could reach its ideal temp* this man waiting for his "tall cap" came to life... there were after all flowers hiding in his sand."uuhhhhmm, my dear you're a lovely one," he said. he seemed to be looking at my coworker. her pale, delicate arms appealed to his ...situation. what sort of strange magnet lied buried in his heart, shielding itself behind its only bait- an ugly old casket of a face- in order to attract a beautiful young girl? he knew his was a love that changed stomachs, not hearts. Yet he spoke. To me this meant that his objective was not contingent upon her compliance....he was not seeking approval from her. He was not petitioning for anything, and this made him incapable of shame. He was not asking, nor was he waiting. Her opinion of him did not come into the picture because he barely knew she had one. What? Because she was a woman? Because "all he wanted was sex", so instead of a person he saw a pair of talking tits? No. Because she was beauty, and his inner darkness could not be stirred by such a foreign whisk. There was nothing within him that could possibly hear her beauty, just as rocks do not have ears for Proust. Thus he had no shame to hide from her. One is incapable of feeling shame, envy or humiliation in the presence of something one doesn't see. And he, though all subscribers to penthouse would argue otherwise, did not see her. That may seem absurd on the surface, but think of it this way: do you feel envious of a rock, whose strength far surpasses you? No. But you may envy the strength of the character of a particular man. If you relate through envy you relate through a desire to appropriate, to mirror what you see. Through envy and appropriation you can become your ideal self, envy can be transformed into an inner guide which leads towards an ideal yet to be actualized. But to feel no shame when pure beauty gazes upon you, that is not the reward of a healthy ego, it is the sickness of a numb heart whose light lies buried like forgotten relatives scattered into a dozen graveyards. What marks the difference between an object you can relate to and one you cant is your capacity for inward appropriation. For example: You can pluck a rock from the ground and build yourself a bridge without ever feeling a drop of envy. Why? The rock is not a mirror for your potential. The man in the cafe was able to be bold in the face of beauty because he could not see it. Nothing in him was spoken to. If you do not envy beauty you are doomed. Stunted. For envy is like a sun whose beauty at times may burn, but ultimately it is it is the violent whip of this bright star that awakens out of its slumber: possibility. And that is what my music is born from, it is the reaction of one who sees, but does not embody beauty.

by Nicolas Hartzell

Dr. John TV Heaven 41

Check out Dr. John's ridiculous TV adds. They have good animation and are kind of genius.

paste this into your browser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rda0uXuRXzA

Song of the DAY!

Song of the day:

Often times I wake up with a song or two on my mind, so I’ll probably make it a fixture here. Often, while I’m tidying up the kitchen and prepping the morning coffee, I announce to Katie, “The Song of the Day is… _____ and it shares its throne with Gob’s magic theme song from Arrested Development. Let me know what song you woke up with. Sometimes, mine are very bizarre. And that’s what makes the Song of the Day so dern fun.

I woke up around 4:40 today, too hungry to sleep, rolling around for 2 hours, with about 5 songs running around in my head keeping the vicious cycle of what I like to call “poor-stomach-no-sleep” going on multiple levels (head, stomach, and the “meta-level”). Today was a sleep in day too, nothing to do until David from the band Tex comes over for breakfast at 8:30.

1. Memphis Yodel - Jimmie Rodgers, from The Essential Jimmie Rodgers

“I woke up this morning, the blues all around my bed.
I woke up this morning the blues all around my bed.
I didn’t have nobody, to hold my aching head.”

Since I know a lot of “woke up this morning” songs, when I can’t sleep in the morning they all come rushing to me. As you know, and care, Jimmie Rodgers was the “yodeling brakeman.” He laid down hits like “Away on the Mountain” and popularly “In the Jailhouse Now” and most notably “T.B. Blues” which he died of (listen to that song, it’s tragic).
When I start thinking on a Jimmie Rodgers song I tend to mix them all together, in a sort of best of Jimmie Rodgers “Master-Song”. This is the case because most of his songs are very similar, for multiple reasons: (1) Most of them have really interesting, sometimes amazingly well put lyrics - in that song/rhyme/lyrical depth/and matter-of-fact cleverness that works for simple rhyme songs, (2) his yodels - while they can get old on the second time through in one sitting - are different each song, but they always nail the notes without a shadow of wavering (I think that is amazing considering how high he is singing), (3) simple tunes, nice country melodies, and (4) well, “I’d rather drink muddy water and sleep in a hollow log…” or “I got me a shotgun with a great, long, shiny barrel…” or “I’m fighting like a lion, looks like I’m going to lose” and “I can git more women, than a passenger train can haul!!!!!!”

2. Allan Boothe’s song titled ________, off of his “Open Air in a Closed Casket” album (for sale online and in local stores - www.allanboothe.com or myspace)

“I know of a place where he needs to feel insane
I know of a place where the clouds deny the rain.”

I probably messed those lines up. But anyway, that song has a light and quick beat that keeps your head bobbing. Thank you, Allan, for perpetuating my sleepless state.

(30 minutes later… Oh, maybe that song is not on the album… I just scanned through it to get the name of the song, but I couldn’t find it. So, if Allan Boothe didn’t write it, then I did, and I am a genius - Allan, defend your glory!)

3. “Woke up this morning with my mind on Jesus” from Doug Martsch’s (Built to Spill) solo album.

“Woke up this morning with my mind stayed on Jesus.”

I believe this might be a traditional song that he modernized, but it might not be the case. This is not a religious album, by the way. Just about every song on it has a strong-armed slide guitar melody playing with the main vocal line. His style on the slide guitar is not Nashville. The melodies come out much firmer from his big steel slide than the overly popular whisps we here from the lap steels and textural slide guitar that is popular these days (like in Bright Eyes). And it really adds to the album. Actually, that is probably the reason the songs are so catchy. It is the most prominent feature of the album. Kudos to Metro Coffee down on S. 19th, they were playing this album when I was in there two weeks ago.

4. Now that I have pontificated on 3 songs, I can’t recall what other songs got me up 30 minutes ago. But I did pretty good. It is now 7 am and I’ve had an apple to tame my burning stomach.

www.myspace.com/ohvoices

Unique Music

Today, I was reading Billie Holiday's autobiography "Lady Sings the Blues" (Penguin) and was enjoying it thoroughly (she cusses a lot) when I came across a great passage.  

"When I did my first number, 'If You Were Mine,' I knew that nobody understood my singing.  They didn't like me; they didn't hate me either.  They just didn't have any enthusiasm either way, like they hadn't been told by anybody yet whether I was good or bad.  And when you're doing something new, you got to have somebody tell people." (p. 63)

www.myspace.com/ohvoices

Humiliating others through beauty

We have wanted to have a place to publish our thoughts on music for a long time.  The feeling is like what a musician or any artist feels when they have created something unique, that urgent need to display it.  This allows a certain headiness to come into play: We believe that our thoughts on music, composition, performance, quality, tonal and textural attributes of certain tunes, notable lyrics, good albums, and the significance of important and innovative music, etc.  are quite notable and worth considering.  And we labor to write music that passes our rigorous criticism.

We'll see about this blog, though...

Today I've listened to Madeline Peryoux's (sp) Careless Love (2-3 songs in the car, #4 is amazing), and Thelonious Monk.  Monk's middle name was revealed to me yesterday while reading the liner notes to The Essential Thelonious Monk.  I initially passed it by while scanning the super-lauditory prose that comes inside such a collection (I'm not sure what I think yet, I was just given the cd by my CHAMPION brother Peter yesterday).  But when I came across a description of him claiming that he is "interplanetary," I had to pause.  Then, I found that his given name is Thelonious Sphere Monk.  Whatever I will say about him when I become familiar with him, he can play that piano.

Check out Oh Voices two new tracks, "(The Shit) And the Gold" and "Blood Constellation" on our page www.myspace.com/ohvoices.