Zach N wanted me to share this with all of you guys. Let me know how it goes!

http://detroit.craigslist.org/msg/899655943.html

The guy who did this could probably teach us all a thing or two about PRESENTATION.

Here’s a little video of Child Bite at CMJ.

Shawn and Sean, filling the frame with their beards and banter.

1)

Two staffers had just passed this site and done two pull-ups. Not to be outdone, Obama did three with ease, dropped and walked out to make a speech. Missoula, Mont., 4/5/2008.

[via Kottke]

2) WTF Broccoli [via Waxy]

I found this band while randomly Myspace Music-surfing. They’re from Minneapolis, and they’re cute. Like Dressy Bessy and Lightning Love. They’re called Best Friends Forever.

The best part is that they’re playing the Blind Pig Tuesday night on their way to CMJ. I can’t go (I’ll be in Ohio), but maybe you can. It’s a “showcase night,” so the other bands might totally suck (or totally rule, who knows!), but it’s only $3. Think it over.

Last night a band called Brightblack Morning Light played a few blocks away from my house. I figured, “Hey, they are on Matador, and I dug the tunes of theirs that I checked out, and it’s only a few blocks from my house. Sounds like a good idea!”

Incorrect.

I’m really not one to be unreasonably critical towards bands I’m only seeing for the first time. Actually, that is a lie. However, if your band is on Matador, I reserve the right to be as judgmental as I feel like, since, you know, you’re getting my money in one way or another eventually, and you’re on Matador and I’m not.

Things that separate Brightblack Morning Light from the average college funk band:

1). 30 bpm
2). A second, third, or fourth part to the song
3). Songs that are distinguishable from one another
4). Chops

It is interesting to see a band who receives a decent amount critical acclaim and whose albums I actually have a favorable opinion toward take such a drastic and giant shit when it comes to the live show. Their singer (who goes by the name Naybob Shineywater, by the way) sang through what sounded like a Zoom 505 pedal set on “STEVIERAY” all night, and didn’t bother to switch it off while he spoke to the audience in between songs. NOT COOL. And I seriously, honestly could not tell the difference between any of their songs, despite a concerted effort.

Any other experiences with a giant discrepancy between recording and live show?

If you like buying old vinyl, you better put on some diapers.

Cousins Vinyl, a Plymouth-based ebay store for rare vinyl, has recently opened a real-life dollar store to help clear out their warehouse, and it is awesome.

Cousins Vinyl is run by two real cousins, Justin Anderson and Geoff Meyers.  They collect records like fiends, buying entire collections from people.  Then they weed through the collections and sell the valuable stuff online (prices start at $12).  What do they do with all the stuff that isn’t worth $12?  Up until now, they just stored it in their warehouse.  But now they’re making it all available, and instead of pricing individual records like most stores, they’ve just made everything a buck.  Easier for them, great incentive for you.

The store is just a small room down a long hall in an unmarked office building (that was once a bicycle factory), full of cardboard boxes of unsorted records, and they’re adding more to it every day from the warehouse.  Of course, they’ve already weeded out stuff that’s worth big money, but to a guy like me who just wants good albums on vinyl, I can’t believe my good fortune to find My Aim is True, Mary Wells Sings My Guy, Super Session, and countless other great records for only one dollar. 

See those boxes?  Every one of them is filled with records. 

On Thursday, when I asked how business had been so far, Justin told me, “Great!  We’ve had someone come by every day,” which tells me their expectations are pretty low.  However, with vinyl sales on the rise and CDs becoming increasingly passé, it seems to me that the store is opening at a perfect time (and with a perfect price) for a wider appeal than just hardcore collectors.

Here’s the address, but let me warn you - you may not find it unless you call, so write down the phone number too.
Cousins Vinyl
13101 Eckles Road (the white building in the back of the lot)
Plymouth, MI 48170
(734) 968-0019

Even if you don’t go to the store, check out the Cousins Vinyl blog.  They share mp3s from a lot of the rare gems they find, especially local ones.  Past posts include novelty songs about the Tigers, Ypsi classics like “Back to Ypsilanti,” and more mainstream local finds, like David Ruffin’s first 45 before he joined the Temptations. 

So let’s recap: a store with great records for a buck, and a blog with rare records put to mp3 for free?  Thank you Cousins Vinyl!

Mr. Mike at Deadly Designs took some photos of us at our show in Athens at the Caledonia Lounge a couple weeks ago.

Also on the bill that night was the band We Vs. The Shark, our Athens buddies who will be playing the Belmont this Saturday with Wildcatting and Old Tiger Stadium. It’s only $6.

I recently had a long Google Chat with Jay Carroll. Jay writes the fivethreedialtone website, which covers mostly Detroit music and culture. I figured it might be cool to turn the tables on someone who is pretty relentless about covering the details of Detroit music culture.

—————–

Me: My first questions are background related. Where did you grow up?

Jay: I grew up south of Detroit. Downriver. You can google it for jokes, if you want.

Me: And you lived there until when?

Jay: Until I was 18.

Me: And then where did you go? Detroit?

Jay: I actually went several different places.

Me: Like where?

Jay: Do you want a whole list?

Me: I’m trying to get a mental map going of where you’ve lived. Yes.

Jay: I went to Westland, then outside of Toledo, then I lived in 2 other Downriver communities, then to Ferndale, then to Detroit.

Me: How long did you live in Ohio?

Jay: About 2 weeks. Oh, I forgot about Flat Rock.

Me: That’s like mega down river.

Jay: Yeah. That was between Ohio and Downriver. It was one of my favorites, actually.

Me: I’ve been to the flat rock speedway for a flea market, once. That seems to be the defining thing for flat rock, the speedway

Jay: I’ve been to that flea market… where you walk along the track?

Me: Yeah

Jay: They have figure 8 school bus races, but I have never witnessed a racing type event there, just the flea market.

Me: Maybe thats why you didn’t stay.

Me: So did you go to college?

Jay: I went to Finishing School.

Me: I don’t know what that is.

Jay: “A private school for men or women that emphasizes training in cultural and social activities.” I think I have a few Ferris State credits floating around, too.

Me: Wait, so you really went to finishing school?

Jay: I would say I was homeschooled in Finishing School. I was raised primarily by my Mother, so I know all this weird stuff about where to put forks, and if you’re walking down the street with a female you walk on the side closest to the street so if a car is out of control and jumps the curb the guy gets killed and the girl gets to live…

Me: That is insane, but i’m into that.

Jay: I am too, really.

Me: You definitely come off as well socialized, which i appreciate so much. Especially in the indie rock world where everyone is a weirdo injured sparrow incapable of eye contact and stuff.

Jay: Alcohol helps, but I’m really honestly 100% trying to stop drinking completely.

Me: Really? I don’t think I could do that. I’ve been perpetually stuck in the “casual drinking all the time” phase, I rarely get “wasted” anymore, but I drink every day.

Jay: I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’m not one of those people that can have 3 beers and hang out.. I have 0, or 20.

Me: Ahhh. So back to your early years, you moved around a lot, finishing school, Ferris State. When did you get into “local music?”

Jay: Downriver started it really. It’s the absolute worst possible place for anyone under 50 to live. There is nothing to do here at all. So you kind of get stuck to your radio. I had an other brother-in-law who was into a lot of ‘indie’ stuff before I even knew what it was. I am the youngest of 8 by a long shot so my older siblings were all married and starting their lives when I was like 10. So I just got into the radio because I thought it was cooler than TV. Then I remember riding somewhere with my brother-in-law and he was playing some pretty out there stuff to me. I eventually just pilfered his entire collection, making myself tapes. The local aspect came from finding out that there were people around actually playing music.

Me: So what year is this? I function on years. Big on years, this guy.

Jay: This is the summer between 5th and 6th grade….I was born in 1981. I hope you’re big on math, too.

Me: We’ve been over this, not big on math. So you started going to shows when you were 11?

Jay: I would say the shows started in 7th grade or so. My brother in-law is cousins with someone who was in a band. All these bands from downriverish would rent out some hall with their parents permission and throw a show. No bands were very memorable to me from that time… the first memorable real show I saw was H20 / Sick Of It All / Misfits at Clutch Cargo in 96 or 97.

Me: Oh fuck, that is one hard show.

Jay: The first show I drove myself to was Fugazi at The Shelter in 97 or 98.

Me: so you came up with punk, that was my next question. Formative jay bands: hardcore?

Jay: Pharohs Golden Cup for life. Do you remember Pharohs?

Me: I do, it was close-ish to my house in Livonia

Jay: That was somewhere near Livonia, all these hardcore kids would go lose their shit on a nightly basis. As far as formative bands, nothing ever made sense. I loved The Cure, and The Misfits, Nine Inch Nails and Camper Van Beethoven

Me: So melodic stuff, thats the theme.

Jay: That sounds like a musical term. Is Minor Threat melodic? I do like a ‘pop’ element to a lot of things. But I think you can find that element in almost anything. I hate noise stuff, though.

Me: Yes me too. I think people pretend to like noise.

Jay: Oh it’s the greatest trick ever. If you get enough people to show up and pretend to ‘get’ something, the people who show up and don’t get it just stand there and pretend to get it.

Me: Yeah. Ok we’re straying from the interview trajectory. So why do you live in Detroit currently?

Jay: Well… I still spend a lot of time downriver doing the family thing, and Detroit was just half way downriver from Ferndale. I’m not going to sit here and paint it as some huge statement that I live in the city. The price is right, and it’s a good location for me.

Me: So it doesn’t bum you out that you don’t have forests?

Jay: Within my city?

Me: Like within walking distance at any given time.

Jay: I would say that does not effect me at all. Living in Michigan you realize how close you and your vehicle become… I was in the forest last Friday and I caught a Garter snake. I also was near a pond and I almost caught 2 frogs. Things are close enough for me.

Me: Fair enough.

Jay: When is the last time you were in the woods, honestly?

Me: I’m surrounded by woods.

Jay: I’m talking about walked through the woods.

Me: I walked through the woods with my girlfriend a week or so ago

Jay: So it’s almost like you live in Detroit too.

Me: Oh I’d disagree with that.

Jay: I was only using your “concrete to forest” ratio. We’re living very similar lives, it’s just a lot of the buildings around me aren’t open for business.

Me: This is true, you are older than me though, that is crucial distinction.

Jay: When is your birthday?

Me: January 21st, 1982

Jay: Ah, that’s less than 6 months. I was going to begin to research if we could be long lost brothers. We cannot unless your mom or my mom are magic.

Me: Yeah. OK, back to Detroit. So you live in Detroit. It is not as nice as Washtenaw County. We can agree on this. I’ve talked with a few people who all agree that it seems like you just APPEARED at shows in the past year or so

Jay: Really? I think I just started getting loud.

Me: so you were going to shows during the garage rock explosion thingy.

Jay: At the very tail end, I guess. I didn’t even turn 21 until 2002. It was pretty much done by then wasn’t it? I made friends with some Lager House folk and got into some shows when I was underage. I’m still not a huge garage rock guy, so I guess that wasn’t my thing either. The first thing I was ever involved in was a festival called D-Pollen. That was in 2003.

Me: Oh weird, we played that. That was a weird weird weird thing, that D-Pollen fest.

Me: Whatever happened to that guy?

Jay: You know, I was really young, and I was not the person in charge. He was Jay #1 and I was Jay #2.

Me: Was that guy on drugs?

Jay: You know, I never saw him do any drugs. I think he was really into music, and he had some cash, and he tried to put something together without any previous social networking. He brought me on board to help because I’d emailed a few questions about the festival that he didn’t have the answers to, so I just kind of got appointed. I had no past experience in dealing with bands, and his was limited I’d guess. To be honest, I saw a lot of ugliness in bands that turned me off to things for awhile.

Me: Yep, well that was the time that everyone with a jean jacket thought they were going to be on Sire Records. I remember being similarly disgusted with bands around that time.

Jay: Yeah, it was really scary because I was playing with the money of someone else. In all fairness, he basically gave me a blank check when booking so it was nice, but for every awesome person I met who just wanted to do something cool in Detroit… I met a monster who needed a 600$ guarantee to play 4 blocks from their house.

Me: Yeah that is insane.

Jay: It was only sustainable for 2 years, and there are still people who say shit like “Oh you should’ve kept that going it was a cool idea!”

Me: Oh that whole thing seemed like money-suck at the time to me. I think thats the only show I’ve ever played that had fresh fruit at my disposal.

Jay: Yeah. Well, we wanted it to be right by the artists. That was important. Way too many hands involved though looking back. Everyone was promising everyone something else and no one really had any idea of what anyone else was doing. Basically, I’ll never be involved with something with someone who shares my name.

Me: Is your proper first name Jason?

Jay: James. Jim Carroll. Imagine that

Me: Ah ok, I always thought that was a hipster joke thing on the Art Fag flyers.

Jay: It was, kind of. But it still was my name. Someone gave me some shit once for false promotion, and I got out my license, and they were still mad.

Me: Haha. OK, so when did you start the blog?

Jay: May of 2007. It was never supposed to be a blog, which is kind of a weird story…

Me: Podcasts, right?

Jay: Someone over at Real Detroit Weekly asked if I’d be interested in doing a podcast for them. I didn’t even know what it was, but when I found out it was a pretend radio station I just went with it. The issue was that they couldn’t host it because of some legal something-or-other and I had some plans that were going to involve me getting some webspace anyway, so I thought it was all taken care of. I registered everything, did the podcast, and it never showed up on their homepage or anything. Apparently the person with this idea had no real authority over at Real Detroit, and Real Detroit had no knowledge of it, and after a few emails of “explain to me what you want to do again..?” to which i kept replying “look, I was told you wanted me to do it…”

Me: Ahahaha, thats mildly embarrassing.

Jay: I was just hoping to get free records or something, or some NKOTB tickets or some adspace or something. I’m not a huge fan of any of our weekly papers and I certainly wasn’t about to do some “interview” to find out if my musical tastes were worthy of a fucking link on their website.

Me: Right, so out comes the blog.

Jay: The podcasts were done through wordpress anyway.. so it just made sense to get my moneys worth.

Me: yes, wordpress sure is great.

Jay: I checked the stats once, and the only thing people weren’t checking out were the podcasts, which is what I was putting the most effort in.

Me: Yeah thats a bummer. Did you get it listed on the itunes podcast directory?

Jay: No.

Me: That’s why.

Jay: I still don’t even get it, really. I’ve NEVER listened to a podcast, as a music fan.. so why would anyone listen to mine?

Me: sure, thats valid. I like podcasts myself.

Jay: I still think about ways to get music to people, but nothing that’s making any sense right now.

Me: Well before the internet ruined everything, dudes had radio shows and record labels.

Jay: 2 weeks ago I priced out how much it would be to set up a complete pirate radio station… so if SSM wants to invest in something illegal I’m all about it.

Me: I’ll think about that. So when did you meet Jasper?

Jay: I don’t even know if I’m allowed to talk about Jasper, but fuck that dude anyway. I was doing some booking at the Lager House. He had sent a few emails about some shows, I let him give out some guestlist spots I think, or he needed a guest list spot.

Me: So this is Lager House stuff. So in 2006? 2007?

Jay: 2006ish, yeah. When we met it was one of those things where we’d both seen each other around but did the Detroit thing of never speaking to each other. The Lager House thing is a pretty funny story, too. I was offered the “assistant” job and I said no. Then they sent out some myspace and email blasts that advertised the job. A few weeks later I got an email that said I’d gotten the job because the people who applied were horrible.

Me: So you got the job even though you said no.

Jay: Yeah. heh. I guess they weren’t taking no for an answer. This is why I really respect what you do. Because in both instances i’ve tried to do something I thought was fun with some business sense it turned out that it was no longer fun. It’s hard to see a bands set and love it as much as everyone else when you know that over the last 4 days the bass player has been the worlds biggest dick face with impossible demands and eight phone calls per day.

Me: Right. I often have days where I’m not having any fun.

Jay: It’s not his fault either, because he’s fixing something the booking agent should’ve fixed and they’re mad at someone else and taking it out on me and it’s “nothing personal.”

Me: Right, thats the big revelation of making indie rock your life. Sometimes “business” is unavoidable.

Jay: Yeah. It’s a real job. And for a lot of people, it’s not even their only job.

Me: Yep, thats why I can’t complain too much. OK, so i had another Jasper quesiton and then i’m done talking about that guy.

Jay: Sure

Me: Do you guys hang out outside of shows? Like do you get dinner?

Jay: I’ve had dinner with Jasper before.

Me: Do you talk on the phone? I talk on the phone, that’s my thing.

Jay: I’m not a huge phone guy at all. I love texting like a fucking 12 year old girl. I’m always texting.

Me: Here’s the thing with texting: you’re paying some insane amount of money to carry a TELEPHONE in your pocket at all times, and you’re choosing to send truncated sentences through the air. Why not just buy a pager with texting capabilities?

Jay: That point is valid. BUT I’m doing it at my convenience. You would not talk on the phone with me if you asked a question and 8 minutes later I answered you, sometimes as soon as 4 minutes, or sometimes as long as an hour. You would not go for that

Me: Probably not.

Me: Why do you write about Detroit music?

Jay: I would say it’s like any other blog. I just happen to go to a lot of shows. I guess it’s my “thing.” If I was
really into wine I guess it would be a wine blog.

Me: So there’s no greater meaning to it, like there’s no philosophical backbone to it?

Jay: To a blog? Nah. Really a blog is worthless without other people giving their input. It sounds kind of cliche but I don’t really see it as “my blog.” I prefer when it operates as more of a discussion board… where people tell me to fuck myself and that I need to move to Baltimore and stuff.

Me: Thats actually high falootin’. So you’re saying that the function of the site is to give people a “town square” to talk about super important issues like Dan Deacon.

Jay: Not all issues are super important. That doesn’t mean that they can’t be discussed. You’re more than welcome to that opinion really, and you can put it right there with mine then people can tell you to fuck off, or that you’re the greatest or whatever. If I see an out of town show I’ll usually google some details in hopes that someone shared their opinion. With that comes the opinion of others who were there and even people who weren’t there. I’m not going to pretend it’s not a time waster for people at work, because it is.

Me: fivethreedialtone: secret postmodern haven

Jay: fivethreedialtone: this will occupy you for 5 minutes or so.

Me: OK, another blog question. Why no ads? every time you link to subsprawl we get way more hits than a link from Metrotimes or Real Detroit

Jay: That’s really not my thing at all. I honestly have no idea how to read my site stats, as to how many people come, or unique people, or people from where. I think using it to advertise to people would make it less personal. If it started costing 500$ a month I would do everything I could to make you buy an iPod, but webspace is relatively cheap these days so I don’t really worry about it.

Me: so you’re against free money if you don’t need it.

Jay: It’s not “free money”

Me: Free money is a phrase i throw around a lot. I don’t actually mean free money.

Jay: I have to provide a service, and provide a certain number of hits I’d guess. It just seems like a lot to worry about.

Me: So do you judge webvomit for having ads?

Jay: I don’t judge anyone for what they do. Maybe he is worth 1.6 million in ad-dollars. Maybe he has a web-guy who just put it up and he didn’t care. I only asked him once when it was some “meat is murder” ad and I asked if he was a vegetarian. Do you know how many Jasper/Webvomit questions I get in my life? It’s an absurd number. For awhile people were convinced I was him…

Me: Ahaha, I don’t mean for this to be about him, but you dudes are the BLOG BROZ of Detroit, so thats something you have to deal with.

Jay: As much as I dislike Downriver, I usually end up hanging out there once a month or so just to make sure it’s still terrible. I went into the smallest bar every in Wyandotte, and I happen to have some Art Fag flyers in my pocket that I sat on the bar and ordered a drink. A guy walked up with his girlfriend and saw them and asked me “Hey! You’re the Webvomit guy aren’t you!? I read about this on your website.” I politely told him that I was not the Webvomit guy.. I was just promoting the event. This dude sat there for at least 15 minutes telling me things like “I know it’s you! You just don’t like people to know who you are! No one down here will know anyway so you don’t have to worry about me saying anything..”

Me: That is weird.

Jay: Finally I just let him buy me a beer. Within the next month, someone who knew both Jasper and I went into the same bar, by chance with a local music t-shirt on or something that prompted the same guy at the bar to tell him all about meeting “Jasper.”

Me: Oh there we go. Thats what makes this story great. OK.

Jay: Our friend listened intently and heard the story before, and he described me to the pushy guy… “is that who you met?” and the guy was all proud like “YEAH THAT’S HIM.” Then our friend just crushed his dreams by telling him that I was really not Jasper.

Me: Man that is rough.

Jay: I have run into the guy from the Wyandotte bar since and he’s figured things out from Webvomit linking me and stuff, but his question is always, “So.. who is Jasper?”

Me: Yeah, see, you screwed up. People love a mystery

Jay: I should really fucking pull a Star or Enquirer type scam and sell a photo of Jasper to the highest bidder.

Me: Oh yeah, people would definitely buy that. Why do you, and “new media” people in general fetishize new music? Is something better when it is new?

Jay: I can’t really speak for all of “new media” people. New isn’t always better, no. At the same time, the way in which music is transferred is so different now. I consider myself lucky to remember saving enough money in 2 weeks to buy a new record. I’d ride my bike up to the record store and pick something out. Sometimes I would’ve heard it from a friend, sometimes it was on a recommendation, then i’d spend the next 2 weeks trying to fully digest it. I think that’s a really beautiful thing to do, honestly. Today it’s much different. If you choose to, you can get music for free, AND get it before someone who wants to pay for it has the option. I guess I don’t see anything wrong with new music either. It’s not always better, or always worse. It’s nice to hear what people are doing, and I think it’s okay to get excited about it.

Me: I’m picking up on a jay theme. Events.

Jay: Events? Isn’t that a theme of everyone? A series of events?

Me: i’ll clarify as best as i can. You like how people make your comments section an “event” and you like getting into new music, getting excited about it. I guess my question would be, does that mean you’re more interested in the culture of music than the music itself? Or the culture of the internet rather than some specific aim on your website?

Jay: I don’t know why it has to be “more than the music.” Is the music enough? Of course it is, and it’s proven the ability to age wonderfully. If there’s an ability to interact with the music in a very public way though, like going to shows, and writing about things you like, and making your friends mix cds, I say do it. If that’s looked at as being more about culture and less about music then so be it.

Me: yeah that wasn’t meant as a dig. Just picking your brain. It’s completely different than how I approach music.

Jay: I guess that’s what’s great about the current state of things. It’s not just new bands that are getting out there. You can google search any band, and see their backstory and get acquainted with their projects you didn’t know existed.

Me: Yes, my “Music Download” Google Reader folder is all insane out-of-print record blogs.

Jay: That’s great. That doesn’t excite you?

Me: Oh it totally does, I just get excited about hearing some approach to midi drums that I didn’t know existed rather than excited about Madonna coming to town.

Jay: That to me is so great that there is an ability for that to coexist though.

Me: Yes. OK, so here comes the scandal section of the interview. Care to clarify your Freer incident?

Jay: Which one? Heh.

Me: Just the basic story, I don’t even know what happened, and I am one CONNECTED BRO.

Jay: There was the “Ben Blackwell Incident”

Me: Right, you were involved in that?

Jay: Not at all… someone sent out the story via email.. and it kind of just became a discussion. Everyone had an opinion, some very pro-Freer, some very anti-Freer. Some time later there was another incident that turned physical, or near physical between Freer & Champions Of Breakfast.

Me: Right, I remember reading about that in the comments of your site maybe?

Jay: And from what I understand it stemmed from Champions of Breakfast not being a real band and they didn’t deserve the “hype” they were getting. This somehow was “recorded” at the Elbow Room, and that recording was kind of making it’s circles. I guess by “hyped” there were some problems aired about “local bloggers” and I kind of took offense. I saw the whole thing as a way to get people to talk about a band that maybe wasn’t getting the amount of “press” that they thought they should.

Me: Right. The Noel Gallagher approach.

Jay: The funny thing I pointed out is the very first “Five Three Dial Tone” show that I promoted, featured Freer. That shit all ended up squashed, and as far as I know everyone at least between Freer and I are on decent terms.

Me: I remember getting really worked up about garage rock bands getting more popular than my band in like 2002.

Jay: I’ll come right out and say that it’s totally cool to talk shit, but I think you should do so with likeminded folk in some bar, or on your porch. If you choose to go public, you have to deal with what comes with it.

Me: Yep. Thats why Ryan Allen and Ben Blackwell get credit in my book, they’re pretty vocal about what they think.

Jay: Yeah they are loudmouths for sure. Heh.

Me: So here’s where i’m going with this. I went through The Pop Project’s Myspace friends list and pulled some bands that you’ve talked about on your blog before. I think it would be fun if you gave a succinct one line opinion or summary of each band.

Jay: Haha. It would be kind of a word association game

Me: Yes, but all about BANDS. Oooh bands. OK, Deastro.

Jay: Oh here we go. Maybe I should be mean about Deastro for once…120% talent, 9% direction.

Me: The Hard Lessons

Jay: Hated Because Of Great Qualities

Me: The Silent Years

Jay: Detroit’s Worst Kept Secret

Me: The Dead Bodies

Jay: 2 Cool 2 Be 4 Gotten

Me: Pas/Cal

Jay: My Album Would Be Good Too If It Took Me 10 Years To Put It Out

Me: The Satin Peaches

Jay: Youth Wins

Me: Mason Proper

Jay: Nationally Bound With Proper Push

Me: The Muggs

Jay: Even Better Than The Story That Comes With Them

Me: Carjack

Jay: Just For Fun Is Reason Enough

Me: Zoos of Berlin

Jay: Perfect. Technically.

Me: Mick Bassett

Jay: Leave Your Piano At Home

Me: The Von Bondies

Jay: Majoring In The Minors

Me: Friendly Foes

Jay: Woah oh oh

Me: OK thats all.

Jay: Did I win?

Me: Sure. Say you had a record label: what local act would you sign first?

Jay: I think I’d much prefer a singles label, I would put out a Deastro 7″ How is that for a shock?

Me: Ahaha good good.

Me: Any last thoughts?

Jay: Let’s say I did have a singles label…

The new Jenny Lewis album has me absolutely apoplectic. It’s SO GOOD, embarrassingly simple, and she seems to be able fire this kind of stuff off with regularity. Plus, she seems to be getting better at it, as I have not cringed once due to the lyrics on this most recent album. People like this (see also: Ryan Adams, Robert Pollard, Deerhoof, etc) who are consistently able to operate with such prolificacy and quality (okay, maybe not always Robert Pollard) sometimes get me to feeling like I just don’t have the tools. When one is trying to be constantly productive there are always fallow periods, and although those times have always faded away before I even realize it, it’s still difficult to shake the idea that I might not ever come up with something good any time in the near future. I realize that this is not a unique experience, but when your sense of accomplishment is derived from your ability to produce quality material when you want to, it can be damaging to the ol’ sense of inspiration.

I’m starting to understand how my friends in grad school would be so preoccupied with work that it would prevent them from fully engaging even on a cursory social level. How do you keep from falling into the same patterns of working and creating without repeating yourself? A familiar answer to the question is experimentation via a new instrument or some new piece of software that might give you the compositional insight you would not have normally had, but then there is always the idea that you SHOULD be able to distill all that down to just yourself and an instrument. Does a song need to be able to stand on its simplest elements (for some reason this is always something I strive for yet rarely achieve) or is it okay to rely on more than that? Do harmonies always improve a vocal melody? Is that extra chord or beat really necessary? My hands always default to the same positions on any instrument, my brain defaults to the same chord progressions and the same melodic tendencies.

It has been said that the best way to generate ideas for composition is to learn the inner workings of the music of others, either by learning how to play them, as I always used to do when studying piano in college, or studying song structure and chord relationships, etc etc. Or do I just not sweat it and wait for “inspiration” to strike? Listening to other music nearly always inspires, except exactly what it inspires me to do (other than thinly-veiled imitation) gets kind of unclear sometimes. Sometimes I wonder if it’s just my internal filter that’s working too hard. If the best part of creating something is when you’re not judging and just going with that elusive flow, how do you ensure that you’re producing quality material? Should you wait to edit later, and what happens when you get stuck in that process? What do YOU do when this happens?