A baby-driven life

I know all babies are different, but for me, taking care of a newborn is the easy part. I'm not saying there aren't some confusing moments and afternoons of screaming that make you want to pull your hair out. But a baby's needs are pretty simple. He needs to eat, sleep and excrete, along with some developmental play time like reading and singing. (I recently penned a Grammy-worthy tune titled "Liam and Daddy Looking in the Mirror." Look for it on shelves come Christmas.)

The hard part is taking care of a baby while still doing all the other things I should be doing, like being a good husband to my wife, getting stories turned in by their deadlines, studying for an upcoming church officer examination, staying in touch with friends, practicing hospitality, leading a Bible study, listening to albums I need to review, scheduling interviews, feeding Louie, taking a shower, etc. I guess the definition of "father" will continually change throughout my life. Right now, since I can't really instill any values in my son yet, fatherhood feels mostly like juggling and prioritizing. It's not a romantic concept, and you won't see it on any Hallmark cards, but it's true so far. And whenever I try to undertake all this using only my own strength I fail miserably. Fatherhood has been humbling in many ways, but especially spiritually.

Still, the one thing everyone told me about fatherhood beforehand is still pretty much true: Despite the constant struggle to keep my head above water, I wouldn't trade it for anything. At three months, Liam can only make two or three sounds/gurgles, but I laugh more every day than I ever did pre-baby, and when he does something as simple as roll over for the first time, I've never felt so proud. I guess that's a bit Hallmarkish. Apologies. I guess fatherhood has made me more mushy, too.

Postscript: I have a newfound respect for single parents. There should be a monthly cash reward for each month completed with sanity intact. I don't know how those folks do it.

Amazon MP3

I'm a pretty loyal eMusic downloader, but the new music-download service from Amazon is good news because, like eMusic, it's DRM-free. No limits on how many times you can burn a song onto a mix, no restrictions on mp3 players, etc. I imagine I'll use it mostly for major-label releases that eMusic doesn't carry (right now the only two participating are EMI and Universal). And yeah, I do miss having the actually CD and artwork in my hand, but downloading is just too darn easy, and it saves me a trip to the record store, which is an even better perk when trips involve lugging a 3-month-old and a carrier.

An interesting tidbit on pricing from a New York Times blog:
Apple is generally charging $1.29 for its MP3 unprotected files in the AAC format, in an attempt to differentiate them from its 99-cent restricted files. Amazon, however, will charge 89 cents and 99 cents for most songs, and it will offer albums at significant discounts. Indeed, to test this out, I purchased an MP3 download of a Philip Glass album for $6.93 from Amazon. It would have cost $11.99 to download from iTunes in Apple’s DRM format and $18.99 to buy as a CD from Amazon. Moreover, Amazon’s software put the music right in my iTunes folder, so there was almost no convenience sacrifice.

Akron/Family - Wexner Center, Sept. 21

Akron/Family put on great show at the Wex, complete with various percussion instruments and cricket noises. Review coming in The Other Paper Thursday.

mp3: Akron/Family - Ed is a Portal

Getting stronger

Band of few words

I've been listening to a stream of Cease to Begin, the new album from Band of Horses that's out on Oct. 9, and I can't get the first tune--"Is There a Ghost"--out of my head. It's like an Explosions in the Sky song that starts quietly crystalline and then builds not-so-slowly to a distorted climax. Singer Ben Bridwell is awash in reverb as usual, as if James Mercer borrowed Jim James's singing cavern.

But what really amazes me is that the song's lyrics consist of only two short sentences: "I could sleep when I lived alone. Is there a ghost in my house?" That's it. Just repetitions of that. I can't say it's terribly meaningful or that it really reminds me of a time when I was struggling with a similar issue, but it works. Guess that goes to show how much atmosphere and dynamics can add to otherwise blah lyrics.

mp3: Band of Horses - Is There a Ghost

It takes two

Ryan Adams is coming to town Oct. 25, and after seeing this clip of a cleaned-up Adams (looking Dead Poet Societyish) and the Cardinals performing "Two" on Letterman, I'm even more excited. His voice sounds even better than it does on the album.

Great Lake Swimmers

I got turned on to Great Lake Swimmers through Paste a few months ago, and they've become my favorite before-bed music, often replacing Iron & Wine (until Sam Beam's new album comes out on Sept. 25, another one I'm really looking forward to). The Ontario band's newest album, Ongiara, has some great tracks from what I've heard, but I've actually been listening to the self-titled debut. Apparently the band recorded the album in an empty grain silo, and it sounds like it--lots of reverb bouncing around hushed vocals and delicate guitars.

Great Lake Swimmers capture a similar vibe on a recent live EP recorded at Church of the Redeemer in Toronto. The band has generously decided to give the EP away, so download it here, put on your headphones and drift off.

One more bedtime recommendation: South San Gabriel, especially "The Dark of the Garage."
mp3: South San Gabriel - The Dark of the Garage

Anticipation

One of the albums I've been most excited for this year comes out on Sept. 25: The Weakerthans' Reunion Tour. The Canadian band is consistently overlooked while overachieving, and from what I've heard so far, the new record will be just as solid as previous efforts. Instead of describing what's great about The Weakerthans, I'm just going to quote Andy Whitman from a post he wrote awhile back called "Albums That Get No Love."

"These guys aren't exactly unknowns, but they are nevertheless criminally underappreciated. The transformation that lead singer/songwriter John K. Samson has wrought from Punk Brat (best shown in his former band Propagandhi) to Thoughtful Poet is nothing less than spectacular. The band mixes it up quite eclectically, tossing in influences from folk, country, and loud, abrasive rock 'n roll. But the secret ingredient is Samson's songwriting. He's one of the few songwriters whose words can stand alone as poetry. He tackles all the big subjects -- love and the loss of love, God, death, loneliness and alienation, the hole in the soul -- and he does so with compassion, warmth, humor, and something that sounds uncannily like wisdom. And he rocks like crazy."

mp3: The Weakerthans - Night Windows

Ric Flair Finance

Need someone to finance your mortgage? Or maybe it's an auto loan you need. Who better to turn to than former professional wrestler Ric Flair? At Ric Flair Finance, "Forget the rest. Just work with the best. Wooooo!"

I still like The National

So here's the new video to "Apartment Story." It's neat.

Recommendations

Busy Joel = fewer blog posts. But here's a few albums I've been enjoying lately:

Josh Ritter - The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter
Ritter is one of the best Americana songwriters out there today, and it really feels like he's found his voice and style on the last two albums. If you liked Animal Years, you'll like this one, though there's more layers here, less raw acoustic. I don't know if there's a track as incendiary as "Thin Blue Flame," but a couple are close. The extras track you get on iTunes and Amazon are worth it, as well.
mp3: Josh Ritter - To the Dogs or Whoever

Okkervil River - The Stage Names
I have a feeling this will end up in my best of 2007 list. These guys went from folk to rock with great success, and singer Will Sheff sings with the intensity of Arcade Fire's Win Butler. Sometimes indie rockers feel like having raw emotion shine through isn't hip. Not an issue for Okkervil River.
mp3: Okkervil River - Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe

Dappled Cities - Granddance
I bought this album solely because the band is labelmates with Sea Wolf, and it's one of those that reveals its pop hooks more and more with each listen. And I love the fact that frontman Tim Derricourt sounds really Australian.
mp3: Dappled Cities - Fire Fire Fire




The Mendoza Line - Thirty Year Low + The Final Remarks of the Legendary Malcontent

Plenty of artists sing about failed relationships, but this album documents what appears to be a quite bitter divorce. That would be interesting in and of itself, but it's performed by the former husband/wife team who did the divorcing, Timothy Bracy and Shannon McCardle (her tracks shine brighter). It's sad, tragic and uncomfortable at times--exactly what a breakup album should be.
mp3: The Mendoza Line - Since I Came
mp3: The Mendoza Line - Thirty Year Low

On the fence:
Devendra Banhart - Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon
It's certainly diverse, and it sounds like it was recorded in a conch shell, as Devendra is want to do. There's some Doors (see "Seahorse" below), some reggae and lots of Spanish I don't understand. We'll see.
Devendra Bahnart - Seahorse

Hope for the music biz?

I interviewed Hanson recently for an upcoming Q&A in The Other Paper. (Don't worry, I'm not naive--I fully expect letters demanding why we would waste ink on such a band. But I guarantee more people will read that interview than any other music-related article in the issue.) No matter what question I asked Isaac (the guitarist and oldest brother), he always came back to how messed up the music industry is, how it can't possibly go on in its current form. Though this made for a frustrating interview, compounded with the fact that he talked way too much and I only had about 10 minutes, it's worth noting that a band that has grown up in the music business is utterly jaded by its inner workings. I can't help but agree that major labels are ruining mainstream music. (Latent in that statement are some positives for independent labels, but that's for another post.)

So I was exceedingly encouraged and hopeful when I heard that producer Rick Rubin was going to be one of the top dogs at Columbia. I'd say it's the best decision Columbia has made since signing Bob Dylan. The New York Times Magazine has a great article on Rubin and his possible effect on the music industry. (Thanks to Donewaiting for the heads up.) A quick excerpt:

Rubin, who is 44, has never gone to an office of any kind. One of his conditions for taking the job at Sony, which owns Columbia, was that he wouldn't be required to have a desk or a phone in any of the corporate outposts. That wasn't a problem: Columbia didn't want Rubin to punch a clock. It wanted him to save the company. And just maybe the record business.

What that means, most of all, is that the company wants him to listen. It is Columbia's belief that Rubin will hear the answers in the music — that he will find the solution to its ever-increasing woes.