Playlist

Recorded

July 17, 2011
A Cat's Life - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey/Neal Meyer

A recording of a live performance, the narration is too low in the mix, and I'm still rushing the fast bits. Need to take it easy next time.

Kingdome Implosion on KPLU
Banned Rehearsal 680 - Banned Rehearsal
Figure Study 4 - Keith Eisenbrey

Developing chords that read like sentences.

July 19, 2011
Wolverine Blues - Jelly Roll Morton
After You've Gone - Alphonso Trent

A deftly balanced arrangement full of unobtrusive detail.

Four or Five Times - Bob Wills

low-brow.

Never No Lament (aka don't Get Around Much Anymore) - Duke Ellington

high-brow.

Dizzy Atmosphere - Dizzy Gillespie/Charlie Parker/Al Haig

Among both the low and the high, Bebop was an insurrection. I think though that it was Mr. Ellington who left the door open.

New Piano Roll Blues - Duke Ellington/Max Roach

As I was saying. . .

Variations for Orchestra - Elliott Carter

Live

July 18, 2011

The Funhouse, Seattle


Your Mother Should Know
Pouch
High Class Wreckage

YMSK consisted solely, at this show, of my brother-in-law and longtime musical collaborator Neal Kosaly-Meyer on voice and electric guitar. My spouse Karen is in rehearsal on drums and should join in the next gig. Disclosures done.

Neal has always wanted to play loud and I am personally grateful he has found this outlet. There are still some compositional issues to work out balancing voice and guitar (aside from the accidental technical difficulties with the sound system on the first song). I would not change a thing from the engagement standpoint. Neal is all there and all out there all the time. But it is only with the very young that engagement alone is enough for a performance to achieve incandescence. For us old farts a healthy dollop of eloquence is required. To that end, I think these songs simply need to be lightened up here and there, so that we can hear the words, and so that when the power comes on full blast it makes a real impact. More Jonathan Richman, less Dead Kennedys.

I have blogged about both Pouch and High Class Wreckage before and my opinion hasn't changed much. They are both high energy high fun kick-out-the-jams bands, squarely in the louderfaster PNW tradition of The Sonics and their ilk. Hearing them together and back-to-back was great. If anything, Pouch comes across as more traditional and bluesy. A friend said, with great enthusiasm, "More cornball grunge riffs than you could shake an empty Pabst can at." High Class Wreckage is a phenomenon unto themselves. Flailing limbs, spewing beer, (us old folks with sense hang back), 96 mph downmountain on a goat path in an iffy jalopy. They are the sort of thing that is much safer as music than in real life.