Jeff Mangum at the DuPont Theater, 2/5/13

There are certain artists that influence your life and your writing and your style as a songwriter so much so that seeing them perform live seems like a dream that can never come true. This is especially the case when you are referring to Jeff Mangum, the extremely elusive genius behind Neutral Milk Hotel. During the past few years, he has played only a handful of shows in small venues that sell out quickly and don’t allow any photos or videos. Danny somehow got to see him a couple years ago in DC. In November I received the email that announced that Jeff would be playing the DuPont Theater in Wilmington and I couldn’t believe that he would be so close and I knew that I needed tickets. So. When they went on sale, I was in a parking lot in DC at my lunch break and somehow got through on my phone at 12:01pm to purchase 4 tickets via R5 Productions. It was exciting. It felt unreal.

I meant to write about this much earlier, but life. Anyway, I brought Erin, my brother Ben, and my cousin Kirk. There were many different types of people at the show. The DuPont Theater is beautiful. I have only ever been there before for theater productions though, not for a concert. The opening act, Tall Firs, was meh. Erin thinks that we could have done better, which could be true. They finished and the crew brought out a rack full of guitars and we waited for Jeff.

He walked on stage. The only girl I’ve ever loved was born with roses in her eyes / But then they buried her alive one evening 1945. This was happening live in front of me and it was something I never thought I would see and it was right there and it was amazing. Depressing tunes yelled beautifully into a crowd that mimicked horn parts and sang along to every single word. It was beautiful.

I only cover a few NMH songs, but I am always astounded by the stark simplicity of his writing and song structure. Jeff tells stories in a creative manner and weaves words together that you would never expect and somehow it all comes out sounding so…right. Even without the full orchestration and a backing band, Jeff was amazing just singing with one guitar. It’s all about the songs, not the production. Erin has recently gotten me into listening to Amanda Palmer a lot and her writing reminds me of Jeff as well. She says something in “Ukulele Anthem” (an awesome song) that really rings true to me in regards to writing folky-type music:

“…and stop pretending art is hard
just limit yourself to three chords
and do not practice daily
you’ll minimize some stranger’s sadness
with a piece of wood and plastic”

When people ask, I say that I do not consider myself to be a musician. I enjoy playing music immensely, but I don’t know theory or techniques well like the people whom I consider to be proper musicians (like Erin and Em) do. For me, songwriting is my craft and I try to create stories and songs that are worth listening to. The chords that I play and what key I am in do not matter to me as much as getting into a listener’s head and communicating something with what I sing. Yeah. I’m not sure if I have explained this properly, but what I am trying to say is that I might never write something musically impressive, but I do hope that one day I can write songs like those on NMH records. Songs that are worth hearing and that people want to play along with and share with their friends and dream about seeing them performed live. That is all.

Set

Holland, 1945
Two-Headed Boy, Part Two
Song Against Sex
Gardenhead/Leave Me Alone
The King of Carrot Flowers, Part One
The King of Carrot Flowers, Parts Two & Three
Engine
A Baby for Pree
Oh Comely
Naomi
Two-Headed Boy
Ghost
Encore:
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

Finding a replacement for Google Reader

I read a lot of blogs. Friends’ blogs, web comics, science-y news, computing and tech and geek blogs, power industry blogs, independent music industry insight, my favorite bands, local news, and many others. Google Reader was the most convenient way to keep track of all of my 163 RSS feed subscriptions, but it is now scheduled to retire on 7/1/13. This means that I need a replacement web-based free RSS reader that isn’t awful and can conveniently import my existing subscriptions.

Andrew suggested possibly using NewsBlur, but that is restricted to 64 subscriptions with a free account. His other option that we’ll both probably try out for now is The Old Reader, which has no mobile app yet because it is so new (and is currently overloaded from new users flocking to it, so it cannot import subscriptions from Google at the moment). Other recommendations that I saw on Reddit and Slashdot and other forums were MsgBoy, Feedly, and Bloglines. Here is “Top 10 Alternatives to Google Reader and “State of RSS Readers.”

Technology is weird. I don’t blame Google for taking away a free service; it’s just an annoyance. Forbes has this post which I also liked “Google Reader Shutdown a Sobering Reminder That ‘Our’ Technology Isn’t Ours.”

A not-so-good picture of us at the Homeys! (With an incorrect datestamp)((But many thanks to Lori Citro for the photo!!))

Mark Rogers of WSTW’s Hometown Heroes worked with Gable Music Ventures to put on the 7th Annual Homey Awards live for the first time ever this past Friday night at World Cafe Live at the Queen. It was so much fun. Lots of our musician friends were there. Some great bands played (Ike!) and the entire night was wonderful.

The Honey Badgers got to announce the award for Best Collaboration. Unfortunately, we did not win anything this year (congrats to Kyle Swartzwelder for winning Best Folk/Americana Artist), but we were pronounced Best Dressed by a couple intoxicated men. It was a really enjoyable night. I’m looking forward to releasing our new EP and full length this year and hopefully winning an award when it comes time for next year’s awards ^_^

Today is Friday. On Tuesday morning, I had only posted four out of fourteen songs. Somehow I ended up with sixteen.

Tuesday night I recorded Erin’s song, “Lullaby for Little Bird” at her apartment. All I did was play guitar, so I don’t count that much as writing a song, but it was a fun collaboration and it’s an incredible song:

Wednesday night after work I completed a song skirmish (where a bunch of people all write and record a song with the same title in under an hour) called “Underneath” (#5)

Thursday morning I woke up and wrote “Kind of Girl” (#6) at 6:30am on banjo. You can tell that my roommates were probably beginning to love me more than previously.

After work it was game time. Eight more songs to write and record before 7am? Yes please.

“Keep Everything” was mostly written, it just needed a melody. “Vision of the Future” is some geeky humor about Google Glass. That’s #7 and #8.

Then Erin came over so that we could record “As One” – a tune I originally wrote on mandolin on Tuesday afternoon I think. We had to change the key for our voices, so the mandolin part got too complicated on account of my huge fingers on a tiny mandolin fretboard. #9.

Erin singing for “As One” chorus harmonies yay

Then I uploaded a minute long “Tweetable Song” that was only 140 characters long. That’s #10.

Nathan Surles had written some lyrics creating a story out of my “Doug the Stink Bug” character and his Avocado song. In “Doug and the Damsel Fly,” the stink bug sings with The Honey Badgers and falls in love with a damsel fly. That’s stink bug song #2 and collaboration #3. Since I only wrote the melody and music for this, I didn’t count it for my 14 songs.

This is where things started to get weird. “Scrapple is the Best Breakfast Meat Ever” was song #11 and I have no idea where it came from. Probably the pot of coffee that I had already consumed so far.

I was really pleased with how “At Both Ends” turned out. It was a combination of some different pieces of advice that I’ve been given over the past few years. Harmonica playing at 2am = #12.

“Kill All the Stink Bugs” was the last song that I recorded for the night. #13 was stink bug song #3. Stink bugs really annoy me if you can’t tell.

My last song is called “Two Tons” and is sort of about people not paying attention while they’re driving and is written in the style of The Mountain Goats, so I really did not want to be yelling and waking people up at 3am. So I created song #14 (really #16 on the site) and called it a night. Hopefully I can track that demo this weekend ^_^ Finished FAWM!!

Here are some of the songs that I uploaded to my Soundcloud account:

I sort of wish that I had taken some vacation in order to relax and have the free time available to write without rushing and more importantly to collaborate. I had been planning to write more with Erin. I was also hoping to have collaborated with Em McKeever and Matthew Halley (they are both incredible), but time did not allow for it. Hopefully next year. Or before then ^_^

2013 was my fifth FAWM and was, like always, completely different than every other year. I’m really looking forward to our annual FAWM showcase event (hosted by the amazing Emkeev). This year it will be on Saturday 3/16 at 7pm at the Film Brothers Co-op on North Market Street in Wilmington. Excited.

My favourite performances, mainly with The Honey Badgers (Erin ^_^) and a couple solo: Opening for Bobby Long at SCPAB’s winter session concert in January, our Delaware FAWM showcase at the Queen in March, winning the UD battle of the bands in March, weddings and festivals this summer – Out and About’s “Musikarmageddon” at Logan House in June, Musikfest in July, World Cafe Live’s Beta Hi-Fi Festival in August at the Queen, winning the Folk Hero contest at the Delmarva Folk Festival in October, my 100th show ever at “The Six” in November, Christkindlmarkt in December in Bethlehem, and various house shows throughout everywhere (house shows are the best!).

The Honey Badgers had an amazing year. Our weekly video blogs were really fun. Shane, Em, Alyssa, Matt, Sarah, Erin, and I performed at LOMA Coffee in Wilmington in December. We’re almost finished with a second Diner Club compilation CD. It’s exciting. ALSO, FAWM is coming up!! I’m sure you’ll see lots of updates here from whatever I come up with this year. I’m really looking forward to collaborating with Erin as well as other local friends. And maybe Errol. Yay.

Diner Club at LOMA Coffee! (Glad that I shaved that mess off my face)

Anyway, I’m looking forward to 2013. Maybe I’ll get a haircut. Maybe I’ll vacation away from the North America. Maybe I’ll buy a house. That’s about it.

(Read 2012′s post here)

Working on finishing up our Diner Club Collaborative Compilation CD ^_^

We had an all-day session in September and another one in October. On Monday night we tracked the last drum and bass parts with Shane at Supermagic Studios.

On this Friday 12/7, Diner Club is hosting a free show at LOMA Coffee at 6pm [239 N Market St Wilmington, DE]. I’m really looking forward to it. The show will feature Shane Palko, Alyssa Regan, Matthew Halley, Em McKeever, and The Honey Badgers (me and Erin)! I’m excited.

We rehearsed Monday night before recording. It was fun. To finish out the show, we’ll all perform each others’ songs together ^_^

Erin poking Kwali very very gently with her bow

Erin’s bananascope

Em and Matt!

Shane and Em!

Wawa is literally the best convenience store ever. I banned myself from going there for an entire month though, mainly because it isn’t healthy for my body or for my wallet. Even though November is over, I am not sure when I’ll go back.

This isn’t always the best way to break a habit, but it worked for me this time.

Chopping wood on Thanksgiving. Ben takes not the best photos.

“What this power is I cannot say; all I know is that it exists”

- Alexander Graham Bell

Words cannot do justice to how it feels to stand outside under a full moon surrounded by friends and fire and stars and the cold, fresh autumn air, watching smiles and hearing people sing along as you are pouring your heart into singing songs that you wrote down years ago when things were different but now they’re much better. It’s nice, I will say that.

This extended weekend was wonderful. I ate lots of food with family on Thursday, had my first visit to the glorious unlimited-meat Brazilian steakhouse Fogo de Chão in Philly with friends on Friday, played a really fun, long, and sweaty show at Home Grown in Newark with Erin on Saturday night, and hosted an open-mic-house-show-soup-night-bonfire at my house on Sunday night. It was fun.

So. On my calendar at work, listed above the name of this month, there is a quote by a man who invented the telephone. I assumed that this was taken out of context, so I researched where it came from. It isn’t referring to phones at all, but instead it refers to searching for what you are passionate about. There are a lot of Americans who feel that either A) if they want something hard enough or if they have enough money, they’ll get that thing, whatever it might be, without putting in much work for it, or B) you must follow the tracks that your parents and your schools set out for you in order to be a normal functioning member of society: attend high school, labor through university, and then get a job which you will work at for the next 40 years until you get to retire and relax.

What Mr. Bell was saying is that you can only be truly passionate about your work once you have determined what it is that you truly desire. My summary is rather vague, but I feel that thinking this way does not lead you down either one of these previously mentioned modern American dreams. It is more similar to the traditional “American dream” of working hard to succeed, but I feel that it also differs from that dream in a major way. In contrast to the making-ends-meet mentality of early Americans working to support their families however they can, this technology-driven-era mindset is more focused on innovation rather than survival.

Here is the full quote:

“I had made up my mind to find that for which I was searching even if it required the remainder of my life. After innumerable failures I finally uncovered the principle for which I was searching, and I was astounded at its simplicity. I was still more astounded to discover the principle I had revealed not only beneficial in the construction of a mechanical hearing aid but it served as well as means of sending the sound of the voice over a wire. Another discovery which came out of my investigation was the fact that when a man gives his order to produce a definite result and stands by that order it seems to have the effect of giving him what might be termed a second sight which enables him to see right through ordinary problems. What this power is I cannot say; all I know is that it exists and it becomes available only when a man is in that state of mind in which he knows exactly what he wants and is fully determined not to quit until he finds it.”

Alexander Graham Bell worked for years to create his vision. Sound waves being converted to electrical signals and travelling hundreds of mile on tiny pieces of copper until they are converted back into sound on the receiving end? That sounds crazy. But he got it to work, and forever improved the world in the process. This sort of passion is not common in the American mind these days. It seems to me that this generation has an endless desire for having things now, immediately. Seth’s Blog mentioned something relevant to this a few days ago:

“Now that the cycle of new is eating itself in a race to ever-faster, there’s a bigger chance to make long term change by consistently focusing on what works (and what’s important), not what’s new and merely shiny.”

- Seth Godin

Lately I have been incredibly overwhelmed because there is so much happening that I both want to be a part of and that I also want to put my best efforts into. It is hard to realize that we cannot do all the things at our best. It took me years to learn how to say “no” to people when they ask me for something that I honestly don’t have time in my schedule to invest in. We must choose either to do one thing awesomely OR to do a few things well OR to attempt to do lots of things and end up failing or burning out. It’s hard, life.

Cousin/goddaughter Maria with my mando!

Joy Ike! (and her sister Peace on percussion)

This show marked my 100th performance (solo, as Battleshy Youths, and as The Honey Badgers) since I started playing music publicly in December 2010. It was a great night. I played a new song and a few others that I don’t often perform and then Erin joined me for a couple.

Here is the new one, based on Bukowski’s “Bluebird” -

Also, Erin had her last pageant-y event last night. She is amazing.

ERIN! (Outgoing and new Miss Wilmington and Miss Newark and Outstanding Teen)