Playing my regular Friday gig with my band, Even Handed Odds. Great pizza, massive room, wonderful venue for parties.
Posts By Crommunist
0 EHO – Coppertank
0 What I’m Listening To: January 2014
Music has been an integral part of my life since I was a kid. In addition to playing music in various forms, my headphones have been my constant companion for as long as I can remember. I’m always on the hunt for new sounds, not only to listen to but also to inspire me to write music of my own. So I’m going to try, every now and then, to share with you some of the sounds you’re likely to find in my ears if you were to run into me on the street.
Goldford – Never Settle
I seriously cannot find enough good things to say about Goldford’s debut album Shed a Little Light. It’s soulful, it’s funky, it’s for anyone who appreciates Raphael Saddiq, Cody ChestnuTT, or John Mayer (the music, not the guy). If you can, buy the album. It will be the wisest financial decision you’ll make all year. It was hard to pick a ‘favourite’ track from this album, but ‘Never Settle’ has a reasonable shot at that title.
Dizzy Gillespie – Night in Tunisia
I realize that this is a contentious and unprovable statement, but I think this might be the best song ever written. Seriously. It’s built on a complexity that resolves to an easy stride that quickly transforms into a virtuoso showcase by one of the unchallenged masters of the trumpet. It bridges the gap between traditional jazz and modern jazz in a way that approaches perfection.
Neko Case – Man
I first came across Neko Case as a member of The New Pornographers, an indie band from Vancouver. They are an eclectic blend of different types of pop music, melded idiosyncratically in a way that really appeals to my eclectic taste. Neko is a prolific solo artist as well, and when her album The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, the More I Love You dropped, I decided to pick it up. This track is a very tongue-in-cheek exploration of ‘traditional’ masculinity and the behaviours it glorifies. It also rocks, so there’s that.
Audio Two – Top Billing
Grab your boom box, put on your Kangol, and rock out with wild abandon to this classic jam from hip-hop’s golden age. There’s nothing else to say about this track, really. It’s just pure enjoyment.
Elvis Costello and the Roots – Walk Us Up Town
I am a big fan of The Roots, particularly after reading band-leader ?uestlove’s autobiography Mo’ Meta Blues. ?uestlove is, from my perspective, the ultimate musician. He finds what is beautiful about every genre, places it expertly in its historical context, and finds ways to blend different sounds. It was a thrill, therefore, to see him team up with perennial rock legend Elvis Costello for the album Wise Up Ghost. If I’m being honest, I wanted to like this album much more than I actually enjoyed it, but it’s worth a listen for sure.
Above and beyond being a consumer of music, I’m also a creator of music. I released this song a few months ago, called The Ballad of Cpt. Morgan:
If you want to hear more from me, the easiest way is to click over to my ‘Music’ page, where I curate all of the stuff that is available online. Alternatively, you can check out my Facebook page, which has an audio player and photos and a whole bunch more cool stuff.
4 Bringing race into it
It is one of those sad and yet iron-clad laws of the internet that if you talk about race long enough, someone will accuse you of being a “race baiter” or “race hustler”. And because the people who say this aren’t terribly creative, you will also soon thereafter be accused of worshipping/fellating Al Sharpton, as though he is the only black person on the planet who discusses race. Perhaps more likely is that he’s the only black person on the planet they can name who isn’t an athlete or artist of some kind. So it goes.
When I have had this lazy accusation thrown my way, I have adopted the practice of asking my interlocutor to actually define what a “race baiter” is, as though I hadn’t heard the phrase before. Most of the time, unused as they are to having to actually think about the things they’re saying, the person will bluster their way through a series of insults and unimaginative aspersions before either quitting, or giving some form of the following definition:
Race-baiter (n.) – a person who inserts racial content into a discussion where race is not relevant for the purposes of winning the argument based on sympathy rather than the merits of their position.
I have, of course, translated the various responses I’ve received over the years into intelligible English for your sake. … Continue Reading
1 “Violadness” on Youtube
I put my cover of ‘Madness’ by Muse up on Youtube.
0 Violadness (a Muse cover)
Muse’s Absolution shares the coveted title of “albums I bought after hearing the single for the first time” with Radiohead’s Ok Computer. It wasn’t the big single “Time Is Running Out” that did it for me, incidentally, but the somewhat less-popular “Hysteria” that pushed me to the record store. From the first beat, “Hysteria” appealed not only to the part of me that loves hard rock, but the part of me that can’t get enough of cerebral and complex soundscapes. The rest of the album (those of you who have listened to it know what I’m talking about) is almost theatrical in its presentation – blistering rock woven into a tapestry of operatic composition. It’s a masterpiece.
Since then I haven’t missed a Muse album release date. While they achieved galactic superstardom on the back of the Black Holes and Revelations album, I was far more partial to their next album The Resistance which stands out to me as their best work. Their most recent album, however, gave us the song that is probably their single best individual contribution: “Madness”.
My dad was a big fan of legendary Brit-rock band Queen, so we heard a lot of Freddie Mercury in my childhood home. The thing that makes me love Queen and Muse is the fact that they do not shy away from classical European music (largely of the Romantic-era vintage, another personal favourite), with all its bombastic overtures and haunting ballads. It’s all there. Beethoven would feel very much at home playing backing keys for both bands. “Madness” is what happens when Muse tries to recreate Queen’s magic touch, and it hits all of my musical pleasure centres.
Because the song is so closely tied to its classical roots, I thought it would be an interesting experiment to try and re-create the song on my favourite classical instrument: the viola.
All parts, including percussion and ‘cello’ were produced using my viola with an occasional assist from my Line6 POD HD500. Most of the ‘effects’ on the string parts were added in production/mixing. This song sets a personal record for “largest number of tracks”, weighing in at a total of 18 separate parts. It was a monster to put together, but definitely a fun experience. Recording it forced me to come face-to-face with my own limitations as both a sound engineer (obviously) but as a player as well. I also got to stare the sonic limitations of my viola in the eye in a way that I don’t normally have to when it sits under my chin.
All in all, it was a fun project and I’m looking forward to doing more. If you like it, please share it!
0 Sweetest Thing (U2 cover)
A year and a half ago I wandered into Tom Lee Music Store and found myself in the midst of a year-end sale. Because it was marked way down, and because I had wanted one for a long time, I picked up an Ovation round-backed guitar from the Celebrity line. While I loved the guitar to pieces (especially in relation to the one it was replacing), it wasn’t too long until I felt like I had outgrown its sound and was looking for something a bit warmer and brighter. It was along those lines that I found Emily, my new guitar, who is a Seagull Entourage manufactured by Godin.
In this video, I take her out for a test spin on one of my favourite covers to do at karaoke:
I’m looking forward to recording a lot of great stuff with Emily. Incidentally, my recording of Niall Connoly’s “Skin and Bones” was the first song I recorded with Emily, and you can really hear the difference in the guitar tone between that one and my older recordings with Sarah (my Ovation).
0 Grown Up (Stephanie Ratcliff)
A local singer-songwriter with whom I am acquainted posted a new song she had written on Facebook. It’s broadly representative of why I love her music – elegant, deceptively straightforward, and full of potential avenues for reinterpretation and addition. I’ve been looking for opportunities to collaborate with Stephanie for a while, and when I first heard her song ‘Grown Up’ my mind was immediately flooded with ideas of how I could augment it.
The result of our collaboration is now available on Youtube:
Guitars and vocals are Stephanie, strings are me. I was going for the suggestion of strings rather than making the strings the driving force. As a result, I was able to add layer upon layer upon layer, in an attempt to re-create the effect of an entire string orchestra from a single instrument. There is a cello part (I used an effects pedal to drop my viola by an octave into the cello’s range), 6 syncopated ‘brush’ string parts, 2 upper-range ‘descant’ parts, and a solo/countermelody of three voices, as well as 2 ‘pizzicato’ parts. I recommend listening with headphones if you want to try and pick them all out (especially the cello, which sits underneath the bass guitar part).
I used a similar arrangement in my song ‘Saturday’, but made a conscious effort to make the strings more subdued to allow Stephanie’s haunting vocals to shine through. Stephanie too is a multi-instrumentalist, and I look forward to finding an opportunity to return the favour and have her contribute something to one of my songs.
0 Skin And Bones – the countryfied version
I first heard Niall Connoly’s ‘Skin and Bones’ over the PA after a gig and, flush as I was with musical juice, it immediately jumped into my head and refused to leave. I don’t know what it is about some songs that make them indelible, but I quickly became obsessed with it. The simplicity of the song belies the depth of the sentiment, but simultaneously allows for any number of different interpretations.
I’m not really a county fan, but this song was crying out to me for a pumpin’ back beat and some multi-vocal harmonies. It also needs some banjo, but as yet I do not know how to play that, so you’ll have to make do.
If you like this tune, please consider sharing it as widely as you can. The only reason I record this is for others to hear them, so the more ears the better!
0 Copper Tank – EHO
Playing with my band, Even Handed Odds, at the Copper Tank on Broadway and Balaclava. It’s our triumphant return after a long hiatus, so you won’t want to miss it!
0 Sunset Grill
Playing my regular acoustic set at the Sunset Grill (2204 York st.). Great drink selection, delicious food (try the mac & cheese balls).
Crommunist 