new pair of goggles: November 2006

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

F Posterity, issue 28: "We Leave Just Like We Come"

It's a rare day that I get to snap until my fingers go numb. This is an old song that I never really wrote, just sort of tooled around with, not intending a song as I learned clawhammer banjo. Dave Van Ronk did the same thing with his song "Bamboo", which was just a guitar fingering exercise he turned into a song. Peter, Paul and Mary covered it and payed his bills for a good while. So I've got huge hopes for this by the transitive property.

I've had gospel harmonies in my head for a good while now, and I think they're going to start finding their way out. The old-timey four-part sound. I want to write some modern hymns in this style, not hymns qua hymns, but songs stealing their aesthetic from a hymnbook.

But here's a new banjo track. Two verses written today, two written in 2002.

We Leave Just Like We Come

Time's rolling forward, rolling like a plum
The days roll toward us and they leave just like they come
They leave just like they come

The sun rises eastward and sets up in the west
It climbs the sky all morning and it leaves just like the rest
Yes it leaves just like the rest
And we all say the same things in quarter notes and half-tones and thirds
We all sing the same things in different tongues and different tunes
With different tons of words

The grass bends backwards and the oak trees undress
The smoke rises upwards and we burn to be possessed
Yes we burn to be possessed

Mind marches onward, marches to the drum
We just take it higher and leave just like we come
We leave just like we come
And we all say the same things in quarter notes and half-tones and thirds
We all sing the same things in different tongues and different tunes
With different tons of words

We leave just like we leave just like we came
We leave just like we leave just like we came
We leave just like we came
We leave just like we came
We leave just like we leave just like we came

Download mp3s below by right-clicking on the links.

F Posterity, 2006
52. F Posterity (Getzschman) - May 16, 2007
51. Crazy (Burton/Callaway/Reverberi/Reverberi) - May 9, 2007
50. Persistence of Regret (Getzschman/Ryan/Sahm) - May 2, 2007
49. Breakin' Plates (Getzschman/Ruthsatz) - April 26, 2007
48. Trio for Vocal, Metronome, Wurlitzer (Getzschman) - April 18, 2007
47. She Hates It When I'm Right (Getzschman) - April 11, 2007
46. Beat It (Jackson) - April 4, 2007
45. Mass Ave Strut (Getzschman) - March 28, 2007
44. Let's Fall Asleep Like This (Getzschman) - March 21, 2007
43. 2010 Ain't What They Said It Would Be (Getzschman) - March 14, 2007
42. Three Red Stars (Getzschman) - March 7, 2007
41. Birdhouse In Your Soul (Flansburgh/Linnell) - February 28, 2007
40. Everybody Thinks They're Self-Aware (Getzschman) - February 21, 2007
39. Hysterical Woman (Getzschman) - February 14, 2007
38. Hollaback Savior (Getzschman) - February 7, 2007
37. White Collar (old Philly dollar) (Getzschman) - January 31, 2007
36. Bottle of Blues (B. Hansen) - January 24, 2007
35. Ask Somebody (Getzschman) - January 17, 2007
34. All Time High Score (Getzschman) - January 10, 2007
33. Bury Me In My Jetpack (Getzschman) - January 3, 2007
32. Eggnogg Is The Liquor Of This Household (Getzschman) - December 27, 2006
31. Like Spinning Plates (T.Yorke/J.Greenwood) - December 20, 2006
30. Jack or Jesus (Getzschman/Peterson) - December 13, 2006
29. Runes (Getzschman) - December 6, 2006
28. We Leave Just Like We Come (Getzschman) - November 29, 2006
27. Shampoo! (Getzschman) - November 22, 2006
26. Tomorrow Is A Long Time (Dylan) - November 15, 2006
25. Was That Seriously Your Plan? (Getzschman) - November 8, 2006
24. Understated Explosions (Getzschman) - November 1, 2006
23. Everything Sounds Better On Vinyl (Getzschman) - October 25, 2006
22. Take Heart (Getzschman) - October 18, 2006
21. Pigs (L. Freese, S. Reyes, L. Muggerud) - October 11, 2006
20. Upstart Casualties (Getzschman) - October 4, 2006
19. Troubling (Getzschman) - Sept 27, 2006
18. Tales of Woe (Getzschman/Getzschman/Booth) - Sept 20, 2006
17. Manual Labor Pains (Getzschman) - Sept 13, 2006
16. The District Sleeps Alone Tonight (Gibbard/Tamborello) - September 6, 2006
15. Postmodern Burlesque Review (Getzschman) - August 30, 2006
14. Neverending Love Affair (Getzschman) - August 23, 2006
13. Living On Credit (Getzschman) - August 16, 2006
12. Broke As A Muhfuh (Getzschman) - August 9, 20006
11. Josie (Becker/Fagan) - August 2, 2006
10. Cold Day at the Races (Getzschman) - July 26, 2006
9. Calaveras (Getzschman) - July 19, 2006
8. Narcissist Blues (Getzschman) - July 12, 2006
7. Advice to a Young Jedi (Getzschman) - July 5, 2006
6. God Only Knows (Wilson/Asher) - June 28, 2006
5. Miracle Hubcap (Getzschman) - June 21, 2006
4. A Paycheck Is All I Ask (Getzschman) - June 14, 2006
3. Halfway (Getzschman) - June 7, 2006
2. Summer Crazy (Getzschman) - May 31, 2006
1. Sunday Street (Van Ronk) - May 26, 2006

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

F Posterity, issue 27: "Shampoo!"

Today's song is a sentimental old fluff I wrote back in the wayback. After studying me some Django Rhinehard, I played around with his triad style of chording (he only played with two fingers and a thumb due to a burn that constricted his last two fingers) and came up with this song as an instrumental. When my brother Jon and I finally got around to making music together in 2003, he asked me to throw out a song to collaborate on while I was in St. Louis. But since 2000, when I had written it, the only lyric I had was "Shampoo!"

I kind of love songs in the imperative. You can read this song as a mandate. Or an accountability moment, if you're into politics.

So Jon and I got to recording it, and I realized it really did need some lyrics. You can't just order someone to shampoo without an explanation. So three years after writing the music, I wrote up the song, and a few years after that, we got to playing it out with the band. It really does need a horn section, drums and upright bass to be complete, but we'll get to that when the money is thrown at me violently.

Also, this marks the first week of the last six months of the F Posterity project. Halfway done.

Shampoo!

Hopscotch down to the animule ball
And don't sweat the check at all
The chaps wear caps and the girls wear curls
And everybody's ten foot tall
The lights is low and the band plays slow
And darling I love you, just so you know
We is refined and we dignified
And we never, but never pass up a chance to
Shampoo!

It's pink champagne off a black umbrella
A chic speakeasy down in the cellar
We need know your intentions so
When the time is right we can all coincide to
Shampoo!

So you grab your coat and I'll sign the waiver
All we're gonna wear is a pair of life savers
I rather it lathered, and not too soon
And if it makes sense to you, we can all commence to
Shampoo!

Sunday, November 19, 2006

DC Saturday night!! November 25th

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

F Posterity, issue 26: Dylan's "Tomorrow Is A Long Time"

This week's F Posterity is a cover song, but it hearkens back to the time when covers weren't covers, they were songs. In the golden age of commercial recording, everybody sang everybody else's music, and it wasn't "covering" another artist, it was singing a song. And the king of not being covered was Bob Dylan.

Dave Van Ronk was the first to cover a Dylan song, a little-known piece called "He Was A Friend of Mine". It's probably safe to say that since then, there have been hundreds of thousands of Bob Dylan covers recorded. Everything from lounge to bossa to instrumental to r&b covers. Particularly in the sixties, everybody (everybody) recorded "Blowing In the Wind". And Hendrix made most famous Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower," to which Dylan said of Hendrix, "They're more his songs than they are mine." (Or something like that.) I think it's been covered to death at this point. Vis à vis.

This song was recorded a lot in the sixties. It never appeared on a Dylan album, besides a live cut of it on his Greatest Hits. I think Ian and Sylvia were best known for it, but a search on iTunes will show you "covers" by the usual suspects in Joan Baez, The Kingston Trio, Judy Collins, and less expected peoples like Rod Stewart and Elvis.

It's a great song, the kind of love song that doesn't get written nowadays. I'm most partial to the bootleg of Dylan's publisher's demo, because he's this kid singing a love song he wrote. And it'll play around the world as soon as the publishers get selling it, but at that moment, it's just some thing he wrote, probably for Suze Rotolo. He's just written so many damn songs, so many unexpected wonders. And I love this one.

Download mp3s below by right-clicking on the links.

F Posterity, 2006
52. F Posterity (Getzschman) - May 16, 2007
51. Crazy (Burton/Callaway/Reverberi/Reverberi) - May 9, 2007
50. Persistence of Regret (Getzschman/Ryan/Sahm) - May 2, 2007
49. Breakin' Plates (Getzschman/Ruthsatz) - April 26, 2007
48. Trio for Vocal, Metronome, Wurlitzer (Getzschman) - April 18, 2007
47. She Hates It When I'm Right (Getzschman) - April 11, 2007
46. Beat It (Jackson) - April 4, 2007
45. Mass Ave Strut (Getzschman) - March 28, 2007
44. Let's Fall Asleep Like This (Getzschman) - March 21, 2007
43. 2010 Ain't What They Said It Would Be (Getzschman) - March 14, 2007
42. Three Red Stars (Getzschman) - March 7, 2007
41. Birdhouse In Your Soul (Flansburgh/Linnell) - February 28, 2007
40. Everybody Thinks They're Self-Aware (Getzschman) - February 21, 2007
39. Hysterical Woman (Getzschman) - February 14, 2007
38. Hollaback Savior (Getzschman) - February 7, 2007
37. White Collar (old Philly dollar) (Getzschman) - January 31, 2007
36. Bottle of Blues (B. Hansen) - January 24, 2007
35. Ask Somebody (Getzschman) - January 17, 2007
34. All Time High Score (Getzschman) - January 10, 2007
33. Bury Me In My Jetpack (Getzschman) - January 3, 2007
32. Eggnogg Is The Liquor Of This Household (Getzschman) - December 27, 2006
31. Like Spinning Plates (T.Yorke/J.Greenwood) - December 20, 2006
30. Jack or Jesus (Getzschman/Peterson) - December 13, 2006
29. Runes (Getzschman) - December 6, 2006
28. We Leave Just Like We Come (Getzschman) - November 29, 2006
27. Shampoo! (Getzschman) - November 22, 2006
26. Tomorrow Is A Long Time (Dylan) - November 15, 2006
25. Was That Seriously Your Plan? (Getzschman) - November 8, 2006
24. Understated Explosions (Getzschman) - November 1, 2006
23. Everything Sounds Better On Vinyl (Getzschman) - October 25, 2006
22. Take Heart (Getzschman) - October 18, 2006
21. Pigs (L. Freese, S. Reyes, L. Muggerud) - October 11, 2006
20. Upstart Casualties (Getzschman) - October 4, 2006
19. Troubling (Getzschman) - Sept 27, 2006
18. Tales of Woe (Getzschman/Getzschman/Booth) - Sept 20, 2006
17. Manual Labor Pains (Getzschman) - Sept 13, 2006
16. The District Sleeps Alone Tonight (Gibbard/Tamborello) - September 6, 2006
15. Postmodern Burlesque Review (Getzschman) - August 30, 2006
14. Neverending Love Affair (Getzschman) - August 23, 2006
13. Living On Credit (Getzschman) - August 16, 2006
12. Broke As A Muhfuh (Getzschman) - August 9, 20006
11. Josie (Becker/Fagan) - August 2, 2006
10. Cold Day at the Races (Getzschman) - July 26, 2006
9. Calaveras (Getzschman) - July 19, 2006
8. Narcissist Blues (Getzschman) - July 12, 2006
7. Advice to a Young Jedi (Getzschman) - July 5, 2006
6. God Only Knows (Wilson/Asher) - June 28, 2006
5. Miracle Hubcap (Getzschman) - June 21, 2006
4. A Paycheck Is All I Ask (Getzschman) - June 14, 2006
3. Halfway (Getzschman) - June 7, 2006
2. Summer Crazy (Getzschman) - May 31, 2006
1. Sunday Street (Van Ronk) - May 26, 2006

Wednesday, November 8, 2006

F Posterity, issue 25: "Was That Seriously Your Plan?"

Here's another brand new song, written today and yesterday. I'm kind of digging the process of putting it out on the edge with new stuff that I haven't let settle to my own satisfaction. If nothing less, I'll have a bunch of songs that need revising.

I was talking with Marcio about music making last month after Sam Roberts played the 9:30 Club, and he pointed out that eventually, you get to the point of writing songs and "covering" yourself when it's time to record an album. In other words, you get to treating your own material like it's a cover song, and then adjusting it to the vibe and style you're going for on any particular project. With that perspective, it's easy to see the stuff I put up here is fairly irrelevant, because none of it would sound much like the finished product. These are essentially still pen on paper, not oil on canvas.

Here's a different kind of tune. I'm really trying to write in a different voice, a different approach to making music out of nothing. With making music, it's easy to switch gears by playing with other musicians or saturating your ears with new music. It's harder to do with writing, because writing tends to be by habit or method, and when one gets into a groove, it takes faith to kick it somewhere else and try something new in form or fashion.

This song's for the dreamers who, like I do, chronically head off with no sort of plan beyond a vague idea of what they want.

Was That Seriously Your Plan?

Was that seriously your plan?
Was that seriously your plan?
Seriously? Seriously?
Was that seriously your plan?
Just to go, just to go and do your thing
And wait for all the monoliths to fall
There's nothing out there that would even make you think
But I guess delusion's one means to achieve

Did you honestly believe?
Did you honestly believe?
Honestly? Honestly?
Did you honestly believe?
It's kinda sad, kinda sweet, your blind naivete
It's either transcendental or it's dumb
No one will find themselves surprised when you succumb
As you'll not be surprised when you succeed

And you really think?
And you really, really think?
Really? Really?
And you really, really think?

Tuesday, November 7, 2006

Video PSA from the Frozen Foods. Go Vote.

Video redundancy for my blog readers:

Party peoples of the democratic republic of America,

Get out and "vote" today.

Get out and score some "ballot ass", as they say in West Virginia. Go get you a piece of hot hanging chad, or talk smut to a Diebold voting machine before it switches your vote to Republican. Seriously, go bag some electoral tail. I don't care who you vote for, just get out and "know" this election in the Biblical sense. And make your voice heard with a "climactic" change of leadership.

See, I live in the District of Columbia, and we don't have "representation" in Congress. I don't have a Congressman; I don't have a Senator. So we 600,000 citizens of the nation's capital don't get the same hot Congressional action that you all do. Oh, we get taxed, to be sure. And we see all your tawdry ads, and we get hot thinking about the macaca gaffe and whatnot, but we can't go to the voting booth to land the same sweet punchcard poon in the way you can.

I can't demand of my Senator why we've spent $500 billion in Iraq to build democracy when the citizens of our nation's capital don't have democracy. And in a similar way I can't urge my Congressman not to have sex with teenage boys.

Oh, I'm going to vote today, and I'll get that little sticker that lets everyone know that I had my way with the American electoral process. But as a resident of DC, not a vote I cast today can change the balance of Congressional support for the administration that says "no doi" to waterboarding. For the leadership that says, cut taxes for top 5%, and triple the national debt. Or for the White House that says, "I never said that".

Never in our lives has a change in leadership been such a mandate. Voting is imperative today. So go get you some civic booty.

Monday, November 6, 2006

Tucker Booth featured on Sunday night ABC? (update)

Last night I experienced a surreal mass media double take as my roommate watched a show that nobody's watching, "Brothers and Sisters" on ABC. It's Nielsens are comparable to SNL's all-time worst ratings, in the 4's, and because I watch television based strictly on ratings, I'd never seen it before.

But last night, my roommate calls me in and says, "They just said 'Tucker Booth' on this show." Obviously the writers had struck on some hot-button formula to hike the ratings, and it involved the ever-incendiary name, Tucker Booth. For those that don't know, Tucker Booth is quite the non-fiction artist who calls the Frozen Food Section and St. Louis home. He has, however, spent some legendary times living on the beaches on of LA.

So I come in to watch, and the characters start spouting off "Tucker Booth" like it was "Paris Hilton", and in the most fitting ways ...."She lost her virginity to a guy named Tucker Booth!" and "I got high for the first time with a guy named Tucker Booth" and "What should we do now? Google Tucker Booth!"

My roommate and I are looking at each other in disbelief. It was as if the legendary underground had poked it's head up into mass media and looked around for a bit. It's not too much of a stretch for me to think that some writer in LA actually has heard about Tucker Booth and decided to throw it in just for kicks. The name is comic, and people frequently ask him if it's a stage name, which it isn't. And The Frozen Food Section does have the peeps in LA who perpetuate the myths. (We pay them to.) But to see it pop up on a middling Sunday-evening snoozer about red state-blue state family tensions was surreal.

In the final scene, the whole family of 10 or more is sitting around the table in awkward conversation, and someone says "Tucker Booth?" and everyone busts out laughing, like it's a in-joke between the whole family. Which, I guess, is what they call art mirroring life.

If the show was more of a hit, I'm sure you could find some clips on YouTube. But on the odd chance that somebody TiVoed it by accident, upload that gold! The Frozen Food Section needs a copyright cause to fight!

UDPATE:

Here's a link to a transcript with video. Somehow I missed the gay sex implications while watching it live.

And it's popped up in a number of blogs this morning too. Search Google Blogs.

Thursday, November 2, 2006

New Cedrick Boltze at the FFS re: John Mayer

New Cedrick Boltze article posted on The Frozen Food Section about John Mayer and hip-hop. Strange bedfellows indeed.

John Mayer is hilarious. His "John Mayer Has A TV Show" is on YouTube, and it's good comedy. He knows how to spank the system that feeds him.

I actually met John Mayer in Manhattan, after a New York Times interview show on Broadway in early 2005. Even dropped copies of Tucker Booth 4 President and Noodle-Arm Whimsy on him. Didn't hear back from him... I'm not surprised, though. I'm a pretty busy guy. Hard to get ahold of. I hope he wasn't offended.

Wednesday, November 1, 2006

F Posterity, issue 24: "Understated Explosions"

I'm getting to the point of writing deadline-driven songs instead of idea-driven songs. This week's "Understated Explosions" is a good example. I started with a bass and harmonica, but I can't play the bass well enough to sing at the same time. And that, really, was my idea for the song. The song structure was patched together hastily like a late mother's day card, and the lyrics are just sort of hurled out there without any sort of hope.

How, for example, are we supposed to induce hallucinations "au naturale, en plein aire"? Why should we choose to "fingerpaint machine guns on the wall"? The text doesn't elaborate for us. Clearly, at some point in our lives, all of us have a "flaming hotel window to jump through", but what are to make of the instruction to "fantasize inflammatory comments to condemn"?

This is, I guess, the closest I come to freestyling verses. I'm not investing time to write and refine outside of the time I'm recording them, and herein lies the conflict. On one hand, I'm getting closer to the real-time stream of consciousness, but on the other hand, I'm not editing. And some of this stuff is kinda wack.

But that's why it's an experiment. I'm naked for you. Metaphorically speaking. Naked. I'm naked for you, baby! Seriously, I'm going to start writing outside of Wednesdays, when I record these to post to MySpace. 'Cause I can't handle Wednesdays anymore.

Understated Explosions

Take the time you need to
To let your mind bleed through
The documents that represent your life

And on the final read-through
Let the spirit feed you
The understated explosions of your soul
Fingerpaint machine guns on your wall (choose it)
Bring restraint to the most inappropriate moments (and lose it)

And when the hour comes to
A flaming hotel window to jump through
You'll not blink. You'll not question yourself.
Fantasize inflammatory comments to condemn (use it)
Hallucinate au naturale, en plein aire (induce it)

And when the headless bureaucrats come running round
And western civilisation comes crumbling down
You will prop it up with the iron biceps of your will.