soupablog

Nooma Nooma Dance, Revisited

Cleave at one of my favorite blogs -- PoMoMuSiNgs -- let us know that the Times has chronicled the backstory behind the Numa Numa Dance (Gary Brolsma) / Dragostea Din Tei homemade video.

Read about it here.

Revel in the video (SWF) one more time here.

*

Over the Rhine release

Drunkard's Prayer, the new full-length cd from Over the Rhine is due to be released on Virgin/Back Porch Records on Tuesday, March 29, 2005.

unusual. and good.

unusual. and good.

that was the theme of last night.

i was enjoying a rare night out, courtesy of the best wife in the world. i started the evening with a really good ice cream (bluebell vanilla bean) and some of david galbreath's homemade chocolate sauce from orderup. nothing unusual there. then i drove over to swain's studio and helped art-direct a champagne-pour photo shoot for a grocery chain's Christmas adverts. then it was off the Broadway 50-50, a historic pub in downtown alamo heights reopened by arthur, my friend from the cypress street grill, the former establishment being a bar/restaurant/club that i hadn't been to in years.

my friend chris taylor was playing a set there with his band the notorious sinners. i had some music equipment to return to him, and i thought i'd stick around and catch his gig. it was chris' birthday as well, so it made sense. The 50-50 is a great bar. I had a Guinness draft (in honor of virusdoc's dog), settled in, and within a half hour tons of the old gang showed up. greg, justin, michele, ruben v., as well as marjorie mcinnis, who i hadn't seen since she moved across the pond. others showed up as well, it was truly a fun get-together.

so marjorie is back in the states and apparently connected with alpha, which is cool; sounds like she's also friends with sally morgenthaler which is also cool. always good to know about other emergent types here in san antonio.

so boston plows over the cardinals. unexpected. unusual. and good.

so we saw the lunar eclipse last night. expected. unusual. and good.

so sharon decides to let arafat have safe passage to a hospital. unusual and good.

i'm supposed to write a concert review of the gig for chris' website, but i'm too tired. maybe tomorrow.

my brother, mark is in town from seattle. along with my niece, whom i'm going to try and get to know better this weekend.

great lunch with cliff today. growth on both our parts. that sounds self-congratulatory probably to some. but it's just neat to see growth, that's all.

GO VOTE.

norah and caedmon's call

this was a good week for opening acts.

most of you know i'm a huge lover of live music. much time, money, effort and automotive wear-and-tear was spent during my 20s chasing down favorite bands when they'd swing through various parts of texas. genre didn't matter: rock, folk, classical, celtic, pop, alt country, gospel, jazz, ska, rockabilly, bluegrass, punk, roots/americana, opera, big-band, acoustic/unplugged, etc.... some of my best memories are of a small cadre crammed into my car, driving up IH-35 to Austin's live music district -- usually to La Zona Rosa, The Mercury, Armadillo World HQ, or the defunct Liberty Lunch...

so here's a good live music story. i'll try and retell it faithfully and not embellish, because the truth of the story is interesting in and of itself. six months or so ago my good friend ted (he's been mentioned several times in the blog) expressed a desire to get our spouses together and see norah jones who was coming to austin and san antonio around october.

i decided to call a favor into my concert promoter friend greg (i frequently help him design his website and promotion materials, usually in exchange for an occasional warm lunch and all the free CCM tickets my wife wants; it's been years since we've paid to go to a CCM show; anyway). he assured me his ticket connections could come through and get us decent seats (possibly better than we'd be able to get waiting in line, since the ticket promoters skim the good seats).

every month or so i'd call greg and he'd say, "don't worry, my connection says to wait a couple more weeks and then I'll know something." I'd wait a few weeks, call again, and he'd say, "don't worry, my connection says to wait a couple more weeks and then I'll know something." this goes on the whole summer ("wait until after summer and then I'll know more").

Finally last week, a few days before the show, my friendship with ted and heather in the balance, i call one last time, and i get this instruction:

"paul: go the the Exxon at IH-10 and Callaghan Road...."

"okay..."

"get there at 1pm sharp."

"alllll riiiight..."(i'm not making this up)

"a black excursion will drive up and a guy will hop out and hand you the tickets."

"greg, are you serious?!"

so, bottom line, jordan and i follow greg's instrux, we get the tickets (i thought they were going to be 15th row, turns out we landed 10th row Orchestra pit seats [!] which allowed us to rush the stage and catch the last few songs plus the encore about 8 feet from Ms. Jones.) so obviously we enjoy the show. But, whew.... waiting for tix is tough.

No, it's not.

Going without a meal is tough. Cancer is tough. Separating from a husband or wife is tough.

One more: Last week i saw caedmon's call on the third (fourth?) date of their 'share the well' tour, a musical outing the opening act called 'missional.' both the band and the opener were great, but what was better was the missional thrust of the tour. Freedom for the east Indian Dalit caste (subcaste?) was the topic of the evening, the theme of caedmon's album, and the musical and lyrical inspiration for their new songs; they brought along two indian musicians (emmanuel, who i met before the show played the tablas and was amazing). Andrew Osenga of the Normals is now Derek's replacement.

wow.great show.

one might not even notice derek webb was gone. but then i love derek webb too.

norah's opening act was Amos Lee. Watch out for Amos Lee. He's going places.

caedmon's upening act was Jeremy Casella. Watch out for Jeremy Casella. He's going places.

li da di

Laying low,
seeking out the poorer quarters
where the ragged people go
Looking for the places
only they would know

New Innocence Mission CD!!!

Over the past 15 years or so, I've driven many, many miles across Texas, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, etc. with the Innocence Mission as a constant soundtrack to punctuate the mile markers. Amy always knows that if we're going on a road trip, she'll be hearing Karen and Don Peris' wonderful music in the changer.

They have a new CD out now. Whether you're an astute musicologist or a casual stereo junkie, you will (this is the closest I can give to a guarantee) like their music. Subtle, disarming, and, well, innocent.

http://www.theinnocencemission.com/

Tomlin CD

(Nashville, TN) August 3, 2004 - One of the premier songwriters today, Chris Tomlin, known for such worldwide-sung anthems as “Forever,” “Be Glorified,” “We Fall Down,” “Famous One” and more, releases his highly-anticipated sixsteps/Sparrow Records recording, Arriving, Sept. 21.

we're playing it by ear

we inherited an upright piano tonight.
i've been playing piano for half my life, but have never owned one before. i'm excited.
the previous owner, one generous Jim Lucas, said "it's a banger" -- and true, it needs some cosmetic work and tuning ... the A below middle C hammers both A and A-flat. And the low D is tinny. But it brings me joy to have it in our little home.
the previous tuner left little pencil notes on the interior -- it seems the last time it was tuned was in 1986. It has a split bass bridge, whatever that means. I'm gonna go do some research now. It's a Baldwin Hamilton.

Sympathique

i'm still up at the studio. yikes.

thanks to virusdoc, i'm enjoying Sympathique, by Pink Martini, a talented group from Portland, OR. You can listen to them online as well. Simply cliquevous here. Why aren't they on iTunes?

Speaking of iTunes, I'll be using iTunes to make my dad a mix CD for father's day. He doesn't have a computer, and i'm trusting that you won't tell him.

it's past midnight, and I have work in them morning.

time to drive home.

np

n.p.: Lorelei, the pogues, essential pogues.

emergent women, nick drake

their site is up -

nick drake, BBC. not sure how long this link will be active, so listen now

The Swoon

I spent hours last night on the net, trying to track down a copy of The Swoon — either ben son ben son beatrice or the self-titled CD which contains that release and more tracks, which I believe were recorded with Derri and Steve at Neverland. No luck on purchasing the disc, nor running across email access to any of the old band members, but I did find a friend who has a copy, willing to let me hear it again. If you have a copy for sale and you read this, please contact me.

Thirteen Stories - Robert Deeble

review

Thirteen Stories
Robert Deeble

He was the boy with the California sun
That walked to the pier
By the point of a gun
And the sea took him in
And swallowed him whole
As the sky rolled back like a scroll

Sparse drums skitter in — often brushes or bamboo sticks — then you notice the well-placed microphone allowing Robert Deeble to sing right there — up close to your ear. That's where he wants to be. There's something he wants you to hear. No shocking music here; he'd rather disarm you with tone and sublime texture washes and then get you with the lyrics. This is music that serves storyline.

Storyteller Deeble is back with an essential disc.
Back with a beautiful recording. Beautiful lyrics. Beautiful "recordvelope" packaging.

Drums and acoustic guitar and strings and Wulitzer organ and bass twirl together nicely herein alongside a great cartoon bicycle by one Joel Heflin. Music quirky and as uncoated as the liner notes.

Standout tracks are the Joe and the Space Program — a clever consolation/lamentation for an imagined NASA Mars rocket failure, Jack's Diary — featuring the world's most sexy uttering of the phrase "Coca-Cola", and Peter and the Lion — an innocent, short hymn:

Warm is your breath. mysterious.
all my faith and fear beneath your silent shroud.
you draw me near … like a child

Voice undisinguished between — joy and sorrow
the warmth of your love. you call my name in the strongholds of peace
break me to tears. before the kindest maker.

Deeble carves himself a niche as a literary lyricist — he manages to conjure references to Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Orson Welles, William Carlos Williams and Emily Dickinson in this CD. He reaches back to recent musical literature as well, covering Lou Reed's Velvety vocal vocal stylings on I'll Be Your Mirror.

But (like the roadtrippish Travels with John a 1997 short story narrated by Deeble on the CD's bonus Quicktime movie) much of this CD ends up content with turning the West — the cardinal, sunset-on-the-road-ahead American West of Kerouac's scroll scrawl — over and over in his mind. Deeble recently relocated from California to the Pacific Northwest, and the move is reflected or predicted in the lyrics of Thirteen Stories.

Co-produced by Matt Wignall, Anthony Arvizu, and Burke Thomas.

-prs