RPM Revvin' up

Well, tomorrow starts the RPM Challenge 2008. For those of you who do not know what the challenge is all about, it is a call for artists to record an album of at least 10 songs or 35 minutes in the month of February. It's not a contest (as if it were, no one would seriously limit their work to one month,) instead it is more of a way to get songwriters/bands off of their duffs. My buddy, Patrick, turned me on to this whole thing. He's stuck in the umpteenth year of recording a triple album, and this is his way to clear that log-jam. For me, it comes down to learning how to write/record at home with the baby. There's no way that I will have a huge amount of time to do this, but I'll make my best go of it. The thing that most intrigues me about this challenge is that people from all over the world are doing it for so many good reasons. Aside from the aforementioned "get off your duff " stuff, people have some pretty compelling reasons to put music first for one month of the year. I'll keep you posted...

In other news, yesterday was Melissa's birthday, and we headed out to see Juno up in Ballard. The actress that played Juno looked familiar, and it did not hit me why until I filled up my mug at work. The mug has all sorts of comic book pictures on it, including Kitty Pryde from the X-Men, which solved the mystery, as she played Kitty in the X3 movie. Anyway, back to the movie - we both laughed when the guy next to us made some weird growly sort of noise. He also kept belching loudly the whole time. Gotta love going to the movies! Anywho, we both really enjoyed it. Afterward, we headed to a little place called Hazlewood on Market street. As advertised, it was impossible to find, but once we found it, it was pretty cozy.

Nilsson Mania!

As of late, I have been rekindling my obsession with Harry Nilsson. The little blurb about Curtains in The Stranger got me back on the Nilsson track. The other day, I was saying to Melissa that, without a doubt, Nilsson is the artist who most influences the songwriting of the band. Matt and I are card-carrying disciples of Harry. In assembling all of our latest material for this next album, one thing keeps coming back in, and that is Nilsson. In going through my own material as of late, I have noticed that most of the piano work is directly inspired by those early albums of his. Matt has been making huge strides in learning the piano, and his piano driven work is very Nilsson as well. Just what is it about his body of work that is inspiring us so much? Let's dissect...

When Lennon said that Harry was the Beatles' favorite singer/songwriter, or (I'm bastardizing the quote) the Beatle across the water, he was dead on in his analysis. Nilsson was a one man Beatles in so many ways. The huge difference in their styles was that Nilsson embraced more of pop music's past than the Beatles. He added a certain panache and grace to '60s pop by maintaining the sound of tin pan alley and vaudeville. Even up to the last albums of his career (Knillssonn anyone?), he kept refining the sound of pop while still viewing it through the lens of popular music from the early half of the 20th century. While not our intention initially, Curtains For You has become something of an extension of Harry's skewed view of pop music. When people ask me what kind of music we play, the response is always "...umm, something like The Beatles, but different." The more I think about it, it should be " Something like The Beatles, along the lines of what Nilsson did."

Out of all of this, I am reminded of the fact that his final album has never been released. He finished recording the vocals the day before he died, and we still don't have it. Also, we are missing huge segments of his music on CD. His catalog reminds me of the way that Badfinger's music has been treated. We need someone who is passionate about the music of said artists to step in and arrange for proper re-releases with bonus tracks and liner notes for ALL of their albums. Sure, a couple of albums from each have been done this way, but there needs to be a proper re-release of these:

For those with a nose for the news...

I was grabbing my morning coffee at Easy Street Records, whence I came upon a copy of the new Stranger. As is my routine, I started by perusing the music section. Lo and behold, I stumbled upon page 46. Guess who is the Stranger's band of the week? Hmm? In a small box containing a photo (by one very talented photographer named Melissa, I might add,) the Stranger had this to say:

"Given that the whole '70s-pop/vaudevillian/Harry Nilsson thing is big right now (right?), it's a good time to get turned on to Curtains For You, a local pop band claiming to find inspiration in Harry Nilsson, Rufus Wainwright, and the Beach Boys. It's a pretty grown-up version of some of the stuff that's big with the kids right now (e.g., Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground), but it's got a catchy, wistful attitude with piano-bar playfulness and croons about being fucked up. They play the part of vintage poppers, that's for sure. I bet they even wear suits and ties to practice."

Simply marvy my friends, simply marvy!

Ah, Sunday...

It's been a while, so here are the haps:

I've been out sick with some kind of stomach-flu type deal, but have recovered significantly. This was one strange illness, replete with shivery-fevers and all. I basically lost a whole day and a half to sleep, which was not so bad. Since Wednesday, I've lost around 6 pounds, which is a direct result of not eating for two days. What fun! Anywho, all is better now, and I'm back to normal. Well, almost normal, as during the fever, I bit my tongue quite hard in two places. Talking/eating hurts, but I can still drink coffee... huzzah!

Melissa returned to work on Friday, so it was go time with the baby. I'm proud to say that we all survived, and I even managed to get some housework done during it all. Annabel was decent enough to let me talk with my buddy Darren for nearly an hour. It was great catching up with my favorite Atlanta resident. It's hard to believe that he was last out here two years ago around this time. Man, how life has changed. It is harder still to think that his son, Khirgan, is going to be 6 years old soon. Damn, time flies.

Speaking of time, if anyone has some extra, can you send it over here? Melissa and I have a metric tonne of books to read after the holidays. I've started a few, but there are so many in stacks around the house. First off, I need to finish "Essential X-Men : Volume 8". That's the utmost priority. After that, anything goes.


Doo-be-doo, back to life...