Dusk Before the Dawn

From Kabul, Afghanistan, using random quiet time, personal recording equipment bought and scavanged from everywhere, and a strong love of music, my friend Vince and ten of his comrades in arms have recorded an album of simple, heartfelt music.

Fittingly released today, Memorial Day 2011, Tracks in the Dust: Songs from Afghanistan has ten tracks from eleven indie muscians representing five countries. And all the proceeds go to the Wounded Warrior project.

I’ve known Vince for three decades, from when he was a skinny kid that his brother and I used to slide into barely open car windows, to the veteran of tours in Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa and many other places that he has become. In a few months, he’ll come home to Texas. In the meantime, he is not only making music, but making a difference.

You can buy it as a CD or MP3 download:

• from CDBaby (CD or MP3)
• from Amazon (see the link to the right)

I first became aware of this music when Vince started posting videos on Facebook of he and a few fellows who would get together at night for impromptu jam sessions. After one such session, they starting talking about an album…could they put such a project together, out in the dust of Afghanistan, with little to no Internet access?

Of course they could. Putting a benefit album together is a helluva lot easier and safer than what they do everyday.

The first track, Dusty Tracks, features all of the artists, and has the sound of a great garage band, lots of energy, ready to hit the clubs.

The next track, Love That I Seek, reminds me of U2 (and the recording quality sounds like it is in a studio, not in a tent in Kabul!).

The two tracks following, Apologize and Help Me Out by Sean O’Brien, have a Jack Johnson sound to them, though I can’t place Sean’s accent.

Stephen Flanagan’s In Your Eyes is a gritty, heartfelt song, reminiscent of Waylon Jennings.

My favorite track (ok, besides my man Vince’s) is It’s Always Been You from Damon Betz, excellent recording and a Steely Dan ring to it. His next track, Things I Miss, bounces out with a Reggae beat.

Childhood Memories (Judy’s song) by Tim Bristow and friends, is a story of what’s missing, things forgotten, very fitting for the time and place.

I’ve heard Vince’s two tracks before. With crystal clear acoustic guitar, Never Alone and Leaving are ballads to and about his family, and the time he spends away from them serving his country. We are looking forward to having you all home in Texas, young man.

Have you bought the album yet?

A list of the artists and links to their biographies is below.

Growing up in San Antonio in the 1980s, my brother and I fell firmly into the Rock and Roll camp, versus those country and western afficiandos whose pickup trucks frequently ended up in ditches (or worse, at the kicker bars!).

But our tastes diverged. Bob, Tom, Dan and I were at every heavy metal concert, in line for Judas Priest, April Wine, AC/DC, UFO…pretty much any band that had two or more guitars and could be played loud. My brother was listening to RnR, but venturing more into the Pink Floyd sound…which I considered “the dark side”; it wasn’t country, but it wasn’t heavy metal.

Then he brought home an album with the back of a naked dude on the cover staring at a red star. I knew he’d lost it.

He then cranked up “Working Man” from All the World’s A Stage, and I was hooked. I even used some of the themes from their songs for my first fiction attempts in high school and college; the obsession had begun.

Thirty years later, the DVD release of Beyond the Lighted Stage not only goes through the band’s history and provides some excellent concert footage guaranteed to cause flashbacks, but it begs the question: why aren’t these guys in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Is it simply because they are Canadian? Their lyrics too complex? Their playing just too good? Waiting on their new album, Clockwork Angels, before you let them in?

The first DVD of the two DVD set walks through the history of the band, starting with Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson’s school boy friendship as the kids who got beaten up through their latest endeavors. The documentary walks through their first contract, what drove them to replace their first drummer, John Rutsey, with Neil Peart and how Peart’s lyrics started them into the longer “saga” songs; how they went out on a limb with the concept album 2112 (the album my brother started with) against their label’s wishes but to the raves of fans; and an excellent segment on Hemispheres, my favorite Rush album, how complex and virtuoso each of their playing was on that album and all of their albums. It also taunts their fashion sense (or lack there of) and Geddy’s voice.

The list of things that Geddy’s voice sounds like:

• a rat caught in a wringer;
• a hamster in overdrive;
• the dead howling in Hades;
• Mickey Mouse on helium (from Alex);
• strangling a hamster;
• a cat being chased out the door with a blow torch up its ass;

The story finishes with the band taking a break as Peart, working through the death of his child and wife, takes off on his motorcycle, and ultimately rejoins the group (Note: Peart has written several books about his ride, good reading). There are great concert scenes all the way through (I did not glimpse me or my brother), including excellent Farewell to Kings tour footage and one of Peart pounding out “Tom Sawyer”.

The second DVD starts off with some longer segments from the first side (not outtakes, perhaps director’s cuts of scenes, like Geddy and Alex searching the school for the room where they played their first gig). But the jewels of the second DVD are the concert footage, especially the “Canadian Bandstand” footage of a very young Geddy, Alex and initial drummer John Rutsey cranking out “Best I Can” and “Working Man” while teen school kids from Laura Secord SS sit on their hands in the auditorium (from 1974)…priceless. A full jam of my favorite Rush song, “La Villa Strangiato” is included, along with “Between the Sun and Moon”, “Far Cry”, “Entre Nous”, “Bravado” and “YYZ” (with Geddy Lee ripping the bass while some dude takes clothes out of a dryer on stage?).

Put them in the RnR HOF. After all, as the DVD cover proclaims, “….Ranked third in consecutive gold or platinum albums after the Beatles and the Rolling Stones…”, they are with pretty heady company.

While we can argue whether Twitter is a “new social media” or not, one great thing about it is the Amazon MP3 twitter feed.

Amazon certainly seems to be trying to put a dent into iTunes dominance. Not only are they offering DRM free MP3’s, but their Amazon downloader puts the songs right in your iTunes (if you so choose).

You do not have to be a Twit or even a Twitter user to see the daily deals. Just go to http://twitter.com/amazonmp3 each day.

The daily deals are extraordinary. This month alone I have downloaded:

• on 3/3 (the day the album came out) U2’s No Line on the Horizon for $3.99;
• yesterday, John Coltrane’s The Ultimate Blue Train for $1.99;
• today, Diana Ross & the Supremes’ 18-song Definitive Collection. Everyday price: $7.99 Today’s price: $1.99

Yes, an eclectic mix, but they feature different albums everyday. I’m going to ignore the feed for a few days before I personally re-stumulate the economy.

The Talking Head’s live album “Stop Making Sense” was the staple at our Rugby games, the tunes that got us jazzed up to play. The movie of “Stop Making Sense” (cue the visual of Byrne dancing in his over sized suit) really pounded that album into my brain.

Byrne has re-united with Brian Eno who produced several Talking Head’s albums for a new album called Everything that Happens will Happen Today. The streamer for it is embedded below. Good to hear you again, Mr. Byrne, and please bring back the suit.

Last year, it was a trip with our friends Monte and Margaret (from Munich) to Oxford, England to see Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds…and a fantastic trip it was.

This year, it was Vegas and Elton John at the Coliseum at Cesar’s Palace. A shorter trip for my wife and I, but a longer trip for our traveling companions….but, again, well worth the air miles. This wasn’t just a concert, but a multi-media event. Elton and his band were fronting a huge screen, which showed a video or photographic collage for each piece played. David LaChappelle, a somewhat surrealistic photographer and film director, designed the set and the movies. (more…)

Spring cleaning…the only part I enjoy about it is finding things I’d forgotten about or thought I’d lost. Luckily, I found my 1973 copy of Martin Bookspan’s brilliant compendium of classical music. Though the references to recommended LP and Tape recordings (LP and Tape!) are dated, the biographies and descriptions of the pieces are not.

This is an excellent introductory guide to classical music, and is also a thorough reference to the great composers and their works. Unfortunately you will have to look at your local used bookstore or on eBay, as this book is no longer in publication. It is well worth the hunt, however. (more…)

I have almost every album Rush has put out…on LP, including a pristine 1975 Fly By Night. I have signed copies of several albums now considered “Classic Rock”, including a Black Sabbath Album signed by Ronnie James Dio (the singer who took Ozzy’s place, and led Rainbow…remember them, kids?), plus copies of albums that are hard to find on CD or iTunes (remember Riot’s album Narita?).

As of last night, I have my old Fly By Night album on my new iPod.

And I am slowly but surely getting many of my LPs moved to MP3 and onto my iPod, through a USB Turntable and software called Audacity, one of the coolest geek gifts my wife has gotten for me. The turntable is from ION; setup and use is a breeze; this type of technology has been around for a while, but because of how simple this configuration is, I highly recommend it. (more…)

A LARGE shout-out to the Tomball High School Cougar Pride Marching Band. They had a very successful October contest season, including: (more…)

The dynamic due put together a phenomenal acoustic album, for Dave and Tim fans, DMB fans and accessible to music lovers of all genres

Yes, I’m a Dave Matthew’s fanboy. I purchased both the CD, the DVD and bought early so I would get the extra Europe 07 CD (my wife and I met Monte and Margaret from Munich in Oxford, UK to see the boys, and I’m sure I can hear the girls screaming on those tracks).

UPDATE: Since many folks have asked, I’ve started adding links to the lyrics on the DMB site.

I’ve had this album since it first came out, and have worn it our on road trips around Texas…maybe it’s the reason my iPod disc drive crashed (just in time for Christmas…hmmmm). Why should you own this album? The Dave Letterman Matthews Top Ten: (more…)

As a music spectacle, it was pretty spectacular. But as a rallying cry and mustering of political might, I question if Live Earth actually made things better or worse.

• These types of “benefit concerts” are old news, leaving most people to sleep through them; I would have except my wife saw Dave Matthews on and we were hooked (go Dave, where was Tim?);
• Many of the artists and organizers themselves were wondering if the concert was hypocritical, if, in fact, the act of fans, artists and organizers traveling to and putting on these concerts used a “larger carbon footprint” that it was worth (excellent brief Time magazine article here);

(more…)