The City Veins

When Aaron and I got in the car last Sunday to drive back from New York, we realized that my iPod was running low on batteries. No problem, I thought, I have an iPod charger in my car. So I open my center console to pull it out, only to find that it is missing. I now have a 5 hour car ride with the possibility of only the radio, and Aaron, to entertain me.

When we were in college, Aaron and I spent a lot of time driving around together to various concerts up and down the East Coast. This was during the dark, pre-iPod, days, so we spent most of the time listening to tapes. We made a bunch of mix-tapes, and when we got tired of those, we would buy whatever we could find at truck stops. This included Hanson’s totally awesome album “This Time Around.” Most of the tapes were horrible, but you can learn a lot listening to music you don’t like. Aaron and I would have extended discussion about what was wrong with a particular song, and that probably shaped our music as much as listening to Marquee Moon on repeat did.

We ended up stopping at the Thomas Edison stop on the Jersey turnpike, and we shocked to find that they still had tapes for sale. Unfortunately the selection was particularly bad, I assume because they don’t make tapes anymore and thus the tapes in the store were the ones that had been passed over for probably the last 10 years. We ended up picking out an Eddie Money Greatest Hits, a Cosmopolitan (the magazine) mix tape, and Steely Dan’s “Pretzel Logic.”

In addition to “Take Me Home Tonight” and “Two Tickets to Paradise,” Eddie Money’s tape also had the song “Trinidad.” This prompted Aaron and I to want to do a set of well-meaning but culturally insensitive songs. Included in this set would be “Cherokee” by Europe and “Every Picture Tells a Story” by Rod Stewart.

Also, did you know that “Up Where We Belong” by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes features the line “where eagles cry?” Aaron and I were convinced it was “where eagles fly,” because that would make sense. Does anyone have any idea why the eagles are crying? I have included the whole chorus to help you all out:

“Love lift us up where we belong
Where the eagles cry, on a mountain high
Love lift us up where we belong
Far from the world we know
Up where the clear winds blow “

The only explanation I can come up with is that the songwriters are from Philadelphia and crying Eagles are all they know.

Photo by Flicker user Velo Steve.

Last month I began our “Fan of the Month” column with Stan Chow, illustrator behind much of The White Stripes award-winning artistic themes.  This month we profile an actual fan–Spencer Ackerman–also of the DC-based band The Surge.

Profile:  Spencer is known for a good number of things, which is why we like to call him our fan.  He is a high-profile DC-blogger that has been the subject of a New York Times article, he is a former writer for The New Republic, and he has been to Iraq and lived to tell about it.  I know—all of this makes him sound like sort of an ass.  But Spencer manages to rock despite his seemingly hyper-political yuppie-dom.  The man has a “Death or Glory” tattoo, and he’s not a bounty hunter.  He is also the drummer of a very cool two-man band called the Surge, with whom we have played. 

How He Came to Be A Fan:  I don’t really remember which was the first gig Spencer made it to, but several months ago we played with his band on a bill at Velvet, along with his (and now our) friends the Stalking Horses from Baltimore.  He came away with a glowing report of our music.  Since then he has been the most vocal fan at every one of our shows, getting people pumped up and generally forcing everyone to have a good time.  If we got paid, he’d be on the roll.  He even performed “Death or Glory” with us at Mum’s in Baltimore (in part because I can’t remember the words).  He notices little idiosincracies about our music because he knows it so well and he has a musicians ear–pointing out aspects of our performance that range from show to show.  And he praises us.  Because we value his opinion, he deserves to be the fan of the month.

Go out tonight to see Spencer and The Surge at the Velvet Lounge at 9 pm.  It’s a monday–what else are you going to do?  And they write well-crafted and endearing indie-pop songs that you can guiltlessly bop your head to. 

Does “Wednesday Word Days” sound better? I don’t think so. “Word Days” sounds kind of stupid. But anyway…

There have been several requests–mostly from my mom–to print our lyrics out so people could read them and understand where we are coming from. As a recurring series I will now type up our lyrics with a brief explanation of where they are derived from, so, to turn an Obama phrase, you may see a reflection of our very worst selves.

The lyrics were inspired by the novel “Child of God” by Cormac McCarthy. The novel tells the story of Lester Ballard, a painfully simple-minded man living in Appalachia. The song was originally entitled “The Ballad of Lester Ballard”, but that was decidedly too cumbersome.

Lester Ballard is a violent individual, and the short, choppie, violent sentences of the novel reflect that, “like blood or muddy footprints on the clean white snow“. I tried to capture that same feeling with short lines that set both the scene of cold and desolation, as well as some violent language. There is a strong sense of nature in McCarthy’s work, so I began by trying to describe events in terms of nature.

It seems to me that the point of “Child of God” is two-fold. In one instance it serves as a juxtposition; that supposedly every man is a child of god, pure, but Lester Ballard seems the furthest from that. It grates on the believer to think that this man could be a child of god like the rest of us, and that makes him appear all the more abhorrent. The second is to show us how those who are born into purity can–through choice and circumstance–shed that purity for evil. In many respects Lester is a victim of his environment, his lack of education, and his poverty. But he is guilty of operating on the most basic of human instincts without the benefit of socialized reason. Lester, like every man, can stand or fall on moral ground. Those are the two paths available to us from birth, the moment in which he was the pure Child of God. The line “you’re turning coat” reflects his choice to switch sides; to become the opposite of what we think a Child of God to be.

The song revolves around the most horrific event of the book. I will leave it to you to find out what that is.

Freedom After the Fall

One day in the fall
The dead are now in bloom
She’s glassy in the eyes
And spread across the room
He stood as high as law
But on the softest ground
To take the coldest girls
To spin their heads around

You’re a picture of our uncertainty
Man can stand or fall, hard upon his knees
If you don’t want to tell them, oh then they don’t want to know
You’re turning Coat

You’re a menace, you should really go
You’re a child of god, your hands around a throat
If you don’t want to tell them, oh, then they don’t want to know
You’re turning coat

We were pretty excited on Friday. We had to be. That is the only way that I can explain how fast our first five songs were. We had been practicing the set we played at Iota for a few weeks, and had it timed to right about 45-50 minutes. Well, after the first five songs Aaron looked at his watch and realized that we had three songs left and about 20 minutes. Spencer took this information and spun out the next two songs, “If You Say So” and “Strike Up The Band,” to almost absurd levels. Friday night was the first time that “If You Say So” had two guitar solos, but Spencer kept building the song back up and I decided that if I didn’t solo, the whole thing would been pretty stupid.

The big secret with our band is that the drums are pretty much leading everything. When we are playing live, Spencer pretty much decides when songs end, and how long certain sections are. Spencer also is most responsible for shaping the songs, and giving them their dynamics. Most of our songs are written first on Aaron’s bass, and then Spencer’s drums. I am almost always the last element. I think that is what gives our band its strength, and probably explains the alternate time signatures that we like to use.

That said, Spencer took “Strike Up The Band” out too long. It got a little wandering and unfocused. If I were James Brown, I would dock his pay. Hell, why not. Spencer, I am taking 10% of your band income.

Friday night was great. I loved having all of the guests. On “Oh, Backwards!,” the last song, Spencer hit his intro fill and everyone came in together on one. There was this fantastic wall of sound, and I just lost it. I simultaneously thought, “what they hell have we created?” and “this is the most fantastic thing I have ever done.” I couldn’t stop smiling. I don’t really remember playing the song, just the joy that I had while playing it. At the end of that song Spencer and I just go all over the place while Aaron tries to keep the song together as best he can. During practices, we told everyone to just go nuts at the end, and if they can play around the key of Eb, all the better. We like to create chaos in certain parts of our songs, and tried to convey that to our guests. When we hit the end, I looked over to the horns and told them to just go. I felt like I almost dared them to go as wild as they could. It was great, and I kinda want to be in a seven piece band now.

Except that saxophonists seem to like to show up late, and adjust their reeds when they are on stage.

So, thanks again to Tom from These United States, Drew from First Rays, Kriston from Gestures, and Tim from hopefully some band soon.

Also, thanks to everyone who came out. If you missed it, click here to buy our CD.

All of these photos, and many more, by Flickr user dotslinesandpolygons. Who has taken a lot of great photos of us in the past, and a lot of other local bands.

We sincerely thank everyone that came out to our release party last night.  We were overwhelmed by how many of you were there and very grateful for the enthusiastic support. Planning for a release party is a little stressful and hectic, but you all made it completely worthwhile and wholly rewarding.  Also, double thanks to those who bought a CD!

In addition, shout outs to Tom from These United States, Drew from First Rays, and our inimitable horn section, Kriston and Tim. You guys were amazing and “Toe The Line,” “Don’t See It Coming,” and most especially “Oh, Backwards” will never sound as good to us again.