I work too much, I earn too little, but I love my life and have happiness beyond my wildest dreams. On a day like today it’s all I can do to stop myself from shouting “thank you” and “I love you” to the moon.
So hello little Clementine, you’re beautiful like your mother and your sister. I’m going to keep working hard every day to show you the right way to live. And short of that I’ll show you love and you can figure out all the small details yourself.
The last week has brought a sick toddler, a very tired pregnant Taryn, another artist project launched, 5 new raffle items to the CASH fundraiser, and a lot of time on the phone. I’ve fallen off the one-a-day pace I was aiming for. There’s a lot on my mind, but very little time right now. It looks like the first very minor contractions may have begun, so I’m giving that time to Taryn.
It’s inelegant, but I wanted to post a quick list of the high points and descriptions of the posts that are sitting partially done in my drafts folder:
Okay, that’s all for now. More on the way.
I first met Rob Fisk maybe six years ago. The details have faded, but it was Marisa that introduced us. There are shreds of a memory hinting towards a Seven Year Rabbit Cycle record, but what I remember most was his label Free Porcupine Society and the amazing handmade packaging he created.
Rob and I don’t really know each other aside from mutual friends, but he was the first person I thought of when we thought to do art prints as a part of the CASH fundraiser. There’s something so sincere and really wonderful about his art — from the early Deerhoof covers to the subtle prints he makes. (The JPEGs do them no justice.) His care and craft come through in all his work.
I’ll stop here. The best I can do is to show his art and let it speak for itself:
Rob plays music as Common Eider, King Eider and has also been a member of Deerhoof, Seven Year Rabbit Cycle, and others.
My story about Lushlife comes in two parts: West Sounds and Cassette City. Lush — Raj Haldar — has become a friend through working on his record Cassette City over the last 18 months. I didn’t know him from Adam in 2005 when he released West Sounds.
I can’t remember exactly how I stumbled across West Sounds, but I’m really glad I did. It got mixed critical reaction, but I think the critics really missed the point. Some were saying that the mash-ups were too simple, others criticized Lush for not being hip hop enough, though all admitted finding pearls throughout the record. The problem was that they listened to the tracks, but didn’t put enough thought into the context and the statement Raj was making.
It all starts with Brian Wilson famously calling hip hop “the lowpoint in the history of music.”
I hold the opinion that music shouldn’t be judged outside of personal context. Brian Wilson hates hip hop? Okay. But to call it the lowpoint in the history of music, of which his lifetime spans only a small fraction, is silly. Art changes, some people love the new, some people hate it. The point is that art is change, music is art, and the act of creation trumps all else.
That defined West Sounds for me. The quote from Wilson was on the digital packaging. In 2005 big Lushlife release was Order Of Operations, his excellent debut. West Sounds was a response to Brian Wilson, not some ridiculous verbal exchange or blog rant, but a new creation built from the man’s own work that could inform the argument and lend a new viewpoint. It’s a great example of a constructive reaction to a negative and unproductive comment. (And also the basis for an argument about why we need to support great thinking like Creative Commons, but that’s a whole separate post.)
So it was 2005 that brought me this heady introduction to Lushlife, and it wasn’t until 2008 that I reached out, introduced myself, and told Raj about what we were trying to do with CASH Music.
We hit it off pretty quickly, and Raj gave a rundown of plans for his next album, Cassette City. Before long he shared a sneak preview and that demo stayed in heavy rotation for me. We built him a site to stream it securely which he used to pitch labels and monitor their interaction with the demo. Billy helped him review contract terms and that ultimately gave Raj the ability to make a solid decision and sign with !K7 for the record.
As Cassette City drew closer each new version got better and better. I got to hear little tweaks and changes as I iterated through artwork for the cover. It was a pretty interesting way to work and I’m really proud of the end result. I’m a little too close to give an impartial review, so take my opinion for what it’s worth, but I love the final record. It’s wonderful, intelligent, and effortlessly blends true hip hop with indie rock sounds. Working on Cassette City gave me the real sense that CASH is building something, and for that I’m truly grateful to Raj.
We just helped launch a new Lushlife remix project that’ll add a fan remix to a great lineup of official remixers. Well worth checking out. Raj has included the test pressing from Order Of Operations in our raffle, and also wrote a really nice post about it on his blog.
Lushlife’s CASH fundraiser contribution
Lushlife at CASH
theyoungandinlove.com
Working on a full post for tonight, but I had to take a break to say thank you to Emily, Keri, and all the rad folks over at Whitesmith Entertainment. Sure, Emily sits on the CASH board. But Whitesmith has gone above and beyond at every turn for CASH, and simply put they’re good people. You won’t find finer artist management anywhere and their enthusiasm and support for their clients is staggering.
Tonight is the Whitesmith/CASH party at Crash Mansion, and I’m home in Rhode Island waiting on a daughter who should be arriving any minute. Their generosity including CASH and coordinating *everything* is unbelievable. I couldn’t ask for a better ally in these crazy times, and I feel genuinely lucky to work with Whitesmith — to say nothing of the many amazing artists they represent.
So thank you Whitesmith! You guys are the bees knees.
whitesmithentertainment.com
Whitesmith on Twitter
Whitesmith on Facebook
Here’s what I know about Charlie: he’s half of Panther, he uses color about as well as any artist around, and he’s got fantastic hair.
Unfortunately that’s about all I know about Charlie, so to do some justice to this I nagged my friend/his wife Maggie for more. (Because, you know, she’s not too busy or anything.) So here’s a list of the raw IMs that followed:
Okay I’m stopping there. At this point we got into details about future food. Maggie talked about something with corn chips, peanut butter, and jalepenos that she shied away from. I, on the other hand, was captivated. As a major advocate of the peanut butter burrito I started thinking about moving to Portland so Charlie and I could start the future food burrito stand and television studio. And you can imagine the IM session went downhill from there.
That’s Charlie. Now, Panther, they’re a different story. Panther I know and they’re rad. For starters, the song ‘Violence, Diamonds‘ from their debut is the single best James Bond theme ever written. (No it didn’t appear in a Bond film, but that changes nothing.) Their new record, Entropy, is gaining attention, high praise, and comparisons to Steely Dan. The first two are spot-on. It’s a really good record.
Entropy takes some of the hard edges from Panther and blends them just slightly, keeping the frenetic feel but containing it a bit. It’s true that there’s a bit of classic rock blending its way in, but it really fits. It’s a little ironic, but Entropy feels like a real evolution for Panther — they pushed their sound and found just the right accents to make it something new, keeping the best of the Portland energy and adding another layer to it.
To add a final (and slightly obligatory) CASH fundraiser note: Charlie did one of the three art prints, detail shown above. You can purchase an 18″x18″ giclée print at http://cashmusic.org/
