What is Not But Could Be If...

My main complaint with the new Silver Jews record, Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea, is the way it sounds. The first song, "What is Not but Could Be If", is a good song, but it sounds bad. It sounds muffled and it's very hard to hear the music clearly. Berman's voice is both too much toward the front and muffled at the same time. It's quite maddening, and for a while the way this record sounds really made it hard for me to listen to it at all. Some of the songs are quite good so that's making me warm up to the record but I was really shocked that there could be a Silver Jews record that I didn't play about 30 times in the first week I bought it. (Or the first week J. bought it. Thanks honey!)

Ah, well. We have tickets to see SJ in September so the live show might be a better way to hear the new songs. I love that Berman included the chords for the songs. When I was unemployed in '03 I spent that time learning most of the Silver Jews catalog. I can still play a good number of those songs with a little brushing up. I used to sit in my room, or in my uncle's basement crooning songs like "Black and Brown Blues", "Inside the Golden Days of Missing You", "Room Games and Diamond Rain," etc. as if I had to practice those songs, as if I was going to be performing them some day, even though I don't have a good singing voice. I guess it helped me get through that very uncertain time. I didn't do much writing then- I think I was too unfocused and depressed to do that- but the guitar playing helped. Sadly, I haven't had much time to play guitar lately. Or maybe I just haven't had the need to do it. The last song I learned was Spoon's "Agony of Lafitte".

J. and I are going to the Sonic Youth/ Feelies show tomorrow. We also saw the Feelies on Tuesday. J. even cut class to go to the show and he never cuts class! I generally cut class once a semester. The last time I cut class, a few weeks ago, I went to a reading hosted by the Paris Review. J.R. Lennon and Gish Jen read with an unpublished writer. It was a spirited reading with great conversation between the writers. I told Gish Jen that my mom really likes her story, "Who's Irish".

Anyway, the Feelies were so good! It was such a great show and they did two sets with some covers thrown in. I really enjoyed their cover of Wire's "Outdoor Miner". I'm actually much more excited to see the Feelies on the 4th than I am to see SY. I've seen SY a bunch of times but this will only be my 2nd Feelies show.

I read Dean Wareham's memoir, Black Postcards, and in it he says that he and Stanley Demeski had a somewhat contentious relationship when Demeski was in Luna. I kept thinking about what Demeski allegedly told Dean when he saw him at Maxwell's a few years back, something along the lines of, "I only did it for the money." So, while I watched Demeski drum, with a tiny smile on his face (J. said he looks like he belongs to a bowling league), I couldn't help imagining that he was thinking, "This is what I've been waiting for all along. And I can't wait to count up the money!" Which probably isn't what he was thinking. Damn Dean Wareham for polluting my thoughts. And I saw him sitting in the back of Maxwell's enjoying the show with Britta.

The crowd was so respectful that night. When it seemed like someone was going to heckle or cat call too much the crowd hushed the perpetrators so nothing would distract from the music coming from the stage. It wasn't obnoxious- it was just that extra noise or comments were unnecessary.

Besides the SY/Feelies show tomorrow, J. and I are seeing the New Year (billed as the Kadane Bros.) and Bottomless Pit (ex-silkworm) next week. Then we're going to Chicago to visit my friend B. and to go to the Pitchfork Festival. I already know that one of our friends from VA is going to be there so it should be a nice little reunion of music die hards.

On a side note, I've been making Murakami proud by going to the gym this past week. Today I have to try to live up to his work ethic when it comes to writing. Though I plan to do another revision/edit of my novel this summer, I think I'll get in the mood by writing something new and short today. Just a little something to exercise those muscles that I haven't used enough in a few months.