BEL AIR VS. FACEBOOK

I tried putting Bel Air music up on Facebook but, in order to upload songs, you have to provide 8 kinds of valid ID with pictures and raised seals.


Huh? Too hard!

So, I thought, since I could'nt bring Bel Air to Facebook, I would post a recent Facebook thing that's going around right here on our official blog. The idea is to post your top 20 most influential albums of all time. These are supposed to be albums that "had such a profound effect on you they changed your life or the way you looked at it. They sucked you in and took you over for days, weeks, months, years. These are the albums that you can use to identify time, places, people, emotions." Here's mine (in no particular order):




1. Appetite for Destruction - Guns 'n Roses
2. Thriller - Michael Jackson
3. Blue - Joni Mitchell
4. Lover Man - Carmen McRae
5. Sgt. Pepper - The Beatles
6. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - Wilco
7. GP/Grievous Angel - Gram Parsons
8. Violator - Depeche Mode
9. Survival - Bob Marley
10. Blue Light, Red Light - Harry Connick Jr.
11. OK Computer - Radiohead
12. XO - Elliott Smith
13. Pentouse - Luna
14. Faithless Street - Whiskeytown
15. 10 - Pearl Jam
16. This Year's Model - Elvis Costello
17. Grace - Jeff Buckley
18. Car Wheels on a Gravel Road - Lucinda Williams
19. Magnolia Electric Co. - Songs:Ohia/Magnolia El.Co.
20. Black Sheep - Martin Sexton
21. Music from Big Pink - The Band

I'm not winning any originality awards here, I realize.

Maybe Jeff and Wyatt will post their top 20s, too.

In other Facebook/blog/life news - please check out this post on Grant Miller Media - 25 Random Things about Me! by Bryan Adams.

FRENCH HORN

I recently picked up one of these for a bargain price on eBay:



Woo Hoo!!!!!!! Ever since I hated playing the french horn back in grade school and middle school, I have wanted one of my very own. The one I got is old and beaten up but I'm sure it will do just fine. Pretty soon I will be just like this lady:

BOOK REPORT #2

Geoff Emerick's book Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles is a first hand account of what it was like to work with the Beatles from their first session when they were nobodies through to the end. The first time I picked up this book was when Bel Air was recording at Cowboy Technical Services in Williamsburg. There was a copy hanging around by the couch. In some downtime, I started reading it and had a hard time putting it down. I had that same feeling thoughout the book once I got my own copy.

This was the first book I'd ever read about the Beatles. When I was a kid I thought of myself as quite the little Beatles scholar because I had memorized the documentary "The Compleat Beatles" by watching it on repeat one summer. But, despite this comprehensive education, I really knew nothing about them before reading this. I was riveted by stories that others have probably heard many times over. What is new in this book is the account of Emerick's life - his childhood and how he developed a passion for music and recording at a very early age. He was a teenager when he started working with the Beatles.



Naturally, given the author, the sections about the recording process are some of the best. It's incredible what Emerick was able to do with such limited recording equipment. Sgt. Pepper was recorded using four track recorders! Reading about how they overcame the challenges of this in brilliantly inventive ways was fascinating. I found myself turning down corners of pages in which Emerick explains the tricks they used so that I could go back and listen to those songs with that in mind. I really wish I had loaded up my iRiver with Beatles albums before starting this book.

Emerick's accounts of the Beatles themselves were, at times, harsh. He is decidedly in Paul's camp and has no problem telling stories about what a sub-par guitar player George Harrison was in the beginning or how moody and self-involved John was. This may have been the way things were but I can't help but find his point of view overly biased. Emerick had a close relationship with Paul, eventually having him as the best man at his wedding. He also went on to engineer Wings albums and some of Paul's solo stuff. There is a chapter near the end about recording Band on the Run in Africa that is particularly engrossing.

I recommend this to fans of the Beatles and particularly those interested in engineering and recording. It's an entertaining, informative and inspiring read.

Book Report #1

SHORT ORDER STRINGS

I think this is brilliant. Short Order Strings is an LA based company that provides live string parts for your songs. It's entirely an online operation. You upload your song, fill out a form saying where you want the strings and what strings you want and they record it for you. It's cheap, too.

NO JOKE

Hey there. My February On the Beat column is up on Eight Million Stories. In it I discuss the instrument that separates the men from the boys. Go to it!

AMERICAN IDOL

I voted for Noop Dog. Got through on the first try.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

GRAMMYS

I really wish I was live blogging last night during the grammys because I had so many snarky comments running through my head such as "Is a Jonass Brother really playing conga drums?" and no outlet for them. But live blogging seemed a little aggressive for such a half assed blog.

The Grammys were characteristically long and lame. There were a few cool moments in there, though. Serial marrier Paul McCartney's performance was great and he got to play the role that usually falls into Jack Nicholson's lap at movie award shows: the cool guy in the audience who everyone refers to and jokes around with when they are presenting or giving acceptance speeches. Coldplay even apologized to him for ripping off Sgt. Pepper with the costumes they were wearing.



Radiohead didn't win enough awards in my opinion but they did do a cool performance of "15 Steps" with the USC Marching Band.

There was no double exposure moment like last year but M.I.A. did perform pregnant as hell. She wasn't hiding it either. The night of the Grammys was her due date. Wow.

BEL AIR

In case you forgot, this is the blog for the band Bel Air! We are working on our sophomore release (ha!) and also a single which will come out first - like a teaser of sorts. Our upcoming full-length is a "Lost" concept album which features songs such as "Jack vs Sawyer" sung from Kate's point of view, John Locke's proud anthem "This Island is My Home", and a cover of "You All Everybody".

OMG. You wish.

PET PEEVE!

The Fashion Police nabbed these two arch-nemeses for the same crime:





Where are their feet? Creepy!

NOTHING HAS CHANGED

When I was little - I'm talking seventh grade here - I used to sit inside my closet with a flashlight, a notepad and pen, and my walkman. I would listen to the tape in my walkman and write down the lyrics, word for word, of my favorite songs. I would listen to a phrase, pause it, write down as much as I could remember and then rewind and start the process again. Back then I would rename certain appropriate songs after boys that I had crushes on. I distinctly remember renaming Led Zeppelin's "Thank You" to "David". I really wanted "David" to know that if the sun refused to shine that I would still be loving him.

I found myself doing this a couple nights ago when I had the urge to sing a Richard Buckner song - the lyrics for which could not be found anywhere on the internuts. So, there I was pausing and rewinding my mp3 player and writing down the lyrics.

SHARP AS POSSIBLE

Here's some important advice for life and music and your life in music. The first comes from Thelonius Monk:



He wrote that for saxophonist Steve Lacy but I think we can all learn something.


The next comes from Kurt Vonnegut:



Truer words were never spoken. I saw this on Barou is the New Bklyn which is a very funny blog by ex-New Yorker, current Baton Rouge resident Colleen Kane. She happens to be the fiance of a friend of mine which pretty much makes me almost famous.