Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros kept me out this morning until 3:34 a.m.
I’m 44 years old and I
I’ve not consumed any alcohol, a teetotaler, I am.
But last night I began a new chapter in my life.
The new chapter began when instead of being a guy whose forgotten what it is to be who he was 20 years ago, I stepped back into the life of adventure and lived a little.
And I’m here to tell other moms and dads, who moved into the responsibility of parenthood a few years ago and thought they had to leave behind living on the edge of adventure, that there is still life out there if you’re brave enough to go and find it.
After arriving home that night, I downloaded their songs and got hooked.
Coming Up From Below
Their debut album, “Up From Below” is a fine collection of tunes and jingles that immerse themselves into your consciousness and refuse to let go.
I play this album frequently, even months after first hearing it.
There are a couple of songs on it I’m not wild about, but the ones I am, well, I’d drive three hours from Dallas to Shreveport to hear them late at night.
Their set began at 10:30 p.m. and ended around midnight.
That’s what happened last night.
I’ll write more about the event in the days to come, but I wanted to share this video with you tonight. And share the great photo I was able to have taken with me and the band leader, Alexander.
Yes, I was about five people deep from the stage. Yes, I sang along with them. Yes, I was part of this very-alive show, and there’s not a thing anyone can do or say to me to regret a single second of it.
But instead of getting into that tonight, here’s the video I shot using my iPhone 4, pulling the video clips into Aperture 3, and then importing them right into Final Cut Express without having to convert them at all. Then it was just a matter of adding bumpers, and some commentary, and I doubled the audio track because it was recorded in a mono track.
That’s all there is between here and Edward Sharpe.
Except there are two accidents in front of me on Interstate 20 just west of Shreveport and nothing is moving. Literally. I was going to get there on time.
And now it looks like there is an accident in the other lane heading back to Dallas.
I don’t see being clear of this in the next hour and a half.
My hope tonight is that before things get going Ebes and Jade are going to be mixing about outside like they were in Austin back during the summer when I first learned of this band. Because I was down there for a Gillette event, (not to mention ESATMZ didn’t want us in passing out razors) and because the event supposedly sold out in 30 minutes, we didn’t get in to see the show.
My fascination with this band has all been from watching them in YouTube videos, playing their disc Up From Below about a zillion times, and then of course, anytime Ford runs a Fiesta commercial and they play Janglin, (Um bop, um bop, bop pa pa da bop,) or I saw yesterday that even the NFL has a sport running to buy your favorite team swag and Home was playing as the jingle.
That’s really rare that a band releasing it’s first album has two songs turned into high-profile jingles, but it speaks to the goodness of Up From Below.
This is what love sounds like
As you know, a couple months back I wrote a piece called, This is what love sounds like, based on the way Ebes and Jade sing to each other, and from the video I’ve seen of them. Before the show tonight, I hope to get to interview the two of them and ask them more to help tell this very soul-mate sounding story.
KT Tunstall’s new album Tiger Suit came out this past week in the states and like a true fan, I downloaded it on iTunes. And because of things going on this week, I’ve missed seeing her on Leno and then on the Today Show on NBC this a.m. Rats.
But to the album. I first connected with KT via the The Hotel Cafe Christmas album from a few years ago where she did a cover of Sleigh Ride. Her version has become one of my top Christmas favorites, and I’d be scared to see how many times it’s played in iTunes since Christmas of 2008. I also get SMS updates from her on Twitter, which over the past few months have given me an insight into what she’s been up to as she prepared for the release of this latest album.
With the iTunes purchase comes a 52-minute “the making of” video. That helped to watch, too, as I delved further into the content of the album. Of course, I’ve been receiving her email updates over the past month or so, so I’d been able to see and hear some the new material before. But the album is out now, so what of it?
My fast favorite on the album isn’t one of the tracks for commercial appeal like Fade Like a Shadow or Still a Weirdo, though I must say, I like the latter more than the prior.
Oh, yeah, my favorite so far: DIFFICULTY.
I’ve always been a sucker for a good bass line and this distorted guitar riff with it’s repetition and then calculated rises in tone, followed by a repeat of the refrain have locked into my psyche and I will admit, offer me comfort much like how ants flock to the comfort of the vibrations in wires caused by electricity passing through them.
And in a dozen ways I can relate to these lyrics:
Isn’t much more I can do for you
Isn’t much more that I can try
Twisting myself into shapes
To stop you crying
What’ll I do if I lose you
What’ll I do if I lose
Difficulty is coming my way
Coming my way
Making my way into places
Only been seen on your darkest days
Breaking my heart to take a walk
Into your jungle
What can I do in this world for you
If difficulty is my friend
Keeping me company when I know
I don’t need it
The chorus is uplifting, almost a glimpse of the feeling it must be like to break free of the difficulty.
You change every day
You change every day
(What can I do to make you notice)
You change every day
You change every day
(A little more time to bring you home)
You change every day
You change every day
How can I tell you the truth?
When I don’t want to.
Possible days in my future
Possible ways into my past
Sewing it up nice and tightly
So I don’t wonder
What if I did so much more for you
And what if I’d said so much more
Difficulty would be a stranger
A stranger to me
The only thing I don’t like about the song is the bridge in the middle. Then it gets away from me and I’m ready for the return to the comfort repetition.
I’ll write more about the rest of the album as I migrate my way through the new sounds. But if Difficulty were on vinyl I’d already be hearing the sounds of wearing down the grooves.
I wish KT was going to be making a stop here in the Dallas area. It would have been nice to take the kids to see her so we could all enjoy Other Side of the World, (still my favorite of all) Little Favours, Cherry Tree, Like the Weather, Suddenly I See, and her catalog of great songs.
Would I buy this album again? Yes. And I recommend it to you, too. Some of the songs aren’t going to be things that grab a hold of you on the first spin, but that’s sometimes the best, where lyrics and tunes slowly seep into your consciousness and then all of the sudden, you’re humming them or putting them on repeat in iTunes.
Difficulty? Watch for it next season on TV. The Good Wife would be a great candidate for it on CBS, or maybe as the ending song on one of the CSI episodes where one of the female mainstays goes through a difficult upheaval in a relationship and feels like KT sounds in the song and then the song just stops on one of the final notes as the screen goes blank before the Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer black screen credit and stay tuned for the news pitch comes on.
It’s that kind of song. David Zucker and Jerry Bruckheimer producers, I hope you’re reading.
It’s been more than a year now since I first received a PT Walking from Nintendo to try out with the Nintendo DS that they also sent me to keep.
Somewhere back earlier in the spring, I broke it or it went through the wash or something and according to the DS this morning, it’s been 243 days since I last checked in.
As part of my post Modern Media Man Summit promise to myself about getting more physically active again, I’ve been looking for the PT Walking product around town. Last year they were selling for $49.99 in most places. At Best Buy last night, they were down to $19.99. SOLD.
So I got one of the two monitors out of the box this morning, configured it to adopt my old profile, and that’s how I know it’s been 243 days since my last walk with it.
My daily goal with it remains at 4,000 steps. Whew. I bet it’s been months, save the five days I just spent in the Atlanta Sheraton Hotel getting ready and being a part of @M3Summit, that I’ve even come close to walking 4,000 steps in a day.
What I like most about the PT Walking reader that you can either slide into a pocket, add a clip on so it attaches to a belt, or as my friend Julie Maloney likes to do, just slip it into your bra, and until you hit your adjustable daily target, it blinks red. When you’ve hit the mark, it begins blinking green when you shake it or walk.
And so, my reoccurring question throughout the day to myself is, “Am I blinking red or am I blinking green?” If it’s still red, I’m automatically encouraged to get off my butt and go make something happen.
It’s a cool pedometer. You can sync it with your DS and then it’ll show you where your active patterns were during the day. You can see how many steps that last walk inside Walmart or across the street to get the kids from school was, etc. And with blinking red, it’s encouragement to make it blink green.
I highly recommend this product. As a dad who is WAY over weight–remember, 6 yo dd asked me the other night, “Daddy, how come your tummy hangs down?”–I’ve got to get busy and take better care of myself. Moms, Dads, SAHDs and SAHMs, in particular, it’s hard to ensure you’re getting enough exercise during the day. I know. With the demands of work, kids, carpooling, etc. you need something easy to help give you some accountability. For $19.99, this product is perfect.
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