Last night at SideWalk I received the reminder of where the innovative songwriters go.
I heard cool music coming from the system. It was Joe Bendik's new CD.
Testosterone Kills opened with a Korg Moog accompaniment.
Then Jen sang about the "can of sleep" that I'd like to open and pour into my aluminum stovepot.
Prewar Yardsale took the stage with I am the Life of the Party. I am Alone at my party. All my friends left, or were clumsy to fall through a trap door. A great song. They played a rhythmic version of the Nirvana song with the line, "with (your) eyes so dilated, I become your pupil."
I thought the line was theirs, but there's a 35th birthday event that they're participating in at the Knitting Factory, playing the whole well-recorded album, "nevermind," apparently that pupil song's on it. Hey, that album returned my attention to popular music. The Olive Juice crowd participating may have picked up a few songwriting pointers and you'll see them if you, like I, plan to go to the Nirvana Knitting Factory evening this Wednesday.
Steve Schiffman asked, How come everyone's getting married (song one), then played his hit song, "I don't want to spend a day..."
Jeff Lewis with his decorated although not exceptionally crafted in appearance guitar performed Living in the Graveyard. It's an unbelievably favorite song of mine, fitting into a Lenny Molatov favorite category because of the unique sounding tuning guitar twang. I miss Jeff's mother's little brown Martin, but this guitar sounds great. What a fun song!
Tamany reintroduced herself, she was arrested in Seattle with Seashepard, a group that rams boats, and I mistook the boyfriend influence element to be reference to Sam Shepard, and she said he can ram into her anytime. Sugar pills and peroxide seemed to be part of her first song's prescription. In the second, for the lesbians, she acknowledged someone as being "so down for me."
November Rain, Don't Cry, these are favorite guns and roses songs. The subject of G&R came up when Joie DBG appeared in a Tumbling Dice at Vegas Guns and Roses t-shirt. He sang Rock Star Junkyard with audience yelps, connecting with the brilliant Lach crowd control. We remembered a guns and roses blue and red double cd, "Illusions, Use them or lose them"
The "Down" lyric ("so down for me") continued with Major Matt's double, "Come on Down" and "The Whole Way Down" followed by Cockroach's "Calm Me Down." There was some variance when Cockroach's next song featured the line "Hold Me In."
Dave of Dave's place popped in with a reminder of grammar school classmate of mine that he met.
I was sitting with Brer Brian and Baby Skins.
Dave Deporis sang, "Watch as my country goes to war again." He prepared a guitar and sang possessedly. He also had a line about Onion Breath. He drew the longest applause of the night.
Dina sang, "No that ain't tea in Grandma's cup" in Hold up the Night, a great song with the I II IV progression strummed in a new rhythmic way. Her voice and that song are exceptional. What natural ease! I miss the Flowers is another note I have in my little memo book, what do you think? I remembered any of this? I'm just typing out my notes in a semblance of sentences. Actually, I remember it as I write it, not otherwise, though. Our sensory perceptions stay in the brain as memory but we need stimulation to access them.
"Why you sitting over there when you got a warm place to share IN THE PRINCE'S BED" asked Adam Green. Uh, well, a memorable new song.
Jordan overwhelmed the blues wailers of the past, my favorite of her lines being "Go get the nipple of your goddess moon."
Kimya played two beautiful songs, and yes, by not writing memory lines and simply gushing with acknowledgement over how wonderful her set was, I'm left commentless... Her brother's coming back. She had an evolving pattern in the chorus, her strumming fingers worked like a centerpede upon the strings.
Pab, the Argentinian Cellist singer songwriter, sang I don't cry for Argentina, but for my family living over there!
It was president's day and Lach was asking who's your favorite, and with regard to Argentina, being that the terms there have run in the weeks, we reached a funny new awareness of the differences in the world. His second song had a great rhythm.
I played at some point in the night, Take Me Love, and the song I'd recorded that day with Major Matt entitled "Don't Leave me Behind," which by now you'd think I'd know. "Unlawful combatants, Unwilling Detainees, just call us Prisoners of War." Maybe next time I'll actually sing that. Lach dispelled my notion of the kinder than Guilliani Bloomberg with 30 tickets for postings on public property of a gig at The Sidewalk. He didn't have the number of the artist who posted (or who had directed his lackey's to do so for him) so SideWalk gets the tickets. Major Matt sings eloquently on this subject, a flyer upon a flyer upon a flyer, and everyone represents a dream.. to paraphrase...