What is Life Guitar Part...

A few months ago I found a used copy of George Harrison’s 1970 masterpiece album “All Things Must Pass”.  Where do we begin discussing that album?  I have been deeply under it’s magic spell since.  I’m working on a new album with the band and I’ve been doing some research: learning songs from the masters, doing lots of listening to all manner of different stuff and searching my soul too wondering if we can pull it off again, also wondering how in hell we’re gonna pay for it.  I sat down with ATMP a few nights ago and learned all the chord progressions.  What a lesson! It’s pure genius that I plan on covertly stealing asap.   Didn’t Picasso say something about good artists copy, great ones steal.  Pablo, I will do my very best to steal, you can judge the merits of my musical larceny when the dust settles on the new Felsen album.  

There was one guitar part that really intrigued me and I wanted to try and learn.  It’s the lead line that you hear right at the top of “What is Life”.  I’m not much of a guitarist--I’m more of a guitar owner/songwriter and singer only by default. This guitar part didn’t sound particularly hard to play, I could figure out most of it.  The problem was that once producer’s Phil Spector’s reverb-drenched Wall of Sound kicks in the part kinda gets hard to hear in the verse sections.  I did what us modern musicians do:  troll about the internet looking for tab (couldn’t find any), but I did come across a great youtube clip where the part is isolated and it really made me start thinking about how brilliant the guy was.  You can hear swagger in there and maybe some kind of an R&B/funk influence too.  You can also hear the confidence and intelligence in this part.  Confidence? Just to put it in perspective, in the two years or so leading up to the recording of ATMP, George recorded the first Beatle solo effort (the soundtrack to the movie Wonderwall, much of which was recorded in Bombay with Indian musicians), recorded all 4 sides of the White Album and the Hey Jude single, recorded more music for Yellow Submarine, co-wrote tunes with and produced sessions for Bob Dylan and the Band, acted as Apple Records A&R man signing both James Taylor and Badfinger (produced some of their stuff too), recorded both the Let It Be and Abbey Road albums, produced a Billy Preston album, co-wrote the hit Cream tune “Badge”, toured as a sideman with Delaney and Bonnie and co-wrote with and produced Ringo’s solo music.  Big couple of years for George--more than most of us musicians will ever achieve in several lifetimes.  Dude had skills for days!  Oh yeah, he studied sitar with the Maestro, Ravi Shankar.  How could I forget that?  And that’s just the 2 years leading up to the making of ATMP!  Dont’ forget his 10,000 hours in the clubs of Hamburg as a teen, the 12 string electric guitar, the Revolver album...

The fact that he was under Lennon & McCartney’s thumb, playing second fiddle for many years is pretty much common knowledge for all of Beatlefreaks.  He had a lot to prove with ATMP.  Phil Spector said that he was beyond a perfectionist.  I think you can hear it in this part.  The part pretty much is the bass line to the song too.  What came first?  Probably George’s part.  So perfect was it, that bassist Carl Radle jumped on it.  The ex-Beatles knew a thing or two about bass lines being in the Mac’s band.  Session bassist extraordinaire Tony Levin said that John Lennon was the artist who completely knew exactly what they wanted from the bass.  I’m sure George was probably the same.  George’s guitar line sits in that sweet spot of really dialed-in while at the same time being nice and loose.  Pure rock and roll gold.  

Felsen Recording Update 2

Felsen New Album Project Mid Term Progress Report.  OK, maybe it’s more like the end of the first trimester as I don’t think we’re at the halfway point just yet, but we’re making good progress.  To get you up to speed, we currently have 7 songs in various stages of production and we’re aiming for 10-12 songs total.

I know, who’s buying CD’s anymore you may be thinking???   It seems very trendy now-a-days to put out an EP or just put out singles/youtube videos/ringtones, but us dinosaurs are making an LP’s worth of new Felsen music.  An album should be like a novel in that every song is a chapter in the book; the songs fit together to tell a bigger story. That doesn’t mean it’s gonna be a corny rock opera (dōmo arigatō Mr. Robotto).  Think:  OK Computer, Sea Change, Pet Sounds, Grace or the White Album where the songs have a vibe and a feeling tying them together.  As great as any individual song on any of those masterpiece albums was, the real magic is listening to the albums as a whole.   Things may be looking grim for the good ship music biz, but I’m willing to go down with the ship--that’s how much I love you. For better or for worse, making albums is my artform.

We worked really hard last week.  On Saturday we did an all day session at Cris’s house in San Lorenzo where we recorded basics for 3 news songs.  It seemed like we’re getting better at our process and things went surprisingly well.  We put in a few rehearsals in the 2 weeks leading up to the session to workshop the songs.  Rehearsal=results, go figure. Who knew? Two of the songs we rehearsed enough we debuted them at a little local SF gig Friday night.  Never playing it safe, we played 5 songs from the upcoming album in our 45 min set.  It was risky, but it was a rush to pull that off and not fall flat on our faces.  The audience was pretty much entirely people who’d never heard us before--all the tunes were new to them and they seemed to enjoy it.  One person came up to me and asked which CD has “Gimme Shelter for the Devil”.   She’ll have to wait for it to come out.  I sold her a different CD instead. I'm good at sales.

One of the catchier new tunes is "Lorazepam". Do you know what Lorazepam is? It’s a prescription sleeping med for insomnia and anxiety.  I had some medical problems a while back and it was prescribed to me.  It makes you sleep like a baby floating on a puffy cloud high above an enchanted forest of magical pixie dreams. Ahhh...it would be real easy to get hooked, real easy. I always thought the name of the med sounded like a girl’s name, a girl you get hooked on in a bad way.  We debuted it at the gig.  People dug it.  America, you’ll have to wait a few more months to hear that one.  FYI:  Lorazepam was Michael Jackson’s drug of choice.  Careful kids, don’t try this at home.

Well, it's time to go write a few more tunes. I have some song titles that I like. I think I'll start with that and work from the top down. That's how Metallica does it. And I wouldn't argue with those dudes.

video highlights here

Ladies & Gentlemen meet the Wearies...

I’m looking forward to Friday night’s show at Neck of the Woods and hearing/seeing The Wearies.  These guys are doing their own thing and not following the latest trend--I like that.  They play a very listenable blend of straight up power pop.  The tunes are upbeat and have a positive vibe.  I’ve been listening to their music online today and I like what I hear.  If you're a fan of Joe Jackson, Elvis Costello, Weezer and the Smithereens, you'll be right at home! I had the chance to pow wow with Erik Mullin about the Wearies and the show this Friday.  

Congrats on the release of your new EP.  This is your first release in a little while. What are your plans now for the Wearies?  Thanks, for now we are focusing on live shows in and around the Bay Area. It's been a little while since we played so we are really looking forward connecting with a live audience.

What are you planning for the show at Neck of the Woods?  First off, we have some EP's ready. We also might have a surprise or two in our set.

What do you like about making music in the Bay Area?  You got to love the diversity of the Bay Area music Scene. There are so many cool and different types of bands as well as Venues, you really can get exposed to many fans and cross over genres.

What don’t you like about making music in the Bay Area?  as for dislike, well...our drummer got his car broken into parked outside our rehearsal space... that sucked!

What advice would you give to an aspiring musician.  The best advice to any aspiring musician I can give is "get out and play, music is meant to be played live, something to be shared."

What are you listening to these days?  Some new music I'm listening to is Nervous Wreckords, Transfer, Foxy Shazam, but usually just hit shuffle and I'm good maybe a little T-Rex, Queen, Kings of Leon

INFO ON THE SHOW FRIDAY APRIL 5 AT NECK OF THE WOODS: