August 2010
1 post
The Music-Copyright Enforcers - NYTimes.com →
Before I was a copywriter I defended copyright law by working as an Area Licensing Manager for ASCAP. Essentially I did the same job as this piece describes, with some of the same results. Full cups of coffee were thrown at me. Insults were hurled: ”Get out before I throw you out.” My boss even got his front pocket torn off when a club manager tried to shove his business card into...
July 2010
1 post
I write like David Foster Wallace →
So apparently I write like David Foster Wallace. I hope it’s about style and not how long it takes to get my point across.
June 2010
2 posts
Hands-on with Hulu Plus →
This and Netflix could be a nice alternative to cable.
March 2010
6 posts
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Is a Verizon iPhone in the Works? - PCWorld →
Well, this could take care of my echo problem.
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Forced Creativity (February and Beyond)
Every January as the winter starts to take on a never ending presence I start to ask myself if I’m really going to be up for it again this year. Am I going to be able to harness the creativity and discipline to write 14 new songs and post demos for them during the shortest month of the year? I did it in 2005, 2008 and 2009, but still, it never gets easier or less daunting.
February Album...
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YYES Receives Pacific Design Center's Top Award →
One of my freelance clients wins a major award.
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Smart Condom Ad
Ad school is a distant memory. So is it safe to do condom ads now? Sure, but I don’t know if I could beat this.
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January 2010
2 posts
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Flaming Lips and Yo La Tengo Year End Reviews
I was asked to write year end reviews for two of favorite records of last year, The Flaming Lips Embryonic and Yo La Tengo’s Popular Songs. You can find them here, as well as below. Flaming Lips- Embryonic Embryonic resets the clock for the Flaming Lips. After a decade of functioning as a studio three-piece and turning out highly orchestrated albums with Wayne’s voice and lyrics firmly...
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February Album Writing Month 2010
Happy New Year everyone. I haven’t posted much here lately, but I hope to get back into it. Please leave comments when you can. It helps big time. February Album Writing Month is just around the corner. For those of you scratching your head, here’s a little background. Since 2004 there’s been a community of people who each try to write an albums worth of material (defined...
December 2009
1 post
1 tag
Tom Waits- Glitter And Doom Live
Check out my review of the new Tom Waits live album at onethirtybpm.com. Sensitive singer songwriter. Jazzy nightclub hipster. Found instrument auteur. Growly bluesman. Circus sideshow act. You never know what you’re going to get with Tom Waits. For four decades now Tom Waits has been defying easy categorization and doing what he does best – producing music that is as big of a hodgepodge of...
November 2009
2 posts
1 tag
R.E.M. Live At The Olympia
R.E.M. embrace their early albums, test out new songs, and capture it all on a new live album. Read my review at 130bpm.com. R.E.M. released five full-length records, an EP and a b-sides collection for IRS records in the 1980’s. And even though they built their reputation as a touring band, playing small towns and major markets and just about any venue they could get a gig in, they never...
The Other Side Of The Street
I woke up on the right side of the bed, yet I find myself on the opposite side of the street. It’s a Monday morning in November and it’s absolutely beautiful out. Just a month ago there was a bitter chill in the air. But that’s long gone. I couldn’t find a spot at my regular coffee shop. I don’t know if that’s because of the weather or if people are just...
October 2009
4 posts
1 tag
Built To Spill- There Is No Enemy
Review is up at onethirtybpm.com for Built To Spill’s new one. The best artists are often haunted by their past. Stick around long enough to see bands that grew up on your sound start to imitate it, or meet fans that treat your albums as gospel, able to recite every lyric and conjure up every note, and it can leave you in an impossible position. Some bands drastically change their sound,...
CarrotMob Hardware Store Action
I had an interesting moment last week when my parents were in town. I wanted to put a new thermostat in my place and asked for my Dad’s help. I mentioned that there was a hardware store just a few blocks away from where I lived, but he was dismissive, saying that Home Depot would have much better prices and we should just go there. I felt pretty guilty driving by that hardware store and...
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Mason Jennings- Blood Of Man
Review is up at onethirtybpm.com for the new Mason Jennings album. For much of his career, Mason Jennings’s body of work has been the type that would often feature a handful of great songs alongside a lot of filler. His albums invariably contained one absolutely killer song, a role “The Field” fills on Blood of Man, but too often Jennings fell short in fulfilling the promise of his early work....
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PW & The Ghost Gloves Cat Wing Joy Boys
I have a review up at One Thirty BPM of Paul Westerberg’s new EP. Check it out. In 1997, between labels and growing increasingly frustrated with recording as a major label solo recording artist, Paul Westerberg took a sharp detour and released a five-song EP under the pseudonym GrandpaBoy. The songs were uncharacteristically direct, avoiding many of pitfalls of his previous recordings. The...
September 2009
3 posts
This Is Not A Show/This Is Not A Blog Post
This is not my beautiful wife… I checked out the world premiere of the new R.E.M. live film last night. Entitled “This Is Not A Show,” it is culled from 2007’s working rehearsals/”experiment in terror” in which the band played new songs in front of a live audience to try to shake up the way they make records. Along with a slew of songs from the usually...
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Catching up with Little Caesar's
I had Little Caesar’s pizza last night for the first time in 15+ years. A new one opened up in my neighborhood, and with the hot air balloons, people in costumes on the street, and coupons for $5 large pizzas and crazy bread hitting my mailbox, I finally caved. Just a couple of years ago I was convinced that pizza restaurant was no more. Was I missing anything? Now I used to love...
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Confusion Fog (Norem Ipsum Mixtape #1)
Okay, summer is over. Or at least students and people who refuse to wear white after Labor Day will have you believe that. So it’s time to get back to regular updates. But it’s definitely not too late to go for a long drive with the windows down and the stereo cranked. Here’s a mix I created for an online swap that’s ripe for the occasion. Comments are welcome and...
July 2009
1 post
CNN: now available in S, M, L, XL, and XXL
Rat rides on cat riding on dog. “Very excitable virgins” dominate town. Denied exit, child uses lunch box as toilet. Stephen King, bikinis help heat Maine. These are actual CNN headlines. And now you can get CNN headlines made into a t-shirt. Maybe writing headlines for CNN is the way to go. It’s probably easier getting hired there than The Onion.
June 2009
1 post
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Wilco (An Album)
Wilco are a band you love to love. They’ve released some of the best music of the last twenty years. And they tour constantly, winning over fans as they visit major markets and small ones, much like the punk/alternative scene in the early 80’s which inspired them. They also seem like regular people. Jeff Tweedy’s a modern day Huck Finn, born not that far from Twain and...
May 2009
3 posts
The Singer/The Folk Singer
Nick Cave has quite the back catalog. I first got into him around Let Love In, but didn’t really come to appreciate him until No More Shall We Part. He’s been quite prolific lately, releasing a double cd a few years back, the full length Grinderman side project in 2007, and 2008’s excellent Dig, Lazurus, Dig. So the recent years have kept me pretty busy, but the recent...
Remembering Jay Bennett
Jay Bennett died over the weekend in his sleep at the age of 45. It’s sad news. Not just because he was an extremely talented musician and member of Wilco during their most inventive years, but because he was only 45. His recent MySpace journal entries spoke of upcoming hip surgery to repair a painful injury he sustained years earlier when he jumped off a stage. His tone was upbeat. ...
Bob Dylan's Together Through Life
He’s Bob Dylan. A living legend. The Shakespeare of our time. He infused serious lyrics into rock. Before him the Beatles were singing “Love Me Do.” The Stones were doing blues covers. Lawrence Welk was at the top of the charts. Okay, so let’s not get into a discussion of the current state of popular music. Or maybe we should. Together Through Life did debut at...
April 2009
4 posts
The cup less full
I try to be flexible. I don’t keep my schedule so busy that I can’t adapt at the last minute to meet a friend out for a drink or go for an impromptu walk around the lake. I’m almost always game for grabbing a bite to eat and getting out of the house. And I seldom send things back or complain in a restaurant. I’ll roll with the punches. But one thing I just...
Cds, downloads, vinyl records, mp3 players...
I’m sitting outside on a gorgeous afternoon and things seem pretty okay. I got my taxes done and made out alright. Nothing owed anyway, which is quite a relief when you wait until the last minute like I did. And as much as I hate that whole “free money” thing that the vast amount of Americas believe their tax returns to be, I can’t help but want to buy something. ...
Haiku From A Restaurant
Hennepin late night Drink food walk home shelter sleep In that order please
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I'll be your IKEA songwriter
So I think I wrote a advertising jingle without really thinking about it, which is kind of cool. I’m a copywriter after all. But I’ve never had the opportunity to write a jingle.
They just don’t seem that common these days. Sometimes you see them as tag lines like McDonald’s “I’m Lovin’ It” or introductions like Budweiser’s “Real Men...
March 2009
10 posts
Eggo Butter Pecan Syrup and me
The Eggo Butter Pecan syrup is finally gone. I bought it several months back at a Super Target. It was cheap, and I was pinching pennies. We seemed like the perfect match. Except we weren’t. Almost immediately I realized the error of my ways. True, I had saved money– Eggo Butter Pecan syrup was only a couple dollars for a family size bottle, but unless I planned on entertaining an...
Netflix, I've learned to love you again and it...
I was smitten in the beginning, and I was never fond of the video store. I remember Blockbuster sending me a notice. “For your convenience your credit card has been charged for your most recent rental and late fees.” Gee, thanks Blockbuster. Convenience? There was nothing convenient about anything to do with that store. Movies were constantly checked out. Even finding DVDs in...
House Cat
I have a friend who has a cat and always brings her cat along with her on any extended trip she takes. She puts her in a carrier and tucks her under the seat in front of her. No sedation. Nothing. And apparently the cat is quiet and hasn’t sparked any air rage incidents yet. I’m not about to take a flight anywhere, but I am getting the urge to take a roadtrip. Somewhere. ...
Confessions of an record club addict
BMG Music Service is no more. They announced that they will stopping the service effective June 30, 2009. The news of their closing follows Columbia House, which folded a couple years ago. I’m showing my age here, but I remember when BMG Music Service was RCA Music Club. RCA was always was less intimidating than Columbia. With RCA you got six or seven free albums and then had to buy...
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5 Coffee Shops in 5 Days: Bob's Java Hut
Sunlight. What a difference you make. Warming our lonely northern region of the world with your seductive charms. Melting old man winter’s latest dump and turning it into vital vitamins and minerals that will water the dormant brown grass and cause it to grow green again. And charming the pants and sweaters off young woman everywhere in exchange for more revealing clothing. I love you...
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5 Coffee Shops in 5 Days: Kopplin's
It’s nice when you walk into a place and it feels like a continuation of the music/vibe you have going in your car. I was listening to the new Neko Case album, Middle Cyclone, on the drive over to the Hamline University area of St Paul to visit a place called Kopplins, and when I walked in the door they too were playing Neko Case. It gave me something to talk about right away and...
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Looking Back: Bob Dylan's Empire Burlesque
I think I’m missing two Bob Dylan studio albums. Saved, his ultra religious born again album of the early 80’s and Down In The Groove from 1986, which by most accounts is among his very worst. The news of a brand new Dylan record on the heals of a career renaissance consisting of two excellent studio albums (1997’s Time Out Of Mind and 2001’s Love and Theft), a recent...
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5 Coffee Shops in 5 Days: Dunn Bros.
Spring forward/Fall back. That’s how it’s supposed to go. Every Spring we set our clocks forward an hour to allow for more daylight so our inner farmers can get out there and harvest whatever it is we feel the need to harvest. Then in the Fall we set our clocks back as much out of tradition as the desire to send our proverbial kids off to wait for the bus in the daylight instead...
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5 Coffee Shops in 5 Days: Java Jack's
It stopped snowing outside, but I kind of wish it would turn into a blizzard. It feels like that kind of day, and I want to sit back and look out at crawling cars crunching down on fresh snow and be glad I’m not out in it. Not that I wish to inconvenience people with long commutes. I just want it to feel like a snow day. I swear I’ve been here before, and I’m pretty sure it...
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5 Coffee Shops in 5 Days: Cafe Tempo
It’s stuck in the middle of a neighborhood I’d love to live in. I see a couple duplexes and my mind starts to wander. The sleepy bedrooms. Inner lives hidden behind brick exteriors. And smoke coming from a chimney reminding me that it’s still winter. As I look around the coffee shop I wonder if any of the six other people drove here. My guess is they took a short walk...
February 2009
7 posts
Norem Ipsum remembers the VCR
When I was 16 years old my Aunt called to ask me if I’d be willing to go over to her house and teach her how to use her VCR. She treated it seriously. Like she was hiring a babysitter, providing a set time and payment. She said she had tried to figure it out herself, and so had my uncle. But they just couldn’t get the hang of it. A whole generation of people could never figure...
characters in a coffee shop
Things I have observed at my coffee shop in the last week: A guy that looks incredibly similar to my friend Jon. I almost want to wave him to my table, before realizing that the guy has at least 10 years on Jon and looks like he spent some time with Ted Kaczynski and is only retreating from isolation temporarily to have coffee with some of his old army buddies. And Jon lives in Chicago....
Last night I had Ben and Jerry's and didn't eat...
Last night I walked to the convenience store on the corner, bought a pint of Ben and Jerry’s and didn’t eat the whole thing. Usually this is impossible. I’ll take a spoon and carefully skim the top of the ice cream and try to get equal portions of goodness in each bite. I’ll marvel at how much better rich chocolaty ice cream is over its frozen yogurt counterpart, and...
Classical, you are not a good writing soundtrack
I’m not adverse to classical music. I’m really not. I enjoy the masters of classical music. Or at least I respect them. But I’m not about to go home and put on a little Mozart or Bach. It’s just not going to happen. At least not more than a couple times a decade. I seems like classical music must have been some sort of compromise at my favorite coffee shop. Every...
The future is now. You are here.
Google has a new product that it is rolling out to mobile devices today, as well as personal computers in the near future. They call it Latitude, and it will give you the ability to google people in ways straight out of a science fiction novel. The technology has been out there for a while. iPhone users were quick to discover apps like Loopt, which essentially does the same thing as...
Soup Kitchen 2009
It seemed like a good idea. Free breakfast for everyone in America. Just stop by Denny’s between 6am and 2pm. Immediately I texted two friends that I usually have breakfast with. My schedule was fairly open on Tuesday and the promise of the Grand Slam breakfast sounded appetising, even though I hadn’t been to a Denny’s in at least seven years. I thought I’d stop by...
Vic Chesnutt and Elf Power, 400 Bar 1/31/09
Vic Chesnutt remains one of my favorite singer songwriters. His first four albums for the Texas Hotel label in the early 90’s are nothing short of incredible. Little, West Of Rome, Drunk and Is The Actor Happy? stack up there among the greats. Twisted lyrics. Brilliant revealing songs. Interesting character studies. And a song called Lucinda Williams that served as an introduction to...
January 2009
3 posts
Right before your naked steaming laptop eyes...
I’m not much for video games. Never have been. But I was a true Van Halen freak back in the day, and I suppose there will always be a little VH in me that all those Sammy Hagar fronted albums and endless reunions will never be able to destroy. So I get a kick out of this flash game where you get to shoot “assteroids” out of David Lee Roth, who is in permanent jump position....
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Judge this one by the cover: Bruce Springsteen's...
This is Bruce Springsteen, so a little respect is in order. And maybe some repeated listens. But first we have to downplay our expectations, which isn’t easy to do. Long the perfectionist, Springsteen is known for taking years between albums, obsessively pouring over track listings and details, and leaving entire albums worth of material for the archives. The quick turn around of this...