If you read my ‘Women in music, or little girls?” post you will know how I feel about female artists of late. Well, I went with my friend SuzAnn to see Lady Gaga. I’m not necessarily a fan, but like I’ve said before, I’ll go and hear almost anything live, at least once. It is the best way to truly assess an artist. Especially in today’s musical climate. Are they actually singing? Are they able to play the instrument they are photographed with? What is their message? Can they communicate that message artfully? etc.

If you saw Taylor Swift’s performance at The Grammys this year, you will know what I’m talking about. The Grammys forbids the use of auto-tune or lip syncing. They also like pairing up artists of contrast or different eras. Putting Taylor Swift with a veteran performer like Stevie Nicks was simultaneous brilliant and stupid. Either the mastermind behind that arrangement had it in for Taylor or was stupid enough to believe that Taylor could actually hold her own. I love that the label issued a statement to the public defending Taylor’s out of tune singing as technical difficulties. Who on this earth would buy that? OMG! Anyway….I’m not here to talk about her….I digress.

Lady Gaga, love her or hate her, is the real deal. I know enough people connected to Lady Gaga to know that the tour was thrown together in minutes and was on the road virtually seconds after her songs were written and recorded. I know that ‘Teeth’ was being recorded in the studio in October and I saw the show in December. That’s almost unheard of. And, she has since completely redesigned the show to take it to Europe and is revamping it again to come back and tour the states as soon as she is finished in Europe. Every single penny she makes is put back into “The House of Gaga”, which from what I understand, is her own empire of set designers, fashion designers, producers and worker bees working in said house to constantly create and develop everything and anything to propel her music and her performances forward. This girl has a strong work ethic….and a drive that is very rare.

She has a very clear message which she unabashedly flaunted. She is entertaining. Her set is full of strong visuals, leaving no stone unturned. Costume after costume, costume within costumes. Even the piano was barricaded and designed to look like a broken down shack of rusty nails and drift wood, she had big black wings on her back and sat squatted on the piano stool by herself and played and sang a ballad really really well. I say that with enthusiasm because that is a big deal, especially with an artist who’s so young and whose music is so electronically driven. That girl can sing and play. I mean, she’s no Herbie Hancock, but she doesn’t need to be.

What blew my mind the most was the diversity of the audience. Sold out shows every night – yes. I know she’s got the gay vote, that goes without saying, so I expected a strong representation of the gay community. I also expected a strong presence of those under 21 years old, and I was not disappointed. What I didn’t expect in a million years was the presence of woman and men, both single and couples over 40…dressed to the nines – mardi-gras style. Mums and Dad’s with their kids, and not sitting down with their faces in their blackberry’s or waiting at the bar until it was all over, but dancing and singing and as into it as their children. Families dressed up like gaga. I’m serious. I’ve never in my life seen anything like it.

Gaga has wormed her way into the hearts of the insecure freak in many a demographic. If you were the wall flower in high school in 1975 or if you are the in-the-closet lesbian in junior high now, she is your ambassador and she knows it. Or maybe you just have a penchant for drama and dressing up, and if it’s as simple as that, she is your queen.

Ok…couple of criticisms. Had my friend Craig (who incidentally represents the queer vote) not called me and ordered me to take earplugs, I would have most likely bled to death in the isles or choked on my own vomit. Now, I’m not a light weight, I’ve been going to concerts since I was 12, and I’ve been in more rock bands than I can remember. I rarely plug my ears (I’m not proud of that, I should), but this was just offensive. It wasn’t that is was loud, it was loud and bad. Strong and wrong. Whoever does her sound should be fired. Distorted, bad levels, you name it. Horrid. There were times when I could only hear the drum loop and nothing else. I could hear the stomping of the feet on the stage and nothing else. Gaga struggled with the mic and the sound, and the show went on, but it was a black mark on the report card…that’s for sure.

Also, it wouldn’t hurt her to polish up her dancing or at least stop pretending she is a good dancer. She could finesse her in between song banter. It’s understandable though. Her rise to super stardom has been so incredibly fast that I think she is still learning to fill the shoes of the level she’s actually at. In a way it’s nice that it’s not so overly produced that it impersonal, but it’s definitely a few notches down from the type of production she is putting forward.

Yes…it was all very self indulgent. Yes…she is determined to be the biggest star in the world. But I’m sure we’ll see her put that celebrity to some use in time. Right now, I can’t imagine she has time for anything. She’s so busy grabbing hold of her constantly evolving and growing status. However she did pair with Cyndi Lauper recently to promote aids awareness, and I have faith that as she settles in to her new found mega stardom she’ll do more for her freaks. She’s a good Italian catholic girl after all.

Lady Gaga….an artist with a vision. An artist who is a woman and proud of it. An artist who will be around for a very long time and will never sway from her directive….world domination. Like it or not, she is here to stay.

My friend and occasional collaborator Dave Palmer produced an album last year. I’ve been meaning to tell you about it, but life has totally gotten in the way of my blogging on a regular basis. Anyway, it is a fine, fine album. In case you don’t know, Cy Coleman, is often quoted as “the youngest member of the elite group of Great American Songbook composers”. He’s responsible for well known standards such as “Witchcraft,” “The Best Is Yet To Come,” “Big Spender” and “The Rules Of The Road” made timeless by Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, Barbara Streisand, Dusty Springfield, Ella Fitzgerald and Peggy Lee (for example). Ella Fitzgerald won a Grammy for her performance of “The Best Is Yet To Come.”

The album, “The Best Is Yet To Come: The Songs of Cy Coleman”, was released September 15, 2009 on New West Records. It’s also on iTunes and various other internet sites. In his inimitable fashion, he completely re-arranged and produced the songs, making them fresh and at times, avant garde and unpredictable. Then, Dave chose to have different female artists perform songs. The production and new arrangements revived the lyrics and created a new indescribable genre in my opinion. It’s also some of the best singing I’ve ever heard.

Fiona Apple contributes two songs (her first new music in five years), alongside other artists such as Missy Higgins, Madeleine Peyroux, Jill Sobule, Nikka Costa, Sara Watkins and Patty Griffin, who sings The Best Is Yet To Come. It’s unlike any version you’ve ever heard of the song, and it’s Patty as you’ve never heard her before. This is what I’m talking about. Who would ever think of Patty Griffin to sing a song that is known predominantly as a jazz standard? It’s brilliant and it creates something unexpected. Something fresh.

Michael Perfitt recorded most of it, and various notable musicians played on it such as Jay Bellerose, Aaron Sterling, Mark Goldenberg, Benmont Tench, Lisa Coleman, to name a few, and of course Dave.

The Best Is Yet To Come, does the original songbook genre justice. I’m not talking about jazz as a broad stroke genre, I’m talking about vocal jazz, The Great American Songbook standard jazz. Know what I mean? This is how I want to hear it. Squeeze new life out of well known songs. Wake them up. Use instrumentation that is not typical. Anyway, you get the idea. It’s great. Really good for the ears and the soul.

Check it out!

It’s done! I’m amazed. What a beautiful gift. See it here and let me know what you think!

Ric Serena

I went to Regina Spektor’s concert at The Greek Theater last Wednesday night.

How was the show? Well….is Regina Spektor a good singer? Yes, without question. Her voice soars and dips, sings almost perfectly on pitch the entire time, is flawless in it’s transition and holds a spectrum of sounds that rival Tori Amos. Is Regina Spektor a good musician? No doubt about it, she plays the piano with expression and feeling, she adds surprising little hooks to the middle of sections that take you by surprise and does this without any hint of rehearsal. Is RS a good songwriter? Yes. I wouldn’t say she’s one of the greats, but she is good and has a style that is unique to her that doesn’t necessarily play by the rules, but exhibits knowledge of the rules and structure that makes songs memorable and sing-able. I particularly like her ‘Laughing With’ song, along with several songs off of her 1st record, ‘Begin To Hope’. Did she have good musicians playing with her? Yes, Matt Chamberlain, who in my opinion is one of the finest drummers in the business, along with a lovely very competent string quartet. So then…why did my friend and I leave after 5 songs?

First, I will admit it was bitterly, b-i-t-t-e-r-l-y cold. Probably the coldest night we’ve had so far this season. That said, I would sit through an ice storm for great music or a great artist. I should also admit that I am not a die-hard fan, I like her well enough; I own her first record and listen to it every now and again. I agreed to go out of curiosity. You understand, you like an artist at a tier 1 level. To decide whether or not you want to move to tier 2, you go to a live show. I am a HUGE fan of live music and find this the best way to really hear an artist. So I went. She delivered but she did not blow me away. She did not reach me, or move me or make me think. She did not reach into my rib cage and rip out my heart. There was no blood on the microphone or the ivory’s. But whatever…that doesn’t bother me so much because very few artists can do that. I also knew that what I saw was an accurate barometer for the rest of the show.

The crucial thing that made me choose a car with a working heater over her remaining set…she played the little girl card. Now I will ask the question I have been asking myself for about 2-3 years…..and I beg for your answers. I’m serious…school me. Why oh why do women feel compelled to behave and/or sing like little girls????? This silly, giggly awe struck thing that goes on? It’s been a fad now for about the last three years and I don’t get it. Regina is 29 or 30 years old. She wore a dress akin to an Alice in Wonderland costume with a cardboard cut out cartoon bow on her neck. She giggled as she shrugged and covered her mouth and I guess it was alluring to those who dig it….but who are they and why? Is it as simple as pedophilia? Please explain.

I look at artists such as Madonna, Chrissy Hynde, Pat Benatar, M.I.A, Bjork, Tori Amos, Patty Griffin, Nikka Costa, Suze DeMarchi and NINA FUCKING SIMONE and I don’t see one of those artists pretending to be a little girl. Fiona Apple is probably an exception, as she has a tendency to behave cute and shy in between songs…but when she opens her mouth she has the voice of a 65-year-old jazz singer who is being channeled from the gates of hell and the gates of heaven simultaneously, so therefore, she gets a pass.

Personally I can’t take it anymore. I can see that she has it all right there…and yet she’s playing it safe and all perfect and it’s sooooo boring and contrived. I want to either be on the edge of my seat, or comfortably sitting back in my seat enjoying what the artist does brilliantly without any facade.

I know, I know. I sound jaded. I’m just merely asking the question. Why is popular? I really wanted to love Regina’s show…truly. I still believe she is remarkably talented, but the image…needs an overhaul in my humble (not that anyone gives a fuck) opinion. Where is the next great female role model? Because this little girl thing is tired.

Something happened recently. Something exciting. I met a lovely lady, Jen at my last Genghis show. She is a photographer. She asked about shooting some pics for me sometime and one day I intend to take her up on that offer. She took my Sometime In Morning CD. Her husband, Ric contacted me and asked if I’d be interested in making a music video with him. They’ve been playing my CD and Ric and Jen fell in love with the music. I checked out his portfolio and thought, why the hell not!? I’ll confess, I’ve been down this road before. I had a producer/director combination get all excited about a music video when I released Sponge Brain. We spent two days shooting two videos…lots of time, money, volunteers, energy obtaining permits etc. To this day, I have nothing to show for that. The producer never saw it through. Good intentions all around, I’ve no doubt. You see, it’s all fun and games to get a creative group of people together to shoot for a few days, but to actually sit down and sift through the footage and create something great takes more vision and grunt work, more time and energy. So alas, nothing ever came of it. Suffice it to say, I was skeptical (and graciously told Ric so), but thought, what do I have to loose.

Well…..OMG! What a fabulous day of shooting. Easy, quick, professional. Other than buying lunch, I wasn’t asked to do anything but perform. Ric is a-m-a-z-i-n-g. I’m convinced that this guy one day will be a well-known name in his field. Efficient, professional, honest, creative, realistic and thorough! He brought a crew with him, (and not just anyone, I mean guys who know what they are doing!) awesome equipment and great attitudes all round. I have no doubt that I will see a final cut very soon. I’m very excited. It’s quite thrilling.

Oh, what song? As the title states, he chose I Live In Hope. (One of my personal favourites, if I’m allowed to say so). Ric even submitted it to the producers he knows on The Good Wife. (fingers crossed). The song is also to be featured on the soundtrack for The Seven Rays by Jessica Bendinger in the coming weeks and of course, it’s part of The Secret’s Of The Immortal Nicholas Flamel series by Michael Scott for Random House.

How cool. YAY!

I Live In Hope video shoot

In a way, this ties in a little with my last post about Cinespace – you can read it here. You see, Genghis wasn’t a huge gig for me…it was a small gig that I didn’t overly promote, but more or less treated as a test for new material. I had a good turn out but I didn’t go “all out” if you know what I mean. You see, I know that JT at Genghis knows how to run a venue. One good sounding room and one good act at a time, and each act compliments the following act. There is no risk…do a show, play for people, and things like this happen! Thank you Ric! Thank you Genghis Cohen!

I recently received an email from a long time musician friend, Mikey De Lara. Mikey is an outstanding singer/songwriter. When you hear him you scratch your head and wonder why he’s playing to a room with a mere 10 people. It doesn’t make any sense. The subject of his email read “2nd to last LA show…EVER!”. He stated that he’d had enough, that LA just wasn’t working and several other reasons that supported his decision. It all made sense, but I have to confess, I felt a little disappointed and got a little judgmental about it. I thought it was too severe, giving up and that, and (like many, many of us) Mikey should just enjoy playing for the love of it and play his music for himself. After all, at some of my shows with the lowest attendance, I’ve still met someone interesting, had someone become a life long fan or even met someone who wanted to collaborate on songs, make a music video and much more. Let’s not leave out that one can always play out of town and come back. Change your expectations, I thought.

Well, any sliver of judgment or thinking to counter his “I’m giving up” email, absolutely dissipated last night. Thank you Cinespace. After Cinespace last night, I was 100% with Mikey. I was done. Done like a dinner. Moving, leaving, giving up, WTF am I doing….D.O.N.E! It’s the first time I’ve ever stopped a gig and walked off stage in my entire life. Why? What happened? Well….this is a good one, brace yourself as you may need a crash helmet! I certainly did.

First let me say, (I’m free to say whatever I want right? It’s my blog and no-one is reading it yet!) I knew deep in my bones and my gut that it was going to be a badly managed situation. I have enough experience to judge by the correspondence leading up to the gig from the booking agent. But thought to myself, try a new venue, give it a shot, play to new people, be positive, don’t be pessimistic and so on. So I said yes to a small intimate acoustic show in what they were calling the V.I.P. lounge, early at 8pm, half an hour set. I’d been to the venue many times before, and even though it had been a little on the tragically hip, too-cool-for-school side for me, I’d had a good time and seen some wickedly good bands there. Figured playing in the acoustic lounge would be easy to warm people up for the bigger room and for me to “check it out”. So I do the stuff; read the contract, promote, rehearse, organize set lists, rehearse some more, invite special guests and friends, plan what to wear, coordinate with everyone else, car pool, get money together for musicians…grab my cds and my list and cards, read the contract again, arrive an hour before as stated.

We arrive and realize that the VIP acoustic lounge, is in fact the smoking lounge. NICE! Hey…be positive…set up, play for the nice smoking people and the people that have schlepped out to see you and paid $10 for the privileged. Set up done, sound check done. Just as we settled to wait until the curtain call (I say that to add to the comedy, as there was no curtain, or dressing room). We then noticed, right outside the glass doors separating us from the bar, a band was sound checking, probably 20 feet from us. That’s strange, we thought. Then said band starts, or should I say, THRASH METAL BAND starts!!!! Are you serious? Why oh why on god’s great earth would anyone book a thrash metal band to play in a small bar at 8pm? (Note: thrash metal should have a mandatory start time of any time after 11pm, and thrash metal should have an entirely different venue from any other genre that doesn’t have the word metal in it, but that goes without saying, right? Apparently not.) So I look at our designated engineer and he acknowledges my disdain. He leaves to try to get them to play a little softer (insert laughter here!). I say “Mate, this isn’t going to work, you know that right?” He begs me to try one song to see if we can “drown them out”, turn lemons into lemonade he says. We know it won’t work, I mean how can a 1950s Gibson acoustic guitar and an upright bass drown out a double kick drum and bass and guitar amplifiers and some guy screaming within an inch of his life? We give it a shot. But, halfway through “Cat Up A Tree” I apologize to the audience and tell them we will not be playing. I walk off stage. The sound man, in between spits and spats of frantic exclamations that “it’s not my fault!” tells me he will see what he can do. Kaveh (bass player) says “Fuck these guys! Let’s just go and get dinner with your guests and call it a night!” He was right. Engineer du jour returns and then the sound drastically died down from Thrash mania, so we decided to give it a second try. It wasn’t a great show, it was a decent show, but it wasn’t a great show. We were professional and did what we were there to do…albeit reluctantly, but did so for the friends, fans and smokers there who had paid to see us play.

In the light of day, I’m not ready to leave LA, but I am ready to be waaaay more trusting of my instinct and where I play in Los Angeles. you see I broke my own rules. There are rules to booking live shows, and definitely rules to booking new venues.

Rule #1 – Go to the venue! Go before you agree to the gig if you haven’t been in over 6 months. Go on the same night at the same time you are supposed to play. Venues change management regularly.

Rule #2 – Ask about the other rooms and ask what bands are scheduled at the same time before and after you. Their names, their style, their shoe size.

There are more rules…but these are the most important BEFORE you agree to a show in a new venue.

I have a dear friend, Jeff Dean who played bass in my band for about 5 years…the sponge brain era, he’s stupidly talented. I’ll never forget this as long as I live. We were backstage at a gig in Beverly Hills, we’d been barked at, moved, told not to touch the food (it was a private party), told not park in the valet area, to self park and the list goes on. Then finally they put us in the janitors area and told us to wait until we were called. I turned to Jeff and he said, deadpan, “Next they will lay us down and just piss in our mouths!” As hysterically funny as that was and still is when I think of it, I do feel like last night came close to that. At the end of it all, it’s not their fault, it’s my fault for assuming that they would take care or their artists and do their job well. Big mistake! It’s my fault for breaking my own rules. I guess it’s true, even in the worst situations, you do learn something. I apologize Mikey. You go and find that greener pasture. I support you 100%!

Evelyn Glennie shows how to listen

Thanks to Lyle Caine for sending this my way. It resonated greatly with me…and hopefully will with you too. Amazing. If you don’t have time to sit through the whole piece, fast forward to about 28 mins or so….her finale performance is magic. http://www.evelyn.co.uk/homepage.htm

You may or may not know that I teach singing. I’m going to write a bit about it here in the new blog and I welcome questions.

I had the opportunity to work with the actor Mark Webber for the upcoming film Scott Pilgrim vs The Universe. All the music was written by Beck and Brian Lebarton, using Beck’s voice (big shoes to fill) and may I add, Mark had never sang a note in his life! I’ve taught members of Beck’s band, so that is how the connection was made. Mark came in one day for an assessment, after which, I called the producers to give them the news that Mark really wasn’t in the greatest shape vocally, it could be done, but it could take weeks, months, maybe years to get him to sing. Mark was committed, they were committed so we rolled up our sleeves and went to work. We only had 2 – 3 hour lessons daily for 3 weeks before they intended to throw him into a studio in Toronto with Nigel Godrich (yes you heard me correctly)! OMG anybody?

Well….he is quite possibly one of the most amazingly talented individuals I’ve ever met. He did it. He turned his voice around in that time and they ended up replacing all Beck’s vocals with his. I’m so proud of him. Go and see the film when it comes out!

He also has a film out…he wrote and directed it and it’s called Explicit Ills. You can find out more about it here….http://www.explicitillsthemovie.com/ Support him! He’s one of the good ones!

I went with my kiwi mate and new collaborator Florence Hartigan to hear one of my idols, Neil Finn at Largo last week. He is without a doubt one of the greatest. Always a humbling experience. He writes masterful songs with drop dead melodies. His voice is always spot on. He can play guitar within an inch of his life. He’s my Paul McCartney. If you are not familiar…check out Split Enz, Crowded House, The Finn Brothers and his solo work – Neil Finn.

My older brothers used to listen to Split Enz, so I grew up with that. My girlfriends and I were Crowded House groupies in School. I caught one of Neil’s guitar picks at a Sydney Uni Show. After my pal Allie I kept yelling at him, he finally knelt down and asked us what we wanted to hear….he then obliged and played Sister Madly for us. He singled out my other friend Alison N at The State Theatre….”this is for the girl up the back in the red shirt!”…we still laugh about that.

So yes, as you can see, I have nostalgic attachments, but I can honestly say, now as an adult, a singer/songwriter and a musician, he’s as good as it gets. Thanks Neil for being you. Neil with my friends Wendy & Lisa and also Sebastian on bass If you need more…spend some time on youtube, he’s all over.