One Kind Of Person, And Another

There’s one kind of person who will watch a football game
Another kind who watches the same game a second time

There’s one kind of person who spends a little more than the gift card amount
Another kind who spends a tiny bit less

Theres one kind of person who enjoys ketchup
Another kind who enjoys it even when it’s green

There’s one kind of person who buys a faux leather jacket
Another kind who buys a real leather jacket

There’s one kind of person who enjoys a cup of coffee
Another kind who pays attention to the roast date and elevation of the bean

There’s one kind of person who will watch Seinfeld reruns all night
Another kind who will pay top dollar to see Jerry live

There’s one kind of person who wouldn’t turn off your music if it came on
Another kind who will choose to listen to your music on purpose

There’s one kind of person who will choose to listen to your music
Another kind who wants to see you play it live

There’s one kind of person who will come to your show
Another kind of person who wants to talk to you afterwards

There’s one kind of person who will listen for free on Spotify/YouTube
Another kind who steals/downloads music for free

There’s one kind of person who thinks they have the best phone
Another kind of person who believes they have the best phone

There’s one kind of person who will listen to the Serial podcast
Another kind who will host a listening/debate party

Each one of these groups displays a distinct type of lifestyle, trust and loyalty.  Each one of these is a fine type to be.

What type of people gravitate to your song/product/picture/event?  What type don’t?  Find answers to both of these questions, not one or the other.

Christmas and New Year's Part 2

Yesterday I didn’t have possible answers to the question yesterday’s blog brought up: what do we do with (or call) this time between Christmas and New Year’s (Dec 26-31).  As there seems to be a desire for it to be SOMETHING.

I’ll throw out a few I’ve been thinking of today:

The State Holiday- it becomes the norm to go visit a new city in the state you live in.  Hotel rates are reduced for in-state people, restaurants have food and drink specials, there’s large social gatherings downtown and maybe even a brief history lesson given by the mayor about that particular city.  

Blah blah blah, don’t tell me how it won’t work. Tell me how it could work.

The Phone Calls with Friends- everyone makes a list of six people they love, but have failed to get to know better during the previous year.  Call one per day, one hour each, that’s the minimum.  How is this not a good idea anyway?

Around The World In Six Days- in your family or friend group, choose six different countries from around the world and dive into and celebrate their culture.  Food, drink, norms, rituals, clothing, the whole thing, go for it. One country for each day.

Would you take the lead on one of these? Or a different idea? If making videos of dumping ice and water on your head can take over the universe, I think a great idea that identifies December 26-31 has a chance.

The Time Between Christmas And New Year's

More than any other year in the past, I’ve been hearing a lot of people talk this year about the time in between Christmas and the New Year.  Some people have said it feels like a week long Sunday, some people want to work, some don’t.  But people are commenting on it.  People have been chirping.

There seems to be confusion with what to do with this time.  Maybe confusion isn’t the right word, but there is a desire for this time to BE something. To be called something. For it to have a designated purpose.

In general we give gifts on Christmas and dance on New Years.  What do we do in between?  Could there be some type of week long celebration?  Do we have the attention span? Is America capable of celebrating for an entire week?  

There used to be lots of multi-day celebrations.  But now we just build it up for two months and blow it out in one day.  Then we zombie walk around for a week before smooching into the new year.

There’s an opportunity here for some great idea to take off. An idea filled with joy and appreciation.  I think people are ready and asking for it. I’m not sure what the idea is.  Haven’t given it too much thought.  But I see an opening for something new and great.

What do you think?

The Last One Downstairs

When you’re first starting out in band there are no 15 passenger vans, no tour buses, and no hotel beds to rest your head on at night after the show. The hope is that someone in the band happens to have a friend of a friend of an uncle who lives within an hour of the venue.

It’s late. You just played the gig and finished loading your gear out of the venue around 2am.  You try to find some food on the way to the house you’re staying at, but it’s all back roads so it’s a no-go.  Hopefully they’ve got some late night snicky snacks at the house.

You’re always more lucky when the people you’re staying with are a married couple. Sorry single people, it’s tried and true, you’re not as good at hosting bands.  Also, the older the couple is, the better…to a point.  

They’re kind of excited to have a rock band staying at their house so they leave a note on the kitchen island saying they’ll have breakfast ready in the morning around 8am.

Great. Just great. By now it’s 3am.  You want the FREE breakfast pretty badly and it’s going to be good. But that 8am number is screaming at you with a force of a thousand bass amps.

So this is the part I love.

A couple of the people in the band love mornings anyways, so they’re definitely going to be up.  Then there’s another one or two who will be polite and wake up at least in time to be at the breakfast table by 8:30am.

And then there’s the straggler.

I love this.

When he woke up he heard chatter and laughter in the kitchen and knew he was in trouble. He knows it’s well after 10am (much less 8 or 9) as he’s walking downstairs.  And when he finally rounds the corner to make his entrance into the kitchen, the comments just begin to flow. It’s merciless. It’s pomp and circumstance dedicated to this sorry, late, soul.

“Weeeeeeeell, look what the cat dragged in”

“Your eyes are puffy”

“So nice of you to join us/the land of the living”

“We thought you’d died in your sleep”

“Rough night?”

“If you’d have waited a little longer you would have been on time for lunch”

“You’re late”

“Don’t worry, we made the coffee extra strong”

Literally all of these plus a lot more get said almost at the exact same time. Everyone’s a comedian. The straggler doesn’t stand a chance.

A similar situation probably happened for some of you in your Christmas celebration this morning. The last one into the room gets it handed to them.

I’m not sure why this happens, but it happens every single time. You can set your watch.

How do I know this?

See you at 10am.  Bite me.

A Few Good Albums

The second someone recommends a song or album to me, my expectations start to rise.  For movies too.  I was worried when I went to see Interstellar because three of my really good friends had already seen the movie and had told me at length of how amazing it was. The movie overcame the build up and totally blew me away.

So for the end of the year in music, I want to pass along three bands/albums that I discovered this year and really enjoyed.  Instead of focusing on their music I’m going to focus more on the reason that I checked them out in the first place.  

Dovetail- Mount Karma- I’m so tired of seeing write ups where blogs/magazines/bios describe the new artist by saying “if so and so had a musical baby with so and so…”.  So dumb.  But when I was scrolling the internet before SXSW in March I saw a tiny little headline saying there was a band who sounded like The Beatles, The Beach Boys and Muse. MUSE?!  

For some reason adding Muse into the bag of usual suspects really perked my attention.  I’m not usually a sucker for headlines like that. But it worked this time. Glad it did.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJRX2YzuVLs
Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/artist/6wkfUp3u5n3gNiK1tl0Fhi

Colony House- When I Was Younger- I’d heard they signed a record deal and were working on an album, I talked with their A&R guy earlier this year a couple times, their drummer, Will, bought a house in my neighborhood, the band I used to be in played a couple shows with them.  So when they actually released their album, there had been so many seemingly organic impressions, I was primed to connect with the album, I checked it out. 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qodjejRp8I
Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/artist/6R664N4cEza3eORSqKSgO4

Augustana- Life Imitating Life- This was all about reputation and trust.  I loved their last album. I’ve probably written about it before.  Some guys I’ve been playing for really like Augustana and told me to check out their new album. I did. I didn’t like it as much as the previous one.  They told me to give it a few more listens.  I did. Now I love it.  

The reason why I took the time to listen to it a few more times was because Augustana was already a familiar voice.  A voice I trusted to sing to me and take me somewhere I wanted to go.  

Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/43mMU0PwhSXcS007HfrASo

Why does music work sometimes? I don’t know.  Do everything in excellence.   

Bands: Talk About This

When you’re in a band there’s a couple areas that seem very basic but are rarely approached…while being vital to success.

The first is to admit and discuss the idea of taking it seriously.  No one stumbles into success, no matter how much you want to believe it, no matter how easy some icons pawn it off to be.  At some point you must admit to yourself and to your band that it matters to you, that you have expectations, ideas and goals that you want this vehicle (the band) to help you achieve.  Talk about this.

The second is to identify and discuss the roles of the people in the band.  Well, if nothing else, speak out loud who the leader(s) are.  If you’ve been a band for more than 6 months, there is probably a general understanding of this, but bands rarely take the time to actually say it.  Talk about this.

A band is a strange beast, where all members are equal but each have a different value.  Talk about this.