Frank Gutch Jr: On the Road With The Lisa Parade and Maxine Dunn (Plus Them All-Important Notes)

I took a drive yesterday.  I had been sitting in front of the computer screen too long and accomplishing little of anything at all and I needed a break.  Usually when I hit the road I take music I need to hear for writing reasons but this time I needed time to myself.  I grabbed one I had the urge to review by Town Mountain which when I pulled open the CD cover discovered was minus the disc.  I had left it in my computer player at home.  I have lost more than one disc that way.  The other two were there though and I had heard neither all the way through for over a year:  Lisa Parade‘s Finding Flora and Maxi Dunn‘s Edmund & Leo.  I couldn’t wait.

Frank Gutch Jr: David Bullock: The Price of Obscurity and the Struggle For Balance; Plus Notes

The first thing David Bullock said to me when I asked about his new EP, In the Waking World, was, and this is paraphrased, “How do I write my bio without emphasizing Space Opera?”  I wanted to say hell if I know but the more I thought about it the easier it seemed.  Only because I probably know more about that band than maybe a dozen people out there (beyond the crazies who go out of their ways to find out what a musician has for breakfast).

Frank Gutch Jr: The Music Industry: The More It Changes The More It Stays the Same, Plus Notes…..

I know it’s true because I have just had an epiphanic weekend (and a few naps) and can see clearly now (with a nod to Johnny Nash, whose I Can See Clearly Now has indeed stayed the same for decades).  It has been a flashback in more ways than one.  The music, of course, for I have been handed some of the best retro I’ve heard in some time.  A few thoughts came to mind too, thanks to Jaimie Vernon‘s reactivated Bullseye Canada Records and a bit of time trying to figure out exactly what happened to the old music industry paradigm, and while I see a bright future for music I see a constant morphing happening as well.  The print side of music is also showing signs of life again, though not yet for writers, who will have to suffer the bread lines for awhile longer if not forever.

Frank Gutch Jr: Jim Colegrove… Death, Chicago, and Nixon… Plus Notes

When last we heard from Mr. Colegrove, he was headed back to Ohio with drummer N.D. Smart II for Christmas.  When he got back, the first person he called was his old buddy Phil.  They talked over old times with Phil’s brother, Bruce, and as Jim told them of the happenings in the Big Apple, Bruce became enraptured.  He had a week before classes were to start up again so he volunteered to drive Jim back.  When it was time, they piled Jim’s belongings into Bruce’s VW and headed back.  Two days later, they were in New York.

Frank Gutch Jr: Sometimes the Past Is the Future (and Sometimes the Past Is Just the Past)— Revisiting Items Which Beg Revisiting…..

Lots going on in music these days— Apple announcing their foray into streaming (I love the headlines such as “Apple May Save the Recording Industry”— I mean, what idiot thought that one up?) and the Brian Wilson biopic (My buddy Stan Twist says that if you are either a Brian Wilson or a Beach Boys fan, you won’t want to miss it) and there are lots of new albums to go over.  And, as always, old ones too.  But…

Frank Gutch Jr: Dave McGraw & Mandy Fer, Danny Schmidt, and Susan James— I Can’t Stand the Silence; plus Notes (and an apology to David Olney)…

I am being steamrolled.  It is a conspiracy, or maybe just the herd instinct.  What is the herd instinct?  That is the terminology we used when I used to work in retail records when for half an hour people would mill around the store until one came to the register, at which time those remaining followed.  We would check out three people in half an hour and suddenly there were fifty people standing in line.  Today it would be called WTF?  Then, we chalked it up to the herd instinct.

Frank Gutch Jr: If Music Is Dead, You Bastards Killed It! The Life— A Seattle Legend in My Own Mind… (plus notes)

That’s right.  You!  You, the Incipian Heed, the Flaccid Peni, the Ego Centered!  You, the ones who are always talking about how much they know about music and fart facts in concentric circles.  You, who complain that there is no good music anymore while listening incessantly to the decades-old— music which by all rights should have been put to bed long ago but instead is held high by listeners who stopped listening as examples of what music used to be.  Well, you can kiss my Rival Sons-loving ass!  All of you who don’t know that band, pucker up.

Frank Gutch Jr: My Love Affair With the 45, Susan James (A Lady You Really Need To Hear), and Notes (The Door To the Music and Music News You May Be Missing)…..

I look back on my life and understand why music has taken up most of my life, though few others do.  I am an anomaly to them– an outcast in a world of careers and families and politics and so many other things so more important and I can see that like Red Green and all of the excellent male role models on The Red Green Show, they accept me like I am, even if it’s not what they usually accept, and only if they have to.  They have had to, I suppose, for I am who I am and that is not said as pure statement but with the realization that over the years I have tried to change.