violins, 'staches, planes, and ink
much has happenned since the last post, but i didn't want that one to be left in the dust and not read, so i left it awhile. but that's fine bc somehow we have now made it to a time where you don't know what temp it's gonna be when you wake up and you could almost pretend that you're about to grab... long sleeves.
hmm so what all has happenned. for a couple of days i sported this chris cornell-type 'stache, you know all thin like a frenchman but i decided that it is only chris cornell that can make that sporty lil facial hair NOT look like an ass-puppet.
and my folks flew up here to visit, and i got to host them and show them a good 1.3% of d.c. and attempt to make it look like i haven't converted the living space i've been renting into a petrified mousehole and they got to see the first strathmore show and i got to be all happy and full-hearted that they were sitting there proudly and content. they gave everybody pralines and tony chachere's and other louisiana stuff and all the yanks up here were charmed at how nice and southern they were. in the least patronizing way possible i'm sure.
while they were here we went to the air and space museum, and i was taken aback at how much this place induced my imagination and wonderment. i just couldn't believe that place if you have the chance to go, there are few things around here i would recommend more. while when i closed my eyes i normally would have been replaying the strathmore stageviews and songnesses that had taken place, all i could see were planes.
the strathmore shows have numbered two thus far, and there are a couple pics on the site. that room is amazing the dynamics and setup and history that just seeps out that lends itself to doing everything you can right then and there musically. but the big grand finale is tomorrows, and i can't wait for all that that's gonna be. for one hot nite, i get to play with a string quartet, and big grand piano on one, and in a big mansion room with everybody from around here who is intent on hearing the new, the heartfelt, the good, and the ugly in one fell swoop. we're gonna have 2 camera guys filming it, and an audio engineer getting down every track individually. what will become of this footage who knows.
the press has been far-reaching. i've had a feature in the washington post which is seen by millions, and an article in the examiner and one in the the express and in a couple days i have an interview for the herndon times. i've been an in-studio guest interviewed on Z104 one of the 4 huge stations up here, and that was pretty rad as well. i think i might not even have to go to plan b at this point, writing all songs with 3 chords in the style of green day that only talk about one of 3 subjects, and hiring an entertainment hustler named 'LuSid'.
and tomorrow morning will be one of those once in forever kind of morns when i am awoken by the overnight boxes of CDs. i can't explain how that's better than christmas. i really want people to hear this stuff. please order it if you are on the fence, because i don't know when i'll be around- i'm kinda trying to see exactly when will be good times for touring when, but it has been hard of late. if anyone has an old solar-powered hovecraft out in the garage that they haven't been using, i'll come pick it up.
tonight we're goin to see sufjan stevens, and the illinoisemakers. i am so excited i'm about to eat my arm.
anyway, time keeps on slippin into the future. give me a holler if u can n want.
Liner note editorial for Genrecide
For this album in particular I wanted to give a little bit of context as to either preface or at least supplement the music, to give more of an idea of where my head was in relation to what I have done here. My friends and those close to me know that I half jokingly and all-too-frequently refer to my generation as well as the subsequent one as the "A.D.D. Generation" because of the way that we have been programmed in our current culture- we are all so scattered and not only can't concentrate on squat but try and entertain us and you can go ahead and ask for riverfront property in Nebraska too. In fact, if you are still reading this, you just might be holding the right album. The truth is that the way that our media has progressed in the modern age has much to do with how we remember, how we judge, how we enjoy. Tidbits and sound bytes circle around us at amazing speeds, all visual, calculated, and efficient.
Unfortunately this has had just as much of an effect on our entertainment industry. As every self-respecting indiekid knows, mainstream pop radio has come to the point where most songs bought and sold at the conglomerate level are about as processed as the boxes of crackers sold at our grocery stores. Everything from the way that they are written to the way they are recorded to the way they are trimmed down to the most 'efficient' and 'hook-based' models of success is resonant of how we conduct our business. But what has become so sad to those of us actually making music just because we love to, is that this model has nothing to do with the music that inspired us to play in the first place. You can't really find any calculation in the way that old Zeppelin vinyl or Derek and the Dominos sessions took form, and the fact is that is how it ended up so special.
Over and over I have found myself in discussions with other musicians about how and why we should really hold steady to particular creeds about what we are doing. But what it all boils down to is the age-old task of trying to bridge the gap between pleasing both yourself as a musician while also pleasing the audience who supports and allows your existence. Whatever your place in the spectrum may be, whether you are Miles Davis turning your back to the audience to demonstrate that the music exists independent of audience accreditation, or whether you are some career artist on your comeback tour playing all the hits for your yuppie patrons, the fact still remains that good music can only survive if quality persists, and the artist and audience are symbiotic.
And so here it is: this album is my own open challenge to the a.d.d. that resides in us all. I have found that my own reaction to all the hyped-up consumer entertainment of late is to gravitate more back to music that is open, music that contains spaces between the notes, music that breathes. The music that inspires me more and more is that which requires my active listening and the participation of my mind. I like when instruments have percussive qualities without percussion, and when production is spared to tastefully give weight to each thing that is happening. These recordings seem to be more true to what is good about live performance. And I've tried to let the music meander where it will without schedule, while taking the best route as well. I am learning the middle ground, and I can only hope the learning will never stop.
Daniel Lee, Fall '05
o my sweet louisiana...
the thing that i noticed about the way that mapquest and googlemaps programmed their shist is that if you want to know generally how to get somewhere and you just type in a city, they will automatically assume that you will be departing from Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and they will take you from there, NO MATTER WHAT CITY YOU ARE COMING FROM. i wonder if these programmers enjoy celebrating diversity.
so i am always of the frame of mind that it is good to try and recognize the good side of everything, and i wanted to point out that in my attempt to do so for this country's newfound relationship to gas i think the good side would be that: now it is simply unarguably so that people riding around in hummers are COMPLETE TOOLBAG MORONS.
my head of late has totally been absorbed into the state of affairs down south in both the city in which i spent all of my formative years and its counterpart, the carnival city half deceased, for which i have had much love. and oddly enough i truly wish i were down there in baton rouge for all of this, experiencing every degree of change, with my fams. it just doesn't really feel right that i am more than one degree of reality from it all. the fact is, the city that i return to where i grew up will never again be the same city. right now it is double its population and it is overcrowded with refuge and desperate fervent humanity. i want to talk to everybody i know there, and i want to care for my sweet louisiana. my dad was telling me that there are houses that have been up for sale for 8 and 10 months with not much interest that have all just been grabbed up immediately.
all that said, i had a hella good road trip the past week. went on down for a quick pass-thru of the atl, and after somewhat of a hiatus there played eddie's again. it is damn good news that both eddie is back and the new owner is doing such an awesome job- things seem to be so much more in order for the way the place is kickin, and i can't wait to go back. a big ole crew came out and i am so glad i got to hang even for a bit with who all came. bob n lynn made me feel safe at home after i surprised them in complete daniel form, and i had to go before i was even ready to.
www.danielleemusic.com/gallery_image_view.cfm?id=75next on the rachael sage tour was savannah, and i got to play for a 90% female roomful at the sentient bean. i really dig this place, with its huge arch ceilings and old brick sitting there characteristic as the town, and i think i was really well-recieved. my old roomie and his gal came all the way down from augusta and made it a vacation opportunity. then i stayed with my old friend kyle shiver from boston who lives there now ("georgia kyle") and stayed up for an evening with some radio personalities ranting over cheese and crackers. he is doin better than he thinks. life moves pretty fast. if you don't stop and look around every once and a while, you could miss it.
after an all too short savannah (but not before the prescribed mellow mushroom loungings with greg n nancy), i went on to st. augustine, florida. the oldest city in america? i think not. but for the spaniard ego, fine. on a whim and on gut feeling, i decided to go stay with a guy who used to come see me play at eddies in atlanta who had contacted me, and i couldn't have made a better choice for random human contact. my new friend jay is a soulful mofo who puts his whole heart into his life, friends, work, girlfriend, and i had an awesome time seeing the sights and talking and finding sea turtles and being included in an awesome big ole potluck supper with friends sitting crosslegged around a innovatively extended covered plywood dinnertable, and various other relish-worthy activities. i've hardly ever been made to feel so at home in a place i've never been before. i played some for the crew assembled there, and it was exactly the kind of intimate household musicamaking you simply couldn't plan better. i got to see some of the old-school town with like the oldest pharmacy and the oldest schoolbuilding, and i think the beauty of where i was was upstaged by the people there.
here is me as a sightseer:
www.danielleemusic.com/gallery_image_view.cfm?id=76then i drove 15 hours back home and in zombie form i got to go have a diner milkshake with jo-nation and see some beautimous red hair i haven't seen before but otherwise i am spent. my folks are coming up here next week for the first strathmore performance, and so i will mostly be getting ready for all of that and cleaning out my car and strumming. i hope things are getting towards ok for everyone and that people post some preorders.