Neither Shall You Steal . . .

. . . Music is about as physical as it gets: your essential rhythm is your heartbeat; your essential sound, the breath. We’re walking temples of noise, and when you add tender hearts to this mix, it somehow lets us meet in places we couldn’t get to any other way. –Anne Lamott

Right now I’m sitting on my bed, enjoying the beautiful scratches and pops of the Melody Men Gospel Quartet on my record player. I love listening to records. There’s just something more natural and organic about hearing music this way. I love the sound right before the music starts, when the needle is first dropped on the vinyl. It’s the first breath of life in the music. It’s the conductor bringing up his baton, while the whole orchestra lifts their shoulders and takes a deep breath.

Then the orchestra begins to play. It isn’t perfect, but it’s good. It’s really good. Every once in a while you can hear the sound of the viola player scooting her chair, as the needle hits a little imperfection in the grooves. Sometimes, if the record is old enough and warped enough, you can hear the whole orchestra speed up for just a second. I love when that happens.

(Ooh, this record is really popping right now. Excuse me while I flip it over)

If only you could take a record player with you as you go throughout your day. It would be so great to have a soundtrack following you everywhere you go. I guess that’s why IPods are so cool. Oh, by the way, someone stole my IPod last night. They also stole all the change out of my change jar.

I guess the moral of this story is: Please give me my IPod back.

The Infinite Wisdom of Mark McGrath

Last night I did something I’m not very proud of. I don’t even particularly know why I’m telling you about it now . . . I went to a Sugar Ray concert . . . gulp . . . And you know what? I could tell you about how lame I felt there, or how bad the opening band was. I could go into great detail describing these washed up, 8 or 9 hit wonder, forty-somethings. I could try and justify why I was even there in the first place (I got free tickets, okay!).

But (now that I’ve adequately and passive-aggressively told you/not told you all of the above things), let me tell you about this “Infinite Wisdom” of Mark McGrath.

Sugar Ray got its start back in the late ‘80s, only they were called Shrinky Dinx back then and the band was more of a high school hobby. So, this band had been around for quite some time. Last night Mark McGrath said that people always ask why they’re even trying to make new music and be on the road anymore, since it’s obvious that their days of spreading their wings an flying (get it?) around the “Billboard stratosphere” are long gone and they’ll never have the fame they had back in the late 90’s. To which Mr. McGrath replied “Because we’re a ____ing band! And what we do is play ____ing music!”

What a brilliantly prolific statement Mr. McGrath. I’m in a band too and I play music. I know that one day my perfectly chiseled McGrath-like body will start to sag and wrinkle. And my frosty tipped hair will one day turn gray and fall out. But, I hope that I always love music and always love playing music. I hope that even if no one cares or pays attention I continue playing, just like Mark and the boys.

I once heard the singer of a band called Absinthe Blind say “We’re in the business of Rock & Roll. And business is good!”

So, Mr. McGrath, Mr. Fein I salute you both.

Self-Promosexuality

The Rocketboys just set up an online store. It's the only place to pre-order our new record 20,000 Ghosts (official release date is 9-29-09). You can also get our other releases there. And t-shirts are coming soon.

Hey, what's wrong with a little shameless self-promotion? eh? Isn't that really why I started this blog anyway? Or was it?

Back in Black

I suppose I kind of dropped the proverbial ball there with the last couple of weeks of the tour. But if you really want to read about it you can visit SceneSC.com and read what Mitch and Daniel had to say about the last couple of weeks of our tour with Dear Future.

If you’ve ever toured in a band you can relate to what I’m talking about . . . There’s this feeling when you get back from being on the road that I can only describe as “Brooks Hatlen Syndrome.” Remember in The Shawshank Redemption when the old librarian (Brooks Hatlen was his name) finally got out of jail and had the hardest time adjusting back into a life outside of prison? Well, that’s how I’ve felt since getting back to Austin (don’t worry, this isn’t a cry for help before I hang myself in a halfway house). But, I drive around in my own car, I sleep in my own horribly uncomfortable bed, I hang out with the same people each day. It’s strange. It takes some getting used to. Only now am I getting back into the swing of things.

Also, I just got the new Nathan Philips record! He used to be in The Winston Jazz Routine, and he just realeased his first record under his own name. Give it a listen.