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shefanispeculator · 5 years ago

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Ghost – Ray Fulcher

If you haven’t caught him on the Ole Red stage, you’ve probably listened to a few of his songs. That’s right – Ray is an artist-songwriter and has co-wrote eight songs on Luke Combs platinum debut album “This Ones For You,” including the #1 single “When It Rains It Pours.” He is our current Neon Light Feature Artist, and “Ghost” is his most recent single.

Going Going Gone – Ryan Griffin

Fun Fact: Blake Shelton and Ryan are “label mates,” both are signed with Warner Music Nashville. Ryan has played at both Ole Red Gatlinburg and Ole Red Nashville before as a Neon Light Feature Artist. This song is his most recent single inspired by his wife. Don’t you just love, love?

The Ground – Anna Vaus

This talented young female artist was asked to make her Grand Ole Opry Debut on the Ole Red Nashville stage last summer. As a singer-songwriter, Anna brings the heart and soul back to Country Music. This is one of our favorite tracks off her EP “The California Kid.”

Stoned Age – Hannah Dasher

As another former Neon Light Featured Artist, we’ve been lucky enough to have Hannah grace the stages of both Ole Red Nashville and Ole Red Gatlinburg. If you’re a big fan of 90s country, her music has a way of bringing it back to 2020. Hannah received an invitation to make her Grand Ole Opry debut on the Ole Red stage.

Nobody But You (Acoustic) – Blake Shelton & Gwen Stefani

What’s a country playlist without Blake Shelton? Check out the boss man’s newest release!

Pushing Up Daisies – Mikayla Lane

You can catch this 16-year-old Oklahoma native rockin’ the Ole Red Tishomingo stage on any given Saturday night. Don’t let her age fool you, this girl’s got the heart, sass, and pipes to be the next Carrie Underwood.

Ghost – Sara Collins

Sara has been a long time Ole Red Gatlinburg artist, and one that we’re lucky to have. We had to share her with The Voice this season, but we don’t mind. Until it’s safe to come back in and see her at Ole Red, we recommend replaying her Voice performances. We know we are.

Undefeated – Zach Ray

There must be something in the Oklahoma water. Originally an Okie like Blake himself, Zach plays the stage at both Ole Red Nashville and Ole Red Gatlinburg. Raised on Country Music and Jesus, there’s a little something for everyone in Zach’s music. Check out this special tune from his most recent self-titled EP. Here’s to staying undefeated y’all.

Tailgate Town – Matt Rogers

Here at Ole Red, we know a little something about Tailgate Towns, and Matt knows a little something about writing a hit song. If Matt’s not playing at Ole Red Nashville, he’s out writing, and it shows.

My Love – Nick Hickman

Authentic is one of the best words to describe Nick, as an artist and as a person. Formerly an artist of the month at Ole Red Nashville, Nick brings energy and personality to every performance he makes. We bet you’ll have this tune stuck in your head for days.

How Lucky – Rachel Horter

Rachel is at Ole Red Nashville on a nearly weekly basis. Her smooth vocals are unforgettable and showcased at their best in her single “How Lucky.” If you love it, be sure to check out the music video she just released to go along with it.

Straight from Kentucky – JD Shelburne

You’ll know when JD is in the house at Ole Red Nashville. People travel from far and wide to see this super star, and if you listen to his songs, you’ll understand why. Meet us and JD at the Ole Red Nashville stage when all is safe, you hear?

Dear Love – Johnny Cochran

This guy opened up for Blake Shelton at Ole Red Nashville, and man was it killer! “Dear Love” is his most recent single and showcases his strong vocals and electric guitar riffs.

Night Things – Shaun Abbott

We’re always ecstatic to have Shaun at Ole Red Gatlinburg. This song seemed fitting for right now… stuck in self-isolation, there are no rules. You can do whatever you want, whenever you want. We’ll leave the interpretation up to you.

Goodbye Caroline – Monroeville

Monroeville is truly an Ole Red Gatlinburg favorite. Providing the perfect balance between country and bluegrass, this band sets the mood in the Smokies. Let ‘em set the mood in your living room tonight. Turn on some “Goodbye Caroline” and grab that special someone for a slow dance or two.

Shaking Hands – Cole Sitzlar

Cole’s outlaw country attitude cuts through in every one of his lyrics and guitar licks in this song. You could walk into Ole Red Gatlinburg on any given week, and almost guarantee catchin’ a performance from Cole.

Leave Her Wild – Sundance Head

One of the best parts of having your own venue, is getting your friends to play it. One of Blake’s favorites to invite back to the Ole Red Tishomingo stage is Sundance Head. As Season 11 winner of The Voice, Sundance Head brings big time talent to our small town venue.

Game Over – Gracee Shriver

Blake stole this Okie from Kelly Clarkson on the most recent season of The Voice, and boy are we happy he did. If you haven’t already listened to Gracee, it’s “game over” when you do. We can’t wait to bring this talented local and national talent to Ole Red Tishomingo soon.

Mystery – Jesse Labelle

Opening up for artists like Keith Urban, Brad Paisley, Eric Church, and Big & Rich, we’re lucky to have Jesse on the stage at Ole Red Nashville. Originally from Canada, Jesse made the trek to Nashville to pursue his dream of becoming a country artist. We think he’s doing pretty darn good so far, but we’ll let his music do the talking.

Daddy’s Money – Ricochet

Anytime we have this classic 90s group at Ole Red Tishomingo, y’all are grabbing your daddy’s money to buy a ticket to see them. No judgement, we understand. But really, this song is a country hit, you probably already know it.

Keep Up – Rae Lynn

A longtime friend of Blake’s, Rae frequents Ole Reds to play her newest tunes and hang out with the boss. You can always count on Rae to bring the sass and energy to the dullest of times. Her newest single “Keep Up” will bring some excitement to your self-isolation.

Country as Cornbread – Red Marlow

As another member of Team Blake alum, Red has been around for many Ole Red “firsts.” Red is Blake’s buddy and performed this song back at Ole Red Nashville in November 2019. We loved it so much we had to share it. Plus, we know a little something about good country music and cornbread.

Out of Love’s Way – Aly Cutter

It’s truly crazy how small the world is. Aly wrote a few songs for Blake’s good friend Trace Adkins, so it only made sense to have her on the Ole Red Nashville Stage. You know how it is, a friend of a friend of a friend. Now we’re all friends.

There Goes My Heart – Lance and Lea

Y’all know the saying that two is better than one? It’s true. Lance goes with Lea like biscuits go with gravy. You can’t have one without the other. This duo was the Ole Red Nashville artist of the month back in February 2020, and “There Goes My Heart” is one of our favorites from them.

Rockin’ Chair – Craig Wayne Boyd

Blake won season 7 of The Voice with Craig, so at this point you already know it’s a no-brainer that he rocks the stage at Ole Red. We’re proud #Yallers! (That’s a hardcore Craig fan.)

Recycled – Mae Estes

New to the Ole Red family, but you wouldn’t know it. Mae says “I write songs and sing ‘em and that’s about all I’ve got figured out.” Let’s just say, she could have fooled us. Her newest single “Recycle” brings you back home within the first 15 seconds.

Down in Nogales – Shannon Raines

We owe a lot the weekend rug cuttin’ at Ole Red Tishomingo to Shannon Raines and his band. There’s not a lot of current artists who can make classic country sound this good.

Travelin’ On – The Swon Brothers, Vince Gill

Here at Ole Red, we have some of our own holiday traditions. One of them is bringing The Swon Brothers to Tishomingo right around thanksgiving. It’s really hard not to be thankful when you’re listening to this duo. Teaming up with country legend Vince Gill on this track is just icing on the cake.

Burnin’ Gas – Tim Cote

Part time security guard, full-time artist. We like to joke that we’re not sure if Tim actually ever leaves Ole Red Nashville. When this guy isn’t jumping around on stage, he’s at the door keeping y’all safe. This is his newest single, “Burnin’ Gas.”

How The Car’s Running – Emily Ann Roberts

As an East Tennessee native, Emily Ann is close to Ole Red Gatlinburg, but even closer to our hearts. Too sappy? We’ll stop, but it’s a treat any time this one stops by Ole Red. Another one of Blake’s friends we’re lucky to have.

Off My Chest – Stephen Paul

Stephen is rising quickly in the Nashville music scene and “Off My Chest” is the title track on his latest EP release. We just started having him at Ole Red Nashville, and maybe it’s too soon… but Stephen, we love you. Sorry, we had something to get off our chests too.

Good Guy – Alex Smith

Good guy. Incredible and authentic artist. Just listen.

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tangledgal · 6 years ago

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WARNING: SUPER BIG POST! This is a complete list of my ranking of the season 1 and season 2 soundtrack.

Alright, first, I truly like/ love all the songs in the soundtrack, so low-ranked songs are never “bad.” Second, I’m not counting the 3 scores we got with the season 2 soundtrack. Third, I know that once season 3 has released its songs, this list will become kinda irrelevant, but hey, I’m impatient. Lastly, this is all biased so if some songs seem like they should be lower or higher than others, then that’s fine. I don’t claim to be a genius musician. I just prefer some songs over others.

(P.S. this was written in a day so misspellings are likely)

21.) Hook Foot’s Ballad

I don’t think I need to explain why this is the lowest. XD I really don’t mind this song, but it’s so short and just makes me wonder why this was considered a song, but the Reverse Incantation wasn’t! Just . . . meh.

20.) Wind in My Hair (Reprise)

We’ve all heard this one a BUNCH of times, and it’s pretty okay on its own. I just don’t consider this as high on the list just because we’ve heard it a lot and it’s just “Wind in my Hair” but shorter.

19.) More of Me

Another song we hear over and over again, but I’m a sucker for upbeat Disney pop music, and the full song is pretty fun to listen to. Nothing special, but enjoyable.

18.) Next Stop Anywhere (Reprise)

I like this one, but the 30 seconds of just talking at the beginning is a little grating. Again, just “Next Stop” but shorter. Still, Mandy and Zac always sound amazing together.

17.) Let Me Make You Proud (Reprise)

As you see, I put all the reprises last since they aren’t the most . . . interesting, but this is definitely the best of them since this is the MOMENT Varian vows revenge and makes his arc. It’s very powerful and the singing is great, but again, reprise.

16.) Listen Up

A fun song that’s just right for Halloween. I particularly love how it has the same sound as “I’ve Got a Dream,” but in a minor key, making it spoopy! It’s just lower on the list since it doesn’t really add much to the plot. Just a good song.

15.) Life After Happily Ever After

One of the few songs that sound exactly like it came straight from the movie. I like how it fills us in on the plot and with a great melody. Just . . . lots of talking that wasn’t edited out. And not that it’s not good, but I don’t find myself listening to it as often. Still, this was great as the first song of the show and it’s great now.

14.) If I Could Take That Moment Back

Yeah, I’m a New Dream sucker, and this song made me choke up a bit on my first listen. ASIDE FROM THAT, it doesn’t sound too different from most sad love songs. I didn’t want to put it too high because it’s not particularly unique. Not saying it’s BAD at all! The melody is beautiful (especially on the piano), the lyrics are heartbreaking and match up with the situation pretty well, and of course, Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi duet #2. That’s a win in my book.

13.) Livin’ the Dream

Admittedly, I was REALLY surprised when we got a musical number in this episode, and the song did seem really random. Still, this is just a really funny and upbeat music number! It sounds similar to “I’ve Got A Dream,” but with a twist, it’s pretty catchy, the singer does a great job as a replacement for Brad Garrett. I know for most, this wouldn’t usually be this high, but hey, different tastes.

12.) Friendship Song

I will admit, I like this song A LOT more than most people do. Then again, sucker for upbeat-Disney-pop music right here. I love how the instruments are so clear and beautiful, the melody and fast tempo are really fun to listen to, the lyrics can apply to anyone with a bff, and it always puts me in a good mood!

11.) Set Yourself Free

This is a weird one. It is nice to listen to and sung well, but I think my main liking for this song is that I feel a little bit of an emotional connection with it. When I hear this song, I think of the beginning of January and waiting anxiously for the finale of Season 1. I remember seeing a sneak peek of this song briefly, then seeing the episode as all the past moments of season 1 flash through the screen. Idk, it’s not really my favorite, but the feeling I get from listening to this brings back a lot of memories to me. I wouldn't put it lower since it does sound nice and I feel sentimental when listening to it, but it’s not higher since, honestly, it really is just Wind In My Hair, but instead of Rapunzel wishing for something, she’s doing something. Overall, good song.

10.) Everything I Ever Thought I Knew

It’s . . . complicated. The song is so beautiful, I love the opening lyrics and Zachary Levi. Just. . . . just Zachary Levi. However, I’ll admit that I’m not a fan of the whole “Dark Prince Eugene” thing. I never wanted it to be true, and I was low-key disappointed when it was revealed to be true. (Not devaluing the DPE theorists. Just not a personal fan of it being canon.) Still, I think the song does express Eugene’s feelings pretty well and it is kinda amusing when you realize he’s just having an identity crisis. All in all, we’ve waited a long time for a Eugene solo, and though I wasn’t thrilled about the context, still a fantastic song, and I’ll listen to it many times over.

9.) Wind in My Hair

The first full song I listened to from the show, sung beautifully, gives the show a great starting point, feels like a classic Disney princess song, and I simply love it. Next.

8.) Next Stop Anywhere

Great intro song to Season 2! It’s catchy, has amazing singing from the 3, and just a wonderful song. Yea, more unnecessary talking here and there that should’ve been cut out, but I love this song too much. Just like Wind in My Hair, I don’t have a logical reason why I love the song as much as I do. I just do!

7.) I’ve Got This

I love the opening notes to this song and it drags you right into it! It’s really fun to sing along to and pretend to be the angry citizens. Mostly, I love how the song progressively goes from upbeat and positive, then to worry, then to panic, then eventually to sadness. It’s catchy and upbeat, yet depressing and slow, and I love it. (Also, kittens)

6.) Buddy Song

Okay, first, can I just say how much I love the context of this song. While the majority of the other songs have an important meaning behind them or are there for some logical reason, the literal purpose of this song is just because Eugene and Lance are drugged up on flowers and that’s it. Usually, I’d be critical to scenes that are pointless or don’t push the story, but here, I have NO problem with it. It’s so fun and enjoyable in how carefree it is. Not only that, but add Zach and James singing like they are having the time of their lives (and not about to die) all to a jazzy beat and you have a musical masterpiece. I was waiting for this kind of song, and I was not disappointed in the slightest!

5.) Ready As I’ll Ever Be

The first two notes of this song should win an award alone. I love the intensity of this song and how epic it all feels. It stands as an amazing group number, as well as its own song separate from the context. Everyone gets to shine in this song, and it all has a very grand feel to it. Also, it really is the only song of its kind in the whole soundtrack. It’s “the epic theme song before going into battle” song. It’s amazing and really deserves the praise it gets (and then some.)

4.) View From Up Here

Admittedly not the most “dramatic” song. However, there is just so much about this song I love. First, I never expected Mandy Moore and Eden Espinosa to sound so good together! Imho, their harmony is one of the best in the show. Their voices blend so amazingly together and though they are different kinds of singers, they sound so in sync and the difference in their voices add so much! Also, even though this is like “whimsical exploring song # 12943,” it has this energy and charm to it that I can’t describe. The way it’s sung + the instruments make it sound so carefree, weightless, and whimsical. I feel I have no care in the world listening to it. Also, it’s upbeat and catchy (as always) Love it, love it, love it! (Also, the entire song is actually extended from what they sing in the episode, so that’s even better!)

3.) Waiting in the Wings

3 words: Eden Freakin’ Espinosa. Her voice was absolutely perfect for this song. Cassandra singing about her dreams and feelings towards being looked-over are expressed so well in the lyrics, the music, and in the emotion and power in Eden’s voice. It’s not only just an amazing song on its own, but it also gives insight into the character and makes us understand her struggles. I love the how gradually it builds up emotion just like in a classic Broadway song and the final note. Holy crap, THAT HIGH NOTE THO. I adore this song, and it definitely deserves to be in my top 3.

2.) With You By My Side

I’ve been singing this all the time since the end of season 2, and it has never gotten old. The highs and lows each singer reaches in each part sound great, the melody is catchy and hopeful, yet a little solemn and sad. It sounds great and has so much emotion put into each note. The instrumentals are enough to get me to listen to this song! Also, the song itself is a milestone in the character’s relationship that went from acquaintances/ enemies to the best of friends who can’t do anything without the other. It’s a song that means friendship, trials, hope, and the end of a journey. (Or at least that’s what they thought >:))

1.) Let Me Make You Proud

No, I’m not a hardcore Varian fan or Jeremy Jordan fan. Not really even a Broadway fan. What I’m saying is that this song, to me, is perfect. The performance, the music, the context, the instruments, and even the nostalgic feeling I get when listening to this. It’s flawless. Jeremy Jordan is amazing at expressing emotion not through just his voice, but his singing as well. Him playing an emotionally vulnerable 14-year-old who is anxiously traveling through a snowstorm all to save his dad who he isn’t sure will even survive the mistake he made, but his motivation is what’s getting him through, adds so much emotion, personality, and power to this character and song. Also, my memories of watching the D23 panel (on youtube. I wasn’t there) when this was being played over a montage of clips we have and haven’t seen before, exciting us for what was to come, was one of the greatest experiences ever. What else can I say? Just . . . perfection.

Super long post, but I’m happy with my selection and I can’t wait for Season 3!

#tangled the series #rapunzel's tangled adventure #long post #thoughts #honest thoughts #soundtrack #season 2 soundtrack #tangled the series soundtrack #Rapunzel #Eugene Fitzherbert #cassandra #varian #lance strongbow

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tranxendance · 7 years ago

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Must-watch Super Best Friends LPs: A curated list

So, I tried to get a friend of mine into bestfriends when he was in active service and didn’t have much time to sit and watch youtube. While I think you should probably watch all of the bestfriends content, aint nobody got time for that, and there are certain LPs that are just better ones. Here’s a list of what I consider to be the best SBFP lets plays. There won’t be any ‘Matt’s toybox’ or one-offs, only full LPs.

Predator: Concrete Jungle - Originator of Jerry the Predator, the very first bestfriends OC. Also I really like the Predator so this trash game getting ripped to shreds by the anti-hype machine makes me feel good. https://youtu.be/0wF6r-JRTvQ

Eternal Darkness - The climax of the very first Shitstorm of Scariness. Genesis of the Insanity Shotgun, marking out about recognizing Metal Gear Solid voice actors, INSANITY EFFECTS and freaking out about the bathtub scare despite knowing it was coming. https://youtu.be/lYRVeFkTvCM

Silent Hill: Homecoming - First half of the Downcoming series. ‘MY HOUSE!’ ‘Why is the knife the best weapon? Just do knife combos to them, thats survival horror’ https://youtu.be/GLgN5WSiiX4

Silent Hill: Downpour - Second half of the Downcoming series. The first time I saw the guys play a game that was brand new at the time. Pat & Matt getting upset about the downturn of one of my and their favorite series. The famous Axe Throw that launched a career is in this one too I believe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5ofoIeb8wI&list=PLAD720396A1870C8E

Resident Evil 2 - Earliest recorded footage of Pat’s stand CRAZY TALK where he claims to know a thing or be an expert and is proven unequivocably wrong. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Cgbuv3cB1Q&list=PLB8826287748EFE7C

Final Fight: Streetwise - What happens when you take a classic beat em up and try to make it cool and modern with lots of Slipknot music? It ages fucking poorly that’s what. ‘I got a receipt for my Tatsu’ ‘I’d like to return this shoryureppa’, Live footage of the bestfriends souls leaving their body in The Stiff boss fight, Some actually decent writing and lines such as ‘Feeling good about potentially feeling good’ which Matt will quote for years to come. https://youtu.be/HnRNyfzKLL8

Man vs Wild - Not so much a must-watch as it’s just the boys in their element, playing shovelware, deliberately failing QTEs to laugh at how pitiful it looks when you do, making fun of people’s accents, and much more. Indicative of the bestfriends style of sort of mst3king videogames. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1NGPAOrE80&list=PL57hJfweW_2s2jyxas78kIib9M3jGduU8

Heavy Rain - The very first game played in the Sadness trilogy. ‘Oh no, I made ze bad game’, more fucking up of QTEs when it’d be funny, Detective Shelby’s PI Gumball technique after shooting thirty rounds out of a handgun without reloading, FUTURE GLASSES, and other classics. Woolie will play this himself on a livestream, many years later, which is also a good watch. https://youtu.be/Qe-SpjInztQ

Indigo Prophecy - The first game of the Sadness trilogy, though it was played later than Heavy Rain. Space kung-fu, zombie sex with a lady you barely know, your choices don’t matter!, Slagging off of David Cage intensifies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YacYbUC_FmQ&list=PL57hJfweW_2sOt01sX9TtQRkzv5RS231f

Charles Barkley’s Shut Up And Jam: Gaiden - Seems to be originally selected as a ‘ha ha, we’re playing a bad and stupid game to laugh at it’ but then discovering it’s legitimately awesome despite being frankly ridiculous. If you can’t play the game yourself, this is a very good substitute. https://youtu.be/xNc9R1zfwM0

Beyond: Two Souls - The third game of the Sadness trilogy. David Cage creeping on Ellen Paige in real life and making her be naked in his game, E MO SHUNS, having feelings but not knowing where to put them, ‘I’ll be your Stand! ORARARARARARA’, Underwater chinese ghost base. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA_VUoePgrc&list=PL57hJfweW_2ulXc25A-LxxHXMPqLOwrsf

Deadly Premonition - Swery65′s magnum opus, if only he could’ve put bicycles in the game. He totally didn’t watch Twin Peaks you guys. ‘QUIIIIIIINT!’, ‘Stinky agent’, radio fast travel stock tire screech sfx, monkey noise squirrels and a weird amount of attention paid to food. Matt named his pet cat Zach due to this game, so it’s an extra important part of the bestfriends lore. https://youtu.be/dsbfmIqP-H8

Disaster: Day of Crisis - Metal Gear Solid except the giant robots are natural disasters. Gotta get revenge on the volcano for killing my buddy. Eating watermelons while on fire. Don’t forget to take your stami-nas. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Sx8gqSjkMY&list=PL57hJfweW_2t-vHWWeqjY2SKH4vaqotZ6

Yakuza 4 - My first exposure to the Yakuza game series and actually a good starting point for people that don’t know anything about it. The hype, badassery, and hilarity in all its glory. Who’s ready for a shirtless fight on top of Millennium Tower? https://youtu.be/xOKx_79BEhY

Prison Break - More shovelware where they fail stealth sequences a million times, fail QTEs because it’s hilarious, and can’t show too much violence because it’s a T-rated game. https://youtu.be/TsjGGGSZabA

Resident Evil 4 HD - Get hype for suplexing priests, El Gigante, Doctor Salvatore, Isn’t that Mexican spanish not Spanish Spanish? Commando shit and the RE movie, Oops Ashley is dead again, Pat is bad at puzzles and crazy talk activates. https://youtu.be/qsazQp4VlI0

Silent Hill 2 - Everything is illness, or else its condoms! The nurses are TOO STRONG!, the boys actually just enjoying a game and (mostly) being good at it for once.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsYYIjaNPP8&list=PL57hJfweW_2vMmw0MLZp8I16DA-Qev8ec

Resident evil Revelations 2 - Re vuh lay uh tons!, Wait how’d a non mainline resi game get this good?, MOIRA MC TAGGART MC MURPHY, another co-op LP where Matt’s actual role in the game mechanics is to point out ammo and health items that Pat missed. https://youtu.be/THfgNlcNa98

Resident Evil 3 - Jill Valentine’s not actually last escape, Crazy Talk activates several times, Shitting on Hunter-D’s, being a huge coward constantly like the hero of RE brad vickers. https://youtu.be/G5pXyRhs7FM

Ride to Hell - Legendarily bad game played by canadian losers that make fun of it constantly. Source of just SO MANY bestfriends gifs including casual priest drownings, getting shot during cutscenes, and Qui-gon chi. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEw04pKaVs4&list=PL57hJfweW_2srGztN1iedcFd-BV5X1Ram

Parasite Eve - It’s time for Aya Breakowski to GET HOT. It’s a squaresoft game all right, dogs with sniper rifles, finishing downloading arcana heart, and the heroest of hero cops willingly lighting on fire to give you a gun. https://youtu.be/dHY5ZBSHzyw

Danganronpa - Ultra Despair Girls - First recorded instance of being incredibly hype and getting into the cool pop art aesthetic, komaeda memes, and then all hype leaving our body, and out of context shouting KILL THOSE SHIT KIDS! https://youtu.be/qYtYp4oWBhU

Life is Strange - Liam’s rivalry with another wimpy boy, Hotdogman: Who is he?, You sacrificed everyone for your Ship? Are you Griffith?, and rewinding time to fuck with people for kicks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XZ7-wFLnfI&list=PL57hJfweW_2u1mKS5UFNgx-voVAvTlkT9

Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain - Built-up hype from over one thousand years of waiting is collectively released. Psycho Mantis is OP, let the legend come back to life, GREATEST SOLDIER IN THE WORLD BIG BOSS, D-dog is the cutest and bestest of boys, and famously awkward jeep ride. https://youtu.be/505vXWYkxcw

Afro Samurai - Perhaps the shovelest of ware ever played on the channel. It’s very short, only 3 parts, about 90 minutes of gameplay, something that everyone should be super hype about but ends up being the most shitted on game since perhaps one of the Sadness games. https://youtu.be/wIXqEulMTIo

Resident Evil Zero HD - Get hyped for Oven Man mk2, math puzzles, getting pissed off at Eliminators, Rebecca! God dammit Rebecca! I love youuuuu rebeccaaaaaa, Leech Man, and playing dress-up. https://youtu.be/Mhnthhluh70

Metal Wolf Chaos - Giant robots and engrish, more than your body can handle! AMERICA!!!! Richard Hawke! OK, Lets PARTEEEEEEEY! Tons of references they’ll be using until the end of time https://youtu.be/Mhnthhluh70

Naruto: The Broken Bond - ‘Wait, this game is actually good?’ and then three parts later oops no its not. Second instance of being super hyped at first and then all joy slowly being sucked out of the boys’ body. Do your rasengan, even when you’re not playing as Naruto! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo92m-rfeHA&list=PL57hJfweW_2uIIqa3HTcbsvM5LO1ObM_5

The Punisher - Rice cookers, My family-family-family!, guessing Frank’s one-liners, violent safety PSAs, and interrogating the boat https://youtu.be/wznGw9fJNCc

Disaster Report - ‘Is this Disaster day of crisis’ sequel?’, The honeycomb-caisonne method, press triangle to HEY!, be mean to your waifu, and abandon your friends like a hero would do. https://youtu.be/UYiwWU8EZcU

Final Fantasy X - Matt talks about Lulu’s boobs a lot, BLEETSBOLL, Wakka the racist, kimahri push, Finding all the memes possible, Hype Cactaur!, ‘I’ll pay you to fuck off, okay?’, and punting a boss over the horizon. A long watch and the boys are kinda bad at the game but good for the patient. https://youtu.be/qpZeMkthdZ8

Omikron: The Nomad Soul - The secret first entry of the Sadness Trilogy, ‘Get in the slider!’, Blackface Boyz, The real final boss is david cage!, getting trapped in bug purgatory, yes this is how you should honor the memory David Bowie by playing this game, Using the power of all three bestfriends to beat the game, and having no consequences for failure right up until THE MOST CONSEQUENCES. https://youtu.be/691RrF9pnaU

Silent Hill 3 - No talking during the cut scenes, beef jerky, a detective does a Jerry Seinfeld on Silent Hill by accident, and ‘It’s a metaphor for dicks/childbirth!‘

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4wERZf6bns&list=PL57hJfweW_2v34HsPK-4Hfqmkb22zjBWC

Tony Hawk’s Underground - Woolie lives the skateboarder life he never could for real. ‘Won’t they notice that it’s not Eric Sparrow on the video when they see a clearly black man doing that jump?’, Eric Sparrow is basically up there with Griffith for villains the bestfriends hate the most, and ‘I can do a grind all day’ https://youtu.be/3HLPS_nwHG8

Parasite Eve 2 - More of Breakowski and getting HOT, ‘This is basically a survival horror game’, The dog from Independance Day must survive or else you’re on the bad ending! https://youtu.be/JedQqaXdWLc

LA Noire - The big one, the one I always suggest for new bestfriends watchers as being emblematic of their style and sense of humor and weaknesses as players. Woolie can’t navigate this map, ‘Sometimes you’ve gotta shake the tree and see what falls out’, Shotgun man wrecks your shit!, making noises to go along with the faces that the characters are making, ‘Pedophilia? That’s a free pass in my town sir’, Stealing the worst possible cars because they thought it’d be cool, forgetting the controls for every single fistfight sequence, Cole Phelps super cop!, and LP Funsies. https://youtu.be/-bPqjD_zg5g

Policenauts - Kojima’s game from when he was allowed to work on things besides Metal Gear. It’s definitely white blood and not anything sexual, SHOOTINGU SEQUENCE, Holy crap our main character is a bigoted piece of shit!, Figure out the bomb puzzle!, We’re definitely not Riggs and Murtagh to the point where Woolie says ‘I’m gettin too old for this shit’ about 70 times, and the uncomfortable truth of cloning. https://youtu.be/kWcecAHiOys

Dead Space 2- Notable mostly for me as Dead Space 2 was the first bestfriends video I ever saw back when they were on Machinima, so I was quoting Space Rave and asking Matt if he needed a blankey to fight the monsters. https://youtu.be/1QzY-TjFGFI

Resident Evil 7 - We hate the molded as an enemy type, OOOH GOD DAMMIT JACK, He fucking exploded into goo!, What was your plan?, I can’t shoot the granny, We definitely used a pump action shotgun in world war 2 (Actually yes we did, Matt), Shadow puzzles, that part of a lady is where all the wasps shoot out, and What that guy doesn’t look like Chris Redfield who is this impostor?! https://youtu.be/SyAZ2-nijDE

Def Jam: Fight for NY - The introduction of Woolie’s OC: Rage beats up rappers, steals their girlfriends, and doesn’t understand intimacy, The full might of Matt’s hatred for Bless is brought out, and they talk about the Aki engine’s contributions to humanity https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lry0SYYkvas&list=PL57hJfweW_2tWHTvp2ESXbzp1-jh6YJMQ

#super best friends play #youtube reccommendations #mod ramblings #sorta original content #youtube #long post

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isaiahrippinus · 5 years ago

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VinePair Podcast: Live With Kyle MacLachlan, Pursued by Bear for the Great Drinks Experience

Celebrity wines aren’t exactly a new trend: From Francis Ford Coppola to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, to Jon Bon Jovi, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Sting, many a famous name has placed itself behind a wine brand. The rarity is to find a celebrity as involved in their winemaking business as acclaimed actor Kyle MacLachlan of “Twin Peaks” fame.

As part of VinePair’s Great Drinks Experience, MacLachlan and Pursued by Bear winemaker Dan Wampfler joined VinePair CEO Adam Teeter and co-host Zach Geballe for a live recording of the VinePair podcast last week. During the episode, we discuss how MacLachlan and Wampfler became connected to the Washington wine world; why the state can compete with any other growing region on the planet; and how MachLachlan got his start acting — and wine drinking — to impress a girl.

From blending to barrel selection, MacLachlan and Wampfler work hand-in-hand to ensure each of their wines is exactly what they intend it to be: a reflection of Washington State’s great vineyards, and a diligent winemaking approach.

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Watch on VinePair

Or Check Out Our Conversation Here

Adam: My name is Adam. I’m one of the co-founders of VinePair. On your screen you’ll also see Zach, one of my co-hosts. Erica could not be with us tonight, our third co-host. We have Dan and Kyle who are on to talk to us about their wines. We’re going to record the podcast live. What that means for all of you out there is that you’re going to hear how it all happens. We’re going to do a quick intro to the podcast like we normally would, Zach and I will have some banter, then we’re going to go straight to Kyle and Dan. Until then, they’re just going to sit awkwardly on the screen, and that’s fine because at least Kyle has a cool background.

Zach: Dan, show them where you are!

Kyle: Dan has a light! Dan’s in a nice setting.

Dan: Hey, you guys!

A: We’re going to talk through all of these wines. There’s going to be time at the end for you to submit your questions. They can be submitted on your Q&A tab on your screen. With that in mind, Zach, are you ready to go?

Z: Let’s do it.

A: All right cool, we’re recording. From Brooklyn, New York, I’m Adam Teeter.

Z: And in Seattle, Washington, I’m Zach Geballe.

A: And this is the VinePair Podcast. Zach, what’s going on man?

Z: You look great. I’m jealous. We’re doing this one live, and I can see you. You’ve gotten a haircut. For those of you who are watching this live can tell perhaps, that I did not.

A: I had to commit, finally. It’s receding, so it’s done.

Z: It’s a good look. I might have to do the same.

A: Thank you very much! It’s funny that we’re doing a live podcast because it’s now 9 p.m. in New York and it’s only 6 p.m. on the West Coast. We’ve already had two of these sessions tonight. I just had a great session talking with Marc Farrell, the founder of Ten to One Rum, so I’ve had some rum.

Z: Nice.

Kyle: I’m jealous!

A: We’ve already heard from one of our guests, who I’m super excited to welcome on the podcast. Without further ado, I want to welcome Kyle MacLachlan of Pursued by Bear Wine and Dan Wampfler of Pursued by Bear and Abeja. Did I say that right, Dan?

Dan: Yes, you did. You nailed it. Abeja, which is Spanish for “honeybee.”

A: Awesome. Kyle and Dan, thank you for joining us. We appreciate it.

K: Great to be here. Thanks for having us on, Adam and Zach. This is great.

A: As many know, I tease Zach about living in Washington.

K: That’s fine with me.

A: I would love to know from both of you, initially, what makes Washington wine so special. A lot of people who are wine drinkers in the United States mostly think about California when it comes to wine. But Zach especially has been pushing me for years that the wines from Washington State are amazing. Kyle, I know you had friends encourage you to start a winery. So why Washington State? What is it about Washington State that draws people to wines?

K: I grew up on the east side. I’m from Yakima originally. Eastern Washington runs in my blood. Growing up there — it was the kind of place where you grow up and want to leave, to go seek your fortune, so to speak. It was surprising to me that I found myself back there, really enchanted with what was happening in the wine world. I learned about it simply by tasting wines, and my eyes were opened. I thought, no one seems to be talking about them. I realized, this is a legitimate place to make stuff that’s world-class. That started me thinking about how I might get involved. Through a circuitous route, I met up with Dan, and he’s been involved since 2005 or 2006, when I first started.

A: Dan, what about you? Are you from Washington State originally?

D: No, I’m from Michigan originally. I moved out to Washington in 2000 or 2001. I have an undergrad and masters degree in wine production from Michigan State. I moved out to Washington to take a job as the research winemaker for Ste. Michelle Wines Estates back when it went under a different name.

A: Wow.

D: I moved from research through production, large to small to family-operated.

A: If you were to synthesize Washington State wines, could you both do it? When we think of Napa, we think of Cab. When we think of Oregon, we go to Willamette and we say Pinot. What should we think about as consumers, when it comes to Washington?

D: We can do anything. Maybe not Pinot yet, but we’re still planting. When I moved out 20 years ago, it wasn’t a mature industry. It was a maturing industry that still had critical mass of quality producers and scale. It wasn’t agri-tourism. It was a wine industry. That was exciting to me. Since I’ve been a part of the industry, the fruit quality in the vineyards, the vineyard management, and wine production has continued to raise the bar. What sets us apart from any other industry that I’ve witnessed, is the camaraderie. A high tide raises all boats. With that comes a high tide and a high bar of wine and fruit quality.

K: I completely agree. As Dan said, we can do anything there and anything well. We take inspiration from Bordeaux. We take inspiration from Napa, but we’re not imitating. We have our own flavor profile in Washington state, and it’s a good one. As I got involved in it, I was as surprised as anyone to learn that you really can grow anything there, apart from Pinot as Dan mentioned, but that’s still to come. It’s amazing. You can find anything in abundance and in quality.

Z: I want to ask about one of my favorite varieties here in Washington, Syrah. We have a Syrah here, the Baby Bear from Pursued by Bear. I know Dan, you also make a Syrah at Abeja. Syrah is the variety that I point to a lot when trying to explain what’s possible here in Washington, but our viewers and listeners are probably sick of me saying it. Why don’t you guys say it? And talk about Syrah in particular. We’ll come back to the Baby Bear that I’m drinking right now. What is it about Syrah in Washington that makes for really amazing wine?

D: Syrah is a winemaker’s wine. I’ll explain that. I’ll pick on Chardonnay for a second. Chardonnay, we can steer as winemakers in so many different directions. It’s not that we can overcome terroir, but we can push it one direction or another with so many different winemaking techniques using barrels and yeast. We can do the same thing with Syrah. It’s a very diverse grape in its flavor profile. It’s also sexy in every single one of those categories, whether it’s Old World or New World. It’s a sexy variety from bookend to bookend.

K: I was just drinking some, and I felt very sexy there.

A: Can you go back to the beginning of the creation of Pursued by Bear and tell us a little bit about the name of the winery? It’s a famous direction from a play in Shakespeare. What was the real desire to create a winery? There are a lot of wineries out there that are owned by celebrities, but you’re very hands on. That’s different.

K: I spend a lot of time there, in Dan’s guest bedroom downstairs. It started with a desire to get home more frequently. My career keeps me between New York and Los Angeles a lot, and my dad was still living at the time, in Yakima. I thought this would be something that we could share together, embarking on a journey. I entered into it with no expectations, not thinking it takes three years before your harvest is actually ready to drink, minimum. I just wanted to jump in with both feet without much thinking. That was made possible by my former winemaker Eric Dunham, as Dunham Cellars. He was my introduction into wine in Washington and the community. It really is a community of like-minded people. Crazy, but all like-minded. We do support each other and revel in each other’s differences. We all strive to create world-class wine. We share this common passion and goal. “Pursued by bear” is a smaller portion of a longer stage direction that goes “Exit, pursued by a bear,” which happens in Act III, Scene III of Shakespeare’s play, “The Winter’s Tale.” It’s the most specific, strange, esoteric stage direction he ever wrote. It made me laugh, the idea that the actor gets chased off stage by a bear. It seemed so appropriate to what I was trying to do. It also harkened back to my day job, working as an actor. I grew up going to school in Washington. I was in the theater department there. I graduated in 1982 and was going to go seek my fortune as a repertory theater actor. It all seemed to make sense to me. It was more cohesive when I started. Just jumping in, I met Eric and this idea of making wine was something that had been on my mind for a while. When I finally asked him, I asked if he would partner with me. He said, “Yeah, what do you like to drink?” I said Cabernet, and he said let’s make Cabernet. It was really just that casual, handshake kind of deal. For those of us who knew Eric remember him as being completely like that. Your word is your word. Shake hands and have some fun. Dan came into that family shortly after I met Eric. We were a band of brothers there for a while.

D: I don’t think we shook hands. It was more like shots and hugs at that point, throwing back bottles of Cabernet and Syrah.

K: That’s how we roll in Washington.

Z: Shots and hugs is what Adam and I do when we hang out in person.

A: Which is never. You do live on the other side of the country.

Z: It happens.

D: You guys have cheap shots you can take. That’s the shots and the hugs that you have.

A: Did you buy land? Did you think about that? How much are you taking from growers? How much was it a real trial by fire? There’s a lot of people that think they can start a wine label and figure it out.

K: I was totally way in over my head. I partnered with some really smart people that knew what they were doing. I just jumped in with the idea that this could be a fun adventure. I liked the people I was meeting. I enjoyed the community. When you’re from the east side, whether Yakima or Walla Walla, and there’s some similarities there, when families get together they don’t talk about the east side as much. We’re the black sheep. I had terrific guidance, and I was genuinely interested in learning. I didn’t sit back. I wanted to know where the grapes were being sourced from. I wanted to learn about the AVAs and the sites. I found the process fascinating. It kept me going. It was also a great excuse to grab my dad, jump in the car, drive to Walla Walla, hang out with the Dunhams, taste wine, and have a great time. That was a big part of it in the beginning. I had considered Napa for about 30 seconds, until I started thinking about how much it was going to cost to buy a ton of grapes. It was way outside of my range.

A: Now it costs even more.

K: Washington made much more sense. To be honest, it was the story. My wife reminds me: She says, you’re from Washington. That’s the story right there. One thing my wife really understands is how to tell a story. All signs were pointing in that direction.

Z: You guys have both talked about the experience of making a wine. There’s a whole component of the industry in Washington that’s maturing that has to do with wine tourism. Dan, I know that at Abeja that’s a big part of what goes on. Can you guys talk about what the experience is like to visit Walla Walla? Right now, we’re in a period of time where people traveling to visit isn’t happening so much. In whatever normal times will be, what is that experience like?

D: Walla Walla is four hours from Portland, Boise, and Seattle. We operate a country inn, a luxury inn on our 30-acre parcel. We have the ability to accommodate 28 people. There are weekends where we are booked 100 percent from people outside of the country. Not now. Everyone that’s coming now is driving, and we are still fully booked: This weekend, last weekend, this coming weekend. We’re in Phase Two. Walla Walla is magical because when you head over from Seattle, for example, you go over the mountains and the trees fade away right around Ellensburg. You roll into Walla Walla and it’s lush and filled with vineyards. It’s filled with good people and a quaint downtown. We have some of the best wines and accommodations, but it’s our people that make us stand above, with the best areas of the world.

A: Talk about the relationship you two have. Kyle, you’re very involved with the wine, but Dan you’re the winemaker. How does that work? There’s always the curiosity wondering how it works when someone is the owner-proprietor and not the winemaker, but they’re very involved in the winemaking process. Kyle, how often are you at the winery? Are you helping crush? What are you doing with blending and tasting? Dan, how much are you agreeing with him or not?

D: I will say on Kyle’s behalf, this is by far and away, not a vanity project. Kyle comes to town, less so now, but quite often. We pick vineyard sites together. We pick barrels. We do barrel trials together. We blend every single blend together. Now, we’re sending samples his way. He and I will taste back and forth with samples that were pulled from the same barrels at the same time. We’ll go through and compare notes. We’ve got our beakers and our graduated cylinders and our pipets. We’re doing the blends, and we’re sharing spreadsheets. Kyle’s very involved. That’s the exciting part. He’s inquisitive. He knows what he likes, and he has a phenomenal palate. He knows what he doesn’t like. We agree on most things, but we steer together. Kyle?

K: I feel like I’ve got my brother here next to me when we do our blending and our tasting. We really get along. We see the direction of the brand headed in the same way. I love going up as much as I can get there: participating in the blending, visiting the vineyard sites, talking about the barrels and what we’ll use each year, how much neutral and new, and new sites coming up. Dan was a member of the Washington Wine Commission, and I think you still are. He knows everybody there. He knows all the growers. He’s got great relationships with so many of them. I bring a little bit from my side, like getting introduced to these French oak barrels that we use which are just phenomenal. They work so well with the big red fruits that we get from Washington State. It just pairs beautifully. That was my contribution in coming into the relationship when I first started. There were sources that Dunham was using that I used as well. Then I began to branch out from that as I began to explore. One of the sites that I love is Hugh Shiel’s place, Dubrul. He’s got a wonderful site in Washington. The fruit that comes off of there is very special. You get more and more involved. I lean on Dan for so much. He’s got a terrific palate and his wife has an extraordinary palate. We both rely on her. It really is a partnership. We’re in this together. I’m really flexible and open. I know what direction we want to go in. I feel like I get the same response from Dan. We’re both heading in the same way. We really work well together.

A: Amazing.

Z: Adam, we should talk about these wines.

A: Yes fine, Zach. We can.

A: The first one I want to talk about is Blushing Bear. It was one of our top rosés two years ago. It’s a phenomenal wine. I’d love Kyle, if you talked with us about it. How long have you made a rosé for?

K: Not long: 2015 was the first vintage. It was more like: Everyone is making a rosé, we should make a rosé. Hey Dan! Let’s make a rosé. I wanted to copy the French. There’s a rosé that comes out of the Bandol region. It’s some of my favorite. I was clueless. I didn’t know if we could get the varietals for it in Washington.

D: Mind you, he asked in August. “Hey, can we get this?” I said, “I’ll see what I can do.”

K: Which is why we came up with 75 cases for that first vintage. When we did it, it was phenomenal. When you blend Grenache and Mourvèdre, at the time we had Cinsault as well, you put those varietals together in the right combination and you get that same sort of acid and bright quality that comes with Washington. You have yourself a really fantastic rosé that’s got bite and mineral and flavors and aromas. 2015 was our first, and we’ve made it every year since then. We’ve upped our production higher than 75 cases. We’re still under 500, I think.

A: How much are you producing total?

K: This year we’re right around 2,000 cases.

A: Can you find the wine in all 50 states?

K: We distribute in roughly 18 states, the U.K., and Japan.

A: Oh, Japan! It’s pursuedbybearwine.com, right?

K: Exactly.

A: I love this wine. The fruit is really present. It’s insanely refreshing. There’s a nice quality of lemon and strawberry. It’s everything you want in a rosé.

K: Yes. There’s a little grapefruit and guava in there. We’re both going for something that’s light and refreshing, but it has a little bit of a mouthfeel. It has a nice finish. It’s great chilled. It’s also nice slightly below room temperature. If it gets up to cellar temp, or even a little more, the aromatics come out. You can enjoy it on that level as well.

D: We don’t saignée. Everything is farmed and brought in as rosé. Everything is brought in and we whole- cluster press. We leave it in the press long, we go to our fermentation vessels, we ferment everything in separate lots, then we blend at the end. It’s a true rosé wine, in that it’s not an afterthought. It’s start to finish, our outcome goal.

A: Dan, for our listeners and viewers who don’t understand what saignée is, can you explain that?

K: He’s a singer from… never mind.

D: Saignée is French, meaning “to bleed.” If you have a tank full of red fruit, you open a valve and you bleed off some of the free run. 99 percent of all red skin grapes produce white juice. It’s that skin contact time that extracts the pigments, colors, and tannins. Intentionally, we bring in the fruit for rosé, we keep the fruit in contact in the press, as opposed to just bleeding off from a Cabernet Franc or a Mourvedre, or whatever the varietal is. That’s a much more challenging circumstance to get the color and the aromas. When you nail it, it’s so much more pure, less tannic, sexy, and elegant.

Z: Don’t you have the benefit that the grapes are grown to make rosé? The wine is not a bi-product of making the red wine.

D: Exactly right.

Z: I wanted to ask Dan really quickly about this Chardonnay that I’m drinking. I’ve always been a big fan of the Abeja Chardonnay. On the label here, it just says “Washington State.” Why is that?

D: Great question. First, I want to mention, as the winemaker at Abeja, I’m not the only one. My wife is my co-winemaker. We make all winemaking decisions together. We’re on family vacation, so she has taken the kids in the other room, so there’s no dogs barking or kids interrupting. We’ve been on multiple Zoom calls … anyway.

A: That’s what life is. That’s normal now.

D: It is. To answer your question: Washington State for two reasons. One, we have three different styles of Chardonnay. This is Washingtonian in style. You can help me answer how we make that Washingtonian style, but it’s the acidity, the ripeness, and the character. Second of all, a significant portion of the fruit comes from the Celilo Vineyard outside of the Columbia Valley AVA, from the Columbia Gorge AVA. Because of the percentage difference, it’s also Washington State, as opposed to the Gorge or Walla Walla or Columbia Valley.

Z: You guys can tune in later for my Celilo Vineyards seminar that will only be attended by me and Dan. Dan, can you talk about the winemaking approach? You said Washingtonian, and you nailed the key points here of an expression of ripe fruit with still a lot of acid. What is it in the winemaking process or the thought process that allows you to find this balance of generosity of fruit while still preserving acidity?

D: Fruit source, fermentation style: Is it cool? Are we whole-cluster pressing? What juice are we choosing? Are we new oak? Are we stainless? Are we a balance? All of those decisions play into the steering. Like I led with, Chardonnay can be manipulated as a winemaker in so many different styles and directions. We’re not trying to push it respectfully in a Burgundian way. We’re not trying to push it respectfully in a Chablis way. We’re trying to keep it not tone deaf from where the fruit comes from, which is a blend of several different vineyards. Solilo, our estate vineyard in Walla Walla, and a vineyard based in the Columbia Valley Central. It has the blend of fruit, acidity, and ripeness. It has the blend of texture. My wife and I are all about texture in the wine. We use 100 percent French oak in this wine, although not 100 percent new. There’s a significant percentage of experienced oak. We’re not trying to create “Chateaux Two by Four.” We’re trying to get oak and toast levels to frame the fruit and give it lift and celebrate what those vineyards have to offer.

A: Zach, you opened Baby Bear. I did not.

Z: I did! Adam’s saving that for a more important night than this, apparently.

K: I’ll send you some more.

A: Do you want to talk about that wine as well?

Z: Yeah! Before I give my thoughts, let’s hear from Kyle and Dan. What’s the approach here? You were talking before about Syrah from Washington, that it can go in a lot of different directions. What direction is this trying to go? What do you see as being the guiding principle behind this wine?

K: The Syrah was born in 2008, the same year my son was born. That’s why we called it Baby Bear. I already had Pursued by Bear, so I was stuck with Baby Bear, and off we went. If you can’t make a good Syrah in Washington, you should probably just get out of the business. It’s just the grape that works. I was attracted to the Dunham brand initially because of Eric’s Syrah, his single vineyard Syrah. When I got into the world and we were making Cabernet, I wanted to make a Syrah as well, which we did. But, I wanted to distinguish it from what Eric was doing. In order to make the difference, we brought in special barrels. We were using the same vineyard sources as Eric, from the Columbia AVA and Horse Heaven AVA , which is a fantastic AVA, closer to the Columbia River. There’s still wild mustangs up on that plateau, so they say. Pretty cool spot. We decided to use a large-format barrel to age this. We got a 600-liter puncheon barrel. They’re just beautiful. They’re gigantic. They hold 50 cases of wine. The idea is that you’ve got more liquid in the vessel and less contact with the staves.

D: The surface area to volume ratio is more generous.

K: Chemist right there talking: That’s exactly right. I started to experiment with aging. We started off as a traditional 22 month, 24 months the first few vintages. 26 months, then I started pushing to 28 months, 30 months, 32 months. I held back before we got to 34 months. This is almost three years in barrel. I would taste it and think it was phenomenal. As Dan says, the barrel gives you its oak, and then it stops. Then it’s basically holding the wine. It’s softening, and the tannins are refining. It’s so cool. I could do this because I didn’t need to move it to market as quickly as some wineries. This is not the way I’m making a living, thank god. My living is paying for this experience. It allowed me to be a little more experimental. The blending hasn’t changed much. It’s these two vineyards. The ratio varies sometimes depending on how much comes in: 60/40, 50/50. We do a little bit sur lie. One of the barrels, sometimes we’ll let that just add to the mouthfeel of the wine. Whatever we set in motion from the very beginning, that’s how we’ve kept it from the get-go. No Viognier in sight, this is just 100 percent pure Syrah.

D: We’ve tried to blend different fruit sources almost every year, almost. We keep coming back to this. It works. The two components on their own are great. We’ve had other components on their own that are better. There’s been no better blend between the two. As Kyle said: 60/40, sur lie aging. When we first started doing the sur lie, the cellar crew and even Kyle said it was rough. I said, “Hold on.” We kept it in the barrels, and a couple months later, the chocolate fudge brownie of red wines evolved. Egad! We’ve got it. Let’s do this. Between the puncheons, between the sur lie, and between those two 50/50 blends, we’ve created a unique blend that’s magical.

Z: You mentioned earlier, Dan, texture. That’s a really important thing for understanding these kinds of wines. The flavor in Syrah is important for sure, but when you get a well-made Syrah, which this certainly is, you get that really beautiful, smooth wine. There’s enough that grabs on that almost velcro-y, but it’s not abrasive.

A: You’re making me regret that I should’ve opened the bottle. Not cool.

Z: Adam, it’s not that late. It’s only 9:30 in New York. You can still open the bottle.

A: Now I’m actually glad I’m saving it, though. You guys are making it sound like it’s absolutely incredible, but I’m also missing out a lot. I’m sure people at home or listening on the podcast are feeling that way as well. You should buy some at pursuedbybearwine.com. In terms of the Cabernet, which is the last wine we have from Abeja, I am curious. I’ve had a lot of winemakers say to me that Washington is going to be the next Napa. It’s the future, because of climate change. We’re getting questions that I’m watching come in during the Q&A that are asking about that as well. Is Washington the next Napa because of climate change? Will there be better Cabernet made in Washington than in Napa. I’m curious to hear your thoughts. What happens to Cabernet in Napa? Both of you? What do you think Cabernet can do in Washington? Are these people correct? Will climate change really move up how we think about Washington as the country’s premier growing site? As we all know, Cabernet being the most popular grape in America is not changing any time soon. What does that mean?

D: Wait a minute. You’re saying that Washington isn’t already the most premier Cabernet area?

K: My thoughts exactly, Dan.

A: Fine, fine.

D: I was going to go with my standard Zoom joke where I just mouth the words, and people say you’re on mute. I realized this is not the time for it. I appreciate you teeing that up for me. I’m not a climatologist, but I do believe the global warming trend is continuing to show itself. We are intentionally planting at higher and higher elevations. We are watching crop loads throughout the season each year. In some of the hottest years, like 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008, and some of the coolest years that we’ve experienced in 2010 and 2011, crop load is a huge thing. You get the ripeness of the grapes across the finish line, but you have to get them there at the right time. We work with our grower intimately to make sure that we’re pacing with what’s going on in the growing season, as well as being connected to the site specificity. We are making as good a Cabernet as anyone in the world already. We’ve been doing so for over a decade, different than, but as well as. As more attention is drawn to Washington State, more and more people fall in love with it, then we’re able to over-deliver on quality at the price points because our farming costs are less, and our labor costs are less. Our water costs are less. All these things are being pressured, so it’ll start going up, too, but we’re nowhere near in the economic stresses of Napa. There’s some amazing Cabernets, that are world class, that are coming out of Washington. It’s not a new thing.

A: This wine’s amazing.

D: Well, we have a good team.

K: The Cab is great. You know, Washington is hot. Time will tell as to whether global warming, because it’s impacting different parts of the world in different ways, how much of an impact it’s going to have. It remains to be seen. As Dan mentioned, higher elevations are a little bit cooler. It’s been hot here though. We fight that. Canopy management becomes really important. Washington is a different fall-off. When we get to fall and temperatures begin to change, they don’t drop gradually and nicely like in California. They go along and then they drop off the edge of a cliff. As Dan said, you’ve got to know when to bring your fruit in and harvest. That’s a critical time. Fortunately, Dan is good at anticipating that and knowing when the fruit needs to come off and when it needs to be sheltered.

D: We have a couple of advantages as well. One, we don’t have the fog rolling in. We’ve got cool nights. We don’t have the humidity stresses. Yes, we have mildew pressure like any growing region, but we don’t have it to the extreme that other regions do. We also have the diurnal shift that everyone talks about when they nerd out about wine. It can be 100 degrees at night during an August growing day. It can cool down to 58 degrees, like in Arizona. That diurnal shift allows the ripeness and intensity during the day, then it cools down and lets the vines rest at night.

Z: The other thing that Dan mentioned that’s important here is that there’s a lot of opportunity in Washington to add additional plantings to go up on hillsides. Napa is pretty much planted out at this point. A lot of those warmer vineyard sights, valley floor, are stuck. For now and in the past, it worked to their benefit. If we continue to see more heat and less cooling influence from fog and airflow, that becomes more of a problem because there’s nowhere else to plant grapes. Washington has a lot of land under vine, but only a tiny fraction of what the potential is here in the state. That’s a good resource, although planting vineyards is expensive. It takes a while for them to be usable, but at least it’s a longer-term possibility.

K: Zach, correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure there are less acres planted in the state of Washington than in Napa.

A: Zach, you’re the somm. Come on!

Z: I’m not a walking encyclopedia.

A: You are.

Z: I would bet that it’s relatively comparable. Washington might have a little more land under vine than Napa at this point. That’s just an educated guess. All of you listening can Google that and tell me how wrong I am.

D: Anybody from the Washington Wine Commission could answer that.

A: The wines are amazing, but I’m seeing a lot of questions come in from viewers. And I have some myself that might not be related to wine. But let’s be honest, they’re also related to some of the characters you’ve played, Kyle. I’ve got to ask one first. Are you a Cosmo drinker?

K: Any port in the storm, I say.

A: Another one from viewers: If Agent Cooper was a wine, what wine would he be?

K: That’s a good question. Let me see. He’d be a Bordeaux. He’d be something classic. The reason I say Bordeaux is because when I met David Lynch in 1983, and I screen tested for “Dune,” which is the first thing David and I worked on together, when I finished my screen test, I came back to my hotel room, no idea how I’d done, and there was a bottle of Lynch Bages sitting on the table in my little hotel room. It was a gift from David, his way of saying thank you. He wasn’t making all of the decisions about the cast, but it was a really nice gesture. Since then, we’ve traded Lynch Bages all the time. It’s our thing. Cooper is a big part of David, obviously, so I would go with a Bordeaux, even a great vintage of Lynch Bages, like 1990 or 1996. We’ll call him that.

A: Okay. Another one that’s pretty good: If a great wine script came to you that highlighted Washington wines like “Sideways” or “Bottleshock,” would you consider acting in it or helping produce it? Can you think of a movie that would be that movie?

K: Sounds like a writer or a producer. I consider everything. I look at everything. I love to read. I love stories. It comes down to quality. Is it a good story?

A: That’s a fair point.

D: Washington wine is a good story, so I would encourage him to take the role or direct it.

K: That’s what we want to hear!

A: In terms of Pursued by Bear, you don’t make any white wines, correct?

K: We do not. Rosé is as close as we get.

A: Are there plans to make white?

K: No plans, although Dan and his wife make a Semillon that I had six months or a year ago when I was there.

D: Viognier.

K: Was it? Are you sure? It wasn’t Semillon?

D: We don’t make a Semillon. Pretty sure.

K: Must’ve been a different Dan, then.

D: Respectfully. Respectfully, we don’t. Well, maybe we will now.

K: That’s how much I’d had to drink. Anyway, it was extraordinary. No real plans at the moment. It’s tough. Although if I were to make one, Dan and his wife are extraordinary winemakers. We would come up with something fantastic. The idea of a label is so exciting, white wine and what we can do with that. I have five wines now: Pursued by Bear; Baby Bear Syrah, and rosé; the Bear Cub which is a new, lower price point wine which actually goes back to the original blend of the Pursued by Bear. Cab, Merlot, and Syrah. After 15 years, we go back to the original blend because the Pursued by Bear is moving more towards a traditional Bordeaux style. Then I have a single vineyard that I do out of the Walla Walla AVA that’s just been labeled and bottled, called “Twin Bear.” It’s super-small production at 93 cases. It’s a fun little thing to do. It’s beautiful: Cabernet, single vineyard, really elegant. I’ve got my hands full.

A: This one’s not the most fair question, but it’s to both of you. If you were to pick a favorite wine you make, which one?

K: What do you think, Dan?

D: Favorite wine that we make? Whatever’s in my glass right now, so I’ve got four. Favorite wine is like picking your favorite child. We all have one, you just don’t tell your spouse. Just kidding, both of our children are amazing. We don’t bottle anything that we don’t already have a great deal of pride and love for. I love all of these wines, otherwise they wouldn’t make it to the bottle. It depends on the season. If I’m in the middle of a winter night in a hot tub, I’m going to reach for a Cabernet. If I’m on the porch in the summer drinking a Chardonnay, I’m a happy camper. Right now, the rosé is singing. That’s a challenging question to answer. It depends on what I’m eating and what I’m doing.

A: Kyle?

K: I’m really in love with the Bear Cub right now. We just did it in 2016. It has a difficult past. 2016 in Washington was a big year. It was a year that I decided to up production a little bit. I went a little crazy with my wish list. We sourced from a lot of places. Suddenly, instead of producing 500 cases of Pursued by Bear, I had up to 1,500 cases of Pursued by Bear. I said, that’s not going to work. We’ve got to do something with this extra wine. We made the Pursued by Bear. We picked the best lots. Then we picked lots that were almost as good. We turned them into Bear Cub. It gave me a chance to go back to the original blend, at 6 and 7 percent of Syrah in the Bear Cub blend. That was really fun. It was nice to be able to go back and made the wine like we made Pursued by Bear. The Syrah gives it an immediacy. It’s immediately friendly. It’s available. It’s got beautiful aromatics. Because it’s a little unexpected, I’m really digging the Bear Cub right now.

A: Final question: Can both of you think of the first wine you had in your lives that was interesting? That you wanted to know more about? Either in order to make wine or because it was fun to drink. Whatever that was for you, do you have that?

D: I’ll go first. I started brewing beer when I was in high school. I fell in love with fermentation science. Beer led me to wine because I didn’t want to brew beer. You can do that in two weeks. I didn’t want to do distillation because I don’t have 15 years of patience.

K: You’re making it sound so scientific. You were in high school, man! You were making stuff so you could get trashed. Come on.

D: I was really popular in college being the fermentation guy, for sure. My dad, who’s not a traditional wine drinker, he’s a “Miller-Light-after-mowing-the-lawn” kind of guy, he was out at a business dinner, and everyone was around the table discussing what they had brought or what was on the menu or what the most expensive wine was that they’d ever consumed. My dad listened to everyone’s story, and they said, how about you, Dave? He said, “As a matter of fact, I have a case of wine in my basement that was 40 grand.” Everybody was shocked. It was wine that’s a varietal from northern Minnesota. I figured my son’s college tuition was about 40 grand, and this was his senior project, so he gave me a case of it, and it was like, “All right, you win.”

K: I love that story. Mine isn’t quite the same, although admit it, Dan. You were making alcohol so you could get girls. That’s why I got into acting. It’s all about that. In high school, I had a girlfriend, Heidi. I would go over to her house with her family for dinner. We would sit at the table, a proper dinner, the whole family was there. We each got to drink a glass of wine with dinner. I didn’t even know what it was, but it made me feel super grown up. It was a nice wine. That started me thinking in the wine world. That’s my story.

A: Awesome. Dan, Kyle, thank you both so much for joining us today. I really appreciate it. This has been amazing. Kyle, if you do want to send more Baby Bear, or other wines, feel free. I’ll send you my address. This has been amazing. The wines are great. We’ll share with everyone how you can buy both of these wines, both in the chat here as well as in the credits of the show. We really appreciate both of you.

Z: Thank you guys.

D: Thank you very much.

K: Loved it. Thanks for having us on.

A: Take care.

K: Be good. Cheers.

A: Thanks so much for listening to the VinePair podcast. If you enjoy listening to us every week please leave us a review or rating on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever it is that you get your podcasts. It really helps everyone else discover the show. Now for the credits: VinePair is produced and hosted by Zach Geballe, Erica Duecy, and me: Adam Teeter. Our engineer is Nick Patri and Keith Beavers. I’d also like to give a special shout out to my VinePair co-founder Josh Malin and the rest of the VinePair team for their support. Thanks so much for listening and we’ll see you again right here next week.

Ed. note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The article VinePair Podcast: Live With Kyle MacLachlan, Pursued by Bear for the Great Drinks Experience appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/kyle-machlachlan-pursued-by-bear-gde/ source https://vinology1.tumblr.com/post/622355918051491840

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johnboothus · 5 years ago

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VinePair Podcast: Live With Kyle MacLachlan Pursued by Bear for the Great Drinks Experience

Listen Online

Listen on iTunes

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Watch on VinePair

Or Check Out Our Conversation Here

Zach: Dan, show them where you are!

Kyle: Dan has a light! Dan’s in a nice setting.

Dan: Hey, you guys!

Z: Let’s do it.

A: All right cool, we’re recording. From Brooklyn, New York, I’m Adam Teeter.

Z: And in Seattle, Washington, I’m Zach Geballe.

A: And this is the VinePair Podcast. Zach, what’s going on man?

Z: You look great. I’m jealous. We’re doing this one live, and I can see you. You’ve gotten a haircut. For those of you who are watching this live can tell perhaps, that I did not.

A: I had to commit, finally. It’s receding, so it’s done.

Z: It’s a good look. I might have to do the same.

Z: Nice.

Kyle: I’m jealous!

Dan: Yes, you did. You nailed it. Abeja, which is Spanish for “honeybee.”

A: Awesome. Kyle and Dan, thank you for joining us. We appreciate it.

K: Great to be here. Thanks for having us on, Adam and Zach. This is great.

A: As many know, I tease Zach about living in Washington.

K: That’s fine with me.

A: Dan, what about you? Are you from Washington State originally?

A: Wow.

D: I moved from research through production, large to small to family-operated.

K: I was just drinking some, and I felt very sexy there.

D: I don’t think we shook hands. It was more like shots and hugs at that point, throwing back bottles of Cabernet and Syrah.

K: That’s how we roll in Washington.

Z: Shots and hugs is what Adam and I do when we hang out in person.

A: Which is never. You do live on the other side of the country.

Z: It happens.

D: You guys have cheap shots you can take. That’s the shots and the hugs that you have.

A: Now it costs even more.

A: Amazing.

Z: Adam, we should talk about these wines.

A: Yes fine, Zach. We can.

D: Mind you, he asked in August. “Hey, can we get this?” I said, “I’ll see what I can do.”

A: How much are you producing total?

K: This year we’re right around 2,000 cases.

A: Can you find the wine in all 50 states?

K: We distribute in roughly 18 states, the U.K., and Japan.

A: Oh, Japan! It’s pursuedbybearwine.com, right?

K: Exactly.

A: I love this wine. The fruit is really present. It’s insanely refreshing. There’s a nice quality of lemon and strawberry. It’s everything you want in a rosé.

A: Dan, for our listeners and viewers who don’t understand what saignée is, can you explain that?

K: He’s a singer from… never mind.

Z: Don’t you have the benefit that the grapes are grown to make rosé? The wine is not a bi-product of making the red wine.

D: Exactly right.

A: That’s what life is. That’s normal now.

A: Zach, you opened Baby Bear. I did not.

Z: I did! Adam’s saving that for a more important night than this, apparently.

K: I’ll send you some more.

A: Do you want to talk about that wine as well?

D: The surface area to volume ratio is more generous.

A: You’re making me regret that I should’ve opened the bottle. Not cool.

Z: Adam, it’s not that late. It’s only 9:30 in New York. You can still open the bottle.

D: Wait a minute. You’re saying that Washington isn’t already the most premier Cabernet area?

K: My thoughts exactly, Dan.

A: Fine, fine.

A: This wine’s amazing.

D: Well, we have a good team.

K: Zach, correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure there are less acres planted in the state of Washington than in Napa.

A: Zach, you’re the somm. Come on!

Z: I’m not a walking encyclopedia.

A: You are.

D: Anybody from the Washington Wine Commission could answer that.

K: Any port in the storm, I say.

A: Another one from viewers: If Agent Cooper was a wine, what wine would he be?

K: Sounds like a writer or a producer. I consider everything. I look at everything. I love to read. I love stories. It comes down to quality. Is it a good story?

A: That’s a fair point.

D: Washington wine is a good story, so I would encourage him to take the role or direct it.

K: That’s what we want to hear!

A: In terms of Pursued by Bear, you don’t make any white wines, correct?

K: We do not. Rosé is as close as we get.

A: Are there plans to make white?

K: No plans, although Dan and his wife make a Semillon that I had six months or a year ago when I was there.

D: Viognier.

K: Was it? Are you sure? It wasn’t Semillon?

D: We don’t make a Semillon. Pretty sure.

K: Must’ve been a different Dan, then.

D: Respectfully. Respectfully, we don’t. Well, maybe we will now.

A: This one’s not the most fair question, but it’s to both of you. If you were to pick a favorite wine you make, which one?

K: What do you think, Dan?

A: Kyle?

K: You’re making it sound so scientific. You were in high school, man! You were making stuff so you could get trashed. Come on.

Z: Thank you guys.

D: Thank you very much.

K: Loved it. Thanks for having us on.

A: Take care.

K: Be good. Cheers.

Ed. note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The article VinePair Podcast: Live With Kyle MacLachlan, Pursued by Bear for the Great Drinks Experience appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/kyle-machlachlan-pursued-by-bear-gde/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/vinepair-podcast-live-with-kyle-maclachlan-pursued-by-bear-for-the-great-drinks-experience

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northcountryprimitive · 5 years ago

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“Solo Acoustic Guitar Stands Outside of Time.” An Interview With Dylan Golden Aycock

This interview originally appeared at North Country Primitive on 5th May 2015

Scissor Tail Editions of Tulsa Oklahoma is one of the most consistently interesting record labels around at the moment, with a series of excellent releases from amongst others, Sarah Louise, Scott Tuma, Nick Castell and, of course, the label’s founder and head honcho, Dylan Golden Aycock. His tune, Red Bud Valley, is featured on Tompkins Square’s recently released seventh volume of the ever-dependable Imaginational Anthems series and he continues to release new work in his various guises at an almost unreasonably prolific rate. North Country Primitive caught up with Dylan as he puts the finishing touches on the forthcoming solo follow up to Rise & Shine and as Scissor Tail gears up to put out new albums by Dibson T. Hoffweiler and Chuck Johnson.

Can you tell me a bit about your musical journey? What has brought you to a place where playing solo acoustic guitar seemed like a good idea? Living in Oklahoma as a kid in the pre-internet 90s, the only access to music I had was the radio and skate videos. I got really into hip hop through skate videos and also discovered groups like Tortoise, which I probably never would have encountered any other way. My dad and brother both play folk music and I guess hip hop was an involuntary rebellion on my part. My first instrument I saved up for was a turntable set up - I got way into turntablism and this competitive turntable stuff called beat juggling. It’s still probably the instrument I’m most comfortable on, but I haven’t turned them on in years. I picked up the guitar pretty late in the game, about the age of 24. Five years ago I bought my first guitar, a 12-string Alvarez. I got really obsessed with it, just as I did with turntablism and electronic music in my teens and early 20s. At that time I was just yearning for something simple and satisfying that I could play if the power grid ever went out. I also didn’t like the mental image of a 60-plus year old me behind a set of turntables. Hip hop and beat music is a young man’s game, and I didn’t really like keeping up with all the new shit coming out. If you want to be a professional DJ you have to be up on all the new stuff and I just really didn’t care about all that. I also quit around the time that CD turntables became the new standard and vinyl DJing was on its way out. What would you say are your main influences, musically or otherwise? Do you see yourself as part of the American Primitive tradition of solo guitar? I was really influenced by my older brother Jesse and some of the music he was listening to in his room when we lived together after high school. He turned me onto Bill Frisell and Daniel Lanois, which was a big influence on my interest in pedal steel guitar. My dad introduced me to some of my other favorite artists - Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, The Innocence Mission… I can’t downplay the role that discovering Peter Walker, Suni McGrath and Robbie Basho played in me taking the guitar seriously. At that time in my life it really spoke to me and was an acceptable way for a white kid from Oklahoma to sort of lean into Eastern Raga music. As far as the American Primitive thing goes, everyone wants to shun the title, because no one wants to be pigeonholed and I understand that, but there’s no avoiding it if you play instrumental acoustic guitar in open tunings, unless you’re Michael Hedges. You can’t be upset if listeners are drawing comparisons to Fahey, Basho and so on. I say just accept it and further the genre: it’s not like there’s a ton of people carrying the torch anyways. Norberto Lobo is one of my favorite guys playing acoustic guitar, and he’s one of the hardest to label. Same with Blackshaw, They’d both be a stretch to label as American Primitive. I think some of the stuff I record could definitely fit in that genre, but I also get pretty bored hearing just acoustic guitar compositions - a lot of it starts to blend together. Most of my recordings employ some kind of accompanying instrumentation, whether it be pedal steel, synth or some kind of bowed classical instruments. I’ll even take cues from my days making electronic music or hip hop and add samples to some of the guitar stuff. You seem to have been involved in about half-a-dozen different groups and collaborations, including Talk West who appear to have released about four albums in the past year or so! Do you see yourself as a collaborator who also makes solo recordings, vice-versa or neither of the above? Do the different approaches satisfy different musical urges for you or are they all part of a continuum? Living in Tulsa, there’s a limited number of collaborators that I can record with live who are into the same stuff as me. I’m definitely really happy with the recordings I’ve made here with friends, but I find myself recording alone way more often than in group setting. The Talk West project is a solo project, and I have a hard time calling those recorded moments songs, since such little thought goes into each one. It’s a real thoughtless and meditative project for me. It’s also nice to hide behind an alias where anything goes. Everything I’ve released as Talk West have been improvised, usually recorded to tape as one track, one take. I’ll sometimes edit or add sounds in post if I really like the initial recording, but the base is always improvisation. It’s definitely the most enjoyable project for me. Anything involving improvisation is going to be really satisfying. I did a couple of albums with Brad Rose that were really fun (Angel Food, Mohawk Park) - sort of drone projects - and I’ve contributed pedal steel to a handful of projects over the years (Mar, Robin Allender, M. Mucci). There’s some plans to collaborate on an album with James Toth of Wooden Wand and I’m doing a split with Tashi Dorji later this year that I’m really excited about. You released Rise & Shine on Scissor Tail, but your subsequent solo albums have been released by different labels. Is this part of a conscious effort to separate yourself as a musician from yourself as a label owner? Or are you more prolific than you can afford to be? Or do you just like spreading it around a bit? I like to spread it around. It’s validating to release on other labels with artists you respect and helps build connections and sense of community. Rise & Shine was a really personal album, recorded over a couple of weeks while my dad was in the hospital for a heart attack he had on Valentines Day 2011.The initial release was lathe cut on the 14 chest X-Rays from the surgery. The personal aspect of that album was my reasoning for self releasing. I never wanted Scissor Tail to become a vanity label, though I don’t judge anyone who self-releases on their own imprint, since in a lot of circumstances it’s the only way to make any money on an album unless you tour a lot or release on larger labels like Drag City or Thrill Jockey, who press in larger quantities and split the the profits generously with the artists. One of my favorite artists is a guy named Zach Hay, who has self released three LPs, each one under a different name. He turned me down on releasing his stuff and I also tried to see if he had any interest in being on that Imaginational Anthems compilation this year and he turned that down as well. I highly recommend checking out his albums: Bronze Horse, The Dove Azima, and Green Glass, which came out last year and I got to do the album artwork for the release. I really respect his artistic integrity and vision for each release, which is apparent on each album.

What made you decide to start your own label? Was it originally simply as a vehicle for your own releases or had you always intended to release stuff by other artists? The label started as a way to release various recordings my friends were making that they were sitting on or didn’t think were good enough to share. In Tulsa, I feel like a lot of the musicians in town hold themselves up to really high standards. Most the musicians around here take influence from the rock gods like Clapton and JJ Cale and overlook or just don’t know about all the folks who are making careers doing more original or experimental music. It’s a consequence of growing up cut off from any kind of underground scene and living in the radio bubble. My brother and some of our friends growing up would mess around with instruments and electronics for fun and the recordings would just end up buried on a hard drive somewhere. I felt they were really good and wanted to share them with people, so that was the initial motivation for starting the label. I have to give credit to Brad Rose, who runs Digitalis Recordings, for letting me hang out at his apartment and bug him with questions. Is there any particular label ethos or principle you work to? Not really, I just think labels should be transparent with where their funds go. The cost of production and so on. When it comes to tapes, I run Scissor Tail the same as every other tape label, where 20% of the stock goes to the artist. With vinyl, I’ve been doing 60/40 split with the artist - 60 to the artist, 40 to the label. I think the indie-industry standard is 50/50 profit split, which is what I’ve done with a couple of the more recent artists, who were kind enough to suggest that to me. Immune Records has a great ethos - as well as the labels I mentioned earlier, Drag City and Thrill Jockey. Am I right in thinking you proactively seek out the music you want to put out rather than responding to demos? It’s about half and half. Most of the tapes I put out came to me as demos, but a few of them were open invitations. The LPs on the label were mostly sought out. The only one that came in as a demo was this new album by Chuck Johnson that should be out in June. What are you looking for in an artist when you’re deciding what release? You’re building up an impressive body of work. Are there any releases you are particularly proud of? I’m interested in music that has a timeless feel, which is why a lot of the releases on Scissor Tail are guitar or drone related. Solo acoustic guitar, in my opinion, stands outside of time to a certain degree. If you were unfamiliar with Fahey, you could hear one of his albums and not know what decade within the last 60 years it was recorded. The same parameters don’t necessarily apply to drone music, because it’s generally electronic and that sort of limits the time frame when it could have been recorded, but it still has the same effect on the listener because of how minimal drone music tends to be. Gavin Bryars’ Sinking of the Titanic sounds as amazing today as it did in 1970 and will sound amazing when the sun burns out. Could you tell us a bit more about the Bruce Langhorne reissue? That release certainly put the label on the map. I just got lucky and wrote to him at the right time and offered him a really good deal. He’d been approached by a few labels to release it over the years, but I think it was just a timing thing or possibly the previous offers weren’t to his liking. The attention to packaging and presentation is consistently high, which for me at least, is an important aspect to running a label that puts out physical releases. Could you tell us a bit about your approach to this? Packaging and designing is my favorite part of running a label. If all I was doing were financially backing albums, I would have quit a long time ago. I really enjoy playing a creative role in each release, whether it be designing the artwork, doing the letterpress printing in my garage or seeking out other visual artists that fit the music. It’s really satisfying when it all clicks. There’s a lot of creative decision making that comes with running a label that keeps me constantly inspired. What’s the deal with cassettes? Do you just like the format or is it about cost and convenience for short-run releases? Is there anything consciously retro about using them? I love tapes! Everything about them. I love the nostalgia, the size, the sound, the fact that they make ripping music a pain in the ass. If you don’t offer downloads, someone has to spend a lot of time recording a tape to digital, separating the tracks, then bouncing them down and uploading them to the internet. It’s a whole process, and I just like the idea of manufacturing rarity, which I know is a bit controversial among the music community, but I’m all about it. Tapes are definitely also about cost: there are so many tapes I would have loved to put out on vinyl, but just didn’t have the funds. Also If you’ve ever been to a festival or music convention, people hand out CDs like business cards. In my opinion, it completely devalues the listening experience, where with tapes and vinyl, you have to sit down and take time to listen to. Can you tell us what you’re listening to at the moment? Any hot tips or recommendations? I’m listening to Kurt Vile a lot. I think he’s one of the best songwriters around. I also really love this album by Stephen Steinbrink that came out in 2013 called Arranged Waves. I’ve really been trying to seek out happier, less melancholy music lately. It seems to be hard to find outside of gospel, reggae, and traditional African music. I do listen to a lot of celtic music - Nic Jones, Andy M. Stewart, Dick Gaughan, Andy Irvine, Kevin Burke… I’m also pretty obsessed with anything Madlib puts out and another hip hop producer on Stones Throw, by the name of Knxwledge. Can I be a guitar nerd and ask you what you play and what you like about them? I lucked out three times via Craigslist and was able to acquire a 1949 Gibson LG2 in damn near mint condition for $350. I also play a 1921 Weissenborn Style 1 that I found on Craigslist in Florida. The guy who had it bought a storage unit on auction and there was a guitar inside that he knew very little about and so I snagged it from him for pretty much dirt cheap. My electric is a low end Mexican Tele. My pedal steel was a steal - haha - got it for $800 off a meth head in Tulsa who played in a cover band called Whisky Stills and Mash. It’s a 60s double neck Sho-Bud. I’m also fond of those lawsuit Suzuki guitars. What’s in store for you next - both in terms of your own music and Scissor Tail? I’m finishing a follow up to my first LP, Rise & Shine. It’s been in the works for the last two or three years. I also have those collaborations I mentioned earlier with Wooden Wand and Tashi Dorji. And then a lathe release with a bunch of other guitarists, Daniel Bachman, Tash and some other folks. That’ll be out on a really great label called Cabin Floor Esoterica probably later this year. A Talk West tape with Sic Sic out of Berlin in a couple weeks. As far as Scissor Tail goes, there’s quite a few things coming out this year. Chuck Johnson’s new LP called Blood Moon Boulder, which I’ve been busy letter pressing all the jackets for this last month. An album by another Oakland based guitarist and friend of Chuck - Dibson T Hoffweiler - that will be out May 7th. There’s a handful of tapes about to drop and an LP by Willamette that should be out in the Fall or Winter depending on how quickly we figure out the album art. Lotsa stuff brewin. Anything I should have asked you but didn’t? Nope, all bases covered. Thanks!

https://scissortail.bandcamp.com/

#dylan golden aycock #scissor tail #american primitive #cosmic american

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andrewuttaro · 6 years ago

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New Look Sabres: Preseason GM 4 - TOR - The Olofsson Show

I don’t really know where to begin with this one. I guess until Rasmus Ristolainen is traded every postgame needs to start with updated angst meter. With Risto being on the roster last night my angst rating went from 7/10 on Friday all the way down to a 4/10 on this fine Bills Gameday. I guess it’s still preferred he moves before whatever toxic drama he experienced behind the scenes ruins the locker room dynamic after they lose a couple games in a row. I know the trade trash sites have heated up their production on him the last couple days, but I don’t let that excite me unless Tim Murray is GM, or its clear Terry Pegula is breathing down Jason’s neck about bonus money. So how about we talk about the other skaters? I think I put in my mandatory 4 sentences of Ristolainen. He landed a dirty hit on one of the Leafs top 4 defenseman? Oh well, you can’t beat the classics. Welcome to Toronto, Tyson Barrie. I’m not making an excuse for that hit. It was stupid, ugly and a little too on brand for Risto. I think the more interesting question is does this mean Risto is really going kamikaze to end his time as a Sabre? He wants to go down with some kind of ritual suicide landing the most trash hits possible. Again, painfully on brand for Risto but I think everyone who is going to like him after he leaves will no matter what and the people who aren’t going to lose any sleep about it aren’t losing any sleep about it. I didn’t lose any sleep about it, that was the hard cider.

Yeah, I saw Ad Astra during this game last night. That’s how I do preseason promise: just ignore the game. Don’t see this movie unless you like Art films. Other than the space monkeys the only thing that wasn’t artsy AF was Brad Pitt just wailing for his daddy the whole frigging movie over narration. Well anyway, I came how to Beer pong and a series of drinking games with my siblings. That was fun but uh… sorry about some of the tweets that I let out during this time. I don’t think it was the booze though that made me enjoy this game so much watching it back. The big names came out to play for the home crowd against a Leafs team of Michal Neuvirth, John Tavares, Mitch Marner and the funny name alliance of no-name prospects. Tavares scored a little ways into the first. It was just a net-front redirect but it was in that range of goals Carter Hutton could have stopped. Hutton joined Rasmus Asplund on Chad DeDominicis’s list of the only two Sabres who were outright bad in this game. I’d have to agree on at least three goals against in this game. Henri Jokiharju and Dylan Cozens got back to back starts playing in this game and nothing really jumped off the page for me in this go around for them. That said, all I did was watch the highlight packs with a slight headache, so I probably missed something. Grill me for what I miss in the comments.

The star of this show was really Sam Reinhart. That was obvious even in the highlights. A couple minutes after Tavares’s tally Sam Reinhart scored essentially the same goal from a rebound. That’s right, Sam Reinhart is our John Tavares! And he’s better than JT you know! Lol, whatever I guess we have to troll each other as fanbases whenever we play. How about we just both be good at the same time, so I don’t need to bring up the Sabres have won more playoff series since the lockout even though we haven’t made the playoffs in eight years! OH BURN! Suck on that one, T-Town! What did all you punks do while we were throwing the queen’s tea in the harbor? I’m sure you normies were sipping it hardily you cowards! Okay, enough of that. In the second period Victor Olofsson scored an Ovechkin goal uncovered in the office on a powerplay. The Leafs would tie it up again before the middle frame ended but I really want to dwell on this Olofsson goal for a minute. It was powerplay goal assisted by Jack Eichel and Rasmus Dahlin. In addition to those guys Jeff Skinner and Sam Reinhart were on the ice. Assuming Victor Olofsson does become a scorer like we hope can I submit a formal request to Ralph Krueger and the two new assistant coaches with him? That should be a powerplay unit all season. That group consists of all the bonified scoring talents we have, and Rasmus Dahlin can play defense for the lot of them to whatever degree you need that on a powerplay. I mean, we need that because we’re the Sabres so yeah. In fact Trevor Moore would score a short-handed goal for the Leafs in the third period but not until after… the guy scored… the only guy whose worth mentioning in summer 2016: Jimmy Vesey, JV Vasectomy… uh… I’m sorry guys I think the mean nicknames bit is going to get cut before the end of Training Camp. Kinda sorry not sorry on that one.

That shorthanded Leafs goal by the way was strike two against Hutton last night. I don’t know what you expect when the Sabres are tied with the Leafs going into the last five minutes of regulation, but I normally think W. Last season beat that out of me a little bit, but I have a new hope now. Victor Olofsson scored again but this time from a Reinhart assist from behind the net. Olofsson just kinda passed it into the net. By this point I think the Leafs had Michael Hutchinson in just to remind all the Leafs fans present that this is a preseason game and even though it’s cheaper to drive all the way from Kitchener to Buffalo than to Toronto just because of ticket prices up there doesn’t mean the blue and white actually give a shit about the middle class. Olofsson is the standard bearer this year for the hopes of eternal optimists like me. If he can score just 20-30 goals this season he will be a helpful contribution. It’s guys like that coming in and adding just a little bit that makes us that much closer to a 90-point team. If Victor Olofsson wants to turn this team into the Olofsson show I’m more than pleased to cheer it on. The Leafs were bagged and this one would end 5-3 for the home team. CJ Smith would put in an empty netter in the last minute but those last seconds ticking away beating the Leafs is drained of its joy when it’s the preseason. Oh and sorry, CJ, an empty netter isn’t going to save you from cuts. I hope to see you called up, gee, I hope you survive waivers, but dude, figure it out. There are teenage Swedes whose names sound like Star Wars characters jumping you on the depth chart now. That segways nicely into cuts.

Before the unfortunately mostly rather expected cuts I want to debut a new bit. For games I’m writing up the next day, particularly ones that life stopped me from watching, I’ll be picking a reply to one of my Sabres tweets about the game for analysis. That’s right, your reply guy moment is going to find its way into New Look Sabres this season! Please contain your excitement. Our first ever Reply Guy Analysis comes from one of my most loyal followers: Jonathan who is leaning into the millennial theme with a couple snowflakes around his name @LakeEffectXJ, says: “Was fun and entertaining. A nice reminder exactly how good Olofsson’s shot is, a surprise for many how good Miller’s shot is, and we got reintroduced to how good Reinhart is and that he should be running his own line.” Thanks Jonathan, onto the cuts. Arttu Ruotsalainen saves Rob Ray and RJ from almost certainly butchering his name and gets sent back to the good old Liiga with two I’s. Everyone else cut is going to the Rochester Americans including CJ Smith and Andrew Hammond who both need to clear waivers. Hopefully both those guys do. The fun part of doing these blogs the day after is having information like this. Assuming you haven’t read the list of cuts and are too lazy to go read it now that you’ve made it this far here I’ll just list them out for you: Eric Cornell, Sean Malone, Andrew Oglevie, Kyle Olson, Kevin Porter, CJ Smith, Jacob Bryson, Casey Fitzgerald, Brandon Hickey, Zach Redmond, Devante Stephens, Andrew Hammond, Michael Houser, and Jonas Johansson. Amerks Training Camp starts Monday.

As always like, share and comment on yours truly’s special Sabres blog. Hopefully this was your break from the Bills game reading. In which case I have to warn you to not try to hold a loaded hot dog in one hand and your phone in the other. You think it’s easy but it’s not. Why ruin that nice jersey? I’ll be really honest and say I have never looked forward to a Bills game in my entire life as much as this one. I was a drought baby and a certain stinker in Jacksonville wasn’t going to get me pumped a couple years back. Anyway, I hope you come on back to read again as we have two more preseason games and the closing of Training Camp before we can actually get excited about beating teams. I think I speak for everyone when I hope we actually win enough for it to meaningful this season.

Thanks for Reading.

P.S. Moore shoving Olofsson into the Leafs bench was kinda fun I guess. Sportsnet said it led to the ensuing Leafs goal which I suppose it did but I thought taking guys out of the play was bad.

#buffalo sabres #Toronto Maple Leafs #NHL #Hockey #blog

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jam2289 · 6 years ago

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88.9 Hey Radio, As We Ascend, and Me

As We Ascend is cool. They work with their fans to create their music. If you join their program as a label executive, which is closed right now, you can both participate in the process and see behind the scenes into the process of the songs being written and recorded. I like transparency, so it connects with me.

As We Ascend was born just a couple of years ago, but the band is chock-full of experience. Here is the bio from their website: https://www.asweascend.com/

- - - - - - -

As We Ascend is a rock band from the greater Nashville area. Members Justin Forshaw and Jake Jones (formerly of rock sensation We As Human) along with Robert Venable (acclaimed music producer) all have extensive professional careers in the music industry and are able to bring a variety of musical expertise to the table. The perfect blend of melodic and heavy guitars, edgy vocals, and drums combined with pouring out their hearts for the lost and broken in their lyrics, gives this band their own space in the music industry. With a unique approach, As We Ascend hands over creative control to their fans and listeners, essentially making them their record label. Their debut single "Wash Away" has quickly gained traction and drawn the attention of the ones who the song was written for, those questioning the end and fighting internal battles with themselves. Their self-produced, debut album, "Farewell to Midnight," hit stores 3/17/17 via distributing label partner Vital Records/New Day Christian Distributors.

- - - - - - -

This type of experience comes with a few good things, I'm going to point out two. One, because they've already gone through a lot of growing pains in their careers they are more consistent in the quality that they produce. People fluctuate more when they're learning something new. Two, because of their credibility and connections they are able to bring in featured singers like Zach Myers of Shinedown and Brad Arnold of 3 Doors Down for collaborations, which is awesome.

Bill from Hey Radio sent me their song "Hatchett" to check out. Let's look at the lyrics and then I'll dive into them a bit.

- - - - - - -

You set my world on fire, it's time to run away

Through the soil you torched to the horizon

My hopes and dreams they died, but now I'm justified

I won't drag your weight any longer

Cut me loose

I'm trying to let go of everything

You've tied my noose

But now your rope's unraveling

It's hard to breathe with your hands around my neck

Around my neck, you're killing me

It's hard to know when you're behind me

It's hard to bury this hatchet when it's in my back

You left my spirit torn, tired, and all alone

My heart is frozen, colder than frostbite

I've gathered every stone that you have ever thrown

Used them to build my road while you sink under

Cut me loose

I'm trying to let go of everything

You've tied my noose

But now your rope's unraveling

It's hard to breathe with your hands around my neck

Around my neck, you're killing me

It's hard to know when you're behind me

It's hard to bury this hatchet when it's in my back

You raised your walls so you could hide your past

Made them out of glass and they're shattering

It's hard to bury this hatchet when it's in my back

It's in my back, hatchet in my back

Look me in the eyes

The only one prepared to die

The damage is already done

You best get your hatchet

This battle has just begun

It's hard to breathe with your hands around my neck

Around my neck, you're killing me

It's hard to know when you're behind me

It's hard to bury this hatchet when it's in my back

It's hard to breathe

With your hands around me, hand around me

It's hard to know

You're always behind me

- - - - - - - -

Well, well, well. There is a lot that we could dive into here. I'm going to go with stream of consciousness, starting with the title and working my way down. We'll see what comes up.

"Hatchet"

"Hatchet" could be referring to a tool or a weapon. Technically a weapon is a type of tool with the specific purpose of harming others. I assumed the song wasn't going to be about making kindling for a fire. It did briefly bring up the image of the novel "Hatchet" by Gary Paulsen about a boy surviving in the wilderness. I assumed it wasn't about that either.

"You set my world on fire, it's time to run away"

In the first line we know that this is going to be an intense song, and not a happy song. Maybe a song about overcoming. To overcome something there must be an obstacle or a challenge. There are certain things that certain people can do that can ruin your entire life. When that happens it makes sense to run away. When your world is on fire you're probably going to panic. The worst thing you can do is panic, you're probably going to panic anyway. Sometimes it's best to confront what is burning your life down, at other times it's best to just get away from it.

What's really happening here is that you don't know where you are. If you plop an animal down in an area that it's never been to before the first thing it does is panic. It freezes, it tries to orient itself, then it slowly starts exploring. As it learns more about its new surroundings it calms down. By exploring and learning we reduce this underlying anxiety. But, when something goes wrong we no longer can rely on what we've previously learned. Maybe all of that is wrong, maybe everything we have been predicting and expecting is wrong, maybe everything we thought we knew was wrong. We've lost our present, future, and past. This is extremely disorienting. You basically can't not panic. What you can do is start slowly exploring your new surroundings and learning, as you learn your anxiety will go back down.

"Through the soil you torched to the horizon"

The song and I are on the same wavelength. The horizon stretches in all directions. When you're traveling there is a horizon that you came from and a horizon that you're going to. (You can't usually see this if you're from Michigan like me, but it's amazing to see when you drive across the Great Plains.) There's your past and there's your future. If someone really messes up your life you don't just question the present, you have to rethink everything about the future and the past. Did you ever really even know this person? That rabbit hole can be deep.

"My hopes and dreams they died, but now I'm justified"

Hopes and dreams are living things. They grow, they change, and they die. This is interesting, if you have shared hopes and dreams with someone else are you locked into them? At least somewhat, yes. That's why we sometimes consider it a betrayal when someone ruins our hopes and dreams. But, if it's the other person that ruins those hopes and dreams then we are free. We are free to let other hopes and dreams grow that wouldn't have been able to if we were still obligated to those other shared hopes and dreams. I've never really articulated that before. Very insightful. That's why there's value in this process of both experiencing a song and digging into a song.

"I won't drag your weight any longer"

Do we have an obligation to help someone that we have shared hopes and dreams with? Yes, I think we do. But, if they break our covenant, if they break our agreement, for instance by burning down our life, then we no longer have to carry that burden, we can let it drop. Now we are open to new hopes and dreams, and we no longer have to be dragging along someone else.

"Cut me loose

I'm trying to let go of everything"

If you were tied to this person you are now cut free from them and everything that goes along with that.

"You've tied my noose

But now your rope's unraveling"

When someone is ruining their own life and your life is closely tied to theirs then when they are hanging themselves they are hanging you too. That's why it's a good idea to get away. Sometimes you can, sometimes you can't. When the connections are tight, and if they were for a long time, then that's a strong rope. But, slowly, those connections will start to unravel and fall away. So, like before you might be able to make a clean cut. Or, it might be more like an unraveling to disconnect with someone. Either way progress is being made. You just want to make sure that you are able to unravel that noose in time.

"It's hard to breathe with your hands around my neck

Around my neck, you're killing me"

I'm not sure about this part. It's obviously a powerful image, but it's more of a confrontational image. When your world is burning because of someone and you're trying to make a cut, or unravel, from them then at some point there is probably going to be the confrontation, or confrontations. There may be no higher skill in life than conflict resolution. Many people agree with this, that's why the Nobel Peace Prize used to be so highly valued. But, if someone else has you boxed in somehow, for instance if you have shared obligations as in business contracts or children, then you're stuck. There's no room for you to move. You're suffocating because of this other person. The most natural thing to do in that situation is to rage. It's the natural reaction against frustration and being held back or being held down. There's danger in not doing anything, you have to do something. There's also potential danger in what you could do. Your world's burning down, you're trying to get loose, but you're being pinned in. That's a hard situation.

"It's hard to know when you're behind me

It's hard to bury this hatchet when it's in my back"

And now we get to where the title comes from. The crux of the song. Deception, secrets, and betrayal. That's what this is about. It's hard to know if someone has secrets, that's the point of having secrets. Somewhere along the way you have to trust someone. Really, you have to trust many people at many points. Paranoia and stalking are considered bad things for a reason. If you didn't trust anyone then you would have to be paranoid and stalk everyone. When you trust someone you take a risk. You take the risk that they are going to sneak up behind you and put a knife in your back, or in this case, a hatchet.

To stick a knife in someone's back and to bury the hatchet are both idioms. Idioms are just phrases they mean something more and a little different than they would appear to say. To stick a knife in someone's back means to betray them. To bury the hatchet means to make peace.

To stab someone in the back originally came from Germany, although this idea in the literal and figurative sense is as old as human history. It became popular in Germany after WW1 when the army felt betrayed by the government. It seems to come from Richard Wagner's opera Gotterdammerung, where the hero is murdered by being stabbed in the back with a spear.

To bury the hatchet comes from a Native American tradition, specifically the Iroquois Confederacy, of burying weapons when they were at peace.

It's hard to forgive someone. The more they've hurt you the harder it is to forgive. These bad emotions are there for a reason. You shouldn't let a person keep hurting you over and over again. When the wound is fresh it's hard to forgive. If the wound is still happening, the hatchet is still in your back, then it's basically impossible. First, you have to try to put the fire in your life out before you get burned up, you have to unravel your bonds with the person so you can get away from them for your own safety, then, after the hatchet has been taken out of your back, then maybe you can bury the hatchet and make peace with them.

"You left my spirit torn, tired, and all alone"

All of this takes a huge mental, emotional, and physical toll. What you thought was good is bad. You thought you were supported but you're not, and weren't. You thought you weren't alone, but you are, and were. It's a lot to try to process.

"My heart is frozen, colder than frostbite"

Your mind, body, and soul can only take so much pain. There is a limit. After that you can't feel it anymore. That's why we have the capacity for not caring. The fire in our engines has been used up and now it goes out. Frostbite kills. Betrayal severs a connection and kills our heart, our emotions, our sympathy, our empathy, and our trust. We need time to warm back up again and grow into those things. When something is overwhelming we tend to shut down to try to limit how much input we're getting. This is part of the natural process of confronting something that is too much to comprehend. Then, as we explore our anxiety will slowly reduce as we become more familiar with our new surroundings and situation.

"I've gathered every stone that you have ever thrown

Used them to build my road while you sink under"

Throwing stones is another idiom for saying insults and criticisms. It's usually used as an insult itself. Here's the thing. If someone is giving you criticisms those criticisms might not be worth much, or they might be useful. If someone close to you has told you that you don't do something well, or you lack something that you need, then it might be a good idea to look into it. If you're able to become a better person because of that criticism then you'll build yourself up. You'll lay a solid foundation for your life. You will build a road that you can then travel down to better things. If you ignore those criticisms, and they were true, then you don't get better. You don't have a foundation, you don't have a solid road, and maybe because of those things you sink or get stuck. You can give the same criticism to two different people in good faith and one will find progress while the other will find something to resent.

"Cut me loose

I'm trying to let go of everything

You've tied my noose

But now your rope's unraveling

It's hard to breathe with your hands around my neck

Around my neck, you're killing me

It's hard to know when you're behind me

It's hard to bury this hatchet when it's in my back

You raised your walls so you could hide your past

Made them out of glass and they're shattering

It's hard to bury this hatchet when it's in my back

It's in my back, hatchet in my back"

We encounter one new idea here, raising walls that shatter because they're made out of glass. This ties into throwing stones somewhat, because "you shouldn't throw stones if you live in a glass house" means you shouldn't criticize people if you can be criticized for the same thing. This is different though. Raising walls to hide your past is keeping secrets. The thing is, it's hard to keep secrets. They have a way of being noticed, even if it's just in a little way. When it's noticed, even just a little, it tends to get a little more noticed. That wall, or lie, that you used to try to hide your past turns out to not be that strong. When someone really questions it maybe the wall just falls down. That's part of why I prefer to be transparent about things.

"Look me in the eyes"

This is more confrontational again. We all know this works for trying to clear up lies. We know a lot of things that we don't know we know, we don't even know how we would know them. One of these things is micro-expressions. The psychologist Paul Ekman led the way in this research. Tiny little adjustments in muscle tension in the face reveals emotions. Even though we don't know that we are noticing these, we are. That's one reason that looking someone in the eyes can help to determine if they're lying. The other reason is that people are more reluctant to lie when you are looking in their eyes. I think this could be for a few reasons. There's the feeling of being closely observed. When people think they are being observed they act more moral. If there is a sign with eyes on it in a subway station people will litter less. Also, this is often how animal dominance is determined, by a stare. Locking eyes can be an intense moment, and it makes it harder to lie.

"The only one prepared to die"

If you have strong convictions then you're willing to stay with them. If, on the other hand, you're lying and deceiving then maybe you'll be more reluctant to sacrifice for your opinions. When it comes down to it deception takes your power away, unless you're a sociopath. It undermines your confidence, commitment, and conviction. Only someone with a serious conviction is willing to die for a principle.

"The damage is already done"

If the damage is already done then you need to try to orient yourself for the future. To a certain extent, you can leave that thing behind and move ahead.

"You best get your hatchet

This battle has just begun"

This throws me off a little. It's very confrontational. Now, if you have tried to cut loose from someone but they won't let you, then maybe your only option is to confront the person. Maybe that means going into a legal battle, or maybe something else. Either way, it's not ideal. But, if it has to be done then it's best to go into it voluntarily. To confront something reluctantly and to confront something voluntarily are completely different. It sounds similar because either way you're confronting something, but it works completely differently in the mind. In your brain there are different circuits that fire if you are approaching something or if you are avoiding something. You don't want the avoid circuits firing while you have to be approaching something anyway. This is going to limit your own mental, emotional, and physical resources. So, if you have to confront something you better confront it voluntarily.

"It's hard to breathe with your hands around my neck

Around my neck, you're killing me

It's hard to know when you're behind me

It's hard to bury this hatchet when it's in my back

It's hard to breathe"

We've covered all of this so I'll keep going.

"With your hands around me, hand around me

It's hard to know

You're always behind me"

I think this is kind of an odd ending. I would have liked to see the hero story where we have a hardship that's overcome, or at least hope for overcoming in the future. Here there is a different perspective taken. This is more of an ongoing situation. This person might still be behind us, they always seem to be behind us. They might stab us again, betray us again. It's hard to know when or if this is going to happen because they are so deceptive. I feel like I'm being suffocated because of being trapped in this situation. It's definitely an intense way to end the song. And, I get it, As We Ascend describe themselves as talking to the lost and the broken. But, having been lost and broken, I would like to see the lost and the broken encouraged to be able to come out of that situation, to overcome it. That doesn't mean they're going to, but there is value in just the trying. As we try to transform the world we also transform ourselves. That's how I see it anyway. I've written psychology articles on suicide and philosophy articles about the meaning of life, so As We Ascend and I are exploring many of the same subjects.

Overall, I think it's an excellent song. There is great imagery in this song, they are good at weaving together different idioms in unique ways. I've heard internet chatter that We As Human fell apart because of some sort of deception and lying scandal. It seems to me that this song might be at least partially inspired by that. It could have come from something else, but I'm guessing it still applies to that situation. I'm glad these three musicians were able to come together to form a solid rock band, and I'm glad they're doing so well. I expect big things in the future.

As a little addon note about deception and lying: Notice that if there wasn't any lying or deception in television shows then there would be almost no television shows. Most of them are based around the problems caused by deception. They're all about secrets. Drama can almost wholly be eliminated by being transparent. The world offers enough challenges, I see no reason to add to them. This is hard to work out because there are white lies and black truths. But, the attempt at transparency is worth it.

________________________________________________

You can find more of what I'm doing at http://www.JeffreyAlexanderMartin.com

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amanharwara · 6 years ago

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Aman's 10 Most Listened Albums of 2019

https://amanharwara.xyz/blog/2019/12/24/aman-s-most-listened-albums-of-2019/

Rage Against The Machine

Rage Against The Machine is the self-titled debut album by American rap metal band Rage Against The Machine. I like RATM's music a lot, especially their debut album. I don't think any other band has quite been able to create such an amazing mixture of rap and metal. Zack's ferocious lyrics and an even more aggressive delivery on top of Tom and Tim's strings, combined with some amazing drums from Brad, make this album a must-listen for people who enjoy heavy, politically-charged music.

Know Your Enemy, Take The Power Back, Killing In The Name

The Cold Vein

The Cold Vein was the first studio album from New York-based rap duo Cannibal Ox, consisting of Vast Aire and Vordul Mega. The album was released on El-P's Def Jux record label. The whole album was by produced by El-P himself. It's considered to be one of the greatest records to come out of the independent hip-hop scene. The album creates a vivid depiction of a poverty-stricken New York. Not many rappers will be able to match the pure technical skill exhibited by Vast and Vordul. One of the things that makes this album so great is, of course, El-P's amazing production here.

Ox out the Cage, Pidgeon, Stress Rap, Ridiculoid

The Glow, Pt. 2

"The Glow, Pt. 2" is the third studio album and the magnum opus of indie-folk band, The Microphones, fronted by Phil Elverum. It is a concept album detailing Phil's feelings and thoughts during and after a tough breakup with his girlfriend. The album is an amazing mixture of indie folk, lo-fi and noise rock. It is very immersive and at moments, very breathtaking. This is definitely something you should check out if you enjoy indie music. Phil's vocals sound amazing with pleasant and lively tunes laid beneath.

I Want Wind To Blow, The Glow Pt. 2, Headless Horseman, You'll Be In The Air

Atrocity Exhibition

Atrocity Exhibition is the fourth studio album by rapper Danny Brown. Most of the album is produced by produced by Paul White. I absolutely love this album. There isn't much that I dislike about this album. To find something that I dislike, I'd really have to nitpick a lot of things. I slept on this album before, because I couldn't really get myself to listen to Danny (because of his voice) On the album, Danny brings out all his pain and suffering and brings you through it. The production is absolutely amazing on this thing, some of the best beats I've heard. However, it's not really a traditional hip-hop album, at least, not in terms of the music. With amazing beats by Paul and incredible flows by Danny, you'd be hard-pressed to find any other hip-hop album that sounds something so unique.

Downward Spiral, Ain't It Funny, Lost, When It Rain

To Pimp A Butterfly

To Pimp a Butterfly is Kendrick Lamar’s second major label studio album, and third full length project. I, personally think this is THE best hip-hop album of all time. I know it has a reputation of being "over-rated", but it really is one of the best hip-hop compositions. Kendrick's deep, intricate lyrics combined with some amazing production from producers like Thundercat and Flying Lotus, are some of the highlights of this record. The album takes a lot of influence from genres like jazz and funk, but is still rooted in hip-hop. This album’s concept explores themes of self-love and hate, fame, depression, violence, race, and politics through a spoken-word poem that interweaves between songs, leading up to the climax. The album contains a lot of nuances that you'll be find the more you listen to the album. This is a must-listen for anyone who considers themselves a true hip-hop fan.

u, The Blacker The Berry, Wesley's Theory, Momma

Run The Jewels 2

RTJ2 is the second-album from Run The Jewels, a hip-hop super-duo, as I like to call them. Mike and El-P joined forces again after the release of their first RTJ album which was amazing. But, RTJ2 takes that to another level with a much more dark and layered production. The lyrics on this record are very raw and gritty as well. The record starts with Mike saying that he will bang this bitch the fuck out. That sets the tone of how raw and crude this record is about to be with its lyrics. It's not all just trash talk, however. Both Mike and El-P describe how they vulnerable in this world in many of the songs. Songs like Early and Angel Duster, are very introspective and to a degree, a little depressing as well. RTJ2 is an almost-perfect mix of trash talk, introspection and semi-political messaging.

Blockbuster Night Pt. 1, Close Your Eyes (and Count to Fuck), "Lie, Cheat, Steel", Angel Duster

Run The Jewels 3

RTJ3 is the third iteration in the Run The Jewels discography, serving as a follow-up to the critically-acclaimed RTJ2. It features guest appearances from the likes of Danny Brown, Zack de la Rocha, Trina and Kamasi Washington. de la Rocha and BOOTS join RTJ again after they collaborated on their previous record, RTJ2. The album bangs relentlessly and is very fun to listen to. It's even more political than their previous record. El-P still manages to provide us with amazing Sci-Fi inspired production on this record. Mike and El don't slack in the lyrics department, either. Overall, a very enjoyable record which holds strong political opinions and makes sure that you hear them, with amazing production and raw, visceral observational lyrics from both Mike and Jaime.

Hey Kids (Bumaye), Everybody Stay Calm, Panther Like A Panther, A Report to the Shareholders / Kill Your Masters

All My Heroes Are Cornballs

All My Heroes Are Cornballs, is Peggy’s third studio album, following up his critically-acclaimed 2018 sophomore album, Veteran. After the release of the aforementioned Veteran, Peggy recorded around 93 songs for the next project which he whittled to about 18 songs, adding up to the runtime of 45 minutes. There's a lot more singing on this record than his previous record, which I don't think is necessarily a bad thing. But, the quality of singing is really lacking on some of the songs which end up sounding really annoying. Most of the record contains Peggy's signature glitch-hop beats which are very fun to listen to. However, due to their glitchy nature, this record might not really be a listen for hip-hop traditionalists. I, for one, enjoy this album a lot.

"Jesus Forgive Me, I'm A Thot", Beta Male Strategies, Free the Frail, BasicBitchTearGas, Thot Tactics

Veteran

Veteran is an avant-garde, experimental glitch-hop album from rapper JPEGMAFIA, who is also know by his fans as Peggy. It is his sophomore album, containing features by his friends from Baltimore - Bobbi Rush, Yung Midpack and Freaky. The album’s title refers to Peggy’s legal status as a veteran. This album is what I think could be considered as Peggy's signature sound. The album revolves around themes and topics such as self-reflection, politics, pop culture, gentrification, race, guns & violence. It is an amazing listening experience throughout. A lot of the songs from the album are prominent in my daily rotation.

1539 N. Calvert, Real Nega, Thug Tears, Baby I'm Bleeding

The Money Store

Upon its release, Death Grips' debut studio album became their magnum opus. The Money Store instantly marked an evolutionary step forward in experimental, industrial, and underground hip-hop. Death Grips created one of the most innovative musical releases of the decade through utilization of the trio’s individual and collective strengths; MC Ride’s raw, visceral, and abrasive vocals, Andy ‘Flatlander’ Morin’s distorted, mechanical sonics, and Zach Hill’s explosive drumming style, coupled with his adept creative direction. The lyrics create a bleak, dystopian atmosphere, with Ride’s cryptic wordplay and intense delivery setting the scene for a dark future. Despite these factors, the album manages to be supremely catchy, with its combination of infectious, earworm hooks and upbeat, experimental production.

Blackjack, I've Seen Footage, Punk Weight, Hacker

#music #top10 #2019 #the microphones #cannibal ox #rage against the machine #death grips #jpegmafia #kendrick lamar

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onecountrycom-blog · 7 years ago

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Chris Lane's Country Evolution is Evident on New Album "Laps Around The Sun"

After hitting the country music scene in 2016 with his pop-leaning album Girl Problems, Chris Lane is changing direction with his latest offering, Laps Around the Sun. The new album, which contains 14 brand new tracks, is not what you would expect from the guy who brought us "Fix" as his debut single. "I learned from that, from playing live and from what people react to, and what's true to my heart and what I've truly wanted to do," Chris tells One Country. Going back to his roots and picking songs that fans can relate too, such as the infectious "Drunk People," and "Life Goes On.," Chris has hit his stride. The country album lends itself to Chris' sultry vocals, bringing them the recognition they deserve. Not only did the North Carolina native evolve his sound, remaining true to the music he loves, his recording process took him in a new direction as well. Produced by Joey Moi, the new album was recorded using a live band in the studio. "I've never done that before, and I love the sound that I got from that," Chris said. Part of that sound was released in the lead single, "Take Back Home Girl," featuring Tori Kelly, which reached Top 10 on the Billboard Country Airplay charts. Chris admits the song has been the biggest of his career to date and adding Tori to the track was a smart move. What has "Take Bak Home Girl" meant for you? "'Take Back Home Girl.' Gosh, this song's been a huge blessing for me because I'm lucky to have Tori Kelly on the song. She definitely took it to the next level, but to see the way people are reacting to this song has been huge for me. It's just now top 10, but no matter what it does from here on out, it's been the biggest song of my career." What drew you to that song to make it the first cut off the new album? "Well, honestly when I got the song, it was just in a little acoustic work tape more or less, but just lyrically, it took me to a happy place in my life. I haven't experienced taking a whole lot of girls back home to meet my parents, 'cause I'm not there right now. But lyrically, the second verse takes me back to my high school girlfriend and Friday night football, and my hometown. Just everything about it. I just love it. I felt it, and I think people can really relate to the song." What can we expect from Laps Around the Sun? It's a little bit of everything. So, there's songs like 'Hero,' which speak to a side of me where I've grown up in church my entire life. But then you go to the other opposite end of the spectrum to a song that I just released called 'Drunk People.' People are saying that this is the most relatable song they've ever heard, and I'm like, 'Yeah. That's exactly why I recorded it, because it's me to a tee along with millions of other people.' I think there's a song on here for everybody, a lot more organic this time around because we used a real, live band to do the recordings. I love the songs that I got to record. "There are some songs that are more progressive than others, and there are certain songs that are right down the middle. Just great country songs, where my first record was pretty progressive the whole way through and a little more pop-leaning sound." Do you think you found the sound and direction you wanna go with the new album? "I mean, there's always room to evolve and to keep growing, but I think people are definitely gonna be able to see the growth from first record to this record, and probably even from this record to the next and so on. But yes, now I understand what kind of artist I wanna be, and I can really go for it now as opposed to first time around where I was still trying to figure it out. I'm very proud of that record. It got me to where I'm at now, but building off of that, it feels good knowing what I wanna do and how I can brand myself moving forward. And I'm pumped about that." Do you have a favorite song on the album? "I love them all for different reasons, but 'Laps Around the Sun' especially because I was a writer on it. 'Hero,' like I said, because it's something that I wanted to say, but I don't feel like it's too pushy. And it's more of a serious song. I've never had a song like that, ever. But I'm also loving the way that people have reacted so far to 'Fishin'' and 'Drunk People.' Not only is Tori Kelly on the album, Danielle Bradbery joins you on "Without You." How did that come about? Well, I'm a fan of hers. I'd recently did a guitar pull with her and I remember thinking to myself after I heard her sing that first song—I always knew she could sing, but after hearing her sing the first song—I had to go after her and the whole time I was like, 'God, I gotta go after her.' "She did a great job. She came in, like I said, was super sweet and just nailed it. It was one of the last songs we finished. It wasn't a duet or anything like that, but I decided I wanted to put a female on the song, and I feel like it took it to that next level. Super happy to have her on the song. It could even potentially be a single, we don't know yet. Have you had a pinch-me moment in your career that you'll never forget? Yeah, honestly I think having my first number one was definitely a big moment for me. What does the rest of 2018 look like for you? "We're currently figuring out whether I end up on tour with somebody else or not. I'm not sure yet, but I'm doing a lot of fairs and festivals currently, and will be doing so until probably mid-fall and then start figuring out exactly what we're gonna do from there. It's been a lot of fun. The past few years I was out with Flatts and then FGL , so I haven't had a chance to do a lot of fairs and festivals, and this is my year for that."

LAPS AROUND THE SUN TRACK LISTING: 1. “Take Back Home Girl” feat. Tori Kelly – (David Garcia, Hillary Lindsey, Josh Miller) 2. “Fishin’” – (Matt Dragstrem, Brian Kelley, Josh Thompson) 3. “Drunk People” – (Zach Abend, Michael Hardy, James McNair) 4. “I Don't Know About You” – (Ashley Gorley, Michael Hardy, Hunter Phelps, Jameson Rodgers) 5. “Laps Around The Sun” – (Bobby Huff, Chris Lane, Ernest Keith Smith) 6. “Bad Girl” – (Rodney Clawson, Matt Dragstrem, Josh Thompson) 7. “New Phone, Who's This” – (Rhett Akins, Matt Dragstrem, Marv Green) 8. “All The Right Problems” – (Rodney Clawson, Matt Dragstrem, Josh Thompson) 9. “Life Goes On” – (Nate Cyphert, Josh Miller, Ben West) 10. “Sun Kiss You” – (busbee, Ryan Hurd, Jon Nite) 11. “Number One” – (Bobby Huff, Ernest Keith Smith, Brad Warren, Brett Warren) 12. “Old Flame” – (Rodney Clawson, Matt Dragstrem, Josh Thompson) 13. “Without You” feat. Danielle Bradbery – (Ben Burgess, Ross Copperman, Emily Weisband) 14. “Hero” – (Josh Miller) Read the full article

#daniellebradbery #hero #LapsAroundthesun #newalbum #torikelly

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hottytoddynews · 8 years ago

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Tyler Keith’s homage to the biker genre is at the Powerhouse on Halloween and again November 3. Photo by Mike Stanton.

Tyler Keith’s rowdy, rocking tale of a mythic gay biker peels out on Halloween night.

By Tad Wilkes, Nightlife & Lifestyles Editor

[email protected]

Tyler Keith first began to form the idea for The Outlaw Biker—a music-filled play debuting on Halloween night—several years ago, but the inspiration got its hooks in him at an early age. As a child of the late ‘70s, he says the Fonz of Happy Days, for example, solidified the image of the tough, lone greaser who could intimidate an entire game of would-be toughs. Several years ago, that seed began to grow.

“I was working at [former Oxford video shop] As Seen on TV and watching a lot of the biker films up there at work — The Wild Angels, Hell’s Angels on Wheels, Satan’s Sadists,” recalls Keith, the intensely visceral leader of Tyler Keith & the Apostles and past local rock outfits the Neckbones and the Preacher’s Kids. “I loved those movies. I thought they were hilarious and great.”

And that ultimately brings us to the Outlaw Biker, a nearly supernatural figure, looming at all times over the story, whether actually present or not. He’s like a darker version of the Fonz. Dark, mysterious, tortured—and gay.

“This gang feels this presence,” Keith explains, “this stalking figure, this character the Outlaw Biker, who rides with no gang, who can stomp any gang. He’s been institutionalized since he was four, so he’s grown to like men. He likes biker dudes.”

Tyler Keith performing at the Powerhouse Community Arts Center. Photo by Mike Stanton.

Putting it Together

Keith had no experience writing a script.

“It took me a while to actually write it,” he explains. “I talked to people about it a lot, but one night basically I was kind of drunk and sat down and wrote the whole thing … I’d read some [scripts] and looked at the format and basically just faked it. That was the intimidating part initially, but I just decided to do it.”

About a year later, Keith finally sat down with his four-track recorder to start creating songs to accompany the story. “So, I had it sort of together for a long time,” he says, “and then I ran up against Andy [Douglas, with the Powerhouse Community Arts Center], and he said, ‘Oh, yeah, we might could do that.’ So I actually had to put it together.”

And put it together he did. Thirteen original songs later, Keith and company are turning the throttle, as he and a full, amplified band perform the music during the performance. David Shirley is the producer of the play and also plays the part of “Pops.”

Rowdiness and Revenge

“The setting is somewhere in rural Mississippi during the 1960s,” Douglas says. “The characters represent a caricature of many of the different personalities found in the genre, including the slut and the innocent girl, the out-of-control rockabilly brawler and pacifist good boy, the aged gentlemen disgusted by youth—one whom always has a shotgun nearby—a rowdy mass of rival gangers and a twisted character for whom the play is named and has never been directly represented in film.”

“There’s usually a Native American, who represents a spiritual aspect,” Keith notes.

“The plot captures the loss of direction in life and the moment-to-moment nature of living with only the next score, drunken party or brawl to plan,” Douglas says. “Numerous subplots abound in this crazy tale, from love to sleaze to drug pushing to gang rivalries, but ultimately it’s the symbolic revenge subplot that leaves a daunting image in the mind unfathomable but to a true storyteller.”

Music and Machines

Keith describes The Outlaw Biker not as a musical but as a “play with music. It’s not like a rock opera where you sing everything.” He says several of the characters do sing songs, though.

“There’s a lot of good singers and performers in this town,” Keith says of his cast, which includes area actors and musicians including Alice Walker, Johnny McPhail, Brad Hayden and Zach Tutor. Also taking on roles are “recognized people from around Oxford,” Douglas says, “who’ve had no stage experience, but because of their respect for Keith and the content of this play, have worked hard to bring his rock opera to the stage. It is a unique assemblage of personalities that bring this musical to life, but the well-defined, distinctly original music is the spine that holds all of this controlled chaos together.”

Keith keeps a purist’s eye to his homage to the great drive-in biker movies of the ‘60s, right down to following the elements that made those films B movies.

“It’s a little bit of action with some songs thrown in,” he says. “There’s three acts, so each act has about three songs, and then there’s music in between the scenes. In your biker films, you always have a lot of scenes of them just riding their machines on the highway. I think the plots were a little weak. That’s the situation here. When they’re changing sets, we have some instrumental Link Wray-style stuff.”

Meanwhile in the shadows, watching the cast play their parts, is the Outlaw Biker. He rides with no gang. Not even this one.

The Outlaw Biker debuts October 31 at 7:30 p.m. at the Powerhouse Community Arts Center, with a second performance on November 3. Tickets are $10 and may be purchased at the Powerhouse.

The post Sick Twist: the Ride of the Outlaw Biker appeared first on HottyToddy.com.

#hottytoddy #olemiss #oxfordms #oxford ms #mississippi #university of mississippi #the grove

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notrandomatall · 8 years ago

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For any character: multiples of 10! And BEI for the creator part!

Okay, this may take awhile so I'll repeat the questions and then go through the answers for each character.10.) What lie do they most frequently remember telling? Does it haunt them?20.) If they were asked to explain the difference between romantic and platonic or familia love, how would they do so?30.) Who do they most regret meeting?40.) How sensitive are they about their flaws?B.) What inspired you to create them?E.) Are they someone you would get along with? Would they get along with you?I.) Do you prefer to keep them in their canon universe?Zip -10.) "You're safe with me." Yes, it haunts them everyday.20.) Romantic is when you want to get something, platonic is when you already have it.30.) Zap40.) Not sensitive at all, she'd probably take it as a compliment.B.) It was originally her and about two other female characters that were supposed to be teachers/motherly/leaders but then I narrowed it down and they might come in later. But for Zip, I thought it was important to have someone in command, someone behind the scenes, someone to watch over everyone when they hardly watch over themselves. And, I made it worse, she killed her family so now having a new family is something else entirely. Also, Nick Fury.E.) Probably not, just because I begrudgingly respect them. I think she'd find me weird and tolerate me.I.) Are you kidding? She (and everyone in my story, because this is all one story) jump dimensions. They're constantly in AUs while remaining in canon. Weird, I know. But the answer is the same for all of them.Zap -10.) "It'll be okay, I'm here and I'll always be here." Yes, like Zip it haunts them everyday.20.) "Romance is all lovey-dovey and I'm over here with a bag of chips screaming 'Some people be like "Fries before guys!" but I'm like "All foods before dudes!" and "Pals before gals!"' In other news, I have found the memes."30.) Lani (only because they feel sorry for her)40.) Relatively sensitive, can take criticism but hates when people purposely pick at them and others.B.) Ever wish you had a big brother or sister? Zap is both.E.) Yes, we'd get into so much trouble. But somehow Zap would always get us out of it.I.) See 'Zip'Zach -10.) "I'm fine." No, he regrets nothing anymore.20.) "Romance is... complicated. Platonic love is just love. The only love that I care to experience."30.) Lani, of course he has to be her guard cat.40.) Do whatever you want to him he doesn't care anymore. You could physically hurt him because of his flaws and he'd just kind of be blank.B.) I literally made my cat a character. And a main character at that.E.) He's probably upset about all the times I picked him up and forcibly cuddled him. But once we get past that he'd protect me and I'd protect him.I.) See 'Zip'Jay -10.) "I don't remember." It wasn't always a lie, and then it had to be.20.) Romance is possessive, platonic love is loyal.30.) His old self when he got his memories back.40.) He will take constructive criticism but blatantly pointing out his flaws? Your going to have an arrow to the head. B.) Blue Jays and my baby cousin Jacob. He has the bluest eyes I've ever seen and I used to call him 'Blue' while holding him which plays a part in the story.E.) Heck to the yeah, okay, maybe not. It'd take a little while for me to get past the whole 'I'm friends with your younger brother' thing. But after that, it'd be awesome. He'd be weary at first but open up pretty quickly once he got to know me. He's loyal and once you've gained that loyalty you have it for life.I.) See 'Zip'Jana -10.) "I don't know what you're talking about." Or "Of course I didn't know!" It hurts her to lie, but she has to.20.) Romance is a dime a dozen, but platonic love is rare.30.) Saya40.) Tell her about her flaws, she'll use it to be better.B.) So many different elements influenced Jana, I'll talk more about it on @whumpinitsnaturalhabitat @notrandomatall and @theinfiverse (theinfiverse is their story).E.) We might be different, but we're thick as thieves once she finds out my/Lani's secret.I.) See 'Zip'Brad -10.) "I'll protect you." "Nothing bad will happen to you, not on my watch." "It'll be okay." "I'll find you." "I'll save you!" Yeah... he's had it pretty rough.20.) Romance is complex while platonic love is simple.30.) Jana or Zach, probably Zach.40.) He could care less about your opinion, something Lani scolds him over.B.) My friend and I worked together to pick out successful protagonist and we meshed them together to make a flawed mess of a person who will likely fail more times than he succeeds. E.) Yes and yes.I.) See 'Zip'Lani -10.) "I'll be okay."20.) Romance is simple while platonic love is complex.30.) Brad but she can't hate him she loves him but none of this would've happened without him but that doesn't mean she doesn't love him. She hates him but she loves him.40.) Takes everything to heart.B.) Loosely based on myself and some other qualities mashed together. I chose her because of something I'll explain in the overview.E.) Yes because I am me and she is she unless I'm pretending that I'm her.I.) See 'Zip'Ethan -10.) "I'm never letting you go." Yes, he hurt Saya so much. (Okay out of context this sounds a lot more creepy than it's supposed to, it is going to be sad.)20.) "Romance...? How should I know? I'm ten! I guess it's when people love each other in a different way than how I love Saya. Saya is my play-tonic - that's how you say it, right? - love."30.) Saya or his mom40.) Don't. Just no. He has flaws but he doesn't need them to be pointed out any more than they already have been. *Turns to Ethan* My small precious child.B.) I wanted to have a redhead character that had a reason to act how they act. So far I've noticed a lot of either, "Super shy for no reason" and "Quirky, outgoing" redheads and I feel like they're under-explored. So here's Ethan.E.) Yeah, he's like another lil bro. I think he'd like having a big sister, once he got to know me.I.) See 'Zip'Saya -10.) "I'm not letting go!" She didn't really have a choice in the matter and it still haunts her.20.) Romance is... unstable while platonic love is stable.30.) Brad40.) Tell her anything, she's here to listen.B.) My little sister who I'd do anything to protect.E.) Yes, I shall protect and nurture. *Holds tight* I think she'd be annoyed but begrudgingly accept that she has no choice in the matter, I'm going to platonically love her.I.) See 'Zip'Overall : 10.) "I'm/it'll be fine." Reccurring lie for my characters.20.) Romance is foreign but love is love and love is family30.) Hello no they all really don't mind the people they hate they just hate what that person has done to them40.) Half care wayyyyyyyy too much, the other half don't care at all.B.) It all started because a guy in my ninth grade math class told me to write a story with a fight scene on a roof but have the characters be kids at our school.E.) Yes, I love all my characters and I think they'd like me (even though I put them through a lot).I.) See 'Zip' I honestly don't care AU the crap out of my OCs and I'll find a way to make it canon!Hopefully I did this right...Well yeah, thanks for asking and for reading! I love every prompt/question/anything I get so keep 'em coming whenever you're bored or just feel like it! (Only do it if you want to, of course!)Thanks again! Uh... bye?!

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flauntpage · 8 years ago

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Four Mock Drafts for the Vegas Golden Knights

Protected lists! They are here! It's Christmas morning!

That is, it's like Christmas morning if you were a bad kid and your parents got you nothing but socks and sweaters to teach you a lesson. Yeah, you need socks and sweaters, but no matter how many packages you tear open, there will not be a Nintendo (or whatever the kids play these days).

Likewise, the NHL is giving fans a new team with the expansion draft this week, but when we finally open it up, it's not going to be what we wanted.

The (Not Las) Vegas Golden Knights have until Wednesday morning to submit their draft list, which must contain one player from each team in the league. The roster will be revealed that night during the NHL Awards show (and probably throughout the day in the form of leaks to the media). The 30-player team must have at least 14 forwards, nine defensemen, and three goalies, and it must also be salary-cap compliant.

In the spirit of fun content, I imagined four different expansion drafts for the Golden Knights, each using its own unique criteria: one team designed solely for tanking, one team for comedic purposes only, one win-now team, and one team that represents the best possible outcome for Vegas. (And thanks to TSN's draft simulator for making this easy.)

THE RACHEL PHELPS MEMORIAL TANKING TEAM

In the 1989 movie Major League, Rachel Phelps inherits the Cleveland Indians from her dead husband. Like any sane person, she does not want to live in Cleveland, so she puts together a roster she hopes is so bad that it will drive down attendance to the point she can enact a clause in the lease with the city that would allow her team to move to Florida.

This would be the Vegas equivalent of that team.

Forwards: Jared Boll, Zac Rinaldo, Brandon Bollig, Jordin Tootoo, Matt Hendricks, Shawn Thornton, Dustin Brown, Ryan White, Steve Ott, Cody McLeod, Luke Gazdic, Cal Clutterbuck, Chris Neil, Tom Sestito

Defensemen: Josh Jorges, Eric Gelinas, Jack Johnson, Dylan McIlrath, Kevin Klein, Andrew MacDonald, Brenden Dillon, Robert Bortuzzo, Jason Garrison

Goalies: Anders Lindback, Kari Lehtonen, Cam Ward

Utility: Luca Sbisa, Brooks Orpik, Mark Stuart, Garrett Sparks

Cap hit: $69,135,476 Players under contract for next season: 20

How many games does this team win? If I set the over/under at seven, you probably need to think about it for a while, don't you? Remember: the expansion Ottawa Senators won ten games, and that team was trying.

If we're sticking with the Major League theme here:

Zac Rinaldo is Ricky Vaughn. Rinaldo is probably better suited for some sort of penal league, and it's not hard to imagine his teammates referring to him as Vedge Head.

Just a bit outside. Photo by Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports

Brooks Orpik is Jake Taylor. Orpik should be in a league outside of the United States and his knees are shot.

Jack Johnson is Roger Dorn. There's something here with both players being concerned about making as much money as possible at this point in their careers.

Steve Ott retired, but I bet he could be enticed to play one more season centering a line with Luke Gazdic and Chris Neil.

THE MITCHELL FRIEDMAN "WHO ARE THESE GUYS?" TEAM

Also in Major League, there's a scene where an Indians fan is looking over the roster and says, "Mitchell Friedman?" It's because no one has heard of those guys. If Vegas went strictly off that philosophy (I swear, this is the last Major League reference here, and this is only because it's been on HBO a lot lately), here's that team:

Forwards: Nicolas Kerdiles, Tyler Gaudet, Justin Kea, Turner Elson, Alex Broadhurst, Mark McNeil, Corban Knight, Andrew Crescenzi, Patrick Cannone, Chris Terry, Ben Thomson, Ben Holmstrom, Daniel Catenacci, Casey Bailey

Defensemen: Linus Arnesson, Tyler Wotherspoon, Dillon Simpson, Brad Hunt, Will O'Neill, David Warsofsky, Dan Kelly, Andrew Campbell, Andrey Pedan

Goalies: Daniel Altshuller, Mac Carruth, Edward Pasqualle

Utility: Mike Angelidis, Liam O'Brien, Ryan Olsen, Jordan Binnington

Cap hit: $18,529,918 Players under contract for next season: 22

When you're the biggest star on the team. Photo by Bruce Fedyck-USA TODAY Sports

As you might have surmised, this team is technically invalid because it falls way below the salary cap floor—but who cares? Mock expansion drafts should be enjoyable and picking these random names (Is Chris Terry the most recognizable name here?) was too much fun. They played a combined 60 NHL games last season!

And what if I told you some of the names on here aren't NHL players and are names I actually made up or grabbed from somewhere in pop culture?

Is Casey Bailey an Ottawa Senators center or a fringe character on Dawson's Creek?

Is Andrew Crescenzi a Los Angeles Kings center or Diane Lane's love interest in Under the Tuscan Sun?

Are Alex Broadhurst and Jordan Binnington hockey players or romantic rivals in Downton Abbey?

I guess we will never know, because you're not looking up these names and we both know it. [Editor's note: We looked up the names, and rest assured they're all actual hockey players.]

THE MARC BERGEVIN "WE NEED TO WIN NOW" TEAM

Admittedly, I have lost the feel for what the Montreal Canadiens are doing these days—they're big and tough, but they also traded for Jonathan Drouin. That said, all of GM Marc Bergevin's moves in the past year would indicate that he wants his team to win immediately. What if Vegas GM George McPhee decided he needed a playoff team in Year 1?

How would that team look?

Forwards: Alex Burmistrov, Matt Moulson, Lee Stempniak, Mikhail Grigorenko, Benoit Pouliot, Jonathan Marchessault, Trevor Lewis, Eric Staal, Tomas Plekanec, James Neal, Michael Grabner, Jordan Weal, Bryan Rust, David Perron

Defensemen: Sami Vatanen, Trevor van Riemsdyk, Jack Johnson, Dan Hamhuis, Thomas Hickey, David Schlemko, Nate Schmidt, Martin Marincin, Colin Miller

Goalies: Petr Mrazek, Michael Hutchinson, Andrew Hammond

Utility: Cedric Paquette, Reid Boucher, Troy Brouwer, Beau Bennett

Cap hit: $72,172,143 Players under contract for next season: 30

This was tricky. I originally scooped about $83 million in contracts on my first pass and had to make some hard decisions about where to spend and where to save (sorry, Bobby Ryan). Everyone is under contract for next season so no one can escape McPhee's clutches as he builds the most mediocre ship possible.

And Jim Rutherford doesn't have any agreement in place with me, so he can keep Marc-André Fleury.

Here are potential forward and defense combinations:

Perron-Staal-Neal Moulson-Weal-Marchessault Pouliot-Plekanec-Grabner Boucher-Paquette-Rust

Johnson-Vatanen Hamhuis-van Riemsdyk Schlemko-Miller

Mrazek Hutchinson

This team suuuuuuuuuuuucks! The forward group is fine enough, but once you get past Vatanen, it's just terrible on the back end. This is why McPhee can't get caught up in appeasing fans off the bat with the idea of a winning team, because it'll be a bigger disappointment when the team is bad—and there's no way of getting around this team being bad. If it's going to be bad, at least have it be bad with potential going forward.

There's no point in even drafting Vatanen and Neal (more on this when we get to my amazing team), because they can be the Norris Trophy and Rocket Richard winners next season and this team still isn't cracking 70 points.

And if you're wondering how Johnson can be on both the tanking team and the win-now team, think of that as insight into how general managers view Johnson versus his actual value.

So what is the ideal Vegas team?

THE DAVE LOZO IDEAL VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS EXPANSION DRAFT TEAM

We know we can't win now. We know this is going to take forever. So we want to sprinkle the roster with motivated veterans at the end of contracts and young players who have long-term value. How will this team, which is just as bad as any of the others, look?

Forwards: Jonathan Marchessault, Alex Chiasson, Andrej Nestrasil, Mikhail Grigorenko, Lukas Sedlak, Benoit Pouliot, Carl Hagelin, Colin Wilson, Jacob Josefson, Brock Nelson, Michael Grabner, Jordan Weal, Nick Shore, David Perron

Defensemen: Josh Manson, Zach Bogosian, Trevor van Riemsdyk, Jamie Oleksiak, Matt Dumba, Nikita Nesterov, Chris Wideman, David Schlemko, Jason Garrison

Goalies: Petr Mrazek, Michael Hutchinson, Louis Domingue

Utility: Reid Boucher, Martin Marincin, Nate Schmidt, Malcolm Subban

Cap hit: $51,489,940 Players under contract for next season: 30

Years from now, you'll hear stories about how someone like Joe Thornton was a member of the Golden Knights and you'll wonder how it happened. It will be because Vegas wanted nothing to do with that roster, so they drafted a player who wasn't under contract and who they knew wouldn't join the Knights to avoid taking a bad contract or wasting a roster spot.

Hands off Marchessault. Photo by Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports

For my terrible roster with potential for helping the franchise down the road, I'm assuming I have blackmailed the Ducks and the Predators out of high picks to not take Vatanen and Neal. If the Panthers want to blackmail me out of Marchessault, too bad. He's mine. You can't have him.

I'm sure if this were real life, I'd do more blackmailing, but the point is this: I want draft picks. I want them now or I want them at next season's trade deadline for rentals like Grabner or Perron. I would assure every veteran that he was on display for a trade to a contender next season, so don't half-ass it because you're miserable. Bust your ass for 20 minutes a night and hit the tables at the casino later. It's impossible to be miserable in Vegas.

With just about everyone else, I'm looking for long-term potential (Weal) or players who can do more in bigger roles (Josefson) who I can also swap. I do not—I repeat, I do not—want Bogosian, but he's a young right-handed defenseman and I think we can pump and dump him to some other team later.

I'm also taking all players I have under contractual control. Would I like Antti Raanta? Sure, but I'd rather take the 30-goal guy on the cheap contract I can flip either immediately or later and then maybe take a run at Raanta in free agency.

This team would still finish dead last next season, but I'd have like, a thousand picks in the draft. I'm trying to lay a foundation in Vegas and that foundation doesn't need Vatanen, who will be a million years old by the time the team is good, and it doesn't need Brown's contract, because getting to the cap floor is easy.

This team is going to stink no matter what, but it will stink on my terms.

Four Mock Drafts for the Vegas Golden Knights published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

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mythandritual · 8 years ago

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"Solo Acoustic Guitar Stands Outside of Time." An Interview With Dylan Golden Aycock

This interview originally appeared at North Country Primitive on 5th May 2015

Scissor Tail Editions of Tulsa Oklahoma is one of the most consistently interesting record labels around at the moment, with a series of excellent releases from amongst others, Sarah Louise, Scott Tuma, Nick Castell and, of course, the label's founder and head honcho, Dylan Golden Aycock. His tune, Red Bud Valley, is featured on Tompkins Square's recently released seventh volume of the ever-dependable Imaginational Anthems series and he continues to release new work in his various guises at an almost unreasonably prolific rate. North Country Primitive caught up with Dylan as he puts the finishing touches on the forthcoming solo follow up to Rise & Shine and as Scissor Tail gears up to put out new albums by Dibson T. Hoffweiler and Chuck Johnson.

Can you tell me a bit about your musical journey? What has brought you to a place where playing solo acoustic guitar seemed like a good idea? Living in Oklahoma as a kid in the pre-internet 90s, the only access to music I had was the radio and skate videos. I got really into hip hop through skate videos and also discovered groups like Tortoise, which I probably never would have encountered any other way. My dad and brother both play folk music and I guess hip hop was an involuntary rebellion on my part. My first instrument I saved up for was a turntable set up - I got way into turntablism and this competitive turntable stuff called beat juggling. It's still probably the instrument I'm most comfortable on, but I haven't turned them on in years. I picked up the guitar pretty late in the game, about the age of 24. Five years ago I bought my first guitar, a 12-string Alvarez. I got really obsessed with it, just as I did with turntablism and electronic music in my teens and early 20s. At that time I was just yearning for something simple and satisfying that I could play if the power grid ever went out. I also didn't like the mental image of a 60-plus year old me behind a set of turntables. Hip hop and beat music is a young man's game, and I didn't really like keeping up with all the new shit coming out. If you want to be a professional DJ you have to be up on all the new stuff and I just really didn't care about all that. I also quit around the time that CD turntables became the new standard and vinyl DJing was on its way out. What would you say are your main influences, musically or otherwise? Do you see yourself as part of the American Primitive tradition of solo guitar? I was really influenced by my older brother Jesse and some of the music he was listening to in his room when we lived together after high school. He turned me onto Bill Frisell and Daniel Lanois, which was a big influence on my interest in pedal steel guitar. My dad introduced me to some of my other favorite artists - Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, The Innocence Mission... I can't downplay the role that discovering Peter Walker, Suni McGrath and Robbie Basho played in me taking the guitar seriously. At that time in my life it really spoke to me and was an acceptable way for a white kid from Oklahoma to sort of lean into Eastern Raga music. As far as the American Primitive thing goes, everyone wants to shun the title, because no one wants to be pigeonholed and I understand that, but there's no avoiding it if you play instrumental acoustic guitar in open tunings, unless you're Michael Hedges. You can't be upset if listeners are drawing comparisons to Fahey, Basho and so on. I say just accept it and further the genre: it's not like there's a ton of people carrying the torch anyways. Norberto Lobo is one of my favorite guys playing acoustic guitar, and he's one of the hardest to label. Same with Blackshaw, They'd both be a stretch to label as American Primitive. I think some of the stuff I record could definitely fit in that genre, but I also get pretty bored hearing just acoustic guitar compositions - a lot of it starts to blend together. Most of my recordings employ some kind of accompanying instrumentation, whether it be pedal steel, synth or some kind of bowed classical instruments. I'll even take cues from my days making electronic music or hip hop and add samples to some of the guitar stuff. You seem to have been involved in about half-a-dozen different groups and collaborations, including Talk West who appear to have released about four albums in the past year or so! Do you see yourself as a collaborator who also makes solo recordings, vice-versa or neither of the above? Do the different approaches satisfy different musical urges for you or are they all part of a continuum? Living in Tulsa, there's a limited number of collaborators that I can record with live who are into the same stuff as me. I'm definitely really happy with the recordings I've made here with friends, but I find myself recording alone way more often than in group setting. The Talk West project is a solo project, and I have a hard time calling those recorded moments songs, since such little thought goes into each one. It's a real thoughtless and meditative project for me. It's also nice to hide behind an alias where anything goes. Everything I've released as Talk West have been improvised, usually recorded to tape as one track, one take. I'll sometimes edit or add sounds in post if I really like the initial recording, but the base is always improvisation. It's definitely the most enjoyable project for me. Anything involving improvisation is going to be really satisfying. I did a couple of albums with Brad Rose that were really fun (Angel Food, Mohawk Park) - sort of drone projects - and I've contributed pedal steel to a handful of projects over the years (Mar, Robin Allender, M. Mucci). There's some plans to collaborate on an album with James Toth of Wooden Wand and I'm doing a split with Tashi Dorji later this year that I'm really excited about. You released Rise & Shine on Scissor Tail, but your subsequent solo albums have been released by different labels. Is this part of a conscious effort to separate yourself as a musician from yourself as a label owner? Or are you more prolific than you can afford to be? Or do you just like spreading it around a bit? I like to spread it around. It's validating to release on other labels with artists you respect and helps build connections and sense of community. Rise & Shine was a really personal album, recorded over a couple of weeks while my dad was in the hospital for a heart attack he had on Valentines Day 2011.The initial release was lathe cut on the 14 chest X-Rays from the surgery. The personal aspect of that album was my reasoning for self releasing. I never wanted Scissor Tail to become a vanity label, though I don't judge anyone who self-releases on their own imprint, since in a lot of circumstances it's the only way to make any money on an album unless you tour a lot or release on larger labels like Drag City or Thrill Jockey, who press in larger quantities and split the the profits generously with the artists. One of my favorite artists is a guy named Zach Hay, who has self released three LPs, each one under a different name. He turned me down on releasing his stuff and I also tried to see if he had any interest in being on that Imaginational Anthems compilation this year and he turned that down as well. I highly recommend checking out his albums: Bronze Horse, The Dove Azima, and Green Glass, which came out last year and I got to do the album artwork for the release. I really respect his artistic integrity and vision for each release, which is apparent on each album.

What made you decide to start your own label? Was it originally simply as a vehicle for your own releases or had you always intended to release stuff by other artists? The label started as a way to release various recordings my friends were making that they were sitting on or didn't think were good enough to share. In Tulsa, I feel like a lot of the musicians in town hold themselves up to really high standards. Most the musicians around here take influence from the rock gods like Clapton and JJ Cale and overlook or just don't know about all the folks who are making careers doing more original or experimental music. It's a consequence of growing up cut off from any kind of underground scene and living in the radio bubble. My brother and some of our friends growing up would mess around with instruments and electronics for fun and the recordings would just end up buried on a hard drive somewhere. I felt they were really good and wanted to share them with people, so that was the initial motivation for starting the label. I have to give credit to Brad Rose, who runs Digitalis Recordings, for letting me hang out at his apartment and bug him with questions. Is there any particular label ethos or principle you work to? Not really, I just think labels should be transparent with where their funds go. The cost of production and so on. When it comes to tapes, I run Scissor Tail the same as every other tape label, where 20% of the stock goes to the artist. With vinyl, I've been doing 60/40 split with the artist - 60 to the artist, 40 to the label. I think the indie-industry standard is 50/50 profit split, which is what I've done with a couple of the more recent artists, who were kind enough to suggest that to me. Immune Records has a great ethos - as well as the labels I mentioned earlier, Drag City and Thrill Jockey. Am I right in thinking you proactively seek out the music you want to put out rather than responding to demos? It's about half and half. Most of the tapes I put out came to me as demos, but a few of them were open invitations. The LPs on the label were mostly sought out. The only one that came in as a demo was this new album by Chuck Johnson that should be out in June. What are you looking for in an artist when you're deciding what release? You're building up an impressive body of work. Are there any releases you are particularly proud of? I'm interested in music that has a timeless feel, which is why a lot of the releases on Scissor Tail are guitar or drone related. Solo acoustic guitar, in my opinion, stands outside of time to a certain degree. If you were unfamiliar with Fahey, you could hear one of his albums and not know what decade within the last 60 years it was recorded. The same parameters don't necessarily apply to drone music, because it's generally electronic and that sort of limits the time frame when it could have been recorded, but it still has the same effect on the listener because of how minimal drone music tends to be. Gavin Bryars' Sinking of the Titanic sounds as amazing today as it did in 1970 and will sound amazing when the sun burns out. Could you tell us a bit more about the Bruce Langhorne reissue? That release certainly put the label on the map. I just got lucky and wrote to him at the right time and offered him a really good deal. He'd been approached by a few labels to release it over the years, but I think it was just a timing thing or possibly the previous offers weren't to his liking. The attention to packaging and presentation is consistently high, which for me at least, is an important aspect to running a label that puts out physical releases. Could you tell us a bit about your approach to this? Packaging and designing is my favorite part of running a label. If all I was doing were financially backing albums, I would have quit a long time ago. I really enjoy playing a creative role in each release, whether it be designing the artwork, doing the letterpress printing in my garage or seeking out other visual artists that fit the music. It's really satisfying when it all clicks. There's a lot of creative decision making that comes with running a label that keeps me constantly inspired. What's the deal with cassettes? Do you just like the format or is it about cost and convenience for short-run releases? Is there anything consciously retro about using them? I love tapes! Everything about them. I love the nostalgia, the size, the sound, the fact that they make ripping music a pain in the ass. If you don't offer downloads, someone has to spend a lot of time recording a tape to digital, separating the tracks, then bouncing them down and uploading them to the internet. It's a whole process, and I just like the idea of manufacturing rarity, which I know is a bit controversial among the music community, but I'm all about it. Tapes are definitely also about cost: there are so many tapes I would have loved to put out on vinyl, but just didn't have the funds. Also If you've ever been to a festival or music convention, people hand out CDs like business cards. In my opinion, it completely devalues the listening experience, where with tapes and vinyl, you have to sit down and take time to listen to. Can you tell us what you're listening to at the moment? Any hot tips or recommendations? I'm listening to Kurt Vile a lot. I think he's one of the best songwriters around. I also really love this album by Stephen Steinbrink that came out in 2013 called Arranged Waves. I've really been trying to seek out happier, less melancholy music lately. It seems to be hard to find outside of gospel, reggae, and traditional African music. I do listen to a lot of celtic music - Nic Jones, Andy M. Stewart, Dick Gaughan, Andy Irvine, Kevin Burke… I'm also pretty obsessed with anything Madlib puts out and another hip hop producer on Stones Throw, by the name of Knxwledge. Can I be a guitar nerd and ask you what you play and what you like about them? I lucked out three times via Craigslist and was able to acquire a 1949 Gibson LG2 in damn near mint condition for $350. I also play a 1921 Weissenborn Style 1 that I found on Craigslist in Florida. The guy who had it bought a storage unit on auction and there was a guitar inside that he knew very little about and so I snagged it from him for pretty much dirt cheap. My electric is a low end Mexican Tele. My pedal steel was a steal - haha - got it for $800 off a meth head in Tulsa who played in a cover band called Whisky Stills and Mash. It's a 60s double neck Sho-Bud. I'm also fond of those lawsuit Suzuki guitars. What's in store for you next - both in terms of your own music and Scissor Tail? I'm finishing a follow up to my first LP, Rise & Shine. It's been in the works for the last two or three years. I also have those collaborations I mentioned earlier with Wooden Wand and Tashi Dorji. And then a lathe release with a bunch of other guitarists, Daniel Bachman, Tash and some other folks. That'll be out on a really great label called Cabin Floor Esoterica probably later this year. A Talk West tape with Sic Sic out of Berlin in a couple weeks. As far as Scissor Tail goes, there's quite a few things coming out this year. Chuck Johnson's new LP called Blood Moon Boulder, which I've been busy letter pressing all the jackets for this last month. An album by another Oakland based guitarist and friend of Chuck - Dibson T Hoffweiler - that will be out May 7th. There's a handful of tapes about to drop and an LP by Willamette that should be out in the Fall or Winter depending on how quickly we figure out the album art. Lotsa stuff brewin. Anything I should have asked you but didn't? Nope, all bases covered. Thanks!

#dylan golden aycock #scissor tail editions #american primitive #north country primitive

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