Posts Tagged ‘Rock & Roll’
I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead
I’m not sure it’s the Xanax, the exhaustion, the altitude, the soundtrack, or the odd, suspended-animation of transcontinental air travel, but something’s going on here. Suddenly, I feel immensly blessed. Sitting here in my exit row seat next to the galley soaring some 33,000 feet above the sun-bleached desert southwest, I feel like I’m in…
Read MoreInventing Everything Else
Nine songs in eight hours. Not bad. Whether it was nerves, or a lack of sleep (probably both), I was sick to my stomach all day. I dashed out of the office around five o’clock, and hopped the NR. Stepping out of the subway at Prince & Broadway is a little like stepping into a…
Read MoreBreathe In (Live) – Video
Like I said to Tony before the everyone showed up for rehearsal, “If you’re gonna’ be ambitious in a big way, you gotta’ be prepared to fail in a big way.” I’ll be honest. It wasn’t our best rehearsal ever. Which is only slightly alarming given that we’re recording a new album tomorrow. I don’t…
Read MoreThough You Failed, At Least You Tried
I love this story. Colossally famous rock star (Tom Petty) reforms his middlingly-successful first band (Mudcrutch), rescuing at least one former band mate from the drudgery of teaching high school. “I just had this random thought,” Petty said. “‘I really liked that band, I wonder what it would be like to get them together?’” And…
Read MoreGiving Up The Ghost (Live) – Video
There’s a lot of hope in the Music Building. The place is semi-legendary, at least to those of us who grew up watching Behind The Music. The 42,000-square-foot building located on Eighth Avenue between 38th and 39th — catty-corner from The Port Authority Bus Terminal — is eleven stories of rehearsal space: 70, 350 square…
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New Benjamin Wagner Album Due June 24 18
You knew it was coming, right? Authentic Records will release my seventh, full-length studio LP on Tuesday, June 24. The working title for the album is “The Invention of Everything Else.” Pre-production for the all-acoustic release has already begun. Tony Maceli, Chris Abad, Ryan Vaughn and I started arranging the tunes Thursday night at Ultrasound…
Read MoreThe Future Is Ours
I ran for an hour and twenty-four minutes this morning listening to the same two songs over and over and over. Taken together, REM’s “Living Well Is The Best Revenge” and “Man Sized Wreath” clock in at 5:44. Which means that in my ten and a half mile run south along the Hudson, east across…
Read MoreThe Itchy & Scratchy Show
I have a small contingency of friends, colleagues and family members who question my rabid over-involvement. The MTV, the blogs, the documentary, the records and shows, marathons and triathlons. What gives? they ask. Isn’t any one of those things enough? What’s wrong with you? I was reminded the other night that there are stages to…
Read MoreEros, Logos, The Man & The Band
This is funny. Or alarming. Or both. I’ve re-learned an important life lesson in the last few weeks. Remember when you were taught how to write a persuasive essay in grammar school? The form is simple: state your argument in the thesis, and support it with at least three data points. (I’m not sure that’s…
Read MoreBlack Postcards: A Rock & Roll Romance
“Waking their latest triumph, ‘Penthouse,’ from its mordant and mellow foundation, Wareham and Sean Eden’s wall of swirling, simmering guitars blared a full-tilt, cosmic radio clamor.” That’s my review of Luna’s September 1995 Tramp’s performance. I especially like the phrase “cosmic radio clamor.” I wanted to be Lester Bangs so badly. That concert review was…
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