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Subject: Dark was the Night

Did you go to this? Please tell me you did, and you will be loading up video on youtube soon. Here’s a quote from the review on Pitchfork

“Overarching legend David Byrne finished the first set with three tunes from his previous Red Hot contributions. All three had grooves, drums, and Byrne showing everyone else how to dance without embarrassment. Byrne works somewhere between seasoned and beatific nowadays, and the casual vibe suits him. He sounded completely free and comfortable, and his amiability rubbed off on Bon Iver and Feist, who joined him on two different songs. Elder statesmen do not get much better than this.

David Byrne has maintained a near-unprecedented level of credibility for more than 30 years. And, based on last night, the two artists who followed him seemed like the best candidates to attempt a similar track record. Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon is still a young songwriter with about one and a half album’s worth of songs to his name, but one gets the impression he could stick around for a while. His band’s four songs were impeccable, with flowing harmonies to spare, but the band members’ generousness– they lent vocals to nearly every performer throughout the night– was equally admirable. Simple fact: Any song sounds better with Bon Iver singing backups. Vernon even showed off some of his inner Crazy Horse with a couple ragged guitar solos. This guy is ready for more.”

Seriously? Eau Claire and David Byrne were on the same stage and this guy is intimating that some type of torch-passing happened? My mind is completely blown.

I’m also even more embarrassed that I spent a dollar on two Phill Collins albums today. What would either of those guys think of that?

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Reply
Subject: Dark was the Night
I didn’t sleep much last night so forgive if me this goes horribly astray.

I most certainly DID go last night,I was 7th Row (!!) and it was unbelievably sweet.  I’ve been adding videos all day and I just added the video of Byrne and Justin Vernon together.

I cant believe I was there to see it.  It was like a nuclear detonation of pride and happiness went off in my soul.  Ive spent most of my day plotting some massive blog post tying Eau Claire and David Byrne together in the span of that moment but I will probably never write it.  Im drained and sleepless today and I have zero fucking energy…partly because last night was so damn sweet.

And some kind of torch was MOST DEFINITELY passed.  Apart from David Byrne (and Sharon Jones later), Bon Iver was the highlight of the entire night and the crowd was so behind him it was great.  Especially “Blood Bank”.  Sweet jesus it was beautiful.  One of the best live performances I’ve ever seen.  You can hear me singing like an idiot in the background and I don’t care.

Fuck it, I’m just going to post this to my blog.  I don’t see myself finding energy in the next 8 hours to do anything more than describe this to you.  You would have loved it, I wish you were there.

OK, video just got done uploading, more to come -

And I think any money spent on Phil Collins is smart money, but lets ask the principals.   Justin?  (autotuned) “Yes.”  David?  “AND YOU MAY FIND YOURSELF!”  I think that’s a yes.

God damnit Ogre.  Video technology needs to catch up to my budget so you can experience what this was really like.

Ok Im leaving work now.  Give my love to the future wife.

More videos:
Bon Iver (w/ My Brightest Diamond) – “Flume”

Feist, Bon Iver, The National, St. Vincent, Dirty Projectors, More – “This Land Is Your Land” – until Sharon Jones comes out to show them the way. Love the juxtaposition of all the unfunky white folks on one side with Sharon and the Dap Kings on the other.

And for good measure, a video of David Byrne doing “Burning Down the House” in Jersey a while back. Forgot to upload until now.

Alright, the hell with it.

I’ve been looking at this great new layout and losing my mind. I see such quality design and I find myself driven to create content that matches the quality of the outlet. Then I realized I have never created “quality” content…just poorly edited, half-formed ideas that very few people read. So fuck it, its business as usual here, new design notwithstanding. If you want quality content go read Salon or…something.

Welcome everyone to the new Name Drop Acid. What started as an experiment in blogging 3 years ago has finally taken the next step. In the interim, those who have read this trash heap of a blog have seen me start in the music business as a bright eyed and eager go-getter fresh out of college, and watched me move through story after story of semi-exceptional business encounters, drinking adventures, skirt chasing (people still say that?), promotions, bad music recommendations, and zombie fiction, to end up here.

Where is here?

Now I know the tone and content of this blog has changed a lot. But that’s always been the idea, for this blog to change with me. OK, that’s a bunch of shit. I never had any other idea for this thing other than, “write this shit down so you don’t forget it.” And that’s what I’ve done.

I also want to say, that, where I was more than willing to “tell-all” about my early days here, I have become a bit more…whats the word…reticent about my adventures here. Mainly because I am self-conscious about blathering on and on about stories that don’t involve boobies or binge drinking. I’ve convinced myself that no one wants to hear anything but.  At least when it comes to this blog.  I feel that because of my early writing here, I painted myself into a corner with the tone of this thing.

The fact of the matter is that I am not the “single dude industry scrub drunk” that I was when I started Name Drop Acid. This is a fact that I have always been afraid to admit here, because in my delusional brain, I felt like I was writing as a “persona”, that needed to be pretty strictly defined. But who says personas can’t change? Anyway, I’ve changed. A lot. I’m sure this is clear to anyone who has been reading for awhile, even though I’ve never said it outright.

But now that I’ve cleared the air (I always was late to the honesty game) I feel better. That’s a good thing about re designing this damn blog. Its a new start.

A new start. Ahhh.

Lets get up to speed a bit.

So here is where I am at: I still work in the music business, in the digital marketing end of things. On the corporate side of the company. Gone are the days of the celebrity gladhanding, the champagne listening parties with Diddy, and the daily drama of running, screaming record label types. I miss it, but I also realize that this industry is in bad shape, and that the decadent music-biz lifestyle has gone the way of the dinosaur. Even Diddy takes fewer helicopter rides. Yup, things are a little tighter, and I’ve been fortunate to grab hold of a job where I am comfortable, I am needed, and I am busy even if I’m not listening to Jim Jones and Cam’Ron fight all day.

On the personal side, I have a girlfriend, who I love. She puts up with my bullshit and I put up with hers. We live together in Queens and I have happily become a “I live with my girlfriend” guy. Man we had it rough in the beginning though. I will spare you the details, but lets just say I fought the idea of having a girlfriend at every turn. I clung to my stupid single ways and found myself unable to commit to her. But, after a lot of kicking and screaming we made it on to the same page, and I am glad for it. She is one of the few good ones, and if I was too dumb to realize that in the past, I damn sure realize it now.

We started a bit of a business around lightpainting.  I’ve posted about it here. I saw lightpainting online the week I started dating her, and I asked her how we could do it. She’s a hell of a photographer so she set it up and we got some great results. I usually come up with all the crazy ideas, and she makes them real. Since then, we’ve found a way to market it, get clients, get press, and make a little money, all on the strength of our work. I am very proud of this stuff, and I devote a lot of energy to it at our blog.

I also still write, but not as much as I would like. I’m trying to beef up that end of my creative output because when it is working, and when I am really into it, I forget where I am. The greatest experiences for me take me out of place and time. Not bugging out about the future, not regretting the past. I feel that way when my writing is going well. So I still write bios for money, I am working on getting more magazine assignments, I still write the odd review for Metropop, I still write zombie fiction, and of course there is this damn blog.

I’m getting a lot out here, but I feel like I’m leaving something out. Maybe we will get that pinned down in the future but I want to say that for anyone reading consistently over the last few years, thanks. And thanks for not calling me up and saying “hey man, you’re stories suck now that you’ve calmed down”, because the truth is, I was really self-conscious about it for a long time. I didn’t want to let anyone down. If I did, I’m sorry. But this is me now and its really not about letting anyone down. The only person I need to take care of is me. As awkward as this whole post is, its necessary.  I’m not afraid to be honest anymore.
So lets get back to the poorly written half-formed ideas.  Its business as usual here at Name Drop Acid… with a few small changes.

Talk to you soon.

1. Check out this screwed up version of Bob Marley’s track “Johnny Was” by my friend Shane. This dude has been doing some amazing shit, screwing up Animal Collective, Beach House, and more with some great results.

2. In other screw music news, this is the most beastly screwed and chopped song I’ve heard in a long time.

I heard about it through 20Jazzfunkgreats, a blog thats fun to read because all of their reviews sound like this:

This track sounds like a Tyrannosaurus Rex made of lasers stomping through the bathroom of an Italian disco, spewing cocaine from its nostrils, shitting disco balls, and growling Moroder synth lines.

Or something like that, and that’s great. Anyway, this is a track called “Yes Suh” by Baby Bash screwed and chopped by Choppaholix to the point that it basically sounds like “Eaten” by Bloodbath. The greatest song ever.

3. The Used – Burning Down the House
Yes. Talking Heads. Covered by THE FUCKING USED. I’m only vaguely sorry for the shitty sound quality. Actually, its probably good that it sounds like it was recorded from something else, because if you heard the real version you would probably implode from all the WORST SHIT EVER running through your body. Kind of like how if you look at an eclipse directly it will burn your eyes out of your skull. Fuck. Next thing you know, Vampire Weekend will be covering Ministry.

4. Oceans in Space. He’s the most talented person I know, and his music can be challenging, but his stuff lately has been the most focused I’ve heard out of him in years. This video around the 2:30 mark becomes something transcendent. Like Fennesz covering Ulrich Schnauss or something.

5. This girl, Heather. I just got the great news that she will be coming up to New York (as will her awesome, zombie-obsessed boyfriend) from Kentucky to celebrate for my girl’s birthday in May. We’ve been trying to get her up here to record for a while now, and I’m really glad it’s coming together. I’ve heard her sing and she is a TRUE talent. I spend a lot of time surrounded by questionably talented musicians, so its become quite easy to spot an actual talent among all the dross. Her recorded output does not represent her accurately. So when she gets up here, we are going to get something decent recorded. Something she can show people. I can’t wait. Here is a little song she is working on.

6. Amherst.
I love these guys. As people, they can’t be beat (check out Geetar Danny’s blog here). And as a band, they have such a bright future. A bunch of truly dedicated guys with all the right influences. I think they’ve conquered their hometown of Louisville pretty thoroughly so I am excited that they too will be coming up to NY in the summer to play a show. Anyone out here I’m forcing you to come. They also just got a pro-style video done. It looks great and reminds me of all the evenings I spent watching 120 minutes. The format is very classic, and that’s a good thing.

6.5 My friend Drew is an asshole. Or at least that’s what he wants you to think. He’s actually a big softie, more on that later. Anyway, he had the amazing idea of interviewing bands, getting drunk with them (he has the connections and the talent to make this really work) and posting it as a series on the web. I’m saying that here because I think you should all go to Drew’s myspace, read his great great writing, and harass him into making this dream a reality. Good ideas need support, fires under and kicks to the ass to make them work. So yeah. That.

Alright that’s it for now. Thanks for reading.

p.s. Keep an eye on this – http://namedropacid.com (thanks Joey)