a prompt to soundtrack a supermarket tv spot turns into a meditation on time and place, and 3 great tracks
Julie With… (Brian Eno Cover)
One of my fav Eno tracks off my fav Eno record, Before & After Science. Performed in an April 2021 livestream from my fantastic temporary living situ in the converted Hood’s Sarsaparilla Soda factory in Lowell, MA.
Winners Don’t Win, pt. 3: The Dharma Racquets
Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road.
― Jack Kerouac, On the Road (1957)
In December 2020, Cat & I decamped to Lowell, Massachusetts for almost 9 months as she costume designed the return of the Showtime series Dexter.
Our temporary home, give-or-take 4 hours north of New York City, was a charming, modern 1-bedroom 5th Floor apartment in a 75-unit rental complex called the Thorndike Exchange.…
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Inside Track 001: Paper Streets
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_street
“A paper street or paper road is a street or road that appears on maps but has not been built.”
“Beware! Paper Streets” cautions a sign hung by the Kirkwood Bowl Foundation towards the base of Laurel Canyon, LA, where I lived for most of 2018 (Inside Track 002 dives more into why I was there).…
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Vampires In Love (live, solo)
My favorite new track this year. Written with Composer+Producer Masaya Ozaki (https://masayaozaki.com), in response to a call he received from a music licensing company for “summer songs about adventure and time.” Every once in a while, I write with no irony. Anti-confessional mode, you might say.
“Screw off, I’m happy.”…
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Clouds Over LA (Sarsaparilla Sessions 20210210)
A song written in 2018 in Laurel Canyon, CA. Performed this year in Lowell, MA (which we affectionately called Lowell Canyon while living there for 8 months in 2021).
LYRICS
time will not release
a missing puzzle piece
or faded memories
of deleted scenes
you can’t watch a sunrise
through someone else’s eyes
if they never see you
in dreams
clouds over LA
dance alone
between skies
distant freeways shimmer
traffic as rivers
red and white ribbons
valley to sky
lost friends reappear
in dusty windshields
as evening light hits
California 5
clouds over LA dance alone between skies
drifting the night
suspended from life
shadows of every last good bye
clouds over LA dance alone between skies
AustinTown (live, 20210128)
Austintown, OH, is the driving midpoint between New York City and Chicago. Written election season 2004 in Austintown at the Best Western off Rte 80, in view of the Quaker Steak ‘n Lube across the highway.
performance recorded Jan 2021 at the old Hood’s Sarsaparilla Soda Factory in Lowell, MA
from Hola, Sayulita (2010)
LYRICS
When they dig us up – they might never know
We dug deep – left our evidence as far down as they will go
They might even think we were older than dinosaurs
Arrogance thinks we’ll see the end of the world
That we’d be last ones – to ever see
the truth/the truth
it’s just funny how much
truth
you
find
½ way between here & there
so many secrets you can’t begin
to dare to leave
escaping only in dreams
looks like it comes down
tonight to AustinTown
They’re gonna say we went backwards – all the way back
Before we went forwards again
Here it comes around again
And there goes the
the truth
ah, the truth
it’s just funny how much
truth
you
find
½ way between here & there
so many secrets you can’t begin
to dare to leave
Escaping only in dreams
looks like it comes down
tonight to AustinTown
ok [sarsaparilla session 20210330, lowell ma]
Solo acoustic version of “ok” from Hola, Sayulita! (2010), and also included on my early-years greatest hits collection Your Song Is Beautiful: 2002-2012 (2012).
This performance is from March 2021 in the old Hood’s Sarsaparilla Soda factory, my temporary home Lowell, MA for the last 8 months. We leave Lowell for good in ~2 weeks on 7/31.…
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