m-Log @ musicmedia.net

During my three years in Provo, UT, I was fortunate to work with several people at MyFamily.com who were embedded in the local music scene: Duane Call of Guapo Records and Chris Peterson of Sunfall Festival . Guapo was the label of choice for an eclectic group of local bands, ranging from grunge, to punk, to rap. Their line up included Clover (featuring Jamen Brooks), Magstatic , Mr. Fusion, and The Numbs. I managed to spend around six months brainstorming with Guapo’s team on ways to elevate the label through use of the web, though unfortunately none of the ideas came fruition.

Sunfall Festival gained national recognition in 2001 by winning the best song contest at Garageband.com. It was through Chris and Sunfall Festival that I came in touch with Dustin Christensen and Jerrytown. I first heard Dustin as part of a sing around circle that several of the local bands would put together on a semi regular basis. Basically a few members of each band participated and they would go around and someone would lead off a song and the others would jam in. Chris was the drummer and Dustin joined on piano and vocals. The first song he lead was a cover of a lesser known Counting Crows song, “Colorblind,” and I was floored by the depth and intensity of his baritone. I picked up a copy of his debut CD, Gone, which he performed under the name Jerrytown, and it instantly became one of my all-time favorites. Gone mostly consists of brooding ballads featuring piano, acoustic guitars, light percussion, and Dustin’s deep crooning. Highlights include “Trepidations” and “See Right Through You.” It’s also great when Dustin picks up the pace on songs like “Isabel” and the title track.

As much as I like Gone, it pales in comparison to Jerrytown’s follow-up, Way Out Waiting . The musical growth on the album is significant and widespread. Way Out Waiting features a more electrified sound with better writing, better tempos, more complete arrangements. This time around, Dustin was joined on the album by bassist Clarke Jackman, and the album was produced by Sunfall Festival’s Scott Wiley at June Audio and mastered in LA by Tom Baker (Alien Ant Farm, Fuel).

For anyone who get’s the chance to see Dustin perform live, definitely take advantage. He was a featured performer at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. He’ll evidently be on TV in the Provo area on March 3rd and playing live at the Scera Theater on March 7th. From recent blog posts on the Jerrytown site, it appears he’s gone back to drawing board for his band. Soon after announcing that he and the current Jerrytown lineup would be moving forward under the name Wires, the band broke up and Dustin is returning to his Jerrytown roots. Luckily for us, Jerrytown has a new EP on the horizon, Wires Meet the Sky.

Scrubs is one of those truly original television shows that revolutionizes the comedy genre, like Seinfeld, that 70’s show, and Arrested Development. Whether it’s the unorthodox deli-i-i-i-vry of Dr. Cox, J.D.’s frequent trips to the flip side of reality (see recent run in with a manatee in a puddle in the hospital), or Ted’s frequent appearances singing theme songs with his a capella group, each episode is guaranteed to make you laugh out loud at least once even if your watching on your own.

What I’ve found truly remarkable about the show is its ability to feature great and unique music on a weekly basis. Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised with Zach Braff on board. He did only win a Grammy last year for producing the soundtrack to his underground hit movie, Garden State. Music is such a significant part of the show, the website features a page just to recount the songs from each episode (Scrub’s Music Page).

Over the past few months I’ve probably gotten more great tips from watching Scrubs. Here’s a few of my recent favorites:

• Colin Hay - “Overkill“
• Michael Tolcher - “Sooner or Later“
• Citizen Cope - “Sideways“
• Josh Radin - “Today“
• Cary Brothers - “Ride“

If you haven’t tuned in yet, check it out on NBC on Tuesday nights after the Olympics are over. Or catch up on the first two seasons on DVD. Or if you’re just interested in the music get the Scrubs Soundtrack, or check out the iMixes at iTunes (Best of “Scrubs” Music, SCRUBS(NBC), and music from scrubs (NBC).

I caught Prince perform on SNL this past week and I was reminded what an incredible talent he is. I’ve always known the guy could write music, and he’s got amazing vocal range, but what really impressed me in this performance was his guitar chops. The guy was just flat out amazing on his first song “Fury”.

As is to be expect with Prince the appearance was not without its idiosincracies (I had to check the spelling on that one). After completing his first song he left the guitar on the stage ringing feedback and quickly exited before the applause could get rolling. My wife reminded me of Kevin Smith’s Prince story on the “An Evening with Kevin Smith” DVD where Smith recounted in detail his trip to Prince’s ranch to film a video that never saw the light of day. Highlights include Prince’s assistant informing Smith that Prince lives in Prince world (which means he expects that if he wants a llama at 2AM in the morning in Minnesota, that this is not an unreasonable request) and Smith speculating on how Prince plays basketball.

Unfortunately in Prince’s case the craziness has taken away from the music. Seeing Prince on SNL reminded how inaccessible he’s been in recent years. His public image bordering on Michael Jackson territory. Some may argue that he’s simply been off his game musically, though his performance on SNL was certainly eye opening for me. Hopefully his increasing public presence and Universal’s promotion of his upcomming album, 3121, will pull things together for him. Though the fact that I can’t find a public website for the guy, NPG Music Club, was the best I could do ($25 bucks to get access? All I wanted was some recent Prince news).

Well 7AM anyhow. Still seems early for blogging. Anyhow, you may have noticed in m-Log’s links list, a link to Pandora.com. This is one of the cooler things I found on the web recently. It was designed for those of us who have moved on from college to careers and families and just don’t seem to have to time to find great new music anymore. I first heard about it in December’s audio issue of Fast Company.

Here’s the scoop. You create a new “radio station” based on an artist or a song. Pandora then suggests and plays similar songs. Unlike most online music recommendations, like those at Amazon or i-Tunes, which are based on other users preferences, Pandora uses song characteristics like “folk influences,” “major key tonality,” and “light vocal harmony” to pick the next song. As you listen to your station to can rate each song either as “I like it” or “I don’t like it.” Your feedback further refines the station’s criteria.

In what the company deems The Music Genome Project, Pandora employs a team of 32 professional musicians to listen to each song and record upto 400 musical attributes, or “genes” as they call them. This group culls through 10,000 new CDs each year, giving Pandora an expansive collection of songs and artists.

Because it operates as a radio station, Pandora cannot play specifically requested songs or allow you to replay tracks, however you can add any song through a click to “Your Favorites” list. This page allows you to memorialize the artists, song name, and date added for any track you want to follow up on. It also proved links to Amazon and i-Tunes incase you want to purchase the song.

The service is more or less free right now. There is an option to subscribe for $36 per year to turn off banner ads, but with an audio service, banner ads aren’t any sort of inconvenience. The free service lets you add up to 100 different stations.

I started using the site in January. So far I’ve set up 6 stations: Colin Hay, Vertical Horizon, Overkill (a Colin Hay song), Counting Crows, Pearl Jam, and Ryan Shupe & The Rubberband. I’ve added about 19 songs to my favorites list, including the afforementioned Joe Firstman which I heard on the Counting Crows station. Finding Joe alone has proved the service’s value to me.

While my tastes have steered towards the Alt Rock front, my boss has used it to find House music and he has been equally ecstactic.

And like that he was gone….

-Nate

I’ve been thinking about starting this blog for a while, but I wasn’t sure what I had that was worth writing about. I thought about what I was passionate about and popular music was at the top of the list, so here I am.

Why should you care about what I have to say about music? Well I’m not sure you should, but you’ll need to be the judge for your self. Spend a little time on my MLog. Try one of my recommendations for yourself. If you like it, then try another. If you think it sucks, move on.

As far as my credentials, I’m a musician myself, but certainly not an artist. I wrote music reviews for my high school paper. My column drew more letters to the editor than any feature, much to chagrin to our advisor. Mostly complaints about my biases. I make no promises to review every type of music here. It will all be in the vein of what I like. So chances are you like it or you won’t, but I can only write about what I’m listening too, and for now I’m only listening too what I buy. And I try to only buy what I like.

I have flirted a few times with the music industry. I ran the website for Vertical Horizon for a couple years when they were with RCA Records. This gave me the opportunity to work on sites for several other artists. More on this sometime in the future. I also spent sometime consulting with an independant record label in Utah, Guapo Records, for a bit.

Beyond this, I’ve got about 10,000 songs on my iPod, which I’m sure is not a record (though I don’t have much space left).

So that’s it. Hopefully I haven’t wasted your time. To make sure you don’t leave empty handed, here’s a list of who I’m currently listening to.

• Joe Firstman - The War of Women - I heard Joe on Pandora on my Counting Crows Channel (more on Pandora in the future). Best new artist I’ve heard in a long time, though the albums a few years old. One of the cooler titles too.
• James Blunt - Back to Bedlam - Been dreaming of this album for a while since I got “You’re Beautiful” as a free download from i-Tunes. For a couple months, I’ve been watching it stay pretty consistantly in the top 10 of Today’s Top Albums at i-Tunes. Pretty good album, but hasn’t met my high expectations after months of build up.
• Death Cab for Cutie - “Soul Meets Body“, “Crooked Teeth” - There’s been a lot of buzz about these guys since December. I have preview the album in 30 second clips, but thought it was all hype. Then I heard them perform “Soul Meets Body” on SNL a month ago and found myself singing in my head for days. I still haven’t decided if I’m going to give the whole album a try.
• Michael Tolcher - “Sooner or Later” - Heard this on a recent episode of Scrubs (One of my favorite sources of new music, though more on this in the future). Excellent single. He was part of the line up for the Dave Matthews Band cruise recently. I plan to give some of his other tracks a try soon.
• Colin Hay - Man @ Work - Another Scrubs find. Featured in second season, Colin appeared on the show playing “Overkill”, though eventually Dr. Cox smashed the !@#$ out of his guitar. This mostly acoustic is great and features some newer versions of his songs from Men At Work, including the alltime classic, “Land Down Under”.
• Tom Glynn - Passing Dream - Got this from a co-worker who is the sister-in-law of Tom’s drummer. Thought it was merely pleasant on the first listen, but the album has really grown on me since. Especially the duet on “Feels Like Rain.”

And like that he was gone….

-Nate