Hey, if you're in the Seattle area and attending NW Folklife this weekend, look for me performing on the sidewalks. Dennis and I will be bumming around Seattle Center, playing tunes and kickin' it in the sunshine, at least until a Coordinator tells us to move.
Posted May 24, 2008
For years this particular CD has given me nothing but trouble at the various digital stores, and I have no idea why. Thanks to the folks at CD Baby for figuring out the problem, whatever it was.
Where I've Been at Amazon MP3 Where I've Been at Emusic
Whoo, check out Amazon's new MP3 clip player widget thingy!
Posted May 23, 2008
O HAI. I've been on vacation for awhile. More on that later.
Here is news: I'm throwing a CD release show for Save You From Yourself. Yes, I know, that particular CD has been out since February. Which is precisely why I'm calling it "Scott Andrew's 'Damn, I Should've Had A CD Release Party!' CD Release Party."
This is going to be a rare full-band show, with Dennis Jolin on drums and Suzanne Picard on keyboard, and maybe a few others if we're lucky. We're working up some very cool arrangements and everything is sounding awesome so far. Seating at the venue is limited so if you're in the Seattle area and would like to attend, watch this space for details. (The Demo Club is a safer bet.)
Here are Dennis and Suzanne messin' around at last night's rehearsal:
Posted May 22, 2008
Posted May 7, 2008
Just outside the city is a gigantic cliff. Hundreds of people are lined up at its edge, and they're tossing all sorts of items over the edge to see if any of them fly.
A lot of things aren't designed to fly, but that doesn't stop people from throwing toaster ovens and washing machines over the side.
Today, someone comes along with something resembling a hanglider. As he sails away, everyone else starts jumping up and down excitedly. Something worked! The system works! Proof!
Everyone redoubles their efforts and now twice as many toaster ovens and washing machines are plummeting to the bottom.
A man stands at the edge, clutching a device adorned with paddles and flippers. He peers down tentatively.
His neighbor encourages him. "All you have to do is throw it over the edge," he says, dumping a wheelbarrow filled with sacks of pet food into the abyss.
Behind him in the distance, a hot-air balloon is drifting lazily in the sky. A few thousand people dragging snowmobiles and rickshaws are racing after it, desperately trying to grab a trailing rope.
"I don't know," the first man says, eyeing the balloon. "Seems to me most things aren't built to fl--"
His neighbor cuts him off. "Look, didn't you attend the seminar? Did you not just SEE the guy with the hanglider? The system works. All you have to do is keep throwing stuff over the edge."
Several people are now lobbing items at the balloon in an attempt to land something, anything at all in the basket. Others are trying to form a human pyramid in hopes of reaching the balloon as it passes. The balloon's pilot peers down, annoyed.
The neighbor continues. "Also, remember Ned? Ned threw things over the side all the time. Now he's both rich and famous. Well, we think so. We haven't seen him since."
"Right, but wasn't one of those things actually a bird? And didn't Ned also figure out that if you attach wings to a --"
"No. NO. You're not listening. The key is that Ned threw stuff over the side. Keep doing that and the rest will work itself out."
Another man rolls a tricycle off the edge, watches dejectedly as it plummets, then shuffles away.
"I think I'll go work on this some more," the first man says, hefting the paddles-and-flippers contraption. "Actually, maybe I'll throw it in the lake and see if it swims."
"I think you should attend more seminars" the neighbor snorts as they watch another group coax a tawny giraffe to the cliff edge. "You're only hurting yourself by not embracing the New Way Of Doing Things."
There's a collective cheer as one person succeeds in grabbing a balloon rope. He dangles for a few seconds, grasping the rope with one hand while clutching the lead tether of a full-size fiberglass canoe in the other. Then he and the canoe drop into the void.
"We're going to figure this out eventually!" the neighbor yells.
The air is now full of toaster ovens and washing machines and pet food and tricycles.
On a tiny speck of island just beyond the horizon, a man stands alone next to the ruins of his crashed hanglider and thinks: well, that didn't last very long.
Posted April 29, 2008
Josh Allen believes 2:42 is the ideal length for a pop song:
Just look at what clocks in between two and a half and three minutes: *Mr. Tambourine Man,* *We Got the Beat,* *Boys Don't Cry,* *Hot Fun in the Summertime,* *Good Times Bad Times,* *I Would Die 4 U,* *Paranoid,* *Blowin' in the Wind,* *Debaser,* *God Only Knows,* and *Fall on Me.* These are not only stone-cold classics but they also encapsulate all that is great about the band without wasting your goddamn time.The scientists then dug up this song by a group that pretty much defines one-hit wonder: The La's. The song is *There She Goes,*and is so flawless that it instantly made everything else the band did pointless. This ditty is two minutes and 42 seconds, and is all about songwriting economy.
Meanwhile, Paul Ford gleans some insight from his six-word reviews of of 763 MP3s from SXSW bands.
"Many people don't write songs for an audience. They write songs for Gray's Anatomy, for Zach Braff, and for Apple advertisements (Volkswagen if they're not ambitious). If I was in a band I would write a slow song with an 808, reverb, and a female vocalist, and call that song *Zach Braff's Eyes Reflected in My Nano.* I would make sure it got to the right people. By which I mean Zach Braff, or one of the leechlike marketing creatures that feed from the skin of Steve Jobs under his mock turtleneck."
Posted April 16, 2008
And about time! If you're a Rhapsody user, here's a playlist of all my songs on Rhapsody.
I've also added all the tracks from Save You From Yourself to the Music section. Each song now has a lyrics page, and I've made a few of them free to download. This is all part of a slow-motion site redesign I've trickling out in bits a pieces.
Posted April 12, 2008
Explone had a full rehearsal last night, the first one in a few weeks since drummer Greg had gone off to SXSW. We’ll need to find a new rehearsal space for next week, as we’ve been borrowing our current space free-of-charge from other friendly bands for the past few rehearsals. But now that space has been rented out and we have to find a new permanent home.
I’m having a blast playing bass. I recently picked up an Ampeg SVT 200T amp head from Craigslist. It’s solid state (no tubes) and weighs a ton. Which is nothing compared to the 6x10 cabinet I got from one of Patrick’s friends. It’s the size of a small fridge, except instead of beer it’s full of ROCK. I guess it's just as well that we're moving to a new space, because I don't intend to lug this beast back and forth.
Along with the T-40 it’s a pretty devastating-sounding rig. The 200T’s ultra-low setting adds some crazy, glassy bottom end whomp without mudding up the sound. The first word that popped into my head was obsidian. I can't wait to try it in rehearsal.
We're not nearly ready to gig yet, but we have a date with a studio the first weekend in June.
Posted April 1, 2008
I recorded this a few weeks back. Just now getting around to posting it:
You can find more videos over here.
Posted March 31, 2008
The version of "Happy For Me" which appears on Save You From Yourself is more-or-less the original version I've been messing around with since, oh, about 2003. The version below is from 2005, recorded for the 3-song EP I made for my big rawkin' birthday show.
Whereas the CD version is relaxed with a hint of alt-country swing, this alternate take is faster, more driving, more straight-ahead pop. I had a hard time deciding which one would end up on the CD, and eventually decided the original was more -- interesting? Dynamic? I dunno, I like them both. Choose your favorite.
You can find the lyrics on the newly-minted song page for the original version.
(Fun fact: Jim noticed that I sound a lot like Kevin from Better Than Ezra during the "somehowwww" parts of the coda.)
[audio:misc/Scott Andrew - Happy For Me (alternate take).mp3]
This audio work by Scott Andrew is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.Posted March 24, 2008