I was a red man, I was proud, I was strong.
You were the white man and you stole away my home.
Now I am a wooden Indian standing silent in the rain.
I swear by my grandfather’s father, we’re gonna rise again.

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros fantastic cover of John Denver’s “Wooden Indian”, off the “The Music Is You” tribute album, which is out today. (It’s only $5 on Amazon MP3.)

I’m only counting on your cancellation,
When I should be counting on you at my door.
Did you forget about how we went around,
I don’t know why you don’t take me downtown anymore.

Another Friday night in the city of Angels, and a cold one at that, and all I want to do is go out. Like we used to. What happened to going out on Friday nights? What happened to socializing and taking risks and being fun and spending money we don’t have and laughing at strangers? I don’t know why you don’t take me downtown anymore…

I’m not the one that you were looking for.

I’m not the shoulder you should cry on.

I am the one you should’ve let go.

Your instructions for today: Get this album, get tickets to see The Lone Bellow at the Echoplex in March, listen to this album, go to the show, be a better fucking person.

If I made this great escape,

would you know what it’s for?

I’ll always go see Olin and the Moon play, and Monday night at the Echoplex was a welcome return to form for the band, having been sidelined over the past half-year for injury and recuperation. Here’s hoping their Ryan Adams produced tracks see the light of day soon.

Friday Night Tunes:

And I’ll keep this world from draggin’ me down
Gonna stand my ground and I won’t back down

Yeah I know this is a few months old but hey it’s new to me. Tom Petty dialed down and dialed back. Benjamin Francis Leftwich also does a great cover of Frightened Rabbit here.

You think I’m some little phony;

Thing is YOU DON’T FUCKING KNOW ME!

daveholmes:

“Why” from Tick, Tick…BOOM.

I saw Jonathan Larson’s Tick Tick BOOM off-Broadway probably ten years ago, and this song just killed me. It hit so simply, so guilelessly how one becomes a person who writes or acts or makes things up on stage- or how I did, anyway- that I audibly sobbed through the entire thing. Like, audibly audibly. Like, making-a-spectacle-of-myself audibly. Also, it was being sung by Joey McIntyre, because otherwise the moment would not have emasculated me enough. 

Anyway, it just came up on my drive home from a particularly strenuous spin class and run, and I boo-hoo’d like an infant again, this time in traffic. And it felt fucking great. 

I am a ridiculous dork, and I am so grateful to be in a place where that’s a job skill. I hope you’re all pursuing what makes you the happiest. Carve out 20 minutes a day for it if you aren’t. Trust me. What a way to spend a day. 

Read what Dave wrote, listen to the song, let it sink in.

I myself listened to it over and over tonight, and then that lead to listening to a few other choice Broadway tunes (“Seasons of Love” from Rent, “Journey On” from Ragtime, “My Blanket and Me” and “Happiness” from You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown), and invariably, listening to “Why” again. And again.

We all, those of us pursuing our dreams, or those of us living them, or those of us trying, or those of us who tried, or those who wanted to years ago on some stage, have those thoughts and feelings and memories and inclinations, of wanting to perform in some manner in some way for some body.

You sang in choir, you acted in plays, you were in band, you wrote for the paper, you did debate, you made movies, you did something that has no actual merit on civilization except that it was fun and entertaining, both to you and an audience.

Sometimes the point is lost, in the Entertainment Industry, to entertain. It’s about making money, or earning ratings, or just staying alive. Sacrificing artistic integrity (or, hell, just the regular kind of integrity) to make a buck or raise a point in the demos. You work on a show because it’s a job, not because it’s fun. Because you need to pay rent and you need to pay the bills and you need to make enough money to buy a PBR at the end of the day so you don’t go fucking crazy.

We have all been there, some of us stay there, some of us just frequent that place.

And it eats away at you, if you’re not careful, and it turns you into a bitter, unhappy person, and we get disappointed with ourselves and our lives. We lose sight of the reason why we got on stage in the first place.

That moment.

We all came from that moment, somewhere, of just wanting to play. To sing, to dance, to dream, to act to write, to be.

Dave makes a point, that if you’re not doing what makes you happy, then try to take a few moments from your day and just do it.

I’m going to spend my time this way.

In examining a book such as Peter Rabbit, it is important that the superficial characteristics of its deceptively simple plot should not be allowed to blind the reader to the more substantial fabric of its deeper motivations. In this report I plan to discuss the sociological implications of family pressures so great as to drive an otherwise moral rabbit to perform acts of thievery which he consciously knew were against the law. I also hope to explore the personality of Mr. Macgregor in his conflicting roles as farmer and humanitarian.

Still one of the greatest musicals I’ve ever seen (referring to the 1999 Broadway Revival of “You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown” starring Roger Bart, Kristin Chenoweth, BD Wong and Anthony Rapp, which I caught on Broadway in March of ‘99), this is Linus’ part of “The Book Report”, one of the better songs to feature The Company. Each cast members part is a perfect capsule of their character.

Here’s a fact most people don’t know: the summer between my 8th and 9th grade years, I starred as Charlie Brown in a production of “You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown”. Beating a ton of kids across the state to the role, it probably didn’t hurt that I was rotund and looked exactly like the titular character. My first and only starring role in any sort of musical. Good grief.

Downtown - The Saw Doctors featuring Petula Clark.

Pretty much the best piece of music that I heard today.

(Apparently it came out last fall, but it just crossed my desk today.) (Obsessed.)

I want you to move to California for yourself.

I want you to find whatever your heart needs.

I want you to move to California for yourself.

But not for me.

You can download “California”, the first single from Delta Spirit’s upoming third album, the eponymous Delta Spirit, for free right here.

Every album they’ve put out has been one of my favorite albums. The last, History From Below, is required listening.

Get on it. I don’t have to say it, but, 2012 is going to be a great year for music, you guys.