Downtempo Delicacies

AFRICA

2008-08-06T06:26:00.003-05:00

we are not a people who hold things loosely. but we fool ourselves to think we can hold onto anything when our hands just turn to dust.

Northeast Tour (so far)

2008-05-12T14:29:00.001-05:00

A million thanks to everyone coming to shows and spreading the word about my music. I love to sing for you!
XO
Erin

On creating

2008-05-12T11:40:00.000-05:00

"The work is in the work itself."
-Toni Morrison

having a 6 year old sister is like...

2008-05-11T14:32:00.004-05:00

Megan: I bumped my head.

Mom: On what?

Megan: The bathroom floor.

The Importance of the Subject

2008-04-25T18:43:00.009-05:00

"All, In Time" from the Sweet Little E.P. will be in one of the darker scenes in the upcoming film, Ruth's Locket.

(there's a really good explanation of that song in the Mixtank Interview - Track 5 of the Sweet Little E.P.)

thanks, parties, pix, and existentialism

2008-04-20T17:35:00.007-05:00

FIRST of all, let me send out a HUGE thank you for all the love i've been receiving after the recent Perez Hilton shoutout.

and THEN, let me (this is my blog and i do what i want) heave a sigh of relief that the Sweet Little EP release party in Austin is over (i've almost recovered) and was overwhelmingly fantastic. Pictures to come, but here's a teaser...

--UPDATE-- pictures are online HERE!

i heard recently that nothing is worth reading that hasn't been worked on for at least 24 hours. but, that's just one man's opinion and for those of you who are into eating dessert before dinner, i'm all atwitter now. it's another jewel in my crown of self-enshrining dalliances. all these things come in handy, though, since i do not remember most things if they aren't written down somewhere. i wish i'd started blogging, etc. a long time ago (had it been possible in the dark ages of the 'net - aka 1998), because i have pictures of myself in cool places and i have no recollection whatsoever of what i was doing.

so, amidst dreams of hotel rooms surrounded by graveyards, my latest thoughts are of restless impermanence. i'm comforted by the notion that restlessness is appropriate until the spirit is freed from the constraints of its earthly body. somehow, giving myself permission to feel not-entirely-at-home on earth helps a lot.

reminds me of the book, The Van Gogh Blues, about existential depression and meaning. while i don't ascribe to all his assertions, i like Eric Maisel's ideas about creating (rather than seeking) meaning.

"I make my meaning—or else I don’t. All that exists until I actively and mindfully make personal meaning is the possibility of meaning and, while I wait to get started, the experience of emptiness. There is the possibility that I will experience the next hour as meaningful, a possibility that turns into a reality only if I make a certain kind of decision and a certain kind of investment."

Knockout Bash - April 12, 2008

2008-03-30T02:08:00.003-05:00

Birth of the Sweet Little EP

2008-03-30T01:34:00.010-05:00

Authentic replicas of these very tickets are now available for pre-sale online... and they even come with a show!

This is Conan (the Barbarian). He was our translator and also very helpful in addressing envelopes.

There were lots of envelopes. They all ended up with an airplane stamped on them.

Renee carved the stamp herself. Her creative spirit is inspiring.

As we finished our 32-hour CD-manufacturing blitz, fireworks started going off downtown in honor of the Sweet Little EP. (They were actually for the opening of the Long Center, but I choose delusion.)

Oh Crap Its SXSW

2008-03-17T01:20:00.001-05:00

The "Oh Crap Its SXSW" Mixtape deserves it's own post:

DOWNLOAD IT FOR FREE RIGHT HERE.

New songs. Live stuff. Banter, even.

A sunburn is good when...

2008-03-16T23:33:00.016-05:00

... it comes from watching great music on a warm, clear Saturday in Austin. Here's a wrap-up of what little I did during SXSW:

Wednesday: Photo shoot with photographer Mathew Sturtevant for upcoming Sweet Little EP album. Mark your calendar for the release party on April 12 at The Scoot Inn!

Thursday: I chauffered Ingrid Michaelson and Allie Moss through an enviable schedule of interviews and performance showcases all around the city. Variety Magazine, VH1, KGSR radio, Waterloo Records, etc. The girls are currently on the Hotel Cafe tour. Here's Ingrid at KGSR studios being interviewed for the Jim Lehrer News Hour:

Friday: I did the final studio recording for the Sweet Little EP in the morning. Then I ran home and recorded/assembled the spankin' new "Oh Crap Its SXSW" Mixtape. You can DOWNLOAD IT FOR FREE RIGHT HERE.

Saturday: checked out The Monocles and my Chicago favorites, Scouts Honor at Monkeywrench Books,

and then played my own set at Love. (Thanks to Cat for the picture!)

Also got to see fantastic performances there by Atash (below), John Pointer, and Shelley King.

That night I dreamed I put my new EP onto floppy disks (the earliest, actually-floppy ones). Then I realized nobody uses floppies anymore, so I'd put all my hard work onto a wasted medium. (Its like my psyche was questioning the relevance and intrinsic value I assign to what I deliver into the world, or the way I share the things I value. Gotta sit with this one for a while.)

Sunday: smothered my maddened shoulders in Lidocaine and hiked Emma Long Park, away from the evaporating mayhem downtown.

Incidentally, if anyone else shares my girlcrush on Zooey Deschanel, she and M. Ward have a band. And they're great!

on meeting Phil Ramone

2008-03-06T14:43:00.002-05:00

Should i ever be so fortunate as to have even a whisper of the success of Phil Ramone, I hope I handle it with as much grace and quiet confidence as the man who makes sure his jacket pockets are big enough to fit the bevy of CDs handed his way wherever he goes.

She's In Love With The Boots

2008-02-25T21:07:00.004-05:00

I had the great fortune to meet Trisha Yearwood earlier this month. She was singing for about 30 people crowded into a listening lounge in Austin's Clear Channel offices. While we were talking after the show, I couldn't help but drool over her Old Gringo boots.

Trisha (aka my new BFF) recommends having boots handmade to your own feet at M.L. Leddy's in Fort Worth. Personally, I'd go just to pick up some new chaps. "As stylish as they are functional."

Confession: In my "research" for this post, I might have developed an unhealthy attraction to these OGs because they are great and awful at the same time. Lord, please help me to resist.

The Austin Music Scene

2008-02-22T13:40:00.005-05:00

it's all so true:

DON'T CALL YOURSELF AN AUSTIN MUSICIAN UNTIL YOU'VE...
By Michael Corcoran
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Monday, January 28, 2008

At the end of the year, I decided to not rank the nationally acclaimed "Shepherd's Dog" by Iron and Wine as an Austin album. I&W's Sam Beam might live in the area, but he's not truly an Austin musician. Neither is Kina Grannis, the "Crash the Super Bowl" finalist, who moved here after graduating from USC in May. Bill Callahan, who used to call himself Smog, is no more an Austin musician than Bob Mould was in the '90s. It takes more than a ZIP code that starts with 787 to truly be considered a hometown musician. Use this guideline to tell the difference between a musician who lives in Austin and an Austin musician:

Sorry, but you're not an Austin musician until ...

... you've played at either Emo's, the Hole in the Wall or the Continental Club.

... you've been rejected by SXSW.

... you've opened for Guy Forsyth.

... you've been ticketed for double-parking on Sixth Street while unloading your gear.

... you know your order without looking at the menu of the Tamale House No. 3.

... you know who Paul Minor is. (Bonus points if you know exactly what it is that he does.)

... David Cotton won't return your calls.

... you've looked forward to playing out at the airport because at least that gig pays.

... you are a 94-year-old blues legend. (Pinetop Perkins exemption.)

... you've snuck a case of beer out the back door after a gig.

... you've had your name misspelled on the Red Eyed Fly marquee.

... you've worked double shifts at Thundercloud to save money for studio time, put your heart and soul into every track, proudly mailed your first CD, your baby, to critics, then watched Jim Caligiuri give it half a star in the Chronicle.

A Heart Breaks

2008-02-19T14:19:00.002-05:00

6 Songs

2008-01-18T19:49:00.000-05:00

In This is Your Brain on Music, Daniel Levitin writes about a scientist friend who was totally disconnected from modern music and asked for a CD of 6 songs that represent rock 'n' roll. He'd heard Elvis Presley, so Elvis was left off the list:

1. Long Tall Sally by Little Richard
2. Roll Over Beethoven by The Beatles
3. All Along the Watchtower by Jimi Hendrix
4. Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton
5. Little Red Corvette by Prince
6. Anarchy in the U.K. by the Sex Pistols

What are your 6?

Breaking the Law

2008-01-14T00:51:00.000-05:00

"news" item from Mike Adams:

On the heels of the RIAA's recent decision to criminalize consumers who rip songs from albums they've purchased to their computers (or iPods), the association has now gone one step further and declared that "remembering songs" using your brain is criminal copyright infringement. "The brain is a recording device," explained RIAA president Cary Sherman. "The act of listening is an unauthorized act of copying music to that recording device, and the act of recalling or remembering a song is unauthorized playback."

thoughts on the music business from Seth Godin:

A frightened consumer is not a happy consumer.
I shouldn’t have to say this, but here goes: suing people is like going to war. If you’re going to go to war with tens of thousands of your customers every year, don’t be surprised if they start treating you like the enemy.

Kirsten Dunst Meets Rufus Wainwright

2008-01-13T16:03:00.000-05:00

Kirsten Dunst: "Do your best songs come out of pain or happiness?"

Rufus Wainwright: "My catalogue consists of material on a subtle but steady incline of quality which will reach its zenith the moment of my death when, like Beethoven, I try to conduct the sound of distant thunder. Basically, I'm in pain."

from a 2004 conversation published in The Observer

loose ends

2007-12-28T14:52:00.000-05:00

i'm excited about the new post on the new New Favorites blog. YouTube amazes me. blogging and text messaging and phones with built-in video cameras amaze me. for that matter, antibiotics amaze me (i'm moving backwards through technology, but after the sinus infection i had this month, you'd be amazed, too.) which leads me to renewed enthusiasm for the neti pot.

it's what my dad calls a "nutty pot" or "communing with the owls," but if you have allergies, you have to get one of these. it's weird at first, but so is everything. in austin, they're on sale at Wheatsville Co-op for $11 through January.
here's the secret: 1cup of room temperature water, 1/2 tsp of non-iodized sea salt
if you don't have non-iodized salt, use 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp baking soda (the yellow box)

...and a year-end shoutout to blogger.com for being a great outlet for random thought.

xo
erin

from the denver airport

2007-12-27T16:04:00.000-05:00

the snow here is beautiful.

"You wonder why corporations have no place in music. Because their values stink. Those entities throwing dollars at your act are trying to get a free ride on your elixir, which their products will never contain. They want part of your unadulterated truth. Which can only exist in art. And no art form touches people like music. It can penetrate any soul."

Bob Lefsetz

Things that Make Me Mad, Part One: The Federal Reserve

2007-12-24T15:27:00.000-05:00

**Update 1/25/08: a related article

In concern for the tanking value of the almighty dollar, I am restyling my disgust with politics. I had been ignoring it altogether. Now I realize that ignoring it is the same as pledging blind allegiance to a power-hungry federal government whose growth has gone unchecked and which strives to make all citizens completely dependent upon it.

So, I'm researching the things that I don't understand. Starting with the Federal Reserve.

Did you know that the Federal Reserve is neither "federal" nor a "reserve?" It is not a government institution at all, but a group of large private banks that "creates" money to bail out its own insolvency, flooding the marketplace with dollars backed by... nothing, diluting the power of our entire money supply and economy. And FDIC doesn't seem to be insurance at all. It's another way to pass the burden of reckless banking practices on to consumers.

How great is that?! We are protected from the collective hardship of a free market financial system by footing the bill for the failure of large private institutions. This is brilliant... if I'm the BANK.

It makes me feel good to know we've got a system that encourages huge loans to businesses and countries that will never be able to repay them. When interest payments slow, banks can just roll over the loan, making repayment even more impossible. The banks still get their interest payments. If the borrower defaults, the American government guarantees payment, partly by FDIC "assessments" ultimately paid by consumers and partly by creating money out of thin air, which renders less valuable each dollar you actually make. The banks always get their money. Rather, the banks get OUR money. We pay for their mistakes. But, our taxes don't accurately reflect all the money our government also borrows. Our grandchildren can worry about it. That's right, we're letting the banks take our GRANDCHILDREN's money.

"Public ignorance of how the game is really played was dramatically displayed during a recent Phil Donahue TV show. The topic was the Savings and Loan crisis and the billions of dollars that it would cost the taxpayer. A man from the audience rose and asked angrily: 'Why can't the government pay for these debts instead of the taxpayer?' And the audience of several hundred people actually cheered in enthusiastic approval!"
G. Edward Griffin in "The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve"

David Byrne on new music business models

2007-12-20T19:31:00.000-05:00

This article in Wired Magazine illustrates the new music business models emerging from the failure of traditional record companies to satisfy its customers.

Music is, after all, more powerful than the plastic or person that delivers it. We have a need to create it and consume it (in the most epicurean way).

"Some artists are the Coke and Pepsi of music, while others are the fine wine — or the funky home-brewed moonshine. And that's fine. I like Rihanna's 'Umbrella' and Christina Aguilera's 'Ain't No Other Man.' Sometimes a corporate soft drink is what you want — just not at the expense of the other thing. In the recent past, it often seemed like all or nothing, but maybe now we won't be forced to choose."
David Byrne

PEDAL STEEL!

2007-12-14T00:44:00.001-05:00

i'm in the studio tonight and i'm UNBELIEVABLY excited we're tracking pedal steel guitar, aka my favorite instrument in the universe.

just wanted to let you know.

!!!!!!!!!!!

oh, and Michael Bolton is the iTunes free holiday single of the week. you'll all want to go ahead and grab that.

lylas,
erin

what of the halcyon days?

2007-12-12T12:12:00.000-05:00

i'm at Halcyon in downtown austin, and what happened to the other half?! it's GONE. i'm all astir, on the gray vinyl couch with bright orange pillows, in front of the window that was the backdrop of the stage; that is, after Ruta Maya closed and they halved the stage and moved it to the front. now they've halved the whole place and there is, alas, no stage. live music capital of the wha??

I know celebrities.

2007-12-07T19:55:00.000-05:00

the following folks have visited me in my dreams over the past two weeks, in this order:

Eric Clapton
Madonna
Sting
and, last night, Oprah

Clapton was nice, quiet, likes cheese. Madonna was curt, cold, and her advice to me was to work with only the best (producers, musicians, publicists, bodyguards, etc.). Sting lit one of my poems on fire and told me to "write around the charred parts." Oprah suggested that i institute relaxing rituals in my life, like candle-lit baths.

so, i'll keep you posted. Michael Jackson MUST be on his way...

xo

Sharon Jones on NPR

2007-11-28T16:52:00.000-05:00

Sharon Jones and the band leader of the Dap Kings were interviewed on NPR's Fresh Air.

Here's my previous post about seeing Sharon live in Austin.