Jay Stewart ([info]bbwoof) wrote,
@ 2009-06-16 14:51:00
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Current location:At Work
Current mood:Awed
Current music:"Emerald Green", Vixy and Tony

Hey, [info]technoshaman!
I attended Duckon last weekend. (Vaguely hoped that I would meet you there, but ... another time.) Heard Vixy and Tony. Was floored.

Now, understand: I am hard of hearing -- always have been. As a result, music has always been pretty much a hit or miss thing for me, and mostly miss. But these people and their friends are The Real Thing.

Of COURSE I bought their CD! Why do you ask?

Since then, I can't get "Emerald Green", "Mal's Song" or "Siren Song" out of my mind. They're bloody earworms, they are!

I'm from one of the brownest parts of the Golden State... but that doesn't keep the tears from my eyes when I hear Vixy's description of Seattle. I've never even BEEN to Seattle!

WTF? What kind of alchemy IS this, that is everyday routine?

For those of you who don't have a referent, you can find one here. Enjoy!


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[info]technoshaman
2009-06-16 10:06 pm UTC (link)
WTF? What kind of alchemy IS this, that is everyday routine?

Lemme 'splain. No, there is too much. Lemme sum up.

Everyday alchemy means the Methodist church has a huge rainbow flag flying off the front of it. It means that the buses - big, articulated hulking massive things - can merge into the left lane of I-5 and exit off on Stewart Street about a mile away across five lanes of rush hour *every morning*. It means that the bridge nearest my place has a troll under it. Really. By cooperation of the city fathers and the Fremont Arts Council. And when they had to rename the street that runs under the bridge up to the troll, there was only one choice everybody knew was inevitable. Troll Avenue North. It means the local motorcycle club has both liberals and conservatives, people who both buy organic veggies and shoot pistols, career soldiers and Berkie-wearing moms, Jewish vegans and goat-roasting pagans. And we all get along. It's taken for granted that Vixy has a husband and a boyfriend and a girlfriend. It's not anything big, that's just how it is. Nor is it unusual for the sound guy's girlfriend to be singing along to Celtic poly pagan power rock on Saturday night... and to then get up early to be the lay reader of the Gospel up at St. Mark's at 8am Sunday morning. It just is.

And that's just kinda the tip of the iceberg.

I moved here because I could make money and not fry in my own juices. I stay because these are my people, my tribe. They take care of me, and I take care of them.

You haven't been to Seattle? You should fix that. But be careful. It's easy to get hooked.

(That icon? Drawn by Vixy, by request.)

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[info]sidhebaap
2009-06-16 10:56 pm UTC (link)
What do you know about the further reaches of the state? I've been drawn to the Northwest for reasons akin to what you describe - but it looks like I'm ending up in Pullman. I'm a little concerned that urban / rural is stronger than bible belt / northwest...

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[info]tfabris
2009-06-17 11:21 pm UTC (link)
I've never lived in the bible belt, but I know that a big part of Seattle's draw for me is the urban side of things. Once you're outside of Seattle proper, things get a lot more American Standard Rural.

But what makes the alchemy of Seattle work so well is: even in the midst of the urban mess, it's very nature-integrated and wholesome. Bald eagles circle the skyscrapers downtown. Water and trees are everywhere. Snow capped mountains circle the city. The personality of the city seems to have taken the best parts of urban lifestyle and the best parts of rural lifestyle and mixed them together.

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[info]technoshaman
2009-06-18 02:23 pm UTC (link)
*rueful chuckle* you'd be right... with the saving grace that Pullman *is* a college town, and therefore somewhat more tolerant of, erm, youthful excesses. But yeah, Wazoo is a *rural* college town; if I were ending up there I would be careful of showing my true colors until I got to know the culture. And outside of town? Washington east of the Cascades is VERY much Red State territory. Spokane may be something of an exception, but I wouldn't trust it. (although, Moscow, ID, just across the border from Pullman, is another of those college towns in which you can probably get away with more... but the rest of Idaho? look out. Coeur d'Alene, especially. Doubly so if I am correct in surmising you share certain heritage with [info]beckyzoole.)

Feel free to message me with more questions...

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[info]technoshaman
2009-06-16 10:14 pm UTC (link)
p.s. what did you think of "Firebird"? That was the inimitable S.J. Tucker... aka [info]s00j.

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[info]bbwoof
2009-06-17 02:53 am UTC (link)
Didn't understand it...

"I am the Firebird's child." Maybe I'm mythology deficient... all I could think of that was "The Phoenix doesn't have children; it spawns itself."

That said, I will agree that SJ Tucker is a talented singer and percussionist. :)

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[info]technoshaman
2009-06-17 04:04 pm UTC (link)
hey, Woof, could you unscreen the comment made to my long one above? I want to answer but s/he has no other means of contact...

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[info]bbwoof
2009-06-17 10:06 pm UTC (link)
Done.

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[info]tfabris
2009-06-17 11:15 pm UTC (link)
Many of the references in SJ Tucker's music come from books by Catherynne M. Valente, and I'm reasonably sure that Firebird's Child is one such song (I haven't read the particular book in question, which is why I'm only 90 percent sure instead of 100 percent sure).

I'm so glad you enjoyed the concert and the CD! Thank you so much! I hope you get a chance to visit Seattle some time and experience the alchemy for yourself.

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[info]bbwoof
2009-06-18 07:15 pm UTC (link)
Not to take anything from Vixy's singing or songwriting, but half the magic of the concert was your guitar. Your techniques don't come from the filk I know (although my filking days were mostly 2-3 decades ago, and the culture may well have matured) -- my impression was that your chords are very much secondary to your picked notes, and that you were more comfortable with lead guitar than with the simple chord-chord-chord of most folk/filk music.

Disclaimer: As stated above, I'm hard of hearing. I don't know much about music (and you do), so if my opinion doesn't jibe with your reality, please feel free to ignore it altogether. Just don't ignore the statement that Vixy and Tony gained several new fans last Saturday; I was there, and we talked about it a lot.

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[info]tfabris
2009-06-18 07:40 pm UTC (link)

Thanks very much! It feels great to have my playing appreciated.

You're right in that my style of playing comes from places other than Filk. I spent my teen years learning to play by listening to progressive rock bands (and learning from a guitar teacher who did the same), and my twenties playing electric guitar and keyboards in cover-tunes bands.

As a well-rounded guitarist, one needs to be comfortable with both lead and rhythm playing styles, and I do feel comfortable in both areas. What I lack, as you surmised, is a lot of the country/blues/folk roots styles that tend to be prevalent in Filk, which by the way, is more than just chord-chord-chord. I'm happy just playing chord-chord-chord when the song calls for it, it's just that there are certain stylistic subtleties beyond that, things that you get from true "folk" playing that I've never quite picked up on. I do my best to imitate it when the situation calls for it, of course.

There's a distinct shift in my playing style between what you hear on our album and what you hear when we play live, simply because I *must* be a rhythm player when we play live: Without a traditional "rhythm section" in the band, my guitar has to carry the main rhythmic responsibilites of the songs. SJ's drumming is wonderful to have, but we don't usually get the opportunity to play with her, so my focus is still being the backbone and the framework of the songs. As I said, I'm very comfortable in that space, but you'll always see me trying to do something slightly more interesting than just playing plain chords. What I do on stage wouldn't necessarily be called "lead" playing, but rather, rhythm guitar with a bit of interesting embellishment.

A lot of my style as a rhythm player comes from listening to Alex Lifeson, who could be a very careful and precise rhythm guitarist while simultaneously filling a lot of musical space with complexities that would normally have been the job of a second lead guitarist in most other bands.

Thanks again, and I hope we get the chance to play for you again soon.

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[info]bbwoof
2009-06-18 08:44 pm UTC (link)
I sincerely hope that you will have more opportunities to play for us (read: me and my friends who attended DucKon but hadn't heard you before) again, too. Early and often!

btw... I thank you for teaching me something about music that I hadn't known before. And welcome to my journal! You most likely won't find much here of interest to you (mostly rants about Midwestern things -- I live in Missouri), but you are most welcome to read or comment as you will.

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