(Yes, I really did give this entry such a stupid title.)
Surprise! I love Tom Waits. Oh, wait– I think we already knew that, since I tell everyone I see once I get a single beer in me. It’s okay, just roll your eyes at me. I won’t go away, but we don’t have to pretend I’m not obnoxious or anything.
Through a string of Google searches sparked by a weekly curiousity involving Tom Waits lyrics, I stumbled across this cool website. Alice is my favorite Waits album for a multitude of reasons (all of which I’ve probably told everyone already after having the aforementioned drink), but I haven’t heard or seen the play that the music was written for, so I’ve felt pretty left out. It was cool to get to read the script or whatever you call this. It seems like a pretty cool interpretation, and this is probably the closest I’ll ever get to seeing it.
The premise closely follows the general outline of what we all remember from Alice In Wonderland, but there’s a kind of creepy subplot about a grown man, a photographer named Charles Dodgeson, who is in love with and obsessed with Alice Liddell, the young girl for whom Alice In Wonderland was written. Obviously Dodgeson is based on Lewis Carroll (although there’s no evidence that Lewis Carroll ever had “inappropriate” feelings for Alice Liddell, or thought of her as anything but a young friend).
The story in this version is pretty fascinating, and creepy in a way that no other interpretation has managed before, since it touches on pedaphilia. If you like the album, I suggest giving it a read. It’s pretty quick, and has a neat/sad twist at the end.
With a little more searching, I found that Waits is working on another play. This would be his fourth collaboration with director Robert Wilson, following Alice, Blood Money (based on Woyzeck) and The Black Rider (based on Der Freischütz). I’m not sure what this one will be, but here’s a bit of information.
Alright. When I decided back in July to take a break, I’m not sure I thought it would ever be so hard to stop taking the break. But it turns out it’s practically impossible. It’s always been difficult for me to identify as a “performer”. I write music, I play music, and oh, I love it. But the act of selling myself is a terrible one (to me), and at times it seems an impossible feat.
But, the time has come. I will begin playing live again, I hope, because I really miss it even if I hate the process of booking. So, stay tuned for shows in the future!
In 1998, the year I turned thirteen, I saw this commercial:
Screw the Gap and their khakis. I needed to know what that song was, and what ’swing’ was. So I asked my dad, who of course knows everything. And he handed me this CD:
Although it’s hard to choose just a few highlights, as every single song is a highlight, the Just A Gigolo/ I Ain’t Got Nobody medley, Jump, Jive An’ Wail, There’ll Be No Next Time, and Oh, Marie are certainly songs you just can’t go wrong with. I used to listen to this album while I worked out. It got me so pumped on life. I wanted to single-handedly start a revival of swing just so I could listen to music like this all the time. I don’t think I realized there already was a revival, but… you know.
The same year, the Brian Setzer Orchestra released an album that had their version of Jump, Jive An’ Wail on it, and although I don’t remember if it was the summer of ‘98 or ‘99 that it made on to the radio, I remember being pissed. Everyone thought it was so cool, and I was the smug little pre-teen reminding everyone that it was a cover and the original was way better. Thirteen year olds can be obnoxious. But I was right.
A few months into my freshman year of college, I found myself sitting in a classmates living room talking about music, particularly jazz. My classmate was a trumpeter. He listed a bunch of musicians he loved, and asked me who I liked. When I named Louis Prima, he got a look on his face like he was embarrassed for me. “Well, he’s not really jazz. He’s not, like, a real musician. He played pop stuff, mostly.”
I have to admit that I felt embarrassed at the time, but also perplexed. How could anyone not like Louis Prima’s music, and why was he letting the definition of jazz get in the way? Yes, Louis Prima was very commercial. Yes, it was pop. So? Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, etc. were all pop musicians and singers, and if he had told me he didn’t like Bing Crosby I probably would have smashed his trumpet or something.
Well, regardless of how my classmates felt, Louis Prima has always held a key place in my heart. Today David Lee Roth’s rendition of Just A Gigolo/ I Ain’t Got Nobody played twice on the radio, and as usual my blood boiled. The man didn’t change a single note in Sam Butera’s (Louis’ partner) arrangement! Not a note! And word has it (from Dad, of course) that he didn’t pay him for it, either.
(By the way, I do think it’s worth mentioning that Louis Prima is just one example of many times that my Dad guided an interest in music of mine in the right direction. Without him, I would surely have had much worse taste in music.)
Here’s a fun clip of Louis Prima with his wife, Keely Smith, on the Ed Sullivan Show. She’s surprisingly animated in this clip. My favorites are the ones where she stands still and glares.
Last night I dreamed that I cut my own tongue off. Like my bangs, it was getting long and needed a trim. I don’t recall the actual shearing; just holding my severed tongue in my left hand as I stood in a nameless and faceless friends kitchen. There was no blood, and no pain, and I could speak normally. I looked at my friend (who had a small child with her, if it matters) and said, “What do you think I should do with it? It seems a shame to waste it. Do you think anyone would want to eat it?”
“Probably not,” they replied.
“Maybe your cats would eat it?” I offered. “Or I could put it in a ziplock baggie and freeze it for later?”
Then I had a moment of terror. Was my tongue disgusting looking now, all ragged and short and bloody? Why, oh why had I cut off my tongue? I placed my fingers inside my mouth and was relieved to find that it was already growing back and had roughly the shape of a normal tongue. I was surprised, because the part I held in my hand looked like an entire tongue. My tongue must have been even longer than I thought, I reasoned.
At this point in the dream I woke up enough to realize the horrible reality of having one’s tongue severed. In real-life I put my real-life hands to my real-life mouth and made sure I still had a tongue. Yes, it was there, resting languidly against my teeth like a bird who had outgrown its cage. Later in the day the recollection of the dream would disturb me, but we weren’t there yet. Half-asleep, I just rolled over and returned to Dreamland. With my whole tongue.
Here are some other weird dreams I written about in the past:
L to R: Bret Littlehales, Matt Kelley, Robby Leebrick, Steve “Wolf” Crescenze
Most people (I’d like to say all!) that know me personally that my father is a blues musician. He’s been a blues musician since his early teens and is a phenomenal singer and harmonica player. He also has an incredible knowledge of blues and jazz music, and writes a great music blog that is constantly teaching me new things, entitled Little by Little(hales).
Like his father, my father is also a photographer. For my whole life when people have asked me what he does, I say he’s a photographer and a musician– despite the fact that photography has been his bread and butter and music has been the outlet he does because he probably would wither away if someone stopped him. My father has been an incredible influence in my life. He showed me Etta James, Ella Fitzgerald and Chet Baker when I was fourteen and changed everything. When I wrote my first song at the age of thirteen (I knew nothing about music, and picked out chords on the piano by ear) he told me honestly that it wasn’t a great song, but it was a great first song. I like to think that he and my mom have always been completely honest and (mostly) unbiased about my abilities with music, and that this is a big part of who I am today. In the 11th grade I was heartbroken and jealous when I didn’t get Adelaide in my high school’s production of Guys and Dolls. My dad watched the show and said, “I hate to say it, but I don’t think you would have played her better.” This wasn’t an insult; it was the truth, and I faced it. He was never, ever hard on me, but he wanted me to know that it wouldn’t be easy; it being the pursuit of my desire to make music.
For many years I watched my father make sacrifices to play music. He had a great band, but often played to an empty room. Though music brought him joy, aspects of it began to cause him stress and mild hardship. It wasn’t until this last year that things began to really turn around. His band dispersed and was reformed, and with the persistent promotion efforts of his bassist Steve and Steve’s lady, Connie, they have gained gigs and popularity. They represented Washington DC in Memphis, as DC’s Best Blues Band, at the International Blues Challenge. They made it to the top 11 finalists (out of 110 bands that made it, from 14 countries, I believe) and guitarist Matt Kelley won a best guitarist award. Talk about coming home as champions.
I am so proud of my dad. At 58, and he never, ever gave up. I hope that in 34 years I can look back on my life and say the same thing.
I had two great shows this week, on Thursday and Friday. The first was a cool opportunity to open for Zee Avi, a singer/songwriter from Malaysia who is my age who is on the road to “making it”. I played it with Scott, so it was just guitar, bass and vox. I kind of wish we’d played with Phil, but I was told by the promoter (along with a few other untrue things) that there wouldn’t be room for drums. But it was probably better that way because Zee’s band had drums, and we might have been too similar if Phil had played, too.
Anyways, I really like her, a lot. I bought her CD and I’m listening to it right now (Phil thought she should have given it to me, but she’s touring for 3 months total– she can’t give a CD to every person she plays with). Her music is a really mellow, beautiful combination of jazz and folk, with enough pop in there to make her radio-playable. She’s on tour with Pete Yorn right now after finishing a record promotion tour, so her course to stardom has already been set in motion. So I wish her luck! She has a beautiful, smooth and slightly smoky voice (I don’t give vocal compliments lightly), she’s waaaay better at guitar than me, and she can rock a uke like nobody’s business. I hope she makes it big.
On Friday I played the show I made that poster for, with local Philly girl Bevin Caulfield and two ladies from LA who are touring the East Coast: Vanessa Micale/ Ilo Mar and Emily Lacy. It was a cool night, because even though we are obviously all female and we all played more or less solo and acoustic, none of us sounded a like at all. Emily and Vanessa both do some cool things with loop pedals but the similarities end there. Bevin has this cool pop/folk/soul thing going on, and I really enjoyed her songs and voice. So overall, it was fun! I was also, embarrassingly, a little proud of myself because I did it all by myself… I think I’ve been relying a little too much on my band members, esp. Phil since he’s my boyfriend and drummer. I can do things by myself. Really, I can!
On recording updates, P and S did about half the songs on Tuesday, which means I can go in and start to record the guitar on possibly vox on those. Whoo! Exciting things are happening…
It is recording day #1 (of 2 scheduled) for Phil and Scott to lay down the drum and bass tracks on the album. Our good friends Mitch and Mark of An American Chinese are recording us in their studio, Siamese Twin Studio.
In other news, I sort of started writing again (after a long dry spell) and so I guess that means I’m starting on the next album. Here’s a sneak peak, called “Tearing Up My Roots”*. That’s good ol’ midi bass, courtesy of Garage Band, and a harmonium, courtesy of one of Phil’s moving jobs. It should be the last song on the little music player to the right of this page. I tried and failed to make it first!
More updates on how today’s and tomorrow’s recording went later this week!
* Copyright (c) 2009 by Charlotte Littlehales. Please do not use, distribute or anything else without my permission!
My next show is on July 24th, at the Green Line Cafe, and here’s the poster for it:
For more information on this show (i.e. links to the performers music), click on the ‘SHOWS’ tab above.
Like the image I used for our last show in May, I found this through the Commons on Flickr (my dad turned me onto the Commons). This is from a particular group called the Vintage Spirit Photography. Some of the photos are pretty cheesy (it’s all early film exposure tricks, some done better than others), but I liked this one a lot and thought it was appropriate since on the 24th we’ll be four female-driven acts.
I’ve been lazy about music lately. Since we’re sort of recording right now, I’ve been feeling like I want to hold off on playing any big shows until we’re done. So other than this solo set on July 24th, I probably won’t be playing any shows until our albums done and we do a CD release. In that case, I plan on doing a Philly release show and a Silver Spring/ DC area show, and I really can’t wait. I’m aiming for this fall, but it might take longer.
On the plus side, I have started writing the next album, which is saying something since I haven’t been writing for a while. When I first started writing at 15 and up into college, I would have considered myself fairly “prolific”… but most of those songs were more a learning experience than a meaningful song. So I’ll just tell myself that it’s quality, not quantity, and feel consoled by the fact that most of the songs I write these days I end up keeping.
At any rate, I added some pictures from our last show, taken by John Hayes, my trusty photographer friend. And recording might start either next week or the week after. Or never.
I’ve been seriously slacking off in the booking-shows-department, because I’m tired of playing places that want me to bring my friends out and then charge them money. I like this Murph’s thing for the time being. I’d like to play some house shows and whatnot though.
