My Favorite Albums of 2008

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Arena

Here are my favorite albums of 2008 in order of preference.

Arena (Todd Rundgren)
Without a doubt, my most-listened-to album of 2008. Some of my fave moments on the album remind me of P.O.V. (Utopia), and I enjoy all the rest as well.

Earth to the Dandy Warhols (The Dandy Warhols)
Great stuff, and like Arena, a pleasant mix of old sounds and new in terms of the respective artists and their output. With the exception of “Mis Amigos,” I gave these tracks lots of plays. It seems like I waited forever for this album, and the Dandys made it worth the wait.

Funplex (The B-52’s)
The B-52’s have always been a guilty pleasure of mine, and this album was no exception. I would have preferred more of the distinctive guitar sounds I have come to enjoy from this group, but that did not detract from the fun.

Brown Submarine (Boston Spaceships)
This debut CD from Robert Pollard’s new band got my vote for Surprise of the Year. I sometimes listen to a song I really like over and over, and “Two Girl Area” (track 5) was one of those in 2008.

The Jerrys Live at WZRD Chicago 88.3 FM

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The Jerrys Live at WZRD

I had fun playing the music of The Jerrys live on May 1 in the WZRD studio. Playing and singing while accompanying myself via a laptop, I played ten songs by The Jerrys, including a preview of the not-yet-released single, “I’m a Reader”:

1. Every Girl
2. What the World Could Use a Lot More Of
3. New Day
4. Let’s Groove
5. Bigger Than Oprah
6. When I’m in Love
7. Bridget and Me
8. Back in the Day
9. Telepop
10. I’m a Reader

Alejandro Aguilar interviewed me halfway through the set, and he and the other folks at WZRD (or “wizards,” as they are known) were fantastic. I especially thank Alejandro, Ellie, and Rick for all of their help and for making the night so enjoyable. Check out the video I posted for “Every Girl.”

Stay tuned for more music from The Jerrys, and be sure to visit The Jerrys’ website.

My Top 10 Favorite Onomatopoeic Words

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Bam

Wikipedia defines onomatopoeia as “a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the source of the sound that it describes.” I’ve always thought of these types of words as fun. Even as a child, I marveled at how words describing animal noises (eg, “oink,” “moo,” “arf”) sounded like the sounds the animals made. Here are my top 10 favorite onomatopoeic words.

  • arf
  • bang
  • buzz
  • click
  • hiss
  • kerplunk
  • pop
  • twang
  • tweet
  • zap

For some real onomatopoeic fun, be sure to listen to “Onomatopoeia” by Todd Rundgren. The song, from Rundgren’s Hermit of Mink Hollow, contains many onomatopoeic words as well as samples of the sounds themselves.

The Jerrys Return to WZRD on May 1

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WZRD 40th Anniversary Logo

I’ll be returning to WZRD Chicago 88.3 FM (“The Wizard”) in less than three weeks to perform the music of The Jerrys. Please join me on Thursday, May 1, at 10 pm CST for what I hope will be a memorable evening of music. In the meantime, be sure to check out the videos from The Jerrys’ first appearance on WZRD.

My Favorite Plays by William Shakespeare

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William Shakespeare

I’ve read all of Shakespeare’s plays at least once, and I’ve read many of them numerous times. Here are my top 10 favorites:

  • Hamlet
  • Henry IV, Part 1
  • Henry IV, Part 2
  • Henry V
  • Henry VI, Part 1
  • Henry VI, Part 2
  • Henry VI, Part 3
  • Macbeth
  • The Merchant of Venice
  • Romeo and Juliet

It wasn’t easy getting the list down to ten, but each time I tried, the Henry plays made the list. They are so underrated—I hope to read them again someday.

10 Things To Do Before Mixing a Recording

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10 Things Before Mixing

After reading Mike Senior’s Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio earlier this month, I created a checklist of ten things to do to prepare a recorded song for mixing. My process has always been a bit too haphazard, so I plan to use this checklist to ensure that I never miss an opportunity to make my music sound better.

  • Organize tracks
  • Divide timeline
  • Listen to tracks
  • Identify gems
  • Edit out silences
  • Do multing as needed
  • Adjust timing and tuning
  • Camouflage edits
  • Comp vocals, lead tracks
  • Arrange

As these can be tedious, time-consuming tasks, many top-tier engineers give them to assistants to perform, but that’s not an option for those of us in home studios. If you’re a home studio user, feel free to use this checklist to better prepare your recordings for mixing. For more, be sure to check out Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio.

City Lights Bookstore

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At City Lights Bookstore

It looks like another business trip to San Francisco later this year, and you know what that means—a visit to City Lights Bookstore. City Lights, the first all-paperbound bookshop in the country, was co-founded by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, whose A Coney Island of the Mind greatly influenced me in my early twenties. With any luck, I’ll run into Mr. Ferlinghetti himself.

Books I Read in 2013

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I read fewer books this year than ever—and I thought last year was bad! Despite the fact that the reasons for this are really good ones, it is with slight embarrassment that I present this meager list of books I read in 2013:

  • The Zen of Social Media Marketing (Shama Kabani)
  • Coincidences (Maria Savva)
  • Databases Demystified, 2/e (Andy Oppel)
  • Burmese Days (George Orwell)

Next year can only be better. I’m in the middle of a huge book now and have started two others (all nonfiction), so I’m off to a good start.

My Top 10 Favorite Novels

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Here are my top 10 favorite novels. Admittedly, language limitations have prevented me from reading several of these in the language in which they were originally written, but I list them here nevertheless, as I am no less in love with them as the result of having read translated versions. The list:

  • Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (James Joyce)
  • The Way of All Flesh (Samuel Butler)
  • The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (Laurence Sterne)
  • Ulysses (James Joyce)
  • Don Quixote (Miguel de Cervantes)
  • Malone Dies (Samuel Beckett)
  • Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
  • Confessions of Zeno (Italo Svevo)
  • On the Road (Jack Kerouac)
  • Look Homeward, Angel (Thomas Wolfe)