We're coming to you live from Otherlands in sunny Memphis, Tennessee! 

Don't believe me?  Check out this picture, here, on the right, taken just now with my camera.  I moved into Milam's Midtown HQ this past weekend and am still getting settled, which is to say: my one chair is in place, there are Fruit Roll-Ups in the kitchen, and the Internet Guy hasn't come yet.  Which means I've moved into Otherlands for the foreseeable future.  No, seriously, if you need to find me, just come here at any given time.  Or Java Cabana.  Or the Starbucks on Union.  Or the Blue Monkey or the Hi Tone or Neil's.  There are six places I'm pretty much always at when not sitting in Chair and eating Fruit Roll-Ups.  Come and find me.

I've had a little caffeine today, and I've got limited interweb access, so we're going to try something new with this week's Song of the Week!  I'm tentatively calling it, "Chris Incontinently Gushes About the First Song that Pops Up On His iTunes."  Sound good?  Great.  A few ground rules:

1) In two minutes, I'm hitting shuffle on iTunes and writing about whatever comes up.

2) I'm trusting that whatever comes up on my iTunes is something I'll want to incontinently gush about.

3) If it's Christmas music, I'll try again.

4) Otherwise, I trust the Tunes.  I trust, and I believe.

4A) Did I mention that, due to limited interwebs, this will be wholly unedited?  I'll put the number of typos over/under at 7.5.  Who wants the under?

5) I like to take Song of the Week in a lot of different directions.  Sometimes I break it down from a songwriting perspective.  Sometimes I talk about that song historically or what its popularity might mean for pop music at large, etc.  Sometimes I just talk about the way I'm hearing it and ask how you're hearing it.  But I thought it'd be fun to experience it spontaneously, as a listener, in that moment, because that's how 90% of the people I know experience 90% of their music.  They put on headphones and hit shuffle and let their mind/heart/soul go wherever that song takes them.

Ready?  Ready!  Here....we....GO!

SHUFFLE.

Frank Sinatra, "The Christmas Waltz." 

Sonofa.  Of course.  Okay, we got the Christmas mulligan out of the way.  Here we go.

SHUFFLE!

The Thrills, "Til the Tide Creeps In"

YES!  This is the last track on their album So Much For the City, which has a hidden song at the end.  In other words, we just got two Songs of the Week for the price of one. 

1) First, "Til the Tide Creeps In."  My initial thought is football-related, as I'm counting the hours until Alabama's season opener this Saturday against San Jose State/Houston High School.  The Tide creeps in all too slowly, I'm afraid.  Meanwhile...

2) This song immediately takes me back to Christmastime 2006, and the spring of 2007.  My good buddy (and producer wunderkind) Steve Martin gifted me this album then, saying "it's a bunch of Irish guys singing songs about California."  Sold!  The key-heavy production and percussive hustle-and-bustle of the record matched the holiday season.  But it really ramped up rotation for me once the warm weather came, coinciding with my trip to Southern California that spring.  It's one of those albums I find myself playing a lot, because I have only good memories attached to it.  What are some of those for y'all?

3) The song's loungy, closing-time opening and "in summation..." lyrics put a great cap on the album as a whole.  It continually builds up to an instrumental section that first appears at 1:26 (again at 3:20, et al), a gorgeously-layered riff with a melodic harmonica leading the way.  Every time I hear that riff, I want it louder.

4) Which reminds me just how loud that harmonica already is.  Combined with the already-dominant organ, it's (intentionally) a challenging sound.  I say this as someone with a very soft spot for the harmonica: it's almost too much.  It joins Dylan's "Queen Jane Approximately" on the God-that's-great-but-a-little-harsh pantheon of harmonica features. 

5) I've always had strong affection for LA, and a mild compulsion to move my career there at different points.  I always opted out, figuring it's a great place to visit but (for me, anyway) not a place conducive to work.  I had a vision of an afternoon by the pool with friends wherein I wake up years later with a great tan and no job, prospects, or aspirations.  As such, the "I was surfing this tidal wave of faded glories/a San Diego pad, and five, six years walked straight by me" opening line always jumped out at me.  Because of this song--it's emotional weight and its aesthetic success--I totally related to an experience I never even had.

Now, the Secret Song!

1) Beginning at 6:07 of the original track, it's not quite an afterthought, not quite an epilogue.  Ever see a movie that starts with one scene, follows the characters throughout the movie, then ends with a new set of characters in the same opening scene?  The implication being, "the cycle continues..."  This secret song kind of does that.  We have a bittersweet goodbye to a SoCal time and a place with "Til the Tide Creeps In," only to see someone new arriving on the scene with big dreams and time to kill.  Just as our narrator's packing his bags, his girlfriend's unloading hers off the bus. 

2) After the weight of "Til the Tide Creeps In," the secret song is really nice and thoughtful, but feels anti-climactic.  If you like the album as a whole, you'll definitely like it.  As for me...

3) I made a habit of ending the CD with "Til the Tide Creeps In" and not sticking around for the secret song.  So much so, in fact, that I forgot it existed until just now.  And now (of course) I couldn't be happier to hear the same song I was always quick to skip in the past.  I love it when that happens.  I love being wrong.

What do you think?  I challenge all of you to drink way too much caffeine, play the shuffle game, and see where your mind/ears/blog-typing fingers take you.  Hit up the comments and tell me what happens!

My agent says writer's block,
CM

P.S. Look out for a new Fan of the Month on Monday!  Plus, get your questions in for the next Mailbag--you ask, I answer.

My brother got me the deluxe edition of Exile on Main Street this month, and there are alternate takes of "Loving Cup" and "Soul Survivor" that are interesting to compare to the originals we all know.  But what really jumped out at me was a track titled "Good Time Women," clearly an early version of the classic "Tumbling Dice."

Ah, the powers of revision.

From the band's Wikipedia:

""Good Time Women", an early version of "Tumbling Dice", was recorded during the sessions for the album Sticky Fingers.^[1] The song is a bluesy boogie-woogie heavy on Ian Stewart's piano work. The two songs are similar in structure in that they have the same chord progression and a similar melody. Also, Jagger sings the hook to the accompaniment of Richards' lone lead guitar. However, "Good Time Woman" lacked an opening riff, a background choir and the beat which propels "Tumbling Dice"'s groove."

 I wanted to post both songs and see what everyone thinks: which do you like better?  How different are they really?  Does anyone else know more examples of a song's first draft versus its final, released version?  Any examples where revision made the song worse?

Take it away!

"Good Time Women"


"Tumbling Dice"


See y'all next week...
CM

One of my favorite things about music is the way we attach it to a specific time and place in our life.  In college, I began making mixes at the end of each semester so I could remember what I was listening to years later.  But it wasn't just about remembering what music I liked at the time; it was about finding the songs that carried weight.

To put it another way, "what song can immediately put me back in the summer of 2005?"  When I want to remember what that period felt like, I can just play Lucero's "Sixteen" and remember exactly where I was, what I was doing, and how it felt to be there at that time.  I hear those opening chords and I'm back on Walnut Grove Rd in Memphis, driving home late from the Blue Monkey.  I can feel the sticky July air blowing through the car, and I can smell the honeysuckle from Shelby Farms.  It's the way I track--and make sense of--my memories.

Each season usually takes shape around one favorite album or artist that dominates my earbuds.  I listened to a lot of music last fall, but the artist that most defined that season is the Avett Brothers, specifically their song "I And Love And You."

Because I'm desperate for fall and already anticipating the new music I'll hear in the coming months, I want to look ahead by looking back.  Here's a little window into my favorite songs from the past five falls, and how they impacted my life. 

Feel free to chime in the comments and tell me your songs of falls past!

2005: My Morning Jacket, "Anytime"
I had just finished college, spent a summer in Memphis, and moved back to Nashville to release Leaving Tennessee and begin a career.  Even though I'd already spent four years in college in Nashville, I felt like it was moving to a brand new city.  I was quickly consumed by new groups of friends, new places to explore, and new things to do.  There was always a reason to go out, always another event to attend, another trip to take--it was an exciting time.  My Morning Jacket's Z had just come out, and stayed in my car.  Anytime I hear "Anytime," I'm back in my car, about to go to a concert, about to meet new friends.  It's the sound of that post-grad, wide open with possibilities, seemingly free of consequence.

2006: Scott Miller, "Goddamn the Sun"
Really, this should be a co-winner with Miller's "Loving That Girl."  Those songs told two parts of the same story--a story that played out for me that fall.  I always remember the fall of 2006 as having daily perfect weather--sunny, crisp, and cloudless.  The sparkling pop-rock and acoustic production on Thus Always To Tyrants was simply the sound of that weather.  The lyric "my window creeps across my wall" was a familiar image in my bedroom (the window faced south and the shadows crawled across my wall every afternoon).  Sometimes a song finds you the moment your life resembles it.

2007: The Hold Steady, "Stuck Between Stations"

I wanted this pick to be My Morning Jacket's cover of "It Makes No Difference," because that song meant the most to me in the fall of 2007.  But when I hear "Stuck Between Stations," I'm immediately transported to one time and place.  My brother had just moved to town and we got a house together on the East side.  For the first time, I had to drive across the river to meet friends at night.  Every time I hear "Stuck Between Stations," I'm on 440W circling the skyline, driving with my brother to show him my favorite places and people in this new home.

2008: Kings of Leon, "Notion"
Everything about this song--the arrangement, the guitar tones, the wide open song structure, the measured energy--simply sounds like October to me.  Which is great, because I hit it hard in October 2008.  I thought I was listening to "Notion" because of the sheer fun and fallish beauty of it; I realize now the song's lyrics (about a cyclic relationship that just isn't right) characterize my life at the time.  I felt upbeat, but not content; I enjoyed my life in Nashville, but I was ready for a change.  Whenever I hear "Notion," it sounds like a kickstart, a wake-up call--the moment I knew I was headed somewhere else. 

2009: Avett Brothers, "I And Love And You"
I first heard this on Letterman the day after I'd left Nashville and the night before I moved to NYC.  By the time they reached the chorus ("Brooklyn, Brooklyn, take me in/are you aware the shape I'm in"), I was a wreck.  No song better characterized what I felt when I left, what that journey looked like, and what I anticipated when I arrived. 

2010: Who knows? TBD
That's one thing I love about music, and what I love about making these mixes: something will emerge.  There's always another song waiting to meet us.  Maybe we've heard it before and are about to hear it in a new way.  Maybe it's a brand new song.  Either way, it's there, somewhere down the road, chronicling the season and informing our memories.

What are your past Songs for the Fall?  What will you be listening to this fall? Let me know what favorite tunes can put you in a certain time and place.

Song of the Week's back!

SOW took July off to focus on competitive surfing, which it does every summer.  It got a radical sunburn, a gnarly jellyfish sting, a yellow ribbon, and a year of free rentals from Blockbuster.  It also found love with SI's "Hot Links" feature, but the Hot Links eventually broke its heart.  I'll be honest: it affected the surfing.

Still, good summer, Song of the Week!

Now back to work.

(Quick housekeeping note: the Blog's picked up many new readers over the summer.  For those newbies, a few points:


1) Song of the Week is a weekly feature--usually Thursdays--in which I pick a song and write about it.  Simple enough?  Sometimes it's a songwriting element I admire; sometimes it's a particular memory I've attached to the song; sometimes there's a performance I think is remarkable.  Anything that makes the song noteworthy to a musician or lovable to the casual listener is worth talking about.


2) At the end of every month, I do a "Mailbag" blog in which I answer reader email.  The emails are mostly about music, but anything goes.  If you'd like to be in a future Mailbag, just email chris@chrismilam.com with a question!  I promise I read every email and always appreciate you writing.)

I heard an old favorite song recently and noticed something new: musical onomatopoeia.  What-what-what?  Read on...

Song of the Week: Counting Crows, "Recovering the Satellites"

Onomatopoeia occurs when a word is formed from the sound it describes.  For example, bees "buzz."  Poets often use this to make the aural world of a poem match its visual world.  Similarly, musicians use instruments to make the sound that the lyric's discussing.  And here's our example:

The Counting Crows "Recovering the Satellites" is a long and complicated lyric, but here's the short version: there's a girl, there are dreams, there are problems, and satellite/space imagery is used to help tell the story.  So, at the song's outset, the main sound is the rhythm guitar playing the opening chords.  But in the background (0:04), another guitar creates a pulsing, high-pitched effect.  It sounds like an oddly melodic hiccup, a recurring blip of feedback on our song's radar.  It sounds exactly like a homing beacon on--you guessed it--a satellite.

Hence, musical onomatopoeia.  (Yep, I'm tired of typing that.)

One of my favorite things about music is hearing something new in a song you've heard hundreds of times before.  How did I miss this "satellite" at the song's beginning the first thousand listens?  Now I can't not hear it.  One of the reasons I missed it so many times is because it's executed well; that beacon sound supports the song rather than overwhelming it.  It's a background piece, an added layer, but not in the spotlight.  Done wrong, musical onomatopoeia can sound cloying or hokey.  Done right, it's another way to let the song's sonic landscape support its lyrics. 

A few more favorite examples:

A sneaky one: Radiohead, "Airbag"
The song's cacophonous transitions and metallic, clashing drum sounds imitate a recurring car crash.

An overt one: Avett Brothers, "Kick Drum Heart"
The kick drum pounds in isolation after every refrain ("my heart like a kick drum") to support the singer's excitement.

An explicit one: Pearl Jam, "Given To Fly"
Mike McCready tells us how they build the song like a wave set to break at just the right moment (the first line of the chorus: "a wave came crashing...").  That gorgeous, watery guitar tone only heightens the effect.  (Sidebar: this clip is taken from Single Video Theory, which is a classic in-studio band documentary.  Even if you're not a Pearl Jam fan, it's well worth watching.  One of the best, most honest glances at how songs are actually written and how an album's actually made.)

And a personal favorite: Buddy Holly, "I Fought the Law"
Not satisfied with creating the perfect three-minute rock song and (arguably) punk's greatest precursor, Holly works six emphatic drum hits into the line, "robbing people with a......six gun."  Just to show off.  (The link goes to a live Clash cover, but they're true to the original on this.  It happens around 1:08.)

So what are some more examples?  What are some of your favorites?  Hit up the comments and let me know!

August!  Ahhh, breathe her in: that mix of chlorine, truck exhaust, and greenhouse gases.  The dog days of summer, you say?  I say "nay."  That's the smell of America, people.

It's a month of hot anticipation: for football season, for a new school year, for Lollapalooza, for fall album releases, etc.  It's a month of extremes: scorching weather, major moves, fantasy football pre-draft trash talk, etc.  It's a time of madness: the days drift into each other, the nights offer no relief, the whole month melts into one delirious haze until you wake up, September's arrived, school's in session, and it feels like a new year.  Also, August is the month when all hugely talented songwriters were born.  Fact.

I love August.

And I love August's Fan of the Month.  She's woman of extremes (talent, passion, Jill Scott enthusiasms, etc.).  She's been known to induce delirium.  She's prone to hilarity.  She's open to madness.  She invented something called "Tessa-Bop-It."  She is...

August's Fan of the Month, Tessa in New York City!

(If you'd like to be a future Fan of the Month, just drop me a line with "FOM" in the subject.  I promise all emails are read and much appreciated!)

She wins:

The view from my old apartment.

A VHS copy of Mighty Ducks 3!
Nine pieces of gum!
The love and adoration of millions!
This handsome wicker basket!
Eight pieces of gum!

Now, let's get to know a little more about her...

Name?
Tessa White.

Age? 
29.

Where y'at?
NYC, baby!

Something the average interweb browser wouldn't know about me is…? 
I have an entire bag of stupid human tricks that include hyper-extending my hands, singing inside of my mouth, and a game called "Tessa-Bop-It."

(Editor's Note: Um, what?  Wait--what???)

Does "Tessa-Bop-It" involve you hyper-extending your hands while singing inside your mouth?  Does it involve a mallet?  Give us something! 

Ha! Nope, no mallet. It's a game that a dear friend and I made up, wherein he pokes a certain area of my body, then I produce a noise. The noises include: a horn honking, an operatic wail, an "ah-ooooh-ga" horn noise, and an "Ay, Papi!" exclamation.  I'll let you wonder which noise belongs to which body part. :) The game is on me, though, because he decides randomly where he's going to poke.  It gets progressively faster, so I have to really be on my game.

(Editor's Note: That answer was everything I hoped it would be, and so much more.)
(Chris's Note: Someday I'm going to pay the interns to tie you up and play "Editor-Bop-It.")
(Editor's Note: I'll brush up on my operatic wail.  And my Spanish.)


The music scene in NYC is…? 
Depends on what neighborhood you're in!  I live in West Harlem, just down the street from St. Nick's Pub, a famous jazz music haunt.

Whatcha do for a living? 
I am a singer/actor/visual artist/computer word and graphics processor.  Holla.

When was the last time you ate at Burger King? 
I do not recall.  I stay away from the fast food ever since watching Super Size Me.

(Editor's Note: Weird.  The lesson I took away from that movie was to distrust redheads.  No?  Wrong?)

You have one meal left in life but it has to be fast food.  You can pick and choose different items from different joints.  Name that meal! 
I'd have to say a Sourdough Jack meal with curly fries from Jack-In-the-Box, yo.

You have one meal left in life, period.  Name that meal!
My mama's Italian dinner with angel hair pasta, Italian sausage sauce, caesar salad, and Texas toast.  Made with love.  Delicioso.

What music publications/blogs/sites do you read? Any of them good?
ChrisMilam.com, baby!

(Editor's Note: Great site!  Best editor in the business!)

Jammin on the one.

Pick your dream concert. Any three (living) artists, anywhere, any venue, any month, any time of day. What is it? What's it called?   
It's called "Tunes for Tessa" and it's Jill Scott, Stevie Wonder, and Chris Milam.  It would be nighttime at Carnegie Hall, sometime in the fall.  And it would be a private concert for just me and my friends and family.  That would be righteous.

(Chris's Note: That WOULD be righteous!  Something tells me I'd leave that night a much wiser person.  I'm in--you've booked 1/3 of it.)

You can pick one album as your morning alarm for a year.  The songs and their “wake-up” segments will shuffle randomly, but you are stuck with this album for a full year.  What is it?
Chris Milam's Up!  I could wake up to any one of those songs for one year, easy.  Make it five!  :)

(Editor's Note: Alright Chris, how much did you pay her?)
(Chris's Note: How dare you?)

If you could fight any public figure, who would it be and why? 
In general, I don't fight.  But, if I had to choose, I'd love to give George W. a swift kick in the nuts.

Fill in the blanks!

Five favorite artists from the 60's are…? 
Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke, Stevie Wonder, The Mamas & The Papas.

Five favorite artists from the 90's are…?
Pearl Jam, Mariah Carey, Metallica, U2, Notorious B.I.G.

Five favorite artists from the 2000's are…?
Chris Milam, Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, India.Arie, Robyn.

(Editor's Note: Glorious.  If those five hung out, Chris would burn incense constantly and start all sentences, "That reminds me of something INDIA SAID...")
(Chris's Note: I do that now.)

Some more singer/songwriters I love are… ?
Amber Rubarth, Charlie Winston, Adele.

....is my favorite Beatle. 
John Lennon.

...is my favorite adjective in the English language.
Gnarly.

Know any adjectives from other languages? 
[Something typed in Russian I can't duplicate.]  Pronounced oh-chen.  It's "very" in Russian.  I know it's an intensifying adverb, but that's all I got.

...is my favorite month of the year.
December.

Tis the season.  Kind of.

December's the snuggliest month of all.  I have a tradition of watching Love Actually every December and melting into a puddle of hugs and sweaters and hot chocolate and mirth.  What's your favorite holiday tradition?  Any favorite Christmastime movies?
Could you be any more adorable? I think not. :) My fave family tradition is sitting around the piano with egg nog (Mom's recipe packs a powerful punch....see what I did there?) after the Christmas Eve church service and singing Christmas songs together until the wee hours of the morning.

(Editor's Note: Ahhhhhhhmmmmmmm...)

...is my least-favorite month of the year.
July.

Favorite wrongly-heard song lyric is...? (e.g. "Excuse me while I kiss this guy...") 
From R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion": "Let's pee in the corner/let's pee in the spotlight."  HA!

(Editor's Note: Actual lyric: "That's me in the corner/that's me in the spotlight."  Although, with Stipe, who really knows?  What is art?  Is art...art???)
(Chris's Note: How dare you?)

Favorite rock album of the Oughts?
I know it's kinda pop too, but I sure did love me some Missundaztood by Pink. :)

Favorite non-rock album of the Oughts?
Chris Milam's Up! Is it excessive? Am I being excessive with the fandom? I don't care. I gotta be me. :)

Favorite movie (you can pick separate ones for comedy and drama)?
Harold and Maude.

Favorite TV show (you can pick separate ones for comedy and drama)?
The Office, Six Feet Under.

Founding Father, Scroll-Holder, Colonial Dreamboat.

Rank these items in order of awesomeness: John Adams, the city of New York, salsa (the food), salsa (the dance), John Quincy Adams, preseason football, 1964.
Um, incidentally, you've listed the order I would have picked.  :)

I ranked all twelve months a while back.  Where would August be in your rankings (1 being best)?  What's #1?  What's #12?
August would be #9.  December is still #1, with July keeping the #12 spot.  It's just too damn hot.

I did a "Monthly Playlist" throughout 2009, and have taken a brief hiatus.  I need your help.  Give me 5 "Songs for August." 
1) Charlie Winston, "Boxes"
2) Robyn, "Dancing On My Own"
3) Jill Scott, "Golden"
4) Amber Rubarth, "Chrysanthemum Song"
5) Janis Joplin, "Piece of My Heart"

You can move anywhere in America for six months.  Money, time, and job situation are no object.  Name the place.
San Francisco, CA.

San Francisco's my pick too!  Wanna go? 
Totally!! Let's do it! As long as we can make it a road trip and wear flowers in our hair.

(Editor's Note: If you can guarantee Mom's eggnog and a game of Tessa-Bop-It, I'm in!)

You can move anywhere on earth for six months.  Same deal.  Same place, or do you become an expat? 
London, England.

What's one thing you love about living in NYC that you can't find anywhere else?  
The massive range of thriving cultures and the (mostly) communal acceptance of them all.

What's one thing you love about somewhere else that you cannot find in NYC?  
Ft. Worth, TX, because it has my parents in it.

(Editor's Note: And the nog.  And the holiday singalongs.  And the Italian dinners.  Sigh.)

Summer's typically good for new music, but notoriously slow for TV.  What do you watch to get you through the dog days?
So You Think You Can Dance!

QUICK: how many hours til football returns?
Snore...

(Editor's Note: Snaps on Chris! Snaps on Chris!)
(Chris's Note: Snaps on me!  Snaps on me!)

"Snore" for football?!?  Do you sleep through all sports? 
Yes, snore for all sports. I kinda hate sports. It's a money thing. It doesn't need to be as extravagant as it is while so many people are struggling, ya know? But, I know you are a huge sports fan. I hope we can get through this. :)

(Chris's Note: We can.  We'll always have San Francisco.)

You are going out tonight. You are going out to do whatever it is you would like to do for a fun night of festivity and frivolity. This can include anything from dolphin-riding to Norwegian wet-sweater contests to passing out into a BBQ pizza.  Anything goes.  You get to assemble your posse for the night. You can pick ANY FOUR MEN OR ANY FOUR WOMEN on the planet, friends, celebrities, athletes, etc. Who is in your entourage and why? 
1) Chris Milam, because he's the bestest.
2) Jill Scott, because I am determined to become friends with that woman and sing with her someday. This could be a good night to get that ball rolling.
3 & 4) My sister Paula and my brother Jeff, because they pretty much rule.

DUI's, youth hockey, cake-eaters.  Disney: where dreams come true.

Where will music be in 5 years? What will be the next "big thing"? Where would you like to see it go? 
Chris Milam is the next big thing, folks!  GET ONBOARD!  I won't rest until he has gaggles of tweens stalking him and a mother-effing Grammy.  :)

(Editor's Note: "Mother Effing Grammy" was my family's nickname for one grandmother.  The other was "Meemaw."  True story.)

Finally, how can I ever thank you for the support?
That Mighty Ducks 3 VHS copy seals the deal.  Classic.

Done!