Category Archives: de musica

Merle Haggard, “Back to Earth”

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Tracie P and I splurged on Friday night and treated ourselves to seventh row seats at the Merle Haggard show at the (bring your own booze ’cause they ain’t got none) River Bend Auditorium (and erstwhile church) in Austin.

We first saw him together in 2009 and the show brought back lots of memories of when I first moved to Austin and our hearts were brimming with dreams of building a financial future for ourselves and having a family (Friday was the first time we had a sitter!).

It was great to hear Merle play the hits and tell the stories again… But the song that moved me the most wasn’t one of his. It was Willie Nelson’s “Back to Earth.”

I found the clip below from a Ryman Auditorium (I don’t need to tell you where that is) performance from 2008.

It’s really a song about love lost… But it’s also about enduring, true love… It’s been nearly four years since I first came to Austin from California and I know that our song will never have a final verse… I wouldn’t trade these last four years of my life for anything in the world.

Songs our love created I still sing
Love we knew still makes the rafters ring
Tonight I’ll sing for everything I’m worth
For all the hearts that have settled back to earth

Our song will never have a final verse
Our hearts just finally settled back to earth

An Italian honky tonks in Austin (Ginny’s and Junior Brown)

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honky-tonk: A tawdry drinking-saloon, dance-hall, or gambling-house; a cheap night-club (Oxford English Dictionary).

No visit to Austin would be complete without a beer (or two) at Ginny’s Little Longhorn Saloon.

To quote Giovanni (above), who’s making his first visit to the River City this week, “I love this cross-section of American culture.”

Well, I’m here to tell you folks: here in Austin, we don’t call it “culture.”

We don’t call it “country music” either. We just call it music. ;)

Next stop was the Continental Club to catch a set by Austin’s own Junior Brown, one of the most dynamic and thrilling guitar players I’ve ever seen. Remember Junior and wife Tanya Rae in this GAP commercial?

Happy Monday yall!

band on the run (life on the Boulevard Périphérique)

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There were still sex workers on Van Buren St. when the airport shuttle rolled up to my flophouse motel near Sky Harbor airport in Phoenix yesterday morning at 8 a.m.

After tumbling out of bed at 4 a.m., I had jumped on an early commuter flight from Austin and was joining my bandmate, keyboardist Ryan Williams, for a session in a make-shift recording studio we set up for a day on the Boulevard Périphérique of Western civilization.

Note the Gideon’s Bible on our recording console (our “desk,” as we say in recording arts parlance).

We were energized by the fact that our band Nous Non Plus had been featured as “band of the day” on the now ubiquitous Band of the Day App.

But the greatest counterpoint to the bleak glimmer of sun-burnt, crystal meth-tinged Phoenix was the fact that both of us would be home in time to kiss our kids goodnight: Ryan, dad to two beautiful boys, had driven down from Flagstaff for the morning, and I had flown in especially for the session. We began tracking at 8:30 a.m. and I was on an Austin-bound 2:40 p.m. flight that got me home in time for dinner.

When I dreamed of a career in pop music as a child, this isn’t exactly what I had in mind.

But when you’re a new dad, you don’t need late-night, smoke-filled rock clubs to make the jams flow…

Ryan’s playing was fantastic, the sounds groovy and warm, and Tracie P’s cooking never tasted better (shredded chicken and roast poblano pepper tacos and cilantro rice paired with bright, fresh Schiava)…

The working title of our forthcoming album (fall 2012) is “Le Sex et Le Politique”…

@NousNonPlus (my band) featured on @BandOfTheDayApp

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It’s pretty much the coolest feeling in the world when you know that kids across America are rocking out to your music…

Especially when the jam in question was tracked right here in Austin, Texas at Baby P Studios (chez Parzen)!

Today, Bunga Bunga (the single from our latest release, Freudian Slip, Aeronaut 2011) is featured on the new iPhone and iPad Band of the Day App.

Life could be worse… :)

scenes from the recording studio (rock ‘n’ roll baby)

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From the DEPARTMENT OF ROCK AND ROLL…

A rock and roll band invaded our house this weekend…

Loved this gorgeous photo by Tracie P…

It’s always so amazing to work with Céline in the studio… incredible voice, incredible chops…

Rock ‘n’ roll is a very serious business or so says Jean-Luc…

And the best part of having the band record its new album at our house? There’s always someone around to entertain little Georgia P. I wish yall could hear her laugh… it’s the SWEETEST thing…

Back in the studio and Georgia P’s new bouncy chair

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Yup, hell has frozen over once again and the band is getting back together…

Yesterday, we — Nous Non Plus — started working on our new album at Baby P Studios (above, my home studio).

And in other news…

Somebody got a new bouncy chair… :)

Where I want to be all the time (the greatest love)

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Unfortunately, I’ve got to leave Austin again tomorrow for a few days. But it sure has been nice to be in one place for a while.

Most early evenings, I tune out around 5 p.m. and play guitar and sing for Georgia P until she’s ready for her bath. All she has to do is look at me and another love song just seems to flow from my finger tips. She’s such an inspiration and such a joy for us…

Vagina Panic (post tenebras lux)

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From the department of “from darkness comes light”…

Above: Girls is a new show on HBO.

As the title reveals, “Les Damnés” was a track that I wrote for my band Nous Non Plus during a dark time in my life when I was living in New York and working in the restaurant industry by day and the music industry by night. It was an extremely productive time for me but a very unhappy one…

When I brought it to my dear friend and writing partner Verena (aka Céline Dijon), she brought her own darkness to the song, writing about traitorous lovers “damned” to an unhappy existence.

Her performance on the recording, superbly produced by Dan (aka Jean-Luc Retard) who forms the troika of our writing équipe, is as stirring to me now as it was that day, many moons ago, in an Eagle Rock recording studio.

For its pathos, it’s one of the songs that I’m the most proud of and it also features an amazing drum solo by our friend Joachim Cooder (who played on the entire album, Ménagerie, Aeronaut, 2009).

To listen to it now still brings chills to my marrow but it also reminds me that from darkness can come light… post tenebras lux…

“Les Damnés” will be featured on the new HBO show Girls on Sunday, April 22, episode 2, “Vagina Panic.”

*****

“Les Damnés” from the Nous Non Plus 2009 release Ménagerie (Aeronaut) will be featured on the new HBO series Girls on April 22 (“Vagina Panic,” episode 2).

“HBO’s ‘Girls’ Is the Best New TV Show of 2012.”
—Daily Beast

she’s the one

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From the department of “yes, last night while Tracie P ate her dinner, I sang my daughter A Chorus Line in its entirety and she LOVED it”…

One singular sensation
Every little step she takes.
One thrilling combination
Every move that she makes.
One smile and suddenly nobody else will do.
You know you’ll never be lonely with you know who.
One moment in her presence
And you can forget the rest.
For the girl is second best
To none,
Son.
Ooooh! Sigh! Give her your attention.
Do… I… really have to mention?
She’s the…
She’s the…
She’s the…
One!

Scenes from @NousNonPlus in Los Angeles (a few weeks ago)

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Some shots of our band Nous Non Plus playing a few weeks ago in LA by Mila Reynaud.

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