three happy bursts of genius

January 24, 2006

It's been a rough week, but why should you care? You'd be more interested in the good parts, and this week has had some really good ones.

My protégé and leader of the Steady Rollin' crew, Mark "Low Rent" Lentz was building a new track when I saw him last week. It was fun to watch him work and I hope you can hear the song soon here. His resplendence is self-evident.

Have you ever seen an album and had to buy it? A CD came to the Mountain Stage office with some really well-done artwork. The packagin reminded me a little of the Mr. Oysterhead cover, but with five dudes in white shirts and different colored neck-ties. The note was from a manager that said "I don't represent these guys, but my nephew is in the band."

First of all, that was cool of this guy's uncle. Second of all, these guys put a lot of effort (and probably money) into their packaging. So much so that it caught my eye. I had to give it a listen; sometimes the packaging is so good that the music can't live up to it.

Now the surprise is, the album was really good! It's a really quirky pop-rock band out of New York called Tally Hall. Forgive me if you've heard of them like seven years ago, but I was stoked to find something I could call pop-rock and still be proud to say I like it.

So, go check them out at www.tallyhall.com . They obviously didn't get much out of their efforts on myspace since they logged in since June of 2004 and Tom is still their only friend (that is unless they accept my e-vances).

Finally, a burst of genius that took me a long time to get around to: I first saw Vic Chesnutt on Mountain Stage last summer. After listening to the tape of the show with Larry, I pulled out my notebook and added “Ghetto Bells,” his latest release, to my (ever-growing) list of must-buy albums. It took me this long to get around to it, but today I bought it and it’s as brilliant as I expected.

The guy is paraplegic and writes incredibly deep, brooding songs with lyrics that sometimes aren't as depressing as they sound. Michael Stipe from R.E.M. aided this fellow Georgian in his pursuit as a professional musician, and "Ghetto Bells” (shamefully not on my Best of 2005 list) features Bill Frisell (omnipresent studio guitarist) and Van Dyke Parks (Beach Boys collaborator/lyricist). This one isn’t for everyone; it’s a tough listen. But if you let Vic draw you in, and have a lyric sheet handy, critical and insightful thoughts will be provoked. www.myspace.com/vicchesnutt . (He’s only been a member since 1/13/06). Listen to “What Do You Mean,” “Virginia” and “The Garden.”

A while back I wrote about Billy Joe Shaver in the blog called "Live Forever." I posted a picture of me and Billy Joe under my profile, in case you're interested, at www.myspace.com/drsickness