Phones, meetings and writing, oh my… That was my style yesterday. Phone calls and lunch meetings. Then came the writing. Late in the evening I got a text message from a co-writer who had a rather alluring message to join her and her girlfriend to go drinking. I figured why the hell not. I ended up at a little tavern known as Irelands. Apparently they have the Monday Music Club. Essentially an open mic night.
An open mic night of people that all knew each other and most were damn good musicians. Which is a little odd based on most open mics I’ve seen. There was no attitude, no cliques, no arrogant bookers, just friends getting together to enjoy some music, some original, some cover.
Nothing like being tossed into the fray of performing. Especially when you weren’t expecting it. Even better when several blokes (ok, lots of folks) come up and tell you they really dug your original tune and how you did a cover tune as well. I think the real star of the cover tune was Aubrey Richmond (the co-writer who got me there). She plays fiddle and does a fine job of it. Besides who doesn’t like I Want You To Want Me, even if it’s slowed down, funked, and swung a little? One of the people happened to be a star songwriter. Dillon O’Brian. I think if you impress someone like that, good things are going on in the world.
It was a fun night and I may well be inclined to go back and hang there again on a Monday night in the future.
Which leads me into today’s pick. Being that there was no attitudes I think that’s a perfect example of how a song like today could fly. It’s a song for normal people. The type that are not image obsessed. Or as a saying would go, for the average joe. Lyrically of course. What I find really cool about the song is the arrangement of the noises going on in the song. Who the hell thinks of using an old school typewriter sample as a musical accompaniment? Kinda makes me kick myself for not thinking of it myself. Who knows, maybe I’ll steal the idea in some way.
When the song finally kicks in, which it hopefully has by the time you’re reading this… It becomes something of an exploration that I would imagine former Single of the Day artist Seth Horan would be doing. There are elements between Marian and Seth that seem to be very similar despite the fact they are worlds apart in approach and gender.
I like the bouncy funk vibe that ensues. Another thing is that for some reason the clarinet is reminding me of an old Van Halen song. I think it’s called Big Bad Willy or Big Bad Billy, or maybe it’s called Willy Brown. I don’t know, and I’m being too lazy to go research it. I am pretty sure there’s a clarinet in that song and since I don’t hear it much in pop songs, it made me think of that.
Something fun is coming out of Alaska, instead of going into the wild and that’s Marian Call. Go get your eclectic groove on!