Dear Diary

Abigail Washburn tour diary - The Armpit of Capitalism, Hot Cross Buns, Fear-thee-not Meat, The Chinese Reaction, Self-Perception & The Nation State, Fun Olympics: The Review

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 11:21:15 -0400

(PARENTAL DISCRETION ADVISED)

In the original plan for the Sparrow Quartet’s "Olympic Tour" of China, we were to play music in Sichuan where the earthquakes hit this past March. I was looking forward to the Sichuan trip because I had lived in Chengdu and care deeply about the people I’ve known there and generally feel close to Sichuanese culture. I thought the tour would help me understand Sichuan since the earthquakes and would give me a chance to offer music to the reconstruction process. No such luck…re-routed to the chockablock factory towns of Dongguan, Guangzhou and Foshan, otherwise known as the geographic armpit of Chinese capitalism.

G. Love's tour diary - The Autographed Guitar

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 17:25:08 -0400

Hey y'all. Wassup Fam?!? Yesterday we played the sunny slopes of Ft Mason Park in beautiful San Francisco. With the Golden Gate Bridge in the background, it was a majestic day to get our jam on. The gig was an afternoon affair and I headed out to the waterfront for a run before the show. The San Francisco bay was perfect and Alcatraz was even looking inviting out on the island. Seeing Alcatraz (the famous "inescapable prison") reminded me of a good story.

G. Love's tour diary - Back on Track

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:29:06 -0400

Well, I've had a bit of a rough couple weeks. I didn't want to say anything public about it but now my mood has changed and I'm gonna spill the beans on myself. Before my tour launched, I was asked by a friend nicknamed Bluefish who was paralyzed (and luckily recovered) to play a benefit for the Christopher Reeves Foundation. The benefit was at a small room in Avalon, NJ called the Rocking Chair. I was able to raise $13,000.00 for the CR Foundation and had a good time as well. However, during the course of that show, I hurt one of my vocal chords. It hemorrhaged. The same chord I had hurt earlier this year on my upper-Midwest-freezing-ass-frostbite-your-guitar-fingers tour at a shitty but fun club called the Pickle Barrel in freezing-ass-cold Vermont.

The Hold Steady studio diary - Stay Positive - #7

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:49:03 -0400

It’s always fun watching band members disappear during the overdub phase of a record. There’s nothing like sitting and listening to the same guitar part or vocal line over and over that will send other musical types running for the local bar. With four more days at Water Music and plenty of overdubs to do, we needed to make sure we used the big room to it utmost. That means picking the overdubs more suited for the space we were in.

Abigail Washburn tour diary - The Ambassador, a Famous Opera Singer, Hot Dogs and the Great Hall of the People

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:33:19 -0400

Ambassador Randt and his wife have welcomed me into their home four years in a row to play for them and 80 of their closest friends. This time with the Sparrow 3 was no exception. The guests filter in thru the courtyard and into the “venue,” which is the long living room overlooking the courtyard and the dining room with a big impressionist painting of W Jr. and steaming handmade hotdogs waiting for the conclusion of our show to get munched up.

Abigail Washburn tour diary - Regina to China and Somewhere in the Middle

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 14:08:10 -0400

* Note: "Regina" is pronounced "rah-gina." The town slogan is “Regina rhymes with fun.”

We started at 4 a.m. yesterday from the Ramada in Regina, Canada. First layover in Minneapolis for eight hours, then Tokyo, then Beijing. Just arrived in our Beijing digs. Sitting on a high floor of Oakwood Apartments near Beijing’s third ring road at the airport expressway exit. The view out the window is of other newly built residential towers just like this one, and a neon-bannered restaurant of food in the Xiamen style that the receptionists says is “hai keyi” (translation: "it’s ok") with a smirk on their face… That means "don’t eat there." Everything else around here is closed. I’m hungry. It’s 1 a.m., and the only thing to eat is complimentary cornflakes and warm milk left as a welcoming present.

G. Love's tour diary - Detroit Soul

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 23:07:36 -0400

We are on the second week of our six-week tear here. Last night found us in Detroit. I was chilling eating my dinner before the show, and what was on TV but 8 Mile. I had to watch it because Eminem is from Detroit, and, in all honestly, the freestyle is inspiration, plus the whole movie is dope.

8 Mile put me in a Detroit state of mind. There was a hell of a lot of good music that came out and is coming out of Detroit. John Lee Hooker, Stevie Wonder and Motown, right? Recently, other peeps like Em, Kid Rock and my boy Jack White. Sick soulful music grows in Detroit.

G. Love tour diary - Lollapalooza wrap-up

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 12:48:45 -0400

So, I'm out here on the never ending road, the road that keeps going and going. As a matter of fact its been going for 15 years. Damn, that's a pretty long time. Ahh the places I've been…you name it just about every big city and small town in this god-fearing country. I play the hip hop blues. Please don't say, "I love that kind of music" if you've never heard of me before because, not to sound like a jerk, but I'm the only one who plays the hip hop blues.

So on Sunday I had the great honor of playing the main stage at Lollapalooza. Even though I've been performing for almost 20 years, I still get rather intense stage fright. Stakes were definitely high last Sunday night. I was on before Gnarls Barkley and Kayne West. I was basically freaking out before the show but I pulled together a sick set and rocked a huge crowd of mostly new fans. The crowd was hot! From the first note of my jam "Can't Go Back to Jersey," the peeps were rocking. I dropped a bunch of bombs from my arsenal, "Baby's got Sauce", "Cold Beverage", "Hot Cooking," "Bootycall" and then a bunch from my latest record Superhero Brother, which just dropped last month. Off the new record I jammed "City Livin'", "Who's got the Weeeeed" and my new hit "Peace, Love and Happiness," which I dedicated to Barack Obama who was rumored to be in the crowd. All in all it was a fine set and really gotta give mad props to that Chi-town audience. What a vibe!

The Hold Steady studio diary - Stay Positive - #6

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:01:25 -0400

[Above: Bobby Drake]

Every band has its own dynamic. Sonic Youth, DBT and Dinosaur Jr are all very different bands internally. Some are more democratic than others, and with that, dealing with each band and individual member is a case by case scenario. The same holds true with The Hold Steady. In terms of songwriting, both Tad and Franz are strong songwriters in their own way.

The Hold Steady studio diary - Stay Positive - #5

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 14:23:13 -0400

[Above, L-R: Bobby Drake and John Agnello]

Things are really rolling. We’ve been tracking furiously and the band is really hitting their stride. We’ve nailed easier songs like “Stay Positive” and harder ones like “Creepy Jam,” which will end up being called “One For The Cutters.” That song became one of my favorites early on. We cut it live with Franz playing the intros and verses with a synth harpsichord simulation. We knew we needed a real harpsichord on the song, but we had to find one that was accessible. But that would be for another day.

The Hold Steady studio diary - Stay Positive - #4

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 11:20:08 -0400

“I don’t think anyone could have anticipated 'Adderall' not making the record.”

Sound familiar? The first part is all too familiar with me. That’s how our administration explains levy breaches or not finding WMD’s, etc. But that’s a different blog for a different day. At least in this case, my statement is absolutely true.

The Hold Steady studio diary - Stay Positive - #3

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 09:56:56 -0400

On a panel a few years ago at SXSW, a producer/manager sitting to my right discussed how he developed a camaraderie with the artist during the making of the records. He described it as “making the record company the common enemy.” I found this transparent and short sighted. And those were two of the nicer things I thought about this idiotic approach.

Bell X1 tour diary: Southern Bellies

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 06:59:49 -0400

So we're driving from Lake City, Florida to Athens, Georgia and we've just heard that Munster have beaten Toulouse 16-13 to win the Heineken Cup. Phil sound engineer has been receiving text message updates during the game. This would be rugby (the oval ball), and yes, it's kind of a big deal.

Colour Revolt tour diary: 5/25/08

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 12:34:45 -0400

I haven’t Pasteblogged in awhile, honestly, because I haven’t had much to say. Now I sort of do. After two weeks of dismal dreariness briefly punctured by one (uno) snippet of lovely in New York, the sun decided to haul its butt out from behind the clouds and make the day not look so ugly. We spent the whole day with our wonderful sweet booking agent, Wendy, and we saw a bunch of kids fly kites. As the past two weeks have been a plague-bespotted misery for some of us (our van was starting to resemble a sick ward, only dirtier, and vaguely smelling of burrito and socks), it was a welcomed change, IE: we finally took off our jackets for the first time in God knows how long. Seriously. It’s nearly June. It’s like 100 degrees in Mississippi. That’s summer: endless, unavoidable sweating. Why is it so damn cold everywhere else?

The Hold Steady studio diary - Stay Positive - #2

Thu, 29 May 2008 10:57:30 -0400

Above [L to R]: Tad Kubler, Galen Polivka, John Agnello, Bobby Drake

As fans eagerly count down the days until The Hold Steady releases Stay Positive, the follow-up to Paste's #2 album of 2006, on July 15, we thought it would be interesting to hear a little background on the record. So we asked producer John Agnello to reminisce on the recording process of Stay Positive. This is his second post. Read his first here.

The Hold Steady tours a ton. I believe the number of shows they played last year was around 200. That’s amazing, but essential for bands these days. With CD sales lagging and tons of people putting out records, it’s a jungle out there. If you're lucky enough to be Spoon, OK Go or Of Montreal, it’s a jingle out there. Which is a good thing. Over the last few years, that’s been one of the ways bands have put food on their collective tables. Twenty-odd years ago, a band called the Del Fuegos supplied music for a Miller beer ad. And it was widely frowned up by the press, other musicians and the other music biz insiders. But I digress.