First year NOT at SXSW in a long time...

It's supposed to be about the music...but I can't keep thinking that it's about money...this is the first year in a long time that I am not attending SXSW - one of the reasons why is that many of my friends/associates are not going either. "It's too corporate," one guy told me. "There's too much going on that doesn't have anything to do with good music," another told me. Plus I am afraid.

Afraid of missing the magical moment.

What IS the magical moment? It's when you discover a band, either established or young, that you've never personally heard before. It's happened every year for me since I've been going. From Juliana Hatfield to Say Hi To Your Mom to the White Ghost Shivers and more. It's always great to find yourself pleasantly delighted. The older I get, the easier it is to please me. EXCEPT in music. It's harder now that I am older because my ear is more discerning and I am less inclined to wade through crap - especially because there is more of it out there than ever before.

I think everyone has experienced those moments, and I have every year at SXSW - but it's been getting harder to find it, so in another sense, I am glad to take a break from it. The question is: Will I miss it enough to come back? Or will another "lover" something new and fresh and idyllic take it's place? Only tomorrow knows itself.

It's More Than a Feeling...

Brad Delp - 55 - lead singer for Boston died this Friday. Can you believe it?

I can't get over Brad being gone - and I am actually shocked at how this is sticking with me. But then, "Boston" was the first real record I owned that I chose (along with B.O.C.'s Agents of Fortune - another classic gem). I would steal...er...borrow my older uncle's albums before then, or get K-Tel specials for gifts (which weren't bad back then).

The Boston album! Reading the liner notes, seeing those cool guitar space ships - realizing that the earth was blowing up - and the major cities of the world were escaping on space ship guitars!! Slipping those Koss Headphones on late at night when I couldn't get to sleep because the world was closing in on my pre-teen mind. Becoming entrapped in the layers of guitars and organ of Tom and Barry with the solid rhythm of Fran and Sib (what great names!) - but it was Brad Delp that sold me.

Those vocals took me away to a better place - a place where my insecurities and unimportance would be obliterated because I was listening to cool music. Even my uncles (from whom I "borrowed" Pink Floyd, Hendrix, Kraftwerk, Rundgren, T-Rex, ELP, etc) thought I was cool! I became important because of my musical knowledge and taste at school. It's amazing the power that music has, which of course, you already espouse. "...I looked out this morning and the sun was gone, Turned on some music to start my day, I lost myself in a familiar song, I closed my eyes and I slipped away...

Even now - most songs on the first Boston record I play every month (along with Don't fear the Reaper) - because of what it represents and what it does for me. It motivates me because Boston (and B.O.C.) represent exactly what music is for me, and what continues to motivate me in owning Fundamental Records, now 24 years old. The thrill of knowing that Fundamental has been a part of bands like the Butthole Surfers, Henry Rollins, Grant Lee Phillips first band, Savage Republic, Camper Van Chadbourne (look that one up), Vigilantes of Love (who's "Real Downtown" song you wrote about and that got me started on your list a few years ago), Love Tractor, and many great artists - THAT is the SAME FEELING and motivation that I had in 1976!!

Now that Brad is gone at such a young age - 55 - it completes my self-awareness of my own human frailty and short stay here - that awareness happens daily and I am shocked at the level of how deep and intense it is. If you were to tell me that I would be like this even 5 years ago, I would have laughed at you.

"So many people have come and gone, Their faces fade as the years go by, Yet I still recall as I wander on, as clear as the sun in the summer sky..."

You see, it was my grandmother - long since gone at the age of 63 - who took me into the store and let me choose my own Christmas presents that day. What a cool beloved lady. I hope she meets Brad Delp when he gets to heaven.

Colorblind James Experience

I love history - moreso, I enjoy the lessons of history. They can be summed up in one sentence: The same things seem to happen over and over again, and we just can't seem to learn. "History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. History is who we are and why we are the way we are." - David McCullough.

I think most folks don't like history because they seem to think it's boring. The same McCullough states, "No harm's done to history by making it something someone would want to read."

Before we relaunched Fundamental in 2004, I spent alot of time researching the artists that had been on the label. Richard Jordan, the original founding father, could barely remember all the bands that have been on Fundamental plus it's sub-labels. About 5 Irish Whiskeys opened the floodgates of his mind (I've tried it, it works pretty well).

When he started gushing, I ran out to the car and got a sheet of paper and pen to begin writing furiously two pages of bands. I was truly impressed - I don't think Richard even realized how many quintessential bands had been involved with Fundamental. It was this history that motivated me to get things going faster than ever.

Forward to 2006, where we've released 14 records in two years, including former Fundy artists like the Drovers Old Time Medicine Show, Tim Lee, Busted Hearts (former members of Shock Therapy) among new/oldcomers like Wonderful Smith, Goodness, Bill Mallonee, Jason Nesmith, Love Tractor, Workhorses, Ken Will Morton, and David Wolfenberger.

Enter the Colorblind James Experience - 1987 - put out a record on Fundy self-titled and Allmusic.com puts it well: "An utterly perfect crackerjack of an album..." Like other Fundy releases, it was largely ignored by the American public, although they would come around later not unlike their European counterparts.

John Peel would lift up CJE in 1989 on BBC radio - well deserved to be sure. The CJE were an eclectic bunch to be sure. From Wikipedia: "Often humorous and parodic--and just as often laced with a profoundly questioning spirituality--their music blended elements of polka, country, cocktail jazz, blues, rockabilly, Tex-Mex, rock & roll and other genres. The band's sound was to a large extent inspired by the "old, weird America" famously chased by Bob Dylan and The Band during their Basement Tapes period, but other prominent influences included Ray Charles , Randy Newman , and Van Morrison ."

Colorblind James himself, aka Chuck Cuminale, passed away at the early age of 49 of a heart attack.

I think the legacy that CJE left behind should be made available to others.

Glad you stumbled upon this -

welcome - this is sorta like an all night drinkin' binge with your buddies downtown, whom you suddenly lose - and end up in a back alley with a girl you don't know very well, but she seems warmly familiar. At least it's like that for me having you here. Don't worry, I won't take advantage!