also, while you're hyperlinking around, check out www.myspace.com/operatorplease where they are streaming their whole upcoming album and listen to the song "losing patience", a track i wrote with the band. good times!
making tons of music at the moment. not sure when it will see the light of day, but wont be too long.
been deep into work on margaret cho's album in recent week. ive co- written a few songs with her, and im producing a chunk of the album.
we're having a blast. she is an extraordinary performer and individual. seems that the right people show up in my life at the right time when i go with the flow, and margaret's presence is
bringing lots of irreverent fun and filthy humour mixed with deep indie-pop melodic goodness. feeling grateful.
there is another fun and bizarre project i was lucky enough to be a part of recently. see this article on the creation of the "sun sound".
starting to feel new song vibes. they havent arrived but they are on the way.
oh and btw i saw 20 mins of amiel's doco that has been in the making for the better part of a decade and will premiere at the melbourne film festival in 2010. man i felt vulnerable watching it, very exposed. but i think amiel has made a bold piece of art. can't wait to see the finished product.
getting ready to head out on the first US tour playing songs from 'the rebirth of venus'. should be really fun as im doing it as a co-headline tour with low vs diamond who will both play before me, and have also been kind enough to be my backing band during my set. we havent started rehearsing just yet so i cant tell you much about how it will sound, but i do know that ive come to savor experiments like this. it keeps me really excited about the process of performing. the last couple of years ive been assembling makeshift bands whenever i need one and i each has a totally different feel and energy. getting musically involved with a new group of people is always super intimate and demands a lot of surrender. heres to noble experiments...hope you can come and check out the results...see the tour dates here.
last night nic and i mixed the noise addict album. the whole album was recorded in my bedroom with only one microphone and lots of arbitrary rules like no micstands, no guitar tuners and no second takes. it has a great feel to it. its one of the records im most proud of. no one at my labels has heard anything but i plan to get it to them next week and make a plan for getting it out asap to you guys. i definitely want to release it on vinyl. thats all i know right now. some songs that im most excited about are "do i know you?" a track i started writing at 14 and finished last month, "chris martin's frown", and "i heart your band".
my friend josh radnor, who acts on the tv show "how i met your mother" has a great radio show you should all check out here. you can listen through a few of his recent shows by clicking "podcasts" on the left. he has great taste in tunes and is a good man. so enjoy.
As you may know, some proceeds from sales of my new album "The Rebirth of Venus" are going to FINCA - a non-profit-microfinance organization, sometimes referred to as "The World Bank for the Poor".
Half the world's citizens - three billion people - struggle to live on less than $2 a day. This affects their nutrition, health, and their ability to send their children to school. It also affects the social and political stability of our planet.
Working together we can change the future by sponsoring a Village Bank through FINCA.
If we can raise $5,000 we can change the life of a community by helping to open a bank where hard working local entreprenuers can have a chance to build a business that will provide for their family and build their community.
Donate any amount, small or large, to be part of a great pro-active way of helping people in need.
Lying in bed in my Glasgow hotel unable to get up without intense feelings of nausea and dizziness. My apologies for cancelling the show tonight. I always have a great time in Glasgow and will be back for sure to make up for it.
Lately I've been quietly revelling in that bittersweet pang that comes with accepting a hard truth about yourself. Here are my top 5 recent realizations in no particular order:
1. Actually, I have no idea who I really am
2. I hold grudges...for a long time
3. I am much more comfortable playing the role of dignified failure, rather than a dignified success
4. I don't really love Radiohead
5. I am considerably more terrified of my own mortality than I ever let on
I'm sitting at home, it's Wednesday, and I'm listening to your new album, "The Rebirth of Venus". When I read the title and saw the cover, with you and your guitar in the Botticellian shell, I wondered what it was all about. I've listened to it a few times now though and it's become clear. You've made a living and breathing pop album, but it's not like Ripe. This one is fervid and rebellious and eclectic. And brimming with unfettered ideas. What reverent songs! About pleasure and surrender, power and renewal, breath and skin. With all its joy and energy it is a true celebration, that's for sure, but not an ordinary one. This is a celebration that arises from the rubble.
You said that you feel like the world is out of balance. And it's true: the earth is depleted and wars are raging and one hundred million people are starving. And songs are like dreams sometimes: you only know what they're about after you wake up. You said that you've been dreaming about nature and machines, and giving birth to alien robots out of your mouth. I don't know about alien robots, but you've certainly given birth to something here. And, in terms of this album, the notion of a man giving birth is kind of fitting. Femininity is so alien to most men. Don't you think? And to some women too. That's why I like the synthesiser song about how you had a Barbie when you were in kindergarten, and your appeal to the wisdom of Yoko Ono, and the devotional "Song For the Divine Mother of the Universe" and the one called "I'm a Woman Too".
There are so many notions of the Feminine in here and the qualities it represents: creativity, spontaneity, nurturing, intuition. These are the qualities that stray from our hearts when isolation and apathy creeps in. These are the things we forget when we jostle for parking spots and throw stones at rich people and take pictures of mountains instead of looking at them with our own eyes. In an unbalanced world, the Feminine is the panacea. Now that you are married to Ione and a stepfather to Kate, and with all your visits to India to practice with the Divine Mother, these ideas must dance around in your mind and your kitchen. No wonder this is an album you can really dance to, huh? The first song kind of reminded me of Talking Heads actually (I like the kitchen pot percussion) and later on I thought of Peter Gabriel. Then I listened to "I Love Pop Music" and I thought: I've never heard you sound so political before; and that, also, it kind of sounds like Big Audio Dynamite. Songs can bring sad truths, but often times if you sing along to them, dance to them and invite them home for dinner, it leaves you no time to be maudlin.
Maybe the core of this apple is revolution. A call to arms! Everyone is searching for a salve or a saviour - a mother, a song, a freedom fighter, a girl in blue denim jeans. If you're right, and these things are already inside us, then we can all celebrate in the rubble. And you can whisper "rise up" or "love" and the'll be loudest words we'll ever hear. I read in the liner notes that a portion of the proceeds from album sales goes to FINCA's Village Banking Program. I didn't know what FINCA was so I looked it up on the internet and it turns out that their mission is to provide financial services to the world's lowest-income entrepreneurs so they can create jobs, build important things like houses and improve their standard of living. Thousands of women, men and children have been helped by this. I commend anyone's efforts towards a financially and environmentally sustainable solution.
Hi everyone - firstly thank you for the warm wishes so many of you have sent through various channels. Ione and I had an amazing wedding in India on December 29. There were about 50 of our family and friends there to see us married under the divine gaze of Shakti Narayani Amma. It was unlike anything I could have imagined. Here are a few photos from the ceremony.
We are still processing everything that happened on that trip. Not just the wedding, but also seeing so many people we love come and be touched by Amma and His message in different ways. Fascinating times. I couldn't be more excited about this new phase of my life. I feel so lucky to have found a partner that understands me and loves me and is willing to begin this journey with me.
In musical news, I have started work on a Noise Addict album! It's a lo-fi collection of home recorded messy pop songs that I'm hoping to finish in the next month. More news on that soon.
Also, Squeak-E-Clean and I are FINALLY finishing the Mixtape album! We are in the mixing stage, and once we get all the legalities squared away with the various artists, we will be ready to release it. As a refresher, this is an album of new songs I've written for different singers like the eels, Zooey Deschanel, Nina Persson, Kylie Minogue and the Sleepy Jackson amongst others. It's been my personal "Apocalypse Now" in that its taken about 7 years to get finished with...but the finish line is within sight!
I'm playing at Largo again on Thursday. Friends like Harper Simon, Ezra Reich and El May will be playing too. Come on down if you're in the area. The last one sold out so get tickets ahead if you can.
I hope 2009 is treating you all well. The inauguration and a new episode of Lost in the same week! Does life get more exciting?
posted by Ben Lee at 9:07 PM
