Matt Hanley Storytelling » Music / The Arts

House Sitting in Palm Springs, CA

admin — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:08:00 +0000

I’m practicing ActionScript 3.0 and writing…but….

Hat & Hart Session Outtakes

admin — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 06:03:00 +0000

The summer recording project of Hat Manly and Hartwell Littlejohn has yet to bring about a finished product. A YouTube promo declares an “Oct 09″ single release. But an al capella track titled “Lonely Breakdown” has been leaked.

It’s thought to have been intended as an “appendix” to the single “She Belongs to Everyone But Me.” It is not known if it’s the final take or whether it will wind up on the upcoming record.

Sources believe that the tambourine is from Nathan Apffel.

Bolt Soundtrack

admin — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:13:00 +0000

I saw that cartoon movie “Bolt” where John Travolta plays a dog. It’s pretty good for a non-Pixar. I’m surprised that Randy Newman did the soundtrack and that he’s just re-hashing his old stuff.

The main song is “You’ve Got a Friend in Heat.”

Built to Spill

admin — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 15:32:00 +0000

Free music continues to fall upon New York this summer, enriching the lives of people throughout the several boroughs. In the past week I was fortunate enough to catch the NY Philharmonic’s Central Park performance of some Mozart and Beethoven’s 7th Symphony. Friday I ushered a visiting sister down to South Street Seaport to see Superchunk, part of a River to River series of free concerts. Although the North Carolina-based band dispassionately played a string of repetitive power-chord songs, it was good energy. Yesterday’s annual Siren Music Festival in Coney Island was a blast, blast, blast.

I’m so glad I headed on down in time for the final act. Brandishing my reporter’s notebook and pen I told the first security guy I saw that I needed to get into the front section because I write for a blog. He chuckled and told me to tell his boss what I told him, and I repeated it. He looked me in the eye, realized I was telling the truth and yet full of b.s., and he let me through. So, to affirm the honesty of my request, I will recall what I can of the set.

Photos I snagged from the Flickr user phq200.

Bob Dylan’s Newest Album is a Winner

admin — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:59:00 +0000

Bob Dylan’s new album, Together Through Life, is a smash. Each of its ten songs demonstrate that Dylan is a clever and sarcastic lyricist in full command of his vocals and his top-notch band of cowboys. As with his previous release, he has sequenced the album so that a heavy/down tempo alternates with a uptempo, more whimsical number. For example, the dire “Life is Hard (without you near me)” is followed by “(Hell is) My Wife’s Hometown.”

But enough of my text.. here is a track, as made available on YouTube by a fan. It’s my fave from the album. “I Feel a Change Comin’ On.” It’s the “long” song from the record, akin to, most recently, Nettie Moore. The theme is morbid and the music is a groovy shuffle, something you might find on “New Morning” interspersed with accordion*. The music works well because Dylan and his band have perfected a unique way of breaking up the notes. They’ve been working on this new math for some years, and now it’s paying off big time.

The ‘extra’ verses inspire gratitude.

* There’s accordion on each track to varying degrees. On the stand-out track “If You Ever Go to Houston” the accordion provides the rhythm.