Generational gaps

So later on tonight, joined by my good songwriter friend Frank, I will be doing my first little acoustic radio session leading up to promoting my upcoming debut E.P. The people at Maxha radio set up a stage and invited me to afterwards join in on a jam session made up of students enrolled at the local rock and pop music academy. I politely declined. Sincerely, still not having bothered to try and master the most primal of blues scales, I see myself as the person least fit for teaming up with a bunch of young, talented and eager musicians going on a jam bender. However paradoxical, I'm sure Frank will feel exactly the same. 

Another thing is that this session triggers the fact of me being really curious about how my music will go down with a younger generation. A generation of music lovers whose passion got sparked via a standard internet connection and a network of peers, granting them access to an all-extensive audiovisual music library. I’m sure there’s going to be overlaps in taste but obviously our backgrounds will rightfully be substantially different. Nevertheless, I’m curious about whether our views on what relevant new music entails, correspond. I’ve always loved a good combination of melody, songs and contemporary lyrics with an interesting subject or angle. I truly do believe this should bridge any generational gap. I sure do hope so. And if not, I’ll work on it. And I will let you read about it. Here. At the ordinary life of marco z. As always. Bridging our generational gaps. 

trademark tom morgan

Ok so why not admit it up front? The Lemonheads, era 1992-1994, completely changed my life. Seeing an utterly stoned out of his brains but charmingly cheerful Evan Dando play that 2 minutes love ditty ‘Into Your Arms’ at Ray Cokes’ MTV’s Most Wanted with an old acoustic guitar holding only five strings, in the midst of grunge rock nirvana, was as revelational to me as what it must have been like to American kids in the sixties seeing the Beatles play the Ed Sullivan Show.

What I didn’t know back then was that ‘Into Your Arms’ was written by the band’s Ozzie bass player Nic Dalton and his sometime girlfriend Robyn St Claire. Nic Dalton also had his own Sydney record label, called Half A Cow. Among many great bands, it harboured Smudge, which was fronted by a lanky type singer-songwriter Tom Morgan. When the equally lanky type singer-songwriter Evan Dando and Tom Morgan met, an almost instantaneous golden songwriting partnership came to being, resulting in Morgan contributing to about half the songs on The Lemonheads’ two most successful records and eventually giving the band the stylistic consistency and direction they so desperately needed to break through.

Fast forward to September 2011 when Lou Barlow’s Sebadoh came back to Sydney. Smudge were invited to open and moshcam.com recorded their whole show. Admittedly, watching this footage made me realize how much they stand out against temporary bands in terms of sloppiness. As a longtime fan I also could have done less with hearing mediocre renditions of all but mediocre songs. But nearing the end of the set their new(ish) song ‘Mess With The Bull’ finally gave me crystal clear confirmation that my ongoing teenage crush on this band was completely justified. Not just because they had the coolest drummer chick in the world. Not just because they came from a sunshine paradise populated by people speaking the funniest sounding English accent in the world. But because when I hear this new song in all its freshness I realize that their chief songwriter is one of those few people that actually sets the virtual bar whenever I myself am trying desperately hard to add melody, not too obvious chord progressions and the odd killer line together. And whenever I see such a thing happen on stage, who am I to judge about sloppiness, overly clean guitars and mediocre renditions?

MESS WITH THE BULL/SMUDGE

marco z's ticket into blogging

well i never thought i would get into this blogging gig but here i am. if you must now, this is how i got my ticket in.

i recently finished editing a video for my upcoming debut single/e.p. 'i'm a bird' i am set on spreading around the web and i was told to check out blogs to get some exposure. since i've never been too much involved in these things (mainly because of the sheer quantity of them and my primal fear of getting "lost") i assumed this would become nothing less than a cynical affair where i would need to shamelessly surrender to unilateral self-promotion. little did i know that these past three days of "research" have been my personal pop musical renaissance discovering and rediscovering all the stuff i loved as a teenager and which i had assumed would forever stay out of my focus. up until the wee hours i got pleasantly entangled into a web spun by guys and girls putting hours of work and dedication into sharing whatever they consider their lives are worth living for. all this has given me the urge to try and give something back that will hopefully give anyone (even if it's just one single person) a hint of the same sensation i'm currently going through. it's not going to be completely similar i'm sure - i'm really set on getting my own music out there too - however i do like sharing whatever i think is worthwhile noticing and i do like writing. add to that my current state of self-confidence and you've got yourself marco z's ticket into blogging right here.