Mike Selfridge somehow finds himself in the center of the crowded bar room. I'm picking up empty glasses and beer bottles and when I get to Mike, he says to me, he says, "Hows it' sound Mike?"
I smile. "You know how it sounds", I say.
"Yeah", he says and he smiles back, and the whole room is smiling. Sandro and Tom's sitting at the table with the pretty girls wearing the lime green paper glasses I got on the internet that turn every light into fireworks. But then who needs fireworks tonight when we got these carefully packed vessels of pyrotechnics.
Fireworks everywhere you turn your head.
"Slow it down a notch", I tell him. "You got their attention on the first set, but you haven't established foundation yet. You need to dig a groove but you're all using different shovels."
"Yeah", says Mike, "I know what you mean."
"Table Ten's a small bar. You don't want people dancing with complete abandon." I smile and look over at the pretty girls with lime green paper rainbows brilliantly clashing with their pretty pink toes. "You want the groove to burn like molasses on a stove. You want it to drip like a moonlight serenade on a hot summer night that you can't seem to forget ... just yet. You want them in that happy place [1] but you don't want them thinking that much. Rock n Roll's not so much a cause for reflection as it is a reason for celebration. Rock n Roll's proof that your ankles, toes, neck and knees got direct connections to your brain stem's command center.
Sandro Razciel is the leader by defacto. Accomplished, polished, stylish. Sandro's got great clothes. I want to go shopping with him. I'm going to make Mike Selfridge go shopping with us. But it's not great clothes that make a leader. It's a combination of personality and respect. It's a fusion of public service and well masked ego that smiles more than it frowns. A leader's got to have a vision, but that vision can't be such a narrow path that the only way to walk it is single file. The path's got to be wide enough so that people can walk it side to side, arm in arm, hand in hand. I call that humility. Can you imagine that? A path that's not about how many forward steps you can take, but about how many friends you can see when you turn your head left and right. Sandro's got that. His Father and Jazz gave him that. And he honors both by not letting it go to his head. And if Sandro wasn't humble, if Sandro had this out of control ego, then Tom Brenner wouldn't feel the comfort that the stage has to offer so easily. Sandro knows that in between giving and taking is sharing. And if this green paper rainbow band is gonna move beyond novelty and into the realm of subjectivity, then the internal chemistry of give and take and share the lime lit lenses has got to be worked out beyond happenstance.
Enter Tom Brenner. The thing about being a rock n'roller is that you can't turn it into halloween. You're either it or your not it. Rock n Roll is not a costume. Rock n Roll is not a mask. Oh, there's pretenders galore out there. There's posers that got the licks but are missing the soul. That's why I told Mike Selfridge to turn the intensity down a bit and focus on the sounds in between the audible tones. That's what the groove is. You ever listen to Pacific Ocean Blues? Give it a go Joe. What we have here is the beginning of a legend. I know this because I am experiencing it through like 6 or seven senses.
There you go. That's the Brenner effect. That's why I kept seeding this show to Terry and Dawn. I wanted Terry and Dawn to hear these kids. I wanted Terry to see that Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young are not dead and gone. I wanted to reinforce in Terry and Dawn this notion that the NOBILITY OF ROCK is not a crown that anyone can just put on. In fact the NOBILITY OF ROCK is crown more like the antlers of a NOBLE ELK or the Horns of a MOUNTAIN RAM ... or perhaps some darker creature of the shadows, whose purpose is not so clear until the smoke clears. Rock n Roll is about TRUST that is EARNED. And if trust is to be earned in the fleeting moment of a song, it's got to be genuine and authentic. It's got to be real.
Tom Brenner, like Terry Alexander, is real. And while Terry Alexander might never be a name as recognizable as Graham Nash, Tom Brenner might, but all that's dependent on whom Tom gives the chisels to. You know what I'm talking about. I know Terry does. Now dig this. Listen to this baby.
True Rock n roll is not like pretentious pop shit. Rock n Roll is not subservient to the Corporate Board Rooms. The True Gods of Rock n Roll are not as Obvious as you thus might think, and when you are in the presence of a GOD OF ROCK n ROLL you likely won't even know it.
KNOW THIS PEOPLE of Fullerton and Beyond, Terry Alexander is a GOD OF ROCK n ROLL. The Sounds of the Land of Light and Shadow are golden yes, but the value of gold doesn't come from it's color. No no no.
Baby. The value of gold comes from our social perceptions and it seems that we have collectively, across this emerald blue planet, come to universal agreement that there is value in gold. Why is that?
For thousands of years before now and likely for thousands of years beyond now, we'll all put aside our wars and our stones and when we reach into our wallets and our purses, the gold we'll all agree is of value is the gold that is malleable ... you see the gold we all want is the gold that transforms from giver to receiver.
And see, there you go, that's rock n roll. And now you got the understanding. It's about the Giver and the Receiver. It's about the Chemistry that takes places between the two. It's about their child. Their beautiful child. It's about sharing. It's about creating. It's about Chains lying on the ground waiting for ephiney to define confine.
I wanted Terry Alexander there because I wanted Tom Brenner to know something about himself that he already knows that I don't have to say and I won't say and I won't hint any more than I already just did.
It's the Season of Tomorrow. Most times you don't get it until after the fact. Most times, when you understand what happened in the NOW, the NOW has already become the WAS; but when you're communicating with the WINDOW, when you SEE inside the WINDOW, when the thing you see is actually OUTSIDE the WINDOW, then brother, then sister, you're not looking at Tomorrow, you're in Tomorrow.
Am I Too psychedelic?
That's all-right.
That's why we got the guitar. To make complex explanations of such things as this an exercise in simplicity.
And that's why we got a need for Drum and Bass.
If you gonna write a report about your most recent trip "down the road to Jesus, or maybe just a visit to Zen", make sure you compare and contrast the relationship between positive and negative space as a function of light and shadow.
Did I tell you that Mike Selfridge needs a new wardrobe? Did I tell you that it don't matter much to me. Drum and Bass are like mushroom and tree. Drum and Bass are like Moon and Tide. Drum and Bass are like Wind and Sun. Like Your Old Lady is My Old Lady too. Like we all got a connection to Mother Earth. Like Drum and Bass moves us to the lowest common denominator if we all are willing to allow the (sub) division of our conscious selves.
It's all OK here. When I was a young Man, I didn't understand anything much. I had this dream of being a rock n' roll star and I wrote all these songs that I thought connected me to the SOURCE, but my problem was that I was all about feeling sorry for what I couldn't have and couldn't get. I was always LONGING for THINGS that JUST PASSED.
But those POLO shirts. Come on Mike Selfridge, we gots to do something about the cuts of your suits.
Mike Selfridge is one of those old souls that every band needs. if you want a direct connection to the nous of the band's evolving chemistry, then just tap your self into Mike Selfridge. It doesn't matter where you start. Start with his mouth. It warps and twists and turns and tries like an ocean tries to sink a boat but he's like air in water, he just naturally floats above the water. No matter how rough the seas, no matter how heavy the anchors might be, Mike Selfridge just rises in the way that tears drizzle. If you start with his mouth, then you can let the moment guide you. The corners of the mouth light take you up to his eyes and then down to his fingers moving across the strings that simply can't be undone .... let's go. Let's go. Mike Selfridge is WORLD CLASS. Classically trained, he's a lover of Mozart, Bach and Beethoven. He'll be the first to tell you that these cats done rock and if you want to really get lost , then let's cover some Bach in the back. And we can do that sometime, and I'm telling you now that we will, but most of you aren't ready to get down with Mozart like you're ready to cruise down the road in your Mercury. My first car was a Mercury Cougar. A 1967 Mercury Cougar. I never got to Mozart 'cause I started with the Mercury. Selfridge, he started with the Mozart. And when he got behind the wheel of his Mercury, he took it down roads I never knew were even there. And now, today, tonight, when you hear Mike Selfridge play, you're letting him take you down those roads. And those are beautiful roads, back-roads. I love those back roads.
If there is a physical manifestation of the listening experience, watch the bass player. There's your gauge into the secret world of the green paper rainbow glasses that make the world seem like an outpost on the edge of heaven.
Those strings that turn your mind into an echo chamber court silence and it's a romance we all want to share.
It's a romance we all want to believe in.
The romance of audience to band. The love affair we all have with sound and silence. The relationship between conscious and unconscious.
Between Ego and I.
of that which is and that which is not.
Which brings up John Bradley. John wasn't drumming last night. He was playing another gig with Robots and Empires. We missed John. I wouldn't want to make the young Keltner feel less of a pot of gold than he was, because we got some solid drumming out of him. All this made me think, because if the Bass is the physical manifestation of the band's sound, then what purpose are the drums?
Well, I'll tell you.
But first, I'll give you an exercise. Pick a song. Any Song. Say "Vampire Blues" by Neil Young; or maybe John Hiatt's "Alone in the Dark". Maybe David Lindley's "Your Old Lady". The Bass manifests, right? The drums reflect. In between the lines seen are the lines unseen. Listen to those songs you picked. Don't listen to the sound when the drum sticks make contact with metal and skin, listen for the movement of air in between.
All the other instruments, by their definition, pick and choose the mood and direction that the sounds move. The drums steer that course. The drums have to be able to quickly circumnavigate coral reefs and sandy shores and then just as quickly get the ship back on course. Nothing will invalidate the green paper rainbows quicker than a drummer that doesn't know how to steer a course. Nothing sends the pretty young girls running for the party next door in the Barbershop quicker than a drummer that don't have the chops down.
Nothing.
As such this all made me think; perhaps the People of Tomorrow might be more fluid than I had originally thought? Perhaps not. But one thing is crystal clear. It is not my decision. I've learned over time to let go of things. The People of Tomorrow do not belong to me. The People of Tomorrow do not belong to anyone.
It's not about thinking. It's about feeling.
It's not about contemplation. It's about self-expression.
Art
Life
Joy
And Mercuries. "I'm gonna buy me a Mercury and cruise it up and down the road ..."
By the middle of the second set, the band had secured its legitimacy within the community. People began walking in off the street.
And when it was all over, Sandro was smiling, "this was my first rock n' roll gig!" he said singing out.
Mike Selfridge was smiling. Tom Brenner was too, "you might not want to go back to JAZZ", he said.
Sandro laughed.
Mike did too. "The dark side is calling" he said.
I laughed. "You mean Mozart? Mozart was calling you?"
"Yeah", said Mike, pondering that thought, "that was the beginning of rock n' roll."
The Tomorrow People will return to Table Ten on Friday January 2, 2009. It'll be the First Concert of the Year for Table Ten. And it's a fitting way to start. And a week before, on Saturday December 27th, the guys will be backing Terry Alexander in Table Ten's first Monthly ROCK JAM SESSION, SOCO n'JAM. Come on down, bring your instrument and join Terry and the guys. Let's JAM!
[1] you know the happy place. Ask Nick, Ken and Dave of TREO. They got that Happy Place down.
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