June 29, 2008, 11:25 am : Searching for New Music – Where to Look?
Filed Under: Music, UncategorizedDiscussion: C[0]mments
Editors note: This post is the first by a jeffschad.com contributor. Known as DP, my friend and colleague will be posting from time to time on the music world. A self described musicphile, DP is a hardcore music lover, with a keen interest in the business of music in today’s dynamic world. He’ll be giving us interesting takes from time to time. Enjoy, and if you have something to say, sound off with a comment.
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Welcome to my inaugural post on SurfRhythm.com. Jeff and I have been good colleagues for quite sometime and I thank him for considering my random (and occasional!) rants and diatribes concerning opinions of the music industry as “post-worthy”. Hopefully, I can consistently deliver to those expectations…
As a die hard musicphile, I am often asked where I find the tunes I choose to play. I always answer everybody with the same response:
“Well, for starters, any Clear Channel radio station will get you started. After that, You can’t go wrong with anything that’s kicked out by Sony/BMG, Warner, or any other ‘major’ music label.”
Whoops! Did I actually type that? Just kidding – we all know what mind-numbing, disposable swill those outlets are responsible for. Follow them, and they’ll have you believing if John Lennon were alive today, he’d do a duet album of “Greatest Hits from the 90s” featuring Britney, J Lo, and JT. No, the continuing insistence by mass media that people prefer their music in Cheese Doodle format is best left for a later rant…
So where do I stop and linger to find new artists and titles that feed my addiction? The proliferation of some really great online places has made the act almost effortless. This is great, because the experience becomes less of a laborious chore of digging through a bunch of lukewarm hits to find the one gem, and more about exploring lesser known artists and their interpretations of a particular genre. So, let’s review what proverbial couch cushions I search under for my musical windfalls:
Pandora. I have been a member ever since the site was in Beta (testing). Pandora, which is the product of the Music Genome Project (MGP), is still my primary way of uncovering new artists, music, and relationships that exist beyond my experiences. The science that goes on behind how music is related, combined with the site founders’ hardcore dedication to human ears that work for the MGP project being the ultimate end authority in what kicks out of their system’s analysis makes the site my continuing favorite. Its limitations – licensing. Only so many songs can be skipped (six to be precise) in an hour due to some compromise I’m sure the Pandora folks had to come to with the archaic big labels’ dedication that we should all still be paying $15 or more for CDs that cost pennies per unit to create and distribute. Because of this, it could be tough if you want to skip through things you don’t want to hear…
Best find I have uncovered from Pandora? Chris Thile’s Bluegrass cover of The White Stripes’s Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground. Check the site out – you won’t regret it.
iTunes. OK, I know what you’re thinking. Wow – iTunes. Thank you, Captain Obvious. Bear with me here… If Pandora is good in guiding me on the scientifically-driven relationships between similar sounding music, iTunes gives me flat out, raw informational groupings of artists and music that can make my perusals more enjoyable. The program does this by allowing anybody to create and propagate playlists that relate songs and artists together based on a variety of possibilities. For instance, searching iTunes for songs by Joy Division not only nets the songs it has available for purchase, but also two playlist groups. One is for Goth (big surprise there), but the other – get this – is a list of songs by artists who are from Manchester, UK. The list is surprising with New Order, Morrissey, and Herman’s Hermits (!) all making the cut.
You can’t beat that kind of service for $.99/track. It’s limitation? Like Pandora, licensing factors into the product’s reach. You may find it surprising, but you can’t buy anything by AC/DC from it. Yet.
Last.fm. My last major source comes in the form of a streaming service that bills itself as a combination of YouTube and Legitimate Media Outlet for things ranging from Jakob Dylan’s newest music to SXSW featured artists. To add to it, the site has incredibly detailed information about the artists and links to videos as well. For me, I have not found the site be strong in relating artists and music via something like the MGP’s pure science, but it is good for stringing general relationships that make empirical sense (wow – if I like the Wallflowers, I might like Bob Dylan? Who’s he? Ha ha ha.).
And there you have it. I am sure there are other locations you can look for uncovering the unknown, but these are a start. Drop some feedback my way with your suggestions!
DP
June 25, 2008, 1:46 pm : July Edition of PLAYLIST Magazine is Here
Filed Under: Band Reviews, Imagery, Music, Upcoming ShowsDiscussion: C[1]mments
Who hasn’t missed a great show because they never heard about it, or heard too late? I and most people I know have. Since few things are worse than regret (or hearing from a friend, “You should have SEEN that show, it was INCREDIBLE!”), get your July Edition of PLAYLIST now. As mentioned here, PLAYLIST is a new digital (think Green) magazine with show listings for the Maryland, DC and Virginia area, plus contact info and links to clubs, bands, and embedded music and videos.
July’s PLAYLIST features Ani DiFranco
June 23, 2008, 10:45 am : Do You Know This Snake? Bruce Gabrielson Interview
Filed Under: Biography, Interviews, SurfingDiscussion: C[0]mments
Bruce “Snake” Gabrielson makes his home in Maryland, but he’s a long time Huntington Beach local that has left an indelible mark on the surfing world. His circle of surfing friends reads like a who’s who of exceptional and notable characters spanning geographies and generations.
I met Snake, as he is known to his surf buds, through Worldwidesurfers on Yahoo. Over time, I learned that he is a significant personality in surfing, with several accomplishments to his credit. I caught up with Snake to uncover a few of the names and stories that weave his past.
Snake (on the right) and friend, at the 2006 Longboard Team Challenge in Ocean City, MD
Jeff Schad: You’re an innovator in the surfing world. Tell us about your accomplishments.
Bruce “Snake” Gabrielson: I’ve been active with so many surfing related things since the 60s that it’s even hard for me to remember most of them. Certainly, being President of Huntington Beach Surfing Association for 10 years, being the first surf coach at Huntington Beach High School, and founding the first high school surfing league were important in the 60s and 70s. Back then, I also was the chairman of the USSA’s rules committee that produced the first set of written judging rules. Probably the most significant thing I did in the 80s was getting the Amateur Athletic Union, a member of the US Olympic Committee, to officially recognize surfing as a sport. Their recognition helped surfers and surfing emerge as a mainstream sport in the eyes of the traditional athletic community.
A significant accomplishment in the early 90s was something many folks don’t know about. While working at the Naval Research Laboratory I created the Internet’s first surfing related web site and online surfing library. Then in the late 90s, while Chairman of the USSF USOC Recognition Committee, I wrote and submitted the formal application for surfing to become an Olympic Sport. Most recently, because of the increasing popularity of the sport and the huge number of folks taking lessons, I founded the National Surf Schools and Instructors Association, an organization dedicated to improving the quality of instruction in the industry.
JS: Of all of these accomplishments, which are you most proud of? Why?
Snake: I think my direct involvement with organized high school and college surfing, through both the Western Intercollegiate Surfing Council and the Huntington Beach High School District, was most significant to me. When I presented the proposal to the California Interscholastic Federation to make surfing a regular high school sport and they agreed was perhaps my proudest day personally. I went into a meeting of skeptics and came away with a victory. Unfortunately, CIF recognition didn’t last too many years because of legislative issues like title IX, but the impact of school surfing has had lasting effects on the sport all these years.
JS: You’ve seen and experienced revolutionary developments in the surfing world; which were most significant to you? Which were most personal to you; that you were directly a part of?
Snake: This is a tough question. I was there the day David Nuuhiwa rode the first Blackball board at the HB Pier, and also had a chance to ride the first shortboard in the Orange county area, a reshaped longboard at the Frog House in Newport Beach. The shortboard was obviously revolutionary. I think another significant improvement was the multifin approaches like the Twinzer designs. Several folks, including myself, were experimenting with stick on fins, twin fins, and such before the Twinzer was invented for the Fish. This design allowed boards to hold and maneuver much better on steep waves, and probably is the first defining improvement in modern short board surfing.
I moved to Maryland in the early 80s and wasn’t immersed day to day in surfing innovations. Probably the biggest development and impact to me in more recent years was the resurgence of the longboard. While I didn’t start surfing longboards again until 1997, I feel the modern longboard has enabled many people to continue to enjoy the sport much later in life, something I’m personally very appreciative now.
The one modern innovation I was personally involved with is the Turbo Tunnel fin. I was talking to Bob “the Greek” Bolen one day about a long noseride I had gotten on a larger wave and mentioned how bad my board was shaking. He told me he was working on a prototype that would not only eliminate the shaking, but would also enable me to get rid of my longboard side fins. I received one of the early fins, worked with it for awhile, and became sold on how it impacted my surfing. Finally, the Turbo got into production and I became the East Coast Team Captain.
JS: Describe some of the characters in Huntington Beach, the people that shaped the culture that was and is Huntington Beach as we know it.
Snake: There have always been a lot of surf characters in Huntington, going back into the 20s and 30s, long before I was born. The city itself has always been tied to the surf and surfing. The HB Pier was dedicated with a surfer named George Freeth. The first two Huntington Beach surfers were Bud Higgins and Gene Belshe, also Huntington’s first shapers, and among the first West Coast surfers. There was the era of Blackie August, Robert’s dad, and then Chuck Linnen, one of the 50s and 60s surfing greats. Chuck was my mentor and is still my close friend. These individuals helped shape the culture and character of the city during the early years and the Golden Age of Surfing.
When I started surfing in 1960, the transition had started from the Golden Age to the second generation. We didn’t have big crowds and the boards were still heavy, but you could feel the soul of the sport when you were surfing with your friends. Since we didn’t have wetsuits, I remember spending hours with friends warming up around a fire, running out to catch a few waves before you froze, and then coming back in to warm up again before heading out for another couple of waves. You form close bonds with the surf buds you spend that much time with, and I think that small close knit surfing society in Huntington probably set the stage for the culture that exists there to this day.
The HB Pier is considered by most of the surfing world as the Mecca of modern surfing culture. Today, regardless of what you hear, Huntington Beach is truly Surf City. There are so many surfers embedded in all aspects of the local society and economy that the surf culture is the mainstream of the city. Stop by the International Surfing Museum sometime when you are in the area and spend a few minutes visiting. You will be amazed at the surfing notables who might walk in off the street to socialize. As another example, I went to an event at Huntington Beach High School last summer and was impressed at how many world champion and ex-professional surfers showed up.
The characters still exist, still impact the local culture, but there are many around now, and they tend to get lost in the numbers. Interestingly, except for a few of us, most of the original surf crew still walking are still in the area.
JS: You maintain your enthusiasm for surfing to this day, and I presume you always will. What’s your philosophy behind leading the surfing life and never losing that stoke, even when life takes some of that focus away from surfing and the ocean.
Snake: I’m probably a bit different then most folks. I live in a demanding professional and scientific environment that requires me to stay focused on technology most of the time. Surfing and getting back to my roots has been my primary way of keeping my feet in the relaxing world. I really enjoy having a good time surfing and socializing with my surf buds. Now that I’m getting to an age where surfing isn’t so easy, I find that although my body has changed, my “laid-back” way of thinking and the stoke I feel is still there. I guess the best advice I could give is even if distance, finances, physical handicaps, or family issues keep you from the ocean, don’t let your mind stray too far or you really will get old.
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June 20, 2008, 3:22 pm : Sneak Peek – New York Surf Film Festival
Filed Under: Events, News, Surfing, UncategorizedDiscussion: C[0]mments
As I mentioned in my initial post on the New York Surf Film Festival, I’ll be covering the event closely right here on SurfRhythm.com. I had the chance to ask Festival organizer Tyler Breuer about how things are shaping up as him and his team prepare for the event.
Jeff Schad: How many people have submitted films so far?
Tyler Breuer: So far we have received over 30 films. I don’t have an exact number in front of me. I’m sure that number should jump in the next week or so after our press release.
JS: Have you prescreened all of the submissions yet?
TB: We will be sitting down to prescreen all the films over the next two weeks. We’ve watched a few already and there are a few gems in there. I think people are going to freak out on a couple. I just got an email from Andrew Kidman and he’s going submit his latest film “The Ghosts Are Calling”. The others I have to keep quiet on for the time being, but I promise people are going to be stoked on it!
JS: Have you gotten any weird films, just crazy stuff?
TB: We have gotten some interesting stuff as well. Again, I have to keep mum on them but I like the weird ones. There are a few that are totally out there.
JS: How far away are submissions coming from, just locally or all over?
TB: We have received a lot of films from overseas. There haven’t been too many local submissions yet. We have got a few from NJ. Mark Temme, a Rockaway Beach regular just wrote us and is submitting his film which I’m excited to see. Temme is a good guy and has been great in getting the peak days recorded out in Rockaway.
June 17, 2008, 5:48 pm : Don’t Tune Out These Professors
Filed Under: Album Reviews, MusicDiscussion: C[3]mments
We’re going back to San Diego for today’s music post. This time it’s to bring you a new act that deserves a close listen. You may not have heard of The Professors just yet, but go on, click on the play list below and be transported. This is their newly released debut album, Destination Moon.
Call it surf music, surf rock or whatever you want to call it, but it’s hard to deny that The Professors have constructed an album that feels like it should be a soundtrack to an epic surf film, or even a Hollywood film. Give a listen to the title track “Destination Moon” to be transported to a kind of dream: perfect pointbreak, sunny day, no crowd, and a ruler-edged head high swell capping the picture. You know the feeling of those days. While rare, they are etched in your mind for eternity. That ethereal feeling; other-worldliness. Even in its newness, Destination Moon sounds timeless, the kind of album you love for a long, long time.
Click here to listen to The Professors on 101KGB in San Diego. They’re playing shows in the San Diego area in the upcoming weeks, but for those of us back east, let’s hope they get some gigs scheduled on the Right Coast soon.