What Will They Do When They Find Out I Am Not A Real DJ?

My neice (age 6) laughed and said "yeah right" when she found out I am DJing this party on Friday. Slowly, a wave of fear enveloped me as I realized I didn't have traditional party hits that get the crowd up. I have the Kinks. I have the Beatles. I have the Zombies. I have Belle and Sebastian (there's an Onion headline in here somewhere, I dont know, something about a riot at a library or something). I do have a few room shakers, but my large-scale DJ operation has not reached epic proportions.

So today a friend slips me an iPod full of future national treasures: Akon, Rhianna, and tons of other names I do not recognize conspicuously filed next to familiar "artists" Christmas tunes. Let me go on the record: this is going to be one hell of a feat! 6 hours! Everything must go! Everything will be played! Officially, I cross the threshold of "songs I like" to "songs other people might like"

Here I go educating myself on the thuggier side of hip hop!

Ah ooooooooo

Morning came really early this morning, I think Anne forgot she messed up the alarm clock, thus making 6am on the clock be 5:30am. But, who am I to not start the routine? Next thing you know you are on a foreign, earlier train with older even more uncomfortable seats. Then, you put on the Handsome Boy Modelling School and start dreaming of bagels.

The studio has been getting a lot of play lately making remixes for a big holiday party this weekend. DJ Adequate is coming on strong with an hour of brand spankin' new remixes. He is training in his dojo for the 6 hour marathon with a combination of agility and stamina. Should you see him with alcohol at this event (and believe me, the stuff is bound to be flowing) slap his hand and say "no you can't have it back silly rabbit"

he will have slept by then, which is not the case now.
xoxoxox,
mcmfa

Bizarre Factoid

We are all veterans. MFA consists of people who have played little or much, or a little much.

Spinning currently: "Ruby Vroom" by Soul Coughing (the patron saint of MFA). I have only played New York City once, and that was at CB's 313 Gallery, next door to CBGB. Friends said "dude, you played CBGB?!" and I'd say "no, there's a difference." And not in just a 667, the neighbor of the beast kind of way.

That difference being Soul Coughing used to throw their weekly party night there in the deep recesses of the early 90's. Who knew? If I had known at the time, chances are I would have made even more of an arse of myself on stage.

"We need new heroes"

Who Needs Daylight Savings Time?

It's amazing, once the weather starts to turn you have two options: hibernate or generate. It seems for the last 8 years of my life I have chosen the hibernation option. When the going gets cold, the cold get sleeping.

This year, my senses are starting to mold the world around me into what I want it to be (as opposed to it molding me into something reminiscent of a potato, with or without soft landing). I am simultaneously rehearsing two new bandmates, each doing amazing work on their own, as well as prepping to bring the whole operation together. The days are getting shorter, but that almost means there are fewer distractions!

In the wings (mind you, alongside the launching of our album):
Booking several friends bands in Phoenixville
Building another cover band for late winter
Creating a U2 cover act for local irish pub
Creating a French cover act for a local Creperie (!)
DJing a friends' Christmas party (uh, 6 hours?!?)
Recording a set of Christmas staples acoustically
Helping engineer a friends' band record
A weekend mountaineering trip to Grayson Highlands, VA

Wow, no time for Season Affective Disorder!

First things first, MFA are getting together this weekend for another rehearsal. We are expanding to 4 piece, and eventually 5 piece, but still need to get together to arrange the songs. Whew!

xoxox,
mcmfa

Dashboard Confessor

Watch this, now go do something!

Life has been moving at a breakneck pace for me lately, we're busy getting the band prepped. I just listened to the album master again and am about to OK it. The weekend after Betsy's funeral, I found myself at a childhood friends' wedding basically on the backside of the mountain on which I learned to snowboard in Massachusetts for only the 5th visit since leaving in 1992; the very next weekend I found myself being peppered with what I'll call Gerglish by the most adorably disobedient German children in the mountains of North Carolina, not far from where I went to college. Only to retire back to my home in Pennsylvania. The year is 2007. I am 30 years old. My father has passed. My mother-in-law has passed. My wife must think I am crazy, I cannot take it all in. I cannot process everything that is happening around me. 2,000 miles in just over 2 weeks, done in 5-8 hour increments is more motion than I could handle, given the circumstance. Man, I used to be able to champ that no questions asked with barely a cup of coffee!

And now I go back to something I used to give me fuel when I was 15. Jimmy V. Basketball season is almost in full swing (the cake games are being played now; someone tell that to UK having lost to Gardner-Webb! I think they didn't get the memo!)

So here I go, one foot in front of the other. Family. Religion. Band. Don't give up, don't ever give up.

Lightning Strikes Twice

Just thought I would let you know that my mother-in-law, Betsy Moser DeMutis, passed away two weeks ago today with her family around her. Anne is hanging in there; the two of them were very close. We'd been busy with funeral arrangements, and then with sorting out things on the homefront. It's all a bit of a blur, though the time has passed quite a bit slower for me than when my father died. If you feel so inclined, please make a donation to The Clinic here in Phoenixville in Betsy's memory. They provide free healthcare to those in need, and Betsy was a huge proponent of their cause!

As my mom says, life happens when you are busy making other plans. Actually, I think John Lennon said that too.

We were busy reconfiguring the band to suit the album release, but as you can imagine we haven't been able to pick it up. The album is sounding great, thanks Burleigh! My notes are coming soon, thank you for your nudges and patience.

In other news, I attended a childhood friends' wedding in Massachusetts last weekend. Nothing like seeing the girl who was basically your little sister get married, all grown up. Speaking of which, to see a different neighbor who was 2 when I moved away was confounding. 15 years is a long time, and then to check her brothers' band on myspace. Toddlers and kindergarteners morphing into high school seniors and rock drummers! It's like having been on the moon for a decade and a half, remind me not to volunteer for the Mars mission like I've said I'd do in the past. Count me out!

Hey, Aren't You...

My day-to-day life revolves around 30th Street Station here in Philly, at the crossroads of regional and local rail. My daily path takes me in the line of fire of the taxi line, in which I have to look for speeding taxis with new passengers, and speeding taxis having just dropped off passengers.

Yesterday, I look over at this line and see a vaguely familiar face attempting to cram huge road cases into the trunk of one of these taxis. Wait, that's Dan Wilson! For someone a lot less obsessive, it would mean Dan Wilson of Semisonic, the guy that wrote "Closing Time." For someone a little less obsessive, it would mean Dan Wilson, co-writer of the grammy award winning song "Not Ready To Make Nice" by the Dixie Chicks. But for me, it would mean Dan Wilson, producer of Mike Doughty's first major solo record, as well as solo artist on Rick Rubin's American Recordings.

I walk up and sheepishly ask "Excuse me, are you Dan Wilson?" 99.9% sure, he says "Yes, I am" rather distracted by the task of cramming said oblong boxes into the trunk. I reply "I am a big fan of your work, nice to meet you" and go in for a handshake. With that, I turn and walk away, headed for my train.

That's it, when you meet people you admire and you're not just Mr. Fanboy, it's kind of awkward. You don't want to let the moment slip without letting them know you know who they are, but your anonymity is a challenge to them, and they instantly have to navigate the possibilities. Especially if they're somewhat "It" at the moment (a grammy, plus a new record "Free Life" which by all reports is stellar), I can only imagine that a stranger on the street could be a) someone from the venue coming to pick you up b) that guy who keeps on showing up asking for the secrets to the universe or c) someone approaching you to co-write songs. Man, I wish our society was more like that "Sorry I was late, I had to co-write a song with a big dude whose ipod wouldn't turn off"

And what band was I listening to?
Queens of the Stone Age.

Ha.

I do own "Feeling Strangely Fine" though, and just gave it a spin last week.

Yes, Master!

We got the masters back from, uh, mastering. It hasn't been tracked out yet, but upon converting the torrent back to listenable form, I am blown away by this black magic. Mr. Burleigh Seaver, my hats off to you and your dark arts! We've yet to finalize it, and will have to wait for Burleigh to get back in town.

Speaking of which, to our friends on the west coast, his band Shortstack are doing a string of dates out there starting later this week. Please check them out, tell them we said hello!

Should I admit to seeing the Smashing Pumpkins on this latest tour? I was all excited until actually being at the show. Some of the new stuff occupies the same sonic space with very little emotional resonance, though admittedly, it's my fault for not knowing it as well as everything up to 1998. Moreover, take this at face value, Billy's guitar and vocals completely drowned out the rest of the band. When you combine that with the rest of the band high tailing it off stage after the final encore to leave Billy eating up the ovation, you start connecting what this thing is really about, and sadly, that's not the way I remember it.

Good thing my obsession moved on to a band that will most likely never get back together. And this one, that can't.

Anchorage at Velvet Lounge

Our friends Anchorage (you might remember them as Eastern Homes or Sad Bastard) are playing Velvet Lounge in D.C. this coming Saturday night, October 20 prolly around 9pm. Go check them out. They've changed their instrumentation around a little, and opened up lots of spaces in their songs. One more time: go check them out!

Currently Listening to...

Stan Getz Bossa Nova.

Not to be a shill, but does it get any better than this? Holy crap, it takes me a couple of years to lose this record and then rediscover it. Verve put out this compilation in 1996, and it makes for some of the best foreground/background music I have in my collection. Some of the songs are flawlessly studio-sounding, only to have an audience clapping politely at the end. Might be studio chicanery (a la "Live at the Club" by Cannonball Adderly), but I somehow doubt it.

Makes me really want to master my nylon-stringed guitar. Sure, he is a appropriating a musical movement from Brazil, but he is doing so incorporating them into the fold. Astrud Gilberto's voice must be responsible for millions of children, much like Barry White. A friend of mine posted a blog commenting on Russia's "sex day" as a way to encourage population growth.

Russia, meet Brazil.

DJ Adequate for Sunbeams

I didn't even have a chance to post that I had been asked to do a charity DJ set in DC before already being back from it. Wow.

We were raising money for an organization called the Sunbeam Foundation, which some friends created after the passing of their friend a few years back to a rare, pediatric brain cancer. Check it out, you can still make donations if you would like.

The event was at Indeblue (in the shadows of the Verizon Center (aka MCI Center in my day, man, can them corporations merge or what!) and I set up in an actual DJ booth. Too bad I didn't have needles for the turntables (or actual records for that matter!) but I did my set live mixtape style. No matching beats, no genre cohesion. Part chaos. Part order. Dig.

We raised somewhere in the ballpark of $1000 before tallying the cut of the bar. Thank you for your support!

This Is Your Brain on Music

Started a book called "This Is Your Brain On Music" by Daniel J. Levitin. Have to say, when he got into the part in the beginning about the notes Miles Davis is not playing in Kind of Blue, I immediately stopped reading and put it on the iPod. Immediately I felt an urge to listen to the Dismemberment Plan. Something about mathiness and rock equals the Plan, always.

Last weekend Jim came up and we got a few good rehearsals in. Jon is ramping up with the songs nicely, so much so that we are on the cusp of bringing a fourth into the fold to fill out the songs. We have been a trio since we decided not to be a duo, so being a quartet is completely mind blowing.

We ran through the album mixes deep headphone-style, after one of the practices, and did a few fixes after flying blind for a while. It was kind of like being the only one who can land the airplane, following instructions by a pilot on the ground (we called Nick while he was on his way to work!) Turns out some of the stuff I did was right, turns out some of the other stuff I did was not so right. Either way, we smoothed out some of the kinks, and now the record is on it's way to mastering again!

Album art is coming along as well. Some goodies are being developed in addition to the record, so hopefully the launch will go off without a hitch. The website will also get an overhaul, and will devolve further into internet absurdity. I just get so tired of all the websites looking the same. We are not a gloss and sheen band. We are a roll of duct tape and a coat hanger band. Feel it.

thanks for reading,
mfa

Back from Vacationland

What can I say? August was vacationland. So much so that by the time Labor Day weekend rolled around, Anne and I withdrew from the world altogether to watch movies, hike, and basically be spontaneous. There is nothing like going away to make you want to be home, and there is nothing like being home to make you really itch to do something. So I forgot to call Jon and Jim back (my phone died), and I messed up lining up practices for the next weekend. Secretly I am glad I did, save for any grief caused to my bandmates. They are the patient type, and from what Jim has said, he could use the weekend to survey a new automobile. Just keep the license plate of the current one, my friend.

Imagine yourself in a desert. Imagine the desert full of arrid mountains, then imagine a crystal sea between those mountains. Float on your back in this imaginary salty sea in the pitch black midnight after being on planes for 30 hours. Oh, and add a full dinner and a toast with new and old friends on the back of a 75 foot (25m) sailboat. Wonder how you got there, what you did to deserve it (nevermind you have paid handsomely for it), and then start freaking out about sharks. There are no sharks, but your brain won't have any of that nonsense so you scurry to the ladder, rinse and towel off, then fall asleep above deck under bright blue stars (and the steady pulse and sporadic lightning from a disco a half mile (800m) away on the shore. WTF?

That being said, it is nice to be home. Now I get to write the book.

Norcal

Started back into travel season this past weekend for MFA's #1 fan's wedding, in Palo Alto, CA. Anne and I flew into Oakland late, late, late Wednesday night and crashed pretty hard once we reached the bride's house. Not only did she get up to let us in at 2:30, she woke up before us. Now, that is hardcore.

We have a disorder: we can't sit still. We are so restless even when we are road weary and sleepy. This found us about 24 hours dangling precariously above cliffs en route to Big Sur, just to take a picture of the sign and come back. I think I found the place to dramatically drive the car off the cliff when the time comes. Wow. No more buying the farm or kicking the bucket. I'm talking flaming car extrusion.

By the time we picked up my brother in SFO that next afternoon, we had covered Monterey, Santa Cruz, Carmel and Big Sur, not to mention having helped stranded friends in San Jose procure a rental car. It was hard to look at the farmlands and not think of Steinbeck, and thus my father, ditto for the the Santa Lucia hills. Very fittingly, we had put in Modest Mouse's Good News record.

The wedding-type events went off without a hitch (actually, I should say with a hitch, as the deal was sealed) Nothing like being bone dry in a nicely pressed suit, low-80 temps when back east you'd be melting. Maybe that's why my friends aunt said something about "you could eat him with a spoon." I think I know what that means, but I'll still plead youthful ignorance. There was a mechanical bull, but I could not get on in time for last call and closing. The more youthfilled (and liquorfull) ignorantati of the softer persuasion had the bar captivated, no way was a 200+ hombre like me getting up there to spoil their view of cleveland.

spent an afternoon in San Fran with some of anne's beloved from college. very, very kind people. Just so happens their apartment is atop the Noe Valley neighborhood and boasts a super steeeeeeeep hill right nearby. I think I asked them at least three times how they got to work and if they had to hoof the hill. It was probably the sleep depravation talking. The weather was even more perfect than Palo Alto (perpetually spring to San Fran's perpetual fall) and we hung out on their deck, overlooking the bay.

Maybe I'll turn this into a foto blog once I get the technology.

also, when we get the monetary technology, we are so going to record at Tiny Telephone. That would rule. Or maybe record in Sausalito with Steve Lillywhite as if we were the Gusterds. woot.

Dr. Dremo's Thanks, and setlist

Thanks for coming out to the show on Saturday at Dr. Dremo's! Please visit that place before it is history next March!

With a little light goading, we raised over $600 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. We also sent Mr. Matt Sedlar packing into his official graduation from MFA professional development academy.

Setlist:
Every Day Is Fall*
The Ballad of You and Me*
Elegiac*
East Coast Versus West Coast*
Sweet Caroline*
Queen of the Lost Causes
One In The Same
Campfire Hymn
Now It's On (Grandaddy cover)
Slow Motion Decay
Speakeasy
The One That Got Away +
Bergamot
St Matthew's Court
Gravel In My Palm
I Was Electric
1994

(break)
Tender (Blur cover w/matt on irish drum)
Wishing Well

*= matt solo, to give jim a rest
+= with Terrence Henry of Eastern Homes on harmonica

City of Brotherly Grit

Jim here. With a show approaching, I made the trek to Philly this weekend to rock out with MFA and catch up with some old friends. The XPN Fest (or whatever they call it) had the most awesome backdrop (the Philly skyline) I've seen since those D.C. shows they used to have on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the Capitol. Fountains of Wayne didn't disappoint and I think I'm going to have to keep an eye on those Fratelli boys.

It always feels good to play, but it feels even better when you get to play outside when it is 74 degrees and breezy. While we didn't play long, I think we are ready for the gig on Saturday. I'm really glad we are jumping right in like this. It's been way too long since the last show!

After practice, I met up with my college buddy, Chris, who was playing in a block party in the working-class neighborhood of Port Richmond. The party was also a 21st birthday celebration for one of the friends of the band. They had 2 kegs, a large box of soft pretzels, a hot dog machine, a popcorn machine and a cotton candy machine! An aside, I turned on the power to the cotton candy machine just to see what it would do. After twirling around for about 5 seconds, the power for the entire block went out for about 3 minutes or so. Oops, sorry folks. Of course, we pretended like it had nothing to do with us. Just one block over, there was another block party with much of the same pomp. I don't think I have really seen anything like this since my early days in Pittsburgh.

Later that night, I went to a house party in the Philly suburbs in an upscale neighborhood (I have no idea where exactly). The back yard was ginormous (this word was just added to Merriam-Webster!) and had a regulation size soccer goal. I think I overheard that the hostess had played some college footie. I assumed the crowd would be the pretentious hipster sort by looking at them, but instead I found everyone to be friendly and talkative.

Community means different things in different places. Everyone knew each other on the block in my hometown. Now, outside of the artist that lives two flights up, I don't know anyone in my apartment complex. If this weekend taught me anything, it is that community is what you make of it... and I need to try harder.

Sunday, the original lineup (Matt and I) went to New York City for a total of two hours. However, while we were there we had the only $5 meal available anywhere in the City. 2 BBQ half chickens with sides, soup and drinks for a total of $12! Then we met up with old work friends Nick and Jessica and hopped across the Hudson and Hackensack rivers to catch D.C. United vs. Red Bull New York at Estadio de Los Gigantes at the Medowlands. While our boys didn't pull out the victory, we saw a hell of a header by the other team.

Aside from major road construction delays on the way back home, it was a solid weekend of enjoyable experiences.

See you on Saturday!

Show coming up, album going out, ships coming in

Ladies and Gents,
Two weeks ago I was sitting at the old, crackity mactop twiddling knobs and wondering "wow, what sounds better: not-so-good, or not-so-bad" shoring up work on 4 tracks. Turns out, once you settle in on middle-fi, it all looks rosy. Think about it: DIYing will limit your budget but will not limit your creativity. The end result might not be super-pro, but we're not a super-pro kind of band. We're more of a "make it up as you go along" kind of band. More than that, we're open source. Tinker, tinker, tinker. If anybody asked me for tracks, I would probably give it to them to see if they could make it sound different, better, or even worse (Mark, I burned you a DVD but haven't sent it!)

So here we go, two weeks later we are gearing up for our first show in 18 months on July 28th. I am psyched, it's like Christmas in July. Not only that, but we're playing Dr. Dremo's, a place we have yet to play in the DC area. It's not a rock club. It's not a pool hall. It's not a typical venue. MORE THAN THAT, we are raising money for a charity that is very, very, very close to me: The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. If you've read anything in this blog, you probably read the one about my dad's memorial donations going to them. I actually agreed to this show before I knew the charity, so this is the icing on the cake. BUT wait, Jon can't make it because it's his birthday and he'll be in NYC, so Matt Sedlar, our former bassist, has stepped up. We never had a chance to give him a proper goodbye, since his departure coincided with a downtime for the band. We might also have a sax sit in, depends how much cramming we can get done.

"Summer Music..." has gone back to mixing for some tweaks, but will be delivered to mastering. Yes, it has been 3 years. But there are reasons.

What else? Philly is beautiful today. Thunderstorms swept through last night, taking the heat but leaving palpable humidity, with a slight breeze. It's somewhat tropical, and not in a "jeez, I'm melting" kind of way. More of a "dood, this could be the Keys" which seldom happens in the mid-Atlantic in balm season. Anne and I met a night where I wore a beloved green beater button-down, and an undershirt, and I swapped out sweating through one and carrying the other as it dried out, and changing when need be. Like I said, it's Christmas in July, only a little more humid, but not enough to drop you. Dig.

xo,
mcmfa

This Ain't No Chinese Democracy

Our album is now mixed. We would like to thank the Army of Emotional Support for pulling us through this one. Realize, we have gone through 3 and a half band members in the process. I say "and a half" because we have been itching to introduce a 4th member, but delayed as the record was delayed. Not to mention personal stuff. We are now "older" and "wiser" which in rock is the mafioso kiss on the cheek, but we'll let you decide that.

So here we go, the master recordings are going to the masterer (I'd make a "Yes, Master!" joke, but that is actually a legit, operational business, and we do not want to create the impression we are looking elsewhere) in the District.

Stay tuned for a show announcement, if you are still there. This feels like falling asleep on the telephone. You still want to listen to what she's saying, but next thing you know you've awaken to forgetting whether or not you've hung the telephone up or not!

Yours in scouting,
mfa

Chinese Firedrill

"Living this life/is like trying to learn Latin/in a Chinese Firedrill"

You know, if I were able to report that I'd be a slouch and that is why the record is not mixed yet, I might feel better about my place in the Universe. How do I say that I have been working really, really hard at learning how to mix? How do I say that we "ran out of money" for the project and brought the mixing in house? How do I say that I have already scrapped four song mixes in favor of fine tuning my ears?

I like to wear lots of hats, it just so happens now I am a producer. I did the remix EP to prove I could, and now I am mixing the remainder of our record. It is sounding good. Anne has been an invaluable resource: she will not BS me and say "sounds good" to spare my feelings. If it sounds like used kitty litter, she'll say it sounds like used kitty litter.

The thing is, I like a nice, dense mix. I like combining several elements and making sonic burgoo. Where some people might like to a sparse drum, bass, guitar mix, I want to drop the guitar and replace it all with synths and a vague mellotron.

So that's me, I am tweaking here and there, EQing everywhere, and shining these nuggets.

Oh, and playing in a cover band for a big family party. Got a PA (my first!) for the vocals and for the iPod DJ afterward. We have 3 vocalists (4 if you count Anne, but she has relegated herself to learning to play bass before trying to play and sing!) We've been practicing since March, and know our set backwards and forwards. Okay, so just forwards, but still, that's something!

Summertime rolls...

ps- I am 100% free of the bean (coffee). Well, I had a half cup with Anne on our anniversary whilst watching Meet the Press, but other than that, I'm decaf.

Songs for Your Bean

Getting ready for a busy summer, I have decided, once again, to quit coffee. Jim probably thinks I am crazy, but really, I think it's what is keeping me up at night. And not in that great, James Mercer kind of way where I am brilliantly composing songs out of a bad situation with drug-addled neighbors. More in that "man, maybe I do have that restless leg syndrome I make fun of the TV for advertising"

But I dig the bean. One of my favorite things is sitting in my mom's kitchen and sipping coffee in the morning. That's the thing, it's all about habit, and partially to do with the gas-on-a-brushfire effect you get for the first month but goes away, leaving you with a phantom limb.

Oh yeah, I give up and take up coffee all the time. This last time getting into coffee was directly related to dad passing. Weird, eh? The man could drink some coffee. Once asking him how much coffee he'd drink in a day, he responded a whopping "up to 10 cups, basically it's all I drink in the morning." So I have used the bean to get myself out of bed, and to coax myself onto the train when I couldn't drive.

Get ready for summer, kids. Give up something you love to get something better in return. Puritan Self-Denial Beach Blanket Bingo anyone?

ps- this is Led Zep summer. does anyone remember love?