Adventures in Busking, Vol. 1

I got a busking permit last week.

For those of you who don't know (and I'm constantly finding out that most people don't) busking is a fancy word for "street performing", thus making a "busker" one who performs on the street for donations.

The City of Santa Monica requires street performer's (musicians, magicians, drawers, painters, fortune tellers, etc.) to purchase a $37 permit that is good for the calendar year. If you perform without one you will get a ticket that is likely not cheap nor worth the trouble. So last Tuesday I went down to Santa Monica and waltzed into City Hall prepared to sign my check for $37 and walk out with my permit. Quick and easy. When I got there, however, I was informed that I needed to give them two passport sized photos of my beautiful face for them to put on the permit. The kind gentleman in the City Clerk's office (that's not sarcasm) told me that there is a photo booth on Santa Monica Pier that they will accept photos from if I wanted to try that route, so off I went on a mission. Parking in Santa Monica is not the easiest thing in the world but I was lucky enough to find a meter right in front of City Hall. Problem is that it was only a 40 minute meter, so I was gonna have to rush. For the record, I hate rushing...but I always end up putting myself in positions where I have to.

Anyhow, I start walking down to the pier which is only about 3 blocks away, but there is construction on a the main road there so I have to bypass that to make it around and down to the pier as time continues to tick away. When I got there I realized that (surprise, surprise) my broke ass had no money. So, first thing's first, I needed to find an ATM. Sounds easy enough, right? I mean, it's Santa Monica Pier. It's world famous. It's gotta have plenty of ATM's. Well apparently not. Despite this being a major tourist attraction (arguably the biggest tourist location in Los Angeles) I only found 2 ATM's, and of those one was "Out of Service." So, after paying a $3 service charge I finally had my $20 and it was off to find the photo booth. *tick tock*

The photo booth costs $5 and, of course, only takes exact amounts (in all fairness though, that was to be expected). Anyhoo, the "restaurant" next to the photo booth wouldn't make change unless I bought something, and I didn't have time to mess about trying to get a $5 bill somewhere else so I bought a bottle of Pepsi bottled tap water for $2.75 and was finally in business. Once I got over the lameness of going into a photo booth alone I got my pictures and was ready to go.

So, I rushed back to City Hall, filled out the paper work, gave the dude my photo strip so he could cut out one of the pictures and gave him a $37 check for the privilege of being ignored by hundreds of people in one fell swoop while attempting to procure donations. I then rushed to my car and made it there sans ticket with 2 minutes to spare on my meter! *Phew!*

I picked up my permit on Friday and am now a proudly licensed street performer in the City of Santa Monica. And it only cost me about $50. Hopefully I can make that amount back quickly and start making a little loot so I can continue to avoid a normal job.

Top 5 Records of 2007

These are my Top 5 Records of 2007. The criteria isn't so much that the record came out in 2007 (though some did) but that I was first introduced to them in 2007. All of these records affected me in one way or another and I find myself coming back to them continually throughout the year. They are not listed in any particular order.


1. Sean Lennon - Friendly Fire

I saw Sean Lennon on MySpace and visited his sight as an, "Oh God, let's see what this is all about" sarcastic reaction. Much to my incredible surprise I was blown away by the youngest Lennon. His voice is a bit thin and nasal but the songs, melodies, production and orchestration are amazing.

Highlights: "Dead Meat", "Tomorrow"


2. Silverchair - Young Modern

To those of you who know me this should come as no surprise. Silverchair is undoubtedly one of my favorite bands of all time and I've taken a lot of shit for that. But Daniel Johns is a true rock star in an era when rockstars are few and far between. He has a killer voice and continues to grow musically. Add to that the orchestrations of Van Dyke Parks (the Beach Boys) and the addition of Paul Mac (the Dissociatives) and you have the Aussies' most ambitious record to date.

Highlights: "Those Thieving Birds", "Waiting All Day", "If You Keep Losing Sleep"


3. Ambulance LTD - Ambulance LTD

I was introduced to this band via a car commercial. After learning who they were from one of my friends (that means you Mary) I went to my favorite used CD store (CD Trader in Tarzana) and promptly made the purchase. That was in the summer and the disc hasn't left my car CD player since. Every song on this disc is great in it's own right. Few bands understand the use of space in a song and let songs breathe and take on a life of their own the way that Ambulance LTD does. It's a great CD to put on while you're driving, cleaning, dinking around....whatever. It has great individual tracks, but I recommend listening to it in it's entirety.

Highlights: "Primitive (The Way I Treat You)", "Anecdote"


4. Sigur Rós - ( )

I was listening to this CD last night and it is what prompted me to make up this list. Sigur Rós is an Icelandic band that can be best described as Ambient. No band explores musical ideas to the extent that these guys do and each one of their songs kind of takes on a life of it's own. Nevermind the fact that you have no idea what he's singing about, because it doesn't matter. All of the emotion and meaning comes through the music and it's delivery.

Highlights - "Track 3"


5. Radiohead - In Rainbows

Again, no surprise. One of my favorite bands of all time, I was extremely excited when I downloaded In Rainbows. Like listening to any Radiohead album for the first time, I didn't know quite what to expect. The record stays true to their development and doesn't sound like any other Radiohead album, but sounds influenced by all of them. Jonny Greenwood's orchestration rises to the top on this latest collection and the song writing hasn't slowed down either. In Rainbows features arguably the most beautiful song that the quintet has ever released ("Nude") and arguably the phattest beat that they've ever written ("All I Need"). Besides, how can you argue with a song that starts out with the lyrics "Wakey wakey, rise and shine..."? That's right, you can't.

Highlights - "Nude", "All I Need", "Faust Arp"

Buon Natale

Give the gift of Dave Carducci this Christmas and save 25%. Offer good thru January 2.

Cafe Classics - Dec. 28

Come celebrate the weekend between Christmas and New Year's with Dave at Cafe Classics in Monroe on Friday, December 28 at 7:30pm. There may or may not be some specials guests and a possible Freezing Mingus reuinion. Whether you know what that means or not, I assure you that it won't disappoint......or your money back. (p.s......it's free)

Semi-Unrelated Sidebar:

If you like Christmas songs and crooners, go here and download Richard Hawley's version of Silent Night from his MySpace. It's dreamy, and free.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,

~dc~

With the lights out

For some reason VH1 Classic has a thing for Nirvana right now. I just watched thier MTV Unplugged from 1993 and now they are replaying a show that I watched yesterday about the making of Nevermind (which is a really neat behind the scenes look).

Seeing these shows is a bit weird for me. I remember being so excited about the Unplugged show and album when I was a kid and now I've been alive longer than I had been at the time the show originally aired (for those who can't follow that poorly constructed sentence it's been 14 years since it aired and I was 13 at the time). It's also strange because I am older now than Cobain was when he died*.

It's moments like these that musicians begin to question themselves. I mean, Cobain was dead by my age, so was Hendrix, and Morrison.....hell, Ringo (the oldest Beatle) hadn't even celebrated his 30th birthday when McCartney made the break-up official. So, what am I saying? I don't know. I guess just that it's time (in the eloquent words of my mother) to shit or get off the pot. '07 is nearly over and I've finally made some good strides, but it's time to really get it going and I'm confident and convinced that 2008 will be the Year of the Dave. That being said, look for more shows, more songs and more developments in the new year.

By the by, if you haven't listened to Nevermind in awhile throw it in your CD player, on your iPod, your Zune (does anyone actually own one of those?) or whatever it is that you listen to music on and give it a good play. I'm not talking just "Smells Like Teen Spirit" either. Do the right thing and listen to the whole album the way that it's supposed to be listened to. It's a damn fine record and stands up just as well today as it did 16 years ago when it was released.

*You say suicide, I say something more sinister. But maybe that because I love a good conspiracy.

Accessorize with Care

The national media and some (maybe most) conservatives are "angry" at Barack Obama because he said that he was no longer going to wear an American flag lapel pin, which obviously makes him unpatriotic. I mean let's be honest here. If you can't even bring yourself to wear a pro-USA accessory on your chest then how can I trust that you'll do patriotic things like leak intelligence information to the press?

Radiohead

At long last Radiohead have announced on their website Dead Air Space that their 7th LP, In Rainbows, is finally coming out! Needless to say, I'm pretty excited about this.

As of right now the album is only available at InRainbows.com (which you can also get to by typing in Radiohead.com). Your pre-ordered download will be available on October 10. How much does this new Radiohead album cost, you ask? It's completely up to you. With the exception of the addition £0.45 debit/credit card fee you can choose the price that you pay for the download. And yes, you can choose £0.01 if you'd like. If you want more than just a download they also offer a Discbox which includes 2 CDs, photos, artwork, lyric booklets and the record on vinyl for £40, which is about $80.

I didn't mean to just write out an advert, but I'm excited and don't want those of you who care to miss out as I'm not sure how long this deal will last. Will they continue to sell like this and totally bypass the traditional brick-and-mortar distribution system or is this just a warm-up before they license the album to a major? If it's the former (which I hope and suspect it is) it'd be quite a revolutionary thing for a band of their stature, or any band for that matter, to do. A big "fuck you" to the major labels and the current dying system. They don't need distribution, they've got the internet. And they sure as hell don't need iTunes when they can send all of their fans to one location, regardless of their location, to download the record via their company W.A.S.T.E.

It's brilliant really. Set your own price!? They understand that music is a thing of value that should be paid for, but they don't want to shove it down people's throats. They have a large enough rabidly loyal fan-base to know that the people interested in a new Radiohead album are willing to pay for it and that most of them are willing to pay what they see to be a reasonable price. For every person who bought the album for £0.46 they're probably 20 who bought it for at least £5 and likely more than that.

There's a lot of talk in this industry about "nurturing your fans," and a lot can be learned from this situation. It's truly revolutionary; and though most artists can't go to this extreme and assuredly recoup their expenses like it is doubtless Radiohead will, we can learn that empowering your fans breeds loyalty and that a little credibility goes a long way.

I Love A Good Story

Warning: This is not a good story.



I had a show last Sunday for a comedy story telling theatre event called I Love A Good Story. Since this was a theatre thing (and because I'm dapper) I wanted to look good for this event. I'm on the side of the stage the entire time, playing songs in between stories and acted out commercials (it's for a podcast) ala a pre-television radio program. This obviously calls for a 3-piece Untouchables suit. So on Sunday "morning" I headed to my local Goodwill in search of such an outfit.

As luck would have it I hit the proverbial jackpot within minutes of entering the store. The very first suit that I picked out was a 3-piece deep navy blue pin-striped suit that fit me to perfection. it was my lucky day...or so I thought.

After purchasing my new stellar find, I got no more than 3 steps out of the Goodwill when I realized that I had left behind my zip-up hoodie that I removed to try on the best and jacket. I didn't think this would be much of a problem, but it turns out that clothes left lying around at thrift stores don't last long. I went back in, looked around, talked to the cashier, inspected every customer...no dice. In the 3 minutes that could have passed between me taking off the sweatshirt and coming back into the store someone had managed to purchase it from another cashier and leave the premises before I even noticed it was missing. So even though I got an awesome suit for $19.99, I lost a $40 hoodie in the process. Rat bastards.

Because Steve Jobs said so

Don't like CDs?
Don't want all 9 songs? *tear*
Only listen to music on your iPod?
Need instant gratification and don't want to wait for the CD to be shipped to you?

Worry not, dear prospective fan, for you can now purchase Trouble and Debris on iTunes. *hooray*

Buy individual tracks, or do the right thing and get the whole album. The choice is yours.

Click here to get your copy(ies) today!

Dave's in a coutry band?

I haven't written about this yet because I wanted to get some rehearsals under our belt and make sure that it was for real, but since I'm sitting around waiting to go to rehearsal I may as well let y'all know. I've recently joined L.A. singer-songwriter Julie Neumark's band as a utility player. Julie is a fellow Midwesterner whose music can loosely be categorized as roots rock/americana with a pop/rock bent. I'm sort of a jack of all trades in this band and am singing backing vocals as well as playing keyboards, guitar, bass and even a little violin.

We've been rehearsing for a couple of months and play our first show in L.A. on October 28 in the building where the Doors recorded "L.A. Woman". Since Julie is from Cincinnati I'm sure that we'll be playing there some time in early 2008 and will hopefully start touring a bit in '08 as well.

I should state, however, that in no way do I plan on slowing down with my own music as a result of playing with Julie. Rather I see this as a great opportunity for my musical career that has the potential to be successful and open a lot of doors while leading to other opportunities. Besides all that, it's a lot of fun to be playing in a band again (I haven't done that in about 7 years) and to be playing with some really good musicians.

If you want to check out a bit of Julie's music go to her MySpace page and add her as a friend. Also, stay tuned for show and tour announcement likely in the new year.

Cheers,

Dave

And so it begins

Alright folks, some exciting news coming from the offices of Dave Carducci and Associates.

This coming Thursday at 00:00 (PDT) producer Nels Jensen and I will enter Studio A at Musicians Institute in Hollywood to begin the recording of my follow-up to Trouble and Debris. After having a couple of production meetings, Nels and I are really excited about the direction in which these songs are headed. We hope to get all of the acoustic guitars recorded during the 6 hour session which will doubtless be the first of many on the road to LP2.

Wish us well (for we need not luck) and I'll keep you posted on further recording developments.

Ciao,

Dave