Dave Marsh

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Dave Marsh passed away in August. From the 1970s onward, he was one of the best-known music writers in the US. I’ve experienced two major bereavements in the past year, and that’s made me much more aware of how important it is to honour those who have passed, by speaking their names and telling their stories. I could write a very long piece about Dave’s influence on the profession of music writing, but instead I want to tell the story of a small kindness he extended to me that had a big impact.

I first got to know Dave’s music writing through Continue reading →

Jill

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This past Thursday was the first full day off I’d had for a couple of weeks. I was sitting in a coffee shop, drinking a latte and doing a word puzzle, and decided to look at my email on my phone. Just as I opened my email account, a message came in, with a subject line so shocking I thought at first I had misread it. “Jill died in a house fire.”

“Jill” is Jill Sobule, who I took songwriting classes with during the pandemic. The email was from a friend in my online songwriting group – a group that grew out of Jill’s classes. The heartfelt tributes from Jill’s friends and colleagues describe what I saw in those classes. She was generous, kind, incredibly talented, and funny. I’m so grateful that I got to learn from her.

In the 1990s, I knew Jill from her hit singles:  “I Kissed A Girl” from her second album, and “Supermodel” from the soundtrack of the movie Clueless. (“Two-hit wonder”, she always pointed out whenever someone called her a “one-hit wonder”.)  I started following her on Twitter around 2018 or so, because her Tweets were hilarious. Then in April 2021, when we were all stuck at home during the pandemic, Jill announced on Twitter that she would be doing a series of online songwriting classes. I thought about it, and got up the courage to DM her. I asked whether absolute beginners could participate, and she replied, “Sure!”

I’ve taken music lessons and can read music, but other than singing in choirs at school I’ve never been a performing musician. And as much as I like music, I had never felt the impulse to write songs. Obviously I like to write prose, and I can make up little melodies to entertain myself, but I had no idea how anyone went about connecting those two things. I had concluded that other people had the songwriting gene, but I did not.

Jill in the video for “Supermodel”. (photo credit: YouTube)

But when I saw Jill’s offer, I thought, well, she writes great songs, and if I write about music I should probably learn something about how songwriting works. So, with some degree of apprehension, I signed up for the four class sessions.

At the start of the very first class, Continue reading →

Led Zeppelin’s Lunchtime Concert

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I recently saw the documentary Becoming Led Zeppelin. Throughout it there were montages of ticket stubs, concert posters, and the like, to illustrate how much the band toured – and every time I glimpsed something that mentioned “Vancouver” it made me laugh. Not because I saw any of those shows – although I think half of my high school was at one or both of the Led Zeppelin shows here in 1975 – but because I was half-hoping there would be a mention of one of Vancouver’s greatest urban legends: Led Zeppelin’s lunchtime concert.

This is the story. Led Zeppelin were booked to play here in spring 1970. Allegedly, upon arriving in this fair city, they decided that Continue reading →

Fountains of Wayne Book Now Available

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My new book Fountains of Wayne is now officially on sale.

The band announced two live shows this summer – their first in more than a decade – just before the book went to the printer! Thankfully, there was enough time to stop the production process, and to revise the manuscript to include this very unexpected but wonderful news.

Links to purchase Fountains of Wayne are here, for both print and eBook formats.  I hope you enjoy reading it.

Happy Holidays 2024

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2024 was a very good year in music, for me. I saw some excellent shows, I listened to some excellent albums and singles, and I got to write about some excellent musical artists. I really can’t complain.

I’ll be taking a few weeks off during the end of 2024 and the start of 2025. Thank you to everyone who’s visited Writing on Music this year, and who’s read, commented or shared posts from this blog. It’s very much appreciated. My best wishes to you for a restful holiday season, and for a happy and prosperous 2025.

Ambient

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A few months ago, I had never heard of William Basinski, and had never heard any of his music. But lately I’ve been getting into ambient music, because I like listening to it at work – it’s calming but it also helps me be productive. I wanted to explore the genre beyond its best known artists, i.e. Brian Eno and his collaborators, so I looked online for recommendations of other ambient albums. A Reddit thread on the topic of “best ambient album ever” had more than a few mentions of Basinski’s Disintegration Loops albums, so I found those on YouTube and started playing them.

The Disintegration Loops are astounding. The title is literal; Basinski took old analog tapes that he recorded decades ago, looped them into a reel-to-reel tape machine, and played them until the tapes physically fell apart. It sounds bizarre, but it’s fascinating to listen to, as the sounds on the loops gradually devolve and deconstruct.

Since this is not exactly mainstream commercial music, imagine my surprise when this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival program was released, and one of the scheduled events was a live performance by Basinski. From not even being aware of him to suddenly encountering his work and being enraptured by it, and now he was coming to play live in my city? I know when the universe is trying to tell me something. So I bought a ticket, and went to the show this week.

Being something of a newbie to this whole ambient scene, I had no idea whether there would be lots of people at the show, or embarrassingly few (which has happened at a few VIFF events I’ve attended). When I got to the theatre, Continue reading →

“Before The Dawn”, 10 Years Later

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Monday, August 26, marks the 10th anniversary of the starting date of Before The Dawn, the 22 live shows by Kate Bush that were her first concert performances since 1979.

As I wrote in this blog post, when I got the completely unexpected notification about these shows, I knew I had to go – and I did. I saw three of the shows, and even now, 10 years later, they are still among the best live performances I’ve ever seen. Not just for the quality of the music, but for the incredible staging, theatricality, and attention to detail.

In 2016, Kate released a live album of the show’s music. At least three of the shows were filmed, according to people who had their seats at the shows moved to accommodate the equipment. Supposedly the filming was for a DVD, but Continue reading →