Good Music, Good People

I have been very lucky with the bands that I dig in that of those bands/artsists I have met, everyone has been extremely gracious and friendly.

I once interviewed Kurt Dahle and Carl Newman of New Pornographers and they basically shot the shit with me for half-an-hour. When asking them why Neko Case is always referred to by critics as an "alt-country chanteuse," we had to look up the definition of chanteuse. Later I made a crack about Sloan and NP having a Royal Rumble for the right to be Canada's top power pop band and Carl gamely remarked, "We would kick Sloan's fucking ass!" Good guys.

Chatting with Doug Gillard before a Guided By Voices show I mentioned that my band was covering a GBV b-side he had written and how I was having trouble figuring out the opening guitar riff. He immediately grabbed a guitar and taught me all of "Avalanche Aminos" before they went on stage.

Charles Bissell of the Wrens is one of the nicest guys I have ever met. After getting all fanboy and gushing about The Meadowlands to him at a solo show, I emailed the band's website administrator asking if he could find out the name of a cover that Charles had played at his performance. Later that day I received an email from Charles with the name of the tune ("Black Boys on Mopeds") and a thank you for coming to the show.

Just today I sent an email to Ashmont Records thanking them for delivering my pre-ordered copy of the new Pernice Brothers album ahead of schedule. In the email I had made a very geeky math joke about the label which was found funny enough to forward on to Joe Pernice. Just a bit ago he sent me an email -- apparently he enjoys a good math reference as much as me -- offering to put me on the guest list for their show at the Black Cat. Score!

I guess my point is that there are so many successful musicians out there who are wildly solipsistic and egomaniacal and thus have no concept anymore of what it means to be a human being. But we forgive their trangressions because the value of their art often outweighs the pettiness of their character. So when artists are successful (here of course within the All Things Relative indie rock paradigm) and are regulary told how wonderful they are, yet still do things that are gracious and courteous, it adds even greater value to what they create.

Service with a smile, you know...