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Category: Music

POEM: Careful With That Gene, You Ax

Published 10 December 2019 by Fievel

Careful With That Gene, You Ax

This is what happens when you listen to
early Pink Floyd in the office with the volume
cranked way up. It’s almost closing time
& nearly everyone is gone. The guitar sounds
like a scream, or maybe the scream sounds
like a guitar. I let the music scream for me
because if my coworkers walked in & found me
on the desk shrieking they’d probably call someone official.
I’ve got 14,532 steps on my Fitbit today & not one of them
landed me anywhere good.
Beige. Everything is beige.
I love stories about the sea because at sea
you can look out to the horizon and it’s infinite.
You can’t do that with beige.
I’m making money for the Big Boss.
All things being equal, I’d rather put him on a rocket
& set the controls for the heart of the sun.

/ / /

Jason Crane
9 December 2019
State College PA

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POEM: chorus

Published 10 November 2019 by Fievel

chorus

does a dog have Buddha nature?
is a cat a servant of God?
what is the light that shines
    through the universe?
where does the wind go
    as it blows from the sun?
deep in the farthest darkness
    a single light blinks
calling out I AM HERE
go far enough back & we were
    all one family
there beside a river in Botswana
go farther still & everything
    you’ve ever seen or heard or
    felt on the tip of your tongue
was a single point
    in an ocean of mystery
waiting to burst forth

hear the choir sing

/ / /

Jason Crane
9 November 2019
State College PA

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[Meeting Metal, Part 1] Black Sabbath — Sabotage

Published 24 October 2019 by Fievel

My pal and fellow poet Dave Bonta noticed some of the music I’ve been listening to and referred to it as “metal-adjacent.” I asked him to send along some recommendations for metal albums I should listen to and he did. You can see the whole playlist here. Each of these reviews is based on me listening to the album once with a notebook open on my lap, knowing nothing about it beforehand. At the bottom I’ll add any further thoughts generated by reading the album’s Wikipedia entry. You can find all the posts in this series here.

Black Sabbath — Sabotage

Summary
This wasn’t at all what I expected. This is one of just two bands on Dave’s list I’d heard before, though I haven’t heard much Sabbath at all and I’d never heard this record before. It’s much closer to hard rock and even prog rock than I thought it would be, and pretty far from my idea of what metal sounds like. (Remember throughout this series that I know next to nothing about metal.) For me, the final 20 seconds of the album, on which someone is playing an out-of-tune saloon piano while someone sings “blow on a jug” (I think) sums it all up: This record is funny, and I can’t tell when it intends to be and when it’s just the tropes of the world of metal that make me hear humor when none exists. I liked the record, and would definitely return to it.

Song Notes (written while listening)

  • “Hole In The Sky”
    • Sounds like mid-70s King Crimson at the beginning
    • Love the guitar (guitars?)
    • “I’m living free because the rent is never due”
  • “Don’t Start (Too Late)”
    • Whoa! what the hell happened?
    • I like this as a surprise palate cleanser
  • “Symptom of the Universe”
    • I mean, this is about a foot and a half over from prog rock
    • Very cool instrumental sections
    • Don’t know what year this album came out but I think it’s late 60s or early 70s? If so, you can really hear how Sabbath paved the way for what came after
    • GREAT song!
  • “Megalomania”
    • Led Zep vibes
    • this song, like this record, feels more hard rock/prog rock than my conception of metal
  • “The Thrill of it All”
    • “Won’t you help me, Mr. Jesus?”
    • Sabbath’s “Band On The Run”
  • “Supertzar”
    • Wait, when did the ELO album start?
    • Jethro Tull vibes, too
  • “Am I Going Insane?”
    • Sounds like the single for this album. I dig it.
  • “The Writ”
    • Love the low opening
    • Relentless
    • Oh wow this took a turn midway through
    • Last 20 seconds says it all — funny!

Wikipedia Post-Mortem (entry)
Sixth album, came out in 1975. Recorded with lawyers literally in the studio (!) because of legal trouble with management. Exact timing is disputed, but Sabbath did jam with Zeppelin at one point. Lyrics of “The Writ” were penned by Ozzy as a direct attack on their former manager. Wow, just one guitarist. I do know of Tony Iommi, but didn’t realize it was just him. Monstrous.

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SONG POEM: I Wanna Be A Regular

Published 18 April 2019 by Fievel

This is my first attempt at a rudimentary multi-track recording. I played all the instruments (diddley-bow, pandeiro, cajon) and wrote the poem. I recorded it using a Blue Snowball microphone and Audacity, neither of which is really designed for this purpose. But what the hell, I dig it and I’m learning. Enjoy!

The text of the poem is here.

Photo of the Hagyard Building in Lenox, MA, courtesy of Sally Gustavson.

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POEM: Charles Mingus Running Laps

Published 20 November 2018 by Fievel

Charles Mingus Running Laps

The new old Mingus was recorded
seven months before my own debut;
thirty-plus years before I made it to Detroit,
where Charles and Roy and Joe and
John and Don were still figuring out
the steps, some of them having only
recently been invited to dance.

There is space for all of us in music.
The misfits and the fits, if those
even exist. I’m skeptical myself.
But anyway there is room enough
at this kitchen party for you
and everyone you’ve ever known.
Hang up your coat and grab a drink.

I was a kid the first time I saw men play jazz.
My grandpa took me to hear Pete Fountain
and Al Hirt someplace. Rochester maybe. He knew
them from Lawrence Welk. At least that’s where he
learned about Pete. Toupee like a dare, clarinet
dancing like a baton as he made the uncool
cool. Saved my adolescence.

OK not actually. It still wasn’t cool to play jazz
in the eighties. Not as a nerdy white kid
in an all-white town forty-five minutes
from the birthplace of Chuck Mangione.
I did get a lot of hall passes from
the band teacher, and that was something.
Better than class. Way better than gym.

I like to picture Mingus sneaking out
of the locker room before his gym teacher
can line him up for dodgeball. Mingus who
might have flashed a blade at Duke. Mingus
who told racists in no uncertain terms
to fuck right off. Did he have to run laps,
gasping in the morning cold?

///

Jason Crane
20 November 2018
State College PA

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VIDEO: Eric, Desiree and Jason at Full Circle Center

Published 20 October 2018 by Fievel

The Full Circle Center in Mill Hall, PA.

Last night I joined Eric Ian Farmer (guitar, vocals) and Desiree Dennis (guitar, vocals, shaker, djembe) for a show at the Full Circle Center in Mill Hall, PA. It’s a magical space dedicated to healing and mindfulness, and the acoustics are amazing. Enjoy this video of the first half of the show. This was originally on Instagram Live, thus the vertical video. Sadly my phone died while filming the second half, and that video disappeared into the mists of time. I guess you had to be there. 🙂

FIRST HALF

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VIDEO: Ady, Eric and Jason at Chumley’s

Published 20 October 2018 by Fievel

Left to right: Jason Crane, Eric Ian Farmer, Ady Martinez, and Reinaldo, soundman extraordinaire.

I recently had the pleasure of performing with Ady Martinez (cuatro, vocals, shakers) and Eric Ian Farmer (guitar, cajon, vocals) at Chumley’s in State College, PA. Here are both sets. These were originally on Instagram Live, thus the vertical video. Also the first 16 minutes of the first set are sideways, but the music isn’t. Enjoy!

SET 1

SET 2

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POEM: the bodhisattva of Prospect Ave (all praise to Jah)

Published 16 February 2018 by Fievel

Photo by Jason Crane

the bodhisattva of Hamilton Ave (all praise to Jah)*

briskly walking (trying to get back
in some sort of shape) I spotted
the bodhisattva beneath a bush

the moss covering him like a robe
the leaves surrounding him
like an offering

at this point in the poem, I very much
want to tell you that I’m listening
to a killer Desmond Dekker track

“Rudie Got Soul” doesn’t have much
to do with a lone bodhisattva
forgotten under a bush

then again, maybe they have
everything
to do with one another

/ / /

Jason Crane
16 February 2018
State College PA

*As you can see from the title of this post, rather than the title of the poem, I had mistakenly placed this statue on Prospect Ave, rather on its true home, Hamilton Ave. Also, in the days since I wrote the poem, someone smashed the statue.

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POEM: on listening to Anonymous Choir sing “Only Love Can Break Your Heart”

Published 31 January 2018 by Fievel

on listening to Anonymous Choir sing
“Only Love Can Break Your Heart”

I turned the light back on
so I could get this down
so I could tell you to LISTEN

this music brooks no compromise
allows for no turning away
cuts to the innermost part of you

it’s 1 a.m. and the hotel is mostly sleeping
in room 215 there are women singing
& if you’re not careful it could be too much

this is more than rainfall
more than water over the dam
this is the ocean, sung into your heart

/ / /

Jason Crane
31 January 2018
Pittsburgh PA

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A song for Mumia Abu-Jamal

Published 14 October 2016 by Fievel

17 years ago, my friend David and I made a hip-hop track to support political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. We called our band Buddha Mind. This, our only single, is “Freedom of Speech.”

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Owen & Jason play “Honeybee” by Steam Powered Giraffe

Published 25 March 2016 by Fievel

Let me tell you a thing. I think I first had a girlfriend when I was 14 or 15. I’m 42 now, which means I’ve been dating people for 27 or 28 years. For all of that time, I’ve wanted to play music with someone I dated. Today, for the first time, it happened. I really can’t explain how happy this makes me, so I’ll just show you this video of us playing together. Every day I find new things to love about Owen.

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Packin’ styrofoam plates … to the Pharcyde

Published 4 December 2015 by Fievel

phar Back in, as it were, the day (summer of ’93), I worked in a Mobil factory in upstate New York packing styrofoam plates into plastic bags so they could be shipped to stores and cafeterias. It was a hot, boring job.

My coworkers were a very eclectic bunch. One of them had been a nuclear physicist in the Soviet Union but emigrated for political reasons and was now operating a plate-making machine because his English wasn’t great and his professional experience wasn’t recognized here. There were also some college kids like me, and a bunch of blue-collar folks from around the area.

One of the college kids was a young African-American woman. Up until that point in my life, I’d known maybe four or five African-Americans in my entire life. Three were family, two were classmates in high school. Our area was very, very white.

I can’t remember this woman’s name, but I do remember giving her a ride home one night from the factory. On the way home, she played me a cassette of Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde, the 1992 debut of the alternative hip hop group The Pharcyde. At that point in my life, I’d never listened to hip hop and knew next to nothing about it. Bizarre Ride was my first conscious experience of hip hop, and it was an eye opener. Funny, funky, jazzy (something I knew about), and fun.

It took me seven more years to really get into hip hop (via Black Star, The Roots, A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul), but I’ve never forgotten my first time.

Tonight, for the first time in about 20 years, I listened to Bizarre Ride all the way through. It still holds up. In fact, it might sound even stronger now. It’s a smart and adventurous record that has more infectious hooks and punchlines than you can believe.

The factory job sucked, but it gave me this record. So thanks, styrofoam.

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