Jillian Lubow’s Neighborhood

I'm glad to be back in Brooklyn . . .

Niko Taylor
Jan 15, 2008
1 comment

. . . but, boy, does this photo make me miss San Francisco!

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"In Your Arms" (new song)

In Your Arms

Nicholas Taylor

So I've finally recorded a new song. It's been so long. This one was written out in San Francisco, but I didn't get a chance to record it until I got back to New York. I'm pretty happy with it, and it was a lot of fun to work on harmonies.

Now that I've got this song recorded, there's just one more I'd like to get on tape before putting together a few shows. I'll definitely do another open mike, but I may also try to get a proper show of my own. Anyway, I'll keep you posted on that.

As usual, you can listen above or head over here for the downloadable mp3. Enjoy!

Digital drawback?

Niko Taylor
Dec 30, 2007
2 comments

I've been feeling a bit strung out lately by the digital world. As is obvious to anyone who knows me, I'm a geek: I love gadgets and the Web and computers and all that stuff. But more and more, I feel its making me a very material person, one caught up in craving and desiring and wanting. Following the up-to-the-minute news on the latest Mac or iPod makes me feel like I have to have one, which then makes me feel like I'm not making enough money if I can't afford one, which then makes me re-think my career choices and my priorities and . . . ugh! Enough! That is no way to live.

So I've made the decision to try to cut back on some of my digital consumption. I've pruned the list of blogs I subscribe to in Google Reader and I've drastically cut down on my podcast subscriptions: as much as it pains me, I've decided to not follow tech and Apple and all that as closely as I have been. I love my iPod, I love my Mac, but they're just tools for accessing what I really love: music, creativity, sports, photography, friends, etc. It's funny, I love the tools so much that I tend to forget what jobs the tools are meant to perform!

Speaking of cutting back on the one's and zero's, yesterday Jill and I helped our friends Matt and Lauren move into their new Clinton Hill apartment. They're really big into vinyl and, though lugging those records up three flights was no fun, it was yet another reminder to me of all the non-digital ways to access the things you love. As hackneyed as it may sound, there really is something different about listening to a record: slipping the beautiful black disk out of the sleeve, holding the huge and beautiful artwork in your hands, dropping the heavy needle on that spinning platter . . . there's something physical and organic about it, something way better than the mp3 experience. True, you can't make smart playlists or listen to your whole collection on shuffle or take it with you in your pocket -- but in a way, that's nice. It forces you to slow down, to appreciate an album as an album, to sit and listen to just one artist, to enter just one mood. Look, I'm not trading in my iPod for anything, but seeing Matt and Lauren's record collection inspired me to dig out my turntable, pull out my records, and rekindle the love affair with the LP. And who knows, the next album I buy might actually be an album, not a digital mp3 download! (But then, of course, there's the environmental impact of plastic vs. bits . . . oh goodness, things are so complicated! I'll have to take that up another time.)

To finish off, here's a nice pic of Matt from moving day, taken with my sweet new Canon Rebel:

Matt on moving day

Niko's featured artist interview over at "Shut Your Mouth"!

I've had the great honor of being a featured artist over at "Shut Your Mouth," a Pearl Jam fan site. Murray, who runs the excellent site, put out a call to his readers, trying to find out who among them were musicians themselves. Murray will then be interviewing the featured Pearl Jam fans/artists and providing download links to their stuff. The interview we did last week has just gone up -- you can find it here. I'm pretty psyched about spreading the word a little bit about what I'm doing, and the interview itself was a lot of fun -- we wound up talking a lot about the creative process, which, as you may know, I absolutely love exploring and dissecting!

Once Jill and I are back in New York, I'm going to record two new songs that are in the can. Also, I'm going to look into setting up a performance -- either another open mic or perhaps a show of my own (it might be nice to play more than two songs!). Also, I might hook up with my friend Elana for some musical collaboration, which is something I haven't done in a long, long time. Should be interesting . . . And I've just got my hands on a cassette tape of the demo recording of Revolver, the band I was in during high school. In some ways it still sounds pretty good, especially this one song of my called "Boxcars." Once I can figure out how to do the cassette-to-mp3 conversion, I'll post some of those tracks.

Lastly, here are a few of my favorite recent pictures. I am so happy with the Canon EOS Rebel DSLR Jillian got me for Christmas. It can really take excellent pictures with not a lot of tinkering.

Baby Christopher

Quick kitty

A dewy San Francisco morning

Grassy hill, with fog in the distance, the Castro

Here's a photo a took this weekend with my brand-new DSLR Nikon Rebel, which Jill was so kind to give to me for the holidays! I'm pretty happy with this shot, especially the focus of the grass in the foreground contrasted to the blurry fog in the background.

I really love taking pictures, and I can't wait to get more familiar with all the techniques involved. It's fun learning something new, being reduced to a beginner again. Very humbling, very healthy.

Pete Townshend, "Drowned," 1979 Secret Policeman's Ball

Pete Townshend, "Drowned"

If you've spent more than just a few minutes speaking to me ever in your entire life, you probably know that I love the Who. In fact, you probably know that I love Pete Townshend and really, really, really want to be him. Actually, I've blogged about this subject before, in reference to the Who's transcendent performance of "A Quick One While He's Away" at the Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus in 1968 (click here for that earlier post). Well, I'm back at it again, this time in response to a beautiful and spellbinding performance found on the ol' You Tube. "Drowned" is a wonderful, inspirational track found on the Who's mammoth double album Quadrophenia, but in the original studio recording it's done with the full band. In this stripped-down acoustic version, you can really hear the wonderful songwriting craft come out, as well as the manic fury of Townshend's playing, especially at the end. I mean, come on, this guy could freakin' rock even on an acoustic guitar. I've said before and I'll say again: Pete Townshend, you are my hero.

Blogger Reborn

Being out here in San Francisco has been so transformative in so many ways. One great effect has been my increased level of blogging. If you check out the San Francisco blog that Jill and I are keeping, Flowers in Our Hair, you'll see that I've been blogging like a madman, especially in the last few weeks. Having to keep friends and family up to date on our doings has inspired me to be a much more diligent Web writer and sharer. Now that we're headed back for New York (fewer than two days from now!), I really want to keep up with that productivity, to build on that, to not let it go to waste.

So look for this site to transform from pretty much just a way for me to share my music into a fully formed blog: I'll still post and share and discuss my music, but I'll also cover my photography, my other interests, and just the general doings in my life. You know, a blog. (Duh.)

So raise a glass to Niko, the blogger reborn!

moving

Doug
Nov 11, 2007
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I'm moving my thoughts over to a new location from here on out: http://cricketsinperil.com/

Niko's Growing a "Mo" for Charity!

Hey all,

Check out this post over at our San Francisco blog for details about my mustache-growing charity campaign!

All best,

Niko

Thom Yorke, "Videotape"

In the last few weeks, there's been a lot of talk about Radiohead's new album, which apparently is finished but won't be released until 2008 (I think they're still looking for a new record label). I came across this really high-quality video of Thom Yorke performing one of the new songs, "Videotape," by himself with a piano. If this song is any indication, this album is going to be really amazing. I find this haunting, beautiful, and really, really impressive. I especially like "You are my center / when I spin away / out of control / on videotape."

In my own song writing, I hope that I can one day approximate Thom Yorke's focus, his emotional power -- I think this song aims at a certain mood and really drives it home in every element (voice, lyrics, song structure, chords, everything).

In case you're curious about the level of my Radiohead interest, check out my Pop Matters review of Amnesiac from a few years ago. Yes, I'm really into them. It's scary.

I can't wait for the new record . . .