The Changing Zeitgeist (Thank God!)

Here's a piece I drafted a few months ago. I didn't post it right away because I'm attempting to be more positive, so anytime I write something critical I tend to sit on it for a while. But it's short, it's true, and it's kinda funny. Though it may seem to have nothing to do with the new album, this essay is a glimpse into our current state of mind, and our state of mind will no doubt have a big influence on the album.

I was born in 1980. For my entire life, the baby boomers have controlled money, power, culture, politics, pretty much everything. Oddly the generation who claims rock and roll, civil rights, and enlightenment as their own couldn't wait to sell out. Big box stores. Corporate monopolies. SUVs. Tacky subdivisions. Ponzi Schemes. Reality TV...
.......bleccccchhhhhhhh..... 
I worked at a used boat dealership for one summer in my mid twenties. The owner was just as smarmy as you might expect, complete with the gold crusted watch and classic hot rod collection. His motto was "It's not what you say, but how you say it." I doubt Jim came up with this on his own, he probably read it in How To Win Conversations and Influence Buyers or The Seven Habits of People Who Attend Leadership Seminars. If you're around my age, chances are you've been employed by someone similar. Nearly every business has been run this way for at least the last 40 years. Watch any commercial, drive past any strip mall, read the ingredients on the juice flavored drink product for kids.
The boomers never met a slick slogan they didn't like. The bigger the company and the more robotic it's employees, the better. A snappy scripted telephone greeting is their idea of customer service. These empty suits have built empires on such bullshit virtues. They're successful. They're in charge. And they're not going to listen to you.
Now, we're in our late twenties / early thirties and we've become our own marketing demographic. We're buying our first homes, getting married, having kids, starting businesses, making records, getting involved. If a business wants to succeed in the next 40 years, they're going to have to appeal to us. And for some reason, the old shuck and jive doesn't work on us. Not even a little bit. We know when we're being lied to, we know when the person on the other end of the line or standing across from us is just following a script. And we don't like it.
So guess what? We get to watch the dinosaurs go extinct right before our eyes. If your boss insists that you "hone your schtick" just smile and nod, knowing that his or her days are numbered. I swear, we've been browbeaten our entire lives to accept things as true even though we know them to be false. And for a long time the liars were right- by virtue of winning and being in charge. But the truth always comes out. If someone tells you 2+2=5 don't believe them, even if they have a twinkle in their eye and a smirk on their face. It's not how you say it, it's what you say. 

New Record Time!

I've been writing lately about other bands and other things, because the Charlatans have been in pre-production for our new album. This Sunday, pre-production will simply become production. That's right, we're finally headed into the studio! I plan to write quite a bit in the ensuing weeks about the recording process. I've also got a few posts in the can about tangential subjects (The Beach Boys, The Peter Pan Syndrome, etc...) which I plan to weave in. And I hope to do some Q & A segments with the other band members, production folks, and guest musicians. But for starters, every record has a backstory. In fact, every record likely has many different backstories as each person involved comes in with their own baggage and their own hopes and dreams. For this record, here is the abridged backstory from the Drumist's perspective:

On October 5th, we go into the studio to begin tracking of our new album. This site was initially conceived as documenting our journey as a band from inception to notoriety and  profitability. Also, my personal journey of picking up the pieces after Scotland Barr, realizing what I really need to focus on (music), and starting over with an all new (sort of) band.

I say “sort of” because, in fact, Bradley Wik & The Charlatans has become Bradley Wik and Three Slow Drags. It didn’t start out that way! But shortly after recording our first EP as a three piece way back in 2009 it became clear that we needed a lead guitarist. That’s no slight on Bradley’s guitar playing. He is actually a fantastic guitarist. But this band needed a big sound, and the novelty of a power trio never held much sway when weighed against the versatility of a full four piece rock and roll band.

Enter Brian Bergstrom. Brian and I are, I suppose, musical soul mates. We’ve been making music together since I was 19 and we’ve each found our way into every band the other has been a part of. Our respective influences differ greatly, but also overlap at all the important parts. I can’t imagine making music without him. So of course, when we needed a lead guitarist, there was only one call to be made. And yes, Brian served a stint playing bass in The Slow Drags.

Our first full length album was recorded in 2011 and came out in 2012. The time between completion and release was a difficult one, as the band experienced some growing pains. It’s unfortunate but not uncommon that relationships ebbed and flowed amongst band members during those uncertain times. Sadly we had stagnated musically, and personality tensions hit their limit. A change had to be made. We needed a new bass player.

Mickey Nucci was the original bass player in Scotland Barr & The Slow Drags. He grew up with Scott, and he taught me all the songs when I joined that band. He was the steady hand and smiling face that carried me from a basement jammer who had no business anywhere near a professional rock outfit, to a confident and polished drummer with hundreds of gigs under his belt. We needed a new bass player in a hurry and Mickey agreed to fill in for the foreseeable future. About four gigs in it became apparent to all of us that he was the guy for the job, permanently.

We played out almost nonstop for a year and a half promoting that record. We took a huge step forward as a band in the process. But every album has it’s lifecycle and before long new tunes began to displace the album cuts in our setlists. We all lost and / or gained (or both) girlfriends during this time as well.

The “Burn What You Can, Bury The Rest” tour cycle ended on Halloween of 2013. The plan was to spend the winter demoing a new album to be recorded earlier this year. But after such a hectic playing schedule, we all had jobs and relationships to tend to. We worked on the new tunes sporadically through the new year and new songs kept coming. Finally in the spring we started plugging away in Brian’s home studio and again the band took a massive step forward. Free from the constrains of an impending show, we were able to chase the songs down their respective rabbit holes. All the live playing had galvanized us into a tight rock and roll band. And in Brian’s studio, each of us wearing headphones, we were able to finally hear each other. The newest songs were coming together more quickly and sounding better than ones we’d been playing for years.

So here we are. One away from entering the studio proper, where we’ll record live to tape a dozen or so tunes that we’ve spent the last year or so flushing out. This is a fully functioning rock and roll band, greater than the sum of it’s parts, with a clear vision. The way the last album came together was magical, as we really didn’t know what we were doing. Now we’re seasoned and tight. Before we hoped for the best and got it. Now the best is second nature and we hope for something greater. There aren’t three guys on the planet I’d rather be making a record with.

God only knows what the future holds. But all I’ve personally ever wanted out of life was to make something great. I’ve been a part of some great records, but this is the first time I’ve ever had the privilege of going in with the concept fully formed. The only thing left to chance is “how much better than great might it be?” And will anybody like it.