Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Tofurky

Thanksgiving is approaching in a couple of days. Got the tofurky in the freezer calling my name out... 'Bret... Bret... Bret? 'sup, hoss?'

Yeah. So, this morning I was excited to receive the Big Star box set in the mail right as I was walking out the door. I quickly opened it so that I could take a disc with me. One of the main reasons that I wanted this set, considering that I already have the albums, is that there are a ton of acoustic demos. The ones that I heard were very cool. It's interesting to hear them stripped down to just 12-string and vocals. It creates a whole new mood for the songs that I've heard a bunch of times. I look forward to the rest of the set.

News on the Audra front... Jason and I discussed a March 1st deadline to start recording a new album. We're going to spend the next 3 months writing, as well as preparing for the 2 big shows we have coming up. I'm excited. Gotta go through the archives of songs that we've written over the last several years to finish some songs also. :)

Besides the Big Star disc, today's listening was:

BeeGees - The Best Of (vinyl) - so great, listened twice!
David Bowie - Let's Dance (vinyl)


Saturday, November 21, 2009

"Let me whisper in your ear, don't you worry they can't hear"

Enjoying a late night coffee at home. Cats are awake, walking around yelling at me while Chris Bell's 'I Am The Cosmos' plays over the stereo.

Cool plans for tomorrow... Getting together with the band and our video guy to go over the footage from our album release show back in May. The audio sounds killer, now we just gotta check out the video and get this thing edited. Gonna try to get out a live DVD for the Christmas season. One of the cool things about releasing your own records is that you can put out whatever you want and not have to have someone tell you that it won't sell. Who cares if it doesn't sell 5000 copies. Lots of my favorite artists/albums didn't sell many records. Thankfully they were put out by someone who loved music more than money.

Read a few pages of Stephen King's new book, Under The Dome. It's almost 1100 pages, so with all of the other things going on, that's gonna take a while.

Enjoyed some quality listening time today:

Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
The Big Pink - A Brief History of Love (vinyl)
Big Star - Third
Julian Bream - Greatest Hits (vinyl)
The Replacements - Pleased To Meet Me
Psi Com - s/t (vinyl)
Chris Bell - I Am The Cosmos
and some random Jesu tracks on the ol' Mac.

Well, I guess that's it for tonight. Found this record store in Echo Park, CA online called Origami. Gonna have to check that place out next time in LA. Looks like they have some cool stuff.

Friday, November 20, 2009

"I never travel far without a little Big Star"

'Sup? In case you don't know where that title is from, it's from The Replacements song 'Alex Chilton.' If you don't know who Alex Chilton is, he was/is the singer of a great band from Memphis called Big Star. A lot of people have never heard of Big Star.... and that's unfortunate. They only put out 1 album with the original line-up and then 2 more after that. (Over the last few years they've recorded a new album and have toured some.)

Anyways, the reason I'm bringing them up is because I just ordered their box set today. It came out a few months ago on Rhino Records. Remastered and filled out with demos... I'm looking forward to opening the mailbox and seeing this sitting in there saying "sup?" to me. OK. Ridiculous.

Another reason is that I'm reading a biography on Big Star, so they're on my mind. Check out some of their stuff. I'd recommend starting at the beginning: #1 Record.... Then let me know what you think.

Currently spinning in the house is a band called The Big Pink. While we were in California this past week, we went into a record store in San Diego called M-Theory. They were playing this band over the speakers. My brother picked it up on CD right on the spot, and today I found a new vinyl copy at Zia Records in Chandler. The album is called 'A Brief History Of Love.' Check them out too. Very cool stuff. It's on 4AD - home to the original Bauhaus album, Dead Can Dance, The Pixies, etc.

OK. So what else? Yeah, one of my favorite things in the world is to go to record stores. They are a dying breed, so there aren't many around anymore, especially in the Phoenix area. However.... Revolver Records in Phoenix is GREAT. Just returned from there a few minutes ago (and a nice meal with Songbyrd at the Old Spaghetti Factory). Yeah, 2 record stores in one day... not even in the same trip either. Didn't get anything at Revolver, but found some cool stuff for next time.

Well, that's it for tonight. Gonna go listen to this new record some more.Have a good night

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Please welcome, please enjoy.

Hello and welcome to my brand new blog. My name is Bret Helm. You may know me as the singer of the band Audra, or you may know me as the guy with the space helmet in the picture above. Regardless, thanks for your interest.

Why do I need a blog? Well, I guess that I've gotten kind of lazy with typing things longer than a few seconds in emails and t's, so I figured it would be a good time to start keepin' it real again. I just found out that my computer can make videos, so I'll be posting some video blogs too. :)

Ok. Enough of that. The band just returned from a big show at The Key Club in Hollywood on Tuesday night. We played with this musical outfit from Europe called Nitzer Ebb. The house was packed and we had a great show. Set List: 100 Years Old, Syd Barrett, Ocean, Midnight Moon Swing, You're So Pretty, Cabaret Fortune Teller and Life On This Planet.

Afterwards, Bart (my brother and fellow Audra-ite) kicked it at The Rainbow Bar & Grill next door, while enjoying veggie burgers. Overall, it was a great little trip.

What's up next? December 16th at The Marquee Theatre in Tempe, AZ... once again with Nitzer Ebb. January 30th at The Marquee with AFI! We got some cool things on the burner and I'll be letting you know about all of them as I sit here in the 480.

That's it for now. Thanks for listening.
Kick it.