Audio and Video! Matt Mahaffey's 615 Day Session!

In case you missed it, last Friday was 615 Day at a Nashville radio station. 615 is the area code for middle Tennessee, and last Friday was also June 15. Lightning 100 took advantage of the numberlicious day and made it all about area musicians. I didn't get to listen to the whole shebang (thought I'd throw that out there for all the Fluid Ounces fans reading this), but I made a point to tune in during Matt Mahaffey's set, which was apparently recorded a week or so before.

Matt recently put the set up on Soundcloud, and it's worth your time to give it a listen.



Here's a live, organ-only version of his wonderful song "Could You Love Me Now."



And just because it's so awesome (and backwards!), here's the official video for the song.

Video of the Day

According to a post by Matt Mahaffey on Facebook yesterday, he's doing the drum work for Animal. Regardless of the drum toss, I think Animal won this battle.

Video of the Day

I'm not the biggest fan of rap, but I'm a huge fan of Matt Mahaffey, and he's got some vocals on this Lupe Fiasco track. I don't see him in this video, so I'm assuming he's not part of the live performance, but you can definitely hear him during the beginning of the video.

I'm including this video because Matt's studio's Facebook page went live. I'll give this guy as much press as humanly possible.

Self Video Dump

Because you know I love Self and I recently favorited a bunch of these on YouTube, here are a bunch (all?) of Self videos! Quality will vary, and Cannon and So Low are SOOOOO mid-'90s that it kinda makes me feel old.

Trunk Fulla Amps



Hellglass



Back in Black



Cannon



So Low



Could You Love Me Now



Clap Hands (Yeah, I know it's Beck and not Self, but Matt's in it and it's still pretty damn cool)

What You Should Have Heard #19

My Mix CDs

I’ve got a lot of music but limited space to hold it in, especially in my car. So I’ve gone the old tried-and-true way of making mix CDs to have access to as many bands as possible while driving. I’m going slightly old-school since I’m a bit backwards and have no iPod.

Most of the songs will be more upbeat, with probably only the occasional ballad or slower song included. I like to sing in the car, and the more upbeat songs are more fun to sing.

I’ll be going in alpha-numeric order with these, so if you’re wanting to argue with me about what Weezer songs should be included, you’re going to be waiting for a while.

My only limitations are that I use 80 min. discs, and I’m only going to use one disc per band/artist. I will make exceptions for only my most favorite bands with huge playlists (Foo Fighters and Self, off the top of my head), but I’d really like to boil everything down to just one disc.

Here’s the list guide:

Track # - Song Name - Album Name

Beck Mix CD

1. Halo of Gold – B Side Collection: Stray Blues
2. E-Pro – Guero
3. Que Onda Guero – Guero
4. Girl – Guero
5. Black Tambourine – Guero
6. Hell Yes – Guero
7. Go It Alone – Guero
8. Just a Message to Her – Guero
9. Crap Hands – Guero
10. Loser – Mellow Gold
11. Fuckin’ with My Head – Mellow Gold
12. Soul Suckin’ Jerk – Mellow Gold
13. Beercan – Mellow Gold
14. Sexx Laws – Midnight Vultures
15. Nicotine and Gravy – Midnight Vultures
16. Mixed Bizness – Midnight Vultures
17. Peaches and Cream – Midnight Vultures
18. Tropicalia – Mutations
19. Devil’s Haircut – Odelay
20. Hotwax – Odelay
21. Lord Only Knows – Odelay
22. The New Pollution – Odelay
23. Where It’s At – Odelay
24. Sissyneck - Odelay

Beck is somewhat of an enigma to me. He’s a performer who, when I like a song, I REALLY like the song. But when I don’t like it, I want to just erase it from my collection so I never have the chance of accidentally listening to it again.

Like probably most fair-weather fans of Beck, my ears were first drawn to him with Loser from Mellow Gold. I bought the single (cassette, no less), then I bought the CD. The entire album seems like an exercise in stream of consciousness. It seems random and pointless, but a handful of songs, Loser among them, stand out in their creativity. Regardless of the lyrics, there are hints of genius in the melding of instrumentation and his voice.

Following Mellow Gold, it seems as though the man alternates between releasing a commercially acceptable CD and something almost folky. You’ll notice I’ve included nothing from One Foot in the Grave, a decent amount from Odelay, only one from Mutations, more from Midnight Vultures, goose egg again from Sea Change, a bunch from Guero, and then none from the last two (although Modern Guilt had a couple of possibilities that were ultimately cut).

I will give the guy props for doing what he wants and staying successful rather than “selling out” and going totally commercial. I may not like the less-commercial stuff, but that doesn’t mean I can’t respect it. He’s got a side project, Record Club, that fascinates me in its design, but I’ve never found any of the releases to be something I like. He gets together a group of musicians, picks a classic album (such as Kick by INXS or The Velvet Underground & Nico by The Velvet Underground), and they record perform and record a copy of it in a day.

Beck’s Wikipedia entry

Beck’s AllMusic entry

Beck’s Official Site

Beck’s MySpace page

Beck’s Facebook page

Here’s a link to a video for Motorcade that I’m including because it shows a bit of Matt Mahaffey, of whom I’m a super-fan. He’s the one on the turntable and seems to get the least amount of screen time.

Live performance of Motorcade by Beck

I found that video while searching for a version of this one. It’s a live performance of Clap Hands where, while Beck is singing and playing guitar, the rest of the band is at a dinner table and using the utensils and dishes as instruments. It also features Matt Mahaffey.

And for an official video, here’s Loser.

First Video Dump of the Summer

Gotta throw this in at the top spot. It's the video for Matt Mahaffey/sElf's new song, Could YOu Love Me. He's singing backwards, man. Backwards!



The music really helps the creepiness factor of this video. Apparently it's from a Sherlock Holmes video game, and Watson just disappears and reappears near you. Creepy.



Can't stand the song or the singer, but it really works as a Star Trek video. I'd party with the crew of the Enterprise.



Okay, I've been hearing about Auto-Tune the News for quite a while now, but I've stayed away. I hate auto-tuning, and I just assumed I'd hate it applied to comedy. Oh how wrong I was. Looks like I'll be going back and watching the previous 11 installments.



When I first heard that there was going to be a Green Hornet movie with Seth Rogen, I rolled my eyes and dismissed it. Now the first trailer is out, and it actually looks like it could be pretty fun. As a plus, it's got Christoph Waltz as the villain. As a minus, it's got Cameron Diaz.

FIRST TRAILER FOR RED!!!!! I love Warren Ellis and just about anything he writes. I love Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Mary Louise Parker and Morgan Freeman. I think the chance to see Helen Mirren portray a retired CIA hit woman is priceless. This movie looks like tons of fun.

Self: Subliminal Plastic Motives (CD Review)

Here’s a bit of a departure. This CD is not new. It’s not even recent. It’s actually more than a decade old. But you know what? It’s still awesome, and it actually contains the song which contains the line that I have chosen for the title of my blog.

I first heard Self in '96. Two singles, Cannon and So Low, were in decent rotation on two stations in Nashville, Thunder 94 and 103 KDF (both stations have long since undergone content changes). At the time, Nashville had a free summer concert, Dancin' in the District, every Thursday night. Self was headlining one night, and I went. They were crazy awesome live. And they had life-size Star Wars cut-outs on stage! After that, I ended up ordering this CD from BMG and listened to it constantly.

I think the CD is very much a product of its time, but still ahead of the curve. I'd classify it as post-grunge rock (think more Smashing Pumpkins, Beck and a bit of Weezer rather than Pearl Jam and Nirvana), but it utilized sampling at a time when I remember sampling only being used in rap.

What really impressed me about the CD, though, is that almost everything is done by (now) Self frontman Matt Mahaffey. The group really didn’t become a group until Matt started touring, and then he kept the guys on for subsequent CDs. The only other two times I know of this being done (I’m sure there are more, but I only know of two) are Foo Fighters debut release Foo Fighters and Abandoned Pools release Humanistic (I think that’s the one).

From the first track to the last, this CD seems almost perfectly put together, and would be a great (and probably extremely cheap) addition to any CD collection.

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Listening to: Ambulance LTD - Heavy Lifting
via FoxyTunes

Self/Matt Mahaffey

I try and promote this group wherever I can, and since I'm using lyrics from one of the songs as this blog's title (from the song with the same name as my email address), I thought I'd start this blog out with a little praise for my favorite group/performer. One of the links I'm posting goes to the audio/video section of the group's official fan site. You'll be able to download 5 full b-side albums, 14 full live shows, 10 videos, and 33 miscellaneous songs.

It's difficult to describe this band, because each album (4 have been released since '96, and one was completed but killed by the suits) is different from the last. Here's Mahaffey's (frontman and brainchild behind the group) biography from the site:

http://www.self-centered.org/biography.php

and here's the wikipedia page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self_%28band%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Mahaffey

I first heard Self in '96. Two singles, Cannon and So Low, were in decent rotation on two stations in Nashville, Thunder 94 and 103 KDF (both stations have long since undergone content changes). At the time, Nashville had a free summer concert, Dancin' in the District, every Thursday night. Self was headlining one night, and I went. They were crazy awesome live. And they had life-size Star Wars cut-outs on stage! After that, I bought their/his (Mahaffey did just about everything on the first CD solo and later got the group together to tour, and Self eventually evolved from a person to a group) debut CD, Subliminal Plastic Motives, and listened to it constantly. I think the CD is very much a product of its time, but still ahead of the curve. I'd classify it as post-grunge rock (think more Smashing Pumpkins and Beck rather than Pearl Jam and Nirvana), but it utilized sampling at a time when I remember sampling only being used in rap.

Mr. Mahaffey has weathered out the past 12 years pretty well, but he never attained the recognition that his die-hard fans think he deserves. He's done some soundtrack work (Dead Man on Campus, Shrek ...2?, and he's currently doing the music for the Nickelodeon series Ni Hao Kai Lan), collaborated with the lead singer of God Lives Underwater to form Wired All Wrong, provided loyal fans with a treasure trove of unreleased music for free (see link below), worked with Beck, recorded some commercial jingles, and has done a lot of work on the production side of the music biz.

Whether or not Mahaffey releases any more Self projects, his music will always be something I'll be able to pop in and enjoy, mainly because each release is so different from the previous one. If you've got some time and some hard-drive space, I recommend visiting the fan site and downloading some of his music.

The music is here:

http://www.self-centered.org/media.php

I highly recommend checking this group out. You've got nothing to lose...it's free!

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Listening to: Disturbed - Torn
via FoxyTunes