I think I might finally be able to listen to Elliott Smith again!


I know I have posted about him before here, but really that was the first time I had talked about him at all since he passed away in 2003.  At that point I really had to stop listening, so it has been a while.

AND It's been very nearly 10 years since Elliott's fourth album XO came out!  Dang I am old.

So here I am in 2007 and this weekend I put on XO just to see what happened...and poof!

It took me right back to a very particular time in my life.  After being a huge music freak since I was a kid, it's hard to believe I can still be caught so off guard by how much one record, one assemblage of songs, can conjure.  It's so strange how  specific and deep music can make memories, and how easy it is to let it take you back right there.  Isn't it weird to realize that those memories have always been right there in your brain the whole time, and you never think about them, but hearing one particular album can access all that  once again in a flash?  It's like being completely taken away by a good, visceral dream....or a nightmare, depending! 

From the moment XO came out, I played it to death.  Like, waaaaaay too much.  I was completely into it.  I could not get enough, esp of the songs "Tomorrow Tomorrow," "Pitseleh," "Oh Well, OK,"  "Everybody Cares, Everybody Understands" [Elliott's version of Amy Winehouse's "Rehab"], and "I Didn't Understand" -- Geez, really the whole thing.

Ben Tuttle
3+ years employment
Sound Man Extraordinaire


Q:  So Ben, what music did you listen to when you were a kid, like before you could pick yourself?  What was playing in your home?

BT:  My dad used to listen to the Beatles, I remember that.  Probably Rubber Soul and I remember listening to Chuck Mangione and Slim Goodbody.  He was an informative performer for kids and he wore a full body unitard that showed the inside of his body.  I saw him perform in Oakland when I was a kid, my mom took me.

What was the first music that really struck you and made you a big music lover?

George Gershwin "An American in Paris" and "Rhapsody in Blue" and Led Zeppelin.  Those were the first tapes that I ever listened to that I remember.  My brother turned me on to Houses of the Holy.

What's the first instrument you picked up?  Whatall do you play now?

Piano.  That was the first thing.  My mom made me take lessons when I was 5.  I didn't learn the music and I just did it by ear cause I figured out how to do it like that.

Now, drums, guitar, keyboards, vibes, saxophone.  Those are pretty much all the instruments I play on a regular basis.

What was the first live show you ever saw?
Slim Goodbody was the first show I remember but he didn't have a band or anything, so I guess the first live show I ever went to was the Dead.  My brother took me to see the Grateful Dead and while I enjoyed the new experience I ended up falling asleep.  I was a kid, I was 12 maybe.

Well, TODAY is indeed a special day.

My dear Andrew Dupuy has at last launched his eagerly anticipated website/podcast: Discover A World Of Sounds! 


Yes, the site is incredible and I am not afraid to say I am biased.  I daresay Dupuy is one of my favorite people in this great big world.  He's a Southerner in origin, and thus carries with him that particularly Southern sense of ballsy/cutting humor and deliciously gross charm, but most importantly and like me (perhaps why we get along!), he's a total pop culture whore.  His new site is many things, but it's mainly an exploration of how music relates to memory.  And trust me, Dupuy's memories and comments are HILARIOUS.  You can listen to his first podcast here.

Just push play!

This first podcast is an amalgam of childhood memories, setting the scene for what's to come.  Dupuy's gonna post a new radio show every two weeks, and just trust me here, dude's got it down!  His production is seamless and layered, but more importantly his detailed tales of growing up in Louisiana as well as living in the now here in San Francisco are quality entertainment.  He's not shy.  There will also be constantly posted blogs related to music and memory on the site.


Perhaps I will have to interview him sometime soon for this site.

I drove from San Francisco to LA on Wednesday to see Sir Paul McCartney rock Amoeba Hollywood.

I was not disappointed!

The show was AMAZING.

It was also a total whirlwind.  I still can't quite believe that it happened at all.  I was in the same room as Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr?  Too much, too much!  This picture captures pretty much how it all felt:


Flash Back:  When I was 8 years old I stayed home sick from school one day.
VCRs had recently been invented.  My mom rented me "Help".  From that day on, I learned to spin records.  I would play records from when I got home from school till dinner time and beyond, dancing around the coffee table for hours on a daily basis to With the Beatles, Help and Abbey Road.  For years.  Everything I know about music and creation and art I learned from The Beatles. I voraciously read every Beatles book I could get my hands on throughout my teenage years. I became a lifer.


Fast forward 20 years to Amoeba Hollywood.

After watching Paris Hilton exit the CNN studios across the street from Amoeba, paparazzi going wild (gawd, I was in LA!), I went out to the Mezzanine to watch Paul play his sound check.