wrob's music videos
A list - greatest concert ever
B list - specialty occasions
C list - oblivion
Overwrought? I dunno.
Sunday, February 27, 2022
Saturday, February 26, 2022
Giving Love
wrob's music videos
A list - greatest concert ever
B list - specialty occasions
C list - oblivion
What...a...weirdo. I did a performance of this at the Hotel Utah, and the crowd response made me feel like a rockstar. But it felt too weird to keep on the set list.
Thursday, February 24, 2022
The First Festivus Miracle
wrob's music videos
A list - greatest concert ever
B list - specialty occasions
C list - oblivion
This one's B slot may be sorely tested, as i'm writing a new December holiday song that feels high-voltage. This one's a sweet sleeper, that exists as a counterpoint to the comedic juice of the others in my holiday set. It's hard to justify keeping four once-a-year songs memorized, when i can only keep sixty songs in my head. Will this be bumped, or will my cover of "Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin'" go? Write in!
Sunday, February 20, 2022
Hippie Man
wrob's music videos
A list - greatest concert ever
B list - specialty occasions
C list - oblivion
A song from the earliest days, when my friend jim helped me record my first album. I couldn't even play my own instrument that day, and never imagined songwriting as anything other than a secondary spice to my storytelling. It had some good performances, and it was a rush to get audiences to shout back "no no". Jim thought this one might endure, but it ultimately felt good-not-great when measured against subsequent songs. Was i right?
Thursday, February 17, 2022
M.L. Crisis
wrob's music videos
A list - greatest concert ever
B list - specialty occasions
C list - oblivion
Does anyone NOT get what the abbreviation means? I thought this might endure on A, as i love the wacky, horny vibe (and one songwriter was surprised to learn that this wasn't a cover...a compliment from the right person can have an inordinate effect), but the influx of new songs buried it.
Wednesday, February 16, 2022
"autobiography of a blue-eyed devil"
(my life and times in a racist, imperialist society)
-by inga muscio
2005
Be sure you get the updated 2014 edition.
I despair of doing justice to this brilliant, essential book. Not every author has two great books in them - indeed, a reasonable expectation is otherwise. But inga has scaled the same heights she took her debut, "Cunt". Superlatives fail. This book is a hardcore eye-opener.
I'm not one for self-recrimination. I try to lead all my interactions with radical forgiveness...for myself included. But this sweeping, scathing book had me looking hard at my own life. My reaction to living in this morally bankrupt society has always been non-cooperation. Do NOT chase the money and privilege my birth status prepared for me. Do not follow the hypocritical religion foisted upon me as a child. Do NOT grab a high-status job - leave that slot for someone with ovaries or differing pigmentation. Do NOT marry a white womyn or make white babies, to keep the money in the white world.
That's well and good...
But inga has me facing how pathetically little i've done to proactively dismantle white patriarchy.
This is one of the few books i've ever read, which i won't immediately pass on to someone else. Oh, i'll find other copies to give to those i love, but i might need to re-read the glossary of examined terms, for a hard reminder of what sane sensitivity feels like. If you don't have time to read the book yet, just read that glossary...
You might find yourself doing so again and again.
Tuesday, February 15, 2022
Confused
wrob's music videos
A list - greatest concert ever
B list - specialty occasions
C list - oblivion
I adore this song, but its performances didn't convince me the world agreed.
Sunday, February 13, 2022
Crappily Ever After
wrob's music videos
A list - greatest concert ever
B list - specialty occasions
C list - oblivion
One of my earliest songs, and the first to make me feel like i might be onto something, as an open mic host called it his "new favorite song" (thank you, clyde). In a brutal culling it dropped to C, as the music felt too simplistic, then was resurrected to B as a Valentine's Day anthem...but then fell off the Earth again.
Tuesday, February 8, 2022
Sunrise
wrob's music videos
A list - greatest concert ever
B list - specialty occasions
C list - oblivion
This one gamely tried to hold on to a B slot, for bawdy cabaret crowds. The idea was that i would bring an audience member onstage and sing the song to them, pretending we had a past.
Sunday, February 6, 2022
The Dying Song
wrob's music videos
A list - greatest concert ever
B list - specialty occasions
C list - oblivion
I had hopes this might become an immortal (ha!) classic, that people would sing on their deathbeds. In performance, i dedicated this to the proposition that no life should end without a kazoo solo. The feedback always felt solid, but the song was too niche-specific to avoid the C list.
Thursday, February 3, 2022
Toss 'Em!
wrob's music videos
A list - greatest concert ever
B list - specialty occasions
C list - oblivion
A concert-closer that kept an A-list spot for a while, but dropped to B under the influx of juicier songs. It keeps its B slot as an alternate closer, for audiences too tame for the A closer, "Sexy Fuckers" (another reason it dropped is because not everyone is familiar with "tossing your cookies" as a vomit metaphor). At one performance, an audience member actually threw cookie at the stage.
Tuesday, February 1, 2022
Sexy Bitch
wrob's music videos
A list - greatest concert ever
B list - specialty occasions
C list - oblivion
A song that's only had one or two performances, but abides on the A list because it's a concert special - a perfect little "laugher" before intermission. The audience echoes back "you sexy bitch" throughout, and that element has worked beautifully in its two tryouts.
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