yer trusty anti-hero checking in (+ montreal guest-list giveaway) (Patreon)

(patron-only)

hallo loves

good morning loves from a plane flying from toronto to montreal for the last show if this first weekend run. i am learning a fuck ton every night. toronto ran over 3.5 hours and i still had to shave about 30 minutes from the show...but a lot of that came from a misunderstanding about the hardness of the curfew. last night in toronto we had a SUPER STRICT 3 hour set and i managed to squeeze it all in...i had to cut two songs. i’m figuring it out. 

it's an exhausting show, an exhausting schedule...not everything is working right.....and i'm so fucking happy i'm doing it.

don't forget how possible you are making this all for me.

if i didn't have this patreon as a source of income i would have to stress so much harder...about ticket sales, about merch mistakes, about all sorts of things. these things still irritate, but they don't leave me in poverty. 

i don't have to WORRY as much. i've never toured with that kind of confidence.

it's immense.

here’s a picture from my keyboard perch during soundcheck of lauren dealing with some piano-light issues while chez “worst sound guy ever” looks on in amusement. 

i also jammed it in yesterday and did a story-interview project backstage (you probably remember the call) and talked to about 15 toronto-area patrons about their lives with a professional film and sound crew:

it was...an absolutely incredible experience. talking to those 15 people about their abortions, depressions, losses and battles was like rocket fuel for my soul before getting on stage and telling my own stories. an exchange.

photos i'm not in taken by me. all other photos: lora campbell.

this project didn’t have a title but we stumbled on 

THE COUCH OF TRUTH 

during the shooting. so i think it’s gonna stick. 

it rings true.

i’m not sure exactly how we are going to release these - it feels like they may be a little youtube series? i don’t know. my good friend janessa joffe is leading up the production and we will figure something out. i’d like to do it again in more cities. it’s expensive to organize and film in high quality, but as long as you are okay with me thinging content like this (i think you will be), i will keep doing shit until i’m told to stop. 

if you shared your story with me: from the bottom of my heart, thank you. 

everybody, stay tuned. 

.....

im gonna cut and paste something for you, that i think you’ll enjoy...i just wrote an email to bob lefsetz. he’s a music industry blogger, and he’s been managing a threaded email-blogging conversation about the woodstock50 reunion...he’s super critical of the line-up and package and people are arguing about it, blah blah blah. i wrote to bob and invited him to the LA show at the ace but he’s out of town so can’t come. 

this was his original post about WOODSTOCK 50, the email was subject “Anti-heroes”. 

i’m going to share the whole thing, it’s worth a read...or just skip it and read my response. 

ANTI-HEROES

They used to dominate the music landscape. People who were the "other," who seemed to march to a different drummer, whose values were different from those of the rat race.

Like Woody Guthrie. Like Bob Dylan. Like the Rolling Stones.

Sure, eventually the Stones became members of the glitterati, but we laughed about it, how we invaded the upper reaches of society, how things were on terms now.

They haven't been on our terms for quite a while.

I was listening to Barry Diller on "Recode/Decode" and his attitude made me puke. Like he single-handedly could give back to society. How about if he paid more taxes and we built it! He knew everybody, from Gates to Bezos, and kept testifying about the good they'd done in society, talked about how Zuckerberg was gonna figure it out and when confronted with "billionaire bashing," he was essentially silent.

Billionaire bashing, We used to revere the wealthy, pay fealty to them, want to be like them, rich, in private planes, raping and pillaging...

That's right, too many of these supposed "job-creators" took and took, especially jobs, and then gave little back.

Kinda like Trump. That's how he got elected, he was supposedly a billionaire and he knew better. Now we know he doesn't know nearly anything at all. As for his supporters...they believe in the racism he promotes, the anti-immigrant screeds, but they didn't have to get these positions from him, then again, maybe they're southern rednecks or prairie people left behind as the country moves forward, just like the denizens Charlie Daniels sang about before he became a Republican. That was the word in the sixties...you'd better not bring your long hair and coastal values to the south or you will pay a price, it's the same today.

And the right wing rose up under Trump, and then what ensued was a BACKLASH!

That's what we're talking about here. To piss the right off, I'll call it the payment for forty years of Reaganomics. Let the rich run free and it'll trickle down to the poor. How's that working for the underclass, for the middle class...IT'S NOT!

Therefore you see the rise of progenitor Elizabeth Warren. And then AOC. These people came from the outside and insiders hate them. AOC toppled a long-established Congressman for her seat. They're not doing it to get rich, to become a lobbyist, to go to work at the corporate law firm, rather they're standing up for what's right, remember that?

Doesn't matter if you disagree. If you've got a problem with Warren's roots. The country is against you. The country is pissed and motivated and so far, the stars are not musical. Michelle Obama got the biggest applause at the Grammys. And Walter White did everything to help his family, he didn't want aid from his rich friend who ripped him off.

Standards, principles, they're out the window.

But now they're back.

Music is in such a bad place. All we've got is moneygrubbers at the top of the chart. As for rebelling...I'm not talking about getting in trouble with the law.

We're gonna get a whole new set of stars. More like Jason Isbell than Lil Yachty.

That's how they came up with the "rock star" moniker. People who could do it their way outside the constraints of society. Wreck hotel rooms and then pay the bill. Leave hundreds of thousands behind, and fly back to England. Sure, Led Zeppelin's music was great, but the myth was even better.

And John Lennon proclaimed the Beatles bigger than Jesus. Now winners at award shows keep thanking God, even though facts tell us our nation is moving toward atheism. Just another way performers are out of touch.

But everybody is making beats and rapping while the truly creative have jettisoned their dreams and are working hard in the straight world just to make a buck.

This is the shift. After the pushback. We want more honest performers. Refusing to play for oligarchs, standing up for people as well as animals.

The ship turns slowly, and then it's completely turned around.

That's the point we're getting to today.

The vapid artists will be history overnight, just like almost all were at the advent of the Beatles.

Oh, who am I kidding. Music has gone from a leading enterprise to picking up the crap after the elephants, not realizing the circus has been canceled.

The labels only support what already sells and the streaming services take no responsibility for breaking new acts and the public goes underserved, which is why they're getting behind politicians, addicted to the news. Meanwhile, all we've got is the 808, an ancient sound, and songs about lifestyle.

The RBG movie is a phenomenon, but its song can't make it on today's hit parade.

Authenticity. Marching to the beat of your own drummer. Money subservient to message. Hell, Dylan's "Dont Look Back" is more popular now than it was when it was made. Why? Because Dylan refuses to cave, to play the game.

We need fewer game players.

It takes a long time to start a new movement in today's fractured society. Took decades for the pushback to arrive. But it's happening. And we're gong to see the effects in the music business. It won't come from the suits, but people who resist them.

You don't need to be rich to be intelligent. You don't need to have a college degree to make a statement. You don't have to play by the rules to win the game.

But it takes a special individual to do this.

They're coming.

-- 

Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/ 

i wrote back to bob...who’s generally nice to me:

dear bob -

all of the talking you’re doing about woodstock and authenticity lately....you just gotta see what’s happening on this run. i started tour two days ago in detroit in the masonic temple (have you SEEN THAT BUILDING!!! SIX THEATERS! over a THOUSAND ROOMS in one building...it’s extraordinary.)

i’m doing a three hour show. no hits. no opener. minimal production - my crew is all-female and flying from show to show with breaks so i can clock time with the kid. i talk graphically about having abortions, about being scared to have kids, about trump, about having a miscarriage, about the boston bombing, visiting prisons, radical empathy, women’s rights. people are saying it’s life-changing. men who don’t cry...cry. 

it’s our own little woodstock. 

the feeling of truth and change. 

cultural change - the big shit - never happens within the mainstream, the status quo has too much momentum and too much at stake. 

re: woodstock, the production offices are across from where i get my coffee. i stopped by the other day and said hi to michael lang, and my babysitter used to watch his kids. he’s a really nice guy in person. working hard. i agree with a lot of what you’ve said about the fest but it must be very hard stuff for him to read. i feel his pain.”

x

a

......

anyway. 

i know good anti-heroes don’t usually go around looking for credit anyway. they just enjoy the weeping. 

........

on another topic, from the desk of touring musician of weeping tymes:

i dealt with some weird venue issues last night: it was a freezing and wind-whipping day in canada and i think the venue was unprepared for how cold it would be. the dressing rooms were freezing, the stage was cold and drafty, and there were a bunch of distracting noises coming from behind the stage. 

i’ve never paid too much attention to this shit, i’m not usually a diva about anything. 

and these are things that i’ve probably been confronted with for years but when you’re in a loud band you just do not NOTICE this shit....your loud band erases everything and if it’s cold you throw on a coat and work up a sweat by the third song and everything’s fine. this show isn’t like that. i sit there...talking. playing songs that are practically silent at points. if it’s cold, or loud, it sucks. i’m just starting to understand how fragile this show is...what it demands from the venue. and i’ve been touring long enough to know that even though you’re a guest in the venue, it’s also the venue’s job to provide you a space in which you can do your job...because they are also making thousands of dollars while you sit there and yak and sing. it’s a collaboration. it took me years to learn that. 

so i’m talking with chez and my promoters. asking. demanding, even. that the dressing rooms and stages - my workplace, when you think about it - not be fucking freezing so i can do my job without being distracted. toss a fucking space heater in the dressing rooms if they’re cold, eh.

why would it be any different from someone working in an bank office going to HR saying “you need to fix the heat so i don’t have to work in a coat and scarf?” 

as an artist who is so grateful to be doing this job at all - sometimes i have to remind myself...it’s still a fucking JOB. ingotta be able to do it. and i get to ask for what i need. 

i didn’t used to.

AND 

MEANWHILE 

i have about 20 or so free guestlist tickets left in montreal for the show at the cozy and beautiful monument national tonight!!!!

they're gonna go to waste if i don't use them: WHO WANTS THEM? hands up before 3:30 pm montreal time, please. i’ll comment back to confirm, hayley's off because it's the weekend. make sure to put your full name and whether or not you need a plus one. your ticket will be at will call, just go pick it up. 

i am going to try to do a signing tonight !!!! i’ll sign until they kick us out of the lobby :)

i love you all so much.

x

a

------THE NEVER-ENDING AS ALWAYS---------

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