some of you may have heard this before, either this particular recorded version or live with a band.  this version is the only one where i play a synth solo.  when done live, i either forgo it or ask someone else to solo (sax, guitar, whatev) since i have to keep playing the piano parts underneath.

it seemed like a good time to post this.  it's different than the body of work that i have posted here on my myspace page.  it still seems like such a new song to me, but i forget that i actually wrote this toward the end of 2006.  i recorded this with my friend eric vincent of studio curve dominant in april 2007.

'butterfly nets' also marked the beginning of a new musical branch that i've since decided to follow from time to time.  well, it's not really new--i suppose i've just decided to return to it every now and then.

at live shows, i like to refer to this song as the most upbeat-sounding song about depression you're likely to hear. 

it is semi-autobiographical.

(for my non-u.s., non-u.k. friends, a bit of reference for you: you don't hear it as much these days, but at least among older generations, there is a saying that if you were crazy, mentally deficient, or just considered to be of "feeble mind," the men in white coats would come and take you away with butterfly nets--basically, to put you in a mental asylum or institution.  for a pictorial representation, click here and scroll down to picture #2, entitled "to catch a feeb." when i performed this in switzerland, i was told that the analogous situation there was the "yellow car." or was it "yellow truck"?)

(all keyboards and vocals: anam; guitar, bass, drum programming, production: eric.)

lyrics are provided below for your ease and enjoyment.

peace and love to you all, friends.

-- a

________________________________

hello friends.

haven't written an entry in some time. just figured i'd let you all in on some of the recent goings-on and thoughts over the past couple of months.

let's see...you probably know that i went to switzerland (and visited france for fun) on a solo tour back in february/march. took a bunch of pictures and video. several of the video clips were from shows. started running out of memory on my memory card, so i had to upload them to my laptop (which i had with me overseas) and delete the contents. well, not long after i got home, my hard drive crashed. didn't worry too much about it. took it to the shop, which infomed me a few days later that they couldn't recover it. they recommended that i send it out to somewhere that dealt in physical recovery. they also informed me that physical recovery could cost upwards of $1,000. so...long story short, i just got them to put a new hard drive in, and my old one is sitting on a shelf until i have a spare $700-1,000 to burn on getting my pictures back. but it's not only those pictures and videos...a lot of my recent lyrics that were in progress are pretty much gone. thankfully i like writing by hand and printing out hard copies, so i still have a lot of them, but there are some that, at least for now, are just gone. i sulked for a day or so, but then decided to treat this as a fresh start. whatever i have now is what i'm working with. hell, my hard drive crashing even inspired a new song. of course, it's not literally about a hard drive crashing, though. while that could be awesome subject matter in the hands of someone such as, let's say, bjork, in my hands it would probably turn out kind of lame.

not sure how many of you know that i play with a bunch of other groups as well. one of them is a rock group called 'up the chain.' i play keys and i'm starting to do some background vocals, too. we've been doing a weekly residency throughout the month of may at milkboy in ardmore, pa, which will ultimately be a live album. with the band, i got to play on television for the first time—the channel 10 morning show (the local nbc affiliate), appropriately called 'the 10! show.' the next night, we played a set that will appear on channel 6 (the local abc affiliate) at some point. i'm not on any of the songs on the myspace player at the moment, but you can still check out 'up the chain' here.

i'm also part of a hip hop band called 'the living sample.' in that, i also play keys and do some background vocals, but i'm also a co-writer. this is probably the only band i'm in right now where all of us collectively write the songs. anyway, our debut ep finally dropped! we're really happy with it and about it. we'd actually recorded an album's worth of material, but circumstances dictated that we write a bunch of new material and record that. we may still release the old one at some point. anyway, you can check us out here.

the two MCs in the band, sharpness and armanni reign, are also known together as mental sharp, and are two of drum 'n bass's premiere MCs. you can check them out here.

a couple of weeks ago, i celebrated my birthday. i celebrated over the course of a week. didn't destroy my liver as badly as last year, but i think i did a respectable job. did a bit of the same over memorial day weekend. went down to hagerstown, md, to do an instrumental show with 'the living sample.' the MCs weren't able to make it, so we just made up music for four hours. a good time, although i'm paying for it now...the good times finally caught up with me and now i'm sick.  getting better, though.

new music i'm digging:

my friend chuck treece (also the drummer on the milkboy residency) turned me on to micachu, who tours with a band as micachu and the shapes. i think it's great. i think it sounds sort of like if bjork remixed santigold songs. some really cool 'out' stuff going on, quirky, punkish and poppish. you can check her out here, although my favorite song of hers, 'vulture,' isn't on the myspace page.

peace and love,

anam

dear friends,

i know i haven't kept up with the blog past the first four days.  there's a reason for this: the second week of being in europe, one of two things happened.  i either 1) had a show, or 2) i went to france to hang out.  i was also doing some blog writing on the trains, but my notebook was accidentally packed with the bar owner's keyboard in basel, and if i get it back, it probably won't be for a while.  in any event, i have a good memory of everything that happened on those days, and anything i forget can probably be filled in by someone.

here's a rundown:
2/20: travel day.  philly to washington dc to...
2/21: ...zurich.
2/22: played "ms. brandy's open mic" at bazillus.
2/23: played at restaurant rössli, special guest opening for meng tian.
2/24: slept, prepared for 2/26 show, ate schnitzel.
2/25: played musigbistrot in bern.
2/26: played stall 6 in zurich, co-bill with jones and raphael jakob.
2/27: went to adelboden with brandy for her show with phenomden and the scrucialists.
2/28: played villa sträuli in winterthur (on a grand piano).  visited luzern.  was invited to open with a few songs in zug for phenomden and the scruicalists' show (thanks, guys!)
3/1: played hiltl in zurich. played part of two sets doing jazz with brandy on flute.  brandy's husband, roman, made awesome fondue.  dennis (aka phenomden), rene (of chamber soul) and his girlfriend, ally (allie?) also came.
3/2: left for marseille to visit ob (stands for ol bon).  rode tgv for the first time.  saw mediterranean for the first time.
3/3: through the courtesy and generosity of ob, saw the nearby towns of cassis (!), la ciotat, and six-fours.  played many songs at an open mic/open jam at mafana zen cafe in six-fours (ob was able to borrow a keyboard for me).
3/4: left marseille to return to zurich.  rode the tgv for the second time.
3/5: played abx bar in basel.  experienced the greatest hospitality from a bar owner ever: met me at the train, lent me his keyboard, bought me dinner and drinks, drank at the bar with him and his staff until almost 4am, and slept in his room while he went to his girlfriend's.  the next morning, he came back, walked me over to the train station (literally less than one minute from his front door) and bought me coffee.  and on top of this, i was still compensated.   philly, you are hereby on notice.
3/6: left basel for paris to meet up with miki, who came in from belgium to meet me and show me around.  (rode the tgv for the third time--it also hit its cruising speed of 320 kph, which is 200 mph!) she showed me as much of paris as a person can reasonably do in one day.  paris was amazing. rode the metro several times.  walked to the louvre, notre dame, the champs-elysees, the l'arc de triomphe, the eiffel tower (sorry, miki), and the basilica of sacre-coeur in montmartre.  i was expecting to go to zurich on an overnight train.  oops, i'm sorry, there isn't one.  the next train was 8:30am.  miki returned to belgium around 10pm.  so i went to a bar and wrote.  and when that closed, i pondered going to some club pumping out music.  wasn't sure i wanted to do that while carrying a bookbag, so i opted to walk around and see if i could find some othe bar to go to.  walked down an avenue for about a half hour until i decided there would just be nothing but hostels.  thought about getting a room, but figured i could tough it out for six hours.  returned to the station, gare de l'est, but oops, i'm sorry, it's closed from 1am to 5am for no reason.  went to a 24 hour restaurant across from the station and wrote some more over a beer and sandwich, and then a cappuccino.  then i figured i'd go to the toasty train station.  oops, i'm sorry, it's open air, so it's cold.  enjoyed the sanctity of my own thoughts for two hours, then realized there was a heater i could stand next to.  stood next to it for an hour, enjoying the sanctity of my own thoughts.  i boarded the train at 8am and promptly went to sleep.  if this kind of sleep had a taste, it would be desperately sweet and juicy.  rode the tgv for the fourth time, but that was the last thing on my mind.
3/7: even though i was up for about 24 hours straight the day before, that sleep on the train was the only sleep i got as i wanted to do some shopping and stores were only open until 5 and not at all on sunday, the 8th.  so i went shopping, and then found about the possibility of seeing q-tip.  brandy treated me to the show (although i think roman ultimately did).  she had a gig so she couldn't go.  i went wine shopping then had dinner with roman before the show.  we still had to buy tickets.  i'll explain this in a longer entry, but the show was sold out, but we were still able to get tickets just before the show started and we got in during q-tip's first song.  hung out for the post-show dj, drinking with roman and his friend, karma, listening to music, watching people dance.  eventually left and got a ride with some of karma's friends, although they ended up dropping us off somewhere near sihlstrasse, i think, which was a decent walk from home.  saw some clubs letting out and the hopes of after-hours action for the clubgoers fading fast.  it reminded me of old city in philly.  ha.  on the walk back, i mentioned to roman that i regretted not being able to walk around the red light district near langstrasse during the day, taking pictures.  he said this was my chance if i wanted to go now, as we were right at the beginning of langstrasse.  what the hell.  who knows when i'd be back?  he suggested that i might not want to take pictures.  i agreed.  i mostly wanted to get pictures of buildings anyway, and at night, they might not come out so well.  and if i took pictures, who knows, perhaps i wouldn't come out so well either, especially if someone ended up in a photo that really didn't want to be in it.  we said goodbye to karma, and walked down the langstrasse.  it was full of activity, really jumping.  those clubgoers i saw should have come here. philly crew, think 13th street, but not (as) sketchy, with bars and small restaurants open late (read as: after 2am).  on side streets, saw several ladies of the night in windows with, eh, wares on display.  fascinating.  eventually, ended up at his favorite bar, bar rossi.  brandy called and playfully reminded us that she and i had a show at 10am, so roman and i decided to finish our beers and call it a night around 3:30am.  not sure how late things stay open, but it didn't look they were closing anytime soon.

3/8:  played hiltl with brandy again.  did a little shopping.  tried to find a store called co-op and failed.  there are many of them, but only one of them in the area was open on sunday.  then went to play the bar area of the volkshaus restaurant.  

i learned a lot and, of course, not enough while i was here.  there's more that i want to and will share, but i need to finish packing.  i didn't really unpack, but i have to re-pack since i'm bringing back a bunch of stuff, including rivella!  this is some of the best stuff i've ever had.  it's a drink made with 35% milchserum (whey).  you might think it sounds disgusting, and yeah, it sounds disgusting.  rivella, however, is not.  i'm hoping, hoping, hoping that i can find somewhere in the states that sells it.  i'm bringing three liters of it home with me.  it's not enough.

and don't worry about pictures.  i've got close to three gigabytes of pictures and videos to sift through.

more to come...

hi friends.  i'm in zurich!  of course, you already knew that if 1) you saw my status update; 2) you saw me in philly in the past couple of weeks before i left; or 3) you're also in zurich.

the past month while i was in philly, life ran the gamut from beautiful to a mess, usually ending up somewhere in the middle as a beautiful mess.  things are a bit calmer now, probably because i'm not in philly.

until i learn how to put photos on my computer (i've got a new camera, and i haven't had a camera since cameras went digital), i'm keeping it text.

so just so you know, in case you didn't know, i've never been to europe until now.  so if you have, or if you live there, a lot of this is going to seem like old news to you.  feel free to skip or skim over my 'discoveries.'
 
random things i've noticed about zurich so far:  clocks everywhere, but still placed subtly.  cool radiators.  very pedestrian-friendly.  there's a starbucks here (no, i didn't go to it).  toilets have two buttons (i assume one is for solid waste, and the other for liquid).  there's also a subway sandwich shop (no, i didn't go to that either).  transit relies on an honor system of sorts (don't get caught without your pass, though).  cars stop for pedestrians (what?!).  there are lots of 'platzes'. the swiss franc notes are very pretty, coming in a variety of colors.  speaking of which: holy helvetica, this town is expensive!   anyway, on to the summary.

so let's see...

day 1 (20th):  travel day.  fellow singer/songwriter john francis drove me to the airport.  we talked about music, europe, and also tried to fool bill butler (of the philadelphia sessions) into thinking that john hadn't picked me up yet, even though we were almost at the airport.  learned that what i thought was an under-50 pound bag was an over-50 pound bag, which meant i had to put some other stuff in another bag, which thankfully i'd brought with me.  i thought that was stupid, but didn't argue about it, because i wouldn't win anyway, and then homeland security would take me on a trip to not-europe.  got through the security checkpoints, flew to d.c., waited a couple of hours and had a couple of pieces of expensive airport pizza, and flew to zurich.  the plane to d.c. was the tightest tin can of an airbird that i've ever been in.  i've been in puddlejumper prop planes with more room.  this was a plane that, with apologies to george carlin, i would have rather been 'on' than 'in.'  although given the option between certain death and being cramped for 28 minutes, i'll take the latter.  the plane to zurich was much more roomy, with more amenities, including the popular 'enough room to comfortably put my body.'  on the way, i listened to classical music, slept, and watched the first half of max payne. 

day 2 (21st): arrived in zurich.  brandy butler (of the philadelphia sessions, and one-third of the group, chamber soul) picked me up (after letting me worry and wonder for a while if i was in the right place, hee hee).  rode the train, tram (trolley), and bus (electrified) back to her place.  i've never seen such efficient and punctual public transportation.  seriously.  if it says it's coming at 10:08, it comes at 10:08 (as opposed to philadelphia, where you're not ever sure if the bus is actually coming at all...ahem, #9 bus, downtown philly to manayunk, i'm talkin' 'bout you).  now i totally understand 'swiss timing.'  brandy made omelets and i ate a whole serving (this is a big deal: i generally hate eggs and haven't eaten them for more than 20 years).  sometime later, i ventured out with her.  she went to work, and she pointed me in the direction of the langstrasse, where i eventually happened upon a big flea market (at helvetiaplatz?).  i didn't buy anything.  i saw a "hooters" restaurant in the distance and thought that was weird.  turned away before i got there to take some pictures of pretty buildings.  then i saw a park, and thought that was pretty, and once i realized it was public, decided to walk through it.  heard someone calling to me and it was brandy's husband, roman! (also another one-third of chamber soul)  how wonderful and random!  also met raphael jakob, who was with him and who i'll be sharing the bill with this thursday at stall 6, a club here in zurich.  went grocery shopping with brandy and realized i was near the point of passing out.  went to her place and passed out.  later that night, went to a bar called plüsch (just found the umlaut key) with brandy and roman.  i found out that if you ask for a beer, you get a local beer called sprint.  i suppose this is like asking for a lager in philly and specifically getting yuengling lager.  i like sprint better than yuengling lager.  i'm not saying that sprint is a better beer than lager.  i'm just saying that sprint sure tastes better.  and don't worry, philly (and don't worry, philly metropolitan area): you've got great beers that i love with all my heart.  hooray for yards and sly fox!  okay, enough philly shoutouts.  anyway, i also learned how to 'cheers' in a culturally appropriate way.

day 3 (22nd): met up with roman to go meet stefan, who is the reason i didn't have to worry about lugging a keyboard across the pond.  he was kind enough to lend me his awesome (and heavy) nord stage 76.  what an awesome board, and what an awesome guy for trusting me with it!  thank goodness it has a sturdy case with wheels.  that night was my first performance of any kind in europe: ms. brandy's open mic at club bazillus!  even though i was told that people would be attentive, i was still somewhat surprised when people actually were attentive and appreciative.  wow.  what i played:  like yesterday, the mercy conventions, the anonymities, the moment, butterfly nets, and the crying shame.  most of those songs aren't online because no recordings exist.  however, i heard a rumor that someone taped it, which is great, and would be even greater if i can get a copy of it.  anyway, i also met the lovely and kind carmen of mellowdee music, who booked these engagements for me, and the lovely and talented singer/songwriter/pianist meng tian. 

day 4 (23rd): slept a hell of a lot (i thought i would get over the time difference quickly, but, ah, nope).  brandy helped me catch the proper bus and tram to get to the main train station.  once there, i met up with meng for a show at rössli, a restaurant/venue in flawil, in the canton of st. gallen.  the train ride was about an hour.  i didn't bring the keyboard for this one as i was assured that the piano was recently tuned.  it was, and the action and the sound on the piano were great.  i played the first set: reason to be, some say it's bliss, the moment, butterfly nets, and the crying shame.  she played the last two sets, and at the end of the second set, we performed 'summertime' together (me on piano and some vocals, meng on vocals).  as an encore, we did 'just the two of us' (meng on piano and vocals, me on some vocals).   meng has a strong and wonderful voice with lots of control, writes fabulous songs, and has great technique and command of the piano (in fact, you should check her out! www.myspace.com/mengtianmusic), and she helped me get home.  the folks at rössli were also very friendly, appreciative and attentive.  the food was good, too.  had some spanish pork and a german dish that i'm likely to misspell, so i'm not spelling it.  i had a lovely time with meng, chatting with her at the restaurant and on the train.

so there it is so far.  sorry if the writing seems a bit matter-of-fact.  sue me if you don't like it.  i figured i had to get this out now, because knowing me, it will be almost time to leave europe, and i wouldn't have written anything.

here's something i realized: i can still read french and have some idea of what is meant.  can't really write it too well, but probably could if my life literally depended on it.  perhaps not so much if someone else's life depended on it.  i can't speak it very well, but if i have enough to drink, i'll think i can (this hasn't actually happened here yet, but it's happened before).  i can't think in french very well at all, but if i have enough to drink, i probably can (this hasn't actually happened here yet either, but it's happened before).  my knowledge of german words consists of 'thank you,' 'you're welcome,' 'yes,' 'no,' 'good morning,' 'good night,' and 'jelly doughnut.' 

german is primarily spoken and written in this part of switzerland.  ah, dammit.

thankfully, everyone here speaks english to varying degrees.  you know, it's one thing to know that you're going somewhere where everyone speaks multiple languages.  it's quite another thing to go there and really feel how hopelessly monolingual you are.  so, my challenge to my american friends (oh, you know who you are, pretty much all of you), let's learn another language, shall we?  why should i, you ask?  why shouldn't you, i retort!  (hmm, retort.  i don't use that often enough.)  isn't knowledge its own reward?  no, you say?  that's okay--we're probably not actual friends anyway.

thanks again to brandy, especially for speaking swiss german like a champ.  you know, like a champion speaker. of swiss german.  in a speaking contest, or something.  eh, gute nacht.
 

dear friends,

i'm happy to announce that my song, 'the moment,' has been included on the 'absolute!! sounds from tokyo' compilation, compiled by aroop roy and released on the UK label, unique uncut.  the japan release was this past saturday, december 13, at HMV in tokyo.  aroop is the organizer and resident dj of absolute!! at tokyo's loop club, japan's first 'broken beats' party.  although the compilation consists primarily of artists from the tokyo underground, aroop also reached out to other underground artists from around the world.  i'm flattered to be one of them.

'the moment' was also played on gilles peterson's worldwide program, as part of a mix segment aroop was invited to submit, which featured many cuts from the compilation.  so far, the program has aired on the radio in 15 different countries.

and if all this wasn't exciting enough already, a short edit of 'the moment' is being sent to every Amazon UK Digital customer, something on the order of 250,000 people!

i'm very thankful for all of the support and everyone that loves what i do.  many, many thanks to aroop roy for including me in this, and also to my man skymark for introducing my work to him.

if you would, please check them both out:
aroop roy: http://www.myspace.com/arooproy
skymark: http://www.myspace.com/skymark

and don't forget to check out the compilation!  click any of the links in the absolute!! banner (hmv japan, amazon uk, amazon usa, juno records) on my page.

peace and loveliness,
anam

hello friends.  i haven't written here in quite some time.  i enjoy writing blog entries once i decide to do it, but the times that i actually decide to do it are few and far between.  in any event, i'm writing to share some exciting news and also to ask for a slight bit of help.

first, the exciting news.  i'll be doing a two-week solo tour of switzerland in february!  yes, february of 2009.  although at the glacial pace i seem to move at, i wouldn't blame you if you'd thought i'd meant february of 2017 or somesuch.  i'll be there for the last two weeks of february playing in venues throughout the country.  dates and venues are still being ironed out, but i'll definitely be in zurich and bern.

my first round of heartfelt thanks go out to two organizations. first to the philadelphia sessions, a new non-profit organization created by the brother-sister pair of bill and brandy butler, whose purpose is to send philly-area musicians abroad to perform as ambassdors of philadelphia and its music. and second to mellowdee music, the zurich-based agency who is booking me throughout switzerland.

now for the slight bit of help part, which is actually pretty easy on your part.  i'll be having a fundraising show on saturday, december 13 at doc watson's in center city philly.  how can you help?  show up and have a good time!  my second round of heartfelt thanks go out to the bands that are donating their time by being on the bill with me: kelvin and steve of the absolute zeros;  bruce torres and his band; and the living sample, a hip hop/drum 'n bass band that i'm also a part of.

and, of course, to my own bandmates who always sound great.  :)

as for my friends in europe, here's how you can help.  i'd like to stay in europe for at least another week or two performing.  i know nothing about the venues there.  if you could perhaps recommend some venues in your home country, then i'll do my best to book a show there.  i'll be getting around by train, so if you're connected by rail (which i suppose everything pretty much is) then i can get there!

------------

i haven't had much of a chance to record my own music recently.  i was looking back in the archives, so to speak, and started listening to some old tracks from yellowbrain, a group i was in that no longer exists.  for much of the band's life, it was me playing keyboards, keith (currently the bandleader of puzzlebox experiment) on bass, and pete g (host of fergie's open mic; drummer on 'the moment') on drums.  i fondly look back upon that group as "philadelphia's most neurotic band."  we called our music "avant-groove," mixing jazz, rock, drum 'n bass, "jam band", psychedelia and electronica.  the group was almost completely instrumental, but we did end up recording a song with vocals, 'proxima.'   i wrote 'proxima' (around 2004, i think, although we didn't record it until the next year) specifically for yellowbrain, and as such, i'll probably never play it live again since the group is no longer.  and i like the song too much for it to just sit on my computer (or on the very lonely i'll post lyrics later on if anyone's interested, but in short, it's about people aboard a spaceship looking for a new home, hoping that perhaps they can begin a new life when it reaches the nearest star to earth, proxima centauri.  when i brought it to the group, i envisioned it as a dark, eerie song.  keith and pete made it eerier than even i envisioned.  'proxima' wouldn't be the same without them.

------------

i had the great fortune to be involved on a track with my main man from sweden, kashal-tee.  the track, called 'losing my mind' features krylon, kashal-tee, the legendary masta ace, kool dj dust and was produced by the misanthropist.  i wrote and sang the hook for it.  i'd post it, but i don't have a copy of it at the moment.  however, you can hear it on kashal-tee's music page by clicking here.

dig it,
anam

just posted a video from a show 8/30 at the fire with one of my local favorites, infinien, and supergalactic expansive.

mike pietrusko was kind of enough to play drums on this gig with me, in between touring with the fantastic george stanford.

i didn't even know anyone was taping this until mike told me about this the other day!  and it was taped by naeemah, another fabulous musician i'm happy to know.

this song is a relatively new one i wrote called 'nuclear test simon' about an april 1953 nuclear test blast in nevada codenamed 'simon.'  it's very synthy, something of a new wave 80s throwback.  for the time being i've been rocking this particular song garage-style, just drums and keys.  not sure what you can make of the lyrics here, but perhaps at some point, i'll post lyrics and go into more detail about it. 

much like the physical world, the internet also has abandoned countries, cities and corridors.  on one trip down such a corridor, i'd found a profile of mine on a social networking site that i'd forgotten all about. in a section that asked me who i wanted to meet, i wrote the following:

*     *     *

People who see the world not as red, yellow and blue, but
as crimson, canary and cornflower.

Who won't take normal for an answer.

Who can find the third dimension out of Flatland.

*     *     *

i'd say that it still holds true.  hopefully i'll meet bjork soon.