Category: Blog

This blog contains music, cats, and things of less importance.

PodCATS, CD Packages and FISH3N, Oh My!

I’m enjoying my new habit of Podcatsing. Yes, Berkeley Cat Records has the worlds greatest and purrhaps only PodCATS. I have here an embeddeddedded player which will magically update whenever we add an episode. This is turning out to be a really fun way for me to share some music I’ve made or helped to make or released over the eons (well, decades) that I’ve been slinging a guitar about and caterwauling. With so many amazing cats. I’ve been very fortunate to know and collaborate with such kitties and, as I am no longer a kitten, I know I won’t be here forever and I feel inclined to tell some of my stories. There’s no way to tell my stories without including some of the musical tracks herein, so podCATSing I will go. Ya know, I thought about doing this for a couple of years, and made some false starts, before I found my “radio” voice. I would record something and listen back and it sounded forced and weird to me so I’d try again a few weeks later. Eventually I got comfortable with it and now I’m off and podding. Enjoy with or without catnip.

I’ve submitted this pod-feed to Deezer, Pandora, Spotify, Apple and oh my some others too. I really dig Simplecast’s interface for all this. My thinkin’ is that I’ll promote BCR PodCats and that in turn will promote the records we release. Promoting records directly with a tiny budget in a world where thousands of new records (I still call them records) are uploaded every day can seem (and likely is) futile and if one gets attached to the outcome (as one does) it can be demoralizing. So my thinkin’, thinks me, is a better futility is promoting this “radio” show as an entertainment entity in itself, and thus the records may get exposure through it, and, maybe that leads to streams and sales for the artists and music on our label. And if not, I have fun doing it, and hopefully some peeps enjoy it. So far I’ve received some positive feedback, and oh my but who doesn’t like positive feedback? Meow.

New adventures. I have a few days off to do some exploring and visiting and see a (gasp!) live concert or two (wow!), all the while compiling not one but TWO CD packages. Yes Petunia, hard product. I thought I swore off of it but damn the torpedoes, Russ Ellis Songs From The Garden LP on CD in a nice package with lovely art from Russ and his grandson and music from their whole awesome fam and friends including yours truly, is in the works for actual. And a double CD of my songs, with the title: Eric Din plays the songs of Eric Roy Dinwiddie, because that’s what it is. Shannon Wheeler is working on the artwork. He’s done some incredible drawings for my solo singles over the last 6 years or so. Here, I will share, his latest, which I am so knocked out by. See, what Shannon does when I send him a song, is he interprets it. I seldom offer any art direction, because I want to see what comes out of his wild imagination. It’s been a real honor and a pleasure doing these collaborations, in which I send him a song in progress – usually a rough mix and the lyrics when I first come up with or commit to it – and he makes a sketch and sends it. Generally I go “wow that’s awesome!” and he develops and finishes the drawing as I finish the track, and voila. So the idea with this CD package is to include a booklet more like a comic, with Shannon’s drawings for the songs and my lyric sheets and liner notes and, you know, a package. Here for the first time I share Mr. Wheeler’s take on my song GONE FISH3N. I so love it. And I wish you a fine weekend and will be off for a bit, because I have, figuratively at least, Gone Fishen. <3

Applause for Aaron Carnes’ book, In Defense of Ska

I finally had some free time to read Aaron Carnes’ wonderful book,
In Defense of Ska. Naturally I was interested in this since The Uptones are in the story and I am quoted in it, but now, as I had hoped, I’ve learned so much more about some bands who were our contemporaries, and many who emerged later. I admit I was a little puzzled by the title when Aaron first mentioned it. I wondered: “Does ska need defending?” All of the anti-ska stuff of the post-90s world kind of whizzed by me, back then. I just wasn’t looking too closely at that time and I honestly didn’t care. If someone didn’t like ska, I figured that was their loss, and to each their own. But the story Carnes (Carney, if you will) weaves is far more interesting and profound than whatever I had imagined, and I found it a great read as a ska fan, as a musician, and just as a human being. I think it would be of interest to anyone who loves good stories. I know it’s a stand-up-and-cheer read for any ska fan. I mean, I actually applauded at the end, like you would at the end of a great concert. I’m honored and delighted to have had a little role in spreading ska in the US of A, and it’s an unexpected delight to see the story told from so many angles – the east coast, midwest, SoCal, our Berkeley thing, Portland, elsewhere.. seems our experiences being the “lone” ska band for a minute were shared by many other bands in their various scenes. The music industry “relationship” – if you can call it that – with ska music and ska bands, is.. troubled at best, and it turns out we also shared that with other bands. Tragedies and triumphs and lots of comedies all make for a fabulous read. Thank you Aaron, for writing this so thoughtfully, with humor and passion. It’s obviously a story I care very much about. And it’s not a story that is over, either. I bet somewhere some kids are reading this book right now and planning their own ska bands. The sound they will hear from here is – APPLAUSE!!

You can order Aaron Carnes – In Defense of Ska from Clash Books

Notes From A Berniecat

So I’m not a Berniecrat (don’t like the term, not sure why), I am definitely not a “Bernie Bro” and “Bernie Sanders Democrat” sounds tedious so in short, because Bernie and Cats, Berniecat. Obviously, really. Of course I’m a Berniecat. Berniecats unite. Berniecats are go. Bernie Sanders supporters have been right all along and the current presidency is onboard with the very damned obvious things we and Bernie have been saying all along. And this is good. It’s a Berniecat new era. I approve.

Photoshoppe cred missing ^, alas, tho it is part of the Great Bernie Meme Flood of January 2021 of course.

Other newts. I’m quoted in Rolling Stone, that’s a fun thing that doesn’t happen every day. It’s an excerpt from Aaron Carnes’ new book, which includes a chapter about the Uptones and, this one about Operation Ivy and their Energy album. A fun read. Funny – the part where Op Ivy re-did their album – I remember running into them when they were making that decision. I saw them on Solano Ave and we got lunch together, they had it on a walkman, and they seemed unhappy with it, deliberating about cutting the whole thing again from scratch. I had no opinion, other than, like, “do it if you want to, guys!” We are glad they did.

The Berkeley Cat Record Podcats is all the way up to EPISODE TWO!!! It’s incredible. A vast, almost entire hour of…. CONTENT! Content is what everything is called now. I like my Content. I’m contented with the content. I contend that my content is a contender. Constantly, Constanza. We love you, bye.

Blogcats

Updates! Updates. Wow, updates.

The latest episode of the Dark Ages behind us, enjoying some moments of sanity.

Wrestle, I do, with what format to release recordings in. At this point I can’t care about it, it’s just wrong no matter what. Humorous, really! My friends who really do listen to vinyl encourage vinyl releases and they are the ten people who would buy the thing that costs thousands to make. The rest get stored in a sad dust-collecting pile, adding to the preposterous mass of Crap That Humans Made, drowning the earth. CDs, similar dealie, different numbers. Virtual releases are my favorite these days because if someone wants to, they can download and burn their own. Heck if they really want to, they can make vinyl! Get the means of production, have at it. DIY on the consumer end. Why not? Put it on an Edison cylinder.

Some crazy amount of new music is released every day, mostly online. Tens of thousands of tracks. Each and every day. Cos we have these little recording studios in our laptops and thingy-pads and even in our “phones.” You know, I love, truly love that people can do that. I love that I can do it. I’m amazed when there’s an audience for a new artist or a new record by a lifer like myself. It’s a connection of sorts, a human one, when we’re all so far apart generally. I’m one of the so so many persons makin stuff alone these days. Well sort of alone. I seem to have these wonderful little collaborations with some of my great old musical buddies brewing lately. Damon Wood, Jay Lane, Al Marshall, the whole Ellis family, Steven Bernstein, and my Uptones bandmates Tommy and Ben and Paul and Moose and Charles and John and others.. so many cats, wow, all in the past year. At a desk, with headphones. It’s a kind of magic, that they can record a track and send it to me and I can load it into ProTools (still my main DAW, I guess that’s “old school” now!) and do my tracks with them and mix it up and release it, all from here. Nuts. It’s perfectly nuts. And I love it. These parts.

My Bandcamp page (have I said how much I love Bandcamp? I love Bandcamp) now has 4-up and 4-down, visually, and I am strangely pleased with the symmetry. Most of the tracks are done, a few of them I will remix. It’s been a sort of a public “work in progress” there. Most of the artwork is from Shannon Wheeler, whom I spoke with just yesterday. We’re gonna have a little chat on my podcats soon, I think. Which reminds me – Updates! Right!

The Berkeley Cat Records PODCATS is up! Others have podcasts. We have a podcats. Check it out. Subscribe. Share. It’s free. We have no sponsor and there are no advertisements. Though I might make some satirical fake ones.

There’s more, always more, so much more, but that’s it for now, I’m out for a walk in the woods.

First Caturday Of A New Era

What an amazing week. I am in awe of many things. There’s a wonderful moment at the end of Free Solo (spoiler alert if you haven’t seen it), when Alex Honnold stands atop El Capitan and calls his girlfriend (now wife) Sanni McCandless and says he is “so delighted.” So delighted. He free soloed El Cap which is impossible – don’t attempt it because you will die – he spent a lifetime training and climbing and doing pull-ups with his freaking fingers, then years practicing El Cap with ropes and his friends the top climbing partners you can have in the world, and he tries it once and blows it off cos he’s not feeling it (he is, I emphasize, so definitely not a crazy person), comes back a season or so later and one fine morning glides up that sheer wall with the grace and precision of a dancer and ENJOYS it, he’s smiling, grooving on it, loving it, one small misstep would mean certain death and he’s completely focused yet not worried in the least, he’s got this and he knows it, and it’s a beautiful day, he summits and he is alive and tells his lovely lady he is so delighted, so delighted, so delighted. I just love that. I find myself saying it sometimes and no, I have never done or will do anything of that sort! But I can be so delighted sometimes, yes I can.

I watched some classic Ray Charles concert footage this evening, down a rabbit hole that started with Georgia. I had to hear again Brother Ray’s classic take on Hoagy Carmichael’s beautiful lament which became, after a decades-long saga that included the Civil Rights Movement – the Georgia state song. Because Georgia this month turned the senate Blue. Thank you, Georgia. So delighted. Down the rabbit hole from there I watched more Ray Charles – his concert footage is magnificent and I have never really checked it out before. What a great performer in every way, and his bands, so top notch. Watching Ray Charles at the piano dancing seated-ishly and just knowing from a lifetime of doing, where the keys are, where the mic is, flawlessly, gesturing cues to the band with a nod to the left, projecting love to the audience on his right and just shining, uniting everyone and uplifting them, delivering these gifts night after night for so many years, these incredible pieces I watched constituting but a small part of his work. Excellence is so fun to watch. Whether in sport or music or anything else.

I remind myself today that this pandemic is out of control, made so largely because the 45 “administration” was incompetent and malicious. They’re gone but the stink remains, and it will for a while. So I remind myself to mask up, social distance as much as possible, wash hands etc. do the things, don’t let up til this is over and it’s going to take time. I see posts from friends who have COVID, whose friends and family members do, some are having a very bad time of it and some are dead or dying. The freakish reality that so many, many Americans have somehow chosen to deny that this is happening, is so disheartening and maddening. Hopefully now, their imbecile lord banished and facing prosecution, some will resurface from the ocean of bile they’ve been swimming underwater in and see the light.

I’m proud of the millions of people who made our struggling, aspiring, baby democracy work, against terrible, dishonest, hateful, ugly, criminal, and finally seditious opposition, in these recent months at the end of four calamitous years. Made it work. Caused it to work. By showing up. Many in my little corner of FB really showed up. Tens of millions of other folks, most of whom will never meet each other directly, worked with a unity of purpose to prevent the end of our democracy, and the unimaginable disasters which that would have brought. We did it. We have to keep at it, obviously, this ain’t done, but we did it. I think after such a harrowing experience, less people will be apathetic or complacent about their responsibilities as citizens and voters. I hope so.

Much work to be done. And now, we can do it. We won’t be fighting upstream against an evil GOP in power, for now. The future looks brighter to these eyes again suddenly. The air smelled fresh today. Rain forecast in Cali, and the grown-ups are in charge in DC.

So delighted!

2020 Visions, Revisions, and Revelations

In the middle of all this craziness, I’ve somehow had a rather productive year. One big milestone – the early Uptones album! Been wanting to do that for a long time, and the pieces finally fell into place to make it possible. I wrote some posts about it on the Uptones blog. Out now on Liberation Hall records.

Cover art by Peter Montgomery. Liner notes from Sarah Cain. Have at it!

I’ve produced some more songs of my own. The most recent one, Jupiter Girls, I finished this weekend and shared right away on my Bandcamp page. It’s so fun, and in a way, it’s the most Uptones-y thing I’ve done on my own. The brass section, arranged and performed by the mighty Steven Bernstein, launches the track in a way that reminds me of Uptones arrangements. We’d often do these huge, triumphant horn lines as intros and bridges and whatnot, and when Jupiter Girls was all done and mixed the way I wanted it, I laughed and said, hmm, we kinda Uptone’d that! Thank you Steve, and drummer Jay Lane (speaking of Uptones!), and Shannon Wheeler (who drew the cover art), for joining me on this long-distance collaboration. It brought me some real joy, and I see it is doing the same for some folks out there listening to it already. And that of course means the world to me. Humble thanks and love, all!

We defeated the orange apparition of death, and saved American democracy. I have many friends who volunteered, donated, posted and participated so actively in this election. Starting during the primary we had at it, working hard for our preferred candidates (for me it was Bernie). Then in the general election, many of us got behind the Democratic Party ticket hard and strong, and helped put them over the top. We did that. We. It was a WE thing.

Bernie Sanders’ 2020 slogan, “Not me, US” is one of my favorite political slogans ever. I didn’t like his earlier “Join the Political Revolution” slogan at all, though I strongly supported him then. I didn’t like the Obama campaign’s “HOPE” thing, though I understood its appeal, and vigorously supported his run in 2008 and 2012. Did Hillary Clinton’s campaign have a slogan in 2016? Jeez I can’t remember – what was it – (googling..) oh right, “Hillary for America.” Again, I voted for Clinton, and in hindsight after this unspeakable disaster, I WISH I had campaigned for her, donated, volunteered, done something more than vote, but that’s water under the bridge and.. “Hillary for America?” Hoo boy. Dem’s, we have to do better! Forgive me for this tangent, but I’m a songwriter, and I think lyrics matter. 45’s slogan, which I shall not repeat, is a political masterpiece. In the endless autopsy of the 2016 election I will repeat, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by a comfortable margin, and we need to revise or remove the Electoral College, so maybe her slogan worked fine for some folks too. I just thought it said nothing. I couldn’t even remember it. Popular songs, you can remember. But enough complaining.

We WON the 2020 presidential election, decisively. And every one of us has our own inner dialog about what that means, and the dark horror of what another 4 years of this bullshit would mean. Me, in my little corner of the universe, what were some of my anxieties? Oh they’re almost embarrassing, so small are they compared to the concerns of people in real peril due to this monstrosity, but I’ll share, why not? You know what? I produced a really joyous, celebratory song, the above Jupiter Girls. I honestly didn’t know if I’d have the creative energy and will to finish the track properly if our fellow men and women put 45 back in office again. No. I would have lost a piece of my faith in humanity, I might have snapped, I would have bailed out and gone to live in a monastery or something, I don’t know. And the Uptones early recordings album, what would that be, in the context of the election, if it had gone the other way? We waited 35 plus years to put it out (the reasons for that far too lengthy to address here) and boom, the release date was… November 6th! I laughed and cried when I saw that date announced just a few months ago, knowing election day is the 3rd. Fun. I doubled down on my support for Biden/Harris and helped them win.

When I look at the results from state to state, I can easily conclude that WITHOUT the massive efforts of so many of us, this would have gone south. Pun accepted. But we won. We won and government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. Not this week. Not on our watch. Not this time. Take a breath and let’s see what we can do to help the Democratic senate candidates in Georgia and mute the evil turtle from Kentucky, shall we? What’s the best approach? I’m looking into this.

At the same time as all of the above, I released some great new music from Russ Ellis and friends, Matte Martin, The Recyclists, Comeback Pete and others on my new label, Berkeley Cat Records. And I’ve been working with a wonderful team at Pandora, remotely, all of this remotely, from the same desk, in my COVID outpost. Without keeping busy, I don’t know how I’d cope. I’m very grateful. What a year!

When I was 17 and the Uptones were starting out, a friend of a friend asked me at a party, “Dude, why do you mix politics with music?” “Dude,” I replied, “they’re already mixed.”

Too Many Web Domains Syndrome

Must simplify. Gonna keep this web domain cos it’s my me. I love Berkeley Cat Records cos it’s my label and the first great brand name I’ve had since The Uptones. I am letting my Peace and Love and Rock and Roll domain remain as-is from now on, an artifact. It was a good journey.

Updating the Uptones site lately has been fun. And here I am at my own domain, typing a little blurb as I think of how to tackle some more updates today. We have things. Records, releasing. Both virtual and actual. I like it.

Here is a bunnyrabbit.

Thoughts about my new single, Am I Not Alien? b​/​w People I May Know

I’m delighted to announce the release of Am I Not Alien? b​/​w People I May Know on Berkeley Cat Records.

A Tale Of Two Songs

Am I Not Alien started a long time ago. I had the idea when playing in HOBO, a band Paul Jackson and Ben Eastwood and I had (with several wonderful drummers) after the initial breakup of the UpTones. We performed an early version of it once or twice but I wasn’t really satisfied with the verses and it just didn’t sound the way I wanted, so we let it go. Flash forward to COVID19 and I’m hanging out with my guitar and the little bass-sliding riff shows up and I recognize it and think, hey, I can finish this now! And put it together myself.

Spent weeks! Recording and rerecording the parts, methodically inching toward the feeling I wanted from each instrument. See, I’m not really a recording engineer, though I guess I am becoming one. And I have nothing but the “gear” in my laptop – amp models, software synths, “VST” effects (I don’t even know what VST stands for!) googles.. Oh! Virtual Studio Technology. Of course! Yes I work in a virtual studio I have been “building” over the years, and in my spare time now I hang out in it and create things. It’s tremendous fun.

So, I had EVERYTHING on “Alien” cookin’ the way I wanted it EXCEPT the DRUMS!! A month ago, I was frustrated because my ham-fisted attempts at drum “programming” were still falling flat and meanwhile, the guitars, bass, synth and organ, (oh and my vocals!) were right there with the musical image I had in my head all along, having followed an aspiration that started (I counted) in 1994. What’s a home recording geek to DO if you can’t get the DRUMS right!?

Call a drummer.

I thought Jay Lane would have the right instincts for this, and in Quarantineville he has his recording outpost running too so he said “Yeah, send me the tracks!” Which I happily did, wrestling first with printing audio “stems” that he could import into his gizmo, and we back-and-forthed about tech issues before finally he too was able to sit down and rock the drum tracks. He sent them back to me, I imported them, and wow, I heard what I had been after with this elusive, delicate, utterly persistent song that wanted me to write and realize it for basically half my life. Thank you, Jay!

Oh! All along I was sending the “ruffs” to Shannon Wheeler. He’s drawn these beautiful covers for me since I started making and releasing solo records in 2015, and usually the method is – I send him the lyrics and a demo or rough mix and he sends me some sketches. This were no different, I loved his take on it, and even before I called Jay, I had the finished cover on my desk. See so I HAD to finish. I could not put the thing off for another year like I had in the past, I had the dang record cover. Motivational. Thank you, Shannon!

It was a saga and I love how it all came together in the end. The song is about being human, obviously, and it speaks to me in ways that feel urgent and current to me. I hope it may for you as well.

b/w People I May Know – yes! b/w meaning “backed with” as they said with vinyl 45RPM singles – an A side and a B side! I’m so pleased with the B side here and it is an ENTIRELY different story! Had the idea one Sunday morning this July – I can tell you the date actually, it was July 12, 2020. Cracked up when I thought of it, saw someone in my “People you may know” feed in Facebook whom I thought I was FB friends with! Being that I consider them an actual friend I was miffed and I thought, FB, that is some fucked up UI design right there! The way I find out I was UNFRIENDED (gasp, horrors..) is by being ‘splained to that they are, a People I May Know! The song wrote itself. To say nothing of the fact that my friend may have deleted their old profile or any number of other reasonable explanations, the gig was on and I was not letting this one get away. Scrawled out the lyrical ideas in pen, pulled up a drum track I’ve been meaning to recycle, played bass, one guitar track, two vocal tracks – inventing the vocal arrangement as I improvised it to tape – mixed it, and done. So where “Alien” took 25 some years, “People” took just a few hours from conception to completion. A tale of two songs! A tail? A tail of two songs. On Berkeley Cat Records. Of course. Every song is different and like cats, they make their own rules.

I hope you enjoy! Listen, I have been making the songs I share via Bandcamp (we LOVE Bandcamp!) “free or pay what you like.” Reasons for this are simple – I want you to have my records if you want them. Absolutely I love it and appreciate it if you can kick in something to help cover my costs and encourage more of this sort of tomfoolery, but if you don’t have the extra dough right now (WE UNDERSTAND THIS!) please don’t hesitate to put “0” in the download “purchase” amount and save the file. Or, if you’re Jeff Bezos, you can buy it for a million dollars! Thank you, Jeff!

We recommend selecting FLAC because it is lossless, highest resolution (sounds best) but honestly MP3s are fine too and my kittycat ears often can’t tell the difference.

I set the streaming services release date to Caturday, Sept. 26! This gives us a little time to promote the songs and see if we can get them on some popular playlists. That’s about it. You can click through the song title links on:

https://ericdin.bandcamp.com/album/am-i-not-alien-b-w-people-i-may-know

to read the lyrics and credits. Thank you for your time, please stay well and safe, and of course feel free to share this all any ol’ which way you may care to.

Much love

The Long Vacation by Alex Panasenko

I read Alex Panasenko’s memoir, The Long Vacation, this weekend. A delightful romp through the moral simplicities of Europe in the mid 20th century. If you believe that, the Golden Gate Bridge is for sale. Really it’s an entertaining and horrifying and funny and shocking and profound and vulgar and appalling ride to hell and back repeatedly. Then comes the second chapter!

Spoiler-ish alert. The final paragraph is so devastatingly bleak and funny at once, that I couldn’t decide whether to laugh hysterically or give up on humanity altogether, so I did a bit of both. But overall, the book helped restore my own will that we treat each other well, and ourselves well, regardless of what negative bullshit anyone may ever tell us about ourselves or others.

The author was, years after the events portrayed in the book, my biology teacher at Berkeley High School. The jovial, engaging and brilliant teacher I knew as a teenager, came up from a childhood worlds different from mine. I’m glad he wrote this book, or I would never have known his story. A story which also happens to be relevant to current events in terrible and important ways.

War is crazy. Bigotry is crazy. These things are crazy and ridiculous, yet they persist in being such large pieces of the human experience. After I closed the book, I had an unexpected musing: “The worst things people ever did were done by people.” And quickly reminded myself that the opposite is also true.