Coast To Coast #5: A Face In the Crowd

I've finished the first leg of the tour, and I have a few days off before D.C., and I'm trying my best not to stop.  If I stop, I might take a nap in Kentucky and sleep through next week's shows.  Rule #1 When Touring: never, ever, ever stop.

So, I've filled the day off with things to do.  One of those things was to empty out the camera and Flip from the first leg of the tour and post some pictures and videos. 

So, while I regroup a little, here are two new videos from the Portland concert.  And, for the running photo gallery of the tour, click here. 

Enjoy!

(Side note: I know I still owe you one more YouTube Concert.  It's coming, I promise.)

Live from The Woods, Portland OR - April 8, 2011

"Edge of the World"


"Shine"


Another place, another town,
CM

YouTube Concert #7

Happy Wednesday!

For those of you catching up, I'm posting a performance on YouTube every week: eight videos, six covers, two originals debuted, and one bonus.

Here's #1: Big Star's "Thirteen"
And #2: The Beatles', "It's Only Love"
#3: Simon & Garfunkel's "America"
#4: Chris Milam, "Never In Love"
#5: Beach Boys', "I'm Waiting For the Day"
#6: Amy Winehouse's, "Love Is a Losing Game"
BONUS: Ardent Presents Chris Milam
***Click here for the full playlist

And now, here's #7.  Enjoy!

YouTube Concert (Bonus Edition!)

(We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming--YouTube Concerts every Wednesday--to bring you a little something extra.)

Back in February, the folks at Ardent Studios asked me to be a part of their long-running Ardent Presents series.  They bring in different artists to perform a short set in their studio, record it, videotape it, and then release it. Ardent's been home to legends, icons, and heroes, from Dylan to Zeppelin, from BB King to Big Star, and everyone in between.  So, it was a real honor to be a part of this series.

Now, I'm happy to announce that my Ardent Presents is up!  Enjoy:

Read the piece they asked me to write about my experience.

Listen to/download the mp3:
(Note: Click the down arrow on the player's right sidebar to download the full session):
Ardent Presents: Chris Milam by Ardent Presents

Watch these two videos: (more coming!)




Doing this was an incredible experience.  I hope y'all have as much fun watching/listening as I did playing it. 

More soon,
CM

YouTube Concert #6

This is one of my favorite days of the year: St. Patty's, March Madness, and another YouTube Concert! 

For those of you catching up, I'm posting a performance on YouTube every week : nine songs, seven covers, and two originals debuted.

Here's #1: Big Star's "Thirteen"
And #2: The Beatles', "It's Only Love"
#3: Simon & Garfunkel's "America"
#4: Chris Milam, "Never In Love"
#5: Beach Boys', "I'm Waiting For the Day"
***Click here for the full playlist

And now, here's #6.  Enjoy, and erin go bragh!

YouTube Concert #4

Apologies for missing last week's YouTube Concert, everyone--I was sick.  But I'm back and ready to roll, so here's Concert #4 of the series.

For those of you catching up, I'm posting a performance on YouTube every Wednesday: ten songs, eight covers, and two originals debuted.

Here's #1: Big Star's "Thirteen"
And #2: The Beatles, "It's Only Love"
#3: Simon & Garfunkel's "America"

And now, here's #4.  It's a new song of mine that I'm debuting today--enjoy "Never In Love"!

YouTube Concert #3

As promised, here's YouTube Concert #3 of the series!

For those of you catching up, I'm posting a performance on YouTube every Wednesday: ten songs, eight covers, and two originals debuted.

Here's #1: Big Star's "Thirteen"
And #2: The Beatles, "It's Only Love"

And now, here's #3.  Enjoy!

YouTube Concert - "Up"

Ever been so infatuated that one phone conversation makes you want to run naked in the street, hug an enemy, swear off caffeine, scale Kilimanjaro, shoot a gun, learn French, and generally act like a seventh grader on speed? We may get older, we may be wiser, but may we never lose the ability to love like a seventh grader.

In that spirit, here's the latest of YouTube Concert: "Up." There will be another video on Wednesday, too, so check back for that. For now, run naked, climb a mountain, reach out, touch someone, and enjoy "Up"!

Chris Milam "Up"


Be sure to subscribe to the YouTube Channel so you know whenever I post a new video.

More soon!
CM

Three Hour Tour

Back on that desert island, I've gots my Petty, and I've gots my Motown, and I ain't looking back. Here's my explanation:

First, the Springsteen vs. Petty debate. When people talk about Bruce Springsteen's importance, I don't fight it, and probably couldn't. He means a great deal to a great many people, and has probably shaped American singer/songwriter-dom as much as anyone post-Dylan. His particular brand of Jersey-tough-but-poet-at-heart became a successful artistic formula. He's made liberalism sound pragmatic. Maybe more than anyone, he's struck the right chord post-9/11. He's done nothing but churn out hit, after hit, after meaningful record, after meaningful record, for the better part of thirty years. I get it.

My issue with Bruce is that I hardly ever listen to him. Maybe it's the vocal histrionics, or the cringe-inducing grandpaerobics of his current shows, or maybe it's the pomp, grandeur, and full-throated circumstance of his best-known records...maybe it's just that I'm not from Jersey. It's not that I question his sincerity. I know he's sincere. It's that I can't relate to it. At all.

(Side note: I relate to sincerity. Just not whatever world he talks about and musical backdrop he uses to desribe it. Born to Run is the classic example, and one I've written about. I know, on paper, it's a good record. But I can't listen to it for purely subjective aesthetic hangups. It sounds cheesy to me. Incredibly cheesy. So cheesy I don't know how people listen to it and don't laugh. Again, maybe it's just that I'm not from the same place; like someone not from SoCal might not get past the sonic goofiness of the Beach Boys.)

So, save the odd latenight car-ride or road-trip celebration or any other incidental occasion, I don't seek out Bruce. "Blood Brothers" is the exception. I love that song whenever it finds me, and seek it out when it doesn't.

Tom Petty, for me, occupies the exact opposite end of the spectrum. It's an uphill battle to make the case that Petty's the more important figure (though I would make the case that he's a drastically underrated lyricist), he's one of the most listenable artists I know. In his entire catalog, there are maybe 4 songs I actively dislike. Everything else occupies some position between "casually enjoy it" to "fervently love it." His genius is not that everyone loves him; it's that nobody hates him.

And why should they? His songs are dynamic, melodic, inclusive, generous. He's grown and successfully experimented at every stage of his career. He knows his strengths, and trusts them enough not to pridefully chase his weaknesses. He says, simply, "I don't care what coffeehouse poet you think you are, ain't nothing on Picaresque that says more than 'Free Falling.'" And, of course, he's right.

So on my desert island, I need listenability. It's just me, and I don't need to find myself deep or important. I need someone who can bring any type of song to the table and take nothing off it. I want someone whose catalog is many and varied enough to keep me guessing and stave off boredom. I wouldn't last three days with Bruce and the Saxhounds. But Wildflowers alone could buy me a few years.

For the same reason (though by a much, much slimmer margin) Motown's catalog edges out Stax. This one was much more difficult for me to answer, because Stax's catalog is incredibly listenable in its own right, and obviously more indicative of where I'm from. Stax sounds like Memphis. Folks from there will always recognize its music as something not just wonderful, but inherently familiar. It sounds great, but it also sounds like home.

The issue, essentially, is that I'm an unabashed tramp for a great pop song. If you want to join the Motown-was-artistically-dishonest-shucking-and-jiving-for-white-folks-everywhere bandwagon, I won't stop you. I also don't care. There's no question that Stax, as a label representitive of an artistic movement (soul) and one committed to the representation of that art, sounds more vital, and in a way more authentic. But there's nothing dishonest about Motown's music. If you have a beef, take it up with the marketers. You can't tell me that the Four Tops didn't mean it when they sang. Motown produced some of the truest pop America's ever heard. Also--arguably--they produced the most beautiful songs.

It is a catalog so beautiful, so true, and so dynamic, that I don't think there's anything I'd rather take to the desert island. So, you can have the academic debates and talk to yourself about cultural importance-with-a-capital-i. What good is cultural importance alone, for eternity, on a desert island? To me, the beauty of the question that it takes social pretension completely out of the equation. It's you, and only you, on an island until you die. Nobody to lie to. Nobody to intellectualized art with. No conversations where you convince yourself of an opinion you don't actually share. On the island, there is no room for bs. All that matters is what you want to hear.

Sometimes, that's all that should matter.

This leads me to another question, to close out the week:

What is your favorite guilty pleasure?

This shouldn't imply that Tom Petty or Motown are guilty pleasures for me, or that they should be for anyone. They're great. I'm just taking the issue a step further. What would you enjoy most on a desert island, because you could listen, dance, and singalong without guilt? You're the only person around, forever. You can't be a dork.

So, to put it another way, what guilty pleasure would you most want to guiltlessly enjoy on the island?

Here's my Winner:


And Runner-Up:


Deal with THAT.

Highway in the night,
CM

YouTube Concert

Check it out: the latest YouTube Concert!

This week's video is another unreleased song, "Edge of the World." This was taken at a benefit concert in Nashville (special thanks to Steve and Rory for making the footage happen for that show).

Below is the full lineup of YouTube Concert dates. Hit up the YouTube Channel at noon on the given days to find a brand new video. Or, better yet, subscribe to the channel so you get up-to-the-minute updates.

Upcoming YouTube Concerts:
May 11
May 13 (that's a two-fer next week!)
May 18
May 20 (and again! bam!)
May 25
June 1

And now....enjoy!

"Edge of the World" (***Lyrics available on the actual YouTube page)


Another new video next Monday...
CM

YouTube Concert

Check it out: I'm debuting a brand new song!

This is the first of many YouTube Concerts I'll be doing for the next several weeks, and I'm really excited to play some music for y'all. It's a perfect way to share a bunch of new, unreleased songs with everyone. So please, enjoy and share.

Below is the full lineup of YouTube Concert dates. Hit up the YouTube Channel at noon on the given days to find a brand new video! Or, better yet, subscribe to the channel so you get up-to-the-minute updates.

YouTube Concerts:
April 27
May 4
May 11
May 13
May 18
May 20
May 25
June 1

And now....enjoy!



Hope y'all enjoy! Another new video next Monday...
CM

Move Over, Disneyland

Or, "Facebook: The Happiest (Kind Of) Place on Earth (Kind Of)"

Louis CK isn't new to this. He's been an Emmy-winning comedy writer for David Letterman, Conan O'Brien, Dana Carvey and, perhaps most notably, Chris Rock. He's performed as a stand-up for over two decades, and is one of Comedy Central's 100 Greatest Comics of All-Time. He has co-written Saturday TV Funhouse shorts with SNL legend Robert Smigel. He had a sitcom on HBO. His 2008 special, Chewed Up, is one of the decade's best, a seminal look at 21st century parenting and adulthood. He's even had the honor of being plagiarized by Dane Cook!

Despite the resume, most folks my age don't know Louis CK. Rather, they didn't know him, until his most recent appearance on Conan went viral on Facebook. In the last two weeks, I've counted this video posted on my Facebook by twenty-six different people. The same comment always follows, "Wow, this is awesome," or "who is that guy" or "amazing" or my favorite, "so true!"

These people are right, of course. The bit, entitled "Everything's Amazing, Nobody's Happy" is great, and classic Louis CK. See for yourself:

Louis CK, "Everything's Amazing, Nobody's Happy"
(Click the link to watch on YouTube. Embedding disabled by The Man.)

So why is Louis CK a sudden hit with the Facebook set?

Facebook isn't the place people go to live their life, or to share their life, or even remotely experience life. Facebook is the place people go to project a more desirable life to their world. If you spent the day alone, in the dumps, upset about something, the world might not know. But if you update your status as "Best day ever!" 500 people immediately think you're doing great and--implicitly-- better than them.

Status updates (where people go to tell you how they're doing at that moment) are great on average ("lunch with Jen...so great!"), unrelentingly awesome at their best ("I don't know what I did to deserve this ridiculously fabulous life!"), and mundane at their worst ("it needs to stop raining please!"). As I type this, I have 345 friends. Probably 100 status updates show up on my page per day. I can remember seeing three negative updates, ever. Two were by the same person, in the same day. That would, I guess, make that poster the saddest person. Ever.

To boot, only flattering pictures are tagged. Only impressive jobs are listed. Who cares if you read Rimbaud or care about Africa? Your profile says you do. Photo comments are exclusively about the "best time." Exclamation points abound. Everything's amazing.

Of course, positivity is a good thing. Cheerfulness is a good thing. Facebook is an incredibly sunny place to visit, and I don't fault anyone for playing this game. If you have an outlet where it is not only acceptable but expected and normal to broadcast your life to hundreds of people as the best possible version of itself, wouldn't you do it? Shouldn't you do it?

Sure, that's a natural impulse. But even if it's acceptable/expected/normal for Everything Facebook to be amazing, it's probably not real. And while I'd love to believe--I honestly root for this--that the world's as happy as Facebook depicts it, nothing's sadder than seeing 3-pages of fictitious interweb euphoria, because nobody's sadder than the person who talks constantly about how happy they are. This is human nature, constant and true throughout history, from the tragic clowns of antiquity to the pitifully smiling Asian Guy From Fargo Who Just Wants to Sit Next to Frances McDormand.

Facebook, thou doth protest too much.

So when I see the endless loop of gleeful self-fiction, I want to think, "wow, March 2, 2009 is the greatest day in history for everyone alive, even miraculously better than March 1, who had that in the Pinnacle of Existence office pool" but all I can actually think is, "what's going on here" and "who needs a hug?"

Enter Louis C.K., a comic whose greatest gift is his ability to make people laugh at their own hidden fears, doubts, and motivations. Enter his innocuous late-night interview, where he uses universal anecdotes and daily minutiae to illustrate the point that, as good as everything seems, we're unfulfilled. And he presents it all from the safe distance of airplane travel and gripes about technology, but the meaning is clear:

Everything's Amazing, Nobody's Happy.

This was the Louis CK bit that the Facebook set (the site doesn't have a demographic, but it does have a universal modus operandi) was destined to find, and embed, and enjoy. We share it because its jokes are funny, but we understand it because its title--and subtext--are the unofficial slogan of Facebook: "OMG, everything's amazing (nobody's happy)!" And I can't help but feel that the twenty-six friends sharing it (and counting), and the million that have viewed it (much more than any other Louis C.K. video), don't just relate to complaints about flight delays; sure, the comedy itself is smart, funny, and winning. Rather, they implicitly relate to its message, because they've thought it, or witnessed it on Facebook, the very medium they're now using to share it.

Sometimes, if art's good enough, it subverts its audience in order to convert it. Andre 3000 made people listen and dance to a song that sang, "y'all don't wanna hear me/you just wanna dance." Jon Stewart became a real and trusted vox populi by calling himself, "the most trusted name in fake news." And Louis CK is currently a hit on Facebook--the site of exaggerated personal fiction--with a video called "Everything's Amazing, Nobody's Happy."

Best Post Ever!

Now, here's some more Louis CK to enjoy (***NOT SAFE FOR WORK):

Louis CK, "Children and Their Secrets" (From Chewed Up)


Louis CK, "Being White" (From Chewed Up)


Louis CK, "Bad Words" (From Chewed Up)


What do y'all think of Louis CK? Heard him before? Think that I'm wrong and that Facebook has actually supplanted Disneyworld as Happiest Place on Earth? Had March 3rd in the Pinnacle of Existence office pool and resent the way this played out? Take personal offense to all of this? Holler, I'm an ear.

In beautiful Happyworldland***,
CM

***Free pizza for whomever places this movie quote.

Art, Roll Over

Have you ever thought to yourself, "I wish there were a place I could go to watch Chris sing songs, play instruments, and make up songs about Simon & Garfunkel"? If so, today is your incredibly lucky day!

Milam's YouTube Channel:
Subscribe, comment, rate, favorite, embed, and more!

There's "Alcohol," an unreleased song I played recently in Nashville. I also just posted these two videos from the NYC show!

"Lovesick Cafe" - Unreleased, complete with "Don't Give Up On Me Now" banter!



"Memphis Queen" - Off Leaving Tennessee, complete with Simon & Garfunkel homage!


***Special thanks to the NYC gals who shot these!

Also, please don't forget about tomorrow's Rock N Remedy Concert...7PM at Mercy Lounge!

Going to Graceland,
CM

Bootleggers, Dr. Seuss, and YouTube

So for those of you unable to attend the CD Release show, there will be videos. Oh, yes, there will be videos. You can sit down in front of your compu, pop open a tallboy, turn off the lights, pretend you don't see your ex across the room, hit play on YouTube and it'll be just like you're at a Nashville scenester show!

Here's the first video from the show:

"Alcohol" - Live at 12th & Porter



It's unreleased, so currently the only place you can hear it is at a show or on YouTube....enjoy!

More soon,
CM