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Amanda Palmer hopes to take a break in 2011. (Kyle Cassidy) |
Scene & Heard
Promises, promises
Local rock luminaries offer their New Year’s resolutions
Who knows how long they’ll last this time? New Year’s resolutions, like good intentions, have a reliable way of floundering (or maybe that’s just us blaming the resolutions) or fading like a footprint in a January blizzard.
Still, be it stubborn optimism or collective amnesia, this charming pattern does little to stop us from those annual pledges of self-improvement. We are, after all, creatures of habit. We need to feel that the coming year spells a fresh start and will, ultimately, leave us fulfilled and triumphant. And why the heck not? It is a new year after all!
With this complex (read: self-deluded) psychology in mind, we asked folks in and around the local music scene — many of whom had a pretty fair 2010 (which suggests they may have actually kept a few of their resolutions from last year) — what goals they’ve set for 2011. Here’s some of what they had to say.
I’ve lost 125 lbs. this past year and I resolve to rock in 2011. I hope to leap about with my Hofner bass as often as possible this year, write as many songs as I can imagine, and sing as often and as loudly as I can. I plan to make music instead of excuses.
— Corin Ashley, singer-songwriter
1. Eat more greens.
2. Drink carrot/beet/apple juice every day [made with our new Jack LaLanne juicer].
3. Do yoga anywhere possible [back of minivan, green room, on stage, etc.]
4. Set up barter system so fans can trade local food in exchange for merchandise [organic veggies, raw milk, grass-fed beef, free range eggs etc.]
— Suz Slezak and David Wax, David Wax Museum
Finish John Powhida International full length. Drink a little less and call my dad a little more.
— John Powhida, singer-songwriter, John Powhida International Airport
As absurd as it sounds, this is the first year of my life since 2001 that I’m actually going to take a legitimate break. Really. Off. Home. CLEANING. I wonder if I will, or if, as usual, something shiny and sparkly will come flying in to distract me. It’s probable that two days before my break, David Bowie/Morrissey/Nick Cave is going to call and invite me to open for him. But let’s burn that bridge when we get to it, shall we?
— Amanda Palmer, singer-songwriter
My new year’s resolutions are as follows — and written in Haiku:
don’t get caught slippin
finish my next recording [mixing record 6 next month]
flipp scripp-come correck
P.S.: I did not want to get into the whole haiku debate, you know the one, dealing with the equating of syllables and moras [not to mention that most western Haiku never contain the Kigo or Kiregi]. I kind of feel like the terrorists have won if we engage that cliche postmodern critique of contemporary American popular discourse.
— Kurt von Stetten, songwriter-musician
I’ve never understood New Year’s resolutions. Jan. 1 seems like a random time to start keeping promises that I couldn’t keep yesterday. But if I were to make one it would probably be to poke Mitch McConnell [U.S. Senator, R-Kentucky] with a stick.
— Alastair Moock , singer-songwriter; founder, Pastures of Plenty music series
My New Year’s resolution is [to] create a limited first edition, hand-painted, silkscreened, numbered, hard copy of the facebook.com. If that falls through, I would like to instate horses as the modern day SUV.
— Jocie Adams, the Low
My fiancée Rachel and I have resolved to get married at center ice of a Worcester Sharks game [AHL affiliate of
— Shred, Team Shred Productions
We had an awesome 2010. Three albums released. Played a bleep-ton of shows and drank an even bleeper-ton of beer and whiskey. Hurray for that. The new record will be the best record of the year. 2011 will also include: Used Christmas tree bonfires in the backyard, lots of band in-fighting, the consumption of at least 365 Manhattans, and an increased use of the slide whistle. Woohoo!
— Joe Pleiman, Summer Villains
For Girls Rock Camp Boston it would be to find a building to rent out year-round in 2011, to help us continue to carry out our mission to end rocklessness in Boston girls 4-eva!
— Hilken Mancini, programs director, Girls Rock Camp Boston
My New Year’s resolution is to not let the zombie apocalypse stand in the way of my band hitting [prime-time]. Even if we have to rig up Tim the tour van with a front-end cattle prod, firing ports, and plate armor, we will bring our rock to your town.
— Adam Ritchie, the Lights Out
1. To see a song from the upcoming Mars Classroom record, “The New Theory of Everything,’’ make the Top 40, allowing Robert Pollard and me to realize the lifelong dream of having a hit.
2. To rescue the new, already finished Big Dipper album from languishing in the digital realm (hello, Merge . . . is anyone home? Anyone?), and to get it into the hands of all seven of our ardent supporters (not including spouses and family members).
3. To find a label to release 13 new songs by Bob Fay and me (Hello Warner Brothers . . . is anyone home? Anyone?).
4. To figure out how to use iTunes.
— Gary Waleik, Big Dipper; Mars Classroom
Three Day Threshold had a really good 2010, so 2011 has its work cut out for itself. This February, we are doing a tour for the troops in the Middle East. I guess all I’d like in 2011 is for the troops, and my bandmates too for that matter, to come home safe.
— Kier Byrnes, Three Day Threshold
Finally figured out my second tattoo. Forearm. Inside. I’m getting, in Russian, Dostoevsky’s “Beauty Will Save the World.’’ I’d like to think so. No. I DO think so. With all that’s dark on the planet, my hippie heart tells me that Everyone knows beauty and is moved/transformed by it. [Not unlike those in the concentration camps who carved butterflies into the wooden walls — chrysalis to flight]. Hope inscribed on this old arm.
— Rick Berlin, the Nickel & Dime Band
© Copyright 2010 Globe Newspaper Company.
