I am Not Lame

Fans of power pop music around the globe are familiar with Not Lame, a record label and on-line retail site operated by world-class power pop guru Bruce Brodeen.

I'm very pleased to announce that my newest release, The Best of Jonathan Rundman: 20 Songs from the 20th Century has been reviewed (on the front page!) and made available to the power pop community via Not Lame. It's exciting for me to be included in a musical fraternity that includes songwriting heroes of mine such as Bill Lloyd, Jason Falkner, and Parthenon Huxley.

The Not Lame record review is also loaded with great stuff, and I'm thrilled to receive such accolades. Link to it here, and read this selected text:

2 CD set, subtitled "20 Songs From The 20th Century". This is a 40 collection featuring remastered, remixed, and renovated recordings of Jonathan's early tunes like "Armyman," "Janesville," and "Tape," plus some previously unreleased gems like "The Sound of the Cicadas." Echoes of Barenaked Ladies, Danny Wilde And The Rembrants, mid/late 80s/90's Squeeze, Marshall Crenshaw, Timbuk 3(remember them?!) and more recent faves like David Brookings and Peter Himmelman. Rundman is knows his away a lot of styles of music - pure pop, folky pop and a bit of 'ole fashion Americana and it shines all over the material. And, he's Lutheran! (my father was a bishop in the Lutheran church and I'm a product of good midwestern Lutheran college and still proud Lutheran, which of course has nothing to do with the music here, but you start yr own company and write whatever you want and have fun!). 40 songs is a lot to chew on, but take it all in, break it up, Rundman is an easy salve in a complex, deeply nuanced world and this material is the rare combination of pleasant and meaty. Very Highly Recommended.

Wow...thanks Bruce! More of my major music influences here, including Danny Wilde, Marshall Crenshaw, and Pat MacDonald of Timbuk 3. And I had no idea that Bruce Brodeen was a fellow Lutheran, so that's just denominational icing on the cake! Thanks to Not Lame and power pop fans around the world for the support!

new lyrics, giggin' in SoDak, breaking even, and tonight's show too

Okey doke, folks, here's the promised musical update from the past couple weeks of my life:

FIRST: I haven't written any new songs for a couple years. It's okay, I'm not stressed or worried about it...that's just how it goes for me. I turn off that part of my brain deliberately when I've got other things to do, and in recent years I've been focusing on promoting the Heartland Liturgy, re-mixing and releasing the Best Of the 20th Century project, playing tons of gigs, savoring the first year of daughter Svea's life, installing my new gas dryer, etc. But I feel that creative region of my brain beginning to (to quote our President) "surge." SO, two weeks ago my family was en route to Custer, SD and we'd stopped for the night in Mitchell, SD. At 6AM I awoke, remembering the dream I had been having...and I had dreamed the lyrics for a song. Not just a word or two, but entire rhyming phrases. So I jumped out of bed, went into the bathroom and turned on the lights (so as not to wake my sleeping family), and spent two hours sitting on the edge of the tub writing and tweaking this new song, scribbling out the lyrics on a complementary Days Inn notepad. It was exciting, because the only other song I've ever dreamed was "Out Behind the Old Hotel," and it's one of my favorites. The new song I wrote was definitely something I couldn't have conceived during the waking hours, and I'm very happy about it. I won't tell you the details of the lyric 'cause I want to try to write some music for it, BUT I'll clue you in on the song title: "That Man Upstairs." (No, it has nothing to do with my vertical neighbor in the hotel that night...everybody was quiet, thankfully.)

SECOND: Upon arrival in Custer, SD I got to play at one of the best acoustic music venues in America (if not the world). Seriously, as somebody who's played lots of cool rooms, this one is right up there. The Songbird Cafe in downtown Custer is a performers dream, and here was the situation: I shared the bill with my pals Tangled Blue, another folky-pop Lutheran-indie-rock act. The show was a sell-out, with 75 people paying $8 at the door to attend (there's a rare statistic for a JR audience!). Everybody was totally silent during the show, paying attention to every word and note, applauding wildly, and buying CDs afterwards. A truly incredible night for me as a performer...how can you NOT rock the house in such an ideal environment? Here's my set list (not in order):

747s
Librarian
Smart Girls
The Sound of the Cicadas
Meeting Nixon
Every Town's The Same
Gospel Verses
Out Behind the Old Hotel
Ashes
The Serious Kind
PLUS, a great closing set with Tangled Blue when we played together:
Gimme Shelter (Rolling Stones cover)
Time After Time (Cyndi Lauper cover)

THIRD: I spent a week as artist-in-residence at Outlaw Ranch, a Lutheran camp in the Black Hills. In the middle of the week I played a concert for the folks at the camp, and it was a blast. Played the classics, as well as some rarely attempted tunes such as "Calm the Storm" and my own setting of the Sanctus, both with a keyboard set to a super-effected '80s sound. Korg and Yamaha should just install a sample in all keyboards called "Michael W. Smith" and that would say it all. Oh yeah, and I played a cover of Neil Young's "Heart of Gold" and a snippet of "Babe" by Styx. The biggest smash hit of the week was a song I composed with the 3-year-old campers, with a chorus that goes like this: "What are these things made of? PAPER, PAPER!" Thanks Outlaw folks, let's do it again next Summer.

FOURTH: Upon returning home from the week in South Dakota, I did what I do after every gig: I go downstairs to my inventory room and figure out how many copies of each CD I sold. This past week I had reached a major milestone in the indie-rock record business. TWO of my albums broke even while I was in South Dakota. The strange and mildly disconcerting thing was this: the albums were Public Library and Protestant Rock Ethic. My Public Library album came out THREE years ago, and most folks (including me) would agree that it's my best work as a songwriter, and it's certainly my best played and recorded album, BUT it was expensive to make, and it took me these past few years just to sell enough of it to break even!

Here's the contrast: Protestant Rock Ethic is a double-CD, with 42 freakin' songs, and it costs the consumer a whopping $20, and although it's got a lot of stuff I'm very proud of (Heartland Liturgy, etc.), it also contains my least-impressive songwriting of all time (what? No passionate audience requests for "Picture This" or "Seven-Color Promise"?). And the amazing thing is this: it's only ONE year old! Logic would suggest it would take many years for PRE to pay itself off, but PL should fly off the shelves and break even quickly. BUT, the reality shows us that the opposite is true. Here's what we learn from these events:

People in the world want a Jonathan Rundman album filled with church-related songs. They don't care if it's poorly recorded, salvaged 4-track demos with tape hiss...as long as it's liturgical folk-rock, hymn interpretations, and Sunday School soundtrack tunes, people LOVE it. And indeed, that Protestant Rock Ethic album continues to fly off the sales table, and the internet orders pour in.
ALSO, the people in the world are less interested in a smartly rocking, super-professional folk-pop album like Public Library, even if it's generating glowing national press, produced by an indie-rock legend, and containing my finest songs. Hmmm...
SO....where does that leave me? What kind of album should I try to create next? Well, whatever happens in the future, I should rejoice that my albums actually (eventually) pay for themselves, and are profitable. So many bands get signed to some big label, put out a record, and even with a minor hit or two, end up a million dollars in the hole when it's all said and done. I must count my blessings, along with my sales figures.

FIFTH: I'm back home in Minnesota now, and this evening I played a fun show up in my previous neighborhood of North Minneapolis. The gig was at Papa's Pizza (my favorite local pizza place), and was sponsored by the Camden Music School. My payment was a free dinner (thanks Papa's!) and I performed for about 40 folks who were very fun and attentive. Musical highlights for me were renditions of "List of Things To Do" (I love this one, and I could play it every night, but audiences seem indifferent....oh well), and a nice sing-a-long version of Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer." Thanks to my friends who came out to the gig, and much love and support to y'all on the North Side working to turn the tide of crime and violence that's been going on in the neighborhood! I'm proud to lend my voice and fingers to your cause!

That's the update, dear readers. Thanks for your interest. Finally, check out a nice mention I got on a brand new blog called Guitar Graces....blog on, Dr. Gil!

Catch-up: Svea's first swim, 35W bridge site, etc.

Whew, it's been a whirlwind of parenting, intrastate road tripping, domestic maintenance, and more parenting these past few weeks. It's been all I can do to stay atop of the basic life necessities, so blogging has fallen by the wayside. I hope to catch y'all up on some cool musical stuff, etc., in upcoming entries, but for now let's just bookend the days of August:

This month began with some lovey lakeside days in Northern Minnesota. After a great Dawn-side family reunion in Brainerd, I packed up Paavo and Svea and zipped up to pristine Otter Tail Lake where we spent a few days with fellow stay-home-Dad and Lutheran-indie-rocker Nate Houge and his two delightful daughters Lydia and Elsa. Nate summarized our visit well at his own fine blog establishment, and one of the many highlights was that my daughter Svea went for her very first SWIM! As folks who truly know me can attest, I LOOOOOVE to swim, and it's quite a joy to hit the lake with my own descendants. In these photos you will see (L-R) our pal Lydia Houge, me, Svea, Paavo, and our other pal Beachball. Svea was beaming the entire time, splashing, laughing, and giving me that wild-abandon look that she so often expresses. Priceless.

After returning to the big city, and to Dawn, the family then repacked everything for a 10-day journey to the Black Hills of South Dakota...I got cool pix and stories, but they deserve their own blog posting.

Now we're back from the SoDak trip, and I've plunged into the super-parenting role. Summer classes and programming are done, so it's been up to me to provide the dog-and-pony show for myself, Svea, and Paavo all this week. Besides feeding, diapers, toys, cleaning, feeding, cleaning, etc., here's a quick list of other stuff clogging up the old grey matter:

1. Our clothes washer died two weeks ago, and the laundry situation is dire. Thankfully the appliance delivery dudes arrive tomorrow with a new washer/dryer system (cue "Money For Nothing" by Dire Straits). Dad called me on the phone tonight and I had him talk me through the process of shutting off a gas dryer and unhooking it without causing the house to explode...it was like one of those action movies where a passenger has to land a plane, and the control tower guys "talk him down."

2. Facebook is on the cover of Newsweek magazine. I confess, even though I am a major internet surfer, I have yet to look at anybody's Facebook page (let alone build one for myself). The buzz in the culture seems to suggest that Facebook is the future, and that MySpace is on the way out. Is this true? I'm exhausted just keeping up with email, maintaining www.jonathanrundman.com, plus my MySpace page(s), AND this blog. Please say I don't have to be on Facebook too!

3. (technical nerd-speak warning) My internet service provider for the past five years has been MSN/Qwest, and their service and reliability has SUCKED ROYALLY the entire time. But it's such an annoyance to make any changes in that regard that I've always just stuck with it. The worst problem surfaced in late June where I could no longer pull my email messages off the Qwest server into my Entourage email program because they no longer offered a POP3/SMTP option. So for the past two months I've been slogging through a web-only-based email system. LAME. After about ten cumulative hours on the phone with a variety of useless out-sourced tech support people sitting at a phone back in India someplace, I gave up on MSN/Qwest and Googled my way to an answer. Thank goodness some computer-genius message board users clued me in to the powers of Gmail (which provides POP3/SMTP powers!)...now I'm routing my MSN email through a Gmail account and (yayhoooo) into my Entourage program! It's kind of a rinky-dink system but it works. Up yours, MSN/Qwest!

Of course all these low-grade technical issues pale in comparison with what's going on in our Twin Cities community in the aftermath of the 35W bridge collapse. I heard on the news yesterday that now that all the missing have been recovered, they've got the go-ahead to clear away all the debris from the river. I really wanted to see the destruction with my own eyes before they cleaned up the mess, so this afternoon I took Paavo and Svea downtown to check out the scene.

The clearest and easiest view the public can see is from just upstream on the pedestrian-only Stone Arch Bridge, so that's where we started. Here's what you see looking downstream...most of the wreckage is blocked by a lower boat-lock and dam. In this photo just beyond the four concrete pillars you can see a bit of the huge horizontal deck that fell into the river. Also, just behind the medium tree and below the white roofs, you can see the massive A-shaped peak where the highway folded down on either side. The arched bridge in the background stands directly next to the former 35W bridge, giving some perspective on just how high up those cars were when they started falling! What the TV doesn't capture is just how LOOOOONG the bridge was, and the fact that the entire length of it just dropped. It must be a few football fields long. Incredible.

Check out this photo: On the North side of the Stone Arch Bridge you can walk through the no-vehicles security tape and move along the sidewalk near some fancy new condos. Amazingly, you can get very close to the North end of the bridge and see where the train cars were crushed in the impact. The thing just keeps going and going and going. It's truly a wonder that more people weren't killed.

Summer 2007 has been filled with tragedy and danger...here's hoping for a safe and calm Autumn. Stay tuned for blogs about my musical adventures in South Dakota, and hopefully some pix and details about this upcoming weekend of music, too!

Westbound in SoDak, XM Satellite Radio, etc.

Hey folks! One year ago I was in pretty much the same place doing the same thing (check out last year's blog entry courtesy of MySpace)...stopping for the night in South Dakota, bound for the Black Hills. Tonight the Rundman Four rolled into Mitchell, SD, and have made camp here at the Days Inn. I'm up late killing time in between switching loads of laundry in the hotel washer, and Dawn and kids are already asleep. The iPod is on shuffle, and I'm hearing Paul Simon's lovely "Under African Skies" as I type in the hotel lobby, with crowds of Harley bikers checking in after a long week of partying and posturing at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.

Sheesh, it's tough to get two adults, music gear, diapering supplies, baby food, basic clothing, and two small children out of the house. This morning was many hours of non-stop parenting, packing, and car-loading. Thankfully, we finally hit the road out of Minneapolis at 2:30PM.

My rental car came equipped with XM Satellite Radio. I was quite excited to give this commercial-free digital music source (200+ stations!) a test run. Dawn and I spent the drive surfing between a few favorite stations: "the '70s," "the '80s," "Air America," "Big Hits (or something....it's '70s and '80s classic rock," and "Hear Music" (the Starbucks Coffee channel). Satellite radio was okay, but I was a bit disappointed in the limited playlists on these stations. Imagine this: while surfing between the '80s station and the Classic Rock station, we heard "New Year's Day" by U2 TWICE, and "Walking on a thin line" by Huey Lewis and the News TWICE! I can honestly say I hadn't heard that Huey song for twenty years, but today I heard it twice in the span of five hours. Of all the thousands of classic rock options out there, and with over 200 stations to choose from, why oh why must I hear low-profile Huey Lewis tunes more than once in one day (let alone in one month)? That "Big Hits" (or whatever) station played some freakin' great stuff, though: "Sole Survivor" by Asia; "Rock Me Tonight" by Billy Squier; "You Wreck Me" by Tom Petty; "Baker Street" by Gerry Rafferty; "You're All I've Got Tonight" by The Cars. Sweet, man.

After a couple hours on the road, we stopped for fuel and M&Ms at a gas station in Windom, MN. We hit the mall in Sioux Falls where I scored some awesome parachute pants at the Gap for $7, and some beige jeans (sounds like a song...) for $4, and five pairs of boxers for $1.99 each. Dawn found some very cool looking hippie blouses for $4 each. The family enjoyed dinner at Panera Bread Company, and then we zipped over here to Mitchell for the evening.

Tomorrow I'm playing the Songbird Cafe in Custer, SD (along with my pals in the band Tangled Blue), and after that I'm the musician-in-residence at Outlaw Ranch in Custer, SD. I'll probably be off-line for the entire week, so this may be my last chance to blog for awhile.

Okay...gotta go. Svea's laundry should be done...time to stick it in the dryer....

Thanks for the concern...the Rundmans are OK.

Hey friends around the world: thanks for the bunches of concerned emails we received after the tragic collapse of the 35W bridge in Minneapolis a couple days ago. Dawn, Paavo, Svea, and I were safely away from downtown when it happened. This is an event that will have serious impact on the lives of Twin Cities residents for years to come...however it all works out, give your family members some extra hugs tonight, and appreciate how all our lives our so precious and fragile! For me, this Summer has provided a bit too many harsh reminders of our mortality.

Tonight I'm up North in Brainerd, MN at the first-ever family reunion for Dawn's side of the family. It's been a great day of visiting, relaxing, and feasting.

Regarding the previous post...man, I should probably just totally avoid blogging about faith, politics, and other "hot button" issues 'cause I just don't have the energy to conduct an on-line debate site. I think the comments speak for themselves (in both encouraging and discouraging ways), and in the light of the community's response to this bridge collapse, it feels to me like yet another reminder that love can transcend divisions.