Music

One Trick Pony

We recently watched Paul Simon’s 1980 film One Trick Pony here at CatSynth HQ. This was his one and only film, which he wrote and starred in. It follows a folk-rock musician Jonah Levin (Simon) who had several big hits in the late 1960s, including an anti-Vietnam War protest song, but now in the late 1970s, he and his band find themselves touring small venues, often riding in a small van around the Midwest, and opening for up-and-coming acts like The B-52s. At the same time, he is struggling with record executives on producing a new album, and with his estranged wife on their relationship and their son.

The film was a commercial and critical flop, and a bit of an obscure artifact of its time. But we at CatSynth really enjoyed it, and were a little confused as to why it was so panned. For one, it features an all-star band that included Simon, bassist Tony Levin (best known for his work with King Crimson), jazz guitarist Eric Gale, jazz and fusion keyboardist Richard Tee (who also did vocals), and drummer Steve Gadd. The original music was a lot of fun, including the bluesy title track played over a disco beat and the catchy “Ace in the Hole”; the band played live in venues like the Agora Ballroom in Cleveland, Ohio. We were rooting for Jonah and the band in their conflicts with the record company, including Lou Reed in his debut film role as a trendy record producer. And even though the studio sessions didn’t go the way they wanted, it was fun to watch the process of recording to tape, adding in strings and backing vocals, and reviewing the takes together.

And perhaps in this synopsis lies the disconnect with critics and mainstream audiences. It’s really a musicians’ film about musicians’ musicians. There was also the setting and the visuals, including life in New York City in the late 1970s, traveling along freeways, and music clubs on the outskirts of cities, all of which appeal to my own personal aesthetic. It also didn’t follow a traditional story arc, but joined mid-way and ended without a real ending, which again is something that appeals to me – recall my fondness for Michelangelo Antonioni’s “trilogy” (plus Red Desert). So while this film did not resonate with the mainstream, it did with us at CatSynth HQ, human and feline alike. We were the real target audience, 45 years after it was released.

Both the in-film story and the context surrounding it also make one think about one’s own journey, and the challenge of making “the music I want to hear” and the “films and videos I want to see”, and hoping others do as well. Sometimes one succeeds, sometimes a little less so. But hopefully one enjoys the work as it continues.

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Farewell to 2024: Beautiful Dissonance

2024 has come to a close, so it is time for our traditional end-of-year collage and post. You might notice another kitty in the corner this year – that’s Golda, one of the wonderful cats I stayed with in Berlin. She is representing our European adventure this summer, along with Plac Grunwaldzki in Wroclaw, Poland.

It was a banner year musically. I am especially proud of the album, the best musical work I have done to date! If you haven’t heard it yet, you should. Opening the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival was a special experience. And we had numerous other musical adventures both live and recorded, and an ever growing community of musicians scattered across the country and beyond that are not just colleagues, but friends.

It was a banner year for CatSynth TV, our best to date in terms of viewership, subscriptions, and audience interaction. 50% year-over-year growth ain’t bad. January of 2024, with NAMM, was our best month on record. We even saw an uptick in blog readership, including a new cohort of loyal followers for our cat+synth posts and Wordless Wednesday.

Indeed, with CatSynth TV, I look not only at what we accomplished this year, but what was left undone. So many videos partially complete or in the ideation phase, waiting to be finished in 2025. We are particularly looking to jumpstart our interview series that was big in 2023 but took a bit of a back seat this year because of various circumstances.

The dissonance between things at a personal and CatSynth level, and at a national and world level, is deafening. The election here in the U.S. this year was tragic and heartbreaking, and this coming year is going to be difficult. This time, it wasn’t a fluke, it was a choice, and we chose…unwisely. In my usual cynical way, the best I hope for is sheer incompetence by the new regime, but even so, a lot of people will be hurt, including people who are a lot like me.

So we go into 2025 in a very strange place. The personal successes and hopes for the New Year, set against the fear and coming disasters in the world. All we have is forward motion, each other, and defiance.