The Quarantine Blues: Musicians Killing Time in Isolation, Part Three - Scott Gorsuch

In an effort to formalize our Quarantine Blues series a bit, we’ve devised a 5-question quiz to pose to the musicians & other media figures sharing in the Covid-19 stay-at-home orders sweepstakes. There will be new entries every coupla days.

Scott Gorsuch is a Columbus-based musician. His latest record is Park Boulevard Park. (Click here for a story on that.) He also performs with his wife Nicole in the band Bloodthirsty Virgins. He is the founder/owner of Gorsuch Guitars and does mastering at Musicol Studies as well.

1) How are you getting your live music fix? Any live streams or YouTube clips that standout?

I loved seeing Happy Chichester the other night, that was neat! Rufus Wainwright does some streams and he sounds perfect; I love his voice! 

2) What else have you been watching, listening to and reading to pass the time?

A friend of mine posted some music documentary links on Facebook. I downloaded a few to watch later: XTC, Zappa, Zeppelin – the XTC one I already watched – fantastic! We’ve been bingeing Dark on Netflix lately – really good. As for reading, I’m in the middle of “This Is Your Brain On Music,” by Daniel Levitin. It focuses a lot on what’s actually going on psychologically and physically when you listen to, and make music. Nerdy but fun. 

3) How are you managing (or not) to stay creative / healthy?

I take a lot of walks; I get a lot of serenity walking, especially in the woods by our house. I also tend to get creative ideas while I’m out-n-about like that. 

4) You have to pick just 3 records to listen to till this is over. What are they?

Oh my God, I’m gonna give away how nerdy I am, but maybe UK’s first album (self-titled), Elvis Costello/Burt Bacharach’s first colab album, “Painted From Memory,” and “A Farewell To Kings” from Rush. If I’m going to hell, I’m draggin’ these down with me! 

5) Food Time! Have you been cooking in or carrying out? Favorite recipes or restaurants you're supporting? What's in the liquor cabinet? Share your quarantine eating & drinking habits and changes!

Too much pizza, like everybody else! We live really close to Villa Nova, so we order a bit of take out from them – good basic Italian comfort food. Also, I have to recommend Misfit’s Market! It’s home-grocery delivery, but their schtick is it might be ugly. Nothing’s seemed ugly to me, so far, and it’s always a random box of really super-fresh stuff. That makes me have to cook outside my comfort zone sometimes. We’ve also got deliveries from Parsons North Brewing Company – really lovely beers! Beer delivery, pinch me! 

The Quarantine Blues: Media Figures Killing Time In Isolation, a Pencil Storm Series, Part Two / Brian Phillips

Ricki C. here: It’s not only musicians crafting quality ways to kill time during their stay-at-home Covid-19 Enforced Vacations: Pencil Storm contributor (and our favorite local D.J.) Brian Phillips of CD 102.5 has been posting links on his blog page - Mornings With Brian Phillips - to interesting and entertaining rock & roll and sports sites.

Here’s my favorite so far, a collection of videos from Rockpalast, an in-concert show that - as Brian details - has been running a mind-boggling 46 YEARS on German television…….

Brian Phillips / Rockpalast Dumpster Dive

(by the way, here’s one of MY five favorite Rockpalast clips of all time that Brian reminded me of…….)

Missin’ the Columbus Blue Jackets hockey action, or just sports in general? Check out Brian’s dive into vintage - and I mean VINTAGE, PRE-HELMET action - hockey, linked here…….

Brian Phillips / Vintage Hockey Dumpster Dive

And - as always on the 102.5 website - check out Brian’s daily Trending Topics segments, easily the high point of my mornings, day-in, day-out. Sometimes in these Covid-19 ridden days & nights, Trending Topics is the only time I laugh out loud each day, at least until Trevor Noah comes on Comedy Central at 11 pm. Thank you, Brian & Trevor. - Ricki C. / April, 2020

New Song: Hard Times For Young Lovers and Old Friends - by Colin Gawel

Since the whole quarantine started, I’ve been working solo down at Colin’s Coffee. Yes, we are open every day from 7am-2pm and Sunday 8am-noon. To-Go orders only, but I suspect you already knew that. ANYWAY, I’ve had some extra free time on my hands so I’ve been challenging myself to write and record songs while working at the coffee shop. I just finished Coffee Shop Song #2. It’s not perfect, and I make no promises going forward, but it feels good to accomplish something. These days we are all walking that fine line between self-improvement and self-care. Some days are better than others. Stay safe my friends. - Colin G.

Click here for coffee shop song #2 : Hard Times For Young Lover and Old Friends

Click here for coffee shop song #1: Standing On the Rocks

The Quarantine Blues, Mortality Division: R.I.P. John Prine - by Ricki C.

I’m not gonna belabor any points here, or take up a lot of your time with a whole history lesson, I’m just going to say this: I bought John Prine’s first record in 1971 when I was still a hippie because he was marketed as “A New Dylan.” I bought all of “The New Dylan’s” first records: Prine, David Blue, Loudon Wainwright III, later Bruce Springsteen and Elliott Murphy, which was kind of strange because I wasn’t all that big a Bob Dylan fan by the early-1970’s.

To sum up: John Prine was a genius singer/songwriter and I’ll miss him. Here’s three videos I want to offer up as just a tiny sliver of that genius…….

John Prine isn’t the first musician we’ve lost to Covid-19 - and I fear he’s not going to be the last - but I just wanted to throw in my two cents to honor him today. - Ricki C. / 4/9/2020

Robert LeBourdais From Mother May I Auditions for Fountains of Wayne. R.I.P. Adam

Listen While You Read! Click Here For a Spotify Playlist I Put Together - Colin

The Pencilstorm office was reeling this week with news of the loss of Adam Schlesinger from Covid-19. Adam played bass and wrote songs for Fountains of Wayne, Tinted Windows and many other great projects. (Click here for WTF interview) I personally teared up numerous times diving deep back into his catalog of amazing tunes. He definitely influenced my band Watershed. We lost a true artist. Below is a Facebook post from Mother May I drummer Robert LeBourdais about his audition trying out for Fountains of Wayne. He was kind enough to let us share it here. Below that are a few of my favorite tunes Adam had a hand in. - Colin

Robert LeBourdais

April 2 at 1:23 AM · 

My Adam Schlesinger story: In 1996 my band had been dropped by our label and we went our separate ways. I was sleeping on friends’ couches on Long Island trying to organize and move back down to the D.C. area when I spotted a classified ad (Village Voice?) by a band with a label deal looking for a drummer influenced by The Replacements and Cheap Trick: a no-brainer for me. For some reason I thought I’d give it a go even though I had already decided to move back south and try to reform my band.

Next thing I know I am on the phone with Adam talking about the music biz, and our favorite bands, etc. I remember thinking what a nice guy but hating the band name they had chosen (Fountains Of Wayne). He sent me a cassette in the mail which looked home-made as their record hadn’t been manufactured yet. I listened to the tape for a few days and went into NYC to tryout. There was one other person there before me (still pretty early in the day) but soon I was in a room about 10’ x 10’ with Adam and Chris Collingwood.

I think they wanted me to learn the first song on the tape (Radiation Vibe) but I thought the stronger songs were later on in the album so they seemed happily surprised when I called out Leave The Biker. It sounded pretty great, as if we had been playing together for a while. We also did Barbara H. and possibly Sick Day. They seemed more excited than when we began despite my douchey appearance. (I had a goatee for exactly 2 weeks in my entire life and it was during this time, dyed black like my hair and it just felt and looked desperately trendy - wallet chain, backward ball cap, etc. They looked like totally unpretentious recent grads.)

I remember at one point I asked them kind of derisively who played the drums on the recordings and Adam quietly said “Me. That bad, huh?” and we had a good laugh. There was also a point where Chris made some kind of jab at me (mother joke I think?) probably to see if I had a sense of humor and I came up with something right back at him and we had another good laugh. They were very laid-back pleasant guys with a dark sense of humor that was slowly coming out.

They asked to play Radiation Vibe so we went through that and called it quits. I remember Adam asking me what my plans were and whether I would be able to tour etc. and me telling him I was moving back to D.C. the next day to resurrect my band. I’m sure he was thinking “what the hell is he wasting our time for?” I don’t remember if we spoke after that but I have a fuzzy memory of another call. Of course the rest is history. I was wondering today while reading some articles about them whether I was the first drummer to play some of those songs with them as a band since it was just the two of them at that point. A couple of years later i went backstage at the 9:30 Club after a show (Ivy, I think) to say hi to Adam and I started out with “You won’t remember this but…” and he immediately smiled and recognized me which made my day. A very humble person despite his enormous talent. I’m so glad I got to play a microscopic role in his story. - Robert LeBourdais

(Click here for a PStorm story about Mother May I )

Adam and his band mate Chris Collingwood wrote some of the craftiest pop lyrics ever. Dig this.

Adam shared my love of Give The People What They Want era Kinks. It’s too bad we never crossed paths to discuss this subject in full.

Don’t sleep on their sad songs. I’ve always loved this heart breaker. I thought I about covering it live on Instagram and then thought better. This is the clip to watch. Adam on keys and Chris singing.

Enough of that sad stuff.
—-

Back to Conan for a song that most of us can relate to these days.

Bonus clip! Tinted Windows was Adam, the kid from Hanson, that one guy from Smashing Pumpkins and Bun E Carlos. Adam wrote the tunes of course. Great record!

It’s going to be a tough couple of months for everyone. Enjoy all this great music Adam and his partners left behind. - Colin