Wednesday, May 23, 2012 @ 6:04pm

Film maker sacrifices all to tell story of iconic guitarist dad and "The Wrecking Crew"

Legendary guitarist Tommy Tedesco and bassist Carol Kaye, two members of the prolific studio musicians known as "The Wrecking Crew." (Image courtesy Denny Tedesco)

Growing up, Denny Tedesco didn't think it was a big deal when his dad Tommy would go off to work or bring his friends by after.

It was only when he got a little older that he realized who they were. The Wrecking Crew. A group of studio musicians who played on hundreds of the biggest hits of the 60's and 70's.

"A lot of people don't know that so many of these musicians were the recording group for the Beach Boys, the Phil Spector Wall of Sound, Jan and Dean, Sam Cooke, the Mamas and the Papas. They did the Byrds Mr. Tambourine Man," Denny says.

Along with all that amazing music were the amazing stories. And when Denny's dad was diagnosed with cancer, he decided to gather as many members of the Wrecking Crew as he could muster, including his father.

"I always wanted to do a story of my father and his friends. I thought 'if I don't do it now it's never going to happen' because we knew he didn't have much time."

Legendary guitarist Tommy Tedesco died in 1997, before Denny could finish his film. And Denny was committed to honoring his father the incredible music he helped make. But rather than cut corners, he was determined to include as much music as possible.

"I said you have to have the music you can't do it without it and you have to have the quantity. I have 133 song cues in it and you'll know 130. These musicians put so much music out there," Denny says.

But it would almost prove to be his undoing. The price tag is over $300,000 just to use all that music. And despite tremendous critical response (including winning the audience favorite award at the 2008 Seattle International Film Festival), no studios or investors have stepped forward to help cover the costs for songs like California Dreaming, Good Vibrations and Mr. Tambourine Man.

So he's done it himself, putting everything he has and starting a non-profit to take donations to finance the film.

"My wife worries this is the most expensive home movie in history. We did everything you're not supposed to do as a filmmaker, put your own money into it, do the house you do this and do that," Denny says.

He's been scratching and clawing for a number of years, and admits he's thought about giving up a number of times.

But Denny says his father's words to a music student he met after Tommy died inspired him to keep going.

"He said 'success goes to the person who's standing last.' That was really inspiring for me. I gotta keep going. I'm not going to give up."

So Denny will continue crossing the country, screening the Wrecking Crew for all to see including Thursday at EMP in Seattle. And he keeps getting a little closer to making the dream of bringing his father's story to the screen a reality.

"We're really close. I want the musicians to get the love that they deserve. They gave us so much."

The Wrecking Crew screens Thursday night May 24th at EMP Museum.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012 @ 4:39pm

Researchers discovering amazing impacts of music on our brains

Remember the viral video a little while ago where an elderly Alzheimer's patient comes to life when he hears some familiar music on an iPod?

It turns out some experts aren't surprised at all. In fact, they're finding some amazing things about our brains on music.

"Music activates a broad network of regions throughout the brain and it causes neurons to fire synchronysly with the music just like your fingers would be snapping in time," says Dr. Daniel Levitin, professor of psychology and neuroscience at McGill University in Montreal. He's also an accomplished musician and author of the groundbreaking book "This Is Your Brain On Music." And along with the synaptic symphony that comes with your favorite music, he's now finding music is good for more than our souls, it's actually good for our health.

"We're just beginning to see evidence for this in terms of increasing immune function, increasing the production of T-cells and killer cells in the blood stream from playing music, increases in mood."

Levitin says his studies are now finding that kids who learn to play an instrument seem to trigger a change in their brains that gives them the ability to learn other things faster and more efficiently.

But he says we can all benefit from learning an instrument at any age, even if we aren't any good at it.

"It helps to train the attentional networks of the brain it always helps to acquire a new skill when you get older in terms of metaphorically you can think of it as lubricating the brain to help stave off Alzheimer's and other degenerative diseases."

And go ahead, crank it up. Levitin says the volume can have a big impact as well.

"When the music is really loud the neurons fire in a different fashion. It's not just that they're firing more but there's this qualitative difference in the neural firing when the music is super loud."

Somewhat surprisingly, it doesn't really matter what kind of music it is as long as you like it. Familiarity plays a huge part. And as Levitan puts it, one man's Rachmaninoff is another's Ramones.

Josh Kerns/Seattle Sounds co-host

Saturday, May 19, 2012 @ 1:07pm

Pearl Jam's Mike McCready keeps rocking for kids

It's a busy time for Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready, from prepping for a European tour to scoring a new film. But the Seattle native's biggest focus right now is raising as much money as he can to help send sick kids to summer camp.

McCready has devoted himself to helping people suffering from Crohn's and colitis, debilitating gastrointestinal disorders that are especially hard on kids. The guitarist has been stricken with the disease himself, often forced from the stage in a middle of a concert because of a gastric outbreak.

Wednesday night at Seattle's Showbox at the Market, McCready returns with his UFO all-star tribute band Flight To Mars. It's part of a month long tour aimed at raising money for Camp Oasis , a place where kids can be themselves while still getting the medical and emotional support they need to deal with their disease.

I talked with him this week via phone as the tour wound through California on its way up the West Coast, and he told me the biggest challenge continues to be raising awareness.

"A lot of people don't realize it, but they know people that have Crohn's or colitis. And the more we talk about it, the more we put light on it, the less kind of an issue it becomes and there's more solution in that," McCready said.

His ongoing efforts are paying off. "It started out with 10 or 12 kids about 6-8 years ago, then it bumped up to 25 about 5 years then it bumped up to 40 then it bumped up to 90 then they couldn't take the Northwest Chapter anymore because we had so many kids, so we started our own right outside Gig Harbor," McCready said.

After the Flight to Mars tour wraps up, McCready and the rest of Pearl Jam are prepping for a European tour. And work is underway on the band's next album, which he's really excited about.

"I feel good about it you know it's still in its infancy, infant stages right now. But we have about 7 or 8 demos ready to go that we've worked on with our producer Brendan O'Brien. There's some stuff that's experimental, there's some ballads there's some killer rock songs, but they're not ready yet. They're not realized. We're taking our time and making them as best as possible because we can do that now. We don't want to just rush something out."

A lot of local Pearl Jam fans were disappointed the band didn't play Seattle as part of 2011's year long celebration of the band's 20th year, highlighted by a 2- day all-star festival in Wisconsin. But McCready told me it was because all the outdoor venues in the area were already booked when they went to put it together for Labor Day weekend.

"We had to go where the place was available. Certainly we wanted to play in Seattle since that's our home. And we're talking about wanting to do a free concert there again some day. But we have to figure the logistics out about that as we did back in 1992 when we did it before in "Drop in the Park" (a free concert the band staged at Seattle's Magnuson Park) and 34 thousand people showed up. So you have to be very careful on how you do that we'll be back we love our town so we're very supportive of it and we support all the institutions that are there and we're sons of it and we'll be back."

And if that's not enough, McCready also did the musical score for the new film "Fat Kid Rules The World," screening several times during the Seattle International Film Festival now underway in town.

"I liked the script a lot it was a cool story and it took awhile because we had a lot of back and forth," McCready told me about working with director Mathew Lillard.

"I would do a set of ideas for him and he would go 'well I like this but I don't like this can you make it sound more this way?' He's not a musician so you have to kind of interpret it in a weird way, he's like 'make it more orange," Mcready laughed.

But in the end, the film and its music are both getting rave reviews. "I think he's proud of it and I'm very very proud of it," McCready said.

But he remains most proud of his work raising awareness and money to combat Crohn's and colitis.

Mike McCready and Flight To Mars perform Wednesday May 23rd at Seattle's Showbox at the Market. Tickets are still available and all proceeds benefit the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America.

Josh Kerns/co-host Seattle Sounds

Friday, May 18, 2012 @ 8:03pm

Kevin Eubanks satisfied without Tonight Show

Guitarist Kevin Eubanks has plenty to smile about despite ending his 18 year run on the Tonight Show

He was an integral part of Jay Leno's show for 18 years. More than just a musician, Kevin Eubanks became a star on the Tonight Show as Jay Leno's sidekick.

But he walked away two years ago, deciding it was time to devote all his time to his own music.

"I miss it, but I've also been missing a lot of things outside of that so I'm trying to take advantage of some other things I wanted to do and people that I needed to see like family and stuff like that so it's all circling around and trying to find a balance," Eubanks said in an interview as he prepared for his weekend run at Seattle's Jazz Alley .

He's found that balance, putting out a brilliant album called Zen Food and touring the world with his band.

And even though he's not hobnobbing with the elite of Hollywood every night, the lifetime musician tells me he couldn't be happier.

"I think of all of this is in addition to the Tonight Show and the Tonight Show was in addition to what I was doing, which was touring and playing clubs, concerts, festivals stuff like that. Just kind of what musicians do."

Much of the Tonight Show was scripted and highly structured, from the music to the comedy bits. But Kevin says one of the greatest joys is the freedom that comes with playing his own music on his own terms. And he says that'll be fully on display at his Seattle shows.

"Sometimes we have all our sets planned out then once we start playing and get feedback from the audience sometimes you go here and sometimes you go there," he laughs.

Kevin admits after nearly two decades on the tube he wouldn't mind getting another shot some time on the small screen. But he's also realistic about his chances of getting a gig on something besides a show like America's Got Talent or the like.

"I like TV alot and I'm really comfortable with it, although I'm not a full fledged actor and all that. So it would be probably a very limited window of opportunities for things not involving music."

In the meantime, he's got plenty to keep him busy and happy. He's just finished a new album and has a full schedule of touring ahead, including shows through Sunday at Jazz Alley.

Thursday, May 10, 2012 @ 3:03pm

Death Cab's Ben Gibbard and games bands play

Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard performing Tuesday May 8, 2012 at the Fox Theater in Oakland(SF Weekly photo)

When you're a big time musician like Ben Gibbard from Death Cab for Cutie, there's a lot of time to kill on the road between shows; and the Bremerton-native reveals the band has created a unique way to keep themselves entertained.

"We invented a game called 'Celebrity'," Gibbard tells co-host Chris Kornelis, Seattle Weekly music editor, and me in an interview for Seattle Sounds, airing Sunday at 3 p.m. on 97.3 KIRO FM.

"When you're stuck in traffic somewhere you just kind of will look over at somebody at a car, and you'll go 'Oh my god it's Robert De Niro' and you look over and realize he looks nothing like Robert De Niro and everybody laughs and then somebody goes 'Oh my god it's Wesley Snipes' and you look over and it's a white guy," Gibbard laughs. While the game can be played anywhere, Gibbard says it works best in LA.

"There's always the possibility you're going to go 'Oh my God it's Tom Selleck,' and Tom Selleck's actually in the car next to you. That is always a possibility in Los Angeles, so it's better to play it there than in Osh Kosh," Gibbard says.

But Death Cab isn't the only band that's come up with its own game for the road. Chris says he got the idea for a regular column about games bands play after hearing repeatedly about how they pass the time.

"I think every band has a creative way of keeping themselves occupied on the road. I mean every band spends so much time in a bus or a van or a Gulfstream jet or whatever," he says.

Among his favorites is "Radio Baseball."

"The pitcher is the one sitting in the front seat. He hits scan on the radio and the batter has to guess the name of the song, the name of the artist, give a little trivia about the artist and depending on how many you get right you get a single or double and if you know nothing it's a strike and they keep score and it can be very elaborate."

The grossest game award has to go to Seattle's own Duff McKagan of Guns N' Roses, Velvet Revolver and Loaded fame, who admits to favoring a mean game of "Fart Tennis."

"Somebody will let one rip and that will be the service, and then somebody else across the bus has to rip right back and send the ball back, if you will, and you just keep going and whoever drops the ball, so to speak, lets the rally fall is the loser of the point."

I asked if it would be hard to keep a game going for any period of time, but Chris reminded conditions are "ripe" to sustain such an endeavor.

"If you've been living off of Taco Bell and 7-11 junk food for six weeks I think you can pretty much make it happen. Plus, they're conditioning for this game. These aren't amateurs, they're keeping themselves sharp," Chris laughs.

As for the least original? Chris says it has to be one of his favorite bands, Wilco. He learned Jeff Tweedy and crew prefer a staid game of Scrabble. But given the bands gravitas in the music world, he wasn't surprised.

"I just can't imagine Jeff Tweedy saying 'Yeah, I was playing fart tennis.'" Ben Gibbard, on the other hand, I have a feeling next time he and Duff get together they're going to get a set going."

You can hear more of our interview with Ben Gibbard on Seattle Sounds Sunday at 3 p.m. on 97.3 KIRO FM.

Death Cab for Cutie appears Sunday night at the Paramount in Seattle.