Tailgate

As the first raindrops fall…

Sitting under the tailgate was totally my step daughter’s idea.

Wha?

There’s a school band that doesn’t have to march? Huh?

Memorial Day Parade Pre-Game

My step son is in the Memorial Day Parade because his ass-face school system thinks 5th graders are old enough for marching band.

Overdoing It

I’ve got three songs left to finish. Almost there. I might even have time on Tuesday morning to finish up the vocals. Nice, right?

Well…

I felt like playing the guitar today and I didn’t have any parts to record so I… Well… I added another song. Urgh.

Even worse, it’s a cover. Urgh indeed.

Question for guitarists and guitar playing aficionados. When you think of Fender Stratocasters, who do you think of? Jimi Hendrix, post 1970 Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Ritchie Blackmore, David Gilmour, about 100 others. All good choices.

Me? Despite a lifetime of being obsessed with both Clapton and Beck, to me the first name that comes to mind when I think of Strats is Robin Trower. Not the biggest name, and probably not the best player, but something about his style always spoke to me. There is soul, there is passion, there is class, there is fire. Lots of slow bends, legato phrasing, well… Just a lot of things I have always tried to do. The difference being that he does it all while I futz around like a wannabe.

Back in high school I had heard of him without ever actually hearing him. One night I listened to a recording of a Procol Harem concert on the King Biscuit Flower Hour. The host was singing Trower’s praises and rightly so. The guitar playing in the show was fantastic. First chance I got I went out and bought a couple of records. BLT and Bridge of Sighs. I didn’t find out until later that despite the commentary, it wasn’t actually Robin Trower playing in that Procol Harem show. That was okay though, Bridge of Sighs won me over big time.

There is a song on his first record that I’ve always loved. “I Can’t Wait Much Longer.” Great song. Back in high school I tried to get my band to play it, but no one else was feeling it the way I was. The first time I ever borrowed a 4-track recorder I recorded that song. I used the cheesy little drum sounds on my dinky little Casio keyboard. It was basically the same goofiness I’ve been boring the universe with lately, it just didn’t sound as clean.

Anyway, I recorded a cover of “I Can’t Wait Much Longer” today. It’s all done except for the vocals. Once I bought a Strat it was pretty much inevitable. The whole thing is on my iPad right now. After I finish the vocal I’ll port it to the MacBook. I’ll have to clean up a little bass here and there, but other than that I’ll just mix it as is.

I’ll leave it until the last three March songs are done though.

Maybe.

Mr Fanboy Complains

This is an unusual topic for me. This is the one where the unabashed Apple fanboy bitches about Apple.

Let’s see if I have the time line correct on this.

About two months ago I tried to associate the laptop I use when I work from home to my Apple ID. It sort of failed because I had too many computers authorized and I didn’t want to do to the work to find one to deauthorize, or to deauthorize all of them and start over. I just decided to forget about whatever I had been planning to do.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago when we had the whole tablet computer shake up. Jen got a new iPad Mini and passed her iPad Air down to me. When I tried to set up my iTunes Match account I was given an error message stating my account would not be available to be added to a new machine for something like 40 days.

Ummm… What?

Apparently, Apple has a policy that states when you associate your iTunes account to a new device you must wait 90 days to associate it to another device.

Really?

You mean I can’t access the iTunes Match account THAT I PAY FOR on my new iPad? I can’t listen to the music THAT I PAID FOR on my new iPad? I can’t watch movies and TV shows THAT I PAID FOR on my new iPad?

That seems to be the case, yes. I did some forum searching for ways around it and I couldn’t find anything.

So while I wait out the final four weeks or so I have given the finger to Apple and gone back to setting up one of my pre-iTunes Match my-music-in-the-cloud solutions.

Google Music.

That’s right, Apple. I am setting up Google Music to run in place of the iTunes Match THAT I PAY FOR on my own swanky Apple device. Unlike the last time I looked at Google Music, there is an official Google iOS app. I just test drove it while driving over to Dunks and back. It worked great. I’m using it on my MacBook right now. Richard and Linda Thompson are sounding great over the Google entry in the iTunes competition game.

I want my account, Apple. I want it now and I am willing to give my fanboydome to your enemy while you fail to give it to me.

Oversight Corrected

This is the song I almost forgot to mix. It’s done now.

I have to say I liked it a whole lot more an hour ago.

More Music and an Oversight

Damn it!

I just finished the April music project. All 10 songs mixed. Now I just have to figure out a running order (I’ll probably just use the order in which they were written) and make a playlist on bandcamp. should I make an April playlist and a March playlist, or should I make one for both of them and mix them all up in the running order. I waffle back and forth on that one.

So I only have three songs left from March right? That’s what I said last night when I finished playing the gitter for the night, right?

No. Idiot marked one song as finished when it still needs to be mixed. Idiot. I have four songs that aren’t finished yet. I should get the un-mixed oversight mixed tonight though. I think.

More April Music in May

Was sticking with Amplitube for all of the guitars on the 10 April songs a good idea? This one used the Jimi Hendrix bundle for all of the guitars. The rhythm is my Les Paul and the lead is my Strat. All of the other April songs used the Fender Twin for the rhythm and Hendrix for the leads.

It’s okay, I guess. If I put a ton of effects on during the mix it might be all right. I don’t know. Maybe if I did everything on the iPad it might feel better, and be a little less noisy. I don’t know. I’m torn.

The lyrics are one of many songs about how much I love my wife, and how happy she makes me. I expect the list of such songs to grow steadily for the rest of my life. I’m kinda nuts about her.