Category: Music

Music and Irish, Separately

Today is a day with two themes.  Music and Irishness.

Music because I have band practice, and my step daughter has pit rehearsal for her school play.

Irish because my beautiful bride, Jen is making corned beef.  I predict that it’s going to need salt.  Corned beef can never, ever be salty enough.  Jen always does a great job.

On an unrelated note, Facebook got weird this morning in a sad way.  I friended a guitar player that I’m a big fan of.  Today he was tagged in a post with one of my former teachers from Northeast Broadcast School.  Gotta admit, he was not my favorite guy there.  Something about him rubbed me the wrong way.  He was nice enough, very smart, and very talented.  There was just… something.  I clicked on him to see what he’s been up to.  He’s still in the same awesome band, which is nice.  I was surprised to see him tagged in another post with another one of my teachers from NBS.  This was a guy whose class I enjoyed very much.  He was a great guy.  Unfortunately he passed away recently.  Damn.  I hadn’t thought about him in years, and now he’s gone.  Very sad.

RIP Chuck Berry

They called Elvis Presley the King of Rock and Roll, but I think everyone always knew that was bullshit.  Yes, Elvis was amazing and yes he did more to spread Rock and Roll to the masses than anyone.  He is deserving of all the praise he’s received.

But let’s be honest.  Chuck Berry is the King of Rock and Roll.  When you line up all the greats who were there at the start, and there are a lot of them, Chuck Berry stands out the most.  He wrote tremendous riffs.  His lyrics were poetry at a time when most of his contemporaries were writing nonesense.  Most important to me, a guitar player, Chuck Berry was Rock and Roll’s first true instrumental hero.  Even with all the things that have come since, his playing still stands out.  He is a legitimate guitar hero.  Don’t believe me?  Go ask Keith Richards his opinion.  Go ask Eric Clapton.  If we still had them with us I’d say go ask George Harrison or Jimi Hendrix.  Chuck’s playing stands the test of time.

Chuck Berry died today at the age of 90.  Yes, 90 years is a pretty good run, but I was hoping we’d get to keep him around for another 40-50 years at least.

Rest in Peace, Chuck Berry.

The Shods

The Shods are trying to make a new record and they’ve started a kickstarter project to raise funds.  I swear to you, if you don’t chip in to this project then you are the worst kind of Trump supporting garbage.  I mean it.  Really.

It’s a moral imperative that you click that link and back this project. Now’s the time! Get in on the ground floor! Do your part for your country and back the new Shods record!

50/90 – Day 10

Two of the last three nights have been 50/90 progress free. Am I slowing down? Yeah, probably a little. Is it okay? Well, I’ve got 18 songs in the works and there are still 80 days left… so yeah, I think it’s okay.

If there is a hangup, it’s in the demo recording. I don’t want to use any amp sims at all. I want all of the guitar sounds to be my Fender Deluxe Reverb. All or nothing. I’ll probably change my mind on that eventually, but for now I’m sticking to it. That means no recording in the living room while the kids are watching tv. That’s a big deal. We’ll see how far this goes.

Most importantly, I’m still having fun.

That 50/90 Thing

Remember back in February how I was ranting on and on and on about the RPM Challenge and how I was sketching out music ideas in Garageband without actually recording any instruments and yadda yadda I’m going to have all the songs written but none of the recordings?

So 50/90 started six days ago and it’s the same thing only much, much crazier. In the whole month of February I think I got to 18 songs complete. Now, six days in… less than a week… and I’m at 16 songs. SIXTEEN! I haven’t actually recorded a note, but I have 16 songs in the works. One of them even has lyrics (sort of) and melody (sort of).

I don’t think any of them are any good, of course, but that goes without saying.

Now, having said all that. I went to the 50/90 page and checked to see how other people were doing. Turns out there is one participant who is actually finished. Finished. 50+ songs in less than a week. Now that is just batshit crazy.

Prince

I’m working from home today. It’s gorgeous outside. I have all the windows open and a perfect breeze is blowing through the house. A little after 1:00pm I punched out for lunch and took a shower. When I got back to my computer Prince was dead.

I was never a Prince fan. You couldn’t help but respect the enormous talent, but his music just wasn’t for me. Trying to look at it objectively, I wonder how much of my lack of interest was actually jealousy? Probably a lot. Great singer, obviously a great songwriter, even if his songs aren’t my bag, and just an absolutely sick guitar player. I think that’s where the jealousy comes from.

In his memory though I feel the need to share some of his music. Here is Richard Thompson covering “Kiss”. It is pretty much the best thing ever.

Paul Kantner

I’m so down over Paul Kantner’s passing.  It seems stupid to be so effected by the death of someone I never met, but this sucks.

I’m putzing around on youtube.  Here are a few…

This is from February 1970.  It’s not Spencer Dryden on drums, so it must be Joe Covington.  Give this a NSFW tag due to language and a little hippie toplessness, but it’s worth it for “We Can Be Together” and “Mexico”.

 

Did you know that Jefferson Airplane did a rooftop concert that was broken up by the cops a whole year before the Beatles?

 

Monterey Pop.

 

This one says it’s from 1970, but I don’t think it is.  I think it’s a bit earlier than that.  Spencer Dryden is on the drums and I think he left in December 1969 after Altamont.  But what do I know.  This clip more or less proves that Jack Cassidy is a god.  Just saying.

 

 

RIP Paul Kantner

Remember how crushed David Bowie fans felt when they heard he died?  Remember how crushed Eagles fans felt when they heard Glenn Fry had died?

That’s how I feel right now.  Paul Kantner of Jefferson Airplane died tonight.

With the rash of musical deaths over the past month, my fandom so far had been spared the great losses.  Until tonight.  Musically speaking, Paul Kantner is a giant in my eyes.  This one hurts, bad.

Rest in pace, Paul Kantner.
(The photo comes from a rolling stone article)

Nerd Alert

I often make a Google Document for keeping notes on my RPM Challenge progress. Start a new idea, add it to the doc. Write some lyrics, add them to the doc. I just sometimes need something to help me keep my thoughts in order. Sometimes I use a Google Spreadsheet to keep track of which guitars I use on each song, or which amplifier patch, or beats per minute, or really anything you can think of.

Today I upped my nerd game. I created a Trello board to keep track of this year’s project. There is a list for songs that are just in the idea phase, songs that are in the recording instruments phase, songs in the vocals/lyrics phase (lyrics and melodies are always the last thing I write), and songs that are in the mixing phase. Each time I start a new idea I will add a card to the idea list. Then as I add to it I can make notes on what I did in each card, and move it between lists as it progresses.

I’m waiving my nerd flag high this year.