Category: Music

Random Thoughts

I am wrapping up my lunch break on this random Wednesday in March and I thought I’d jot down a couple of thoughts for posterity. Ready? Okay, let’s roll….

  • Want to know something that sucks? I brought two ounces of Planters Salted Peanuts with me for lunch today (14 grams of protein). I took a small handful (my gastric bypassed body can’t handle more than a small handful at a time without getting sick) and popped it into my maw. I chewed it up a little (again, part of the post-gastric bypass world means chewing the holy hell out of everything, which sounds silly and obvious [like, didn’t you chew the holy hell out of everything before surgery? I thought I did, but apparently not] but until you fail to chew something down enough you can’t really understand) and suddenly and without warning I had to sneeze. Know what’s gross? Sneezing with a mouthful of partially chewed up peanuts… that’s what’s gross. Worse? 20 seconds after you sneeze, when you think you’ve recovered and cleaned up the mess… you sneeze again. Ugh.
  • Elon Musk posted to his nazi social media site that he didn’t understand why people are out to get him. He said he sells things that are good and that he’s never hurt anyone. Never hurt anyone? Are you fucking kidding me, you fucking moron? This nazi fucker’s end can’t come soon enough. Deport his moronic ass to mars and be done with it.
  • We have a contractor coming tomorrow. We have two contractors coming Friday. March 2025 will go down in family history as the month of the contractors. We just can’t get away from them. Please please please let this be the end of it for a while.
  • We are one week and one day away from the start of the Boston Red Sox 2025 season. No matter what happens, they can’t be any more painful to watch than the Bruins were this year. Even if they come in dead last again it still won’t suck as badly as the B’s. I’m thinking about signing up for an online subscription to NESN (the New England Sports Network. The TV network that carries both the Red Sox and the Bruins). I think my days of being a radio-only Red Sox fan might be coming to an end. I haven’t decided one way or the other yet, but I think it’s going to happen… we’ll see.
  • I don’t want to buy a tenor saxophone. I don’t want to buy a tenor saxophone. Did I mention I don’t want to buy a tenor saxophone? Who am I kidding. I want to buy a tenor saxophone. Only if it’s a good one though. Aw, hell.

Okay. I have to get back to work now. This is all I have time for right now. I’ll probably write up some more brain droppings later. It’s one of those days, if you know what I mean.

Friday at Last

It’s Friday. Finally!

We have yet another contractor coming today. The arrival window we booked opens at 8:00am. They texted us at 7:00am saying they were on their way. We assumed that meant that… ya know… they were on their way. Well its 8:02am now and they still haven’t arrived. So I guess they weren’t actually on the way.

Today is a monumentally huge day for the entertainment industry. Well… for my personal entertainment industry preferences. Alex Lifeson of Rush is releasing a new album today with his other band, Envy of None. Now while I will say that that sort of gothy/synthy/poppy vibe Envy of None gives off is not generally my personal bag, I did enjoy the first record and I have been enjoying the first three songs they snuck out from the second record even more. They are winning me over.

Along with that, there is a new Throwing Muses album out today. Technically there are two new Throwing Muses albums today, but only one is going to streaming services. I’m going to have to actually go somewhere and find a copy of the other one. Moonlight Concessions is the one you can stream. The singles they gave us ahead of time are seriously working for me. I haven’t started listening to the full album yet but I am really excited to give it a spin.

Even more important, Kristin Hersh sent out an email to her mailing list today (which I’ve been subscribed to for about as long as email lists have been a thing) and it lists some new tour dates. They are all in Europe, which is great for folks in Europe but not very helpful for me. There was some good news for those of us who live in the nazi states of america. Just read the last line on this screen shot from the email…

US DATES COMING SOON!!! Robert is excited. Robert’s wife is probably going to be slightly less excited, but my finger are crossed that she’ll be okay with going to another show with me.

On top of the musical gifts we get today, there is also a new episode of Yellowjackets where they actually talk about DATs. Digital Audio Tapes. I never owned a DAT player but somewhere around here I do have a couple of DAT tapes because I spent some time in a recording studio in 1993. There is also a new episode of Severance. I think that show might be losing me a little. I have found my attention drifting while watching the last two episodes. I am just thinking that we’re so deep into the black box that we’re never going to find out exactly what’s going on and maybe I am just trying to subconsciously protect myself from disappointment. I don’t know. The show is still good but I am getting worried.

The contractor is here. He rang the door bell at about 8:10 or so. Right when he was supposed to. That’s good news. Maybe we’ll get lucky and he’ll be finished before I start work.

Speaking of music, I started noodling out an idea for something for the Record Every Month challenge. I am thinking of continuing along with the acoustic 12-string stuff I was doing last month. I also got my 6-string acoustic guitar back from my singer, who borrowed it 10000 years ago. Right on queue, today’s That Pedal Show episode is talking about 12-string guitars and the guys are bitching about how difficult they are to play. Just like me!

Right then. Time to go and get ready to start my work day. Happy Friday, everyone. Enjoy the new music.

ADDENDUM: The Envy of None record was originally supposed to come out today, March 14, 2025. It did not though. The new release date is March 28, 2025. Bummer, dude.

There is a Rush 50th anniversary boxed set scheduled for release next week. I wonder if that’s why they pushed the EoN release? Who knows.

Two Weeks in a Row

We did it. We have had two band practices in a row. Oh thanks be to the gods of bad middle aged cover bands, we pulled off two Sunday practices in a row!

I fought with my gear through the whole thing. I have something in my signal chain that is adding a weird whistling noise and when it reaches my overdrive pedals it gets LOUD. I ended up bypassing half of the board and it seemed like it fixed the problem for a while, but eventually it came back and kept getting worse. If I had to guess I would say it’s probably my power supply. I don’t know. I think I might bring my stay at home pedal board next time and see if it had any similar issues.

I also just wasn’t vibing with my amp. The Vox AC15 is fun and I like using it when I record at home, but when the band was playing I was missing my Deluxe Reverb. I might swap them next time. Or maybe I’ll swap the pedal board next time and then swap the amp the time after that.

Look at me, making plans for the next two practices, as if I wasn’t just worried about ever having two practices in a row again. Why don’t we focus on the next practice actually happening before we start looking beyond that, m’kay?

As for me personally, my playing was awful. Probably worse than last week. That’s okay though, I will get back up to speed soon enough, assuming we get ourselves on a regular schedule, of course.

How about a couple of gear pics?

190/365

Still On… So Far

First, allow me to say thank you to Lily the cat for sitting still this morning so that I could take a picture of her in the mostly dark room without the iPhone’s low light functionality turning her into a blurry mess. Thanks, Lily Pad!

Next, all of my Sunday plans are still on. Fingers crossed it stays that way. No word about canceling band practice. No one has backed out, and our meet time is less than two hours away. It’s never going to be back to normal if we can’t get at least two weeks in a row in, know what I mean?

Fingers crossed.

My step son is coming over today. He’s not here yet. I hope he gets here before I leave for practice, but if he doesn’t that’s fine too. I’ll have the whole day post-practice to hang around with him.

Two Weeks in a Row?

I didn’t get my hopes up last week and everything worked out. Now we’re shooting for two weeks in a row. Should I be excited?

Last week we had our first band practice in months after more false alarms than I care to remember. After all the fails I refused to get excited about it until we were all actually in the room together. Once we were though… rock and roll bro.

Now we’re talking about practicing again tomorrow. One week later. Is it going to happen? Is it going to fall through? Are we on or are we dealing with another false alarm? I don’t want to get too excited. I don’t want to get my hopes too high… but we’re practicing at noon tomorrow and my stuff is already packed up.

Rock and roll, bro.

Late

I had a million things to do before work this morning, then a million things to do during work, then a million things to do after work… so obviously I was going to oversleep, right?

Frustrated sigh.

Oh well. The big question for Friday mornings these days is do I watch the new episode of Severance while I do my morning exercise, or do I watch the new episode of Yellowjackets. Today I went with Yellowjackets. No spoilers for season three episode five, but if there is one thing that show needs (a lot) more of, it is PJ Harvey music. I started watching Severance (season two episode eight, I think) but I haven’t the faintest clue what’s going on. I’ll finish it before I sleep tonight. Promise.

We had a contractor at the house yesterday. We have another one coming this morning, any minute now, and we have another one coming this afternoon. Things are getting weird around here.

What else was I going to mention this morning? Oh yeah, I woke up at about 4:00am this morning. I think it was the wind that woke me. It was blowing around like a hurricane out there. It was bad enough that it knocked over the bird feeder. I have to fix it, but the ground is still frozen so it might have to wait a little while. It’s March so the thaw out is coming, but it’s not coming soon enough for me.

Today is also the NHL trade deadline. I expect it’s going to be a sad day for Boston Bruins fans as we’re far enough out of the playoff picture that we will be sellers. Here’s hoping for a lot of high draft picks while also hoping that none of my favorite Bruins get dealt away. Fingers crossed.

Apple Music just let me know that there’s a new Bob Mould album released today. I’ll give that a listen while stressing about everything under the sun. Sounds good to me.

The first contractor has arrived. I’d best let him in…………

Got ‘Em

I was really hoping for this… 90’s alternative rock nerd boy just scored two tickets to see Belly in October. Now I just need Throwing Muses to announce North American shows and my 2025 musical life will be complete. I want to see both halves of Throwing Muses this year.

I did not see Belly when they were together in the 90’s and I did not see them when they got back together a few years ago and I did not see them when they played in my freakin’ back yard (Lowell, MA) last year. This will correct this gross oversite on my musical obsession bingo card. I saw Tanya Donelly shortly after Belly split, and once more years later with Jen, and once with Throwing Muses back in 1989, but I’ve never seen Belly.

I’m trying to remember all of the Muses related shows I’ve seen…

  • Opening for REM at Great Woods in ’89
  • At the Hatch Shell in Boston (a free show) in… ’95? I think. It was before Limbo came out
  • At an in-store mini set at Newbury Comics in Harvard Square on the day Limbo came out in ’96
  • At the Middle East on the day that Limbo came out in ’96 (yes, I saw them twice on the same day)
  • Tanya at The Paradise… either just before or just after her first solo LP came out
  • Kristin Hersh at The Paradise playing solo acoustic around the time Strange Angels came out… I think.
  • Throwing Muses and 50 Foot Wave at The Middle East on August 11, 2006
  • Kristin Hersh at Hy N Dry Studio on May 27, 2007 with Jen
  • Kristin Hersh and Tanya Donelly (separately and briefly together) on October 6, 2007 at The Brattle Theater in Cambridge, MA

Damn… that list is a whole lot shorter than I thought it would be. I’m pretty sure that’s it though. Hopefully this year we’ll be adding two more shows to it. Hopefully… if Throwing Muses would just announce a nice Boston show to go along with their already announced European shows.

Happy concert tickets day, everyone.

Distract Myself

Work is crazy, the united (fascist) states of america is collapsing…

I need a music project to distract myself from everything. I think I am going to do the Record Every Month thing again. That’s the year ’round RPM Challenge spin off where you just write and record one song each month. I usually bump that up to two songs each month. That way I can pretend I’m releasing a single like it’s 1964 or something.

I just want to have an excuse to not think about reality for a few minutes at a time. Living in the (nazi) united states of america these days really blows. I just want to pretend it’s not happening, if you know what I mean. Living in Massachusetts is still okay if we just ignore the federal government.

So yeah… a year long music project. I’m in.