I just watched Letters to Cleo and Gigolo Aunts play a J. Giels song together.
The most Boston thing Ever.
Category: Music
Live Music!
The last concert I attended prior to the pandemic was Letters to Cleo’s (sort of?) annual November reunion at The Paradise in Boston.
Tonight? We’re going to see Letters to Cleo again. Live music! I almost forget what it feels like. The only downside of The Paradise is there is no parking so you have to go early and hunt for one. Outside of that, tonight should be epic. Epic, like you’ve read about.
I Want the Weekend
My step son has all of next week off from school. He’s coming home tomorrow. He’ll spend a few days here, then a few days at his dad’s new house, then Thanksgiving take two at our house a week from Saturday, then he’ll go back to school. My step daughter will be home at some point though, but she’s no longer a college student and has to work next week. We don’t know her schedule yet but she’ll be here for Thanksgiving take two as well.
With the return of at least one kid being imminent, I am really looking forward to this weekend. As an added bonus, this coming Saturday will also see me and my friends Larry and Mike (the bass player) reliving our roaring 20’s by going to see Letters to Cleo and the Gigolo Aunts at The Paradise in Boston. We’re going to pretend it’s 1996 or so and go check out some Boston music… even though most of the members of both bands don’t live in Boston anymore. So what, it’s going to be nostalgic rock and roll like you’ve read about.
Today has been quiet, apart from the plumber visit this morning. I’ve had a couple of meetings and have one more coming up in a few minutes. I’ve mostly focused on paperwork. It’s been a good day so far. It’s 60 degrees outside, which is nice. Warmer days are rare at this point in the calendar. Granted I haven’t gone outside since 8:00am today and at that time the temperature was in the low 30’s. Timing is everything, folks.
Right then. Time to go and prep for the next meeting. I just wanted to write down how excited I am for this weekend. So many good things on the schedule. I’m ready for them all right now.
November Music
After cleaning the kitchen, dining room, living room, and the hallway that links them all together today I did what anyone would do. I finally started putting some thought into this month’s music project.
It’s going to be two suites of about 15 minutes. Each suite will be a handful of songs. Each song will end on some sort of coda that is unrelated to the rest of the song. The next song in the suite will start with a variation of the previous song’s coda.
Dig it?
I have the bass and drums down for the first suite. It’s looking like it’s going to be about 16-17 minutes long. National Solo Album Month’s rules require a grand total of 29 minutes and change (the length of The Ramones first record). I’ve got a long way to go, but at least I made some progress. I want to use the guitar that is currently in the shop for most if not all of the guitar tracks, so hopefully I get it back soon. Otherwise I’ll just use a different guitar.
I’m probably going to fail this month’s challenge miserably, but at least I am putting in a little effort to make me feel good about myself, or some shit. Whatever, right?
Music!
I Need a Musical Weekend
Just looking ahead to this weekend. I need to make some music. I need to play some guitar. I need to play guitar through an amplifier and not just headphones. It is imperative. We’re getting to that point where not playing is affecting my mental state. Music must be made at volume. It is necessary.
November Music
If I am going to have my number one guitar back soon then I should probably get going on a November music project, right?
November is National Solo Album Month. NaSoAlMo. The goal is to write and record 29:09 of original music and play all the parts yourself. I do that for every monthly music project so that’s not a big deal. I started one song idea last week. This morning before work I started another and came up with the gimmick for the month.
The first time I finished a NaSoAlMo project I came up with a way to link a bunch of songs together into one giant song. I think I am going to do something along those lines again. The idea I had for the first song had a phrase that was meant to be a coda section that was not used anywhere else in the song. The gimmick is that I will take that coda section and create a variation of it and make that the opening section of the song that comes after it on the playlist. Song number one ends with something, then song number two starts with a variation on that something. Song number two then ends with a coda that isn’t used anywhere else in the song. Song number three opens with a variation on it. Ect Ect. Get it? Then all the songs get smushed together into one giant song file.
Writing it out like this makes me think it’s a dumb idea…. I’m still going to try to do it though. Let’s see how long I stick with this plan.
November Music
It’s November 1st. Welcome to National Solo Album Month. Am I going to take part this year? Probably. I started a Trello board and today’s photo-a-day picture is a guitar. The signs are pointing to yes, but I am not feeling terribly motivated yet. We’ll see how it goes.
Jimmy Agreed
I’ve only seen Jimmy Page live once. He was one of the guys who made me need to learn to play guitar. Led Zeppelin was very important to me as a young musician, but as I got older they sort of became less relevant. Every now and then I can put on a record and feel much of what I used to feel when I was a kid, but they don’t persist for me the way Cream or Jeff Beck do. Of the three ex-Yardbirds, Page became the least import to me.
He did a tour in 1988 and I was a little nervous. His guitar playing through the 80’s seemed like a mere shadow of what it was in the 70’s. Was he losing it? Maybe. There was no way I was passing on the chance to see him when his band came to the Centrum In Worcester though.
I was really surprised by not only how good the band was, but by how good his playing was. He was outstanding. It was so good that the cynical part of me wondered if I had just gotten caught up in the moment and it wasn’t as good as I thought.
Jimmy Page posted this on Instagram. Maybe the cynical part of me should just shut the hell up, right?
Super Frustrating Day
Ugh, what a day.
The two hour drive to work made me half an hour late so I stayed an extra half an hour to make up for it. That got me on the road a little after 6:00pm. The drive home took an hour and 15 minutes. That’s not uncommon, but on top of the two hours and 10 minutes this morning was just painful. Sitting there stopped in traffic on route 93 North at 7:00pm? What the fuck.
That, on top of my beloved dad rock cover band officially coming apart today just made a suck day suck more.
Here’s some rehearsal recordings from a few tapes I made over the years. I’ve posted this playlist before, probably a few times. I don’t care. The three of us who remain in the band are going to start over from scratch. New singer, new songs, new name. All of that. I guess I am just feeling a little overwhelmed by stupid shit tonight.
Again I say, ugh.
End of an Era
When was it, two days ago? The Daily Prompt asked about things you were hoping to do for the first time and I (slightly sarcastically) said I was hoping for the first post-pandemic band practice with all four band members present?
We had something on the books for tomorrow (Thursday) night but I was nervous because our facebook messenger chat had been silent. I sent out a message, are we still on? The drummer and the bass player responded. The three of us have been able to get together to play a few times since lock downs started easing up. It was our singer who was never able to join us.
Well, our singer responded to the chat today and told us that he’s sorry but he feels it’s time to leave the band. I don’t think any of us are surprised, but we’re all a little disappointed. He’s good people and playing music with him, and just hanging around with him was always good fun. I am going to miss it all.
Now we have to start looking for a new singer. I’m not looking forward to the search, but I am looking forward to the end result. Does that make sense?
Thanks for the good times, Greg. It’s been a pleasure.
Inside the Red Head's Head 