Category: Music

My Second Gig Ever

In my travels through my childhood bedroom closet I found a folder full of old band stuff. There were some flyers and some set lists and…

Some pictures from our second gig!

I think this was June of 1987 maybe? It was before I bought my Les Paul Deluxe. This was my first electric. A super cheap Hondo strat copy. I was playing through Larry’s Kustom amp. The tiny Peavy sitting on top is my first amp. I was singing through it that day.

The most important thing in these pictures, clearly, is Mike’s first Rick! Awesome!

Envy of None

Go. Now. Make this a part of your life.

Not being much of a synth-pop guy, when I listen to this I think of some of the Smashing Pumpkins stuff that Flood produced, or maybe some of the post-Actung Baby electronic stuff U2 did. Wait… wasn’t that Flood too? Or was that Brian Eno? I don’t know. I heard an interview with Andy Curran where he said it sounds like Depeche Mode or The Cure. That works too.

So there I am, listening for the first time and really enjoying it purely on a holy-shit-this-hook-is-infectious level. I wasn’t hearing any stand out guitar parts, but I knew that was coming. Alex Lifeson (as well as everyone else involved in the album) has made a big deal out of the fact that he’s playing the guitar without ever sounding like a guitar. He’s basically a guitar synth player rather than just a guitar player. Then you get to Spy House, track five, and there’s a stretch of about four bars where he just shreds like the Guitar God he is, and then it’s back to synthy stuff.

I imagine Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew sitting in a room together listening. They both nod their head in approval. Then they look at each other and nod their heads in agreement. Then they look over at Alex Lifeson and nod in solidarity. Yeah. I’m 100% sure that exact thing happened.

No go and listen to it.

Big Day for Prog Fans Tomorrow

Tomorrow is going to be a big day for prog rock fans.

I mentioned earlier that we are supposed to get a new Pink Floyd single tomorrow. We are also getting some new Alex Lifeson.

Envy of None’s album comes out tomorrow. It won’t sound even the tiniest bit like Rush, and based on the press they’ve been doing thus far, half the time you won’t hear guitar. Instead you’ll be hearing some other non-guitar sound that was actually played on a guitar.

I think the heroic Mr Lifeson may be embracing his inner Robert Fripp. Frankly, I am 100% here for it.

Yes indeed, it’s going to be a good day for prog fans.

Thursday Lunch Thoughts

I am writing this in the final few minutes of my lunch break. Today has not been fun. Neither was yesterday or the day before or much of last week. I am going to be needing the universe to lighten up and I am going to need it soon.

Apparently today is Opening Day for Major League Baseball. Hooray! The Red Sox are in New York to face the Fucking Yankees and wouldn’t you know it the game has been called off due to bad weather. If that isn’t a bad omen for the season I don’t know what is. Hopefully it’s more of a bad omen for the Fucking Yankees than it is for the Red Sox. We will see.

What? New Pink Floyd? Read this article. It sounds like Mr David G. once played a show with a Ukrainian artist who is now fighting against the Russian invasion. That guy posted a video of himself singing to Instagram, and the Floyd has worked it into a new song. The release will raise money for Ukraine. That sounds pretty sweet to me. Now we just have to hope it’s a good song. We’ll find out tomorrow, I think.

Okay, Robert. This work day ain’t gonna finish itself. Get to it!

Who is the Other Guy?

I saw this picture today. I had never seen it before…

It’s Genesis. That’s Phil Collins standing on the right. Mike “and the Mechanics” Rutherford is seated on the right. The other guy from the 80’s pop band, the guy who never had a hit outside of the band but who probably wrote the best songs, Tony Banks, is standing on the left.

Those three guys were also in the 70’s prog band along with Peter Gabriel, who is standing next to Banks, and one of my all time mega guitar heroes, Steve Hackett, who is sitting next to Rutherford.

The guy standing in the middle isn’t always included when they all get back together but he is often enough that I immediately recognize him. It’s the original lead guitarist, Anthony Phillips. He played on the first two albums.

So who is the other guy? I’d never seen him before. At least I’d never seen him included in any reunion things. I had an idea but I had to Google it to be sure.

I was right. It’s John Silver! Holy crap! He wasn’t the original drummer (that was Chris Stewart, I think) but he played on the first album. Wow! He’s noteworthy because Genesis started out in the English equivalent of high school. When it came time for college his parents were so afraid he would decide to make Genesis a career that they shipped him across the Atlantic to Cornell University. At least that’s how I heard it.

The guy who replaced him played on the second record. That was John Mayhew (I may have spelled that right but who knows). Mayhew was replaced by Phil Collins who played on every album except the last one and I don’t know who played on that one.

The Google tells me this photo was taken at a press event in 1998 to celebrate the release of Archives Volume One. That was 22 years ago and I’m just seeing it now. Crazy.

No Music?

For the first time in a year I failed to come up with anything for Record Every Month. Im a little sad about that, but it’s okay.

What will April bring? Probably not much. We have so many home improvement things going on that I don’t know if I’ll have any time for recording.

Still no dates for Lizardfish rehearsals. Im hoping we can get something in during April because im going to be out of commission for most if not all of May.

I had to take down the cellar music nook for reasons. It’s all in cellar storage now. Im mad at myself too because the reason I stopped using it came down to a misunderstanding. Jen said it was too loud for her to concentrate and I thought she meant that in general. She didn’t. She just meant it was distracting that day.

Oh well. My mistake.

Hopefully I’ll have some time for writing and recording before I go under the knife. I’ll write lots of songs about being scared shitless.

Rock on, fat boy.