Tag: Music

Struggle

Today has been a tough day. Nothing bad happening, just lots of stuff at work happening simultaneously that is stressing me out. The stress increase is unnecessary and pretty irrational, but it’s real none the less.

We have been asked to setup a new development environment that has an extension with our new ai software. I’ll save my ai rant for another post (and you bet your sweet skynet fearing ass that many such posts are coming) but suffice to say I have been having a ton of trouble getting the new environment up and running. Most of my team got things running without issue but a few people have been hitting major trouble. I don’t know if my troubles count as “major” but I had to uninstall everything today and start from scratch and it finally worked. Finally. I feel a huge relief.

Today is Monday and I haven’t posted anything since Thursday. That’s crazy. I never go that long without boring the internet to tears with at least one pointless post. What’s wrong with me?

I’ll tell you what’s wrong with me… I’m currently not in a band. I’m starting to get to the point where its not a matter of wanting to be in a band, it’s a matter of needing to be in a band. Maybe even multiple bands. A cover band, an original rock band, a bluesy jam band… all of the above?

I’m also starting to reach the point where my desire to start going outside and taking pictures of everything is getting out of control. By extension, my desire to try new 35mm film cameras is also getting out of control. I’m having to force myself not to open up ebay when I am sitting in front of a computer. A Nikon F5 (or F6, or F4, or F2) would really hit the spot right now. Also 100 new lenses would really make life better during these dark days of fascist dictatorship.

Speaking of our fascist dictatorship, I consider myself a pretty militant atheist but I grew up catholic. Can I just say that on this day in history I would really like to give the pope a high five?

What else, what else… the Red Sox are no longer the worst team in the big leagues. When I looked at the standings yesterday there were a whole two teams with lower winning percentages. Nice. On top of that, the Bruins clinched a play off spot. Bring me that post season, where they will likely get bounced in the first round.

Okay…. that’s it for this post. Back to work, you.

Big Weekend

This has been quite the big weekend and it has very little to do with a zombie who gave up his weekend for our sins. But I digress.

Today, April 5th, is the 19th anniversary of my first date with my wife. Clearly she wasn’t my wife at the time, but it was a pretty good first date. Very successul. We celebrated by going to a matinee. We saw Projet Hail Mary again. It was my second viewing and her third. Great movie. If it is playing on an IMAX screen anywhere near us next weekend we might go see it one more time.

After the movie, Jen made a fancy easter/first-dateiversary dinner and it was wonderful. We ate at the dining room table like civilized people instead of slumming it in the living room in front of the TV like usual. It was a very nice moment.

Yesterday we had my in-laws over for a pre-easter easter dinner. Jen made lasagna. I don’t like lasagna so she made me some pasta on the side. She’s the best.

After dinner I hopped in the car and headed to Boston to see a show. Throwing Muses. It was a fantastic show. I was feeling kinda negative at first. I was feeling like I’m too old to go to shows in bars. Two songs into the Muses set though my whole universe changed. By that time I was actively trying to think of a world where I could see Throwing Muses live every day for the rest of my life. It was magic.

There was one negative though. Halfway through their set I got a nose bleed of all things. Not just any nose bleed, but a massive, gushing nose bleed. It was everywhere. I looked like I was living through a horror movie. Gore.

To summarize, it’s been a very good weekend. I’ve been nuts about my wife for 19 years now and I just keep getting nuttier and nuttier as time goes by.

Now, a few pics from the show last night.

Was That Greeny?

I posted the video of Rush playing at the Juno Awards Ceremony the other night. Being the guitar nerd that I am, while 99% of me was consumed with bliss over seeing Rush again, 1% of me was noticing that Alex Lifeson was playing a Les Paul that I don’t think I’ve ever seen him with before.

It looked like a vintage burst. Something made between 1958 and 1960. It was faded from sunburst to yellow the way a lot of ‘58’s and ‘59’s are. I assumed it was the real deal, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen Alex play a real burst before. I know Geddy Lee owns (owned?) one, but Alex usually plays newer models. Even back in the 70’s, before vintage Les Pauls became too enormously expensive, he played 70’s models.

So as I was watching the video I was wondering whether the guitar was a reissue or the real thing. There was something about it though… something familiar…

Holy shit, was he playing Greeny? Possibly the most famous of all Les Pauls? Arguably the finest example of the finest electric guitars ever made? Was he playing Peter Green’s Les Paul? The one Peter Green played in Fleetwood Mac and sold to Gary Moore for whatever Gary happend to have in his wallet at the time? The one that Moore sold to pay medical bills (at least that’s what I heard) and then years later a collector sold to Kirk Hammett of Metallica? The one with the out of phase neck pick up that inspired guitarists world ‘round to install their neck pick ups upside down to try to replicate?

Gary Moore, Peter Green, Kirk Hammett, all playing Greeny

So was Alex Lifeson playing Greeny?

I can’t find a good picture of the spots near the bridge pick up where the paint is warn away, but you can see it in some of the low res pics I’ve seen and in the video. The worn spots are there. You can see in these pics that it has the mismatched knobs and the neck pickup is upside down. The visual things are there.

The question then is, is this the real guitar or is it a replica? If it is a replica the question then is, is it the $50,000 replica that Gibson released in a very limited run a few years ago, or is it the $20,000 version that they released in a slightly less limited run, or is it the mass produced Gibson USA version that sold for… I can’t remember… was it $6,000? $8,000? Something like that.

There are stories out there reporting Alex and Kirk Hammett hanging out together. I know Kirk is a fan of Alex and Rush and I think I’ve read that Alex is a fan of Kirk and Metallica (I know I’ve read about Geddy Lee being a Metallica fan).

I hope it’s the real thing. My guitar nerd brain also hopes that Hammett sells it to Lifeson and he takes it on the road with him and I get to see him play it when we see Rush in New York in July. That would be awesome. If I had to guess though… it’s probably a reissue.

I hope it’s the real thing though. That would be so cool.

They’re Back, Babie!

Last night was the Juno Awards ceremony. That’s the Canadian version of the Grammy’s. The show included this one ditty from this little Toronto based rock and roll combo…

They are back! For really reals, Rush is back!

Maybe an odd choice of song, but it was the first song on their first album so it was sort of fitting that the first public appearance with their two new people, Anika Nilles on drums and Loren Gold on keyboards, was that same first song… though if they were going to go with literal first songs they should have gone with their cover of Buddy Holly’s Not Fade Away, which was their first single. But I digress. Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson on stage again. We’re going to see them in New York in a couple of months and I CAN’T FUCKING WAIT!

Pedal Board

I did a little work on my band pedal board. Specifically, this is the pedal board that I usually keep at my band’s rehearsal space… even though the band kinda doesn’t exist anymore… and I don’t know what the future holds. Whatever.

I replaced the vibe pedal and the analog delay and both of the overdrive pedals and the wah pedal. I also added the little compressor. If only I could have replaced the dust. This thing sat out for a really long time.

I also went out and ran some more errands earlier. Another obligatory look at the downtown clock.

And that is my Sunday so far, as of about 2:30pm. What else will the day hold? Well, I’m heading over to the Apple Store to pay a little homage. Dig it.

Musical Epic Urges

I have this weird musical urge right now and I don’t think I will be able to stop myself from trying to make it happen.

I have this urge to write a song that runs for at least 20 minutes.

  • Introduction is slow and quiet. Maybe just a cleanish electric guitar soloing over an electric piano. The intro needs to be long… very long.
  • Next we have basically a 4-5 minute uptempo, noisy rock song. Preferably in an odd time signature with shouty vocals in the chorus.
  • Another instrumental break. Change key and time signature and tempo and jam for a while. Maybe have a guitar and a sax trade off.
  • Another stand alone kind of song section. Slower, quieter, less shouty.
  • Come up with a riff. Something long and drawn out. Maybe a full eight bars without repeating anything. Start quiet and slowly but steadily get louder, just repeating the same phrase. Get louder and heavier and more intense. I’m thinking something like Whaling Song by Procol Harem. Something that just builds on itself over a long stretch of time.
  • Return to the second section. Different key maybe. Not a full repeat, but bring back the same changes and phrases in a new arrangement. Sort of like a coda section.
  • Return to the introduction but not nearly as long.

What do we think, universe? Do I suddenly have a new musical project to sink my untalented musical teeth into?

Will it run for 20 minutes?

We’ll see.

2026 RPM Challenge Day 28/28

Done. Finished. Complete. Success. 15 years in a row, babie. Every year since 2012 has seen me successfully complete the RPM Challenge (and the FAWM too).

The album is called The Great American Road trip because it was mixed during the great american road trip. Duh. The official home is my alonetone page, right here. The unofficial home is on my hearthis.at page which only exists because it plays nicely with wordpress.com.

I ended up with 16 songs and dropped six of them from the final project. My overall reaction to this year’s batch of new songs is… meh. I don’t care. That’s not the point of this thing. They didn’t exist and now they do and that is a good thing, even if the songs themselves are not good things. Dig it?

2026 RPM Challenge Day 27/28

We are home from our week long epic road trip. I was expecting to get home tomorrow but we made it back a little early.

I mixed one song today. I’m not sharing it because it is terrible and I should have left it unfinished. That leaves me with one song left to mix, then I have to pick the running order and make some cover art and then I’m done.

I would do more tonight but I am utterly exhausted and I want to flake a little before I fall asleep.

I’ll wrap all of this stuff up tomorrow.

2026 RPM Challenge Day 26/28

As I sit in a hotel room somewhere between Fredericksburg, VA and Washington, DC I managed to mix one song. That’s it for today. There are still two more to go and I could probably squeeze one more in but I’m really tired and I want to watch Starfleet Academy before I conk out.

I was expecting to hate this song. I am scraping the bottom of the barrel now and I thought this would be unbearably awful. It’s better than I expected though. Let’s say it is bearably awful.

2026 RPM Challenge Day 25/28

The RPM Challenge asks for 10 songs or 35 minutes of music. FAWM asks for 14 songs.

With two songs mixed tonight while sitting in a hotel room near Knoxville, Tennessee I am up to 13 songs finished with three more still left to mix and three days left to finish. I think we’re going to have another success this year, don’t you?