Tag: Music

Not Today, Maybe Tomorrow

I fully intended to get up early today and do car vocals. I actually did get up early but… As I mentioned last night… that last song I worked on… the lyrics were so bad. It just took the umph out of the situation, you know? I need to rewrite.

So… fasting. What’s up with that? Give yourself an eight hour window each day where you can eat to your heart’s (stomach’s?) content, then the other 16 hours you don’t eat. In my 56 seconds worth of Google “research” it looks like most people set their eating window at 1pm-9pm. Outside of breakfast, that works okay for me. I want to cut down on between meal sowing. Something like this could gimmick me into cutting back some. Also, my 56 seconds showed me that zero calorie drinks (water, diet soda) are allowed during the fasting times.

I found an app I wanted to try to use to help. I thought you’d plug in times and it would tell you when to eat. It doesn’t. You turn it on when you’re fasting starts (9pm) and it tells you when it’s over. Okay… I guess I’ll start this fad tonight at 9pm. consider today’s breakfast my breakie swan song. What the hell, it’s quarantine. Let’s jump on this (a/any) stupid bus.

After my horrid performance trying to predict the winners of the second round of the NHL playoffs, I went into the third round with a tiny bit of optimism. Then on Sunday night the West series started and my pick lost game one. That’s okay, I guess. It’s just putting my pick into a statistical hole that is too big for the majority of teams to crawl out of but that’s okay, right? Ugh. I had this bad feeling that when the East series started up last night there would be another crushing loss. I checked the score just before bed. Would Tampa crush my heart again? Nope. They were up 7-2. I checked the final score today. They won 8-2. I feel a tiny bit better now.

Television. Season two of The Boys is out. I forgot that Amazon released shows weekly. Crap. At least they put out three on the first day. They are good so far, but now I have to wait for Friday for episode four. On top of that, Jen and I started watching Cobra Kai. We plowed through the first season. It is so much better than I thought it would be. I expected it to be goofy and silly and a bit of a farce. It was, sort of. Not a lot though. It was just good. Yeah we saw the series finale coming miles away, but it didn’t lessen the effect. I’m looking forward to season two, and season three is supposed to be on the way. I’m paused on The Watchmen for the moment, but I’ll get back to it. Same with Breaking Bad. Eventually I’ll get to Lovecraft Country too. For now though… I’m up to season four episode 15 of Agents of Shield. The rewatch continues.

For now though. Let’s have a good work day on this, the first work day after Labor Day. The first work day after the symbolic last day of Summer. Today is probably in my top three least favorite days of the year.

Ugh.

A Little Guitar

I added some rhythm guitar to four songs today. It mostly went okay. There were a couple of moments when the tendinitis in my thumb decided to remind me it was there. I had to adjust a couple of things to resolve it, but it was really the first time that my hurt thumb was a factor, even though it was a very small factor.

Gear wise, I started out with what more or less is my Lizardfish setup. If there was a sound that I was forced to call “my sound” meaning my usual go-to it would be this. Gibson guitar into a Klon KTR into a Malaise Forever Black Lives Matter into a lowish wattage amp. In this case, two lowish wattage amps. Sometimes we’ll throw in either an MXR Uni-vibe or an MXR Phase 90 at the front of the pedal chain. Today I started out that way, complete with the Uni-vibe, but it just felt off. It could be that I haven’t played at all in a week or so, but I just wasn’t connecting. I ended up turning everything off except the Klon. Ahhh… there it is. The magic place.

Next thing I knew, I had blown through three more songs. Nice. Next time I might try zeroing the gain on the KTR and maxing the output and letting it push the two 15 watt amps into overdrive. That should be fine. It might be a touch louder than I usually get, but it should be fun.

Half Way Through

It took me half a day, but I am finally digging into the new Throwing Muses album. I’m only on track five but I had to post that it is utter bliss. Creepy, aggressive, Muses bliss.

This couldn’t be more different from the last album, Purgatory/Paradise, if it tried. Well, maybe they did try, I don’t know. If I had to compare it to previous stuff I’d say it’s spooky like House Tornado is at times, and heavy like the self titled first post-hiatus album was, but at the same time it is absolutely nothing like either of them. It’s just really good so far. Like, really good. Like I am so happy I could throw up all over myself with glee good.

I’m on track six now, “Upstairs Dan” and it’s my favorite cut so far. Either this one or Dark Blue, but I have been listening to Dark Blue so maybe I’m biased toward this.

Go listen to it! Go listen to it!

Musical Day – So Far

364/365

Let’s summarize today’s musical milestones.

First, I mixed a song. It was the 26th song for 50/90 overall, but it was also the 10th song written and recorded entirely within the month of August. That means for the seventh month in a row I have completed an RPM Challenge rules, album in a month in 29 days. That is insane.

After that I arranged two sets of ideas, just bass and drums, into something that passes for a song form.

After that, I recorded lead guitars on two songs, then took a break to help my step son with a project, then recorded lead guitars on three more. When I ran out of songs that were ready for leads I added rhythm guitars to three songs.

I am now, temporarily, out of songs that are ready for guitar parts of any kind. I have five songs that are ready to mix, and I expect to pick off one or two tonight, and six songs that are ready for lyrics.

Wow.

I still want to kick off at least three more ideas before August ends. I want to be at least at 40 songs by the end of the month and I’m at 37 now.

Next up is dinner, and then probably a memorial viewing of Black Panther. Then I’ll try to mix another song.

Yikes.

Almost Halfway

I have a meeting starting shortly and I’m all prepped for it with a few minutes to kill. I’m sitting here thinking about 50/90. I’m at 24 songs completely complete. I’ve got two more ready to mix and I should be able to get to them tonight. That will put me over the halfway mark. It will also be 10 songs started and finished within the month of August, meaning I will have completed the album-in-a-month thing by the 29th once again. Is 10 songs in 29 days some how a natural thing for me now? No, don’t be stupid. The only reason you’ve finished as much as you have over the last seven months is you haven’t had to commute to/from work. Don’t get cocky, jerk.

Anyway, I wasn’t going to do this, but here’s another song that I mixed last night. It’s nothing special, but there is a little three-part harmony near the end.

New Songs

I mixed three songs tonight. 50/90 is up to 24 complete, and the August album in a month is up to eight.

This one isn’t too bad. I know I use the gimmick of having the instruments come in one at a time but I’m old, what can you do?

Music All Over the Place

This morning before work I put vocals on five songs. Tonight after work I put lead guitars on five other songs, and rhythm guitars on two more. That’s a productive day, musically speaking. Depending on how the Bruins game goes tonight I might throw in a mix down too. We’ll see.

One little mildly concerning tid bit. The last two times I played guitar I felt a little numbness in my right thumb. The right thumb being the one that does not have tendinitis. Oh good. It was just a little pins and needles, but it definitely shouldn’t have been there. Maybe I was just nervous about the left hand and squeezing the pick really hard with the right. Who knows. I will keep an eye on it.