Tag: Music

Guitars Have a Hidden Use

Did you know that a guitar is more than just a musical instrument? It has an extra hidden use too. You know those stress ball things that you are supposed to squeeze the hell out of when life gets you down? Well stress balls ain’t got shit on an electric guitar. When the feels start overwhelming you, like say if the United States just swore in a fascist prick as it’s new chief executive, you can bash the living daylights out of your guitar until the pain of the real world subsides slightly, or until your fingers start bleeding.

RPM Prep Work — I am Such a Nerd

I started some of my annual RPM Challenge prep work. I created a new soundcloud account to use for listening to works in progress on my various mobile devices. Also, I created a new trello board to keep track of the progress of each new idea. It’s not much, but it’s a start.

I still have to do some test work with my new MacBook Pro. I’ve used GarageBand on it, but I haven’t recorded any live audio. I have to make sure my Lexicon audio interface will play nicely with the USB 3 connections via an adapter. I don’t expect any issues, but who knows. If I can’t get audio into the computer then it will be another iPad based project. Of course, Apple went and updated GarageBand for iOS yesterday. Couldn’t they have waited until March so I wouldn’t have to waste time learning any new features? How inconsiderate of them, eh?

Then I have to set up my amp and my pedal board and my mics so that when the urge hits I can just plug in the lappy, switch on the amp, and play whatever needs to be played.

The January prep work always makes me feel like a super nerd, but I don’t care. It’s fun… in a super nerdy way.

Mood Swings

I went to the RPM Challenge website during my lunch break to check out any new blog or forum posts. There aren’t many at this point, but come February 1st, there will be a lot. I figured I’d add a blog post about how I sort of want this year’s project to sound one way, but it will probably end up as something different. I think I tapped into something unconscious. This is what I posted:

These days I am stuck in a teeter totter of mood swings that go from depressed defeatism to just roaring mad. This is the world we live in now, I guess. If it weren’t for my wife and step kids I’d probably go nuts.

Join me!

I want this year’s music to be mean and angry and complicated and anti-social and to have as little as humanly possible to do with what anyone else might want me to write or sound like. Of course I lack the talent to write music like that, so at best we’ll get noisy songs that sound kinda mad but otherwise sound like everything else I’ve ever done.

Or, I’ll go into it wanting angry and mean and anti-social and end up with quiet and moody woe-is-me stuff (with the occasional wah-wah guitar solo).

How the hell should I know what it’s going to sound like? I’m not even sure who I am anymore. I had all these preconceived notions about the world outside my door and BANG they’re all wrong.

A wise man (who played in a band called Traffic) once said, “who knows what tomorrow may bring?”

Two weeks from tomorrow. Come on February, you son of a bitch. Bring it on. Do your worst.

Okay, where the hell did that come from? I think I can guess, and I think the answer has to do with a certain American transfer of government that is scheduled to take place on Friday. That’s pretty much coloring every thought these days.

Stephen Stills… Is There a Reason?

I’ve been really in the mood to listen to Stephen Stills over the last few days. I gave the Manassas album a spin for the first time yesterday. I like most of it, but there are a bunch of country songs that just make me want to stop listening to any music ever and bury my head in the sand and never come out again. Urgh. I don’t like country music. I blame Hillman for those (though I have no evidence to back that up).

Earlier today I was trying to figure out why I had the sudden Stills interest. Well, he’s a guitar hero for sure, and a ridiculously great singer, and a fantastic songwriter… but is that why?

Then it hit me. The reason is “For What it’s Worth”. Is that the first rock and roll protest song? It might be. People say that, but I have yet to hear every single rock and roll song ever written so who can say for sure. It doesn’t matter though. On Friday the United States comes to an end when that fascist piece of shit is inaugurated. We’re going to need people to stand up to him in whatever way they can. We’re going to need people like Stephen Stills.

That Song is Stuck in My Head

I’m thinking about keeping track of all the songs that get stuck in my head over the course of a day. Here’s a list of a few recent examples.

The opening theme from Billy on the Street (great show!)
Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers by Jeff Beck
The music from Super Mario Bros. that plays when you get a star and are invincible. 
Billie Jean by Michael Jackson, as interpreted by Lizardfish.

Just to name a few.

I think I might need therapy.

Lots and lots of therapy.

Why am I not Practicing?

This morning I got up and went outside and shoveled yesterday’s snow. There wasn’t a lot, but it still needed to be done. That was pretty much the end of me, energy wise, for this quiet Sunday at home.

I have all of my guitar gear here at home and it’s going to stay here until March. During the February RPM Challenge bonanza, I am going to bring my Marshall and one fuzz box to the band’s rehearsal space. All of the main gear, the Fender amp and the pedal board, are staying home for use during RPM. I’m not guaranteeing that it will be used, but it will be here if I have the opportunity.

So it’s all sitting around the house, and I’m sitting around the house, and the guitars are not being played, and the guitar player is sitting in a comfy chair not playing, and I don’t know why. I mean, I want to play. All weekend long I’ve been thinking, you know what? I want to go down stairs and just plug the Strat into the Deluxe Reverb and just strum some bluesy chord changes for a while. You know, not really practice anything specific, or try to write anything new… just play for the sake of playing.

But the snow, damn it. I just haven’t had the energy. I haven’t been able to peel myself off of this chair. I am seriously disappointed in myself. I have to get out of this mindset before February arrives.

Urgh.

RPM 2017

I just signed up for the 2017 RPM Challenge. I’ve been playing the game since 2007, and playing it successfully since 2012.

Given the political climate in the United States these days, I think we can safely assume there will be a lot of songs about hating fascism. I can’t say for sure that will be the case (last year most of the songs were about how the Earth is not flat…really) but if you are a betting man/woman…

I have already decided that my Fender amp and my pedal board are staying at home until March. If I’m going to do this, I want to do it right.

The musical chaos begins on February 1st.

Another Gig in the Books

Last night’s gig was pretty successful. We’ve played three shows together and they’ve all been at the same place. The crowd was smaller but respectable. Very respectable considering we had a snow storm that morning. The conditions were okay by the evening though so no one risked life and limb coming to see us. Thankfully.

There was a shorter than usual (for us) turn around between last night and the previous show, and the holidays made scheduling rehearsals difficult, so there were only three new songs. One really surprised me. Someone dug up a really heavy arrangement of Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight” and we learned it. It is really fun to play, but I thought it would be a dud with the audience. Nope, it got the best reaction of the night. I couldn’t believe it. I guess ol’ Phil just does that to people. Now we do one Phil Collins song and one Peter Gabriel song. I think we should learn some Genesis for the next show. I’m thinking “Return of the Giant Hogweed”.

We need to figure out how to manage time better. Kevin the drummer put together three setlists, all with 11 songs and all about the same running time. We plan on doing three sets, with each one starting at the top of the hour. It never works out that way. We always end up cutting songs from set #3. Last night we started right on time. The second set started a few minutes late but it was close. We tried editing the second set on the fly to suit the crowd’s mood and we ended up with 13 songs. It was long. Very long. Somehow we, as usual, ended up starting the last set at 11:30ish and we had to skip around. The setlist for the third set always ends up being more suggestions than rules. Whatever. One of these days we’ll get the timing right.

Speaking of set lengths, I was very happy to learn that the other guys were all running out of gas by the end of each set and I wasn’t the only one. The last song or two in the first set were tough. My hands were feeling tired and weak and I couldn’t do some of the things I wanted to do. Same with the second set. The last two or three songs were tough. On the third set we were about halfway through and I was toast. I actually had to insist on dropping one song because I didn’t think I could physically play it anymore. What is the solution to a problem like this? Practice. Lots of it. Practice builds up stamina. That’s what I need, and what it sounds like all of us need. Not rehearsals, but sitting at home and practicing. That would help a lot. Unfortunately, there just aren’t enough hours in the day most times. We do our best.

I did not wear ear plugs at all last night. I wanted to hear my guitar as it really sounded. The result? It sounded okay at first. For the rest of the show? Who knows. I was loudish, and standing right next to the drummer who was also loud. By the second set my ears were completely fried. Everything sounded like mush. I couldn’t make out any details to any of the sounds were were making. It was sort of like a great big loud wash of white noise. Fortunately I recovered pretty quickly and my ears are fine today. I think maybe all the years of insisting on ear plugs might be paying off. If I subjected myself to that much volume without protection on a regular basis, I think my ears would be shot pretty much all the time. The moral of the story? Wear ear plugs.

We booked two more shows at Racks Bar and Grill. One for April and one for June. I will be posting about them as they get closer. You should all go. It is a lot of fun. Honestly. No, really. I promise.