Tag: Music

What’s in the Bag?

Hey Robbie, what’s in that big bag?

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I’ll tell you in a second…

Last night’s band practice wasn’t very good, but it was okay.  We hadn’t played together in about a month and it showed.  I half expected that I would have forgotten how to play every song.  That wasn’t the case, but it didn’t mean I didn’t screw up left and right and get lost now and then.

I had a disconcerting technical issue.  I think I know what it was though.  After 2-3 songs my volume level dropped to almost nothing.  It was weird.  One minute I was roaring like a tornado of Big Muff Fuzz, and the next I was a whisper.  I thought it was my uni-vibe pedal as a light that usually doesn’t light was lit from the minute I plugged in.  I figured the battery was dead.  I bypassed it on the board but it didn’t solve the problem.  Screw this, thinks I.  I pulled my tuner off the board and bypassed everything else.  The signal path was guitar->wah->fuzz->tuner->amp.  The problem persisted.  So I bypassed everything and plugged straight into the amp.  It worked.  So I have it narrowed down to those three pedals.  I am acting under the assumption that the amazing Big Muff pedal has a dead battery.

So what’s in the bag then?  Speak of the devil, it’s my pedal board and all of my pedals from Mike the bass player’s house.  Now I can add all the new pedals to the board, replace all of the 9-volt batteries with the new DC Brick power supply, and rearrange the whole thing to get the most noisy fuzz boxy mess imaginable!  I’ll let you know when it’s up and running again.  There will be an I-am-so-cool-check-out-my-pedal-board picture, I’m sure of it.

You Had a Music Recording Project?

I pretty much forgot about this, but I had actually started a recording project back in March. Whoops. The idea was to take a bunch of songs from old projects and redo them with real bass guitar and real amplified electric guitar. Yeah.

So here are the first 8 songs I worked on. Now I just have to re-record every single sound you hear except for the drums… and even then I’m not so sure.

The Professor Calls it Quits

In 2009 English prog rock/jazz drummer Bill Bruford was about to have his 60th birthday and he did something unexpected. He retired.

Neil Peart, a well known Bill Bruford fan, was probably sitting at home reading the news and thinking: Life goal. Retire at 60. I don’t know whether or not that actually happened, but I’ve always imagined that’s how it went down.

That was six years ago. Neil Peart is now 63. It’s about three years late, but it’s finally happened. The Professor has announced his retirement.

I’m happy for him without actually being happy, if you know what I mean. It pleases me very much that we got to see Rush on the R40 tour as it now pretty much looks like Rush is done for good.

I am sad. Very sad. But also pretty happy that I got as much great music and as many great shows as I did.

Thanks, Professor.

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2010-09-14 - Rush at TD Garden 986

Rush @ Manchester 7-11-08 038

Rush 7-5-08 Saratoga Springs, NY 021

Revenge (Sort of)

Remember when you were a kid and you did something wrong. What was one of the things your parents might have said to you? “I hope you grow up to have kids that are just like you!” Today is an example of that particular mother’s curse coming true. Sort of. Not really, but sort of.

My sister is three years older than me. My brother is six years younger. Starting from my sister’s 5th or 6th grade year and carrying through in an unbroken line until my brother graduated high school, my parents were subjected to at least one but sometimes two school Christmas concerts per year.

As band geeks, we thought they were pretty cool. As parents… it must have been no less than the tortures of the damned. Every year the same small group of Christmas songs over and over and over again. The only differences being the slight changes in interpretation made by the band directors from elementary school to junior high to high school. My poor, poor parents. It must have been unbearable.

Now they get their revenge. Sort of. Between my two step kids there will be more Christmas concerts this year than you can possibly imagine. One kid has a concert with his guitar teacher. Both kids have concerts with their piano teacher. One kid has a concert with the middle school. The other kid has concerts with the high school. Oh my sweet goodness there are four (4) (FOUR!!!!) Christmas concerts this year alone!

Now I make no attempts to hide the fact that after all of my Christmas concerts, I pretty much hate Christmas music. I’ll tolerate it for a brief period leading up to, and immediately after Christmas itself, but otherwise? It makes my skin crawl and my teeth ache. Really.

Having said that though, I can say that the mother’s Christmas concert curse doesn’t really bother me the way it should. Why? Because while I hate Christmas music with a burning, undying passion, I love listening to the kids play. I’ll grit my teeth and struggle through the agony of listening to everyone else’s kids have their turns at the various recitals, but when my step kids are on the stage? Well, that is one of the greatest things ever. Guitar, piano, chorus, choir, concert band, jazz band. I love it all. I love hearing them strut their stuff on the various instruments they play. It helps that they are so much better than I ever was, but it’s not just that. I love to see them enjoying it.

Music is near the top of the list of the greatest things humans can do with their time, and it is such a thrill to see the two kids loving it as much as I do.

Sorry mom and dad, but this particular revenge isn’t so bad.

Band Practice

This weekend’s band practice was pretty good.  I didn’t play terribly well.  I felt like I couldn’t get out of my own way.  It was weird.  We did a bunch of songs that we’ve been neglecting, and a couple of songs we added last week.  Not too shabby.

The interesting thing for me personally is the lack of pain.  Last week’s practice was completely pain free.  This week I had one song where things tightened up and ouch, but otherwise it was fine.  I’m not sure what I did different, but I hope I keep it up!

Here are a few songs.  I haven’t listened through these all the way yet so if there’s a major screw up I don’t know about I’ll edit things out of the playlist.

Enjoy(ish)

More Than a Feeling

I sat outside the practice room while my step son’s band was rehearsing.  Toward the end of the hour they started working on a new song.  “More Than a Feeling” by Boston.

Forgetting the fact that Jen knew Boston’s singer, one of my first bands tried to play “More Than a Feeling” too.  If I remember correctly it was a short lived thing called No Anchovies Please (a kick ass name, indeed).  I was in 11th grade and had only been playing guitar for a short time.  I could barely do anything.  There was another guitar player in the band and he was good, and a few years later he would graduate to insanely awesome.

Everything we did was probably terrible, but I remember the first time we did the two part guitar harmony leading into the chorus and it was magic.  We all kinda looked at each other and said, woah!  Now my step son is going to have the same experience.  It’s going to be epic for him too.

The universe is like a circle.  What comes around goes around.  When that comes around gets to you, it is topped off with some sick ass guitarmonies.

Rock on, oh step son of mine!

Desktop App

WordPress.com has a new desktop app for Macintosh. I am using it right now. Can you believe it?

It is pretty much just the web interface pulled into a stand alone app. I betcha it’s actually HTML calling a web service or something.

I just finished chopping up the tape of last night’s band practice. The guitar sounds utterly filthy. Just nasty. I’m actually thinking of dialing the distortion back a smidge because it’s too filthy.

You can listen to it here, if you’re bored and ain’t got nuttin to do.

Overdrive Heaven!

I used my new overdrive pedal through my Marshall amp for the first time tonight.  I also used my new USB audio interface and managed to record the whole band practice.

My guitar sound has balls again!  Oh happiness!  Oh Thrill of Thrills!  Wonder of Wonder my Les Paul doesn’t sound wimpy!  It’s a miracle!

 

I Haven’t Posted Today

What’s going on, Rob?  You slacking or what?

I’m listening to a recording of last night’s band practice.  It had been a couple of weeks and it really showed.  Ouch.  The tape was made with my phone, not my laptop.  Why?  My Lexicon audio interface is producing HUGE amounts of extraneous noise on all channels.  I think she’s dead, Jim.

I’d been threatening it, and last night I did it… I played my Strat at practice.  It doesn’t sound too bad on the tape.  Different, but not bad.  I still think I’ll be back to the Les Paul next week though.  It just feels more natural to me.

I’d been threatening it, and last night I did it…  I bought a distortion pedal on eBay.  It was 50% off the retail price.  Cool.  Of course that was before I realized I need a new USB audio interface.  Ouch.

Speaking of ouch, I was walking to my car after work and my right leg just gave out.  Huge pain in my calf.  I thought I was going to fall but I kept my feet.  I’ve been limping like mad ever since.  I didn’t step funny or move weird or anything.  One step it was perfectly fine, the next it was hurting like hell.  I hope it’s better tomorrow.

November is Coming

November is almost upon us.  You know what that means, right?

NAtional SOlo ALbum MOnth, or as the cool kids call it, NaSoAlMo.

I signed up today, but I am not feeling it at all.  I don’t know if I’ll bother following through.  It’s not like February, where RPM is like a moral imperative.  The world will tilt off it’s axis without RPM.  NaSoAlMo… it’s just kinda… there.

Given how little time I have to spend on music, I should probably spend it all on the band.  However, if I should stumble on a decent song idea the band could always play it after the recording project is done, right?  Right?