Say hello to the first demo of 2015! RPM starts in just under 13 days so it’s time to start blitzing you all with new demos of old songs. This is a Prime Meridian song. One of the last we wrote. It comes from 1999 (or so) and was more or less forgotten about.
It’s kinda groovy, isn’t it?
If I’m recording old songs, I should find some forgotten things to try again. There are a bunch of cassettes full of songs I can’t remember… So let’s dig some out.
I recorded all but the vocals for two Prime Meridian songs today. I think I’m suddenly into Ancient History Revisited Volume 2. Anything to get ready for RPM.
Oh nothing, just resurrecting a forgotten song from 16 years ago.
I’m ready to start the RPM Challenge. I’m ready to start writing bad music and recording bad demos. Ive taken December and January off, but I’m already looking at my guitar, and at GarageBand thinking I’ve got to get crackin’. I need to wait until next month though.
So I figured I’d record a couple of old songs. I started one tonight. Maybe do two or three just to keep the edge sharp? Sure. There will be a demo of a mostly forgotten Prime Meridian song coming soon.
My New Years resolution to find new bands to worship is well under way. While I haven’t come across anything that is life alteringly amazing yet, I have found some really cool sounding bands.
I said I’d keep everyone updated, so here’s a couple of things to listen to.
This band is from Boston and I found them on the WMBR Pipeline! podcast. Pretty cool, and just a little proggie.
This band is from Scottland. Pretty straight forward stuff, but really great melodies.
I’m not sure what to make of this band. I listened to most of this album (on spotify… I’m sorry) and it’s… weird. In a completely chaotic crazy way. This band apparently has been around for a while, or they date back to the 90’s but split up and reformed more recently. Something like that. The jury is still out on them, but they were the first thing I came across that I wanted to listen to a second time.
I will continue to keep the entire universe up to date on my search for new bands to get excited about.
Even though no one on Earth actually cares.
I miss having a proven source for discovering new music. It used to be radio and MTV (urgh), then in the mid-90’s (for me at least) it was late nights in bars in Boston. That was the heyday for me as far as finding music that was in a separate world from the charts and the land of commercial music. It was glorious.
Eventually it ran out of gas though. Well, truth be told I was the one who ran out of gas. The idea of driving home from T.T. the Bear’s place in Cambridge at 2am started to lose it’s appeal, and musical trips into town became something saved for special occasions (ie: Mission of Burma).
In 2008 I was looking for a site to use to host my attempt at the RPM Challenge and I ended up on both Virb and Alonetone. Both sites lead me to a slew of bands and artist that I otherwise never would have found. Many of those acts still have me waiting with baited breath for the next release even though most of them were very far removed from my usual musical comfort zone. Folk rock became a thing for me, as well as lots of acoustic singer/songwriters (usually women), and dare I say it… some electronic music (for shame, Robert!).
Since then? Eh… not much. I did what I did back in high school when hair metal made me want to claw my eyes out in disgust. I went back in time and found things that have been overlooked. That has resulted in a recent obsession with Richard Thompson, and to a slightly lesser extent Sandy Denny.
But new music? Again, not so much.
This year I am resolved to change that. I don’t know how, but it’s a New Year and resolutions are all the rage. I am going to search the interwebs for music made by people I have never heard of before in the hopes of finding a new musical obsession or two. Or three. Or 100. I might start with the mountain of best music of 2014 blog posts that have been popping up world wide over the last few weeks. After that? I don’t know. Not spotify, or beats, or any of that. I don’t want to be spoon fed the way we were back in the radio and MTV days (urgh). I want to discover, not be marketed to.
I’ll let you know how it goes.
I am pretty sure I’ve mentioned before that one of the main reasons I wanted to play in a band again was jealousy.
Both of my step kids have been playing piano for years. They’ve both dabbled in saxophone too, and my step daughter is very active in her school chorus, while my step son plays bells in his school band. He has also recently started taking guitar lessons. His teacher took a few of the students and formed them into a band. They rehearse on Saturdays and are going to play some Christmas music at an upcoming recital. Their big number is “Jingle Bell Rock”.
The first time I sat in the hallway listening to them play I decided it was time for me to get back into the game again. No more sitting on the bench for this fat boy.
Anyway, last night was my step daughter’s school chorus holiday concert. My wife, step son, and I were sitting together enjoying the show when the select chorus started singing “Jingle Bell Rock”.
That was the moment when the Best Thing Ever happened.
When the song began my step son smiled like he was going to split in half. He was getting a serious thrill out of hearing (what he probably thinks of as) his song. Then it happened. The little rocker dude started air guitaring. Like a Boss. Even better? With his left hand he was fingering the chord changes. He was air guitaring the actual chords!
Like I said, Best Thing Ever.
I sent four of my home demos to the other three guys in the band tonight. Let the rejection begin.
I suppose I should keep a list of what I offer to them so that I won’t give them the chance to reject the same song twice.
Overreaction
Should Have Been Mine
The First Day
Hurricane Time Again
Today has been a weird telecommute day.
I came home from dropping the kids off before school and put on a load of laundry and filled up the dishwasher. I made myself a little breakfast and sat at my computer looking into blogging options (svbtle isn’t a free service? It used to be free, wasn’t it?). I read a news story about Pixies front man Black Francis. I read up on the Orion launch situation. At about quarter to nine I logged into work for the morning.
At lunchtime I made myself a half cup of quinoa and a bowl full of green grapes. I also took a shower. I usually sacrifice my morning shower time slot to my step daughter on telecommute days. I then told a Comcast door to door salesman that I wasn’t interested in switching off of FiOS and folded that morning’s load of laundry. Now I am writing this in the last few minutes of my break before getting back to work for the afternoon.
Now you may be asking yourself, what’s so weird about all of that?
Well, I’ll tell you.
I haven’t tried to write or record even a single note of music. Since February 1st all of my free time at home on telecommute days was spent working on a music project. It’s December 4th now and I haven’t started a new project. December has been free of original music so far. I don’t know if it’s going to stay that way or not, but it might. I have a left over song from November, another from October, and that big 20 minute sucker from September. Maybe I’ll finish those this month. Maybe not. I’ve thought about re-recording a couple of songs from the distant past. I’ve also been thinking about covering a Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd song. Maybe I’ll do it. Maybe I won’t.
Maybe I’ll take December and January off from writing projects and stick to learning songs for the band. We’ll see.
Inside the Red Head's Head 