Tag: Music

The Last Lunch Break of the Year

December 30th. Tomorrow is a holiday from work. That makes today’s telecommuting lunch break the last lunch break of the year. I am so ready to put 2021 behind me. 2020 was a nightmare. 2021 was worse. 2022 (2020 too) is the great unknown, but for once I am thinking the devil I don’t know is preferable to the devil I know… or something like that. What was I saying? Oh yeah, this is the last lunch break blog post of 2021 and that pleases me.

The United Parcel Service paid me a visit. They brought a box with my name on it. Inside the box was two more, smaller boxes. In one box was a Real McCoy Custom RMC10 Wah pedal. In the other was an EarthQuaker Devices The Depths pedal. A new wah pedal and a new uni-vibe pedal. I don’t know when I am going to have a chance to play them. Maybe tonight? Maybe not. I’m looking forward to it. New boutique guitar pedals for this boutique guitar pedal snob.

We missed out on our Christmas Eve festivities this year because of a Covid scare but we are going to give it another try tomorrow for New Years Eve. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am seriously ready for this. New Year, Christmas Eve, both at the same time. Yes. Gimme gimme gimme.

Three hours and one minute left in the work day. I don’t know if I can make it through. I needs me some long weekend and I needs me some long weekend right now.

Streaming Music Coincidence?

Earlier today I posted that tweet with the image that listed out how little each music streaming service pays for each play. Tidal was the second highest pay rate on the list (behind Napster? Napster?)

Now, by coincidence, I find that Tidal has just kicked off a free tier? Are the two things related? Will we ever know? Has this been a thing already and I’m just learning about it now?

Free tier.

Music Streaming Guilt

I have been sharing stuff from Twitter and Instagram pretty regularly lately and I feel kinda icky about it. It feels like cheating. I should stop, but it’s a safe way to share something someone else creates while giving credit where credit is due, you know?

Anyway, this was trending on Twitter earlier. It is probably the only time you will ever see me reference T-Pain, but there you go.

If you subscribe to a music streaming service, prepare to feel guilty…

Q: How much is a stream actually worth to the artist?
A: NOT MUCH.

I don’t know if you can see the whole image, but Spotify is on the list under YouTubeMusic, and it is 315 streams for one dollar.

How is Napster paying the highest rate? How did that happen. Napster, of all companies. Tidal, I can see. That company was started by recording artists, but Napster? The company that almost single handedly ended the recording industry?

I really wish Apple was paying out at more than a penny a stream. Feel that guilt, kids. Feel it just piling on. Gross. I suppose being third best is better than being YouTube Music. Here’s hoping this post leads to YouTube Music making some massive changes. What the hell, Google? Pay the damn artists.

This makes me want to go and buy some merch. That’s pretty much the only way artists can make money off of me in Covid-Land where concerts don’t exist.

What Will Go Wrong?

The kids are coming over today.
There’s a new Star Wars show premiering today, The Book of Boba Fett.
We are going to have the Christmas dinner we were supposed to have on Christmas but didn’t.
It’s not too cold out (forecast calls for mid to high 30s).
I got a pretty good night’s sleep last night.
I put down all of the midi tracks for two songs this morning before work.

That’s a lot of good stuff for a Wednesday, don’t you think?

I wonder what’s going to come along and blow the happy vibes?

Hang in there, kids. Only two more work days until New Years Eve.

Tuesday Lunch Post

I don’t have anything to talk about. How is that possible?

Right, so here’s a question. Who should I believe? I ordered a couple of pedals last week. Amazon tells me that the estimated delivery is either January 3rd or 4th. That was the estimate when I placed the order, so that is fine with me. When I track directly from UPS though it tells me the delivery will be two days from now on December 30th before 9:00pm. Well that sounds sweet!

So which estimate is correct? It has to be UPS, right? I mean let’s just go to the source. Unfortunately I signed up for text message alerts for status changes and I have not received a single message. That implies that the package hasn’t even been picked up yet. So who do I trust? As The Joker said in Batman the Movie back in 1989, “money money money, who do you trust?”

How’s this. I will trust Amazon’s 1/3-4 estimate while keeping my fingers crossed for UPS’s 12/30. That works, right? Hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

I have a new uni-vibe pedal coming. I’m finally upgrading from MXR to something boutique. I also have a new wah pedal coming. I had gone from Dunlop to boutique a few years ago, then the whole bullshit thing happened with the racist frat boy pedal builder and I went back to Dunlop. Now, a year and a half later, I am going boutique again. Duck and cover and wish me luck, brothers and sisters in music nerd.

Music Nerd/TV Nerd

I haven’t recorded anything in a couple of weeks now and my mental state is starting to show it. I know what the next few songs to re-record are going to be and today I actually started monkeying with the MIDI on one of them. Time to get back into it, I think.

I am considering setting up a second guitar playing/recording nook in the cellar and I don’t know why. I want to use my big amp and my big pedal board and I don’t really have the room for either of them in the bedroom nook. I’m also thinking about going back to two amps for the 2022 (2020 too) RPM Challenge and that’s just easier to do down cellar. There’s also the fact that the cellar is 90% empty and not being used for anything other than laundry and I just want it to feel useful. I’m still undecided, but it could happen.

For TV, I started watching Wheel of Time last night on Amazon Prime. I have heard so many good reviews that I wanted to check it out. I got 15 minutes into episode one and turned it off. I can’t say it’s good or bad or anything, I just don’t know if I have another sword and sorcery story in me right now. I think Game of Thrones might have broken that part of my brain. I still haven’t watched the Hobbit movies either, so maybe it was Lord of the Rings that broke my brain and Game of Thrones was just the last gasp? I don’t know. I picked episode one up again this morning but didn’t have time to finish it. Maybe I’ll just power through.

Also, The Book of Boba Fett starts tomorrow. Have I mentioned that?

Boxing Day Mix

So another Christmas holiday comes to an end with the posting of yet another new version of an old song. This one started out in 2011 and has been recorded three times. I am not sure why I keep coming back to it. It’s not very good. This is definitely the best of the three though.

Happy Holidays.

Christmas Mix

I snuck in a mix for a new take on an old song today. This was before our canceled family Christmas was brought back to life.

Written in 2009 for a failed crack at the RPM Challenge. This is really the first time I’ve looked at it since, but it’s always stuck in the back of my head.

Is it a good song? No. No it is not. Not even close. It’s kinda fun to play though.