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Showing posts from March, 2012

Day Two Hundred Fifty Two (Year Two)

Yesterday was the Friday before changeover at work.  That means new in-store plays came rolling in.  Here's what I ended up with, considering that I closed tonight and open tomorrow. 1) Leaving Eden - Carolina Chocolate Drops 2) New Multitudes - Jay Farrar 3) Come Away With Me - Norah Jones 4) Who's Feeling Young Now? - Punch Brothers 5) Bring It On Home - Joan Osborne 6) Delta Spirit - Delta Spirit Yes, I recognize that the Norah Jones record is freaking ancient , but the word on the street is that she's got a new solo disc coming out, and so we're hyping the old stuff as a way to build excitement for the new disc. That Joan Osborne record is soulful and bluesy and AMAZING!  Hearing her voice on that album, it shocks me that nobody has really heard much from her since "One Of Us" in '95. The Jay Farrar record ought to be cool, too.  Now both he and Tweedy have done Woody Guthrie stuff.  Seems like Jay is trying to follow in Jeff's foots

Day Two Hundred Fifty One (Year Two)

Finished listening to the Justin Townes Earle today.  The run-time on that record is really short, and while there were less songs with a quicker tempo on this one than there were on Harlem River Blues , I still liked it a lot. Finally got a chance to pick up a guitar for, really, the first time since before vacation.  It felt good to get back to playing a bit.  I started to wade through the latest issue of Guitar World .  There's an article in there about "100 Ways To Improve Your Playing."  I'll admit that there have been a lot of those articles of late, but this one was a bit easier to swallow.  Some of the others present things in bigger chunks than are always helpful.  This one, however, handed things out in an easier, more digestible manner, which was cool. Also, I may or may not have found a germ of an idea for a song during the time I had a guitar in my hands as well. I go in late tomorrow, which gives me a bunch of time in the morning to get some work d

Day Two Hundred Fifty (Year Two)

Got through 9/10 of the new Justin Townes Earle record today.  It's a fast record, not in tempo, but in the amount of time it takes to listen to it.  A quieter record than Harlem River Blues , and less of a complete statement than that album was.  Nonetheless, it feels like the record fits in his canon, but more-so as a transitional record.   It makes me excited for whatever it is that happens next in his career. Finished up Guitar Zero today as well.  A really cool book, even if it wasn't quite what the blurbs on the inside flap described it as.  It wound up being more about the science of learning than it did about Mr. Marcus' journey into music.  Nonetheless, I'm glad I picked it up.  It definitely provided some sense of confidence that I can put toward what I'm trying to do. I go in to work at noon tomorrow.  That gives me the morning to sort through things in the morning and find a place to get a jump on the Clapton and the practice that I need to work in t

Day Two Hundred Forty Nine (Year Two)

First day back at work after vacation today.  Very slow day.  Picked up the new issues of Guitar World and Guitar Techniques as well as the new Justin Townes Earle record.  Might be the last big purchase day I have there for a while, because I found out they're cutting hours a bit in the next few weeks.  No idea how long it's happening for.  Can't say anything more than that for fear of violating our blogging and social networking policy, but still, it's a scary time to be in retail.  Won't stop me from picking up the new Counting Crows record in a couple of weeks, though, haha! Haven't cracked open the JTE record yet.  At this point in the day, I'll likely save that for tomorrow sometime. The more that I think about it, coming back off of a vacation is the perfect time to re-assess progress, and take a hard look at what needs to be done for me to get the most out of the time that I spend on musical things every day. That's really all for today. 

Day Two Hundred Forty Eight (Year Two)

Today was a bit of a slow day.  I downloaded a live Counting Crows gig that a friend of SL's had sent me.  The show was from March 10th of this year.  It's a pretty good show.  The band sounds energized and excited to be there.  Adam is in good form throughout, talking to the crowd quite a bit.  I know that Underwater Sunshine is a covers record, but I really hope that putting it out gets Adam back to writing again.  It feels like time for an album of new music from the Crows. Stopped at Half Price Books today.  Picked up what turned out to be the last record by Catherine Wheel.  Didn't realize that when I snagged it.  Just knew the name and took a chance.  Picked up a couple of records by Over The Rhine as well.  SL probably has them already (she loves that band), but I was missing her today and wanted to hear some stuff she has recommended to me. After that, I came home and imported everything from my Exclusive purchase into itunes.  That took a little while, but it f

Day Two Hundred Forty Seven (Year Two)

Okay, so here it is.  At long last, the rundown of my Exclusive Purchases. 1) Turbo Ocho - Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers 2) Sonoran Hope & Madness - Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers 3) Make Your Mama Proud - Fastball 4) Arrow - Heartless Bastards 5) Straightaways - Son Volt 6) Live In Skowhegan - Grace Potter & The Nocturnals and finally... 7) Dog Problems - The Format Okay, so I know that last one was my order from work that they had cancelled, but when I re-ordered it, the disc showed up in like, two days, so that's awesome! The Fastball record is (I think) an early indie release, so that's cool too.  Especially considering that I met Miles Zuniga last year at a concert in DSM. The Roger Clyne stuff is just plain old hard to find... but I loved his old band, The Refreshments, so I was definitely grabbing those two records. The Son Volt, I thought was out of print, and it was one of theirs I didn't have. The Heartless Bastards record I too

Day Two Hundred Forty Six (Year Two)

I know I keep promising a rundown of my Exclusive Company purchases, but that rundown will have to wait for one more day.  I promise, however, that tomorrow's post will contain that list.  Today, however, there's one other thing that I'd like to touch on. I've been on a bit of a mini vacation.  SL and I are up in Wisconsin visiting some of my friends and family. As always happens, I wanted to go through the storage units that my folks have rented for some of their stuff, and the overflow that I had when I moved away from home.  I'm always curious to see if there's anything I can take with me back to DSM when I leave. Today, mixed in with some of the books and games that will make the trek back home with us, came a bit of a revelation.  I had forgotten just how many tablature books, binders of songs, and assorted guitar magazines I had stashed away when I had to move on such short notice all those years ago.  It's fascinating to me to realize all of the s

Day Two Hundred Forty Five (Year Two)

So, I was all prepared to drag in my bag of finds from Exclusive yesterday and make that the primary topic of tonight's posting... and then we hung out with my brother tonight and he played the solo from "Freebird" on an oboe! It was awesome.  So awesome, in fact, that SL and I started tossing out other random pop songs for him to play.  All of which he was able to pull off.  Highly impressive. Watching him play always inspires me to want to step up my game.  He's managed to take the basics that I taught him on guitar and turn himself into a complete, well rounded musician that can hold his own on multiple instruments.  He makes me want to practice more, to focus harder, to be a better guitarist. And I will be.  Sooner rather than later, I will be.

Day Two Hundred Forty Four (Year Two)

Made the annual pilgrimage to The Exclusive Company in my hometown today.  Introduced SL to the closest thing we have in Appleton to musical mecca.  As usual, I found some great stuff that I wouldn't have been able to hunt down anywhere else on the planet.  I'll publish a full list of my discoveries sometime in the next few days, as everything is still out in the car at present. Truthfully, what surprised me the most was that, unlike the last few times I've stopped in, this time I didn't leave with any vinyl... although they did have a copy of Wilco's The Whole Love that was sorely tempting, and may well come home with me by the end of the weekend.  The jury is out on that one, but the more I think about it, the more that might be the purchase I'd feel bad leaving behind when we head back to Iowa. Aside from that, not much else to report today.  I'll try to bring in the bag sometime tomorrow, if only so I can post a full list of what I found.

Day Two Hundred Forty Two (Year Two)

Big news to start off today:  Brandi Carlile's new record, Bear Creek , finally has a release date!  According to her website, the new disc, which will be her 4th studio album, drops on June 5th, 2012.  This is unbelievably exciting news, for me anyway, as I'm a huge fan of her records. Did a lot of listening today.  Some Counting Crows, a bit of Fun. and a few times through "I'm Tore Down."  Both versions.  The Clapton, which I am going back to for the third time now, and Freddie King's version as well. I played for a little while, too.  Not quite an hour.  It wasn't enough (of course), and it wasn't as focused as I would have liked it to have been.  My day off was a bit busier than I had expected it to be, in part because I got up later than I wanted to today. Just finished some non-music related reading.  Torn between starting in on Butch Walker's Drinking With Strangers memoir and a book on the art of practicing.   The book on practicing

Day Two Hundred Forty One (Year Two)

So, first things first, my special order got vendor cancelled after sitting out there for 5 days!  No wonder it wasn't here on time.  I did the smart, sensible thing, and re-ordered it immediately.  Hopefully it shows up this next time. Played around with the Clapton again tonight.  Most of my confidence level and my general feeling on progress right now has a lot to do with comfort level.  In playing for a bit tonight, my fingers started out tense, which could have been because I didn't warm up properly before I started playing.  Bad, I know.  Still, the more I played, the looser and more comfortable my fingers got.  What this says to me (obviously) is that I just need to play more than I do.  Because, when I sit down and really focus my attention, progress gets made.  Just picking the guitar up every day isn't going to cut it for me anymore. I need, need, need to spend an hour practicing tomorrow, at the very minimum, hopefully with an edge toward two hours or more.

Day Two Hundred Forty (Year Two)

I found that live performance of "A Long December" tonight.  It's from a show they did in Sterling Heights, Michigan sometime back in the early 2000's, and the moment that truly transcends is the moment when Adam stops the song, right after a searing guitar solo from Dan Vickery that kicks off with Adam saying, "C'mon Dan, light it up."  As I think I mentioned last night, he stops it to yell at security for trying to remove members of his family.  He picks the song up right away thereafter, though, and finishes it off with a flourish.  It's a great take, and would have been a great moment to witness live. Spent a little bit of time today working on both the Clapton and the songwriting.  Nothing too spectacular to report in that regard, though.  Something tells me that a lot of progress will come on Wednesday this week, when most of what I have to do in the first part of the week has been completed, and I get a day off in the middle to relax, rock o

Day Two Hundred Thirty Nine (Year Two)

So, okay, I'll be the first one to admit that I might be slightly obsessed with the whole songwriting thing at the moment.  Or, at the very least, I'm obsessed with tinkering around when it comes to these chord progressions I'm coming up with that will one day be songs. How do I know this, you ask?  Because I did it again this morning before work.  I sat down for at least a few minutes with the acoustic and tinkered again with the same progression I've been looking at for the last few days.  I really need to find a tempo for it, if not a drum loop that can work with the small piece of bass line that I found the other day. That said, I really need to make the Clapton tune a priority tomorrow.  I set that as a goal what seems like 5 days or so ago now, and I haven't made anywhere near enough progress on it in that time.  I sit here and tell myself that it's okay, because I've looked at it before, but in reality that's nothing more than an excuse design

Day Two Hundred Thirty Eight (Year Two)

So, I know I had said last night that my initial plan was to try and get in two sessions today.  I got halfway there.  My plans today took up a glorious and amazing 13 hours, so my morning session will have to suffice. This morning before heading out for the day, I sat with the Clapton for a few minutes.  That song ("I'm Tore Down") is just flat out fun to play around with.  The timing on those spiky little riffs is the toughest part of the song for me, but with a bit of practice, I'm going to get there.  The thing I'll need to do to make it right is sit down with my guitar trainer and really nail down those riffs. The other thing I did this morning was to drag out some of my Counting Crows bootlegs.  I'd love to get them all imported into itunes, but that's going to be a bigger project than I had time for today.  In a perfect world, though, I'd love to have it done by the end of Wednesday, so those shows can come along for the ride this weekend.

Day Two Hundred Thirty Seven (Year Two)

Today was another day much like yesterday.  I got up early enough to have time to play a bit before heading in to work at noon, but instead of putting in some work on the songs I'd like to learn, I spent time tinkering with a few chord progressions on the acoustic.  Most notably, of course, was the one I've been playing around with over the last couple of days. I've got a busy day ahead of me tomorrow, but I really want to get up early enough to get some playing in before my day starts, and then give myself a chance to play again at the end of the day.  Getting in two different sessions tomorrow will let me divide my focus into two separate areas.  Scales and fretboard knowledge in the morning, say, and then a bit of songwriting and work on the Clapton tune in the evening. Not too much else to report today.  A good day, but a bit of a slow one, music-wise.

Day Two Hundred Thirty Six (Year Two)

With a golden opportunity to get some serious practicing done this afternoon, did I drop the ball?  Nope.  Well, not entirely anyway.  I definitely did some playing today, but the result wasn't exactly the electric blues I had been expecting when the day began. No, instead, I sat with the acoustic and, after an initial idea got me on my feet, I sat and tinkered with it during a phone conversation with a friend who needed a chance to vent.  I'm really digging what I ended up with, right now it's a fairly straightforward 3 chord progression, but I'll be the first to admit that it leans at least little bit close to some of the poppier stuff I've been listening to the last couple of weeks. The cool part is that I found a bit of a bass line for it too.  Need to drag the bass out from the corner one of these days, lay down some bottom end, see if things take off from there.  I'm starting to hear things in my head that are, if not quite full, definitely more comple

Day Two Hundred Thirty Five (Year Two)

Know what's awesome?  Re-discovering an album that someone burned for you a year and a half ago, and realizing how excellent it is.  It's probably the new Fun. record that has me going back and listening to Nate Ruess's other band, but still.  A co-worker hyped The Format's Interventions and Lullabies to me a couple of summers ago, and gave me that at the same time she gave me Bastards of the Beat by the Damnwells.  At the time, Bastards of the Beat won out, but now that time has passed, I'm really enjoying Interventions and Lullabies .  I previewed their second record , Dog Problems , at work tonight too, and liked that enough to order it.  At only $11 before my discount, I feel like that was a pretty wise decision. I played a bit of electric today before work, diving into "I'm Tore Down" a little bit.  I spent some time trying to get the licks underneath my fingers again.  I know I've been here before, though.  What needs to happen now is tha

Day Two Hundred Thirty Four (Year Two)

So, R. stopped in tonight to buy the new Delta Spirit record... which meant that I didn't have to, as we are usually pretty good when it comes to swapping music back and forth. Also of note tonight, in sorting through a bunch of music stuff that was sitting in a pile on my living room floor, I uncovered (possibly for the third time in the last year) the tab for Clapton's "I'm Tore Down."  Starting things and not finishing them has been a bugaboo for me during the course of this blog.  I'm learning this blasted song, and then from there I'm going to move into the song that I've carried around for years wanting to learn.  That's right, I'm going from Clapton to Hendrix and learning "Red House." I've talked a lot in the last few days about my hands feeling comfortable.  Most of that is me needing to play more guitar.  It breeds familiarity and improvement.  I've got to do that, if only for my own sanity, and in the process I&

Day Two Hundred Thirty Three (Year Two)

So, I started my day by bringing in all of the music that has had a chance to pile up in the car.  Most of it was the new stuff I've come into in the last few weeks.  Didn't get everything imported, but I was able to toss the My Morning Jacket into itunes.  They're not quite on Wilco's level when it comes in inventiveness and musical brilliance, but they're trying, and that's what matters.  Seriously, though, Circuital is really great. Getting in touch with B. was on my list today, and I did so, but she had other stuff going on and wasn't able to talk much.  That's okay, though, because it brought me back to an earlier Skype conversation that we'd had.  Somewhere in there, I had forgotten (probably in spending most of February worried about solo stuff) that we had actually decided on the 6 tracks that we thought deserved to make the final cut for the EP.  Considering that I was hoping to discuss that, it's probably good I went back and looked a

Day Two Hundred Thirty Two (Year Two)

I cracked open the Gaelic Storm record tonight on the way home from work.  It's a really cool sounding album.  Not quite as much energy as their live show, but that doesn't come as all that much of a surprise. Tonight got away from me a bit after I got home, though, so all I really had a chance to do musically was sit and do some listening.  I've got a lot of importing to do tomorrow during the course of my day off, and I'm excited to crank up the My Morning Jacket record that R. dropped off for me the other day.  Can't wait to hear that album on a decent set of speakers.  I figure that if I liked it on the rotten overhead speakers at work, it's got to be incredible to hear through a decent set of headphones. Also on tomorrow's docket is a lot of playing.  Today was sort of a wasted day in that regard.  What I really need to get done tomorrow in order to feel like it was productive is this: 1) Work on solo songs 2) Get in touch with B. 3) Do some pra

Day Two Hundred Thirty One (Year Two)

Went to the Gaelic Storm show tonight at the Val Air.  What a great gig!  I wound up two feet (roughly) from the stage.  I found myself wedged in between two groups of die hard fans of the band.  It was the perfect place to be for someone who had never seen them live.  They were an absolute BLAST!  I'd give you a setlist, but I'm not as familiar with their songs as I will be soon. The band's drummer and fiddle player were beyond amazing.  The band was high energy, and very clearly enjoyed what they were doing.  I wound up leaving with a t-shirt and a copy of their most recent CD, Cabbage .  These guys were exciting, and something tells me that I'll end up with more than one of their records over time. Before I went to the show, I sat and played some electric.  My hands were more relaxed today.  It was good.  I need to make sure that I take a breath and relax before I start playing.  I can't explain why, I just felt a bit more in the zone today, more connected to

Day Two Hundred Thirty (Year Two)

Okay, so I know I've posted about all of the cool perks regarding my job in a small corner of the music industry quite a lot in the last few weeks, what with all of the cool music I've come into, but I really think today might be the highlight of them all.  Apparently, Gaelic Storm is playing at the Val Air Ballroom here in DSM tomorrow night at 7.  We had a girl walk into the department today with a poster hyping the show, and a huge stack of free tickets.  She was bummed that she couldn't put up her poster, but she still gave a few of us employees free tickets to the show!  Whether or not she was supposed to is another matter entirely (I think she wasn't), but regardless of that, I got FRONT ROW seats to the show tomorrow night!  How awesome is that???  Now, if I could only find someone to go along... last minute like this and the whole world is busy. The other cool musical thing that happened today was that R. dropped off a copy of Circuital by My Morning Jacket

Day Two Hundred Twenty Nine (Year Two)

So, the boss decided he wanted to try and clean out the CD box of stuff that was way overdue to be gotten rid of today.  This means that I ended up with the following in-store plays: 1) 8 Tracks - The Belle Brigade 2) A Winter Tale - Bobby Long It's been a good month for free music in my corner of the world.  And while it seems like the Belle Brigade record I snagged isn't the full album, I really enjoyed what I listened to on the way home, so I'll consider that a victory and maybe grab the other 3 tracks from itunes or something. Did a little practicing tonight, too!  Just enough to make me realize that all of the guitar playing I do when I sit down and try to write songs isn't nearly enough to help me improve my playing.  I need to spend more time every day focused in and working on specific things, i.e. scales, acoustic stuff, fretboard memorization, a song from my list of electric stuff, etc. That way, if I can set up a manageable schedule, where I focus on

Day Two Hundred Twenty Eight (Year Two)

So, much of today was still spent in a Springsteen-ish haze, but late tonight I finally got around to starting in on the Matthew Sweet.  I'm just a couple of tracks into his debut record, but it's fascinating to me that, even though the production sounds decidedly 80's, there are still signposts of what is to come in the early 90's with Girlfriend. Also, I was surfing Pitchfork's website, trying to figure out reviews on Wrecking Ball , and discovered that they had given it a slightly higher review than his last record (2009's Working On A Dream ), but a lower rating than Magic from 2007.  This led me to go back and revisit some of Magic tonight, and I've got to say, being about a third of the way through it, I'm enjoying it a lot more than I did initially. I go in early tomorrow, which means that I'll be done by 3:30, and will therefore have the whole afternoon to read and work on music stuff.  I really need to spend a couple of hours practicing

Day Two Hundred Twenty Seven (Year Two)

So, the new Springsteen disc is amazing.  There's enough of a mixture of his upbeat rockers, his ballads, and his message songs to make this his best record since The Rising .  And speaking of that record... Buying The Boss the day it comes out always takes me back to a specific moment in life.  It was July 30th, 2002, the year after 9/11, the year after someone on the streets of New York told Springsteen "we need you now."  I had driven to Oshkosh, WI to visit some friends, when I remembered that Springsteen's disc was scheduled to come out that day.  I drove downtown to The Exclusive Company, but had to park a few blocks back.  At the time, there wasn't much going on downtown, but when I got out of the car, I could hear this music coming from up the block somewhere.  The closer I got to Exclusive, the more it began to dawn on me, they had set up a giant set of speakers in their upstairs windows, and were blasting the new album out into the streets. I wasn

Day Two Hundred Twenty Six (Year Two)

The new Springsteen record comes out tomorrow.  There are precious few artists that will cause me to get up early on a day off to go buy their record almost the instant it's available, but the Boss is one of those people. Also of note today, we got to pick yet another CD from the bin of stuff that's gone off sale recently.  I snagged Marketa Irglova (of The Swell Season)'s record, Anar . I'm off tomorrow, and I can't wait to have a chance to relax and practice.  The songwriting will be a part of it, but I'd like to spend a bigger chunk of time working on improving my playing than I've had a chance to recently. The other thing I want to do tomorrow, aside from cranking up the new Springsteen, is listening to the two Matthew Sweet records I found at Zzz's the other day.  I'm really curious to trace his development in the records leading up to Girlfriend .

Day Two Hundred Twenty Five (Year Two)

I had grander intentions than doing some listening and a bit of acoustic playing tonight, I really did.  I picked up the latest Guitar World at work today, and I had it in mind that I was going to come home, read the new issue over dinner, and then dive into some playing.  Maybe try and get a bit of songwriting done, and just sort of see what happened from there.  Didn't quite work out that way, but hey, it never quite works out exactly the way we expect it to, does it?  In regards to the listening, the fact of the matter is that I've come into a lot of music in the last few weeks, and I really need to try and assimilate it all.  Or make some sort of dent in it at the very least.  I can always tell that's the case when things start to look a bit more piled up than usual.  It's starting to have that feel to it again.  Maybe, if I get adventurous, I'll post pictures of my collection and ask for organizational suggestions from the world.  What I really need is a dedi

Day Two Hundred Twenty Four (Year Two)

Today was an epic day.  I went to ZZZ Records for the first time ever.  Can't believe I've been living in WDM for almost four years and I hadn't been there yet.  I spent $18, and made a considerable haul.  Here's what I snagged: 1) " Rock & Roll " by John Lennon on LP 2) "Inside" and " Earth " by Matthew Sweet on CD. 3) The Soundtrack from The Usual Suspects SL Went along with me, and her pile of finds (much of which I imported into itunes so I could listen to it before the next time I see her) included the following records: 4) " Hey You, Yes You " by Ben Lee 5) " Could We Survive " by Joseph Arthur 6) " Space Cakes " by Alanis Morissette 7) The selftitled release from Low Stars I feel the need to point out that the two Matthew Sweet records are his first 2 indie albums that have been out of print for time out of mind.  They were also the only two records of his that I was missing.  And oh y

Day Two Hundred Twenty Three (Year Two)

Got a little bit of classical music from S. today.  Slowly but surely he is building up my stable of symphonic stuff, to the point that maybe next year "classical" won't appear on my list of overlooked genres. Played a very little bit of guitar this morning before work.  That progression from the other night still holds up, which means that it definitely has a place in the EP. Both J. and B. were online tonight, but I didn't hear boo from either of them. Other than that, not much happened musically today.  I'll try to do better tomorrow.

Day Two Hundred Twenty Two (Year Two)

Y'know, it's funny.  After I admitted yesterday that I fell short in my attempt to write my album-in-a-month, I sat with the guitar for a bit longer before I headed to bed, and with the pressure off, I found the chord progression I had been searching for earlier in the evening.  I made a note of it, and then played it again this morning before work and, much to my surprise, it held up well. Here's the thing: when I know the project is going to be shorter in nature, I start judging songs based on where they will fit in the order for the record.  It wasn't that I couldn't have made use of one of the other ideas I had figured out through the course of the month, it was more that I was going for a certain sound.  Now that I've found it, I am admittedly curious to sort through the rest of the song ideas I have for this and see what it is that comes next. Maybe March will turn into a month of intense productivity across multiple projects: hard rock and solo, cover