"Muse" - ings on Rock & Life

Today was an interesting hodgepedge of musical goodness. Early Tom Waits, scales, a bit of the hard rock stuff, and my first exposure to Glee. There's some part of me that doesn't even know where to start in on that conglomeration of stuff, but I'll give it a shot anyway. When I said that it was early Tom Waits, I meant it. Like, debut album early. Waits has long been one of those musicians that I needed to hear more of. My first exposure to his music was through an old college friend who was obsessed with Small Change . It was remembering his raving about Waits that got me, a few years later, to pick up that album. "Invitation To The Blues" was the song that had fired my friend's adoration of Tom Waits, and while that's one of the great songs on that record, I'm also partial to "Tom Traubert's Blues," and "The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)." The whole record is great, mind you, but those were my starting points. I picked u...

Had the day off today. It was calm, relaxing, and filled with Sigh No More on LP. Still amazing. This isn't to say that I did nothing music-wise. I did some reading on alternate tunings, and the using of them to write songs. That's something that has always fascinated me, and yet, I've never really played around with them much. Dropped D, of course, and Double Dropped D, and tuning everything a half step down, but that's really it. Although there was that short flirtation with open E when I was going to learn "She Talks To Angels," but that's all. Need to get into it more. Perhaps I haven't done much with it because I still don't feel fully at home and able to express myself at the drop of a hat in standard, but I'm not sure. As for tomorrow, I'm hoping for an extended period of time to make my way through the list of songs for the band... I know, I've been saying that for days, but tomorrow it NEEDS to happen, so it will.

So, I got my preamp tonight for my turntable, and OH. MY. GOD. I started off by listening to "Looking Out," the forst track off of Brandi Carlile's Giving Up The Ghost . Immediately I noticed that, not only is the sound on vinyl a brighter, deeper sound, the vocals are also pushed higher in the mix. It sounded like she was singing in my living room. I just don't get that with CD, and I definitely don't get that with digital. Immediately following that, I put on Sigh No More by Mumford & Sons. I've listened to that record three different ways (ipod/itunes, CD, work speakers) before tonight's experience with the LP, and I'm not kidding when I say that, hearing that record on vinyl has been the single most amazing listening experience I've had all year. There is so, so much going on in the background on that album. So many layers, so many harmonies, that don't get heard on other formats. The instrument lines are crisp, the vocals are clean, th...

Today was long. I'm really glad that tomorrow is the last day of my run, because I can definitely use a couple of days off. It took me a long time to wind down from work tonight, but I finally got there about midnight. One of the things that helped? Sitting in the dark with the acoustic. I told myself when I killed the lights that I was just going to play, and try not to worry about the album, or writing new stuff, or whatever. Not so fast. There's been a strange version of B minor that I've played with for years, and would love to use for the band, if only I could find the rest of a fitting progression for it to go with. I'm listening to itunes as I type this, and the line that just played struck a chord. It's from an Anna Nalick song called "Wreck Of The Day." "Driving away from the wreck of the day, and it's finally quiet in my head." Odd choice, perhaps, considering that my day was just busy, not bad, but it does feel, finally, like my h...

Today's post may well be a bit on the short side, but even so, it opens with good news! I had sent B. a text when I got back to DSM a couple weeks ago, to say that I was both back in town, and back online. Never heard back. Nonetheless, I've been working a lot, fitting in the music when I can, doing small things to put a few pieces in place. That way, when things did get started, I'd have something to start with. The text came today, said she was "still on board." Full steam ahead begins now. Also of note: I'm seeing The Decembrists in April in Iowa City. Justin Townes Earle opens for them. And for the record, I'm also pondering going back to Iowa City eight days later to see The New Pornographers and The Walkmen at the same venue. Tomorrow I start in on the ever expanding list of songs with the acoustic, and a notebook, and see what I can do with each progression.

Admittedly, this will post late, but not too late. I just got in from a drive with a friend. They needed to drive and talk, and I was happy to provide the driving part. Gave the back of my mind a chance to kick around this crazy recording project. I looked at the list I had been making (or re-making) yesterday with all of our potential songs/ideas on it, and realized it was indeed missing a few things. So, when I said I'd be at 20 by the end of the week, technically, I lied. It took me less than 12 hours to get to that point. What's really interesting is that, musically speaking, I'm tending to like the stuff that isn't finished a lot better right now, song wise. There are a few (3, in my mind) of our "classic" songs that will make the record no matter what, but some of the rest of the early stuff I'm less sold on right now. Oh well, my thoughts on that will change a million times between now and the time the record is actually pressed... and pro...

So, the last night I was home, B. and I sat down and compiled a list of all of the songs and/or song ideas that we could possibly use. We ended up, if I remember correctly, with 15. Of course, I forgot to copy down the list for myself, so I took another shot at it tonight, in preparation for trying to get serious work done on all this stuff, and I think we were off in our count. Here's why I feel that way... I counted everything we've ever even remotely considered using, and I came up with a number that's more like 18. And the way I've been going the last couple of months, it'll likely be up over 20 by the time B. gets her computer issues squared away. This surprises me, if only because 18 songs/ideas seems like a lot when you consider the amount of time we actually SPENT working on stuff. I've never really considered us prolific by any means, and something still tells me we aren't. I do, however, feel very strongly that we COULD'VE been, and could b...

I can tell I'm gearing up to start writing music again. Every time I'm about to go on a songwriting jag, I can't stand to listen to anything by someone else. Everything on my iPod was essentially useless to me tonight after work. Wasn't in the mood for anything, it was all either too loud, or too quiet. Plus, my mind was restless, words, thoughts, and images going back and forth. Nonetheless, in sitting down with a notebook and a pen, it's not like I opened the floodgates and a bunch of stuff just poured out. It's always a process, much like the progress I've made in the last 235 days. I make a point of this only because today was the first day that I said to myself, "wow, that year will be ending fairly soon here." Indeed, 130 days from today I will have completed my first year of working in a serious manner on that which I hold so close to my heart. I find myself closer to the stated goals of improving my playing and adding something to...

Another fairly quiet music day today. I did play for a little while after I got home tonight, though, and started pondering what it was I did in that double dropped D progression. Something tells me that it's going to take me a decent chunk of time to actually figure the whole thing out... and that doesn't even include discerning which sections of it will actually make the final cut (or how they will be put together, for that matter). Admittedly, the song isn't the centerpiece of the album (yet), that falls more to the radio friendly stuff that I believe we have, but I think it says something when I still really like the music, even after all this time has passed. I ran the old track by my brother tonight as well, and he liked it a lot, so I guess I'm not the only one. Also, I'm feeling the need, sometime soon, to sit down with a notebook and a pen. I've been getting flashes of lyrics lately. Nothing concrete, just small notions here and there, certain ...

It rained in my music department today. Yup, you read that right, we had an admittedly miniature flood. Which I, almost single-handedly, prevented from being a slightly larger miniature flood. Picked up a couple of CDs tonight, as well. 1) "Nobody Listens To The Band Anymore" - The Damnwells 2) "Awesome As F**k" - Green Day The Green Day record has the first recorded performance of "Cigarettes & Valentines," the title track from their album that got stolen before they made "American Idiot." It's supposed to sound similar in nature to the music from "Warning," an album which I truly loved, so that should be cool. And as for the Damnwells, they are an Iowa (via New York) band fronted by a guy named Alex Dezen. I got turned on to them by a co-worker, and they are pretty freaking spectacular, so I can't wait to listen to THAT too. I did actually pick up a guitar and play today, but I didn't get too far before ...

I spent the entire day transfering my music from the ipod to the new computer. Best Buy called this morning, and said that they couldn't even get my hard drive to spin, much less get anty information off of it. Guess I did a pretty good job of crashing that one... oh well, anything worth doing is worth doing right. Anyway, they refunded some of my money, and sent me on my way with my external hard drive. When I got home, I searched the internet for a program that would walk me through the process of taking my music from the ipod to the computer. I found one called "Pod to PC" that wasn't too expensive, so I went for it. Let me tell you, the program is AMAZING! It's slow (my 13,000+ songs took about 9 hours to transfer and upload), but works brilliantly, and even recovers playlists AND play counts! And I've gotta say, watching all my music import into itunes was one of the coolest things ever. I never thought I could go from 0 songs to 13,000 in half a...

I hit up Best Buy today, to see about the whole external hard drive/info backup situation. Got myself a pretty good deal too, which I wasn't expecting at all. Granted, it'll only be a truly sweet deal if they can get all of my music back, but they sounded optimistic, and so I'll take my cue from them. Checked out the first 6 tracks or so of the new R.E.M. record on my way there and back. It's amazing. I'd say it's the best thing they've done in 16 years, but I haven't heard "Accelerate," their last record, so. Also, I plugged in the electric after I got back, and had a brief run at one of the ideas for the hard rock band. One of the old ideas. The one we have that's in double dropped D tuning that B. has never been able to write lyrics for, and oh yeah, even after 4 years, it still sounds sufficiently dark and ominous and cool. Can't wait to keep digging at that one either later on tonight or tomorrow. Then again, if I have t...

So, it dawned on me as I got home from work tonight that I've been home for almost a week now, and I still haven't taken the Strat out of the travel case. Needless to say, I'm appalled. Granted, I've played some acoustic this week, and I've written about other goings on, but still. Now that I've accomplished THAT admittedly silly and small task, I can get back to the important stuff, i.e. working on the music for the record that B. and I are allegedly finishing up this year. As for tomorrow's task, well, that one is a little bit bigger. I've got to go out and get an external hard drive, AND see about getting the music off of my old computer. Or, if that fails, see if someone knows a definitive way to take music from an iPod and reverse sync it with a new computer. My other goal: actually sit down and listen to the new R.E.M. record. Hopefully today's relative musical slowness will be made up for by tomorrow's flurry of activity.

I know I said there would be more last night, and then there wasn't. I felt admittedly guilty about that, so I'm posting early in the day. I can't help it, I feel like I've been away FOREVER, and there is much to discuss (or so it seems right now). Before things went so haywire there in the middle of February, I had been attempting to do the whole "album in a month" thing through RPM. Didn't quite get there, at least not on my own. The stated goal had been to go back home in March with a finished EP that just needed vocals, pass it off to B. and just tell her to sing over it. What ended up happening was that I took my notebooks and my guitar home, did a little work there, and finally (on the last night I was home) got a chance to see B. We went out for pizza, as we always do, and eventually the talk turned to music, as it always does. She's not doing all that much musically right now, and is missing it dearly, so I said, "we can change th...

... and I'm back! Apparently their shipping is faster that expected. It came in yesterday, and I picked it up this afternoon. There will be further updates later on tonight, just wanted to announce my return.

It's official... the new computer has been ordered. It's expected to get to me sometime between the 18th and 24th of March. It's been a long and torturous month away, but I'm almost back... just gotta hold out a little while longer...

Still alive... still offline... I promise I'll be back soon.