Skip to main content

Day Eighty Three (Year Three)

So, this is slightly behind schedule, but I'm really digging the new Wallflowers record, Glad All Over.  It's always fascinating to me when a band can go away for a long period of time (7 years, in this case... oddly enough, the same length of time the Stones have been away before releasing new music), and then come back like they've never even been away.

As with the last couple of records, Jakob Dylan has pulled in a few new influences (reggae, most notably), brought in a friend or two (i.e. Mick Jones of The Clash), and then set about making a record that fits flawlessly in with the rest of his band's material.  The Wallflowers have always been great about making records that evolve while still managing to sound exactly like they ought to, and Glad All Over is no exception.  In fact, I'm tempted to say that it's their most consistent record since Breach, which was released all the way back in 2000.

Don't misunderstand me, I have absolutely loved all of their records, I've just felt that there were certain spots in each one that haven't been quite as strong as they could have been.  Then again, perhaps there were just selected songs that I didn't like as well as others.

And, oh yeah, I'd absolutely love to see them live.  They don't release records that often, and they tour even less, so it'll probably not happen soon,but it would be fun.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day Two Hundred Six (Year Four)

Today was the first official day of the second half of my "album-in-a-month" challenge. As for today's goals, I wanted to see what I could get done in regards to track order, and get at least a little bit of a start on the lyric writing process. I spent more time working on the track order question than I did on the lyrics today, but as a result of that, I ended up with something that I think will work in terms of order. I did sit with the notebook for a few minutes at the very end of the day, and got a solid starting line of lyric and some other ideas that I hope will be jumping off points for lyrics. What I'm thinking I might do, however, is switch my focus from the lyric writing part of the process directly to the recording part of the process.  That way, if I can get the music recorded and burned onto a CD, I can take the music with me in the car, and listen and try to see what images and thoughts the music brings up.  It's a tactic that has worked for...
Post a Comment
Read more

Day Two Hundred Ninety Two (Year Five)

Today was the last seminary village cookout of the year. While we were all sitting around the picnic tables eating dinner, I got a chance to talk with a few of the Mrs.'s classmates about guitar related stuff. As it turns out, more than one of them wants to be more proficient on guitar. I'm not saying that this will lead to more teaching opportunities, but I told one of them that I would throw a folder together for them. Essentially, anytime I get a chance to talk shop is a great chance for me to reinforce some of the things I have been focusing on. If nothing else, it gets me thinking ahead to tomorrow's day off and a chance to get into the studio for a decent amount of time.
Post a Comment
Read more

Day Two Hundred Ninety Nine (Year Four)

Tonight was one of those nights where absolutely nothing went right, but somehow, some way, I managed to get into the studio for a little bit, and make what felt like good progress, all things considered. I went back through the second half of last night's chapter in The Guitarist's Guide To Scales Over Chords , just to make sure that I had a decent grasp of everything that was covered, and then made the move to the next chapter. After the theory-heavy chapter I had just gotten through, it was a great relief to have the next one be more music (playing) centered.  It was all about putting the scale examples they cited in the early chapters to use in a musical context. I've seen a great number of books try to do this in a successful manner, and end up failing spectacularly, but so far I'm liking what this book is putting forward.  They give you "starter" examples, that don't necessarily make the best use of note choices, etc. and then present you with an...
Post a Comment
Read more