"Muse" - ings on Rock & Life

Well, I found my spare few moments of time today... and I almost got a chorus I was happy with. I stole a bit of time to play before heading off to sunrise service today.  Got a chord progression I was happy with at the time, jotted it down, and headed off to church.  It wasn't until I got back from church, and had a few moments to settle in, however, that I decided that something (probably just something as essential as a single chord in the progression) just wasn't quite right.  After that, we left for Sioux City, and I spent the rest of the day twisting in the wind, wondering exactly what the answer was in regards to my March progression.  As a result, I didn't get it finished completely, but I got close enough to be annoyed that it isn't right. Was hoping to stop by B&N to peruse new releases, etc. today, too, but they closed at 5, and we just missed getting there with enough time to look around.  It bummed me out today, but it happens on holidays s...

So, remember the end of yesterday's post, when I said that I'd sit down today and find a way to make it all make at least a little bit of sense? Well, I did it!  With a little bit of advice on tempo from the Mrs., I was able to nail down a verse progression that I like.  I messed around a bit after that, but I'm still not 100% sure which direction the chorus is going to wind up headed in, though.  Hopefully I'll have at least a bit of time tomorrow to try and solve that mystery. Otherwise, I read an article on The Section today in the latest issue of Rolling Stone .  They were the backup band behind lots of the 70's singer/songwriter stuff in California.  Carole King, James Taylor, Jackson Browne, etc. Also of note, super-producer Phil Ramone, who produced records for Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Frank Sinatra, and countless others, has passed away at 72.  He's also credited with helping to popularize the compact disc, among other things. It's so s...

Things are strange for me right now, music-wise. In the past, I've always been able to sense a writing jag coming up when whatever it is I'm listening to stops sounding good.  It's at that point that I think to myself, "I can do better than this," and then set out to prove it to myself. Lately, however, it's been exactly the opposite.  Everything I listen to sounds great, and when I sit down to try and write (like I did tonight), I can't string together anything that sounds worthwhile.  I even tried changing keys on a favorite song, to see if that would inspire anything, and it came out flat. I don't know if I'm just not spending enough time with things, or if I'm so out of practice that I'm feeling like I just don't have it anymore or what... nevertheless, I also know that things will turn around.  They always do.  I was just so excited to sit down and play tonight, and to get nothing felt rotten, that's all. Knowing me, I...

Did some more listening to that Kacey Musgraves record this afternoon while I was doing a few things around the house.  Her song, "Merry Go 'Round" is #1 on country radio right now, and it's easy to see why.  It's a catchy morality tale, with a lyric that ends up familiar after only a couple of listens.  Some of that rests in the fact that the song makes use of clever turns on colloquial phrases. Sat with a guitar for a bit this afternoon, too.  It was an unplugged electric as opposed to an acoustic, but the effect was still the same.  I still worked through the couple of chords I've managed to string together.  I've got the progression as two guitar parts, and I added another chord or two based on the progression that's capoed up the neck.  Regardless of how close I appear to be on this one, it feels like the whole progression is a good few minutes work from having things fall into place. What I didn't get to today was re-working a song in a d...

Started listening to bits and pieces of that Kacey Musgraves album today.  Didn't have as much time as I had hoped to, as practically every time I tried to find a few spare minutes here and there, something else cropped up, but still.  I like what I hear thus far, and I've got tomorrow afternoon to get deeper into some listening. Got a cool email from Acoustic Guitar today about using familiar songs as templates for writing.  It preaches changing keys as a way to changing rhythm and feel.  So now I'm trying to make a list in my head of favorite songs that might be fun to key switch.  "Mr. Jones" definitely comes to mind. Also, high on tomorrow's list of things to do is to sit down and play some guitar.  Maybe try and finish off the chord progression for the month.  Haven't played in what feels like forever . That's really all I've got tonight.  There will be better stuff tomorrow, though, I promise.

Taught today.  Brought along the full transcription of the Beethoven my student has been working on a bit lately.  I wanted to see if she was going to be intimidated by looking at the whole thing.  Surprisingly, she wasn't really all that scared.  This is good news. Read the RS interview that Billie Joe Armstrong gave a few weeks back (finally).  It was an enjoyable read.  He's always been such an engaging interview.  And he's writing again, which is cool.  Apparently rehab wasn't so awesome for record sales last year. Watched day two of The Voice tonight.  Downloaded a couple of the performances afterwards, too.  Midas Whale and Sarah Simmons.  Singing "Folsom Prison Blues," and Joan Osborne's "One Of Us" respectively. Things that didn't really happen much today: 1) Listening 2) Playing I did manage, however, to try and work on the month's song in my head, away from my guitar, at work.  Tomorrow I'll see if my thoug...

Another night with a few quick hits to it.  Oh how I miss the days when I'm exceptionally musically productive! 1) My brother had a recital up in Eau Claire tonight.  I couldn't make it.  Sometimes having a responsible job deprives you of the chance to listen to great music.  This was one of those times for me.  It drives me up a wall that I've still never heard him perform a recital of any kind on his oboe.  Don't get me wrong, LMFAO covers and the Star Wars theme music are great and all, but... yeah, you get my point. 2) Season 4 of The Voice started tonight.  I've watched bits and pieces of that show in the past and been blown away by it.  This year, I vow to watch the whole thing.  For me, that show harkens back to music pre-MTV/VH-1.  I love the fact that it's really a music competition, based on how people sound versus how they look .  So much more to say on this topic, but I'm tired enough that my typing ability is fast d...

A couple of quick highlights from today, and then onto at least some of my thoughts on Crowder: 1) I got everything new from the latest B&N trip imported into itunes and dropped onto the ipod today.  When the day started, I thought I'd have more time for listening than I actually wound up having, so when it comes to absorbing the new music, well, that will have to happen later on in the week. 2) Finally made it all the way through the Grohl biography!  It was, as I had suspected about halfway through, significantly lighter on the post-Nirvana portion of Grohl's music career, but somehow that seems par for the course.  Everyone gets too wrapped up in Nirvana, in my opinion.  They were a great band, don't get me wrong, just a great band whose best studio album ( In Utero) is vastly overlooked, and who might not have been quite as legendary had their lead singer not become a member of the 27 Club. As for Crowder, as I alluded to last night, the music part of t...

First of all... Crowder was Awesome!  The venue provided some issues for me, but the music itself was marvelous.  It's been a long day, so I don't necessarily have the energy to get into my review of everything now, but that will definitely happen tomorrow. What I will get into tonight is the stop I made at my old B&N stomping grounds, and the list of musical finds that emerged from that experience. I pre-ordered the new Alkaline Trio (due out on the 2nd of April), and had that shipped to the house.  It will be the first time since 2001 that I won't have bought their new record on its release date, and as amazingly bummed out as I am about that fact, at least I'll get the record the same week it arrives in stores.  In some way, it also evens the scales, considering that I got Damnesia before it was released to the general public in 2011.  In a related story, it's just now dawning on me that I forgot to pre-order the Broken Wing EP that drops the same day...

Early post today.  Off to the DSM for Crowder. Hoping to hit up B&N while we're down there, partly to see people, and partly to pick up a couple of records: 1) Specter At The Feast - BRMC 2) Same Trailer, Different Park - Kacey Musgraves There will, of course, be a concert review tomorrow night at some point, but for now we are off here shortly to the big city!

I didn't quite make it all the way through the Grohl biography today... but I've got less than 50 pages to go, so at the very least I got close. I did, however, find the Beethoven transcription that I hadn't really had all that much time to go searching for until tonight.  No serious time to play around with it much, though. As for the chords for this month's song, I was able to squirrel away a few minutes to play around with them... not that those few minutes gained me any ground whatsover, but they were there. And, sadly, there wasn't time to do much listening as it pertains to vinyl. Seeing David Crowder with the Mrs. at Wooly's in DSM tomorrow night, though, so that should be pretty sweet. That's really all I've got for tonight.  I'll make the weekend better, I promise.

Today started off like all of the other days this week: stealing a few moments before getting ready for work to read the Grohl biography and listen to a bit of music.  It was an Alkaline Trio sort of day, and as much as I'd love to be able to convince myself that it's in preparation/excitement for their new record on the 2nd of April, this week I think it's more closely related to stress.  The trio is always the band that I turn to when things are a bit frazzled, because the music is loud and fast and dark and it fits where my head is at. This week, while great chunks of it have been a lot of fun, there just hasn't been any time at home to recharge the batteries, or really to focus on much music stuff.  There's a part of me that doesn't see that changing until Saturday night at the earliest, and there's a part of me that's hoping for a bit of time tomorrow night.  What I'd like to get done, or worked on at the very least, is: 1) Finish This Is A ...

Taught today.  I'm really pleased with the progress my student is making.  In looking back on it now, it took her a while to figure out that, if she wanted to learn the songs she loves, she's going to have to put in the work to improve her chords, and almost more importantly, to improve her ability to switch between them. Right now, she's working on Katy Perry, and she wants to learn Fur Elise by Beethoven.  I've got a full transcription of the Beethoven from a Guitar Techniques issue from a while back.  I'm going to have to dig that out and see exactly what the story is there. Also, I read online today that Ryan Adams has started another band.  That guy is so productive that it makes those of us struggling to find enough time in the day for our musical endeavors sick.  I feel like the anti-Ryan Adams. And, in Grohl bio news... I have FINALLY made it too the part where Foo Fighters are an actual concern.

So, I swapped out the Our Lady Peace that has been in the car of late for Satellite Rides today.  It seemed like a fun change.  Can't entirely explain this alt. country kick that I've been on of late, but it's fun nonetheless. Heard a song the other day on the way into Sioux City that has Nate Ruess from Fun. guesting on it.  Turns out the song is on the latest album by P!nk.  Truth be told, I've always really admired her voice, and now she's sung with Nate and Butch Walker, so that's awesome.  Both songs are great, too. Not sure if I made mention of this in the last couple of days or not, but I'm kind of pumped that one of the songs in the latest issue of Acoustic Guitar is The Decemberists "Down By The Water."  I love the record that song comes from enough that I should probably just break down and buy the tab book. Also, regarding the Grohl biography, I'm on page 222 out of 353, and In Utero is just being released... Foo Fighters, anyo...

Mumford & Sons are on the cover of the Rolling Stone this week.  The article was really long, and really cool.  A sprawling interview with the whole band that, mostly, focused on Marcus.  Not that I was surprised about that in the slightest. Aside from having time to read and enjoy the article, the rest of the day was a series of interrupted moments.  I wanted to get a bit of listening done before church, but that never quite materialized.  I had a couple of stolen moments, but they never amounted to anything concrete. Same thing playing-wise today.  I stole a small bit of time, but it wasn't enough. All told, it was a day that ended up nowhere near what I had hoped for.  I'll chalk it up to abad day and pledge to do better tomorrow.

Finished downloading all of those Josh Garrels records today.  Still need to do the importing, but at least the records are all on my laptop now. Started to watch a bit of the SxSW keynote by Dave Grohl, but then we ended up leaving for Sioux City, so I'll have to get back to that tomorrow sometime (hopefully?). Picked up the latest issue of Acoustic Guitar at B&N today.  That magazine always seems to have a few cool transcriptions, and one or two lessons I think I can't live without. Not really much time for reading or playing today, otherwise, although I did pick up a guitar for a couple of minutes before we left town.  Not much of a win there, but I'll take anything I can get today. Kind of a slow day, really.  No new music from B&N either, although I did glance around a bit. Better tomorrow.

I started downloading all of those Josh Garrels records today.  Got through two of the five albums... downloading them, that is.  Haven't gotten around to listening to any of it yet.  There just hasn't been time. According to directcurrentmusic.com, the new Airborne disc, Such Hot Blood , drops on April 16th.  I've been searching for that date everywhere! In other (way more hypothetical) news, the Mrs. just got back from a three day trip to Dubuque for a seminar on "exploring your call" in regards to seminary.  While she was there, she reconnected with an old college friend whose husband plays drums.  That's right, drums!  So she tells me this, and all I can think about is all those times B. and I needed a drummer for hard rock stuff, and how cool it would be for solo stuff if I actually knew someone who played drums, and... yeah.  So, if somehow, ny magic, we end up there, maybe he and I could jam or something. And the above paragraph is w...

So, I've been getting emails from NoiseTrade for a good long time now, and today they offered me an opportunity that was too good to pass up.  5 free albums by the same artist.  Josh Garrels is his name, and I checked out a song or two on youtube before I downloaded them all.  What struck me the most was how unique his voice sounded live.  I haven't downloaded the albums yet... that will be a tomorrow project, I think, but I can't wait to listen and compare what I heard on youtube to his studio records. Dave Grohl's SxSW keynote is open for listening on NPR.com.  That, too, will be a tomorrow/weekend project. Tested out my song-in-a-month thoughts tonight... and, they bombed.  I had really cool thoughts about tossing in some alternate tunings, but when all was said and done, the sound I wanted to hear in my head just wasn't what came out.  So, no dice on that one.  A bummer, but no real loss in the end because I was messing with something I'm ...

Finally had a chance to listen to the Airborne EP tonight.  It's nineteen minutes of everything you love about rock and roll.  It's atmospheric, propulsive, wistful, and it leaves me wanting more.  I get that the songs are all on the full length that's coming later in the year.  I get that I'll buy all of the songs again whenever the record actually comes out, and I don't care.  I loved every second of it.  I needed every second of it. On the surface, the two records I focused on tonight, The Secret and Satellite Rides by the Old 97's, couldn't be more different.  One is quintessential alt. country, the other is a short burst of rock and roll energy, and yet, on another level, both have large doses of excellent songwriting, sharp musicianship, and a decidedly pop underpinning that brings them both together in their own way. Had a few thoughts dawn on me today regarding one of the unfinished songs-in-a-month today, too.  Haven't had a chance t...

So, apparently the new Airborne EP that came out yesterday is MP3 only!  Downloaded that as soon as I figured it out this morning, but didn't have time to sync the ipod after doing so.  Therefore, I naturally had a ton of time to listen tonight that was away from my computer. On the plus side, though, I was able to spend some of that extra time with a guitar in my hands, working on the chord progression for this month's song.  I've got an opening chord change that I really like, and the flicker of a two guitar approach, with one of the two parts capoed up the neck dancing somewhere in the back of my brain.  If all goes according to plan, it could work out really well. Also, finally over halfway in the Grohl bio.  Considering I was hardly home at all today, I feel like I got a decent chunk of that read. Tomorrow should (hopefully) be another decent day for music, with a chance to play in the evening, and enough time for a few runs through the Airborne EP....

So, in spite of the 14" of snow we got, my copy of Satellite Rides by Old 97's came from Amazon today.  It's already been imported into itunes, but it has yet to be synced onto my ipod.  That will likely be a tomorrow project. As for today, I got more reading done than anything else.  Made some pretty good progress on the Grohl bio.  Very nearly halfway through that now.  Still in the pre-Foo Fighters years.  Actually, he has just joined Nirvana.  At this point, my big hope for this book is that it doesn't dash through the Foo years... that's the part I'm the most curious about. Also, the Airborne Toxic EP, The Secret , was released today.  As tempting as it was to download it from itunes, I'm going to hold off on picking it up until I can get to a real music store.  Hopefully it will be before our Des Moines trip the weekend of the 22nd, but we shall see. All told, a good, relaxing day.  More tomorrow, and better.

Today started out as a possible day for me to get a lot of listening in, and wound up being a catch-up day of sorts. I synced the ipod this morning, with everything from last night's uploading, intending to have an alt. country sort of morning before bell choir.  Then we got a ton of snow, so bell choir (and church) didn't happen. I took full advantage of the unexpected time to catch up on some guitar magazines that had piled up.  A cool article on the new Hendrix release, People, Hell, & Angels .  Still need to pick that up. We also recorded a ton of concerts off of TV.  Counting Crows, Dashboard Confessional, Death Cab For Cutie, and a ton of other stuff that sounded pretty awesome. Let's see, what else: NPR had a really cool interview with Dave Grohl on his Sound City documentary.  That was a pretty cool listen.  Got a bit farther into his biography today, too. Lots of stuff today, on a lot of different fronts, but as I look back on it, t...

I finally had a chance tonight to sit down and spend a bit of time with a guitar in my hands.  It was almost strange to feel my fingers sliding around the fretboard, searching for purchase, having had a week where I didn't pick up the instrument nearly as much as I would have liked to.  Still, it felt good to get back into the swing of things, at least a little bit. Got to work importing more of the music from vacation tonight, too.  Most of it was Old 97's & Rhett Miller solo stuff.  The albums were: Hit By A Train - Old 97's The Believer - Rhett Miller The Dreamer - Rhett Miller And then there was his selftitled solo record.  Also of note today, I broke down and ordered the Old 97's Satellite Rides .  Double disc edition with the extra live tracks.  Haven't been able to find it anywhere in stores, so Amazon had to suffice this time.  Also imported today was: Kid A - Radiohead Read a bit more of the Grohl bio today, too.  ...

Today was, for the most part, a quiet day. The Lone Bellow has a Tiny Desk Concert up on NPR's website, so that's cool.  It would've been even cooler had their site not been running slowly.  Hopefully I'll get to watch the whole thing tomorrow. Also of note on NPR.com today, there was an article about a Danish band turning an abandoned city into a giant recording studio (of sorts).  The article had more to do with the band members turning what they found in the ghost town into music (technically making the whole town a studio) than anything else.  I didn't have time to read the entire article earlier, either, but it was still a pretty cool premise, and I'll finish it up sometime this weekend for sure. I had planned on importing some more music tonight, Most notably, the Rhett Miller/Old 97's stuff I found in WI, but that never wound up materializing.  Leaves something for tomorrow, I guess. Not a super productive day, like I said.  Better tomorrow.

Took the Our Lady Peace record with me in the car on the way to and from work today.  Somehow, before listening, I had it in my head that I wasn't a hue fan of Raine Maida's voice, but on listening to a few tracks today, I can't honestly tell you why I had that impression in my head. Finally got around to importing a bit of the stuff we picked up on vacation.  Tonight it was: Awake Is The New Sleep - Ben Lee It's A Shame About Ray - The Lemonheads Horizon - Jen. St. Stjarna So much great music out there.  So many new discoveries all the time.  I've never understood people who stop listening after high school.  There's so much that I wold have missed out on if I closed my ears at 18. Found something else cool tonight, too... Colin Meloy doing all 3 parts of "The Crane Wife" live on KEXP.  Youtube is cool that way. Other cool internet somethings include T Bone Burnett discussing his influences... that was tweeted at me by the Mrs., and I'...

List tonight.  Might make for a short-ish post, but it encompasses all of the things I either keep forgetting to mention or realized today that will play some sort of role going forward. 1) Those notebooks I mentioned finding on the way home from WI?  Yeah, they have lines.  I checked today.  This means I am set as far as the whole "carrying a notebook with me everywhere I go" thing is concerned. 2) The artist I mentioned the other day who sounds like a mix between Fiona Apple and Regina Spektor... her name is Jen St. Stjarna, and the name of the disc we found is Horizon .  Seems like she's based out of Chicago.  And apparently, while we were in WI, she was in Omaha, NE for three straight gigs. 3) Picked up a couple of records that I forgot to mention: A Decade - Our Lady Peace Discount Fireworks - Over The Rhine The OLP was a purchase of curiosity.  Various friends over the years have sung their praises, and finding a best of at HPB was som...

Taught today.  Thanks in part to the mini-vacation we just got back from, it felt like it had been forever.  Still, my student was more focused than last week, and the lesson went well (I thought). I had gotten there about a half an hour early, so as to have a chance to play a bit before I had to start teaching, and in so doing I may have stumbled across the chord that will sit at the center of the song I'm writing in March, because even though the last two months haven't resulted in anything even approaching completed recordings of songs, I insist on keeping on. Also, because I think I forgot to mention it last night, I'm pretty sure I found the notebook I'll be carrying with me everywhere on the trip home the other day.  We stopped off at a Half Price Books, and they had a two-pack of journals that were neither too big, or too small.  So, I bought them.  Didn't say on the packaging whether they were lined or not.  This will be the key factor, as I am ...

We stopped at a pretty cool music store in Dubuque today on the way home from WI.  It's called Moondog Music, and it was the closest thing to Exclusive that I've managed to find in Iowa. Snagged a few things including records by Whiskeytown and Imagine Dragons. The other discs we picked up were both local.  One was excellent, the other was a bold lesson in what not to do if you record in a home studio.  Haven't unpacked everything yet.  I'll wait until tomorrow for that, but suffice it to say that the superb disc was a mixture of Fiona Apple and Regina Spektor, and that I'd definitely buy another disc by this artist if there is one out there to be had. That's all I have the energy for tonight.  Exhausted.  Better updates tomorrow, I promise.

Stopped off at B&N in Appleton tonight before we head out in the morning.  Found a couple of things that had been on my list going into the weekend. 1) CAKE's B sides and rarities record. 2) Rhett Miller's The Dreamer and 3) The latest issue of Guitar World . All told, for the whole weekend, it was a pretty good haul as far as music was concerned.  I'd have liked to find more Old 97's than I did, Satellite Rides , in particular, but no such luck this time around.  Maybe I'll have to investigate Amazon for that, and the few other ones I was hoping for.  Somehow I really expected to find some stuff by Ben Lee this weekend. We head back to Iowa tomorrow, assuming the weather holds up.  I'm excited to go back and get my hands on a guitar again.  Feels like it's been a long, long time since I've gotten a chance to play.

Exclusive today. Found some great stuff!  Here's the list: Awake Is The New Sleep - Ben Lee Kid A  - Radiohead Rhett Miller  - Rhett Miller The Believer Rhett Miller It's A Shame About Ray  - The Lemonheads At Metro  - Smoking Popes Hit By A Train - Old 97's I also found This Addiction & Remains  by Alkaline Trio on vinyl.  It's possible I might already have This Addiction  on LP, but hey, more Trio vinyl can't ever be a bad thing... can it? Other things I found today included the Amazing Journey DVD on The Who, The Morning View Sessions DVD from Incubus, a book on learning ukelele, and the latest memoir by Rob Sheffield, the guy who wrote Love Is A Mixtape . There might have been one or two other things in there, but off the top of my head, I can't remember what they are.  All told, I thought it was a pretty great haul, especially considering that they didn't have a number of the specific records I went in hoping to find. ...

So, the fact that I haven't done as well as I'd hoped with my songwriting during the first two months of the year really bums me out.  In thinking it over the last few days, something dawns on me.  I was writing more (songs, fiction, etc). when I made it a habit to carry a notebook with me absolutely everywhere .  Somewhere along the line, that practice has gotten tossed aside, which is very much unlike me.  I think one of my goals in March is going to be carrying a notebook again.  It can't be anything too big, but I've never been able to write effectively with those tiny little mini-notebooks that everyone seems to be so enamored with.  I'll try and find something within the first week of the month that will serve my purposes, and get going with jotting stuff down again.  It's a part of my process that I've really missed. Also, one of these days I really need to take some time to sit and listen for more than half an hour at a time.  Been mis...