"Muse" - ings on Rock & Life

Skyped with B. tonight.  She started it all by asking me about one of the chord progressions on the list of things we will need to sort through later in the week.  I was going to explain it to her in writing, but figured it'd be easier to just show her how to play the chord in question.  That started a 3 hour video chat that covered some music stuff, and a lot of other chatter. One of the first things she asked me was what my goals were for the time we have.  I laid it out very simply.  The goals (from my point of view) are as follows: 1)  Finish off the songs that we are considering for the record. 2)  Square away the tempos of said songs. 3)  Make sure we're confident about the arrangements 4)  Start figuring out track order. She immediately jumped to a combination of the first item on the list and the last one on the list, and we went through everything.  What was I thinking would make the record, aside from th...

So, I had an interesting music-snob conversation today.  One of the girls in cafe posed it to me.  "So, I have a question," she says.  "We're both music snobs, right?" I answered in the affirmative, for me at least.  I'll admit my own music snobbery, but accusing someone else is just wrong.  She tells me she's been going through a Monkees phase lately, and wonders aloud whether that's okay for a music snob to do. Honestly, I think it's okay.  I mean, sure, they were a pop band.  A pop band created for TV.  And yet, they had great songs.  "Daydream Believer" was written by Neil Diamond.  A lot of the rest of the early music was written by Boyce & Hart.  The first single "Last Train To Clarksville," was a great tune.  "Stepping Stone," "Pleasant Valley Sunday," etc.  Not that they deserve inclusion in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (although some think they do), but they had decent songs. Chatted wi...

I'll be honest, 95% of what happened musically in my life today revolved around Corey Taylor's book signing at work.  I went in at noon today. The signing started at 7.  The second I walked in, I heard about the guy who had showed up before 7 in the morning, chair in hand, intending to be the first person in line.  The store manager basically told him to go away and come back later when she showed up at 7.  Then there was the sixteen year old kid whose parents drove him up from Texas for the event.  I never did get to meet him... at least I don't think I did.  It got crazy for a while there.  We had people from Illinois and Missouri among the 400 or so people that showed up as well. The coolest part of the whole thing, you ask?  That's easy.  The event started at 7, and we snuck Corey in the back door around 6:30 or so.  Those of us employees who wanted to get stuff signed in advance were allowed to drift to the bac...

J. uploaded the files with the quicker tempo tonight.  We got one with the tracks we just recorded (slightly sped up, due to the tempo change), and then one with just the drums and bass for recording over.  Just in listening to it a couple of times, I'm already happy with the pace.  It's just enough of a bump up from the original tempo that it feels like there's a bit more drive to the song, but not so fast that the feel goes away.  At least so far.  Haven't tried recording the guitar parts yet.  He wants 3 of them.  A rhythm acoustic part, a rhythm electric part (this is new), and an electric part with the lead lines in it.  My only worry at this point is that there is a 29 second time difference between the new demo version and the drum & bass track.  If he pulled a few bars in the middle with the idea of shortening the solo, I'm already happy.  As much as B. loves it, the solo was entirely too long in the original d...

Skyped with B. tonight, and I needed it.  I had managed to get myself bummed out about J. wanting to re-record the song we've been focusing on.  She's coming at it from the perspective that, at least we're working.  At least progress is being made.  And she's right.  We're getting somewhere.  It's not like there's a deadline hanging over us.  As long as we make the right decisions for the songs, what difference does it make if it takes us a considerable amount of time to finish the record?  If J. wants to try a tempo change on a song, and it makes it better in the end, I say let's go for it.  If he starts suggesting it for every song, though, I'm going to have to wrest control back to our side of the table. I've been thinking about trying to flesh out some song ideas for the last couple of days.  Nothing on paper yet, just trying to sort out the idea behind it in my head first.  I'm hoping they will turn into something useab...

Strange day today.  Lots of small bursts of activity that didn't feel as though they added up to much that was productive.  I played for a bit this morning, but wasn't terribly focused on things for the band. B. uploaded three different vocal tracks to the dropbox, so I spent some time checking those out.  That was the only time today that I felt like I was truly productive.  I burned the 3rd one to CD, and dropped it into the recording I was doing yesterday, but the whole thing felt just a bit off. J. said he liked the tracks, but then spent 5 minutes asking me whether or not I thought we should increase the tempo.  To a certain extent, I agree with him, but maybe not by the 8 BPM that he is suggesting.  With a song like the one we're working on, if you add too much to the tempo, it kills the feel of the tune.  Currently, it's running at 77.  I think 82 seems more feasible than the 85 he's pushing for right now. And, oh yeah, it would invol...

So, I couldn't sleep this morning until I went in studio and knocked out the acoustic track and the electric riff that goes over the top of it for the first song we have seriously been working on this summer.  It only took me three and a half weeks to just go in and do that.  Now that I've started, I wonder why it took me so long in the first place.  I felt like the intro riff turned out great, but the acoustic part didn't quite have the shimmer that the original demo part had.  The acoustic does need a new set of strings, but that couldn't possibly solve everything , could it? It was fun, also, to get home from work tonight, and witness the firestorm of activity that my posting to the dropbox caused in the hours I was away.  By the time I got home, there was already chatter between J. and B., and they had both already left commentary for me.  I found it interesting that the part I was truly satisfied with (the intro riff) was the part that J. seemed to w...