I'm taking some drum lessons soon. I expect to be THIS GOOD IN ONE WEEK:
The real machine-gun stuff starts around :30, but watch all the way to the very end. See the part where he clicks his sticks together and mugs for the camera? When he goes back to the snare drum, the snares are off. When did that happen? I watched the end a dozen times trying to catch him switching off the snares but it doesn't happen. Did they break? Was it accidental? WHAT IS HAPPENING
Posted September 30, 2011
A few weeks ago I outlined some great things about Spotify, the streaming music service. I spoke too soon. New users are now required to have a Facebook account to use Spotify. So, never mind.
Posted September 27, 2011
Our one-off wedding band was almost called "The High 80s" which would have been more than appropriate given the recent Seattle weather patterns and the fact that our setlist was dominated by selections from the John Hughes era of FM radio.
But then Josh had to go and make some sort of quip about, uh, extra testicles -- and "Tres Huevos" it was.
Kyle was cool with it. After all, it was his wedding.
Our nightmare scenario was the first song would clear the floor and we'd end up playing to a handful of drunk stragglers. As it happened (and I have this on good authority), the fact that we opened the set with an all-male rendition of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," led by a large blond man dressed in orange, turned out to be an unintentional stroke of brilliance, as everyone immediately got it.
I wrote earlier that the thing about wedding bands is the idea seems super-lame until you're actually in one (which I think applies to cover bands as well as karaoke). The secondary reward comes from watching people pour out onto the dance floor, bride and groom included, people young and old, people dancing with kids and babies, etc. Scoff all you like, but when the audience has your back, belting out the chorus to "Livin' On A Prayer" along with you, everyone wins.
Tres Huevos dissolves back into Explone and Kirby Krackle this week.
Posted September 26, 2011
We're a week away from this wedding band gig, and we all agree: this song is the jam:
Check out the buttery bassline by Bobby Watson, who played with Chaka Khan back in the day and produced Janet Jackon's first album (BTW, thanks Wikipedia, for devouring an hour of my life as I delved into the history of Ms. Jackson. For no reason!). I'm generally taking a "fake book" approach to these songs, which means I'm learning only the bare minimum needed to play each song competently, but as Patrick noted, my life depends on whether I can nail that slinky riff in the second verse. Mmmmm hm.
Too bad we can't just fill out our set by jamming on this tune for a half hour, which we totally would.
Posted September 19, 2011
Bobby Owsinski's Big Picture Production Blog: The 6 Steps To Set Up Your Monitor Speakers. This helped me immensely with my home studio. DIY'ers like me don't have the benefit of a treated room.
Ethan Hein's Blog › Jay-Z and Alan Lomax. The chain of copyright can be damn crazy.
Windows Metro IE will ship plug-in free. The mobile version of Windows 8, Metro, will not have any plug-in preinstalled, including Flash. More evidence that we can't rely on Flash music players in the near future.
Posted September 16, 2011
Explone shared a gig with Megasapien last night at Chop Suey here in Seattle. Their cinematic post-rock sound was a great match with our -- uhm, cinematic post rock sound!
Their drummer Burke plays like a wild beast. I was totally blown away. In fact, if I wasn't already playing with Explone, I'd be stalking Megasapien for a job.
Posted September 1, 2011
My secret shame: I don't really like most earnest-guy singer-songwriter types.
I know, right?
That said, I cannot. Stop. Listening. To this album:
Have a great weekend.
Posted August 26, 2011
It's dull.
Seriously, even MySpace is more fun than Google+.
Posted August 25, 2011
A bit of silliness during Kin to Stars rehearsin':
Posted August 24, 2011
