Tuesday 27 March 2012

Sunny day

Sunny day
A song I wrote sat in the dark about how I should have been doing something in the sun.
Enjoy.

Monday 26 March 2012

Two times lucky

I went to another wedding this weekend.
Im not going to review the music.
Their was more at this one I liked.
Something odd happened the day before.
The bassist from my first band asked me if I want to jam like old times sometime.
In the space of one month.
Both on eves of weddings.
I've been invited to jam with bassists looking to start new projects.
Are weddings good luck for me?
Or is it my suit?
Needless to say I'm excited about it.
By summer,
if I really am lucky,
I could be in two bands.
One goth the other punk.
That would be fantastic.
Im already thinking to far ahead of my self.
What band will play live first?
What will our first set be like?
Where will it be?
...
Will it even happen?
...
I'm going to make it happen.
...
...
...
1. The Clash - Rock the Casbah
2.  Journey - Dont stop believing
3. Queen - Its a kinda magic
...
Sorry couldn't help myself.

Tuesday 20 March 2012

Jamming, not masturbating, by my self

I have a Boss RC-2
Anyone familiar with this pedal will know what its all about.
If not don't worry.
I'm about to go on about it.
Its a looper pedal.
It records what you play in to it and plays it back to you.
Its great for jamming to yourself.
One of my favourite things to play is Breath by Pink Floyd.
I just have to play the main riff.
Record it.
Then jam over the top of it.
easy as pie.
Though sometimes you can mess up the timing.
For this reason I've not tried been a one man band with it.
in the bed room you can forgive any little mess ups with timing.
Though been me I cant sit with it.
It ruins a perfectly good solo.
Missing a tenth of a beat can really throw you of your stride.
But its great for jamming out new ideas.
Just make sure its last in the effect chain.
Last night I decided to learn the Powerhouse B riff.
You'll know it if you hear it.
Its the theme to Honey I shrunk the kids.
Anyway, I recorded the bass part then jammed the main riff over.
Couldn't stop myself from grinning.
I decided to try it with some delay/reverb,
See how it sounded.
I have a line six Spider.
It added the effects to both the bass and the guitar making the riff sound terrible.
Lesson I learnt last night.
The line six is always number one in the effects chain.
Boss RC-2.
Highly recommended.

Saturday 17 March 2012

The happiest goth in the room

I went to a gig last night despite feeling like death.
My friend plays synth in a goth band I I've not had the chance to see them yet.
It was in a bar in town I like.
Its got an old school vibe to it.
The toilets are filled with graffiti.
The only problems are,
One,
there, for some insane reason, is no heating.
Two,
I am for all intents beyond skint.
Three,
at about nine it fills with hipster's.
My friends band where playing upstairs.
There was some sort of hipster band playing downstairs.
They looked like we owed them something and they sounded terrible.
Everything I hate about modern music.
But i wasn't there to see them.
I was there to see my friends band.
Their called Action Directe.
I'd say their a industrial, goth, punk band.
They where fun.
The only band on, as the other pulled last min.
They played for thirty minutes.
They made me wish I was in a band.
But fear not.
I'm not going to go on about how much I miss it,
even though I do.
My friend in the bands girlfriend wants to jam.
She has even expressed an interest in maybe starting a band with me.
I'm like a kid at christmas.
Even though its nothing in stone the chance that I might get to jam/play in a band again is excellent.
Even if it does end up being angry goth punk with synths in.
Not that thats a bad thing, just not the band I though I'd end up in.
I'll have to try and steer it towards being more like Depech Mode.
The fact that it might happen.
Thats enough for me.
I'll have to get all my demos and stuff in order.
Time to show of my music CV as it where.
I have demos covering a wide range of music styles.
From Chap hop to ISIS style ambient.
Just have to find the right ones.
Or the good ones at least.
Think I'll use the NIN style ones.

Monday 12 March 2012

You may now kiss the bride.

Been a wedding DJ.
Now theres a job I wouldn't like to do.
The problem would be pleasing everybody.
It cant be done.
I was at a wedding this weekend.
Everyone at the wedding could be fitted in to three simple categories.
With the occasional against the curve type.
Category one.
The old folks.
Their going to need lots of seventies music.
Mostly disco,funk and soul.
This I can put up with.
A bit of Motown never did anyone any harm.
The disco has a charm to it, in the fact that we all know the lyrics.
Category Two.
The youngsters.
This is a broad term.
It covers nearly every one between eighteen to thirty.
Its mostly filled with bad pop.
Not even bad euro pop like Aqua.
Nah, I mean bad trend bands like LMFAO.
The only saving grace in this category is Katy Perry.
Category the third.
Everyone sat at my table.
We where all grungers, goths and oddly, obscure funk fanatics.
Now I don't want to come across as to old,
or a music nazi.
But there wasn't much on the playlist for us.
But saying that we comprised a grand total of four people.
The dance floor at anyone time was full to the brim with the hundred other people dancing their socks off.
The DJ did a great job off keeping everyone dancing.
The only time when there was room enough for us to dance was the number one song,
in my opinion.
So the top three songs of the night as voted by me on behalf of everyone else.
In at number 3,
Love shack by the B52's.
Number 2 by a massive lead on number 3,
Lets Dance by David Bowie.
and at number 1 just by a ants hair,
Just cant get enough by Depech Mode.

Thursday 8 March 2012

Were here to sell out and stuff

In movies and TV there are lots of made up bands.
A lot of times their better than most real bands.
Sometimes you get to see them.
Tenacious d, Flight of the Concords.
Sometimes though there are bands we wont/don't/cant get to see live.
Stillwater, Hangmans joke.
Two bands I would love to see live are
Jeffster from Chuck
and,
Sex Bomb Omb from Scot Pilgrim vs the world.
Both great bands from a great show and movie.
Both of which feature great sound tracks.
Jeffster do covers.
Their covers stick in my head better than the originals.
As a group their just so weird.
On vox a awkward sex pest.
On synth/guitar a odd ball sex pest.
They are both unparalleled stalkers.
Their a great comedy duo.
A fifteen minute set would be enough.
I know they've done sets a comic cons.
If I want to see them I'll have to hope they play another comic con,
and that I'm there.
But America is a long way to travel to see a Fifteen minute comedy set that in all probability wont be very good.
Though I could be proven wrong.
Sex Bomb Omb.
The hand full of tracks we have for them are brilliant.
All featured on the fantastic soundtrack CD.
Short, punchy grunge of the college variety.
From the movie we can tell that they go all in for their live performances.
Even if they are cut short for battles with evil ex's.
If we could get the actors together again we could get them to perform a set.
Would they play live?
Probably not.
Not unless we paid them a lot.
Sadly.
But it would rock.
Even if we had just paid through the nose for a five song set.
Would I travel to America to see them?
Only if they played at CBGB's.
And they cant.
Because like the band sadly it doesn't exist.
...
When I went to go guitar browsing,
and came away with my Cobain Jaguar,
and a thousand quid lighter.
Totally worth it though.
I was going to jam out "Garbage Truck" by Sex Bomb Omb.
Been a favourite of mine to play for awhile now.
Good for getting a feel for the guitar.
Easy/sludgy and fun to play.
Someone else testing out guitars started to play it before me.
I smiled and laughed.
Proof that even if a band doesn't technically exist.
Their songs can still be better than half the crap on the radio today.

Saturday 3 March 2012

Fuck my carbon foot print

I like the Smiths.
There I said it.
I feel better.
I dont like Morrissey.
As a full time Butcher I cant stand the pillock.
Meat is murder.
Then why are our courts not filled with Butchers?
The man is a tool.
Stoping a gig because someone was eating a bacon sandwich.
Which by the way is a work of genius.
I also like U2.
But not Bono.
If your going to have a go and say that we should all reduce our carbon foot prints,
dont fly your hat around the world just because you forgot it.
It would have been cheaper to buy a new hat.
Let alone the huge fucking hole in the atmosphere.
I havent been abroad in decades.
There are a hand full of Coldplay songs I kinda like.
but,
Chris Martin.
I cant look at him with out bile rising.
Their new video where their dressed as Elephants.
Theres one scene that goes straight through me.
The whole thing it could have been anybody in that suit.
But you know its him.
To prove it,
and show of that he can ride a unicycle,
he takes the head of.
Hey look, its Chris Martin, isn't he smart.
He's the teachers pet of the music world.
Which is funny because he plagiarised some of his songs.
Just ask Joe Satriani.
Normally that would get you fucked by city and guilds.
The reason I love to hate these guys.
Because deep down their better than me.
Their at least trying to save the world.
Their trying to make it a better place.
Problem is their all smug git's.
Also their stinking rich.
Its easy for them to donate money.
They have to much already.
If I was earning thousands in royalties a week I'd donate some too.
They also have the perfect platform to help the world.
Being media darlings and all.
And i hate them for it.
I cant stand seeing them being better than me.
...
But are they.
Are they covering up for something?
Are they over compensating?
I bet they are.
Morrissey.
He kills cows for fun with claw hammers.
Bono.
He had his hat all along. He just wanted to show of how stupidly rich he is by burning another hole in the atmosphere.
And Chris Martin.
I've never seen him and Jack the Ripper in the same room together, have you?
I think the police should look in to it.