I was practicing again out on the park overlook the ocean. Not too shabby. And I was trying to remember A Credible Threat. I gotta keep practicing or I just forget my own tunes. Anyone else do that? I learn fast, write fairly easily, but remembering…whoa, not too strong in that dept. Practice practice practice. Anyway, I’ve got a show coming up on May 2 in the valley at a pretty cool song circle kind of event. I’ll fill in more details soon. 

I’m doing a 15 minute set as soon as the currently singer finishes his song. Yahoo! Love to play even in coffeehouses. I’m gonna try and record it into i Movie.

….it worked. Here’s a frame grab…

Fun, eh? Tonight’s tunes were Closer To You, Give Me Love, and Candy & Toys. Thanks to Michael for sitting in on drums. Video soon.

I played a real fun gig a couple of weeks ago at Nocturnal in Santa Monica. I hired  a bassist and drummer to back me up with zero rehearsal. It was Anna Rosales on bass and Alexa Brinkschulte on drums. They worked off of mp3’s and charts. We met at the bar before going on stage. It was a crazy little experiment that almost worked.  The main problem was that I didn’t really know the lyrics. And the John Keats poem is a bit hard to remember. Alas, I did record some of the show with a MOTU 8Pre. The tracks are clean. I had 6 mics. Kick, snare, mono overhead, bass cab, guitar cab, and my vocal. I’ll finish up a mix and put the best one up here for fun. 

Man, I should have been blogging. And it’s all over now. I’ve been agonizing for months about where to have my studio when the lease ran out at Motion City where I’ve been for the last 8 years. There’s been tears and offers, promises and dreams that would have been a great reality show if I hadn’t been too wound up to write about it.

The story ends with my magnificent studio being put into storage. A little workstation at home will keep the music alive until the next studio makes itself known.

This website, Songfight puts up a new songtitle every week (I think) and participants each write a song based on that title. Think I’ll give it a try. The new title is up – Just To Be Difficult. Due Fri the 14th. It’ll be a Wednesday’s Song, too. Oh yeah, the winner doesn’t get any prize, just satisfaction. It’s a pretty lively group over there.

I’ve added a link in my blogroll to Thing A Week. That’s Jonathan Coulton’s blog and website. He’s the guy who inspired me to start this project. Give him a click if you’ve got a minute. He gets a lot of clicks already, but that’s because he’s talented and smart.

I’ve been getting busy with work lately, so that’s a good thing. I’m playing bass in a play this weekend. And I’m arranging some tunes for a session on Monday that will includes legendary bassist  Abe Laborial. I’ll meet him at the session. It’s pretty exciting for an old muso like myself.

Looked at a few more possible locations for the studio. Kind of depressing because I like my current place so much. I’ve sent in a proposal to a realtor for me to rent my current space plus some more to be available to sublet. We’ll see what the mgmt co says. Not a musical way to spend one’s time.

My good buddy, Robert Oriol, surprised me with a remix of War & Peace. Way cool. He grabbed the split tracks and did as he please. What a pleasant feeling knowing someone cared enough to work on one of my tunes. Ahhh.

There’s a new page called From You where I’ll post contributions. Remixes, new tunes made with my split tracks, vids, graphics, et al.

I saw that movie Who Killed The Electric Car over the weekend. It’s got me thinking. Maybe a song in that?

Finally got the files posted for WS at 3:30am Fri morning. That’s a tad late. I wrote it on Sunday but that doesn’t quite count. It’s called “Jackson, Tn” and is in the Listening Station. Feels so good to have 5 songs I’m going to burn a CD and drive around with it : – )

I was sitting beside a harp for two days played by the  star Lori Andrews. She’s got 8 jazz harp CD’s out. What an instrument. Google that woman.

Trying to destress. Although WS takes a bit of time it takes my brain away from stressful thought. Like the yoga people say…

Namaste

Still reading the Carl Perkins bio. I’d like to record a Perkins tune. Just not sure if I can post it here on WS. When you press CDs it’s easy. Just pay a royalty to Harry Fox agency. Jonathan Coulton puts cover tunes on his thing a week. Curious how he handles the royalties for an internet only mp3.