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| Welcome to thewindups.com This is the official site for the Wind-Ups, which is the Universe's best band ever, no false humility intended. We're a progressive/pop power trio based out of Greenville, SC, and we're about to record our first EP, entitled "Whatsamatta U.", or possibly "spU-dniW ehT". Or maybe "Songlish". Also, Keith writes a lot.
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| Please note -- what follows is Keith's (and sometimes other member's [HA!]) weekly spewingsforth. These are only meant to be taken as seriously as they were meant to be taken, and which shouldn't be necessarily viewed as the current opinion of the band, but only as the future opinion of the band and of the human race, since all of the points made in these are completely and totally right, and anyone who disagrees is wrong, which will be obvious to their future silicon and vacuum-tube enhanced brains. |
| So . . . March 4th, 2008 -- So, anybody out there? Well, in case you haven't figured it out, not much is happening with The Wind-Ups these days. We recorded our EP, and I was pretty happy with the recording, but we didn't have the money to get it mixed and mastered properly, life got in the way, so it sat on my hard drive for the past year. Well, if you've been waiting to hear it, today's the day. The 2007 EP Here's a quick update on what's happened to me in the last year: Annie and I had our third girl, Sophie Lenore, who was born on January 4th (my birthday.) Here are some pictures. My guitar teaching bidness has really taken off, and I'm currently packed out at 65 students. I've started a very long-term project of writing music to go with Isaac Watts' psalmody. Five psalms down, 145 to go. I've gotten more serious about the cello, and I'm about to start up cello lessons, with the hopes of eventually getting into orchestral playing. A friend of mine at work has started up a shred band, and I'm writing music and playing bass for that. Hopefully we'll have some news to report soon. I've pretty much resigned myself to the fact that The Wind-Ups is never going to be a really successful band/source of income. I'm just not a serious singer, and I don't have the desire to trudge out and constantly play crap gigs for three years to build up a fan base. I love writing music, but I'm almost indifferent as to what kind of music I write. I think I have something to add to pop rock, though, so I'm not saying "The Wind-Ups are done" or anything like that. I'm just viewing it mostly as an outlet for songs that I write. When I've written a few more and saved up some money, I'm going to go into the studio and get someone else to sing, I'm going to play bass and guitar, and hire someone to play drums. If something happens with that, great, but if something doesn't, that's fine too. I love music, and I know that at this point I can make a living playing music and teaching it to others, and that's great. Whether that ultimately means me playing cello, arranging hymns, teaching guitar, or playing in a band, I don't care. It's all music to me. Keith |
| Why I've Given Up Blogging January 23rd, 2007 -- When I (Keith) started writing stuff on this page (way back here), it was mostly because there was nothing interesting to talk about with the band. That tradition proudly remained until a few months ago, when we started working on this recording. I unofficially, and now officially, have given up on the whole blogging bidness. Here's why: 1. It's stupid 2. It's a waste of my time 3. It's a waste of your time 4. It ruins the internet 5. It destroys intimacy (more on this below) 6. It's a haven for self-promoters and sycophants That's probably a good start. I was reading some goofy blog a few weeks ago that was probably linked to from one of the few opinion websites I do read on a regular basis, and I realized that I just don't care what Joe, the second year Master's student in philosophy at some school I've never heard of, thinks about how George Bush is governing the country. Joe, you might have something to say, and it might be worth saying, but it's just not worth listening to. What's worse, though, is when you have a friend who has a blog, and you find yourself strangely inhibited in front of him, because you know that you may very well end up having your words and actions documented on some website for all the world/the three people who read it to see. This is terrible. No more. There are more important things for you to do than to read my opinion of Nickelback or what's wrong with the Greenville music scene. This site is for this band, now. I'll still occasionally post links to awesome music for nerdy folk, games I like, and maybe an amazing video every now and then. Other than that, strictly band news. Speaking of which, editing and mixing is going well. Preliminary reviews are still unanimously mind-blowingly positive. Moms, wives, hot girls, and librarians alike have all loved it, and that's just Annie. Seriously, though, I've played early versions for probably twenty people, ranging from 11 year-olds to middle-agers, and reviews have all been great. I want to put up an MP3 in the next week or so. When that happens, I'll send an email to the mailing list, which you can sign up for right here:
Name:
Email: Have a great week, folks, Keith |
| Recording's Done January 12th, 2007 -- We're done with tracking/recording. Now it's on to editing, then mixing, then mastering, then pressing. Reviews are good so far. Cliff gave one CD to a relative in Michigan, so now we have a very small but thriving fan network in hand-land. We're all excited about this, we had our first rehearsal as a band in a while on Wednesday, and it was great. We played through almost all of our songs, including many of the really early songs we thought we had forgotten, and while there may have been a forgotten lyric or note every now and then, it went well and we're looking forward to getting out and playing again. Speaking of which, we're looking for a booking agent to find shows for us. Not much money involved, but there's potential to make a good bit, and you'd be essentially the fourth member of the Wind-Ups. We'll give you a jacket and everything. It says "Members Only" on it.  Optionless and Turkey Free . . . Keith |
| Why the Record's Not Done Yet December 9th, 2006 -- Here's what it looks like done (too) well: Everything is coming along. We scaled back the ambition a bit, though, so there will most likely be between four and seven songs on this here joint. I might post an MP3 next week. Keith |
| Super-Quick Update November 28th, 2006 -- Things are going well with recording. We've got half of the tracking down for seven songs, rough tracks for three more, and a last one to be recorded once I get my toggle switch fixed (which will hopefully be today.) I also might do a little instrumental solo toggle switch dealy, akin to this. Count that all up, and that's twelve tracks. I'm excited. I'm almost done with the tracking for Sorry I Forgot, so I might post it up as a rough demo for a little while, we'll see. Cliff keeps pressing me to set a date for when I'll be done, but that mostly depends upon whether or not I can break my Wikipedia addiction. I just looked through my history, and I've visited over 70 Wikipedia pages in the last 24 hours. That's just wrong. Since everything's so interlinked, I'll just read an article then look up and see that I've opened up ten new tabs of other pages linked from that one, and then each of those pages might have a couple more tabs opened, then I'll realize that I've got literally forty or fifty pages open. It's just wrong. But hey, I'm really interested in people who've been married multiple times, El Mariachi, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Airwolf, the list of houses redone on Extreme Makeover, the Taj Mahal, and Tom Candiotti. These are all vital subjects, and who can blame me for studying up on them? Since nothing noteworthy is happening elsewhere, I'll stop there. Oh, also, if you haven't noticed, there's a little doohickey up near the top, below where you sign up for the mailing list, where you can put in your email address and it will email you every time this page is updated. You don't have to create a login like it asks you to, just click on the confirmation link from the email it sends you. Have a great week, peoples, Keith |
| Update and Gallery November 18th, 2006 -- Alright, it's been a month since I posted last, so I thought I'd give y'all an update: After much wrangling, rasslin', and regurgitation (of favor askin'), we got all of the equipment we needed to record about a week ago. Since then, I've recorded scratch tracks, and Cliff has recorded final tracks for SEVEN SONGS! We might do some more, I don't know. I've got at least three more we could do in the bag, and a couple of more that I could finish writing pretty quickly. The response so far from everyone has been really positive, so I'm really encouraged by that. This coming week (which I'm taking off from work), I'm going to record guitar tracks and vocal tracks, and maybe some other instruments, I don't know. I've got a cello, cheesy keyboard, and trombone at my disposal, and they're calling my name. I'll try to keep the restraint high, so this doesn't end up sounding like a Sufjan Stevens album or something (not that there would be anything wrong with that -- I just want it to sound like us.) So, to round this post out, here's a small gallery of Wind-Ups pictures. The first is something I just came up with, and the rest are things Cliff has done while bored at work (click on each to get the full image:)       Later, folks, Keith |
| The Wind-Ups, Now in Manual Form October 18th, 2006 -- Yes, I told you yesterday that I wouldn't write until we were done recording. I lied. I'm sick, so lay off. Alright, rock and roll has a cool handsign (which is called the "mano cornuto"), Dane Cook has the Superfinger (seen in Rice Krispy Treat form here), even surfing and love have hand signs. So what about us? Do The Wind-Ups get a hand sign? Until now, no. But as of now, and extending into the indefinite future, I'm here to announce that . . . . . . . . yes, we do. I'll explain how to do it. It might take a bit of time, effort, and practice, but I'll try to describe it as uncomplicatedly as I can. Here we go: The goal of the hand sign is to form the letters "W" and "U" using only the left (or alternately, the right) hand. To begin with, place your left arm in a position extending upward, with your forearm at an angle between 45 and 90 degrees relating to a plane parallel to a horizontal surface (such as the ground). Once in this position, the back of the palm should be angled in such a way that its angle relating to the back of the forearm plus the angle of the forearm relating to the vertical plane should be represented by this equation: x (i.e. the angle of the forearm relating to the vertical plane) = y (i.e. the angle of the back of the palm relating to the forearm.) If you've done this correctly, you should have a left forearm at an angle between 45 and 90 degrees as related to the horizontal plane, and the back of the palm should be pointing vertically. Next, extend your thumb vertically and to the right (as viewed from the back, looking towards the back of the palm), and place it an angle roughly 135 degrees as compared to the forearm as seen from the front. Next, take the index finger, extend it vertically, then offset this by tilting it slightly to the right (again, as viewed from the back, looking forwards toward the back of the palm), approximately 20 degrees compared to its original vertical position. Next, the middle finger should be simply extended directly vertically, perhaps (optionally) with a slight angle toward the back of the palm, not greater than 10 degrees as it relates to the vertical plane. Next, the fourth finger (also known as the third finger, and colloquially known as "the ring finger") should be directed vertically and at an outward/leftward angle approximately at the same degree as the first/index finger, only this time in reverse. It can also be extended at a slightly greater degree than the index/first finger, depending upon preference and comfort. Finally, the fifth finger/pinky finger/little finger should be placed at roughly a 45 degree angle leftward/outward, approximately twice the degree of the ring/fourth/third finger. Congratulations! You have just formed the official handsign for The Wind-Ups! If you have done everything correctly, your hand should be in a position roughly approximate to this:  And, as you can clearly see, this forms the very distinctive "WU" symbol:  If you find it too difficult to accomplish using the left hand, go back through the instructions, reverse the angle and directional information, and in short order you should have this:  Which again clearly shows the distinctive "WU":  Now that you know the symbol, you will find that it's used in general society much more often than you may have previously known. When two Wind-Ups fans see each other on the street, walking down the hall, or passing each other in a mall, they may flash the "the wu" in order to acknowledge and re-affirm their fandom. Kindergarteners, when asked "how old are you?" will often ignore the question and instead profess their love (in hand form) for their favorite band. Occasionally, when a person is about to get hit, by a baseball bat or possibly a bus, he or she may instinctively cross both arms and flash a "double wu", signifying something akin to "I LISTEN TO GOOD MUSIC! PLEASE DON'T HIT ME!" It's applications are virtually endless. *********** Have a great day, folks, and here's some Kaki King: Keith |
| We're Recording, So Check Back Soon October 17th, 2006 -- We'll be back in a few weeks, mp3s in hand. Keith |
| I'm a Bad Blogger (I Guess That Makes Me a Blagger) September 26th, 2006 -- Life's too short, my kids need me, my wife needs me, so I don't want to spend the time to write something out today. I have lots to say, just no time to say it. No one ever comments, anyway, even though I know there are dozens of people who read this page regularly (and you shall REMAIN my silent sycophants, I say!) Okay, three quick videos, and a link . . . First, Dragonforce: This second one's got some PG-13 language, and it also makes fun of the Dragonforce video up there: And lastly, Weird Al, making fun of people like me who watch videos by Dragonforce: And a quick link: Havok Flash Demos -- There's a whole page of them, but Claire and I played with this one for at least an hour a couple of days ago. As far as recording goes, we're going to be getting some equipment in the next week or so to start our work. Yes! Okay, last thing. You guys might remember my feud with the white supremacists (they refer to themselves as "kinists", but from what I can tell, all white supremacists are "kinists" and all "kinists" are white supremacists, so I'm going to use the more common term) a while back. Well, for some reason I wandered on to the blog of white supremacist half-wit "Scorebored", the guy who loves the South so much that he lives a few miles away from the Missouri-Arkansas border. By the way, down here in the real South, we have a word for people like him . . . "yankee". Anyway, I read this post, where he laments that a military writer he likes married an asian lady. It's typical of white supremacist writing, which loves to judge but hates to discern, is always long on condemnation but unwilling to lay out the ground rules of that condemnation. I wrote a short and abundantly polite post (we real southerners are polite) asking how much genetic material two people need to share in order for their marriage to be acceptable to the white supremacists, and he of course responds by saying I'm retarded. He tells me I'm not welcome on his blog, and says later in the same post that his blog is only for his friends, which includes all white Christians. Okay, well I'm a white Christian, so I guess some of his brain cells died between the beginning of his post and the end. I'm starting to think that maybe his wife is black, and he can't stand her, so that's why he hates interracial marriage so much. It's so funny to me that these people, who think of themselves as so intelligent and refined, can't even answer a simple question. Well, if any of you white supremacists are reading this, I'll ask you instead -- what makes a person your "kin"? Can you give me a definition of what "kin" is? It's the basis of your whole goofy idealogy, so if you can't answer it and defend your answer, you might start rethinking the choices that have led you to the worldview you hold. Alright, enough of that. You folks have a good week, Keith |
| Responsibility Laundering September 19th, 2006 -- One of the things I like the most about XM radio is it allows you to listen to an enormous variety of music that you might not necessarily listen to otherwise. Over the past few months, I've been listening more and more to the rhyme, which is a rap station that, while not really old school, is mostly rap that's 10+ years old. There's also another station, raw, that I've occasionally listened to as well, which is all newer rap. I've noticed a few differences between them: 1. New rap sucks. It's boring, one-dimensional, and uncreative. Take a lifeless synthesizer loop, add a generic beat, and yell some lyrics about how you deal drugs and run in a gang. 2. Older rap is awesome. It's creative, interesting, intelligent, and funny. Dang, is it funny. The music is a little more unrefined, but the lyrics and the variety more than make up for it. So, what's the deal? Why is new rap so bad? First, I'm sure there is amazing rap coming out of the indie quarters. I just haven't heard any of it, and that's kind of the point of this post. Rap started out as party music. It was supposed to be fun, danceable, something you could play at a party and people wouldn't go get something to drink. Just read the 1st verse of the first top 40 rap song, Rapper's Delight:  I said a hip hop, Hippie to the hippie, The hip, hip a hop, and you don't stop, a rock it To the bang bang boogie, say, up jump the boogie, To the rhythm of the boogie, the beat. Now, what you hear is not a test - I'm rappin' to the beat, And me, the groove, and my friends are gonna try to move your feet. See, I am Wonder Mike, and I'd like to say hello, To the black, to the white, the red and the brown, The purple and yellow. But first, I gotta Bang bang, the boogie to the boogie, Say up jump the boogie to the bang bang boogie, Let's rock, you don't stop, Rock the rhythm that'll make your body rock. Well so far you've heard my voice but I brought two friends along, And the next on the mic is my man Hank, C'mon, Hank, sing that song! But around the late 80s, a large shift happened in the rap world when Tracy Morrow, Andre Young, Eric Wright, and O'Shea Jackson (aka Ice-T, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, and Ice Cube) released rap albums detailing and glorifying their "gangsta" lifestyles. Many of these albums were notorious but not necessarily big sellers. Then came Death Row records, founded by Suge Night, who signed Andre Young (Dr. Dre), Calvin Broadus (Snoop Dogg), and Parish Crooks (Tupac Shakur), and on December 15, 1992 his labeled released Andre Young's "The Chronic", which basically ushered gangsta rap into the mainstream. You might think, "so what?" Afterall, it was gangsters making music, and people just happened to love it, right? Personally, I wondered how a bunch of thugs and high school dropouts in their twenties were able to find the tens of millions of dollars it takes to record, promote and distribute a major release. Well, it seems they had some help along the way. You see, Death Row got a lot of their funding from Interscope, which was half-owned by Atlantic Records, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Warner Music, which at the time was owned by Time Warner. It's CEO was Gerald Levin, this guy:  You have him to thank for the fact that these lyrics got into every last nook and cranny of America: ******* ain't **** but **** and tricks Lick on **** **** and **** the **** Get's the **** out after you're done And I hops in my ride to make a quick run... I used to know a ***** named Eric Wright We used to roll around and **** the **** at night Tight than a ********** with the gangsta beats And we was ballin' on the ********** Compton streets Peep, the **** got deep and it was on Number 1 song after number 1 song Long as my ********** pockets was fat I didn't give a **** where the ***** was at But she was hangin' with a white ***** doin' the **** she do ****** on his **** just to get a buck or 2 And the few ends she got didn't mean nothin' Now she's suing cuz the **** she be doin' ain't **** ***** can't hang with the streets, she found herself short So now she's takin' me to court It's real conversation for your *** So recognize and pass to Daz Ah, so true. But, that's alright, because Gerald Levin put his picture on the back of the CD, right? He said "I've listened to this album, and I don't think it will glamourize a destructive lifestyle and hurt American culture." Of course he didn't. He probably didn't know who Dr. Dre was, and that's the point. I know all of this and the past few posts make it sound like I'm a liberal, and that I'm blaming white people for the state black culture is in. I'm not. Dr. Dre and the rappers like them were destructive forces, but rich white guys gave them a megaphone. Keith |
| We're All Dirty Hypocrites September 12th, 2006 -- I was thinking the other day about how the world would be different if we really knew every single person in the world on an individual basis. If we could see people who are poorer than us having to choose between food or medicine, would it make us a little more hesitant to drop $40 on dinner that night? I'd like to think that it would, so I did a little investigation about the world. I had the thought "what if we all lived on the world average income?" I know that's not really possible, due to the cost of living being so different around the world, and because a certain amount of income inequality is actually beneficial (if the inequality is based upon the contribution the groups make to the economy), but I thought it might be interesting nonetheless. So, what's an average household income for the world? Ready for this? First, the average household income for America is $43,000. Not bad. For my state, it's $39,000. Still, not bad at all. If you can't live on 40 grand a year, you probably have medical problems, high costs due to your job (e.g. malpractice insurance), or, most likely, expensive taste. The U.S. is not even close to the wealthiest country, though. Luxembourg tops the list with per capita income of $75,000, and the U.S. is number eight. If you run through this list, you'll notice that #25 is $26,000, #30 is $18,000, #40 is $12,000, and you start to realize that there are a whole heck of a lot of countries left, and numbers 47-181 all have a per capita income of less than $10,000. Yikes. The world average annual income is $5,755. Woah. That's $480 a month, or $111 a week. The only way I can imagine living off of that, besides going on welfare or food stamps, would be to share a nasty two bedroom apartment with 12 other people and eat the cheapest, nastiest food I could live off of. No wonder that the life expectancy list is similar to the per capita list. So, depressed yet? I wish I had some easy answers. As a dyed-in-the-wool capitalist, my only advice is to spend money, but spend it well. Invest it, put it into the economy, don't just blow it on some overpriced food, or buy new cars every two years, or a new house every five. One of the most interesting stats I found is that a full 30% of the world is unemployed or underployed. I'm no economist, but to me that says that there is a ton of labor out there that wants to work and needs to work in order to survive. If we really want to help out the poor in the world, instead of setting up goofy half-witted charities which are doomed to failure, we would be outsourcing at every opportunity available. It makes economic sense, it helps people out, and it spreads the wealth. Sometimes people do genuinely need a handout, but many times they just want an opportunity to work. So, yeah, um, this site's about rock and roll, right? Bono Keith |
| Bunch O' Stuff September 4th, 2006 -- ITEM #1! -- WE HATE ACCOMPLISHMENT, PART III -- Don't worry, this whole post won't be complaining. However, I was surprised to learn, contrary to my theory that our society loves raw talent more than it loves hard-earned accomplishment, that the winner of the show America's Got Talent was a forty-six year-old violinist who had been practicing his art and discipline constantly since he was four. I guess we really do respect the fruits of dedication and hard work over the simple potential shown by unrefined talent. So, check it out, here's the winner of the first season. Congratulations from me to you on all of your hard work and committment to your art:  Wait, that's no 46 yr. old violinist! That's an 11 year old girl! I don't want to rag on her. I never heard her sing, except for the one note they always showed in the commercials. I'm sure she really is talented, and for a show that was trying to find talent, I guess finding a really talented girl is appropriate. But honestly, was her performance really the best of the competition? Was there no other singer with her technique, her range, her ability to move people, her experience? I personally liked the a cappela hip hop act (it's called hiphopapella, and no I didn't make that up), even though I think their street cred could probably have fit inside one of those hotel shampoo bottles, with room left for all the shampoo ("Head and Shoulders: now with street cred!"). ITEM #2! -- FUN GAMES! -- Alright, here's a game that's way more fun than it should be: UPDATE -- I took out the balancing game, because it's kind of boring after a while. Here's a link if you want to play it. In it's place I'm putting up my all-time favorite flash game, Babycal Throw: And here's another one: ITEM #3! -- JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE IS A CHOAD-MONGERING PIG FICKEY! -- Have you heard the new song by him? Sexyback? First line -- "I'm bringin' sexy back. Those mickey fickeys [ed. note -- hilarious censorship a friend of mine heard on TV] don't know how to act." JT got his solo career started by impersonating Michael Jackson, so I guess he's moved on to aping Prince now. Well, I guess he really got it started by singing a Michael Bolton song as the only male contestant in a beauty pageant when he was a kid. The really funny thing is he sings the big Mother Effort like it's supposed to be shocking, but it's so un-shocking that you'd almost be surprised if he didn't at least make an effort to shock. The F-bomb no longer shocks. Sorry. I felt the same thing when I was watching the first volume of Kill Bill. It just seemed so lame for people to be using the F-word so often. People don't, contrary to what Hollywood believes, actually use the word in every day speech. Not necessarily because it's so offensive, but because it's so pointless. It's a word with no meaning anymore, and no power left to shock. I was trying to think what kinds of things would be truly shocking coming out of Justin Timberlake's mouth, so I came up with some lyrics for his Sexyback remix: I'm bringin' sexy back I love children and I am a hack I think the flat tax can help out the poor And I support Bush and the Iraq War I'm bringin' sexy back Robert De Niro don't know how to act Fashion's a monumental waste of time Just like college and the March of Dimes I'm bringin' sexy back I love my country and that is a fact I think pornography is pointless too I've always wanted to beat up a Jew ITEM #4! -- POINTLESS VIDEO! -- here's Michael Batio playing terrible music on a double guitar: Have a great week, folks. Keith |
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Older posts can be found here.
Write Keith at keith@thewind-ups.com Also, if you're looking for a guitar teacher in Greenville, visit keithgroover.com to find out more about the Guitar Studio of Keith Groover. Keith has taught more than 4,000 guitar lessons on the acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and bass guitar to students in the Greenville, Taylors, Simpsonville, Greer, and Travelers Rest areas. |
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