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| Quick Link May 30th, 2006 -- I already posted a couple of days ago, so I'm considering that my post for this week. I don't know how James Lileks does it. So, instead of reading something from me, read his take on The Da Vinci Code instead (skip down to the bolded "Was that my weekend?") Things are happening behind the scenes for us to record. Hopefully I'll have more news within the next couple of days. Peace out (what does that mean?), Keith |
| Thinking Out Loud May 27th, 2006 -- So, in case you missed the update part at the bottom of the last post, here's the big news -- we're not going to be recording for free at the super-nice studio on Paris Mountain. The producer/studio owner is having health problems, is selling his studio, and is putting all recording activities (and pretty much all activities in general) on an extended hiatus. Yes, that sucks. I was really looking forward to having a top quality demo that could really separate us from the pack. That's not going to happen now. However, in some ways it might be a blessing in disquise. We have a couple of leads about recording, and all of them are free, and all of them would likely be one-shot deals, where we go in, record, and come out the other side with demo in hand. With the big studio, we were looking at putting in three full months (maybe one or two sessions a week) in order to make a three-song demo. Now, we're looking at being able to record a good six to ten songs and start immediately pushing it out onto the public. I'm going to resume our old method of giving away free CDs of our music to everyone who will take one. I'm tired of being mired in obscurity. If our music sucks, then I want people to hear it and say "that really sucks". If our music is fantastic, I want people to hear it and says "that's fantastic". Those are the only two states which are acceptable to me, and they both involve people hearing the music. Having people not hear our music is not acceptable. I want us to succeed or fail on the merits of the music, not on my ability to get that music to them. So as soon as we do this recording we're going to immediately start doing shows. I just did a quick search and I have apparently made this same pronouncement on at least four other occasions in the past. But this time it's for real. It's make or break for me. Honestly, I'm excited. We've been practicing so much over the last few months, and I often videotape our practices, and many times, when we get done, I go home and watch the tapes and I think "we are a really great band". I don't mean to sound haughty or overly confident, I just know that if we get in front of people, people are going to love it. And if they hate it, that's okay. Like my friend Clay told me early tonight, "there's a market out there for every band". There are terrible bands who have huge fan bases, and great bands who are completely unknown. The difference between the two, honestly, is that the big bands have been able to get their music to the people who would enjoy it, while the small bands have not. That's really all there is to it. And having a human meat grinder on stage helps, too. Y'all have a great weekend, Keith |
| How to Make Your Fans Hate You May 23rd, 2006 -- This is what I think we would be, in reverse, if we were famous. The Dixie Chicks decided to badmouth Bush in a foreign country just before the start of war, then apologized for it, then appeared on the cover of Entertainment Weekly sporting nothing but labels like "traitor" and "big mouth", then said they didn't consider themselves country musicians, but part of "the rock and roll family", then two years of relative silence, then a retraction of the apology, and now they've released a new country album which is doing terribly (for them). The problem is that the Dixie Chicks forgot that they were, first and foremost, entertainers, and everything else should have been done in submission to that. I have a feeling that the lead singer's original remarks over in Europe were simply pandering to the home crowd, her trying to be a good entertainer. She got caught, and instead of backing down and apologizing immediately like a good country monkey, she tried to stick to her guns, and the whole house of cards fell down. What in the Dixie Chicks' seventeen-year career made them think that their music was anything more than light entertainment for conservative people? Most of their songs were simple, funny country songs. Their thinking they could bash the views of the vast, vast majority of their listenership and then still be seen as entertainment by those same people was absurd. However, if you make music that is more than a vehicle for your music videos, your fans tend to give you more license to be your own person, to express opinions they might disagree with. Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson both expressed their disapproval of Bush, but neither spawned boycotts by their statements. The Ramones and Neil Young came out in support of President Reagan when he first came to office, and while there was some criticism, it wasn't career-ending. What the Dixie Chicks did was like if Weird Al Yankovic came out and said "you know, I think black people really are inferior to whites", made an album about his views of white superiority, and then was shocked, shocked when it didn't sell well. ************* WE'RE GOING INTO THE STUDIO IN A WEEK AND A HALF!!!!! woot. NASTY UPDATE -- well, we just got word from the studio owner that his health is failing and he's shutting down the studio and moving back to California immediately. So, no recording for us. Yes, this sucks, but we've got a few leads for some other recording possibilities, so we'll bounce back from this. If you're interested in owning a studio, and you've got a spare $70,000 sitting around and you just can't imagine what to do with it, you might be interested in his studio. It is here. Keith |
| Please, Less Cowbell May 16th, 2006 -- We're going into the studio in a couple of weeks, so I've been really trying to think about what we want to do in there, what we want to accomplish. I'm hoping we can record about six songs, and we're looking at Stuck Change, But Not Today, Sorry, I Forgot, Nervous Morning, and one we're still working on, called The Negatives. So, most likely that will be around twenty-five minutes worth o' music. If we also add in What You Want and The Perfect Fit, well, dang it, we might as well record Sometime Somewhere, Another Time, and Hey You and have us a fifty minute full-length. That would be cool. It depends on what our producer thinks would be best, and what he's willing to record. I realize that this kind of opportunity doesn't come up very often, so I want us to do really well with this. I'm trying to fine-tune a few of our songs, and I'm reworking some guitar solos to take out the suck and insert the awesome. What I don't want to end up with, of course, is one of those albums that you buy after watching a band rock and you take it home and say "this is terrible, it sounds nothing like them." So, I guarantee you, there will be no theremins, no didgeridoos, no keyboards, no female singers, no drum machines. I want to make a record that really is a record of what and where we are as a band, a record that I can play to my kids when they're grown up and they'll say "so that's what a CD looks like?" I can't wait. Keith |
| Linky Dink (i.e., no time to post) May 9th, 2006 -- Okay, interesting links: Maps Charting Religion in America -- These are fascinating. Check out this one. It's a map of the predominant church bodies in America. Catholics in the west and northeast, Lutherans west of the great lakes, and a big blob of Baptists (trying say that five times fast [I can. Ready? "That that that that that". Whew]) down south. Also, the map of religious adherents is really interesting to me, because you see that the two coasts have a lot more in common then you'd first suspect. Sure, we all knew that the West Coast was filled with God-hating pagans, but Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida are pretty close. It really looks like the Bible belt doesn't go across the South anymore, but goes right down the geographic center of the country. It would be interesting to somehow crosslink the first and second maps to see not just which church bodies are predominant, but how much influence that particular church has in that area. Bonnie's Book Store -- It's obviously geared towards women, but if lovin' it is wrong, then I don't wanna be wrong. It's not wrong, though, so it's okay. Eastside Guitars and Drums -- My new place of bidness. We had a recital last night, except instead of hearing elementary versions of Hot Cross Buns we had, well, elementary versions of "Smokin' in the Boys Room" and "Should I Stay or Should I Go". The Semi-Pelagian Narrower Catechism -- No comment. Keith |
| Monkey Business May 2nd, 2006 -- Quick post today. Still no kitchen in tha hizouse, so I need to get to work on plizumbing and maybe some wizall frizaming. One of my guilty pleasures of modern pop music is the new wave of pop rock bands, like All-American Rejects, My Chemical Romance, and Fall Out Boy. I kind of think of them as modern-day Bon Jovis and Warrents, and maybe the Spin Doctors, with their catchy sing-along choruses and there unpretentious natures. No one talks about how "important" My Chemical Romance is, no one refers to them as "artists". They're just bands. I saw Fall Out Boy on Saturday Night Live a week or so ago, in a rerun episode, and I was kind of excited about seeing them. When they came on, things started out well, but after about ten seconds I thought "something is very wrong." I started getting the same feeling I got when the Red Hot Chili Peppers played "Under the Bridge" on SNL back in the early nineties, and the guitarist played the wrong intro and the lead singer glared at him the whole. It wasn't long after that that they announced they were getting a new guitarist, and they said it was because of his drug use. Anyway, back to Fall Out Boy, I don't think the problem was drug use, unless the drug was Monkey Spazz Attack, which I don't think is a real drug. All of the members, with the exception of the drummer, were awful. They were twirling around, jumping around, jerking around, making faces, jumping off of amps, jumping off of the drum riser, kicking amps, pointing at the audience, throwing instruments, and basically doing everything they could do as a band except playing the stinking song! Ugh. Everything was out of rhythm, the singer was way off-pitch and was constantly out of breath, the bass player, well, I don't think he really was a bass player. More like a stuntman and bass thrower. I don't know how the performance was seen by the FOB fanbase, I'm guessing it was labeled "amazing". I can't wait until we get back to the day where musicians are expected to play well on stage, and not so much expected to be dancing monkey clowns. It's nigh on impossible to play an instrument even on a mediocre level when you're jumping around, much less to be able to play it well. There was a time when singers were expected to be spazzes too, and had to jump around, run around, etc., but they got calmer and better once American Idol came along and showed people that yes, it is possible to sing well live. Hopefully that day will return for pop rock, too. ********** Awesome link of the week: The Fantasy Music League We met the recording engineer who's offered to record us. He's a super-cool guy, and he has a really nice setup. We're going into the studio the first week in June, and honestly, I'm really excited about it. As in, really, really, excited. We had a great rehearsal last week and I think things are going to come together really well. Yea!! Have a great week, Keith |
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