what is going on in your musical life

I’ve started a new label for exp/avant audio art. The first release is a cassette by legendary Seattle rapper Specswizard (aka Specs One). Some may know him from his Sun City Girls affiliation.
This one is titled ‘TS AND THE S’. Lots more in the works.

ongoingdiscipline.com

Am on board if we ever end up in the same town, Jordan!

I somehow spaced out and forgot where I was in the middle of playing that Bach at the recital today so improvised a little until I could get back on track. People didn't seem to notice, curiously, perhaps because it might have actually been the least shambolic thing about the recital.

BTW that duet went well and ppl loved the concert, yay

That's great.

a collaborative album I made with my friend John called Movies was featured on Bandcamp Daily last week: https://daily.bandcamp.com/2019/03/28/best-experimental-music-bandcamp-march-2019/

Good for you. I enjoyed it and will probably listen again.

That was excellent grant-writing music, flappy. (I applied for a grant to make an album btw, which is relevant to the thread.)

Last Sunday, at a classical guitar concert, I found out there was a classical guitar open mic that night so I went and played this as well as Villa-Lobos's Etude 11. Met some cool people and good guitarists and actually saw my guitar teacher from undergrad.

I was also accepted to perform a guitar/electronics piece of mine (v loose first performance here) at this festival in August, where I will also do a teleconferenced improvisation and might play in a guitar orchestra. Was also asked to play in the guitar orchestra for a performance of Ben Verdery's Scenes from Ellis Island at a chamber music festival here in July.

i was thinking the other day about when i was first getting into playing music with other people, in high school, and a lot of the music we made was just goofing around in someone's bedroom with a keyboard and a guitar and improvising dumb songs and not worrying about them being dumb or silly or sounding good. it being more of a social hang-out activity that you do with your friends than a "band" or "jamming" and how i miss that. i'm not really friends with the guys i'm in a band with now and i miss making music as more of fun friend activity. the jamming i do with la lechera and other people is closer to that, and i can think of other times i've done it since high school, but it's something that's not in my life enough right now.

though some of that is being nostalgic for having time to hang out and play music without feeling the pressure to create something "good"

You know I’m down for recreational jamming/fun! I could use more of that tbh bc my musical life is going nowhere atm

Not for lack of trying, just nothing happening. Kinda frustrated but what else is new.

I have been doing open mics a bunch lately. I used to be a bit snobby about them, but have happened upon a generally friendly and chill scene.

Pros: I can play out whenever I want, and play whatever I feel like playing. This without having to beg to get gigs, send out demos, promise a draw, promote shows, convince a booking person or agent or record label or whoever that I am worthy. Or put together a band, rehearse, decide on material, etc.

I don't have to lug drums, amps, PA gear, etc. about. I can just grab an acoustic instrument and head out the door once the kids are in bed. Or not, if I don't feel like it.

Cons: of course there are a whole lot of corny boomers doing corny boomer shit. There are of course some breathy ukulele players straight outta Pamplamoose, but that doesn't bother me as much. There are dAd BaNdS. (One can always just go the bar or the bathroom during "City of New Orleans" or whatever.)

The audience mostly consists of the other people waiting to play, plus a smattering of girlfriends/boyfriends/co-workers. (Which often amounts to a bigger audience than I usually had when playing original rock with full bands.)

All the people involved have been uniformly positive and supportive, even if what you are doing is obscure or weird. There's an operatic tenor who plays a drum made out of a propane tank. There's a dude with a homemade electric balalaika who plays Ravel and Saint-Saens.

the band i've been playing with recorded at electric audio with steve albini last week. in 20+ years of playing music i've never recorded in a pro studio before so i was pretty nervous but it turned out good. we recorded live to tape, so no mixing after the song was on tape, which actually ruled because obviously he knows how to get good sounds in his studio with his gear (the drums in particular sound amazing) and it means no mixing. unfortunately for me this band has a whole album they did before i joined that they haven't released yet, so they're going to try and get that out first before we put out the stuff i'm on, but i still think it might come out sometime this year?

― na (NA), Tuesday, May 8, 2018 9:19 AM (eleven months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this album is finally coming out at the end of may: https://midwestaxn.com/music/life-is-twigs-by-protovulcan-available-for-pre-order/

i thought briefly about doing open-mic shows but i played one show with just myself and an acoustic guitar and quickly realized it is not for me. but i get the appeal for sure

looks like i am playing with a new (to me) band! hooray!! i was invited to play last week, our first rehearsal is this week, songs are catchy & fun, super looking forward to it!!

yessssssssss :D

Good luck LL.

Nice

First rehearsal was tonight, it was super fun! I only had a week to learn the songs but I did it in spite of it being the end of the semester!! #trooper

Also they are very catchy songs, that helps

Ahh, that's so cool, LL, glad you had fun.

i am taking drum lessons after three years of playing self-taught, it's totally rocking my world

Post some catchy tunes when you have them, LL! Looking forward to listening.

here's a(n obfuscated) link to the bandcamp -- https://bit.ly/2QmWdwG

what kinds of stuff are you learning brad? i love learning and practicing new drum stuff. it keeps me chugging along in the hellscape of 2019 life :)

v psyched for you ll

that's not me on the recording btw

i did however learn like 10+ songs in under a week

what kinds of stuff are you learning brad? i love learning and practicing new drum stuff. it keeps me chugging along in the hellscape of 2019 life :)

― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Thursday, May 23, 2019 9:42 AM (twelve seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

he taught me the full stroke first and in order to execute it i had to completely change how i've been holding the sticks and striking the snare lol. we're trying to get to a place where i'm doing as little work as possible and using the rebound of the stick instead of lifting my whole goddamn arm every time. we're also doing rudimental patterns from stick control and another book, which he has me exporting into different orchestrations on the drumkit

i guess it's cool to mention that my instructor is kid millions from oneida, i'm so so happy about the situation

nice! that is definitely the way to more control/playing faster and more precisely. def do not need to lift your arm!
i also recommend ted reed's SYNCOPATION for practicing, it's not only helpful but pleasantly meditative

colpitts!!! love him!!! he seems like a totally good person in addition to being an excellent drummer

we're trying to get to a place where i'm doing as little work as possible and using the rebound of the stick instead of lifting my whole goddamn arm every time.

it's all about the wrists! that was pretty much the one good thing that came out of 4 years of marching band

ironically, the last few years i've been dealing with chronic wrist pains, so on the rare occasions that i play these days, my technique is awful

i guess it's cool to mention that my instructor is kid millions from oneida,

whooooooa! buried the lede there!!

Nice LL!

My drum technique is feeling better than it has in a long time, maybe ever. A big part of this is due to (as always) recognizing my limitations, but also strengths, and accepting that one grip/technique doesn't have to work for all situations. It's totally fine to switch grips for different phrases or musical situations, and even though most drummers do this naturally, it doesn't usually come up in drum lessons in my experience. I even switch left vs right hand lead for certain beats & tempos, and I've come to embrace that rather than thinking I have to be able to do everything one way.

xp whoa Brad

It's all about the wrists but the fingers have to be following the stroke in a natural way, or else it'll lock things up. My mantra lately is for the hand to follow the stick, and do what it wants to do rather than vice versa.

jordan completely otm, that is practically word-for-word what john told me during my last two lessons

colpitts!!! love him!!! he seems like a totally good person in addition to being an excellent drummer

― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Thursday, May 23, 2019 9:50 AM (eighteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

he's a huge sweetheart and such a good teacher

and the other book he's teaching me out of is, indeed, ted reed's syncopation

Oh wow, good to know I'm on the right track then. Only took me 23 years to get here, I'm a late bloomer.

if you're a late bloomer, idk what that makes me
a revived corpse?

lol :)

i am feeling good about things clearly if i can make jokes about that

LL - those tracks are great! Gotta say I'm enjoying it more than the noise stuff, but I'm a sucker for catchiness.

Haha, you're not a late bloomer, just a late starter

I started playing guitar and singing lead vox in a Grateful Dead (and other similar stuff) cover band. It's a lot of fun.

https://midwestaxn.bandcamp.com/album/life-is-twigs

album out today, also on spotify and hopefully the other usual places

also i'm trying to get back into doing my own stuff but i've set a very leisurely pace for myself: write and record one song per month. attempting to follow the loose monthly schedule of writing lyrics the first week, writing music the second week, and recording the third and fourth weeks. trying to not worry about the songs being "good" or other people hearing them. the goal is just to be regularly working on my own music without putting too much pressure on myself. i finished the first one of these yesterday.

Just played a decently lengthy set before a decently large arts-festival crowd, and was decently well received. Pleasurable.

NA -- holler if you want to record or borrow some drum shit! that sounds like a fun project.

i am playing with the new band on a porch this afternoon. i feel prepared, which is pretty weird! i need to write down the set list and some notes so i don't get confused bc i'm not used to playing a bunch of rock songs in a row. on a porch.

Band released a record, I’m pretty proud of it. I think the producer/engineer did a great job making a gang of hacks sound decent. salthorse.bandcamp

Next batch of songs is nearly all written; now we need to start whipping them into shape. Summertime is always tough for that bcuz everyone goes on vacation & we never seem to be able to coordinate that.

I bought my first synth after years of jonesing — a Mopho Keys. Looking forward to learning something new from scratch (the synthesis part, not the playing part).

Sounds fantastic!

Shoutout for the physical strenuousness of playing 45 min/12 energetic rock songs (only 3 are even moderately slow) in a row at full enthusiasm in a row.

Wow

Show is on Tues, I need to practice more! We played on a porch on Sun and it was fun but also very low pressure. A 94 year old lady offered me a $5 billl while I was playing <3