what is going on in your musical life

I made a little live deep house jam with a bunch of hardware synths:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcbpT8Y02OI

Got the masters back from Mr. Saff on Black Friday for my new band's single. Should be starting to show up on streaming sites in the next few days.

Anyone that does any blogging on stoner rock, hard rock etc etc.. drop me a line and I will shoot you the 7 inch cover and the single.

Pretty cool, first thing I have had actually come to completion and be released upon the world since 2017. Already working on a 4 song EP to follow up with that band in Louisville and also practiced for the first time on Tuesday night with a potential band in Lex - so hopefully my personal musical drought is starting to abide.

best of luck to you LL, EvanP, DJI, and earlnash.

me, in the alleged post-vaccine paradise of the summer I played out quite a lot - but may have overextended a bit. I feel like I have more to offer as a sideperson than as a solo act. I pretty much hate my voice right now, so I'm trying to find situations where I can just play drums or mandolin.

The best situation for me appears to be as house drummer, playing with anyone who asks. Overall a pretty good joy-to-effort ratio on that activity.

That’s sounds delightful & super fun — I wish there were a house that needed me!! What kind of place are you serving in this role?

YMP - where do you live?

This is for open mics in Northern Va./DC/MD environs. A lot of venues are not drum-friendly, but some are! (At least, friendly to having someone play quietly and unobtrusively on small compact drums.)

I'd been around this scene for a while as a multi-instrumentalist, and I just approached the hosts / venues to make sure they were okay with it.

As people come up to play, they have the option of having drums (and sometimes bass) behind them. Some don't want support and that's fine, I just chill out and listen and drink.

For those that do want support, it might be anything from ABBA to ZZ Top, plus originals or whatever. I've gotten decently good at just getting a tempo and watching for changes.

Like, sometimes it's a mess but sometimes something fun and unplanned happens

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMjhMXHIXqo

I love it!

that sounds like SO much fun

Yes, it is super fun when the stars align. In that case, I'd never played that song, I'd never met those people, it was completely unrehearsed, and it came out fine. Not every encounter on every night is perfect. But the stakes are low, so no one holds it against you if things don't work out. Hereabouts, the scene is thriving and I could play every night if I wanted to.

We've had some discussion ITT on open mics and their attendant cliches (ahem "Wagon Wheel"), but for me it is fine. Also, note: a big part of my musician ethic is reserving paid gigs for people who need them. I usually turn down weddings and parties for the simple reason that I have a day job and don't need musical income. I don't want to take away a paying gig from someone who needs it, nor do I want to work for free in ways that undermine the economy that supports working musicians.

Despite all the justifiable slagging they get, open mics are a way for folks like me to get out there and play just for the joy of it.

My new band's single should be on 666MRDOOM's Youtube site on Monday, which is a pretty popular stoner/doom channel. He put up our last album on his channel and it got a few thousand plays.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5OkHaJqZeM

I did a Messiah recital as part of a quartet at my church gig today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1ODX50bNQY

Is that you around the 15m mark?

Recieved a copy in the post of my friend Ivan's new album coming out next month, which I contributed vocals to a track on. Quite chuffed! The cd artwork is lovely and its weird seeing my name on Proper Music, I feel weirdly proud.

Yes, that’s me

Just listened to the whole thing; it sounded great. Can't have been easy to sing with a mask.

Thanks! We’re all pretty used to the masks by now, been doing it since September; obviously it would be much much better to do it without them but honestly I’m just glad to be performing in public again.

this is from last year but I never got around to trimming the source video.

a few tracks from Shakespeare's Reservoir Dogs, where I played Key William and sang the songs from the movie on a ukulele.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T17XTGFt6Dc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6UqJNfp4EI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fASeOc-bvkk

warning: codpiece

huzzah

verily

forsooth

nice codpiece

Haha wow that's awesome

I've been practicing cello every day and neglecting the smaller boxes. Bf said "hey can you still play the violin all right after months of this?" I picked up the violin and said "oh of course!" in a Liza voice and hacked out Day-O

Got a grant to write a piece to be performed and recorded by a v good local guitarist.

^Excellent!

thx

Finished scoring an impromptu that mostly came out of a spur-of-the-moment improvisation a week ago. I shut off the critical part of my brain that would say things like "too sweet" or "too flashy" and just kind of let it happen.

Prepping a new audition song on the off chance I ever do musical theatre again. This is "How Can I Call This Home?" from Parade.

Needs some work but it'll get there

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5-NcMk0954

I wrote a setting of Agnus Dei that is going to be sung by my choir this Sunday

Man Neanderthal that is a very political audition song choice, I like it

Congrats DJP! Is there going to be video available?

(And thanks!)

It’s going to be live-streamed, the replay will live on the King’s Chapel YouTube channel

Wow v cool DJP

just got home from band practice and feeling like playing drums every day for the past two years has paid off majorly

Yay!

The performance of my piece is in this video; fast-forward to 1:03:17 (pretty sure the ILX regex cuts off the timestamp parameter so you can manually add ?t=3802 to the end of the URL if it's not there)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xit7nF6suoQ

or rather &t=3802

that's so cool! it was really lovely, thank you for sharing

Thank you! I based the harmonic structure off of a pop song I'm putting together that my guitar teacher is having me write in order to force me to learn how to use more difficult chord fingerings, lol

Very tired of my usual songs and completely done with hearing my own voice. I'm just trying to stay active, even if it's mostly remote and online.

Currently starting on a new recording project with some oldsters who have a throwback 70s vibe. I can get out real drumsticks, and explore nonironic uses of fuzz and distortion pedals. May have to invest in some better ear protection though, because it's been a while since I had the space and mandate to RAWK.

At the same time, a bunch of my other one-off collaborators from the acoustic scene are (from my perspective) young persons. I confess that I don't always quite understand their taste. Case in point: I am casting about for a new female singer to work with. One 30ish scene denizen keeps coming up with cover suggestions that are charmingly random. "Jolene"? ok. "Black Horse and a Cherry Tree"? ok. "La Vie en Rose"? ok; I can probably work out a decent arrangement. I asked whether she had anything easy and she suggested "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)." Ok but wtf?

People of my own demographic tend to gravitate toward Blondie, Pretenders, Madonna. And/or Smiths, Cure, REM. That is comfortable territory for me. Edith Piaf is a stretch but not impossible. But Edison Lighthouse? I am always surprised by what Millennials know and don't know.

There is also a weird dude with a 7-string Fernandez and he does instrumental fusion shit. I can usually follow and find a groove, but I am just not quite sure what audience he's aiming for, if any.

there has been a tiktok meme using "love grows (where my rosemary goes)" recently

Aha! That explains it. Thanks. I should alert my teenaged child to inform me of what obscure 70s tunes I will need to study up on henceforth.

One of my peeves is discovering a great obscure jam, then pulling it out to wow my kids and them being like “that was a hit on tiktok last year.”

Completely out of the blue this morning I got a message: “Hey, what chance you could do a 3-week tour with [hardworking, competent, boring 4th-gen Springsteen-influenced singer-songwriter] in May?”

I’d have to burn all my vacation for the year, but I’d knock “doing a solid tour” off my bucket list (regret at having blown my early-90s window of opportunity has been a recent sore spot as I descend into deep middle age, so the serendipity of this speaks volumes). Such a random chance is unlikely to come again (especially if I decline this one).

Thinking hard about it.

DO IT

That sounds like fun.

do it

Had a phone call w/him this morning. He’s got himself sorted with another bassist. Equal parts relief (doing this would have put a complicated squeeze on the rest of my life) and disappointment (no rock & roll month of may for me). After sleeping on it, I would have done it for sure if he’d still needed someone.

Still, it’s cracked open a wedge of really wanting to do music stuff again, and opened my mind to other possibilities I wasn’t considering before, so that’s positive.

Thanks for the encouragement! CAPS AND ALL