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Museday Mumblings (Vol. 25): Took a break…

Museday Mumblings (Vol. 25): Took a break…

I’d like to say it was on purpose, like I felt like there was some more important stuff happening last Tuesday, but the reality is, I simply forgot. I have a civic mind and I was really focused on the election and just wasn’t thinking of things that I wanted to do. Thankfully it’s looking like sanity barely beat fear, so maybe we’ll get a better world. It’d be nice if the 70 million people who thought he was still a better idea would come live in reality where the facts reside and see him for the turdbag conman bigot that he is, but it’s hard to deprogram people from cults. Lost a few friends on Facebook because of an incendiary post, basically saying that they should feel shame about it and supporting him was a “stain on their soul”. Hey, I’m dramatic sometimes. I really didn’t mean it to hurt people’s feelings, though. I just honestly think that you should feel deep shame about a vote for that person, because it shows one of three big flaws about you: 1. You don’t do your due diligence. 2. You are hateful/bigoted or dogmatic in some way. 3. You care more about your party than your country so you only believe what your preferred ideologues say instead of dispassionately accepting the facts. Just my position. Doesn’t detract from my love for anyone who has those flaws, except for the hateful/bigoted part – they can fuck right off forever, as far as I’m concerned – this world doesn’t need them anymore unless they change their hearts.

But enough political garbage. Let’s talk music.

Like how 2020 is shaping up to being worse than 2016 in terms of losing iconic musicians. It already took three of my all-time favorite “beacons of musical light” in Neil Peart, Adam Schlesinger, and Edward Van Halen. And another personal favorite Emitt Rhodes. But adding to the list some truly great artists: Little Richard, Kenny Rogers, Charlie Daniels, Jerry Jeff Walker, Justin Townes Earle, Joe Diffie, Helen Reddy, Mac Davis, Bill Withers, Toots Hibbert, Ronald Bell (Kool & The Gang), Spencer Davis, Tony Lewis (The Outfield), influential guitarist Peter Green, bassist Pete Way, drummers Frankie Banali and Lee Kerslake, and so many more. And producers, too – Keith Olsen, Rupert Hine, Martin Birch…I mean, on top of all this loss, it was a BRUTAL year for music in general. Releases pushed back, tours cancelled, production companies and crew all losing their entire livelihoods. It’s been financially terrible, even for me, and I’m one of the lucky ones who doesn’t subsist on it.

We’ve all found our own ways to scratch the creative itches this year, and I find it kind of sad that my band has only managed one release, though I’m still proud of it. Check it out if you haven’t. I’ve only managed to write one song, which is an improvement over past years, but it only exists because I lost someone important to me. And it’s only okay, to me. Better than nothing.

I think I’ve talked before about how much fun I’ve been having just jamming out on guitar and bass, trying to noodle on old stuff and keep up my chops while we’re not playing. But I’ve even kind of grown tired of that. I meant to do that tonight and instead I spent a few hours playing old recordings of my previous bands and looking at old pictures with my daughter. Which was lovely, but not really productive. AND…

Tonight has been a total abandonment of my commitment to being a little more respectful of my body. I mean, I’d set a bedtime for myself of no later than 10pm, and it’s now 12:53am as I type this. Big fail. But I’m not going to beat myself up or anything. I’m just going to do better tomorrow.

I hope we all have a lovely week, and I hope everyone stays healthy and safe. Coronavirus is NOT done with us, and we need to be more vigilant again. Cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are all on the rise, and our current leadership is doing NOTHING to help us. They’re too busy lying to the American people about the results of an election they lost, and stoking their scared, real-information-starved followers’ fear, which could lead to actual violence and discord. All because they can’t be statesmen and don’t honestly care about people at all. They just need them as tools for their political success. But we’re not going down that road. This isn’t the place or the time.

Take care, wear your mask, wash your hands, be good to people, show love even to the angry 70 million people who voted for the orange conman, and do your best to acknowledge your privilege, whatever it may be. Black lives matter.

Peace be the journey!

TMS

Museday Mumblings (Vol. 24): “Firing on all cylinders”

Museday Mumblings (Vol. 24): “Firing on all cylinders”

Ah, timing.

It’s one of the most challenging aspects of music to master if you aren’t blessed with naturally good meter, and working with groups/teams, it’s also one of the most challenging aspects of keeping everyone on the same page and moving at the same rate.

Right now, we’re having a bit of a timing issue with one of my teams. The majority of us are motivated to keep moving forward, and one of us just isn’t. Our tempos aren’t matching. Our engine has a cylinder with a misfire, and it’s really affecting the efficiency and power of our vehicle. It’s not a malice thing – this teammate still seems to love at least the idea of what we’ve been doing. They’ve just kind of checked out. Part of it is a change in their lifestyle and part of it is not being able to do the main thing our team does, which is the unifying and motivating factor for basically all of us.

This isn’t exclusive to this team member. I’ve been in the same position in the not-too-distant past. I just couldn’t muster the energy or motivation to complete needed tasks and it held everyone back. Part of my problem is that the tasks I needed to complete were similar to tasks required by my day job, and I think at the time the last thing I wanted to do after spending all day at the computer was to spend MORE time there working on things that basically were a purposeful distraction from our usual endeavors, since those were not available to us due to the pandemic.

Now, motivating someone and getting their butt in gear is a tricky proposition, especially since just about everything we’re doing right now doesn’t necessarily support our main activity, so it all seems kind of pointless. But there are team members who want to create endlessly, and those of us who want to support but don’t always have the energy and motivation, and others who are down for whatever but not leading the charge on anything.

I wouldn’t call our situation a crisis, because once we’re doing our thing together again, all will return to what it was, but for right now, it’s really difficult.

I have a friend whose heart isn’t in what he’s doing right now musically, but like me he doesn’t want to disappoint anyone. He’s worried about their needs, but sort of torturing himself as a result because he’s just not having fun. Music isn’t really supposed to feel like work. I’ve found that even in the most “corporate” environments, I can find ways to make it very enjoyable to make music for people – even if we’re just the wallpaper. Music can be like solving problems – finding that perfect spot to put the chord stab or bass accent that propels the groove of that song you’ve played a thousand times. Living in those little moments can act as that spark plug to keep your cylinder firing. Finding ways to have everyone enjoy those little moments when the crowd is giving you nothing is the way to be an amazing band, because once you are getting that positive feedback, you’re just even better. You find those little magical moments, and get people singing and dancing, and then your whole outfit will be firing on all cylinders – a motor that propels everyone through their night. Powerful and fun, and a hell of a ride. I watched some footage from this friend’s current endeavors, and there’s something missing. That fire, the magic that happens when everyone is on the same page, driving toward the same goal, was missing. They were not bad, just missing that magic. Almost too measured, too self-aware at times, and a little too up their own butts (not my friend, mind you…the band as a whole).

I had a situation similar to his a few years back, but I wasn’t as invested personally with my bandmates, so it was much easier for me to quit. But it still was hard because I never want to let people down. In my situation, I was the only one who seemed to want to drive anything forward. The main guy was basically completely burned out. The one guy was going through the motions, doing the bare minimum. The third guy couldn’t even be bothered to remember how the songs went. And there I was, in the “new guy” musical arsehole role, trying to motivate people who were too selfish, too lazy, or too stupid to reach any sort of level above utter mediocrity. The more it dragged on, the less I wanted to do the work, until finally I was just done. It wasn’t worth it monetarily, spiritually, emotionally, or musically. Time to leave. And I did. And it was a very smart move. But it did lead to the end of that band. Which was probably a good thing, since they were long past done. I mean, when you join a band and immediately know their material better than they do? And it’s because they can’t find the motivation to recall it or work it up again? Junk that engine. It’s toast.

I realize my comparisons of teams and bands to actual engines is kind of silly, but people do like the saying “firing on all cylinders”, so I was having a bit of fun. The point is, getting a situation where you’re all comparably motivated, and wanting to move forward together at the same speed is rare and wonderful. And everyone who gets to experience it needs to savor it while it’s happening, because timing does have a way of screwing things up. It can make a band sound weak and uninspired, and it can make a groove fall apart, leaving you sitting at a dive bar watching four old crusty men attempting to be funky on Mustang Sally, playing it too fast and sounding whiter than the sheets they probably wear in secret, laying down a disjointed groove that only the drunkest townie will dance to.

I’m looking forward to giving my team’s engine a tune-up so we’re back firing on all cylinders again soon.

Peace be the journey. Black lives matter! Stay home, stay safe, wash your hands, wear your fucking mask, and physically distance. People are dying because people are getting lazy. We’re not done with this shit, and it’s not done with us, even if that loser some refer to as a President wants to act like it’s over.

TMS

Museday Mumblings (Vol. 14): Just let me WORK, for F—‘s Sake!

Museday Mumblings (Vol. 14): Just let me WORK, for F—‘s Sake!

I’m sure we’ve all been there. We think we can just hop on the computer and knock something out in two minutes. We think that because we got a NEW computer, that our issues are solved. But every damn time you just want to quickly get something done and walk away, something doesn’t load right, or it won’t save right, or that network resource isn’t showing up the way it’s supposed to, or sometimes it’s us – we just can’t perform what we need to perform at the moment – we can’t talk, type, sing, play, draw precisely, edit, whatever. It happens to me all the time.

Now I’m sure the Apple crowd will chime in and say, “my Mac just works”, which is nice. For you. But I don’t have that kind of money, so I live in PC-land. And Macs are just as susceptible to software not initializing properly, crashing, network issues, and all the other crap. About the only real benefit you have is that you won’t have driver issues. In theory. But we’re not talking to you right now, so you can go watch the rainbow ball spin while ProTools crashes on you again because it sucks at managing memory.

(Wow. Someone’s got a chip on his shoulder. Sorry about that. I do actually have a strong fondness for Macs, and I might make the switch if I had a lot of money. It’d be worth it for the more-stable drivers.)

Anyway…back to the point of all this (was I even near a point?) – I just want things to work so I can do whatever work I want or need to do. And they sometimes, if not most of the time, don’t. In the past (and occasionally in the present), I would get REALLY MAD about these developments. Now (most of the time), I’m pretty chill about it, but just sad and frustrated that the thing that should work doesn’t work, especially when I’ve set it up correctly and it’s a new piece of gear. It happens to even the best stuff, unfortunately.

One interesting “opposite-day” thing in my “SHIT DON’T WORK” world was when I made the transition to Windows 10 on my new machine with a very old but awesome piece of gear I use as my interface – the Edirol (Roland) M-16DX Digital Mixer. Turns out it’s WAY more stable on Windows 10! The driver in Windows 7 would crash ALL THE TIME, and now I never lose connectivity. It’s great. I really thought I’d have to buy a new interface/mixer, but I didn’t. So that’s more of a “SHIT DOES WORK” for once. But those moments are rare, unfortunately. ESPECIALLY when you’re in a hurry, it seems.

A few weeks back I was trying to get my day job work done – I had to take a break right around the time I usually wrap up to get my kids, so I came back home to finish up (I had about 20-30 minutes of work left) and everything was jacked up. The network didn’t work – figured it out and fixed that. Took about 30 minutes. Then the system I use to organize all my work simply wouldn’t load any data. Tried everything to figure that out – literally for two hours, when all I wanted to do was go to bed – and it never came back on-line so I had to give up and punt until Saturday. The next day – all was perfect. Everything worked. Took me 20 minutes to finish.

And this isn’t restricted to computers – sometimes, your baby can break. Yeah – if you’ve got a little kid, it’s a crap shoot. Sometimes (like my dude the majority of the time), they sleep consistently and well. And other times, often when it seems creativity is striking and you really have to get the ideas down…every five minutes he’s crying or calling for me. It’s like every time I hit record, it sets him off. Like he KNOWS… So I run to him and help and hope that it gets better. Sometimes, they settle, and sometimes, forget about getting that idea down. It’s not happening. That was Sunday night here. Still haven’t gotten the idea down…because it’s gone. Ah, well. If it’s truly great, I’ll remember it.

In other news, my brain is broken. I hopped into the studio Sunday night thinking I’d be rocking out some new tracks for the two new songs we’re working on for the band, and then I went to the shared folders and saw that I’d already recorded my parts. I’m not sure exactly why I didn’t remember that at all…but it was WEIRD. I had apparently completely blocked out that on March 31st I had recorded the two songs. The parts were good takes, too! Only had to fix one little thing before I sent them up to Jay for mixing. So that’s nice. Like past Brian paying present Brian a little gift… (“yeah, I got you, boo…”) These new ones will probably blow your mind and make you laugh. I can’t wait to get them all done and out to everyone.

AND I can’t wait to get my own music recorded! I have no excuse now. I have great beat-making software (that I just have to figure out how to make my MIDI controller run), so I can create awesome drum tracks (when I’m not physically playing the drums on my little electronic kit, of course) and get my songs together finally. I’m going to release an album this year. Even if it’s December 31st, I’m making that shit happen. Consider this gauntlet thrown down!

Okay, that’s enough for now. Go check out my song on Spotify or whatever (it’s pretty much everywhere) and give it some plays or buy it on iTunes or Amazon. And go check out the Chandler and The Bings tune on Spotify or whatever as well. If you’re feeling really brave and want to dig into my OLD demos…those are on the main part of this site (which is going to be redesigned soon…)

Black Lives Matter. Wear a mask. Physically distance. Wash your hands. Love ALL people instead of letting the hate and tribalism consume you. Learn how to think critically.

Peace be the journey!

TMS

Museday Mumblings (Vol. 13): How to get through when you can’t do what you do

Museday Mumblings (Vol. 13): How to get through when you can’t do what you do

So live music has been dead since basically February for me. Chandler and The Bings did do one livestream concert at a venue with essentially no audience in May, but it didn’t go well even though we played well. Anyone who watched the show saw the sad results – audio problems, inconsistent video-audio synchronization, etc. And it made me so frustrated, because we played REALLY WELL and it didn’t make it through the internet tubes to the audience. Earlier we had done some live streams by ourselves at our respective houses with acoustic guitars, with varying results in quality (most looked and sounded okay at best).

As a result, I’ve been investigating options for setting up a workable live-streaming setup on a budget. I figure if you can gather together a few cameras that can do a live HDMI output (GoPros, fake GoPros, old point-and-shoots, etc.), get one of those switchers like the Blackmagic Designs ATEM Mini, which can output to a computer like it’s a webcam itself, and run our usual BingsNet system as the audio source, we could come up with something that looks good and sounds great.

The desperation of not being able to play together as a group and connect with people, even if it’s just over the internet, has driven me into the world of video production. Now, I haven’t had the funds to get the switcher, so as of now, we can’t really do anything, but I know it’s possible…and that’s the cool part.

We expended so much energy getting the studio song together, it was a nice distraction from actually physically playing shows together, but every time we talk, we talk about how much we miss playing live. I mean, come on. If your audiences were like this, wouldn’t you feel the same?

So finding ways to get through when you can’t do what you do is a tricky proposition. We’ve tried a lot of things, and they’ve served as reasonable distractions. But they don’t replace the thing that makes us love this so much – the crowds. And that’s just not something that is going to be real for a WHILE for us, because there’s no way we’re doing shows until this virus is close to gone or people can be vaccinated and protected.

The next step? ANOTHER song in the studio. Me investigating ways we can do actual shows using a video setup and streaming it over the internet. We can all stay six feet from each other and we’ve all been very good about avoiding contact and sheltering in place (as much as that’s possible for some of us). We will find a way to get through.

As for straight-up Musical Schizo things, I’m planning on doing a new run of Bathroom Schizo videos (yes, the Friday Flush WILL return soon!), and if I am able to get the switcher and get the multi-cam thing working, it’s going to be FUN. Multiple angles in the bathroom! As I’m writing this blog I decided it’s worth it – I’m selling some stuff I’ve been hoarding to try and raise fundage for the switcher. Yeah. Gotta make it happen.

As a reminder – Black Lives Matter, wash your hands, physically distance, wear a decent mask over your nose and mouth, and stay home if you can.

Take care and peace be the journey!

TMS

Museday Mumblings (Vol. 12): I Did A Thing!

Museday Mumblings (Vol. 12): I Did A Thing!

So Chandler and The Bings’ new song came out last Friday, and we’re all terribly proud of it. It really captures the overall essence of the band, though with the notable exception of not enough Alon mojo on the song. (Our next two should take care of that missing element.)

Now that it’s done and out in the world, I also created another thing to go along with it. I shared it with the boys, and am posting it here only because few people read this, and the ones that do are generally people I trust.

It’s a little video taking you through the song from a bass perspective, with some additional commentary. It’s more of an experiment than anything, but I figured I’d share it here, because I DID A THING. Yes. Created something. And it wasn’t terribly hard to do, which was nice.

I hope you enjoy it, and I hope that this blog finds you safe and healthy. C U Next Museday!

Black Lives Matter. Wear your mask. Physically distance. Wash your hands. Lead with love.

And peace be the journey!

TMS

Museday Mumblings (Vol. 7): Gig/Band Stories

Museday Mumblings (Vol. 7): Gig/Band Stories

Since playing shows really isn’t a thing right now, for a variety of reasons all tied to the current Coronavirus pandemic, I figured I’d tell a few stories I could remember from my life as a gigging musician. Times when I learned something.

First one, early 1993. The band: Magic Garden. My first band playing bass. At the time, I was 100% focused on guitar. My brother Rob had bought a bass a little over a year earlier, and that was now “his” instrument. In fact, just to play the shows and not have Rob throw a fit, I paid him half of what I made at the gigs to use his bass and amp for the shows. It was a white Arbor P-Bass, and all we had in the family at the time to amplify it was a tiny Crate practice amp. I cringe thinking about walking into a show with that shitty-ass rig expecting to be heard. Anyway, first gig was at a bar that would later become like a second home in my more depressed, alcoholic days my last year in college. Maxie’s.

I barely knew the music, which was a mix of originals and covers. The leader of that band was this guy who was my first solid example of the Dunning-Kruger effect in music. This guy thought he was an AMAZING musician. He was mediocre at best. Even then, while I was still in heavy Dunning-Kruger mode myself, I could tell he was a big pile of “meh”. Anyway, we get in there and set up, and play some, and the owner of the bar brings us beers. Mind you, this is February of 1993. I’m 19 years old. Even though I was gawky and looked about 17, tops, he brought me beers, too. He asked if we were all of age, and I didn’t say anything but everyone else said yes. I didn’t expect to be served, but that Yuengling Lager was delicious. The gig went terrible – no one could hear me – which was good because I couldn’t hear myself, so I’m sure I was playing like shit. I wasn’t a bassist, really, at that point. Just a kid who WANTED to play bass. I think I played with a pick all night because I hadn’t developed my calluses yet. But I was so excited to have my first bar gig under my belt. Even if it was “just as a bassist”. I played a few more shows with the band and then quit (with plenty of notice) because they basically seemed more concerned with smoking weed than getting any better. I remember Mr. Dunning-Kruger was super pissed and then super weird to me after that, always throwing their new bassist’s talent in my face whenever he had a chance. What a prick. Shawn Gray – if you read this…fuck you, dude. You were an asshole to me for no good reason. (He’s never going to read this – there’s no chance he even remembers who I am…) But moving on. GIG NUMBER TWO…

Open mic night. Holly Springs, PA. 1994ish. Got up and did a couple of songs with my friend Mike (aka “Pizza Man”). I even did a solo rendition of Anthrax’s Dallabnikufesin (their goof on the hair metal power ballad). People really liked it and laughed really hard at the end of the song because it has a punchline ending. A few minutes later, Mike came up to me and told me his musician friend, who he had a ton of respect for, said, “Where’d you find this kid?” about me. Which was the first big vote of confidence I ever got for my singing. Prior to that, it had always been my friends kind of shitting on me for it when I tried to sing. Mind you, I’m sure it was terrible. I just really wanted to be able to do it. This was the first time someone seemed impressed. And it really gave me a boost. I still think about it now.

Neon Logic Band, 1998. Bass Guitar. Played a wedding that the band booked without talking to me, that I couldn’t get to until about 40 minutes after we were supposed to start because I had to work. Came in late. Sound was shit. Guys were sort of mad at me, but they knew it was going to happen. Wedding people were happy. First time I realized you could suck ass and still make people enjoy themselves.

Slaphappy, 1999. Bass Guitar and Vocals. Played a seafood restaurant called “Calico Jack’s” for Halloween. Got to sing lead on TWO songs (Surrender, I Alone) and harmonies on tons of others. It was EXCITING. People really loved the band. First show truly killing it in a cover band. Still makes me smile thinking about it. I think the lead singer dressed as a cow. Cut to about two months later (in early 2000), after playing a regular Thursday gig at this same venue, with varying levels of success, because it was a THURSDAY, the manager chose to fire us BEFORE we started our set. Up to that point, it was the most phoned-in show a band I was in I ever played. We just basically fucked around and played whatever we wanted. It was not good. But it taught me a lesson about professionalism.

Slaphappy, August 2001. Bass Guitar and Vocals. We’d been playing with a fill-in singer since April, and then had a run of about 15 weeks in a row of gigs, and we were all tired of everything. We were playing at the Jacksonville Landing, one of our biggest venues by size, and it was DEAD. What? A gig OUTSIDE in Florida in August doesn’t draw a huge crowd? Anyway…nothing was going right, and the lead guitarist lost his shit. Threw his guitar on the ground and walked off stage. We had a show the following evening that was very tense. We talked it out and set some good boundaries, and “found the fun” again. But it was really hard to get there being so burnt out. He still has that guitar, and though the body got a crack in it, it never split, and still sounds awesome. Any time I wanted a reminder of keeping my cool on stage, I’d pick up his guitar and look at the crack, and it helped immensely.

Jumping back, Slaphappy, May 2001. Hurricane Hattie’s. This was at the beginning of the run. Our fill-in (now one of my best friends) was messing things up left and right, and who could blame him? That was a lot of material to learn as a lead singer with very little time to prep. I kept making mad faces all gig, scowling and basically being an asshole every time he messed up even a little. I can’t remember who pointed how terrible it looked out to me, but damn, I felt like a complete asshole. I apologized to him, and plotted a new strategy for myself for dealing with on-stage mess-ups. I’d smile, and if I could, laugh at them. IT WORKED! To this day, if you see me smiling on stage, it’s possible either I fucked up, or one of my bandmates did. And I guess sometimes I’m truly enjoying myself. Okay, most of the time. Now I embrace the chaos, when in the past, it would drive me to the brink of fury. That was a good lesson to learn. And it took basically one person pointing out how much of a prick I was. This seems to be a trend.

Forward in time…band named after the method you use to dial out of a hotel, 2005-2006. Guitar and co-Lead Vocals. I joined this band after they didn’t pick me to replace an important member earlier that year (in January 2005). The previous version of the band was kind of its “classic” lineup – with the most talented players they’d ever have all together. I really wished I would have gotten picked for that opening, but at the time Slaphappy was still a thing, and that paired with the fact that the other guy seemed more appealing to women (he was single and had more of a rock image), and already kind of had a solo fanbase sealed my fate, even though it was clear to everyone in the band I had powerful musical chemistry with the other guitarist/singer and the bassist. They went with the image rather than the talent in a 2-1 vote. It would bite them later. By May, the two super-talented guys would quit the band for family and motivation reasons. They weren’t having fun anymore. They might have stuck around had I been there, but we’ll never know…

Slaphappy had died in February, and I was looking for something new, so I joined. Now, new guy from January (who had an earlier stint in the band but was fired for a variety of reasons) had it in his head that he was the lead singer now. I guess because of his five months of seniority? Of course, that wasn’t the deal with me joining – I joined on the condition that we were going to share lead vocals equally, and each sing the songs we sounded better singing. It was discussed clearly, and he agreed. Cut to September and October, and he keeps making suggestions that he sing something and I play lead on it, edging me out so he was singing more of the songs. And worse, trying to take songs that were more suited to my voice. By the time we got to November, I was pretty livid, but not only because of the not-singing-lead thing. When I’m playing, I only care about making whatever ensemble I’m in sound its best. And me singing on the songs I was singing was us at our best. Honestly, me singing even more might have been even better. We’ll get to that in a second.

So, I’m still angry about being pushed down, but I couldn’t find a way to confront him directly about it because I didn’t have the communication skills, so I was going through the drummer/bandleader to express my frustration. Apparently he was getting it from the other guy as well, and he finally basically told me to shut the fuck up and talk to the other guy because he was tired of it. We finally figured it out, but it was still kind of tense, because he wasn’t really doing a great job singing the stuff that was his. Unfortunately for the band, he was really sounding like shit at the shows, to the point that one of the managers at our “home” venue came up to the bandleader and said, “What the hell is wrong with that guy? He’s terrible.” Referring to the other singer. “You should have THAT guy sing.” Pointing to me. This confirmed my sense that we were headed in the wrong direction. We sputtered along through the new year into 2006, and then a few months in, the other guy quit rather abruptly. We tried one guy and had a promising rehearsal, but then we had a horrible show – he did a terrible job and didn’t know the material and sang very poorly. So we moved on. We decided to go with me as sole lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist and got a great lead guitarist who wasn’t really a singer, and we played a couple of good shows with that group, which would prove to be the last shows I played with them. I moved to Austin in May that year. I still kind of give the bandleader shit for not picking me instead of the drama queen when they had a chance. That would have been an amazing band.

Around the time all this drama was happening, I was starting a new band (Schizophonic) with the genius drummer from Slaphappy, the brilliant bassist that just quit the band I joined, and an awesome-but-green keyboardist. Things were going great until we started to pick songs, and it became very apparent to the bassist that we weren’t headed in a direction he wanted to head in. Add that to the lack of gigs booked for this band, because we were trying to truly be something different and pick songs we hadn’t heard other bands play, and he decided it just wasn’t worth it anymore. He felt marginalized. And I felt terrible, because he was right. I mean, I truly still don’t believe the songs he was picking were all that marketable, but giving him at least an equal share of the repertoire might have made us sound really unique and awesome and not really hurt us in the long run. We ended up finding another player who was only okay, and we sputtered through a gig or two and died in the rehearsal space at the keyboardist’s house months later, after the brilliant bassist had joined another band and then taken the drummer for that band. I ended up filling in with them a couple of times later, so it wasn’t any big drama, but it still hurts, especially knowing it was largely because I lacked empathy for what my friend wanted to do and how not picking his songs made him feel.

There are so many more stories to tell, but I think I’ll stop here.

Learning self-confidence, professionalism, patience, equanimity, balance, and empathy through these situations has helped me make my band experiences truly the best they can be, and me a much better bandmate.

Hopefully reading these might serve as cautionary tales for your experiences in bands or as a musician in general.

Have a wonderful week, and I apologize for this being published a day late. Life is weird. We were working on the final mix of Chandler and The Bings’ new single. It’s pretty awesome.

Black Lives Matter. Keep your respiratory droplets to yourself. Wear your mask. Wash your hands. Keep your distance.

And peace be the journey.

TMS

Chandler and The Bings LIVE!

Chandler and The Bings LIVE!

Can’t make it to a show because of geography or other reasons? Here’s the live audio from our show on July 20th at Craftsman in Austin.

Set 1:

Set 2:

Set 3:

Featuring my bass playing and backing vocals all night, and my lead vocals on All Star, Hey Jealousy, When I Come Around, Creep (kinda), and Friends In Low Places (and part of It’s Gonna Be Me).

I love playing with this band!
TMS

You Can’t Always Get What You Want…

You Can’t Always Get What You Want…

I have a serious issue now. I desperately want a $2100 bass. You see, Ernie Ball/Music Man came out with their new Stingray Special series, with roasted maple necks that have stainless steel frets and updated bodies that are lighter, and updated electronics that are punchier and quieter. Of course, it’s not happening. I don’t have that kind of cash.

Cut to a few weeks ago, where I was doing my normal Craigslist perusal, and I came across a guy up in Cedar Park selling my $2100 bass for a mere $1295! I literally did not have the funds to scrape together to get this incredibly-cheap offering of EXACTLY THE BASS I WANT – Black. Maple fingerboard. One pickup. Just like the Sterling Sub series that I’m playing now as my #1 bass, but lighter and more pro in every single way.

So I’ve been anguished about it for a couple of weeks now. And the ad has finally timed out on Craiglist, so no more drooling over that which I can not possess. I did send the guy an email basically begging him to keep in touch if he still happened to have the bass next month (since I plan on scraping together money and selling things). I’ve heard nothing back. I’m sad.

So what does this tell me? Well, I snoozed and most likely lost. And I simply cannot justify spending almost $1300 on a bass, even if it is the $2100 bass I so desperately wish to own.

But if on the odd chance I do hear back from Allen from Cedar Park…well, I guess we’ll see how my willpower handles it.

I don’t NEED this bass…but damn if it wouldn’t be a hoot to have it!

In other news: Things with The Bings are going as wonderfully as before, better, actually, because my voice has been solid. We’ve been killing our Thursday shows at Stereotype, with people showing up basically just to see us and then clearing out once we’re done (except on the Saturday gig – they hung out – we wish they’d hang out on the Thursdays, too, but it’s nice that they’re there for us specifically). Not sure what the future holds with that. 2019 might be something different there. We’ll have to see. I do look forward to seeing some of my “buddy bands” there, though (like HighRoad, Zoodust, and especially Hit & Run). They’re all being booked when we can’t make the shows.

I’ve been cleaning things up in my studio and getting things all wired up for proper use in preparation for work beginning in earnest on some recordings. I know if you look at the 10 years or so I’ve been writing this blog that that seems like more of the same promised bullshit, but this time I really have all the pieces together and am feeling some creativity, so it might not be any of the songs I’ve already written – it might be writing new ones from all the progressions, melodies, and riffs I’ve been recording on my iPhone for the past six or seven years. I’ve got good software and plugins and I’m raring to go. Now it’s just finding the moments of quiet necessary for getting things down. I think I can manage it. 🙂

I’m probably heading out to a jam night tomorrow to see some friends and maybe rock out a few tunes I haven’t played in a while. I might even see if they’ll let me play drums on something. I haven’t done that in front of an audience since a Slaphappy gig in Georgia about 15 years ago.

On the “gear I actually own” front, the HX Stomp has been PERFECTION for my gigs with The Bings. And I got a new set of quad-driver in-ears for cheap on Amazon that have been perfection as well. It’s crazy – I haven’t even been running a speaker or amp. Just BIG FAT TONE from a teeny tiny pedal.

Thanks for reading my update, and have a wonderful Christmas and New Year – if that’s your thing.

Peace, love, and good happiness stuff…

TMS

Life and Baby

Life and Baby

The last pieces I wrote for this site were back in March, before my youngest son was born. I had every intention of keeping up with this page more, and turning it into a site tracking the progress of my latest musical project, but baby is more important. This ended up on the back burner. Now that the little dude is 7 months old, and things are sort of normalizing in a way, I decided to pop in and be creative for a second, and maybe write something about what life has been like for me, but the reality is, life hasn’t really changed. Well, that’s not true – life has changed A LOT – but my musical life hasn’t changed one bit. I’m still not recording as much as I want, not getting my songs together for the album I announced over a year ago, and basically just playing shows with the Bings and hitting the occasional jam night when I can (far less frequently now that baby is here). It’s okay, though. I’m pretty happy these days in general. Because of some other life changes, my two older kiddos are living with me full-time, and it’s nice to have those turds around. They’re so good to their little brother, even if they’re incapable of babysitting him. Getting them here has been quite time-consuming, so even more time away from music and blogging. But again, things are starting to normalize a bit and as we get past the unpacking and settling phase for them, we’ll be ready to make some moves on the music part.

As all this is happening, the Bings have gone through some ups and downs, but mostly ups, and now we’ve got a sort of regular show happening on Thursday nights at a place called Stereotype. This past Thursday the evil “I suck at harmonies” monster came back and reared its ugly head, which when added to the fact that I was suffering some horrible back pain due to all the lifting and moving of things, made my night the worst show I’ve played in about five years or so. When I sang lead, things were fine, but outside of that, it was a shit show for me. The good news is that we’ve got another show this coming Thursday, so redemption is around the corner. I’m going to use different in-ears for this show, so hopefully I’ll be able to hear better and thus sing better. We shall see…

You’d think I’d have more to say, but I’m just tired. More to come in the next few weeks. It’s been four or five years since the last set, so I think I’m going to start posting new videos of me singing solo with an acoustic in the bathroom. I just have to decide which bathroom I’m going to use, and what songs I’ll sing. I think Elenore by The Turtles will make an appearance. Perhaps some more gems from my solo acoustic set just for fun. And maybe some Bings songs, too. Maybe I can convince Pat to come over and do a duet with me in the bathroom. That’d be a first.

Thanks for your continued attention and have a wonderful Halloween, All Saints Day/Dia De Los Muertos, and November in general.

TMS

P.S. Ba-by Shark doot do do do do do…Ba-by Shark doot do do do do do…Ba-by Shark doot do do do do do…Baby shark.