I think I’ve addressed this before here on the blog, but I think sometimes you live life, and sometimes life lives you.
You feel like you have choices when you’re living life.
You feel like you’re just following a to-do list if life is living you.
Right now, it really does feel like life is living me instead of the other way around.
To be clear – some of the most fantastic things have been happening the past few months, from my 50th Birthday with surprise visits from my parents and a cousin I hadn’t seen in years to a couple of wonderful trips to North Carolina and Atlanta to see friends and band reunions. And reuniting with my best friend from high school who I hadn’t seen in over 20 years and finally meeting his wife and wonderful boys. SO MUCH LOVE!
But even as it’s been great, everything’s been SCHEDULED. My wife and I haven’t really had good alone time because we have a little kid and no good sitters. Work has been relentless for both of us, and SUPER STRESSFUL for my wife. Gigs have been very sporadic (which serve as a nice salve for my psyche, so that’s not good).
Some days I feel like I’m just driving people places and then sitting in a room for hours on a computer cutting up voiceovers I’m not particularly pleased with and mixing with music that’s ALMOST right for the commercials while periodically being interrupted by questions that have often already been answered.
I’m sure a lot of people go through this stuff, and honestly, I’m usually fairly good at forcing myself to be present and not just muddle through. But right now? It’s not going great. So I’m writing this at 1:41am to kind of put it out there so I can move on from it and take more action in my life.
Recently for the day job I had to create a jingle out of some really questionable a cappella singing, so I threw that pitchy mess into Melodyne (a wonderful software for naturally removing pitchiness), and wrote and recorded music to match the flow of the melody (which was a VERY atypical arrangement). Shockingly, it turned out fairly decent. I had polished the turd to a fine sheen (and they ended up going with the original a cappella…go figure).
The good part about that was discovering how quickly I can throw together music that is a full arrangement (the cleaned-up voice, along with guitar, bass, and drums I played on my Korg X50 keyboard). It really inspired me to possibly use those same techniques to get my songs done and start using my DistroKid account to make them available for people to listen and/or buy on all the streaming services.
So I know I’ve said it before, but I really do think that I’ll actually be finishing some songs in the coming months, and probably releasing them in chunks as EPs on Spotify and stuff like that.
That is, if I can manage to stop letting life live me and turn that shit around so I’m living life.
Wish me luck!
And if you also feel like life has been living you, I feel you. And I’m hoping for your sake you can turn that shit around as well.
Well, my monthly solo gig is gone now. “First Saturdays with Brian V. at 360 Uno” is no more.
360 Uno is shutting their doors for good in late August and my gig this Saturday was cancelled.
It’s a weird thing – there were things that were kind of terrible about those gigs – I never felt prepared enough, the crowds were largely indifferent about my presence (because it was a restaurant situation with sort of old people and families, not a “bar” bar), the setup by the front door was kind of awkward, etc. The staff and how I was treated as a performer there more than made up for it. I got to play all kinds of different songs, take chances, and scratch other musical itches not scratched by Chandler and The Bings. I played my own music almost every show. I played a PILE of Sloan songs for Canada Day on what is now officially my last performance there.
My lovely and talented friend Mandy Prater got me in there, and it was a great situation for me. I just need to find a new place for it – try to set up a monthly gig somewhere. This time, perhaps, a lot closer, and at a BAR bar, so patrons will be more engaged and I’ll play better – I feed off the crowd more than I ever thought I did. That’s a lesson I learned.
Another lesson these gigs taught me is that I am a pretty ham-handed guitar player. Made me really want to get my technique together to execute melodic stuff a little better than just bashing out rhythms all the time.
Thanks to all my friends (and family) who came out and had some pizza or wine or gelato or whatever and enjoyed a show. I loved that you were there more than you can ever imagine. And BIG BIG thanks to Jamie and all the staff there for being so delightful to work with and always making me feel welcome. Good luck to all of you in the future. You deserve all the best.
If you have any ideas of where I can play in the 78748 area, I’m down…
It’s Tuesday. It’s a Museday. And it’s literally MUSE day!
My hetero life mate Ned (the Roman Holiday fella) and I are going to see Muse tonight (thanks to Heather for giving up her tickets).
They are one of the best live bands in the world. Their shows push the limits of live show technology and they really throw a LOT of money into the presentation. AND it’s at the brand-spanking-new, designed-to-sound-good Moody Center here in Austin. So it should be an epic experience. I’m very excited.
Speaking of being excited, the next seven weekends in a row I get to play some live music!
March 4th I’m with those Chandler and The Bings fellas up in College Station, TX at Brookshire Brothers. Yes. The supermarket – they have an awesome live music venue there. We’re stoked to be part of their concert series. Then a solo show on March 11th at 360 Uno (thanks to Mandy Prater for swapping with me). Then, more Bings shows, including St. Patrick’s Day at Picks Bar in San Antonio, a private event for the owners of Picks Bar on Sunday the 26th, then back at 360 Uno solo April 1st (I have to figure out if I’m doing some sort of April Fool – maybe I’ll just learn the Soul Asylum song), back at Picks Bar on April 8th, and then a triumphant return to Joker’s Ice House in Killeen on April 15th. Damn. We’re all over the place!
So that’s my next few months. Work making fun audio things for clients for the day job. Learning new songs for the solo project. Trying to manage my blood pressure and lose some weight, still. And spending as much time as possible enjoying the wife and family.
I hope you get to do the things you love. I’m grateful for all of it.
And I’m grateful for you. Thanks for reading and peace be the journey!
TMS
Museday Mumblings (Vol. 76) – A Case of The Musedays
Well, it’s a Museday. The last time I posted was in late September. Clearly life is having its way with me right now, as I’m not particularly inspired to even blather on here on the blog.
This series was meant to be almost a meditation – every Tuesday (or so) I’d post about some topic, whether it be musical or otherwise (but mostly musical), and it would keep me creating and creative. But a few things happened over the last year or so that really messed with my desire to share much of what’s going on with me publicly. People who are too sensitive. Beloved friends slightly younger than me who died suddenly. The tennis match-like back-and-forth of worthiness and worthlessness that is being a sensitive artist.
I desperately want to WANT to create. I desperately want to FEEL like people I depend on for music-related things are all on the same page. But time creates distance, distance increases anxiety, anxiety breeds worry, worry breeds resentment. I’m not saying anything is REAL about how I feel about the various things I’m doing or my relationships with music stuff, but it’s definitely making me feel less motivated in general, and kind of depressing me (and thus keeping me from working on stuff).
But let’s take stock. Let’s have ourselves one of them certified, Erin-phrase-coined “Gratitude Adjustments”:
In 2022, I played a PILE of wonderful shows with my boys in Chandler and The Bings. And I played my roles as bassist and singer well in the vast majority of them, which makes me very proud. We had a great bonding experience with our trip to Laredo that was only sullied by a bad stomach bug which led to the very first time I’ve ever left the stage to vomit…and then vomited off the side of the stage out of the view of the crowd. It’s quite a story that’s quite gross, and if you’d like to hear it, I’m happy to tell it in person.
My solo shows were mostly pretty good, and I was VERY consistent this year, basically playing every first Saturday except for July. I love the venue, the staff is wonderful, people tip very well, and I really need to grow this side of my musicianship. I think it would be good for my development to have some bigger crowds to play to, though. So I’m going to work towards that in 2023, stacking up the wonderful venue I already play and maybe even finding some more…
I got some very cool new gear and some of my existing gear got an AMAZING update that inspires me to play more, which is good. I keep meaning to make videos about the guitar and little amp, but that’s another casualty of life in general. Just hasn’t happened yet.
My body has held up pretty well considering I packed on an extra 15 lbs this year. Going to do my best to get that off in triplicate this year, hopefully by my birthday in September. That might be too tall an order, but progress toward healthy living is most important. My health is paramount and I need to stick around for my kiddos.
To close this out:
I am thankful that I can still do this music stuff.
I am grateful that my health so far has remained pretty good (gotta figure out the heart flutter, but…)
I am hopeful that I can stay disciplined and make the necessary changes to lead a more healthy lifestyle.
Now that this is turning into a “Goals” post – completely unrelated to the fact that it’s a new year, mind you – my goals are now to get healthy, get better at playing the songs I perform, get working on my ear training and theory knowledge, get the worthy songs I’ve written recorded, mix the old ones that were already recorded better (and improve the performances if necessary), get some new songs together, release some new music (having one song on the streaming platforms seems kind of sad), get my goddamn ass in gear in general, and get some MONEY.
That’d be nice, right? Rent is EXPENSIVE. Shit, everything is.
Anyway, thanks for reading and I plan to get back in this Museday Mumblings habit again. Have a happy day whenever you see this, and may you stay healthy and safe.
There was a personality clash with one member of the band, and it was just easier for life in general for me to disembark. Interpersonal relationships are often the hardest thing about making an ensemble come together. I am so thankful that I’ve been in SO MANY bands where we all got along and had each other’s backs without any ego trips or bickering. Makes the music that much easier, and the shows that much more fun.
The best result of this little development is I have more time for everything else in my life, because these songs were HARD and TIME-CONSUMING TO LEARN. My solo show will benefit from this extra time, so you should come check me out at 360 Uno every first Saturday of the month! I’ll have at least FOUR new songs at the next show, and probably more because I want to shake it up some.
As for other things, I’m doing more tinkering to the studio setup to integrate more things and make everything work together better, so once that’s all done I’ll take some photos and post them here. Should be about a month or two. I still haven’t edited the livestream from the 360 Uno show, but it really wasn’t that great a show anyway, so I’m not going to share it. I have the show prior to that one which was a barn burner, so I’ll probably put that one together with the super-clean audio I recorded and release some clips from that.
And the aforementioned BeatBuddy Mini 2 went back. It just wasn’t for me. It’s cool, though. The full-size BeatBuddy is probably more my speed, but it’s too much for me. I should just learn how to use Ableton.
Take care, stay cool, and stay healthy out there… TMS
Museday Mumblings (Vol. 69 – nice): Stuff Since The Last One
I guess that’s a weird way of saying this is more of a status update than anything, but I’d just like to muse a little about what the past month’s been for me.
Like I mentioned in my last post, I had some really good band shows in January (the solo gig was more iffy). After that, kind of nothing whatsoever was happening with the band for a variety of reasons, which was kind of weird but ultimately very okay. There’s a lot brewing in the other band Pat and Jay are working on, so I kind of knew that was the deal. Which is fine.
I did a setup-cleanup-restringing of the new bass and got it sounding great and in tune all the way up the neck, and I was very excited to play it at the band shows this past weekend. So I strapped it on for the second set…
…and I hated it. Seriously. HATED IT.
I don’t know if it was the choice of strings, the non-maple fingerboard, or the fact that I didn’t adjust the truss rod when I did the setup because things seemed fine, but it played like garbage for me at the show and just didn’t have the right presence sonically. I played maybe four songs and swapped back for the other one. What a disappointment. I was really digging it at home. Maybe it’s just better as a sit-down, studio bass. Not sure. I’ll figure it out, or if not, I’ll let it go. No big deal – there’s no real emotional attachment to this one yet.
The Speakeasy show with Chandler and The Bings went SPLENDIDLY – lots of energy and fun – and a packed house, which included my lovely wife Erin! I was so excited to have her there and seeing her face always makes me feel happy and loved. (Thanks to her friend Christopher for being on toddler duty so she could come.)
The solo show at 360 UNO was just as much fun as the CATB show – Using a “new old gear” setup I brought my Line 6 X3 Live pedalboard back into the fray, designed a patch that ran my vocals and guitar, and it made setup even faster. And I added a Bluetooth page turner footswitch so that I never have to reach up and scroll on my iPad.
I also recorded the show. I was trying to get a decent video of the show to share, but the video looked like total garbage, so I’m sharing the audio with you, if you’d like to have an idea of what my shows are like. It’s pretty good. Some clearly iffy vocal moments (just had a gig the night before, which usually makes things dodgy) and enough guitar clams to make a chowder, but I was happy with it and the crowd really seemed to enjoy it.
Here it is in its entirety:
I didn’t take a break, so it’s two solid hours. Feel free to skip around. Comments are welcome.
Here’s a list of the songs I played (with timecode, for the aforementioned skipping around…):
0:00:24 Hurts So Good 0:03:52 Bad Moon Rising 0:06:02 Learn To Fly 0:09:57 Bus Stop 0:13:14 Lodi 0:15:58 Daydream Believer 0:19:12 Just Like Heaven 0:21:52 Ain’t No Sunshine 0:24:13 Stray Cat Strut 0:27:07 Hold Me Now 0:31:27 Happy Together 0:35:12 What’s Going On 0:38:48 The Way 0:43:16 Every Rose Has Its Thorn 0:47:34 Wanted Dead Or Alive 0:52:42 Can’t Buy Me Love 0:54:52 Santeria 0:58:19 Plush 1:03:30 Wonderwall 1:07:39 Drift Away 1:11:43 Crazy Little Thing Called Love 1:15:03 Hey Jealousy 1:18:42 The Middle 1:21:59 No Such Thing 1:25:31 Always Something There To Remind Me 1:29:01 Tainted Love 1:32:08 I’m A Believer 1:35:22 I Melt With You 1:39:52 Interstate Love Song 1:43:33 Get Back 1:46:56 Out Of My Head 1:50:34 Walking On A Thin Line 1:55:47 Blitzkrieg Bop 1:58:14 Baby One More Time
More Bings stuff coming up, then a Florida trip – hoping to coordinate seeing a lot of my Jax friends. Have to figure out a venue to be hanging around in on Friday or Saturday night or something for when I’m in town.
Enough from me for now. I was going to rant on some big concept, and I still have a few ideas I’m going to explore in the coming months, but for now, just an update.
Take care, have a great week, and thanks for reading!
Peace be the journey. TMS
Museday Mumblings (Vol. 68): Inspiration, Machines, Cranky Old Mofos
My musical mission thus far in 2022 has centered on a few things: Playing good shows. Getting my gear all in proper operation. Learning how to use my new tools (patchbay, Behringer X18 mixer). Forming inspirations into ideas into actual songs.
I’ve succeeded at the good shows part – I played great in both of my Bings shows, and at times was so locked in with Jay every bit of both of our performances made the other’s even better. Excellent crowd in San Antonio, too.
My solo show was a bit hit or miss, working my way through my first on-stage slow-motion anxiety attack. I couldn’t get air, which made it extraordinarily hard to sing. Then, hilariously, I used the altered tuning feature on my Line 6 Variax to play Wonderwall with a “Capo” on the second fret, and promptly FORGOT TO CHANGE IT BACK! So the next group of songs (Drift Away, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Always Something There To Remind Me, I’m A Believer, No Such Thing, and Hey Jealousy) were all played a WHOLE STEP HIGHER than I usually play them. Which made the whole “not having any air” thing even worse. And made it so I didn’t even end up playing one of my “standards”, the Turtles underappreciated classic “Elenore”, because there was no way in HELL I’d be singing that chorus in F#. I literally just stopped the song and moved on. I felt like such an unprofessional loser, and it ruined my evening. I came home a ball of nerves, and I think mildly freaked my wife out. Being someone who’s more of a depressive than an anxious person, it always freaks me out when the stress hormones get rolling, and it’s hard to recover. I think a pharmaceutical would have been helpful (perhaps a Xanax), but I don’t have that stuff. In the end, the venue was happy, and if I’m being honest with myself, even though I was falling apart inside, I still sounded pretty dang good. Just not as good as I normally would sound. I am kind of glad I didn’t record this one, though.
Moving on to the technical stuff – using the wonderful substance Deoxit, in the past few months I’ve cleaned the pots and jacks on a bunch of my aging things and it’s brought them back to life, particularly my “first guitar” – which technically was my brother Robert’s first guitar – now all it needs is to have its nut glued in properly and it’ll be a fun little pseudo-Telecaster to bang around on. I also cleaned up the pots on my basses, bringing them back to proper function, and even rescued a presumed-dead guitar wireless by merely cleaning the output jack. All I need now are some new strings on some of these guitars and basses and we’ll be in business.
Speaking of guitars and basses, I sold one in December. A Dean ML bass (looks kind of like the guitar Dimebag Darrell from Pantera used to play). It never worked for me, and it was a four-string, so I wasn’t using it, it was basically just collecting dust, and since I only paid $49 for it on a blowout sale at Guitar Center over a decade ago, I still made money on the deal, selling it for $100. I probably could have made more off it, but I just wanted it gone and the dude seemed nice.
Last Thursday I had to head down to San Antonio for the day job and on the way home decided to pop by the Guitar Center down there, and discovered a two-pickup version of my “#1” Sterling by Music Man Ray 5 bass that I use in Chandler and The Bings. I couldn’t believe it. More than that, it was on sale for the same price as I picked the #1 up for back in 2018 (that model has since gone up in price, and this version was even more). I decided to snag it. I couldn’t help myself! Pics or it didn’t happen:
She pretty.
It desperately needs new strings and a cleaning/set-up. But I already love it, and that’ll only make it more awesome.
Back in 2021 I got an amazing deal on a Behringer X18 mixer and am just now learning all the little things it can do. It’s going to be central to the new studio setup as I streamline and get things in order. It has amazing routing capabilities and some really cool built-in effects I can play with for doing live streams and stuff like that. This with the patchbay and my ATEM switcher will definitely enable me to do some really cool, interactive stuff from the studio in the future. I just have to get it all plugged up and learn how to make it all work together. I think my Edirol M-16DX, which has been my trusty studio sidekick for over 10 years now, will become the center of my live solo acoustic rig, making setting up and running all that much simpler, because it can live in a rack bag that I can keep set up and basically just plug my guitar and my vocal mic into it and still have effects and stuff I can use.
The last goal is inspiration – and translating that inspiration into new material. I’ve already written down multiple new ideas for songs – concepts more than phrases, really, but really good, inspiring starting points. And I’ve got a bunch more I’ve collected over the past few years that will be worked into songs. I might even use music that I liked from my old songs and replace the dodgy lyrical content with something based off these new ideas. (It won’t be the first time I’ve done that.) Time will tell for all of it.
I was listening to WTF with Marc Maron and his interview with John Mellencamp, and it was really fun listening to two cranky old motherfuckers talk about all kinds of stuff relating to John’s career, music in general, and how to exist on the planet. In fact, two of the aforementioned song ideas directly came to mind as a result of their conversation. So I’m already snagging that inspiration wherever it may show itself.
In summary, I’m excited for the new year at least as my musical experiences are panning out. I love learning new things and feeling energized when it comes to this stuff, so I’m very optimistic that if I make sure I’m investing time in this instead of sitting on my ass watching Rick Beato videos (not that those aren’t awesome), I’ll actually make some headway getting my shit together and creating things. I like the progress my friend Mandy has made with her dedication to live-streaming on Twitch, and I think maybe I’m going to try and make a Musical Schizo concert there a regular part of my week, once I decide on a day and time to do it and get more used to how all that live-streaming stuff works.
Thanks for reading, take care, be safe, and remember to love one another.
Peace be the journey! TMS
Museday Mumblings (Vol. 66): Smell that smoke? Well, I’ve been thinking…
Yeah, don’t hurt myself, right? But seriously, though, I’ve been thinking. Thinking about the good things that have happened since the start of the pandemic two years ago. Thinking about all the music I’ve played since then. Thinking about all the music I’ve made since then (the ONE song…but it’s still something). Thinking about the fact that 2021 was the first year in a WHILE that I was super excited by a bunch of new music. And speaking of that…
I know I just talked about it a little, but I LOVE the Mammoth WVH record. That Son of an Edward really did something special. (and yes, his dad was a bitch sometimes, so I’m using that for that reason) Wolfgang Van Halen played everything on it, sang every note, wrote all the songs. I mean, it was a statement like one of his heroes’ first records (the self-titled Foo Fighters record where Dave Grohl played basically everything). And then he assembled an amazing band to play those songs live and I got to see it. More than any of that, I got to introduce it to another person who loved it even more than I did! (we went to the show together on his dime because he loved the record so much to repay me he bought my ticket).
I love sharing music with people, and love it even more when they “get it” and love it like I do (or more). It’s a way of spreading happiness that to me is so satisfying, because it not only brings joy to others, it makes me feel connected to them because of the shared interest. This friend and I have some things we just don’t connect on because we’re 11 years apart and things just hit us at different ages so there’s a lot of stuff he loves that I at best don’t get and at worst can’t really stand, and same for him with my stuff. When we do have stuff we both love, it’s really great. Nice and bonding, because we both love to have music in common with people because music means so much to both of us.
As I mentioned previously, I also really enjoyed basically everything I could find by I Don’t Know How But They Found Me (IDKHOW). They play in Austin in February and it’s likely I’ll go see them, too. 🙂 The same friend who liked the Mammoth album likes IDKHOW, too, so that’s another one we share (though he’s not the person I got that band from – that’s my buddy Dennis, as I said in the last post).
And last but most certainly not least, I LOVE “An Evening With Silk Sonic” – Anderson.Paak and Bruno Mars’ “holy shit let’s use every single 70s Soul, R&B, and Funk trope in one band that somehow still sounds modern” collaboration. My highlights from the record are “Fly As Me” (can’t get enough of this one), “Leave The Door Open”, “Skate”, and “777”. The other stuff is great, too. It’s worth a listen if you like real people playing real instruments singing real songs with a classic R&B/Soul feel. Instrumental R&B has been sort of set to the side because programming has become so ubiquitous since the late 80s. It’s all very hooky and poppy but it’s also very clear that they wanted to do something truly timeless, and they succeeded. You should check it out.
As for state of the world stuff, well, people are fucking stupid. More stupid than I ever could have imagined. Humanity is an embarrassment. All the knowledge, wealth, and skill to solve major problems, and none of the critical-thinking ability or selflessness among those with more. In fact, those with the most are the least selfless, and billions will die as a result of their desire to hoard their billions of dollars. They have the power to change it all, and, well…don’t. They just make rules so their workers can’t negotiate, so their taxes stay as low as possible, so they are not held responsible for the failures of the designs of their products and systems. Some of them have been responsible for millions of deaths because of their inability to set greed aside and show some respect for getting proper information shared, allowing the amplification of conspiracy nonsense and woo-woo anti-science garbage. They have fomented division like nothing else in human history. And profited every step of the way. Socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor. Needs to be the other way around, but since the system is now designed for their protection, it’s unlikely it will ever be. And there’s not much anyone can do to change it other than not supporting people who support the rich like basically everyone in power does these days (save for a few notable rabble-rousers).
Let’s have a good 2022, and treat our fellow humans with compassion and kindness even if they’re stupid pieces of shit who are ruining it for everyone else. We’re all doing our best, even if many people’s best is simply not good enough. Make your best one based on facts, reason, empathy, and compassion, and reject the narratives spewed by corporatists, sensationalists, cultists, fascists, and propagandists. It will definitely help us focus on the real problems with the world, and perhaps make some strides to fix them.
Okay. Brain turning off. I love you all and thanks for reading this.
Peace be the journey… TMS
Museday Mumblings (Vol. 64): When It All Goes Quiet…
So yeah, things are super weird right now. But in a healthy, good way.
After the frenzy of working on Yacht Z stuff, keeping up with Chandler and The Bings stuff, dealing with illness, travel, work that was all of a sudden SUPER FUCKING BUSY, getting my acoustic show back together, and life in general making me feel like I had no time for anything and it was just guiding me through it, I was completely overwhelmed and drained.
But now?
It’s really quiet.
Sure, work is still absurdly busy, with many evenings extending to 7pm or later. But because of making the painful decision to let go of Yacht Z, finally having the solo show reasonably ready, and the lull in activity with Chandler and The Bings due to half of us starting a new and amazing project with their past bandmate and one of our favorite sound engineers (who also happens to be a great guitarist), it’s pretty quiet right now.
I have time for my kids.
I have time for my wife.
There is “peace in the kingdom” for once. (Well, as much peace as a kingdom with a toddler can have…)
I am super excited because 360 UNO liked me enough to invite me back for TWO shows (that I have oh-so-cleverly booked around Chandler and The Bings, so there can’t be a conflict). So be on the lookout for those show announcements, and come check me out – the weather’s going to be even nicer, so it’ll be really fun to hang out on the patio with me and heckle me or whatever.
So that’s the current state of affairs for me musically.
A while back when I was up at 2 in the morning I bought Rick Beato’s Ear Training course, and it’s pretty amazing but I haven’t really had time to dig into it. So I’m going to continue working on that every day.
I found this amazing video by one of my favorite new discoveries where he shows you a daily independence exercise for your fingers on guitar, and I plan on learning that and working on it: Tomo Fujita’s Nightly Routine
I’m going to do them all both on bass and guitar because I’d like to be exemplary on both. But only if I end up having time. The ear training is more important to me than anything.
ALSO – I’m going to livestream my acoustic practices, so if you keep your eye on my YouTube channel, or perhaps even my Twitch channel, not that I ever really have used that yet. But my friend Mandy Prater’s doing great over there – check out her shows sometime!
Okay, that’s the musings for this week. Be safe, stay healthy, and remember to be kind to yourself and others.
Growing up is interesting. All people do it. Even individual aspects of our lives grow at different rates and in different ways. I know that my tastes in music evolved much faster when I was a teenager and through my twenties as I discovered new things and “old” things sort of fell to the side. Now, I’m not as fickle as many people who consume music, so I still did love the stuff that I was sort of letting go for a while for the shiny new things, but often I just never listened to it again. And there were plenty of things got heard and cast aside because they didn’t hook me.
I find it a nice experiment sometimes to go back and listen to things that were lost or hated for whatever reason and see if the current version of me, removed from whatever cultural prejudice (it was/wasn’t cool to like it) existed at the time.
I’ve actually gotten a lot of joy finding things I missed over the years, and it’s almost more fun to rediscover something that used to be on my radar when I was younger. There’s a lot of stuff I just didn’t “get” that I now understand. Even three of my favorite bands didn’t hook me when I first heard them. Rush, Led Zeppelin, and Muse – all three I kind of either hated or was sort of “meh” on until years after I first heard their music, and now all three are constant musical companions and teachers.
Going back and listening to the albums I wore out as a kid has been almost universally fun. The recent death of Producer/Writer/Rapper/Piano Man Gregory Jacobs (aka “Shock G” and “Humpty Hump”) reminded me how amazing his group Digital Underground’s album “Sex Packets” is – truly one of the greatest concept albums not by a prog- or art-rock band, and one of the best I’ve ever heard in Hip Hop. It ain’t just “The Humpty Dance” – although that’s definitely there for you to enjoy.
Another great example I hadn’t really heard since I was about 14 but now pops back into the regular rotation is INXS’ album “Kick”. It doesn’t have a bad song on it. De La Soul’s “3 Feet High and Rising” is another landmark that I listened to OVER AND OVER and that I appreciate even more as my musical tastes and experience have grown over the years. There are a few albums that I remember listening to a lot that I can’t really get through these days (Starship’s “Knee Deep In The Hoopla” is an EXCELLENT example – that thing is dreadful), but the adventure of listening to stuff that was sort of ubiquitous at one time in my life, long before my “musician ears” kicked in, allows me to appreciate them on a different level, which is mostly good.
In the age of Spotify, I’ve had a lot of fun creating playlists that include the radio songs of my childhood – some of which I hadn’t really heard since then. Stuff like “Heart Attack” by Olivia Newton-John. Or “You Should Hear How She Talks About You” by Melissa Manchester. “You Are” by Lionel Richie. “Self Control” by Laura Branigan. These are often “other hit” songs that people forgot that really have no home except on the weird “Jack” or “Bob” or other single-name, catch-all playlist radio stations, and even still, they don’t always show up there. There are a lot of songs that had similar chart positions to stuff that has endured like “Jessie’s Girl” or “867-5309/Jenny” but never really made it past 1984 in terms of being something people talk about or listen to. And a lot of them were pretty big hits! Sure, fans know the stuff, but in terms of the general population, most of it is lost to time. And I don’t know that it’s a good thing. But it doesn’t matter – because the journey to rediscovering stuff is a pleasure.
I’m generally not super open to a lot of current music, for a variety of reasons – many of them tied to the production styles (trap hats, autotune) and what I see as a general lack of excellence in writing and performing. The people who do impress me generally are special talents as singers or MCs, write their own stuff, and have a broader appreciation of music. Or sometimes it’s just an excellent song. But all of these feel rare to me right now, so it doesn’t encourage the searching. It is entirely possible that I’ll revisit this stuff in a few years and go, “damn, I like this – why did I think it sucked?” and that’s cool. That’s the beauty of having access to basically everything.
Think about stuff you liked as a kid – think about the last time you heard it. Maybe grab a few of those old albums that meant something to you that you stopped listening to for whatever reason, or stuff you hated and never really gave a chance, and and go back and give them a try. Hate them, love them, or “meh” them, it’s worth it for the nostalgia kick. I mean, even fucking Gerardo was fun to go back and check out for me. Color Me Badd, even. I still kind of hate them, but it was fun hearing them again, especially with my current ears.
Have a great rest of your week – go get your jab if you haven’t (it’s time – plenty of availability in most areas now), and take care of yourself.
