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Museday Mumblings (Vol. 66): Smell that smoke? Well, I’ve been thinking…

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…

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 also want to work on this Paul Davids exercise that is an absolute finger crusher. Maybe this one, too.

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.

Peace be the journey!
TMS

Museday Mumblings (Vol. 49): Revisiting Things

Museday Mumblings (Vol. 49): Revisiting Things

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.

Peace be the journey!
TMS

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

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

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.

Thoughts on “Artistry”

Thoughts on “Artistry”

(note – Just some thoughts. I wrote this piece back in March, but am finally publishing it now. Not sure why I never hit publish.)

As someone who has spent the majority of his musical life as background music for people getting drunk, it’s hard for me to relate to what it must be like to actually create music as art. Sure, I’ve written my fair share of songs, and I have pretty strong opinions on what I like and don’t like about things I and others have created, but I’ve never seen myself as an artist, or my work as artistry.

I wonder sometimes if that’s just me avoiding actually putting myself out there for judgment or if it’s putting art on a pedestal, or a mix of both. I definitely am proud of some of the stuff I’ve created, and I’m definitely proud of some of the ways I’ve put my stamp on other people’s work through my experience in cover bands of various types.

I’m inherently not a precious person when it comes to creating musical things, which is to my detriment, I think. I do believe I’d have something to offer as an artist. I just carry this inbuilt suspicion and animosity toward the very act of being precious, with the notable exception that I’m all in if it’s an artist I love – they can be as precious as they feel they need to be and I’m still eating it up. But I wonder if it really does come down to fear that nothing I could ever do would measure up to the things that I like.

Stepping away from music for a bit – when I was first creating audio productions, long before I worked in radio production, I was very particular about things being “just so”. I really crafted the things I created with a lot of care. When I started making commercials, I would do the same, and take tons of time just trying to get them perfect. Once I worked in radio production full time, I learned that I simply did not have enough time to spend hours on one 30-second commercial. I really had to speed it up to get things done. Then I became a production director all by myself, and had no time to be precious about it – I just had to get things done.

One might think I’d be able to carry over that “get it done” attitude to music, but the lack of hard deadlines in music has kept me from really feeling like I’ve ever accomplished anything. People flog the “art is never finished, only abandoned” cliche, but it is a real trap if you think you can keep working on something forever. That’s what I’ve been doing with a lot of my own music. Nothing feels good enough for me, and almost every time I’ve shared something, it’s mostly met with indifference, which reinforces the idea that I’m simply not doing anything interesting. Which is largely true, if I’m being brutally honest with myself. I have my retread pop punk-style songs, and my retread power pop songs and my retread sort of singer-songwritery songs. Nothing is all that “me”.

I grapple with the whole “me” thing as a writer. It reminds me of a time in high school. I was doing my normal thing of talking in every voice but my own (doing accents and characters and basically being a teenage Dana Carvey wannabe) and my best friend Brandon had grown tired of my antics, grabbed me, and said, “What do YOU sound like?” It’s funny how much that resonated. It went far beyond just doing a surfer dude voice followed by a fey German accent. It sticks in my head to this day, but it’s morphed into something even bigger. Perhaps even something menacing for me as a creator. What do I sound like? Honestly, I’ve been avoiding that for years, mostly because every time I create something, I really hate what I sound like when I’m not basically doing a style impression of some other artist I admire. Who am I kidding? I hate that, too, because it’s not original!

Which brings me to the whole point of this spiel: Artistry. How does one define it? I struggle with it all the time, because I feel like 25 years playing in cover bands has basically robbed me of any artistry of my own. I am a pretty complete musician, because I’ve played many different genres of music and can slide into most musical situations quite comfortably, but I never feel like an artist or feel like anything I do is truly artistic. I’ve gotten close to it from time to time, especially during improvisational performances at jam nights, and coming up with parts to complement the crazy ways we redo things in Chandler and The Bings, but with the music I’ve composed, I don’t know that I’ve ever gotten there, to a place where I’d consider it art. I’ve definitely tried.

Thanks for reading!
TMS