The Musical Schizo

I wrote a new song. The first one for 2010. Hopefully not the last one for 2010!

Anyway, here it is:
To Be Free – Stream MP3 – Get MP3 – About

I hope you enjoy it.
TMS

Self-criticism follows. Do not read if you don’t want to hear me whine.
My apologies for the mix. I had to mix it late at night when everyone was asleep. Actually, the singing would have been better, too, if I really could have belted it out. Actually this is just weak, and I’m only sharing it because I’m thrilled I actually fucking wrote something!

So I was trolling the Craigslist ads yesterday, and I saw an ad for a riff-rock band looking for a bassist. I listened to their music, and it was okay. I didn’t love it. The sound quality was pretty weak.

Then I was watching a Radiohead concert on DirecTV that they did in a studio. It reminded me why I don’t like Radiohead, but sonically it was great. The bass sounds and overall textures were beautiful, even if the songs were repetitive, droning and just flat out boring.

It just made me think about how I haven’t managed to do anything with MY music. No proper studio recordings, certain songs barely even have recorded demos. It got me really wanting to get something together.

Saturday night I went to a show that my friend’s band was playing. They got me up to play a few songs, I met their new drummer (who is awesome, even if he didn’t know all their material), and had fun.

Ned (Roman Holiday guitarist) just moved into a new place up near Lake Travis where he’s going to set up a jam room with PA. I think that will be good, because we can have proper band practices in a place where we don’t have to pay and we can just hang out without being annoyed by the shitty, bitchy customer service at the local rehearsal place where all the out-of-tune metal bands will be playing next door at full volume in tiny rooms.

Bought Sloan’s “B Sides Win” compilation album. I don’t love them as much as I once did (especially in the One Chord->Navy Blues->Between The Bridges era), but I still enjoy hearing new music from them, even if it’s not new music.

Listened to Butch Walker’s new record “I Liked It Better When You Had No Heart”. I enjoyed it immensely. Must buy it when it comes out…you should, too, if you like hooky rocking power pop music. Butch has gotten more into folky americana textures these days than in the past, but it’s still great.

Also – tired of people who lie to themselves to maintain a fictional understanding of the past. Face the truth. Let it set you free.

That is all for now. Peace and love and good happiness stuff…
TMS

Sometimes I just feel off, musically. We played a show in Killeen last Friday and I was really just not right at times – like I was sort of learning how to do things that I already knew how to do and had done tons of times.

It doesn’t exactly create self-confidence to not really know what your limbs or voice are going to do when you give them the same message you’ve given them hundreds of times. It was weird.

I feel better now, but I still don’t get it. Maybe I’m just overly stressed and my neurons aren’t firing as cleanly as before. Either way, we have a weekend off to collect our thoughts, and then we’re going to be doing our first “two night stand” in as long as I can remember with this band up in Marble Falls. I’m going to figure out a way to record the show this time. I just bought an 8GB SD card for my Zoom Q3 video camera, and I’m going to figure out a way to rig it so it captures the stage and you can really see our show.

Once those videos are done, I’ll edit them in Vegas and post them here. Hooray!

For now, I might just record an acoustic song and post it. Hmmm…perhaps the next post will be a link to a YouTube video. We shall see…
TMS

Last night had a great show for the Rockdale Chamber of Commerce’s New Year’s Eve party. It was so much fun playing in a big hall like that. Broke my headset mic, but it happens.

Now for 2010, musically. Ten things. For this year, I plan to:
1. Start using my Zoom Q3 to record videos of me playing my songs solo and acoustic.
2. Start using the same Zoom Q3 to record videos of me playing cover songs solo and acoustic.
3. Start using the now oft-mentioned Zoom Q3 to record videos of the band so we can truly know what sucks and needs to improve in our live show.
4. Write more songs. One a month at the very least.
5. Master MIDI and using virtual instruments in ACID.
6. Start another fun project – one that exists without a profit motive that will just play whatever the fuck it wants to. It will be good because I will be in it.
7. Realize that #6 sounds egotistical, but like Dizzy Dean said, “It ain’t braggin’ if you can back it up.”
8. Realize that even with #7 as justification, I’m not comfortable with that sort of arrogant confidence, and I will retreat from that statement and re-state my intent with the last line of #6: It won’t completely suck because I’m in it.
9. I will take a more active role in getting the main band marketed effectively.
10. I will learn all the words to all the songs we play and be so good at them I won’t even bring my book to shows anymore.

Happy New Year from me, your humble Musical Schizo!
TMS

I had a great time playing with Moving Blues last Sunday (11/29).

I had fun having a little “bass practice” with Ned yesterday (12/6).

This Friday (12/11) Roman Holiday plays up in Killeen at our “home bar”, The Duckhorn Tavern at the Killeen Mall. It should be fun.

As for other aspects of my musical life, well, there haven’t been any. My non-musical life has trumped it all these past few weeks.

Hopefully I can get back to practicing and writing stuff at some point in the future.

That would be nice.

This weekend at Rabbit’s – Sunday night at 9pm I’m filling in on bass with Moving Blues for a benefit show. Come out and check us out – East 6th Street and Chicon.

Roman Holiday had a good show this past weekend, though I think I need to sit down with Mr. Ned and teach him how to play bass better. We aren’t booked very much, but everything coming up is good for us, so here’s hoping we can add to it.

Still going to figure out another musical venture that involves me playing guitar, whether it be the always-talked-about, never-realized acoustic act or another power trio with me on guitar.

We shall see. Come see the blues show – show up early for some really great blues on Sunday, then you can watch me guess my way through a show!

I’ve been inspired by a few dorks from Teignmouth.

The new Muse record, “The Resistance” came out recently, and I’ve been wearing it out.

I just love their complete abandon, stylistically, and their willingness to pretty much try anything that suits them. It WORKS on this record.

And so, it’s inspired me to remember what’s important to me where music is concerned: Fun!

Taking that brave leap and writing a sexy electro-R&B song with slap bass even if you’re a progressive rock band known more for distorted bass lines under soaring guitar and operatic vocals. Unabashedly aping Queen’s “massive choral harmonies and orchestral-sounding harmonized guitar parts”. It’s just great stuff, and all done well.

I’ve always been a bit of a genre-bender, at least in spirit, so for me, The Musical Schizo, this is MY prog band right now.

So thank you, Muse (Matt, Chris, and Dominic) for making a record that really touched me and reminded me what’s important.

I think I’m going to go record a song right now. We’ll see if I post it…

Had a great (though too sunny) show at Lake Belton for the 3rd Cavalry and their families. It was cool. Big props to George and John at Veteran Sound (www.veteransound.com) for their great work. Also to the Army for having us. It was truly an honor.

Had a less great show two weeks prior at Hayashi. Well, the show was great, but a discussion about our fee after the show soured the night. We won’t be back there, not because we don’t like the place, but apparently we’re too expensive, even with the discount we gave them.

We’ve been playing “Rebel Yell” at the shows, with me on Ned’s guitar (and him on my bass). It’s been pretty fun, but it’s still weird because I’m just not really used to playing his guitars. They feel weird to me, especially after playing a bass for the rest of the show. It’s harder to play and sing than I remembered, but only from a rhythmic standpoint – I can get through every part, it’s just kind of pat-head-rub-belly at times.

On the songwriting front, I wrote a chord progression yesterday, and had some ideas for a melody, which is good. I also recorded some drums just for fun and they ended up sounding pretty decent despite my crappy playing. I definitely need to plan out times when I can cut real drum tracks for all my songs. That would be splendid.

I think I just need to start writing as much as possible again. The juices need to be kickstarted to flow, and they just haven’t been.

And away we go! Roman Holiday’s got some time off now, perhaps we’ll schedule a rehearsal or two. Or not…

Mother Nature is a cruel BITCH.

Our gig on Friday got rained out. In the driest summer in recent Austin history (AFAIK). First a light sprinkle that didn’t seem like it was going to lead to anything that lasted for a while, then slightly more driving rain, followed by immediate deluge, Florida-style. We were set up outside on a deck next to a pool in a really dangerous thunderstorm. Needless to say, lightning hit really close, scaring the shit out of us more than once.

Seems like everything’s okay – we went to a dry garage (thank you Greg) and toweled everything down. Fortunately it’s supposed to be really hot all week, so the stuff should dry out well.

My biggest bummer was not getting to use my new bass. I got a great deal on a used Carvin B5 bass, and so far, at least at home, I’m loving the thing. It’s a little “loved” (way more loved than I expected based on the pictures on Craigslist), but worth the money I spent on it, for sure. It’s light, very flexible in tone, and an utter joy to play. Here are some pictures:

Public gig this Saturday night at Hayashi up in Cedar Park…it should be a gas!
TMS

It should be fun.

It’s definitely made me realize that I’d really like to get another band going to play maybe once a month or so, booked around Roman Holiday. I’ll probably play guitar and sing lead in the new band, which will most likely be a trio (to keep it lucrative), and most likely feature a lot of different songs than we play with Roman Holiday.

More liberties will be taken with song selection, though many of the usual suspects will appear. And my original songs (at least a few of them) will be part of the repertoire.

I’m not sure who else will be in the band with me, but we’re going to work that part out before the end of the year and hopefully get the band up to speed and ready to gig by early next year.

Time to put on my big boy pants and take control of something for a change.

Of course, we all know (from reading this blog) that it will not happen, since I haven’t managed to get my acoustic act (which is just ME (!)) up and running, either.

But you never know…
TMS