what is going on in your musical life

I may explode in a fit of rage at our next spiritual ensemble rehearsal if people don't learn their music

The almost-a-band I'm in put some music online:
http://www.reverbnation.com/virtualtrio/album/43256-march-2013-jam

i want to sing in a choir again.

when it isn't the worst thing in the world, it's really fun!

i tried to record a kind of singer-songwritery song last night and got too embarrassed and had to stop

i just thought, how am i tryin to be 33 and not owning the guitar i've wanted my entire life

1 P.3. Eternal (roxymuzak) wrote this at 2013-08-21 16:50:59.000

Yes! Had a realization this summer that I had got into playing music when I was 10 because I wanted to play bass, but my parents made me take guitar lessons because they owned a guard and that just spiraled into me being a guitar player. So broke down and bought a bass last month at age 34. Fuck. I feel so much better about my musical life at the moment. Have to learn how to play bass now, as I've already gone through all the basslines I'd learned to play on guitar, but I'm very stoked about it.

"Owned a guitar"

Well my band for the first time in probably 13 months doesn't have any upcoming gigs booked, as the club we were going to play in a couple weeks has closed. So far we got to do 12 shows this year. It's not a huge number but the crazy thing is we mostly play shows like 2 hours away more, as there are just no local gigs doing what we do.

Eh...I'm ready to do some recording and writing some new tunes anyway.

playing this show on monday but more importantly look at this flyer

https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/1236404_10151858324614269_2059788852_n.jpg

That is a great flyer.

Everything about that flyer makes me want to go and see that show.

Who drew it? It rules.

the promoter made it, I've actually never met her? hoping she'll have extra copies at the show....

jon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Theodor_Heine

ooh thanks! Never heard of him before. I wonder if he counted the bilious Heinrich Heine among his ancestors.

Feeling good about my latest 'choons to the point where I'm starting to think about seeking out live performances. And then I realize: that's me playing all the parts on my demos and I haven't played my songs for anyone else.

So much for that idea.

Here's my most recent thing. It's very stock jangle pop sounding. But that's what we like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArzwVqXK6po

As menshed elsewhere last night was pretty much my first proper time performing live, even if it were just vox/harmonies. It was super fun though, helped by the fact my bandmates are amazing,talented men who write music I actively really enjoy. So proud of us.

playing tonight at the larimer lounge in Denver! if you're in denver, come say hi! http://www.larimerlounge.com/event_details.cfm?blogid=1199

- I've been writing a lot of chamber music this year. Most exciting is a ballet, the National Ballet of Canada are performing it in November. Orchestra + solo soprano + harpsichord. Anybody who'd like to hear MIDI and see PDF can PM me about it.

- It seems I am writing a vocal piece for Hilliard Ensemble with another ILXor on the words and I bet you can guess who

- Diam4nda Gal4s played a festival that I curated in Lausanne. Unfortunately I could not attend because I am busy in Montreal. But: I got word from my friend doing her makeup that aside from being a lovely person to work with, she is a fan of Mariah. "I love her," she said, when looking at some Mariah brand nail polish. How about that? It's like *sigh of relief*

Man, that is a post I cannot top.

I was going to add that I'm also appearing on SNL this weekend but I figured I'd break it into two posts.

That actually takes a lot if pressure off of my little cabaret night, thanks ftgi

i bought an overdrive pedal yeaaaaaaah now who wins eh.

! xxp

I have about 30 mins of music done, if I clean it up I guess I have an album

also apparently I made a song last night that for some reason I titled Boricua Owl

- sat up way late last night trying out the studio mic ive had set up in my room forever and not used (issues with room reverb i had to fix). Dear god, it shits all over my beaten up old SM57. I dont have to STRAIN when I sing.

Hell yeah, Merdeyeux! What did you get?

Picked up my tele this morning for the first time since buying the bass about a month ago. It felt like a mandolin. The bass is so much more comfortable for me.

After our rehearsal last night, I think the spiritual ensemble concert on Sunday will be okay. As of Monday, I thought it was going to be a massive trainwreck, so that's a good thing.

convinced highly skeptical bandmate that bass through the slowgear clone pedal -> heavy metal 2 pedal would sound awesome.

how cool did it sound

is it good for basslines or is it more suitable for abstract/extended technique playing

it sounds as close to a distorted amplified cello as I think I can get with a bass and no computer/midi. It only works well when played slow or at moderate tempo, but it is almost exactly what I wanted it to sound like.

n.b. i have only been playing bass for about a year, after having played for about a year as a teenager, so it might work differently for a better bass player

cabaret was doooooooooope

my girlfriends and i started practicing to be the GoGos at the local halloween thing

its my electric (non-bass) guitar debut tbh

it is VERY fun

i am jane weidlin

she lives in my town, plays some bands i think but i haven't seen any of them. i only know her from Clue.

Been trying out a new bass playing technique by holding the neck higher and holding my fingers so they point down rather than across the neck, playing the strings with the sides of my fingers a bit like a double bass. I'm self taught but this seemed to help my playing somewhat (less encouraged to play with my thumb), whereas I'd almost always approached the bass like a finger style guitar with a finger on each string. Am I doing the right thing here?

finished a recording project i've been working on for a year
bought a new guitar
trying to write songs again

wait, dl, do you mean with your fingers pointing straight up? and do you mean your fretting or picking hand?

picking hand. before, i was holding my hand into a sort of claw with a thumb/finger for each string. I knew i was doing it wrong, but it's what came natural. I'm trying to use the resting thumb/two finger technique now, but I'm playing it a bit more like an upright bass (although maybe not that extreme).

i started playing bass this year and my hand cramps out very hard and embarassingly fast, but it's more my fretting hand. could be wrong but there's no right or wrong way unless you really wanna shred, it's more about experimenting with what feels comfortable. i'm at the extreme of unambitiousness technique-wise, though

oh ok yeah. youre now playing the way i play.

im really worried that my (pending) rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis (waiting for test results) is going to F with my playing. so far whatever it is isn't in my wrists or hands, but from what i hear that prob won't last

Got the EP mastered today. Pretty happy with it.

I spent yesterday evening in a super-souped up studio, an "ideal listening environment", to listen to and make notes on some mixes I've been working on for a client. Things were going great until my friend who works there cruelly put on some Real Music, who's mixes shat all over mine. A single Broadcast song made me want to change occupations, bleah.

I've been stewing about this for years: if the listening public/music writing body understood how their musical experiences are so definitively created by not the songwriter, or the producer, or the performer, but by the mixer and the mixing process, 90% of all fun rhetoric would dissolve. You can't really sling mud as effectively when your opinions are defined exclusively by who's behind the desk. Agree? disagree? Anyway, making records sucks.

disagree; you just get to have nerdier, more esoteric mudslinging arguments

Anyway, making records sucks.

Bleurgh, tell me about it...
I've got 95% of an album recorded, but nothing mixed yet. And this is always the point at which my ears fill with cotton wool and the songs that I thought were awesome end up sounding like a guy shouting from behind a sofa.