what is going on in your musical life

what is going on in my musical life observation: crazy how much better your band gets when you rehearse more than a few times a year!

i've also been writing these little piano miniatures and recording them to cassette as interludes. don't really know what you'd call them, a single-note melody in the right hand and i guess a counter-melody in the left. drummer songs.

drummer songs.

^^^ album title

Me and La Lechera are playing a show in a couple of weeks, doing semi-improvised instrumental guitar and drums music heavily based on looping with the looper pedal. Excited to play a show, a little more nervous than usual since it's outside of my comfort zone (I don't really think of myself as much of an improviser or strong guitarist) but should be fun. The show we're playing is an experimental music showcase and it looks like we're a lot more rock-based than the other acts. Also I haven't played guitar at all in a couple of weeks and I'm tempted to not play at all before the show just to see what happens but that's probably a bad idea.

I have a recording project called Shredded Sun (shreddedsun.bandcamp.com) with the same people who were in my old band. It takes forever for us to do stuff bc we have kids and jobs and stuff but have four new songs done that I'm pretty excited about, they're very dense and shoegaze-influenced, but we're trying to hold out on releasing them until we have enough for a full album, whatever that means in this day and age. so I'm trying to be patient.

I played bass for a couple of Adv@nce B@se (ex-Casi0tone for the P@infully @lone) shows in December that were pretty fun/interesting, it was an eight-piece band and we never rehearsed as the full group before the shows. The first show was pretty shaky but the second was a lot of fun and I think he's going to put the recording out soon.

! I know Owen from way back, sounded like that show was great.

The best part of it for me was going "on tour" to play the one show out of town, bc everyone else involved was much more of a pro musician and it was fun to listen to their stories about playing with other famous people or tour disasters or whatever. It was a good crew of cool people and I got to tag along.

i am looking forward to this show a lot and trying to plan my outfit without overdoing it

Also I haven't played guitar at all in a couple of weeks and I'm tempted to not play at all before the show just to see what happens but that's probably a bad idea.
i think this could be a good idea really -- the day after the 1 day/week that I don't practice always feels really good, like i am more in control than i expected to be.

what should I wear?

something that won't get caught in your pedals or flop in your face
no gloves

I expect to hear not only how it goes but what the both of you wore

I'll try not to disappoint, ogmor.

more and more often, i find myself in the position of getting offered actual money to do musical things i don't particularly want to do (like make sample packs and produce for rappers who i don't care about). on the one hand, i feel like i should do these things because in 2016 this is how you actually make money for putting out the music that you do care about (i.e. commercial opportunities instead of selling records). also i have a hard time saying no to things, although i'm improving.

on the other hand, i have a day job so i don't need the money, and the whole point of keeping music as a 'hobby' should be so that it stays fun, right?

if you don't need the money, don't do it

(i know this is not a bad problem to have. also i think the only compelling reason for saying 'yes' to these things is that i could justify buying that new synth to my partner, because i would just be putting music money back into music.)

xp

the trap I've seen people fall into is that they justify doing stuff they don't want to do for money as a way to fund their own things they *do* want to do... and then they don't actually have the time to do the stuff they do want to do, cuz they're too busy

that is the advice i was looking for, ty

Could these musical jobs help you: i) improve your skills in a way that would be relevant to the things you actually enjoy doing or ii) cut back on your hours at (or eventually quit) your day job? If not, Οὖτις probably OTM.

I, non-musician who got bored with what's out there, am slowly groping my way through four separate 'projects' in various stages of disarray:

- duo with fellow ILXor S- - 'punk electronics' I coined us, octatrack sampler and other synths and drum machines &c. basically this was an excuse to do a comedy 'world cup theme' for the last WC that turned into a real project. we've done a radio session and played a gig shortly after that last year, then I got a job and we haven't done anything since cept come up with ludicrous album titles and concepts. need to kick that back into gear.

- jamming with on-hiatus IMM'er electric sound of jim, shooting for the 'private issue new age' vibe. ppl we've played it to seemed to dig it; friend who runs small noise label likes a couple of tracks but wants the titles changed from the cloud types used as placeholder names, haha.

- trio with another two friends - me on synths and drum machine when I can be bothered bringing it along, guitar, bass (the bassist has just swapped to this after deeming her own cello work "too depressing"). seem to get some interesting instrumental soundtrack vibes going on, but we don't practise enough and the bassist in particular has too much going on elsewhere to do it twice a week. probably need a drummer too really.

- fiddling around with whatever my own thing is - I guess I'm shooting for a more chaotic take on tangerine dream-y repetition. this seems to be turning into an exercise in amassing gear.

You are doing a lot of musical things for a non-musician

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I'm writing a viola+orchestra piece! There's a section where I want it to sound like high-pitched static so I gave the entire string section egg shakers to swirl

:D

The viola is one of my v favorite voices

That is exciting news!

that's awesome.

so I gave the entire string section egg shakers to swirl

this reminds me of the time that i had dinner with a bunch of old symphony orchestra vets (the principal percussionist was a friend of the family), and to this day i have never heard musicians complain as much or as bitterly. one of the string players was talking about being made to play some avant garde piece where they had to tap on the bodies of their instruments, and how they should be getting paid doubling rates because that counts as percussion.

hahaha

for some reason that reminds me of an anecdote about the 60s/early 70s Marvel Comics inker Vinnie Colletta. He had an assistant whose job was to ink the backgrounds and Vinnie would ink all the figures. One day he passes his assistant a page with a crowd scene; Vinnie has inked all the people but one guy prone on the ground. "I'm not supposed to ink any figures," his assistant complains. "That guy's dead so he's background," says Vinnie

lol

Sounds pretty cool, fgti.

i've been playing in this band with a weirdo that plays only covers of local, small time musicians. i just joined it, but it's kind of a local institution, been around a while with a rotating cast of ppl around this one guy. i don't know. it's fun to play with him , and very fun to choose and learn the songs, but he has a weird value system w/r/t music, ie he doesn't want me to sing harmonies cause i sing "like an angel", which isn't really true. he also has no ambitions (how can you be ambitious with a covers band really tho) and is really skeptical of people who have them. its fun tho.

I think I'm in this band!!!!!!!!!!

Trying to sequence the tracks for an album I've been working on for years and cannot for the life of me figure out how to do it. Spent so much time with these songs that it's hard to get a sense of how they fit together. Any advice?

It sounds like you need external input from someone. I'd try assigning them an arbitrary order and doing an informal focus group-type thing with a small number people you trust to give you honest opinions on how well the album flows.

Tackling trying to learn staff notation by attempting various things in Notion on iPhone and iPad. Amazing program (the samples are even pretty good). Damn this is a big nut though. Thank god i played sax for nine years in band so i at least have that remnant literacy, but dang I am 45 years old and my brain is not the rapacious monster it once was

Xp yeah that's what I'm thinking. It's just so frustrating that I can't figure this out on my own. It's like I have no sense of how these songs function anymore.

https://soundcloud.com/djperry1973/at-the-river

My most recent solo at my church gig

Max for Live was being incredibly buggy for me all last week. Then, out of nowhere, it started working without a hitch. I'm trying to get some of my processed guitar pieces ready for a presentation later in March. Sooo rusty right now and I'll be away from my gear all of next week.:(

That was nice, Dan.

Thanks! I am very happy with the direction my new voice teacher is pushing me; hopefully in a year I'll have a reliable high range and can call myself a real baritone rather than a bass-baritone with very soft low notes, lol

Also, recently cranked out a trio piece for flute/tuba/piano (seriously) that will be played in Ottawa in April. I'm not really sure how it will come out but am curious.

I went up to Ottawa last weekend for this premiere. The performance could have been better, probably in part because I couldn't attend any rehearsals. the musicians seem interested in keeping the piece in their repertoire, though, which is great, so I expect it will get better.

So my acoustic drum set had been in my longtime bandmate's basement for like ten years. He's moving across the country, so I recently got my drums back. Tremendous fun to play at full volume again.

My ambitions had been more oriented toward acoustic folky-busky kind of activity. I'd been playing mandolin a lot. Comparatively little sound reinforcement, no set list, lots of string instruments, a more nimble ninja-like kind of thing.

Now that the drums are here I find myself once again craving a full chugging rock band with a backline and PA. I've been playing bass a lot. I suspect the load-in/load-out process for one or two bar gigs will remind me why I stopped playing in a rock band.

still lookin for a drummer

(altho u don't live anywhere near me iirc)

In the future all rehearsals will be over skype.

Heck, perhaps eventually all gigs will be too.

ugh no! i am looking forward to the upcoming months of easier show-going and socializing irl. tired of virtual people, bring me the warm real ones!

i am now involved in three projects and trying to line up some shows for the next few months. all three are duos and i am interested in getting at least one more person involved in at least one of them (probably not the long-distance one)

overall, outlook: promising

My piece from a few years ago "Locks and Ripples" was accepted to the Toronto International Electroacoustic Symposium in August. I'm a little surprised because I basically never get accepted to electroacoustic things.

Congratulations sund4r!

Thanks!

I missed church this week but next week I'm going to be the cantor for an evensong service, which should be pretty fun.

After 20 something years of aimless dicking around with guitars I released my debut album today. https://open.spotify.com/artist/6LtCYJXsWRfXcBn32sAuQM

Had that on while making lunch and I enjoyed a lot of it, especially the guitars.

Thanks sund4r! You might like my ambient guitar stuff, i followed you from that a/c on SC.

Thanks. I'll listen.

i joined a femme avant improv collective