Stuck In My Head 9/25/2015 - My Hero

My Hero
by Foo Fighters

Too alarming now to talk about
Take your pictures down and shake it out
Truth or consequence, say it aloud
Use that evidence, race it around

There goes my hero
Watch him as he goes
There goes my hero
He's ordinary

Don't the best of them bleed it out
While the rest of them peter out
Truth or consequence, say it aloud
Use that evidence, race it around

There goes my hero
Watch him as he goes
There goes my hero
He's ordinary

Kudos, my hero
Leaving all the best
You know my hero
The one that's on

There goes my hero
Watch him as he goes
There goes my hero
He's ordinary
There goes my hero
Watch him as he goes
There goes my hero
He's ordinary

I Believe

I consider myself a Progressive. I have long felt myself in a place with one foot in the realm of the Liberal, and one in the Conservative, but I also know change is a good an healthy thing. I personally believe that there are others like me out there. I hope there are, because the events of the last few days have left me feeling very depressed about the future of our nation.

I believe in total equality for all, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the pursuit of happiness for every, single citizen of this country. I believe that we must reach out and provide help to those who need it to reach those goals. I believe everyone deserves quality healthcare. I believe in an intelligently regulated market, and I believe that achievement, however you want to measure that, is not something that should be demonized or scorned.

I believe that blanket Federal laws covering things like guns and minimum wadge are foolish, because the people pushing for them can't seem to rationalize that there are huge swaths of this country that simply don't operate in the way their own lives operate. A $15 minimum wadge in New York City is probably rational. A $15 minimum wadge in Broken Bow, NE is probably overkill, and would likely harm small business. That the vast majority of gun owners are skilled and have safety as a primary concern. These things should be decided on a state level, because local lawmakers SHOULD have a much better sense of what is needed in their regions.

Conversely, "States Rights" are not a license to perpetuate hatred and bigotry. That achieving a level of financial success should not be a license to bully those who have not. That a woman's body is her own. That your religion is yours, not mine, not your neighbors'. You are welcome to use your religion to inform your voting choices, but the law is the law. Your religious convictions are not a valid reason to break the law.

I believe that businesses will pay their workers as little as they have to. I believe that unions are vastly important to protecting the interests of the worker in the face of big business thinking. I also believe, in a number of cases, unions have become big business. That they have been complicit in financial disaster by strong-arm tactics to force benefits that could not be sustained.

I believe that solutions to this country's problems can come from anywhere, and will never be found if we continue to invalidate, ignore, or attempt to silence, voices that are not in line with our own. I believe that, while there are many downtrodden and marginalized people in our country in need of our help, there are very few true victims. There is very little to actually fear. That the perpetualization of the victim and fear mentality is engineered by those who profit by keeping us apart. Those who profit from discord and strife.

I believe that "internet activism" has virtually nothing to do with changing anything, and everything to do with enjoying our own voices. It's sole purpose is to create an echo chamber of unchallenged, often incorrect or outright fabricated, opinion back at a mob that already agrees with it. Solidifying groupthink and hardening hearts and minds to any possible solutions that may not fit the pre-conceived narrative they have been indoctrinated into.

When I hear a phrase like "the devil never needs an advocate," I know that the person speaking is deathly afraid of being wrong. Of being confronted with a question that their narrative cannot answer. I believe we should all welcome the moments when we can say "I don't know."

I believe we are all the same. I believe a joke is a joke, and art is art, and that both of those things are intensely personal. That artists must speak truths, and teachers must teach truths, no matter how uncomfortable.That you have every right to not patronize that which you are offended or injured by, but you have no right, at all, to silence anyone's voice, or to impede others from enjoying, or learning from, said voice if they wish to.

It's become depressingly clear to me that there are very few "Progressives" of my stripe, willing to speak out, left in this country. But, my oh my, are there so many Fundamentalists of both a liberal and conservative bent, who will bend your ear for hours. Who's goal is not to improve our society, except in the most narrow, self-centered, of visions, but to win the game.

Stuck in My Head 9.16.2015 - Two-Headed Dog

Epic. Truly.


Two-Headed Dog
by Roky Erickson
Two-headed dog, two headed dog
I've been working in the Kremlin
With a two-headed dog

Two-headed dog, two headed dog
I've been working in the Kremlin
With a two-headed dog

Peace brought back, bought back
Relaxed be nyet brought back
Did you dry her out
Wind her out like jerky?
To me she's healed, don't attack

Two-headed dog, two headed dog
I've been working in the Kremlin
With a two-headed dog

Two-headed dog, two headed dog
I've been working in the Kremlin
With a two-headed dog

Children nailed to the cross
Pain does not look our hell
Certainly is not a spell
Sweet waste from a well

Two-headed dog, two headed dog
I've been working in the Kremlin
With a two-headed dog

Two-headed dog, two headed dog
I've been working in the Kremlin
With a two-headed dog

Winds quiet in the night
Her body just blows messiah
Sickening sweet sight left and right
Is all right does not please my appetite

Two-headed dog, two headed dog
I've been working in the Kremlin
With a two-headed dog

Two-headed dog, two headed dog
I've been working in the Kremlin
With a two-headed dog

Two-headed dog, two headed dog
I've been working in the Kremlin
With a two-headed dog

Two-headed dog, two headed dog
I've been working in the Kremlin
With a two-headed dog

More Hayoth and Other Musical Digressions

Light & Shade is done, and damn if I'm not pretty happy with it. I'm even - shocker - kind of OK with how I sing on it. I know, and have always known, that I wasn't going to be Plant, but the process of figuring out how to be the best vocalist I can be continues. I don't have the greatest range, but I am figuring out how to use what I have.

Which isn't to say that I still don't harbor the fantasy that a REALLY good vocalist, who also somehow magically happens to be a person I can get along with, might drop into my world, and I can re-record a whole pile of this Hayoth stuff. I kind of long to hear how, say, Getting Dollars Back or Warp might sound with a really confident vocal attack. Even on the tracks where I am...relatively...happy with the vocals, I am not confident about what I'm doing, and that's a big difference.

I also managed to write an entire song on Sunday. I'm calling it Tallahassee Bridge, at this point, but that may change out of deference to Bobbie Gentry and Billy Joe. It's a acoustic-based story song, and, like most of the stuff I write quickly (Uptown, after a lot of consternation, came really quickly), I think it's pretty strong. I'm hoping to get a good start on recording this week. I have a base acoustic guitar rhythm done, and was working on percussion last night.

Riff, or whatever the hell it becomes, is ready musically, but I need to figure out lyrics.

Now, outside of what I've been working on, what have I been listening to?

Beck, Bogert, Appice by Beck, Bogert, Appice

An oldie, but a goodie that I finally downloaded recently. The 1984 collaboration of Jeff Beck (guitar), Tim Bogert (bass & vocals) and Carmine Appice (percussion) is a solid slab of blues rock. I'm particularly taken with their run at Stevie Wonder's Superstition. Yeah, Bogert's vocals aren't the greatest, but when the musicianship is this good, it's a minor annoyance, at most.

High Country by The Sword

I had hoped for a little more from this. It's a truly good record, in terms of technical recording, it may be their best, and it's really great to have a modern "metal" band that seems intent on evolution. This promised another return to a more "classic hard rock" sound, which, I feel, dominated their best album, so far, 2010's Warp Riders. The disk is certainly a turn in that direction, but more in the frame of psychadelic rock (it's so, so drug influenced) than Thin Lizzy-esque hard rock. It's not a bad thing, and I have been listening to this record a lot. It's full of terrific riffing and jams. I just had pretty high hopes.

Sol Invictus by Faith No More

Just isn't grabbing me. Superhero is a great track, but I seem to consistently peter out shortly after. I know they're an important band, I know they're great musicians, I know this is a really good album, but I haven't been struck with it yet. I'm sure it will hit me, at some point.

Meliora by Ghost B.C.

I am not the biggest fan of this band, the theatricality sometimes gets in the way of the music for me. I often can't tell if the whole thing is a joke, or not. I'm also fully aware that it may be a joke, and not a joke, all at the same time, but I get tired of trying to parse it out. All that said, I am consistently struck by at least a couple of songs on each one of their albums. In this case, From the Pinnacle to the Pit and Majesty are both just terrific tracks. They've anchored an album I've been listening to far more than any of their others.

The Book of Souls by Iron Maiden

Look, it's a new Maiden album, you pretty much know what you're gonna get. Thing is, I like what I'm going to get a whole lot. It's another really good record, but, despite anything Nicko McBrain says, it's not as good as their classic records, and I don't even think, as a whole, it's as good as The Final Frontier from five years ago. That said, The Red and the Black is an instant classic song for me, as good as anything they've put out since their 80's heyday. The record also starts out VERY strong with If Eternity Should Fail. I am a little tired about the constant comments about Empire of the Clouds being eighteen minutes long. So, it's long, big deal, there are better songs on the album, and other bands have crafted songs of this length that are better.

The Story of Sonny Boy Slim by Gary Clark Jr.

There were so many Stevie Ray Vauhan clones that erupted out of Austin after the great man was killed. So many blues guitarists who were supposed to be the "next big thing," so when I heard about Clark, I was dubious, and, while I marked him as someone to check out, I wasn't rushing to do it. After seeing him play in a film called Chef, and in Dave Grohl's Sonic Highways TV series, I got excited enough to pick up his first full-length Blak & Blu. I'm a big fan of how Clark melds traditional electric blues with hip-hop influences, and this album provides more of the same. The guy can play the guitar, but I don't feel like it's as in your face as with other artists he's been compared to. The guitar doesn't feel like the centerpiece of the song...the SONG feels like the centerpiece of the song. It's really refreshing and exciting. Sonny Boy Slim provides more of the same, and frankly, I also think his songwriting has improved. This is "total package" material, and I love it.

I've also been listening to a lot of the prog supergroup, Flying Colors. They have a new live disk due in a couple of months, and it inspired me to revisit their two albums, Flying Colors and Second Nature. Truly top-notch melodic, technical rock and roll. I also enjoy their 2014 Live in Europe set.

Hayoth Vol III - A Brief Update

Vol III progress....the first track, a blues-based song I'm calling Light & Shade (Apologies to Jimmy Page) is pretty much done. The music is finished, and I have a sense of the vocals and melody line. I took a pass at it, but I think I can do better.

The second track, a more metallic song I'm referring to as Riff, (so, so inventive, right?) is done music-wise, but I have no idea on lyrical content. I've put it on the back-burner until I can get "L&S" in shape.

A riff that will likely form the backbone of track 3 has appeared, as well. Extremely early days on that one, at this point.

 My mindset, right now, is to try to take my time with Volume III, whatever it may ultimately be called. I'm feeling a rut, in terms of how I approach chord progressions and rhythm. I mean, I am not a drummer, really, and while I really love the way "live" drumming has opened up new options for my creativity, I also can feel my limitations. I can really feel them.

One thing that I'm really excited about when it comes to Light & Shade is that I specifically approached the drum and bass as a rhythm section. The bass isn't playing what the guitar is playing, and I'm not aiming for a lock-step wall of sound. I endeavored to have the bass just play a hook with the drums, and the guitar lays in over that. I know this is basic stuff, but everything I do is expanding out from being a guitarist, and I grow from that place.

On that note, the new guitar is...SWEEEEET. I love it, and after all the stomach-churning about if I should get it, I couldn't be happier. By backing off my "I only want Gibsons" mindset, I now have a ESP/LTD that has features of a much more expensive Gibson for about half the price. On top of that, it stays in tune a hell of a lot better than my Les Paul. The DeMarzio pickups are smooth and powerful, and the tone is just much more appealing to my ear than the Burstbucker updates on my Les Paul. Yeah, I should've waited until I had my Spider IV amp paid off, but....it's an inspiring instrument. Although, going from the 2-Tone, 2-Volume knob setup on the Les to the 1-Tone/2-Volume of the LTD has been a challenge.


So, new guitar, more time on songwriting and specifically trying to change up some of my usual choices in riff creation. More time with lyrics and vocal work. In all, not pushing myself to just get stuff done to have it done, but to try to craft things.


And, as always, the first two disks are available for free download at soundcloud:

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