Blog moving

I have moved this blog over here: http://bmsrecords.blogspot.com/ because it makes things much easier for me. This will stay up for a while as I have no plans to get rid of it yet, but all updates will be on the other site from now on.

Daily posting is difficult

So far this daily posting has resulted in every other day posting as I remember to do it. But not bad I must say, but it's not even been a week, so hard to say how much I can stick to it. The other problem... what the hell do I write about? I've picked up my guitar maybe 5 times since I last posted. I've been playing Change is Hard, Ain't No Rest For the Wicked, By My Side, Big Plateau, The General, Black Horse and the Cherry Tree, and then messing with some incomplete material that may or may not ever finish. OF course, most of this was last night. My wife was at school and while I have plenty to of stuff to do around the house as we are still settling from the move, I watched the Carrie Underwood special and played my guitar a bit. Yes I watched Carrie, Not bad, hell she had Dolly Parton on. That's awesome. And Carrie is a hell of a singer. The production value is something to envy for sure.

Otherwise, I am getting excited about the prospects of managing my friend's band. I have already sent him a few emails on what to do. He asked a simple question and so far my answer has been the equivalent of drinking from a firehouse. Clearly this is something I've been mulling over for many years. I could do it had I the time, but more importantly, if they just do what I tell them, they will do very well. Problem is, doing what I tell them will be difficult.

Ok, maybe I did have something to say afterall. It's not like I don't think about music nonstop on a daily basis. Now if I could transform thinking about it into time for it. That would rock.

managing

So I missed posting yesterday, but being a busy weekend, that's not exactly surprising. I have managed to remember today, and while there is not much of an update with music, my friend Dan has asked me to manage his band No Quick Fix. They are good guys who really love this music stuff. I have played in previous bands with them including Shotglass and Chuck from Jebus is with them now. I could certainly help them, I just hope I have time to help them. We'll see how that works out. Otherwise, I almost have Change is Hard down though not much chance to play the guitar otherwise this weekend. Saw some friends who now live in Hawaii, Chris and Michelle and their newborn, Haylie, last night. Also ate dinner with Mac and Christian and their girlfriends on Friday. Otherwise, we are still fixing up the house, bought a new couch and looking for a crib and glider and other baby things. Back to work tomorrow and another busy week ahead.

Speaking of Change

I need to make a New Year's Resolution to myself. And I can start right away. I'm going to _try_ and post something new every day. It should ramp up motivation to get started even if events of this month may not give me much time. It's not like anyone reads this, in fact, I'm pretty certain that no one other than me has ever even seen it (I've never advertised it to anyone). But being that it's a supposed to just motivate me, when I finally get that album done, I can say this was the journal... years in the making...

Change is Hard

Indeed it is. But this song by She & Him rules my world right now. It's so good. I was just looking up Zooey, that actress from Elf, because she is such a good singer. Her version of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" is my wife and my's song that we danced to at our wedding. So she has an album. Very good stuff, but I've now learned to play "Change is Hard" and I can't stop. It's so good.

Ain't no rest for the wicked

I've been learning this new Cage the Elephant Song. It just sunk in and dug deep so I forced myself to learn it and then realized it was actually very simple despite all the words and the over complication that is added to the song.

And my son's name will be Ben. He's due end of January 2010.

New Job, home, and yeah update

An opportunity arose. I am now the General Registrar of the City of Falls Church. I have been absent because over the summer I was told about the position and encouraged by my boss to apply. I was also interning with the EAC at the time. I got the job, and I spent two weeks in Germany so that Annika's parents could be with her while she was pregnant. The job requires that I move to Falls Church, so we spent just over two months in an apartment so I could start the job and then look for a more permanent place. We are now in a new house. I'm setting up my new music room and very excited. I have also started grad school at GMU to get my masters in Public Policy. So I've been way to busy for music, despite escaping to it every chance I got, but now that another election is over, my new music room is getting setup, and the semester is winding down, I may have some time to do some recording in the near future... how long have I been saying that again? yeah.

Baby on the way

And one other thing to tell you. My wife is pregnant at about 10 weeks with an expected due date of late January 2010. Very cool stuff. So I've got a new motivation for writing and recording as much as possible before the baby takes up even more of the time I don't have.

I Can't Decide

Another song I wrote recently came after learning "1, 2, 3, 4, (I love you)" by the Plain White T's. I swear this song could be easily in their collection. The chords came to me and I started singing their kind of melodies and this hit. It's probably the catchiest thing I've ever written. I can't decide on a good song name for it. And while the lyrics has ties to my personal life, the general feeling of the song is nothing like my relationship with my wife, so it's kind of strange singing in that vein. Also, I am probably most proud of the chorus and it's transition to the bridge. Oh it gets me.

First thing, and I know that it's for sure.
Right now, you're beautiful and pure
But wait, there's no need to before
I think she's waiting

Think fast, a drink is on it's way
stage dive This is what I'm trying to say
crowd surf tomorrow I will pay
but now I'm waiting

She sighs It has been too long
she cries I don't know what's wrong
she sings but I know it's not my song
I think she's waiting

I write the melodies for her
she knows I love her to be sure
But now she's waiting for something more
but now I'm waiting

I
I can't decide
I think it's over
One last time to see if it's right.

I
I can't decide
It can't be over
You are still standing by my side

I found a setting for her ring
I got her father's blessing
A priest is set for the wedding
but now I'm waiting

Thursday I'm calling all my friends
That night I'm tying up loose ends
Friday starts the rest of my weekends
we're no longer waiting

I
I can't decide
I think it's over
One last time to see if it's right.

I
I can't decide
It can't be over
You are still standing by my side

And you're still by my side
And you're still by my side
And you're still by my side

Give me a kiss and it'll be ok
A big embrace will be the way
Only one thing I have left to say
Is stay for me.
for Me.

I
I can't decide
I think it's over
One last time to see if it's right.

I
I can't decide
It can't be over
You are still standing by my side

The Big Plateau

I'm writing again. It's a lot of fun. The same way I came up with ROCK ROCK, this was just at work when the chorus melody hit me. I went to my car and recorded it my new Vado HD camera which I'm now using to record my open mic performances.

When I hummed it to myself the first time "The Big Plateau" was actually "zing zang zong" and I wanted it be heavily asian influenced. But when I eventually got on my guitar and started messing around with the chords to make it work, the asian influence disappeared (probably because I'm not familiar enough with any kind of asian writing) and instead I decided to write a song that was similar to Nirvana's version of the Meat Puppets' "Lake of Fire"

So this has one chorus and two versus and hopefully the rest will be some lead guitar work. I'll have to have a friend sit in and write that for me probably.

So here are the lyrics as of now:

The Big Plateau

Everybody's going to the big plateau
and they're singin and they're sinnin and they don't know why
Everybody's going to the big plateau
and they're singin and they're sinnin to the sky.

First thing that occured to him
when looking down from his hotel room
This is not the place for him
as he stared up at the pale blue moon

She wanders the streets at night
looking up the balcony
This is not the place for her
They just committed adultery

That last line I'm not happy with. I don't want to spell out that the song is about adultery. I want it to be incinuated and I thought about using "felony" but while it rhymes nicely, it's just not the right word.

test post with phone

RockRock

RockRock

Terrible name for a song really, but that is the tentative name of this melody I’ve been singing in my head. It started at work in a warehouse. This melody popped into my head. Huge catchy number with horns and two big, quick crashes. “da dununah crash! Duh crash!” kind of thing. It was so in my head I went out to my car and recorded my self sounding the melody on my camera phone. Good thing too because I couldn’t remember it when I got home. So I took out my phone, played the song back, and figured out how to play it on my guitar. One thing I couldn’t do without the guitar is figure out versus. Only the chorus. But with the guitar, I could figure out the chords for the chorus and try to write a different melody for the versus. It’s worked ok. Instead I came up with a horn part. The lyrics are difficult but I figured out the chorus:

I wanna Rock! Rock! All night long
I wanna Dance! Dance! Till the dawn
I wanna Sing! Sing! Sing my song
Come on everybody won’t you sing along

It’s cheesy power pop the the max. But that’s why I like it. So RockRock is the working title. I hope to find a better title by the time I finish writing this number.

More catch up

Other News that I didn’t mention last night: I am no longer with Gaslight Society. The reason is the same as the reason I have not been recording much or even updating this blog: No time with work. Back in September I told the band I needed to take off time for about a month or two because of the Presidential Election. Since then, I have been involved in a series of special elections thanks to a domino effect. The work is secure and the money is good and I really like my job, but no time for my musical endeavors. However, Annika is back in school taking 2 classes so I have time to record when she is studying and in class. Gaslight Society is still rockin out. They found another drummer who is friendly with us all and they all definitely have my blessing.

This means my only musical outlet is Open Mic Night. It’s paid, regular, and my show, so it’ll do until I finish this album and start my own band. Or if Jebus gets back together I could be persuaded to do that again.

I’ve been listening to my very rough first tracks of those three songs. It’s so much fun! Now I need some time to get down better tracks and learn how to mix them together seamlessly, which is a lot harder to do than I expected.

Over a year later with Studio

I haven't updated this in well over a year. I almost didn't remember my sign in. Quick updates: Frank is definitely part of the family. We are now onto fostering dogs. The first foster dog, Austin, was just adopted, so now we have a black lab mix named Joslyn.

We have also moved to Springfield and my home studio is essentially complete. I got a pair of Alesis M1 Active Mk2 monitors for my 30th birthday last month. I have put it together and as of the snow day yesterday I have been recording nonstop, save for sleep, dinner and work today. It's awesome. Working on a few songs: RockRock, Standing on the Sand, and Insecure. Works in progress that I've never even played at the weekly open mic.

Speaking of open mics. I'm now at Firehouse Grill every Thursday night. Hopefully, now that the recording is back up, I'll be updating this much more regularly.