She sure can shred!

I’ve seen a lot of concerts in my life and a few nights ago I saw one of the most amazing shows this year in fact this particular show was the BEST performance of the year 2014. It was a double feature at the historic Chicago Theater. The two bands were Future Islands and St. Vincent. I was quite pleased with the opening act, that being Future Islands. It was very energetic and any of those songs performed could’ve been pop singles. They had kind of an 80s pop, bluesy but yet fast paced moving performances. The lead singer liked to do a very unusual dance where he was kind of gyrating and doing this pelvic twists almost moving around like an animal.

St. Vincent was a completely different experience yet also interesting and strange. St. Vincent is the name of the band created by a woman named Annie Clark who comes from New York. She is a singer songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and beautiful singer. Her voice is angelic yet her brilliant guitar playing is raw and vibrant. In fact quite honestly I will say that Annie Clark (St. Vincent) is the most amazing female guitar player that I have ever witnessed in front of a stage audience in my entire life. She certainly is more avant-garde bazaar strange. Also she’s a recent pupil of David Byrne who is best known for his work with the Talking Heads. But she brings something new to this generation of music. She brings back the arts, the intensity, the performance that makes you stand up and cheer, that it breaks the mold. It’s not your everyday rock performance, it’s a dramatic show on stage. She moves and acts like a robot on stage on purpose but once that guitar is strapped to her body and her hands move around the strings plucking and sliding up and down the neck it’s like something monstrous has been unleashed and she just explodes all over the place as if you wonder “is this the same person who was just singing a sweet ballad only moments earlier?”

She is young, she is beautiful, her engagement with the crowd at a few times was very real and down-to-earth and then suddenly the lights go out and the strobe lights come on and the drums start pounding and it’s like she just goes right back into character. What kind of character? It’s hard to describe. Like an alien robot one minute and then the next minute just a normal New Yorker gal. Its more than a rock show, it’s art. She went so crazy at one point that she tumbled off the stage, climbed onto an audience members’ back and started to roam around the crowd while still jamming on her guitar. I snapped a photo of that moment. (see above) Go see her live! In the meantime, I have included a video that really demonstrates her awesomeness!!!

A Dreamy night at The Vic

I really love indie rock music! Something moody and hypnotic is pleasant on my ears.

Intricate guitar jams mixed with a steady drumbeat and angelic female voices in harmony are the essence of what my wife and I experienced last night

WARPAINT is the name of the band that I truly enjoy following. Four young ladies from Los Angeles make up this dream pop group. Their style of music melodies calm my nerves on any day. Sunday night at the Vic Theater was no exception to that mellow feeling.

Strobe lights, stage lighting, lots and lots of lights were draped on the stage & certainly giving off calm red and blue colors. A shadowy collage of the four ladies were on display on the backdrop cloth. Fog set a gloomy atmosphere allowing unique shadows to be cast.

This vaudeville theater had spectacular acoustics. Perfect setting for this band. The keyboards and synthesizers blended well with the chill vibe among the 1,000 of us spectators. Vocals were ran through real cool echoey distortion pedals that had a deep distinct 80’s sound.

They engaged the crowd and jumped around the stage at times. I was reminded of The Cure with female vocals and I fell madly in love with my wife all over again. Everything was in its right place last night with some Angry Orchard Cider by my side and breathtaking trip rock in my brain in Chi Town.

I was stabbed by a pitchfork festival

It began with a car ride
Into the city
On a warm and pleasant
Friday afternoon

Water bottles
Blanket
And a backpack

Don’t leave the ticket on the dashboard
Time to go for a hike
Through the concrete jungle
Then stand in line
Before the Pitchfork gates

Is this the right line?

The music vibrates in the background
As bags are checked for cannabis
Paraphernalia and weapons
Bar codes are scanned

“That’s a really colorful looking blanket,” the old man says

Port-O-Johns are everywhere
Some serious shit is about to start!

A basketball court
Is a social one?
With vendors
Giant Twinkie Man dancing around
Long line for a free shirt
Silk screened
Cool graphic arts
Ice cream
Cupcakes
Video games

All of this enjoyed without spending
A single dime

Guy waving a NICE big flag
Handing out granola bars
Saving the wallet from depletion

A couch made out of green grass
They’re giving away sweat bands and bandannas
Stickers
Free codes to download
Local tunes

If you want to drink beer
Buy tickets
Get a bracelet

Big pretzel
Sitting on a pool
Of Wisconsin beer cheese
Johnny Appleseed
Made some hard cider
Yummy

Hipsters with beards
Gothic girls in black
Tight leather pants (in the humidity)
Wild colorful hair
Tattoos galore!

A young man reciting poetry
At a tent
Extremely long line
To fill up your empty bottle
With some pure water

It’s a festival for three days
Positive vibes are promoted
Comfortable atmosphere
Many fun experiences
There are maps
Helping everyone figure out
Where to go
Or get lost at a record show
With over a dozen vendors
Selling their wax covered goodies

Three stages
Over forty artists and acts
Tons of music

There are unique and rare finds
Treasures
Its for the music lovers
Getting exposed to some really cool stuff

Who is this band?

Neneh Cherry…did you know she’s related to Eagle Eye? She’s only played in the U.S. one other time? That’s crazy! She played her nostalgic tune “Buffalo Stance” from the late 80’s in a very modern rhythmic way. But she also promoted her first album in 18 years that is really funky, smooth, jazzy, soulful and kind of trip-hop. By the way…I met her and got her autograph. It was cool.

Sharon Van Etten…her music is gloomy especially for this summer fest. But you know what? Who cares! She was awesome!! I totally dig her albums! ARE WE THERE and TRAMP where worth showcasing? She has a pretty voice and plays the guitar rather well. AWESOME!

Avey Tare’s Slasher Flicks…weird music side project of the band Animal Collective!

Circulatory System…really heady music and psychedelic stuff in a Beatles dipped in an acid bath sorta way. But good.

Beck…hushed melancholy of new and then jacked up energy of his wacky old hits! (it worked!) I’m a loser Beck so why don’t you THRILL me?

Cloud Nothings…I dig thier stuff, just a little boring for me….live anyway.

tUnE-yArDs….nothing like I ever heard before! British girl named Merrill Garbus. When she’s performing her art live, Garbus creates trippy drum loops on the spot, and combines these with the ukuleleas well as vocals, in addition to electric bass. But its really tribal sounding. Like Jamaican or African sounding but also really poppy!

Hundred Waters….similar to Sigur Ros but more feminine and its like dream pop and relaxing.

Factory Floor….definitley sounds really acid housey and some audience members decided to participate in the fun! Check out this clip: http://youtu.be/C2pEmFzW3Ik

Giorgio Moroder….he’s a living Italian legend. Godfather of EDM and synth disco! He mixed up some cool Donna Summers and Daft Punk tunes! The crowd went wild for him!

BUT NOW…..THE ONE….THE ONLY……ST. VINCENT!!!! Holy crap is she freaking awesome!!! Annie Clark is the best guitar player I have heard in more than a decade. She is such an actress on stage freaking out acting like a robot princess and then collapses on stage, drops her guitar, gets pissed off and then gets happy when a new guitar is presented to her. Lots of smoke, colors and thrashing on those fuzzy wuzzy guitars that she mechanically plays with such a rocking smooth attitude! She invents brand new sounds that most guitar noises don’t make. Best live show I have seen. Pink Floyd at soldier field 20 years ago is the only other show that was as good as this. And she only played for an hour. She’s a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. On stage she just had 2 other people: a drummer and co-guitarist/synth player to back up her wild and crazy show! My words cannot possibly do her justice. She WAS the reason I went to the Pitchfork Music Festival. Loved it!

 

Then I fell apart from my brain exploding
And then I shattered mentally
A night drive home with Syd Barrett tunes to comfort me
To sleep off the intense buzz
with memories of blissfulness
In my head……

Peter Gabriel’s PASSION

Music Bard here.
Okay so I think I found a new blog post.
Lately I’ve been kind of struggling.
Just been posting monthly playlists and a few TOP FIVE favorites but I decided to move on.
And that’s my prerogative.

But my new post here is actually about Peter Gabriel.
I’m actually maybe kind of annoyed. Not at him but at some NON-fans.
Plus some of these NON-fans are my friends/co-workers so I’ll be nice.
I have nothing against the people as individuals but more of this Blasé / ehh attitude about Mr. Gabriel.
Now I’m not saying every person out there has to be a Peter Gabriel fan by any means.
That’s okay. That’s your prerogative.

But like he was just inducted into the “Rock & Roll Hall of Fame” recently among the likes of KISS and NIRVANA.
So yeah there’s differences in all three of those artists right there but I personally feel like he’s getting over-looked
Not enough credit by the audience out there. Perhaps not being treated fairly.
Some are saying, “He’s old,” “He’s boring” and “I don’t like his stuff.”

Sure some of his songs are overplayed on the radio. Like Salisbury Hill, In Your Eyes and Sledgehammer (to name a few).
But to dig deep into his catalog, particularly when he was the frontman of GENESIS, pretty much everything he touched (until drummer Phil Collins took over) was pure gold in my opinion.
I suppose it requires a patient listener to fully appreciate that experimental sound.
Me? I like avant garde & weird art music.
So he split and did his own thing due to creative differences with his former band by coming out with some great solo material.

In particular; it was his album PASSION, from 1989, that catapulted world music into the popular culture.

Passion was originally Peter Gabriel’s soundtrack to the Martin Scorsese film The Last Temptation of Christ.
And there’s no mistaking this record’s exciting power. I love that it’s essentially all instrumental too.
But he developed this into an actual album rather than just soundtrack.
Like a lot of Gabriel’s solo work, the album is the result of his continuing obsession and devotion with world music.
He uses it here to create an exceptionally beautiful and atmospheric canvas of sound perfectly bringing strong and vivid memories to the mind.
If you saw the above mentioned movie, memories flash of the film’s resonating spiritual drama; inspired by field recordings collected in areas wide spread as Turkey and Egypt.
Passion (the album posted below) achieves a unique effect clearly Middle Eastern in origin.
I seriously consider PASSION as Gabriel’s finest music of any kind. Such an underrated album.

But I digress.
Peter Gabriel has been around for a long time and certainly deserved his accolades.
He certainly writes brilliant music
He was and still is a true artist.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

The June Road Trip Playlist

Recently I chatted it up with close friends and relatives. I was thinking of an AWESOME playlist for this lovely month of June. It’s a good time to take a cruise around the block (especially if you’re a teenager), a long drive or a wizard cruise through the local towns (college students know what I’m talking about) and even undertake a voyage or ROAD TRIP!!!! Time to crank the tunes that are custom made for the car, the van, the truck, whatever your vehicle of choice is.

Just anything that rocks and pumps you up man!

I learned that we can agree on a number of things when it comes to these song choices on the road. First you gotta roll down the windows. The tunes should be associated with good memories, perhaps AWESOME memories! It all depends on where you are going. The right song at the right place is key. The music should enhance the trip and the scenery that is already there. You should turn your sad moments into HAPPY ones.

So I took a little poll. I looked over some of my previous mixes and playlists. I filled out a section of a book I have called “MUSIC LISTOGRAPHY” (go check it out) and for the purpose of this blog post, I developed a list of 25 essential songs (in my world) that can get you feeling alive in June. Classic Rock mixed with modern pop/rock/dance sounds!

Here they are (in absolutely no order):

1 Led Zeppelin….Over The Hills And Far Away
2 Pink Floyd…..One Of These Days
3 Grateful Dead…..Truckin
4 Robert Plant & Alison Krauss…..Killing The Blues
5 AC/DC…..Thunderstruck
6 Smashing Pumpkins…..Snail
7 Tool…..Vicarious
8 Mungo Jerry…..In The Summertime
9 Creedance Clearwater Revival…..Commotion
10 Puscifer…..Bohemian Rhapsody (check it out!)
11 Tom Cochrane…..Life Is A Highway
12 Kraftwerk…..Autobahn
13 Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again…..Bob Dylan
14 Lindsey Buckingham…..Holiday Road
15 The Ramones…..Blitzkrieg Bop (I bet you knew I was gonna throw this one in here)
16 Norman Greenbaum…..Spirit In the Sky
17 Aliotta, Haynes, and Jeremiah…..Lake Shore Drive
18 Phantom Planet…..California
19 ZZ Top…..Cheap Sunglasses
20 Night Call…..Kavinsky Feat. Lovefoxxx
21 Phoenix…..1901
22 Cake…..The Distance
23 Qué Onda Guero…..Beck
24 MGMT…..Electric Feel
25 BEASTIE BOYS…..SABOTAGE

ENJOY THE SUMMER EVERYONEPEACE OUT
C-NOTE

Treasures From Record Store Day

About ten days ago I went to a local record store called Kiss The Sky at 5:30 in the morning to get a lottery ticket. My number was 63. What does that mean? (You might ask) Well when the doors officailly opened at 8:00 a.m. I had the right to be the 63rd person to be let into the store and buy records. Not just any records but rare limited editions of various vinyl pressings. 45’s, 7 inches, LP’s and special box sets.

I went and had breakfast after I got my number. Then I returned to the shrine of pressed wax that us enthusiasts enjoy spinning on our turntables. It was really crowded inside the store. But I struck up some conversations with other fanatics, like myself.

I walked away with a 45 of Frank Zappa’s “Yellow Snow,” a special Joy Division record containing their first 4 songs and a small box set of eight 45’s entitled “The Space Project.” This box set featured artists like Youth Lagoon and Beach House. It was a rare find and definitely was a limited pressing.

My questions for my readers out there……Did you go? What did you buy? Where did you go? How much fun did you have?

Long Live Vinyl!!!!

April Showers Bring My Playlist

For this month, I was inspired to devote the entire playlist to RAINY DAY related music. In fact the picture posted here is a painting I recently did. A muse came over me and I was compelled to work on this art piece to represent these feelings about this type of music.

I love those rainy Saturdays from my childhood and teenage days. They were wonderful times to play games, watch tv or listen to music while doing homework or trading baseball cards with my friends. What is it about the sound of the splashing water against the house or the crash of thunder and lightning that fascinates me? I really do get so relaxed from such wonders of nature. Not only is there the calm before the storm but there is this sense of beauty that the earth will not let the rain stop coming down until it has refreshed the soil and allow the trees and the birds to have a pleasurable drink.

The music I would listen to taking a drive with my dad to the hardware store or going out to the movie theater with my friends had a soothing effect on me when it rained. I used to stare at the wiper blades and the telephone poles and pretend they were chopping them down. It was the imagination of a child that I once was.

Of course my point here in this post is to share my rainy day playlist because these songs represent those feelings of sitting on a rocking chair enduring late night conversations with my mother. Splashing in the puddles on my paper route while I listened to my walkman is something I treasure.

So I chose songs that have this soothing and melodic sense to them. Memories from my youth but also tracks from films and tunes I would hear in the background at memorial day parties are some of what is represented here. For example the song “No Rain” by Blind Melon reminds me of high school at the sock hops while it stormed outside. “Here Comes The Rain Again” by The Eurythmics tend to bring back the 80’s era sitting in the back seat and being driven to a pediatrician for my usual check up on a cloudy day. Sometimes these tunes just simply are perfect background music during a summer shower.

Finally Jimi Hendrix’s “Rainy Day ,Dream Away” first awakened my sense when I was 18 during my first summer working at the movie theater just before college started as I would blare it in my mom’s minivan driving to work. So why not check out my playlist. Maybe there are some songs not represented here that should be. Anyway here’s the list. GO find these songs and give them a spin.

Dum Dum Girls “filled” me with joy at the Empty Bottle

The Empty Bottle is simply a dive bar and a surprisingly relaxing and fun music venue located in Chicago, Illinois. This is one of the coolest venues for Chicago’s alternative music scene. The place hosts several kinds of music. There is plenty of indie-rock, punk, metal, rock’n’roll, hip-hop, electronic, experimental, ambience and jazz. This club/bar opened in 1992 and was originally a regular neighborhood bar. There’s plenty of CHEAP beer too! It’s like being in a large basement with brick walls and little coves that sneak around corners.

Pinball games, Ms Pac-Man arcade for only a quarter, a pool table and several water jugs strategically place all around the place with plastic cups stacked near them too. Its a nice gesture to offer free water to someone low on cash but just plain thirsty. They also just have a really nice space that’s conducive to having a lot of different experiences. It is hard to have a bad view of the stage where artists perform, whether you are early or late to the show. I definitely need to return.

Now let me cut right to the chase. My wife and I celebrated a special anniversary on this day of March 31st. We met on a train 7 years ago and celebrated by attending a Dum Dum Girls show. Who are they you ask? Dum Dum Girls are an American rock band, formed about six years ago. In the beginning, it was a bedroom recording project of lead singer and songwriter Dee Dee Penny in Los Angeles. She is currently living in New York City. I try to keep up with today’s music. These four talented females have very nice glossy melodies that you don’t hear from today’s bands. It rocks, it waves, it pounds through awesome songwriting!

This music they play is slick and focused. Post punk, garage punk, dreamy and pouty 80’s pop. That’s essentially how I would describe their music. Fuzzy guitar riffs, eyeliner distortion and 1960s girl-group sensibilities.Too True, their newest album, toggles between ethereal and punk, gothic and 80s dance party, and provides a strong and welcomed addition to the Dum Dum Girls catalog. The name pays homage to The Vaselines’ album Dum Dum and an Iggy Pop song called “Dum Dum Boys”. Dee Dee Penny’s stage name was not inspired by Dee Dee Ramone. It’s a coincidence.

Appearance-wise onstage they are quite a sight. Short skirts and long legs. Leather outfits. I am reminded of those imfamous Robert Palmer ADDICTED TO LOVE videos. You know? The ones with the sexy girls pretending to play guitars? Only these girls are most definitely playing vintage Silvertone guitars through glorious RAT amps. The stage is smokey blue with christmas lights dangling from the ceiling. A large BLUE lit up cut-out heart is draped in the background. Their microphones are donned with fiberoptic roses and spare red picks arranged all pretty-like. The whole thing was mesmorizing and a real nice trip back in time to that underground gothic-like and dreamy-like club.

Songs like “Too True To Be Good,” “Rimbaud Eyes,” “Lost Boys & Girls Club” and “Are you Ok” were intense highlights! DEE DEE and the ladies are obviously a big fan of the cooler music that came out of 80s/early 90s and it comes through in their music. Sometimes I am reminded of Chrissie Hynde (of the Pretenders) vocals. Penny’s voice is quite stellar. She opens up her sound on large and gorgeous ballads like “Coming Down.” The show hypnotized me and then I had to drive home at 1:00 a.m.

But I was left with incredible memories and hard rocking chicks! Here’s a video that gives you a better idea of their awesome sounds going down:

Who’s The Greatest Band?

Who’s The Greatest Band?

Is there one?

So I’m walking through the office and this guy has a list by his desk of what he considers “the top ten greatest bands of all time!” He’s written down bands like Limp Bizkit, Journey and Creed. Just stuff that makes me want to puke! This other guy, who sits next to him; has his list too which is slightly better but I don’t like Lynyrd Skynyrd and I’m not really into rap like Woo Tang Clan or other things of that nature.

So there was a debate going on with the two guys standing there and my wife and this other girl. Who are the greatest bands of all time? Two of us previously had this other list going on, we called it the frisbee list which we tossed back and forth and kept adding albums to that we believe to be really good…….at least 70% of the way through it. Ones that you rarely skip through. Essentially they are excellent all the way to the end of the record. That was the criteria.

But the whole thing is subjective, honestly. The more people that get involved with the frisbee list, there is going to be so much criteria that too much conflict of interest will occur. My lists are simply a personal thing. I choose my favorite albums of a given year. Or I choose playlists of the month that indicate a mood or a feeling. There’s a difference between favorite albums and favorite bands. Because you have to look at all of their individual records and decide what percentage of them are AWESOME!!!

All of our opinions are different. Surveys, polls, interviews and contests won’t yield any true accurate result. It essentially would last forever, the process. You could just keep listing band after band after band. Led Zeppelin, The Who, Genesis, Metallica (are they the greatest heavy metal band of all time???) and you could drive yourself crazy with a list like that.

In fact, I have come to the conclusion that there is no such thing as a top ten list. They are invalid. I’ll tell you why. How likely are we going to agree on all of the choices? Opinions are so wild. Let’s say you bring up The Rolling Stones and The Beatles. They seem to be the undisputed champions of the British Invasion. But then you forget about bands like The Kinks. Friggin LOU REED!! Now he was a genius!! I brought some of that up during the “discussion” at the office but that seemed to get shot down, among other artists I mentioned, like Megadeth (poor man’s Metallica? Really?) .

But coming up with lists are fun and we like to debate. Its an interesting way to IDENTIFY ourselves. We are all uniquely passionate about various artists. Criteria is very important. You can’t just say “these are my favorite bands” and that’s it. Could be only how you feel in that exact moment you announce those musicians. Or only what you remember. What if from several months from now your opinion greatly changes. Then what?

I wish people would focus on the dawn of music, more so. At least recorded music. Go back to the 1920’s. How about Louis Armstrong? An amazing Jazz innovator and trumpeter. Woody Guthrie, the folk movement. Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Elvis, The Beach Boys, Jefferson Airplane.

The bands on those lists in the office are just too specific to a certain time period. You can’t say that they’re the greatest bands of all time especially if you’re too zoomed in on a short period.

Is there a point to my babble?

You can’t ignore jazz. Take a music appreciation class that discusses the history of Rock and Jazz. Its important to learn about how things began. Appreciate the birth of rock and roll. How can you fully embrace what you listen to today without that knowledge?

My my top ten lists are only valid for my world. We listen to what we feel like.

Disagreements are okay.

I think many of us have come to the conclusion that the band Creed SUCKS!!! I don’t believe that most people today in America would say THAT band is one of the greatest groups of all time. In fact, I own the book entitled “1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.” Creed is never mentioned. Just saying…

You got to live for today. Make your mixtapes for your friends. They’ll either like them or they won’t.

There was talk about The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Sure I like them but I don’t worship them nor would I say that they were the defining band of my generation. That’s a bit much. But I did enjoy a couple of their records. Again…..more opinions. What about Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins and Stone Temple Pilots. Its silly to only limit it to one band. Just personal favorite tastes. 31 flavors…like Baskin Robins. Ice cream. Tons of licks. Don’t all enjoy the same flavor but we all like ice cream.

If we took a look a several genres and chose 10 bands (artists) from each category we could use those artists as a springboard. Or even go by decades. But honestly, its an impossible mission. Music is always new. Even now as I write down these words, there are “up and coming bands” recording incredible sounds.

We debate

and in the end….we establish something….I guess

It passes the time

Oh and one last thought…….

Gee Tar

Last week, I dusted off my “Oscar Schmidt” acoustic guitar and tried to play some random songs from my memory bank in front of my nieces. I failed miserably and I immediately lost their interest as they became focused on whatever else was entertaining them and I felt rejected, emotionally.

I enjoy listening to the sounds of the guitar. Its a great noise that comes from those strings as they are strummed, plucked and picked. In high school I wanted a bass guitar because it sounded cool and I had some friends that liked to play those funky backbeats. My parents rented one for me as a gift and it came with a small amp. I had fun messing around with it but I never really got anywhere. I even took advantage of a free lesson, but still, I got no where. Then about a year later, mom and dad tried it again. They rented an electric guitar for me to satisfy my interest once again. I cheated and played guitar solos on my cd player in the background in my bedroom and pretended I was playing. I ended up fooling my mother, but that wasn’t any fun. I lost patience and the guitar and amp was returned to the music shop.

College came. Various room mates and friends in the dorms had guitars. Electric and Acoustic. As much as I enjoyed hearing the guys jam away, and believe me they were impressive, I just didn’t have the time, patience and skill to jump right in and start playing with all the pedals and knobs, etc. However, when I listened to this one guy with a beard during my second year in college, I suddenly found a way to do this. He was reading tablature from a Smashing Pumpkins song, I think. Its a way of notating music. But tablature made it more simple for me to grasp. It lays out the frets and strings in a more elementary sort of way. At that point my interest in music was soaring anyway. I was experimenting with a lot of bands and hanging out with all kinds of friends that showed me a thing or two with the acoustic guitar. I find that going back to the roots of music with that kind of instrument and those kinds of easy guitar tabs made my experience a lot easier.

I would occasionally pick up my roommate’s, “Hotsauce” was his nickname, acoustic guitar and start jamming based on trial and error. I would hear the sounds on the cd player or sit and observe others, like the bearded man from earlier, and just go by feel and sound. But, of course, the tabs helped a lot when I returned home from college. My parents finally BOUGHT me an Oscar Schmidt guitar. I found myself enjoying it a lot more and growing much more patient with it. All through the late nineties and early naughties, I played frequently. I was able to mess around with the styles of bands like Monster Magnet, Type O Negative, Pink Floyd, Jewel, Mazzy Star and Smashing Pumpkins. But then it really started to collect dust, until I met my wife. I tried to impress her but my efforts weren’t so great because I started to rust out a little. My lack of practicing showed, unfortunately. But lately, since my encounter with the nieces, I decided to try and master a couple of songs and spend more time with it.

Sure I love to listen to music, write about music, go to concerts and review them. But I wish to bring back the acoustic instrument back into my life. I seem to know so much about music and who my favorite guitarists are and I love to write poems that are very much musical. So why cant I get back up on the musical horse and start riding again? That is one of my goals this year. To become connected with the music on a deeper level. Who knows maybe I’ll even post a video of me playing in the future. We’ll see. Later.

C-Note

Time for some Tom and Jerry……..