Moving Guitars
Originally uploaded by Paul Roub This is where Guitar Acquisition Syndrome leads.
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But to the point -- just added a show for this coming Wednesday (July 9th), at the Iron Post in Urbana, with Eleni Moraites.
Showtime is 8pm, I'm on first, and the cover is $3.
Details, as ever, at paulroub.com/gigs
]]>The former seems like much more fun.
So, three weeks from tonight (Thursday, May 29th), I'm at Aroma Cafe in Champaign. 8pm, followed by Carl Hauck at 9.
Updates, address, etc. are at paulroub.com/gigs, as always.
]]>or Ben?
Ben Lee was just amazing — despite, or perhaps a little because of, ongoing equipment issues. No guitar in the PA? Just walk to the front of the stage and serenade a packed house unamplified. And continue to be amazing. No problem. He was just loads of fun, and impossible not to love.
And Ben Folds?
Was Ben Folds. And then some.
Being an old guy in a large crowd of UI students, it's easy to start off smiling nostalgically at the puppy-like quality of the bouncing, shouting, crowding-the-stage kids... until I realize I'm bouncing every bit as much, doing all my crowd-vocal jobs, screaming my head off when "Philosophy" started up...
In summary, music continues to be the best.
Oh, and who was better? Easy. Ben was.
]]>More explanation at the work blog.
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Heh. Actually, you'd be right. For a variety of reasons — most of my family spent significant chunks of this month sick; an air travel nightmare or two; and the fact that I've had just enough of a cold the entire time to prevent a decent vocal take — have kept me from wanting / having the time to record.
And can we talk writer's block? I've written, I think, 10 choruses for the new song. I wish I could say they all suck in their own unique ways, but honestly they're a big, shapeless, boring blur to me. And the in-the-mail deadline is Saturday. So I was gonna quit.
But quitting is even more frustrating than all that. So...
I decided to look at the rest of this as though I were just demoing, or recording a gig. Tonight I sat down, set up a couple of mikes, and threw down "live" takes of:
I need to do the roughest of mixes before posting them, or at least edit out the squeaking chair, tuning, etc. at the beginning of each track. That's tomorrow. I'm tired.
Are they perfect? No. What I originally planned? Nope. Is this the version of "Closer" I've been wanting to get on tape? No. Do I have the faintest idea how to EQ a vocal? More than yesterday, yes. Slightly.
But am I happy with how it came out? Yep. Like a decent gig, on a night when I'm fighting a cold and temporarily winning. Nothing I'd try to package and sell, but that wasn't the plan, anyway...
Which isn't to say you shouldn't expect better, or at least more-polished versions, in the coming weeks. I'm getting the hang of this now.
And that chorus can't hide from me forever.
Well, I did plug one hole in the list -- another unrecorded oldie, "Idiot". And for no good reason, that's the one I've started with. It's one of probably two I'll actually do a full "band" recording of -- which is to say, me, a drum machine, bass, various guitars. So all the solo acoustic stuff should seem trivial. Ha.
Actually, part of the reason is that my voice is a bit out of whack this week, so I'm doing instrumental things as much as possible at the moment.
To that end, "Idiot" now has a full "drum" track and a rough guitar track which meshes nicely with same. Nicer guitar tracks plus bass in the next day or two.
Recording at home, by the way. The gear lineup is:
The RPM Challenge is simple: record an album in 29 days, just because you can. That's 10 songs or 35 minutes of original material recorded during the month of February.
OK, I'm in. Goals are good. Natural procrastinators like me need goals, and we need to say them out loud so that we don't weasel out.
I'm aiming for the "10 songs" variation -- mine run long, so 35 minutes seems like cheating.
There's old things that have never been properly recorded (not that my home demo setup really counts as "proper"), and I'll likely have to finish and/or create some new stuff. Channel my inner Jonathan Coulton. Maybe actually write a song about Jonathan Coulton. Perhaps everyone should do that. What's his birthday? Let's find out, and declare it National Everybody Write A Song About Jonathan Coulton Day (NaEvWrASoAbJoCoDa).
The list as it comes to mind right now:
If I'm forgetting something obvious that hasn't previously been committed to shiny plastic circles, let me know.
]]>Guster, "So Long", from Lost and Gone Forever (1999)
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Well, I did. It's called "Optional". Somewhat different in tone than most of what's up for download; but almost exactly how I wanted it to sound.
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Last night was just fantastic. Money was raised, chocolate beers were drunk, and a ton of music was played. The whole night was great, but Alex/frenjen's set w/Gordon Withers on bonus cello was just brilliant; and Gordon's closing set of Jawbox-for-cello was just amazing.
For my part, that was one hell of a half-hour on stage. Gordon joined me for a cover of Jawbox's "Cooling Card", and elevated my little acoustic re-take to something much cooler. Then Alex clambered up to join me on "Disappear", followed by some actual Crash Basket material -- "Mind of its Own" and "No Problem". I don't know when I last played the latter, but I'm sure it didn't sound as good as it did last night. And then on my own for "Closer".
And the crowd and staff at the Funky Buddha couldn't have been nicer or more supportive.
Photos? Sure, have some.
Update: Jen weighs in on the night. Denny's was, indeed, fun.
Update 2: Neil sent some more pictures
Update 3: Some more photos up on Gordon's blog.
]]>Showtime is 8:30pm. As ever, see paulroub.com/gigs for addresses, times, etc.
By my count, something like 72,000 Satellite students (and recent students) showed up. And many others for whom high school is a slightly more distant memory. There were T-shirts.
James Ryan filmed some of it.
Many photos were taken, none of the good ones by me. If you have them, send them along. I'll post them here, or somewhere.
Thanks to one and all -- to Brad for playing, Christy for singing, and to the Sun Shoppe for having me one last time.
]]>It ships with Audacity, but I imprinted on GoldWave so long ago that I never installed it. GoldWave's pop-n-click filter is effectively magic, and my iRiver is now filling up with out-of-print or just-never-replaced-with-CDs goodies. Obscure 70s and 80s Cleveland bands (is your copy of American Noise's eponymous album autographed? no? ha!); Queen's "Jazz" and "Live Killers"; and, at my kids' request, "Peter, Paul and Mommy" -- the same copy my parents used to play for me.
Next up, Nick Lowe. Almost wish there was some Clash or Who left that I haven't picked up in smaller, shinier form. I kinda miss the clicks, and Clampdown still sounds weird without that skip in the intro. And more of my parents' stuff that I hated as a kid, but now... hey, Tom Jones Live in Las Vegas! Awesome! But then, I recently lent my dad "Sam Cooke Live at The Harlem Club", so maybe I'm cooler than he remembers, too.
Speaking of which, witnessing the proceedings, Miranda got curious:
M: What's that?
P: It's a record.
M: Is it like a kind of CD?
P: Yeah, sort of like that.
M: But how do you get music out of that?
I love that there's not a moment spent wondering how "High School Musical" comes out of an iPod Shuffle attached to a dancing toy dog. Of course that works.