Sorry about the dead links, gang. Soundcloud was acting funny earlier so I removed the Show Me Something WIP files I had linked from this site. Happily, I have the newest version uploaded for you to listen to. It’s still not flawless, but it’s interesting. Tell me what you think:
Lee.
Good Morning, Mackronauts!
I sat up last night and did some heavy duty sound tweaking of the tracks that I have so far for The Whole Other Half. I just wanted to hear them as close to how they’ll sound when they’re done, so I did some pretty careful twiddling to get them sounding as good as I know how. And you know, they’re not perfect, but they’re not bad. Still got more than half an album to record, but if that half lives up tot he promise of this first half, I’ll be in good shape.
Still got the problem that two of the tracks I have so far are missing guitar parts, but I’m pretty sure something will come to me before June 5th. What I’m gonna do about the sax and violin parts I’m intending to record is another matter. I can’t afford to hire out, and I don’t own those instruments, either. Maybe I can put an ad online and get some players to lend me their talent. I’d hate to do something like that without paying them, but maybe they’ll take an IOU or something.
Out of Time is my favourite so far, as it just motors, and has all of this rock and pomp and attitude, while having the refinement and progressive tendencies I’m trying to put across. My backing vocals have this interesting phased quality that just makes the song something special. It’s funny because the piano part really didn’t come out the way I’d envisioned, but the song is heavier than I’d had any right to achieve on my own. Wish I could get some real drums on there…
Here It Comes Again has been the odds on favourite for a pop single release, but I always wanted it to be a little more multi-layered, which bothers a few people. I finally got it sounding more or less the way I always wanted it to, though, so that’s alright. I can live with other peoples’ disappointment better than I used to. The slide guitar part should probably be redone, but it’s got a certain charm, and I need a glass slide to get the part right; it’s meant to be a George Harrison homage, to go with the John Lennon/Beatles homage that the song obviously is. The outro is still a little busier than I’d like, but I don’t know how to make it any clearer.
One Up On You, which for years lived in the back of my mind as the B-side to Here It Comes Again, is still lacking a lead part, either on guitar or synth, but it’s pretty cool with the layered organ pedal/’fretless’ bass parts. I’d love to get this one sorted out with a band to jam out the melody/lead lines, but I’ll have to live with it being a solo effort because I don’t have time to rehearse a band just now.
I’m at this very moment listening to the guitar duel at the end of Show Me Something, and thinking it needs a little more work, but it’s pretty cool so far. My agent, whom I’m thinking of getting to do some backing vocals on the track, thinks I should record an acoustic slide part instead. I’ll give it a try, but I know I like the electric feel of the song thus far. I’ve been thinking my music needs more rock and roll in it. I write catchy pop hooks with ease, but getting ballsy tone is something I’m still working on.
And now I’m listening to Gary’s guitars on Lady In The Field, and I’m pretty happy with the sound quality, though the wall of distortion is almost too much. I kind of have to trust Gary’s instincts, since it’s his music to Derrick’s lyrics, and has been from the start.
I’m Gone Again is another of my acoustic pop tunes, and it has a lot of bounce in it. It’s probably the first song I’ve recorded for the album that everyone is happy with. I guess even I’m happy with it, though I certainly don’t want people thinking it’s my best work. I put myself into it as much as I could, but it IS pretty light. If I ever play it on stage, I’ll have to relearn the bass line, because I practically improvised it on the fly and have no idea what I played now.
All This Time (Nothing More) still needs a guitar part or two and maybe an electric piano to nail that Fleetwood Mac feel, but the wall of backing vocals just aren’t right, which poses a problem because I have neither the free time nor the endurance of singing voice to hit those high notes with conviction any more. I miss my range. It used to be so comforting to be able to punch high notes, and my inner composer doesn’t enjoy being limited by the dodgy state my throat is in these days. I have to remember to call the doctor about having my throat scanned to see if there are any polyps or nodules in there affecting my throat.
Finally, The Morning Dew is a short but sweet bit of Celtic war song that needs my sister’s flute part and some mandolin or autoharp to complete it. The hand drum seems adequate, but I do wish I had access to a Bodhran instead, as it would sound just a little more authentic.
That leaves about ten tracks to sort, including a couple of slightly more epic tracks. This album is going to be the album I’ve wanted to record all my life. With any luck, at least one listener won’t be disappointed.
Time to make coffee and get to work.
Eddie.
I spent the better part of today trying to get this tune tighter. Here’s where it’s at now:
Show Me Something (stage 2)
Actually, I had to delete that file for some reason, so I’ve replaced it with this from the next day:
Show Me Something (stage 3)
Tomorrow, I tighten up the guitar duel at the end, and try out some female backing vocals. We’ll see how it goes.
Lee.
Good Afternoon, Mackrophiles,
I regret I don’t have anything ready to post yet, because I’m getting ready to go back to work on Show Me Something. I need to see if I can perfect that slide guitar part, and maybe add a little something to get back my original guitar solo from 1996. I was also considering honky tonk piano, but I’m thinking that might be better saved for The Last Call, unless I finally start hearing the actual performance I want, and not just some vague notion like I have now. The bass could probably use a little touching up as well, but I’m gonna give the track one more play to see if it’s obvious where I dropped or flubbed a couple of notes before committing to rerecording that part, because it came out rather nicely last time, warts and all, and I’d hate for it to get stale.
Meanwhile, did you know that Out Of Time and Here It Comes Again are available for download? They’re my double A-side single for the album, just to give people a taste of what’s coming.
So in other words, I’ll try to have some goodies for you later, but meanwhile, hang loose and have a good one.
Eddie.
There. That should confirm for anyone surfing by here that I’m a Flower Kings fan.
Good Morning, Limbonauts.
And by morning, I mean 3:38 AM.
Something I’ve been thinking I should discuss, aside from my insane titling choices, is my insistence that much of the music I make is intended to be Progressive Rock music, even when the individual songs clearly are not 40 minute epics involving Hermann Hesse or the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Heck, a fair bit of what I write is in 4/4, and we KNOW that’s not Prog.
I kind of regard a lot of what I do as genre hopping, and that’s not precisely Prog until you consider that I tend to write a lot of the newer material with the whole album in mind, whether it’s a concept album or just a suite of songs (or, as was the case with Bisecting a Circumference, an intended suite that didn’t materialize for largely medical reasons. That’s why I’m writing the second album as The Whole Other Half, so I can do the stuff I didn’t get a chance to last time around) arranged to convey some sort of narrative in the midst of a collection of songs. I fully intend to write a true concept album pretty soon, but I’m working my way up to it, as the last time I tried, I got sidetracked and a number of interesting pieces got waylaid with nowhere to go.
Now, the biggest strike against me as far as Prog Music is concerned is that I don’t have a lot of extended soloing, in large part because I play a few too many instruments without being a master of any of them. Soloing is a perceived necessity in Prog, and I’m a fan of it myself. there would probably be a lot more soloing in there if I practiced more. As it is, I’m working my way back to being able to solo, but it’s been over a decade since I was in a regular band, so my chops are pretty sluggish, particularly on keys, which was my main instrument in the 90s. These days, I play a lot more bass.
What I tend to do is write all of the parts and perform them as written, in the Genesis mold, because really, they are one of my biggest influences. This also explains my genre hopping, as Genesis covered a lot of ground, hopping styles from song to song. The difference is, they were a collective of songwriters who were also a band with an identifiable band sound. I’m a solo/duo/sometimes-trio artist who writes most of the material and doesn’t really have a definable band sound to fall back on any more; in the 90s, Etcetera had a sound, but that’s pretty much gone now, and I haven’t managed to create one of my own; in my solo work, I’m a bit too much of a chameleon, kind of like David Bowie, really, or maybe Adrian Belew.
But I aspire to writing Prog Rock. i just have this annoying tendency of turning out pop song a fair bit of the time. I sometiems refer to what I do as Progressive Pop, which is a curious appelation, like ‘almost but not quite true Prog’ or ‘Prog Lite’. It might be mroe commercially viable, but not necessarily as valid as a true Prog Rock or Prog Metal effort.
Theplan is to get this second solo album under my belt and then revive Etcetera again and see if we can’t record a new album that WILL be a proper Prog Rock Concept Album when I get through writing the lyrics for it. The trick will be in not writing too far ahead because the band will need to write their own parts for it to work. I’ve been pretty merciless with the Thesis material of late, but I fully intend on Etcetera being a band effort again.
To that end, and to help get Etcetera back in fighting trim, I’m actually getting them to play allover the solo material as soon as I can get the wongs written adn ready for their parts. I also intend on getting them to start performing these pieces in the summer sometime, if they can learn the material fast enough. That should get them back in shape for Steep Inclinations.
Meanwhile, I’ve got stuff like this to keep me warm:
And that’s all for me tonight. I’m going back to bed for a few hours. Thanks for reading/listening.
LEe.
So I’m not done with this yet, but here is where it’s at today. Tomorrow, I’ll probably rerecord most of it and add some piano and maybe a vocal harmony if I’m feeling plucky:
I probably shouldn’t be posting this, but I’m in the mood for some gratuitous validation, so… Enjoy.
Lee.
Good Morning, Mackrophiles,
I have rent to go pay, so I have to make this short.
I think I’ve finally reached that point where I realize nothing is working. Nothing I’ve done in the past year has amounted to anything remotely resembling a good, solid investment in my future: I’ve published novellas and novels; I’ve written countless short stories which are being gathered into collections as quickly as I can; I’ve created dozens of tee shirts, some of which are pretty funny and some of which are just pretty; I’ve put an album and a single up for sale, and another album up for pre-order; I’ve held two art sales of my illustrations and hand-drawn graphic designs; I’ve made fifteen videos, some which are visual audio books, some of which actually use my music, and one of which is an actual by-gum rock video; and I’ve done all of this while maintaining about a half dozen blogs and at least three social networks, which I am occasionally quite charming on, if you catch me on a good day.
And I’m staring down the barrel of debt like never before. You have no idea. It’s making me into the bore you see today.
But enough about me. How are you today?
Uncle Eddie.
Good Afternoon and Happy Easter/Passover, Mackrophiles!
I’m cleaning up and editing some old music of mine for market, so I’m just gonna post you some very pretentious lyrics for a song that I have every intention of writing much better lyrics to in the not-too-distant future, for the Etcetera concept album, Steep Inclinations.
The song, recorded in 1997, was first called The Stand, and then The Last Stand (title I’m probably going to reuse), and finally The Grand Stand, but I finished writing the lyrics for it two years later, when the band was on hiatus, so I renamed it The Lost Souls. The lyrics have never been sung, but here they are for your amusement:
INTRO {Recite}
Carry this message to our mentors
Our path is gone; we’ve lost our way
Ask if there might be new directions
Go fast; we can’t afford to stay…
VERSE 1
Lost…
In this barren land
Sent out from Sheltering Arms
To make our way across the sand.
Taught to follow in sacred ways
Each provided with a path
To guide us to our proving grounds
Hone skills we’ll need to get us back.
VERSE 2
Cold…
Beneath an endless sky
Struck camp by glow of dusk
Hoped the stars would be our guide.
We pushed on into the desert nights
Left marks where we had been
Searching for signs of life
Found an uncharted ravine.
BRIDGE 1
Caves and springs and life abounded there
But there was a silence to that place
Tasted the fruits of that forgotten land
And overlooked a stranger’s face
VERSE 3
Caught…
By those who claimed this place
Survivors of a ruined home
And yet they offered us space.
Revelry could be heard that night
Drunk with delight to have found someone
But in the night, laughter turned to screams
And dawn revealed that some were gone.
VERSE 4
Trapped…
In this dark paradise
Preyed upon by villains
Who approach in friendly guise.
No trace of those we lost, no proof of wrong
Our new friends tried to make us stay
We broke for freedom in the wooded hills
None but I escaped that day.
INTERLUDE
That night I slept alone under the sky
I dreamt of faces in the sky
They told me of the plan to lure us here
A wicked scheme hatched from afar.
The faces revealed men hidden in the wastes
To ensure we don’t survive
Our mentors clueless to what happened here
False friends conspired to end our lives.
BRIDGE
Was it a dream, or did they speak to me?
Was it the truth? What did I really see?
Which way to go to find my way back home?
How can I stop those men alone?
VERSE 5
Light…
Revealed a secret trail
Outside to the burning sands
Against hot winds and baking sun.
The trail lead me to a secret road
Walled off and hidden in the dunes
It stretched for miles in all directions
I followed signs that showed the way.
VERSE 6
Home…
But the gates could not be seen
I found a door beneath the sand
That lead me underground.
A secret world of refugees concealed there
By brigands brought from the Outside
Kept quiet and forced to slave in fear
By foes above who cheat and lie.
BRIDGE 3
And in the end
The truth was finally made clear
Not everyone in the Sheltering Arms
Believed we had the right to be.
Went through a door into a tunnel
Led up to the world that I once knew
Found my mentors being stripped of rank
And secreted away to toil below…
REPRISE {Recital}
I ran into the teeming streets and cried out for all who would listen
To what had been done to my lost comrades, the young sent blindly to their fate.
I warned of what was being done to their children,
And to their unsuspecting brethren behind their backs.
My story shocked my audience, but before they could be swayed to act,
The Guardians of the Sheltering Arms arrived and took me away in chains,
To stand for sedition before the Tribunal of the Elders.
It became clear to me then that some there were guilty,
As they lied and denied and sowed doubt amongst their peers,
Who couldn’t decide how to handle my claims.
The people demanded a judgement be made, but the Elders stalled for time,
Devising plausible denials and dismissing the accusations
Of conspiracy to put their children in chains.
The guilty leaders, mentors of powerful houses, were brought to justice that day,
As the parents of the lost cried out…
VERSE 7
Enough…
Let’s have an end to all the lies
The secret’s out, the plan’s been twisted
By these greedy men for too long.
Time…
Has come to set things straight
We must recover our lost ones
To save our souls before it’s too late
Please forgive us for what we have done.
Whoa oh whoa.
© 1998, 2012 Lee Edward McIlmoyle
for Etcetera Thesis Music
from the upcoming Etcetera album, Steep Inclinations
…clicked on the link to go to Smashwords’ Terminal Monday page, saw it was 260,000 words long, and decided not to bother? Ther eis an alternative, you know? You can also sample it for free, which doesn’t ehlp me, but at least gives you an opportunity to see if you like my style.
There IS also another possibility: You can buy the novella. It’s two dollars cheaper, and it’s a complete chapter at almost 40,000 words, which gives you a pretty full, self-contained chapter AND a really good idea if you have any interest in reading the full novel. It happens fairly late in the book, but doesn’t give away too much of the story, and is one of my finest bits of writing. It took me almost a month to write the one chapter, both because it was so long AND because I crafted it ever so carefully. I figure it’s the perfect sampler for the full novel, because it’s got a bit of everything in it.
So, what do you say? Not good enough? Here’s another possibility: COMMENT ON THIS POST, and we can discuss me using the ‘Gifting’ feature to give you a copy of Under Observation, absolutely free of charge, if you’ll promise to give me your honest opinion of the chapter. It’s that simple. You don’t have to write a full, in-depth review, though I WILL ask you to try to go beyond ‘It sucks, dude’. Maybe one paragraph? Four little sentences? the work of two to three minutes, tops.
NOW are you interested? 39K words for free, and if you don’t like it, I promise not to bother you personally about reading the full novel any more. You can read and comment on 39,000 words, can’t you? That’s what, two night’s reading, three on the outside? It took me a month to write it, and FOUR months, over a period of THREE YEARS, to write the first draft. One of us is getting the better deal here, and I’m pretty sure it’s not me.
Okay, one more offer: if you comment, receive the free chapter, briefly review it AND buy the full novel with a coupon I will give you that knocks off a dollar, I’ll put you down for either a digital copy of the upcoming album, a digital copy of the special EP I’ll only be offering people who pre-order the album, OR an eight page comic I’m plotting as an extra special gift for overzealous supporters. You choose the prize. But you HAVE to comment, you have to tell me what you thought, and you have to buy the novel (with the coupon, at the reduced price of $3.99 USD).
This offer will be null and void at the end of the holiday weekend. Call it Crazy Eddie’s Easter/Passover Special. If you comment during this weekend, you’re in the running. The reviews need to be in no later than NEXT weekend, because after that, I’m gonna be recording pretty steadily, and won’t be paying that much attention to the website, other than writing the One a Day posts in the early morning. By the end of the month, I’ll announce the winners and sign you up for everything you’ve got coming to you.
That’s it. That’s my pitch. If you can get a better offer than 260,000 words for 4 bucks, I suggest you take it. I can’t guarantee you’ll love my novel, but I can guarantee that you’ll never read another novel quite like it at the price.
Almost time for dinner. Time to feed the cats. Thanks for reading. Happy Holidays.
Lee.
NOTE: This excerpt contains some ‘salty’ language (think of an alternate word for rooster) and frank sexuality, though there is no graphic or implied sex herein; that happens in the next segment, which I won’t be posting. As such, this segment is NSFW, though just barely. You might want to close the door if you’re reading this with your family home for the holidays, as well.
When Richard got off the elevator on his floor, he found Andy waiting at the door for him, bags of food and what looked like a bottle of soda in her hands. Meeting her at the door, he leaned in to kiss her, which earned him a very bright smile.
“I must have missed you on my way out to pick up some money for dinner,” he said as he unlocked the door.
“You didn’t have to do that. Dinner is on me. It’s my house warming gift. Save your cash to go grocery shopping tomorrow instead.”
“I don’t even know where the nearest grocery store is around here,” he confessed.
“Well, there’s a lot of shops along Ninth Avenue, but I think the closest is the Food Emporium between 49th and 50th, just south of here.”
“On Eighth?”
“Yeah, that’s probably the closest. Maybe we can hit the grocery store before I go home tomorrow.”
He smiled. “Does that mean you’re spending the night?”
“Yeah, you look like you need some company, and I’m in the mood to snuggle. And besides, you still owe me a rematch.” she answered, grinning wickedly.
“I thought we’d already settled that last night,” he replied.
“Oh no, you don’t get off that easy, pun intended,” she quipped, “Last night was nice, like a good day’s rain after too many days of summer heat, but I still want the real thing. You inside of me, all the way to the top floor. You get me?”
“Apparently, yes,” he grinned. “I hope I don’t disappoint you this time.”
“Oh, I think things will go much smoother without the hallucinogenics to complicate things,” she insisted. “You see, I figure it was just a bad trip you were on. You’re still hung up about your wife. I get that. There’s not a lot I can do about that except wait it out until you’ve made up your mind which one of us has dibs. I figure she’s in the lead right now, but I’m gaining on her.”
She set the bags down on the coffee table and pulled out the bottle, which was indeed a cola bottle, but what was inside didn’t look like cola.
“Dad likes to make homemade wine. The most recent batch is kind of nice. Not too fruity, but not bitter either. It’s not as good as the stuff you get in the liquor store, but it’s free, and if you don’t like it, I can just put it back with no problems. I figure you still need some loosening up, but not enough to make you moody,” said, but then picked up the empty tumbler and sniffed. “Or am I already too late?”
“No, I poured that a couple of hours ago to settle down and watch a movie. I thought I might drink more than that, but one seemed to be enough after all. I think I can handle a little bit of wine with dinner.”
“Good. You got any plates yet, or are we eating out of styrofoam?”
“I managed to bring a couple of old plates Kara and I weren’t using any more. They should be in a box over here…” he replied, trailing off as he browsed the stacks of cardboard.
Andy came over and helped him search through the boxes, and even managed to find his wine glasses, which were bundled up in tea towels. It took them several minutes, but the plates were recovered along with some dingy cutlery his mother had given him, and they replaced the boxes before kneeling down on the floor to eat.
“You know,” she said, her mouth half full of buttered chicken, “you don’t really have that much stuff. We could probably unpack those boxes and get everything put away in one night.”
“Probably, yeah,” he agreed, after washing down some Beef Madras with the wine. It wasn’t too bad, if still a little sweeter than he preferred.
“So, why don’t we do that, then?” she asked. “We’ll finish dinner and clean up, and then get your stuff put away, unless you had something else in mind.”
“Well, I wouldn’t mind watching a movie with you, but watching movies on a computer screen isn’t that romantic. I may have to invest in a television set and a DVD player.”
“Good idea. Maybe get one for the bedroom, too,” she suggested. “That way we can watch pornos and get freaky.”
“I don’t own any porno flicks,” he answered blankly.
“No problem. I’ve got plenty. Where do you think I learned to give head?”
“I thought you were an inspired amateur,” he chuckled.
“Don’t laugh at me,” she grumbled. “I worked very hard to get this good. You have no idea how many boys I had to practice on to get good enough to get you off like I did last night. You didn’t even have time to think about your wife, did you?”
“No, you caught me completely off guard.”
“Right,” she said, pleased with herself, “and if I have to keep surprising you until you’re relaxed enough to just go with it, I will. Don’t get me wrong, I like sucking your cock. Your cum tastes pretty good. But I’ll want to get laid every now and then, too.”
“So you’re just going to work at me until I’m broken, huh?” he grinned.
“I vill brek you wiss my massif tighs und my magic breasticles,” she laughed, and then climbed over to straddle him once more. “You vud like me to demonstrate, ja?”
“I thought we were going to eat dinner and unpack,” he answered, feeling a little skittish after the afternoon he’d had.
“Later,” she said and pulled her sweater over her head. This time she hadn’t bothered to wear a bra.
© 2012 Lee Edward McIlmoyle
Good Morning, Mackronauts! Ready for launch?
I’ve been tinkering with my old keyboard music again, and it’s gotten me all excited about making music again. It’s funny, because my favourite keyboardists aren’t the most exciting guys around: Tony Banks, Anthony Phillips, Richard Wright and Stewart Copeland. These guys are my biggest keyboard influences, but they’re not really considered the best in the business. Funny how that works. I never wanted to be the best in the business myself. I just want to move people.
The first piece I’d like to discuss is The Dreamer’s Symphony:
This is a prototype of what I wanted Etcetera to sound like when we first started out. Oh, there was a certain piece of keyboard music in our arsenal I was also very happy with, but it was Dori’s song, and she was leaving us, so I knew I’d have to get us some new music to make up for the loss of her. I think she tried to downplay the importance of the piece at the time, but Derrick and Dave thought it was pretty good (I think they agreed that we had our new keyboard player, at any rate). It was really rough, and I hadn’t given it a proper structure yet, but I had the bits and pieces, which I ‘composed’ and recorded while Dori was sick at her parents’ home with a kidney infection and a case of Wayward Heart Syndrome. Both improved when she returned and started dating our producer friend, whom I’ve long since forgiven (f forgiveness was ever needed) because he did me the favour of stealing Dori from me, which accelerated my own progress as a musician and composer tremendously. I’ve never relied so heavily on another musician since then, so in many ways, I owe Dori and Mike a great debt of gratitude for forcing me to become the musician I am. And The Dreamer’s Symphony is where I started getting serious about composing music, instead of just writing lyrics for songs and moaning about not being able to play them.
The sound itself isn’t the sound I intended on using in the final recording, as it wasn’t really that great a sound for a band to have to work around. I like my keyboard sounds to eat up a certain amount of space, but not to the extent that the band had nothing else to do. The sound I used was called Heavy Hittr, a four voice patch on Dori’s Kawai K-1 synth, which had two sets of Strings and two sets of Iceblock set at slightly different attack and sustain lengths to give the patch depth and breadth. It was a ballsy sound that I could use to evoke pastoral sequences or really punchy, choppy sections with lots of bass response and bombast. I could conceivably play that patch in a solo segment and almost nobody would miss the band. Except the hard rockers. And me. It’s almost twenty years later and I still hear it as an ensemble piece with guitar, bass and drums.
The next piece I’d like to discuss is called Monte’s Birthday Suite, which consists of three parts, only two of which are in digital form at the moment: The Hunting and The Arrival
The Hunting was a piece that was improvised shortly after we’d finished jamming The Arrival, and followed by The Awakening, a short little keyboard noodle that just sounded better on the front, with The Arrival sent to the rear, as it’s the most bombastic of the three parts, making it much harder to follow. I programmed the band musically by playing some Genesis and King Crimson at them shortly before we started, and the results were far better than I could have hoped for. I remember being so excited about this piece at the time, because the band was finally fulfilling my expectations of them. In many ways, we were always strongest as a three piece, whether it was Dave or Gary who didn’t show up.
We attempted to jam and refine these parts a number of times, but ultimately, I decided to write them into songs on my own. A version of The Hunting became Breathe (which we will discuss shortly), and The Arrival I rearranged and wrote lyrics for, to transform into a progressive rock mini-epic called Up For Air, which still hasn’t been realized (I’m hoping to get that together on the next Etcetera album, which I’ve tentatively titled Steep Inclinations).
I played it to a number of friends, most of whom weren’t that impressed, but I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for the piece.
The next piece I’d like to discuss is Bleed Into One, which was another cool jam that needed a lyric before Derrick got sick of playing it; fortunately, I already had one written for the occasion, and started bootstrapping it into place before the die was cast. It’s always been a favourite of mine, though the performances and sound quality of the original leave much to be desired. It’s the closest I’ve ever come to getting the band to sound like Synchronicity II by The Police, one of my all-time favourite pieces of rock music.
The lyric was meant to be social commentary on how people tend to turn away when they hear too much bad news. The title literally explains how all of the problems of the world just seem to run together into one huge rushing river of negativity and pain, which overwhelms many of us and makes the survivors into hard-bitten activists who become so strident and harsh that they turn the rest off even more. It’s the dilemma of caring too much in a world that is too bruised to care enough to fix the problems.
The next piece I’d like to discuss is Breathe, which is only available online in three short parts at the moment.
It is, as mentioned earlier, my effort to turn The Hunting into a proper song, so Derrick would continue to rehearse it, because all of that instrumental music I had them playing was making his life miserable. The lyric was something I composed thinking of Sting and Peter Gabriel. The original jam had been darker and moodier, but the subsequent jams and rehearsals had taken the piece in a different direction, in part because it changed keys a bit. I always intended to refuse the two disparate concepts together, so I could have my moody piece AND my inspirational anthem, as part of the greater Monte’s Birthday Suite, which I suppose would need a better title.
Now I get to flog the ‘new’ old stuff. The first piece is called The Art of Letting Go. It’s not the best piece on the Greatest Misses compilation, but it has the peculiar honour of containing one of my fastest keyboard licks, which even I will admit needs more work, but sounds pretty amazing, and would stand out even more if it were in the middle or end of the jam instead of near the beginning, leaving little else to keep you listening. I’ll be rearranging this one some day to see if I’m right. I’m not all that fond of the sound I used, but it got the job done. If I had it to do over again, I suppose I’d choose a more classic synth solo sound for the instrumental section, and write a lyric to fill up the space left by the fairly average verse/chorus riffs, which I would probably choose a less ear-splitting sound for, so the dissonant chords wouldn’t jar quite as much. I’d definitely keep the title and theme, though. It’s a song waiting to happen.
Next up is When It Seems To Be Ending, another instrumental jam that had me turning in one of my finest piano performances, despite the bum notes. I would love to hear this performed properly, with a bass line that matches the rest of the song, because sadly, I kind of squeezed Big Dave out on this one, so he just sort of noodled aimlessly through most of it. I still don’t know precisely what I’d like this piece to be, but it seems pretty much fully formed, which demonstrates how good my instincts were in 1998; after four years of pushing, I was starting to develop real composing and jamming chops.
The last piece I’m going to discuss today is probably my favourite piece of the bunch, which is an alarming thing to say, but I’m sure that, with the passage of time, it will settle back down to being one of the gang. It was once given the simple, silly title Teddy Bear Got A Robo Dick, and there’s a kind of funny story to go with that, but I think I’ll just mention that, prior to posting the piece, I finally renamed it The Furthest Shores, which is my sly nod to Tony Banks, who definitely influenced me on this one.
I’m pretty sure it’s a piano sound, but it’s a bit distorted, which means I probably cranked up the gain to give it some fuzz, or ran it through my Boss effects unit (I just don’t remember the Kawai having that patch, though it’s been a long time, so I could be wrong). This, like the previous piece, was composed on Dori’s old Kawai K-1, most likely using the piano patch which I painstakingly programmed myself, using my old Yamaha PSR-7 piano tone as the model. I have better piano sounds to work with now, but I haven’t enjoyed playing piano as much as I did when I created this sound.
I definitely have plans for this piece, which has been eating up a lot of my mental space lately.
It’s my intention to recreate all of these pieces on the multi-track with full band arrangements, so the guys can hear their parts properly, though I may have to start my search for a new keyboard player, since I seem to be playing bass a lot more these days, unless I can do a Geddy and figure some way to perform both keyboard and bass parts in turns, which is actually my preferred option, except that I also have to sing, and some of my bass lines give me trouble when it comes to singing, because the meters are sometimes funny, and I tend to write counterpoint bass lines a lot. Still, it would be a fun challenge learning to break the pieces up so I could play them on both instruments. That’s a challenge I look forward to.
Well, my agent is awake and raring to go, so it’s time to stop typing and make the coffee. I hope someone was entertained by all of this musical meandering and maundering. Thank you for reading.
Uncle Eddie.
Good Morning, Macketeers! Let’s all have our Macketeer Cheer! FEED YOUR SPAMBOTS! Woo!
Okay, so, I’ve got some bad news and some good news to share today:
The bad news is, Dr. Jim Marshall, OBE, the man who made Rock & Roll really loud, has passed away at the age of 88. This saddens me even though I’m not a Marshall stack kind of guy. I’d rather mike a Fender Twin or a Vox AC30, and I think I want to invest in Hughes & Kettner for my bass rig, (currently using my Peavy keyboard amp). But Marshall did it first, and he made the whole thing happen, so hats off to the man.
The good news is, Tom Orzechowski, a friend and personal hero of mine, has been nominated for an Eisner award for lettering, which I think is well and truly deserved. I truly hope he wins it.
The bad news is (yes, there’s more), my song writing partner, Gary Falkins, hasn’t called all week, which usually means he is either too sick or too busy to come work with me for our designated Thursday afternoon home studio session. This is disappointing, as I was hoping to get caught up with him after last week’s shut-out (he had to work both Thursday and Friday afternoon, thus scotching our plans).
The good news is, I plan on rerecording Show Me Something, another hoary old classic today, which should cheer him up when he hears it. It’s a fun track, and the performance was so spontaneous and free, but the recording itself is highly flawed, so it’s time for an update. This version will become part of the Love’s Labours Lost & Found Suite, which means I may have to hack off the flabby bits at either end, but I haven’t committed to it yet, so we’ll see.
Other than that, it’s coming up on the Easter holiday weekend, so lots of folks are going to be home or with their families, which means there should be some people online now and then, which means I need to be entertaining. here’s hoping I come up with a few things worth reading. 
Time to get to work. Seeya.
Eddie.
Good Morning, Macketeer! Have you fed your spambots today? I know I’ve fed mine.
So I went to a political rally the other day, to protest the lack of initiative of our government in pushing forward a comprehensive and consequential investigation of the Robocall Brouhaha that has swept our supposedly fair-minded, gentle, peaceful nation. We knew the political climate in this country had changed significantly since Stephen Harper first came into power, but the upheaval since he won his so-called majority has been untenable. And yet, in the interests of a fair and open democracy, I defend Conservative voters for having successfully gotten their party into office again, fair and square.
Except that, it looks like there was absolutely nothing fair about it. Sorry, gang.
Now, I’m not the best one for quoting statistics, but a number of them are pretty alarming when taken into context. Contested ridings lost by narrow margins, election campaign supporters who aren’t from Canada, too much money in the election coffers, and the highly dubious practice of of calling known opposition party supporters to notify them that their polling station has been relocated across town to an abandoned lot suggests far more than the usual so-called ‘American-style’ politicking. The facts that we are seeking rest almost entirely within the hands of the ruling power, and it’s going to take a lot of pressure to make them do the right thing here, if at all. Some people are cheerily suggesting armed insurrection, but I for one understand, and can’t condone violence.
So, what CAN I condone? Peaceful demonstrations? Petitions? Occupy Wall Street-style site occupations? Sure, why not? But I suspect we need to think bigger. We need campaign ads and slogans, pop songs and an art movement, beat poetry and mad social commentary novels. In other words, we need Creatives to apply themselves to the task of bringing down a government from the outside, without resorting to guns and brickbats. We need to turn the country against an illegitimate government that has no business passing laws when it should be passing sentence on itself and stepping down, or at least calling a new, free election that can be monitored more carefully for discrepancies. A government that sticks by its policy of accountable government instead of slashing funding to Elections Canada, the sole body in Canada that can instigate these investigations and make them stick against a standing government.
There are three things that non-protesters keep clinging desperately to in this province, when defending The Harper Government:
1) If Harper doesn’t get into office, then it’ll either go to Bob Rae or the NDP;
2) All of the parties are equally corrupt, so it makes no difference who gets voted into office;
and 3) At least Harper’s balancing the budget.
Except that all three points are wrong, or at least wrong-headed.
There is a long-standing knee jerk reaction amongst blue collar types when it comes to social assistants users, so when tax dollars get spent (on strangers) to keep things afloat, short-sighted labourers and small business owners only think of the money they’re losing to people they wouldn’t approve of if they met them in person. But you see, that’s what having a government is all about. You get to support your society’s social structure and keep people from starving to death in your doorway. People need a little MORE enlightened self-interest if they’re going to commit to this whole class snobbery thing.
Oh sure, there IS corruption in politics, but relatively little and relatively easily dealt with in Canadian politics. It’s also not as widespread as everyone likes to think. They see Senators delaying the CPP but giving themselves bonuses and assume it’s all gone horribly wrong. But there are plenty of politicians fighting to have those unbelievable perks removed. They want voting reform passed. They want schools and housing and hospitals for everybody. They want jobs for the able and social assistance for those unable to work. In short, they want what seemingly everyone OTHER than politicians want. Because they’re people, and they talk to their constituents and they listen to what people are saying, but most importantly, they remember that what the people want ins’t necessarily the same as what they NEED. It’s when governments forget about what people actually need and start thinking about what the people they know personally need that it gets muddy.
The point is, cynicism might spare your reputation, but it won’t fix the world’s problems. You must be willing to make an ass of yourself if you want to see things changed for the better, because no one with a vested interest in the status quo is going to give you a fair shake, and no one in general is going to thank you for forcing them to change. That’s life. But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing. Activism is a powerful tool for change, and it’s needed if you want to save lives AND make the world a better place. It’s either that, or bloody revolution, and really, they don’t work. Any ‘revolution’ where blood is shed usually fails sooner or later. You can’t build Utopia on corruption, and killing corrupts any endeavour, by corrupting the person who commits it, however noble the cause.
And finally, the numbers don’t lie. Harper’s government is sinking us deeper and deeper into debt, and he refuses to listen to Canadians telling him to stop. He believes he has a mandate, you see. It’s false. The only mandate he might have was given to him by his voters (many of whom actually exist), who make up far less than half of the Canadian people. That’s not a mandate; that’s a technicality. A Coalition Government between the remaining parties would be far, FAR more representative of the peoples of Canada than any so-called majority government run by as divisive and fractious a leader as Stephen Harper. And at the same time, we could drop a lot of the ridiculous law&order and military spending projects that Harper is sinking us into the mud with. I for one would vote Coalition in a heartbeat.
Alright, I think I’ve probably ranted enough. Time to go do something constructive… or alternatively, whatever my agent tells me to do.
Your Cantankerous Uncle Eddie.
Desperation is the world’s worst cologne. ~ Lee in Limbo*
Yes, I’ve taken to quoting myself for this one, because it’s something I’ve been saying for many, many years. It even applies to me. Actually, it especially applies to me. I demonstrate it every day, with how much effort I put into this whole ‘cultivating a readership’ thing I’ve been doing in the last few years. It’s been extremely slow going, with some setbacks and more than a few casualties along the way:
YE OLDE LIST OF GRIEVANCES
I used to do all of my blogging in the late 90s and early 00s on my Geocities site, called Lee in Limbo’s Sunday Afternoon Matinée E-zine. I had a page called Grumblings From Limbo, where I wrote my so-called Op Ed bits, which almost nobody read. I eventually threw in the towel, after I grew tired of hard coding every damned blog page, and signed up for LiveJournal, after receiving an invite from a certain LJ BNF/VIP I haven’t talked civilly to in several years.
I kept up with my LiveJournal account for the better part of seven years before it finally sank in that I wasn’t growing my readership in that walled garden either, so I finally decided I needed to step out and try something else. I looked at the blogging networks that were available a few years ago, and the one that appealed the most was WordPress, so I signed up and got my own domain name, which I had to shut down because poverty sucks.
I spent the last year or so promoting my various projects and such on the WordPress.com network, and I’ve had a few brushes with high hit counts that just kind of broke my brain. I wrote a series of articles about gaming and interactive storytelling, which was pretty popular when I first started, but I got sidetracked and lost my readership. I held an art sale, literally selling finished pieces of my design and cartoon work, some of which are highly attractive hand drawings in pencil and ink. Sadly, that sale ate into a fair bit of my time, and proved not to be as successful as I’d hoped. I may stage another art sale soon. I also started writing rock album reviews, which has garnered me quite a bit of traffic in the last few months. It’s been good fun, but it’s expensive and it eats up a fair bit of my time, so I can’t really afford to make it my main priority. I intend to continue writing my reviews, but I may have to back off a bit. We’ll see.
But the one thing I was trying to achieve in all of this was to draw attention to my creative work. I’ve promoted my writing by posting excerpts and even video taping me reading certain excerpts, but sadly, it’s been difficult to get you guys to clock on My Book Shelf, let alone read about the books or (heaven forfend) go to one of a handful of the biggest Ebook sellers and buy a copy. I keep the price of my Ebooks nice and low, so price shouldn’t be a major impediment. And yet, I can count the number of sales I’ve made since October (when I first started publishing via Smashwords) on one hand. I’ve had dozens of samples, but no reviews and almost no sales. I won’t lie: it’s a bit discouraging.
I also make music, which I’ve been promoting pretty aggressively in recent months, but that too is only receiving sporadic attention at best. My first rock video broke 80 hits in the first week, but it’s now a month later, and the video hasn’t cracked a hundred hits.
DISCLAIMER
Okay, now all of this may seem self-pitying, and I apologize for that. Let me make one thing clear: I AM NOT LOOKING FOR PITY. I’M ALSO NOT POINTING FINGERS. Any lack of career success is entirely my responsibility, not yours. I’m still working on fixing my problems. This integrated website is my latest effort to do just that. It still hasn’t lead to added sales, but it HAS significantly concentrated my readership, and I now have more hits on this website than I had on my previous blogsite just one month ago. I’m not where I need to be yet, but I’m getting there. I figure it’s only a matter of time before people coming in start to get curious about my actual creative work, and start putting down a few pesos to check it out. Any time now…
So there you have it. Not as self-pitying as it might seem, right? So then why write all of this stuff in the first place?
Well, for starters, because it’s what’s on my mind, and I’ve come to realize that I blog to get stuff out of my head, so I can focus on other things, and let other people decide if my thoughts for the day are inspiring or insipid. My skin isn’t as thick as it should be, but I’m getting there. I don’t take this stuff too personally. I just don’t see the point in lying to you, trying to convince you that I’m a player when I’m not. I’ll worry about these state of the union address posts of mine if and when I reach certain of my professional goals.
Secondly, it’s a way for me to keep track of how things have been going. I don’t keep a paper diary any more, and frankly, I find having an online journal to be a very useful way to keep track of my progress and my moods. I’ve tried other methods, but really, a regular journal is still my favourite way to keep track of and communicate my state of mind.
Conventional wisdom and certain smart-ass friends and acquaintances of mine suggest that projecting confidence and professionalism is what people want to read. They may be right. However, I find that, while I enjoy reading people who do just that, I find the stuff I enjoy reading the most is by Creatives who aren’t afraid to be naked, figuratively speaking, now and then. I want signal, yes, but I also want to know that I’m talking to and reading a real person; someone I can identify with. Someone I wouldn’t mind calling friend under other circumstances. Who the fuck wants to talk to a sock puppet all day, anyway?
So yeah, I know what it’s like to be drenched in Eau du Desperation, and I certainly don’t mean to give you that impression of me.
MEET THE LORD OF LIMBO
Since we’re becoming friends here, let me tell you a few things about myself: My name is Lee. I write fiction, design art, and write and record songs. I also cartoon and plot comics, and I’ve dabbled in game design for years. The body of my published work isn’t that impressive yet, but I’m working to change that. My design company, CLEARvision Studios, has kind of gone into hibernation for the time being, but that’s all right: I’m busy with other, more personally satisfying work right now. I’m also thinking about getting back into painting, bringing my design experience to the task of designing and executing a series of paintings that I might turn into a tarot deck somewhere down the road. And of course, I have plans to design and paint a series of graphic novels, so the time spent in design hasn’t been a waste; it’ll pay for itself in the end.
There’s more. Plenty more. I’m married to the Smartest Woman In The World, who hails from New York City, probably my favourite city in the world, and we have two ferocious, precocious house cats who think they are jungle cats. We don’t have the heart to tell them otherwise. My family lives in town, and I maintain pretty close ties to all of them.
I have two musical bands, made up of pretty much the same people these days, though it wasn’t really supposed to be that way. I guess you’d say it’s one band with two sides: the side that plays the jammed and group-composed songs, and the side that plays the songs Gary and I have written that the old band wasn’t able to play, back in the day. Things have changed somewhat, but I’ve tried to maintain that line between the two, if for no other reason than so that I have Thesis as an outlet for all of my stuff that used to get passed on by Etcetera.
There’s probably lots I’m leaving out, but hey, I can’t keep you here all day. I thank you for reading, and I encourage you to stop and say Hi if you liked what you read today.
Time to make the donuts.
Lee.
* I said I’ve been saying it for years, but most people who come from my generation will remember a little film called Singles, which is probably where I got the quote from, even though I don’t remember watching the whole film.
Back in the autumn of 1997 and the early spring of 1998, Gary and Dave were taking it in turns not to show up for practice, leaving us in an almost permanent state of being power trio. On a few of those occasions, it was just Derrick, Big Dave and I, so I instigated a series of jam sessions before we would get started on proper song rehearsals. From these sessions, I culled a series of jams that inspired me so much, I promised myself I’d find some way to turn them into proper songs. It’s about fifteen years alter and I still haven’t achieved this, but as I HAVE just digitized and cleaned up three of my favourite tracks from that bunch, I’m thinking it might be time. I haven’t decided when or where to use them, or even if they’ll keep their titles. I just want to record them again, to get them right. I’ll probably do a little digital cut and paste to put them together into a more pleasing structure. There’s certainly enough going on in each piece that turning them into fully fledged songs should be a dawdle. I used to do it all the time, only with cassette decks and lots of note paper.
However, until then, here are the jams themselves. I think they’re a bit of great all on their own, warts and all:
The Art of Letting Go
When It Seems To Be Ending
The Furthest Shores
That last one sounds a lot like a Tony Banks piece to me, and the middle piece has some Keith Emerson in there, but I still haven’t decided what the first one reminds me of.
Anyway, thanks for listening.
Lee.