Run!

Last night I dreamt that a large group of people and I were being hunted. One by one we were being killed and only I knew how to stop it. I kept screaming "You have to create! It's the only good humans do." Creating will save us, huh? I might not be consciously worried about my current lack of musical endeavourers, but hoo boy my sub-conscious pissed off. For some reason I find this deeply funny.

Tidal

My days are filled with work, work, more work and the occasional bit of eating, sleeping and snuggling. I bought the new Metric album and it's been sitting, unopened, for weeks now. Life has gotten in the way of music.

This isn't the first time this has happened and it won't be the last. What I'm really worried about is how not worried I am. I mean, I'm supposed to love making music, right? Why am I not getting uptight about having no time to do it?

I've got another creative project on the go and that keeps the anxiety somewhat at bay. I'm building a fixed gear bicycle. My life has two points around which it ellipses, music and bicycles. Right now I'm swinging closer to the bike one because of the second job. With the coming of real winter that job will diminish to a few hours a week. I'm hoping at that point I'll pick up where I left off and finish the damn song that's sitting on the hard drive.

I guess like everything else, my desire to make music goes through ebbs and flows and right now it's ebbing. On the plus side, sometimes when I break out of the doldrums my playing improves rapidly. That'd be nice, I feel like I've not improved much since I recovered from the broken arm.

Enough whining and poorly constructed oceanic metaphors!

*The picture is the frame I'm using to build the fixy. I found it abandoned in the middle of a street late one night. I'm calling it Lonely because it's going to be single speed.

Notice

THE E LEVATORS S eamy Y ellow U nderbelly (Independent)
Two songs, both clocking in at under two-and-a-half minutes, both instrumental garage-band takedowns of familiar numbers. It's hard to say which one is more appealing--the speedy, surf punk wind up of that old Sesame Street sing-a-long classic, "R ubber
D uckie," or the slightly ridiculous lurch through "F rankie and
J ohnny." Probably the most conceptually-perfect EP you'll hear all year.

T om M urray
From See Magazine (a free weekly arts paper)

Hmmp. I think that while F + J is slightly ridiculous but it might not seem so if it'd been mixed properly. The point of the tune is to show off E's drumming but she's too quiet in the mix. I'm not sure how conceptually perfect the thing is, although the cover art is brilliant. P has a knack for that stuff, but how can it be conceptually perfect when we really didn't have a concept?

Ah well, it's not for sale and we don't have any gigs lined up so the review is purely for our enjoyment, and truth be told: it did give me a little thrill. Oh and in the interests of full disclosure: Tom is an old friend.

If anyone has the slightest interest I'll mail you a free copy, assuming I can pry one out of P's clutching hands.

Halloween

We played the second of our two annual gigs on Saturday. The Halloween bash at the practice space. It went well, we played damn fine if I do say so myself. We're not a compelling band to watch, a bunch of finger gazers and nary a rock-star among us. That said it was a good time and I think people enjoyed it.

It's too bad in the one picture that my glasses have slid down and my mouth is hanging open. I'd wired the sunglasses to my prescription ones and getting them off mid set wasn't in the cards. The picture is me trying desperately to see the dots on the neck of my guitar.

The other picture is me and the fabulous E, drummer extraordinaire. Our band theme was Lounge Act from Garagistan: "We come to your country to play your women and marry your rock and roll!"