Live In Peace
Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly take on Bow and Crosby in this bit of Christmas merriment.
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Top 10 Albums of 2010
It was a great year for music. Many indie bands broke through and hit the big time. Unfortunately, the former home of great indie music went main stream, while losing a number of great indie labels in the process. It will likely impact the 2011 list but 2010 is still in tact. Go look up some of these bands. You will be justly rewarded.
My Top 10 albums of 2010 are...
Cee Lo Green – Lady Killer: The nerve to release the year's catchiest song that can't be sung in public or in the kid's carpool. A great souful pop album.
Arcade Fire - Suburbs: Their first number one album is a concept album that shows us the genre is still viable. Topped tour off with a webcast from MSG directed by Terry Gilliam.
Band of Horses – Infinite Arms: Great harmonies that sound as if Brian Wilson had a hand in this release. Laredo was my song of the Summer. The strength of that single alone lands the album near the top of my list.
Superchunck – Majesty Shredding: 41 minutes of perfect pop. You wouldn't know it was their first album in over a decade.
Sufjan Stevens – Age of Adz: Sufjan starts the album with his signature folk sound but is quickly overcome with techo, dance infused rhythms which show he's no one trick pony.
Vampire Weekend - Contra: Released so early in the year (January 12), I'd forgotten it was a 2010 release. Their first number one album.
Fang Island – Fang Island: Triple lead guitars shout out joyful melodies throughout so the sparse vocals don't have to.
Jonsi - Go: An incredibly interesting and rewarding listen from the lead singer of Sigur Ros. Catchier and more accessible than anything he's recorded with the band.
The New Pornographers – Together: The indie supergroup releases another collection of great pop songs. It's whole is still stronger than they sum of it's parts.
Jeff Horne – Year: This had to make the list. My first album in 15 years. Written and recorded with the family, I loved every minute of recording it and feel it's my strongest start to finish.
www.jeffhorneweb.com
Best Reissue: Cure – Disintegration: Their best album gets remastered and includes an extra disc of demos and an expanded version of a live version of the album from the 1989 tour.
I hope you find something you like here. There is plenty to chose from. You will be glad you tried to find them.
Happy listening.
Making CDs
After a rough end to last week that saw a bout of intestinal flu. I spent the weekend fine tuning the cover of the YEAR album. The bug is going around and many, many people have been hit up even harder than I was. The slow pace of trimming printouts, burning CDs and lightscribing the CD faces is not the fastest thing to do. The trimming and burning is quick enough but Lightscribe is painfully slow. It harkens back to the days of 2X cd burners in the 90s.
I have been listening to the CD quite a bit and can't believe the difference between this and my last recording in 1994. The technology makes things sound so much smoother. The unlimited tracks allows fully realizing song ideas to an extent that was nowhere near possible with my old Tascam Porta 03 Mini Studio. It was a great little device that was a blast to record with but the unlimited possibilities and the plugins on computer based recording takes it a level where you can get professional recording studio results in your basement.
I am now sending out copies of the CD to friends and family. It is the whole reason I enjoy recording. I'm not making money on these but if people enjoy the tunes, I am a rich man.
Feels Right
I have completed my first album since 1994. At the end of 2009, I set out to write and record an album of new songs. I wanted to have between 10 and 12 songs. It ended up with 10 and a special surprise. The name for the album was easy. It would be called Year.
Today, I recorded vocals for the final song, Feels Right. It is the third song on side one.
Now comes listening to the mix and making sure I like it.
Cover Image
As I put the finishing touches on Year, my first album in 16 years, I have cover art. It is a photo I took of an especially eerie moon with Jupiter visible below it. The album was a real family affair as Mary and Lille made their recording debuts on two tracks. The lead off track, See Me Now, was completed with input from my friend and G family friend Archie Waugh. He has an ongoing gag in Facebook that I had to include on the cover.
One more song to go. In the mean time, here is the cover.
Another Two Songs Are Ready
I've been working on a song that has a bit of a funky sound in the verses. I give all songs a working title until the lyrics are done and a title ready. This one was called Shut the Funk Up. I liked the title and hoped it could be the actual title. Unfortunately, after a search of Google, it was used many times over. So much for that. Once I started writing the lyrics pretty much fell right into place.
This month is our 20th wedding anniversary. The gave me all the inspiration I needed. I'm pretty happy with the song. The middle eight was interesting. I ended up dropping the vocals low in the mix and adding a midi sax. Sounds good enough for me. For the end I wanted a driving guitar progression. It came out as I wanted after a number of remixes.
It is now called Twenty Years.
The other is another instrumental called Morning. I recorded the guitars and drums a few months ago and added bass and synth strings and it came together.
My Airship
And the hits keep right on coming. I spent most of the week trying to figure out the use of a newly hooked up compressor for vocal and instrument levels. The first results of which is called My Airship. I feel the need to record something on the mellow side and this is just what the doctor ordered.
The song is inspired by a photo I saw of a zeppelin flying over a cityscape. I wrote narrative from the perspective of a zeppelin pilot looking a picture from a trip long ago with the love of his life. A slow tempo track from the Year project. Features mandolin for the first time on any of my recordings.
Enjoy.
Sunday
Today is Sunday. The Bears play on Monday night. So the day was wide open. With Summer over, no swimming and no projects under way, my focus once again turned to music. I recorded something new last week but it is in need of vocals. If I am going to complete my album Year by the end of December, I have some catching up to do.
I built my rack yesterday. It was the final piece of the recording desk Lillie and I built last fall. I put the patch panel and compressor in it and now it was time to use it. I started playing a guitar progression and decided it was going to be an instrumental, my first. I layered a lead guitar and bass on it and then some drums. The drums were out of time with the rest so I re-recorded the guitar progression, lead and bass guitars. A bit of tambourine later and the new song was ready.
It's called Sunday because that's that day it was born.
Enjoy.
Down To The Crossroads
We went to Eric Clapton's Crossroads Festival on June 26th. We all had a fantastic time with the exception of Lillie, who was bored out of her skull. Tom loved it. Mary and I have had enough Blues for the rest of our lives so when Vince Gill came out with James Burton and Albert Lee we were thrilled. Hearing James Burton play Mystery Train was the thrill of a lifetime. Jeff Beck was great and easily stole the show. Clapton was boring until Winwood joined him. They played Glad, some Blind Faith song, Dear Mr Fantasy, Voodoo Chile which cooked and ended with Cocaine, which was hilarious with female backing vocals.
John Mayer was the big surprise, in a good way. He played with Pino Palladino (third time Mary and I have seen him) and Steve Jordan. They were second to Beck for best in show. I was ready to poo-poo his performance big time. Apparently he’s one of those musicians with the radio friendly songs to get airplay but live he kills with the other material. I’ve only heard the XRT songs and consider them lightweight.
ZZ Top were dependable and played exactly what you wanted (Have Mercy into Jesus Just Left Chicago, some song I don’t remember and La Grange). Robert Cray was okay. Ronnie Wood was a surprise with Buddy Guy and Johnnie Lang. They were enjoyable enough. Johnny Winter will not be with us much longer. He butchered Red House but given his health, he was completely forgiven. We left after Clapton/Winwood so we missed BB King and the Finale but from what I’ve read it was just as well.
Sonny Landreth was a great opener. Robert Randolph band was as good as they needed to be. Doyle Bramhall II and Sheryl Crow and the Derek Trucks and Susan Tadeski Band were yawn inducing. At least Trucks was a last minute fill in for the Allman Bros so he had an excuse.
Bill Murray was a great MC. Earl Klugh played a nice 15 minute set of what Lillie called Elevator Music. Given the time of day, we called it dinner music. It was also a treat to see Bert Jansch.
Clapton said he had so much fun that there will be another. We would go again, sans Lillie.
We were in the stands. Section 109 Row 5. Pretty far away from the stage but they would have been good soccer seats.
Very hot but tolerable once the sun went behind the roof.
What A Week
So the week that saw several strong, damaging storms, a 10+ game win streak for the left for dead White Sox, wonderful Lillie's 11th birthday and the start of dismantling the Stanley Cup Champion Blackhawks because of the salary cap winds up with The Crossroads Guitar Festival. As June has been, there are storms forecasted for this afternoon and tonight. Argh.
Guitars and Lightning don't mix. We have the sunscreen and emergency ponchos so we're prepared for any weather event.
