122923 Thanks to KKFI's "The Real Deal" with Mike Lytle and Rick Dodderidge for sharing our music last night. I feel like everytime a radio station plays Reach Around an angel wishes it had its business back again. Irene Ironweed Angst Actually put all of the rock instruments on one bus and the disco on another so that I can A/B them. Once I am done with Irene it's off to Tsunami, which is only unfinished because I ran into the same struggles. 122623 One of those rehearsals where we dig up stuff we no longer play or have never played. We fooled around with Reach Around for a while. I think when I constructed that song I imagined it being like a song about a dance like The Mashed Potato or The Watusi. "Everybody's doing the Reach Around lalalalalala." 122423 Struggling with a groove. Whenever I meet people I ask them if they can sing. If they indicate that they can't because they have pitch issues I always tell them that if you can hear that your notes aren't lining up with what you're listening to then it is curable. I need to heed my own advice. 122323 Worked on the pianos and re-cut the guitars in Irene Ironweed. B6 to C#6 is what has been eluding me. Sent Terry Gann a mix of Am Again for pedal steel and whatever other bit of loveliness he wants to add to it. 122223 Thanks to everyone who tuned in to hear our show on KKFI. We're still fine-tuning how to get 5 instruments and 5 voices to sound right in that studio. Next time will be better from the start. Special thank you to Keith Washburn who relentlessly interfaced between us and listeners throughout the show (handing notes to Dave so that he could adjust things mid-song) so that we could tweak levels. That was beyond the call of duty. I am told that it was working pretty well by the 2nd hour. Another thank you to Mike Evans for suggesting songs for the setlist. See you somewhere soon! Recorded Music for Set-up It's Your Thing (Land Ho) Falstaff (juiceboxberries) White Girl (Gardenaire) Land Ho (Land Ho) Set 7 Little Eyes Ordinary Guy Dolemite Who is this Plumber? Little Something/It's My Island Sauro! The Cats of Summer Blue in the Veins No Limes/You Set it Off Ring of Stars Repeat nothingood Recorded Music for Tear Down Beat Box Caveat (The Green Piano) 122023 I don't know where I have credited some of the album cover photographers so I'm going to do it here: juiceboxberries - Walter Wade Her Bows - Walter Wade Gardenaire - Vernon Dale Stanton & Doris Jean Stanton. Land Ho - Walter Wade The Green Piano - Dave Scwiercinsky Sweet, Soft Gollum - (Kapoho, HI) Unknown William G. Cox's photographs were used for many of the single covers. 121923 Had a band fried-fish dinner and then sorted out Thursday night's setlits and logistics. 121823 Got slide parts from Danny for Irene Ironweed and mixed them in. 121723 Recorded final vocals for Irene Ironweed. Should be able to turn this over to Patrick and got back to finishing up Tsunami by Christmas. 121223 Sent Danny Irene Ironweed for some slide guitar. Still tweaking lyrics, drums, piano and other parts and learning how to sing it. Fine tuning our setlist for next Thursday on KKFI. 120923 While digging around in the seed bag I re-discovered Irene Ironweed and am committed to bullying it into a song after I am done with Tsunami. Re-cut guitars with a Nashville tuned acoustic. Wrote and sang words and harmonies. Recorded drums and piano. Fucker just needs some tidying up and it's ready for Patrick in 4 months when he's done with I Can Walk. 120823 Sent some partial songs to someone to develop for a collaborative project. Am Again Brand New Guitar Cherry Pox Put the Bins Out Quatro Ravioli Shrinky Sound Hold Supper Pie Teeth Filed Turkey (Chris Ruzich) 120723 Dingus available now. This little jig was considered for Girl for Samson's "sleepnovox" but we already had a nice pile of songs so it was abandoned. Started over from scratch a few years ago and got Patrick to grab a shovel and chip in and this is the result. Trivia: Thomas came up with the chord progression for the outro. Later Mike Tankersley learned that part but made the chords minor and we turned that into "Blue in the Veins" on "Gardenaire". I had never heard the word Dingus before when I was composing the song. I had found a striking picture of a custodian at a High School named Mr. Dingus and stored it away in the back of my skull cantaloupe. I think Nelson Muntz referred to someone as a dingus in a Simpsons episode after the fact. 120623 Working out acoustic, electric and pre-recorded sets for 12/21 on KKFI. 120123 Started over on drums and bass for Tsunami. Finally got it feeling better. It's scary deconstructing something with the hope that you will improve it, but maybe you won't. 112923 Talked a bit about what we are going to do on KKFI in a few weeks. Settled on a vague combination of our recorded music mixed with acoustic and electric sets of live music. Still hammering away on Tsunami. Recorded more drums and keyboards. Starting to subtract some parts. Still need words. 112823 Tsunami starting to feel better. Added some vintage synths and an intro. Also different approach to singing it. 112723 More bass takes for Tsunami. 112523 Took at stab at drums and bass for Let Her Run and Tsunami. 112423 Doing an hour set at Tom's tonight. Setlist: June (cha cha cha) The Man Who Kills the Ants SAURO! The Cats of Summer Seven Little Eyes Who is this Plumber? No Limes/You Set It Off Wrong Star or Little Something Had to raid my larger home pedalboard for the tuner and Spark for a little board for these mini shows. This way I can leave one at the JMLP practice space and the two at the Girl for Samson space. Decided to pop open Let Her Run to work on at the same time as Every Night. Took a shot at a couple of tracks of drums and implemented a piano part I worked up on the Fender Rhodes at practice while everybody was talking. 112323 Started workon Every Night, soon to be re-titled Tsunami. Cleaned up the mixes directory, which had songs from the new Girl for Samson album, the Lonesome Petunias, Sweet, Soft Gollum and the current Johnny Marie solo album. Did the same with some of the Pro Tools session folders. 112223 Sent Patrick "I Can Walk" (formerly known as "I Can Walk"). 112123 Danny's neice and nephew were at our practice and bounced on a ball (in time with the music) at my elblow for most of the evening. I tried to also jump in rhythm (during non-singing moments) as a show of solidarity to the delight of my heart and dismay of my knees. 111923 I said that and then put 6 more hours in on it including fixing annoyances and adding horns and wah-wah. 111823 Finished I Can Walk. 111723 Finally have the music sorted out for I Can Walk and now only need to compile some takes and write and sing some lyrics. Shooting for getting this 8 minute season of depression to Patrick on the 20th. 111523 One of those rehearsals where we are vulnerable to donig cowpunk and polka versions of the catalog. Also dug out a bunch of songs we never play including Reach Around, Sweet & Low and Beatbox Caveat. Also ran through some of the that is mired in recording limbo which includes Leathal Portions, Swimmer's Shoulders, Open Sack and Last Moth. In fact, let's just document what's left to record: Lethal Portions Laundry Day Lethal Portions Who is this Plumber? Open Sack The Last Moth Swimmer's Shoulders Everybody Does It Merry Blaze Merry Blaze is in Patrick's queue. Already recorded: No Limes Doelmite SAURO! Failure to Rise It's My Island Ring of Stars Doing an hour set next Friday at Tom's. 111423 Sweet, Soft Gollum is finding its way back to streaming platforms. Should be everywhere by the end of the week. Sweet, Soft Gollum on Spotify. Sweet, Soft Gollum on YouTube. Sweet, Soft Gollum on Amazon. Sweet, Soft Gollum on Apple Music. Sweet, Soft Gollum on YouTube Music. Sweet, Soft Gollum on Pandora. 101223 More drum work on I Can Walk. Coming together nicely. 101123 Re-submitted Sweet, Soft Gollum to streaming services. Worked on vocals and drums for I Can Walk. Doing an hour set at Tom's Bar & Grill on Friday at 9 PM. 101023 Made strides with I Can Walk. Have vocal melodies and harmonies down. Just need proper words, replace Simmons drums with acoustic and add some jizzy jazzy spices here and there. Patrick is working on Dingus so I should have this one ready to go by then. Heard back from the distributor. The issue, as I suspected, was with crediting the songs as Johnny Marie with Patrick Meagher and Johnny Marie with Jason Beers. Also discovered that Thomas Hill is going to suddenly start getting pennies a month for Rattle due to an oversight on my part. God bless him and his offspring. 110823 Distributor still hasn't sorted out the Sweet, Soft Gollum on Spotify issue. Meanwhile months go by and I'm still not getting my .0000004 cents. 110723 Short rehearsal and then ate a rack of ribs that Dave bought. Mark was in attendance. Getting beat up by I Can Walk. It's 7 minutes long with multiple time change markers. I want to remove the first section and whenever I do it throws the balance of the song in disarray. 110323 First Johnny Marie track from 2nd solo album Lighthouse Eve available for download and streaming. Patrick is mixing Dingus next. Dingus was a Girl for Samson song that never saw the light of day - mostly because of resistance from Thomas who was never fond of it. I think Allen drummed on this version. 110123 After working on Bobby we ran through some stuff from our old sets that we no longer do like That Doesn't Turn You On, Christian in July and Mother. I guess that's mostly stuff from The Green Piano. We still do You Set It Off and Seven Little Eyes. Lighthouse Eve is nearing completion. This will be the first song from the 2nd Johnny Marie solo album. For some reason Sweet, Soft Gollum didn't take at Spotify so it's being re-submitted by the distributor. 103123 No Limes available for download and streaming. 102923 I post this for my own amusement. I found a little noise that I liked and knew there was a specific song that I've had on the stove forever that would benefit from it. I couldn't remember the working title so I had to go through everything in my ideas folder (and brother I tells ya I have a lot of ideas) to try to unearth it. I found a lot of bits that could be finished for my next solo album during my search. That list is below, including the song that I was looking for which I found last. I actually listened to it during the search but I had tacked on an intro at some point that I didn't recognize. Cherry Click Like Every Night Everybody Does It Expression Petals Fat & Nappy (ideas) Gneecough I Can Walk Irene Ironweed Joint Let Her Run Old Clothes (ideas) Pox Quatro Shhhfrost Two for Tangles Turkey When the Money 102723 Did a 20 minute set at Tom's. The Man Who Kills the Ants, Who Is This Plumber?, 20,000 Days and Seven Little Eyes - possibly exhausting songs from our catalog with numbers in the title. 102523 Started work on covering Bobby. Just ran through all of the parts. Jesse hung out with us. He was a drummer with Dave and Jason Curteman just before JMLP was born. Had a good meeting with Jerry. Talked about reversing the way we are currently recording drums. 102023 Talking to some Lawrence bands about sharing bills there and here in the late winter early spring. 101823 Sent Patrick a couple of edits for No Limes. 101723 The beast looks confused and is swaying unsteadily. Will it recover? Will it fall? If it falls, where will it land? 101623 Got the first mix back for No Limes. Now circulating amongst the team members. Patrick was OK+ with the drums on Lighthouse Eve so upward and further upward and also onward if nothing bad happens. 101023 Met Reba and Paul at rehearsal. Paul sat in for a few classic Johnny Marie songs. 100923 Cleaned up Lighthouse Eve and am ready to make it Patrick's problem. 100823 Dear Johnny or whatever, Whenever the rhythm sounds fucky in your recordings mute the acoustic. It's always the acoustic. 100723 Recorded the final lead vocal takes for Lighthouse Eve. Will clean up and send to Patrick on Monday. Song 1/X for the next Johnny Marie solo ablum. 100323 Hammered the dents out of Swimmer's Shoulders. It's tough re-learning songs we haven't recorded yet because there's no reference point. A quality moment when Dave said that he thought I was singing "apropos" instead of "Boo Radley's toe". 100123 Got after Lighthouse Eve this morning. Experiemented with some different rhythms and added a new bass part. 093023 There are two tracks on Sweet, Soft Gollum that are credited as Johnny Marie with Someone - Patrick Meagher and Jason Beers specifically. I didn't realize that this would cause a wrinkle with digital distribution but it certainly has. Any track with a second artist in the credits gets shoved into the Various Artists category. Fortunately I fumbled the setup and had to resubmit everything resulting in Patrick and Jason's names appearing on what I consider lesser tracks. This means those songs show up correctly and the lesser songs disappear into Various Artists oblivion. 092523 Finally got around to buying the second Crystal Skulls album which immediately pays dividends when I hear a kick/snare combo that I need for something I'm working on. 092223 Didn't like the Rolands so am trying a Simmons kit with some upgraded heads/triggers and kick trigger. Finally got them set up and the latency sorted out so that I can starting trying to track toms, kick and snare with them. Starting on a tricky song which is ill-advised since I haven't lain wood to skin in quite a long time. 091923 Added Wrong Star and Long, Dry Walk to the set. Current setlist: Little Something Repeat Seven Little Eyes Who is this Plumber? Ordinary Guy Ask Ring of Stars Laundry Day No Limes/You Set It Off The Cats of Summer Dolemite Failure to Rise nothingood On It's My Island Sauro! Shut Up You Crazy Diamond 20,000 Days Capers Trashbag Launderette Wrong Star Adorable Deplorable The Man Who Kills the Ants Wrong Star Long, Dry Walk 091823 Took the Roland drums home from the studio. I think we used these to develop drum parts for most of Harriet. 091623 Re-working Lighthouse Eve. I think it's a good song but there is some bit of poison that's spoiling the taste. 090523 A short list of versions of The Man Who Kills the Ants. The Sad Petunias learned The Man Who Kills the Ants and relearned Adorable Deplorable. Current setlist: Little Something Repeat Seven Little Eyes Who is this Plumber? Ordinary Guy Ask Ring of Stars Laundry Day No Limes/You Set It Off The Cats of Summer Dolemite Failure to Rise nothingood On It's My Island Sauro! Shut Up You Crazy Diamond 20,000 Days Capers Trashbag Launderette Wrong Star Adorable Deplorable The Man Who Kills the Ants 090123 There are a few free download codes from last night's show still available here. If the code you have chosen has already been redeemed just grab the one below it. Albums include Sweet, Soft Gollum, The Green Piano, Land Ho & Gardenaire. 083123 Did an hour set on KKFI on Keith Washburn's show. Earlier in the day Barry Lee gave 20,000 Days a spin on Signal to Noise. What a great resource for local artists. Setlist Little Something Repeat Seven Little Eyes Who is this Plumber? Ordinary Guy Ring of Stars No Limes Dolemite Sauro! 083023 It's My Island should be out tomorrow. First new JMLP track since the end of August 2022. 082923 Last rehearsal before doing a live set at KKFI on Thursday. We timed a fistful of songs so that we can make educated estimations about what we can get away with playing. 082723 Set up to play outside but the rain wouldn't give us a break so we moved everything inside the chuch and set up again. Did Little Something, Repeat, Seven Little, Eyes, Who is this Plumber, Ordinary Guy, Ask, Ring of Stars, No Limes and The Cats of Summer. Shannon did a couple of Joni Mitchell songs with the band at the end. 082323 Did a few songs at Tom's Bar & Grill tonight. Played Little Something, Sauro!, Repeat, Seven Little Eyes, Ring of Stars and Who is this Plumber? Carl Cherrito sat in with us. 082223 Quality rehearsal. Added Land Ho, Wrong Star and Ask back to the list. Little Something Repeat Seven Little Eyes Who is this Plumber? Ordinary Guy Ask Ring of Stars Laundry Day No Limes/You Set It Off The Cats of Summer Dolemite Failure to Rise nothingood On It's My Island Sauro! Shut Up You Crazy Diamond 20,000 Days Capers Trashbag Launderette Wrong Star 081923 Doing a few acoustic versions of JMLP songs with Danny at the Brookside Farmers Market at 10 AM. Dave ended up coming and Shannon played a melodica so we nearly had a full band. Did Seven Little Eyes, Repeat, No Lines and Who Is This Plumber? Doing another short set next Wednesday before doing a two hour set in Olathe on Sunday and then a one hour live set on KKFI the following Thursday. 081723 Sent Patrick It's My Island. 081523 Sweet, Soft Gollum on YouTube. Sweet, Soft Gollum on Amazon. Sweet, Soft Gollum on Apple Music. Sweet, Soft Gollum on YouTube Music. Sweet, Soft Gollum on Pandora. Second birthday celebration rehearsal in a row so more pizza and more pies. Planning on doing a few JMLP songs with Danny at the Brookside Farmers Market the 19th. Will also do a couple of songs with a full band at Tom's Bar & Grill on the 23rd. Our last outing was 10/09/21 at Gaslight Gardens. 081123 Submitted Sweet, Soft Gollum for digital distribution after a revision to Oily Rainbows and Show Me Your New Contacts. Now working on new Girl for Samson and The Lonesome Petunias albums. 080923 Sweet, Soft Gollum now available on BandCamp. Should be available everywhere else in a few days. 080823 Excellent rehearsal as we try to build back up 2 hours or more of original music to perform at the end of the month. 080723 Off with the Ropes mixed and available for amusements. 080623 Sang some harmonies for Its My Island. 080523 Sang a bunch of lead vocal takes for Its My Island. 080223 Tracking listing for the album Sweet, Soft Gollum: Sweet, Soft Gollum Bobby Evaluate 29 with Patrick Meagher The Cats of Summer The Man Who Kills the Ants with Jason Beers Rattle Gulch The Blue One Kitchen Matches Show Me Your New Contacts Off with the Ropes Oily Rainbows 080123 Added more staples to the live setlist. Playing longer between breaks. 073123 Began working on finishing It's My Island. Need to add some more vocals and comp a bass part. Listened to a little of Lighthouse Eve to see what specifically is keeping me from finishing it. No answer. It's a decent song. 073023 Started the process of distributing the album. Sent two revisions to Patrick for Oily Rainbows and Show Me Your New Contacts. 072723 Got The Blue One back from Patrick. Ready for consuming! 072523 Ran through the set. I missed last week because I was sick and forgot about 30% of the chords to the songs. 072123 Got The Man Who Kills the Ants back from Patrick and it's wonderful. He's now mixing The Blue One. 071723 Playing a private event on the 8/27 and a live set on KKFI on 8/31. 071123 Having a longer must-do setlist is already paying dividends. We get through more material every session than we did in the past. I can tell because my arms are noodles and my voice destroyed the next day. 071023 Added flesh to the demo for Two for Tangle. 070723 Gulch available for streaming/purchase now. 070323 Lengthened the Must Do Weekly set to include: Who is this Plumber? Sauro! Seven Little Eyes No Limes/You Set It Off Ring of Stars Repeat It's My Island Laundry Day The Cats of Summer nothingood Capers On Shut Up You Crazy Diamond Failure to Rise This gets us almost two hours of live material. We're well rehearsed on staples like: Land Ho We Don't Do That Little Something Sultan Eyes Dolemite 20,000 Days Hats Off, Extraordinaire Billy Corgan's Cadillac NowHere Merry Blaze Gardenaire Maryland Mansion Ordinary Guy Trashbag Launderette Wrong Star which gets us into 3 hour territory. Songs you may have been familiar with when we were playing out regularly that we no longer know: That Doesn't Turn You On Christian in July Blue in the Veins The Green Piano Kitty Can The Kids are Alright One More Three Bells 062923 I recently found a thrift store that consistently produces the kind of yield that my friends in the UK are always sharing. Got a lovely pile of CDs today that included "The Shape of Jazz to Come" by Ornette Coleman which immediately got two full listens. On the other side of the rainbow I was left puzzled by all of the love that the Jesus & Mary Chain get for Darklands. 062823 Petunias rehearsal. Listened to Miles Davis' tribute to Jack Johnson on the way. Dave has found us a live poportunity the weekend of August 25/26. 062423 Listening to Barry White, Curtis Mayfield, Neutral Milk Hotel, Charles Earland, T. Rex, Joe Jackson, Philip Glass, Morrissey, Dream Syndicate, Tracy Chapman, This Mortal Coil and so on. 062123 Petunias rehearsal. 062023 Going to comp vocals in the cover I'm working on with Jason Beers and send it off to Patrick to sit in the queue behind Gulch. 061923 Got some fuzz guitars from Jason. Tracked a dozen more vocals. Recorded some cymbals. 061823 Got bass, keys and banjo from Jason. 061523 KKFI's Signal to Noise playing new Girl for Samson today. 061423 Practicing at Danny's again. The team members are starting to get itchy to go play somewhere. 061223 25 O'Clock is spinning Bobby on on June 24th and 26th. 100.9 on the FM dial if you're in Ontario. 061123 Being in the middle of finishing 3 albums seems like a great time to start working on a cover. Finally got it fleshed out with a scratch vocal to send to Jason Beers for some earthy Beeriness. 060623 Acoustic JMLP rehearsal. 060523 25 O�Clock is going to play Bobby on their June 24th show with a repeat broadcast on June 26th. 060323 Obsessing over Connie Converse and Thomas Hill. Committed to the artwork for The Blue One and Dingus. 060223 Kitchen Matches available today. Started working on recording a cover. 060123 Barry Lee played Bobby today on KKFI's Signal to Noise. Got the first mix of Kitchen Matches back from Patrick. Current status update: MIXED JMLP Sauro! Dolemite Failure to Rise Ring of Stars MIXED SOLO The Cats of Summer (solo) Show Me Your New Contacts (solo) Evaluate 29 (with Patrick Meagher) Pheromone Beanie (solo) Oily Rainbows (solo) Rattle (solo) Sweet, Soft Gollum (solo) Bobby (solo) Kitchen Matches (solo) Gulch (solo) The Man Who Kills the Ants (with Jason Beers) The Blue One (solo) BEING MIXED Dingus (collaboration) No Limes Merry Blaze Its My Island PROCESSING Lethal Portions Laundry Day Lighthouse Eve (solo) - vocals, bass TO DO JMLP Who is this Plumber? Shut Up You Crazy Diamond Open Sack Adorable Deplorable Swimmer's Shoulders The Last Moth June Everybody Does It The Salty Way TO DO JM I Can Walk (solo) Irene Ironweed (solo) Expression Petals (solo) Every Night (solo) Cherry (solo) Let Her Run (solo) 052823 Still listening to jazz, reggae, vintage afro funk and stuff from the 4AD catalog. I'm not smart enough to steal anything I'm listening to, but seeds are being scattered so ideas will pop up later and I will swear in a court of law that they are my very own precious. 052223 A very special Monday night session before a short break. Adding Swimmers Shoulders to the must-do list. Cats of Summer coming along nicely. 052023 A friend bought a statue for my gardens at an estate sale so I drove out to pick it up. She indicated that the sale was still going today and that everything was half price so I bopped over hoping to find some CDs (I'm especially interested in jazz right now) or yard tools. I poke around for 5 minutes and then walk into the living room where a guy has compiled a stack of 30-40 CDs, leaving about 8 in the stand. I started talking to him and discovered that THEY WERE ALL VINTAGE JAZZ AND HE WAS JUST BUYING THEM FOR THE CASES! Now, I can dig that as I have bought lots before just to cull the cases, but they were like holiday and novelty CDs - not Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Dave Brubeck and Charles Mingus. He graciously let me pick what I wanted from his pile, rejecting any offer of payment or any other compensation. Imagine that. 051823 Lovely review of Gollum: "Ethereal sound scapes put to a Eastern European waltz style beat . Good melodic singing, almost chilling but warm at the same time. Very European in approach. Good, even mixing. Overall a win." 051723 We had a guest (Mark) watching our rehearsal so everybody tried a little harder. Ironed out the major transition in Who is this Plumber? Spent some time on Windy, That Doesn't Turn You On, Laundry Day, Merry Blaze, Repeat, 20,000 Days, The Cats of Summer and Sweet & Low. Found a new bit for The Salt Trilogy. 051623 Finished The Blue One & Off with the Ropes and submitted them to the mixing queue. I thank the fat angry sky whale every day that I'm not a perfectionist. 051523 Sent Patrick Gulch. Going to try to finish The Blue One by the end of the week. 051423 Same some Gulch takes using the Kermie voice. 051123 Bobby is out today. I'm not sure I can do any better than this. Johnny Marie - Vocals, Keyboards, Guitars Chris Ruzich - Bass, Vocals Leon Kopilevich - Piano Jerry Riccardi - Drums Bill Ryan - Guitar Dave Storms - Percussion 051023 After getting the staples out of the way we went rooting around the catalog. Started working on The Cats of Summer. 050923 Recorded more vocal takes for Gulch and The Blue One. Listened to: Betty Davis - They Say I'm Different Lee Scratch Perry - Return of the Super Ape John Lennon - Plastic Ono Band 050723 Felt like I was lazily falling into some melodic patterns so sang some more takes of The Blue One and Gulch. 050623 Listened to: Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall Mingus - Ah Um Return to Forever - Light as a Feather Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera Dolly Parton - Jolene Dusty Springfield - Dusty in Memphis Soft Machine - Third and Fourth 050523 Listened to: Miles Davis - Sketches of Spain Steve Reich - Music for 18 Musicians Booker T & the MGs - Green Onions The Jam - Snap! Eno/Byrne - My Life in the Bush of Ghosts Eno - Another Green Planet 050323 Did our 5 song set and then ran through random selections from the archives, including: Windy Trash Bag Launderette The Salt Trilogy Parasol Gardenaire On Shut Up You Crazy Diamond 050223 Sent Chris Ruzich new reference files for Lighthouse Eve. 050123 Still trying to catch up on music I've overlooked. Recent purchases: Eno/Byrne - My Life in the Bush of Ghosts Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited Cavarn - In the Land of Grey & Pink The Byrds - The Notorious Byrd Brothers Big Star - Big Star Fleet Foxes - Shore Betty Davis - They Say I'm Different Dusty Springfield - Dusty in Memphis Kevin Ayers - Original Album Series Soft Machine - Fourth Lee Scratch Perry - Return of the Super Ape Dolly Parton - Jolene Miles Davis - Birth of The Cool Chick Corea - Light as a Feather Thelonious Monk Quartet at Carnegie Hall Charles Mingus - Mingus Ah Um John Lennon & the Plastic Ono Band - Plastic Ono Band Brian Eno - Here Come the Warm Jets Brian Eno - Another Green World Alice in Chains - Dirt Pulp - Different Class Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera Willie Nelson - Red Headed Stranger Suzanne Vega - Solitude Standing Jethro Tull - Living In The Past The Ramones - Rocket to Russia Derek & the Dominos - The Layla Sessions Liz Phair - Exile in Guyville Mcyoy Tyner with Stanley Clarke and Al Foster Stereolab - Sound-Dust and Dots & Loops Wire - Pink Flag Oasis - Definitely Maybe Amy Winehouse - Back to Black Nuggets II - Original Artifacts from the British Empire & Beyond 1964-1969 042023 Jerry sent me some backing vocals that he had done for Failure to Rise that had somehow escaped my attention when we finishing it, so the parts never made it to the recording. I'm going to see if I can do something fun with them, a kind of Failure to Rise Reprise. If. You. Will. I listended to a batch of the latest stuff and found myself wondering why everything had to have quirk. I remember Dave Gregory saying that he felt like sometimes Andy Partridge sabotaged what could have been commercially accessible songs by adding quirk. I wondered if the reason why songwriters (myself included) add quirk is so that you can't be compared to bands that have excelled at a specific genre. Criticism would be easier if you were comparing my compositions with just Miles Davis or Carly Simon or speed metal or modern country. There is a code. In pursuit of: Joe Meek & The Blue Men - I Hear A New World Betty Davis - They Say I'm Different Faust - The Faust Tapes Al Green - The Belle Album Herbie Hancock - Sextant The Homosexuals - The Homosexuals' Record Kevin Ayers And The Whole World - Shooting At The Moon Alvin Lucier - I Am Sitting In A Room The Modern Lovers - The Original Modern Lovers Hugh Hopper - 1984 The Human League - Being Boiled / Circus Of Death The Residents - Satisfaction Sun-Ra And His Astro Infinity Arkestra - Strange Strings 042023 Listening to: Dr. John: GRIS-gris (so good!) Prefab Sprout: Two Wheels Good Genesis: Foxtrot PJ Harvey: Rid of Me Pulp: Different Class 041923 Listened to Gardenaire (album) on the way to practice. It's a really good record. 041423 New song day: Sweet, Soft Gollum 041323 Listening to: Bob Dylan: John Wesley Harding Spin Sampler from 1996 Suzanne Vega - Nine Objects of Desire Parliament Funkadelic - compilation Was struck by the snare drum tuning, recording and playing on the 1996 stuff. It all sounds the same. Looked around the web for someone who shared my perspective and found an article about how the assy soundning drums were a reaction to the over processed drums from the 1980s. There was an art director at a marketing firm I worked at back in the day who dismissed Dylan as "king's new clothes". It's interesting where one looks for reward sin a scenario where rewards are few. Last night Jerry and Dave were proudly listing the other bands that come up when they play us on Spotify/Apple etc. Frank Zappa after Windy made Dave especially happy. 041223 Faithfully did our 5 song set before playing around with the discography the rest of the evening. Spent some time learning Windy. 040923 Got Kitchen Matches drum tracks back from Jerry. 040823 Had another go at bass parts for Lighthouse Eve. I always forget how inspiring new strings are. 040723 Listening to Tom Waits - Mule Varieties Billy Preston - Compilation Marvin Gaye - I Want You STP - Core Syd Barrett - The Madcap Laughs Fiona Apple - Tidal Tim Buckley - Happy Sad Stevie Wonder - Innervisions The Allman Brothers - Eat A Peach Ultra Bra - Vesireittej� on tap: Blur - Parklife Buffalo Tom - Sleepy Eyed, Let Me Come Over Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation Son Volt - Straightaways Flaming Lips - Hit The Pretenders - Learning to Crawl Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones Brian Eno - Discreet Music The Libertines - Up The Bracket Kraftwerk - Trans Europe Express 033023 Danny, Dave and Jerry are on KKFI tonight talking about the 10,000 bands they are in and playing some selections from The Green Piano. 032923 Lighthouse Eve needs a proper bass part and Chris is tied up so time to put new strings on the P-bass and practice counting to 4. We missed an opportunity to do a live set tomorrow night because our rehearsals consist mostly of randomly picking stuff from the nearly 80 song catalog to either play, learn to play or re-learn to play - so we never really have anything prepared. We tried starting with a setlist 4 months ago but it got too unweildy. So, we decided last night to just pick 5 songs that we make sure we run through every week so that we have the guts of a list that we can get through and still have time to go exploring. We chose: Stinker Who is this Plumber? Seven Little Eyes Ring of Stars No Limes/You Set it Off The last song was mostly for You Set it Off because that song can be attached to any other song, which we intend to do. 032223 We missed a couple of weeks of rehearsal so we were pretty rough (lost my voice in like 30 minutes) and my freshly strung Jazzmaster wouldn't stay in tune so this session does not get a gold star. Patrick is currently pretty overwhelmed and we still have tons of songs that need to be mixed and mastered so we talked about some alternatives. Jerry played me a mix of his drums on Kitchen Matches. Marvelous! This was the last song that needed drums. Just need bass for Lighthouse Eve and some better vocal performances for the remaining songs and then I can send the balance to Patrick. 031823 Current input: Miles Davis - On The Corner Gene Clark - No Other Curtis Mayfield - Curtis Maria Muldaur - Maria Muldaur Tame Impala - InnerSpeaker Gilbert O'Sullivan - Himself Genesis - Nursery Cryme Marvin Gaye - Trouble Man Marvine Gaye - Let's Get It On Moby Grape - Listen My Friends Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska My workout generally ends (out of boredom) before the end of the first track on On The Corner. Really dig the Gene Clark album. It sounds like Pink Floyd in a country band. 031623 Sent the now-available Jerry Kitchen Matches. 031523 Got drum tracks from Jerry for The Blue One. 031123 Got drum tracks from Dave Storms for Lighthouse Eve. 030123 Spent the evening listening and playing along with Gardenaire and Land Ho. I usually don't listening to my stuff once it is finished so there were lots of fun surprises. 022823 Thomas loved Gardenaire and would often tell me that there wasn't a stinker in the bunch. I hate to admit it, because it was nearly three albums ago, but he is probably right. It is one of our most played albums. Also the album with the fewest tracks if you don't count juiceboxberries which streaming services consider an EP. So, with that in mind I have determined to not just release every recorded and mixed track for the solo album, just because they are recorded and mixed. I have 8-10 that I think are the best and that's what will end up together on the album. Look at me with something bordering on a conviction. 022623 Spending too much time on the lead vocal for Gulch. I have an associate who plays Paul in a Beatles tribute band we were talking about the songs that he does in a Kermit voice - see Get Back. So, not being afraid of small adventures I gave it a try. Results are intersting but man its hard to control your voice with your throat all knotted up. 022523 Current state: 100 recorded ideas, any single one worth developing into a good song. 100 songs to finish up and send off for mixing. 100 days left on the planet. 100 devices with recorded ideas, any single one worth developing into a good song in plastic bags destined for a landfill.. 022423 Finally got around to developing the Giallo guitar melody I originally heard in Spain. 022423 Still agonizing over the lead vocal for Gulch Took the sick Jazzmaster to Mathew for new jack and switch. 022223 Added a bit to The Salt Trilogy and came up with another little chord sequence. Ran through Plumber, It's My Island, Hats Off, Extraordinaire, The Last Moth, Parasol and Stinker. At the end my Jazzmaster conked out so off to Matt's it goes. Got a rough mix of Kitchen Matches back from Patrick and promptly sent it to Brad Buckner for drums. Listened to In Rainbows for the 1st time. Over the weekend I listened to Boz Scaggs' Silk Degrees and Gerry Rafferty's City to City for the 1st time. I did not film my reaction for our YouTube channel. 022123 Still tracking vocals on Gulch. 021923 Sang more takes of Gulch. Patrick tends to mix my vocals higher that I do so I hear nuances in his early mixes that I missed when tracking. Trying to listen to isolated vocals before sending now. "You don't know what pain is!"- Buffalo Bill. 021823 Got Gulch cleaned up. Just want to sing one more take tomorrow before handing it off to Patrick. He is currently sexing up Kitchen Matches for Drums by Brad. 021723 When I get a notion, a series of chords or a sound that I think are interesting, I will dash off a recording and save it for a rainy day. I have to make up a name when I save it so I quickly come up with something topical or nonsensical that may change when the idea is developed or I may build the words around it if it is inspiring. I have a folder with maybe 30-40 of these bits just waiting to be planted and watered. When I decided to make a solo album I knew it would be comprised of songs that might grow from these seeds, songs that I had mostly tracked but not finished and brand new ideas. Sweet, Soft Gollum was one of these idea songs. I did not keep the original title. The original idea was just a rhythmic classical guitar and a dreamy slide guitar part. I was knocked out when I heard it again a year or so after getting down the idea. Not because it was amazing, it just did not sound like something I would typically come up with. It was more sparse and feely. It was felt foreign and everytime I heard it I was certain I had stolen it from somewhere. Yesterday I listened to it a dozen times as I was cleaning it up to go to Patrick for mixing. I sent it off and then a few hours later had an overwhelming deisre to listen to John Barry's Follow Follow from the film Follow Me!/The Public Eye. I was in the middle of watching a another movie when the notion struck me and planned to go dig it up as soon as we were finished. 20 minutes later it started to dawn on me that there was a similar feel between Follow Follow and Sweet, Soft Gollum, especially if you strip SSG down to the essential bits. Not the melody or instrumentation, just the vibe. This is why the demo sounded so familiar to me. I was really moved by how this revelation came to me so organically and it absolutely justifies my current obsession with listening to as much unfamiliar music as possible because at some point some bit of somebody else's magic will wriggle free and become mine. PS I finally figured out that the similarity is some wobbly noise Barry used and my slide part. They serve the same purpose. Follow Follow Tidied up Bobby and sent it to Patrick. 021623 Sweet, Soft Gollum sent to Patrick. 021523 Dave played us some stuff that he had recorded in the past. Also listened to my solo releases thus far. Had a good rehearsal running through Corky Finds Something, Who is this Plumber?, 20,000 Days, We Don't Do That, Mars, Repeat, Now Here and Tambourine. 021423 Rattle now available for streaming/download. Allen Johnston - drums Daniel Button - electric piano Dave Scwiercinsky - bass 021223 Got tracks from Jerry for Bobby, Gulch, Sweet, Soft Gollum and Off with the Ropes. The Blue One is just around the corner. 021123 Chris Ruzich generally records his bass parts first and then the song gets submitted to a drummer. He's always wanted to reverse the process so he is going to track his part when Dave Storms is done. Resuming getting Kitchen Matches ready for Brad Buckner before the end of the month. Listened to Arcade Fire's Funeral, The Who Sell Out and a bunch of Belle & Sebastian. 020923 The power was out for 8 hours but I recently bought a portable DiscMan style portable CD player that runs on batteries so I listened to Frank Zappa's Hot Rats in the cold. 020823 Sent Dave Storms Lighthouse Eve. 020623 Added some vocals and brass to Lighthouse Eve. Imported Dave's new bass part into It's My Island. 020523 Imported Danny's jazzy guitar bits into Lighthouse Eve. 020423 Listened to Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and enjoyed it very much. 020323 I've been listening to the first album by Yes. It would annoy me when sometimes people with limited context would compare our live stuff to them. After finally listening to them I figured out that the comparisions weren't because of how we sound or how we play, it's just because the songs are often long with a lot of changes. This also seems to (to people unfamiliar with the songs) like we are just jamming rather than following a structure. Being called a "jam bad" is also hurtful but not entirely without truth Grateful to not be dead 020123 Listening to the first Stone Roses album and digging it.. 012723 Masterpieces from the Indie Void has included two Johnny Marie & the Lonesome Petunias song in their list of 100 unknown masterpieces: Seven Little Eyes and Reach Around, both from The Green Piano . Listened to the Stone Roses self-titled debut for the first time. Really good stuff. 012523 Petunias rehearsal. Stuck to the stuff likely to appear on a setlist. Listened to CSNY's Deja Vu, Harry Nilsson's Son of Schmilsson, One More for the Road by Jackson Browne and the Incredible String Band's Changing Horses. 012323 I'm going to try to like Jackson Browne by listening to some of his most renowned work. I owe him that much. Still fleshing with Lighthouse Eve. 012223 I am fully on board with Love's Forever Changes now. So tasty. 012123 Added acoustic guitars to Lighthouse Eve. 012023 When tweaking lyrics that were gifted by spirits are you taking the ball and running with it or are you defacing a miracle? 011823 I've been getting Lighthouse Eve lyrics in the middle of the night all week, which is the preferred method. Re-cut some piano parts, re-sang some vocal parts and sent a mix to Chris for basso consideration and to Danny for jazzo guitaro garnishes. Iffy practice highlighted by rum and chocloate beer. 011423 Fleshed out Lighthouse Eve and came up with a fistful of lyrics. Then to Ruzich. Then to Riccardi. Then to Meagher. 011323 Pheromone Beanie available for streaming/download/ignoring. Started work on Lighthouse Eve which I've been worrying for a week or two. 011023 How did I live this long without anybody telling me about The Monks? Where is the payoff for maintaining human relationships? 010923 Got the first mix of Oily Rainbows back from Patrick. Marvelous. 010423 Wandered through the pile of songs. Came up with an alternate ending for Corky Finds Something. 010123 Gave Traffic's Mr. Fantasy a listen yesterday. I've listened to Barleycorn, Low Spark etc. and I think this is the most interesting album of the lot. Very nice. Also listened to the FemBots' Small Town Murder Scene and Moody Blues' Days of Future Passed but this was the highlight. Happy birthday, Harold McPherson. Harold provided the lovely tappa tappa on Nellie Ordinary. Received a Happy New Year .gif via text from Thomas.