Yes, I Know

You're supposed to post something once in a while if you pretend to have a blog. But this is one of those blogs.

The Clintons

So there's this website called garageband.com that provides musicians with a place to share their music and music fans with a place to discover something new. User ratings can help steer you to the good stuff. In my experience, there's a lot of quality music there and I've downloaded some free mp3's and followed up with a bunch of CD purchases.

One of the first and best bands that I found on garageband is the Clintons [warning: automatic audio]. They had (and probably still have) a very popular song on the ska charts, Fan of the Bean. The band's music is fairly eclectic but I think I might have seen them describe themselves pop/alt-country somewhere. They had a half-dozen songs available for download and I enjoyed the freebies for a while, then bought everything they had to offer.

My favorite of their CD's is Who Invited Roger?, which has an impressive number of songs which score high on one or both of the groove and fun meters. Highway is a rocker that just simmers along, Baltimore forced this middle-age guy to admit that not all rappy/trip-hoppy stuff sucks and Birthday Suit is another funky favorite.

On Plate Tectonics

"And if California slides into the ocean -- like the mystics and statistics say it will -- I predict this motel will be standing until I pay my bill."

Warren Zevon, Desperadoes Under the Eaves

Sixteen Years Later

The problem with the last post is that it's too well lit. Here's a 2007 photo of our praise band at church. I'm the bassist in the black shirt.

Nice Pants!

Got an email out of the blue from an old friend and bandmate the other day with a disturbing attachment. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Vacant Space, once called the Sprinklerheads and ultimately, with slightly different personnel, Sixth Floor Elvis. We were basically a bunch of guys who worked together and made some noise on Friday nights. This lovely image is us in 1991 at a company picnic. I'm the dude in the K-Mart Zubaz on the far right. I don't know exactly what I thought I looked like seventeen years ago, but this isn't it!

The Sandcarvers

Yesterday, we met some friends for drinks and lucked into some live Celtic music at the local pub. The Sandcarvers are a 6-piece outfit that feature stellar vocal harmonies, a nutso rhythm guitarist and the rockingest recorder/bassoon player I've ever seen. Seriously, the rest of this Milwaukee-based band was good but the nimble wind playing threaded throughout many of the tunes really made the show. Picked up a copy of their 2006 CD for $15.

Turn to Me

What the heck, now that this thing is working, may as well link it back up to the site and use it. Today I recorded a demo of "Turn to Me", thinking that I might just stick it in the lineup for a service I'm leading next week.

Listen to "Turn to Me" demo