Kitchen Sink Post

The band continues to hump along. I've written another song, called The Cult Magnetic. I like how it's shaping up pretty well. With that on the list we have 15 or 16 songs to work with. About 9 of them fit the theme I have for a record called Serenity is Far Away.

I am thinking of another one called Villains. There are at least 3 songs I've written with the band that work along that theme as well.

I've also got a few ideas in the bag for some slower, solo work. Maybe acoustic. We'll see how that goes. I might try to save up an EPs worth of material and record it in my brother's basement, as he has a rad little home studio to work wonders on my mediocrity.

We skipped originals practice this week to focus on covers. It was not great. Weirdly, whenever I feel I'm absolutely killing a song the band inevitably feels their own parts are turble. I think we might just need to gig and deal with it. I'm sure we will rise to the occasion.

I will anyway.

I want to get our home recording nonsense going so we can at least make our own stuff happen. I know it's too late for stardom but I at least want to stop howling at the void alone, with nothing to show for it.

-Merlin

Been a Long Time

I've been busy of late, but the music plods on. I'm learning Wherever I May Roam by Metallica, Little Sister by the Elvis, and working on most of Sweet Child O Mine by GNR. Shesmovedon is okay, and I'm also relearning the Radiohead song Exit Music (for a film).

That's okay. Originals-wise, Static Factory is doing what we do, plodding along and writing a new song every few weeks. We've got about 12 now. Lazarus (Pits) is finally where I want it.

We've been trying to record but my cohorts are all human, and this is slowing us down. We will persevere.

-Merlin out

Catchup Post

I'm not sure that I blogged about music last week. It's been going pretty well for me at least. Robb and I have managed to play acoustic twice, which is great for working on vocal harmonies.

Practice itself wasn't great. I was pretty stressed out that day, and I was a half hour late, so not as much got done as I'd like. There are a lot of little things getting in the way of me being more efficient in musical productivity.

For instance, Robb finally got me some song sketches from Static Factory practices so I can work on lyrics and vocal melodies, but iTunes has ceased functioning on my laptop. It's been a pain reinstalling it.

Then I went to practice again, and it went fairly well. Static Factory went through our entire catalogue. The guys were wondering just how many songs we have. Let's see. . .

E-tuned guitars a half step flat:
The New Gods
(Promethean) Halo
Stutterstep

Drop-D a half step flat:
The Operative
My Companion
Payroll
Lazarus (Pit)
The Road's Home
MAD
Body Piercing Mandatory
The Truth is a Virus

Drop-B guitar (half step flat?)
Blow the Lid

We are also working on several other songs. Hopefully Haven No More and All Mighty Dolla' will be fleshed out next week. That's a decent catalogue.

I also want to write a song called Those Left Behind, but I haven't heard the music for it yet. I did just get some more stuff from Robb.

We'll see what comes of it.

The Ugly Americans are focusing on a handful of songs to do a series of videos in an attempt to do a gig. We've chosen a song from each decade from the 60s to around now.

Here Comes the Sun
American Band
Jessie's Girl
No Excuses
Then either Show Me How to Live or This Love

We also played some new stuff that I learned behind everyone's back. Robb was all pissy about that, but it's also his disposition to be vinegary, so whatever. One day we shall play a porcupine tree song. . .

-Merlin out

Weekly update

I've actually had two practices since my last blog. Well, two full-band rehearsals. I practice the guitar every day. I've done at least 30 minutes of guitar a day in 2014, and I'm averaging more like 45-60. Some weekends it's more like 90.

The first full practice was covers only. Two hours of drop D and drop B songs. It went okay considering we don't often play those songs. I actually feel really strong about quite a few of them. It's a shame that we don't sprinkle drop-D songs into our sets and currently just play them in a big bunch. Many of them are newer songs because of how in vogue the tuning has become.

That makes the set feel more new or fresh, but it also lacks that classic-rock feeling. I feel like a good cover band should try to shoehorn some classic rock in all the time. We do play fat-bottomed girls, though at this point it's pretty rough going.

Then on Wednesday we played originals for a couple hours and then covers for an hour.

Static Factory ran through 5 or 6 songs in our own low-tuned catalogue, then we played a newer tune that we are still working on. The newer song, Lazarus (Pits), is pretty sweet. I sang it much more to my liking this week than I have previously. For that reason we recorded a version so I would be able to find and practice my own vocal line. I guess that's the danger of writing from intuition rather than intellect. Sometimes I just feel my way around until I emerge from the dark, sweaty and fulfilled.

Recording turned out to be a debacle. We have -a- version of the song for my purposes, but the four of us didn't quite gel on the whole song. Perhaps next week we will get it right.

I also wanted to run through another song I've been tweaking, called Haven No More, but my goddamn iPhone ate the lyrics I had been working with on the road all day. I often write songs in the car while driving, using talk-to-text to "write" them.

Autocorrect is bad.

Anyway, that sounded good, and I wanted to revise what I'd already written anyway. Then we played a bunch of covers that make me feel rad. Yellow Ledbetter is still my spirit animal. I love playing that song.

Next week we are working on those two new originals and I want to relearn about a dozen songs that we haven't played well or in some time. I hope that goes well.

Peace,

-Merlin out