Cheevyjames’ Musical Roundhouse

The Beatles are releasing newly-remastered versions of their catalog on September 9th (09/09/09…number 9, number 9…geddit?) and I’m seriously disappointed that they’ve chosen to continue this absurd notion of the “Past Masters”.  When The Beatles’ albums were finally released on CD in 1988 they decided to release 2 additional CDs that contained all of their non-album tracks – mostly A- and B-sides that featured some of their more famous songs, stuff like Hey Jude, She Loves You, Day Tripper, etc.  The original goal was to have all of The Beatles’ tracks available and these two CDs would be essentially “everything else”.

Taken on their own, both CDs are certainly very good.  I mean, OF COURSE they’re good!  The Beatles had so many great non-album tracks that it should go without saying that a collection of them would be great.  I’m not debating the quality on these discs.  My problem is that they never should have existed in the first place.  Their existence is a rip-off to fans who bought all of the albums (again, in many cases) on CD in 1988 and everyone who has bought them in the 20 years since.

My point – all of The Beatles albums total 35-40 minutes each (The White Album being a double, but still around 40-45 minutes per disc) and CD technology allowed for at most 74 minutes back then.  They certainly had the space to attach She Loves You to With the Beatles, Long Tall Sally to A Hard Day’s Night, Day Tripper to Rubber Soul and Hey Jude to The White Album.  But, for whatever reason, they decided invent these two separate collections with all of the “extra” tracks just thrown together.  I have always thought that they should have attached the songs to their respective albums from the same time period/sessions.

This doesn’t take into consideration that Strawberry Fields Forever & Penny Lane were stuck onto Magical Mystery Tour instead of with the material from Sgt. Pepper, where they belong.

They made these mistakes back in ’88 and with the release of the remasters this year they could have, and SHOULD HAVE, corrected these mistakes.  But no, they chose to perpetuate this silly idea that the Past Masters are officially part of the canon.  This means that those folks who are buying The Beatles catalog for the 1st time (or the 3rd, or more) are getting ripped off AGAIN because if they want to hear I Want to Hold Your Hand or Lady Madonna they have to spend the extra money for this now 2 disc set.  The band has the opportunity to really fix this, and yet they don’t.

I don’t get it.

So, for my own amusement, I’ve made a list of how the albums should look.  In my ideal world, there would be no Past Masters. All of those songs would be bonus tracks on their respective albums and for even more bonus tracks they could include other studio songs that found their way to the Anthology & BBC sets.  They could also fix the problems with Magical Mystery Tour (put the Pepper songs with Pepper) and Yellow Submarine.

For Yellow Submarine, the original versions of those four “new” tracks (Hey Bulldog, All Together Now, It’s Only a Northern Song & It’s All Too Much) would be bonus tracks to the albums when they were recorded.  Then, the new official release of Yellow Submarine would contain the remixed versions from the YS Songtrack CD released a few years back and would also include (as that should’ve) the seven George Martin-composed orchestral tracks from the movie and the original issue of Yellow Submarine.  Oh yeah, and include A Day in the Life as well, since it’s in the film.  All of this would total about 70 minutes, so it would definitely fit on one disc.

Also in my dream scenario, I decided to include the previously unreleased track, Carnival of Light, to Sgt. Pepper.  I mean, if you’re going to throw in all of the non-album A- and B-sides and other studio songs from those sessions, you might as well include any unreleased compositions.  I’m sure there are some unreleased songs that I don’t mention here, but you get the general idea.  Here’s what the bonus tracks for the 13 albums would look like if the band did the right thing:

Please Please Me

Love Me Do (single version)
From Me to You
Thank You Girl
I’ll Be on My Way (from BBC Sessions)
Besame Mucho
Love Me Do (w/ Pete Best)
How Do You Do It
Please Please Me (w/ Andy White)
One After 909

With the Beatles

She Loves You
I’ll Get You
I Want to Hold Your Hand
This Boy
Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand
Sie Liebt Dich

A Hard Day’s Night

Long Tall Sally
I Call Your Name
Slow Down
Matchbox

Beatles for Sale

I Feel Fine
She’s a Woman
You Know What to Do
Leave My Kitten Alone

Help!

Bad Boy
Yes It Is
I’m Down
If You’ve Got Trouble
That Means a Lot

Rubber Soul

Day Tripper
We Can Work it Out
12-Bar Original

Revolver

Paperback Writer
Rain

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heats Club Band

Strawberry Fields Forever
Penny Lane
Only a Northern Song
Carnival of Light (unreleased)

Magical Mystery Tour

(no Strawberry Fields Forever or Penny Lane)
All Together Now
It’s All Too Much

The White Album

Lady Madonna
The Inner Light
Across the Universe (World Wildlife Fund version)
Hey Jude
Revolution
Hey Bulldog
A Beginning
Not Guilty
What’s the New Mary Jane

Yellow Submarine (remixed)

Yellow Submarine
Hey Bulldog
Eleanor Rigby
Love You To
All Together Now
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
Think for Yourself
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
With a Little Help from My Friends
Baby You’re a Rich Man
Only a Northern Song
All You Need Is Love
When I’m Sixty-Four
Nowhere Man
It’s All Too Much
A Day In The Life
Pepperland
Sea of Time
Sea of Holes
Sea of Monsters
March of the Meanies
Pepperland Laid Waste
Yellow Submarine in Pepperland

Abbey Road

The Ballad of John and Yoko
Old Brown Shoe
Come and Get It

Let it Be

Get Back
Don’t Let Me Down
Let it Be (single version)
You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)
Teddy Boy

This was sent out to the band’s email list, but I thought I’d also post it here for posterity.

***************

Hi everyone, it’s time for a long-overdue update.

First off, if you are receiving this email, you’re either a friend of Jennifer Hansen, James Hines or Matt Beechhold.  Some of you may know all three of us.  Some of you might still think this is spam.

The decision to end the band didn’t come lightly, but it’s the right decision and we’re happy that we can put the band to rest and move on to other things.  This end has nothing to do with the usual “creative differences” stuff and no one is leaving to “go solo”.  This past September Jennifer came to the decision that she no longer wanted to be a professional musician.  Perhaps as a hobby, sure, but she no longer had the desire to be rock star and tour the world and give Tori Amos foot baths.  We discussed her realization and she agreed to continue on with the band for the foreseeable future, hoping that it was only temporary and she would come to love playing music again.  In November we recruited Matt Beechhold to handle the drum duties for the band (we had been looking for a year) and played our first and only gig with Matt at The Cave in Chapel Hill.  I had a good time at the show and even with the trainwrecks I thought we did a good job.  For Jenn, it was a completely disconnected performance where she felt she wasn’t even present.  The week after the show she informed Matt and I that she wanted to take an indefinite and serious break from the band with the intent of hopefully coming back.  Matt and I continued to work on new material and eventually started playing with a guitarist, Matt Fasnacht, while I moved back to bass.

After months of serious consideration about her place in the band, and music, Jenn finally decided to leave the group once and for all.  As she wrote to me, ” …My active involvement with the band is at an end.  This needs to happen for a couple of reasons. 1. It’s dragging on, and that is because of me thinking I’m going to find some magic bullet that will inspire me to be musical again. I can’t put a timeline on something like that.  2. The lack of that timeline is holding you and Matt to something, holding you back from other things.”  Jenn and I met for beers a few days later and decided that the end of Protean Mean was something we both agreed with.  For my part, I cannot imagine doing PM without Jenn and it wouldn’t be right at all to continue on with the name and not have her singing the songs.  The band began as a partnership with Jenn and me, so if one of us isn’t there anymore, it’s not Protean Mean.  Beech is also in agreement with this idea.

So…the band ends, there are no hard feelings, we’re still friends and I’ll always consider Jenn to be my sister.  We made some great music together and I’m really proud of the songs we wrote and performed together.  The band existed officially for 3 years and 5 days and I had a great time doing it.  What’s next?  I have joined forces with the Matts (Beechhold and Fasnacht) and we’ve already started our new venture (only 1 official rehearsal, so there’s no name yet).  We’ll probably do a few of the PM tunes, but in different arrangements.  Keep informed of future developments for the new band by checking in at my website, cheevyjames.com.  For those of you who are Jenn’s friends, she’ll also keep you updated on her future artistic projects.

I would like to give some thank-yous at this point -

first to Jenn, for being a great friend and musical partner.

to Matt for having boundless enthusiasm for the band

thank you to our spouses, Julie and Eric for the endless support

thank you to Josh Stohl for playing the drum tracks on our demo from early last year.  He did a magnificent job and brought out things I didn’t know were possible in the music.

thank you to all who came out to see us play.  We really appreciated it, every time.

Extra Special Thank You to Bryan Younts.  Besides our spouses, Bryan came to more shows than anyone.  He made it out to just about every one.  A dedicated fan and great friend, thank you.

This email was approved by Jenn and she wanted to include the following thanks:

“Thanks to you and to Matt for being patient and for understanding my need for time away to make the decision. I’m looking forward to being a fan of your new venture.”

Our myspace site (myspace.com/proteanmean) will continue to exist, at least until myspace goes bankrupt.  The 2008 demo will continue to live there in listening form.  If you’d like to download the songs (they’re free!) head to http://cheevyjames.com/music/protean-mean-curiosities.  Proteanmean.com will soon redirect you to the myspace site.  Do some searching, there will continue to be live videos from us on youtube.

I think that’s it.  Thank you for listening.

On behalf of Protean Mean,

James Hines

I bought a new computer recently - it has Vista 64-bit on it.  The previous machine had XP on there.  My Cakewalk software (for music recording) was designed for 98 and while it didn’t work perfectly with XP, it worked about 98% of the time.  Pretty close.  So, I tried to install it on the new machine and it did not work.  The computer is just way too powerful for software from 7-8 years ago.  So, I need to upgrade.  Do you know how much I detest spending at least $200 on software?

I know it’s a necessary purchase, but it’s not one I’ll happily make.  Anyway, I downloaded a trial version of the most recent version of Cakewalk - Sonar 8.  I get so hung up on stupid crap that I haven’t really tested it out and I only have 3 days left of the trail.  This is what I call a Big Waste of Time.  My hangup has been the MIDI - specifically, I can’t hear the MIDI stuff I’ve previously recorded.  That also means I can’t record MIDI in the future.  If I want to seriously record at home, I have to be able to hear that stuff since I use MIDI for drums.  Until I get a drumkit (yeah right) that’s my option at home.  My other choice is not have drums on there, and just use the software for demos.

My traditional laziness (or as Jenn calls it, I’m “unmotivated”) has reared up again and I have yet to call Cakewalk tech support to find out how to get the MIDI working.  In other words, the thing holding me up…yeah, I haven’t even got that fixed.  I looked around a TON online to try to figure it out on my own, but no luck.  The damn MIDI output just isn’t showing up where it should.

Band practice has been cancelled tonight as Matt has to work late.  So that means I have tonight to call them.  Tomorrow is out of the question as we’re having Travis & Brooke over for dinner.  Thursday will hopefully be the made-up band practice and Friday Julie and I head to Dallas to see the family.  Yes, I have to call tonight.

(as an aside, I’m currently listening to John Parr’s Man in Motion (St. Elmo’s Fire)…I’ve always loved this song since it first came out.  Perhaps it’s a bit cheesy.  I don’t care, I think it’s great.  I want to do a heavy metal version of it.  It calls for a metal translation.  I will do this sometime.)

Having problems with the MIDI drums brought up another issue to my mind.  Why do I have to be so independent and butt-headed that I can’t get help with my album?  Why do I have to do everything myself?  Why am I insisting that the credits read “Everything by James Hines.  Suck it, bitches.”?  I’d like to think it’s not ego, because I know I can be full of myself at times, but maybe it just is that.  I think a good chunk of it is to prove that I can do stuff by myself.  I can do music by myself and it can be GOOD.  I feel that I’ve been shat on a lot in my life over my songs, and I really want this album to stand up and knock some people back.  Yes, that is my ego right there.  I’ve forgiven the various people over the years who have “overlooked” my songs, but it still stings.  I’m not afriad to admit that.

So my solution was to record everything myself, play all of the instruments, sing, engineer, artwork…all of it.  With the MIDI problems I came to the conclusion that maybe I don’t NEED to do everything myself.  I can still make an album that’s “me”, while striving to have the best production possible.  Holy crap, I can actually let people help me!

It’s kind of hard for me to admit all of this, because I’m fiercely independent and I have been as long as I can remember.  There are pictures of me when I was 2 or 3 trying to swim and refusing help from my older brother.  All throughout grade school and college when it came time for group projects I’d do it all myself.  I’d let other people be in the group, but I would do all of the work.  Like, the 3 Penny Opera video I made in college for Mr. Raleigh’s Dilemma.  My song choice (my band, you’d better believe I’m making a video for my own band and not someone else’s), my production ideas, I did 90% of the camera work and 98% of the editing.  It’s not an amazing video, but it’s MINE and I’d rather have it be faulty with my vision.  So yeah, I’ve always worked that way.

Compromise vs. ego.

So, I thought about the drum issue and I’ve come to the conclusion I’m going to get Matt to help me.  Have him play the drums and help me in production & engineering.  I can let go of that stuff and I know the album will turn out better for it.  I really want to finish this project.

NP: Fabulous Thunderbirds - Tuff Enuff (or, Don’t Mess With Texas)

(this is a new song I wrote this past Saturday about someone I met earlier that day. Not exactly a positive meeting, but I felt like she needed a song about her. No music or melody yet, no revisions either)

Did I hear you say there would be a civil war,
That there would be a division in my nation?
A little bird told you “my people” would defect
And finally separate from the righteousness of Cascadia

Or, as the prophet said, he will lead as astray
We will repeat history to arrive at a nuclear war
Maybe you misheard and he will only be murdered,
Shot down once again at the hands of “my people”

You spoke of the greatness of this nation,
But you fail to trust the intelligence of its people
You refuse to believe we can cast away
And defeat the sins of previous generations

Clearly your superior nation has taught you
To think of our friends to the South as “wetbacks”
You did not stop there
More crap flowed from your lips
You spoke ill of Parisians
And your countrymen to the East who share their language

But wait, there was more - more prejudice came from you
All music, save one, helped the Earth & made things grow
Though, when heavy metal is played, new life will be no more
It alone will cause the wine to sour

There was certainly more said,
But I honestly tuned you out
My countrymen, my people, have already proven you wrong

No music is evil & none causes destruction of the Earth
Nor will this country descend into civil war
I hope you will stop following these false leaders,
Reclaim your critical thinking & fulfill your humanly promise

It may not seem like it (since I don’t do them often enough), but I really do think about the album reviews for this site quite a bit. Probably more than is healthy. Since it’s the end of the year and there’s the usual “album of the year” stuff that I (and everyone else) do, I got to thinking about the 2008 releases and which one could be the best one. I thought how incredibly lame it is for me to proclaim some album to be “best of the year” when I didn’t officially review it here. Lame! My standard operating procedure since I started doing reviews back in 2002 has been to start from a band’s beginning and move up chronologically. My reasoning for this was to chart a band’s progress through their career and from album to album, in order. There’s a problem, though. It means that if, for example, Iron Maiden had released a new album this year…my review of it won’t come for a few years down the road. Being that I’m only up to 1986 with those guys anyway.

In light of this odd fact (because I should be reviewing new releases in a timely way) I’ve decided that whatever releases come out in a new calendar year that I’ll have them reviewed within 3 months of me obtaining the album. I think that’s fair and also enough time to digest everything. Hopefully. That’s my aim, anyway. So, I’m going to try to review all of my 2008 releases in the next few days and then I’ll work forward from there. FYI, Bryan Dunn’s new album will be considered a “2009″ release as it hasn’t officially been released. I have an advance copy so I’ll wait until closer to the proper release date. As for Davíd Garza’s Dream Delay - I’m going to wait a few months on that one. It’s not quite sitting right with me (yet?) and I want to give it more of an honest shot before panning it.

As for my Album of the Year? If we’re allowed to include reissues, then hands down it goes to The Mongol Beach Party’s Toast: reburn. It sounds absolutely phenomenal. I’m not convinced that reissues deserve to get that award, so I choose Liz Williams’ Senseless. I reviewed it earlier and I will be posting that in a little while. Tough decision, but I absolutely love it and think it’s better than any other new release from this year. Highly recommended.

Back to reviews I go.

I decided to do an experiment tonight and simply listen to my iPod on shuffle for an hour and make notes about the songs that pop up. Enjoy!

10:04 – Davíd Garza – Drone (alt. take) – Underdub
This is an exclusive track to the vinyl issue of Underdub. The story: for Davíd’s 2001 album, Overdub, he first released a vinyl called “Underdub” which was demos for the upcoming studio album. Attached with the CD of Overdub were the Underdub tracks on the CD-ROM portion…except for 3 tracks. 3 songs were exclusive to the vinyl. But then, after more research, it was found out that the version of Drone from the vinyl was different than on the CD-ROM. This is that version. It’s a lot more “bare bones” than main version, but I dig it. A nice blueprint.

10:07 – Bruce Dickinson – All the Young Dudes – Tattooed Millionaire
Bruce Bruce doing a version of Bowie’s song. I really like this version, much better than Mott the Hoople did. Janick Gers has some nice guitar playing on here – surprisingly melodic for him. Bruce sounds great on this.

10:11 – Rush – Resist – Test for Echo
One of the good tracks off this album, which is half-good and half-crap. This is a *very* pop song, but I’ve always liked it. I don’t mind when Rush goes into pop territory and does a ballad-type thing like this. I can’t remember which tour it was, but they did an “unplugged” version of this with both Geddy & Alex playing acoustic guitars. Neil got a break, I suppose. A nice and unexpected treat. It’s been a while since I’ve heard this song and it’s good to hear it again.

10:15 – Bill Frisell – Remember – The Intercontinentals
Very mellow track from this cool album. I absolutely love Bill Frisell’s guitar tone on this album. Maybe he has this tone all of the time? I don’t know, this is the only album of his I’ve ever heard. The album’s weirdly eclectic – he brought together musicians from all over the world and they created some very interesting music. Great track, but too short.

10:17 – Bryan Dunn – Postmodern Love Song – Shackle Melodic
Oh man, I love this EP and this song especially. It’s a typical Bryan Dunn song, but it manages to be outright excellent while being traditional. I LOVE the organ on this song. It totally makes it. I think Shackle Melodic is a hell of an album. The production on it is freakin’ stellar. Bryan’s voice sounds great on this song.

10:20 – Mike Keneally – Party Poopers – Pup!
Holy crap, this song cracks me up. It sounds like a commercial for some business called “Party Poopers”, but after a minute of comedy it devolves into overall weirdness. I love the line, “it smells like a basketball”. Weird-ass track, but totally Keneally. I dig this little EP thing – it was a bonus CD from the Dog album.

10:23 – John Coltrane – Countdown (alternate take) – Giant Steps
If such was possible, one of the cooler tracks off Giant Steps. The main version of the song just smokes, but this alt version, while great, can’t hang with the take that went on the album. The beginning part of this song, where Coltrane solos in his super-speedy way, is extended in this version before the band hits the melody of the song. Once the bass comes in, look out, the band takes off. I think this alt version is twice as long as the main take. Great playing on this, even if that transition to the melody part is a bit jumpy.

10:28 – Frank Zappa – Zoot Allures – Zoot Allures
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I *love* this track. Instrumental guitar-led title track from this otherwise disappointing album. But this song? Holy crap, one of the most beautiful things he ever composed. No one plays guitar like he does on here. Both Terry Bozzio & Roy Estrada play a fantastic background counterpoint to FZ’s perfect playing and graceful feedback experiments. Such a beautifully-composed song.

10:32 – Stevie Ray Vaughan – May I Have a Talk with You – The Sky is Crying
I think this is my favorite SRV album. This is a nice slow and dirty blues and of course it features some great guitar playing. His tone sounds great on here. Man, I just love that deep, slow-ass grove that Tommy Shannon does on the bass. Oh man, SRV’s solo is excellent. He’s really reaching down and grabbing some dirty-ass notes. This isn’t a “pretty” track one bit. This is pain. Beautiful.

10:38 – Mike Keneally – Never Ever Wrong – Wine and Pickles
W&P is an album of outtakes and rarities from Mikey. I believe this track was a left-over from Dog. There’s some nice guitar playing on here, but it’s not my favorite song. I don’t think it really works as a song. It’s a ballad, which is kind of odd for Keneally to do. I think the lyrical transition to the “never ever wrong” feels a bit forced. I just think it’s a weak track. Most Keneally fans love it, but I’m not in that camp.

10:41 – Led Zeppelin – Tea for One – Presence
Ah, a rare Led Zep song. I don’t care for that beginning, but once it gets to the slow and bluesy part, watch the hell OUT! These guys could just nail the blues in a way that a lot of people can’t imagine doing. I’m not a huge blues guy, even considering my love for SRV and this stuff…but when it’s done right, it’s excellent. This is a great song that’s forgotten by most people, and never played on the radio, but it’s definitely a cool track. I mean, Presence is almost a forgotten album by them. Some great music on there, esp. this one. Love Page’s guitar playing on here.

10:50 – Tori Amos – Hotel – From the Choirgirl Hotel
I really liked the experiments she did on this album. It’s got a strong techno/dance influence which produces some interesting results. This song has a very interesting structure and composition. I dig the techno/electronica elements in this song, but it also has some good slinky guitar parts that I like. This is a very weird song if you’re just used to hearing the “female singer with a piano” stuff that comprises much of her early material. This entire track is out of left field it its construction. She seamlessly drops the electronica and the full band comes in, before everything but her voice and the piano drops out. Very, very interesting stuff.

10:56 – Van Halen – One Foot Out the Door – Fair Warning
That surely doesn’t sound like Mike Anthony on the bass here! Sounds like Eddie to me. This is a weird track in that the guitar doesn’t come in until half way into it – it’s just bass, drums and David Lee Roth. This song is almost like filler in that it’s just under 2 minutes. Kinda cool, I like it.

10:57 – The Who – Call Me Lightning – The Ultimate Collection
I dig the track, but I don’t care for that “dom dom dom durrain” refrain that the background vocals do. Nice bass solo that emulates My Generation. Actually, this track is WAY similar to My Generation, with the multiple key changes in the exact same spots. Oh well.

11:00 – Stereolab – Contact – Switched On
Last song of the experiment tonight. I have to admit, I haven’t really listened to this album but a couple of times so this track is a bit of a mystery for me. Very Doors-like in the beginning. Ah, now I remember it. I really like the haunting vocals on this one that come in after a few minutes. It’s very meditative. Of course, after 5 minutes of the same riff it gets a little bit old. It still has that meditative quality, but I’m ready for it to be over so I can get to bed. It’s making me sleepy.

Posting music: XTC – Earn Enough For Us – Skylarking…LOVE IT.

Setlist: Surrounded By Trees, Travelers Merchants & Masters, The Storm, Snow, She Waits By The Sea, Mr. Raleigh’s Dilemma, Hanging Up the Dream, Abused’s Song, August, 10K

Raleigh was a debut.  Also this was the first gig with Matt, first gig in Chapel Hill & first gig at the Cave.  Lotsa firsts.

The show was decently attended.  I think it’s the best we can hope for.  Julie, Eric, Bryan Younts, Brooke & Travis, Don & Lizzi and Chris & Andrea, plus some regulars.  We made pretty good money and that was a total shock.  I forgot to bring the mailing list & CDs (and setlist, thankfully Matt had a copy), but we managed.

Jenn wasn’t completely present tonight, kinda disconnected.  Matt did a great job of setting her levels and I could hear her voice wonderfully.  While her voice sounded great, her guitar playing was a bit off on a few songs.  The Storm started out so awful, like that one show at Pheasant Creek.  It eventually got better, but it just wasn’t there at the beginning.  She played better for Abused & Hanging, but it was still REALLY quiet during those.  During all of her guitar playing, actually.

While she contributed a few guitar-clams, I certainly contributed my share, which is usually pretty significant.  Overall, I thought it was a good show, though.  A good number of mistakes, but good overall.  We were stupid to open with Surrounded.  It was a trainwreck and Matt had a tough time with it.  I tried with all my might to hold it together, actually.  I like Travelers as a song, but I don’t think it fits in with our set on an every-show occurrence.  We need more material before we can start playing others less.  Ideally?  If it were me, I’d cut Abused’s, Snow & Travelers down to “not very often”.  Same with Amnesia, but we’ve already kind of done that.  Abused’s is currently one of our major songs, and one of our few up-tempo ones at that.  I just feel that it doesn’t reach people.  There’s no reaction to it.  I think it’s a pretty good song, but really, no one cares.  Mr. Raleigh’s Dilemma got a good reaction tonight.  I thought we played it WAY fast, but Brooke & Bryan specifically really liked it.  I have to say, it was very nice to play again and except for my horrid bass solo it was good.  I thought my backup vocals in the chorus sounded good.

My singing?  Overall I’m still too afraid of the mic and when I’m not singing, I just stay away from it.  I thought it was decent.  I still can’t hear myself well enough when singing, so we’ll have to work on it.  We’ve talked about having some specific vocal rehearsals with all 3 of us.  I think it’s a good idea.

So, Matt.  It was a lot to try to have him learn 10 songs in 3 weeks.  For the most part he sounded really good.  Songs like Raleigh, She Waits, Snow, Hanging and Storm really sounded good with him.  He did good on August too, specifically.  Surrounded was a mess; he’ll get better.  10K was still a bit too scatter-shot, esp. the chorus.  Travelers was good, but it just needs a bit more on the verses.  The “heartbeat” thingie.  He made some real nice, subtle touches to the music that I loved.  I think with a few more weeks/months of good practice we’re going to be a hell of a band.

I think it was a good showing all around and I’m pretty happy about it.  We have a lot of things to work on, so that’s good.

Setlist: Lady Pilot, The Storm, Abused’s Song, August, 10K, Matte Kudasai, Travelers Merchants & Masters, Hanging Up the Dream, Snow, Surrounded By Trees, She Waits By the Sea

August was debuted.

I had a few nerves earlier in the evening before I headed out and also a bit on the way there. Once we set up and waited around to start, I was fine. Not a single nerve for this show! HOORAY! It was like, no pressure whatsoever. Just get up there and play. Extremely sparse audience…I only saw 5 people total, not including the bands (Yohimbe & Durham Ukulele Orchestra). Matt the hopeful drummer showed up. He said he really liked it and had lots of ideas for the songs. For the most part I think I played pretty well, maybe better than I ever have in this group. Of course I made some massive clams and I had some big troubles with Matte (but I heard the chick from Yohimbe say at the end of the song how beautiful it was), but overall I think I played well. Some songs, hell yeah, were spot-on. A few lyrical mess ups from Jenn and a couple of chordal mess ups as well, but mostly she sounded good. She said afterward that she couldn’t hear herself too well, but from my end of the stage everything sounded good.  I especially loved the perfect telepathy between us in the improv section of Lady Pilot.  That was sweet.  The sound in club was quite cavernous, but that’s expected with such a low turn out. Where were our friends? I don’t know.  I *hope* it’s just MarVell and they’ll come out to the Cave show. The “trilogy” went pretty well. We haven’t quite got the transition from Abused’s > August, but I know it’ll come. Having a drummer will certainly help out. Uh, yeah – for the most part I was happy. I’m thoroughly glad the nervousness has gone and now I feel like I should. I was pretty happy while playing and happy overall.

I mentioned this in the Protean Mean blog, but a few weeks ago Jenn & I were discussing the idea of structuring our free time in a better way.  Maybe toying with the idea of a set schedule in which to get the stuff done that we “need” to do.  I tried to adhere to a schedule a few years ago…it obviously didn’t work.  Ideally I’d love to have set time to do all of the various things I like to do (album reviews, regular website work, recording, writing new songs, practicing guitar/bass/piano/vocals/lap steel, etc.).  Unfortunately, I’m horrible at time management; I always have been, and it’s a very difficult habit to break.  So in our conversation I mentioned to Jenn that the idea of my “solo album” is always in the back of my head, and more importantly has been in the forefront of my thoughts since I finished the Protean Mean demo a couple of months ago.  We talked about the need for such a thing as a “James Solo Album” and even though I’m sometimes reluctant, Jenn encouraged me to finish and get it out there.  Introduce it to the world.  She’s right in that it would be great sense of accomplishment for me.  I also agree with her that even though some of the songs are repeats from the current PM song list, there are enough differences in those original versions that it would make for an interesting comparison and would present them in a different way.

I appreciate her views on this, because what she said has definitely grounded me and made me realize that not only do I NEED to finish the album, I WANT to finish the album.

Tonight I was looking through various word documents on my computer and eventually landed on the tracklisting for the album.  I looked at it and thought about it for a while, around 15 minutes, and had the idea of, YES, I should spend my evening practice time running straight through the album.  I haven’t played through the whole thing in a year or so and it was a lot of fun going through all of the songs.  I had written out the possible tracklist, but I was unsure on a couple of songs.  Well, you’ll be happy to know I have officially settled on a final tracklist and I really like how the whole thing flows together.

So here we go - I’m really going to finish the thing.  I’ve determined that it’s what I want to do right now.  It’s been “in production” for far too long and it desires to be completed.  If you’re any sort of a regular reader to this blog, you’ll remember how I was going to finish at various times back a few years ago.  I think my first “official” finish date was August 1st, 2005.  Yeah, THAT LONG AGO.  Various dates have come and gone and my most recent thought, at the beginning of the year, was that I’d finish it before the election.  Well, we have 30 days until Maverick or Goose becomes our leader and I know that realistically I won’t finish it before November 4th.  No big deal.  My promise is that I will finish it and it’s now re-become my top creative priority.  I really don’t have that far to go, a few bass tracks, drum programming, vocals then mixing…and I’ll be done.  It’s a tall order, but it’s time.

So, in anticipation of that moment when you can download it here, I present the final tracklist to my first solo album, Square One (times are current estimations, final times will vary slightly):

1. 10K [3:16]
2. (The Last Romantic) Part 2 [4:49]
3. The Big Yellow Bastard [3:20]
4. KC [5:37]
5. Travelers, Merchants & Masters [4:10]
6. M.E. [7:14]
7. Big Red Bus [6:02]
8. Mine [4:55]
9. Larry [2:44]
10. Niagara on the Pacific [3:29]
11. Rings [3:40}

Total Time ~50 minutes

You heard it here first.  I’ll let ya know when it’s done.

NP: Bryan Beller - Thanks in Advance (a fellow bassist’s solo album, his second, and I’ve been devouring it constantly for the past few days.  Great stuff)

I met a couple of my neighbors, Chris & Andrea, the other day; they live a few houses down from me.  We were all hanging out next door at Travis & Brooke’s enjoying the first Saturday of college football.  As T&B had just met them a week or two ago, we were all getting to know each other.  Eventually the topic of music came up (Brooke played them some bits of Protean Mean…I thought that was cool of her) and Travis asked Chris what kind of music he listened to.  Christ answered “I listen to everything”.

I’ve been pondering this question & answer for a few years, because it ALWAYS comes up when people talk about music.  I haven’t met anyone in the past 10-15 years that didn’t give that answer to the question of “what kind of music do you like/listen to?”.  That’s nothing against Chris & Andrea’s answer, because I give the same one.

It could have been earlier for all I know, but in my life I started hearing that answer to the “music” question back in the early 90’s.  Back then, in high school, people started to have eclectic tastes.  Or at least “I listen to rock, r&b and country”.  Most everyone I knew back then liked some rock, some r&b/rap and some country.  Some people even listened to other stuff (Jazz?  WTF is that?!?).  I’ve noticed that since the early 90’s everyone I’ve asked the “music” question to has answered the same.  The truth is we ALL listen to different kinds of music.  The overall music since the early-mid 90’s may not have been of a high quality, but people have definitely been expanding the type of stuff they listen to.  We all have.  I certainly have.

Whenever the question gets put to me, I usually answer, “I listen to *most* everything”, which is true because I don’t listen to everything and I’m not going to pretend that I do.  I don’t listen to opera, I don’t listen to folk much, I don’t listen to hip hop, I don’t listen to any Christian music, I don’t listen to New Age, I don’t listen to Broadway showtunes.  I avoid all Top 40 if I can help it.  There’s a lot I don’t listen to.  On the other hand, there’s a ton of stuff I do listen to.  I’m perfectly happy with a mix of Iron Maiden, Jimmy Buffett, Miles Davis, Bebel Gilberto, Willie Nelson, Zero 7, Stevie Wonder, Ffynnon, Mars Volta & Journey.  Hell, that would make me incredibly excited to hear all of that together.

So, my point is that we’re all eclectic and we all “listen to everything”.  It’s not that the answer is bad, it’s that the *question* is the wrong one.  Maybe we could start asking “what kinds of music do you listen to most?”  My answer is easy - Rock mostly, with Jazz & World coming after.  Yes, those are very broad categories.  “World Music” especially, since it can encompass pretty much anything not based in Western tradition.  Bossa Nova, Afro Pop, Conjunto, Tango, even Hawai’ian music is considered “world”.  For me “rock” is a very nebulous term anyway, and it encompasses a HUGE variety of music.  From my personal collection, things I consider “rock” are: Beatles, Maiden, Journey, Frank Zappa, Radiohead, David Garza, Jonathan Richman…and a million other bands fit in there too.

So the “what kind” question can work, but maybe an even better question - and one that I think would get the best answer the questioner is looking for - is “who are some of your favorite bands” or some variation thereof.  Even with me, the “rock-jazz-world” tag is incredibly nebulous.  Which bands, though?  Iron Maiden, King Crimson, Frank Zappa, David Garza, James Brown, The Beatles or many others depending on my mood.  I think asking about specific bands we’d all get a better representation of what that person listens to.

It’s a hard habit to break, because we’re so used to asking “what kind of music do you like?”.  We just have to re-frame the question to get the desired answer.  Because honestly, “I listen to everything” is an answer that everyone will give.  Ask better questions.

NP - a bunch of stuff on shuffle from iTunes…eclectic as always.  Currently on David Garza but I’ve been through: Sorcerer, Protean Mean, The Kinks, Jimmy Buffett, Rush, Tori Amos, Mike Keneally, Dwar.f, Zero 7, Swervedriver, Jonathan Richman…

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