Got around to a little playing this morning, and for some reason, decided to speed it all up into a half hour update.
So, there are three videos today, none of which are anything particularly special, but they sound pretty neat all chipmunky.
(1)
(2)
(3)
Enjoy!
Haven’t had much of a chance to update here in a long while. I’ve been a busy busy boy in the last few months. I’ve joined up with Captain Star, taking the role of bassist in a band that already has its legs under it and need only go out and play a bunch of shows as of about… now. Still working with Ramiro and Dave on The Crazy Eights project (currently in ‘recording’). I bought a new bass and some gigable gear, which is always a plus to have.
Have a gander at some noodling around I was doing this morning. It comes in two parts because youtube demands that my video be less that ten minutes in length. I’m pretty sure they do this so people won’t post entire episodes of TV shows, but let me tell you, it was a big pain in the ass trying to get Microsoft Movie Maker to split that shit in half. Anyhow, I think I’ve gotten better in the past few months!
Granted I still need to work on getting a metronome in there, but for some reason the metronome has such a loud volume while my bass imput has a relatively low volume. But I plan on opening up my sound card properties one of these days, and when I do… Hoo boy! Watch the hell out.
Part 1
Part 2
It has been a long week! Amanda and I have officially moved to Toronto, into a nice little place around Christie and Bloor. The past few days have been a haze of hectic packing and unpacking, but we're nearly there! Suffice to say, I haven't been fiddling around on the bass as much as I'd like to… but all that is about to change. Tommorrow, I am going to take a break from decorating, unpacking, and handing out resumes, and sit down for a few solid hours of playing time. I am long overdue, and with any luck, I'll have some new content to throw up soon.
Just a little bit of this:
Just a little bit of messing around this afternoon.
And in other news, the basswork on google video is at over 2800 hits. Pretty darn slick.
“Unless a compromise can be reached soon, the entire nation’s thang could be in serious jeopardy.”
A growing number of citizens are fed up with the nation’s current leadership for putting party politics before the need of the people to turn this mother out.
Pretty damn funny stuff.
Wrote some new light "claypoolesque" kinda lines today and needed to get them down. I started the video off with a bit of a joke. When I point at the camera and hold up one finger, I am letting everyone know how many takes I've done so far. The joke is that I thought it might take me about 15-20 takes to get anything that I liked out of the afternoon. But I suppose the joke was on me, I got something I liked first time through.
Around the end, my hands wanted to play one thing, and my brain wanted to play another. They had to fight it out, but eventually, my brain got my hands under control. Ye-haw.
In other news, all of my previous material on Google video has reached over 1000 hits. How exciting!
Today was a landmark day in the Mississauga music scene.
Top talent from UTM (University of Toronto at Mississauga.. sigh) gathered within the confines of the CFRE radio booth to put on a seriously kickass bit of musicianship. The session was a treat for the ears as well as my soul, as I have not had a chance to openly jam in so many styles with so many other talented people in such a laid back atmosphere. If I could jam like this on a daily basis, I would always be walking on air.
The lineup was as follows:
Octavio Santos: trumpet/vocals/vocal fx/percussion
Brendan Thomas: vocals
Joseph Bauman: bass
Chantel Morrison: vocals
Andrea Elcock: vocals
Tom Kania: drums/fx
Ryan D'crus: guitar
Sahil Israni: guitar
Tareq Abuqura: keyboards
Eric Derkowski: keyboards/fx
We also had a couple insanely talented photographers come and snap a few blisteringly awesome shots while we jammed the afternoon away.
Jack's Gallery is here
Ricky's Gallery is here
Unfortunately, if you missed the session online, you probably won't hear it… ever. Due to recording and copyright red tape, we were unable to record in the studio. However, in the near future, I may be able to get a few samples together from those who listened in and taped the show. Obviously I can't provide the entire set online, but I could probably fanagle a few short clips… A highlight reel as it were. But don't fret, I've made lasting contacts with all the musicians involved, and have set up tenative dates to jam, and keep doing what we all do best… making awesome music.
You'll also notice that in Jack's gallery, I am moving my hands so damn fast that they are merely a blur to the human eye!
'Pull On The New Flesh Like Borrowed Gloves
And Burn Your Fingers Once Again"
- Richard Morgan, Altered Carbon
So I've been reading quite a bit of science fiction lately and I must say that Richard Morgan is without a doubt my new favorite author. The Takeshi Kovacs series is an absolutely mind blowing experience. The premise of the books revolves around the ability for people to transfer their consciousness into other bodies (Sleeves). Anyway, the point of this post isn't just to let you know that I think Richard Morgan is a great author, I want to examine how the concept of sleeving is relevant to art.
Everytime I play for people, I feel like I make a switch from 'regular joe' to 'artist joe'. My posture, voice, expression seem to change somehow. On one level, I think this is a good thing. When I am playing for an audience, and I mean really playing, I feel like I am in my element. I feel like I'm really getting down to what I am all about. Finding myself as it were.
On the other hand, I feel as though there are certain pressures forcing me into behaving a certain way as an artist. Is there an inner desire to act as an ideal artist? Do I have a responsibility to my artistic persona to cultivate and develop my coolness?
Amanda regularly visits the official Tool website. They have a bunch of pictures on the site of just regular people hanging out, having fun. I realized then, that I never really thought of the members of Tool as real people. Eric Clapton, someone who I consider to be very genuine onstage, in my mind, is not a genuine person. But they are real people.
The realization hit hard, and it hit close to home.
Eric Clapton has had diareha.
When I am onstage, I am a construct of the imagination of the audience, and that construct is my artist persona. The same goes for this blog. And that is a crazy fucking relationship.
Anyway… everyone should read Morgan's Altered Carbon.
In all honesty, this is one of the worst videos I have going for me. I did maybe 12 takes, and each and every one sucked. This one sucks the least. Normally I wouldn’t post it, but I found out that wordpress will actually display embedded google videos, and I had to try it out.
In other news, I have been uploading all my clips to google video to see what kind of response they would generate. So far, out of four clips, my material has garnered over 200 views, and 12 downloads. That is pretty neato in my opinion. The sad part is that nobody really gets into contact with me about them. I mean, people are obviously downloading and watching my work… but it would mean worlds to me if I could actually get people to type me a little response. It wouldn’t neccessarily have to be anything much. It could be harsh criticism, or adoring love… but I wouldn’t mind a comment or two you know? So without actual comment, I really don’t know if these are actual people watching the clips, or just an automated machine response.
Where are all my mystery posters?
Pandora Bookmarked Songs: joeytunes
