Covers I Know

 Say It Ain't So- Weezer

...

That might be the entire list...

Um... 

I could probably stumble my way thru Foo Fighters-Everlong. 

Maybe I should learn more covers...

That's not a bad goal for 2026. 

Learn a cover every week. 

Time to go make a google sheet to track my progress...

My Best Creative Time

Is about right now...

It's 11:23pm.

And I've come to realize that I do my best writing/ creating between the hours of 11pm and 1am.

Which makes me wonder why I don't actually do work during these times.

I'm not one for New Year Resolutions... but I could possibly be doing myself a big favor by working at night.

What else has happened since the last time I posted on this blog?

12/18/14...

Wow. That's a lifetime ago.

My attention span is shortened. My career is heading in the right direction. I'm trying to do my best as a husband and a father. But I can do and be better.

It's been a 2 year break. And it feels like the blink of an eye.

I can remember what I had for dinner that night... Del Taco.

And I sang onstage with Weezer that night.

And I referenced a funny video of Riley Breckenridge... to Riley Breckenridge.

Have I... made ANY progress?

Yes. But not nearly enough.

This is a pretty fragmented post. I'm crawling again... but I'll be walking soon enough.

Time to go to sleep. I'll start working at night tomorrow.

...

Yeah. Not that much progress.

Everything Will Be Alright in the End

Tonight, I was 13, sitting in my sisters' room, skipping the first three tracks of the Blue Album until I hear the opening line of Buddy Holly, which is the first Weezer song I recognized from the radio.

Tonight, I was walking up to a Best Buy register. Pinkerton was in my hands, and it was the second CD I will ever purchase with my own money.

Tonight, I was 15. I walked into the Galaxy Theater in Santa Ana, and my sister warned me that the show was going to get loud. My brother-in-law Todd bought me my first Weezer t-shirt. It's red and there's a punk rock chick character on the front. She's wearing her own Weezer t-shirt, and she's throwing up rock hands.

Tonight, I was sitting in the backseat of my parents' car. We were cruising on the Eastbound 60, and I was singing along softly to Butterfly.

Tonight, it was my first year at UCI. A group of friends and I drove down to La Jolla to see Weezer. It was the first time I ever saw the band Ozma, and it was a night that changed my life forever.

Tonight, I was listening to the Green Album outtakes that Todd burned for me. I fell in love with Burndt Jam and Brightening Day.

Tonight, I was at the Gibson Amphitheater in 2010 for Weezer's Memories Tour. I scream along to every song on the Blue Album, except for Say It Ain't So. Monastically, I just stand and watch during that song.

Tonight, I was listening to Everything Will Be Alright in the End. It was streaming on iTunes before its release, and I listen to it 4 times non-stop. It's the first album since Pinkerton that I listen to from beginning to end.

Tonight, I walked up to a Best Buy register. I'm holding EWBAITE in my hands. It's the first physical CD I've purchased in over 3 years.

Tonight, I sang onstage with Weezer at the Observatory Theater in Santa Ana (formerly the Galaxy). I was feet away from Rivers Cuomo. I met some awesome people. I got to share the moment with Todd. I could barely contain myself as I recanted the night's events to my wife Rachel. I looked up the Weezer Fan Club and how to join. I stayed up until the wee hours of the night to write this.

Tonight, I was a kid again.

Thank you, Weezer, from the bottom of my kid heart.

I can't wait for it to be tonight again...

It's a Feeling

I've been in a couple bands. I grew up in Southern California so that shouldn't come as a shock to you. There's a band in every garage and they're all going to be rock stars one day. There's something about ocean air mixed with smog mixed with... with...

You think too much. It should be more about feeling. Not about being clever. About feeling. Not about gimmicks. About feeling.

Things that last have feeling. By things I mean songs. By feeling I mean I can close my eyes and remember what it felt like when I first held my older sister's copy of Weezer's Blue Album. I can conjure the image of a teenage boy sitting in the back seat of his parents' Honda Civic blaring Helmet's Unsung through his headphones on the way to watch his high school play football. I can smell the sweat soaked shirt after that Ozma show at Chain reaction.

It's a feeling. And you can't always articulate it. Which is what makes it so great. And sad. And frustrating. And amazing.

Sometimes the best thing you can tell yourself is to stop thinking and start feeling.

Memory Lane: Weezer- In the Garage

It's about re-creating a feeling. Capturing a moment in a life, any life, mine, yours, theirs, ours.

Because we all have the same experiences, the same hopes and dreams and fears. Everyone just wants to be happy, to find something that makes them get up in the morning.

There are songs that do this so well...



  

I remember sitting in the back of my parent's 1995 Honda Civic with my sister's Sony Discman in my lap, headphones blaring, on the way to San Diego for a reunion for my dad and his fraternity brothers, or on the way home from school on the 60 freeway passing Montebello golf course, or on the way to Griffith Park Observatory during Christmas 1996 with some cousins from the Philippines...

So many memories just from listening to one song...

Work at it, Glynn. Write ten songs. Then a hundred. Then a thousand. And make each one capture a moment in a life. Yours. His. Hers. Theirs. Ours.

Write. Go play guitar right now. It's not as if you're actually going to go to sleep...

Weezer...

8 days ago I saw Weezer's first of two nights at the Gibson Amphitheater.  It was an absolutely amazing show.  I hadn't seen Weezer for 9 years (the last time I saw them was in 2001 down at UC San Diego).  I remember them being very, very boring.  Not this time around, though.  Rivers was non-stop energy.  For their greatest hits set, all four members were up front with Josh Freese drumming... so eggin' food.  And their blue album set was just like being able to worship at the altars of all things I enjoy in an album.  I was transported to 1994, and I didn't want to leave at the end of the night...

Here are some pics from the show:

 Best Coast was great.  Solid set, no frills, just good rockin'...

Rock for the masses

 The crowd in the palm of her hand

 Right before Weezer hit the stage

 Light show, rock show, please no, don't go

 Rivers a couple yards from me.  I shoulda ran up for a high five...

 Making his way back to the stage.  Give the man a hand

 Webmaster and Weezer guru Karl treated everyone to a killer slide show in between sets.  Here's an early Weezer flyer.  Karl explained that Club Dump went on to notoriety as the Viper Room.

Kiss Medallions but for Weezer as made by Mykel and Carli back in the day

It's Already December?!?

Today is the last day of November.  The cliche "Where has the time gone?" holds particularly true for me this year...

I have a one year old son.  I'm engaged to get married in 4 months.  I'm beginning to enjoy when things slow down as opposed to always trying to keep things at light speed.  But I'm also pleased with the knowledge that when I need and want to get things going, I still can.  Just not every weekend...

December is always a bittersweet month.  One year ending and another beginning.  Relaxing in the excess of the holiday season before the eventual countdown to the youthful rush of spring and summer.  "This portion of Glynn's blog has been brought to you by schmaltz (and it's connotation not denotation)..."

I'm wearing my Weezer t-shirt.

Chase is crying downstairs while Rachel is working on origami flowers for the wedding.

Glee is on in 52 minutes and Sean and Candace will be over soon to watch it with us.

I like facts.  They're easier to make up than interesting stories and far more entertaining, too...

"What's the point?" 

"... there's supposed to be a point...?"

The Good Songs Stay with You

We all know when we like a song.  But it's hard to describe why certain songs mean more to us than others.

Weezer's "Say It Ain't So" is probably the closest thing I have to a favorite song.  From the opening hammer on chord to the pre-2nd-verse lead guitar noodling to the distorted guitar bend punctuation in the 2nd and 3rd choruses to the climactic falsetto on the last "say it ain't so"... I love this song.  And just disproved my theory of being unable to describe why certain songs touch us.

But aside from the technical aspect of "Say It Ain't So", which is completely describable in a very clinical and musical sense, there is another side to the song.  The artistry of it.  The objective part.  The part that makes it one of my favorite songs.  And all the great hits have it.  Each song that instantly transports you to a specific moment in your life has it.  I hear "Semi-Charmed Life" by Third Eye Blind and can feel the summer after my freshman year in high school.  The opening bass riff of Offspring's "Bad Habit" transports me to the parking lot of my elementary school during sixth grade.  The plucked guitar notes of "Dunn the Worm" by Sugarplastic reach my eardrums, and I can literally visualize my 1st year dorm room at UCI.  Every single song has a special little section of my heart, and whenever I want to visit that section, all I have to do is take a listen.

I want to write and play and sing music like that.  Music that takes you back or forward or just away.  Music that you can't help but remember because it has "it".  I can only hope to touch one person with my music the way each of my favorite songs and bands and artists has touched me.

"I can't help but grin every single time..."

Say It Ain't So

True or False?

"I don't have enough time to make music."

False.

You have more than enough time every Saturday from 6am to 12pm. Time enough to drive up to your parents' house and have them watch Chase while you track. Even if it means getting creative with acoustic percussion sounds that aren't super loud so you won't wake Chase up if he's napping. Or time enough to track some acoustic stuff for at least an hour every evening. Or time enough to set aside an hour every Sunday to record instead of watching TV. More than enough time.

The title of this post is the title of my favorite Weezer song, which was playing when I first started writing this post.  And I was sitting at work, thinking about making music, and wondering why I don't devote more time to my passion.  Why do I choose to do other things when I'm so drawn towards music?  Why watch TV?  Why surf the internet?  Why not throw on an album, or pick up a guitar, or plunk out a song on the piano, or come up with sounds that mimic drumkits using only household items?  Because that's way more productive than being lazy and a consumer and a bystander and an observer and... a typical, every day, run of the mill person.

It's just so hard, too, though...

In other news, I'm going to be providing some mood music for a fundraiser for A Wish for Animals, a 100% non-profit no-kill rescue for homeless animals.  It's on May 1st and you can find out more info at the event's website:

http://supforapup.com/

It's going to be a great event for an even greater cause, and I hope I see you there!!