Delayed Gratification

 To reach your goals, delayed gratification is a must. 

It would be way easier to doom scroll and play Fortnite and watch Netflix and YouTube rabbit hole and passively make your way through the night. 

But that does absolutely nothing to support your goals. 

So go pick up your guitar, post a mini cover, post a photo of this blog post, write a mini song, and listen to Let It Be by the replacements before you read a bit of Our Band Could Be Your Life. 

Keep your promise. 

I'm Excited About...

... a website that will hopefully make some waves in how music business is conducted: backsta.gr/

Well... damn...

I just read a thread about the website on Reddit, and now the only thing I'm excited about is not being a lawyer... Seriously, though. Red tape and the rabbit hole and compliance and legalese make me... so sad...

I'm really excited about going to my first Dodgers game of the season.

And about recording more music with Lexy Baeza.

And about posting my "Making of" video for the song "Be Boring" based on a chapter from Austin Kleon's Steal Like an Artist.

And about doing the RW Summer Running Streak 2012, which basically means I'm going to be running at least a mile a day from Memorial Day to Independence Day.

Yep... lots to be excited about!!!

Ideas... Execution

I have a lot of ideas.

But ideas aren't really much of anything until there is some sort of execution behind them...

So in 10 days, part of the execution will get under way.

I'll be recording an acoustic EP with Lexy Baeza. She's amazing, talented, and amazingly talented.

And my engineer, producer, mixer, aural master extraordinaire Mark McCombs will be manning the levers and knobs, which leaves me relaxed and excited and stress-free and pumped and ready to capture lightning in a bottle.

I think the only song I know I'm recording for sure is below. It was written with a whole bunch of people in mind, and I feel like it captures a feeling that all of us have had or will have at some point in our lives.

I have a lot of ideas. It's time to get to the execution...

Music I'm Excited About

The new Japandroids single, The House That Heaven Built. Coming out May 15th. Album dropping June 5. Yes, these guys were one of my inspirations for starting up a 2 piece band... Oh Girl!

Rubblebucket. An 8 piece band that I can only describe as an introspective dance party that has wedged itself into the wrinkles of my grey matter (because it's such intellectual music [Damn. It's true. If you have to explain yourself, it's not as effective]). I'm hoping I can sneak over to see them on Friday so I can bear witness to this...

Gethsemane by Paul Nolan. Yes, the song from Jesus Christ Superstar. Rachel and I saw JCS when we were in New York ten days ago, and it was amazing. I was a big fan of Paul Nolan's Jesus. Weird, but he had a country swagger that strangely fit.

Wow... I just spent the last 10 minutes watching JCS clips on YouTube... Go Music!!

Tribes

Village. Community. In crowd. Movement. Tribe.

If you get it, you get it. The unspoken rules, niche references, common language, dos and don’ts…

You need to earn your place amongst the tribe. It takes effort and time and shared experiences to truly belong. And even though each person’s experiences are singularly their own, as a part of a tribe, each personal experience is framed within a common experience…

I enjoy (most of the time) membership in the following tribes:

-          Parent
-          Husband
-          Musician
-          Golfer
-          Theater Kid   
-          Runner
-          iPhone User
-          Youngest Kid in the Family
-          Laid Off at the End of 2008

Each and every one of these tribes has their own customs and language and rules. Some you can join later in life, some you join due to circumstance, some you can actually choose to leave.

Seth Godin has written a book about tribes. I haven't read it. Womp womp womp...


But inherently we all know about the importance of tribes and their subconscious effects on our behavior.


Doesn't mean I shouldn't read the book, though...

Haters gonna hate...

I posted a song about Kony 2012 on YouTube.

The exchange below took place in the comments...

I'm actually a pretty big fan of my reply.

I'm also proud to have elicited an opinion from someone, even if it was a negative one.

Back to the drawing board I guess. Wait. No. Not back to the drawing board because of the comment. Back to the drawing board because I want to get better for me. Screw what anyone else has to say. Because haters wanna hate... and there's nothing you can do once they get going but make art of which you're proud.

John Wayne Gacy, Jr.

Last night, I spent about 15 minutes reading the Wikipedia article on this serial killer. Depressing, astonishing, unbelievable, car crash you can't turn away from. Was he evil? Disturbed? Confused? Evil? Crazy? Created? Remorseful? Aware of anything he'd done? Lonely? Just a man...?

Sufjan Stevens is a genius. The juxtaposition of the horror of the subject matter and the beauty of the music... so good.

Below is a YouTube video of my cover of Sufjan's song about John Wayne Gacy, Jr. It's haunting, and from the moment I heard the studio version of Sufjan's song, I fell in love with it.

Enjoy...

Gear Slut

I love looking at new gear. 

Gear related to any of my interests.  Guitar stuff.  Recording gear.  Golf clubs.  Running shoes.  Vans for touring.  Lockouts within which to put gear.  Drum hardware.  Computers.  Video games...

Ok.  Maybe I just like looking at... stuff...

Craigslist gets me in trouble.  Especially since I've found out how easy it is to trade stuff on there...

I like this guitar...

And this one...

And I really, really like this one.  Especially since I've been wanting an acoustic that plays more like an electric...

In other news, I haven't written a new song in a while.  Or posted an acoustic video on YouTube in a while.  Methinks this is an issue...

Schizo fits me...

I haven't been running (FAIL).  Tomorrow, hopefully...

But I have been playing music...

And thinking about playing music...

And listening to lots of music...

And looking at awesome blogs including http://st00pidjesse.blogspot.com/...

That is all...

Saturday Song #9- Crunk on Fools

It's been far too long since the last Saturday Song. I'm going to make it a point to try to at least post something every Saturday, even if it's a cover... or just a snippet of a song that I'm working on. I should set up a Soundcloud account so I can post mp3s on here...

This is another rambly stream of consciousness free form folky acoustic song about Chase.  Enjoy!!

This is how I pass the time on a Sunday morning

Watching this rad vid by the talented S. Huberts.

Contemplating signing up for the Carlsbad Marathon.

Listening to Last Five Years from Rachel's iTunes.

Eating pancakes.

Watching Chase fuss on the nursery monitor.

Oh yeah.  Happy 4th of July!  Happy Birthday, Dana Pull!  Happy Birthday, Dad!!

Snippets of lyrics

there's six strings attached to you, and i'm trying to do the best that i can do.  please believe me...

i'm a mess.  i confess that the rest of my night will be spent surreptitiously stealing a view of you

i had a girl.  she went and spent me.  if she hadn't, we might never have ended.  we played some games.  stuck to what was easy.  thought that we were happy.  what did we know?

you know where to go when you're trying to run, don't you?

you hold your head up by yourself, i hoped that it would last longer than it really has...

i bought the friends box set just for you, and then a penguin that you could wear around your neck...

i'm sitting naked in my bedroom on a saturday morning writing a song about you

don't tell me things i already know.  i'd much rather be surprised than placated.  do tell me how you'd feel if i throw away one more day.

uh oh.  he's up again.  time to clean shit...

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

You can hear almost all of these lyrics in video demos of my songs at my youtube page.

And here's a picture of my feet on a guitar case:

I feel so guilty...

... for not having posted in over a week...

Investing the time in a blog makes it blatantly apparent when you don't post.  Especially when you're grading yourself, to fail at your own test is... (shakes head)... pretty pathetic...

On a positive note, I made an audition video for a new Bravo show about singer/songwriters called Hitmakers.  Take a watch and a listen and please wish me luck!!!

Saturday Song #8

Do you continuously track and record over and over until it's perfect?  Or do you accept the initial version as something special?  A moment in time impossible to re-create, forever the blueprint for everything that follows...?

I almost re-recorded this, but I like that it's not perfect and that it's slower than normal and that it sounds more like a lullaby than a pop song...

Thanks for reading and enjoy...

Oh Girl and Bottling Lightning

Lightning never strikes the same place twice.  But every once in a while you can anticipate when it will strike.

I've been in a music project for the last 7 or 8 months called Oh Girl.  We play at Clancy's in Long Beach about once a month and make up songs on the spot and turn some of those made up songs into actual written songs by messing with the arrangements, actually setting lyrics, etc.  We practice every so never, but when we do, something inexplicable happens.  We actually pay attention to each other and have fun.  And forget about being so perfect and well-rehearsed and knowing the parts and making sure everything lines up just right.  We groove and experiment and fall flat on our faces sometimes, but every once in a while we come up with something that makes us supremely happy.  And even more rare are those times when we're actually paying attention and documenting.

So without further ado... here's some documentation of Oh Girl.  "The Hills" with jazzy intro.  Enjoy...

Oh yeah, we're playing at Clancy's tomorrow night if you're so inclined to check us out in a live capacity.  Much thanks to be playing for peoples in a live setting...

Saturday Song #7

Another Saturday Song that's coming to you on a Sunday.  This latest Saturday Song is the first recorded out of the state of CA and also is the first hip hop offering.  Well, as hip hop as a white guy and an Asian guy can muster...

A big shout out to Ben Hammond for writing the first verse.  Man, that was an amazingly creative night...

Enjoy!!

Myspace (any social network, really) has so much potential in the right person's hands

But Myspace isn't in the right person's hands.  It's in the general public's hands.  And the general public is an inconsiderate, selfish, impatient, rude, ignorant mass of humanity...

Think about the power of Myspace (or Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn or tumblr or chatroulette or YouTube or...).  Millions of people interconnected.  Opinions and ideas freely exchanged instantaneously.  If you wanted to you could literally find someone in Brazil or Germany or the Philippines or Arkansas and ask them what the weather is actually like.  Not a forecast or a loose prediction based on meteorological hypothesis.  The actual weather.  Which is super trivial, but you can extrapolate to a grander scale.  Ask a government official about the ramifications of the new health care bill.  Put a white collar wall street man on the spot and ask them about the ethics of insider trading.  Ask a doctor a question about that ache in your right knee.  All of those possibilities are right there in front of us...

But that type of exchange of ideas isn't happening on the internet.  Instead we have a video of a kid after a trip to the dentist office.  Or a story about a lion purchased and raised by two teenagers then released into the wild and then "Look!!  He remembers them!!!"  Or Perez Hilton.  Or TMZ.  Or aplusk translating tweets from every country in the world (wait, that last one is pretty cool).  Anyways, there is so much potential online.  And it's squandered because people are too short-sighted to maximize it's potential.

And I'm not saying I'm the right person to change things.  Wait.  Maybe I am the right person to change things... Or maybe just the recognition of what can be done is enough.  If I can instill these ideas in my son's mind and teach him to use these amazing technological tools for something more than midnight youtube searches, then maybe I can change things...

Wow... I just wanted this blog to be about connecting with each fan on myspace or facebook or twitter in a very real and authentic and genuine and symbiotic way.  But it turned into something very different.  And I'm glad...

Saturday Song #6

The Saturday Song series continues.  This is one of the rare songs I've written that took two distinct ideas and combined them into one song.  Normally, when I'm writing a song, I have an idea of what it's going to sound like in my head and I work until the reality of the song matches up to that initial idea.  In this case, two completely different parts meshed and became one song.

I hope you enjoy it, and thank you again for reading!!

Saturday Song #5

This Saturday Song actually comes on a Sunday.  I wrote this song driving home from work, and the chorus makes me really happy.  I was in the power pop sweet spot on this one...

Saturday Song #4 and Insomnia and an EP

I'm a night owl.  Can be dead tired at 6:30pm, then hit my second wind and stay up till 2am, no problem.  Not so good if you're trying to be up for work at 7 in the morning.  Perfectly fine for those late night bouts of creativity from which so many brilliant songs come.

It's at times like those, the 1:30am creative sessions, that I wish the most for a lockout.  Then I could go hole up and make music till my eyes burn.  And it would be good.  Or horribly horrible, but documented, nonetheless, which means it would be good.

I've decided that I'm going to record and self-release a solo EP.  I'm really excited because just making the decision to record an EP instead of a full length has made things much clearer.  I already have 5 really good songs in mind (possibly 6) and they're all linked thematically and stylistically, which is somewhat of a surprise.  And I've got a title, and ideas for artwork, and an entire campaign that ties everything together.  The way things are going now, I hope to track and mix everything by June and maybe even plan a trip up to San Francisco to do a show, if everything falls together.  At any rate, just typing all of this out is making me that much more motivated to make it happen.  Get.  Her.  Done...

And now for Saturday Song #4!!  This one's a somber one about love and making mistakes and making things right.  Enjoy...