Puddleglum Music

I’ve heard for a long time that “Weird Al” Yankovic and his live band are great in concert, but I finally got a chance to see them for myself at The Majestic in San Antonio on July 18. My wife, Jen, is a big fan of Weird Al, and she jumped at the opportunity to see him live. Ironically, we just missed him when we moved to Lubbock three years ago, and we’ve just now moved to San Antonio. Overall I was not disappointed in the show. Although the band was small, (just four guys with Al), they not only showed themselves to be excellent musicians, but also great performers; in many ways, this is more my type of musical theatre than some people talking to each other in stilted, unnatural language and then breaking into song at inopportune times.

To allow for the changes in costumes between songs (and there were many), a three projector screens showed various Al-related clips; many were from “Al TV,” with fake interviews featuring Eminem, Madonna, Celine Dion, and others.  These breaks between the music just added to the whole show, and many times the video on the screens was used to lead into live songs.  For example, the opening to the “Fat” music video was played before Al came out in the fat suit to do the song.

One of my favorite moments of the show was the encore.  The keybordist came out in a robe and played Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, followed by a chorus line of Storm Troopers and a Boba Fett.  Naturally, we expected Al to go into one of his Star Wars-related songs, but instead he did a song about cell phones (which we had previously heard in a mock interview with Snoop Dogg).  Then he did both “The Saga Begins” (to the tune of “American Pie” by Don McLean) and “Yoda” (“Lola” by the Kinks).

My only issue with this concert had nothing to do with the band.  I haven’t been to many concerts with actual seating, so I don’t know if this is normal, but throughout the concert no one stood up, except for a period at the end.  As a matter of fact, when Jen and I, plus a couple of big Al fans next to us, didn’t sit down in between “The Saga Begins” and “Yoda,” a woman from the behind us actually yelled, “Sit down!”  Now, I spent most of this concert sitting down precisely because I didn’t want to block the view of those behind me, given that no one else was standing, but I felt that this was unnatural concert behavior. Jen also felt the same way.  So, I have a quick note for people in San Antonio and elsewhere that go to concerts with seating: sitting down in a concert should be a choice you make, and if you can’t see, stand up or move.  If you can’t move, stand up.  Music concerts like this are not meant to be “sit back and listen” affairs.  I kinda felt bad for Al and his band, because if you just looked at the audience, it didn’t look like the show was going that well even though it was awesome.

Regardless of that, Jen and I had a great time, and we definitely want to see “Weird Al” Yankovic and his band again.  By the way, here’s a quick video I took of the “Cell Phone” encore, which was taken on my cell phone.  Remember, “Everyone has a cell phone…”

I’ve been listening to The Choir for years; in many ways, their music has been more influential on me than any other band.  Their Speckled Bird album began my transition away from traditional “Christian rock” which, while often competently and expertly played, lacked any real personality, to music that came more directly from the personal experiences of the members.  With Burning Like the Midnight Sun The Choir continues to create deeply personal music with a distinct, original sound.  Each of the members is at the top of their game musically, and I especially like hearing more of Dan Michael’s saxophone.  Lyrically, The Choir continues to present issues of faith and relationships in a way that is not preachy or candy-coated, but rooted in real life.  For fans, this album is a welcome return of The Choir, showing that they haven’t lost anything in the years between albums.  For new listeners, this is an accessible album that will give them a good start in looking into the rest of The Choir’s work.

Another set from Red Letter Rock Fest in Snyder, TX, June 2008. This was Living Sacrifice’s first tour in several years, soon after their announced reunion.

I had some of these picture up from another photo host before I wiped out the site; I decided to share them here. These are from Red Letter Rock Fest in Snyder Texas, June 2008. This was the first time Jen and I saw Demon Hunter in concert, and it was awesome. Slideshow courtesy of my Flickr photostream.

Jen, I, and our friend Willie (who drove 6 hours to Lubbock from Fredericksburg) went to Metal in the Courtyard at the Cactus Courtyard here in Lubbock, TX. Although we got there plenty early, the line to get in took a very long time. I’m glad this was an all-ages show, but because the venue was serving alcohol, they had to card everybody going in, and that took a while. The doors opened at 7, but we didn’t get in until 8 and missed the first band, War of Ages. Since this was an outdoor show, however, we were able to hear them, and they sounded pretty good.

We were able to get in well before Bless the Fall started their set, and while they didn’t look very metal, they did a good job.

Jen and I were there primarily to see Demon Hunter, and as usual they were great. I have a few pics of their set, but I was too busy rockin’ out to worry about video. The crowd wasn’t as familiar with them, and so sometimes I felt I was singing and shouting almost on my own. Even so, the Demon Hunter guys put on a great show as expected.

I wasn’t as familiar with As I Lay Dying, but this crowd was clearly their for them; there was a renewed sense of energy in the audience when they came on stage, and you can see this in the video I’ve got below. The crowd sang and cheered and screamed for them through the whole set. Seeing them on stage, I can definitely see why this band is popular; they are great musicians (the drummer is a madman) and excellent showmen.

Overall, the experience was pretty good. Jen and I got a picture with Demon Hunter, and Willie got a couple with guys from As I Lay Dying and one with Demon Hunter as well. Demon Hunter was very friendly and gracious after the show.

First, Demon Hunter’s The World is a Thorn arrived in the mail last week.  The album is great overall; interestingly enough, looking at Demon Hunter’s discography, I feel that The Triptych may be their weakest album overall (although it’s still a great album).  I’m pretty evenly split on how I feel about the first two versus the last two, however.  I got into Demon Hunter primarily because Jesse Sprinkle is one of my favorite drummers of all time, so I was disappointed when he left; while Yogi is a great drummer, his style isn’t as interesting as Jesse’s, but I feel he’s come into his own with the band, through the last two albums.

Second, Jen and I are going to see As I Lay Dying, with special guests Demon Hunter, at the Cactus Courtyard here in Lubbock on May 2.  This will be the second time we’ve seen Demon Hunter (first was at the 2008 Red Letter Rock Fest in Snyder, TX; pictures here) and the first to see As I Lay Dying.  Although I’m not super familiar with their music, I’ve started listening to them more and am pretty impressed.

Third, if you hop on over the the What I’m Listening To page, you’ll see updates to Last.fm.  I’ve been using the Xbox 360 app again, and it’s been a pleasant experience.  Now I just need to get my Zune Social and Pandora stuff onto the website, and I’ll be all set.

That’s it for now.  Later!

I’ve been listening to my last.fm library (http://www.last.fm/user/starflyer3000) on the new(ish) Xbox 360 app. So far it works really well. I like the pictures showing while listening to a band, but sometimes it picks some odd ones; to see what I mean, play a song by The Choir or Zao. Later!

I was going through one of my backup harddrives and found this demo that I recorded a few years ago.  It’s one of the tunes that I’ve kept in the back of my mind to do a final version of and maybe even write some lyrics for it.  I’ve done some other recordings of it, but couldn’t quite remember how the lead guitar sounded.  I’m very happy I found this, so I can recreate and work on the lead (which is one of my better attempts).

The whole song has a mid-’90s Sixpence None the Richer vibe, and there’s part of me that wonders if I lifted some of it from their This Beautiful Mess album.  It’s possible; I haven’t listened to it in years (I only ever had it on tape), but it’s the kind of music that sticks with you, buried in your subconscious and then coming out years later.

As far as the recording of the song, I only had my Peavy Predator and Ibanez Artwood.  Both the acoustic rhythm and the lead guitar were recorded with the Ibanez, and the electric rhythm with the Predator.  One of the things that I tried on this song was a simpler electric rhythm part.  As someone who has played a lot of solo acoustic guitar without any other backup, I have a tendency to over do the rhythm when playing electric guitar.  It comes, I think, from my percussive style of play.  So, in this song I consciously kept the electric rhythm simple, strumming only once or twice per chord and letting it ring out.  I think it does a good job (usually) of letting the lead stand out.  The lead, by the way, is based on a normal A-minor scale, and all of it is played on the A and D strings, which gives a nice, smooth slide effect.

The bass part was created by playing it on the acoustic guitar and pitch-shifting it down, while the drums were created with a program called Leaf Drums (which I haven’t used in years).  Leaf Drums is very helpful in laying down a quick, basic backing track, but I was never happy with the sound, which is too easily lost and doesn’t have enough depth or punch.  I always planned on re-recording this song with live drums and a real bass, and hopefully I’ll get to that this summer.

 

 Reveal (Demo) [3:26m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Zao’s new album, Awake?, is out! I got my pre-ordered copy complete with a T-shirt from Interpunk. I’m going to commit to posting a review in the next day or so. Also, Mewithoutyou’s new album in coming later this month, and I’ve got that on pre-order as well. As soon as I get it, I’ll try to get a review up. Later!

I recorded this demo some time ago and had it on the original site.  I won’t go into a huge amount about it, but here’s just a little bit on how it came about.

I recently (well, last year) got an Epiphone Les Paul Special Bass guitar.  Before getting the Epiphone, I would often record bass lines with my electric guitar (a 15-year-old Peavey Predator) and then pitch-shift it down 12 steps.  While this is okay, the bass lines never had all of the low-end frequencies that I wanted; even with the pitch-shift, the sound wasn’t as solid as I wanted.  Getting the Epiphone has helped a lot with that.

However, one thing that I didn’t anticipate about getting a bass would be how it would open up new song-writing avenues to me.  Traditionally (and still for the most part), I write with either my electric or acoustic guitar as the first instrument, coming up with a riff or chord progression and then filling in the rest from there.  With the bass, however, I can now write a bass line, and then fill in the guitar parts based on that.

That’s essentially how this song was written.  I came up with the opening bassline first, and then built from there.  Listening back at the demo, I’m not happy with the electric guitar that comes in at the beginning; I think it weakens the bass.  The lead guitar part is really just noodling around, and I’m still learning lead, so it has it’s own issues.

The drums were recorded in a round-about way.  I output my electric drums into a Creative X-Fi USB sound device; other methods didn’t yield a solid enough sound.  Overall I was happy with the sound of the drums, but there are definitely times when I lost the metronome, and you can hear that on the demo.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy listening to this rather rough demo!

Copyright info: Creative commons non-commercial no derivatives 3.0 license.  Thanks!

What If? by Duane Watson

 

 What If? by Duane Watson: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download