Rocking

I’ve recently joined a rock and roll band. Every rocker’s dream, right? Actually it is pretty cool – I’m really enjoying it. I’m wondering why I waited this long.

It’s a bunch a guys from work, getting together for a bit of fun. The plan is to put on a fund-raising charity show sometime around Christmas. Some of us are experienced musicians, some of us not so much.

It’s a bit of an odd group, actually. We’ve got people in their twenties all the way through to their mid-forties. Our tastes, musical experiences, and skill levels differ wildly. We’ll not be making any records I don’t think, but there’s a certain safety element in such a configuration. We all work together, we all like music, and we’re trying to create a passable sound that might entertain for an evening. At best we’ll be an entertaining cover band. At worst it’ll be a decent team-building exercise.

This being a bunch of workmates, there are additional professional considerations to keep in mind: the singer can’t throw a temper tantrum and walk out in a huff; you can’t just fire the heroin-addled guitar player; and the drummer can’t die by choking on someone else’s vomit.

Groupies are probably out too, as half of us are married. This is a serious bummer. Likewise, extreme drunkenness is probably a bad idea, as are hard drugs. What are we left with? The glamour evaporates. Maybe I’ll just knock over my drum kit at the end of our final set – surely that’s allowed.

I’ve been practicing the same six songs for weeks now. That’s all we’ve managed – six songs. Our goal is two 45-minutes sets, so that’s probably 12 or 15 songs all told. We have a lot of work to do.

The bass player is tight, which makes my job a lot easier – now I just need to reciprocate. Actually I thought I was doing ok until I recorded my practice last night. My favourite song from our set – The Clash’s I Fought the Law – sounded a mess. I was all over the place. The heart was there, sure, but it was a train wreck. Well, maybe that’s ok, maybe even a bit Punk Rock. A train wreck with heart.

It’s fascinating to me, how seriously I’m taking this. I know it’s just a lark really, but I have this drive to excel with this project. Realistically, all I can hope for is competence.

Fear of failure is a constant companion on most of my adventures. Sometimes it’s an expectation of failure, which ends with us both rolling in the gutter, blaming each other, but usually the fear’s presence motivates me just enough so that I can do what I have to with a certain kind of flaky competence, rough around the edges but the heart in the right place. Put another way, I can get by with most things I put my mind to, but I’m not particularly talented in any one discipline.

So, for me, any attempt at excellence takes a full and continuous commitment that must be nurtured and constantly renewed. I’m not much good at it, but I’d sure like to be.

Such it is for the drumming. When I first started I would just play the songs I enjoyed playing, cranking up the walkman and getting my ya yas out. And I suppose that’s been pretty much the pattern for the last twenty years. (twenty?? Where do they go?) I’ve been just playing for pleasure, once in awhile practicing a new pattern because I liked its sound. Yet despite always having a drum kit around, I don’t even know if I’m holding my sticks properly. I’ve never practiced the rudiments. I’ve never played to a metronome. In short, I’ve never really practiced. It’s all been about fun rather than hard, focused work.

I do have a certain style on the drums, developed over years of listening and hacking about. But it’s a messy style, and I’ve had to rein it way in for these rehearsals. Tight over flash. My number one priority here (as it should be any drummer’s): rock solid timing.

I think it’s mostly going pretty well, but only a recording of the rehearsal will really tell for sure. It sure is a kick. As we progress from week to week I’m offering suggestions, getting excited, animated, last time even showing the guitar player how to do a Pete Townsend windmill. It’s a weird layout, too… the drummer is at the back, but everyone sets up across the room in a wee semicircle, facing me. It’s cool. I’m the man. By the end of the session I’m energized, sweating all over like good sex in South Carolina, and near deaf.

Rock on, dude.

Geeking with the iPod 3G

I love my iPod, but I hate it too – I hates it for real. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve formatted, restored and reconfigured it just to try to get it to behave. But a fully functioning iPod is very nice gadget to have around.

It’s a 3G iPod – third generation – so it’s got a lot of storage space (30 gigs), but from Apple’s point of view it’s a legacy product and not worth supporting. As such we 3G users are not getting any love. We paid the premium but now we’re left out in the desert, watching the 5G nanos leave their glamorous contrails overhead. This is progress.

Lest this post slide sideways into a rant, let me explain just a single problem I’m having here:

I recently added two Christmas CDs to the IPod. Now when I scroll through the artist list, I see Bing Crosby, Perry Como, even Garry Glitter – with only one track available under each artist. I consider this pollution. I don’t want to have to scroll through the chaff. The only time I ever play these songs is when I play the compilation. I need a ‘hide artists that are part of a compilation’ feature.

Although iTunes itself does offer this feature, sadly, my 3rd-generation IPod does not. I am on the latest software and firmware. I have flashed my BIOS and re-initialized my HKU’s. But the ‘compilation’ option is not to be found.

So it seemed to me that I could either use iTunes’ bulk-rename feature, or just delete the compilations entirely. I wasn’t about to do the latter – I have a dozen other compilations which I want to keep. And the former would leave me without any artist information at all.

So I got all geeked out and wrote a little script to fix it for me. The script renames the artist to ‘Christmas Compilation’, for example, and then renames each track to include both the track name and the artist: ‘Bing Crosby – White Christmas’.

The search function in iTunes isn’t affected, as it searches all metadata anyways. So typing ‘Bing’ will still find me the track if for some reason I’m desperate for it.

The script didn’t take long to write (certainly faster than doing it manually for each song on an album), and the result is now a usable iPod. I’m happy. I’m now considering doing something similar for all the singles I have in my collection, as I’m always after an existing playlist or an entire album. Singles be gone.

Ideally I’d like iTunes and the iPod to suck much less than they do. Tags. iPod folders. Allow the autonomy. I am the user.

Just in case you want to geek out with me, I’ve included the relevant c# code below. You can script against iTunes with any COM-compliant language. Just add a reference to iTunes.exe.

Caveat: this makes irreversible changes to your ITunes library! Back it up first.

private void FixCompilation()
{
string albumName = “Christmas Album”;
string newArtistName = “Christmas Compilation 1″;

// get a reference to the objects we need
iTunesLib.iTunesApp app = new iTunesLib.iTunesApp();
iTunesLib.IITSource source = app.LibrarySource;
iTunesLib.IITPlaylist mainPlayList = app.LibraryPlaylist;

// find the tracks
iTunesLib.IITTrackCollection foundTracks =
mainPlayList.Search(albumName,
iTunesLib.ITPlaylistSearchField.ITPlaylistSearchFieldAlbums);

// loop and rename
foreach (iTunesLib.IITTrack track in foundTracks)
{
string newTrackName = track.Artist + ” – ” + track.Name;
track.Name = newTrackName;
track.Artist = newArtistName;
track.Compilation = true;
}

// done.
MessageBox.Show(foundTracks.Count + ” titles changed.”);

}

(My apologies for the formatting. WordPress is such a pain at times).

Just leave a comment if you have any questions about the script.

Goldfrapp

Sharon and I saw Goldfrapp at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow last night. It was excellent. We hadn’t been out to a concert in like forever.

We had front-row seats, and for a band like Goldfrapp, there’s nothing like it.

Every time I see live music I tell myself I need to do it more often. It does good things to me. There really is no comparison to listening to CDs at home; a live show is an entirely different animal.

We hadn’t expected an opening band, but we enjoyed it. It was a three piece called The Fryars: lead guy in the center with a keyboard; drummer on the right; and a girly keyboard player on the left. I do like girly keyboard players. (Goldfrapp has one too). The Fryars had a sparse sound, the keyboards providing bass and deep rolling rhythms, providing a perfect offset for the vocal melodies. His voice perfectly suited the music, a kind of new wave 80’s sound, but much richer somehow, the lyrics almost folky in parts.

The drummer was robotic. Tight and precise but boring as hell. I noticed that before each song, the front man would always tap a few keystrokes on his computer. That worried me. Was he feeding the robot a click track? Or worse, feeding us backing tracks? And why did the drummer have an earpiece? I distrust earpieces. I didn’t hear anything I couldn’t account for, but maybe they’re hearing things we can’t, making this live performance not live at all. Maybe I’m just an old fart. Maybe that’s how they all do it these days (later I noticed Goldfrapp sporting earpieces a-plenty), but back in the good old days we used stage monitors. Maybe that’s passé.

Nonetheless I was impressed. I think I’ll look them up.

But that’s not what we were here for, nor the rest of the sold out hall. We were here for Goldfrapp and the dancing girls.

When they finally came on everyone was ready. And they didn’t waste any time – within minutes everyone was smitten. This really is a stage band. The energy kept building all evening, the audience getting more and more into it, the band responding in kind with even stronger performances.

They mostly did songs from the new album, Seventh Tree, which are more mellow and melodic than their earlier club sound. This gave the show a nice dynamic though, moving through more recent sonic pleasures (Little Bird, Happiness), on to the older, ear-splitting favourites (Utopia; Ooh la la; Strict Machine).

Utopia had me in tears. Music does that to me sometimes. Her voice just kept soaring and soaring, her arms lifted up high, the lighting going bright white on her highest, clearest note. Glorious. She sang like that for the whole show, giving us her very best. A lot of singers strut and dance all about the stage, getting out of breath, shouting instead of singing, making no attempt at microphone control. But not Alison. She was always after the best sound quality, hitting every note and following it right through with the intention of it.

During Number 1, a balding accountant in the second row got up and started dancing, waving his arms to the crowd: “come on everybody, get up!” Everyone remained seated, but he was excellent, dancing all on his own. Alison enjoyed it too. There’s always a guy like that at concerts and festivals. God love them.

They played two encores, and although I was still hoping for some half-naked dancing girls, the audience seemed happy enough, so we all headed on our way. On the way back to the car I kept having to ask Sharon to repeat herself. Front row. Nothing like it.

It was really good to get out – we hadn’t been out in a long time, not since well before wee Bruce was born. And Sharon didn’t even phone our babysitter until we were on our way home. How’s that for making it count? I was sure she’d be worrying and calling at every opportunity. I’m happy she proved me wrong.

Speaking of opportunities: if you get one to see Goldfrapp, just do it. You won’t be disappointed. (Well, unless you’re expecting dancing girls. Nae luck).

How very unfortunate that their web site won’t load on my machine, even though I’m on the latest version of Flash. Instead, here’s an Amazon link.

To get a taste of their live show, check out Strict Machine from T in the Park, July 2006. Be sure to turn it up loud:

(To see it in full screen (recommended), watch it directly from YouTube, and click the little full-screen button in the lower right).

Seven tracks

I’ve been tagged by Zoom over at KnitNut to sing seven songs for you. I do love to sing. I’m not very good but that doesn’t stop me. Bruce, for one, enjoys it.

Wait. I just checked again and it turns out I’m not supposed to sing them, I just have to list seven songs I’ve been listening to lately. Too bad. I was looking forward to the singing part.

These are the instructions:

“List seven songs you are into right now. It doesn’t matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your spring/summer. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to.”

I’ve now read them properly, but I must make it known that I’m notoriously poor at following instructions.

I’ve not been spending much money on CDs lately. I rarely come across something I want to listen to. I am moved by great music, but bored by the average. I keep trying things like Last.FM, but I always end up with crap. There must be a better way! Maybe if I properly figured out their site. But why should that be up to me? I don’t have the patience.

I do have a couple of tracks for you though.

MGMT: Electric Feel, from Oracular Spectacular:
There’s something about this track that wakes me up and gets me excited about being here. It’s very much a me-song, a groove that zaps me with intent. I’ve not really even listened to the lyrics; the sound and the groove are what do it.
The discovery of exciting new bands like this one can reveal new facets of my personality. I become passionate and inspired. I become more fluid, interested once more in the possibility of change, even salvation.
Listen to a sample here.

Neko Case: Star Witness, from Fox Confessor Brings The Flood:
Completely different from the first one, but good God, this is sublime. The lyrics are haunting poetry, full of imagery, emotion, joy and loss. There’s all sorts of gems in here. The drums are sweet, recorded perfectly, providing ambiance, holding back the ethereal keyboard and the big surf guitar. Her voice, her inflection, her soaring dovetails. Everything flows: passion… and relax. They took their time building this song and it shows. Like good poetry, it leaves room for the listener.

Roxy Music: If There is Something, from Roxy Music:
A beauty. Starts off with a country feel, the bass and drums all happy, but then the sax and the guitar start flirting and spooning in a way I’ve not heard before (or since).
“I would climb mountains… swim the ocean blue…” He’s almost yodeling. There’s an urgency here, tempered with craftsmanship.

Penguin Café Orchestra, Music from the Penguin Café:
A combination of classical, folk, and rock. I’d love to make music like this. The production is just how I like it – big, warm, and messy. Imagine what it sounds like on Vinyl!

This concludes my music lesson for today. I am now standing by for more musical suggestions.