Treason - The Teardrop Explodes

Never really studied Julian Cope's early band The Teardrop Explodes back in the day.  Can definitely see where some of his smooth, angular, pop instincts came from.  Here's Treason from 1980.

One Red Rose

Here's my version.  Couple of small mistakes.  The end of the chorus actually goes lower than I can sing, so I did my best with that.

Earworms aid song learning

If a song you are trying to learn can be an earworm for some significant part of the day, it really aids learning.  Going through the words and arrangement over and over in your head is almost as good as playing it over and over.

Against the Wind - Bob Seger

Got overplayed, but still a very listenable song.  A classic. In starting to learn the song, I have a new appreciation for the subtlety of its chord progressions, and for Bob Seger's songwriting.

Lovedust - Luna

[link]
Luna was known as an American Dream Pop band but the flavor here is different from the UK's Shoegaze version of the genre. You can hear some of the same hard-edged rock experimentation that the Pixies had, as well as influences going back to Lou Reed, among others.

Take It Easy - Jackson Browne/Eagles

[link]
One of my wife's favorites and mine too, despite heavy radio overplay that continues today. The newest learn, thanks to an online lyrics/chords site.

Terra Nova Cain - the Church

[link]
In grad school in the early 90s, the Church formed a significant portion of the soundtrack to my down and out existence. The studio track of this is much better of course. I like the hybrid title. The landscape of the sound is bleak and sort of post psychological apocalyptic, like a lot of their stuff. It definitely spoke to me.

Front Porch

Had a chance to play a little this week on the newly renovated front porch at the Palmyra house where I grew up.  Very enjoyable. Front porches are the best places for my uke music.
In other news: Southern Cross and Scarlet Begonias are good enough to move up to the main set.

Stages of getting a song down

1 listen to it closely and decide to try it
2 play along to it 5-10 times
3 grab the lyrics off the web
4 play and sing along with it 5-10 times
5 try playing while looking at lyrics only
6 if 5 is successful, play it that way 15-50 times
7 work on memorizing lyics in head during work days
8 start playing it without looking at lyrics
9 play regularly and polish

Save a Prayer - Duran Duran

Just one of many amazing pop songs from the early Duran Duran work.

Evangeline - Icicle Works

From 1987. One of the sweetest pop songs of its time.

Proposition - Duran Duran

In the early 80s, during the Duranie craze, Duran Duran did not get enough credit for being the superb crafters of pop songs that they were and are. When the Notorious album came out in 1986, the craze had faded and they had the space to continue honing the craft to its next level. The entire album is really good. Proposition is my favorite song on it. It's mid tempo, atmospheric, with strong narrative content even absent the lyrics.

Kiss Them For Me - Siouxsie and the Banshees

[link]
This band had come a long way by 1991 from its goth-punk roots of the late 70s. But they were still honing a pop sound that really effectively harnessed the hard sweetness of the gothic aura and texture. Very nice song.

Baker Street - Gerry Rafferty

This song was ubiquitous on American pop radio in 1978 and the ensuing years. I've always thought of it as an American song but Rafferty (who died last year) was Scottish and the song was written when he and former bandmates were dealing with the band's (Stealer's Wheel) breakup and it appears to be sonewhat about that angst. The feeling of the song nevertheless coincides with a general angst that was strongly present in 70s rock and which I've long been interested in. This was a time when my developing musical brain was forming strong impressions and preferences. This is one of the songs that transports me back to that time.

The Scholar's Life

There is a traditional meme in China about the solitary scholar, working far away from the center of events, perhaps in exile from the current political order. I find this image deeply attractive. Things are so messed up in the US right now and the people in charge are too stupid or evil to fix them. I just want to ignore the politics and the press and concentrate on my family life, my work, my music, and my ideas.

Layla

Here's my version of the classic Eric Clapton/Derek and the Dominos song.

Urgent - Foreigner

[link]
The studio version of this 1981 song is one of a few songs that I bought the vinyl 45 of upon hearing it for the first time in a record store. It made a huge instant impression on me. Much later I found out that Thomas Dolby played keyboards on this album.
The studio version is not on youtube. This recent live version lacks a lot, including Lou Gramm. But I highly recommend the original.

My 1st Singapore Rice Noodles

I was introduced to Singapore Rice Noodles by my Ph.D. advisor, at the Hong Kong restaurant in Durham, NC. which apparently still exists (or a restaurant by that name), but appears to have changed locations. On edit: the Hong Kong on Guess Road is still there on Guess Road.  There are two other restaurants with that name in the Durham area.  Somewhat apropos, the first Chinese food I had in my adult life was while I was in college at the Hong Kong restaurant in Rochester, which at the time I recall being on Alexander St.  It may not be the same business as the Hong Kong House on S. Clinton.

Charlotte Anne - Julian Cope

From 1988.  Another great alt pop gem from my college radio listening days.  Pretty simple song but it's all about the nuance.  And the sweet, high, declarative chorus.

Going Down to Liverpool - the Bangles

This 1984 song is a (better known) cover of a Katrina and the Waves song. Very simple. Relaxed to the point of almost being laconic. Wistful. Thinking about covering it myself. Classic, curious, understated for what it is, video.

One Red Rose - John Prine

A singer songwriter with whom I should probably become more familiar with. An online acqaintance suggested I try this song. It's got a really nice late 70's feel to it. One Red Rose (1980) (cover by Step - Prine version not available on youtube for mobile)

State of the Set

Songs ready to play just about at any time:

Country Roads
Sunshine on my Shoulders
the Gambler
Smoke on the Water
Roxanne
Ring of Fire
Folsom Prison Blues
Last of the Famous International Playboys
Alsatian Cousin
Happy Birthday
the Zoo
Homeward Bound
Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard
Here Come Cowboys
Thousands are Sailing
Layla
American Girl

Songs that are only some lyrics memorization away from being in the set:
Southern Cross
Scarlet Begonias
After the Gold Rush
Sundown

Still need work learning the song
Too Late for Love
Charlotte Anne
Kiss an Angel Good Morning
On the Road Again

This is the rock/country/pop set.  I'll probably develop a folk/traditional set at some point.  Then there's the kid's set and the holiday set.

Fortress Around Your Heart - Sting

When the Police broke up ca. 1985, I was pretty bummed.  Sting's first solo album, Dream of the Blue Turtles (1985), eased the pain a bit.  Sting's later work is far inferior, in my opinion.  Fortress Around Your Heart, is one of the more conventional rock songs on the album, and my favorite.

Bringin' on the Heartbreak - Def Leppard

The 1983 album Pyromania was overplayed yet under-appreciated as a pop masterpiece. This song was one of several high points. None in the hair band coterie that came later ever achived anything like what Def Leppard and producer Mutt Lange achived multiple times on this album.

Happy Boy - the Bolshoi

link
A very good and underappreciated (in the State) band from the 80s. Kind of combines the goth-ness of the Cure with the techno-ness of Depeche Mode and their ilk.
This song is bass-driven with a cure-esque held augmented minor guitar chord in the verse.  Song structure pretty effectively builds from verse to B part and then back down. Very atmospheric.

After the Gold Rush

Here's my cover, recorded in a free moment this morning.

Goodbye To You - Scandal

A fun, chord driven song I've always liked. Call it a guilty pleasure.

Sundown - Gordon Lightfoot

Recorded this tonight.  With special appearance by Baby T.

Scarlet Begonias - Grateful Dead

Really nice song.  Never got into the Dead, but never really tried to. The few songs I heard all sounded a bit the same.  Didn't really like the jam form, and frankly I wasn't attracted to the stereotypical deadheads.  But their songs are well written, especially the lyrics.  They are well suited to the folk-rock form.

Fast Car - Tracy Chapman

From 1988. always loved this song. Tight coupling between verse chords and lyrics. Powerful rallying chorus. Hooks throughout. A poignant slice of life if there ever was one. Probably couldn't pull it off solo on the uke because of the lead in the verse and the chorus being driven by the rhythm section.

De Luxe - Lush

link
My favorite band from the 90s, as I've discussed previously.  A wall of sound but in a controlled range of frequencies, not the whole board like so much of today's stuff.  The product with the vocals is a carefully cultivated sound and feel.

Baritone Banjo Ukulele

Thinking about buying one of these.  It's a beautiful instrument and it would be fun to have this sound.

I Wanna Be Adored - The Stone Roses

From 1989.  Simple, throbbing, a song to lose oneself in, as the video seems to illustrate.

A Girl Like Jesus - Right as Rain

link to video
Possibly the most perfect pop song ever. This was from 1998, the band being from the Atlanta scene, which along with Athens ruled the college/alternative pop sound at that time. I got exposed to this song when I was a grad student at Duke from 1989-1995, when I listened avidly to WXDU and WXYC. I might pick this up for my rapidly expanding uke set.

Mental song jamming

I was working on Neil Young's "After the Gold Rush" and then Ru-Jun asked me to play "Sundown", which I haven't played in a while. The first line of the verse is similar to "After the Gold Rush", so I couldn't do "Sundown" without listening to it. As a solo performer, it's sometimes hard to get a song clearly into my head enough to start playing it. This happens more often with particular songs than with others.

Subterranean - The Fixx

This band was in popular decline in 1988 when the underappreciated album "Calm Animals" came out. Subterranean is one of my favorites on this very listenable album. I listened to this album as a habit whenever I drove home to Palmyra from the University of Rochester and the song still gives me strong recollections of that time.

Hunter and the Hunted (Live) - Simple Minds

Not quite sure how they pulled this off live so well.  Best song on my favorite album of all time - New Gold Dream 81/82/83/84 (1982).  Saw them live in 85.  I don't think they played this song in that show.

Folson Prison Blues

Here's my cover of the Johnny Cash classic, Folsom Prison Blues.  I have to credit my old bandmate Eric, from Seed Pod 17 and U-Pump, in the Madison days, for my knowledge and appreciation of this song.  He does Johnny much better than I can.

She's Lost Control - Joy Division

A classic, very bass driven.  Probably can't work this up for the uke, though.

Working on learning...

a couple of classics

Clapton's Layla and CSN's Southern Cross

don't know if they'll turn out yet...

Indian Summer - Dream Academy

Thought of these guys for some reason while in the grocery store today.  Very wistful sound from the mid/late 80s.  Here's Indian Summer from 1987.  I remember listening to this while home from college on vacation.

Illegan Alien - Genesis

Some songs are really good despite what their lyrics are about.  Case in point: Illegal Alien, by Genesis.  This was on their eponymous 1983 album, which was extremely good and for represents the high point of the Genesis brand of (by then very poppy, but still original and idiosyncratic) art rock.  It was meant as a lampoon of peoples' stereotypes, and the video really goes over the top with the concept.  This was all OK in the early 80s in both the US and the UK. But I imagine they could not put this out, at least as a band as prominent as they were in the charts back then (a totally different time in pop with totally different chart dynamics, of course).  And the song probably does not get very much air play these days because of the political correctness angle.  Which is too bad, because musically it is a really excellent and inventive piece of pop.

Alsatian Cousin

Here's my cover of this song - one of my favorites from Morrissey.  Voice is still rough; getting over a cold.

Earthstock 2012 gig - links

Here's the complete list of song videos from the 2012 SBU Earthstock performance

opening jam

smoke on the water

Roxanne

Unhappy Birthday

The Gambler

Ring of Fire

Homeward Bound

Country Roads

The Zoo

Unhappy Birthday - Earthstock 2012

Here's my version of the Smiths' Unhappy Birthday from SBU Earthstock 2012.  Screwed up the transition from the first verse into the chorus, but it otherwise turned out OK.

My cover of Here Come Cowboys

link
By the Psychedelic Furs.
Messed up one of the transitions into the chorus.  And Ru-Jun was running around.
This song is probably a keeper for the next gig.

Smoke on the Water - Earthstock 2012

The opening song in the Tralfaz Wizard Experience Earthstock 2012 set.

We Will Not Be Lovers - the Waterboys

Love this song. Simple chord progression, rather loosely played. But the raggedness is a critical part of the delivery with these guys. The guitar arpeggios that come in during the chorus are awesome. A rare occasion when a jam concept works in a song.

Thousands are Sailing

My favorite Pogues song. Fairly straight foreward but has a couple of challenging progressions. Of several of their best known songs I looked at, it's the only one without a completely dark lyrical passage in it.

no chance yet

To go through the video from Earth Day. So I don't know how it turned out. It was windy, so the mic on the camcorder might have been noisy (no wind screen). Hopefully some time in the next few days.

Wondering Where the Lions Are - Bruce Cockburn

I remember listening to this song on the radio in junior high after school while doing homework.

Time Travel

I've mentioned this before.  Physicists like to talk about time travel because according to the current standard model, it is theoretically possible.  But I suspect that either this will turn out not to be the case or that like a lot of things, it would be so technologically difficult, even for the most advanced civilization, that it is essentially impossible.  As far as we know (at least according to public knowledge and conventional scientific/historical understanding), no one has time-traveled into our historical timeline from the future or between points within our historical timeline.  Or if they have they've done it without being detected (either directly or in terms of causing anomalies - although it is arguable whether we would be able to detect the latter).
Another possibility is that from any point in time there may be infinite possible pasts (just as there are infinite possible futures), such that the singular historical timeline that we imagine ourselves having is essentially a needle in a haystack that would be very hard to get to.  This could protect us from getting time-travelled-into.  That would certainly be funny if time travel were ever invented.  You might not travel into the past that you wanted.  In fact, you would be very very unlikely to...

Alternate universes

Is it provable that an alternate universe, with physical laws different than the known universe, could exist?

continuing the contrast

two new learns this evening:

Waylon Jennings' Dukes of Hazzard theme

Julian Cope - Charlotte Anne

Too Late For Love - Def Leppard

Sort of grew up listening to this kind of stuff on hard rock radio.  They became a cliche, but their songs are simple and powerful and have good progressions (and because of that, they are really accessible).  Just learned it - pretty easy with a fudged chord or too.  Should be a fun one to play for people (like the Scorpions song).

Changes - Yes

Another great song from 90125.  I used to play the xylophone intro riff in the percussion section in band before practice when we were messing around.

Out of Touch - Hall and Oates

These guys had tons of amazing songs in the 70s and 80s. Hard to grow up listening to pop at that time and not be hugely influenced by them. Vocals, songwriting, rhythm tracks, they could put it all together and evolve with the time and never churn out derivative product. Here's Out of Touch, from 1984, performed at the perspicacious distance of 11 years in 1995.

More Country

Country songs are definitely the easiest to play. The chord progressions are usually 1-4-5 with maybe an extra chord or two. They are also typically short. And pretty fun. I can affect a country-type accent pretty well.
Tonight I learned Charley Pride's classic "Kiss an Angel Good Morning" and Willie Nelson's immortal "On the Road Again". Great stuff.

Our Song - Yes

From 1983's 90125, a really tremendous album. The pop end of proggy (in terms of hookish accessibility; not that top 40 fans ever accessed most of the songs on the album other than "Owner of a Lonely Heart"), but so many musical ideas per song.

How it went

Things went OK today.  It was really early in the Earthstock program, so there were only a handful of people watching.  Which was OK because I made quite a few mistakes.  Forgot an entire stanza of Me and Julio.  There's a video.  I'll take a look at that this weekend and see if I can get some clips posted.  More on this in a later post.  The rest of the day was crazy and Ru-Jun and I need to get to bed.

Difficult to practice

With Ru-Jun very annoyingly interrupting almost every song.  But got through the set.  Will be in the sun tomorrow, with sweaty hands.  Hard to move up and down the neck.  I'll try to have someone video it.  I have the equipment but I don't have anybody to run the camera yet...

Set is ready

Still a couple rough edges here and there but the set of songs I listed on 4-12 is pretty much ready. I'll give it another run through tomorrow night. I only have 30 min, so maybe I'll give people some options of what they want to hear.

Gig confirmed

11-11:30 Friday on the 2nd stage
Opening the show
Weather predicted to be 65 and sunny
As soon as I get the official schedule I'll start letting people know

gig?

Not sure if the Earthstock gig is going to happen.  I have not heard back from the organizers.  Would be disappointing.  But positive things are happening with developing songs and optimizing equipment setup.  I'll have to look for some other opportunities.

Also new

Wireless headset mic. Works well - tested it in the office on Saturday. It was difficult at the house party singing into a mic. With the headset, I'll be able to look down at the fretboard as much as I like.

Just added

Tralfaz as an author, using a new gmail account.  But Tralfaz=Slig in RL.  Old Grimy remains a separate person.  Now far away in Texas.  The days of his fronting Megachild are fondly remembered and missed.

Wow

Just played around with the new clip-on piezo pickup. Have turn up the gain a bit, but it works really well. If I had tried one of these a few months ago, I would not have bought the acoustic-electric (although I really like that instrument and it's good to have for the long term). This will be great for playing. It's almost completely unobtrusive for playing. Right now the acoustic is so much more comfortable to play. The sound is great out of my little Roland Micro Cube bass amp, which has flange, delay, and reverb on board.

After the Gold Rush - Neil Young

This was in a list of environmental songs that I found online. Great song. Slow, which is good for piano (what Neil plays it on). I'll work on it on the uke. Don't know if it will be ready for the gig.

Not many

Environmentally conscious rock songs. Godzilla by Blue Oyster Cult is one. Looking for others.

Possible set list

For an 8 song set

Roxanne
Smells Like Teen Spirit
Country Roads
The Gambler
Folson Prison Blues
Ring of Fire
Homeward Bound
Me & Julio

If another set is needed

Smoke on the Water
Unhappy Birthday
Last of the Famous A P
Alsatian Cousin
American Girl
The Zoo
I've Got Spurs that Jingle Jangle Jingle

Also picked up

Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash (written by his wife and first recorded and performed by her sister). Pretty easy song and very well known.

Looks like the gig is going to happen.

possible gig coming up

Earthstock at SBU on 20-April. Megachild has played this event a few times. Tonight I worked on two Paul Simon songs: Me & Julio and Homeward Bound. I'm also going to try Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash. One of my Madison bands played this (I think it was Seed Pod 17, with me, Eric and Matt). So it's pretty familiar. These should be popular songs to do.

Postcards From Paradise - Flesh for Lulu

[click on post title for video link]
A lesser known band in the whole Ramones -> Psychedelic Furs-> Jesus and Mary Chain lineage of postpunk with some really great songs is Flesh For Lulu. This song has apparently been covered by quite a few artists since it came out in 1987, including Paul Westerburg. Which seems about right, the guitar chords sound like the chords in a lot of his songs.

Here Come Cowboys - Psychedelic Furs

[Click on post title for link.]
The Furs are a top 5 all time favorite and influence of mine. This is one of my favorites from their Mirror Moves album, when they were in their prime, in terms of both songwriting and producing their sound. Just learned the song too. Surprisingly simple and very easily transposed down into the comfortable area of the uke neck.

Here Comes the Rain Again - Eurythmics

[click on title for video link]
Eurythmics were among the coolest of the wave of early 80s artists that hit MTV in the early days. They have a lot of great song, but this one has always been my favorite. It has the minor - 5th (of the relative major) - 4th chord progression that always gets me as a hook (cf. just about every Steve Nicks song that is any good). Annie Lennox's vocals are second to none. Dave Stewart is just plain cool.

Peanuts - the Police

[click on title for link] One of the hoppier tunes off their 1978 debut album, Outlandos d'Amour. Live footage of the Police is always informative for players. They get a lot done for a trio.

Apples

I grew up eating an apple a day, probably from age 5 or so to age 15. My grandparents had a couple of small apple orchards and we ended up having apples all winter. The varieties I remember were: macs, romes, northern spies, 20 ounce (a really good tasting cooking variety), greenings (another cooking variety), yellow and red delicious. The varieties in the stores now don't resemble these very much and in many ways are superior. More flavor. Brown a lot slower. I'm particularly impressed by Braeburns and Galas, especially since these are among the least expensive varieties.
This time of year we were reduced to wrinkled up yellow delicious (which were still quite sweet) or maybe some spies (which have a very nice taste) or romes (my least favorite - hard on the outside, grainy and not much flavor in the flesh). The more recent varieties really store excellently.
BTW, the red and yellow delicious that we had back then are nothing like what goes by those names today. I think there is huge variety in that strain (or name appropriation).

New (re)learns

Worked on Substitute (the Who) and Magnet and Steel (Walter Egan) this evening. Both were songs I checked out in the very early uke days last fall, before I was yet doing much with the instrument.

Into The Groove - Madonna

My all time favorite Madonna song. IIRC it was featured in Desperately Seeking Susan, which I like a lot, but more because of Rosanna Arquette than Madonna.

Flesh For Fantasy - Billy Idol

This is one of several songs of his that I've always liked a lot. This live version gives an indication of how important the studio was in the production and impact of the album tracks. He sounds very vulnerable when it's just him and the guitar. The crowd for this MTV gig wasn't exclusively paying attention to the music. Must have been a party for something.

The Glamorous Life - Sheila E

A unique and amazingly talented performer. This live performance is scintillating. Beyond that, for me there is a mystique around this 1984 song and others of its time because I wasn't listening to top 40 at the time yet there were some really really great pop songs emerging. There's an abstractness about this particular song that I've always found appealing. It's almost like the song was wasted on most of the ears it hit. Ephemerality is a key character of most pop. They didn't know what they had there.

Piano in The Dark - Brenda Russell

I don't know any of her other material but this is a brilliant song. B part into C part is about as hooky as a hook can get. It's all about the hooks.

Night Ranger

This 80s band is still loved by many, no doubt, but is also a bit senamentalized as lightweight kitsch by some. Probably both because of their name and because of a single song, the accessible but sort of strange Sister Christian. Somewhat unfortunate that this is what they are remembered for. Their breakthough hit Don't Tell Me You Love Me is really great and is even a bit proggy in places. And their lesser known hit Sentamental Street (couldn't find good video) is also a really nice song.

Sine qua non

Are misogyny and sexual hang-ups the sine qua non's of all fundamentalist religion? Sure seems that way.

Cyndi Lauper - All Through The Night

Another great song by Cyndi Lauper. When this genre of 80s songs came out I was busy transitioning from hard rock to college radio/alternative music. I was not attracted to top 40, didn't really take time to listen to the songs, didn't take them seriously. It's sort of a personality trat of mine that I tend to discover things many years after they were popular and have been long abandoned by the mainstream culture.

Shooting Shark - Blue Oyster Cult

My all time favorite blue Oyster Cult song. From 1983's underrated The Revolution By Night album. Very atmospheric. Great chord progression. Awesome vocal.

Time After Time - Cyndi Lauper

A classic pop song from a very classy and talented artist of the 80s. Started learning it tonight. Took a bit of listening and trial and error to get all the changes.

Got some practice in yesterday

With the plugged in baritone uke setup in my office. Getting more use to it. Had the effects box working and played with settings on it and the amp. Tightened the end screws on the tuning knobs for the two high strings. Seemed to stay tuned better after that.

another new learn

Unhappy Birthday by the Smiths.
Love this song. Dark like all the rest of their stuff. But a heck of a fun song to sing. And play.

Crush - Jennifer Paige

I've always loved this song, from 1998. Chord progression rocks. Separate hooks in verse and chorus. I have a thing for high, breathy female vocals and Paige is killer throughout, the soul is right there. Don't think much of the video but Paige has the dark eyes with blonde hair contrast going, which hooks me as well.

low hanging fruit

Currently searching for easy to learn songs by the Replacements. Let's see if I can find anything.

Lola

After an aborted attempt a few weeks ago, I finally learned it tonight. I was telling Shian-Ren and Ru-Jun about Al Yankovic's "Yoda" version of this song and got the lyrics to both of them. It's a hard song, with three distinct parts that take me all over the fretboard the way the instrument is tuned and the way I do chords. I tried three different transpositions and settled on the middle one of those.

I love this TV version of the Kinks "Lola"

Here is "Yoda" by Al Yankovic

new learns

"Alsatian Cousin" - Morrissey
"The Gambler" - Kenny Rogers
"The Zoo" - Scorpions

The first and third are long time favorites of mine. The second is a classic song I grew up with and a lot of people know (easy to play too; even with the key change).

How it went

Antarctica - didn't play; was running short on time and confidence
Country Roads - went well; opened the set with it; a keeper
Last of the Famous IPs - good, need to slow it down though
Breakdown - good but short
American Girl - ditto; could have been sharper
Smoke on the Water - hard to do the guitar lick consistently while performing live; closed the set with it; may not actually be a keeper
Karma Chameleon - did not play; very underconfident about this one
Smells Like Teen Spirit - went pretty well, one of the highlights; got good response
Ghost Riders in the Sky - made some mistakes, hard to pull off without messing up lyrics
Roxanne - the other highlight of the set; people liked it
Free Bird - there was a request, but my mind was blanking, didn't attempt it

Gig went OK

The Megachild set went well. I'll miss playing with Pat and Rocio. Rocio's new band, which she is fronting, is pretty good. The TralfazWizard Experience set was OK but very rough around the edges. I'll have more to say about it in future posts.

gig tomorrow

The Tralfaz Wizard Experience gets off the ground tomorrow night opening for Megachild and Electric Platypus at the E&E retreat afterparty. The songs are ready give or take some lyrics I have a mental block issue with. The hardest thing will be getting used to the acoustic-electric, which has a much higher action. And playing it through the effects and amp. And playing and singing into a mic. Haven't done that before. OK, this will be pretty challenging. Hopefully I can still relax and have fun with the songs.

A half step too high

The third string on my new acoustic-electric ukulele just would not stay at Bb. I even tried changing to a wound metal string instead on a nylon one but the same thing happened. So I took all four strings down one half step. The string seems to hold OK there. I'm now playing all my songs a half step lower because of this change (I also made the change on my acoustic one at home). This actually impoves my ability to sing a few songs and doesn't seem to harm the others.

Simone - Thomas Dolby

Apparently Thomas Dolby had a new album out last year. I ran across this advance video and gave it my first listen. Jazzy, Latin rhythm, laid back. With the visuals, both rollicking and retro, as he is wont to be from the beginning. Very nice.

Destination Unknown - Missing Persons

Got really into Missing Persons in early 1989 in my last semester of college even though their main work was from the early part of that decade. This performance is a lip-sync of Destination Unknown for German TV.

Free Bird

Some fool will be calling for this Saturday night, so I went ahead and learned it. Pretty simple, but couldn't pick it up from just listening - it has a prominent D chord which makes it too low for my baritone uke, which only goes down to F. So I picked up the chords from a guitar tab site and transposed it down a bit so I'm not going way up on the neck to get that chord.

It's of course a tremendously boring song to listen to. Lynyrd Skynyrd has a bunch of much better songs, such as Gimme Three Steps and I Know a Little, to name just a couple.