Category: Music

I’ll have you know that I didn’t even have to listen to the short song clips all the way through before correctly identifying them all.

This is the week we’re getting serious about doing final recordings of the band’s songs. My husband and our guitarist have spent the last two days on marathon recording sessions that will probably encompass nine songs by the time we’re through.

I’ve been singing about two songs a night, but I think I’ll do much better to record over the weekend in the daytime when I’m fresher. It takes an enormous amount of energy to sing heavy metal and I just don’t have the endurance I need at 8:00 p.m. after a long day of work.

I’m still behind on lyric writing. I have one song to rewrite, one new verse to write for another song, and a third song that needs verses and a bridge. If my weekend is as open as I expect it to be, I should be able to get them all finished.

Even though we frame it as "recording a CD," I think the physical CD portion of the project will end up being less important than electronic distribution. The web has opened up avenues for distribution that could allow a band’s work to spread worldwide without the players ever needing to play live or produce tangible media. That’s not necessarily our goal, but I’m interested in exploring the Net options as much as possible.

Now I just need to enlist a graphic designer to create a logo and some artwork we can use for our website, MySpace, etc. I’m considering engaging an illustrator to do comic book-style renderings of the band members that will look more or less like us only much cooler. I have an artist in mind, but I need to get in touch with him and see if I can afford him.

I’m really excited about how our songs are shaping up. I’ll be sure and post a link to the band site as soon as we have something to share. The countdown to non-anonymity has begun…

I went with two friends to see the Scissor Sisters perform last night. We would have put together a larger group, but apparently the band isn’t as well known as we thought. Admittedly, I learned about them from a much younger and cooler co-worker, but that was back in 2004! You’d think the word would have gotten out since then.

We started the evening at my friend C’s house, which is only about three blocks from the theater. We each brought our own dinner and we watched my Scissor Sisters concert DVD and drank wine while C waited for the cable guy to install something.

We all wore wigs (mine was a wild, curly black wig with pink streaks) and I got out my glittery false eyelashes from Mardi Gras. I had on my femme dangereuse shirt, a black skirt with tulle trim, and my favorite black boots. The boots proved to be a poor choice for my Converse-accustomed feet, but I managed to dance my way through the concert and ignore the pain.

The show was fantastic and now I’m starting to think that I gave up on their latest album a little too soon. I’m going to put the CD into my car stack and give it another chance.

If you ever get a chance to see the Scissor Sisters in concert, I highly recommend that you go!

On Saturday, February 3rd, I’ve agreed to sing a set or two with a local cover band. We had our first practice last night and, well, I’m glad we’ll be practicing again between now and then.

I’m pretty much getting song selections that:
a) I’ve at least heard before,
b) Are more or less in my range, and
c) Nobody else wants to sing.

Sounds like a great basis for a show, huh?

It’s supposed to be sort of an "unplugged" acoustic evening, but there’s some contention between one of the guitarists and the bass player about exactly what that’s going to entail. As long as I get a microphone, I’m staying out of it.

Actually, I think it’s going to be good practice for me. Our recording sessions for the original band are dragging on and I haven’t been doing a very good job of staying warmed up and working on singing fundamentals outside of my vocal lessons. This will force me to sing every day as I learn the songs and try to make them listenable.

The original project (which still doesn’t have a band name) is starting to sound really good, though. Our new studio is leaps and bounds better than what we had before and it makes a huge difference in the output. As soon as we have a couple of songs ready to share, I’ll put them up on my MySpace and invite you all to listen to them. It shouldn’t be much longer.

Update:  Uh, nevermind. The cover band decided to work with the existing band members for the gig. Sniff. I know when I’m not wanted. (Just kidding. I’m actually relieved to free up the time for all of the other stuff I have going on.)

I ended up working at my dad’s office for hours last night, but I managed to squeeze in yesterday’s episode of Rockstar: Supernova before I went to bed.  Let me just say that I’m getting tired of all of the contestants’ original songs already.  Yawn.  Storm’s song was my favorite, but obviously we won’t be hearing that again (although they did thoughtfully point out where it could be downloaded before they booted her off the show).

So who do you want to win?  Who do you think will win?  I’m still holding out hope for Dilana, even though they’ve obviously been going out of their way to make the fans dislike her.  I think the contest is between her and Lukas, and Lukas just rubs me the wrong way.  I fear he’ll win anyway.  Word is that the band doesn’t really want a female vocalist.  That news doesn’t come as a huge shock to me, seeing as I’ve spent my entire musical career responding to "vocalist needed" ads with, "Would you be willing to consider a female singer?"  It’s unfortunate, but it’s the reality of the rock biz, even at the lowest levels.

Speaking of that, I’m actually kind of glad the show is ending so I can stop wasting so much of my Tuesday and Wednesday evenings watching TV when I should be working on my own band’s stuff.
We have five songs that are almost complete, I have two more sets of lyrics to finish from the first batch of songs, and our guitarist is almost finished with his interpretation of one of the original songs from my previous band, which we’ll also include on our CD.  After that, we’ll have a whole new batch of songs to work on that the bass player and guitarist have written.  The guys are even working on some of their own lyrics for me to sing, which should be interesting.

Of course, then we reach the stage where we absolutely must choose a band name.  Ugh, there’s nothing more difficult than that.  If you have any suggestions for a hard rock/heavy metal band name, please pass ’em along!

So I sang karaoke on Thursday night.

It took a while for the party to filter over to the place where the karaoke setup was, so I had plenty of time to ascertain that the huge book of available songs contained AC/DC’s "Highway to Hell."  I filled out a slip and handed it to the karaoke guy with the caveat that I was NOT going to sing first.

I sang second.

The song was extremely well-received, but considering the hideous caterwauling that most of the other participants were inflicting upon the room, I didn’t know how flattered to be by the compliments.

I kept flipping through the songbook trying to find something else I knew and liked, but the selections, although ample, were rather strange.  There weren’t many songs by hard rock bands and the ones there were often leaned toward the ballad-y or obscure.  I couldn’t figure out why there was only one Guns ‘n Roses song but about ten Alice Cooper songs, including such guaranteed party-stoppers as "The Ballad of Dwight Fry."  (Because nothing says, "Aren’t we having fun?" like a little ditty about confinement in a mental institution.)

One of my dad’s friends came up and suggested that I should sing Melissa Etheridge’s "I’m the Only One."  I’ve always liked that song, but since it’s not really a style I ordinarily do, I’d never sung it before.  I spent some time thinking through the song to make sure I knew how all of the sections went and eventually submitted my name to sing it.

By the time I was called up to sing again, everyone was all extra drunk, so I got to feel like a complete rock star as people cheered through every chorus.  I managed to pull off the song pretty well, even though it covers almost my entire singing range.  My vocal teacher would have been proud of me for singing something loud and powerful that isn’t straight-ahead metal.  She’s been trying to get me to vary my technique.

I guess I made a lasting impression on my audience because different people kept mentioning my singing the next day.  One class even clapped when I came in to give them some paperwork.  I guess I’ll know who to invite when the band finally starts getting gigs!

Troy Worman responded to my Alice Cooper post wondering what other kinds of music I’m into.  Sit back, this’ll take a while!

My recorded music collection has a pretty definite dividing line between vinyl and CD.  When I was younger (until about 1985), I amassed the entire album libraries of Yes, Rush, Led Zeppelin and Judas Priest.  I also had a smattering of Van Halen and David Lee Roth, Deep Purple, Frank Zappa, AC/DC, Iron Maiden, the Scorpions, Kansas and Jethro Tull.  Let’s not forget my jazz albums – I have stuff from Larry Carlton, Allan Holdsworth and Stanley Jordan, among others.

In the CD era, I started with my favorite hard rock/heavy metal bands of the time:  Bulletboys, Love/Hate, Scatterbrain, 24-7 Spyz, Motley Crue, Kiss, Tesla, Queensryche, Ozzy Osbourne and Metallica. 

I have a fairly solid ’80s and ’90s mainstream rock collection, too:  Talking Heads, Dave
Matthews, Toto, Alanis Morissette, Spin Doctors, Barenaked Ladies, No Doubt, Garbage, 3
Doors Down, Poe and Thomas Dolby.  My small collection from the oughts includes Scissor Sisters and Evanescence.

I also have every "Weird Al" Yankovic album and I never miss a "Weird Al" concert. 

I like a lot stuff in my husband’s collection:  Steely Dan, King Crimson and Tower of Power spring to mind.

Then there are movie soundtracks.  In the summertime, there’s no better CD for a road trip than the Mortal Kombat: Annihilation soundtrack.  Other good soundtracks:  So I Married an Axe Murderer, Wayne’s World and Charlie’s Angels.

Of the newer bands out right now whose music I haven’t yet purchased, I particularly like Disturbed and Nickelback.  There are probably others, but I’m not very good about paying attention to the band names when I’m listening to the radio. 

My husband is good about finding new music he likes on MySpace, but so far I’ve spent most of my time there promoting my own music projects.

Of course, I spend a lot of time listening to my own songs to help me write or perfect the lyrics.  Now that I have seven new songs to work on, I’ve pretty much been listening to those tracks exclusively.

So that’s the short list and it’s far from complete.  Suffice to say that I like music a lot!

Feel like jumping in?  What do you listen to?

I first remember hearing about Alice Cooper when my parents would discuss his frequent publicity stunts in the 1970s.  I never got the impression that they completely disapproved of him (unlike many other parents of the time) – I think they were actually rather impressed at his marketing and promotional prowess.

I didn’t really ever listen to his music (aside from hearing "School’s Out" on the radio) until the early ’90s when the "Trash" album came out.  After that, I revisited his old material and kind of liked it, if for no other reason than its influence on bands that followed.

Lately, I’ve been listened to Alice Cooper’s syndicated radio show in the evenings.  When he first started the show, he was pretty awful:  noticeably self-conscious and awkward.  Now he seems a lot more relaxed and I can forgive his occasional rambling about nearly-forgotten bands and musicians.  He seems to have free rein to play whatever songs he wants, so there are lots of cool surprises each day.

Now that I’ve been listening to the show more often, it seems as though Alice Cooper is popping up everywhere.  An afternoon with Alice Cooper is the latest trade that Kyle MacDonald at OneRedPaperclip.com is offering in his quest to trade up from a paperclip to a house.

This morning, BoingBoing linked to a YouTube video compilation of military propaganda and war toy film clips with Alice’s song "Generation Landslide" as the soundtrack.

Where will he show up next?

I’ve only been at my company since it acquired my previous company last September.  I’m a new kid; I want to fit in.  Thus, I remain at the stage of eagerly agreeing to anything anyone asks me to do.

Well, I got a little too agreeable last week when someone asked me if I would be willing to participate in a little skit at our company-wide meeting this coming Wednesday.  They’d heard that I’m a singer and, well, they needed someone to dress up as Axl Rose and sing a couple of verses of a song sung to the tune of "Welcome to the Jungle."  Other people would be dressed as Slash, Duff, etc. 

I was really busy that day and in the middle of a bunch of different projects at once, but I found myself saying "yes."

Aaaagggghhhh!

First of all, the meeting starts at the ungodly hour of 8:30 a.m.  Who among us can do more than croak out a weak greeting to our fellows at that time of day?  Second of all, am I about to turn myself into the biggest geek in the whole company (and not in a good way)?  Everybody’s always been pretty nice there, but I haven’t made (much of) a spectacle of myself up until now.

I decided that the whole experience would be a lot less painful with the live singing taken out of the equation.  Last night I took an instrumental version of the song home to our studio and recorded the vocals over it so I’ll be able to concentrate on Axl pantomime tomorrow.  Yes, my Ashlee Simpson mockery karma is coming back at me:  I’m about to commit lip-synching.

Now I’m trying to decide if that makes things better or worse?  It’ll be better in that the audience will have a fighting chance of hearing and understanding the lyrics.  The "worse" part comes in with the lip-synching itself, which is about equal with karaoke on the self-respecting singers’ no-no list.

All I can do now is just put on my wig and sunglasses, go with the flow, cavort about as needed and hope I get points for fearlessness.  After that, I’ll work on learning to say "no."

If you’re:

• A "Weird Al" Yankovic fan who can’t wait until his next album comes out, and

• A "Lost" fan who’s disappointed that there was no new episode this week…

Do I have a treat for you!

Lost Rhapsody.  Enjoy.