Is No News Good News?

It's a no news day!

I can't even do an iPod DJ as my iPod ran out of juice this afternoon. Besides, the jack plug on my 'good' headphones is broken (replacement jack ordered) so I can't even use those... I had to resort to using the crappy supplied Apple ones... not that they're terrible headphones, but the grey fluffy bits are so worn that I don't really like putting them in my ears. They resemble cheap socks that have been chewed by a spin-dryer.

Hey, look, I'm creating news out of thin air. Cool.

So, no iPod + no decent headphones = no music.

About the only thing I can report is that last night I loaded "Summer Strum" (both the version I posted yesterday... yesterday or Tuesday?.. and a stripped down one with just the basic chords onto my Tascam MP-GT1. The MP-GT1 is a gadget which is a bit like a stone-age iPod with a built in guitar amp so you can jam along over tracks. I figure it's probably going to be the best tool for me to work out the lead guitar parts on, without driving Tim insane with my noodling...

...which won't be tonight. We're off to the theatre. Won't be tomorrow night, either... off to meet friends near South Bank. Dunno when it's going to be, actually!

Meanwhile, back at Band Camp, I'm trying to set up meetings next week with a jazz piano man and a young multi-instrumentalist fello who's local to me and who writes and records his own cool little songs. From what I gather he's on a quest himself to record a song a week for the year. Sounds like a tall order, but possibly very productive! No firm meet-ups yet, though. Just provisional days.

Summer Strum

I realised last night that I haven't actually posted any music here lately, so I figured, well, I might as well upload a sample of the work-in-progress song I've been screwing around with over the past few days, originally entitled "Five Minutes Of Summertime" but now the working title is simply "Summer Strum" as I want to leave myself open to all possibilities.

It's a long way from a polished demo or even a complete song, so don't expect too much! I basically just sat down with the acoustic before bedtime and strummed the chords randomly for a few minutes, paying no need to verse/chorus/bridge structure. Next I got down to the task of adding some drums on top.

I'm terrible at programming rhythm tracks, so that's actually what takes me the time on demos. In total, including set-up, the guitar parts took around 10 minutes to get down. All I needed to do was plug in the mic, hit record and after a couple of false starts they were in the can. The drums took forever, though!

At about midnight I figured I might as well draw a line under the drum track and have a go at getting the flavour of the melody down. I recorded my first pass through then blanked out anything that went horribly wrong. That first recording is what you hear on the tape, complete (or incomplete) with gaps and accidental noodles, where I forget that I was supposed to be writing something that can actually be sung!

Here it is... "Summer Strum (Work In Progress)"



Non-project news? A while back I heard that one of my favourite musicians, Derek Trucks, had started work on a home studio with the aim of recording his band's next CD there. The Derek Trucks Band is a group that I don't talk about much here, mainly because I tend to gush about them. I absolutely love them and take every opportunity to see them play live, which is really their 'thing'. Previous albums have been good, but live they're absolutely great. Check them out on the Live Music Archive if you don't believe me. I have to be careful about listening to the dTb as once I start I often listen to them compulsively, ignoring every other band.

Any road up, I'd not heard any news about them for a while so I thought I'd do some googling and I came up with a recent report that got my pulse racing. Cherry picking snippets from various sources, it seems that not only is Derek's new home studio complete, but it's a 2,300-square-foot affair, designed by the man who built Electric Lady Studios. Sounds like a no-expense spared effort, with Derek even purchasing the 1970's soundboard that was used in the Kinks’ studio in London.

What really got my attention, though, was a quote from Derek which suggested that the new dTb album is in the can and that they spent months working on it as opposed to the usual 7-10 days in a rented studio. What does that mean? I'm hoping it means that the band have been writing some new material. My guess is that even if the record has been finalised it probably won't be released until late 2008 or early 2009, though. D'Oh! I already know what I want for Christmas!

Update: I just checked out the Live Music Archive and it looks like the latest dTB recordings all feature new songs, or at least ones that I've not seen them perform live before. I'll have to get myself, my broadband connection and my iPod down there quick smart to see what's shakin'. I'll bet they're honing some new cuts on the road...