Eye, Eye, Captain

So, I had my appointment with the eye doctor. Same story... don't know why I'm having issues, but here are some handy hints, potions and ointments to sort you out for now. My current 'issue' is now a non-issue so I should finish up with the antibiotics I have... plus I have a new topical kind to massage into my eyelids before beddy-byes for another month to (hopefully) prevent re-infection. Take two asprin and call me in the morning...

Basically, I'm feeling like my warranty has run out and I'm now 'that car' you borrow from a friend which comes with a list of instructions on what to do if it won't start in the morning... "no, no, no... if it stalls then you need to open the petrol cap, pump the gas pedal three times then wait five minutes before turning the key again..."

You know what I'm talking about, right? For now, though, I'm on the ocular mend. Shit, if I were a celeb this'd probably be the time that I'd start going all yoga/macrobiotic/only eating certain types of carbs before 11am type of person.

Thank goodness I ain't no celeb, eh?

Other body parts aren't doing so well, but that's another story! Here goes. So, I spent most of the weekend trying to get back up to speed with my Rockschool stuff, reinstating practice/warmup routines to try and improve my fingerboard/picking accuracy. I spent a lot of time with some chromatic exercises, basically doing a 4-finger crawl up each string, moving up a semi-tone each 4 beats until I reached the 15th fret then spidering back down again. Ascending chromatics are easy. Descending take a lot of control so that you don't allow your fingers to flap all over the place like headless chickens.

I started off being completely useless, but after an hour or so most of my digits were coming under control. The exception was, of course, my wayward 'more tea, vicar' pinkie. I think I basically found that if I made sure I got my pinkie and ring finger down and positioned correctly behind frets on the 1-beat then everything would go according to plan. If I only got my pinkie lined up then things were certain to go to go to hell in a handbag pretty quickly. The thing is that you can get pretty confident, say, at 40bpm, then when you try 60, suddenly those drums are coming at you mighty fast!

I hate running exercises. Okay, so everyone says you really ought to do them and I agree but really, why can't you simply buy finger memory in handy 1GB blocks off the internet?

To the point! There must be one in there somewhere!?!? Oh yes. Fingers. Ouch!!!! At some point over the weekend my middle finger on my left hand started to give me gyp. Middle knuckle. Ow, ow, ow. At first I thought that maybe I'd twisted it or something. Last night after the gym it was miraculously better again, even though just holding a dumbell over my head was a dicey (possibly DUMB) idea at the start of the training sesh. Woke up this morning and, once again... ouch! I slightly suspect that it might be digital gout. Lots of red wine and meat over the Xmas period. I've had gout in my foot before, and this feels similar. I guess I'll lay off the sauce for a few and see whether that helps. No, I'm not giving up meat! ARE YOU CRAZY?!?!

What else?

Oh, before I forget, due to a scheduling faux pas I'm not going to be able to make the Magic Ship headlining gig at the Half Moon in Putney on Friday.



Just because I won't be there doesn't mean that you guys won't have a good time if you head on down there. Go check out the band!

Last but not least I actually dragged myself down to the open mic at the Spice of Life pub in Soho last night. I hadn't been there since I realised that the team from Up All Night had moved to a different venue and the quality of the acts had gone down. Well, I don't know what happened but several of the guys who used to play there were back, some sporting brand new images...

...and some not (we'll leave that subject alone, eh?)

I don't know if it was my mood or if I was finally seeing the scene as it really is. Most of the singer-songwriters basically traded off a) their looks or b) their vocal stylings. The 'material' wasn't there. Everyone used the same chords and chord forms, injecting key variety using a capo. Ironically, the one song I actually liked was performed by a guy who I really didn't care for, stylistically. The lyrics were basically aimed at a guy who'd just been dumped by a girl who had been cheating on him, but nevertheless he who felt like it was all his fault. Doormat city.

Oh, and there was another guy who basically looked like a skinny little Hollywood brat (jealous? ME?), who could play really well and sang with a voice reminiscent of a drunken Ray LaMontagne. I'm not certain, but I don't think the drunkenness was affected.

The thing I do like about open mics is that, sat there in the dark, listening to this new and unfamiliar music, I get inspired. Usually lyrically. I'm not saying that anything I come up with is good, but the ideas just pop into my head without me sitting down and trying to induce creativity.

One idea was came to me whilst watching the twinkie Ray LaMontagne chap. Not my type at all, yet as he sang I became absolutely fascinated by his performance, which gave me the idea for a song about not finding someone attractive until you saw them in a different light (eg singing/performing) at which time their beauty shone through.

Another one was about being in a troubled relationship and feeling like although your partner was going through a tough time you had to find a way to stay happy and positive to keep things together, even though on the surface that might seem heartless or even cruel.

Yes, all of which sounds very much like well-worn singer-songwriter fare. Eugh!

Maybe I should stick to rock shows!

AND HOW COULD I FORGET TO MENTION...

The Derek Trucks Band's new CD, "Already Free", is in stores and available for download RIGHT NOW!

Open Mic @ The Half Moon: Rain Stops Play...

...or at least postpones it.

Last night I went along to the Tuesday night open mic at the Half Moon pub in Herne Hill. It was my first time there, but I'd read reviews that it was usually pretty busy. When I arrived, though, the place was like the grave. The organiser and one act were there, but otherwise no one was there. To be honest I wasn't surprised. I'd considered staying home myself due to the foul weather we had in London yesterday.

As I've mentioned before, the Half Moon has a decent sound stage in the back. It's where we've seen Oli Brown and Devon Allman's Honeytribe play blistering sets.

After downing a swift pint I chatting to the MC and then the sole act in attendance. He'd done a few open mics, but not many. He was noodling while we chatted and he clearly knew his way around a fretboard. He generously offered the use of his guitar if I wanted to get up on stage and pop my open mic cherry. I didn't take him up on his offer. When I do 'get naked' up there for the first time it'll be with my own equipment and with a setlist prepared. He actually said something interesting to me, though, as we waited for more acts to arrive. For years he had struggled with singing but one day found the register that he was comfortable in and suddenly everything fell into place. It seems to me that I may suffer from the same issue.

Slowly but surely the place started to fill up, with a maximum of 10 to 15 people present at any time. Maybe it was the weather, maybe the votive candles flickering on each table, maybe just my mindset at the time but I actually felt transported to Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop on Bourbon Street. A weird sensation, like space and time had folded. Anyway... that's an aside!

The standard of play was actually pretty high. There were a couple of egos present, notably one guy who acted like he was too good to be there. He wasn't. As with many singer-songwriter types, he could sing, he could play, but his compositions, save one, were non-descript.

There was also variety. The MC opened the night with a poetry reading, there were blues players, folk singers and even a kind of country blues guy who creatively generated his own rhythm section using a kick-box.

To my surprise, the stand out performance wasn't from a musician at all. There was a girl there who quietly sat at the back until she was called up, then launched into a really intense poetry recital whose subject matter ranged from generational physical abuse to gang feuding. I just sat there thinking, "Holy crap, this girl is really a talented writer". It turned out that it was her first time performing her stuff. Wow! I would actually have loved to have discussed her process with her, how and why she'd started writing and so on, but before I got the chance she'd bundled herself up and stalked off into the night.

I'll definitely go back again, on a night when the weather's better! Hell, I'd even consider getting there really early to see whether the MC'll let me up on stage to try playing when nobody's there.

Open Mic @ Spice Of Life, 14 April 2008

I was brought up to believe that if you didn't have anything good to say about something then you should keep your mouth shut. In that spirit, I'm not going to rip last night's open mic to pieces. There were a couple of decent performances, but when I left early, at around 21:30, the venue was half empty and I couldn't help but wonder: what happened?

In the past I've been extremely complimentary about the standard of playing and singing at the Spice Of Life, but last night it felt like there was something missing. The rarefied creative atmosphere had gone.

So, what did happen?

After a little investigation on the wonderful world-wide web of misinformation I believe I have found the answer. When I noticed last night that the regular MC had changed and there was a second guy manning the soundboard it struck me as odd, but I didn't think too much about it. This morning I discovered that the "Up All Night" music team no longer run Monday nights at the Spice Of Life. They've moved their regular open mic session to another venue, "The Grand Union" in Kentish Town. Presumably their regular performers have also decamped.

I'm not saying the Spice Of Life open mic can't make a comeback, but it would appear that it's struggling to find its feet right now. Next time I have a Monday night free I'll be heading north to check out The Grand Union instead.

To be fair to the Spice Of Life pub, I should point out that it's just the Monday night programme that's changed. It's business as usual for all other nights, including the blues jam on Tuesdays.

Finally, I just found out about another open mic night, this time on Tuesday evenings at the Half Moon pub in Herne Hill, which is where we saw the Oli Brown Band play last Saturday. Ironically, as I sat watching the boys play I caught myself thinking about The Project and whether one day I might be up on that stage, performing... looks like that might not be such an unrealistic fantasy after all!

Hungarian Fingers

...and we're back!

Vacation over, back to reality. Musical moments from the trip were few and far between... fake indians doing a rain-dance in Budapest's Heroes Square, a girl selling ceramic pipes on Charles Bridge in Prague... oh and that creepy looking guy bashing out peasant standards on a beaten old accordian.

Early on in the trip, Tim and I stumbled across The Captain Cook pub around the corner from the Opera in Budapest. We stopped in and had a pint (actually, 0.5l) of the local beer. One pint led to another, which led to a discussion about music and The Project.

The subject matter was varied, including what made me want to play guitar in the first place, who I was listening to at the time, which songs and styles were pivotal and so on. The main conclusion was that I'm not really drawn to the typical pop format. I prefer 15 minute epic songs to 3 minute radio-friendly offerings. I like to be challenged by what I'm listening to.

Tim voiced the opinion that if The Project is going to be a success I need to kick things into high gear. How? Get up and perform at an open mic before the 6 month mark. Focusing on open mics would mean I would have to stick to strumming rather than trying to advance my electric lead playing. After two beers I was unconvinced, but halfway through the third I started to see his point. Getting onstage would give me a major tick in a box.

But I can't sing!

Tim's suggestion was that he take over the task of singing, and with that in mind we made lists of:

1) Songs I'd like to record with him singing and me playing

2) Songs he'd like to record with him singing and me playing

3) Songs I'd like to try to learn for the two of us to perform at an open mic

For number 1, I selected "Wicked Little Town" by Stephen Trask, "Give Me Something Real" as performed by Queen Latifah in the movie "Living Out Loud" and finally "Melissa" by the Allman Brothers Band. We tried recording "Melissa" once before and it didn't go so well. I wanted him to mimic Gregg Allman's approach but he wanted to put his own stamp on it. Let's just say that there was some free-stying involved that I wasn't happy about and that was the end of that.

Tim pulled out a few surprises with his choices for number 2. He kicked off with "A Little Respect" by Erasure and "Please Please Tell Me Now" by Duran Duran. Toni Braxton's "Breathe Again" came in third place.

I'll admit that by the time we got to making the list of songs to perform at an open mic the beer had kicked in, so things were getting a little woolly. The selection I came up with was "Hungry Like The Wolf" by Duran Duran, "House Of The Rising Sun" (Traditional) and Cream's version of "Outside Woman Blues".

Looking at my notes from that evening I can see that we also started a 4th list, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was meant to be. I think they might be songs that I'd like to try to sing myself. It starts off with "Willin" by Little Feat and Cowboy's "Please Be With Me"... after that it's unclear what the hell I wrote!

I do remember making up the phrase "Hungarian Fingers". It sounds derogatory, but it wasn't meant to be at the time. Whilst fumbling for change I noticed that Forint coins are huge, which made me surmise that Hungarians must have super-sized digits and hence when failing to fret something properly it must be because of my Hungarian Fingers.

Thursday Night Open Mic, Nelson Arms Pub

Last night I dragged myself down to the Nelson Arms pub in Merton, South London. I wanted to check out their regular Thursday night open mic session.

I'm not going to lie to you, the standard of musicianship was not as high as it is at the Spice of Life in Soho. That's not necessarily a bad thing, though. The atmosphere was definitely more informal and inviting, though there was a hint of cliquishness as most of the performers seemed to be regulars. Something tells me that if you stand up and put yourself out there then you'd get accepted, though. The thought of performing at the Spice of Life terrifies me. I can imagine playing at the Nelson.

The format of the open mic is pretty random. The host is a singer-songwriter who presents his material up until 9pm at which point lesser mortals are allowed on stage. There's no limit on how many songs you can do and no apparent limitation on the type of instrument that you can... and cover songs aren't frowned upon! Score! One of the guys bashed out a workmanly acoustic version of Duran Duran's "Hungry Like The Wolf". Five open chords (if you count 'F' as open)... job done. Nothing wrong with that. Hey, maybe I'll give it the 'Fillmore' treatment if I can trick Tim into contributing his rather convincing Simon Le Bon impression.

Lots of acoustic guitar. Some electric. Bongos and harmonica supplied by the peanut gallery. One girl, who had a fantastic voice but who sadly had to sing over the noise of the punters, was accompanied by a MacBook, plugged straight into the PA system!

It even looked like in a pinch you could use the MCs own equipment. Brave man!

I have to admit that I cut out just after 10pm as I was crashing... This week hasn't been a good one for sleep! I also have to admit that when I did get home I decided to have a nightcap, go online and check email.

Email led to googling Duran Duran chords...
Chords led to strumming...
Strumming led to queuing up backing tracks...
Which led to a late night acoustic blues jam!

I stopped playing when my fingers hurt so much I couldn't fret another note. It was LATE! How late? Well, suffice to say that the alarm clock made it to my shit list this morning. If we ever win the lottery (which we plan to this week) I'm going to go out, buy a baseball bat and smash that sucker into a million pieces.

Tomorrow is the next WAES Guitar Improvers class. I'm not ready for it. Not even close. I figured out the chord inversion progression we were given as an exercise but haven't practiced it. My version of "Taylor" is still basically a crap rendition of the intro/outro but with no middle. And I'm not going to have much time to play tonight.

I've really started feeling like I'm ready to get going, ready to record stuff... ready to jam with other people, get creative. When I'm strumming on the acoustic my eyes keep wandering to the Les Paul's case. I so want to play Red, but I promised I wouldn't until the end of the acoustic course.

I'm thinking that when the time comes to cut some demos I should basically do the singer-songwriter thing, knock up some acoustic toons then add electric (and possibly harminica) fills. Blackie's actually easier to record than Red, anyway. The volume level required to get a good sound is significantly lower. Red just wants to ROCK OUT all the time!

Your time will come, Red. Your time will come...

When Tim's off on his residential course next weekend I'll stock the fridge with beer, print off a copy of the somewhat magical Circle of Fifths and get to composing.

Notes to self...

"Hungry Like The Wolf" chords:
E - D (Verse)
C - G- F (Chorus)

Lyric idea:
If I don't bend
I know you'll break me
You hate me too much to leave
I love you too much to stay

Spice Of Life Open Mic, Take 2

Well, I survived my second open mic at the Spice of Life! This week the standard was definitely not as high as last time. That's not to diminish the fact that each and every one of the performers had the guts to stand up and put their thing 'out there'. I was actually surprised how much focus this week was on the 'singer/songwriter' side of the fence as opposed to 'musician'.

Okay, so I actually took heart in the fact that one artist only knew 3 open chord shapes, changing key between songs by moving a capo up the neck. Unfortunately, with most of the acts, the singer/songwriter side fell short, too.

There were noteable exceptions including:

A duo called Maisy's Wake (pictured above), doing the two guitar harmony thing with one of them channelling Paul McCartney's look from the Sgt. Pepper days.

A cheeky chappie calling himself 'Tom on the Guitar'. He played really well, but did the 'showman' thing a bit too much for me, dangerously leaning towards cabaret.

Some guy over from San Fran who I didn't want to like... but I did. Kinda acoustic Neil Youngish... kinda not...

The standout performance for me was by a guy called Bobby Long. Charismatic stage presence, vocally think 'Ray LaMontagne' meets the wideboy character Noel (played by Tom Hardy) in the movie "Scenes of a Sexual Nature" (2006). Young. Given half a chance I think the boy might make it. He has a MySpace page here.

I won't be able to make the next Monday night offering, but on Tuesday 30th January they're premiering a monthly best-of-the-best evening at the Hard Rock Cafe which I hope to go along to. I don't think I'll be eating the food! Given my schedule it may be that these meetings may be the only ones I can make in the near future.

Open Mic @ The Spice Of Life Pub (Soho)

Last night I went to my first Monday night open mic at the Spice of Life pub in Soho... not to perform, as a spectator. I've been along to their Tuesday night gigs before, which are either a blues jam (mediocre ego fest) or a 'groove' jam (really good).

The format of the evening is that you turn up early, put your name on the list and then wait to play. Each artist gets to showcase two songs per session. It seemed like you were supposed to play acoustic guitar or piano, though there were also harmonicas and a cello in the mix.

The first thing to say is that overall I was really impressed with the quality of the performances, particularly in terms of the vocals. Most of the acts could really sing. There were a couple of stand outs for me, a girl called Amanda whose voice was just amazingly evocative: a hippie-chick with a rootsy folksy style. The other one was a couple of guys on guitar and cello. I think they were Karimi & Moore. Moore's cello work was fantastic, but Karimi's incredible voice was killer. A true talent.

My plan had been to go along and chat with some of the people, make contacts. You know: network. Not much happened this time around, unless you count that I was hit on by a drunk straight woman, but I plan on going back. What was neat about the open mic was the variety of songs and styles showcased. Their groove jam was similar in some ways, but not as structured. The blues jam, which I had possibly unrealistically high expectations of, was a free-for-all ego trip, with each musician competing with the others on stage for their 15 minutes of fame.

Although I didn't network as I'd hoped this time round, I did feel inspired listening to all that original music. I came out of the pub with a few song ideas of my own:

One Last Trick (Before I Settle Down)
The Only One (I Couldn't Get)
If You're Gonna Do It, Do It (Don't Waste My Time)

Okay, so there are no stellar ideas there, but at least my creative juices were flowing.