All Kinds of Goings On

5+ weeks... long enough? Sure.

First and most importantly, MENBAH! is now a two-piece band. I, Christopher, have been joined by lead guitar player extraordinaire Bob MacConnell, and rehearsals have gone incredibly well thus far. This weekend, we will record three demos to put up on the main site for the purpose of attracting a rhythm section. In the meantime, if you happen to be reading this from somewhere in Colorado Springs and know of a good rock drummer and/or bassist, do leave a comment. Bob's smiling face and a brief bio will be on the main page soon as well (we'll probably work on that sometime during the recording session).

Secondly, evidently inspired by the Reynold mystery guitar, my dad tracked down the similar Harmony Monterey acoustic archtop on which he learned to play some 30-odd years ago. He got it fixed up and sent it to yours truly. This guitar is a bona fide chicken-picker and a hell of a lot of fun to play. Pics will be up soon.

Next on the list is my new recording computer. I haven't even gotten to plug it in to see if it works yet, but I'm excited by it nonetheless. It's a 2001-ish PowerMac G4, with over 1G of RAM, which I got from my employer for a bargain basement price when they replaced it with something newer. The next step is to get a FireWire mixer, which will enable me to record multiple parts simultaneously to separate tracks--up to eight of 'em. Right now I have a two-in, two-out mixer for recording purposes, which means that if I were to record a whole band I could only EQ the whole performance as one track, as opposed to tweaking, say, just the bass guitar part. If that didn't make sense to you, sorry, but going into more detail would only confuse and bore you more (:

Finally, why, pray tell, haven't I been updating this blog? Because I have a new blog about the Bible, which I started reading not too long ago. Don't worry, I'm not going Jesus freak or anything. Just curious to find out what the book says and get opinions from friends and family who have spent their whole lives studying it. Anyway, no one ever comments here, so if you're a devout reader of this blog you have only yourself to blame for my wandering attention. Self-flagellate immediately.

While you're at it, get the new Damone album. If the low price doesn't suck you in (and you can find it even cheaper than that), at least listen to the sample of track 2. Golly, it's some good rock.

Later losers,
ch

Saint Gratus (new song)

As the subject suggests, there is a new song called "Saint Gratus," and it is available here for about a week. As always, listen to them all and vote for whichever you like best (I haven't listened yet and therefore cannot comment--not that I would).

Incidentally, if ever you want to hear a Songfight song of mine again, after it's left the main page, they're all archived here. Of course, you already knew that, because you've visited the Music page, right?

Generic update

Hey all. I haven't been keeping up with the blog this month, for which I apologize. Most of the goings-on this month have had to do with my new job at the newspaper, none of which has to do with music.

Anyway, there is new news from the MENBAH! camp, although it's all pending. I've been talking to a lead guitar player, and also to a "band looking for a frontman" (I wasn't sure such a thing existed until their drummer called this past weekend). The band and I are gonna be meeting up Sunday night. The other guitar guy, Bob, and I have already met, and there's potential there too. As always, I will keep you posted.

Watch this space next week, when I may very well have a new Songfight song called "Saint Gratus." Gratus is the patron saint who protects against storms and dangerous animals. I'm not sure when you would need protection against both things simultaneously, but I have until Monday to figure that out. In any case, the storm thing should yield some tasty metaphors. Incidentally, I haven't checked the pronunciation of his name yet, but I'm hoping it rhymes with "flatus."

In other news, I've been listening a lot lately to Boneclouds, the new album by the very talented singer-songwriter Mason Jennings. It's his major label debut, which was something of a scary concept, but I'm happy to report that the access to major resources hasn't corrupted his laid-back style... not much, anyway. Give it a listen.

ch

PS. I'm not really planning to rhyme it with "flatus." Seriously, do you think I'm that goofy?

Rate of Decay (new song)

My latest composition, "Rate of Decay," is available for about the next week on Songfight! Listen to it and 18 other songs with eerily similar titles at that link, and then vote for your favorite. Rock on!

New old mystery guitar

So, today I bought a mysterious old guitar from an antiques dealer I did not meet. It is an acoustic archtop, which kind of instrument I'm not sure I've even seen before. I found it yesterday, and was intrigued by its appearance and, from what little I could tell given the old strings, its tone. With no round center hole, the voice of the guitar is nice and thumpy, like an orchestral stringed instrument played pizzicato. I suppose I should have guessed that would be what it sounded like given the construction.

I went home to mull it over, realizing that the only clue I had as to the guitar's origin was the company's name, Reynold, which is oddly painted on the upper part of the body rather than the headstock. The lack of a headstock imprint made room for a nice little viney inlay, as you can see in the picture. Anyway, wondering what I potentially had on my hands, I put "Reynold guitar company" and other variations into Google--returning no relevant hits. Now I was all kinds of intrigued.

The guitar is in pretty good condition. The wood is intact, there's only one little tiny part of one of the f-holes where the binding has come apart, and there's some rust on the trapeze tailpiece. The bridge is adjustable, with a three-way split saddle; the metal dials are also a bit rusty. The tuners will probably have to go, or at least get some heavy lubrication, and the neck isn't as straight as I've ever seen, but it's playable--which is a good thing, 'cause there's no truss rod. The fretboard inlays are weird-looking, amost like the 2 side of a die. The finish is good all around, with a pretty dark blue sunburst on top and deep brown on the back and sides. Someone has inexpertly painted the back of the neck black, so it'll probably get sanded and refinished with something translucent.

Anyway, the point of all that crap above is that this guitar likely hasn't been played for a long time, and is quite solidly built. A little bit of love will bring it right back to life, and I may have quite a steal on my hands. The tag price was $95, but the dealer (who had a little stall at an antiques mall, and therefore was only available by phone) accepted my $75 offer. Tomorrow I visit a luthier to get an estimate to make it mint and playable. In the meantime, if any of you dear readers know anyone whose expertise lies in vintage guitars, please point 'em in this direction. I would love to find out anything I can about this old lady. If you click on the little picture above, it will take you to a bigger version.

The Atlantis Project

So, Thursday was interesting. I got a call at about 4:00 from a drummer who had just seen my flier in a music store and wanted to invite me to his band's practice that night. We went to a house in the middle of nowhere, and before too long I learned that they were pretty comfortable together, and they were comfortable with me... but they were a metal band. In fact, they were a metal band with a name and six more-or-less finished songs.

So we jammed out for a little while, chatted for just about as long, and parted as friends. They're hoping to be gigging by the end of the year, so if you happen to be in the Springs and in the mood for metal, see if The Atlantis Project is playing. They're the nicest dudes you could hope to meet.

Stay tuned: in the next day or so there will be news about my new song and my new old guitar. That's a lot of uses of the word "new" in one sentence.

Re: Camels

This morning I Googled myself (you do it too; don't pretend you don't), and found out that my almost random choice of six letters may actually coincide with something else. Specifically, at this site dedicated to the history of the Saracens, I learned that "Ayesha had been presented by Menbah with a camel, whose name was Alascar." Assuming this is not a typo, I apparently have a generous ancestor with a flair for animal naming (Alascar? how boss is that?).

Turning to my good old friend Wikipedia, I was able to determine that the Saracens were variously (a) an ancient nomadic Arab tribe from the Sinai desert, (b) Sicilian/So.Italian Muslims around the time of the Crusades, and (c) Mediterranean pirates. Context-wise, choice (c) makes the least sense, but certainly sounds the coolest, so if you're ever telling anyone about your favorite band MENBAH! (you should), and they ask you what the hell that means (they probably will), you will not be entirely incorrect in saying "MENBAH! is named after a Mediterranean pirate who passed out camels with badass names."

Another Age (new song)

Another Age is a new recording, which I put together for the consideration of the panel at OverClocked ReMix, a wonderful website where one can download a lot of rearrangements of classic video game songs (my first submission can be found here). Naturally, I'll keep you posted whenever I find out if it's been accepted. Following is the text of the explanatory e-mail I sent to the panel:

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This is an arrangement of "At the Dream's Shore ~ Another World," from the Chrono Cross OST. By my count, it would be the third on the site--not exactly virgin territory, but this one offers big stylistic differences from the other two (and it's, like, way short).

Like DJP did in "Pachelbel's Ganon," I have taken a small melodic phrase from the original and recast it as a chorus for a new song (which also retains the original chord progression throughout). The verse melody is of my creation, though those familiar with the songs will recognize the influence of "Tonight and the Rest of My Life" by Nina Gordon and "Buckingham Green" by Ween.

Like "Prayer," my previous selection, this song contains no MIDI sequencing, with all parts played in real time to hard drive, and real instruments are used wherever possible (acoustic, electric and bass guitars, hand percussion [not mop buckets this time], shaker and ocarina). The ocarina carries the chorus, although the intonation was sketchy enough that I decided at the last minute to shore it up with a synthesized panflute.

I think that's all there is to say. I actually haven't yet finished the game, which I bought last week. This song just lodged in my brain so firmly that I had to remix it before I could continue (:

My new favorite thing

Here's something that is not safe to listen to at work. It's called "Unicorn In C Major," and you can get it from Heavy.com in an autoloading Flash format, or directly from the artists' website at StuckeyandMurray.com if you have QuickTime. Either way, be prepared to have a rather inconvenient song stuck in your head for days.

Incidentally, I was made aware by break.com, which compiles funny stuff like this and makes a good general timewaster, should you be looking for another one of those.

Finally, I'm officially annoyed, because before I stumbled across this video, I had come down into the computer room to write a totally serious song about, like, genocide and stuff. Evidently, that will have to wait for another day.

Live! Tonight! Sold out!

Saturday night saw what could be considered my first public performance in Colorado. Bekah, Rachel and I (I refer to Rachel by one name only so that perhaps you'll think I'm building a harem or something) headed down to lovely Acacia Park downtown, for the purpose of drinking wine and merrymaking mit guitar.

We did not realize until we got there that it was like 40 degrees, and that the wind that had been blowing vociferously all day had yet to subside.

Long story short, we stayed for about six songs before my fingers froze, we held the attention of three or four high school kids for all of a minute and a half, and by the time it was all said and done, we made -$1 (a homeless guy hit us up for a buck). Rock and roll, baby!