Thursday, August 04, 2005
"Does My Tea Smell Like the Stock Show?"
Every time TSA and I get together and talk a little music, we come up with some bizzare idea. OK, said idea is not always gold, but it's amazing how effortlessly we'll bounce good ideas off of each other. Last night we got together before the Dunn Bros. open mic. We practiced a little, but it was more just exchanging bizzare musical ideas. Got My Mojo Workin' started out as a song that we both liked to do. Somewhat on accident, TSA dropped into a Bo Diddley beat during it, I threw in Who Do You Love. Another time we thought Tome Jones' It's Not Unusual would sound funny in there. I guess all ideas aren't gold. Beck's Loser worked really well last week in Keystone, and if TSA adds the "gettin' freaky with the Cheez Whiz" line, it will be absolute gold I tell ya. Last night it was the Who's Magic Bus. Very cool! Now if we can just get the crowd to respond to every line with "too much, Magic Bus!" we'll really have something. We've got a couple more things in store for Mojo, one idea sort of morphed into two more and we thougt of yet another on the drive back to the TSA compound after the open mic last night. Maybe they're great ideas, maybe they're not, you never really know until you try them out.
Said open mic was a blast last night. A small early turn out gave us a little extra time and we played a couple of things we hadn't played in a while, notably Who's Been Talkin' which is a great song, we just don't do it as often as we used to. We also did Me & Julio, Wyle E. Coyote Blues and the Mojo/Magic Bus thing. It was a lot of fun, Andy's vacation is really spoiling me, we've been able to play a lot of shows that we don't usually get to.
Practiced with Mike a little today. We started work on some of his originals for shows next week. I tend to do mostly background vocals with Mike, something I've always enjoyed but have never had any schooling in. Mike is exceptionally good at the schooling part, I have learned so much about harmonies from our work together. Playing harmonica has given me a really good ear for harmonies, but Mike is good at explaining what I'm doing and why. Having never had any vocal training and very little music theory, they're good things to know. I've also got some harp stuff to work out on some of the tunes. Playing harp to stuff I've written and to stuff Mike's written are two entirely different animals. Any harmonica is in a particular key. The great thing about that is that if a song is in the key of C, a C harmonica will work. While every note on that harmonica may not be completely "right" at a particular point in that song, no note will be particularly "wrong." That works well with stuff I write since I pick a key and stuck with it, it's very straight forward. Mike will shift keys around a lot in a song. That means I have to think, usually my down fall when it comes to music. But it makes me be a lot more deliberate with every note I play. I pick a note and play it. When I improvise on things I've written, I almost randomly pick a note and move on however I feel. It's free and I'm thinking, but I know I'm not going to screw up, at worst my improvosation won't be outstanding. Things to learn, I guess, and I find myself learning all the time. That's good. I'm a long way from knowing everything which is also good, it motivates me to try to learn more.
Slappy is Jebus got mention in the Black Hills Arts Anchor. The breakup of SIJ was noted due to "artistic differences." Posters for Mike and I list me as "formerly of Slappy is Jebus." I can't wait to see the rumors start flying!
BOJ
Said open mic was a blast last night. A small early turn out gave us a little extra time and we played a couple of things we hadn't played in a while, notably Who's Been Talkin' which is a great song, we just don't do it as often as we used to. We also did Me & Julio, Wyle E. Coyote Blues and the Mojo/Magic Bus thing. It was a lot of fun, Andy's vacation is really spoiling me, we've been able to play a lot of shows that we don't usually get to.
Practiced with Mike a little today. We started work on some of his originals for shows next week. I tend to do mostly background vocals with Mike, something I've always enjoyed but have never had any schooling in. Mike is exceptionally good at the schooling part, I have learned so much about harmonies from our work together. Playing harmonica has given me a really good ear for harmonies, but Mike is good at explaining what I'm doing and why. Having never had any vocal training and very little music theory, they're good things to know. I've also got some harp stuff to work out on some of the tunes. Playing harp to stuff I've written and to stuff Mike's written are two entirely different animals. Any harmonica is in a particular key. The great thing about that is that if a song is in the key of C, a C harmonica will work. While every note on that harmonica may not be completely "right" at a particular point in that song, no note will be particularly "wrong." That works well with stuff I write since I pick a key and stuck with it, it's very straight forward. Mike will shift keys around a lot in a song. That means I have to think, usually my down fall when it comes to music. But it makes me be a lot more deliberate with every note I play. I pick a note and play it. When I improvise on things I've written, I almost randomly pick a note and move on however I feel. It's free and I'm thinking, but I know I'm not going to screw up, at worst my improvosation won't be outstanding. Things to learn, I guess, and I find myself learning all the time. That's good. I'm a long way from knowing everything which is also good, it motivates me to try to learn more.
Slappy is Jebus got mention in the Black Hills Arts Anchor. The breakup of SIJ was noted due to "artistic differences." Posters for Mike and I list me as "formerly of Slappy is Jebus." I can't wait to see the rumors start flying!
BOJ
# posted by Blind Orange Julius @ 6:30 PM 
