Video: Foo Fighters - Rope

I picked up the new Foo Fighters album, "Wasting Light" on Tuesday. I'm really digging it. You can watch them perform the whole album live on YouTube. That's not something you see...ever, so definitely check it out. Here's the video for the first single, "Rope".

Taking The Vocal Cords For Granted

I stayed home from work today, not something that I like to do, but considering I can still barely get an intelligible word past my lips from my seemingly destroyed vocal cords, I thought it was fitting. Especially being a musician and singer, it's beyond explainable of how frustrating it is not to be able to sing let alone talk. You never truly realize how important something is to you until you don't have it anymore. That goes for so many things in life, but when it's something that you dream could be your livelihood someday, it makes it even more unbearable.

It's not that I haven't had laryngitis before in my life. I can remember two occasions quite clearly that overtake this one in a heartbeat. The first occasion was during one of the first shows my former band Now Transmission played. Only a few songs into our set my voice completely gave out. Mid song, out came nothing but a high pitched squeal and nothing but silence no matter how hard I tried from then on. It was a pretty embarrassing moment, and luckily I've been able to relive that moment over and over as the performance was being recorded.

The second time was due to sickness rather than strain although it did have an adverse effect on the band as it was only a couple of years later. We had signed up to play a battle of the band in Boston, quite a big deal for us as we didn't travel to the big city very often because it was quite a long trip. My squeaky voice box forced us to switch up the lineup a bit; our bassist moving to vocals, our guitarist playing bass, and me playing guitar. We only played one song, actually made it past the first round (due to a couple of bands not showing up) and played the second round in the same configuration a couple of days later. It wasn't the most successful venture ever, but it definitely could have worked out a whole lot worse.

That brings us today. I'm not in a band anymore, just writing and playing music on my own. But especially now, as I'm trying to write and practice as much as I ever have, not being able to do simple things that I do everyday like practice my new songs in the living room, sing in the car, yell at the guy who cut me off, or talk to my fiance is maddening. I'm sure my voice will probably come back to me in the next few days, it's just moments like these that make me realize how much I take things for granted sometimes. As if I wasn't motivated enough to work on my music before, now, once my throat heals, I want to be busting out the music like my life depended on it. 

Who knows when you could lose that thing you love for good, you have to appreciate it while it's here. Cheesy, of course, but oh so true. Rock on!

Guest Post: Favorite TV Show About Animals: Animal Cops

Contribution by Michale Greer

Animal cops is one of the best shows that airs on Animal Planet. This amazing show reveals how cops work to free poor animals from horrible owners. As someone who has witnessed animal cruelty and violence in her own life, I am someone very dedicated to the cause of protecting animals. I always watch this show on my Satellite TV from expertsatellite.com with my own two puppy dogs.

For anyone with a passion for animals, then Animal Cops is surely a great show to view. This show makes anyone feel compassion for the suffering of animals. This show also makes one aware of just how many animal crimes happen in the United States on a daily basis. One will truly be stunned to learn how much crime happens on a daily basis here. However, one can also learn the steps necessary to protect animals that may be victims of crimes from abusive owners.

If one wants to help animals, then one merely need call the cops, just as this show reveals. This show inspires people to take action in order to protect animals so they can be given a loving home. There is no greater show that encourages the proper treatment of animals than this one. This show is one in a million and will inspire any person to help animals. I love this show so much!

New song: "Proud"

In the effort to keep the ball rolling here's another new song. Well, new to you anyway. I started writing this song back in 2006. It began as a simple as hell guitar riff, a first verse, and a nonsense words to get a melody chorus. Thanks to the Word Box and some awesome encouragement it officially became a song this week after 5 years. Hit it up in the player below.




My project this week is to start a song from scratch from a short list of old titles that my friends picked out for me. Should be interesting. Rock on!

New Song: "Forbidden"...Finally.

Thanks to some friendly encouragement the long drought has ended. I honestly don't even remember the last time I posted a new song but last night I finally uploaded my newest song, "Forbidden".

It's not that I haven't been writing, it's just that the concept of recording and getting the quality I want out of it has been insanely overwhelming, especially considering my recording limitations. (The internal mic of a iMac G5 isn't exactly top of the line recording gear.) But I've tried to deal with what I currently have and focus on the main goal of getting these songs down and out there for people to hear.   Feel free to give it a listen in the player below. Rock on!

Down the Dark Stairway

Maybe this post is a stretch or just a poor excuse to create a metaphor, I don't know. Maybe it's just an excuse to write something in this sad example of a blog that has seen posts few and far between. Maybe I just saw this picture, which has been sitting in my phone for a couple of months and it flicked a switch in my brain, somehow reminding me of all things that I've wanted to do and haven't; that I want to do but can't seem to get started.

I took this picture leaving a club on a cold, November night. I don't go out much so it was kind of a big deal for me. It must have been, I don't know, 11:30. (Whoa, party animal.) I looked down the dirty stairway that led directly to the street and it seemed a bit creepy. Narrow and dark, walls covered with posters and pictures; bent metal and matted carpet on the risers. There's nothing really special about the stairway, just an ordinary, if not a little too steep, set of stairs. But being the cell phone photog that I profess myself to be I was drawn to the view and just had to snap the pic.

That leads to today, the second week of 2011 and I happen upon this picture in my phone while sitting in front of the TV, wasting away another perfectly good night that could be spent doing something useful. It's like I'm stuck in my head, waiting at the top of the stairs, looking down, not exactly sure why I don't dare take those 20 or so steps down to the street below.

Will I trip on the first step and tumble down the narrow stairway, smacking my head on each step along the way? Will I get halfway and realize down those steps is not the direction I want to go? Or will I get to the street just to get caught in a torrential downpour, to get mugged or hit by a car, or simply not know which direction to turn?

That dark stairway taunts me daily. Some days I take a few steps down, look back at up to the top and retreat. There have been days when I've made it to the bottom step, only to smell the sour scent of rain and car exhaust waft through the doorway making me turn heel to the stench of failure and stale disappointment.

You'd think it would be easy enough to just go down those stairs and do what I need to do. Unfortunately, it's not. But maybe it is just that simple. Stop over thinking, take the stairs two at a time, burst out into the street and pick a direction, damn the consequences. No one ever got anywhere without taking that first step. But they also got nowhere from taking that first step and failing to take the next 19 after that, and the next 100 after that, and so on.

I really don't know what's going to happen down the stairway, if I make it down, if I make it through the door, if I get the chance to turn and walk away from the dark stairway, but I think I'd rather find out instead of waiting at the top, worried what will happen.

Metaphor, complete. Let's write some songs quit being an excuse creating procrastinator and get on with life.