I’ve been working on a bunch of music lately, some original stuff for our church play and some new tunes for a duet project that’s just getting off the ground. But last month I caught a sale over at General Guitar Gadgets and picked up this ITS8 kit plus the boutique mod kit. Yep, all those parts go in that little box (well, most of ‘em, anyway). The ITS8 is their Tube Screamer copy.
I don’t know when I’ll get to it, but I had to share this exhilirating (and somewhat intimidating) array of parts just waiting to feed my amp & ears some punchy & jangly goodness!
Fortunately the instructions at General Guitar Gadgets seem quite good. I had been thinking about getting a boost pedal, but I got so much more!
The announcement yesterday that Hugh Laurie (House from the TV show) is recording a blues album got my attention. He has played guitar on the show several times. My wife and I love the show, even though I complain about the incredibly predictable plotline (I’m often heard saying, “O No honey, I bet they’re gonna almost kill this guy before they figure out what’s really wrong!”). But Hugh’s antics and razor-sharp one-liners keep me watching. I’ve seen him on the show with a Les Paul, Strat, and a Flying V. Above, there’s even a resonator.
So a quick search on YouTube, and I’m seeing that this guy has some skills. That, and he’s hilarious, but we already knew that. Here are a few vids of him playing guitar & singing. Looking forward to that blues album, Hugh!
Slide Resonator, nice!
Beautiful Piano Work on Georgia:
Acoustic Strummin (sounds a bit like The Weight):
Acoustic Pickin: The Firing Song which he wrote for the show:
Angled View. Note the bolts sticking out pretty far. I ended up countersinking them later.
Angled View. Note the bolts sticking out pretty far. I ended up countersinking them later.
Just before I left for tour with Joyful Noise, I put together this awesome DIY pedalboard with shelving parts from IKEA. I got the idea & plan from Armchair Bronco over at the Harmony Central forums. His detailed step-by-step guide is excellent, so be sure to check it out!
The beauty of this board is that I made it in one afternoon (about a day and a half including stain dry time) for a grand total of $44, which breaks down as follows:
*You can probably save even more money on the Velcro. 15 feet is WAY too much, but I wanted the 2″ wide stuff & that was the only one they had. Checking out Velcro’s website, they offer it in smaller doses. (Hmm, I wonder how sticky Velcro’s website is…heh heh). O well, the stuff comes in handy & the Mrs. has already been using it.
This post is inspired by a recent Twitter post by Zoe Keating and the conversation that followed. Want to know why you should support independent musicians? Check out exhibit A:
Image source: TheRoot.com
Pretty pathetic, huh? Well it’s actually worse than this graphic appears. Because the labels then charge various expenses out of that artist’s measley $23.40. Read this article to get the full story. The bottom line is that most signed and even successful artists don’t make a dime off their record sales. And it has always been that way. I, like many musicians I know, grew up wanting that big record deal. But trust me, you don’t want that!
The beauty of the technologies we have today, for musicians, is that we can oversee and own the entire process from creating an album to distribution online. We can cut out the middle man, so to speak. And with social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc., we can even do our own marketing. By doing so, we can maintain artistic integrity and even earn a little money for our hard work.
The next time you’re looking for some new music, visit BandCamp or SoundCloud. Check out a streaming concert on UStream, or an artist’s YouTube channel. Like something? Make a comment and pop onto Twitter or FB and let people know.
I’m still learning about ways to find (and share) independent music myself, so share other great independent music resources in the comments. There’s amazing music out there just waiting to be discovered. Here’s a good place to start.
Last year, my church did a study series on the songs of ascent (Psalm 120-134) in the Bible, and as a result, I started putting these Psalms to music. Well that has kind of snowballed into a full-on musical production that we’ll be putting on in September. I’m arranging most of the music for it, with the playwright Ruben contributing, too. Here’s Ruben describing what the project is about:
There will be more interviews and sneak peeks in the coming weeks. I’ll be sure to post them here, and you can also check out the website for the production: jerusalemascent.com
