There was lots of musical exchanges in the Royale extended family. Every year, Mr. Royale and I make a mix for my brother, sister, parents (frankly anyone remotely interested – music pushers that we are) of the year in music. They appear to enjoy this tradition, but perhaps they are just being gracious.
My brother – former lover of Human League – got the Aha Singles Collection that I mentioned in a previous post. He also requested Gorillaz so you get an idea of his musical tastes.
I’m not sure what music my sister received, although an uncle sent all three of us “Gershwin Plays Rhapsody in Blue – First Recordings 1924 From Rare Piano Rolls.” I’m not sure how he picked that out for all of us, other than he knows that we have frequent flier miles on United Airlines.
My parents gave me a collection of Bach as well as a DVD with the Kirov performing The Nutcracker. So I guess you could count Tchaikovsky on my musical list.
Mr. Royale got me Washed Out’s “Within and Without,” Toro y Moi’s “Underneath the Pine,” and Destroyer’s “Kaputt.” Of these, I’ve only partially listened to the Destroyer – sounds like a very nicely produced amalgam of The Pet Shop Boys and Prefab Sprout but other than that, I don’t get the hype. M. Royale also got me De La Soul’s “Buhloone Mind State” as we are slowly expanding our Native Tongues recordings. (BTW, that Tribe Called Quest documentary “Beats, Rhymes and Life” was all that!) I gave M. Royale David Crosby’s “If Only I Could Remember My Name,” the new King Krule, and a French Django Reinhardt covers collection.
My in-laws got me several first issue Beatles nuggets while over in London on vacation. UK first issue of “Rubber Soul”, and the original 45s of “Lady Madonna” and “From Me To You.” Now – if only I still had a turntable.
My wife got me the deluxe edition (3 CDs, 1 DVD) of the McCartney II reissue. Great stuff, a very underrated album.
Oh, and two books: Greil Marcus’s “The Doors” and Will Hermes’s “Love Goes to Buildings on Fire.” Related, but not so directly, the same uncle who sent us all the Gershwin also sent Mr. Royale “You Are Not A Gadget” by Jaron Lanier, a book he had been coveting for a long time. Anyone read any of these?
Bob Mould’s autobiography — See A Little Light: The Trail of Rage and Melody. I’m about halfway through it — it’s not for everyone, but I enjoyed the Husker Du stories, descriptions of money issues, and tour notes. I didn’t know the backstory that Grant Hart was a junkie and this was a major reason Husker Du broke up.
Bands/people he likes: Henry Rollins, Dave Pirner, Paul Westerberg, Mike Watt and The Minutemen, Peter Buck, Chris Stamey (but dumped him from his post-Husker touring band because Stamey didn’t want to play loud enough), Anton Fier.
Bands/peopole he throws under the bus: His parents (abusive/abuse enabler), Bad Brains (homophobic), Minor Threat (dogmatic), Run Westy Run (blames them for getting Grant Hart hooked on smack), Husker Du bandmate Greg Norton (docile and — horrors! — he plays golf!).
Just getting to the formation of Sugar now.
I also got Graham Forbes’ Rock and Roll Tourist that I haven’t cracked yet.
I got The Stones Some Girls deluxe cd, but the bonus disk is cracked and the album itself has some weird haze on it so I have to take it back to Target. I also got the Stones Live in Texas DVD, which I haven’t had time to watch yet, and I’ve been keeping away from YouTubes of the songs and stuff so I can really crank it out and enjoy it.
My nephew got me a swell version of The Black Keys Brothers album. It’s not vinyl, but it’s a book with the cd in it. It’s a hardcover book with lots of neat black and white pics in it, and the cd fits in the back cover. It’s really cool!
I gave my youngest the new Tom Waits lp, and it seems to have come with a neat book, too. He also got some kind of Pro Tools microphone interface so he can record bands into Pro Tools instead of just mixing in it (I think). It was part graduation gift for getting his Associates degree in sound engineering. He says he knows how to use it and he was really excited about it, so that’s good! He played the Tom Waits while we were opening presents. It’s pretty good, but a little Tom Waits goes a long way for me.
CDs
Randy Newman’s new Live in London
The Mekons’ Edge of the World
The Quadrophenia reissue. Some of my favorite Who songs are here — “The Real Me,” “Punk vs. Godfather,” “Cut My Hair,” “I’m One,” “Drowned” — but if I’m being honest, this album could’ve used a culling just as much as Tommy did.
Books
Peter Doggert’s You Never Give Me Your Money, which I am digging into now. Gripping, and one of the best, most unvarnished yet sympathetic Beatles books I’ve ever read. Puts all the ass-kissing Fab Four bios to shame.
Will Hermes’ Love Goes to Buildings on Fire
2K man, can you help me out, I am holding off buying the 2 disc Some Girls until I get something clarified. I previewed some of the extra songs, some of which I’ve had in bootleg form for a long time. Some sound as I remembered, others sound very suspiciously like they’ve been tinkered with either in the vocals or in the instrumentation; but it might be otherwise. Given the mucking around they did with the Exile (pseudo) outtakes, I am wondering. Can you break this down for me?
Yes, they did overdubs and new vocals on several tracks. I haven’t listened yet because it was busted, but my wife says she has a new one at home for me. I like how they did it with Exile, so I assume I’ll like most of these. Those bootleg versions are totally unfinished, and I don’t want to hear Mick singing and mumbling off mic guide vocals, or a song with no guitar solo just because they stopped working on it in 1977 or 78. If they’re good enough to release, then they’re good enough to finish. I’ve got the bootlegs from that era (and many of them sound like official releases anyway), so I don’t need rehash.
I don’t think anything will be as good as Plundered My Soul or Aladdin Story, but I can hope. I hear Claudine sounds terrific, but that was quite finished and obviously an official “leak” back in 77.
Here’s what I got musically-wise for Chrimble this year (the 1st two are CDs, the rest books):
1. Charles “Packy” Axton: Late, Late Party
2. Swamp Dogg: It’s All Good: A Singles Collection1963-1989
3. Britpop! Cool Britannia & the Spectacular Demise of English Rock by John Harris
4. The Beach Boys FAQ by Jon Stebbins
5. Tell the Truth Until They Bleed by Josh Alan Freiedman
6. The Hardest Working Man: How James Brown Saved the Soul of America by James Sullivan
Our eldest gave me a thunder maker a bit like this one http://www.instructables.com/id/Thunder-Maker/, which is great fun and will be added to the didgeridoo/jews harp/mouth organ/wobble board making-our-own-entertainment set up, and makes a surprisingly effective dinner gong, being quite audible throughout the whole house.
I bought myself Michael Flanders’ autograph, which arrived on Christmas Eve, and gave our youngest the DVD of Frank Sidebottom’s Fantastic Shed Show TV series (Mrs H refused to allow me to add her name to the gift tag). I’ve had a couple of days off work and the eldest and I have been making the little one a papier mache Frank head, which Mrs H grumbles is cluttering the place up along with the ventriloquist dummy we’ve started making and the homebuilt full-size Dalek we’ve been working on for nearly three years.
Ah, well. I appreciate your sharing your take on this. Obviously we see things differently. I guess it boils down to a question of what one is looking for. As I probably commented when the farcical Exile “outtakes” were released, if the Stones want to put out a record of “new” material–that is to say, new songs making use of material recorded much earlier, a la much of Tattoo You–I am cool with that, in concept at least. But don’t put it out as Exile outtakes or Some Girls outtakes. Anyway, for myself, I would prefer the mumbling and no solo versions because I am interested in hearing the process more than I am interested in hearing how the 2011 “Rolling Stones” try to “finish” work done 35 years ago.
More Jon Pertwee, actually, although I was a year old when the first one went out and I’m told that I watched it, I can remember the William Hartnell ones vaguely. The Dalek is a 1964 one, silver with blue hemispheres, we’re hoping to have it finished in time to take out for the 50th anniversary. Which is your era, Joe?
I got:
– a pack of Ernie Ball Slinky guitar strings;
– a biography of Jerry Garcia;
– an iPhone. I added the garageband app to the iPhone and wrote a song on it yesterday. It’s a pretty cool app.
We gave my two kids (4 year old girl and a 6 year old boy) mp3 players and headphones. They’re really into them so the circle remains unbroken. In the course of loading songs onto their players, I learned a valuable lesson about downloading music from iTunes: don’t do it. Some of the songs that I downloaded will not go on the mp3 players because of some licensing or formatting issue.
They didn’t release either of these as “outtakes” though. They’re songs originally written during those sessions, and some of them are warts and all the way they were and some of them have new vocals or guitar overdubs where needed. If you want to listen to Mick yell out chord changes, that’s stuff is readily available for free all over the Internets these days. The only thing that can compete with them is finished product, and it’s really the only thing worth paying for. Yeah, the bonus disks add to the price of the album, but it’s not that much.
Some Girls bonus is really good. I’ve listened to it twice since I have one that’s not cracked now, and I’m really happy with it. I already had So Young from 94, but it’s great to have it come blasting out with a bunch of its contemporaries. Tallahassee Lassie was recorded live in a studio after Some Girls came out, but it fits nice. Claudine is a killer and I think it’s mostly very well done all around. here’s the gory details: http://www.rollingstonesnet.com/SomeGirls.htm
The Tom Baker era was the one I remember from the ’70s. They were broadcast @ our local PBS station in Boston (WGBH). My niece is a big fan of the latest version & I saw an episode on BBC America recently. Although I was pleased that the Beeb has budgeted a bit more than $127.65 for the special effects these days, the latest Doctor seemed a bit too “American” for me, a bit like Crispin Glover.
Thanks, 2K. We appear to be talking at cross purposes. I have the bootlegs. If they released that material in better sound quality (though the bootlegs are quite good), I am interested. If there are finished versions from 1978, I am interested. I am not especially interested in 1978+2011 versions which are being passed off as Some Girls material.
As the title says, “It’s All Good”! Seriously, I enjoyed it, especially since my favorite song of his, “Synthetic World” is on it. Some of the earlier songs have him sounding like Jerry Lee Lewis, while others sound like mid-60s soul.
I got to listen to this severla times today, and all I can say is it’s really, really fantastic. I didn’t expect to like it half as much as I do. I didn’t know there was another take of Keith singing We Had it All, Tallahassee Lassie sounds fantastic, and I think Keep Up Blues is my new favorite song, and Mick’s new vocals work MUCH better here than they did on the Exile tracks.
Matt Smith was born and grew up in Northampton, where I live. I think that the last couple of series have suffered from trying to be too clever, though, some of them are just exhausting to watch, although this year’s Christmas special was excellent, with references that kids can actually pick up on. Our eldest is the real Dr Who nut, he’s fourteen now and has been obsessive about it since he was three, the killing machine was his idea. He’s met and spoken to all of the surviving ‘classic’ series Doctors, Tom Baker is exactly as you would imagine him to be.
My 10th Holiday Mix Tape/CD entitled “Underwaterfiretruck” was given to 10 of my closest friends, as usual, but in a 2011 twist, it was also made into a Spotify Mix so that it could be shared with anyone that wants to hear it. This year features records that I bought from 2010-2011 (last year was songs that reminded me of my record store I owned in 1997)
I bought my 2 year old son a guitarele, which is a hybrid uke and classical guitar. Small enough for him to play but intended to be small so he will never “outgrow” it (and of course I can play it as well) basically a uke with two lower strings so that you can play it like a guitar tuned to A (like a capo on 5th fret)
Got a a Kindle and lots of Amazon and iTunes cash from family (they know that buying music for me is about impossible at this point).
Got tickets for Jason and The Scorchers 30th anniversary show in Atlanta (was 12/30). Amazing show by one of my favorite bands. I picked up their “new” cd (2010) on the Kindle and listened to it on the way home from the show (hows that for instant?)
Books by Eddie Trunk and Duff McKagen will keep me busy for the next few weeks.
The best musical gift this season was to myself. I have finally completed my solo EP. 6 songs and I played every instrument and sang every part. Took me most of 2011 to complete (in starts and stops). As soon as I have the files uploaded I will offer a free download to all townspeople. This is my first time as the singer or drummer on record (I have been the bassist or guitar player in bands) and the first time that I have recorded my own original songs with me singing them.
amazon.com is the best bet for mp3 players (actually for all players) since the songs are in mp3 format (rather than itunes .aac which is a quicktime format).
Quick fix. Record the itunes songs onto a CD and then re-import the songs into itunes as Mp3 files (not the default, you have to set this up), then the songs can be played on anything.
Thanks Jungleland. I ended up doing this but some that I bought through iTunes could still not be converted for some reason. But I’m going with Amazon from now on.
And more importantly, of course, what musically relevant gifts did you give?
There was lots of musical exchanges in the Royale extended family. Every year, Mr. Royale and I make a mix for my brother, sister, parents (frankly anyone remotely interested – music pushers that we are) of the year in music. They appear to enjoy this tradition, but perhaps they are just being gracious.
My brother – former lover of Human League – got the Aha Singles Collection that I mentioned in a previous post. He also requested Gorillaz so you get an idea of his musical tastes.
I’m not sure what music my sister received, although an uncle sent all three of us “Gershwin Plays Rhapsody in Blue – First Recordings 1924 From Rare Piano Rolls.” I’m not sure how he picked that out for all of us, other than he knows that we have frequent flier miles on United Airlines.
My parents gave me a collection of Bach as well as a DVD with the Kirov performing The Nutcracker. So I guess you could count Tchaikovsky on my musical list.
Mr. Royale got me Washed Out’s “Within and Without,” Toro y Moi’s “Underneath the Pine,” and Destroyer’s “Kaputt.” Of these, I’ve only partially listened to the Destroyer – sounds like a very nicely produced amalgam of The Pet Shop Boys and Prefab Sprout but other than that, I don’t get the hype. M. Royale also got me De La Soul’s “Buhloone Mind State” as we are slowly expanding our Native Tongues recordings. (BTW, that Tribe Called Quest documentary “Beats, Rhymes and Life” was all that!) I gave M. Royale David Crosby’s “If Only I Could Remember My Name,” the new King Krule, and a French Django Reinhardt covers collection.
I got rhe deluxe Quadrophenia box set. I feel like driving to and from the Jersey shore to listen to it in one shot, demos and all!
I gave my younger son a set of speakers for his ipod. I went light on musical pushing for once.
My in-laws got me several first issue Beatles nuggets while over in London on vacation. UK first issue of “Rubber Soul”, and the original 45s of “Lady Madonna” and “From Me To You.” Now – if only I still had a turntable.
My wife got me the deluxe edition (3 CDs, 1 DVD) of the McCartney II reissue. Great stuff, a very underrated album.
Oh, and two books: Greil Marcus’s “The Doors” and Will Hermes’s “Love Goes to Buildings on Fire.” Related, but not so directly, the same uncle who sent us all the Gershwin also sent Mr. Royale “You Are Not A Gadget” by Jaron Lanier, a book he had been coveting for a long time. Anyone read any of these?
Did they see “Back Beat” while they were there? I’m still trying to find someone to discuss it with.
Oh, and the coolest gift of all: RTH business cards!
Do you mean the movie “Back Beat”, about the Hamburg era Beatles?
I received two books —
Bob Mould’s autobiography — See A Little Light: The Trail of Rage and Melody. I’m about halfway through it — it’s not for everyone, but I enjoyed the Husker Du stories, descriptions of money issues, and tour notes. I didn’t know the backstory that Grant Hart was a junkie and this was a major reason Husker Du broke up.
Bands/people he likes: Henry Rollins, Dave Pirner, Paul Westerberg, Mike Watt and The Minutemen, Peter Buck, Chris Stamey (but dumped him from his post-Husker touring band because Stamey didn’t want to play loud enough), Anton Fier.
Bands/peopole he throws under the bus: His parents (abusive/abuse enabler), Bad Brains (homophobic), Minor Threat (dogmatic), Run Westy Run (blames them for getting Grant Hart hooked on smack), Husker Du bandmate Greg Norton (docile and — horrors! — he plays golf!).
Just getting to the formation of Sugar now.
I also got Graham Forbes’ Rock and Roll Tourist that I haven’t cracked yet.
I got The Stones Some Girls deluxe cd, but the bonus disk is cracked and the album itself has some weird haze on it so I have to take it back to Target. I also got the Stones Live in Texas DVD, which I haven’t had time to watch yet, and I’ve been keeping away from YouTubes of the songs and stuff so I can really crank it out and enjoy it.
My nephew got me a swell version of The Black Keys Brothers album. It’s not vinyl, but it’s a book with the cd in it. It’s a hardcover book with lots of neat black and white pics in it, and the cd fits in the back cover. It’s really cool!
I gave my youngest the new Tom Waits lp, and it seems to have come with a neat book, too. He also got some kind of Pro Tools microphone interface so he can record bands into Pro Tools instead of just mixing in it (I think). It was part graduation gift for getting his Associates degree in sound engineering. He says he knows how to use it and he was really excited about it, so that’s good! He played the Tom Waits while we were opening presents. It’s pretty good, but a little Tom Waits goes a long way for me.
I got:
CDs
Randy Newman’s new Live in London
The Mekons’ Edge of the World
The Quadrophenia reissue. Some of my favorite Who songs are here — “The Real Me,” “Punk vs. Godfather,” “Cut My Hair,” “I’m One,” “Drowned” — but if I’m being honest, this album could’ve used a culling just as much as Tommy did.
Books
Peter Doggert’s You Never Give Me Your Money, which I am digging into now. Gripping, and one of the best, most unvarnished yet sympathetic Beatles books I’ve ever read. Puts all the ass-kissing Fab Four bios to shame.
Will Hermes’ Love Goes to Buildings on Fire
Got my wife a new iPod.
Yes, and it was made into a West End play that I went to see in November. I was hoping someone else has seen it to discuss it…
2K man, can you help me out, I am holding off buying the 2 disc Some Girls until I get something clarified. I previewed some of the extra songs, some of which I’ve had in bootleg form for a long time. Some sound as I remembered, others sound very suspiciously like they’ve been tinkered with either in the vocals or in the instrumentation; but it might be otherwise. Given the mucking around they did with the Exile (pseudo) outtakes, I am wondering. Can you break this down for me?
Oats, the Doggett book is really quite good and leaves a bad aftertaste, but how could it not? Glad you are pleased with it.
What’s on the extra CDs and the DVD for the McCartney II reissue?
I’ve read that they did that ex post facto completion/overdub work again for this reissue.
I trust I don’t have to explain in detail how much that pisses me off.
Yes, they did overdubs and new vocals on several tracks. I haven’t listened yet because it was busted, but my wife says she has a new one at home for me. I like how they did it with Exile, so I assume I’ll like most of these. Those bootleg versions are totally unfinished, and I don’t want to hear Mick singing and mumbling off mic guide vocals, or a song with no guitar solo just because they stopped working on it in 1977 or 78. If they’re good enough to release, then they’re good enough to finish. I’ve got the bootlegs from that era (and many of them sound like official releases anyway), so I don’t need rehash.
I don’t think anything will be as good as Plundered My Soul or Aladdin Story, but I can hope. I hear Claudine sounds terrific, but that was quite finished and obviously an official “leak” back in 77.
Here’s what I got musically-wise for Chrimble this year (the 1st two are CDs, the rest books):
1. Charles “Packy” Axton: Late, Late Party
2. Swamp Dogg: It’s All Good: A Singles Collection1963-1989
3. Britpop! Cool Britannia & the Spectacular Demise of English Rock by John Harris
4. The Beach Boys FAQ by Jon Stebbins
5. Tell the Truth Until They Bleed by Josh Alan Freiedman
6. The Hardest Working Man: How James Brown Saved the Soul of America by James Sullivan
Britpop is a great book!
Our eldest gave me a thunder maker a bit like this one http://www.instructables.com/id/Thunder-Maker/, which is great fun and will be added to the didgeridoo/jews harp/mouth organ/wobble board making-our-own-entertainment set up, and makes a surprisingly effective dinner gong, being quite audible throughout the whole house.
I bought myself Michael Flanders’ autograph, which arrived on Christmas Eve, and gave our youngest the DVD of Frank Sidebottom’s Fantastic Shed Show TV series (Mrs H refused to allow me to add her name to the gift tag). I’ve had a couple of days off work and the eldest and I have been making the little one a papier mache Frank head, which Mrs H grumbles is cluttering the place up along with the ventriloquist dummy we’ve started making and the homebuilt full-size Dalek we’ve been working on for nearly three years.
I bet that you’re a Tom Baker man!
Ah, well. I appreciate your sharing your take on this. Obviously we see things differently. I guess it boils down to a question of what one is looking for. As I probably commented when the farcical Exile “outtakes” were released, if the Stones want to put out a record of “new” material–that is to say, new songs making use of material recorded much earlier, a la much of Tattoo You–I am cool with that, in concept at least. But don’t put it out as Exile outtakes or Some Girls outtakes. Anyway, for myself, I would prefer the mumbling and no solo versions because I am interested in hearing the process more than I am interested in hearing how the 2011 “Rolling Stones” try to “finish” work done 35 years ago.
More Jon Pertwee, actually, although I was a year old when the first one went out and I’m told that I watched it, I can remember the William Hartnell ones vaguely. The Dalek is a 1964 one, silver with blue hemispheres, we’re hoping to have it finished in time to take out for the 50th anniversary. Which is your era, Joe?
How is that Swamp Dogg, Diskojoe?
I got:
– a pack of Ernie Ball Slinky guitar strings;
– a biography of Jerry Garcia;
– an iPhone. I added the garageband app to the iPhone and wrote a song on it yesterday. It’s a pretty cool app.
We gave my two kids (4 year old girl and a 6 year old boy) mp3 players and headphones. They’re really into them so the circle remains unbroken. In the course of loading songs onto their players, I learned a valuable lesson about downloading music from iTunes: don’t do it. Some of the songs that I downloaded will not go on the mp3 players because of some licensing or formatting issue.
They didn’t release either of these as “outtakes” though. They’re songs originally written during those sessions, and some of them are warts and all the way they were and some of them have new vocals or guitar overdubs where needed. If you want to listen to Mick yell out chord changes, that’s stuff is readily available for free all over the Internets these days. The only thing that can compete with them is finished product, and it’s really the only thing worth paying for. Yeah, the bonus disks add to the price of the album, but it’s not that much.
Some Girls bonus is really good. I’ve listened to it twice since I have one that’s not cracked now, and I’m really happy with it. I already had So Young from 94, but it’s great to have it come blasting out with a bunch of its contemporaries. Tallahassee Lassie was recorded live in a studio after Some Girls came out, but it fits nice. Claudine is a killer and I think it’s mostly very well done all around. here’s the gory details: http://www.rollingstonesnet.com/SomeGirls.htm
The Tom Baker era was the one I remember from the ’70s. They were broadcast @ our local PBS station in Boston (WGBH). My niece is a big fan of the latest version & I saw an episode on BBC America recently. Although I was pleased that the Beeb has budgeted a bit more than $127.65 for the special effects these days, the latest Doctor seemed a bit too “American” for me, a bit like Crispin Glover.
Thanks, 2K. We appear to be talking at cross purposes. I have the bootlegs. If they released that material in better sound quality (though the bootlegs are quite good), I am interested. If there are finished versions from 1978, I am interested. I am not especially interested in 1978+2011 versions which are being passed off as Some Girls material.
As the title says, “It’s All Good”! Seriously, I enjoyed it, especially since my favorite song of his, “Synthetic World” is on it. Some of the earlier songs have him sounding like Jerry Lee Lewis, while others sound like mid-60s soul.
I got to listen to this severla times today, and all I can say is it’s really, really fantastic. I didn’t expect to like it half as much as I do. I didn’t know there was another take of Keith singing We Had it All, Tallahassee Lassie sounds fantastic, and I think Keep Up Blues is my new favorite song, and Mick’s new vocals work MUCH better here than they did on the Exile tracks.
Matt Smith was born and grew up in Northampton, where I live. I think that the last couple of series have suffered from trying to be too clever, though, some of them are just exhausting to watch, although this year’s Christmas special was excellent, with references that kids can actually pick up on. Our eldest is the real Dr Who nut, he’s fourteen now and has been obsessive about it since he was three, the killing machine was his idea. He’s met and spoken to all of the surviving ‘classic’ series Doctors, Tom Baker is exactly as you would imagine him to be.
I must have been naughty this year ’cause all I got was Neon Angel by Cherie Curie. I hope the book fills in the gaps from The Runaways movie.
My 10th Holiday Mix Tape/CD entitled “Underwaterfiretruck” was given to 10 of my closest friends, as usual, but in a 2011 twist, it was also made into a Spotify Mix so that it could be shared with anyone that wants to hear it. This year features records that I bought from 2010-2011 (last year was songs that reminded me of my record store I owned in 1997)
https://www.facebook.com/music/playlist/Under-Water-Fire-Truck-Eric-Lelands-2011-Sampler/10150446381414296
I bought my 2 year old son a guitarele, which is a hybrid uke and classical guitar. Small enough for him to play but intended to be small so he will never “outgrow” it (and of course I can play it as well) basically a uke with two lower strings so that you can play it like a guitar tuned to A (like a capo on 5th fret)
Got a a Kindle and lots of Amazon and iTunes cash from family (they know that buying music for me is about impossible at this point).
Got tickets for Jason and The Scorchers 30th anniversary show in Atlanta (was 12/30). Amazing show by one of my favorite bands. I picked up their “new” cd (2010) on the Kindle and listened to it on the way home from the show (hows that for instant?)
Books by Eddie Trunk and Duff McKagen will keep me busy for the next few weeks.
The best musical gift this season was to myself. I have finally completed my solo EP. 6 songs and I played every instrument and sang every part. Took me most of 2011 to complete (in starts and stops). As soon as I have the files uploaded I will offer a free download to all townspeople. This is my first time as the singer or drummer on record (I have been the bassist or guitar player in bands) and the first time that I have recorded my own original songs with me singing them.
amazon.com is the best bet for mp3 players (actually for all players) since the songs are in mp3 format (rather than itunes .aac which is a quicktime format).
Quick fix. Record the itunes songs onto a CD and then re-import the songs into itunes as Mp3 files (not the default, you have to set this up), then the songs can be played on anything.
Your musical holiday joy is infectious! Looking forward to hearing your finished EP.
Thanks Jungleland. I ended up doing this but some that I bought through iTunes could still not be converted for some reason. But I’m going with Amazon from now on.
bettye lavette tix for my parents
The gift of giving!