Music

• Midlake – Trials of Van Occupanther. Good 70′s style folk/rock album
• Brian Johnson – Love Came Down. Acoustic style worship album including cello and hammered dulcimer Sweet stuff.
• Hillsong – A Beautiful Exchange. Their new album is more of the same. Solid stuff but few standouts.

Books

• Malazan series – Stephen Erikson. First fantasy series I’ve read in years and one of the best, if most dense, I’ve ever read. After 4 books now I am hooked, and finally starting to follow some of the detailed back-stories. The endings of books 2 and 3 were very emotionally intense. Epic, brilliant stuff.
• The Reformation – Diarmid MacCulloch. Who knew a thick history book could be such a page turner? I’m currently reading this book and am enjoying it immensely. Good to finally get some balanced, in-depth story of a crucial turning point in history.

Movies - here’s a few I watched on the plane and in cinema recently

• It Might get Loud. Jimmy Page, The Edge, Jack White. If you don’t know who those guys are or the difference between Gibsons and Fenders then don’t bother. If you do know these things then this film is a must watch… I like the White Stripes but Jack White is out of his league with these other 2 legends.
• Anvil! The Story of Anvil. Great doco about a washed up Canadian 80′s metal band.
• Toy Story 3 – incredible conclusion to the trilogy. One of the few trilogies that just keeps growing with each installment. I must admit I got a little emotional here. Don’t bother with the 3D though – I don’t think it adds anything to the movie.

Places

• London. It rocks! Great city with a wealth of things to see and do. Say no more.
• Cambridge. If you ever get the chance to visit this University city then I highly recommend it. I was surprised just how much I loved this place. Heaps of brilliant architecture, quiet places to sit and reflect, and plenty of activities to take part in. Highlights include King’s College, Queens’ College and punting on the River Cam. Great place!
• Warnbro Church. Great vibe at present. Exciting times!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

“Stop asking God to bless what you are doing. Find out what God is already doing, cause it’s already blessed.”

I’ve posted some of their tracks before, but here’s a couple more from their second to last album “Your Love Never Fails” The first is the title track, that I just cannot stop listening to. The second features the brilliant vocals of Kim Walker – especially in the second half it is phenomenal. I love the semi-goofy stage presence she has also, like she’s just worshipping God in her own way, not trying to impress others. Listen out for her laugh in there too… I love that song but somehow the lyrics of the second verse still seem a little inappropriate but judge for yourself. Regardless, I am hooked on this band at the moment. Just wish we could introduce new songs a little faster at church – there’s just so much I would love for us to do!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

For more, browse YouTube, check out their website, or even better, get hold of some of their CDs for yourself. Brilliant!

Just got this today after pre-ordering it a few weeks ago. Looks like a beauty!

It includes

• Bluray concert disc
• DVD concert disc
• DVD Bonus features
• 7″ single
• 32 page hardback book
• Tour program
• Stage design poster
• Guitar picks

Can’t wait to put this Blu-ray on! First U2 concert ever released in high definition. Hopefully this will tide me over until U2 finally grace our distant shores sometime in 2011 (as long as Bono has recovered from his back injury by then).

Psalm 33:3 is a bit of a motto of our team… (in fact the whole of Psalm 33 is pretty cool)

Sing to him a new song;
play skillfully, and shout for joy.

So here’s a sneak preview of a song that a few of us are getting into at the moment, which may be one of the next cabs off the rank…

Click here to view the embedded video.

As I’ve listened to the CDs I’ve been reading through the wikipedia entries for each album so as to discover more about what the band were going through as they recorded each song. Currently I’m on All That You Can’t Behind, and I discovered a fascinating easter egg on the album cover that I was never aware of. If you look at the sign in the airport on the left it says J33-3⇛ whereas the original photo released to the press says F21-36. Now my copy has the J33-3 but it was interesting to see a few pictures with the other cover when I did a Google image search,

According to Wikipedia the J33-3 is a reference to one of Bono’s favourite Bible verses, Jeremiah 33:3 “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” God’s own phone call, according to Bono – now isn’t that cool?

Here’s the album covers so you can see for yourself :

The original photo (I’d be interested to know if anyone actually has a copy with this on?)

The J33-3 version (which is the one I have)

Long term readers of my blog (if there are any who didn’t give up years ago) will notice the increased frequency of posts lately. Looking back at all the twitter summaries and not much else I’ve decided to put a bit more effort into keeping this blog ticking over in a more interesting fashion…. oh and it’s providing me with yet another distraction to keep me from my Masters study (assignment due next week, exam in 2.5 weeks) – epidemiology is just too dry to maintain my interest for more than 15 minute blocks I’m afraid….

So for your entertainment tonight, here’s the current track playing on my CD changer (I have been enjoying a U2 marathon this week, but Zooropa just finished and I couldn’t be bothered getting up off the couch to put the next one on – Pop). I like this CD of John Mayer and this track is an awesome slow romance number – but the album cover is a shocker – just reminds me of some bad picture of Robbie Williams from the 90′s – and what’s with the super-size record company logo on the front?! – anyway, close your eyes, try and think of anything but that picture of John Mayer, and enjoy the song…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Patrick Park – yet another artist I’ve discovered recently. Thanks to Deano for the tip. This guy is great!

Have I mentioned how much I love this band? It’s just a shame this album is not in the iTunes store. You can get the CD from Amazon UK or Koorong (cheaper and faster if in Oz) if interested.

Anyway I’ve got a few new CDs over the last few months so I’m going to simply throw together my playlist out of them. Here’s some of the one’s I’ll be including (and I realise it’s not a particularly ‘cool’ list but so what)

1. Portland – These Broken Hands. This is an awesome easy folk rock band from the UK. Great harmonies. Pretty sure they are a Christian band but they’re not preachy about it. A belated answer to my friend’s question of a few weeks ago (can you suggest any good Christian music? – my initial answer was ummm ….. sorry) – but now I’d say – try this!

2. Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More. Still probably one of the best CDs I’ve bought in years. Love it. And despite that they are not a “Christian” band, their lyrics are very spiritual (except for the one obvious rude word on there.. lol). If you don’t have this album yet you must buy it immediately.

3. Bruce Cockburn – Slice o’ Life. If you don’t know Bruce he’s a Canadian folk-rocker who’s been putting out great music since the early 70s. Amazing acoustic guitarist and song-writer. This double CD is a live album from recent solo shows.

4. Gloriana – Gloriana. A guilty pleasure this one. It’s slickly produced country pop-rock that I just can’t help enjoying despite it’s unabashed commerciality. Almost every song is interesting. A band of beautiful people who all sing and play instruments – two young guys, two young girls including a hot blonde singer/mandolinist… how could I resist

5. Passion 2010 – Awakening. Live worship CD from the annual Passion conference in the USA featuring artists such as Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, Christy Nockels, and this year Hillsong United. Lots of great stuff this year, especially the title track from Chris Tomlin/Reuben Morgan, which I plan to introduce to our team in the next few weeks.

6. Katie Noonan & the Captains – Emperor’s Box. I’m always a big fan of Katie, the awesome and unpredictable singer. I love her jazz stuff with Elixir (and even her really weird Beatles jazz covers album), her pop CD Skin, and of course her work with George. The cover of this made me think she was going to go in a more folk direction but it’s mostly alt rock – closer to George than anything else she’s done but still quite different. I need to listen to this a few more times to get a feel for it.

7. Darius Rucker – Learning to Live. The ex “Hootie & the Blowfish” singer crosses over to become one of the first black country stars. An enjoyable, solid, if a tad cliched country album.

8. Bethel Live – Here is Love and Jesus Culture – Consumed. These bands seem to overlap so I’ll lump them together. It’s worship music from California and a couple of steps further in the Pentecostal/free worship direction than anything coming out of Hillsong. Really interesting and inspiring music including both original songs and covers… they even rehabilitate the song Healer, which dropped off the radar after the scandal with Mike Gugglielmucci in 2008. Such a good song and a shame to have it tainted by all that… if I ever get cancer (the real thing, not the fake sort) that will be the song I’ll be wanting to sing.

9. John Butler Trio – April Uprising. A bit more energetic album from JBT. Sounds fresh with his new band, and it’s a good thing.

10. Jimi Hendrix – Valleys of Neptune. It’s not the strongest of all his albums, but it’s Jimi so I need say no more. Some alternate versions of old classics and some unfamiliar stuff, like the title track, which is a good one.

Anyway that’s more than enough for a short trip down to Busso. A couple of other CDs on my list that I haven’t listened to yet are the new albums from William Fitzsimmons and Vicky Beeching, which I am expecting to be pretty good as well.

And to finish with the obligatory music video. I was looking for a clip of Portland, but couldn’t find anything on YouTube… so here’s Gloriana – this song sums them up pretty well I think – enjoy.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Obviously as far as games go they are very popular and fun for many people. But do they have any musical merit? Should musicians see them as a positive thing, negative, or indifferent? My own experience with these games began a couple of years ago with Guitar Hero II on the Xbox 360 (complete with plastic wired Gibson Explorer shaped guitar controller). I thought it was good but didn’t find it something I was motivated to come back to again and again. Recently I revisited the music game genre when Santa brought us a couple of the RockBand games for Christmas – we got Lego RockBand (which is great for kids) and The Beatles RockBand (great for me as I’m a massive Beatles fan) complete with wireless Hofner Bass controller, drums, and microphone. I’m not going to comment on these games specifically other than saying that I think the Lego game is a huge improvement to make these games more accessible to younger players. Previous games were/are just a bit too tricky for most kids below the age of around 10 to get into. This game adds a “Super Easy” mode which requires only a basic idea of rhythm and not the co-ordination skills usually involved in these games. The narrative is fun (like all the Lego computer games) and the song selection is good, truly making it a game the whole family can enjoy together. I hope future editions of RockBand and Guitar Hero will include a similar Super Easy mode for the little ones.

As for The Beatles’ game, it’s a great snapshot of the career of this great band. Musically and visually it’s excellent, though technically a little more challenging than the Lego game so not ideal for kiddies. The wireless Hofner bass controller is a beautiful thing – very high quality construction which doesn’t have the cheap plastic feel of my old guitar hero controller. And in case you were wondering it can be used for guitar and bass play – the controls are just the same.

Ok, enough about the games themselves… what about their musical merit?

My view is that these games are a good thing. If nothing else they challenge people’s timing and rhythm, improve co-ordination and possibly even their sense of pitch. The guitar play obviously doesn’t truly replicate a real guitar, with buttons instead of strings, however the finger movements, and the right-left hand co-ordination are important skills to develop in playing real guitar. You’re never going to be able to jump right from playing this game to playing a 6 string like Van Halen, but it might give you a little bit of an advantage in learning compared to a complete novice.

Drumming is probably one step even more realistic than guitar playing – it’s similar to having an electric drum kit – the physical movements of hitting the pads,  and using the kick pedal are pretty much the same as the real thing. My Beatles drum kit even came with real wooden sticks. I’m not a drummer but my feeling is that playing RockBand drums would give you a decent intro and a huge head-start for learning the real thing. Starting with the easy levels and moving through to expert would be a great way to develop pretty good rhythm skills.

And singing is well, singing. There’s nothing fake about singing into a microphone and hearing your voice back through speakers. And in many ways this is better than singing in the shower or singing along to a CD in your car because the visual cues in the game help with timing and pitch. I haven’t played any of the dedicated singing games (like Singstar or Lips) but the singing feature in RockBand itself is pretty cool. The Beatles game even allows you to sing harmonies and use multiple microphones. Not quite like having a singing teacher in your living room but still pretty good.

Beyond those technical skills I think these games offer two more things – music appreciation and inspiration. The repertoire of songs in these games is a great way of exposing younger generations to classic rock and pop music. My boys have been enjoying classic tracks from artists like Queen, Bon Jovi, Tom Petty, David Bowie, Bryan Adams and heaps more – even the Ghostbusters theme! (who knew that song had such cool guitar riffs?!? – see below) – and of course no one should be ignorant of the Beatles!

Secondly if playing these games inspires a few people to take up a real instrument themself, or gives them a bit of confidence that they might be able to, then surely that’s a good thing too!

Rock On!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

What’s notable is that they are releasing mono remasters of some of these albums, more like they were originally heard back in the 60′s. Apparently these mixes carry lots of little differences and details to give a quite different experience to the current (1987 era) CD versions. Very tempting, but perhaps for the time being I’ll just stick to my 1987 box set (complete with roller door… hehe – take a look at the picture. I still love that box – has pride of place in my music wall) – hard to justify spending that much on a bunch of albums I already own, even if they are much better versions. Sooner or later I’ll have to get them though as I do love The Beatles.

Also on 09/09/09 we’ll see the release of The Beatles RockBand game, which looks cool. I’m not a serious gamer but this is very tempting too… maybe something I’ll look at getting later in the year when I’m not so crazily busy.

And coincidentally on 9/9/9 there’s also a big music related Apple event scheduled where they are likely to be releasing new iPod models. Usually these events are held on a Tuesday so the fact it’s on a Wednesday on the same day as these other Beatles may herald the long overdue addition of The Beatles’ catalogue to iTunes. I won’t be buying them, since I already ripped my 1987 CDs into iTunes a long time ago, but it’s an important step so the younger generation of non-CD-buying iPod listening youths can have better access to some of the most important popular music ever made… Will also be interesting to see if Steve Jobs makes his first post-transplant public appearance here..

Just came across this piece of news : U2 super tour here – in 2011.

Now I’ll be amazed if the tour actually makes it to us in Perth. Usually it bothers me that big name artists always skip Perth on their tours – we’re a decent sized city not some little country town – but in U2′s case I will choose not to be angry. After all it does take 60 semi-trailers to cart their stage and equipment from city to city (wonder if The Edge has one of those just for his guitars and effects and amps?) and Perth is a very very long way from anywhere, as you can see on this map…

If you’re not familiar with Australian geography, consider that the whole continent is roughly the size of the continental USA, and basically the whole huge area between Perth and the blue bit is pretty much empty (Adelaide is the next reasonable sized city and they are pretty close to the blue section… U2 probably won’t make it to them either). Perth is the most isolated city of it’s size in the world. So I’ll make an exception for U2 and their 60 semi trailers and will quite happily fly across the country to see them (maybe in Sydney – middle of the green; or Melbourne – bottom of the blue)… now what would be cool is if they decided to just fly the band across and do some ultra-secret intimate gig somewhere in Perth and only a select few (including me) got invited – that would be awesome.

So anyway that’s my plan for 2011. If anyone ever hears about confirmed dates or ticket sales etc (or if you can score me an invite to the “secret Perth gig” – shhh…) please let me know straight away! I will be forever in your debt!

Anyway better get back to work and see if any patients have showed up (a bit slow today), and I’m due in theatre in half an hour or so..

Spent the first part of the evening playing with Apple GarageBand – such a fun and easy piece of software. The new version makes recording guitars so much better as it gives visual representation and control over virtual amps and stomp box effects. I also added in some nice clarinet and organ sounds. It took 2 clicks to send it to iTunes and now I have the fruits of my labour on my iPhone. Very cool. I could easily waste a lot of time on this program…

Anyway typing on an iPhone is a little slow and I have stuff to do so I’ll end this now.. hope it works

The music is inspiring and I like the comments he makes at the end… Enjoy.

Click here to view the embedded video.

One of the other things I am into (aside from country music and beer) is playing worship guitar in our band at church, but I’ve never found a way to combine the two (country and worship that is – hard to combine beer and worship…) until now…

Wash Away is a recently released album from a guy called Don Poythress who is a top songwriter in the Nashville scene, having written for quite a few big names in country music. He is also a worship leader at his church.  I really like this album for a number of reasons, and not just because it has a strong country flavour.

Firstly the songs are interesting. Often with worship CDs lately I find there’s 3 or 4 songs that grab my attention and then a lot of more mediocre, less memorable ones. On this CD almost every song has something interesting about it, even the songs I am less keen on still hold my attention. There is a creativity in the music that grabs me – partly it’s the lyrics, partly the song structure, and partly the instrumentation. Every song is different. They don’t all sound the same. There is plenty of musical space – but also plenty of moments of musical virtuosity (for want of a better word) that inspires me as a musician. For example the mandolin introduction on “The Faiithful Love of Jesus” is exquisite – I really must pick up my mando more and put more effort into learning it. And there’s plenty of nice slide guitar, acoustic, and of course distorted Telecaster licks on the album also.

Lyrically the album is good also. I think it’s probably hard to be original as a worship songwriter but Poythress does a good job of creating some fresh and inspiring songs which range from up-tempo country rock to more hymn like songs. Some of the ones I like best are Expectation, Fill Me Up (greater slow song – powerful lyrics), and A Thousand Generations (up tempo but interesting lyrical theme…) The title track is really good as well.

If you haven’t yet acquired a taste for country music, try not to let that put you off this CD. The songs could easily be reworked to de-countrify them for any sort of worship setting. I’m glad I thought outside the box of the usual suspects for worship music, and I would encourage you to get on your boots and do the same – it’s well worth the ride…

Things are super busy at the moment – work is busy, home is getting busy, out 4/7 nights this week with church related stuff, trying to fit in study for my new course in Diving medicine as well as get started on an assignment for my other unit, and of course fit in all the other things I want to get done – family time, get through some of my mountain of unread books, play my guitar etc etc. Oh and Owen seems to have come down with flu today quite badly 

So my plan now is to try and do a little bit of every thing every day so I don’t get to the end of the week and look back at all the things left undone. Part of that involves maximising my time at work so that when I have down time between patients (who inevenitably don’t show up or are late) I can do some blogging or study or whatever.

During one of those quite patches today I rediscovered this awesome page that I want to now link to for  future reference : A Study of The Edge’s Guitar Delay. This brilliant site examines in detail how The Edge achieves his sound. Worth looking at if you are a guitarist and a U2 fan (and in my mind there should be no guitarists who are not) – check it out.

And now, for your entertainment, here’s a song I used to like when I was a kid. I often chide my friend Gav for being a big Petra fan (he even bought 2 of their guitars even though he’s a keyboard player!), but I do have a history of listening to some dodgy Christian ‘metal’ myself… Unlike Gavin though, I moved on from that phase about 15 years ago… but this is one of the songs I used to like : X-sinner – Living on the edge

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

And while we’re on the topic, here’s another great but different version of this song, from a Ukelele maestro Jake Shimabukuro. I picked up this guy’s CD while we were in Hawaii a couple of years ago – it’s amazing. I often get tired of people mistaking my mandolin for a Ukelele (it’s got twice as many strings and looks and sounds completely different people!) but if I could play half as good as this guy I wouldn’t mind so much…

Click here to view the embedded video.

It’s a guitar that looks awesome, and sounds great too, with a nice thick full tone and heaps of sustain. It was my main axe for a long time but in the last couple of years has languished while I’ve primarily used my two Fenders – my VG Stratocaster that I bought in Nashville and my beautiful Custom Telecaster. Both of these are fantastic sounding versatile guitars that are a delight to play and are perfectly suited to worship music… but a Les Paul is still the ultimate guitar as far as I’m concerned.

Recently I’ve been inspired to get my Black Beauty out again and start playing it, although it needed new strings and had a couple of little crackles in the input jack and toggle… so I decided to give it a complete overhaul to make it better than ever.

The Problem

My main criticism of the Black Beauty has always been that you can’t take full advantage of the 3 pickups in the factory configuration, in which your three way toggle switch selects between the following 3 combinations of pickups :

• neck
• middle & bridge
• bridge

I never liked it that you can’t have a typical Les Paul middle position neck & bridge combination, and also that you can’t isolate the middle pickup on it’s own or with the neck pickup. Ideally they should have put in a 5 way switch to give a strat style combination of pickup options. Years ago when I first googled this I discovered some methods of adding a new switch and rewiring the guitar, but they seemed overly complicated and I was never brave enough to do it since it was my main guitar at the time.

The Solution

This time I discovered a simple more elegant way of rewiring the Black Beauty that didn’t require any new parts. Basically the aim is to create a guitar with a volume control for each of the three pickups, and a master tone control (who really needs two tone controls anyway?). The toggle switch would switch between pickups in the normal Les Paul style, ie :

• neck
• neck & bridge
• bridge

However the middle pickup would always be “on” independently of that switch so using it’s volume control I would have the option of dialing it in to any of the above combinations, or dialing out the other pickups if I want the middle one on it’s own.

I found some wiring diagrams online which portrayed this setup. Here are the two most useful ones I found (click on the pictures to see larger versions) :

Now I’m pretty much an electronics newbie, but on first glance these didn’t look too complicated to me. Unfortunately, once I’d removed the plates on the back of my guitar and looked into the control and switch cavities, I found myself totally bamboozled by what I saw. Anyone who’s not such a tech-newbie like me would hopefully find it somewhat less confusing. But anyway, I managed to disconnect all the existing wires, and re-route the wire from the middle pickup which was going to the switch, and instead point it down towards the control cavity. At this point I “phoned a friend” and called in my talented brother Kyle who knows much more about this kind of thing. He took the guitar away and got it all wired up just the way I wanted it.

Results

So now it’s like I have a new guitar all over again – and all polished up and shiny and with a new set of Elixir strings. Nice to be able to isolate the sounds of the ‘normal’ Les Paul pickups in the neck and the bridge and to be able to add in that middle pickup when I want to. Also never having been able to use that pickup on it’s own I didn’t realise what I was missing – the middle pickup has a nice treble sound to it but with a little less bite than the bridge pickup… nice for playing clean arpeggiated rhythms or U2 type stuff (have always loved listening to their stuff but only now getting game enough to try playing it… spent half the evening at our home group the other night jamming out some U2 stuff on Gav’s new guitar… also helps that I have an awesome new delay pedal, which I may or may not get around to blogging about.. a TC Nova delay).

Anyway it makes the 3 pickup Les Paul the versatile instrument it always should have been… sounds great and I will definitely not be neglecting it as I have done over the last couple of years. It’s actually good to give me another tonal option in addition to my Strat and Tele – both of these are still a good fit for a lot of the worship music we do at church – the challenge will be picking the songs where the Les Paul will be a good option. My favourite song we used to do which sounded great on the Les Paul was ‘Take Me In’ which we did in a lot heavier style than the Kutless version. It was in F#m which is an awesome key for Slash sounding lead work and also allowed me to play in drop-D for heavier sounding power chords… but it’s been a while since we’ve done that one… I still haven’t got a song list for this Friday’s service, but I will definitely find a way to include the Black Beauty in there somewhere (especially since it’s my last service for a few weeks as I’m off to Queensland for Uni next week..)

Doesn’t make sense to me. I either want my music in one of two formats – either a digital file for my iPod or a physical medium such as a CD with artwork and liner notes that I can file on my shelf. The other advantage of CDs being the quality of the sound is generally better than most compressed digital files such as mp3, aac, wma etc. The disadvantages of the Micro-SD concept are many. If I want digital files I will download them from somewhere like the iTunes store or just rip them from CDs I have bought (my method of choice since that way I have the best of both worlds) – I’m not going to go and physically buy cards with songs on. This would mean either having to continually swap cards every time I want to listen to a different album or to use a computer to transfer them onto a larger card or hard drive based MP3 player (like my iPod). One of the big advtanges for me of an iPod or similar MP3 player is the ability to carry around a library of music so you can select what you want to listen to based on your mood, or just randomise it. So why would I want to carry around a bunch of little fingernail sized cards that can easily get lost? Crazy. Plus it will also necessitate people going out and buying new MP3 players and phones which support Micro-SD. In an age dominated by iPod and iPhone, I can’t see this happening to the extent required for this to be successful.

The future of music is continued growth of online downloads and ongoing improvement of MP3 devices to play those downloaded files. Wireless purchasing like on the iPod touch and iPhone will gradually become more widespread for those who want to get new music while they are out and about and listen to it immediately. Hopefully at some point a worthy successor to the humble CD will catch on and gain wide acceptance (like Blu-Ray is succeeding DVD, albeit very slowly). This will be some sort of high definition audio contained on a standard sized disc, with all the usual booklet/notes/lyrics etc. I know there have been a few candidates in recent years but none has really caught on. This is where the industry needs to get together to build consensus but in times dominated by digital music downloads and the recent video format wars I guess it’s not a priority issue. Whatever the future of audio is, Micro-SD is a dead end alleyway.

So I was pleasantly surprised with my first listen to the band Casting Crowns. I’ve heard their name plenty but never felt compelled to listen to their music until I picked up their CD Lifesong at Koorong recently (partly due to a recommendation in a recent book I read by Roger Olson). Well it’s a great CD. Musically very tight, melodic and interesting. The main male vocalist sounds a bit like Neil Diamond in places but that’s not necessarily a bad thing And the lyrics are honest and original and generally down to earth. Only a couple of lines in one (otherwise very cool) song I didn’t quite see eye to eye with theologically, but at least the fact that I have listened that intently shows how much the music and lyrics have otherwise got me hooked in. I keep intending to take this CD out of my car and play something different, but after at least 5 times through I’m still keen. Well worth getting hold of.

Here’s one of my favourite tracks – Praise you in the storm

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here’s the lyrics to just one of the good songs on the album, Stained Glass Masquerade. I love the realism and honesty here :

Is there anyone that fails
Is there anyone that falls
Am I the only one in church today feelin’ so small

Cause when I take a look around
Everybody seems so strong
I know they’ll soon discover
That I don’t belong

So I tuck it all away, like everything’s okay
If I make them all believe it, maybe I’ll believe it too
So with a painted grin, I play the heart again
So everyone will see me the way that I see them

Are we happy plastic people
Under shiny plastic steeples
With walls around our weakness
And smiles to hide our pain
But if the invitation’s open
To every heart that has been broken
Maybe then we close the curtain
On our stained glass masquerade

Is there anyone who’s been there
Are there any hands to raise
Am I the only one who’s traded
In the altar for a stage

The performance is convincing
And we know every line by heart
Only when no one is watching
Can we really fall apart

But would it set me free
If I dared to let you see
The truth behind the person
That you imagine me to be

Would your arms be open
Or would you walk away
Would the love of Jesus
Be enough to make you stay

More lyrics from the album here.

Old style music

Originally uploaded by baggas.

Visited my dad tonight who had just been given a massive pile of old LPs by his brother, who was doing a big clean up. Amongst it all there were a few gems and I managed to grab a heap, some of which you can see in the picture. Mostly it’s 70′s stuff – Bowie, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, Iggy Pop, Deep Purple, Led Zep and many others. I also inherited a Yamaha turntable so I can play them – it just needs a new stylus. Was funny showing the boys how we used to listen to music in the ‘olden days’ when I was a kid, before CDs were invented. Strange how the world has changed so much in such a short space of time…

Into the Wild was the first one. This is a true story of a young guy named Chris who, upon college graduation, decides to leave his troubled family life behind and disappear, living life as a “supertramp.” Ultimately he finishes up living a solitary existence in an abandoned bus in the wilds of Alaska, but on the way we share in his journeys across America and the people and places he encounters. As the story progresses we learn more of the back story of his home life that led to him doing this, and also of the anguish of those he left behind. This is a brilliant movie – one of the best I’ve seen in a long while. Amazing scenery combined with fantastic performances as the odd-ball characters that Chris encounters along the way. It is a classic road movie but with an emotional intensity and depth few road movies can match. Nevertheless it’s added further fuel to my burning desire to get out and travel again, particularly to America – I just can’t wait to get back over there!

The icing on the cake of this already excellent movie is the wonderful soundtrack by Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder – a bunch of original acoustic folky songs that fit perfectly with this film. I got this soundtrack (from iTunes ironically) last year before my last trip to Africa and have been looking forward to seeing the movie ever since.

Briefly, the other movie we watched was Run, Fatboy, Run! This is an English take on a romantic comedy formula you’ve probably seen at least half a dozen times before. You know, the one where the slightly screwed up nice guy who goes for regular visits with his child meets the new boyfriend of the child’s mum, who he is still carrying a torch for. The new guy is always “perfect” on paper – wealthy, good looking, great job, apparently good with kids. And then the rest of the movie shows how the dad works at keeping his kid, regaining the love of the mother, and generally proving that he’s at heart a better man than Mr Perfect. Run fatboy, run takes that tested formula and delivers it in the manner of the standard British comedy, set in London with a range of colourful supporting characters. Simon Pegg does a good job as Dennis, the main character, and he’s well supported by a good cast including Hank Azaria who plays the American interloper Mr Perfect (“Whit”). Interestingly, this movie was directed by David Schwimmer (who I assume is the same guy as Ross from Friends?), yet it still retains that British film-making feel. It’s a predictable movie, but still worth watching for a bit of fun.

Interestingly though, even though only 1% of iTunes software users shop through the store, it has still become the number one music retailer in the US, surpassing Wal-Mart. I would imagine we will begin to see that 1% figure start to rise a little bit, in view of that.

Excellent article here looking back on ten years since the first MP3 players were produced. The author mentions some of the good things about digital music, but also some of the things he misses such as borrowing and lending music, shopping for used music, album liner notes and artwork, and (my favourite) music as furniture.

I can relate to many of his points. I jumped on the MP3 bandwagon fairly early, using my dialup connection in the heyday of Napster to download hundreds of tracks. It was slow but fun in a way, and challenging -like trying to find that elusive final song you were missing from an album, or the rare album that few people had. And although it was anonymous there was still the pleasure of finding a user with similar music tastes and a huge collection of songs – even better if they had a fast internet connection to leech from. And there was the built in chat box that added at least a little bit of human interaction into the process. None of the P2P software I’ve used since has been quite the same, although I did use one called DC++ a few years back that came close. But by then we had broadband, which took some of that challenge out of the whole thing and gave us the ability to flood our hard drives with vast quantities of files that we were unlikely to ever seriously listen to. And after a while the whole downloading thing just lost it’s shine. Now we have bit-torrent which is easy and fast, but no fun.

Going back to the points in the article above I guess I’ve come the full circle as well. I now purchase more CDs than I ever have before. Admittedly it’s partly because I have more income than before, but it’s also because I like to have the CDs in my hand, reading the notes, looking to see what track is coming up next, and sitting on my shelf as a reminder of what I have and what I like, instead of being tucked away on a hard drive. I totally get the whole “music as furniture” appeal – a bit chunk of the wall in the room I’m sitting in is full of CDs (as you can see in the photo, taken from the couch I’m sitting on with my iSight camera). A related concept is the “books as furniture” one – few things make a room or house more inviting and appealing than shelves and shelves of books. If you’ve been to my house you’ll know I’m definitely a big adherent to this.

I love my iPod and having a collection of digital music at my fingertips, but it’s still just not the same as having something physical to hold, to collect, and to enjoy as part of the overall experience of the music. I’ve bought a few albums over iTunes but probably at least half of those I’ve then gone on to purchase the physical CD. Nowadays I don’t bother as much with the iTunes store unless I’m in a real hurry to get something or if I just want an individual track for some reason (like this Reindeer song I sang at our Christmas carols event last year). I did get one album on iTunes last month – Luka Bloom’s Before Sleep Comes (which is a brilliant mellow acoustic album) but I liked it so much I’ll definitely be getting the CD. I rarely acquire music now by less legitimate means, but even then it will usually now lead to a purchase. For example I’ve had the O Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack languishing on my hard drive for years (I think I actually got it when I traded some MP3 CDs with a friend rather than downloading it myself) – never listened to it until a month or so ago, and when I finally did I immediately went out and bought the CD at the next opportunity.

So from my perspective at least the music industry need not fear the death of the CD just yet. For all it’s benefits digital music is still just not quite the same.

The remainder of this post will be a bit of a test post to try and make sure some things are still working… but read on nonetheless…

To test the YouTube embedding, here’s a video clip from Nickel Creek, one of my favourite bands at the moment, and part of my ongoing journey into bluegrass…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here’s a quote from one of the books I’m currently reading :

Our life’s dance is not painted for us in footsteps on the floor. It’s not laid out so we know where to place our next step. We simply have to judge which steps best fit the rhythms that we hear.

~ Paul Marshall Heaven is not my Home p62

And the new version has tags. I’ve never previously bothered to use tags on my blog, choosing to stick simply with categories. But since wordpress 2.5 supports it natively, and the rest of the web is going that way, I guess I’ll be tagging my blog posts from now on…

Having said that I have to admit that in general, those old hymns often have a lyrical quality and theological depth that is in the most part lacking in our modern worship anthems and ballads. The song excerpted below is a good example – it actually conveys a (perhaps neglected) biblical truth and engages both the mind and the emotions. Too often our modern songs just work on the latter. I guess the challenge here is for the next generation of worship songwriters to learn from those old hymns, not to emulate them in terms of musical style, but to aspire to that same level of deeper truth in the lyrics. Easier said than done though…

This is my Father’s world. O let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world: the battle is not done:
Jesus Who died shall be satisfied,
And earth and Heav’n be one.

Maltbie D Babcock – 1901 – click for the entire song lyrics (good), including cheesy Midi music (beware!)…

Despite the convoluted title, this is a great album. Essentially it’s like a live ‘greatest hits’ package from Hillsong United, with two full discs of tracks recorded in various locations on every continent (wish our worship band could go on tour like that… lol). Although the locations vary, the album flows seamlessly between tracks (and in some cases even within tracks). For the past few years I’ve found that the majority of the good songs to come out of Hillsong have originated on the United youth albums and this album distills most of the best of those songs into the one package. The recording quality is excellent (as usual for Hillsong) but retains an authentic live feel, and it’s nice to hear some fresh versions of some familiar songs. Pleasingly for me, United’s music is very much guitar driven, and the guitars cut through here even more strongly than usual – they’ve really captured some brilliant guitar tones. These CDS will be on high rotation for me for a long time I think (along with all the bluegrass stuff of course, and Dream Theater’s Greatest Hit, which I picked up the other day). Without a doubt Hillsong United are putting out some of the best worship music on the planet.

This album is just the first part of this ‘I Heart Revolution’ project from United. I’m not clear on the details of this but it seems to involve a heavy emphasis on missions and justice issues as part of their world touring. Nice to see this sort of emphasis coming strongly out of Hillsong (you can hear it in a lot of the lyrics as well) and especially the youth. It’s only as the church gets fired up that issues of poverty and justice are going to be more effectively addressed, and I think that Christian youth will be in the vanguard of this – look forward to seeing where it all leads.

My latest Mac win is another piece of great software I downloaded last night. After the fire the other day (which actually didn’t even come close to threatening our home – my brother’s house was much closer to his fire) I got to thinking a little bit about insurance and replacing all our stuff if it was lost. Aside from the fact that the insurance probably wouldn’t come close to covering it all, I was reminded of the need to keep track of things – specifically all my books, CDs, DVDs etc. Well books are already taken care of by my online catalog at LibraryThing (which I have recommended a number of times already – awsome site). Unfortunately I couldn’t find any comparable online catalog for my DVDs and CDs – if anyone has any suggestions I’d be glad to hear them. So I decided to go with a software solution.

After looking at a few alternatives I settled on the ‘pedias’ from Bruji. They have a suite of four programs CDpedia, DVDpedia, Bookpedia, and Gamepedia for cataloguing those things. Very powerful software with a host of options I haven’t explored yet. Data entry is easy – you can scan the barcodes of your CDs using the iSight camera on your Mac – which works quite well, just takes a few goes to get used to. Or you can use a handheld scanner like a cuecat (which I have and works reasonably well). It then uses the barcode data to look up your CD, DVD, book etc on an online database like Amazon (or many others) to retrieve the cover art and lots of other info. You can customize your library with various custom fields and of course tags. All of this is integrated with spotlight for easy searching. There’s plenty of other features which you can check out on their website but already I’m finding this software a joy to use.

One feature I’m yet to try is the web export function which lets you export your catalogs to a website. I’ll do this once I’ve entered all my data and will post links in a few days. But this is perhaps my one disappointment with this (and other similar) software. What would be really great would be if you could somehow dynamically synchronise your library from this software with an online catalog (akin to LibraryThing) so as to have your data permanently available on the web and up-to-date. Maybe this is possible somehow but I’m yet to see it. If not perhaps they could look at making this part of a future version.

But overall, yet another very useful piece of Mac software

Click here to view the embedded video.

For those instruments that I don’t possess and/or can’t play myself, Garageband fills the need, with a huge range of software instruments and a nifty “musical typing” keyboard for adding piano or any other virtual instrument. Of course you can also plug in a Midi piano but I’d have to work on my keyboard skills to make much use of any of that. One of the coolest things is that there is a huge database of pre-recorded loops to jam along to or I can create a “Magic Band” in moments in a range of styles – an instant backing band! It also integrates well with other iLife software like iMovie and iTunes so any tracks I record are instantly available to download to my iPod or mobile, or to use in any video projects – watch out YouTube!

As I said I’ve barely scratched the surface of what this software can do but so far I’m having a lot of fun

I bet no-one could make Hillary sound this cool. 

Click here to view the embedded video.

Coincidentally, I’m working through the Led Zeppelin back catalog at the moment. Having gotten hold of the remastered CD and HD-DVD of “The Song Remains the Same” and their new compilation “Mothership.” After just listening to their first two albums over the the last couple of days I was reminded of what an awesome band they are. This is a band where each of the four members would be a candidate for “best _ _ _ of all time status” Not only do they have the aforementioned vocals of Robert Plant and the legendary Jimmy Page on lead guitar, but the huge sounding drum work of John Bonham and the melodic bass of John Paul Jones are amazing. These latter two members of the band may not get as much attention as their colleagues but every time I listen to Led Zep I am reminded of just how great the rhythm section of this band was – that’s why they are still probably the ultimate ‘super-group’ in my opinion. Looking forward to revisiting the rest of their albums over the coming weeks.

A different story with my Digitech GNX4 guitar effects board. For many months I have had problems with this since Digitech were extremely slow in releasing drivers for it to work with Vista (they finally have within the last few weeks). And now it seems I can’t get it working with my Mac. Not sure if this is a problem relating to the new Leopard version of OSX or what but it’s quite frustrating. Not only can I not install the X-edit software for editing my effect presets on the GNX4, but I cannot even use it as a recording input via USB. It shows up in audio preferences and I can even “see” the sound when I play guitar on the little input meter – but when I load up recording software like GarageBand or Audacity it complains of MIDI driver clashes and refuses to work. Very frustrating – mostly I blame Digitech for this – releasing a product and not providing adequate software support to ensure it works on all platforms. I’m still exploring the forums and hoping for a way around this but I’m not holding my breath.

Finally I’ll just mention the cool iSight camera that is built in to the MacBook Pro. Very handy for recording little video clips like in the intro to the video below of Luke playing piano. The picture quality is very good and it’s quick and easy to use. The iChat software for video chat seems pretty cool, with some fun background and picture effects the kids enjoyed playing around with. Sadly it is not compatible with MSN which is where my few chat contacts hang out – but I’ll see if there’s a workaround for that. I’m not a heavy duty chat user anyway, but this camera may well come in handy for other things.

In the meantime, enjoy Maestro Luke…

Click here to view the embedded video.

And it’s at this point that I rummage around my hard drive for all my Christmas MP3s. For some people it’s putting up the tree, for others it’s lights on the house or a wreath on the door – for me it’s copying my Christmas songs into iTunes that marks the beginning of the festive season. Copied off CDs or downloaded from the net, I have accumulated a lot of Christmas music over the years – I’m now over 1,500 songs. I’ve got all sorts, from Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Elvis (of course), through to Christina Aguleira and even David Hasselhoff! Christmas is the one time of year where kitsch is in, and no style of music is off limits – even Neil Diamond sounds cool when he’s doing a Christmas carol. This year I’ve been into country music all year, and so I’m working on finding a few more country Christmas songs for my collection.

All this was triggered off by music practice last night where we started to get organised for our upcoming carols concert in December. Once again, I’m not really a big fan of old hymns in church, but I’ll make an exception for Christmas carols. It was great grabbing an acoustic guitar and having a bit of a sing-along last night – even let the country influence creep in there too   It’s a great time of year…

1. Most blues begin “woke up this morning.”2. “I got a good woman” is a bad way to begin the blues, unless you stick something nasty in the next line. I got a good woman – with the meanest dog in town.

3. Blues are simple. After you have the first line right, repeat it. Then find something that rhymes. Sort of. Got a good woman with the meanest dog in town. He got teeth like Margaret Thatcher and he weighs about 500 pounds.

4. The blues are not about limitless choice.

5. Blues cars are Chevies and Cadillacs. Other acceptable blues transportation is Greyhound bus or a southbound train. Walkin’ plays a major part in the blues lifestyle. So does fixin’ to die.

6. Teenagers can’t sing the blues. Adults sing the blues. Blues adulthood means old enough to get the electric chair if you shoot a man in Memphis.

7. You can have the blues in New York City, but not in Brooklyn or Queens. Hard times in Vermont or North Dakota are just depression. Chicago, St. Louis, and Kansas City are still the best places to have the blues.

8. You can’t have the blues in an office or a shopping mall; the lighting is all wrong.

9. The following colors do not belong in the blues:
a. violet
b. beige
c. mauve

10. Good places for the Blues:
a. the highway
b. the jailhouse
c. the empty bed

11.Bad places for the Blues:
a. Ashrams
b. Gallery openings
c. weekend in the Hamptons

12. Do you have the right to sing the blues?

Yes, if:
a. your first name is a southern state-like Georgia
b. you’re blind
c. you shot a man in Memphis.
d. you can’t be satisfied.

No, if:
a. you were once blind but now can see.
b. you’re deaf
c. you have a trust fund.

13. No one will believe it’s the blues if you wear a suit, unless you happen to be an old black man.

14. Neither Julio Iglesias nor Barbra Streisand can sing the blues.

15. If you ask for water and baby gives you gasoline, it’s the blues. Other blues beverages are:
a. wine
b. whiskey
c. muddy water

16.Blues beverages are NOT:
a. Any mixed drink
b. Any wine kosher for Passover
c. YooHoo

17. If it occurs in a cheap motel or a shotgun shack, it’s blues death. Stabbed in the back by a jealous lover is a blues way to die. So is the electric chair, substance abuse, or being denied treatment in an emergency room. It is not a blues death if you die during a liposuction treatment.

18. Some Blues names for Women
a. Sadie
b. Big Mama
c. Bessie

19. Some Blues Names for Men
a. Joe
b. Willie
c. Little Willie
d. Lightning

20a. Persons with names like Sierra or Sequoia will not be permitted to sing the blues no matter how many men they shoot in Memphis.

20b. Other Blues Names (Starter Kit)
a. Name of Physical infirmity (Blind, Cripple, Asthmatic)
b. First name (see above) or name of fruit (Lemon, Lime, Kiwi)
c. Last Name of President (Jefferson, Johnson, Fillmore, etc.)
Mix and Match

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“Now that I have seen, I am responsible. Faith without deeds is dead…”

Here’s something to keep an eye out for – the annual Country Music Awards happens tonight in Nashville (hopefully it’ll be broadcast on the Country Music Channel). Aussie Keith Urban is up for best album with his Love, Pain, and the Whole Crazy Thing, which is an excellent country/pop/rock album with some great tracks. I had the misfortune of hearing a Phil Collins version of the Leo Sayer classic “Can’t stop loving you” whilst driving around Johannesburg and was horrified at the anaemic 80s sound. Keith does a far superior version on this album. “Stupid Boy” is another of my favourite tracks from this CD.

Another contender for best album mentioned in the article above is These Days, a four disc opus from Vince Gill. I haven’t come across this album before but looking at the names of some of his colloborators it’s definitely one I want to check out. Might be perfect for my drive down to Busselton this weekend with the boys if I can find it by then. I may have to source it on iTunes though, since our music stores here in Western Australia generally have a pitifully small country music section.

Anyway, speaking of Keith Urban, here’s a video I posted on my facebook yesterday of him performing with Australian roots band The John Butler Trio, originally from Perth. They are another of my favourite bands so seeing John Butler and Keith Urban performing together is a real treat. Anyone who doubts Keith’s ability on the guitar just check this out…

Click here to view the embedded video.