Kelly Fest Post Game

Whew! It's been a hell of a weekend, but I'm ready to make a post.

All right, my set started around 1:10, and the guy in charge of booking let me get set up. The great thing was that he let my set go on as long as it needed. I was planning on 15 minutes, but it ran on for a bit longer.

Break it down!

No, not you, JFlo.

OK, that was cool. But just roll with it.

ARE YOU GONNA BE MY GIRL- *****
Eh, the sound was off, and I got lost like once, but everyone seemed to be into it.
I got applause at the end.

HOLIDAY- ****
I played this at Tabler Open Mic before, and got a lukewarm response. The difference this time, was that the audience had to prove that they rock harder than Tabler.
Messed up the solo, but other than that, it went over pretty good.

KNOWLEDGE- ***
This is the point where things seemed to go down hill. I kept losing my place. That's the big drawback with working on a backing track. If I don't hear a particular fill or riff, I'm lost.

RADIO DAYS PART I- ****
Picked it up a bit here. Messed up the solo, but the rest seemed OK.

FORCE A NATURE- ***
See Knowledge. But I NAILED both those solos.

DAYMAN- *****G
PERFECT SONG TO GO OUT ON! I even got a guy to come up and sing with me! I didn't have a loop going, but the "acoustic" version was just as good.

MANLINESS!!!

GRRR MANLINESS!!!

MANLY MEN DOING MANLY THINGS!!

AS WELL AS SOMETHING FROM THE ART OF MANLINESS THAT MADE ME THINK A BIT:

"I’ve taken some flack for being too hard on video gamers. In truth, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with playing an occasional video game. The reason I frequently mention video games in connection with the problem of arrested manhood, is not the games themselves, but what they symbolize.

Whereas men once fought as soldiers, they now pretend to be ones. Where men used to play baseball and football, they now control avatars who play for them. Where men used to play an instrument, they now press buttons on a plastic toy. Where we once created, we now consume.

Why play a plastic guitar for hours instead of learning how to play the real thing? The answer of course it that doing the real thing is harder. Struggling with something tangible, something without a reset button takes dedication and commitment. So why bother?

The labor one performs transforms something in the environment, which in turn transforms you. The act of creation shapes you as a man, refines your sensibilities, improves your strengths, hones your concentration, and builds your character. Passive consumption leaves you untouched and unchanged. Consumptions breeds indifference; creation begets empowerment."

Good show, ol chaps!

KellyFest 2010!

Got a part in my first fest!

From Facebook:
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2nd Annual Kelly Arts and Music Festival
Saturday, April 24th 2010
Outside of Kelly Dining in the Quad!
12PM-7PM

THIS EVENT IS COMPLETELY FREE.
FREE MUSIC, FREE SNACKS, FREE GAMES, FREE ARTS AND CRAFTS, FREE FUN!

Artists performing (subject to change):
MY STRAPPING STIMULUS PACKAGE
MAGNIFICENT BEAST
THE PROMISE
BEN AND JOSH
STONY BROOK LIVE
JFLO
DOUG VAETH & FRIENDS
NICK STEPHANI
THE RHYTHM BASTARD
& MORE

**This is an outdoor event**
--------------------------------------------------------------------

I'll be going on at 1:00 PM. It'll be in front of the Kelly Dining Center on the Stony Brook campus. Any directions will be put here.

So I'll be working on some new shit.

All I Remember Is, There Was Noise...

And it was all blue.

So anyways, a friend of mine, Steve, played drums with me tonight. He, like me, are both victims of "Side Project Syndrome", where anytime you're part of band, it's always every other member's OTHER band. So while you want to rock, they're going to bail because their altertaive-indie-emo outfit has a gig at this place in the city AND RECORD PRODUCER MIGHT SHOW UP if he feels like it cause his kids has a big little league game. I think the Peter Pan Games Tigers can beat the Whitestone Laundromat Yankees this year!

Anyway, here's the breakdown-

SONG OF THE CENTURY- **
My voice sucks, no studio monitor, I went "Fuck it" halfway through. NEXT!

BRAIN STEW- ***
It went good for a while, but then I forgot the words to the third verse. D'oh! Still we meshed OK considering our limited practice schedule.

STEVEN WELLS (HE WAS THE GREATEST)- ***
That one practice session was maybe 1 hour long. Remember kids, by yourself or in a band, FUCKING PRACTICE. At least I got another guy turned on to Akira The Don. The main problem with that practice session is that you're not sure when to end. Steve can keep a beat and bang out a fill, no doubt. But trying to mouth to him "OK, one more go around," was impossible with all the noise.

KNOWLEDGE- ***
At this point we lost the crowd with our obscure songs, and what didn't help matters was that he wanted to learn this song ON THE WAY THERE.

Case in point, practice makes perfect, kids! Or at least mediocre.

Me Liveblogging Octavarium

Just got back from an Open Mic at a place that doesn't suck, will write about later.

All right, so Monday was some Guitar Hero tournament on campus, and I won 2nd place. My prize was an autographed copy of any Dream Theater album I wanted. I don't listen to Dream Theater, but hey, free music. Since I'm a little buzzed from said Open Mic place, I figured I'd review it as I listened to it, since I got homework to do as well.

OK, ripping it, holy shit these are some long ass songs. 24:00? Shit.

Track 1- DUNNNNNNN. OK, now it's got some cool synth thing going on. OK, now it went from movie sountrack, to this pretty groovy song. Then it's over and I'm in the forest.

Track 2- It's weird for a band that did "Panic Attack" do this little Piano diddy. Then again, Green Day did it too... Sounds a bit like Queen.

Track 3- LAWNMOWER OUT OF FUCKING NOWHERE!!!

Fuck it, I'm too drunk for this shit...

Leave a comment in this webzone if you want some Pizza rools...

The Riff At Port Jefferson Sucks

Seriously. I go to play a gig with this guy who wants to drum for me. We get there at 8, CLOSED. Why? "Death In The Family". This is the second time the place shafted me. One night, they were like "Yeah, nobody showed up so we closed." At 9 PM.

It sucks because this time I had something that resembled a merch table.

So add The Riff to "Places That Suck To Play At". The other place?

Tabler Cafe Open Mic Night.

I posted about this place before.

Hopefully I'll find another venue that's nearby. When I get famous and they make a Rock Band game out of me, guess who doesn't get to be a level!

I'm in the process of mixing one song finishing the lyrics for another. "Flirtin' With Disaster" is on the backburner for now.

Green Day, I Am (Slightly) Dissappoint

Entertainment Weekly has a preview of Green Day Rock Band so I updated the Green Day: Rock Band Setlist.

What do I think? Well, it's REALLY light on venues. Beatles: RB had all those cool dreamscapes, and it disappoints me that not only will this NOT have those cool effects, but it even has less venues. Also, there's nothing Pre-Dookie. There's a lot of older stuff I would have loved to played, and something like "Who Wrote Holden Caulfield?" or "2000 Light Years Away" would have been a blast.

There's still 2 months to go, but yeah.

However, it still has 3 FULL ALBUMS: Dookie, American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown. Those from outside these albums hit a lot of the big ones, except for "Waiting".

Also, this place has a .tk address, so it's a lot shorter.

Bar gig tomorrow.

LOGO BITCHES!!!

All right, so once upon a time, I made a song for this awesome dude, Koltreg.
It was for a flash project for his comic that just started up, Socialfist.
You may or may not see the final version of this project.

Either way, he designed the logo. So you should probably check out his sites...

Ace Mixes

Akira The Don's Superhero Music is out!

"Fly Already" and "Video Highway" are my favorites. It's so weird how this came out right after I-Con, where I saw SUPERHEROES!!!

It's a pretty diverse mix as well, with rap, The Kinks, emo (the Smallville theme) and whatever The Polyphonic Spree is.

I still need to touch up "Steven Wells"

I Got A Record Deal!!

Mann Co. Records has just given me a record deal!

Their rep was a little too straight forward, but I was able to sign the contract, and only get one black eye!

Yeah!