My Arms Hurt

My arms are sore from lots of playing/practicing. The same sort of stuff I used to encounter in college from time to time--tender forearms and elbows. That's never a good feeling, and it's especially bad considering the amount of stuff I need to play before the end of the week.

Speaking of pains in my arms, my left arm has hurt right in the spot where you'd have a patch on your shoulder. It's been that way for a few days. My bet is because I was practicing me tennis serve. It feels like somebody drove a nail into the top of my bicep. It didn't get any better with me swimming back and forth the length of the pool today. Something in that over the top motion is not happy.

Late Night Yacht Rock

Last night was a late one...

We (Yacht Rock) played some sort of benefit last night--connected some way to the DJ named Bert on V-103...I don't know either.

So, we loaded onto an uncovered stage in the parking lot of the Northern Tool Rental around 5:30 PM. No cover means that if it rains, we're dead; if it's sunny the next three hours or so will fry our gear. There was no way to put a cover over the stage due to some electrical wiring directly overhead.

We ended up dragging it out and didn't leave until around 7:30 or so. Each set up (keyboards, drums, etc) got a tarp over it. We went to Mark Bencuya's to change and eat. We rolled back over to the gig around 9:45 PM.

As we began to do the final prep for our gig, somebody checked the weather and noticed a stripe of rain headed our way. So...we waited in a tent next to the stage (and we started drinking). After about an hour and a half of hanging out, it still hadn't rained, so we got up on stage and started firing up all of our equipment. In the middle of that, we started feeling a couple of drops, so we tarped everything (individual tarps, and then two enormous tarps that covered the entire stage). Just in time...it started raining pretty hard. We stayed in the tent and drank.

Around 1 AM, it was finally deemed safe enough for us to hit it. By that point, we were all fairly drunk. We got up there and knocked it out, though. Not a great gig, but we didn't have any problems. I guess we just didn't have any excitement by that point. We finished at 2:30 AM.

After tearing down our gear, we then had to carpool back to get our vehicles that we'd parked several blocks away. Then come back...load gear...and leave. I left around 3:30-3:40 AM. I guess I got home around 4:15 AM.

I slept on the couch (with Jack wandering around) for the morning. I finally got up around 1 PM today.

At my church gig tonight, one of the altar boys fainted. That was about it.

Choppy Seas

Mustache Rock endured some choppy seas last night. Here's how it all went down.

Things were going pretty well, and the crowd was fairly thick, and despite it being super hot and super humid, there were no big problems. I'm still trying to get my coordination down between playing keyboard and then jumping up and playing sax. Evidence of this: I muted my wireless on Careless Whisper because I could hear the keyboard coming through the mic and I was worried about it creating a feedback loop. Unfortunately, when I popped up to play the sax line, I missed the mute button, so I played with no mic for a second. I grabbed the nearest mic and pulled it in front of my for the rest of it. Oops. I think I was getting a little to slick on the muting thing.

In the middle of Silly Love Songs, Nick's sister came on stage to inform Peter that his car was being towed. That messed us up pretty well...we cut the tune short so Pete could find his keys. I, being on the side of stage, missed the everything and couldn't figure out what the hell was going on. I just heard Pete yell something about "MY CAR!"

A couple of tunes later, we were playing I Keep Forgetting (me playing the rhodes part). We had talked about slipping into Regulate (a rap hit based on a sample of I Keep Forgettin', with me switching to another synth part and Bencuya taking over the rhodes), and half the band tried to go into that, and half didn't; when the spot came around again, we collectively flinched, but stayed in the tune. Then it was just a grind to the end of the song.

I think the song after that was probably Rosanna, and the EWI ran out of batteries in the middle of the solo! It hung up on one note most of the way through. What a mess!

So...anyway, we got through it. The rest of the night was kind of a grit-your-teeth-and-get-through-it. I can't think of any more disasters, but I think everyone just wanted to get out of there. All part of the fun, I must say. I really can't get pissed off about anything that happened--that's live music! Dealing with it on the spot is part of the magic.

We debuted Sailing last night. Musical Xanax, somebody said. It was fun. I put a lot of work this week into getting the string part happening, so I hope that one's a keeper.

Ooo...also, I switched up a part I was playing in Lido Shuffle from the EWI to the keyboard (the synth solo towards the end). I got it about eighty percent right last night. I'm pleased about that. Next time it'll be twice as good.

Peter Stroud and his wife made it out to the show last night. It's always cool when he comes by.

No gig tonight, but Saturday night is a Yacht Rock private party (I think) in Buckhead.

new photos added

It's raining today. You can't hear it over the computer, but my grass is applauding.

I found several pictures of last weekend's Y.O.U. CD release show on Mixtape Atlanta. The ones with me magically made their way to my website. You can view them here.

It's been a slow week for news. I've been practicing the Mucyznski Times Pieces for clarinet and the strings (keyboard) for Christopher Cross' Sailing.

Oooh, here's an update: last night I did a gig with a DJ and percussionist for some technology thing at the Hyatt downtown--one of those things with booths and florescent lighting. I got there an hour before the gig, and the DJ and percussionist we already set up, so I plugged into the PA and I was ready. Right when the gig was supposed to start, the client decided to move us across the room to another location (some big client was worried we'd be too loud for his customers). So...they moved us in a corner next to someone else, who immediately started complaining about the potential volume. So we played with the speakers almost backwards, and me playing nothing louder than acoustic flute. As thankful as I am for the gig, I hope whomever hired us realizes that was a dumb use of the band he'd hired. Seen but not heard!
I will say that I saw somebody with one of the 24 inch Mac cinema screens. Man, that was sweet!

Friday/Saturday

Friday night, we played Mara Davis' 40th birthday party at the W Midtown (Colony Square). That was a pretty good one. The load in was a little rough--into the tunnel under the hotel, up the elevator to the top floor, down a long hallway, and you're in there. Not the easiest, but I had my cart, so it was not bad. After we set up, we walked to the park to go eat, and I got lots of looks due to my current style--bald head, mustache, and I happened to be wearing a Mac shirt with a big rainbow across the front. The party itself was pretty lame, due mainly to loud house music and a poor attempt at a roast. Our part of the show came off really well. It was pretty easy. I think we played about an hour and a half and we were done.

Saturday night we played Smith's Olde Bar. Everyone from Yacht Rock was involved, but it was the release of Y.O.U.'s new EP (which is awesome, by the way). For this gig, we added my friend Eric Alexander on trombone for five songs. I like the sounds we got without having a trumpet present. Eric and I play well together, too, so this gig was a ton of fun. I did a few of the arrangements, and we adjusted a few of Nick's arrangements to make it work for the two horns, and everything worked well. I dug it.

Playing a gig like that always causes me to reevaluate my career. Sometimes I think there's so much pressure to make the money I need to support my family, I forget about the raw energy of getting up in front of a crowd who's there to see you and letting it rip. The story of my musical life, I guess...trying to play enough money gigs to keep myself afloat, but also trying to play in every creative musical situation that I can get to.

Double Duty

I did two gigs yesterday (Thursday).

First I went to the 10 High and set up my Yacht Rock equipment (EWI, keyboard, amp, sax stands). Then I went and played my first gig.
I did a gig with a DJ and a percussionist...live house music for a private party for Microsoft. We were at Rathbun's Steak House on Krog Street in Inman Park. We were fed well (see the picture--I ate everything pictured). It was a cool gig--very easy. It started late and ended early, and we made big bucks, so I like all of that.
After that, I jumped in the truck and boogied over to the 10 High to play Yacht Rock. That went well. I'm getting more comfortable with the different parts I'm covering. I've gotten past being overwhelmed by things like "people are going to be able to hear me playing keyboard!" Now it's all fun. I like doing it alot. The place was packed, as usual. I didn't screw up "Africa" like I have the past two times we've played it, so I was very pleased with myself there. I had to punish a bad tenor reed that went mushy on me. We played "Who Can it Be Now?", and the top note of the sax riff, and F#, was not working. My reed was too soft. Kind of embarrassing. Sooo, when the gig was over I pitched that reed. Same thing happened to me last night at a rehearsal, so I pitched that one too.

It's a tough thing with reeds. They've got to be strong enough to withstand me playing full blast--dare I say, overblowing!--on gigs like the 10 High, but I need them to be flexible enough to not sound like I have sock in the bell on quiet gigs. I am definitely guilty of sometimes whittling them down too much so that there's not backbone left in them. Anyway, I'm breaking in some more today.

Jack and I are off to the pool.

Tonight, Yacht Rock is playing Mara Davis' birthday party. Very cool!

Tomorrow is the release of the new Y.O.U. "Long-Playing E.P." at Smith's Olde Bar. It will be cool. You should get there.

Y.O.U.-The Long Playing EP

The Y.O.U. CD release concert is this Saturday at Smith's Olde Bar. I will be performing on multiple tunes. Please come check us out--support original music!