Boom!

The following took place a few months ago:

I woke up particularly early. That happens at times. Had some coffee, read some bad news, you know the usual stuff. Then I started working on a tune, which idea & main riff came to me in a subway the day before.

First I prepared the project by creating tracks, adding instruments & plugins. Then I programmed some drums, that’d make a fine background for the next step: Finding a suitable bass sound and making a rough demo recording with it.

Playing the bass is pretty physical action. Especially if you’re playing some gritty punk rock stuff. So, after I found a lovely bass sound, I started punching the strings. The recording ended about 15 seconds later because I bursted into laughter, after accidentally noticing the time: It was 8.05 in the morning, and I was already doing the midnight punk massacre mood!

Anyway, the title PUMP ACTION refers to the process of beating the bass with a fury.

? = Pew Pew.

… yeah…

Two weeks ago I talked about how weird it is that we have things like licorice pipes, alcohol infused chocolate and candy guns. (See previous post)

Well, a few days ago I bought a can of beer that had a picture of a comic book character.

Iron Man? Medieval Laureline? Cousin Fethry?

Nope. Our beer salesman was none other that everybody’s favourite pirate puncher, The Phantom! (Just göögle “Mustanaamio olut” if you wanna see evidence)

Haven’t tasted it yet. Will probably be 5/5.

The Phantom carries around some automatic handguns. Therefore PISTOL PUSH.

Next week, more gun related (but completely harmless) music.

Music -> Food – > ?.

We got guitar-free guitar pop. We got folk music with noticeable absence of strumming. We got electronic no-body music without any electronic instruments.

Quite recently we added anti-shred metal music to this list. (The culinary equivalent of it would be vegan haggis)

((That stuff is delicious!))

So, I think it’s time for jazz without “real” instruments, because PICATZU is NES-jazz. (Its culinary equivalent is licorice pipe)

((That stuff is also delicious!))

As a side note, the idea of licorice pipe is pretty silly… So 1900’s!… Imagine if there was like candy shaped like gun… or chocolate that has alcohol inside it…

Oh wait…

Plains, Lakes & Nothing More.

Something we didn’t already have: Music for brass septet! (septet = a group of seven people playing music together in shared space, or on Z00m)

Historically, these kind of combos often played military music. You know, marches, fanfares & music suitable for running away really quickly. There is also a good bunch of chamber music written specifically for B7. Even Jean S. – Gene Simmons’ musically gifted older brother – wrote some.

MID WESTERN is more light-hearted than militaristic. In fact I’d call it optimistic and adventurous, and maybe slightly American-sounding.

American-sounding? What the heck is that?

I don’t know, man. It’s just the feeling.

Get a Grip.

January is snowy. February is short.

April fools no one. May is made of pollen. In June the moon beam goes through the prune. July is hot, time to slack, August gets us back on the track.

September is wet. October is wet & scary. November is wet & dark (& little scary).

December is an old man slowly inching his way to the oasis.

Yes, I skipped March, because couldn’t think of anything. C’mon March, show some personality!

Nothing to do with TENSIFY. You can’t always win. Not even every time.

Balderdash cont.

BOLLEA’s dominating feature is the chord structure, which keeps repeating throughout the whole tune. This phenomenon is known in classical Italian string-instrument theory as “cadenza di Mustaineapolitan”.

You may hear some “Bondesque” characteristics in there, and you’d be perfectly correct. However, Jacques Bondesque didn’t utilize the chords until late 1800th century, whereas Mustaineapolitan cadence was used as early as late medieval times.

Fascinating, dude. Tell me more.

Ok, ahem… The tune as named after a merchant from the island of Gaios, Theokratiskos Bollea, who in 1572 struck a very mutually beneficial trade agreement with the Medici family to import Greek cheese to Venice. The deal was cut only two years later, when Pope Pepedious III took notice of the vast amounts of high quality cheese that had flooded the market…

Please stop.

Morning Yaks.

Something I just realised: The term “royalty-free” has a double meaning!

That’s funny… Ok, fun is over.

ROYAL BLUE is up about now. It’s steady as Dwayne Wayne. Now there’s a name I haven’t thought about in 147 years.

Completely unnecessary fact of the day: The TV-show “A Different World” was re-titled “Kreisi College” (krazy college) in Finland!

Completely unnecessary fact of the day 2: The TV-show “3rd Rock from the Sun” was re-titled “Kreisi Kollega” (krazy colleague) in Finland!

Completely unnecessary fact of the day 3: One of these stupid facts is outright wrong and a blatant lie!

Coincidences Or (maybe) Not.

February starts with something I like to call “your basic pop-sort of music, packed with nifty grooves & optimistic qualities”. No, I’ve never called any piece of music that before, but that have sure been my mindset multiple times, when I’ve started to work on a pop tune.

So, AMERICAN BANTAM is the title and it has this very special thing built into it: The length, in minutes & seconds.

Now, that may refer to a number of things (!), like the year 313 (when stuff happened in the Roman Empire and not-quite-yet-feudal Japan).

It may also be the compressed way to indicate the last day of march. (some other day if you’re American)

It can also point us to the wonderful world of comics. And that’s where we’re heading.

To be perfectly honest, I don’t’ remember how much of a coincidence all this was. It might’ve been. But then again, I’m a sneaky devil and I’ve may have planned this all along.

We shall never know.

Without.

Library without books. Rpg without a character generation. Pizza without meat. House with no door. Lawn without a water sprinkler. Chair without a butt. Song without you; Within You Without You. Friday without fun.

Beer without alcohol.

Plan without a hand. Hand without fingers. Fingers without a guitar. Guitar without strings. Strings without a puppet. Puppet without a master. Master without a plan.

What we’ve got here is metal without distorted guitars: BARREN.

The heresy!

It’s the mood that counts, baby. The mood, the blues. Also, 2×9/4 this month. That’s pretty good!