tag:thehighcell.com,2005:/blogs/recent-blogs?p=1Recent Blogs2020-06-17T01:32:55-04:00The High Cellfalsetag:thehighcell.com,2005:Post/63560462020-06-17T01:32:55-04:002023-10-16T10:44:46-04:00New Old Shitty Music : The Found Tracks<p><span class="font_regular">A few years ago I had a catastrophic computer/backup hard drive malfunction. I lost the multitrack recordings for all the songs that I had written and recorded from the mid 00’s to 2017. Around the same general timeframe, I was nearing the tumultuous end of an unfortunate several year long pharmaceutical roller coaster ride that began after I was diagnosed with Narcolepsy (an experiment that ended up causing more problems than it solved). Let’s just say things spun off the rails a bit. Anyway, at one point before the technological meltdown, I was working on 2 or 3 (or more) vastly different versions of some of these songs at once. One might be more punk, another version of the same song might be more bluesy or hard rock or hip-hop/country (lol, no lie on that last one). </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">Lyrics, melodies, instrument parts and arrangements (along with recording and mixing) were all often in their own constant state of flux and these are just snapshots from a random point in time for each song. The sound quality is all over the place as none of them were originally meant to be heard in the states they’re currently in, but I’ve tried to make them listenable. I actually had to re-record many of these out of the headphone jack on my trusty old iPod classic. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">It’s a little painful to share things that weren’t “done”, especially when I know there were many better versions. But then again, I consider the fact that there were also a bunch of songs that I don’t have any versions of at all. Some that I’ve forgotten, that no one will ever hear. For a while I thought no one would ever hear any of these either, and one could make a good argument that they still shouldn’t hear some of them ;). But honestly, losing all that stuff resulted in a tremendous sense of loss for me. I had to come to terms with the fact that it all still had value, even if no one else ever heard it. It didn’t matter whether it ate a bag of dicks outright, or if no one else ever heard it. Because I was doing what made me happy along the way. And doing it nearly kept me partially sane! ;) While I’ve made peace with the fact that the most rewarding part of the process for me is the act of creating music rather than sharing or trying to promote it, I also felt like there was no reason not to put a little work in to share some representation of all the hours of fun I was having over all those years. I feel like sharing these songs may also help disperse that little black cloud of “unfinished things” for me. Even if I decide to revisit any of these ideas in the future, I believe sharing them will help me move on a bit and focus on the new. I’m looking forward to getting back to working on new music. I’ve been mentally dangling it as a reward for working hard to get this project done. Going through this process has helped me reconnect a bit with the past, and now I’m excited to close this chapter and see what the next page has in store. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">I’m on all vocals and guitars, bass, percussion, and some keys/virtual instruments, some drums and a few other odds and ends. Any other parts are either programming I did or loops I arranged to fit the songs. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">So with all the babbling done, I (sort of) proudly present this batch of misfit songs. “State of Disrepair: The Found Tracks”</span></p>
<p>Oh, and P.S. - Thank you for being a friend.</p>The High Celltag:thehighcell.com,2005:Post/47654682017-07-03T16:28:44-04:002021-11-29T19:08:32-05:00About the new song "Doe Eyes"<p>I finally released something new! </p>
<p>After some health issues and a random collection of thoroughly catastrophic technical events had me wondering if it would ever happen again, I decided to take charge and give myself permission to start over.</p>
<p>After losing a lot of the music I had been working on over the last several years, I've considered that perhaps my strategy of hoarding songs and never finishing anything... well, it just isn't working for me. What good is all that work, what does all that creativity and expression mean if I'm the only one who hears it? I've always been somewhat shy about my singer-songwriter/acoustic side, but it's been great therapy lately to just get back to my trusty Breedlove acoustic and I. Over the last few weeks this song has gone from a simple guitar noodle, to having a melody, to having lyrics, to having meaning. I recorded each part with minimal over-analysis and minimal perfection, with the sparse parts being recorded in various rooms around the house. I wanted to approach things as a singer/songwriter first for a change. </p>
<p>As far as releasing the song goes, it was just as spontaneous as the writing and recording process. I was feeling particularly inadequate about my habit of harboring feelings of timidity and self-doubt when it came to releasing music in the past, and I decided that it's a habit I no longer want to feed. I felt like the best way not to overthink it would be to just let it go. That was yesterday. And you can hear it now wherever you listen to music! (We live in truly amazing times, don't we?) </p>
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<p>PS - The cover art for the song is a picture that I took from the top of Machu Picchu in Peru a few months back. </p>The High Celltag:thehighcell.com,2005:Post/45711602017-01-31T18:20:34-05:002022-01-25T14:52:17-05:00"Disinspiration"<p>For all I know, I just made that word up. Too lazy to check.<br>Anyway... while I've been learning my new recording software (Logic Pro X) and learning how to use a Mac (like a toddler), I've liked having something random playing on the TV in the background (totally as a distraction for my noteworthy ADHD).<br>This test recording of a sweet, sweet acoustic love song just isn't sounding right, and I think it may be because I'm watching The Shining in the background.</p>The High Celltag:thehighcell.com,2005:Post/34460222014-12-30T21:43:02-05:002022-03-21T23:55:17-04:00The High Cell Artist Spotlight Interview Highlights<div style="text-align: center;">Thanks to Michael Shirley for the Interview - <a contents="IHateMichaelShirley.com" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://ihatemichaelshirley.com/post/105917681663/10-questions-with-the-high-cell" target="_blank">IHateMichaelShirley.com</a><br><br><br><strong>I found it wild that The High Cell is just a one man band! It sounds like at least 4 people playing! How many instruments do you actually play?</strong><p><em>I know how to play the essentials - guitar, bass, and drums, and then I like to dabble in any other instruments I can get my hands on. On a typical song, I’ll usually start with at least a foundation like a 4-piece band. This fancy newfangled enchanted modern computer magic at our disposal these days means I can also arrange loops and play virtual instruments using a keyboard, so the size of my band of “other selves” is only limited by my own imagination when I’m recording.</em> <em>I can record a solo acoustic song with just me and a guitar, or I can record a whole 12-person choir of "little Mikey's" to sing along with me.</em></p>
<p><br><br><strong>Your sound is so big and bluesy. In that kind of genre, a one man band is pretty unheard of! What made you decide to go the one man route with The High Cell?</strong></p>
<p><em>I never really had much of a plan to speak of. I suppose it happened out of necessity. I had moved around a lot and had grown weary of the whole “start or join a band” process and all the baggage that comes along with it, so I just started writing and recording stuff on my own as my musical outlet. "Bluesy Rock" is kind of the staple that holds all my music together, but I really like to experiment with other kinds of music as well. The great thing about doing things myself is that I can run with these crazy musical impulses and just see what it happens. I've got songs-in-progress right now that have imbedded elements of punk, funk, bluegrass, R&B, Metal, and so much more. I've never been able to explore music like that in bands that stuck to a particular genre or style, so I'm having a lot of fun with the freedom that being a DIY Independent Artist gives me. </em></p>
<p><br><br><strong>You have a live song on your album “Faceplant.” How do live shows go? Do you have a touring band or is it just you running around trying to play all the instruments at one time?</strong></p>
<p><em>I don’t have a touring band, but it’s always in the back of my mind. Maybe a little bit down the road as I release more songs and build up a bulkier set list. For now I’ve been having fun working out stripped-down acoustic versions of the songs, which is what the live song, “Unheard”, is on Faceplant.</em></p>
<p><br><br><strong>You described that album as, “significantly better than a swift kick in the groin from a Peruvian pack-mule.” In all seriousness, how would you describe The High Cell’s sound from your own personal perspective?</strong></p>
<p><em>When I first released Faceplant a few years ago, I thought the novelty was that those songs were dramatically different styles of music. </em><em>Then I saw a review that said they all sounded oddly cohesive in some way. </em><em>I guess, off the top of my head, I’d say my music is moderate blues-influenced rock with a strong likelihood of mood swings, possible gusts of eccentricity, and sporadic showers of whimsy. </em><em>And for the record… I don’t mean to brag, but I still believe that listening to Faceplant is better than being kicked in the groin by a Peruvian pack-mule. Just the other day I said somewhere that I think listening to my new EP, “Devil On a Tricycle” EP, is considerably more pleasant than receiving a firm slap in the chest from an aging sumo wrestler. I'll stand by it.</em><br><br><br><br><strong>Your music is <span class="font_large">really</span> good! So, why are you so self-deprecating?</strong></p>
<p><em>Thank you! I really appreciate it. I would definitely like to be more self-confident. It’s just that I don’t think I’d be very good at it…</em><br><br><br><br><strong>If you could collaborate with anyone on an upcoming song, who would you choose to work with and why?</strong></p>
<p><em>It’s so hard to answer, but a few that come to mind are; Doyle Bramhall II, because he’s one of my very favorite guitar players of all time. Dallas Green of City and Colour, because I’m a big fan of his songwriting. And then maybe Taylor Swift, because she’s all sorts of catchy and what-not. [I guess that leaves the bass and vocal harmonies for me, and we can ask Dave Grohl to sit in on drums to complete my current dream collaboration.] </em><br><br><br><br><strong>Any new music from The High Cell in the works for 2015?</strong></p>
<p><em>Absolutely! I’ve recently realized that I have no reason to follow the old-school rules or templates of the "traditional" music business any more. I’ve got a lot of songs cooking at once right now, and I’m going to be throwing them out there whenever I feel like it... because I guess I’m a grown ass man, and I can do what I want as an independent artist. </em><em>My plan is to start releasing new singles and/or EP’s pretty frequently starting early in the new year, and just get on a roll and keep the momentum going. And boy, do I have some fun and interesting songs coming up soon.</em></p>
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<p><br> </p>The High Celltag:thehighcell.com,2005:Post/34047882014-12-16T09:51:49-05:002014-12-16T09:51:49-05:00Upcoming Artist Spotlight Interview!I'll give an update when it's actually up, but I just did a 10 question Q&A for next weeks Artist Spotlight on professional Hollywood skinny guy Michael Shirleys lifestyle blog.<br>My answers are generally long-winded without being interesting or informative, sort of quirky without being amusing, and kind of vague without being cool or mysterious.<br>With that in mind, I can't lie. It's a good feeling to know the real me was shining throughout the interview.The High Celltag:thehighcell.com,2005:Post/32440882014-10-22T19:48:07-04:002015-01-08T11:15:08-05:00The Devil On a Tricycle EP Listening CompanionWell, it's official. The Devil On a Tricycle EP is out, and it's a weight off my chest to have overcome my plentiful personal inadequacies long enough to release something new.<br>Now I just have to figure out how to get more people can hear it. :)<br><br>I just wanted to share a few notes about these 5 songs, as I feel like they each have a little story to go along with them as I let them fly directly out of my recording cave and into your ear-holes.<br><br><strong>Another Fine Mess (Feat. Davy Knowles)</strong><br><iframe class="justify_inline" data-video-type="youtube" data-video-id="QWJbuGf90Qs" data-video-thumb-url="http://img.youtube.com/vi/QWJbuGf90Qs/0.jpg" type="text/html" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QWJbuGf90Qs?rel=0&wmode=transparent&enablejsapi=1" frameborder="0" height="200" width="320" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe><br>What a privilege it was to work with guest guitarist Davy Knowles on this song. Pardon my French, but he punched the proverbial musical balls right off of this song with his playing, didn't he?<br>(....is that French?)<br>Anyway, I've been a big fan of Davy's music for a few years now, so this was really exciting for me. I originally decided to send him 3 songs to choose from... I had two demos already, and I freaked out and decided to write an entirely new song with his playing in mind for the 3rd. This was that 3rd song. I have to be honest; This was the most stressed I've ever been while recording/mixing/mastering a song, to the point that I probably could have released an entire album of all the alternate versions of this song. I don't fret quite so much when it's all me, but I just wanted to make sure I made Davy sound good. In the end, of course I ended up choosing one of the earliest versions I mixed and I wasted countless hours worrying about something that is pretty much impossible (ie: making Davy sound "Bad").<br>This guy from the Isle of Man has obviously got a knack for manipulating six strings in any way he so chooses, but he's also just as good a singer and songwriter as he is a guitar virtuoso. He's got a new album coming out and he'll be on tour soon, so be sure to check him out and show your support for good old fashioned natural talent.<br><br><br><strong>Devil On a Tricycle</strong><br><iframe class="justify_inline" data-video-type="youtube" data-video-id="W6kvc-oSWIU" data-video-thumb-url="http://img.youtube.com/vi/W6kvc-oSWIU/0.jpg" type="text/html" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/W6kvc-oSWIU?rel=0&wmode=transparent&enablejsapi=1" frameborder="0" height="200" width="320" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe><br>I'm embarrassed by how much time I spent recording a bicycle bell to get <em>just</em> the right one for this song.<br>This guitar part had floated around my head without direction for quite a while, when one early morning I was violently shaken from my blissful slumber by the sound of a bicycle bell from hell.<br>Was it really that loud? Did it really make the ground shake? I can't say for sure what anyone else heard that day.<br>All I can tell you is that I believe a proper scientific study would show without a doubt that there is a direct correlation between the amount of frosty adult beverages consumed the night before to the perceived volume and seismic impact of a bicycle bell outside your window in the wee hours of the next morning. <br>It sounds like a cliche', but it really was one of those songs that kind of came to me in a dream. I remember trying to sleep in spite of a vicious splitting headache, and this kid was relentless with that freakin' bell. I woke up with a smirk because I had conjured up a visual in my half-asleep haze... that only Satan himself could be riding around in circles outside my window on the tricycle that was making that unholy racket. I got up, went directly to my recording cave, and what came out is what you hear.<br>(If anyone wants to investigate my hypothesis further, I'll gladly approve the use of this song as evidence in a scientific study.)<br><br><br><strong>Tread (Feat. Adam Berzowski)</strong><br><iframe class="justify_inline" data-video-type="youtube" data-video-id="5Lc9YhmAEPU" data-video-thumb-url="http://img.youtube.com/vi/5Lc9YhmAEPU/0.jpg" type="text/html" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5Lc9YhmAEPU?rel=0&wmode=transparent&enablejsapi=1" frameborder="0" height="200" width="320" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe><br>Oh, Sweet Adam Berzowski. He doesn't know this, but I think I've been referring to him exclusively as "Sweet Adam Berzowski" every time I tell someone about our collaboration on this song lately. He's a sweet human being without a doubt, but more to the point it's because every time I hear him play anything on the keys I'm like "sweet!!".<br>(It's got a ring to it, and I couldn't stop after I said it once. Hopefully he doesn't hate me when it catches on and it's all anyone calls him. :) )<br>Adam and I met through a blog I wrote a while back expressing my undying love for the bygone blues-rock band American Standard, which Adam was in along with singer Corey Sterling and Strat master Chris Aaron (who I just learned passed away last week at the ridiculously young age of 44. RIP Chris, as of last week the world is missing a true talent and there's one more star over the Midwestern sky inspiring young guitarists).<br>So there are several things I wanted to get out of my system about this song;<br>- I rarely say things like this, but I was really happy with my guitar solo on this song. I'm admittedly never striving to be a virtuoso, if anything I tend to embrace simplicity in my playing. I wish I could just close my eyes and convey an emotion directly through my guitar without thinking about it, like some of my favorite guitar heroes did. But that's generally not me. I get too lost in my own head, over-analyzing things while I'm doing them. This guitar solo, however short and simple, was one of those precious rare times for me that I felt I was on the right track. I can plan out a guitar solo and play way over my normal technical capacity any day if I just practice it for a while... but this one? I didn't know what I was going to play, I hit record, and naturally conveyed the somewhat cranky and sassy emotion I was feeling.<br>- This is the first time I've ever tried to play the harmonica "for real", and I decided I was going to record a harmonica solo. It's nothing fancy, but I'm glad I stepped out of my comfort zone and once again, I felt like I conveyed the feeling I was looking for.<br>- It gets a bit overshadowed by everything else, but I was super proud of my background vocals in the chorus. When you listen to the song it's two separate harmony levels of "Ooooh"'s behind the "Well you can walk just where you damn well please" vocal. There are like 6 or 8 of me as back-up singers, and I just had fun experimenting with harmonies.<br>- And then, I'll wrap it up by going back to Sweet Adam Berzowski. He was in a great blues-rock band a while back and this happens to be a blues-rock sort of song, but Adam is one of those guys who can play anything. I feel like if I had told him that I wanted him to incorporate a Paganini-inspired composition or an obscure 70's funk vibe, he would have delivered it on a silver platter. But what he did here is exactly what I was talking about striving to do with my own parts, and that was deliver the sentiment of the song musically... only with much more virtuosity than I could play on any instrument. <br>- Oh, and keep an ear out for my blood-curdling scream of "NOOO" at the end of the song. I was too self conscious to put it up front in the mix, but if you hear it faintly it means I didn't blow out my vocal chords on that yelling for no reason. :D<br><br><br><strong>Small Town Bird</strong><br><iframe class="justify_inline" data-video-type="youtube" data-video-id="jtnCBHTPDDc" data-video-thumb-url="http://img.youtube.com/vi/jtnCBHTPDDc/0.jpg" type="text/html" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jtnCBHTPDDc?rel=0&wmode=transparent&enablejsapi=1" frameborder="0" height="200" width="320" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe><br>Small Town Bird was an adventure of a song to finish. I originally started the approach to this song as an ode to being from a small town myself, at the suggestion of a friend. At some point I started to feel like I was infringing on John Mellencamp territory with my cheesy singer/songwriter prose, so I scrapped what I was doing. Things really came together when I started over and was able to take the "me" out of the equation, writing the song as a narrative about someone else.<br>As far as a "behind the scenes" glimpse to my process in recording this song, I can tell you that I don't know WHAT I was thinking when I did that slide guitar part (that's what I started with). It's not so much what I played, but it's that I invented my own spontaneous open tuning and never tuned it to any proper pitch. I just grabbed my old crappy $25 "Kingston" brand pawnshop guitar (the same one I played on "A Frayed Knot" on the album Faceplant) out of the corner and twisted the tuning pegs until I like the noise, and recorded.<br>A week later I went back in with my PRS and vomited in my mouth a little while I had to detune it to match whatever the hell I had done. It was months and months going back and forth with the different parts on this song, and in the end I'm glad I picked a direction and stuck with it.<br>If you listen out for it, you'll also hear one of the "signatures" of my strategically sloppy recording habits on all the songs on this EP. It's a spontaneous vocal exclamation of "Hoo!" coming from the background. I wanted all of these songs to have a "live" feel, and I intentionally broke one of the cardinal guidelines of recording nerds- I almost always had an extra microphone picking up room noise while recording other parts. My experimentation with this really came from my appreciation for the sound of the old classic blues and rockabilly recordings of Chess Records in Chicago and Sun Studio in Memphis. Nowadays in a big professional recording studio they have a "live room" to start with, but everything usually gets re-done with isolation as the priority. Back in the day at Chess or Sun Studio, it was a room full of guys in a room being recorded, and I think it's part of the reason why those old recordings have so much character. If you could magnify the sounds on a Muddy Waters recording session, you might hear Willie Dixon cough in the background, or Little Walter take a swig of whiskey and clear his throat between harmonica fireworks, and there's just sort of a "vibe" to knowing that for me.<br>Some of the modern alternative folk sounding artists have been capturing this sort of sound lately as well (The Lumineers come to mind), and I wanted to see if I could apply it to my own wacky one-man-band recording setting.<br>My hope is that someone somewhere in a small, dank, dark smoke-filled bar is listening to this song as I type.<br><br><br><strong>Rise</strong><br><iframe class="justify_inline" data-video-type="youtube" data-video-id="4oOxH59oPME" data-video-thumb-url="http://img.youtube.com/vi/4oOxH59oPME/0.jpg" type="text/html" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4oOxH59oPME?rel=0&wmode=transparent&enablejsapi=1" frameborder="0" height="200" width="320" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe><br>This song has a very personal history for me. I wrote and recorded that original guitar part so long ago that I didn't even have a computer to record it on (I was still using my trusty old Boss BR-1180 Hard Disk Recorder). It was inspired by the old hill country blues Junior Kimbrough sort of guitar vibe that guys like Dan Auerbach, Gary Clark Jr. Luther Dickinson and Hozier cite as an influence. Not long after I moved to Durham North Carolina six or seven years ago, I wrote the vocals and recorded the rough combination of ideas on that same old piece of stand-alone recording gear.<br>In a very literal sense, the song was written about my wanting to overcome the adversity of feeling so tired, so worn out, and so fatigued all the time. I felt that I had been missing out on being "present" in my life because of my inability to deal with simple issues that <em>everyone</em> deals with. I mean, we all get tired. We all get worn down. Everyone is fatigued. And I don't have kids so I don't have half the responsibilities of other people... <em>"I wish I could go back in time and punch myself right square in the groin for not being able to buck up and get over it." </em><br>I considered myself an inherently strong-willed and prolifically stubborn person, and yet I was filled with utter self-loathing about the fact that I didn't seem capable of dealing with normal life as well as everyone else.<br><br>Long story short... I wrote this song before I was diagnosed with narcolepsy (No, it doesn't mean just "tired", and no... Deuce Bigelow wasn't a documentary ;) ).<br>In retrospect, it's amazing what can become normal for us if we let it. It's only been about 6 months now since the official diagnosis, but I was so happy to finally have a name to apply to the "villain". But... that doesn't mean I can play the role of a victim and stop trying to be the hero in my story. Not only do I want to continue to persevere through all the issues I was having, now I know that it was OK for the issues to exist in the first place. Now I know that it's not "normal" for me to have to put up with it, so that means my stubbornness and pig-headed nature isn't wasted if I can overcome the adversity enough to get close to a "normal" standard by societal standards.<br>The last musical part I crafted (just over the last few weeks) was the entire "dreamy" bridge part after the 2:10-ish minute mark, and I pulled out all the stops in my eccentric production tendencies. Alarm clocks, grandfather clocks, metronomes, strategically scattered nickels and dimes, ping pong balls, and ice cubes splashing into a glass can all be heard in the background if you can tune your ears into the specific sounds. This song has taken on a whole new meaning for me over the last few months, and it will always be a special marker. Sort of a permanent monument that overlaps two very distinct chapters of my life.<br><br>I'd like to say a sincere Thank You to everyone who has been checking out the music and supporting my passion. A guy who HAS to wash his hands six times a day doesn't have much to show for it. I feel like I HAVE to make music, and I'm lucky enough to have people out there who want me to share it with them.<br><br><a contents="The new EP on iTunes" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/devil-on-a-tricycle-ep/id929573427" target="_blank">The new EP on iTunes</a><br><br><a contents="The new EP on Amazon" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.amazon.com/Devil-Tricycle-EP-High-Cell/dp/B00OLSFUXO/ref=sr_1_3?s=dmusic&ie=UTF8&qid=1413896725&sr=1-3&keywords=The+High+Cell" target="_blank">The new EP on Amazon</a><br><br><br><br><br><br> The High Celltag:thehighcell.com,2005:Post/31318842014-08-11T20:58:19-04:002021-12-28T15:07:01-05:00New Single<p>My new single "Devil on a Tricycle" (from the upcoming EP of the same name) is available for exclusive listens on TouchTunes jukeboxes.<br>While you're waiting for the EP release, check out the new song if you find yourself in an establishment with TouchTunes!</p>The High Celltag:thehighcell.com,2005:Post/30030372014-06-09T13:27:33-04:002020-09-25T17:49:26-04:00The Best Laid Plans of High Cell Mike...<p>I’m honestly not very good at doing “typical” musician/band things...<br><br><em>[For those who are in a rush, or just don’t care to see me cleaning out the existential cobwebs of my cerebral cortex in the form of long-form stream-of-consciousness text, skip to the <strong>***Break***</strong> at the end to get right to the big news!]</em><br><br>I don’t relish being the center of attention.<br>I don't necessarily exude confidence, and I rarely play in front of people.<br>I arrange and record everything alone like an antisocial little hermit, and I’m constantly in a state of writing/recording rather than clearly starting and finishing a defined project.<br>I don’t have a market. I don’t always fit into one genre, and if anything, part of the benefit of my one-man-recording-project "band" is that I don’t need to. I can embrace my sense of musical whimsy without fear of alienating full-time musical collaborators.<br>I never had an innate desire to be rich and famous.<br>I always want to improve at things musically, but I don’t feel a need to become a virtuoso at anything. I actually aspire to be a jack of all trades, and I’m perfectly content to be a master of none (I do daydream of taking classical piano lessons or learning to play the harp, but that’s all in a different context).<br> <br>I don’t follow the typical old-school path toward a life of professional musicianship (play live and build a local following, try to sell merchandise, save up a pile of money and rent time in a pro studio to record a demo, get a manager with super-awesome slick hair, which leads to meeting a magical record label deal fairy. Then you get hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend on recording an album and funding for a world tour. You've officially make it BIG, which means you can finally afford to rent out an entire Tibetan monastery in which to snort priceless finely-ground wooly mammoth tusk powder with Bill Murray, then record a million dollar album with Dave Grohl on drums. You find out you still owe all that recording and touring money back to the label fairy, so you get all hopped-up sniffing bowling lane oil and drive your leased Maserati into a school bus full of orphaned pygmy children, then spend 3 nights per week in court-mandated outpatient group therapy sessions before you declare bankruptcy, later join the church of Scientology and turn your life around before hitting the county fair and children's birthday party music circuits en route to your eventual comeback… It’s a story as old as time. Anyway, I digress.)<br><br>So with all of these facts in mind, I’ve been asking myself lately; Why am I approaching my musical releases like a “typical” band or artist? It’s like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, it’s doing what I’m “supposed” to do as a musician rather than what works best for me, and it’s a bit of a sad and somnambulistic approach to what I’m passionate about in life. I’ve begun to stress myself out with my own therapeutic hobby, and I’m stifling my instinctual creativity by worrying about logistics and “business” decisions. I have to stop myself from writing new songs every time I get a few minutes in the studio, because my time is limited and I need to “finish” some of the others. I’ve been so worried about how to get new people to hear my music, that I don’t share what I have with the people who already want to hear it.<br>So how do I use my unique qualities to my advantage, instead of sabotaging them in order to wedge myself into someone else's mold? How do I USE my "gifts"?<br>First of all I had to identify said gifts (which is no small feat for a self-deprecating and frankly confidence-deficient lad like myself). Let’s go back to my list of qualities. What do I have to offer? What sets me apart? It’s not virtuosity, it’s not showmanship, and it’s obviously not marketing skill or financial freedom J… It’s the ability to crank out songs. Whenever I want. Too many, for the way I’m trying to do things now.<br><br><strong>*****************************************</strong><br>I extend a heart-felt welcome to those of you who just skipped over the leisurely gondola ride through the stream of mental diarrhea that I just spewed out onto my keyboard, and an equally heart-felt congratulations goes out to those who made it through all of that without gouging your eyeballs out on the sharpest corner of the nearest piece of furniture. Without further fondue, here’s my big news:<br><br>There will be no 2<sup>nd</sup> album from The High Cell.<br><br>For the tens of super fans that are disappointed to see this, fret knot. I’m not quitting making music. On the polar contrary, I’m going to be making MORE music. And I’m going to make it available for you to hear much more often than this “One album every 2 or 3 years” crap.<br><br>Later this summer I will be releasing an EP of four or five songs (a digital release on iTunes, Amazon MP3, etc). The EP title is “<em>Devil on a Tricycle</em>”, and I’m REALLY excited about sharing it. After that, I will be intermittently releasing a number of other EP’s on a pretty regular basis. Sometimes they might be themed in terms of rough musical genre or general mood, other times they might just be a random collection of some songs I want to share. I might release a few singles here and there, and my idea is that if/when I can get caught up with my current pile of songs, I’ll be able to start sort of a regular “Mikey’s Monthly Song” release to equate to at least 12 new songs per year (which is what I'd want to put on an album anyway). The idea of an almost real-time writing/recording/release process like this will allow me to let songs go and conversely allow me to let all the new ones out.<br><br>I know a few people will be a bit disappointed at the abandonment of the full album format and the lack of commercially available physical CD’s, but I believe the benefits of this new strategy will far outweigh the alternative status quo in the single-serving, ADD-riddled 140-character climate we live in today. One realization I came to when considering my options was that I haven't been writing songs with a cohesive album structure in mind, but rather approaching them each as individual endeavors (at times getting on a roll for a few at a time that fit together). In the end, I asked myself- "What good is all the time and emotion I put into this music if I never let anyone hear it?". And the way I've been doing things isn't going to allow anyone to hear most of it. I don't want to be the guy who keeps talking about the next album and disappoints everyone by pushing it back repeatedly, so... I'm just not going to do it.<br><br>I believe that my unique “gift” could just be the ability to produce a fairly prolific volume of output as a songwriter, and I hope you’ll join me in my journey to explore it. Expect a release date for "Devil on a Tricycle" soon! <br> </p>The High Celltag:thehighcell.com,2005:Post/29861182014-06-01T22:00:09-04:002014-06-01T22:05:33-04:00The High Cell ShuffleThe High Cell Shuffle is me hitting shuffle on my iPod and babbling about the first four or five songs/artists I hear. I have trouble finishing any of my more well thought-out blogs on a variety of subjects, but I have no shortage of spontaneous thoughts about the music I listen to.<br><br>Garden Grove - <strong>Sublime</strong>
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<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1401670242092_3107" style="">I've said it before, and I'll say it again; Heroin is a son of a bitch bastard.</div>
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<br>This song kicks off what was inarguably one of the most iconic and best selling albums of the 90's (and one of my personal favorite albums of all time), the self-titled Sublime.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1401670242092_3055" style="">Sublime's dish of influences was quite a conspicuous and transparent melting pot of rock, ska, reggae, punk, jam band and hip hop, and the music resonated with fans of all of these genres. The catchy songcraft and underrated musicality of Bradley Nowell, the trunk-rattling bass of Eric Wilson, and the metronome-sharp rhythms of Bud Gaugh, created a sound that was oh-so fresh but also eerily familiar to my teenage ears. Apparently I wasn't the only one, as the album spawned several huge hits that still hold up well today (What I got, Santeria).</div>
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<br>Sublime had a reputation as a hard working party band around their home turf of Long Beach, California, playing countless bar and party gigs and grinding out self-funded tours in a van with Nowell's rescued Dalmation Louie tagging along as the band mascot. Unfortunately by the time all of their hard work paid off in the form of the album's smash success, Nowell was gone, having died of a heroin overdose shortly before it was released (also seven days after his wedding). While I used to feel a very reverent sadness about the club of lost talent that Nowell joined with his overdose (Morrison, Hendrix, Cobain, Elvis, Layne Staley, Joplin, etc), I've come to feel more of an indignant disillusionment toward many of my former heroes. When I was a younger lad I'd think about how sad it was that these brilliantly creative people just couldn't help themselves, and now I'm mad that they just DIDN'T help themselves. In a way I'm pissed that they didn't share more of their gifts with the world.</div>
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<div style="">Hammer Blues -<strong> Charley Patton</strong> (Sometimes listed as "Charlie Patton")</div>
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<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1401670242092_3117" style="">Even the most casual of blues fans are familiar with delta blues icon Robert Johnson. He is often regarded as the father of the blues, his list of devoted fans includes crowds of hall of fame musicians (Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Jimmy Page, Bob Dylan, etc etc etc)... The legend that he sold his soul to the devil at a crossroads in return for his musical ability, and the uncertainty about the circumstances surrounding his death at the age of 27 (making him the first of the so-called "27 Club" of musicians who've perished at this fateful age) only spawned more and more interest in him over the years. To put it simply, Robert Johnson has probably been one of the most prolific influences in the history of recorded music.</div>
<div style="">But... who influenced Robert Johnson?</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1401670242092_3118" style="">Charley Patton influenced Robert Johnson. And he influenced Howlin' Wolf, and John Lee Hooker, Son House, Muddy Waters, and many other highly regarded first generation Delta Blues musicians. Patton was the prototype, the OG, the paterfamilias. He was the musical alpha dog on the historic Dockery plantation in Mississippi, which spawned the careers of many a famous bluesman back in the day. Of this group of his musical influencees, Chester Burnett (Howlin' Wolf) is my personal favorite, and the connection is obvious when listening to Patton's deep gravelly voice as he commands the attention of the listener. He was known as quite the showman in his day, and the stories of his playing the guitar behind his back and between his legs during live performances encouraged a youn Jimi Hendrix to explore flashy and animated techniques with which to wow audiences.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1401670242092_3119" style="">Patton's catalogue is fairly straightforward if not a simple listen, but it should be a stop along the listening journey of any blues fan.</div>
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<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1401670242092_3120" style="">Come Back Boomerang - <strong>Time Lapse Consortium</strong>
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<div style="">Time Lapse Consortium was an instrumental side project of Incubus guitarist Mike Einziger, and also included Incubus drummer Jose Pasillas and bassist Ben Kenney. The band also featured a small horn and string section, and specialized in a unique brand of retro psychedelic-influenced jazzy funk. Unfortunately the project culminated in just a single concert that was recorded and released in a limited run as a live album. I don't believe it's available commercially anywhere at this time, but enterprising people with an internet connection can get their digital hands on it pretty easily. I'd highly recommend this album to fans of jazz funk outfit Soulive, as I discovered the two right around the same time a few years back.</div>
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<div style="">The Boxer - <strong>Me First and the Gimme Gimmes</strong>
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<div style="">I freakin' LOVE Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. For those who aren't familiar, it's a pop-punk supergroup who records cover versions of classic songs across the entire spectrum of musical genres. There are other bands who have done it (I've even done an ironic punk cover of a few songs myself, most notably the Golden Girls theme song), but nobody does it better than these fellas. They manage to punk these songs up, yet still maintain a strange sense of sincerity that lends itself to their assertion that they are usually not trying to poke fun at the original songs. On the contrary, a good song is a good song, regardless of the genre of music it falls into. Of course with that being said, the band obviously has a wonderfully quirky sense of humor, and it shines through on everything they do. <br>I have yet to play a Me First and the Gimme Gimmes song for someone and they don't like it. I've got every recording they've put out, at least I thought I did until now. I just saw that they have a brand new album out (released in May, 2014), full of punk covers of songs by "Divas" like Paula Abdul, Christina Aguilera and Celine Dion. How could it be anything but good, clean fun?</div>
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<div style="">Ziggy Stardust - <strong>David Bowie</strong>
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<div style="">This will probably elicit some sass from a few people, but there are a few universally acclaimed artists that I just "don't get". One of them is Bruce Springsteen. I understand his appeal, he's simply just not for me. Another is Bob Dylan, and I think it's pretty common for people like me to appreciate his songwriting but not be able to get past his considerable case of mushmouth and his blatant disregard for the enigma that is musical pitch. They might not be "for me"(my standard way of saying I don't like them), but I completely understand why people like them and I will readily acknowledge their place in music history.</div>
<div style="">But David Bowie? I just don't get it. At all.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1401670242092_3127" style="">I consider myself a very musically open minded person, and I pride myself on being empathetic with my musical tastes. There have been plenty of artists that I haven't cared for at first, and then I revisit them later and my perspective has changed. But it doesn't seem to matter how many times I try or how long I give it, for the life of me I just don't understand all the hubbub about David Bowie. I'm fairly certain that I believe Meg White is a much better singer than David Bowie, and I've never heard her sing anything. I can say with confidence that I think the best performance of his career was in The Labyrinth. I don't want to say anything disparaging about him, that's not my style... but he's got to be the suckiest suck that has ever pretentiously sucked.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1401670242092_3125" style="">(Okay, maybe I don't feel quite THAT strongly about his deficiency of talent, but I really honestly don't get it. I'd be interested in hearing what it is that people like about his music.) </div>The High Celltag:thehighcell.com,2005:Post/27231682014-03-10T22:10:17-04:002014-03-10T22:10:17-04:00(This Used to Be an) Unreleased Demo"My Face" is a rather moody song that didn't make the final cut for my first album Faceplant, and I never went back and finished it. I considered revisiting it and re-recording all the vocals/polishing it up a bit for the second album, but it doesn't really fit the vibe of the collection of new songs I'm working on either.<br><br>While the proverbial window for this song has closed, all the hours and emotion I put into it would be a waste if I didn't share it (even in all it's unfinishedness).<br><br><iframe width="100%" height="450" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/138958042&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;visual=true"></iframe>The High Celltag:thehighcell.com,2005:Post/24193672014-01-17T13:22:42-05:002022-02-25T17:10:49-05:00String Theory; The Art of Analysis Paralysis<p>Universally, I have a tendency to make things more difficult than they need to be. Call it ADD, call it anxiety, or call it a mild form of some sort of cognitive disorder, most people who would come along for the average ride might simply call it a pain in the nuts. I over-analyze, over-dramatize, and basically over-think every seemingly simple thing I do. One current example of this is my need to change my guitar strings. Should be pretty simple, right?<br>no.<br>I have a good healthy handful of guitars of all shapes and sizes. Electrics, acoustics, 6-string, 12-string, nylon string, 4-string bass, 5-string bass, etc.<br>Each of these has it's own type of strings. So, I could just pick one brand and get a set of each variety, right? Simple?<br>no.<br>Each individual type of strings also comes in an endless variety of sizes, materials, and an equally endless variety of coatings for the purposes of sonic girth and longevity. Let's take my Fender Stratocaster for instance. I could get steel strings, nickel strings, nickel-plated steel, even chrome or polymer coated strings. I also need to decide whether I want round wound, half wound, or flat wound strings... Each of these options sounds a little different, and each has a different life expectancy once they're on the guitar. Now onto another very important question; What gauge of strings do I get? Light? Medium? Heavy? A combination/hybrid set or somewhere in between? I've tried them all at one point or another, and they each have their good and bad points. I mean, I really like how heavy strings sound in the hands of a capable guitar player on a Strat. Take Stevie Ray Vaughan for instance. Holy bejesus, he usually played 11's or thicker. I know that means absolutely nothing to those of you who don't play the guitar, but take my word for it. Whatever your "thing" is, just imagine someone doing it well under the highest degree of difficulty. Like knitting a sweater out of chicken wire, playing basketball with a bowling ball, or dominating one of those God forsaken time-based music video games on the hardest level. I suck at those games.<br>Come to think of it, I'm also only a marginally capable guitar player and I have fingers like a malnourished Toddlers & Tiaras star as opposed to the fingers of steel that Stevie Ray Vaughan was revered for. Maybe I should go with lighter strings on my Strat this time. <br>But what about the rest of the guitars? Simple?<br>God no. I have to go through a similar thought process for each and every option for each guitar, rattling all the ingredients around in my brain for a while before trying to pour them out in the form of a coherent result like my head was some sort of cosmic cocktail shaker of thought.<br><br>By the time I get a chance to run through all the next options as far as the string brands, vast amount of possible websites to buy from, researching and comparing every facet of cost and shipping, and incorporating the numbers of sets/sizes/types that I want to buy to allow for breakage backups, I'm already exhausted and I haven't even begun to think about actually CHANGING all of them. As a matter of fact, I've been in the process of "buying" new strings for a week now. If we're being honest, this blog in itself is nothing more than a distraction that I've manufactured in order to perpetuate this vicious cycle of analysis paralysis.<br>Originally I was taking a break from recording a new song. Frustrated with my dull, lifeless old rust-ridden strings, my plan was to just sit down at my laptop and order some new ones. Simple, right?<br><br>;) <br><br><br> <br> </p>The High Celltag:thehighcell.com,2005:Post/23169762014-01-02T10:12:05-05:002014-01-02T10:18:51-05:00Fender Music FoundationI was just thinking about my previous blog, in which I was being a bit of a poopy-pants about musical instrument and gear endorsements/sponsorships for crazy-wealthy artists. First of all, I'm not ashamed to admit that a portion of my sour-grapes attitude about it almost certainly comes from jealousy. I'm a musical instrument fanatic, and I wish I could get my hands on more. :) <br><br>On a more serious note, the true stuffing of my sentiment on the topic is that I think it's terribly unfortunate that there are so many musically-inclined kids out there who just aren't able to get access to instruments. One of the company names that I threw out there as a benign example of artist endorsements was Fender, simply because it's one of the most recognizable musical instrument companies to the general public.<br>But Fender was the last name that I should have used as an example, as they are nothing short of prolific in sharing my vision for enhanced music education programs and the availability of instruments for kids.<br><br>The <a contents="Fender Music Foundation" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.fendermusicfoundation.org/" target="_blank">Fender Music Foundation</a> is a non-profit charity that works toward the goal of keeping music education programs alive and helping future musicians thrive. If ever there was an optimistic counterpoint to the pessimism that I felt while writing my last blog post, Fender makes it perfectly with their continued effort to allow kids to embrace the magic of making music. The High Celltag:thehighcell.com,2005:Post/14818032013-12-03T10:15:00-05:002014-01-02T10:12:40-05:00The Four EndorsemenJust a quick blog to address something that has always bothered me as a musician, and as a music fan; Endorsements and sponsorships for wildly successful and ridiculously wealthy artists.<br><br>I generally find these types of musical sponsorships and endorsements to be sort of a sickening, self-indulgent circle-jerk participated in by companies who already have all the exposure they need, and musicians who don't need any help.<br>I get it. The cream of the crop wants to advertise with the cream of the crop. It's just sound business practice, and I completely understand that. I mean, why wouldn't companies like Fender and Gibson want the impressionable beginners to see their favorite artists playing their brand of instruments? It makes sense.<br>But at the end of the day, who really needs free instruments... Metallica? Or kids who can't afford instruments to play? <br><br><br><br><br> <br> The High Celltag:thehighcell.com,2005:Post/6590372013-05-02T11:10:20-04:002013-05-03T10:05:48-04:00No SmokingWell, it's day six of my new life as a non-smoker. <br>
I didn't plan ahead, I didn't come up with an exit strategy, and I didn't even mentally prepare myself. It was a spontaneous decision, brought on by a minor miscommunication between myself and the lovely Mrs. High Cell. One fateful afternoon last week, we both assumed the other was going to buy cigarettes on the way home. By the time we realized that neither of us did, I didn't feel like leaving the house. "Maybe we should just quit?", she says. "Well, maybe we just should.", was my response. <br>
Essentially, my innate laziness was the catalyst that I used as a reason to quit smoking. <br><br>
Don't get me wrong, the necessity of quitting has been on my radar since... well, since I started. But over the past few years when I've considered the possibility of quitting, I've always felt like I needed to have a plan. <br>
"I need to cut down first." <br>
"I need to really be ready, or it's not going to work." <br>
"I need to find a good replacement for it."<br>
"I need to build up the courage."<br><br>
I was always making excuses. I was always grasping at reasons not to quit <i>yet</i>. Reaching for a way to postpone the actual 'quitting', when in reality, none of these things would have made this process any easier for me. It's not easy, no matter what you do. If anything, I think it would be even more difficult for me if I had gone through with one of those plans and built it up into more of an event than it needed to be. I think planning ahead too much would have introduced an extra sense of pressure, as well as a certain dramatic flair that would have made it acceptable to fail. <br>
So although I've been having difficulty with it, I'm glad that I just dove in head-first on a whim rather than making a spectacle of the process to "start" quitting.<br><br>
There are no less than 599 chemical additives in your common cigarette (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_additives_in_cigarettes" target="_new">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_additives_in_cigarettes</a>), and I can't help but feel that those are some creepy sonsabitches and they're trying to control my thoughts. Generally speaking, I'm a stubborn fella, I've always had issues with authority, and I HATE feeling like I'm being manipulated. This process is bringing all of these feelings together for a perfect storm of self loathing. There's that little second voice in my head, the "devil on one shoulder" if you will, that is such a little asshole. I'm picturing this voice coming from a tiny little me, only dressed up in cheesy plaid pants with slicked-back hair and a toothpick in his mouth.. A sleazy little salesman with nothing productive (or honest) to say. This demonic and douche-ridden little fella is providing a running pessimistic commentary for me throughout this journey, saying things like "Well, I made it six days so now I know that I can quit... later...". "Do I really want to quit anyway?" "I've been doing great, I deserve at least one cigarette as a reward". "Nobody just quits cold turkey, I can have one here and there to make it easier.." <br>
My own brain is trying to manipulate me, and I don't like it. That's where the stubbornness is an assett, because I refuse to let that evil little bastard make me do something I don't want to do. And my problem with authority is also coming in handy, because I'm considering today how ridiculous it is that a little stick that I light on fire has some kind of control over me. In short, I'd like to look cigarettes right in their skeevy eyes and say "I'm a grown-ass man, you're not the boss of me!"<br><br>
I refuse to be one of those folks who engages in that long and drawn-out back and forth struggle. I think sometimes people are kind of inclined to allow themselves to fail, in the hopes that they can rebound from the adversity before validating their destiny like some hapless underdog in an 80's John Hughes movie. But not me. I don't want a long chess match. I just want to deliver a swift Krav Maga kick right to the metaphorical ballbag of this unfortunate habit and push it down a flight of stairs, before tying it to the tracks of the train that is carrying me to a happier and healthier chapter of my life. <br><br><br>
<br type="_moz">The High Celltag:thehighcell.com,2005:Post/5364272013-04-15T20:41:33-04:002013-04-15T20:41:33-04:00BostonMy heart goes out to everyone affected by the events in Boston today. So senseless.<br>
I was surprised by all the talk about whether it was officially a "terrorist" attack or not. In my mind it <i>is</i>, just because of what it was. Doesn't matter whether it was foreign or domestic. I'd call it the same thing if a disgruntled postal worker was the culprit as opposed to a religious extremist. <br>
If I'm following the prototypical formula, now is the time that I would spew my hatred in writing toward those that are responsible... <br><br>
But I won't. I just won't give them the satisfaction. <br><br>
I know I'm not alone in feeling angry about what happened, but I know I'm also not alone in feeling pity. Pity for someone who lacks basic compassion and empathy for the rest of the human race. Someone who has had such a lack of fundamental emotional structure in their life, that they think this action is acceptable in order to prove their point. From a psychological point of view, I can't help but think that it's someone who doesn't know what it's like to love, or be loved. Because no person that has truly experienced either, could be capable of such things. <br><br>
<br type="_moz">The High Celltag:thehighcell.com,2005:Post/3325542013-02-27T15:45:00-05:002017-02-01T21:03:45-05:00The Underappreciated If you’re a blues-rock fan, or a fan of guitar playing in general, there are some things that go without saying. You have your Hendrix and Clapton, your SRV, your Joe Bonamassa, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Warren Haynes. All the usual names that make it into every in-depth conversation about people’s favorite classic and contemporary blues based guitarists along with the rest of the staples of the genre. But for every high profile, well known guitar hero, there are ten musicians who haven’t gotten the exposure or the widespread credit that their talent deserves. Here are a few of my personal favorites that often slip through the cracks for various reasons. <br><br><u>Philip Sayce</u><br>
I first discovered Philip Sayce while he was serving as the second guitarist for departed blues-rock statesman Jeff Healey. I ran across a video in which Healey sat back during a live show and let Sayce step out front to blow people’s minds with his guitar pyrotechnics. He was later recruited as a studio and touring ace by Uncle Kracker and Melissa Etheridge, and began releasing music as a solo artist.<br>
His playing has the key components and the obvious influence of all the greats in the genre (SRV, Hendrix, Healey of course), and he brings his own flashy retro-psychedelic vibe to the table as well. He’s definitely worth a listen for those who enjoy some good guitar wailing. Here’s one from his newest release: <br><br><iframe width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0LrbrbJ1LsY"></iframe> <br>
Doyle Bramhall II<br>
One of my very favorite musicians of all time. Where do I start? Legend has it that Doyle grew up with Stevie Ray Vaughan stopping by the house, as his Dad was a friend and writing partner of SRV. His first guitar was originally owned by blues legend Lightnin’ Hopkins. He plays left-handed and upside down, just because he didn’t know any better. He joined The Fabulous Thunderbirds as a youngster, co-founded the Arc Angels with fellow prodigy Charlie Sexton and SRV’s backing band Double Trouble. He’s spent time filling David Gilmour’s shoes for Roger Waters, backing up Clapton live and in the studio, and serving as a hired gun for a number of other well-known artists.<br>
He’s accomplished a lot, including leaving me eagerly waiting to hear new music. After the Arc Angels, he put out two musically diverse solo albums in the 90’s and then the classic-rock and blues-infused masterpiece ‘Welcome’ in the early 2000’s (definitely on the list of my most-listened albums ever). On a related note, Doyle is also featured in the music business documentary “Before The Music Dies”. It’s hard to find, but it’s a great observation on the rise of manufactured pop stars in the music industry and the difficulty it creates for more authentic artists like Doyle.<br>
As I’m typing this, I also have my earbuds in deciding which song to share. Holy sweet baby Jesus, every time I listen to this song it’s like I’m listening to it for the first time. You want to know why I’m so crazy about music? What is it about music that makes me feel alive? It’s at 5:41 in this song. <br><br><iframe width="420" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/f_dEGcja7L4"></iframe> <br><br>
Audley Freed<br>
Audley released two albums with his band Cry of Love in the 90’s, and then went on to join the Black Crowes for a few years. Like the previous subjects on this list, he has also proven to be an in-demand session and touring guitarist (his credits include; Gov’t Mule, Jakob Dylan, The Dixie Chicks, Gavin Degraw, Peter Frampton, and many more). He’s had a few other musical projects that I’m just discovering now and oh yeah, I almost forgot. Holy crap he can play. Much like Mr. Bramhall, he’s got a really cool style that still shines through no matter who he’s playing with. For my fellow guitar players out there, he’s also solely responsible for me being obsessed with getting a Uni-Vibe pedal during a certain period in life. Here’s why:<br><br><iframe width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZYm1U7nk7-Y?list=PLDCE63EA65237BAC8" allowfullscreen=""></iframe> <br><br><br><br>
Davy Knowles<br>
Davy is a bit of a black sheep on this list. Not because he’s remotely any less of a guitar player than the others, but because he’s still under 30 years old and is just now establishing his presence in the world of blues and rock music. <br>
Davy was obviously a budding blues-rock star when his band “Back Door Slam” released the album Roll Away in 2007, and I became a fan immediately (if not sooner) when I heard the first notes of the first song. After splitting with his original bandmates, he’s been carrying on as Davy Knowles and Back Door Slam. In 2009 he released the album “Coming Up For Air”, which provides a snapshot of how Davy is maturing and progressing as a singer, songwriter, and musician in general. There’s a reason that Joe Satriani called him one of his favorite modern blues players, but also a reason that Peter Frampton signed on to produce his last album, and it’s because his appeal is just as broad as his talent. As the old saying goes, “sometimes the notes you don’t play are just as important as the notes you play”. Eric Clapton is the best example of players who embody this mantra for me, and Davy Knowles has managed to place himself on my short list of favorites. <br>
Davy has a new album in the works, and I’m looking forward to hearing it. Here’s a Johnny Cash cover of his that I just discovered, followed by a more acoustic oriented song from his first album that always makes me think of home:<br><br><iframe width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IgwPMDyZVVo"></iframe> <br><br><br><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pokh8v2OQJQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>The High Celltag:thehighcell.com,2005:Post/2823542013-01-16T17:01:38-05:002018-03-13T06:08:52-04:00I Love This Quote"Singers and Musicians are some of the most driven, courageous people on the face of the earth. They deal with more day-to-day rejection in one year than most people do in a lifetime. <br>
Every day, they face the financial challenge of living a freelance lifestyle, the disrespect of people who think they should get real jobs, and their own fear that they'll never work again. <br><br>
Every day, they have to ignore the possibility that the vision they have dedicated their lives to is a pipe dream. <br>
With every note, they stretch themselves, emotionally and physically, risking criticism and judgment.<br>
With every passing year, many of them watch as the other people their age achieve the predictable milestones of normal life - the car, the family, the house, the nest egg. <br><br>
Why? <br><br>
Because musicians and singers are willing to give their entire lives to a moment - to that melody, that lyric, that chord, or that interpretation that will stir the audience's soul. <br>
Singers and Musicians are beings who have tasted life's nectar in that crystal moment when they poured out their creative spirit and touched another's heart. <br><br>
In that instant, they were as close to magic, God, and perfection as anyone could ever be. And in their own hearts, they know that to dedicate oneself to that moment is worth a thousand lifetimes.” <br><br><i>- David Ackert, LA Times</i><br>The High Celltag:thehighcell.com,2005:Post/2723362012-12-28T07:55:00-05:002017-01-15T15:30:31-05:00Season To TasteAlright, now this is just getting silly. When I finished the first album just over a year ago, it was a pretty spontaneous decision to be done recording it. I still had a good handful of songs in various states of disrepair that I decided to just set on the shelf until the time came to begin work on the next album. <br>
Well, my infatuation with making new music ultimately meant that the time to start work on the next album began immediately when I released the first one. Sure, I took some time out at first to create all my social networking sites and make futile attempts to send out a hundred promo CD's to seemingly independent outlets that I'm not nearly independently wealthy enough to solicite with my "music" (I'm looking at you, NPR. <img src="//bandzoogle.com/common/FCKEditor/editor/images/smiley/msn/wink_smile.gif" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" />). I did some interviews, I hired the wrong company to send out a press release about the new album on my behalf (I won't even mention them here, because I never want to be associated with their name in print again. To any of you DIY or independent musicians out there that are looking at press release services and want to know which one to avoid, shoot me an email at mike@thehighcell.com and I'll be happy to share my experience). Then I dove headfirst into a never-ending onslaught of articles written by "industry experts", telling me how to achieve success in the music industry as an independent artist. Without making disparaging remarks about anyone in particular, the majority of said experts are people who couldn't make a career in the music industry and turned to consultation after washing out. To me, it's the equivalent of a failed athlete deciding to become a coach when they never really understood the game in the first place. I think it's always important to hear different perspectives, as long as you take the input as a taste-based seasoning to your own personal stew of success... as opposed to taking that advice and making it the foundation of your dish. You can season your stew with salt and make it better, but you can't just have Salt Stew.<br>
(In all fairness, there are also some really good analytical opinions out there for up-and-coming musicians. I personally really appreciate the sensible and practical advice that I've gotten from Madalyn Sklar <a target="_new" href="http://www.madalynsklar.com/">www.madalynsklar.com/</a> over the past year.) <br><br>
Even with all of this excitement going on for me after the release of Faceplant, I realized pretty quickly that I was missing the recording process.To give you a little peek into my fairly warped, fuzzy little melon of a head, my recording process... isn't really a defined "process" as much as it is a social experiment in obsession. I tend to officially write most of my music in the studio, spontaneously, one piece at a time. Sure, I'll often have a head full of rough instrumental ideas, guitar parts, lyrical themes, mental snippets of melodies and plans for general subject matter for a few days (or even months...err... years in some cases), but none of it really comes together until I sit down and work on it. <br><br>
One of my biggest problems in the studio is that I always want to get things done too fast. By nature I want to get all the instrument parts established and polished, the lyrics finished, vocals done, mix it and master it immediately, burn it on a disk and it can wait there until I'm done with enough to share a collection of them with everyone. It's not uncommon for me to get into the studio and want to slap together an entire song from scratch in an afternoon and call it done. (I suppose that's how I am with everything... If I have a car full of groceries, I'll hang bags off of my ears and hold one in my teeth just to get it all in one trip.) But as the time has flown by and each day seems to bring one less hair and one new wrinkle, I guess I'm learning something in my old age. I'm starting to have fun nursing this bottle of wine rather than pounding a bottle of Jack. I'm starting to enjoy a nice meal with several courses rather than just stuffing my face with a frozen pizza and passing out. I suppose I always have, it's just a matter of balance and realization.<br><br>
And so it also goes, where my music is concerned. That good handful of songs that I had left over after I decided to release the first album? The majority of them were the ones I had tried to finish in one day. The songs that ended up on the album were all continuous works in progress. "So Fine" was a completely different song at one point, "A Frayed Knot" didn't originally have the slide guitar part that ended up being a defining part of the song. I went back and did the guitar and vocals over again on "Shame", I added the Sitar part to "What an Evening", and basically had to cut myself off when twiddling with "Underachiever". Essentially, I didn't just take the initial ingredients and run with them. I seasoned-to-taste.<br><br>
I'm not sure exactly when I had this epiphany, but at some point I made the parallel between myself and the traditional full band model when it comes to recording. Most traditional bands go through a "writing" phase as a group before they start recording. Well, I may not have a full band, but why couldn't I as a DIY artist go through the writing phase too? Why would I put the pressure on myself to get the work of 6 or 8 people done in a fraction of the time? After all, this is what I love doing. Not the business, not the marketing, not being the center of attention in person, but the writing and recording process. That's what makes me happy. So here I am with 26 new songs in various states of disrepair as possibilities for the next album, and I hope you enjoy the end result as much as I'm enjoying the cooking process. <br><br>
<br type="_moz">The High Celltag:thehighcell.com,2005:Post/2590922012-11-29T15:35:00-05:002017-01-15T15:30:31-05:00Junk to Someone...Treasures to me.<br><br>
Everyone gets attached to things, and I'm no different. Honestly, I might even take it a little farther than necessary sometimes. I tend to collect random little trinkets and keepsakes to commemorate places and times in life, often wondering some days if I might blur the boundaries between sentimental sap and shameless hoarder if I didn't have someone to keep my in line.<br><br>
Aside from stuffing the pockets of my brain with commemorative snapshots of what amount to seemingly ambiguous memories for most people, I have piles of physical novelties that can take me back to nostalgic places and wistful times past in an instant.<br><br>
It may be borderline uncool to admit that I also love antiques, and/or just plain "old" things. Some might disagree scientifically with the hippy-dippy metaphysical notion that physical objects have the ability to retain certain "energies" that they have been exposed to, but I'm really not so sure. The only thing that I can say with certainty is that I find myself drawn to and inspired by objects that have a history of some sort. Whether it's a marvel of this dimension that we don't yet fully understand or just a placebo effect brought on by my own fragile psyche, I have to admit that I just feel inspired by random things sometimes.<br><br>
So with that in mind, I'll get to the meat of this blog. Inspiration. More specifically, a few things that I own that seem to inspire me on a regular basis. Some are reasonably new objects with sentimental meanings, some are much older than I am. But either way, these are some of the things lately that seem to add the extra spark needed to ignite my passion whenever it feels a little stagnant.<br><br>
Anchor:<br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/36125/f2195252152892a51720b815657f2cbbca5a5a28/thumb/Anchor.jpg?1377785592" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="151" width="114" /><br><br>
I have a thing for old-timey anchors. Specifically, I associate the essence and symbology of an anchor with what music means to me on a fundamental level. It grounds me, and it keeps me feeling stable in a world that sometimes seems anything but. Always has. So this hangs on the wall in my studio over the monitors, and I find myself glancing at it often. My cerebral state tends to get a bit frantic (ie: psycho) during the writing and recording process, and I've found that focusing on this symbol is a great way to redirect my energy when I start feeling overwhelmed by an onslaught of random ideas and whimsical musical thoughts.<br><br>
Harmony Guitar:<br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/36125/688655e4a747aab22f96460a1c827d5d93df32d8/original/Harmony.jpg?1377785592" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="173" width="129" /><br>
This guitar belonged to my great uncle, then my father, and now me. Harmony instruments were originally the off-brand musical instruments of Sears & Roebucks back in the day. They were never known as great quality guitars, although their electrics have made a little bit of a resurgence in recent years thanks to retro/garage/blues rockers like Jack White from the White Stripes and Dan Auerbach from the Black Keys. This guitar was no doubt a folk and hymn-playing <i>machine</i> back in its day, and I love thinking about all the countless hours of play that caused the significant fret-wear on it. It's in pretty rough shape by most standards, but I still pick it up from time to time to see if I can squeeze a little leftover magic out of it.<br><br>
Painting:<br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/36125/543e847cdb35bee0f0faace7d6b4687d9a639061/thumb/Painting.jpg?1377785592" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="134" width="179" /><br>
This is a ridiculously kickass painting done by <a href="http://sherryarthur.com/" target="_new">Sherry Arthur</a>, and I'm a big fan of her artwork. After having it for a while now, I still find myself stopping to look at it as I walk past. It's a mixed-media piece, so it has old book pages underneath for me to peruse if I look close enough. Not only is she a great artist, but I've found since buying this painting that Sherry is apparently a great person as well. That makes her art mean more to me as an independent artist, as I'm not even remotely a nice guy and I hope to learn how she manages to pull it off.<br><br>
Trunk:<br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/36125/f207509f7ca2bea821bf1ab74f272ed3ebff124e/thumb/Trunk.jpg?1377785592" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="117" width="155" /><br>
This old trunk belonged to my great grandfather around the turn of the century. Last century, that is. Man, did they know how to make shit back in the day or what? I know for sure that it survived a lot of weather and a few cross-country trips around World War One, and lord knows what else (I'm not sure how old it actually is). Much like myself, it only gets more attractive with age. <img src="//bandzoogle.com/common/FCKEditor/editor/images/smiley/msn/teeth_smile.gif" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /> I don't know what it is about this thing, I just want to sit and stare at it. I know that every dent and every scratch has it's own story, and I find inspiration in the way it seems to constantly and stoically suggest to me that I don't know squat about hardship and I certainly don't know dick about life. <br><br>
Little Green Flashy Dude:<br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/36125/f715023a9095d0fc4cbdbd1b771231859d3f2ec4/thumb/download.jpg?1377785592" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="122" width="160" /><br>
This was a random Christmas gift from my special lady friend last year, and it makes no sense. It's a little green mutant rubber ducky with floppy hair tendrils and a faulty equilibrium, and it lights up and flashes when I slap it. If I'm in a foul mood or feeling discouraged about something, I can always smack my duck. When I find myself in times of trouble, rubber ducky comes to me. Speaking words of wisdom... He doesn't say anything at all. He just smiles and I find it whimsical.<br><br>The High Celltag:thehighcell.com,2005:Post/2480542012-11-07T16:09:12-05:002012-11-07T16:09:12-05:00Performance Anxiety I've never been what you would call a born "performer". I consider myself more of a musician, and contrary to popular belief, the two don't necessarily always go hand-in-hand. I love playing music, I love making and writing music, and I love recording music. But one thing that I've still not gotten the knack of over the years that I've been a musician, is being the center of attention. Before I started making music under the moniker of The High Cell, I was in a number of bands in more of a secondary capacity. I've played the bass in bands, been the rhythm guitarist, dabbled in being a drummer here and there, sang a song or two to switch things up, etc... But never before I started recording as The High Cell was I playing the part of a true "front-man". And I don't know if I truly am yet.<br>
It's a role that, quite frankly, still intimidates me. I'd even venture to say that my somewhat irrational (but inherent) lack of confidence in my natural ability as an entertainer significantly hinders the growth of my career in music. Part of the reason I decided to release music under a band name instead of just my given name was so that I could continue to write and record independently but also put together a band for live shows (much in the way that Trent Reznor or Dave Grohl started Nine Inch Nails and The Foo Fighters, respectively, as one-man DIY bands). As of this post, I still don't have a steady lineup in place. Why? As many of you may know, it can be hard to effectively and rationally explain self-doubt.<br><br>
I've never been a band leader in the traditional sense, I've always been the rather introspective member that adds color and shading to the outline that someone else has drawn. Would someone who may be a better musician than myself even be interested in catering to my musical whims? Contributing to my musical vision when they might have one of their own?<br><br>
Some might call my paranoia about performing a borderline "social anxiety disorder", and some might simply label it as "stage fright". Both are probably accurate to a certain extent. The way I see it from the perspective of objective psychological self-analysis, there are three avenues to get past such a veritable road block of a mental condition, and I think this applies to anyone with a general phobia of vulnerability... Not just musicians;<br><br>
1 - You can avoid the problem. Honestly, this what I've been doing. It just simply isn't productive, and it leads to a lack of fulfillment. In today's landscape of the entertainment business (or any business or any personal goal for that matter), it's obviously important to put yourself out there. There's nothing that creates a hole in your soul quite like knowing that you are holding yourself back. Knowing that you are capable of so much more than what you are doing, but allowing the grip of fear to keep you from embracing your potential.<br><br>
2 - You can try to mask the problem. Most commonly, this is done with drugs or alcohol, and I've definitely been guilty of using the latter as a synthetic form of confidence at times throughout my adult years. "Liquid Courage" (or "Chemical Courage") is not only a fleeting fix, but it can also be a detriment that creates new hurdles in your endeavors. I'm reminded when considering this option, of the last time I sang Karaoke for "fun". Now here's a guy who has sang in front of decent sized crowds, a guy who spends a good deal of time singing and honestly enjoys it as a creative outlet. A fella who has has released music that has been heard globally by a lot of people over the last year. But it was a guy who on this particular day, built his own impassable hurdle and put a mask over his eyes before trying to jump over it. Family and friends were in attendance, and this marked the first time that my mother would ever see me sing anything live. To put it bluntly, I kind of sucked ass. I turned to liquid courage to build up my confidence and I essentially ended up vocally pooping my proverbial musical pants.This was supposed to be FUN, and it was anything but for me when all was said and done. I actually wish my personal saga that fateful night would have been documented on video so I could add a commentary and use it as a Public Service Announcement to highlight the dangers of drinking yourself into near oblivion in order to subdue the demons of self-doubt within. It was a tale reminiscent of Robert Johnson selling his soul to the devil at the crossroads only to be swindled and get cut down in his prime... only I was singing into a cheap halitosis-ridden microphone at a beach bar and I turned to cheap swill for help as opposed to Satan. I sang two songs that I had literally performed hundreds of time before ("If You Could Only See" by Tonic and "Bubble Toes" by Jack Johnson if you were wondering, both of which were songs that I had covered on demos in the past), and I can only surmise from what I remember that the performance smelled like exceptionally hot garbage and some of the people in attendance probably got the impression that I had never even heard these songs before I sang them that night. If I had just done it and had fun without working myself into an emotional frenzy before-hand, it would have been a fun, fond memory. But as it stands, I created a rift between myself and something I enjoyed doing, with a good gallon of watered-down drinks that I paid entirely too much for. :) And last but not least...<br><br>
3 - Just put your head down, and systematically plow through your road blocks one at a time. No matter how slow you have to go, whether you feel that you've created the obstacles yourself or whether you believe that the cosmic hand you've been dealt has laid them out before you. As human beings, what builds the confidence we might lack is the confrontation of that which we are afraid of. I just made that up, and I like it.<br>
Of course this is much easier said than done, and of course the trials and tribulations of life will continue to make it an ongoing challenge. But from my simple philosophical point of view, I truly don't believe it's supposed to be easy. If video games were always easy, kids (or adults) wouldn't feel a sense of accomplishment for making progress. If being a musical virtuoso was simple, novice musicians wouldn't feel rewarded by learning new things. Whatever your hurdles might be, there is no greater disappointment than not knowing if you could jump them. And as the old saying goes, "there is no greater failure than not trying".<br>
One of my favorite NFL players ever, was Detroit Lions running back Barry Sanders. He is considered one of the best and most prolific running backs in the history of the sport, and he still holds a good handful of NFL rushing records today. One of the records that he holds, is the most negative rushing yards in history... See what I did there?<br><br>
I'm realistic. I know this is all going to be a matter of taking baby-steps sometimes. But the important thing is that I'll be moving forward toward my dreams instead of standing still. You should do the same.<br><br>
I want to go sing some karaoke. <br>The High Celltag:thehighcell.com,2005:Post/2284762012-10-08T14:51:17-04:002017-02-01T19:06:28-05:00Songs In ProgressI want to share some of the songs I've been working on, and who better to share them with than you? I'm working on a lot of songs (in several different genres) at any given time, and I want to know what YOU think. So the first one I've chosen to share is the song "Take"... <iframe width="100%" scrolling="no" height="166" frameborder="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F62708284&show_artwork=true"></iframe>The High Celltag:thehighcell.com,2005:Post/2139092012-09-13T17:27:18-04:002012-09-13T17:27:18-04:00The High Cell - UnpluggedWhen was the last time you really... "unplugged"? I mean no phone, no Internet, no TV. No Twitter, no Facebook, no email, no eBay. No local/world/political news, no weather updates, no iPod, no PS3 or Xbox, no... Technology.<br>
If you're anything like me, it's been entirely too long (and the times that I have in recent memory, have been solely by necessity and have been fairly short-lived). To be very blunt and analytical about it, I can plainly see and admit the fact that I've conditioned myself to rely on (and create) technological distractions as a mechanism to deal with my own reality. <br>
As R. Buckminster Fuller once put it:<br><i>"Up until the Twentieth Century, reality was everything humans could touch, smell, see, and hear. Since the initial publication of the chart of the electromagnetic spectrum, humans have learned that what they can touch, smell, see, and hear is less than one-millionth of reality."</i><br>
As a fella in my early 30's, I can say it's ridiculous how far technology has advanced in my lifetime. And with it, so has my awareness of the rest of reality. Not only can I be current on the political unrest in Tibet (where I've never been), but I can listen to new music from the band Current Swell in Canada that I love (who I've never seen live and never heard anyone else talk about). Not only can I know right now what the weather is like in the Galapogos Islands (unfortunately another place I've never been), but I can also know what "Barbara Fatpants" (who I've never met) on Twitter is having for dinner tonight in Akron, Ohio.<br><br>
This isn't all bad, as I think it's great to broaden our personal perspective on the world. It all reminds me that whatever crap I have going on, isn't the only thing that exists. <br><br>
But can it become too much of a distraction? Can living vicariously through the rest of reality become an escape from your own? Can it change the way you perceive your own existence, both directly and indirectly? I mean, I happen to know for a fact that Barbara Fatpants visited my website and listened to my music. She said sh really e liked it, but she didn't buy it and she didn't share it with anyone else! And someone from Tibet liked The High Cell's Facebook page, but never responds to the posts that I spend so much time trying to make "witty" enough for them... I fail at life so hard when it comes to being a professional musician.<br><br>
I might even be an amplified example of creating your own distractions. As I get older, I find it more and more difficult not to be "doing" more than one thing at all times. Call it technologically-induced ADD. If I'm checking my email, I also want to be listening to a Joe Rogan Experience podcast. If I'm playing the new Madden game online against someone on the other side of the world, I want to be listening to Rokkus Internet Radio at the same time so I can see if my song gets played. If I'm writing a song on the acoustic guitar, I want to be recording it at the same time. If I'm watching TV, I also want to be checking Twitter to see if if I've been discovered by some rich benefactor who really digs what I do musically. Even if I just sat outside, I'd still have to the screechy neighbor kids jumping on a trampoline like I am while I'm writing this blog. So.. why not have music playing too? At least I'll be keeping my brain busy with things I want to hear as opposed to things I'm forced to hear. (No offense to those of you with screechy kids, I'm not insensitive. I just wish someone would invent an effective "child muzzle".)<br><br>
Not too long ago I talked to a friend who is all about her crazy hippy ideals, and she told me she plans entire days to just sit and do... Nothing. No phone, no internet, no tv, no radio. Absolutely nothing. And i realize a few months later that it's sad how incredulous that sounded to me. It sounded like a completely foreign, alien-born idea not to be doing one particular thing at one time, let alone not to be doing <i>several</i> things at once at all times.<br><br>
When I was a younger lad I spent entire weeks of my life doing "nothing" technologically, and from what little I can recall of it, it was much more personally rewarding than the current landscape of connectivity as I'm currently processing it. In a very simplistic way, I miss the times when my reality was essentially everything I could touch, smell, see, or hear. Living in the moment is not an unrealistic goal, if only for a short burst at a time. I just need to pick times to live in MY moments, and not the same moments as they relate to the rest of the world.<br><br>
So I've made a date to pack up my trusty Breedlove acoustic guitar and go camping in the middle of freakin' nowhere. No phone, no Internet, no TV, no rest of the world. Just me and my own little reality... and I'm so excited about it. <br>The High Celltag:thehighcell.com,2005:Post/1989092012-08-10T20:29:36-04:002012-08-10T20:29:36-04:00I Write The SongsAfter a recent conversation that I had about various songwriting tendencies and strategies, I thought it would be a fun topic to throw up a quick blog about.<br><br>
Music, like most art forms, is a subjective medium for both the creator and the critic. I think one of the most beautiful things about music in general is that there is never really a right or wrong. There is only what appeals to each individual. For every "Like a Rolling Stone" by Bob Dylan, there is a "My Humps" by the Black Eyed Peas that garners as much (if not more) commercial success and fanatical popularity. (My Humps was just voted the worst song ever in a recent poll that I ran across, although <i>'</i>I'd venture to guess that Fergie's financial advisor might disagree.)<br><br>
In the days before I ever started writing my own songs, I used to believe that songwriting was a craft with very rigid and discernible boundaries that the writers needed to conform to. I thought there was a correct way to do it, and I just assumed that every songwriter somehow just "got" it. As a young lad, I couldn't have imagined that all the classic songs that I loved listening to began as anything other than the veritable perfection that I perceived in the finished products. In my mind, Stairway to Heaven could only have spontaneously manifested in it's entirety as the epic song that I knew. Nirvana's entire catalog must have been completely conceived in Kurt Cobain's mind exactly the way it sounded on the CD's I bought. Hendrix just sat down to write a song one day, and out comes Little Wing straight into the tape machine... right?<br><br>
The first time that I specifically remember this mystical facade of songcraft being shattered, was during my rabid consumption of everything the band Sublime released during (and immediately after the end of) the bands original incarnation. <br>
I was a big fan of Sublime, and I knew every song inside out. <br>
As singer/guitarist/songwriter Bradley Nowell died shortly before their self-titled album catapulted the band from relative So-Cal obscurity into mainstream popularity, his bandmates/label released and re-released a good handful of songs after his death. Most of these were outtakes, demos, acoustic versions, and old or unfinished songs.<br>
As I checked all this "new" stuff out, I heard familiar things. A line from a song I already knew in the middle of a song I had never heard before, a vocal melody that I knew but was comprised of different lyrics, and sometimes entire song structures that seemed to have been completely cannibalized by the songwriter himself.<br>
It's one of those times in life that I think of now as a bit of a "light bulb moment". Those times when something clouded in mystery suddenly becomes just a little more transparent. <br>
After this curtain was lifted in my mind, it made writing songs into an intriguing creative process rather than a single unreachable "Ahh Ha!" moment of definitive conception. Today, I'm still somewhat of a novice when it comes to having any particular songwriting technique. I have no idea what works the best for me. Sometimes I'll start with a guitar part and try to build a song around it, other times I'll have an entire song's worth of lyrics before anything else, and then there are the times that I just can't stop humming a melody to myself all day and I have to get it out of my head somehow. But no matter how it starts, it's almost a given that I'll never feel like a song is set in stone (As the old saying goes, "art is never truly finished, it is all just a matter of when it was abandoned"). The majority of my songs have alternate versions, and I'm often working on at least two versions of the same song at the same time. My song "So Fine" is a great example of how fluid the process can be, in that I had a vastly different version of it nearly finished for the album before spontaneously scrapping it. It was light, bouncy, and acoustic guitar and piano driven. But it just didn't feel<i> right</i> to me. So I kept the drums and the lyrics, and just started over and out came the song that has now been heard by tens of fans all over the world. <br><br>
As I'm coming to terms with my incessant tweaking and sometimes quite dramatic changes to the songs I'm working on, I'm planning to experiment with letting fans in on the process in some new fun and interactive ways. Something like posting two different versions of the same song and letting you choose which one I move forward with for the next album. Sometimes the trees block my view of the proverbial forest, so who better to give me insight on a song than the ones who I hope will like it in the end?<br><br>
Anyway, that's it for now. There's a pillow calling my name. <br><br>
Not literally. I mean, holy shit. If I really thought I heard a pillow calling my name, I'd be calling for a freakin' ambulance right now instead of continuing to peck away at the keyboard with my three typing-fingers. Until next time,<br><br>
Mike <br>The High Celltag:thehighcell.com,2005:Post/1736262012-05-31T08:08:57-04:002012-05-31T08:08:57-04:00Facebook and The Art of ExtortionWhen Facebook first forced Timeline down the throats of bands and brands, they implied that those of us who whined about the obvious and immediate decrease in activity/views of our posts and content should be wearing tinfoil hats and watching the Zapruder Film frame by frame. They implied that we were manufacturing a conspiracy, that we were being foolish and over-sensitive, and even went so far as to say that the implementation of Timeline was actually going to boost our interactions with fans in the big picture.<br>
The only thing besides a basic sense of business intuition that I had to cite as a reason not to believe what I was being told, was observation. When the Facebook page for The High Cell was switched over to Timeline, it seemed obvious to me that not nearly as many people were seeing my posts on any given day. It was as plain as the nose on the fat face that is connected to the turkey neck that sits right above my fairly bulbous torso, that less people were seeing my content regardless of the day or time it was posted. I also noticed that I wasn’t seeing as many posts from all of the bands/brands that I follow on my personal page.<br>
I remember reading rumors and grumblings about Facebook planning to offer a “pay-for-views” model as a financial strategy after the bad taste of mandatory Timeline died down, and I recall making a comment to this effect ; “So Facebook is now going to let less of my fans see my posts, and then offer me the opportunity to pay so more fans can see my posts? I’ve never been extorted before, a big thanks to Facebook for this experience!” . And still, Facebook stayed steadfast in their proclamation that they were not going to be hijacking the views of page posts in order to make money.<br>
Fast forward to yesterday, when I posted yet another marginally impertinent observation that managed somehow to be both void of humor and also lack any relevance to anyone on the planet (which, if you’re familiar with my Facebook page, is how I tend to roll). After posting it, there was a little nondescript pop-up that appeared that said “welcome to post promotion” or something along those lines. It’s finally here. They’ve come clean and thrown it out there with no fanfare and as little public acknowledgement as possible. The good thing about this is that the case is now officially closed, and I can go back to pinning JFK’s assassination on Ringo Starr and proving that the popularity of ‘Jersey Shore’ is an attempt to brainwash society, perpetrated collectively by the members of the Bohemian Grove Club.<br>
The bad thing, is that I’m disappointed by the sheer transparency of what they’re doing, as well as the lack of concern from the people who are affected by it. Not long after my most recent post was made, a little percentage symbol appeared on the bottom of it. “7%”, it says. After investigating this curious little number with my trusty mouse, Facebook was kind enough to let me know that this was the percentage of fans of The High Cell who saw this post, and it then offered me an opportunity to pay for more to see it. So my cynical question remains the same. Was this the number of people who saw it, or was this the number of people who were allowed to see it before it got sling-shotted down their home page?<br><br>
I’m sure statistics could show that only 7% of the fans are even remotely interested in or entertained by my Facebook posts anyway. But I want people to have the opportunity to decide for themselves whether they fit into that percentage or not, before Facebook buries the posts in a shallow grave on the side of this information super-highway if I don’t pay up. <br><br>The High Celltag:thehighcell.com,2005:Post/1678032012-05-13T17:52:33-04:002017-02-01T17:49:37-05:00Happy Birthday, Robert Johnson!<br>
Last week marked what would have been the 101st birthday of Robert Johnson. What do you do for a Delta Blues legend who’s been dead for 74 years? Why not stick with what seems to have become the tradition, and have a bunch of shameless exploiters hold his legacy upside down by its ankles and violently shake the change out of its pockets? That gag never gets old!<br><br>
Let’s start over, in case anyone reading isn’t familiar with Robert Johnson. He is one of, if not the most famous of the old-timey acoustic blues musicians. His haunting voice, deceptively sophisticated guitar playing, and cryptic songs (along with a fairly ingenious “viral marketing” strategy well before the advent of the first color television) fed into the legends and urban myths about him selling his soul to the devil at a Mississippi crossroads in return for his musical prowess. As the myth goes, he was essentially double-crossed and Satan came to collect him before he was able to fully reap the rewards of his newfound talent, making him possibly the earliest documented member of the infamous “27 Club” of prolific musicians in modern times that’ve died at that particularly unlucky age (including but not limited to; Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse, etc…). Johnson has been constantly cited as a heavily influential musician ever since the onset of what we now consider the golden age of classic rock, folk, and blues (Led Zeppelin, Cream, Bob Dylan, Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, and many others). <br><br>
In reality, Johnson was known as a bit of a nomadic playboy in his day. Travelling from town to town and leaving a trail of entertained music fans, assumingly ravished women, and equally assumingly jealous boyfriends/husbands in his wake. History's most likely answer to the riddle of Robert Johnson’s demise says that his whiskey was poisoned at a juke joint by the jilted lover of one of his female conquests. Although the sensational legends are fun, it’s been all but 100% verified that the unnatural cause of his death was ultimately due more to the little devil inside of him than the biblical figure that most of his songs referenced.<br><br>
What is even less of a mystery, however, is the fact that this man’s musical output since his death makes Tupac look like a total lazy-ass. (Although we haven’t yet had the pleasure of seeing a Robert Johnson “Hologram” onstage with Eric Clapton, I’m sure it’s coming… I’d probably pay to see it <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGbrFmPBV0Y" target="_new">www.youtube.com/watch</a>). The big difference is that Tupac recorded a roughly estimated few hundred songs in his lifetime which have been used in different contexts, chopped up and remixed, and further exploited in their own ways for the financial gain of others. Tupac had/has plenty of unreleased recorded music, and the nature of his genre lends itself well to people taking liberties with it. <br>
But Robert Johnson? Robert Johnson recorded <i>29</i> total songs in his lifetime. 29 songs. <br>
And with those original 29 songs, he has managed to “release” well more than 50 albums just in the last 20 years. His songs have been re-mastered more times than there are episodes of The Jersey Shore (and most have been even more pointless than any episode of the latter), the songs have been re-ordered and the alternate takes of the recording sessions have been added for dramatic effect, and they’ve even gone so far as to release albums of his songs played back at different speeds just to try something new.<br>
While this level of exploitation of an artist with a questionable estate (and a hefty and revolving amount of shady new publishing-rights investors who want to rename his “collection” several times per year) is somewhat troubling to me, I still like to look at the big picture. “Robert Johnson” has been on the list of new releases in the blues category a few times a year for decades. It’s sad to me that the man himself has become such a “business”, but ultimately, I appreciate that this kind of exposure still allows new fans to run across his music. While everything else has changed, the music… those 29 songs, are some of the most enduring pillars of the music industry over the past century. And so it’s with that in mind, that I say “Happy Birthday, Robert Johnson”. <br><br>The High Celltag:thehighcell.com,2005:Post/1618912012-04-27T19:05:36-04:002012-04-27T19:05:36-04:00Beer and PicklesI got several good blog ideas after asking for suggestions on the Facebook page. I’ll definitely cover a few more of them in the future, but I thought I’d start with a subject that is near and dear to my heart. A topic that seems to incite a fairly passionate response from all those who might happen to stumble across its unpredictable and viscous tentacles of discussion (regardless of their age, race, creed, sexual preference, or their unique tastes in antique furniture).<br><br>
That’s right, you guessed it. I’m talking about beer and pickles. <br><br>
You see, I’m the type of fella that has never met a beer he didn’t like. In some professional circles they might call this type of fella a borderline functioning-alcoholic, but I personally prefer to call someone with this condition “a habitual seeker of unnecessary adventures”. Beer for me is not simply some frosty beverage that I feel a higher being certainly must have placed on this earth because he wanted to make me happy, but it’s one of the pillars that comprises the very foundation of an entire lifestyle. Beer is the fuel that keeps this somewhat dysfunctional jalopy running lopsided along the shoulder on the road of life, and it’s the dull chisel that has sculpted the pile of Play-Doh in a polyurethane bag that has become my torso. I like to try a bit of everything, but here are a few of my favorites:<br><br>
Maybe it’s the Midwestern boy in me, but I think an American standard of beer-drinkery that every adult should experience at least once is having entirely too many Pabst Blue Ribbons in one sitting. Regardless of the satanic headache and the possible complete evacuation of the lower intestinal tract that may or may not accompany the experience several hours afterward, pure happiness in a glass or aluminum receptacle can indeed be had for a bargain price. Some of the best and worst times in my life have been caused and/or soothed by Pabst Blue Ribbon. PBR me, ASAP.<br><br>
Red Stripe is also one of my staples. It’s a Jamaican beer that fills a void for me if I want a beer that isn’t really “light”, but also isn’t so heavy that I feels like I should be chewing on it. I actually remember the first time I tried it. The band I was in at the time was playing in a bar just outside of Madison Wisconsin, and fate had it that a truly epic and God-awful snowstorm hit that afternoon. With the bands complimentary beverages being just about the only good thing that came out of the night night, I decided to try Red Stripe primarily because I liked the look of the bottle. I was hooked. Several years later, I travelled to Jamaica just so I could drink Red Stripe in its country of origin.<br>
(Okay, that’s not really why I went to Jamaica. And I get the impression that Red Stripe might be considered to be “swill’ to a fair percentage of people in Jamaica. But either way, the endless Red Stripe was one of the many lovely things that came along with that trip for me. And it flowed freely and spontaneously, much like the salmon of Capistrano.) <br><br>
Mickey’s. <br>
“Skunky”?... Perhaps.<br>
“Good”?... Absolutely.<br><br>
Man, I don’t have enough time today to cover all the thoughts that have now popped into my head about beer in general. I think I’ll revisit this as time goes on. But one last subject I want to touch on today is “Tequiza”. It might have been a somewhat short-lived liquid scheme originally based on the initial malt-beverage craze that began with Zima, sure. It might have been an ill-fated palette-combination between tequila and beer, sure. But it was unadulterated heaven in my mouth back in the day. <br>
Will I be considered a pansy for listing a “malt beverage” as my favorite beer of all time? Perhaps. <br>
Will I stand behind my choice and buy ‘Tequiza’ if it ever makes a comeback? Absolutely. <br><br>
Oh yeah, and pickles? They’re okay. <br><br>The High Celltag:thehighcell.com,2005:Post/1588102012-04-18T21:00:00-04:002022-01-05T22:55:40-05:00Hardcore...<p>I've decided to let my hair down a bit and be a real rock star tonight. After taking a brief nap earlier this evening, I'm now up WAY past midnight.<br>I know, I know... you're thinking "Holy shit, could this guy be any more hardcore?"<br><br>And the answer to this question is undoubtedly yes. I <i>can</i> be more hardcore.<br>Because not only am I up way past midnight, I'm also playing 'Angry Birds' right now. Sure, Ozzy Osbourne may have bitten the head off of a live bat and spit it back into his adoring audience. But did he ever kill a bunch of ugly pig-monster-beasts by hurling screaming birds at them with a primative slingshot? Well after midnight? I think not.</p>The High Celltag:thehighcell.com,2005:Post/1527882012-03-29T20:29:53-04:002019-09-25T19:22:33-04:00The High Cell Shuffle <u><b>The High Cell Shuffle</b></u><br><br><u><i><br>
In Your Eyes (Live) – Jeffrey Gaines</i></u><br>
What a great voice Jeffrey has. It might sound a little sacrilegious to Peter Gabriel fans, but this is actually one of those magical cover songs that I like more than the original version. I think it’s a great song that is now shrouded in the musical vices of the time (mainly synth), and this particular version offers a sincere, heartfelt acoustic interpretation of what was originally at the core of the songwriting. A lot of instrumentation can cause a song to get rather dated later on, but no one can argue with a guy just playing an acoustic guitar who sounds like he means it. My cousin Dawn’s band “Gesture Without Motion” recently played a show with Jeffrey, and I was jealous as hell. <br>
Listening to this makes me want to find an outstanding 80’s song that might sound outdated and/or a little cheesy today, and do a sincere acoustic cover (any suggestions are welcome .) <br><br><u><i>People Turn Around – Delta Spirit</i></u><br>
I’m really loving Delta Spirit lately. I’d describe them as a young band in the indie rock category that maintains a kind of passionate old-school rebel folk vibe. I think this song (like many of their others) would fit into our society just as well in the Vietnam War era as it does today. A lyric in the song sums it up better than I can; “The song that needs singing, has already been sung before.”<br><br><u><i>Mind Eraser – The Black Keys</i></u><br>
Another song that I think would fit into just about any era. The Black Keys are really just a classic blues and R&B influenced duo (guitarist/singer and drums), but they’ve taken a liking to enhancing their studio albums to more full-band arrangements over the past few years under the tutelage of superstar music producer Danger Mouse. While I still love the old stuff that just embodies the essence of a two-man garage band, I think it’s great that they’ve branched out in the way that they have. It’s almost like two different bands between the “old” Black Keys and the “new” Black Keys, but it’s two different bands that I love to listen to.<br><br><u><i>The Joker – American Standard</i></u><br>
This is from the album “Better Than Fiction”, and it’s such a damn shame that it’s out of print and isn’t available on iTunes or any other mp3 or streaming services. The band American Standard was a bit of a Midwest supergroup comprising of the ridiculously capable blues-rock guitarist Chris Aaron and the foolishly talented vocalist Corey Sterling. They put out a few albums before this one under the “Chris Aaron Band” or CAB (featuring Corey Sterling). You might remember Corey Sterling as the original singer for the Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band, heard on the album “Ledbetter Heights”. While I love Noah Hunt (the second/current singer for KWS band), there’s just something about Corey Sterling’s voice that always resonated with me. His voice and Chris Aaron’s SRV influenced guitar playing set against the background of some great songwriting, created a batch of songs that I honestly still go out of my way to listen to on a regular basis nearly ten years later. It’s just good, sincere, timeless blues-rock music.<br>
After the demise of American Standard, Chris Aaron is still doing his thing kicking ass in Wisconsin bars, and Corey Sterling is somewhat MIA back in his home country of Canada. After this song came up on “the shuffle”, I sent an email to Chris’ management in the hopes that they might make this album more accessible to new listeners, and I also did some homework as far as where you could hear the music legally.<br>
This song along, along with one of my very favorites from the same album (Warheads on Flatbeds, are available for a free listen or a download here: <a href="http://www.betarecords.com/corey.sterling%20" target="_new">http://www.betarecords.com/corey.sterling </a><br>
Give a listen and let me (and them) know what you think. <br><br><u><i>Run On – Moby</i></u><br>
The foundation of this song was a traditional religious folk tune also known as "God's Gonna Cut You Down". It’s been covered by tons of artists, including The Blind Boys of Alabama and most notably Johnny Cash in his later years. I believe the version that Moby sampled for this song was from the 1940’s, and I think it kicks ass that he was able to use his electronic medium to expose people to this kind of stuff. A lot of the Moby album “Play” cited old standards like this, and I still appreciate the healthy nod to the past that he conveyed. What better way to make these songs relevant and keep them alive than to effectively communicate them in a new way?<br><br>
Has it been five songs already? I’m not ready to stop listening, but I’ll stop babbling about it for now. As always, I extend a sincere thanks for reading. Comments and suggestions are always welcome. <br><br>The High Celltag:thehighcell.com,2005:Post/1460202012-03-07T09:05:00-05:002021-02-21T01:10:32-05:00Feeling Gassy<p>You know what I hate? When I go to the gas station and it's one of those pumps that still<i> looks</i> like you're supposed to lift up that little handle when you take out the nozzle. It's like some kind of sick joke designed solely to make me feel like a buffoon 3 out of every 5 times I get gas.<br>(The other two times I'll feel like an ass-clown anyway, because I'm looking for the crappy, worn out, poorly designated button I'm supposed to push while I should be lifting the actual handle. It's a vicious and cruel cycle, this business of refueling.)</p>The High Celltag:thehighcell.com,2005:Post/1431832012-02-26T16:49:13-05:002012-02-26T16:49:13-05:00Instrumental IllnessI think I want some bagpipes. And a harp. (And not just some pansy beginner harp… I want one of those totally gawdy, ornate and beautiful monstrosities of an instrument.) I have no idea how to play either one, and from what I understand, they’re both ridiculously difficult instruments to learn how to play correctly. But... so what? I didn’t say I was going to learn how to play them properly; I have neither the time nor the inclination to undertake such a tedious venture. But with that being said, I don’t feel that I need to be technically knowledgeable and completely educated about something in order to use it. Do I need to know how to build a car from scratch in order to feel like I can drive around town listening to The Carpenters Greatest Hits at full volume with the windows down? No, I just run with it. I have a vehicle, and I’m not afraid to haphazardly jump behind the wheel and make an ass of myself if it’s fun for me. <br>
That’s the way my brain works in terms of musical ability. Whether it’s a road that I love to drive down already, or whether it’s driving around somewhere I’ve never been and getting lost, they’re both adventures. Through both formal instruction and independent study, I’ve learned more proper music theory than many people who are much better technical musicians than myself… and then I promptly flushed it down the toilet of my mind. Why? Because I personally don’t need to know how to build the engine from scratch, I just want to go for a cruise and have fun. I’m very glad that there are people who know the nuts and bolts inside and out, but I don’t feel like that’s my role in life. Everything can be looked at in such a scientific way, that it makes me feel like the adventure is gone if I start to understand it too efficiently.<br><br>
I’ve heard so many stories over the years of people taking music lessons and abandoning them soon after, because.. well, it quickly turns into <i>work</i>. I did it for the first time when I took piano lessons as a kid. While I do think it helped cultivate my appreciation for music in general and it gave me the confidence to know that I was capable of doing it, it didn’t last long and none of it ever stuck. Because looking at a piece of paper and having all my practice translate into me playing “She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain” wasn’t exciting to me. Quite frankly, that song sucks ass. It always has, as have most of the staples of beginning music instruction. I wanted to play the piano, but even at that age, I couldn’t possibly have given a rat’s ass less about whether I would ever play that song correctly. But to get to more interesting material, I needed to master the least interesting things imaginable first. I didn’t have the fortitude to keep up with it as a young lad, and looking back on it, I’m so glad.<br>
I’m also glad that when the time came that I wanted to pick up a guitar a few years later, I decided not to take traditional lessons. Looking back at it now, I’d say it would have been about a 50/50 chance that I would have quit that too. I wanted to learn to play Nirvana songs, and playing “Mary Had A Little Lamb” to perfection before I could do it very well might have dulled the sharp edge of my youthful musical passion. Instead, I did it by myself. I started with Nirvana’s cover of David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold The World” from their Unplugged album. That single note guitar line is actually simpler than “Mary Had a Little Lamb”, but somehow it was so much more rewarding to me when I was able to play it along with the recording. After I had perfected the single-note line, I turned my attention to the chords themselves. I bought a tab-book for the album and figured it out, and played along with that song for hours on end until I got it.<br><br>
At this point I feel like I’m at risk of deriding the idea of music lessons, which is certainly not my intention. I think music lessons are a great thing, as long as they are undertaken with some kind of relevant context in mind. I’ve never given a musical lesson, but I can tell you that if I ever do, it will be from a very personal and very individualized perspective based on the student. What kind of sounds does the student hope to make? If you make that happen, it’s the possibility of igniting a lifelong growing process. If you just buy a “How to play crappy songs that are familiar, but no one actually likes them” book and build a lesson-plan from that (and charge $30+ an hour), it’s a recipe for disinterest. It’s so simple, yet such a rare point of view.<br><br>
Anyway, back to the original point. I have an accordion, and I have no idea how to play it. But if you’re a fan, you WILL hear it at some point because I have fun playing with it. I don’t know how to play the harmonica either, and it can actually be heard faintly in the background on a few tracks on the first album. I got a cheap set of harmonicas and did just enough to be able to do what I wanted to do at the time. If I put my mind to it, I believe I could be a good harmonica player.. but I’m ok and at terms with where I am. I guess what this is all leading to, is the point that you don’t have to fully master something if mastery is not what you hope to achieve. But if you want to be great at something, do it.<br><br>
Musically or otherwise, just do what makes you happy. If you accomplish that, the rules of success are re-written for you every day as you proceed in life. If you pick someone else's mold and stick yourself in it, you already know what you’re going to be. Where’s the adventure in that?<br><br>The High Celltag:thehighcell.com,2005:Post/1402392012-02-14T09:03:17-05:002012-02-14T09:03:17-05:00The High Cell ShuffleThis was a great idea that was suggested to me, and it will be a fairly common blog addition in the future. Along with being a musician, I’m also an eccentric and rabid music fan with a considerable library of songs. So the plan is to slap the ol’ iPod Classic on shuffle and give a quick commentary on the first five songs/artists that I hear (with absolutely no cheating or skipping songs). Not only is it a great excuse for me to sit and listen to some music without feeling guilty because I should be doing something else, but it’s also a great opportunity for me to babble about music and get a blog done at the same time. Some of the music will be things that I’m excited to share with you, and I’m sure that I will also be completely ashamed at times about admitting to some of the things I’ve purchased over the years. My little cheeks are already getting a bit rosy with embarrassment as I consider some of the possibilities.<br>
I’d like to post audio or video clips of songs along with the list of songs, but quite frankly, I’m afraid that I would promptly get my ball-bag sued off and have my website confiscated by the infringement police. I would love to hear your comments or thoughts here. So with that being said, I’ll cross my fingers that nothing too awful comes up, and hit shuffle:<br><br><i><u><b>“Close To You”</b></u></i><u><b> – The Carpenters</b></u><br>
Don’t you dare judge me. I’m actually not even remotely ashamed of this one. As I’m listening to it, I’m reminded again of what an extremely well-written love song it truly is. The lyrics have such an innocent and endearing quality, and the song as a whole is just sonically soothing to my ear-holes. If I had to sum it up in one word, I’d say this song invokes the very essence of the word “pleasant” for me. It’s a nice little ditty that I believe captured the magic of love on tape.<br><br><i><u><b>“You and Me”</b></u></i><u><b> – Bad Religion</b></u><br>
How’s that for a change of spectrum? Bad Religion has always been one of those bands that seems to be somewhat of an enigma as far as where they fit in terms of genre (and their place in music history). They’ve always been entirely too musically talented to be considered a true “punk” band, yet they’ve also been too socially and politically opinionated to be labeled as pop/punk. Either way, I think the combination of these things makes for one hell of a band. I feel like the soaring vocal harmonies (which they are amazingly able to pull off live and not just in the studio), catchy melodies, and often deceptively creative punk-based instrumentation make it possible to communicate their point of view and attitude about the world much more efficiently to me than some of their contemporaries. Even in those cases that I don’t personally relate to their political or social positions on certain things, I think it’s the equivalent of someone arguing their conversational point in a very eloquent manner rather than resorting to yelling and screaming to get their point across. I feel in some way like I have no choice but to respect and consider whatever it is that they have to say, because of the effective way they communicate it.<br><br><i><u><b>“Been Caught Stealing”</b></u></i><u><b> – Jane’s Addiction</b></u><br>
I have to be honest on this one. I’ve never been a big Jane’s Addiction fan. I’ve always found them a bit pompous in general, and Perry Farrell just kind of bothers me on some sort of strange, cosmic level. With that being said, I do love this song and a few others by the band. I guess it’s just one of those things that I have to be in the mood to listen to.<br><i><br><u><b>“All By Myself”</b></u></i><u><b> – Fats Domino</b></u><br>
How can you not respect a guy who referred to himself as “The Fat Man” back in the day? He was large and in charge, and completely comfortable with it. Adele is the most recent example ofposessing the sense of self-confidence that he conveyed, and not just in terms of physicality. Much like the afore-mentioned all-natural songbird today, Fats Domino’s music had a universal appeal not often seen in his time. It didn’t matter what kind of music people liked, it was almost impossible not to enjoy his songs. For me, it still applies today. Although this particular song is not as well known as several of his other hits (I’m Walkin’, Blue Monday, Blueberry Hill), it’s just another one of his songs that anyone can relate to. I had a few of his songs already, and recently grabbed a “30 Greatest Hits” album (including this song) for $7.99 on iTunes to get a full catalogue of his material. Score, me.<br><u><b><br><i>“Fireflies”</i> – JJ Grey and Mofro (originally released under “Mofro”)</b></u><br>
One of my very favorite bands of all time, I’m so glad that ‘shuffle’ was so kind to me today. Their music is mostly a blend of swampy blues, rock, funk, and soul with an underlying theme of sincerity in the songwriting that often bypasses my ears and speaks directly to my heart. The meaning of this song for me is that it underscores the importance of appreciating those little things in life that seem to fade with time and age. I first ran across JJ Grey and Mofro (Then known only as “Mofro”) a good number of years back when I heard one of their songs (How Junior Got His Head Put Out) on a ‘Live from Bonnaroo’ compilation. I liked the song, but remained ignorant of the rest of the bands material until I ran across the same song a year or two later and had an inclination to check them out a bit more. I started with their first album, and quickly bought everything they had available. I will undoubtedly buy every piece of music that JJ Grey ever puts out. I don’t care if he puts out a concept album recording himself breaking wind on a snare drum for ten songs, just show me where I can pre-order it. <br>
When I went and saw them live, it was like a cross between a religious experience and a highly-addictive drug. I’ve seen them maybe 6 or 8 times live at this point, and I’ll still continue to catch every show that I can in the future. The vibe at a JJ Grey and Mofro show is one that seems to pull the innate positive energy out of everyone in attendance. I met JJ a few years ago, and the guy seems to have that same effect on those around him. He just incites a soulful sense of introspective positivity through example. <br><br>
Thanks for reading, and let me know what you think about the new blog trend if you’re so inclined. <br><br>
- Mike <br><br>The High Celltag:thehighcell.com,2005:Post/1369792012-01-31T11:55:00-05:002012-01-31T11:55:00-05:00In a Tight SpotifyI’ve gotten some questions lately about my perspective as an independent artist on the “Spotify” debate. It’s been a hotly debated topic among musicians, music fans, and general music business industry folk.<br>
Much like any other “business” in our modern age, the music industry is always in a constant state of flux. Things ebb and flow in the constant dynamic between the customers, the laborers, and the people running the “machine” (for lack of a better term). The artists have always been at odds with the people who had the shameless (yet efficient) business sense to exploit, capitalize, and ultimately profit from the talent of those who had creative ability. From the days of music row to the liberties that were taken from the classic blues singers in the 40’s and 50’s… From the pop culture obsessions of the mid-50’s to the chemically-induced revolution of the 60’s… Or the excesses of the 70’s and 80’s to the unattainable and unachievable monetary record-label advances that underscored the industry in the 90’s..<br>
The one thing that has been consistent in the music industry during the century that it has been an ‘industry’, is that for every person who is able to create something, there is someone else who wants to profit from it. In many cases, it’s a partnership in which the sum is greater than the combination of the two parts. Would Elvis have been such a legend if he hadn’t had the shrewd/competent business manager “Colonel” Tom Parker? My personal opinion would be no. Although he took far more than a fair share of the income, he encouraged Presley not to write his own material, and he eventually entitled a broken man to his doom with drink and drug, I feel that my own theoretical statistics would show that a good percentage of us would have no idea who Elvis was if it weren’t for Tom Parker… As evil as he may have seemed.<br>
If Phil and Leonard Chess hadn’t completely financially raped blues artists like Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon in the process of making them famous back in the day, would bands like The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin have been able to gain success and develop a legacy a decade or two later? I’d venture to guess not. (The Rolling Stones got their name and many of the foundations of their early songs from Muddy Waters, and Led Zeppelin basically built their entire brand on re-hashing Willie Dixon-written tunes).<br>
I could keep going with examples in chronological order from the old days until today, but in order to refrain from being long-winded, I’ll throw out a self-indulgent quote to my own song (Hey Faith) and say “Things change, it’s so strange the more they stay the same”.<br>
With the advent of social media and iTunes/other digital entities being an outlet, independent artists started to think recently that they could do everything themselves, that they didn’t need some kind of formal “establishment” to help them get across the threshold from obscurity and “succeed” in music. Aside from a small handful of exceptions here and there, the sad truth is that the currency in the music industry is still not <i>music</i>. It’s money. And no one involved has more money than those who have exploited the constant flow of artists as a general business practice since the beginning. <br><br>
Enter the Spotify discussion. As a music fan, what a great idea (as is Rhapsody, Mog, etc..). Aside from being a musician, I’m still the biggest general music fan I know. I just plain love music. I love making it, I love listening to it. As a listener, I’ve heard the argument that someone doesn’t want to “own the music, they just want to listen to it”., and I can appreciate that. <br>
My problem is not with the listener being able to access the music they want to hear for a fee. I think it’s a great idea. I think it’s the future of the music industry, and I’d like to be a part of it as a musician. My problem with Spotify is that it’s now officially been funded by the industry entities that the very principles of it were designed to bypass. The major record companies (and several major artists on their own) have all invested in the company, and the cut that this entity takes is apparently even more ridiculous than the 50+% that Colonel Parker or Chess Records took from their artists back in the day. Actually, strike that. I have no idea what the real percentage is.. because they won’t tell me exactly how much it is. <br>
All I know, is that I’ve literally gotten a fraction of one cent from each song play while I get the distinct impression that some ass-clown (that I’ve never met) in an office somewhere is collecting more than I am for each listen of a song that I made. THAT… is the only part of Spotify that I have a problem with. I think it sucks that some talentless shit-bag behind a desk is earning more than I am from something that I made.<br>
Adele, The Black Keys, Coldplay, AC/DC and others are all great artists who happen to have the luxury of deciding whether they want their music listened to in certain places or not. (It’s funny to hear people that make more money than God complaining about fractions of cents). Me? My goal at this point in life is still simply to share my music with anyone who might like it. <br>
Sure, I wish I could make an ass-load of money from music sales. That would be great. And sure, this new streaming model sucks for artists just like every other model for every other generation of artists has. But from the perspective of a fellow music fan, it’s not our fault that Spotify is a douche-ridden industry shill and chooses to be a complete asshole to the artists in the name of their own financial gain. <br>
Art is subjective and I think the true spirit of music is to express yourself. I'll do it whether I make money or not. The way I see it, expressing yourself does no good if no one else ever hears it. I'm an artist who currently survives purely on organic exposure. So go ahead, stream as many songs as you want by The High Cell on Spotify or whatever other service you use. As a matter of fact, stream as many as you can. Please share the stuff you like with others, and there are plenty of options if you'd like to actually own the music. Regardless of their shady and non-transparent business practices, I still appreciate Spotify due to the opportunity to share my music with others. What choice do I have?<br><br><br>The High Celltag:thehighcell.com,2005:Post/696872012-01-21T13:10:00-05:002020-09-25T17:44:08-04:00Cold Feet<p>This is it. This is the big one that could put me on the map. After several years of observational study and in-depth statistical research, I've discovered a law of physics that I don't believe has ever been documented before...<br><br>Any time the surface temperature of a woman's feet drops below the general average temperature of her skin, there is an equal and opposite reaction in which the woman's feet are innately, inherently and magnetically attracted to initiate any possible contact with the exposed skin of a male counterpart.</p>The High Celltag:thehighcell.com,2005:Post/708932012-01-12T19:50:00-05:002012-01-12T19:50:00-05:00Recording TechnologyMy parents bought me a four-track tape recorder for Christmas one year, and it blew my freakin' mind. Up until that point in life, I had only toyed around with a regular old tape recorder to record myself warbling. But to my wondering eyes appeared on that fateful Christmas, a wonderful new world filled with recording possibilities. Gone were the times of my huddling over a boring single track tape recorder, to be forever replaced by a perpetually updating list of new and exciting recording toys.<br>
This magical little box changed my life forever. I had FOUR tracks! It was a whole veritable recording studio that I could carry around with me. I could use the little built-in microphone and the microphone input to record my shoddy drumming and my feeble vocals, and I could use the dedicated instrument input to record my sloppy bass playing and my fairly incompetent guitar noodling. I could play all these things individually, and this little technological marvel could put them together for me.<br><br>
While my musical skills haven't changed much in the time since, the world of recording technology has completely exploded. Especially in regard to the resources readily available for a DIY musician or unsigned band.<br>
I'm now sure it was thanks in no small part to that one single Christmas gift, that I decided to leave the comfort of my hometown to attend school for recording. Once there, I was exposed to a plethora of equipment that I likely will never have the opportunity to get my hands on again in such a personal sense. I used a giant studio tape machine that was once used to record Nirvana. I toyed with a top-of-the line Pro Tools studio. I created sounds completely from scratch using sound design programs. I used microphones that were worth more than any car I've ever owned, and I used a mixing board that was worth more than any house I've ever lived in (and possibly worth more than any entire apartment building I've ever lived in). I also gained a much better understanding of the concepts and philosophy behind recording music. The only thing I didn't learn about the recording industry, was how to find gainful employment in it when I graduated. ;)<br><br>
Fast-forward a few short years, and the the technology available for recording (as well as just about everything else) has advanced so much for the average consumer that it's overwhelming when you think about what a rapid evolution we're going through. Even in the relatively short life and times of this particular questionably talented ass-clown, I've gone from a simple one-track tape recorder to the four-track tape recorder (which I actually still have, along with a stack of tapes that I wouldn't subject my worst enemies eardrums to). From there I moved on to an eight-track digital recorder, I've used professional studio gear, and now I have my own computer-based studio that is only limited in tracks by the fortitude of the computer I have. Back in the olden days, you couldn't even record remotely high quality audio without either having a ridiculous amount of money, or without having the financial backing of someone who did. Now? I have a more technologically sophisticated recording studio on my mobile device than any studio the Beatles ever recorded in. And instead of recording on the several hundred thousand dollar mixing board, that same company also sells an affordable "plug-in" to get the same sound in your preferred program.<br><br>
I suppose this is about where audiophiles and artistic crusaders can divide into subgroups. Some people still prefer the audible nuances of magnetic tape machines or records, while others are more inclined to hear every frequency that can possibly be captured by the human ear. From an artistic standpoint, some people would rather hear Bob Dylan break wind into a $40,000 microphone played back on a record player than hear the most technically proficient musicians in the world play prog-rock in pristine audio. As it's a simple matter of subjective taste as far as that goes, there is no right or wrong. This can all be argued forever. <br>
What can't be argued, is that there has never been a better time in history to record and share whatever it is that you want to create. <br>
Just thinking about it makes me want to go record something. <br type="_moz">The High Celltag:thehighcell.com,2005:Post/1322192012-01-06T10:34:45-05:002012-01-06T10:34:45-05:00To Blog or Not to Blog?..That is clearly <i>not</i> the question. The real question is, what in the bejesus am I supposed to blog about? I'm a child wandering in the wilderness here. I'm a noob, a veritable new-born fawn in this intimidating forest of somewhat self-indulgent personal expression through text. And what you are currently reading is still but the first few steps on my fairly feeble, wobbly little social media legs. <br>
Luckily for me, I love to write and I also have a tendency to babble. <br>
But what if people don't like it? What if no one reads it? What if I have too many beverages one night and say something outlandish and make a complete ass-clown of myself? What if.. [insert any remotely negative scenario here]?<br><br>
I'm no motivational speaker. As a matter of fact, from my own introverted perspective, I always felt that my self-effacing nature was one of my defining qualities. But as I type this now, I realize that it wasn't just the self-doubt that defined who I am today. It was me fighting against it.<br>
When I was 14, I remember being nervous about ever picking up the guitar in the first place. I was afraid that I wouldn't be any good at it. But I did it anyway. When I got a chance to play with other guys from school, I almost didn't. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to hang, that I wouldn't be good enough. But I did it anyway. Then came learning new instruments, actually stepping on a stage, joining new bands, singing a song in front of someone, writing my own songs (and letting people hear them), and any combination of all of these things many times over. When I look back now, the underlying theme was the same every single time. A part of me didn't want to do things out of some warped sense of inadequacy, but I still felt that it was what I should be doing. So regardless of my fears, I did it anyway.<br><br>
In both figurative and literal terms, that's how the new album got released. The whole process has been a constant string of things that I was scared of doing, but I did them anyway. While life keeps moving along, as it has a tendency to do, I know now that this parallel between what I 'could' do and what I feel like I 'should' do will never go away. And now that I have started recognizing the differences between the two, I don't want it to. Without options, you can't make a choice. So with that being said, I didn't really want to write a blog post just now. But for some reason, I just felt that I should. <br><br>
As time goes on, there will be a few staples here. I'm definitely planning to address some of the interest that I've gotten about my recording and songwriting processes, I'll be talking about music in general, and I'm sure that I'll also be prone to ramble about whatever random subjects cross my mind. I'd love any input/conversation from fans or visitors about current blogs, and I also welcome suggestions/advice about future blog topics. <br><br>
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<br type="_moz">The High Celltag:thehighcell.com,2005:Post/1303642011-12-26T09:40:00-05:002021-01-20T00:50:27-05:00The Old ModelSo I keep hearing it over and over.. Facebook 'Likes' don't matter. Twitter followers don't matter. ReverbNation fans don't matter, and etc.. The key to <i>true</i> success as any musician, band, or DIY artist is to "collect people's email addresses" like baseball cards, so I can solicit them when I have something to sell. I hear it from all the music marketing gurus. I hear it, primarily, from people who have built much more substantial careers than mine thus far in this fickle business of music. <br><br>
But here's the thing; I'm looking at it from my own perspective, as opposed to copying what has worked in the past for others. I've never done anything that I was "supposed" to do before, so why would I start now that I've finally decided to do my own thing? <br>
Me, personally? I LOVE music. A very substantial portion of my general cognitive capacity is inhabited by things having to do with it. There are several artists that I absolutely love to listen to, and I would buy their new album or buy their merchandise, or see them play live every time I have an opportunity. <br><br>
But will I be extorted for my email address in order to find out about some such news from whoever writes their email releases? I think not.<br>
Why would I? If I'm a fan, I'll find out. Likely it will be through Facebook, Twitter, the band's website, or somewhere else. <br><br>
Without trying to toot my own horn or tell tales out of school, I'll go on record here and say that I'm the biggest music fan that I know. And I don't belong to any email list of any of the artists that I like as a fan. Why? Because I already like them.<br><br>
I want people to like my music. And if you do, that's great!... I'm not going to demand that you hand over your email address to prove it. <br><br>
<br>The High Celltag:thehighcell.com,2005:Post/1300402011-12-23T10:17:23-05:002020-06-17T19:44:55-04:00Christmas Spirit IndeedSo it's normal to see (and get rather desensitized by) people holding signs and asking for money at the intersections around here. And around the holidays, many of the local churches take a note from the less fortunate, and send out representatives to employ a similar strategy to ask for the monetary assistance of those who are stuck in traffic.<br><br>
Today, as I was finally trying to end my shopping procrastination for the season, I observed something that I found a bit disturbing. As the grizzled, self-described (according to his sign) homeless veteran hobbled along the median next to the string of cars while the majority of drivers awkwardly tried not to make eye contact, the church folk strode confidently past him whilst dressed in their Sunday best.. and they proceeded to beat him to every car to ask for money for the new church addition that they were advertising on their signs. As a matter of fact, while I was at the stoplight, they made almost two laps up and down the same row of stale traffic before he even got halfway.<br><br>
As I drove away from this scene when the light turned green, I couldn't help but wonder if they even remotely realized the irony in what they were doing. I also couldn't help but wish that I had possessed the moral fortitude at the time to point it out to them. Regardless of your religion, I believe the foundation of any church is in your heart. Worry about reinforcing that before you worry about raising money to add an addition onto some building.<br>The High Celltag:thehighcell.com,2005:Post/1300392011-12-23T10:15:13-05:002011-12-23T10:15:13-05:00Fruit?Grapefruits just plain suck. I mean, seriously? They're neither "grapey" or "fruity".<br>
Is there a more foul, thoroughly douche-ridden food on the face of this planet? People can't even eat them without trying to alter their taste completely. If grapefruits could talk, I bet they'd have a shitty little attitude.<br>
They're a complete embarrassment to other fruits, as well as a veritable pimple on the ass of the entire food chain. Screw grapefruit.<br>The High Cell