Top 5 Records of 2007

These are my Top 5 Records of 2007. The criteria isn't so much that the record came out in 2007 (though some did) but that I was first introduced to them in 2007. All of these records affected me in one way or another and I find myself coming back to them continually throughout the year. They are not listed in any particular order.


1. Sean Lennon - Friendly Fire

I saw Sean Lennon on MySpace and visited his sight as an, "Oh God, let's see what this is all about" sarcastic reaction. Much to my incredible surprise I was blown away by the youngest Lennon. His voice is a bit thin and nasal but the songs, melodies, production and orchestration are amazing.

Highlights: "Dead Meat", "Tomorrow"


2. Silverchair - Young Modern

To those of you who know me this should come as no surprise. Silverchair is undoubtedly one of my favorite bands of all time and I've taken a lot of shit for that. But Daniel Johns is a true rock star in an era when rockstars are few and far between. He has a killer voice and continues to grow musically. Add to that the orchestrations of Van Dyke Parks (the Beach Boys) and the addition of Paul Mac (the Dissociatives) and you have the Aussies' most ambitious record to date.

Highlights: "Those Thieving Birds", "Waiting All Day", "If You Keep Losing Sleep"


3. Ambulance LTD - Ambulance LTD

I was introduced to this band via a car commercial. After learning who they were from one of my friends (that means you Mary) I went to my favorite used CD store (CD Trader in Tarzana) and promptly made the purchase. That was in the summer and the disc hasn't left my car CD player since. Every song on this disc is great in it's own right. Few bands understand the use of space in a song and let songs breathe and take on a life of their own the way that Ambulance LTD does. It's a great CD to put on while you're driving, cleaning, dinking around....whatever. It has great individual tracks, but I recommend listening to it in it's entirety.

Highlights: "Primitive (The Way I Treat You)", "Anecdote"


4. Sigur Rós - ( )

I was listening to this CD last night and it is what prompted me to make up this list. Sigur Rós is an Icelandic band that can be best described as Ambient. No band explores musical ideas to the extent that these guys do and each one of their songs kind of takes on a life of it's own. Nevermind the fact that you have no idea what he's singing about, because it doesn't matter. All of the emotion and meaning comes through the music and it's delivery.

Highlights - "Track 3"


5. Radiohead - In Rainbows

Again, no surprise. One of my favorite bands of all time, I was extremely excited when I downloaded In Rainbows. Like listening to any Radiohead album for the first time, I didn't know quite what to expect. The record stays true to their development and doesn't sound like any other Radiohead album, but sounds influenced by all of them. Jonny Greenwood's orchestration rises to the top on this latest collection and the song writing hasn't slowed down either. In Rainbows features arguably the most beautiful song that the quintet has ever released ("Nude") and arguably the phattest beat that they've ever written ("All I Need"). Besides, how can you argue with a song that starts out with the lyrics "Wakey wakey, rise and shine..."? That's right, you can't.

Highlights - "Nude", "All I Need", "Faust Arp"

Buon Natale

Give the gift of Dave Carducci this Christmas and save 25%. Offer good thru January 2.

Cafe Classics - Dec. 28

Come celebrate the weekend between Christmas and New Year's with Dave at Cafe Classics in Monroe on Friday, December 28 at 7:30pm. There may or may not be some specials guests and a possible Freezing Mingus reuinion. Whether you know what that means or not, I assure you that it won't disappoint......or your money back. (p.s......it's free)

Semi-Unrelated Sidebar:

If you like Christmas songs and crooners, go here and download Richard Hawley's version of Silent Night from his MySpace. It's dreamy, and free.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,

~dc~

With the lights out

For some reason VH1 Classic has a thing for Nirvana right now. I just watched thier MTV Unplugged from 1993 and now they are replaying a show that I watched yesterday about the making of Nevermind (which is a really neat behind the scenes look).

Seeing these shows is a bit weird for me. I remember being so excited about the Unplugged show and album when I was a kid and now I've been alive longer than I had been at the time the show originally aired (for those who can't follow that poorly constructed sentence it's been 14 years since it aired and I was 13 at the time). It's also strange because I am older now than Cobain was when he died*.

It's moments like these that musicians begin to question themselves. I mean, Cobain was dead by my age, so was Hendrix, and Morrison.....hell, Ringo (the oldest Beatle) hadn't even celebrated his 30th birthday when McCartney made the break-up official. So, what am I saying? I don't know. I guess just that it's time (in the eloquent words of my mother) to shit or get off the pot. '07 is nearly over and I've finally made some good strides, but it's time to really get it going and I'm confident and convinced that 2008 will be the Year of the Dave. That being said, look for more shows, more songs and more developments in the new year.

By the by, if you haven't listened to Nevermind in awhile throw it in your CD player, on your iPod, your Zune (does anyone actually own one of those?) or whatever it is that you listen to music on and give it a good play. I'm not talking just "Smells Like Teen Spirit" either. Do the right thing and listen to the whole album the way that it's supposed to be listened to. It's a damn fine record and stands up just as well today as it did 16 years ago when it was released.

*You say suicide, I say something more sinister. But maybe that because I love a good conspiracy.

Accessorize with Care

The national media and some (maybe most) conservatives are "angry" at Barack Obama because he said that he was no longer going to wear an American flag lapel pin, which obviously makes him unpatriotic. I mean let's be honest here. If you can't even bring yourself to wear a pro-USA accessory on your chest then how can I trust that you'll do patriotic things like leak intelligence information to the press?

Radiohead

At long last Radiohead have announced on their website Dead Air Space that their 7th LP, In Rainbows, is finally coming out! Needless to say, I'm pretty excited about this.

As of right now the album is only available at InRainbows.com (which you can also get to by typing in Radiohead.com). Your pre-ordered download will be available on October 10. How much does this new Radiohead album cost, you ask? It's completely up to you. With the exception of the addition £0.45 debit/credit card fee you can choose the price that you pay for the download. And yes, you can choose £0.01 if you'd like. If you want more than just a download they also offer a Discbox which includes 2 CDs, photos, artwork, lyric booklets and the record on vinyl for £40, which is about $80.

I didn't mean to just write out an advert, but I'm excited and don't want those of you who care to miss out as I'm not sure how long this deal will last. Will they continue to sell like this and totally bypass the traditional brick-and-mortar distribution system or is this just a warm-up before they license the album to a major? If it's the former (which I hope and suspect it is) it'd be quite a revolutionary thing for a band of their stature, or any band for that matter, to do. A big "fuck you" to the major labels and the current dying system. They don't need distribution, they've got the internet. And they sure as hell don't need iTunes when they can send all of their fans to one location, regardless of their location, to download the record via their company W.A.S.T.E.

It's brilliant really. Set your own price!? They understand that music is a thing of value that should be paid for, but they don't want to shove it down people's throats. They have a large enough rabidly loyal fan-base to know that the people interested in a new Radiohead album are willing to pay for it and that most of them are willing to pay what they see to be a reasonable price. For every person who bought the album for £0.46 they're probably 20 who bought it for at least £5 and likely more than that.

There's a lot of talk in this industry about "nurturing your fans," and a lot can be learned from this situation. It's truly revolutionary; and though most artists can't go to this extreme and assuredly recoup their expenses like it is doubtless Radiohead will, we can learn that empowering your fans breeds loyalty and that a little credibility goes a long way.

I Love A Good Story

Warning: This is not a good story.



I had a show last Sunday for a comedy story telling theatre event called I Love A Good Story. Since this was a theatre thing (and because I'm dapper) I wanted to look good for this event. I'm on the side of the stage the entire time, playing songs in between stories and acted out commercials (it's for a podcast) ala a pre-television radio program. This obviously calls for a 3-piece Untouchables suit. So on Sunday "morning" I headed to my local Goodwill in search of such an outfit.

As luck would have it I hit the proverbial jackpot within minutes of entering the store. The very first suit that I picked out was a 3-piece deep navy blue pin-striped suit that fit me to perfection. it was my lucky day...or so I thought.

After purchasing my new stellar find, I got no more than 3 steps out of the Goodwill when I realized that I had left behind my zip-up hoodie that I removed to try on the best and jacket. I didn't think this would be much of a problem, but it turns out that clothes left lying around at thrift stores don't last long. I went back in, looked around, talked to the cashier, inspected every customer...no dice. In the 3 minutes that could have passed between me taking off the sweatshirt and coming back into the store someone had managed to purchase it from another cashier and leave the premises before I even noticed it was missing. So even though I got an awesome suit for $19.99, I lost a $40 hoodie in the process. Rat bastards.

Because Steve Jobs said so

Don't like CDs?
Don't want all 9 songs? *tear*
Only listen to music on your iPod?
Need instant gratification and don't want to wait for the CD to be shipped to you?

Worry not, dear prospective fan, for you can now purchase Trouble and Debris on iTunes. *hooray*

Buy individual tracks, or do the right thing and get the whole album. The choice is yours.

Click here to get your copy(ies) today!

Dave's in a coutry band?

I haven't written about this yet because I wanted to get some rehearsals under our belt and make sure that it was for real, but since I'm sitting around waiting to go to rehearsal I may as well let y'all know. I've recently joined L.A. singer-songwriter Julie Neumark's band as a utility player. Julie is a fellow Midwesterner whose music can loosely be categorized as roots rock/americana with a pop/rock bent. I'm sort of a jack of all trades in this band and am singing backing vocals as well as playing keyboards, guitar, bass and even a little violin.

We've been rehearsing for a couple of months and play our first show in L.A. on October 28 in the building where the Doors recorded "L.A. Woman". Since Julie is from Cincinnati I'm sure that we'll be playing there some time in early 2008 and will hopefully start touring a bit in '08 as well.

I should state, however, that in no way do I plan on slowing down with my own music as a result of playing with Julie. Rather I see this as a great opportunity for my musical career that has the potential to be successful and open a lot of doors while leading to other opportunities. Besides all that, it's a lot of fun to be playing in a band again (I haven't done that in about 7 years) and to be playing with some really good musicians.

If you want to check out a bit of Julie's music go to her MySpace page and add her as a friend. Also, stay tuned for show and tour announcement likely in the new year.

Cheers,

Dave

And so it begins

Alright folks, some exciting news coming from the offices of Dave Carducci and Associates.

This coming Thursday at 00:00 (PDT) producer Nels Jensen and I will enter Studio A at Musicians Institute in Hollywood to begin the recording of my follow-up to Trouble and Debris. After having a couple of production meetings, Nels and I are really excited about the direction in which these songs are headed. We hope to get all of the acoustic guitars recorded during the 6 hour session which will doubtless be the first of many on the road to LP2.

Wish us well (for we need not luck) and I'll keep you posted on further recording developments.

Ciao,

Dave

Tour Blog 3.0

I left Chicago on Wednesday afternoon and had the day off before my Thursday show at Frankies in Toledo. I was pretty excited about this gig as I knew that I could expect a good turnout due to the success of the ticket pre-sale. I spent my first two years of undergraduate education at nearby BGSU and had recently seen a lot of my friends from the BGMC at a 4th of July party so I knew that many of them would be around for the show. Truth be told, this was one of the most fun (if not the most fun) shows that I've ever played. Pretty much everyone in the room was my friend or acquantance (JC flew in from LA for the show) and I played for an hour and a half. I've never been heckled by friends before, but it made for a good time. I even had some people singing along, and harmonies at that! The people at the club were quite pleased too and I think it's pretty much a given that I'll be back in Toledo soon.

That leaves us with one last show...the Berkley Front. I was asked to play this show by my friends the Wednesdees and I was the first of three acts. I played to a room largley full of strangers (which is a good thing) and was well received. I forced my friend Ryan Morgan to come on stage with me to sing harmonies on a couple of songs ("Stuck In a Rut" and Radiohead's "No Surprises") and they sounded pretty damn good if I do say so myself...especially considering that we worked them up about 5 minutes before I went on. I also tried out a new percussive strategy during this show that I think I'd like to make a regular part of my performance. Though it's not a particularly ground-breaking idea, I put a tambourine on the ground and stomped on it for some added effect and rhythmic support. This is definitely something I'd like to keep up (because it sounded cool) and may try to alter it in some way by adding a kick drummy thing or something. I don't know...I guess you'll just have to come see me play to find out.

So, there you have it. My three-part-though-it-could-have-been-done-in-one-long-part overdue tour blog. I hope it was informative and gave you some interesting insight into my trip back to the Midwest. If not, I apologize and I'll try better next time. Until then I must bid you adieu.

Thanks so much for coming to any number of the shows. It is very much appreciated and I hope to see you soon.

Aloha means goodbye.

Tour Blog 2.0

Alright, where were we?

Ah yes...the Windy City.

I got to Chicago on Saturday night just in time for dinner at my friends' house-warming party. They live in this great new condo somewhere on the north side of the city (I know next to nothing about the anatomy of Chicago). They've got a rooftop patio type area that came in handy later in the evening. Songs may or may not have been played and a sing-a-long probably ensued. It was fun.

Sunday was a lazy day. On Monday I got to go to the Art Institute of Chicago where I finally saw some Magritte's live and in person. I also saw some really great Japanese pieces, but unfortunately they weren't showing the Hokusai wave that I love so much. They have an extensive collection that is enjoyable even if you don't know shit about art (which is a category that I pretty much fit into). Lots of the big famous names (i.e. Monet, Manet, Picasso, Van Gogh, etc.). What's nice about it for non-art people is that there's a lot of stuff there that you'll recognize whether you're an art enthusiast or not...so it makes it fun.

This all leads us to the reason that I'm writing any of this and was in Chicago in the first place, my show at Uncommon Ground on Tuesday (July 10 for those of you keeping score). I had been trying for about 2.63 months to get a gig in Chicago and had accepted the fact that it wasn't gonna happen this time around when I checked my email after the Cafe Classics show to find one from UG inviting me to play there on the 10th. The place is pretty much a three room restaurant/cafe with one of the rooms being the Music Room. It's a cool place with nice people, good sound, good looking and smelling food (I can't vouch for the taste at this time) and is very artist friendly.

I played the show with this cat named Gordon Wright who I thought was really good and is worth checking out. He played with a keyboard player who was pretty great and really helped fill out the sound. The keyboardist also played accordion on one song which pretty much makes him 100% awesome in my book. It was neat.

After Gordon did his thing I went on and was surprised at the amount of people in the room. Friends and friends of friends started coming out of the woodwork towards the end of Gordon's set and gave this show a good turnout. I played for about 45 minutes mixing the old with the new. The smallness of the room and proximity of the audience made the show seem quite intimate and I feel like the performance went well.

UG makes a CD of every performance and gives it to the musician/band at the end of the night, so the whole show was documented on "tape". I'd like to go through the CD (read: have Nels go through the CD) and clean it up a bit if possible to see if we can get something manageable out of it. If I feel comfortable with the way is sounds I'll probably make it available one way or another. Either on myspace, my website, both...something, so keep an eye out.

So, to sum up, Chicago was fun and the show went well. I can't wait to go back and hopefully I'll have a booking there late this fall.

To be continued..........

Tour Blog 1.0

After nearly two and a half weeks in the Midwest (Michigan mostly) I'm back in the Golden State wishing that I had more gigs booked somewhere...anywhere. Thanks so much to all of you who were able to make it out to one of the shows. I had a fantastic time and the tour was a great experience...and a learning one.

On Saturday June 30 I kicked off my shows back East the easy way, in a cafe in my hometown. I was pleased with the turn out (the place was packed!) and it was great to see so many familiar faces in the crowd. Jacob Longton started the show with a solo acoustic set and sounded great. I was very lucky to have Brian Brodie play bass on 6 songs during my performance. I was in a band with Brodie for years and he recorded and mixed Trouble and Debris so it was really special to perform with him again.

After the Cafe Classics show I had a two day break before heading to Southgate, MI to play at the Modern Exchange. This place is pretty interesting. Back in my day it was a sort of thrift / costume store called Penny Pinchers. Now-a-days the front room is a vintage clothing/used record (as in the kind you play with a needle) store and the back warehouse-ish room where they kept the costumes is now a cafe/concert venue. It's actually a pretty cool spot. There are quite a few comfy couches in the concert hall and the stage is pretty large. There's also a band lounge area above the stage that gives you a really cool bird's eye view of the performance. So the place was cool, as for the concert ............. I was the second of four acts to perform that night. The act that preceded me was a high school duo who were extremely confused as to what type of a band they were. They were mostly punk rockish, however they also tried to do a bit of outlaw country complete with theatrics. So, as I'm sure you can guess, their fans really took to my introspective acoustic ballads as we were so similar. As the night wore on, however it became evident that the duo was actually the odd man out (odd men out?) and the other two bands were sort of similar to me. Band number three was acoustic based and sort of funky (like a Dave Matthews feel) and band number four was female led acoustic based roots rock. Actually, band number four sounded really great and it was a damn shame that there were only 2 people in the room (3 if you count me) whilst they rocked it out.

That brings us back to Monroe for an auto show that my friend DJ put on for the Downtown Monroe Business Network. These gigs are kind of weird because you're just background music (albeit loud background music) for the car enthusiasts. This fact, however, did not deter a small crowd from congregating in front of me during my performance (so what if the crowd was family and my mother's friends? Don't judge me. I'm a hit with the Baby Boomer Generation). It was a fun show because (a) I knew all of the people in front of me who were actually paying attention to the performance, (b) I got to play a bunch of covers, which is usually a good time and (c) I'm awesome.

To be continued...............

2 More Shows Confirmed

I'm pleased to announce two more shows for my upcoming trip back to the Midwest:


* Tuesday July 3, the Modern Exchange (Southgate, MI), Doors 8p, Cover $7

* Thursday July 12, Frankie's Inner City (Toledo, OH), Doors 9p, Cover $5

These shows are in addition to the following:

* Saturday June 30, Cafe Classics (Monroe, MI), Doors 7p
* Thursday July 5, Downtown Monroe Auto Show (Monroe, MI), 6p-8p
* Thursday July 14, the Berkley Front (Berkley, MI), Doors 9p, Cover $5

I don't know about you, but it sounds like fun to me.
I hope you'll be able to come on out and show your support.

Pillow Of Your Bones

When I logged in to MySpace earlier today they recommended that I listen to Chris Cornell's new solo album, Carry On, in it's entirety "before it hits stores." Even though I wasn't a fan of Audioslave I like quite a few Soundgarden songs and thought that his first solo effort, Euphoria Morning, was aces so I thought I'd give this one a shot. In fact, I was kind of excited to hear what he could do on his own again to sort of redeem the Audioslave situation and I expected nothing but the best.

Unfortunately I was deeply disappointed in the 14 songs that this album has to offer. The entire record sounds very producer/major label driven and it doesn't have the edge or emotion that made his solo debut such a great album. It also sounds like he over sings everything and it's obvious that he doesn't have the voice that he used to. There was a time when Cornell was one of my favorite rock singers, but as I listened to this record I found myself getting very tired of his voice. It's just not there.

Chris Cornell was steeped in credibility. He was at the fore of a musical revolution, was in the first Seattle "grunge" band to get signed to a major deal (2 years before Nirvana), his roommate and best friend Andy Wood of Mother Love Bone died of a heroin overdose and he formed the band Temple of the Dog as a tribute....he couldn't have had any more cred if he tried. He was a rock star without trying to be a rock star, and that's the way that it should be.

It looks like drummer Matt Cameron made the right choice by joining with contemporaries Pearl Jam and avoiding the trap that his former Soundgarden frontman fell into. Sure Pearl Jam put out some shit albums, but they've always been true to themselves and are bigger and have more staying power than most bands ever do. They may not sell a lot of records anymore, but they sell out every single show they play, at large arenas to boot. I hate to say it, but I just don't think that Cornell has that kind of fan loyalty or cred anymore. It's a shame too. I saw Cornell solo in '99 in Columbus, OH and he was absolutely amazing. I hope he proves me wrong, but I don't think he can deliver like that anymore.

Is this album really a total waste? Well, not completely. There is some alright stuff on it. He still has the ability to write some interesting melodies and there are a few nice moments, but as a whole it's just not there. The best song on the album is a cover of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean," but even that song is only great during the verses. It seems like in the middle of recording they said, "Oh, this song needs a break-down now" or "let's change the instrumentation....now!" Everything feels over calculated and the songs as a whole simply don't flow well. As for the lyrical content, I get it. You're older, wiser, married, happy and have a child that you adore. I'm not saying that every song has to be depressing as hell, but if the 20 or 30-year-old Cornell could have heard some of the lyrics that he'd be writing on the verge of his 43rd birthday he wouldn't have believed it. I don't mean to imply that I'm a great lyricist either (in fact I'm pretty critical of my own lyrics and think I've got a ways to go) but he was.

I'm listening to Euphoria Morning as I write this and there just is no "Preaching the End of the World" or "Sweet Euphoria" on the new record. Listen to "When I'm Down" and then you 'll know what this man can deliver with his voice...or at least what he used to be able to deliver. There's so much soul and emotion in those vocals that you can feel it. The same can be said for the aforementioned tracks. That is what makes music great. And that is what made Chris Cornell great.

Where is the Chris Cornell that I know and love? Where is the Chris Cornell that is one of the most influential musicians of his generation? He's on Euphoria Morning, not Carry On.

Trouble and Debris available now!

That’s right kids, my long anticipated (at least by me) debut CD Trouble and Debris is finally available!

Phew.

It's about &#@% time.

I don’t know about you, but I was sick of waiting.

But, alas, we needn't wait any longer.

So buy it for you, buy it for your family, buy it for your friends; put it in your car, on your computer, on your iPod, under your pillow, in strangers’ mail boxes….....the options are limitless.

To purchase the CD go here and click the PayPal link under the cover photo, and hopefully it all works out in the end.

Give Me One Last Try

Keeping up with the recent trend, "Last Try" has been added to my music player at DaveCarducci.com and will be available as a free download for a limited time.

Though many of the songs on Trouble and Debris are spread out in time, "Last Try" is by far the oldest track on the record. This song was written in the summer of 2001 while I was attending Michigan State Univ. and had recently become band-less. I think it's a far cry from the stuff that I'm currently writing, but I think that it still stands up alright. Besides, that's really the point isn't it? If I were writing at 26/27 the same as I was at 21 I'd be pretty worried.

Though I didn't really realize it until I started writing this little bit here, perhaps the song is about the aforementioned experience......I didn't really write a lost love song to my old band did I?

I don't know.............maybe I did..........

Reap What You Sow

I have just added "Reap What You Sow" (the 6th song from Trouble and Debris) to the music player on DaveCarducci.com where it is available for streaming. The song will also be available as a free download for a limited time.

Originally recorded in late 2005, "Reap What You Sow" is a raw, stripped down recording that was completed in late 2006 with Brian Brodie adding bass to the guitar and vocal tracks.

Like "Paper Knives," the song was written by Rob Robinson.

"Leave Your Blues" available at DaveCarducci.com

"Leave Your Blues" (the 5th song off of Trouble and Debris) is now available for streaming and as a free download.

The song was tracked the same day as "Miles Away" and Paul McCartney's "Blackbird" in October 2005, and features myself along with Derek Dixie on the drum kit.

Like last week, you'll be able to download the song until midnight on Tuesday, at which point it will only be available for streaming.

"Paper Knives" available at DaveCarducci.com

Each week or so I will be adding a new song to the music player on DaveCarducci.com in preparation for the release of Trouble and Debris. This weeks song is "Paper Knives" which was written by my friend Rob Robinson of Nashville roots rock band Ollie Fox.

"Paper Knives" was originally tracked in Fall 2005 with Rob on acoustic guitar, bass, keyboard and harmonica, while I supplied the electric guitar, vocals, drums and additional keyboard. Unfortunately, the audio files for that session were accidentally deleted and the song had to be re-tracked in early 2006. The current recording features myself along with Heath West on drums.

"Paper Knives" will be available as a FREE DOWNLOAD until the stroke of midnight on Tuesday. Once the twelfth bell rings it can no longer be downloaded, however it will continue to be available for streaming.

Act fast and make this song a part of your music library!

Enjoy!

The times they are a-changin'

KLOS-FM, "Southern California's Only Classic Rock Station," just played "Lithium" by Nirvana. This came in between Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles. I don't know about you, but something about Nirvana being "classic rock" doesn't sit well with me. I guess I must be getting old.

DaveCarducci.com

I am pleased to announce the creation of the brand spankin' new DaveCarducci.com. This site will serve as my hub on the Internets and will soon include my debut record Trouble and Debris in its entirety, complete with lyrics.

Currently there are only four songs on the site (the same that are on here), but each week will feature a new song until the entire album is available.

I hope you'll visit the site and also sign up for the mailing list. It's a bit short on content at present, but more will be added all the time.

Thanks!

Necrosnort

"It's like, I don't care about nothin man, roll another blunt."


I can't really write anything witty about this.
It pretty much just speaks for itself.



KEITH RICHARDS: 'I SNORTED MY FATHER':

Keith Richards has acknowledged consuming a raft of illegal substances in his time, but this may top them all.

In comments published Tuesday, the 63-year-old Rolling Stones guitarist said he had snorted his father's ashes mixed with cocaine.

"The strangest thing I've tried to snort? My father. I snorted my father," Richards was quoted as saying by British music magazine NME.

"He was cremated and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn't have cared," he said. "… It went down pretty well, and I'm still alive."

Richards' father, Bert, died in 2002, at 84.

Some things are actually worth the $$

"Everybody's gonna be happy, which means you and me my love."

Whilst playing a gig on St. Paddy's day at the Pig 'N Whistle in Hollywood I had quite an annoying snafu. I started strong and had the audience eating out of the palm of my hand (or so I like to think) for the first three songs. And then all hell broke loose.

My fourth song, Miles Away, requires a harmonica...so I got out the holder and placed my Dmaj harp inside. I started playing the song when to my surprise, halfway through the harp part in the intro the holder fell down around my chest. "Mildly" annoyed, I picked up said holder, re-tightened it and started again only to have its insubordination continue. Flustered and now with the harmonica far too close to my mouth for fear of it falling a third time, my guitar strap slipped off of my shoulder launching Signor Ibanez downward where I dramatically caught him inches from the perilous depths below. Now, those of you who know me well know that I can have a slight bit of a temper...and though I'd like to say that it was under control at this point, I can't quite do that. To the contrary, I picked up my guitar, put it back on my shoulder, ripped off the harp holder (with harmonica in tow) and threw it onto the ground behind me finishing the song with frustrated (yet beautiful) whistling instead.

Now, as you can imagine, this is an occurance that I would like to avoid in the future. So I did today what I should have done a long time ago...I bought a new harmonica holder. Goodbye $5 Harmony Music Center holder. Heeeelllllo $15 Hohner holder. That's right kids, for the mere price of $15 you too can get a harmonica holder that is well worth at least $50. This thing is amazing. I can actually sing without the damn thing right in my face. I should have bought this thing months ago. All those cramped singing styles for nothing. They could have easily been avoided for under 20 bucks. I guess it pays to buy a harmonica holder made by a company that actually makes harmonicas.

So, there's a lesson here for all you aspiring singer-songwriters out there. Forget about frugality when it comes to mouth harps. For the sake of all mankind, please spend the extra 10 bucks and get yourself a decent holder. Don't be one of those assholes who throws his harp on the ground mid-song mid-concert.

Believe me. It could happen to you.

P.S. Because I think it's a cool idea, I'm going to steal from my friend Dr. Zillgitt and start each blog from here-on-in with a line from the song that I'm currently listening to. Hence the quotation at the top.

The boy who cried wolf

I'm a liar.

For this, I apologize.

My claim of actually having a date to have a CD release party in Monroe has again proved to be unfounded. The apparent lack of CDs makes it impossible for me to have said party on April 14 and I'm afraid that it'll have to be moved back for the 78th time.

I, for one, am quite fed up with this process and cannot $#%&ing wait until the CD is out...if only so I don't have to keep misleading people and getting my own hopes up.

Anyhow, there it is. As of this moment there is no date.....again.

I sincerely appreciate your patience and promise to keep quiet on the subject until it is an absolute certainty.

Umm, I think so.....

Hello.

In order to better serve the wondering public, I am going out on another limb and letting you know the new hopeful Record Release Show date - Saturday, April 14th in Monroe, MI.

Now, as you may know, this date has changed many times due to the lack of actually having CDs to release, but I'm pretty sure that I should have them by then and no other date in April works for me.

So.........there it is............maybe...............I think.

12 > 6 x 2

I bought new strings for my 12-string guitar about 4 (maybe 5) months ago and have been putting off putting them on (that sounds weird) ever since. There's just so many of them. I hate restringing 6 strings, but 12?!? Who wants to deal with that? Sure the octave strings sound neat, but it's a little too much maintenance sometimes.

Anyhow, today I was/am bored as hell and decided that it would be a good day to restring both the 12-string and my 6-string. Now you would think that it would take twice as long to restring a 12-string than it would a standard guitar, but you'd be wrong. The 12-string took for-e-ver to do. I nearly got through Blur's The Best of CD in its entirety in the time that it took me to restring both guitars.

So, yeah, anyway my point is that I'm never going to take the strings off the 12-string and am just going to throw the guitar away once they all break off. So if any of you want a free 12-string guitar just let me know and I'll keep you in mind when the strings disintegrate.

Record Update

Okay, first off, let me start by saying that I appreciate the patience exercised by those of you who have shown interest in having a CD in your hands. This blog shall attempt to shed some light on the current happenings.

My friend and artist, Patrick Johns, has been working on the artwork/design and is almost finished. Actually, the cover art is complete so it's just the design that needs to be finished. The album cover can be seen at the top of this blog page. Clean and beautiful me thinks...hope you like it too.

In other news, producer Brian Brodie and I have been mailing mixes back and forth and the final mix should arrive tomorrow by 3:00pm if the United States Postal Service holds up their end of the bargain. Once I receive that I need to get it mastered. Thanks to my friend, engineer Nels Jensen, this cat named Orlando Rashid will be mastering the record. Orlando is the head engineer at Jamie Foxx's Foxxhole Studios and has worked with Foxx, Snoop Dogg, Kanye West and T.I. just to name a few. Now you may have noticed that all of the above musicians play completely different music than I do, but Orlando is top notch and will have the record sounding great. I'm really excited about him working on it and can't wait to hear what he does to it.

The goal is to have everything finished by the end of the week and sent off to the CD replication plant. After that, I will be playing a CD release show in Monroe, MI. The tentative date for that is March 24th, but I need CDs to play a CD release show, so we'll see how that goes. More details on the show will follow by the end of next week.

So there it is. That's all the news for now. Hope that clears things up for some of you. I can't wait to play the release show and hope to see you all there!

Until we meet again.

Aloha

I'm not really sure why, but I've decided to start this blog on my boring Friday evening. This blog will most likely mirror that on my MySpace page, but now you have an option of reading it either here or there...whichever you prefer. Enjoy.