Brokeback Cowboy

The latest to come out of the Roy Harper stable is not his long-awaited next studio album, but this little film. It's a joke you're probably familiar with, but it's so well-presented that I couldn't help but smile. I'd love to see Roy do more of this sort of thing (once he's finished that elusive album).

Masters of Song Fu - Update #3 - 100th Post!

Song Fu

The final day of voting for round one is here, and I think I can safely say that it's the end of the road for this song fu disciple as far as the official competition goes. I enjoyed the challenge, though the song is not a great piece of work - certainly it didn't deserve to be in the top of the pile, though I did personally prefer it to a couple of others in the competition. Of course, my tastes are pretty far from normal songwriter fare, so I'll not name names.

So thanks to those of you who voted for my efforts - 1% of the vote may not seem like a lot, but it means that almost 20 people thought my song was better than all the rest, which is fine by me. Or maybe I just got the 'pity' vote.

Whatever the reason, thanks, and you'll maybe be pleased to hear that I'm planning on continuing to follow the challenges even though I'll be out of the official competition. I think it's a good way to keep flexing the old songwriting muscle and building up my Fu for the next time...?

100 Posts

Yes, this is the 100th post to this blog. I'm really pleased how far things have come since I kicked this off a couple of years ago. Thanks to those few of you who pop back for a visit now and again, and also to my family who put up with my musical meanderings.

Have we got a video?

There is now a video to accompany the song 'Choices' from 'Difficult Second'. You can view it in miniature above or at the Lunacy Board site, or click here to see it on YouTube - please leave your comments and feel free to give it a nice high rating!

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Tags: Song Fu, 100, Choices, Video, YouTube

Show and Tell

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, those of you too tight to buy tickets, those too distant to travel, those too drunk to care and everybody else can now see The Lunacy Board's performance last week from the comfort of home.

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Tags: The Lunacy Board, Video, Glasgow, Classic Grand, Improvisation, Theremin

Inverbegnac Regurgitated

I've been doing a lot of mixing of live recordings over the last few weeks, and needed a little break, so last night I messed around a bit with a couple of video editing programs to see which would be the best for the forthcoming Lunacy Board Subcommittee live video. Here's the result. A suitably daft video accompaniment to the 'Inverbegnac' advert.

Cheers!

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Technorati Tags: inverbegnac, advert, video, alcohol, drunk, dance

Radio Killed the Video Star

We've had some very positive feedback about "The Unofficial National Anthem" from a few sources now, which has been quite encouraging, comparing the song, or parts of it, to Syd Barrett, Brian Eno, Pink Floyd, Can, Jethro Tull and others. The song has recently been played on the Spellbound radio programme, which will be available as a downloadable mp3 within a week. It is also likely to appear on a compilation CD in the near future - details to follow shortly, I hope.

Work is progressing slowly but surely on "Stockholm", both in terms of the visual side (with animated scenes progressing well - almost 20% complete) and the audio. We have a growing collection of soundtrack material to choose from, ranging from our first ever recording session through to the latest pieces, and will be putting some short selections up on The Lunacy Board website. The first piece is already there, a 2 minute piece of improvised instrumental music reminiscent of Meddle-era Pink Floyd.

Finally, for the moment, we also have a dedicated forum area over at Melos' Prog Bazaar, so drop in any time and let us know what you think about the band, the music, the weather or anything else.

Reborn....?

Way back in the mists of time we had a concept for a video for the Deserters' "Renaissance" period which we considered, at the time, to be a turning point for the band. The song was to be called "Reborn" and was to feature a video of the band doing various things in time to the music, but backwards - jumping off walls, dropping things, etc. All very Monkees, had it ever come to pass. Now it's my turn...

The last 3 years of my life have been a bit of a musical desert. I've hardly touched an instrument, and most of my music gear has spent its time in boxes. It's been annoying and difficult, but a necessary evil due to various things going on in my work life - i.e. the stuff that pays to keep the wolf from the door, the children fed and the electricity flowing. Well, the time in the wilderness is coming to an end - 2 months to go and I should be back to living a more normal life where I can actually spend some quality time with family instead of having to schedule them in, I can get on with some of the projects that have peaked my interest over the last 3 years and I can live the music once more.

So - what's new?

I'm refreshing all the Deserters material that I have transferred to PC, and will finally be editing and sticking it onto CDs.

I've dug out my bass from storage and am getting back into the swing (I think) - starting to work on some nice new callouses. Next will come the trusty old DX7 and finally I'll fish out the guitar.

I'm getting together with some local musos to do some jam sessions, which may or may not lead to something better - I hope to report on this next week.

I've also got a couple of experimental music things I want to put together - I'll probably start this in the new year - quite a bit of programming will be involved on the ST (old faithful music computer), which I've not really done much of in the past.

Finally, I want to build a new Yobstick - the last one disappeared during a house-move, and I feel somehow incomplete without it. Perhaps I can encourage my yob-luthier to return to the trade!

Exciting times ahead for me - here's hoping we all enjoy the ride!