Princeton Bound!

Despite what this title may lead you to believe, I am not attending Princeton. I am, however, travelling to Princeton to rehearse Carmina Burana with the NJ Opera. Our performance is tomorrow at 8. More to come- my train is about to arrive.

Burn Notice!

Okay, I know this is a music blog, but I like watching some good TV. I'm not into these reality shows, which is probably why I like animation so much (South Park, Futurama, Cowboy Bebop, Harvey Birdman, Family Guy, Simpsons, etc...). Anyway, on Thursday, USA Network ran a twelve-hour Burn Notice marathon, and wow! This show, centering around freelance spy Michael Westen, is fantastic. It just oozes cool. Watch it.

First Wedding Gig

So yesterday, I played my first wedding gig- accompanying a singer. This one was very non-traditional- we performed pop songs- Michael Buble's "Everything", Sade's "By Your Side", and Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours". But hey, weddings are fantastic gigs and they pay well. Plus, it was a lot of fun- very different than the usual dive bars I play in. For one, I wore a dress- the same sexy number from my composition recital. That alone made the whole experience a little different. Plus, a church has the best freakin' acoustics ever.

First Coffeehouse Performance

So yesterday, I performed solo for the first time at the open mike Tierney's holds every Thursday. And now, I can check out this site for more open mikes. I performed a cover of "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill", debuted "Thursday Night Open Mike" (they got a kick out of that), and since I had a little extra time, strummed out a version of "Sunday, Sunday Sunrise".

The experience was great! This will really help me become more at ease with performing solo- it'll also help me out with stage presence, etc. The only way to build stage presence is to perform, perform, perform, and perform some more. For example- there's an instrumental segment of the Thursday song... I didn't think till it was almost over to ask people to clap throughout it, so I'm not just looking like I forgot the words or something. And that's good to know for next week, when I hopefully perform the song at the High Tech High School Alumni Cabaret. Again, stage presence only comes from playing more shows. I hope to make open mikes a regular part of my musical regiment- to prepare a short set every week and have it ready to go.

Anyway, tentative set for next time

1. Pyscho Killer
2. Tempted
3. TV on Tuesday
4. Sweetest Sound

BANDS BANDS BANDS

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Secret E.P Hiatus

Since I am putting a ton of work into my Weekly Song Cycle, I am going to put a hiatus on the Secret E.P. Since there is a lot of writing for bigger ensembles on that record, it would make a lot more sense to record it with more resources, i.e: a studio, money, and more musicians. So for now, it's all Weekly Song Cycle.

But, the Weekly Song Cycle will also include a few other songs as a "B Side"... so now I can call the whole thing "The Weekly Song Cycle and Other Stories".

Basically, the first eight tracks will include the song cycle, and there will be a few other tracks included. Travel Song, originally featured on the Secret E.P, will appear here instead, along with an acoustic version of Sweetest Sounds. Another song, a new song, will also be featured. More to come on this new(ish) project. For now, some lyrical selections from the Weekly Song Cycle.

I see no reason to go out
It's raining
I'm tired
and I'm broke

I'll watch some reruns of Cheers and Scrubs
and old school South Park
with all the dirty words bleeped out.

-TV On Tuesday

-----

He sings a song about the city
then another one about his little bird
Then he dedicates one to the ladies
and plays me a song that I've never heard, never heard...

-Thursday Night Open Mike

Weekly Song Cycle Update

Wow, well, the Weekly Song Cycle is shaping up very nicely. At this point, I already have five demos recorded (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday #2). About thirteen minutes of music right now.




Gotta get rolling on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

Now that I got that demo done, I can get on to making... business cards. Because, everybody's always telling me I should print them, to which I always say: "I should". Just one thing... I never seem to have time to do that.