Play that funky music brown boy

So I had my buddy Miranda Rensch up from Portland for Bumbershoot a couple weekends ago. Miranda and I started off at the same uber-nerd program in Nebraska, but she left after a semester to pursue more artistic endeavors. In that semester though, we made friends as musicians in the group.

Reuniting for Bumbershoot was great because we spent the whole weekend jamming out and making music through conventional and not-so-conventional means. Since that weekend, I've been having lots of fun collecting random instruments and jacking around with music. So here's what I have so far.

Instruments

Jackson JS1 Dinky
It looks like a total metal guitar, and it really is, but I've tweaked it enough that I can get some nice blues and jazz sounds out of it. The neck is fast and I love playing it.

Fender Jazz Active Bass
I looooove this bass. I got it to replace my old Danelectro. I went the extra mile to get active pickups because they give me a lot more range to dial in the right sound for various kinds of music.

Yamaha KX49 USB/MIDI Controller
I guess this counts as an instrument. In my senior year of college, I got really interested in sound production with the computer. However, I wanted to prove to all the Mac guys that you didn't have to pay tons of money (or steal) to make music. So I learned to do all that stuff the Open Source way on Linux and it was actually a lot of fun. So I have a decent keyboard to do all that nerdy synth stuff.

Amplifiers and Mixers

Behringer GX210
This amp has served me well for a long time. I've never had a good chance to push it hard, but it works great for noodling around and the onboard effects aren't bad either.

MarkBass Mini CMD 121P
I just picked this up and I love it. So I had a bass amp at home, but I left it thinking I wouldn't be playing much bass in Seattle. I was wrong, so I bought a new one. Thankfully, this thing is small enough to fit in my apartment and it's not more than 30 pounds. What is amazing is that it packs 400 watts in a small package and it sounds great. I love this amp so far. I have the volume set between 1-2 in my apartment and that's already probably too loud.

Behringer Eurorack MX1604A
I picked this mixer up in Kansas City off a guy who tried to use it as a home theater mixer. I got it cheap and it is a solid little mixer. I use this to manage the random mics I have around the apartment, and I've also used it for some recording..

Effects

Line 6 DL4
This is really the only one worth mentioning. It's an awesome delay modeler, but I use the loop machine more than anything else. This is great for running a mic into it, looping some beat box action, and then singing, humming, clapping, or making any kind of racket into the loop. This is truly too much fun and I thank Nathan Kniseley and Minus the Bear for showing me how cool these can be.

WHY ARE YOU TELLING ME ALL THIS? I DON'T CARE!

So all that being said, I met a few guys who are as into molding random noises into music as I am. I hope this eclectic mix of music styles and influences coalesces into something awesome. If it does, I'll be sure to say something about it here.

Take care!

Well, that's a peculiar laugh

I was walking toward my building on my way to work this morning when a lady behind me made a strange laughing noise. Moments later, a goose honked. I was pleased to find they sounded the same. I smiled and walked into my building to start my day.

I've taken to riding the bus to work lately. It's funny that what was once a dreaded nightmare to me is actually quite enjoyable in the mornings. I still avoid taking some of the downtown buses if they look too crowded, but I've been more comfortable relinquishing control of how I get from Point A to Point B.

Riding the bus is funny. People are funny. If movies were any indication of real life, every bus ride would be the start of some wild, whacky romantic adventure where the woman sitting across from me is really the love of my life for 3 weeks and then we break each others' hearts, yet we learn some timeless lesson about boysandgirls and she's still really cool and we're best friends who exchange knowing smiles from opposing street corners blah blah blah. In real life, it's more of a "let's mutually agree the other doesn't exist and I'll read my book and you read yours and hopefully we don't die on the way to our destination." Sounds morbid, eh?

It's funny though, this is maybe day 3 of taking the 545 to Redmond from Seattle and already I recognize some of the regulars on my route.

It has been a really long time since I've last posted. I wrote about riding the bus...

Wow.