I'll Show You Battle Studies

Alright, so I'm not sure if any of you are following John Mayer these days. He's doing this thing called 'Battle Studies'. If you go to www.johnmayer.com, he's got a blog going that he's regularly updating with pics and vids and everything that's going into making his new record. It's a totally cool experiment designed to make the whole process transparent. The whole idea being that a clearly commercial endeavor becomes more of a 'together' experience, where we all get to have a bit of a part in it as it goes along.

So, I'm not yet working on a new record, per se. Just new songs. New ideas that will someday become something, I'm sure. But I like the idea. So stick around. Tonight, I'm going in to record a new track. It's called 'I've Got This Road'. It's going down straight to tape. Well.. straight to binary. The point being, we're gonna do it in a one take run. 3 mics, one guitar, one voice. Time to figure out where I stand as a player.... Incidentally, it's also a good excuse to test drive a new Neumann Digital we just got in. This one's a handheld, with something like a U87 capsule. We were playing with it the other day, and she sounds warm.

The song'll be up here, so check back.

More to come!

JB

Playlist

Playlist: 'Thought Music'
Created: 'March 5, 2009'

Peter Bradley Adams - Los Angeles
Jimmy Eat World - 12.23.95
Alexi Murdoch - Orange Sky
Goo Goo Dolls - Acoustic #3
Damien Rice - Dogs
Copeland - You Have My Attention
George Strait - I Saw God Today
The Get Up Kids - Hannah Hold On
Glen Hansard/Marketa Irglove - Falling Slowly
Howard Shore/Annie Lennox - Into The West
Jimmy Whitfield - Here's To Closure
Iron & Wine - Naked As We Come
Dave Matthews Band - Grace Is Gone
Jimmy Eat World - My Sundown
Smashing Pumpkins - Disarm
James Taylor - Enough To Be On Your Way
Nickel Creek - Doubting Thomas
Jimmy Eat World - For Me This Is Heaven
Moxy Fruvous - Gulf War Song
The New Amsterdams - Hanging On For Hope
Nick Drake - Pink Moon
John Mayer - Wheel
Norah Jones - Humble Me
The Roosevelts - Your Song
James Taylor - September Grass
Switchfoot - This Is Your Life
U2 - Where The Streets Have No Name (Live)
Jack's Mannequin - Rescued

Hey Bud

I'm starting to think that you're not allowed to work at TSN unless you call everybody 'bud'.

"Thanks for the tapes bud."
"Hey, nice work on that NHL Radio mix bud!"
"How's it going today bud?"

Bud is completely different than Buddy.

"Hey buddy," says, 'hey person who's companionship I enjoy.... hey friend who I think of as my peer and my equal..'

"Hey bud" says, 'hello small child who I consider to be my inferior and who I'm attempting to shepherd through a quaint new phase in this terrifying world of grownups to which I belong and in which I excel due to my superiority when viewed in comparison with you..'

Guys who say "Hey bud.." are a special breed. They play in rec sports leagues every Thursday night and drive cars like Jeeps, with the doors off in the summer.

JB

Band

Hey guys,

Had a first rehearsal today with a buddy in Waterloo in the hopes of getting a band together to play live. Man, it was a great thing to be playing with other guys again. Well.. other guy in this case. Which is the point of this note:

I'm in need of a second guitar player, and a bass guitar player. Holler if you, or somebody you know, might be interested. Gigs would be in the Toronto/Waterloo area.

Talk soon,

JB

Desire

Ladies.

You may be playing hard to get... but I will have you. Soon enough... you will be mine.

'Still Learning Tricks'

Dale Nikkel's record, 'Still Learning Tricks' is a total gold mine. I came to this record through a buddy of mine out west, who does a bunch of the guitar work on this record.

'This New Leaf' is like an anthem for me. It's an extremely big song in a beautifully small package.

The great divide doesn't look so wide today
Maybe I'm seeing a little bit of light
From over the mountains
And it's such a pretty sight
Can't say I've felt such peace in a long time

And the tightrope towards the hope that I've been walking
Seems to be fading
I've done my service
To the religious circus
Trading these narrow views for something new

Hey hey, celebrate with me
The other side of this new leaf I'm turning
Freedom cmon in and take your seat
Hey hey, celebrate with me
The day that I can finally be
Truly free

The great divide doesn't look so wide today
The stream from the mountain flowed so fresh
And I drank from that fountain
So cold in my chest
Finally found what it means to rest

Hey hey, celebrate with me
The other side of this new leaf I'm turning
Freedom cmon in and take your seat
Hey hey, celebrate with me
The day that I can finally be
Truly free

The great divide doesn't look so wide today
I'm no longer wandering on my own
The old mountain stones
It's like they're paved with gold
No longer with my old life in tow

And the tightrope towards the hope that I've been walking
Seems to be fading
I've done my service
To my emotional circus
Trading these narrow views for something new

Hey hey, celebrate with me
The other side of this new leaf I'm turning
Freedom cmon in and take your seat
Hey hey, celebrate with me
The day that I can finally be
Truly free

You can get the record on iTunes.
JB

Down To Earth

I'm listening to the soundtrack for WALL-E right now. It's a beautiful cacophony of semi-human, robotic, organic, and completely arbitrary sounds pulled together and knitted in alongside some really beautiful swooping melodies and themes. It's actually really stunning.

Kar and I have decided to start listening to more soundtracks. It really is some of the most beautiful and emotionally charged music out there. And from a creative standpoint, some of this stuff is so huge.

I've been very fortunate over the past little bit to have the opportunity to second engineer on some orchestral sessions with some great guys here in the city. It's a fascinating process, and massively involved. There's so much going on, and so much that can go wrong, when you have 50+ players, and so many layers, parts, textures. And then, when it all comes together, it's stunning how huge it can be. To sit in a room with a full orchestra coming together to play a great piece is an experience I wish on everybody.

What to do tonight?

I'm playing guitar more now than I think I ever have. I'm drawn to it. And I need for things to fall together. I'm eager to play with people. I want badly to be a part of a musical community, and to create with other people. It's coming. But slowly. I don't really have interest in doing it alone anymore. I can write and record records till I die, by myself, locked up in a studio. It always lacks life. I'm in that state of mind where anything is possible, and I'm ready to jump. I feel like there are really exciting things just inches from my grasp, and my energy level is higher than it's ever been on that front.

All the scale-playing and early mornings, getting in, warming up, and doing the hard work of getting better technically is paying off. If nothing else, I have the very distinct feeling of being much more in control of my fingers. Which sounds odd, but changes everything. Everything is opening up. Kindof like when you decide to start eating better, and going for walks after work, and all of a sudden you start noticing that waking up is easier, and you've got more energy and patience late in the day. Everything is sortof connected, and I'm finding that as I build up more of a base, musically, everything else becomes more realistic.

More on music in the future. I think things will be picking up soon!

JB