2008-01-31 - Back to rock guitar after a year of jazz piano

After focusing on jazz piano for most of last year, I started 2008 by getting back to rock guitar -- for one show, at least.

I was asked to play a midday show at The Landing (sort of a small, coffehouse-type venue, just without the coffee) at the University of Maine Farmington. I've been leaning more towards themed shows of late, but I didn't have anything particular in mind for this one, so I enlisted Adam, a bass player I know from the UMF Jam Nights and elsewhere, to join me for a random mix of songs.

Cool thing about rock guitar: some chords
make it look like you're flippin' the bird...

Our only real goal was to incorporate some original tunes, so about half the set fit that. The rest was a mix of whatever covers we felt like playing. And here's how it panned out:

1. Can't Hardly Wait. An 80's alternative take on the road song, this Replacements classic features the immortal line, "Jesus rides beside me / But he never buys any smokes." Toward the end of the solo, I wove in bits from Herbie Hancock's "Chameleon."
   
2. Aphrodite's Cigarettes. One of my originals, now in its 12th year. First time I ever played it with someone else, though.
   
3. Optimistic. I worked out a cool arrangement of this Radiohead tune for my Lost Songs series -- for the "Lost Songs of the 90's" show, even though the song came out in 2000 -- and I liked it so much, I wanted to revisit it. [Sound clip below]
   
4. New Slang. At this point in the show, Adam switched from bass to acoustic guitar and took over the vocals. His first number was this song by The Shins. I didn't know it until I learned it for the show, but it's really been growing on me.
   
5. Adam's original #1. Then Adam went through a few of his originals, which lacked titles at this point. I only know them by key signature and his descriptions, so this one is the "Left-Wing Political Song in A minor."
6. Adam's original #2. And this one is "the song with the flamenco bit, also in A minor."
7. Adam's original #3. For Adam's last original, "the sort of grunge song in F#," I worked out a little guitar riff that I later realized sounds a bit like the one in "Take Me Out" by Franz Ferdinand.
   
8. All the Kids Are Right. The last song that Adam sang was this Local H cover. The title, I suspect, is a nod to The Who's "The Kids Are Alright."
   
9. The Emperor's New Shoes. I went back to singing and Adam switched back to bass for this song, another old original of mine. Again, I've played it a million times before, but never with a bass player. And it made all the difference, especially in the heavier, bluesy, no-I-didn't-lift-this-from-Led-Zep opening riff.
   
10. You Get What You Deserve. As part of my ongoing exploration of the mythic cult band Big Star, I wanted to do this song from Big Star's 1974 second album, Radio City.
    
11. Where is My Mind. This Pixies song was our "extra," meaning we were going to cut it if we were short on time. We ended up fitting it in, though, and it went rather well. If you're not familiar with The Pixies but have seen the movie Fight Club, this is the song they play at the end when everything is blowing up.
    
12. Chains. Unlike my other originals, this one I've played with other people several times. In fact, whenever I get together with someone and we want to do an original, I usually turn to this. It's one of the simpler tunes I have, so it's easy to learn. It's also easy to solo over, since the verse/solo parts only have one chord...
    

Here's a clip of one of the songs, our version of Radiohead's "Optimistic":



All in all, it was a laid-back, slightly random, rockin' good time. We had a small yet respectable crowd of 20-30 people, which included lots of friends -- the best crowd in many ways.

And we even had a band name, though we didn't know it until the show started. Before the first song, I mentioned to Adam that we didn't have a name, and he suggested "The Stolen Bones." Not only does it have that hint of macabre suitable for a rock band name, he pointed out that it sounds a lot like "The Rolling Stones," so if people overhear it in casual conversation, they might just pay attention.