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Something Beautiful Sings Guest Vocals for CRUSADER

04.06.13
Dale
· Blog · Gigs and Gigging · Something Beautiful

So I got a message from Hoagy (lead vox, Crusader) asking if some of us would or could do a guest vocal track for their new album. I was totally down, pending my own schedule, Matt Wolf from Skull Fogger was going, and Justin from Something Beautiful was good to go. Unfortunately, Eric, our drummer was out of town on family business, so he couldn’t make it.

My battalion on Crusader’s Atrurius

One of the perks of most of your fans being in other bands and knowing how to sing metal is that you get to do stuff like this for them, and you can trade shows, book fun events together, and in general, support each others’ creativity. While we were mixing Something Beautiful‘s Lay Down (Songs About Angels) we had a bunch of our friends come in and yell for us. Really is a great way to spend time with your friends, I think.

Since Crusader was working on several of the tracks for their upcoming release, I didn’t stick around too long, but it really was nice to hang out for a bit outside the confines of a noisy club. Their new material sounds KILLER, and it’s shaping up to be a sick record that these guys can definitely be proud of.

Check out Crusader on Facebook and Reverb Nation

Check out Something Beautiful on Facebook

Songwriting is Easy, and Other Lies Your Music Teacher Told Me

03.09.13
Dale
· Blog · Inspiration · Musings · Songwriting

Songwriting is easy. Yes, really, but only sometimes. It can be a rare thing, and you’ll never appreciate it as much as you should. It’s not one of those things that you “can’t appreciate and easy thing until you’ve hit hard times” type of situation, it’s just that those easy ones are the ones you overlook. So much effort goes into a song like Something Beautiful’s Dreams About Your Skin that a song like Nobody told Me, or Not So Blues just doesn’t seem to come to mind when I think about what I’m proud of when I’m asked about what I write.

I wrote that song in pink fuzzy boots and mario pajamas after getting coffee at my starbucks, which is across the street from where I live. I was in a good mood, and it made me sing. Easy job, no hangups. Said something about being single, having it easy and living simply. It took about ten minutes to write and record, and spend very little mental energy on reminiscing on the ease with which it flowed out of me. Some people really like it, but I consider it merely a joke. How rude is that of me? Kinda, I think.

Some other songs can take years to write, and that ever-present feeling of “I’m leaving something unfinished…” in the background is what will make those tunes stick out to me. But you know how we’re always being told to stop and smell the roses? I’m finna do that once in a while. Thanks for indulging me.

Some of them 20 minute songs became some of your faves, or at least big hits… I’m not saying that mine was a knockout, but it certainly was serviceable. It was pure expression of an emotional state, and depending on the listener, it may convey the ease of the moment. Or maybe it’s just a quick dumb song. It may not be a steak dinner, but once in a while I’ll take a jolly rancher.

Count your blessings instead of sheep tonight.

The World Needs Mermaid-Man and Barnacle Boy… Apparently.

Yeah, that episode is on right now. I didn’t grow up in a period where Spongebob Squarepants was relevant to my personal development, but when I see the occasional episode nowadays, all I can do is wonder where the cranky morons who gave me and my peers a problem about Beavis and Butthead and Ren n Stimpy are.

What gets up my craw is really our continual quest to find the actual trigger to the end of western culture. Each generation has its liberals and conservatives, and I’m sorry, but the conservatives are almost ALWAYS wrong. Look at how jazz music, rock n roll, peace n love, punk rock, heavy metal, disco were received and then look at the actual implications of their existence. Then grow up and quit whining.

I’m more into finding proof that we’re evolving into a better world. Signs that we’re moving ever forward into a humanity that’s worth being part of. I’m not going to find the answer to that question in Spongebob, you’re not gonna find it in Gwar, and neither one of us (hopefully) will find it in a Ziggy comic. There’s a possibility that we might find it in some of Mel Blanc’s work on the Jack Benny show, though. Radio, not TV of course. Television is the work of the devil, after all.

Sometime, Imma haveta tell you about pop music, but I’ll wait until I’m back on my mac for that rant. Suffice it to say, “if you dislike something that much, (unless it’s actually depriving anyone of rights or property) you’re probably wrong.

Take a chill pill, you guys.

Sometimes the Bear Eats You

Saw a Billy Collins’ TED talk which was so good I had to watch it again. It includes this poem:

Some days I put the people in their places at the table,
bend their legs at the knees,
if they come with that feature,
and fix them into the tiny wooden chairs.

All afternoon they face one another,
the man in the brown suit,
the woman in the blue dress,
perfectly motionless, perfectly behaved.

But other days, I am the one
who is lifted up by the ribs,
then lowered into the dining room of a dollhouse
to sit with the others at the long table.

Very funny,
but how would you like it
if you never knew from one day to the next
if you were going to spend it

striding around like a vivid god,
your shoulders in the clouds,
or sitting down there amidst the wallpaper,
staring straight ahead with your little plastic face?

Man, this speaks to all of us somehow I think. To me, as a writer, performer, frontman, sideman or punching bag… To you at your job, whatever it is. We got good days and bad. Sometimes we feel like we’re in control, and sometimes we can’t seem to get a handle on a single goddamned thing. I think ultimately, what matters is how we handle the adverse that teaches us the most about our character. As I write, I’m more or less trapped in my bedroom working out how exactly I’m going to be productive from here. Not unhappy, not super glad, but I’m at peace with the moment. Some Days, I’d be freaking out about whatever it was I couldn’t do today, but I’d rather ponder the possibilities.

Struggle through another day, everybody.