Hey, Remember Emma Louise?  I raved about how I thought she was gonna be super famous soon.  Remember?  Okay, well, I thought tonight I’d throw up a video of myself playing one of my favorite songs of hers.  It’s called “Temporary Friend.”  Enjoy it, mother-effers.  Glaz out, yo.

What up.  I know I vanished for a few days, but I’ve been rather busy helping my friend Jerry get married and helping some fictional zombies eat me alive (I had a small role in a short zombie film which shot this weekend).  There.  That should explain it.

Okay, well, I hope to be a good deal more productive the next couple of weeks while I have the whole house to myself to record.  Hip.  Hip.  Hooray.

For now, why don’t you write some music, too?  Take a look at this ridiculous and fun site called Seaquence which allows you to create little biddy musical organisms that play whatever goofy chiptune sounds you want them to and swim around adorably while you giggle.  Below you can check out the one I made, but you can create your own, too!  It’s jolly, proper fun, if I don’t say so myself.  Enjoy!

Woohoo!!! (My Microbial Diddy)

If you don’t know, metal fans have been arguing for years about whether Metallica or Megadeth is the better band.  Well, here’s a video mash-up that gives you both!  Hey hey!  The Taskmaster takes various songs from each band and combines them into one, and the results are both hilarious and really impressive.  Some of them fit better than others, but there are so many that work, this channel has gotten me to think that you can combine any two songs successfully.  It’s amazing.  It’s not just Megadeth and Metallica, either.  Check out the Justin Bieber/Village People mash-up.  If only these wonderful artists hadn’t entered the music scene thirty years apart.  Sigh.

Yo!  Look how awesome this guy is!  This is also a long, epic song, but it’s just so darn nifty!  What I really like is how interesting and unique it is, what with the instrumentation and all, but it doesn’t have that typical “indie music” style that sometimes feels a bit forced in its attempts at originality, in my opinion.  This guy just really seems to love making music without any concern for anything else that gets in the way when people try to make songs.  Oh, and I love the really spiritual lyrics.  Pretty rare, I say.  Anyway, ’til next time, chums!

Oh yeah, and he’s got a website.  It’s right over here.

Howdy!  Yeah, this is a long beast of a song, but it’s got that epic feel that makes that sort of thing okay.  At least, that’s what I tell myself to rationalize the grim throes of torment which I so wantonly bestow unto the wailing face of mankind.  Seriously, the song’s so long, it took seventeen billion days to export and upload the video.  That’s why I’m posting this today instead of really really early today, or really really late last night, depending on how “square” you are.  I happen to be “hip,” and thus I prefer the latter.  Why am I speaking such nonsense today?  Oh, right, because I’m still myself.  Whatever.  Just watch the video.

I think that’s officially my favorite blog post title that I’ve published so far.  It’s like I rolled three dice with random words on them.  Or stayed up one drunken night rearranging magnetic poetry.  Anyway, here’s another video, just me and the guitar, performing “Existential Pathology.”  I like this version.  It’s intimate, and painfully bare.  You can really wallow in the suffocating abyss of despair (Oops, that rhymes)!  That and hear a zany mouth-guitar solo!  Hey hey!

This band is really quite impressive.  They call themselves the Henhouse Prowlers, and they are a bluegrass band from Chicago, but you wouldn’t guess it seeing them in action.  They’ve got the genre down cold, they’re experts on their instruments, and their vocal harmonies are real tight.  I saw them perform Saturday at the Two Brothers Roundhouse in Aurora, IL (which is a really neat place in its own right), and they were a whole barrel of fun.  See for yourself!

Check out their website for sure.  They’ve got show dates and albums on there and everything.  That’s it for now.  Toodles!

Woohoo!  I hope everyone had a rippin’ roarin’ good time for the 4th of July.  I wasn’t able to put all of this up last night because the hours just got too late, but look!  I put together a fun all-acoustic-guitar arrangement of “The Star-Spangled Banner” just for the balls of it (“balls” = “hell” or “fun”)!  Check it out!

Hey, and if you missed the fireworks this year, here’s the grand finale of last night’s show in Ithaca, IL, the largest 4th of July fireworks display in the state of Illinois, which I videotaped for some reason!

So, those are my Independence Day gifts to the world.  Later, my fellow Americans (and non-Americans.  Hmm…that was awkward.)!

Okay, here is a truly new song (not one I wrote ten years ago and am trying to pass for new).  In fact, it’s my newest song.  I wrote it a couple of weeks ago.  Only one person in the world has heard it up until now – the person about whom I wrote it (besides myself).  You get one guess.  Correct!  IT’S ABOUT CLARISSE, THE LOVE OF MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You know, I generally don’t like love/relationship songs because EVERY SINGLE GODDAMNED SONG EVERYBODY WRITES IS A LOVE AND/OR RELATIONSHIP SONG.  So, you know, I think the topic has been overdone.  When I write, I actually make a point to make each song different (especially lyrically), and though I have written a few love songs, I try to keep them in check due to the above all-caps statement.  I actually wasn’t setting out to write a love song here.  It just turned into one.  I guess I better cool it for a while and write a few hate songs.  The problem is, I don’t really hate anybody.  Except for that one guy.  That guy is such an asshole.

Did you notice though?  That’s a new microphone!  It’s the ADK A6, and I think it sounds fantastic!  It’s a stark contrast from the Rode NT1-A I’ve been using, which makes you sound like your vocal chords are made of broken glass.  Ooh, and I’ve got a new mic preamp on the way, too, which will make my recordings sound EVEN BETTER!  Wait a minute, why am I telling you this?  You don’t care.  You just want to hear pretty melodies.  Balls.

Nothing of mine this time, but I’ve got a friend who’s totally becoming a pop star, and seeing as today is his official “launch date,” I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to exercise my bragging rights.  His name is Josh Scholl, and he was crowned Karaoke King last year on ABC’s nationally televised Karaoke Battle USA, a feat which led swiftly to a record deal with Hollywood Records.  His debut single and accompanying official music video premiered today, so I thought I’d share it here.  One of the most fun things I did in my college years was all thanks to him.  He started an a capella group the second semester of my senior year, and I got to be in it those couple of months.  It was the sort of thing I had been wanting to do since high school but had always been too shy, and it was a real joy to finally get to do it.  Josh’s singing was good even then, but I’m really impressed by how much he’s grown in recent years.  He’s got a pretty damn rockin’ voice, if you ask me.  Anyway, he’s the nicest guy in the world, so I really wish him well.  Here’s his super-slick new song:

See that guy?  I know that guy!  I know him!  How cool is that!  Haha!  Time to milk him for all he’s worth!  Hear that, Josh?  Buy me a house, you crazy rock star son of a bitch!