This is very very cool. I’m adding it to my long long long list of things I hope to do one day!

Make: Online : Make a mellotron out of walkmans – Weekend Projects Podcast

This year is zipping along at a fair old speed. The 3rd year of my PhD is up mid June, and there’s no chance that I’ll be done in time. Not that that really matters, as I’m funded until mid December. And I really should at least of handed in a draft by then. Had a rotten few months but I’m hopefull that things are looking up.

So, what’s happened recently? Well, fuck all really. I’ve been kicked out of the Pussycats, a coup probably left by out chronologically challenged drummer. Turns out my “wanting everything to be good and in time” ethos doesn’t gel with the slightly more punk “lets just have fun.” Which is a bit of a shame. But hey, at least I don’t have to be party to a miniature equivalent of Phil Collins ruining Genesis* :p

The main downside is that I haven ‘t seen Ali for ages. Which is a shame. Miss playing with him, as it’s fun, a real pleasure to play his tunes.

On the plus side though, my own band (I guess I’ll get told off for calling it “my” band) is coming together. Talked Ed into having a go on drums with us and we’ve got a jam next week. Thought we’d pick a few covers to get started with… so overly optimistic as always, I’m learning: Three of a Perfect Pair (King Crimson), Shallow (Porcupine Tree) and Schism (Tool). Shallow is pretty easy, although I’m a bit out of pracitse on my bass in general, and rock bass specifically. Been, what, seven-eight years since I last rocked out properly? ToaPP is possibly the oddest most syncopated, yet groovey thing I’ve played. I dunno how Tony Levin came up with that bassline for the verse. Very cool. And Schism is a bitch. Or rather, I’m it’s bitch, until I get my old chops back. On the plus side, actually practising my bass again is fun as I’ve neglected them over the past year in favour of the Warr. Still, a lot of practise needed.

I’ve also been enjoying listening to some new cds, in particular: Mathias Eick’s The Door (ECM) and Lars Danilsson’s Tarantella (ACT). I guess Mathias Eick’s album is pretty much standard ECM issue: relaxed, melodic, expansive, etc. I really like it. Danielsson’s album is a bit more serious, but still full of lovely music. And lots of ‘cello is a plus for me. I’ll have to start practising mine again someday soon.

* You know, I might actually prefer the Phil Collins era Genesis. I know that I’m not suppposed to admit stuff like that. I will go do some research and get back to you.

Multimedia Artist Peter Koraca

Have blogged in a while so i thought I’d share this. I thought it was pretty neat.

Hello. Just a quick note to say that I went to see Copenhagen at the Lyceum lastn night. It was excellent, so you should all make time to go too.  Best play I’ve been to see in quite some time.

In other news, well, there isn’t any. Or at least nothing I wish to discuss here. But go see Copenhagen.

Hello, guess things have been pretty quiet around here… tumbleweed.

So what’s been happening? Well, life seems to be sinking under the weight of, well, everything. Work has stalled a little, I think I need a new good idea: the last good idea is no longer working . AlKandAlC played our second gig of the year at the Golden Rule last week. Which was so-so. Ali’s mind has clearly been elsewhere (a lovely new girlfriend will do that to a man). And the pub, night, and atmosphere wasn’t as good at the Listening Room night at the Blue Blazer. And I’m resigning myself that the album won’t be getting recording anytime soon. Was good to meet Jennifer Concannon, who runs the night and is a talented singer.

What else? Cantor has kind of stalled. Lots of bits and pieces in the melting pot. We’re all interested in seeing what comes out, but figure it’s probably best to wait til Dougs exams are over. In the mean time Matt and I are going to work together and see what happens. The plan is to get a wee open mic set together. But we’ve pretty much had the same plan for a year or so now and nothing has happened yet. So we’ll see. So far we’ve jammed once and Matt managed to snap a string on the Warr. And I can’t find a suitable replacement in town, so guess I’ll have to order new strings from the US. On the plus side, I now have a cheap little volume pedal. Swells a gogo. Just need a nice reverb, delay and distortion pedal now!

I would blog, but I can’t really think up much to say.

Work: work is slow. Progressing ok, but I could really do with a nice productive week to set me up in a good mood for spring. As it is, my latest algorithm is showing potential, but annoying, it wouldn’t work quite well enough.

The Als and the Pussycats: have played three gigs in the last two weeks. Whistlebinkies was very disappointing. Sound on stage was terrible ( I could hear myself at least, but not very much of anybody else). An 11pm start, coupled with being cut off half way through our set left me wishing i had just gone to bed instead of heading out. But hey, you win some you lose some. Talking about winning some, the Untapped Talent BotB Finals went pretty well. We came 2nd, and more importantly we played well. So well in fact that I’m pretty sure I complimented Niki. Which doesn’t happen often. To round things off, we played at the Cab again last night, which was probably our final gig, for the time being/current line-up.

AlKandAlC: Zip. Naught. Nadda. Nothing. Although there is a (TBC) gig at the Golden Rule on the 9th. And Ali has just moved back to Edinburgh. Sadly though, the poor man is incredibly busy and I imagine it’ll be a while before we get back into our old routine. Hoping he can make it over for a curry and music evening night on Friday (tempted him buy suggesting I’ll cook my special lamb curry). Truth be told, still a little lost/directionless since the Blue Blazer gig. [Blue Blazer gig was near-perfect, and I can't imagine bettering it anytime soon, so, well, what should we do?] I guess the answer is to get a nice cd done. But see above comment about Ali K. being very busy.

Cantor: Nothing. I was busy gigging last Thursday so we didn’t do our usual weekly jam. We were going to do some rough recording on Sunday, but Louisa and I borrowed Daisy for the afternoon instead. Hopefully we’ll make a jam this week though. And nearly got a good first draft of two different tracks done!

Guess you’re wondering what I’ve been doing then?

Riadsala: still not made any progress with any solo stuff. Got some ideas floating about in my head though

Xbox: Nope. Haven’t switched it on in a while. Need some enthusiasm to start progressing through Lost Odyssey again. Or sit down and play Civ: Rev

Ah, hear we go…. oh dear. That’s not good Alasdair. You need to get out more….

PC Games: Ooops. For some reason I’ve gone strategy-empire-building- game-tastic. I guess watching the end of Battlestar Galatica has got me interested in playing Sins of a Solar Empire (build huge fleets of spaceships -> attack enemy huge fleet of spaceships -> watch pretty explosions.). Especially now you can build huge starbases. Then, for some reason i decided that I should buy Rome:Total War (reason: oooh, Empire Total War looks good, but costs £40. I’ll buy an older game in the series and play that instead. Ah, £9.99, much better). So, that game is pretty fun too. Nicely different from Civ. Which of course has made me want to play Civ 4 too. And then GalCiv2. Basically I’ve gone Empire building mad. I guess as long as it’s all confined to my PC it can’t do any harm, and i figure I’ll be bored of it all in a week or so!

Listening: Spotify has been somewhat of a revelation. It’s better than I expected. Makes me feel sorry for Last.fm, which is a better (well, I prefer it!) system/webpage/community, but for some reason, it can’t get the record companies to play ball with it. Which is a real shame.

Right, work. Work. Coffee? Hmm, work first. Sigh.

You know, one of these days I’m going to work on some new solo electronica stuff. Really. Honest. With Warr Guitar!

So, first up, STEELY DAN ARE PLAYING IN EDINBURGH. Awesome. Sadly, tickets are north of £50. Not that you can blame the band, i guess it’s one of those “top up the pension” tours (maybe they have a new album out too?). Anyway, tours ain’t cheap, and I imagine the Becker and Fagen will have some top notch musicians in the backing band.

So, do I go? Well, I think I have just decided: YES. And tihnking about it, it isn’t that bad. i must of paid around £30-£40 to see Radiohead play back in 2000. So easily worth the money. If………if I do get a ticket, then 2009 will be turning into a very good musical year.

Omly one problem to my plan: I don’t have £60. Or anybody willing to spend £60 to go with me. And i want a fancy delay pedal for my warr. Hmmm.

In other news, last two (at least for now) Pussycat gigs this week. Looks like there are unlikely to be any other gigs before Niki leaves for his European Tour in June. Never know, a good opportunity might come along, but at the moment, Edinburgh University BotB on Thursday night, and Niki’s friend’s cupcake gig on Sunday are the last two. The, Ali and I have the job of re-learning the (superior IMO) duo set for a gig or two in April. And you never know, we might make some progress on our cd. But don’t count on it. :p I think I’ll leave it with this: band’s been fun but ultimatly, as the review said, unmemorable.

Onto the future…

The future? The future =

• getting lots of phd done before mid June (which is the end of my 3rd year).
• (hopefully) a return to the past and play the acosutic stuff with Ali a bit more. Our last gig was easily the most fun I’ve had playing music in years.
• Cantor! I still doubt we’ll make it out of Matt’s bedroom, but christ, we’re having fun trying. We now have two tunes nearly completion.
• Summer. Hmmm. Warm weather. Will have to have a think about plans for the summer.

Time passes.

As cautiously predicted here, the Als and the Pussycats have made it through to the Edinburgh uni BotB finals. So that’s quite excting. This will be my second time playing in the finals (the first time being with Naeem, Lucy and Emile). Kind of looking forward to the finals: I guess I’m making up for never making BotB finals while at Warwick Uni. Although admittedly, Warwick Uni Bandsoc BotB is somewhat bigger (takes up most of term three with heats, then the best band from each heat went through to the finals held in the main union, to quite a large crowd). I think I have a video of one of my “joke” bands from one year playing in one of the heats – I’ll have to find it and upload it. It’s very bad and I think I’m wearing bootsy collins style shades.

Anyway, more info soon (ie, when i get it).

In other news, I finally got round to buying the Plant/Krauss album. First thoughts: meh. Don’t see what all the fuss is about. Second thoughts: actually, I quite like this. Still prefer her brother’s (?) stuff, but it’s a good listen.

I should try and think of something to do at work now I guess!

Not had a chance to noodle around on the warr for a while. Well, that’s not quite true, I’ve just not really had the enthusiasm (having too much fun jamming with Ali on fretless bass or playing Cantor stuff on the Warr). But I had a wee noodle around on my own earlier. Came up with a little riff which I quite like Am wondering if I should try and do something with it! (Ali – want to sing over it? It’s all majory :p)

inklingofanidea

Oh, i don’t know why the drums kick in at the end, they’re meant to be in at the start. And yes, the timing needs tightened up. But in order to do that i need to watch my hands to figure out which finger is playing what as they’re kind of working on their own at the moment!

One of these days I’m going to have to buy a nice shiny delay pedal. That should keep me amused for hours!