Marbar NYC

Glorious Fall Prelude

2011-10-08T19:07:00.001-07:00

What a gorgeous day in NY today... it felt a lot like spring, which made me feel especially good as I think forward to what next spring will bring. There is much to be accomplished this winter, next summer I want to be performing my complete visions, instead of the music that I composed for acoustic guitar and vocal only.

I've found that I don't need anything to be happy, I just need to be working on something... pulling myself closer and closer to a goal or two. Once I've procured a couple tools I need, the construction can truly begin, and that state of productive existence will exist on the scale I need it to.

It's gonna be good, and it will be healthy. Why do I always feel that I'm reaching for my sanity when I haven't accomplished anything in a while.... probably a good thing yea?

The Legend Continues

2011-09-01T16:08:00.001-07:00

Kung Fu, the legend continues tonite at The Brooklyn Bowl.

This band is just strait up inspirational. I've been looking forward to this show most severely, it has been my light at the end of the tunnel. I've been embracing super thriftyness as of late so I can more quickly reach my musical purchase goals... this is a splurge.

Tonite will be a massive reminder of why I do it all: because music that you see and music that you play can take you somewhere nothing else can. I frequently feel like I am levitating out of my body when I listen to this band. Pure magic, a new trajectory on the magic I have so often felt at Breakfast shows.

Like Autumn

2011-08-28T19:52:00.001-07:00

Nothing feels like Autumn.

The city can be a lonely place yeah?
It's also the place where I've met my favorite people
So far in this trip....

It's quite a view up here
And I thought of you
But there is no you right now....

I could meet you tomorrow
Taking a bite of something new
Maybe taking some time to let the taste soak in....

I would prefer you to be full flavor
Something I haven't imagined
I just do that to keep my dome occupied anyhow....

I've never felt good for a defined reason
As in something palpable that says good job
It's a good choice to be on this path...

You should keep going.

"Sometimes it's all great"

Being alone is different things in the blender
At times it can be a wicked good smoothie
I wouldn't trade anything to be around people then...

I reset often
Not a whole lot sticks
Just my underlying passions....

Weird that I'm good with commitment
What's that all about philosopher?
Constant as the nonsense news....

I frequently imagine people enthralled and entertained
I wonder if I know any of these people
Shuddering I realize they are everywhere and not ashamed....

I am not ashamed
Someone must think my sources are stupid
If you really knew what went on up here you'd be.........

It Tastes Like It

2011-08-23T15:49:00.001-07:00

It tastes like it
Well, sort of...
Some things are there
Others are absent

All acceptable

If I had expectations,
They would be met

But yeah, it's that flavor
The taste of wandering
Of being comfortable with time
Of sitting down with time to rhyme
No thoughts of hills to climb
What concern for my time to shine?

I love the feeling...
The feeling of creating as I did and always will
...as it happens...

Spring!!!

2011-08-02T11:42:00.000-07:00

Retro BLOG-Post: April 27, 2011

There is a healthy soothing breeze wafting through my window as I write this, and MAN is it lovely. Has this seemed like a long winter to anyone else? Normally I love all the seasons, and winter is extra special to me with all the hockey going on and all, but seriously I'm glad this shit is over.

So I have big plans for the summer, my new work schedule has freed me up to really "live" in New York. It's been especially good for my music although I'm only about a month into it. Playing with Pat has been great, and since I can be home early enough to play without pissing off the neighbors now, I've had the opportunity to write more than I have in a while. My main goal is to get the ball rolling on my own project, same old idea: a trio consisting of bass, drums, and guitar. I need to find people that need to play all the time as badly as I do, cause I usually tend to wear people out. Anybody want to jam?

I had the chance to spend time with both sides of my family after a pretty brutal 2 months of more or less nothing but work, and that felt really good. I feel really lucky to have them, and I also feel lucky to know the people I have made friends with since moving here. I even have great co-workers! It's crazy, I'm sure now that I would have gone mad had I continued to live in the country...

Bowling! Tomorrow will be the 3rd week strait of bowling, and each week we've had a new cast of characters! Wow... The City ROCKS.

Video from Sanity Island Saturdays

2011-08-02T11:40:00.000-07:00

Retro BLOG-Post: February 22, 2011

The amazing Rob Dub was kind enough to not only record, but also upload the video from my set from Saturday Island Saturdays @ the Fortune Cookie Lounge. Look on the right once you've opened the page and you should see a link to Joe Yoga's set also!

blip.tv/file/4796817

Life: What the hell is this thing?

2011-08-02T11:39:00.000-07:00

Retro BLOG-Post: February 10, 2011

Strange days are these. I feel like I’m floating, idly wondering where the ground is, but not finding myself particularly concerned with answers. How do you feel after a project suddenly ends that you’ve invested time & energy into, which was exciting but also frustrating to be a part of? How do you feel after a one-night stand? How do you feel when you go too long without seeing your family? How do I feel when the Rangers are on a 5-game losing streak, their worst of the season?

For all of this, no expectations… No expectations.

I’m getting stuff done, keeping busy… Playing with Pat Hull was been great although we haven’t had much opportunity to work on stuff yet, mostly due to things that are out of our control.

Sublime’s “Robbin’ the Hood” has been my soundtrack for some time now, especially the solo acoustic cuts from Bradley. What is it about this album? Maybe it’s that it is a jumble of things, recorded in different places using different devices... It’s everything they could pull off with what they had, which was not much. It just rocks… it’s so diverse. It's real.

Weeds is an awesome show, I like watching it on the subway. I’m almost out of episodes, good thing Californication has started up again.

I feel like screaming a lot when I’m at work.

"Only In New York City"

2011-08-02T11:37:00.000-07:00

Retro BLOG-Post: September 21, 2010

After rehearsal the other night, I was waiting for the L at the Bedford Avenue stop when a gentleman named Daryl came up to me and offered to play me a song. I immediately told him that I had no money whatsoever to spare, cause I didn’t want him to play me something and then be let down. He said that was okay, and started playing “You Never Give Me Your Money,” by the Beatles.. So I did the only thing I could do: I started singing along, to which he responded, “only in New York City!”

Soon some people started walking over and he segued into, “Come Together,” for which I played Ringo’s sneaky drum fills on my pants. Once again, “only in New York City!”

Seriously, this was a lot of fun, and when we were done rockin’ that song I said, “I wish I brought my guitar,” which he responded to by handing me his, and as requests rained down from those gathered for songs like, “Brown Eyed Girl,” and, “Freebird,” I explained that I really didn’t know any covers that they would know, and so it was that I began playing “On Location”, and so it then was that Daryl came to ask me one of my favorite questions that I’ve ever been asked: “damn brother, were you black in a previous life or somethin’?”

Jam With J.M. Adds Much Fuel to Fire

2011-08-02T11:29:00.000-07:00

Retro BLOG-Post: May 18, 2010

Musical Chemistry. It’s something that has been missing from my life for some time, and it’s what I moved to NY in search of. I haven’t found it yet, but on Friday night I was reminded of what it feels like. I jammed for a total of about 3 hours with Jay Margolin, the drummer I grew up playing with in CT for the 1st time in about 4 years. I’m not sure which was more exciting, the jam itself or listening to it on my tiny voice recorder (horrible recording quality) during the train ride home. Okay, I’ll go with the JAM ITSELF but I definitely think most of the people around me on the train were suspicious of my incessant head banging and seemingly random laughter throughout the ride.

I feel a good analogy to this experience would be a star player of some pro sport getting traded to a bad team for 4 years that can’t make the playoffs, who then gets the opportunity to play in an all-star game. Not saying I’m star material and certainly that becomes a less attractive title to any self valuing musician with each passing second, but you know what? I can jam my ass off ladies and gents and I definitely feel like this experience was on par with what said sports star might feel in said situation: Amazing!

Jay and I have long had a difference of ambitions, we’re both about playing, creating, and improving each day I think, and we easily come up with things that fit each other’s ideas, but Jay’s not about taking it beyond private jamming, which is cool. It simply means that just like the past 4 years, the quest will continue to find the right people to take a Marbar Trio far and wide.

Getting a taste of our dynamics again however has served as a reminder to the sort of things I’m looking for. One of the main things Jay and I were talking about after the jam was that not many musicians we have come across have had the ability, or indeed the drive to listen to what’s going on around them so they can compliment it in an appropriate fashion. It seems to me that when most musicians that I’ve seen get together to jam, it is almost like the steering wheel is stuck, they start going in one direction (which might even be a good one) and they either can’t or won’t change that direction no matter what is happening around them. I can’t tell you how many “jams” I’ve had where I’ve done something as simple as increasing or decreasing the intensity and everyone else just obliviously marches forward following the same dynamic. These jams are almost comical to listen to afterwards as one begins to wonder if the band I’m playing with is really just a Casio keyboard accompaniment with the drum fill button pressed every now and then when someone feels daring…

I think fear is what a lot of this might be about, a fear of taking risks or just plain closed mindedness. I learned long ago that like life, playing music is a risk, even if it isn’t improvisation. I say take that risk and make mistakes! How else can you grow and learn about what the people you play with instinctively do in different situations?

Something else Jay & I were talking about is the role that an interest in jazz plays in making someone into an improvisationally minded player and IMO a diversely minded composer. I love picking up on the nuances of a drummer’s playing, the subtleties of different grooves / accents and complimenting them with something that jives with it all, but it seems that it’s only when I play with a drummer who has some form of jazz background that they are able to pick up on these things coming from me, no matter what style(s) we might be playing. It makes sense, unlike some of the more boring rock & blues, you can’t really play any sort of real jazz without having a great ear for what’s going on around you, the ability to adapt to it, and the tendency to think outside the box so that new ones can be found. This is because jazz is an interpretive language of improvisation, essentially jamming in it’s rawest form. I don’t even listen to that much jazz, it probably makes up about 10% of my monthly listening but it’s influence is huge. Growing up on Zeppelin, Zappa, and pre-millenium Phish, then getting into jazz later, I realized the blatant impact jazz had on these artists. It’s the ability to have improvisations sound as cohesive if not better than actual compositions, made possible perhaps by it being the most RAW and direct transfer of emotion possible by way of sound waves.

Improvisational chemistry is the most important component to a successful project in my opinion, but an ability to channel that chemistry into composition is very important to me also… This is because composition allows for self expression in a whole other vast array of ways, and if you have things you want to sing, composition allows you to design the landscape to plant them on so they are displayed the way you want to see them. It also allows the group to tweak it in slow motion so everybody can explain what they hear and how it could be further developed.

The other thing I love is when compositions are designed specifically to lead into an open jam, something that Phish was amazing @ back in the day. Whole songs often seemed as if they were designed solely to get the band poised on the brink of a jam that could end up branching off in a million different possible directions… and because of the momentum created by the proceeding composition, those jams always got off to an amazing start….

I’ve been in projects where everyone just wants to jam, and nobody wants to work anything out. I’ve been in projects where everyone wants to focus on writing but there is no improvisational chemistry. I need both, that’s how I’m built, and I can do a lot with either, but I won't be happy without both in my life…

BZ Douglas Carnivale is everything that is right with the world

2011-08-02T11:19:00.001-07:00

Retro BLOG-Post: April 27, 2010

So much fun had @ the BZ Douglas Carnivale this Saturday, not to mention that I emerged as the victor of the Rock Paper Scissors Tournament!
Got to lay down some lead over a few of BZ’s songs as well as play a few songs of my own, but enuf about me…

I dunno where BZ found this DB Reilly guy but his stuff was highly entertaining and moving I thought. At first he was just cracking me up and then I was struck by how profound many of his words were.

Really enjoyed Tim Warner’s set.. His jokes centering around the idea of Twitter & Facebook existing thru all points in time had me dying, particularly the one about Jesus’ last supper.

What about Michelle Leona? Pretty original ideas I thought, I think she is on the way to creating something pretty fine (and the more artists I come across with loop stations the more I wanna get one). I enjoyed her lyrics a lot, unique subject matter & delivery are the two things that really get me liking any vocal musical artist I get into.

I dunno about you, but I am in love with the Carnivale. There isn’t anything else like this out there that sustains the fun for so long. You check in @ 8PM and then it’s on till whenever you decide to leave, music, games, comedy, drinking, food… if you could just find a way to have a hockey game on you’d have just about everything I love BZ! Lolz…..

Looking forward to next month.

Lucky Jack’s MicClub Feature Post Game Report

2011-08-02T11:18:00.000-07:00

Retro BLOG-Post: April 16, 2010

Wow, what an excellent experience. MicClub was my first open mic experience in Manhattan, which took place just before Christmas of last year. Having lived in Connecticut all my life I was frustrated by a lack of ambitious musicians in my general vicinity. When I came to MicClub on that cold night back in December, I walked in and said to myself, “YES, this is what I’m looking for,” and so it was fantastic to have the opportunity to be the feature act there last night.

Despite having been fighting off a wicked sore throat for several days everyone was incredibly supportive despite my blatantly ailing voice, thank you so much everybody! and getting to play with Tem on ‘Past Behind’ was great, I feel better and better about that song every time I get to play it with him. Thanks for the Guinness and the cheering Frances! Next Thursday can’t come soon enough!
MicClub @ Lucky Jack’s
129 Orchard Street, NY, NY
Thursday Nights – Signup @ 7pm