So, the RPM Holiday Challenge has preoccupied my thoughts for days now. I lifted my self-imposed ban "No Christmas Music Until The Weekend After Thanksgiving" and dove into my collections like a celibate at the Bunny Ranch after winning at the tables. I pulled up Bing Crosby from the 1930's and beyond, Sinatra from the 40's and 50's, Dean, Perry...all the classics. Yes, yes, I admit that G Fox, with the distorted gitazz and loud drums and sh*tty, raspy vocals really, truly, deeply loves those o... (2194 more chars)
Well, I finally had that bad attitude removed. I have the stitches to prove it. After spending 4-5 days on antibiotics and painkillers, the bruising and swelling may finally be going down and I may actually have the desire to pick up a gtr again, but not quite yet. I still can write run-on sentences with the best of them though. The painkillers definitely help with the logorrhea...
In the haze of recovery, I did get a couple of ideas for the new record. As I said to Tuesday (on a Wednesday)... (761 more chars)
Soon babies, soon. It's almost August 1st...
Six months from now we will be ticking away the final minutes, or at least, I hope we will be ticking away the final minutes before RPM '09 begins.
Some predictions about 6 months from now:
1. Mick will have a new boarder status created just for him. In honor of his bazillion posts, the status will be "Mick Boarder".
2. ACL and Joshua Wentz will form a new group. The name of the new act will be Genre-ation X.
3. We will have a new pr... (1112 more chars)
Best Gig:
I was 22, we booked a show with three other bands at the student union building at my college. They didn't serve alcohol there, so the show could be all ages. 1 week before the show a friend from one of the other bands and I go to all the local high schools with flyers. We give them to kids and tell them to tell everyone this will be the coolest show of the year. We also tell them to photocopy the flyers and stick them in everyone's lockers. We did this at 4 separate schools.
A... (3505 more chars)
Been in a lot of planes lately, and away from the pad for too much time. Heading for lovely Canada tomorrow as well...Post return I will be back home in the hills for an extended period, which I need. The travel isn't bad in and of itself, but I am starting to get that glazed over feeling...I also haven't picked up my guitar in a while.
The EP idea is still that, an idea. I hope to get some tracks put down later on in June or maybe July, but I may be deluding myself. I have ideas floating t... (655 more chars)
After many security checks, boatloads of jet lag (is that a mixed metaphor?) and lots of looks out a small window wondering if that ocean will ever have a coastline, I am home.
Had a good time in Germany, as always, but I am happy to be back in familiar surroundings. That said, it was good to be completely out of touch with everything for a bit.
Read the boards this evening for a bit, see that Mick is martyring himself again this year. Good on yer, Mick. Your place in rock and roll heave... (780 more chars)
Been living from a bag for a bit, heading off to Deutschland next week...Stealing listens from the Jukebox when possible...
Miss talking to everyone on the boards, but your songs keep me company.
I owe a couple of you guys CD's, I haven't forgotten you, I promise.
Hope all is well...
Cheers,
Gary
Oh yes, putting up long-winded messages on the boards over the last day or two. Why you ask? (or maybe you don't, but I heard a why somewhere)
Simple; I wrecked my back this weekend and can't do much of anything except work at the computer on real work and spend time on the site listening to everyone. I even had to reschedule travel to NYC until next week. BUT...
It has been a good diversion.
I went on about garbage in, garbage out somewhere in the boards, blabbed on about singers not... (970 more chars)
The wind howls, the weather can't make up it's mind, and I sit here, feeling a bit out of sorts. It's like I just came off tour and can't get the evening's adrenaline rush out of my system. I should be DOING something. I contented myself updating my old band's tribute page for a while. Actually, the page sarcastically mocks everyone who was in the band, including yours truly. It's kind of funny to read and the songs are a bit painful to hear, but are enjoyable as a moment in time. But it wasn't... (1449 more chars)
From Sunday until today (Thursday) I have had over 310 song plays between my two music sites:
www.virb.com/garyfox8
www.myspace.com/garyfox8
Virb has the entire album in proper running order, MySpace has some of it with a blog about trying to make it.
The reason for that is you my fellow RPMers, coming over and taking a listen. Thank you so much for the time and interest; it means a lot to me coming from fellow artists. I also got some great friend requests on both sites. (and o... (237 more chars)
Hey All,
I did some quick remixes now that my ears had a break. (does watching Smallville re-runs count as an ear break?)
Anyway, 7 of the 10 songs on the CD are here on the RPM page on my profile.
http://www.rpmchallenge.com/component/option,com_comprofiler/task,userProfile/Itemid,296/tab,getmediaplayertab/
They're not in the right order, but you get the idea. I will put the whole thing on Virb later and as much as I can on MySpace.
www.myspace.com/garyfox8
www.virb.com/... (121 more chars)
Keeping with tradition, I have blown out the blog headlines with excessive punctuation. Such fun...
Just got back from the Post Office, found one that stayed open until 7pm. I wanted to go to Portsmouth tomorrow to do the hand delivery thing but the snow issue is going to prevent that.
So, perhaps it was a self-fulfilling prophecy, but I don't think this year's submission is as good as last year's. It has some moments here and there, but last year's had this cohesiveness that just kind o... (2371 more chars)
Hopelessly, hopelessly, hopelessly outclassed. That's my state of mind right now.
I take a break from recording, decide to log on to the site. Lo and behold, Hussalonia dusted himself off, took himself out of mothballs and put up his whole album. And in typical style, he surprised the sh*t out of me. I don't really like metal, but this ain't metal the way I remember it. Hussalonia doesn't even do metal, except for now. You have to listen to this. It is f***ing brilliant. It has me cursing, ... (243 more chars)
Remember the guy from the Monkees? In most of the clips from the TV show, Davy was always given a tamborine to rattle, since he really couldn't play an instrument.
For years, whenever I was in the studio, we would always label the tamborine on the mixing board as "Davy Jones", goofing on the guy obviously.
Well, I still doubt that he ever played the thing for real, but if he did, well, sorry for the diss Mr. Jones. Tonight I am trying to put tamborine on a backing track and my arm is stif... (302 more chars)
Two blogs in one night, go figure.
Per a board post, I made good on my promise to listen to some of the demos here on the site, since I am on the road and can't work on my things. This is all over the map. I listened to a lot, these artists stood out for various reasons. They sound nothing like each other, or me for that matter.
Here are my recommendations for listening; just click their names to launch their pages.
RF Berks
drinkinstein
Kaer Trouz
Enjoy
Gary
PS- ... (84 more chars)
Or is it:
Oh Canada, eh?
Anyway, got the 'net access working properly, and got my work stuff out of the way for now. Spent time on the plane listening to my rough mixes, figuring out some ideas for a couple of songs that are WAY too rough. Normally I would put them away and come back another time, but without them I don't meet the 10 songs or 35 minute mark.
My hotel room has a cool little MP3 Player speaker set up, so I can listen here too. Tonight I promised to listen to some demos,... (1888 more chars)
Crikey!
Leaving for Canada for the week tomorrow morning (Monday). Won't be back until Friday. Then have to be in NYC Mon-Wed the following week. Double Crikey! I have a lot of unfinished work and I will not be in a position to do any recording while away. I will have to content myself with rough mixes, lyric writing and whatnot.
I have been working on my as yet untitled submission until 3am many nights this week. I am also taking off the 28th and 29th. I think I did this last year, didn'... (132 more chars)
It was inevitable in a way. Artists typically have finely tuned temperments, and when those temperments are out of synch, all hell breaks loose. Creation isn't always pretty. As I said to someone today; "Destruction is creation"
A couple of our beloved RPM members decided to suspend their work for now. Understandably upset and simultaneously wishing to uplift the spirits of the affected, the outpouring of sentiment and encouragement from others has been nice to see. Personally, I wish them ... (1074 more chars)
I think I have recovered.
This blog, however, may not. I have read it a few times and can't get it to flow, but that's mainly because my aforementioned recovery may be illusory. You have been warned.
------------------------------------
Some of you know me well, others don't, so I should cast some light on my personality with the following statement: I would have made an excellent Dionysian reveler. If they are still hiring for that position, I will forward my resume for review.
Th... (2828 more chars)
This month a healthy body equals a healthy mind for me. I have been trying to run a couple of miles every day. It's 9pm my time, and I haven't gotten to it yet today. So, I am forcing myself to go and do it before I come back to play. I have some ideas that I want to work on, but this month is about discipline.
Tim Nelson- You are very kind, but either deaf or forgettful. ;)
Hussalonia- I owe you a real blog, I know.
Mick- Looking forward to the vox work
Chris- How do you use compr... (339 more chars)
The caffeine wore off, I went to bed, I woke up this morning, I ran for 2 miles, I now have to work, but before I showered I picked up my guitar. I started strumming and voila!
An A chord.
Only needed one finger to play it, so that was a nice way to ease into this. That's what I have right now, so song #1 is clearly moving along. I am hoping to add a D, or maybe a G to it at some point, but I have deadlines to meet today workwise. I feel good, this is progress, right?
Cheers,
Gary... (1 more chars)
A moment after the clock strikes midnight the damn "how many days left to get it done" thingy shows up. I feel like Cinderella and my guitar is turning into a pumpkin already...
Went to Portsmouth, talked to Eric and Spidey and Bob and Jon and Mickey and Chris and Jesse and Sawsall and Michelle Moon... (and many others too)
Karen and Liberty, you both are kind and gracious. Liberty, hopefully you can get something intelligible from my rambling for the camera.
Now, it begins...I'm going in, see you on the other side...
Cheers, good luck and best wishes...
Gary
Soon babies, soon. Soon that big 75 watt tube combo and guitar will be warming up. Soon that mike will get turned on and SOON I will double click on the little Sonar icon that has been beckoning me on my desktop. And precisely at midnight I will strike the chord that will bring New Boston's finest down upon me because of noise complaints.
And soon, so soon, I will realize I should have actually planned something in advance, because I really have no idea what I am going to do this yea... (32 more chars)
I was just posting a reply to Hussalonia's blog when it hit me. This year feels very different. Not bad, not good, just different. This is my third year in RPM, as an aside. I will start by saying I am happy to be here again.
The first year was just NH artists, so it had an intimate feeling. The discussion boards and blogs were fun, but small in comparison to 2007.
Last year was open to the planet, and almost everyone was new (a bunch of NH artists from year 1 bailed out because they didn... (959 more chars)
Ok, last year I nearly killed myself trying to finish in time. Why? Well, the boards and the blogs were so much fun, I found myself blowing off my RPM work to go post and play with my new friends here on the site. This resulted in me finishing my stuff at around 5am-ish on March 1st, getting in a couple of hours sleep and driving to Portsmouth, NH to hand deliver the record.
Well, the mark of a real man is to never make the same mistake once. So, here I am, right now, getting started early ... (658 more chars)
Hey All,
There was a thread last year about how do you know when a song is good or not, and a similar one this year. Someone sent me a private message asking me to restate my "5 Levels of Good" that I posted last year. So, here it is, just for you. (you know who you are)
I also included the stealth level 6. Enjoy.
Cheers,
Gary
Level 1 Good: That almost visceral reaction you get when you first play back what you have written and you get all excited because you KNOW you are ... (1154 more chars)
Hey All,
Brilliant New Music (at least to me)
Thanks to Tuesday Is A Girl, I have discovered three new artists via MySpace. (thanks Tues) Two are unsigned and one which is apparently signed, big and some of you will say, yeah, duh Gary, where the hell have you been? You didn't know them? Well, being in my 30's means I am not up on what the kids are listening to on the interweb or their ypods.
Anyway, check them out...
www.myspace.com/wesleyjensen
www.myspace.com/cmdcmdcmd ... (1010 more chars)
A couple folks were saying that they liked coming back to the site and seeing new postings from everyone, so here is another one.
I haven't written a thing since last year. RPM '07 sucked the life out of me and I put down my guitar for a few months. I played with MIDI for a while over the summer and early fall, but nothing came of it. I did get a few riff ideas here and there in November and December, but it's almost as if my head was waiting for this new go around. I also offered to help E... (1083 more chars)
Just saw the blurb, it's official, we are on for 2008. Yes!
Now I have to apply myself again. No!
At least we get an extra day this year. I am going to need it. Welcome back everyone. This is my third year doing this.
My entries from '06 and '07 are here
www.myspace.com/garyfox8
and here
www.virb.com/garyfox8
Cheers,
Gary
(Wednesday, 12 September 2007) Written by Gary Fox
Hey Guys,
At least for me...I have tried to e-mail the info@rpmchallenge.com address a few times and it keeps coming back as undeliverable.
Any ideas?
Three of my songs are missing from my section:
Nitrogen
Painted Tense
Love
Regards,
Gary
Been on the road A LOT lately, logging in here and there to read, but not much commenting.
Very impressed with the tenacity of my fellow RPMer's and the push for HEAR. Nice work, and thanks for including me.
I wish I knew what happened back at RPM HQ in Po-town, they seem to have fallen off the face of the earth. If the jukebox can't or won't have all artists' albums, I think we would have all understood. The dead silence though is less understandable. It also makes me wonder what next y... (383 more chars)
Thisi is a totally pointless entry.
Spring is here in NH, finally. The warmth has finally arrived and the winter doldrums are lifting...
I haven't picked up my guitar since March 1st since the Challenge nearly killed me this year. I picked it up today...nothing came, but it felt good in my hands again.
Cheers all,
Gary
Take heart, keep writing and check out the most recent blog on my MySpace page. Someone just like you and me is doing VERY WELL.
Cheers,
Gary Fox
www.myspace.com/garyfox8
PS-I do have VIRB site too.
http://virb.com/garyfox8
Howdy All,
A bunch of you were kind enough to stop me Friday night and tell me how much you like my songs; thanks much. I saw the reaction at Bourbon's, which was very inspiring. Thanks again, I do appreciate it. I plan on formally releasing this, and adding two songs that I couldn't get done in time to it as well. More to come...
Cheers,
Gary
PS-Painted Tense is in the Jukebox (that's the song played at Bourbon's on Friday) A couple more are in the Sample Engine, including Nitrogen... (2 more chars)
I put four of my new songs up on MySpace
www.myspace.com/garyfox8
Two of them were written about two different people I know. They didn't know that though when I had them go to the page and listen to all the songs. Separately they both wrote back stating their personal favorites. In both cases, each one gravitated to the particular song that was inspired by them. What does that say???
Pondering much,
Gary
I am not done yet. I am sitting here in the studio finishing stuff. I should be working, but I needed a break. Since I was there for Feb 1 at midnight, I thought I should be here for the "end" too, though I still have a few hours technically.
Cheers,
Gary
Ok, unlike all of you organized folk out there, I am looking at a lot of work tonight to meet the deadline. That's fine though, that's me. I like the adrenaline rush of a deadline, even if I hate deadlines themselves.
For those of you who finished early, were you the ones who back in school got all of your book reports done the night they were first assigned? I hate all of you, each and every one. ;)
Hey, don't forget though, the A students always end up working for the C students. Proc... (281 more chars)
Sitting here, anticipating the snow storm. Expecting about 18 inches of the white stuff...The best part?
Music, sweet music, there'll be music in the air. Focusing on production this evening, i.e., cleaning backing tracks, tightening arrangements...
Good to just immerse myself tonight...Feels good...
Cheers,
Gary
www.myspace.com/garyfox8
HA! Inspiration struck on Nitrogen. (for those of you doing the songfight inspired song title thing this year with RPM)
I am still goofing with it, but I may post a rough of it in the sample engine. I will post another blog if I do.
If you are doing the songfight thing, drop me a note and let me know how you are progressing.
If you are wondering what in the world I am talking about, click here:
http://www.rpmchallenge.com/component/option,com_joomlaboard/Itemid,316/func,view/id,134... (118 more chars)
Is it possible to get an update on the discussion board? I am going through withdrawal. Somewhere out there someone really wants my 2 cents on something. I can just feel it. ;) That said, I managed to write another song last night since I wasn't distracted by the board, so maybe this is a blessing in disguise.
I did it. I dug out the old synth from a long time ago. Two new songs lickety split. Not sure, must sit on them... I am a guitar guy...what the hell am I doing?!? I was hoping this year's submissions would be somewhat listenable, but no promises anymore. Back to work now. Bye bye...
Feeling good, bit tired...drove...got in...logged on...saw the clock...ugh... The countdown to Feb 1 was great, anticipation, can't wait, it's Christmas and the last day of school all over again. Now this... This one makes me feel like I have a term paper due soon. This one reminds me of a commitment I made, one beyond just putting up blogs of my prattling on, or posting to discussion boards. No, this clock reminds me I now have to actually DO something, I have to create something. And now th... (337 more chars)
I am too old to be feeling giddy...but I am nevertheless. It's that old SAT feeling...but I wrote about that already. 4 minutes by my clock... Think I will write some lyrics, just to say I started on time...
So, the countdown is almost over. I happen to be in NYC tonight, right in Midtown near Time's Square. I'll go out later and see if there is an RPM ball dropping. ;) I have nothing other than my little dictaphone with me, perhaps I will do some lyric and melody work here in my hotel, just for fun. I am hoping to do some work over the weekend... Cheers all, see you on the other side of midnight... Gary
