You know, I should just call this thing a "quarterly"

I mean seriously, who am I kidding? How many of my posts begin with the general sentiment of "been busy, haven't been able to post, will try to post more often"? It's kind of sad really. I suppose after well over a year of posts (yeah, all what, 4 of them) relating that sentiment, I should just give up the ghost and call it what it is: an infrequently updated blog. There, it's out in the open now, I can stop the pangs of guilt at not updating it, and you, faitful reader, can stop feeling superior as you say to yourself "he's not gonna post for another few months.....just watch". Yet another sentiment that seems to be repeated here (and will be again tonight) is that I don't have much time to post. As it is, I have spaghetti, meatballs, and home made garlic bread just finishing on the stove, so the heavenly aroma of garlic is calling me toward the kitchen. So alas, trusty reader, I will not be expounding greatly on any obscure metal bands, guitar players, computer particulars or anything else tonight. I'll merely say, hey, I'm alive, things are very well, we love our house, our daughter's 2 years old, jobs are busy (but good), we're going to Canada in a month, and about 1000 other things.

But, I hope all is well with you. If I happen to be able to post a more interesting blurb soon, I will. If not, I won't and all of us can just deal with that fact. I'll stop feeling like I'm letting people down by not posting more, and you can stop feeling disappointed that I don't post more.....deal? OK, now I'm off to eat some dinner.

"You're influenced by who?" volume 2 - Yngwie Malmsteen

Yes campers, it is I, your elusive and seemingly eternally absent poster. I know it's been a while, and yes, I know you keep hearing me say that. I won't get into the gory details here, but since my last post we have bought our first house and moved in (we did all of this over the Christmas/New Year's holiday so to say that we were a little busy during the last couple of months is an understatement). But I digress, it is time that I add to my "You're influenced by who?" series, and volume 2 begins now:

During my early guitar playing years, I was obsessed with the idea of exposing myself to music that had good guitar music in it. This meant keeping an open mind and making an effort to listen to many different styles of music, even if it meant that I didn't "get it" at first. I also made a point of reading as much as I could about guitar and music theory in the hopes of improving myself. I'd buy all the gutar magazines of the time, which were primarily "Guitar for the Practicing Musician", "Guitar World" and "Guitar Player". Those of you younger members of the audience may not remember these magazines, as I think they're all defunct now and in fact I believe they were all "taken over" by Guitar One, but don't quote me (incidentally, those of you really young memebers of the audience should know, there used to be these things called Guitar Magazines that were printed paper pages bound together with sheet music and lessons inside as opposed to 8 million useless blogs of idiots talking about music theory (usually incorrectly)).

Anyway, one day, while reading my newest issue of one of the aforementioned "mags" I came across a full page advertisement for a new album by Yngwie J Malmsteen (by the way, the first name is pronounced "ing' vay" in case you're wondering....I did too when I first read it). The add had the cover of the album which consisted of this drawing of the mighty Yngwie shooting a dragon with fire from his guitar. In a word....awesome. Bear in mind, I was still this kid who was fascinated by Dio's imagery, so this was right in line. The album in particular was called "Yngwie J Malmsteen's Trilogy" and was apparently his third offering. I had never heard of him, but after reading several rather gushy reviews of the record, I decided it was time to head down to my local record store and buy the cassette (that's right, I said cassette, there were no CDs).

Now, Yngwie was pretty much the first person to introduce what came to be known as Neoclassical Fusion to modern rock/metal music. There is some debate as to whether or not he was the "originator" and I still say that Randy Rhoads (who I'll get to in another post) was probably ahead of him, and to a lesser degree Richie Blackmore . This style incorporated the experience, technique, theory and well history of classical music with modern rock music. It doesn't sound like it would work, but if you think about it, some of the more minor dominant movements in classical music are quite "heavy" in the same way that rock/metal can be heavy (think Brahms, or some of Beethoven's darker pieces). A piece of music in the Phrygian mode lends itself quite nicely to heavy guitar, for example. Combine this with the rigorous training and practice that a true classical guitarist must endure, and you get an inevitability like Yngwie. This guy blew all the rock guys of the time away with his sheer speed. The man played guitar so friggin' fast, you could not believe it was real. He made sweep picking and arpeggios an absolute staple of modern rock/metal (something that continues to this day). When I first heard "You don't remember, I'll never forget"  (which was the first track on Trilogy), and first, I thought it was all hype. The music was a little cliche and the keyboards were a little much, it was almost "hair metal". Around 1:07 in, Yngwie does a nice arpeggio that's just enough to make you say "did I hear that, or no?". I listened through the next verse and chorus, up to the unbelieveably predictable "guitar solo" that's always after the 2nd chorus in most rock songs (for some reason), and at its onset, I was underwhelmed. Well, after the first few legato lines, (at around 2;56) I started hearing things that I did not think could be played on guitar....no kidding. The dude could flat out smoke on guitar. It was the type of playing that made you want to break all your guitars. It made me think, "that's impossible". I could only imagine his fingers must have been an absolute blur, it was difficult to imagine. Suffice to say, each track on the record had some pretty awesome guitar work (especially Trilogy Suite OP 5 (an instrumental).

Needless to say, I went right out and bought the first 2 albums (yes also on cassette) and they were even better. If you're interested in purchasing any of his records, may I recommend his first (and best in my opinion) Yngwie J Malmsteen's Rising Force as it's mostly instrumental and absolutely full of some positively badass guitar playing. Take the listen with a few grains of salt as you have to remember, this was the last 80's and metal was king, so it's a little over the top in places, but if you can filter it out, there is some terrifying playing on that record. Now Yngwie himself is unfortunately a legendary, egocentric prick. He apparently read every piece of good press and thought it gave him a license to be a jerk. I've never met the man, perhaps thousands of people are wrong, but he certainly seems to carry himself in interviews and concert footage with an unnecessary air of arrogance. But I must admit, he turned my head and challenged me to be a better guitar player. I will not boast that I have his speed, I do not and never have. It frustrated me to not be able to "shred" like Yngwie for a few years early on, but I find speed to be but one of the satisfying elements of playing guitar, and a dynamic that (like most dynamics) is best used in a carefully measured manner and is most effective when contrasted with other elements. I must say, that if there are any beginning guitarists out there who want a real thrill, check out Yngwie's first record. It is the real deal and not this horse crap, phony baloney studio tricks/editing that some of the modern "shredder wannabe's" like Dragonforce are trying to be (yeah, I said it, they're not playing that stuff note for note at that speed, that's called digital editing, guys, increasing speed without pitch...sit them down in front of you with a guitar and try to get them to play it, it'll never happen). Yngwie, on the other hand, for all his egotism, can still tear it up. He's a little older, a little puffier than he used to be, but he's still scaring the hell out of guitar players everywhere, why not give him a whirl?

I am such a cliche

You know, I read the other day someone's snarky comment on Slashdot listing the basic criteria for a "blog". One of the criteria was something to the effect of "last 6 entries are 2-3 sentences consisting of 'been busy with work, can't post'" and I have to confess, it hit close to home. In fact, that's been EXACTLY my situation. I've recently accepted a demanding (and thus far rewarding) promotion at work which has consumed much of my time. Also, Lily is now 18 months old, and holy crap, 18 months old are busy little creatures. They're wonderful, but they are rarely without something to do. She's a scream. If any of you are on the fence about having kids, I tell you, get off the fence and do it already. Lil is 100% joy, and I love being her dad. She is the smartest, strangest, silliest, sweetest, and 1500 other words that start with 's' little person that I've ever known.

Anyway, back to my admission of being a cliche. I know you're sick and tired of reading this ridiculous blog and it's humongous gaps in posting, but the way I figure, you're still reading, so you apparently aren't too terribly put off by the delays are you? Would you prefer I just post crap every night while brushing my teeth and give you no substance at all? Of course not, that's what those other blogs are for. This one? Well, I'd like to think that it's a little 'out of the ordinary' and I'll leave you, the faithful reader, to determine as to whether it's good or not.

Ok, well, it's about 9:30 at night, and I haven't had any dinner yet (you just needed to know that didn't you?). Thanks for hanging in there, and I'll really keep my fingers crossed that at some point in the relatively near future, I'll be able to continue posting with actual content. Until then, well, you'll have to keep waiting.

How the hell is it October already?

Hello there, friends. It is I, your seemingly reclusive host for today's "Inside the composer's mind" episode, Mike. I can scarcely believe that my last post was June 5th. That seems like eons ago. Since then, we've sold our home, moved to a neighboring town, travelled out of the country  and back, took Lily to the beach , and I've accepted a fantastic promotion at work. With all that in mind, I guess I don't feel too awfully guilty about having not posted since then. Hey, what do you expect? I'm not one of those guys who just comes online every day and makes a post completely devoid of anything interesting (ok, well this particular post is little more that grovelling, but hey, gimme a break, at least it wasn't 4 months of it).

So, campers, I just wanted to drop a line and say that I'm still here and that I'll keep trying to squeeze in a few minutes here and there to put some thoughts online. I'll continue my "You're Influenced By Who??" series as time permits, as I've received some cool comments on that. If nothing else, you can look forward to posts of either predictable guitar gods, or artists/bands you have never heard of before and may or may not like. Hopefully, it's at least interesting reading for you. Hard to say when I'll be back on, as life tends to be rather full and sporadic, but I'm not complaining, at least I'm not bored. You'll have to be satisfied with, I'll be back soon.

"You're influenced by who?" volume 1 - Vivian Campbell

Well, in an attempt to make an effort to be consistent and do as I promised in my last post, I submit this first episode of a personal account of interesting/talented/fascinating/generally great yet largely unknown musicians. Today I start with an Irish fellow by the name of Vivian Cambell . Why is Viv #1 in the series? Well, I considered long and hard about how to begin this, and I figured he'd be a good start because he (along with my dad) was one of the major influences in my deciding to begin playing guitar in the first place. Read on:

You see, growing up, my parents always had music playing in the house. It was mostly Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young , Judy Collins , Simon and Garfunkle , stuff like that. You know, good music, but not exactly "edgy". So, while in 6th grade at St. Gabriel's Catholic school, a classmate of mine turned me on to this band called Dio . The album covers had demons and fire on them, there were rumors that if you looked at the logo upside down it spelled out "devil", it was "heavy metal" music (which I had never heard), it had all the things that would make any 12-ish year old boy wanna check it out. So, I bought The Last in Line . I was almost a little bit scared to listen to this record at first, since being raised a good little Catholic boy, I wasn't 100% sure that I wouldn't immediately be sucked down to hell for listening to this "evil" music.

Well, it turns out, all these guys are very talented. Ronnie James Dio (the lead singer and founder of the band) has an amazingly powerful and emotive voice. I swear, the man might only be 5'4", but I'd say 5'1" of that is lungs and vocal cords. Vinny Appice is a scary, thunderous drummer, Claude Schnell was a visionary keyboardist (an anomoly in itself, a keyboard guy in a "heavy" band who later influenced me...I'll elaborate later), the understated bassist Jimmy Bain and then there was Vivian Campbell . Vivian's style is hard to pin down. He's bluesy, he's heavy, he can melt frets with some of his "flashier" stuff (see songs like "Rainbow in the Dark" from Holy Diver or "Another Lie" from Sacred Heart or "Don't Talk to Strangers" also on Holy Diver) but he also can lay into the pocket the way a good guitar player should at times (as in "Egypt (The Chains Are On) from The Last In Line or "Shame on the Night" from Holy Diver ) In short, there was no one thing about his playing that struck me, I just thought he was a badass. Now admittedly, it may have been that I was a little swept up in the taboo of listening to "evil" music, and hell, the albums had demons on the cover, the lyrics were about dragons and magic and wizards and all kinds of dark subject matter, what 12-ish year old boy wouldn't dig that? For crying out loud, when I FINALLY got to see Dio live in 1988 (sadly after Viv left the band) the stage show had a robotic spider that the current guitarist at the time, Craig Goldie , shot with a laser coming from his guitar during his big solo, how metal is that??

But, I digress, even now as a much more accomplished guitarist, when I listen to the 3 Dio albums with Viv on them, I gotta say, that sucker can still tear it up. I remember in 1990 when the Whitesnake album came out, I saw the video for "Still of the Night" and saw Vivian playing guitar. I flew to the tv, the song rocked, I bought the record thinking he'd finally resurfaced. But, it turns out a guy name John Sykes played all the guitar on the record and was then apparently fired (along with the rest of the "studio" band) so David Coverdale could form a new band for touring...I'd have been pissed. The guitar playing on that record was pretty friggin great, so I don't understand why you'd kick the dude out, but anyway....Viv was in the band, but they never came through my area. Then he joined Def Leppard, and I wasn't really ever a big fan of theirs (a little too wuss-rock for me) so I just didn't really follow. But I will say, the guy definitely helped light my inspirational fire and for that I'll always have a soft spot for him. I probably should check out his new stuff (I confess I haven't). I hear he's playing in a much bluesier style, which I generally like, but it's hard to imagine one of your heroes playing in a totally different style then when you were exposed to him/her. Imagine if Eric Clapton put out a bluegrass album....you'd think....huh?? So Vivian, thanks for the rocking, and I will still proudly bang my head whenever I hear "We Rock", "Gypsy", "Hungry for Heaven", any of the old stuff.

Movin' on up..

Well, things are getting ready to change (isn't it the I Ching that says "the only thing constant is change"?). It looks like we're moving to an apartment as we have sold our home. It's a rather happy occasion, though not one that's devoid of complications. It looks like we're going to have to change internet providers since our current ISP doesn't service the area we're moving to. Hopefully, the transition will be smooth, and the interruptions will be brief. My email provider is thankfully not tied to my ISP, so you'll still be able to reach me here if you need anything.

Also, while we're starting the moving process, I've had to pack up most of my music gear. I have 1 lonely 6 string acoustic guitar which I haven't gotten much of a chance to play lately. This has been a little frustrating, artistically, but it's got me thinking. I don't seem to get much chance to write in this lovely blog page, so why don't I channel a little energy to it? So, here's my thought: I'm hoping to write a series (I've no idea how long) on "Unnoticed or Underappreciated Artists". I'm not sure of the tite of the series, I'll hopefully come up with sometihng a little catchier than that. The idea of this series will be, I'll write about a different artist(s) in each column that I feel was overlooked by a vast majority of people. These will be totally my opinions, and I make no claim to be any type of expert on any of these people, but suffice to say, they all had a part in shaping me as a musician, as a music listener, and as a person altogether (in some cases).

Now, a LOT of these will be guitarists, as I'm primarily a guitarist myself. Also, a lot of my early influences will be from the Metal genre (think 1980's and 1990's Metal mostly). Knowing me, I'll likely be all over the place on this, but I've been delving into old CDs and mp3's lately and listening to pieces of music that just blew me away the first time I heard them, and I'm finding that a lot of them still hold up quite well. So, I figured I'd share some of my favorite artists and pieces in the hopes that you find them interesting and maybe inspiring as well. I love when someone turns me on to an artist I'd never heard of before and I then can just immerse myself in that new stuff, so hopefully I'll be able to do that for you. Hopefully, I'll be a little more dilligent about posting and this will turn out to be an interesting venture into the first "serialized" version of my blog. Hey, if I end up writing for Rolling Stone , you'll be able to say you used to read me when....

How much more can I pack in?

Well, I'm having pretty major separation anxiety. I've had to pack up my studio/music gear and send it to storage. No, I'm not hiding from the repo man. We're selling our house. Actually, we've sold our house, we're just waiting for the appraisal, home inspection, and closing to happen. Sooooo, we're going to be moving soon. We're going to be moving to an apartment temporarily while we look for a house (we sold our house in 36 hours, a little quicker than we expected). Anyway, I'm hoping to get at least a "bare bones" setup going at the apartment so I can get ideas down before I lose them. I can already feel the artistic tension building up inside me. It's probably been about 3 or 4 weeks since I've been without my gear, and I'm itching badly. I didn't really get a lot of time to write/record in the last few months, but when I did manage the time, I was able to get some stuff down pretty quickly. I'd be able to somewhat scratch the itch if I could just edit some of the rough tracks I have down now, but my Tascam US-122  and my monitors are in storage, and to be honest, my computer speakers and soundcard just won't cut it (in fact, I hear clicks and pops when I even try to play a track in Cakewalk). So, I'm trying to just write on guitar, as I used to do in the old days before I'd gotten some more equipment, but it's hard to go back. It's kind of like using dial-up once you've been on DSL, you can do it, but you really know what you're missing.

Anyway, I'm sure I'll make it, and who knows, maybe this creative challenge will be a good thing. Maybe I'll be more focused when I do write/record. Maybe I'll spend a little more time with this blog as I've been saying I will for years. I guess we'll see. Oh, one more thing, if you haven't yet, please feel free (ok feel more than free) to visit my sponsors page . These are people willing to pay me to have their ads on my site. I'm happy to oblige, as any starving artist would. I've got the ads targeted to someone who finds this blog/site interesting, so you should find some stuff you'll like/need. Please feel free to check them out. Hopefully, I'll be talking to you all soon.

As if I weren't tired enough

I'm kind of amazed that anyone ever makes it through parenthood. While I'd never change the decision, it's nights like this where it's 2:45am and you've just finished a middle of the night feeding/change and can't get back to sleep that really put you to the test. I have to be up for work at 6:30am, and am watching the minutes tick by one after another. All this, and I can't really be sure that if I do get back to sleep that my daughter will remain asleep. She had her 1 year doctor's appointment 1 week ago and is still recovering from 5 shots. I feel badly that I can't do more for her (I stayed out of work Friday to care for her) and spent this weekend caring for her, replacing carpet in one of our rooms, and swapping the furniture between 2 rooms in our home (all in preparation to put our house on the market). To say that I'm running on empty here is definitely a fair statement. It's pretty bad when it's early Monday morning and you're already exhausted, hell the week's just technically begun. On top of that, on Friday I go "on call" at work which means that for a week, if anything is needed at work, regardless of the time, I have to go in. So, even the thought of a weekend in 5 days isn't a relief, as I'll likely be up before the birds both "days off". *sigh* Oh well, I guess I'll try to sleep now.

I know, I know, I suck for not posting...

Don't take that condescending tone with me. You know, it's not like I don't feel badly about it, so you don't have to rub it in. Don't you realize that every time I update ANYTHING on the Mikeiscool Site , that I don't see the blog page nagging at me? I feel its pain. I know it feels neglected. But it's not as if I'm neglecting it on purpose. I mean, it's been a pretty busy couple of months. First of all, Lily had her first birthday (and a fabulous time was had by all). Also, I took (and passed) another class in BOMI (Building Owner's and Manager's Institute....work stuff). I also managed to get a Mikeiscool MySpace Page up and going (granted it needs some serious polish, and I'm using it primarily to refer people to this site.

But, there is one other thing I must confess. I've been cheating on my blog with another, newer blog . I know....I feel terrible about it. I totally didn't plan it. I discovered it on this site . It started with me making my own On The Lot Page , and one thing led to another, and well, you know the rest. I didn't intend on it happening, and I was thinking of my blog page here the whole time. I know that doesn't make it any better, I made a mistake. I mean, I'm just trying to find a way to drive some more, serious attention to this site, and I guess I got carried away. I'll try not to do it again, but, well, now I've opened pandora's box. I'm fighting the urge to blog on the Mikeiscool MySpace page and hope that I can be strong. We'll see.

Good for the Dixie Chicks

How can you not say "hat's off" to the Dixie Chicks after this story?  Let me interject that I am not a HUGE Dixie Chicks fan, though I must admit, of most "comtemporary" country artists, I probably have the most respect for them. I'm generally not a country music fan. I like Southern Rock (see Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, etc), and I like some of the older "standard" country artists (like Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Willie Nelson). I'm generally not that into modern country. I'm not into it in the same way that I'm not into modern pop music. It just lacks substance and feel to my ear. And some of the popular country (and pop) artists are just so damn formulaic, that I just can't take it.

But The Dixie Chicks just have a more organic, natural, honest sound to them that reminds me of the older country artists. I admit a BIG part of my respect for them is that they can actually play their own instruments (and do). I don't want to make any vocalists angry, as I fully appreciate the human voice as an instrument in its own right, but being able to sing AND play is great, especially when you can do both very well. Top all of that off with the ability to write songs well, and you've got a heck of a combination.

Which is why I say congratulations to the Dixie Chicks. Not cause they need my approval. But because they spoke their minds, and they kept their wits about them when the majority of their audience turned on them. And now, they can thumb their nose at everyone, and good for them. I defninitely lean to the "left" of center, though I'm probably somewhere between a moderate Democrat and a Libertarian. Thus, I don't side with any singular political mindset. That said, it was painfully obvious which political organization was behind the "boycott the Dixie Chicks" thing. I admit, I just love that it blew up in their closed-minded, simplistic, elitist little faces. And the Dixie Chicks handled it with class, proving why they're on top, and the trailer trash ain't.

If you have a differing political view, fine. I respect that, but you don't make death threats because someone happened to speak an opinion different from your own. That's insane and dogmatic and extremist and about 100000 other things. I just love that all those die-hard, bible thumpin' fools who were going to "teach those girls a lesson" got spanked. You said it, Natalie, "ha ha".