I hope you've all had a good time over the Christmas break with time to take stock of 2018 and maybe to look ahead to 2019. A cartoon I saw asked what 2019 would bring. The answer was 365 days of opportunity. Fair enough.
Last week I told you about the signed lyric sheet that I received as a gift. Well, it inspired me to pickup my guitar for the first time in quite a while. The result is a recording, by yours truly, of the song in question. A few of you will have heard it by now and given that the reaction has been quite favourable I'm going to take a deep breath and put a link to it here. It's a fairly straight ahead cover version but putting it together was fun.
Rob Woozle - Under The Milky Way (The Church cover) - https://soundcloud.com/robwoozle/under-the-milky-way/s-WNOAK
For those of you interested in the recording...it's just my (cheap) Taylor acoustic guitar plugged straight into an old Roland Edirol interface. This is a guitar that I don't like the sound of acoustically but it records really well. The recording software is Reaper, which is free. I used a Sennheiser MK4 studio condenser microphone for the vocals, with thanks to Tim at GuzBox Sound. The whole thing took about 3 hours. I've got another two tracks ready to record so along with this one and two I did a while back that's enough for an EP I think!
On Christmas Eve I went to the cinema to see Bohemian Rhapsody. A great many people had recommended it, including my Mum, so I took advantage of $9 tickets and off I went. On the whole I really enjoyed it. The music was great, the acting was solid and visually it was spectacular in all the right places. There are quite a few issues with the storyline in terms of accuracy and the actual timeline but for the vast majority of viewers I'd highly recommend it. The actors playing John Deacon and Brian May are almost dead ringers for the actual people; it was uncanny.
Queen - Who Wants To Live Forever - https://youtu.be/_Jtpf8N5IDE
"Who Wants To Live Forever" appears as part of the soundtrack by Queen to the film, "Highlander". It's possibly my favourite movie of all time. I saw it for the first time in the 80s at the Moe Drive-in. If you haven't seen it then do yourself a huge favour and organise a viewing. UK prog-rockers Marillion apparently turned down the chance to provide the soundtrack.
I spent some time this week listening to John Moreland's 2013 long player, "In The Throes". It's down to earth folk, rock and blues. Actually it feels to me like how Bruce Springsteen might sound if he was starting out today. John is an understated but fantastic exponent of the acoustic guitar and he has a rough and rich voice as well. I'm not sure why he's not a household name. Probably because...
John Moreland - Nobody Gives A Damn About Songs Anymore - https://youtu.be/hopckxCEXg8
I may have played that song before. Sadler Vaden also released it on an album. But it's John's song and it's a cracker.
Last time I played a track by Ocean Colour Scene. Well DJ CherryP told me that she'd seen them play supporting Paul Weller a while back. You all know Paul...the guy from The Jam right? Well he's been putting good music out for many years now. Of course you can groove away to "In The City" or "That's Entertainment" but there's much more to Paul than those hits.
Paul Weller - Days of Speed (live/acoustic) - https://youtu.be/OzNJGGULLMI
H told me about his trip to Newcastle to see Jim Moginie's band play. Jim is one of the guitar players in a band you might have heard of called Midnight Oil. His other band, one of them, The Family Dog sounds like a lot of fun. I've just started listening to their latest album, "Bark Overtures". If you like The Hoodoo Gurus, White Stripes, Russell Morris or Radio Birdman then there's something here for you.
Jim Moginie & The Family Dog - I'm Happy - https://youtu.be/jZNNxtl1kGM
There are three days left in the year and I've well and truly eclipsed my all time yearly cycling mileage record. You can't say kilometreage, it sounds silly. At the moment I'm at 13,630km. Even without the current heatwave conditions I'm not going to get to 14,000km; that would be more madness than I'm capable of. I was happy to beat my record and then to hit 13,500km as well. But that's enough. Anything else I manage in the next few days is a bonus. I've looked back at my year on the bike and the longest break I've taken is 3 days. I need to do better in 2019 at taking a rest here and there. But until then I'll ride on.
Icehouse - Crazy (live 1988) - https://youtu.be/aYf8W6f-vc0
There you go. A shorter episode than last week but it's all quality stuff I promise. I'll be back next time with the first episode of 2019 and news of a big listening project I plan to undertake.
Thanks for listening in 2018,
Rob
"Jimmy joined the Army 'cause he had no place to go...", Rich Man's War, Steve Earle, 2004
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