the haps

It's been a week and a half since my last post.  I've thought of apologizing for that, but the point of that is moot.  I'm all about apologizing when I've done something wrong, but in this case I haven't blogged because I've been right.  Starting this project is exactly what I've needed to get things on the right track creatively.  Let me once again go over the progress that I've made since my first post.  So far, I've finished recording two songs, two video performances, and booked two live performances.

I could mention to you the fact that I've accomplished very little from one point of view and very much from another.  Compare the fact that I've only really finished two songs to what that actually entails.  Taking a closer look at the process reveals this to be no small feat.  I've written and arranged two separate works as a composer, then I have become both studio musician and sound engineer as I work my way through the performance and recording of the separate drum tracks, bass lines, acoustic guitar and electric guitar parts, lead and backup vocals, and then taken those performances and mixed them into cohesive representations of something that like a crazy person I have heard inside of my skull.  If I were to dive into the question of "where did all of these imaginings of songs comes from, and what does their origin imply?" we could be here all day.  Honestly though, that is just another digression.

As far as the recorded material itself, you can hear it on my blog (you're on it), my Facebook Fan Page, The ROCKiT Space Website, occasionally on The Westside Will Radio Show, Myspace and Myspace.  but I think the most amazing thing is the places in this physical world that this music has already gone and the happenings that are going on around it.  At the aforementioned ROCKiT Space, I've performed a few times at the weekly open mic there.  I've also gone to Shadowland Bar and Grill open mic, and now today I played my first formally booked performance at Alleycat Acres on Beacon Hill.

Before I go any further, let me talk about that for a minute.  It all started with this communications class that led me to create a blog in which I could write about music that led me to connect with a few classmates, one of which is running an urban farm that is just a stones throw from the arts space that I volunteer and open mic at.  Friday night last week, I was reading through the replies to my posts for assignments in class and one of the replies was from Sean and in it he asked if I would play some acoustic music for their Sunday workday lunch break.  I started off the morning with some coffee, a simple breakfast, and some vocal recording.  After throwing an outfit together, I bounced off to Beacon Hill in my little blue Metro, unloaded my guitar and walked up to the sunny crest that the Alley Cats were turning from a vacant lot into a full on production-focused urban farm.  The Alley Cats is the group of volunteers that have been meeting with Sean for about a month and who are now working on orienting the farm for maximum productivity.

As I entered the space, I was greeted by said Sean who was being interviewed by a reporter from the Seattle Times about this project that he started.  After we talked for a moment, I walked through the crowd of workers that were busy relocating the large pile of composted soil in the front of the yard to the uniformly oriented rows that had been dug out perpendicular to the street stretching across the 42' of depth that the lot contained.  It wasn't until a was a few feet from the shed at the back of the lot that I could see just how far the hill dropped off behind it as its weeds and tangled trees tumbled down to Lake Washington below, surrounded by land and with the silvery towers of Bellevue looming over its banks.  After taking in the vistas, I walked back over to the table next to which I had stashed my guitar where the crowd was gathering to eat their lunches.  While tuning up, I had some good conversation with a couple of the volunteers about where the project came from and where they want to go with it.  I also was offered did happily accept a very tasty vegan brownie.  And while each of the people I talked to seemed to have their own individual reasons for being there, the unified purpose seemed to be what was in the forefront of their thinking, that being the food that they were going to get to take part in creating.

Standing next to the large compost pile in a little patch of sun, I played some new and some very old tunes of mine, along with a nice cover of a cover song.  And though the crowd was talking and not all gathering around googly-eyed worshiping me for my gift of music, I could tell that they really appreciated me being there so that they could turn off the radio and hear something organic while they fed their growling tummies and cooled their perspiring brows.  Before I left I was able to work out some ideas about getting kids from ROCKiT Space and their families involved in an agricultural class of some sort.  Of course it's all ideas right now, and I won't have much hand in that, I feel lucky to be in a position where I can connect two different organizations that are doing what they can to make positive change in the same neighborhood in their own ways.

In other news, my next booked performance will be played with another musician and old friend at Tyrannosaurus Records in DTR on Sunday March 21st at 4pm.  There is no cover charge, but there will be a tip jar and a Childhood Cancer Sucks donation jar up on the counter during the show.  That reminds me, I've got to call Nich (the proprietor of  TRx) and let him know those demos and flyers I promised are going to be a couple days late.

And just so you know, I was going to post a song on here today, but after going back and listening to it, I really want to flesh it out a little more.  After this song, I have one left to record before I make the official booking demo that I will use throughout the summer to try and gain exposure here in the northwest and beyond.  Don't get me wrong, I'm going to continue to record music and document the progress of that here, but I will also be talking about where the music takes me and what I get wrapped up in as a result of it.

I hope that you will find these ventures to be entertaining at worst and informative at best!

Cheers,

M. Chase

sometimes life is just the way life goes

I made some more edits to the song grey matters and i hope you like them.  Also, I'd like your feedback.  Do you like being able to hear the different mixes or would you prefer if I just put up the first and final mixes to that you can hear that disparity?  Get at me.



Take Care,

M. Chase

editor in chief

i reserve the right to change any song at any time.  because why not?

Grey Matters Mix iii most excellently better mix.mp3



Email me if you want the mp3.  Just promise me you'll make a donation to Childhood Cancer Sucks, alright?

Talk atcha later.

M. Chase

New keyboard!!!

Yay!!  No more copy and paste every time i want to use the letter "a".  no more avoiding words that have a "q" or a "z" in them and i can use as many exclamation points as i want!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Aren't you excited.

Later y'all,

M. Chase

all get out

So I decided today that i would remix this song so that you have a decent representation of it.  Lyrics below for song "grey matters."

I'm an old man in a city

waiting for a trial

who stands to lose everything over

his lifestyle

instead of giving in, he has

chosen to fight

he won't let anyone choose for him

what's wrong and what's right

on the other side of that town

I'm a woman sleeping on the ground

all she ever owned was taken to

the impound

how could anyone justify

forcing her to fight

when she only wanted to choose

for herself

what's wrong and what's right

so what's wrong and what's right

what's day and what's night

can't we live our own lives

why must we fight?

when it came down to it

why they didn't give in

even when they knew they couldn't win

is because they made their own choice

of what's wrong and what's right

what's day and what's night

don't try to fight

an oldie in my book, but probably new to you.

I've got a little something for you to enjoy here that I wrote many years ago just after the led got out and left the levee in tatters and in the process devouring our own (and by that i do mean americans. the straight ones, gay ones, black ones white ones green ones right ones left ones independent american ones. don't judge that or people based on any of that if you want my advice.  if not, why are you reading?  that last part was meant to be rhetorical.  i'm a joker.) while we were entrenched in our gluttonous campaigns in the middle west. east? whatever...

I give you: katrina was her name:





Bright sunny day
seekin the shade
kicckin the sand
not makin any plans

twirlin in the distance
she's bathed in light
i can't aford to miss this
i need to make that woman my lady tonight

whirlwind affair
sand in my hair
can't hide nowhere
from her eye's cold ambitious stare

katrina was her name
she ruined everything
when she spread her wings it was a hurricane
(rinse and repeat)

should i see her again
would i be fooled by the breese
would i stay rooted in
like all them fallen trees

as time rolls on
from sunshine to shade
all i really want
is protection from dangerous maides

katrina was her name

she ruined everything

when she spread her wings it was a hurricane

(thrice)

she was a hurry hurry hurry hurricane

you'd better hurry 'fore she's back with a different

name.

i missed the only call i wanted to get tonight over this

life inside a set of borrowed headphones definitely has its downsides.  So here's a song.  I slapped it together in a few short hours this evening, and it's nothing but scratch tracks for a real song.  That's why I'm posting it as is.  This is the primordial soup of a rock and roll song.





I'm an old man in a city
waiting for a trial
who stands to lose everything over
his lifestyle
instead of giving in, he has
chosen to fight
he won't let anyone choose for him
what's wrong and what's right

on the other side of that town
I'm a woman sleeping on the ground
all she ever owned was taken to
the impound
how could anyone justify
forcing her to fight
when she only wanted to choose
for herself
what's wrong and what's right

so what's wrong and what's right
what's day and what's night
can't we live our own lives
why must we fight?

when it came down to it
why they didn't give in
even when they knew they couldn't win
is because they made their own choice
of what's wrong and what's right
what's day and what's night
don't try to fight

**Update**

Originally I wrote this with hopes that I would be able to perform it live at Hemp Fest, and today on NPR they were talking about the marijuana market as a "grey market" rather than a "black market", because of medical marijuana and the legalities involved with that whole movement.  I just thought I would point that out because it further locks in the title of this song, "Grey Matters."

Piso Flow

Much as I might want to give you a stereo recording on this, it shain't be so.  look, i've gotta get going here in a minute, but i wanted to share this with you all.  and just so you know how much i wanted you to see this, i have had to copy and pste every letter "a" in this little note because my "a" key isn't typing.


word,


M Chase Collum


"Piso Flow"  lyrics below:




Call them criminals
then call them up.


Gi've them guns to...
Kill the ones you...
Fear.


Then,
tell your proles that 
"Victory Is Near"
When it's no nearer than last year.


You pack your Goldman Parachute
while you sweep dead under rugs
with your million dollar boots
while you give the poor their hugs


and while the plaines are
Crashing Down
you 
float above in the 
highest of fashion
Oh, how many souls
are swept up in your flow?

i've learned two things

1) sometimes the workaround isn't worth the trouble.

For example,  when you have an old 8mm video camera that you haven't used in years, you shouldn't hinge a major part of a complex plan upon it.  Just get your ass to radio shack and shell out the 24 dollars for a 30 frame per second webcam.

2) It pays to say what you've got to say loud and proud.  All the ideas and tolerances need to be laid out flat on the table i e viewing surface.  Don't think money, think value.  I'm glad to say that after a couple open mics I'm ramping up for a for real show down in DTR at a place I've mentioned called Tyrannosaurus Records.  It'll be on a Saturday in March sometime in the afternoon around 2-4pm.  Bring your kids and your earplugs.

Also, I think it's time that I let you all know that Childhood Cancer Sucks.  The show that I'm doing in Renton will also be a fund raiser for a friends soon to be 501(c).  more to follow on that.  Also, Can't wait to give you guys some video cheesiness.  Just to let you know I like lame effects on videos.

I'm not apologizing for it, though.

))<>((

M. Chase

hey, man

i spend a lot of my life being the lower case i version of myself.  I'm passively aggressive, and overly confrontational in all the wrong ways.  i'm a liar.  i cut corners sometimes.  I don't respect the opinions of those around me, and this is even true in my own home.  i'm rude when I drive a lot of the time.  I feel like what I'm doing is so important that I don't give other people the respect and space that they need to accomplish what it is that is important to them.  I feign interest in things I have no intention in supporting.

The list goes on.

And on.

and on

On with it, though.  If you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding.  How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?

you gotta eat what is in front of you.  clean your plate and then worry about the dishes.

So let me clean my plate.  let me say something that can make this place better, kinder, gentler, more loving.

I want to be a real man, and not just a poser.  I'm not one to start a fight, but I'm not going to be one to pussy foot around the elephant in the room, either.  i can't allow myself to be the type of person that just let's everything be.  let it be, let it be, oh let it be.  Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.

but I can't.  I've got to agitate. aggravate.  elevate.  i'm a social dingle berry.  not quite climbing but holding on for dear life to the pubic hairs of success.  i'm flailing and gnashing at the other berries and i'm trying to be the highlander too much.  i could stand to learn a lot from Iceland, with their egalitarian mindset and community based thinking.

And my values are unachievably high.  Despite the worst of myself that I am, i am a great person.  I have worth and value.  feelings.  emotional and irrational thoughts.  cloudy days.

it's people like you who actually care enough about some one other than yourself to read a blog that has nothing to do with your life (though that's not exactly true in the end i hope you see the point i am illustrating by stating it) that have inspired the next song I will post on my blog.

this is an old one, and in fact it is the first recording of me playing an electric guitar in existence.  A good friend of mine, Kristy recorded this for the price of a pack of smokes to help me get some music out there and to get some experience as an engineer.  She's really good at what she does, and I've always loved this song and the recording of it.

I'll post the words below so you can read them as it plays.  I give you "hey, man" and dedicate it to you as well.




hey, man

so many people come and go
some like to move real fast and
some like to take it slow

with all circumstances
shuffling us around
i've gotta tell ya man
it's so good to hear that sound

and you'd look so cool
in a kaleidoscope
how i wish that i could
see ya that way right now

but it's good to see you
either way
it's good to know that
you are still around

video killed the blog-eo

ARRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!  I wanna go Haggar the Horrible on the people at Brilliant.com and Buy.com for sending a cheap imitation of the video cable that I need for my video camera.  If i had known that I would need an extra S-Video Cable to hook the interface to my Samsung 8mm Cassette Recorder, I would've just sprung the $40 on a decent web cam in the first place.  Besides, they sent my cable sans Ulead Software that is even listed on the label of the package as being included.  What a crock.

I'll have video soon, I plomise.

Soons,

M. Chase

feeming

I just wanted to post that I am FEEMING to record some music, though I'm so busy with school and work and etc commitments, it may be Saturday before I get the chance to do any work.  ARRRRGHGGHGHGHHHH@@@