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@@@

jalapeeee-no

...and i have to say it's been a good week.  Oh excuse me, hello.  Have you two met?'

Horizontal turning of the head.  Hmph.

  "Well allow me, [your name], this is Guy.  He's the lead singer of a band named The Bend and not having heard them live is why you still have trouble sleeping at night."

"Oh yeah, and you missed Gunn and the Damage Done earlier, too."

Sorry about that. It's just that you've caught me in the middle of what could be added to a literal hundred even if my first impulse is to tell you that there are a thousand things I'm doing right now.  I don't know how I even managed to squeeze in a birthday, but thanks to a couple of friends, we ended up going to Rock4Relief on Thursday night and it was amazing.  It's been a sinfully long time since my last live show (on or off stage) and it was stepping off the plane in the tropics after eighteen months of Antarctica.

There's been some conversation about my choice in album title.  It has caused me to do some deep thinking.  Though it hurts to say it, I think that though my message is clear and strong and positive in intent, it may be something that causes pain.  Whether or not intellectuals will wring me dry over "Arbeit Macht Frei" I really could care less.  But at the same time...I know that inside of every intellectual is a sensitive human being, and to that part of them I would yield.  So I may consider the advice.  I'm open to advice.

Add to that this weeks horoscope, courtesy of Rob Brezsny(chovich):
In the coming week, I predict that you will NOT experience disgusting fascinations, smiling-faced failures, sensationalized accounts of useless developments, or bizarre fantasies in the middle of the night.  You may, on the other hand, have encounters with uplifting disappointments, incendiary offers, mysterious declarations of interdependence, and uproars that provoke your awe and humility in healing ways.  In other words, Aquarius, it'll be an uncanny, perhaps controversial time for you-but always leading in the direction of greater freedom.


Pretty cool right?

I went to my first open mic night at RockIt space tonight and was really blown away by all that talent in the room.  There was this guy Kevin who was polished as a professional and it was only his second open mic night ever.  Then Jessi and Marti got up there and swayed us with there solid and beautiful harmonies.  In the midst of all that the dance instructor (from a class they have there just before they open up the stage to any and all who have an opinion) did a rap to some hand drumming.  Even I performed a couple of songs, and even though it was a little rough around the edges, it still felt natural.  It was my first live performance since May 20, 2009.  I was on the drums in with Zach on lead guitar, Walker on Bass, and Becky on rhythm guitar and lead vox in our band The Right Typewriters.  It was a great show that got a footnote in a review for her boyfriend's band who followed us with a killer show.  (Hurricane Lantern (s?) is the name of his band.)

For histories sake, the last show before that was April 15th, 2009 at The Comet with Zach on rhythm and vox, Tim on lead guitar, me on bass, and Matt as the skinner.  We were playing a Stooges vs. Misfits show and we were on the side of the Stooges.  We called ourselves Something Lovelies at the time.  I say that because our band names included Mr. Hand, Boot Blacks, and 1919.  We played Gimme Danger, I Wanna Be Your Dog, Seek and Destroy, and another one that escapes me.  That was a crazy high energy show, and we had fun.  Especially when the drummer who had let us use his hi hat decided that he had to go in the middle of our second song and ran on and quickly off stage to the befuddlement of Matt who suddenly realized that something was definitely missing.  I saw people in the crowd follow him out and I hope that they caught him.  But all I could do was laugh.  What the hell, right?

And before that I was playing a solo acoustic show a The Showbox Green Room on April 9th, 2009.  I guess I've tried on a lot of hats in the past but it's been a while since I've worn some of them.  When I walked into the door of the RockIt, I saw Jack sitting on the couch and a crowd of vibrant onlookers of all ages, some with juice and others with beer.  The smiles of a face recognizing a face that it has anticipated are shared and you feel like you're home.  And not just because this arts space was originally built as a residence, but more from the way that you can slip into the place where no one is standing and feel that they were saving that spot just for you.  From the beautiful accapella's of a Rastafarian healer to a lover singing of his lover and finally the raspy, end of the night attempts to roust the neighbors with a Beatles Sing Along, i felt like I was a part of something.  None of it was fake, either because i was part of something.  The closest thing I can equate it to is a youth group gathering without the religion.  And man it was fun, right?  If you weren't there, don't fret, there's a place for you to sit or stand next week, and every week following that from 7-10pm on Saturday Nights.



Did I mention that I've made a contact with an amazing person down in Renton recently?  There's a place you should look up called Tyrannosaurus Records. They've got a really cool thing going on down there, and they're not alone.  There's a great burgeoning community in what they lovingly refer to as DTR.  They have the more modern forms of media available (cd's) as well as the old Vinyl for those of you who are cursed with an audiophillic bone in your earlobes.  Live in-stores happen pretty often, and they have a recording studio on site.  I've never really had a great excuse to hang out in Renton, but with the discovery of this place I think that I need to reevaluate that as well.

Also, check out Shadowland Open Mic night in west seattle.  Tuesday nights.  That's it for now folks, but I'll get atcha soon.

Here's not looking at you,

M. Chase



PS~Cancer Sucks.  Remember that.

the mix down

What's great about the music as it happens to sound when a recording is fresh and still smelling of afterbirth is that you can hear the reality of the moment that you were alive to put down all of your tracks.  All of the dynamics are completely organic, and in that way pure.  Unadulterated.

When I listen to a song, and I mean really listen to a song that someone's made, I want to hear at least one thing that wasn't supposed to happen.  That one little muffled pat of a foot tapping in the booth or a buzzed fret for good measure.  An illogical breathe is even enough to satisfy this odd desire of mine.  i guess that's why for a really long time in my life I listened to nothing but live music.  All of this indulgence was made possible by the people at Napster and Kazaa whom I do so sorely miss.

Wait, did this musician just say that he misses free downloads without consequences?  Yeah, dude.  I think that free access to your art is the best way to earn the trust and respect of any listening audience that may sprout up for you as an artist.  That's right, I'm talking to you.  I'm talking to myself, too.  And the best part about being on a blog now is that at anytime, I can talk about what I'm thinking about and share things that I wouldn't normally have a chance to share with everyone I know and don't know, and in turn all of you can talk with me about these things.  Then I can go check out the other blogs that I follow and see what my friends are thinking about.  Pretty cool, huh?  and none of this has any time constraint.  in five years, chances are someone can come back here and see what I was thinking about.  Who is controlling history now, biotch?

Mwahahahahahaaaahahahahhhahahaaahaaaa!!!!

We, the people do suggest that everyone in the world get in on the conversation.  and just like our world, the art and context of it all is ever changing.  We feel one way about it one day and then experience a bipolar reversal in our opinion the next.  More bass.  No, that was too much.  Louder drums. quiter drums.  g-verb. tremolo. 3 db. -12 db. normalize. compress.  act react preaction.

and all this just to issue a different mix of a song that's already on the blog a few entries down the way.  but that's the thing.  we don't just finish a song, put it to master and call it a day any more.  we live in a time of remixes and remasters and 3-d quadraphonic sound.

On this mix, I eq'ed out some of the scratchy highs on the vocals and boosted the volume and bass on the drum track in certain key places.  A little boost on the bass track volume so you can hear what's going on down there.  It sounds good through Sony Headphones anyways.



word,

M. Chase

It's not over till the skinny white boy sings

I have an indecision problem. And this problem is pervasive throughout my life as many of you who know me well know damn well. Miranda will ask me, "What are you making for dinner?" or "What do you want to do for your birthday (which is this thursday I might add)?" or Zach might ask me "Do you want to go to a show on Sunday?"

"I don't know."

And that's just the simple stuff. Of course there are far more relevant examples that I could make, but frankly, using them would make me look bad and stupid. Whether or not I am bad and stupid, I will leave up to you, my humble readers.

Now the reason I am even telling you this is that you are going to have to bear with me (or not, really) when it comes to naming my creative endeavors.  I am a frequent user of "working titles," and I like to write songs that could be holed up with all diversity of pigeons.  Double and triple meanings, agendas that are hidden from the agendas:  This is just how I am.  And who I am, I might add.

So, I know that I had posted a song and labeled it as "Well" a couple days ago, but that was a mistake.  I actually meant to call it "The Stranger" in homage to both my psychopathy and my favorite rag.  The Stranger is a local free weekly in Seattle, and it is the newspaper who's classifieds led me to a dingy, sweat encumbered and soon to be condemned little building in the stadium district known as "Hush Studios," the place that I actually became a musician by virtue of the fact that I was creating and performing music in real life and outside of my barracks.  I will submit that I had been a producer and *chuckle chuckle* rapper (that's right, I said rapper (http://www.myspace.com/eequalsmcsee if you don't believe me)) up until that point, but I never thought I would actually end up doing that forever.  I learned a lot from it, but it wasn't my ends.

So there it is folks, change order #1.  And I may end up changing it again.  You know, to keep you on your toes and such.  The Stranger.

Out,
M. Chase

Video

Alright, so I've run into a major hitch in my plan. Time to make a video. Seems simple, right? And it would be, except that I have an old school 8mm camera and no way of hooking it up to my computer to post new videos.

So, this camera that I have is a Samsung model SCL610, and it has two possible outputs that I could use, though I'm not sure which is best. There is an S-Video output and an A/V Out output. I'm guessing that the A/V Out is my best bet, but how do I plug it into my computer?! The jack for theoutput is what seems to be a standard 1/8" plug, and I assume that the best thing I could do is plug this into a usb port on the cpu. Does anyone know anything that will help me?

Confused,
M. Chase

ps~also, since I know that all five of you who are now following me are just positively dying to know,  I laid down the structure for my next song today.  It's one I wrote a very long time ago and it's about time I made it real.  I should have it finished by weeks end if all goes well.  If not, then it could be months ;)

****UPDATE****  So I've found a little device on eBay called the "easycap" and it is exactly what I was looking for.  Hopefully it will actually work.

Well...

So I'm happy to announce that I finished recording another song today. Of course there are things that I'd like to improve upon, but it does me no good to just hold out forever, hoping that I will lay down that golden track any day now...

Next thing you know, weeks have gone by and you are still working on the same old song. And in fact you've actually started to despise both yourself and the music that you are trying to create. That's what started happening with the last song I was working on.

So in this new track, I'm trying some new techniques as far as recording the drum machine and guitars. I've got a Fender mini amp that I tried playing the drums through to give them a more acoustic presence. For the bass, I just ran it straight into the board. And the guitar is set with a some extra gain through the mini. Vocals are direct in too. The track has minimal effects; I added a splash of reverb and delay to the vox and guitar track for presence and whipped up a little "pan magic" to make it sound a little more live.

Things I'd like to work through include a lot of hissing in the background, figuring out a way to get a clean vocal without overdriving my mic, and getting more than one guitar tone into the song. Enough about what I think, though. Here's the song. Enjoy, "Well".



***Update***

Alright, so I posted this a little over a week ago, and I'm realizing that I need to put a little more into it than I did.  Let's talk about this song, alright?  Forget about the technicalities of the recording, and the musicianship or lack thereof (depending on your tastes).  As you will be hearing from me quite a bit if you send any amount of time absorbing this blog, there is something of a back story that needs to be observed before I can adequately explain what this song is all about.

It all started with a fellow named Ben.  I was fresh out of the army, and working at my first full time civilian office job in Bellevue.  I had gotten the job through a very close friend of mine, and was doing pretty well at it when this tall, bouncy guy with tousled and slightly greasy blonde hair, rumpled clothing, and some kind of fire under his ass.  He was a temp, and so no one really got on him about his appearance.  Besides, his attitude and willingness to work hard more than made up for it.

After he had been working there for about three weeks, I saw him standing by the bus stop after quiting time and so I thought I would give him a ride home.  Then rides became a regular occurrence and we eventually started hanging out quite a bit when we found out that we were both really interested in expanding consciousness and spiritualism, meditating, and other soul-related stuff.  One SeaFair weekend, we wanted to get to Capitol Hill for something and driving was just not an option, so we decided to walk there.

We had such a good time and felt so good about the whole thing that we made a decision that any time Ben and I were going somewhere together, we would walk and only if necessary would we utilize public transportation.  In our prime, we were averaging 50 miles on foot per week with treks that took us from Richmond Beach to Sodo.  At one point we covered 75 miles in one weekend.  We barely even slept.  It became an addiction.

The solitude that comes with being constantly on the move and all of the thoughts that finally had the time to think for themselves led me to figure out what matters to me in this life.  Most of the philosophies that I still adhere to were formulated on the road.  And though Ben and I would have conversations from time to time, we mostly just gave each other a reason to keep up the pace.

But as lives tend to go, Ben and I started moving in different directions.  I was getting saner and saner as I aged (debatable I'm sure) and he was losing grip.  I had been fired from my job and he had been hired on as a permanent staff member in my place, and the office environment wasn't kind to his free spirit.  He could've been a shaman in a hut and not a dweeb in a cubicle.  Should've.  But reality is what it will be and times were tough on him.  The last time we were together was after a night of music at the Sound Asylum, and he was being extra spacey.  He wanted to get on the road, to get moving, and tramp about.  Not just in Seattle, but all over.  And though I though it was a novel idea, I wasn't about to uproot myself from my band and my life in Seattle.  It was all still pretty new to me and I wasn't ready to even consider it.  Well, he didn't like that and he went off on a tirade about no one caring what he did with his life, which ended in him slamming his arm in the car door repeatedly to prove that he felt nothing.  I don't remember what happened next but I wasn't having any part in his newfound sense of destruction, so I kindly took my leave of his immediate friendship.

After Ben and I stopped hanging out, one thing that remained in my life was the walking.  I didn't feel right if a week went by without an inordinately long hike that involved taking the long way around so that I would have a chance to walk down an unfamiliar street.  I would be alone in the seediest sections of the CD during the darkest hours of the night just to feel alive.  The sounds of the city around me were a constant reminder that I wasn't alone in this world, even if I was in lonely company.

With all of the time I was spending alone on the road, I took up the habit of talking to myself.  I was pretty self conscious about it at first, but after a while I stopped caring if I had an audience.  But there was this one specific time that I was tramping and I was full on back and forthing with myself in a debate on some incidental or another when this clean cut suburbanite lady crossed my path.  As we approached each other, I could see that I was frightening her and that she thought I was going to snap or take her purse or something.  I can imagine that from her perspective I looked pretty scary with my frazzled long blonde hair and huge baggy clothing, but I had never really thought about it before then.  At first I was in a tizzy about it though.  "Who is she to be judging me?" I thought.

When I got home that night I sat down with my Harmony and started riffing out when I came across the chords that I ended up using in this song.

And that, my friends, is the short version.  Seriously.

Also, I'd like to add that one of the themes of this song is the internet.  It's so strange and beautiful to me that we can express ourselves in a way that can be decoded by people from all walks of life both nw and in to the future.

Here's to Al Gore.