The Indulgences

Well, for near future read a year or so, but I'm still moving slowly (very slowly) forward with the "major project" mentioned below. My first attempt at pulling something together was around Christmas, which was probably very poor timing as my rather disorganized jam was in competion with everyone's long-expected parties.

We've designated a room in the house to become a music studio. Right now it's full of boxes, but sometime soon we're going to unpack everything and get the room cleared out. Then the piano, organ and drumkit will go in, along with my computer and recording equipment. Once this is completed, I will have to come up with a whole new set of excuses to explain why I haven't recorded anything.

Or perhaps I'll get some new music out there. Since I have a CD out and it's hardly setting the world alight, I've been thinking that it might be interesting to adopt a sort of webcomic-like approach to the release of new music: a new recording posted to the website as a free download each week. I've never been able to keep to a deadline like that in the past though (witness my own defunct webcomic).

Taking things in easy steps: the next thing I really want to get done is to figure out how to mount my kazoo on a microphone stand. Also, as I'll still want to be able to use a microphone, I may need another microphone stand.

It's been some time since the last Indulgences gig, so I'm very pleased to announce that I'm going to be out and about playing tunes in the very near future. The Salt Lake Downtown Alliance encourages busking at the weekly Farmers' Market. It is necessary to write to them and obtain a license and to check in with the organizers before setting up and beginning to play. The first I've done and hopefully the second won't be painful—we'll have to wait and see on the day. I'm planning to play there every other week, beginning 7 July 2007.

I may have Theresa with me on drums or I may be alone on the first date. I'm going to be contacting a few other musicians to begin work on a major project and if things work out and anyone is keen there may be a slightly larger group at the market in weeks to come. I think a few of the original songs I'm planning to play haven't been played live before and I've learned the Talking Heads song "Cities," which I was having enormous fun playing at home until I broke the D-strings on all three of my guitars.

If you're keen to hunt for more information on the "major project" I mentioned above, I suspect it may show up on the band's MySpace page in the near future. And please come see me and my fellow fruits and vegetables at the Farmers' Market.

One day while randomly surfing through journal entries on Last.fm, I came across this: "My problems with the overuse of the terms folk and folk rock." It set the cogs and wheels of my brain in motion and they've been chugging along ever since. What exactly is folk music, what is pop and what, if any, are the alternatives?

I hate it when people ask me what kind of music I play because I have no idea what to say. I've told quite a few people that what I do is a sort of folk rock. Oh dear. So, what exactly is it that I play; more importantly, what exactly is it that I want to be playing in the future? I need to know so that I can sell it to an audience so they'll want to be at my show, sell it to a bunch of other musicians so they'll want to be in my band and sell it to myself so that I have a solid vision to hold on to of something more that just a few badly beaten SongFight entries.

After some thought, I've decided that, for my purposes at any rate, folk music is one of two basic genres that together include all music; the other could be called art music, though I wish I could come up with something better (that didn't imply that folk music isn't art). The heart of the difference between the two lies in the idea of an oral tradition and music that survives because people like and remember it as opposed to music that is composed and survives because it is written down. Before anyone can play a symphony, the score must be distributed to the members of the orchestra; folk musicians learn to play the song while they're playing the song. The idea of popular music as a genre seems meaningless; pop is whatever the record companies are having the best luck selling this week.

With these definitions in hand, it is clear to me that I am a folk singer. Not only that, it is clear to me that I have I strong commitment to folk music. I play the songs that I remember.

I've got a big post for this space in my head but can't take the time to write it now. We will play somewhere, sometime this summer. We will begin rehearsing (or jamming or something somewhere in between) soon. I was playing around with some things a few nights ago; I'm keen to play "She Moved Through the Fair," but I'm not happy with the arrangement we were playing last year. Nothing else is doing anything for me; maybe I'm just in a bad mood.

I've got all sorts of crazy ideas for the Kilby Court show on Sunday (I won't end up doing even half of them, I'm sure). Example: it's a full moon on Sunday, so I thought we could dress as werewolves.

I've built an electric kazoo. I think it'll sound brutal through my flanger pedal.

I've got to find a power supply for my preamp and it would be great if we found some time to rehearse.

Some pictures (compare a brand name Kazooka to my DIY modified Hohner):

The Hinkle Family Band have a gig lined up at the Brigham Young Historic Park: 7:30 pm, 25 August 2006.

Joseph is some kind of blogging fool! Check out those Irish rebels.

Masami and I played a short set at a barbecue a few days ago. It went OK, I think. This was yet another gig where the performances had been set up a month or so back and since then everyone but me forgot about it.

The main point of this exercise, from my point of view, was to get a little practice in front of an audience. I'm planning to get some actual public gigs arranged for the summer and it would be great if we sucked a little bit less by then. Actually, Masami and I sounded pretty good by the end of the night before the barbecue. (Why is everything always better at the rehearsal?)

The first album with the Indulgences name on it is now under construction with a projected release date in February 2007. It's seems much more like a second album than a first to me, as I am treating it as my follow-up to Questionable Fidelity. One big difference between this album and QF is that Theresa will be playing drums on the new album and I used pre-recorded loops for all the drums on QF.

Oh, and the new album is going to be called Romantic Notions Smoldering, unless I think of something I like even better.

I missed the application deadline for the Brown Bag Concert Series again. I guess if I start now, I can put together a truly kick-ass presentation for next year.

Masami and I played "Riki Tiki Tavi" a few nights ago and it sounded promising. I'm going to see if I can talk her into jamming a bit tonight when I get home.

We are working on a Christmas EP. I believe we can still get it out before Christmas. Not a single note has been recorded, but I have been practicing quite a bit. Masami and I will be playing at a couple of Christmas parties during the first week of December. If I think things went well (or well enough that with just another rehearsal or two they probably would go well) I'll find a more public venue for our Christmas set. I'm thinking of titling the EP Ring the Fuller Minstrel In.

The set list:
1. Still, Still, Still
2. Greensleeves
3. The Boar's Head Carol
4. Silent Night
5. Ring Out, Wild Bells

My very vague idea for a "theatrical event... involving computers and boomboxes" is coming together. I've got the skeleton of the show worked out and I'm busy filling in all the details now. I'm thinking of it as a dramatic presentation of Questionable Fidelity, though a lot of the music is not actually from the album.

Here's the setlist as it currently stands:

1. Mix Tapes [a new song]
2. Dream Pizza [considered for QF but cut]
3. Little White Trys [new song]
4. The Watcher's Lament [considered for QF]
5. I Know My Love
   
6. The Slightest Signs [new song]
   
7. Working (Life's Not) [considered for QF]
8. Little Steps
9. Mistress
10. Broken Bottle [considered for QF]
11. Dream Pizza (reprise) [new song]

This should all see the light of day early in the new year. I'm also planning to release "Dream Pizza" as a single in December (to be available as a free internet download and on a CD EP).

so, i had my first gig with The Indulgences and i have decided one thing... i could use a LOT more practice. i guess i didn't sound like it was only the first time i held a bass, but it did sound like the second. good thing i have some time to practice before tim is going to want to take me out in public again. there was one woman who was kind enough to enjoy us. may she live long and prosper with her many custom designed dresses. thank you.

Aaaaaargh! I said I'd work an extra shift today and I forgot about it! I woke up several hours into the shift and it was another half-hour before I remembered I was supposed to be somewhere. I was just sitting there thinking about the financial difficulty of keeping my guinea pigs in hay (the financial difficulty of keeping the phones on is perhaps a bigger stumbling block). So I arrived two-and-a-half hours late and my slowly emerging plan for the day has been well and truly scuttled.

Shortly after I arrived at the library, Terry told me that Joseph had been in on Saturday and left some things for me. I had hard copies of the photographs he had e-mailed to me earlier, a Richard Ashcroft CD, and a metal kazoo (all of which went some way toward making me feel a bit better). I'd be all right if I thought I could get away with playing my kazoo here in the library.

I was up all night building an entry for Song Fight; I don't know if I would have remembered to go into work if I'd gone to bed last night, but it's the reason I was asleep at three in the afternoon. The song is called "...In Bed" and it's features the voice of God reading 40 of his favorite fortune cookie messages. Treat it kindly.

well, i have finally gotten around to practicing again. Tim has come up with some learning tools perfect for crash course bass players. he is awesome and most of all very patient with me. maybe i won't sound like garbage (and i do NOT mean the band Shirley Manson is in, either) after all. seeing as how it is only a week and a half before my first performance with The Indulgences, it might be a good idea to kick it up a notch with the practices, though. *grimace* at this point i may consider some alternative methods of practice... sleeping with the guitar in my hands comes to mind and if i recall... as long as i don't drop it, it still counts as practice. *l*

Thanks very much to Joseph for sending me pictures of the first Indulgences gig. I've got an image of myself on the splash page now. :-)