Blog Report: When Larny Wanted to Rock Out (for real this time)

Howdy friends,

I gave myself a few months to think this over. And I think now is the right time to say it.

I know full well that it's prime time to start a collective. But more specifically, I want to get a live backing band going. I've got my reasons for it too:

1. Almost every show has been with live instruments so far
2. I enjoy working with people in music
3. Just rapping over a beat is a cop-out
4. A live band gives more flexibility to arrangements. Songs can be expanded, truncated, re-imagined, etc.
5. The last show was a big reason to get the ball rolling. I was the only guy without an instrument. It was awkward. Good show, but it was off-setting.

However, reality is a bit of a downer in this situation. The problem is that right now, many of the people I want to play with are in a stage where no one's in a centralized location, making coordination of practice and other things, hard, if not impossible.

So in a simple way of saying it, the next generation of the live band (working title is Aces Down 2.0) will not have a static lineup, rather, it will be dynamic and changing. Instead of going through the process of losing someone then blowing it up, it will hopefully work in the fact that people come and go, and pieces will be added and subtracted as the moment calls for it. And before anyone asks, this is a bit different from the untitled project I was working on last year. Not the exact same, but unique enough to avoid confusion.

Another reason why I want to work with a band is because I have a plethora of songs written that quite frankly, would be wasted on the computerized beats method. Not saying beats are bad, but in these cases, live instrumentation gives better energy to the music that's trying to be made. There's a certain anger, a darkness to these songs that I don't think MIDI programming could totally make sense of.

Here's what I'm looking for:

• Guitar: Lead and Bass. 
• Vocalist: Hooks/Choruses and Harmonic Verses.
• Drummer: Able to play mid-tempo jams, can keep a steady beat

So yes, the next wave is going to happen. Hoping this summer or late spring but I have my doubts. Mum's the word.

-mc larny

Winter War Micro-Tour Recap (And More)

Coming off a week where everything happened, the Winter War Micro-Tour was perhaps the most physically exhausting yet rewarding set of shows I've been a part of.

I guess it was an experiment, if I could actually create a show that was reliant on one person, rather than a group of people, and do it over and over again. A sampler of a future life, I guess.

Show #1 at Patrick's in Malden was a warm up, a chance to tweak some things, soundwise and manipulation wise as well. Also, working on stage presence and just focus trying to incorporate the elements of my skill set was a focus. I would say the appreciation I received was great and encouraging. Mainly because I changed my approach.

I stopped trying to be the perfect guy, and instead just went out and existed.

Show #2 at the All Asia was rough to start with. Hoping that a chunk of my friends would be there as moral support kinda didn't happen...so I took the stage, a little nervous, a little afraid.

And what happened was magical. Just entering a zone that for so many nights, I had dreamed about, planned out and mentally prepared myself to step into.

I went for nearly 30 minutes, all rapping. Which scares me, because I think my max was probably 20 minutes, but 30, without a drink next to me, was wild. 

Getting props from the bartender was a huge boost in my confidence as well.

This was fun, very much so. Thanks to everyone who came out to see me, it was great.