Music Update

I disbanded my group, Rise Above, due to several variables but foremost it just ceased to be fun and that was the primary reason for doing it in the first place. My original idea was to simply be a Black Flag tribute band. Black Flag, oddly enough, is my roots...the first thing I got really into post Kiss (I went to every Flag gig they ever did in N.O.) The band evolved into an 80's hardcore tribute band, covering everything from Bad Brains to DRI because Black Flag, in and of itself got a bit kind of monatonous.

Other members of the bands got tired of doing covers and wanted to evolve into an original band. I was a bit skeptical but went along with the flow despite my reservations. We all agreed that we wanted to stay true to the attitude and vibe of the 80's hardcore that we were doing and our guitarist (Scott Walle) pretty much got the ball rolling with a couple of great tunes Bring Out Your Dead and Fake. You can hear both songs on the myspace site. Both of those songs are so aggressive and true to the genre without being generic that I became inspired to do the same. The first song I wrote for the group turned out to be a song called Attitude. I came up with the main riff in a dream, woke up and figured out the notes I was hearing. It's a really basic kind of hardcore thrash chord progression but I added this aspect of crazy sounding diminished pull offs to it that I got Scott to play while I held down the root notes of the progression. I consider it to be a classic hardcore riff on the same level, dare I say, of Necrophobic by Slayer. It's just a real frenzied sounding thing that makes you want to spaz out in a slam pit.

The next one I wrote was called Warblind and this time I defined every aspect of the song and delivered to the group ala cart. Most people that have heard the track consider it their favorite song on the disc. The chorus was a doomy chromatic line that incorporated almost every note in the chromatic scale. It's killer doom without tuning low. The other guys in the band affectionately called it "the Soilent song" because it just sounded so chromatic. I can never completely remove myself from the Soilent "sound" because I helped create it but what I think sets what I compose now apart from them I that everything makes sense harmonically and the change-ups share related harmonic motives. I write a song with three riffs that all belong together in a harmonic way and flow together but still sound unconventional and bizarre. What I've heard them doing since my departure seems almost seems like it's designed to make as little harmonically sense as possible. Whether that's by design or not, I can only speculate.

An aspect I'm particularly proud of is that I think I've proven that one can write as heavy as anything out thee but still be in standard tuning. It's so much easier to write heavy music in a sub-standard tuning but I hate to lose my mid and high range. Extended range instruments are cool... I've written on them as well but I believe that the fewer variables the better. I've heard Chinese violin playing that will make you weep and that's a two string instrument! Many of what I feel are my best riffs can be played on one string alone. I like being able to do more with less. Another one I wrote called A Thousand Knives is kind of an homage to my old bandmate, Donavan Punch with it's knucklebusting scalar sequences. When we were recording it I was so displeased with the quality of the bands performance of the song, I wanted to leave it off the CD. I'm pretty much a perfectionist when it comes to the performance of the material I write and the level of performance from some of the other members was a big part in my push to end the project. Also my rig got put into the shop a day before the recording so I had to play some things legato instead of staccato, as I would have preferred.

The underground scene is now anemic, at best. We lost a haven of underground musicians and fans in the destruction of Chalmette...a huge loss to the musical culture of the scene that I fear will never rebound and many of the musicians and fans have not come back to the city. I'm not sure were I'll go from here, musically...I'll just play it by ear as always. I plan to post some videos of me playing crazy riffs, Bach etudes, callisthenic things or whatever to this blog or the Rie Above Archive using my digital video camera.

New Life Update

My amazingly beautiful son just turned 4 months old a couple of days ago. I had been told so many horror stories about having to wake up every 4 hours during the night, being a zombie all the time, etc.... but those tales just don't apply to this cool little man. He sleeps all night and is so good natured...I can't get over how lucky mom and I are. I love his big smile he gives me when he first sees me in the morning. It reminds me of when he saw me for the first time in his life. Maybe he thinks I'm funny looking and it makes him laugh. Given the conditions we've been living with, his disposition is even more of a blessing. My family wasn't able to coordinate soon enough to stop the spread of the mold and hold back the additional damage of the summer rains and the family house that has stood for nearly 150 years seems doomed. We are living in a fema trailer next to the interstate and while were glad to have shelter and a relatively mold-free environment for the baby , the conditions are less than ideal. The problem is they're simply are not enough resources to install all these trailers properly. We were told that if we didn't have a location for the trailer (and an inspector ruled out putting one the family property) we would have to wait an indefinite amount of time and with a newborn, waiting wasn't an option. There is also a powerful chemical agent that one notices when entering the trailer that I now know from news reports is formaldahide. It makes your eyes burn and water.

My boss's landlord graciously offered a location on his property. While his property is being renovated, he had to house himself and my boss in trailers on an empty lot that falls within his property line. Our trailer wasn't configured properly and to make a long story short, all the sewerage from the property gushes out underneath our trailer. Sometimes the smell is unbearable. There have been countless reps from the Shaw Group (the trailer maintenance and installation company contracted by fema) have come over to observe but they all just come in, see the situation and with an obvious emotional combination of frustration and helplessness, shake their heads and promise to do something.

FEMA has promised to get us out of here into some decent housing soon, so there may be some light at the end of the tunnel but our shares of optimism are dwindling.