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Sunday arvo loungeroom rehearsal.

The theory goes that with the new album out you focus on...bah. Boring. That's so last century.

What these guys need is to get the new stuff into the set. It's hard. There's discussion, disagreement, back and forth.

This is great.

We've thrived on being chaotic, it suits the times. Also driving new stuff into the set. It's risky. Really. 

D. explained it to me this week. Doing new stuff is all about creating new neural connectors.

That's far out.

It's hard to do because you haven't done this thing quite the same before.

That makes the Gig a risk. Yep that's right. At the rate of material turn out, you're asking your brain to learn new stuff all time.

What if you get it wrong. In Public.

YAY!

Brother Bill is afeared of nothing, Mr Wizard is too busy creating to worry about consistency, Rosie demands Precision and Theo demands timing.

I'd like to stay in tune.

So here we are, with a bunch of solid, well practiced songs and instead, let's go do brand new stuff and build some new neural networks!

I'm doing Album Release housekeeping. I shall not rant about marketing. I shall not rant about marketing.

Cellar Dweller and Friend Of The Band Mr Pete got me thinking about how much stuff we're linked to.

If you stop to consider that 2020 is only 3 years away, you get a sense that the 20th century has finally, unwillingly, started to relinquish its hold on us.

Songs, written now, that contain Genetic Elements are no longer copies. They're descendants. 

And none more descended than us? Thieves in the temple, there are thieves in the temple, liberating the past and adding Mr Potato Head.

Actually, if you wan to see the future, well, here ya go.

Warning - man was not meant to know certain things.

Like Male Rompers.

I warned you.

But seriously though (non sequitur of the year?) - by the time it's just OK for Dudes to wear Pastel Jammies in groups in public, I'm telling ya Bub, the future is now.

So it made me think.

In one of the songs we just worked on, I swear there are four notes that only make sense to me as part of Golden Brown by the stranglers.

One way of looking at it is 'hmm, lots of people use similar chord patterns' and 'Everything's been done before' or for those unfamiliar with the Stranglers 'huh'?.

Yeah.

That's when I wondered it Chords are like Words - if you don't use'em they fall out of the vocabulary.

Right, guv'nor?

I think Steal Early and Often. I also think, MINE MINE MINE!!!!

Once you have appropriated (liberated? been inspired by? Nicked?) an idea, just go nuts. It's Mine now I stole it fair and square

until it makes any money and then sue.

I mean. Um.

Ah.

So maybe there are limits.

But also maybe there are just a set of pleasing to the ear sounds, like the words of a language, approaching infinite in combination. Ok not maybe infinite exactly cos that is really big. But a lot.

As time passes, the commonality of radio disappears, we emerge into a world of separate parallel experiences, channels, choices. We don't get the same signals we once did from historical items because...history moved on. Ye gods.

It's a fascinating time to be in it.

By Bye 1980. Hello 2020. 

Also - I'm itching to do another videoclip for something. Something quick, cheap and quick. Also cheap.

To celebrate the release of album 9, here's a video for a song from Album 6. 

As part of the due diligence before you release the album you have to listen it.

Again.

And again.

and again.

Until the very words and sounds lose all meaning and it simply becomes 'are the levels too loud?' or 'did that file transfer work?'

Oh BB. Is the thrill gone??

Pretty sure we're at the point where criteria are 'does it pass muster' , but the tendency to listen and go 'hmm' or 'umm..' still occurs and I am acknowledging that those thoughts crop up more than may strictly be useful. 

Especially after you have uploaded the final release version and it's too late. Yikes.

But I accept it and deal with it. I think Defiance is a good piece of work.

Knowing when to stop is also an art form. It's done. Album 9.

To be fair, I've also had my head so far in the next project, it feels like I am stepping backwards to go to an album we are only just releasing. That's so nuts. 

I LIKE that it's that nuts. 

First person to act like there are no rules, when there are no rules, has the most fun!

Making stuff is what drives us. So it bloody well should. There's a lag time between concept and outcome. That means we'll always be chasing the next thought. Thoughts are easy, writing is cheap. Making stuff takes longer. So we celebrate finishing album 9 and work on album 10. And a videoclip for a song from album 7.

Make less rules and make more stuff.

Album 9 is now online.

http://cdbaby.com/cd/stormcellar23

We will probably press a limited run of CD's. Maybe. 

It will be up on itunes soon but for now you can get the files directly from CD baby.

Here's one of the songs from the album, in full, featuring the ****ing amazing Rob Dixon on Sax.