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Ah it was good to be back. 

Each time at Coogee, Mr Wizard wants to start with POWAH! POWAH!

....aaaaand we wind up starting with Every Where Feels Like Home.

Which can be a surprise for those listening when we switch over to the POWAH set.

Well not exactly the POWAH set but we wanted to try the new stuff, and that's electric.

I do try to provide warning to those assembled, there are two guitarists with amplifiers. It's not metal but there will be some sound.

Speaking of amps, Mr Wizards new Vito rig is wonderful. I'll ask him to post some details.

Last night we had a chance to road test 4...no...6 of the songs from the next project.

The next batch are another interesting yet understandable mutation. Brother Bill has a depth of complexity to his work and it shows in this lot.

This is the first time we've used Multi Track at the Demo stage, leading to more dubs, more layers.

There's still the abbreviated musical syntax Mr Wizard likes from modern Japanese music, Brother Bill has been able to absorb and distill it. More Paul than Paul.

The arrangement on 'I disappear' echoes stylistic choices we've made/continue to make, excepting that it's an even more refined version. Brother Bill is one scary dude.

Taken together, playing these new songs in a bracket shows the relationship in thought, something that is consistent across each of the things we do. As the thought changes, the music changes, or vice versa.

10 years in and continuing to take risks and mutate. Heh.

Mutato Potato!

Songs come and go from the setlist until turning the page remembers an old forgotten favourite.

It's still risky to do new stuff. wonderfully risky. I'm still iffy on the vocals, the words, the guys on arrangement.

Yet casting our ears back over the last 10 years they feels like songs from another century, and maybe that's the case.

True Fact: Mr Wizard originally proposed a name for our band - Blues Factor 4. Yep. Sci Fi is in our DNA. 

If we have thought afar it is because we stand upon the shoulders of giants.

Thank you Stephen Hawking, godspeed.

This week we started work on the Starlight Suite element of the Dark Skies project. Brother Bill found a structure, the Solar system.

Idea's and guide tracks are coming into my inbox at dinosaur threatening speed. Between the other songs Mr Wizard, Rosie and Brother Bill are sending my way, I'm calling this the Heavy Bombardment Period.

Space is in our minds right now.

In addition to Hawking radiation and continuing to popularisie science, Stephen Hawking may have been an inspiration in another way: to do what you can, no matter what your circumstances, for as long as you are able.

Ever forward, onward traveller.

Congratz to Team8 for a clean sweep of round 137 on Game Of Bands, with our very own MJEB on VOX! This Dungeons & Dragons themed song is a hootl

Carl, our Golden Roadie and I were doing errands and listening to this track the whole time. This could be a big dance number I reckon.

This Friday night we're in Coogee at The Bunker at the Coogee Diggers club.

There's a great joy in solving the basic problems. The solutions themselves are often as much fun as the underlying objective.

Working out how to do the writing part of Jo's project leads to consideration of the logistics of managing the trip to the bush or from the bush to the city.

Of course, Jo wouldn't agree that she's in the Bush. Those who live in the Bush consider themselves to be living in the country.

Those living in the suburbs still think of themselves as living in the city.

What do people in the bush think of themselves living in?

One in the bush is worth two in the country?

These are questions I am determined to answer. Someone's got to.

Managing the Social

I've been highly suspicious of social media for some time. I remain suspicious.

It yields not to my understanding and I cannot apply electricity to the people who operate these entities in a way that would produce, if not truth, then an amusing shriek.

Ahem.

Um.

We have some down time with shifted plans.

The 1800 Hours

I did some math. That's the time investment in touring, prep, etc. There's a few things we could also do with that time.

That includes stripping out and rebuilding some web stuff and redoing our social media stuff. Yet why?

I'm 'meant' to. Why?

Listening in a time of Talking

More material is uploaded to youtube than the human species has time to watch.

The world has gained a megaphone, we shout over one another. We seek approval in checks and ticks on screen, rather than in our own satisfaction.

It's faster. It's encouraged by those who feed upon it.

Yet we're more than simply ego.

We'd miss the preen, we'd miss the peacock. Why not revel in the foibles of our species. 

Still, we're more than that.

Over time, as we know we want to love and be loved, we'll listen more and shout less. I guess I'm speaking for myself, contradicting even the thought by, well, speaking.

I'm reveling in these foibles.

I'll also be buggering around with the social media stuff and going why the heck am I doing this.

This wonderful messy mystery.