Holiday Technology Meltdown!

Yikes!

Just in time for the holidays, my studio machine melted down AGAIN. I seem to be having a poltergeist on the main system drive--this is the third time in 6 months, after no trouble in the previous 5 years. Boo. That's what I get for doing a system update just before I needed to record. Bad monkey!

I got it running again, but not in time to track anything this weekend--still have to reinstall all the recording software etc. So, as I'm wont to do in such situations, I fished through the archives. For your entertainment then, following in the theme of the recent Riley reunion: a recording of Riley playing Zappa's "Magic Fingers" live on WBFO from back in 1998 (I think? If not, hopefully one of the other Riley dudes will correct me). 

If my memory serves, only a few people have copies of this recording, so hopefully it will be of interest. There's also a clip of us playing this on YouTube at the reunion show last month, but this one is ready to slip into your iTunes. Whee!

Everyone please have a safe and wonderful holiday; the Squeakytunes will resume in the first week of 2009!

Rockin' in the dark!

The Riley reunion show over Thanksgiving was tons of fun! It was a little dark, though. For some reason the bar couldn't turn on all the stage lights--a problem we failed to consider while setting up, as there are LOTS of lights hung and pointed at the stage. Except, it turns out that only one set of them worked.

Which ended up being kind of interesting--it put this pool of light right in front of the e-drum kit, exactly where nobody was. Kurt ended up being pretty visible, you can see Mike's guitar's headstock sometimes, and Ken occasionally wandered over there with his stage-wackiness turned up to 11, which was awesome, but for the most part it was the four of us playing in the dark clustered around a pool of light.

It sort of screams "THIS IS ART ROCK!"

Anyway, Kurt's dad did an awesome job of videotaping the show under the conditions. I seem to recall him perched on top of the bar's Pac-Man machine, trying to velcro his camera to the wall or something to get a good angle. Heroic!

Here's one clip on YouTube (I'm the writhing shadow all the way over to the right); you can find the rest of the show easily from there if it strikes yer fancy:

New Song: Walk Away

But first: the Riley reunion gig over Turkey Day went really well! Lots of people there having a great time, the four of us on stage included. Special appearances included NSS and Tim O'Connell. Woot, and many thanks to all who were involved.

Oddly enough, after we got back, I ran across some old Riley videotapes while tidying up. I'm going to try to digitize them, and if it works I'll post some of the results here.

Ok, to business. Tonight's ditty is a cheerful little number written in reaction to the over-commercialization rampant in our world today. Get yer cynicism right here, in time for the holidays! Muahaha!

Other notes: for those keeping score (that would be, uh, ME, and, uh, ME) this recording represents the first appearance of Jody's awesome Kustom guitar on one of my tunes. Been meaning to use it for a while, and here it's holding down both the lead and rhythm. That Bigsby tremolo is just too much fun.

Walk Away (get the mp3 here! now with 100% digital bits!)<<<<<<<<<<
(c) 2008 Mark Frey

The hype machine is in overdrive
commanding attention now
promising good times will arrive
without saying when or how

the cola wars and the American Dream
have become the same
styrofoam-packed disposable lifestyle
soft focus in a neon frame

and we buy into their garbage
every minute every day
is it time to wake up?
is it time to walk away?

Ad men tell us when to be horny
when to fight, when to shed a tear
make us believe in the glories
of bigger TV and weaker beer

and we buy into their garbage
every minute every day
is it time to wake up?
is it time to walk away?

muscle cars and morning pills
every moment bottled and sold
focus groups with sound bite honesty
dreams and fears and greed uncontrolled?

the hype machine is in overdrive
craving attention now
promising good times will arrive
but not saying when or how