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Sun, 19 Feb 2012 13:14:37 -0700

Awww yeah. Cover of Metallica’s “Orion.” I got...

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 00:30:03 -0700

Awww yeah. Cover of Metallica’s “Orion.” I got bored and decided I need to flex my recording muscles. :P

Photo

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 23:22:10 -0700

I’ve always loved this one. :)

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:43:31 -0700

I’ve always loved this one. :)

lovequotesrus: Photo Courtesy: loserface666

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 02:00:16 -0700

lovequotesrus:

Photo Courtesy: loserface666

lovequotesrus: Photo Courtesy: flickr

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 01:59:50 -0700

lovequotesrus:

Photo Courtesy: flickr

lovequotesrus: Photo Courtesy: khamzkee

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 01:58:49 -0700

lovequotesrus:

Photo Courtesy: khamzkee

tumblr-sketchbook: Billy Joel Lyrics (by johnkanesmith)

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 02:26:34 -0700

tumblr-sketchbook:

Billy Joel Lyrics (by johnkanesmith)

lovequotesrus: Photo Courtesy: only-the-unloved-hate

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:27:22 -0700

lovequotesrus:

Photo Courtesy: only-the-unloved-hate

Not my creation, but fitting.

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:34:47 -0700

Not my creation, but fitting.

lovequotesrus: Photo Courtesy: fleshscars

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 00:36:30 -0700

lovequotesrus:

Photo Courtesy: fleshscars

Photo

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:09:58 -0700

greenandyellowmelancholy: :) That pesky dark passenger.

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 01:04:15 -0700

greenandyellowmelancholy:

:)

That pesky dark passenger.

Studio Upgrade!

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 00:16:05 -0700

Okay, so really a computer upgrade, but hey. The geeks are gonna love this.

So, prior to X-mas (pronounced Ecks-muss, thank you Futurama) I was rocking a nigh 5 year old computer. Here’s what it had

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4 GHz
8GB DDR2-800
Nvidia 8800 GTS 640MB

Here’s what I’m rocking as of 11:48pm MST, December 25, 2011:

Intel Core i7 2600 3.4GHz
16GB DDR3-1600
AMD Radeon 6870 1GB

It’s so stinking fast by comparison. The RAM and processor upgrade are actually what I’m most stoked for. They’re gonna make recording that much easier.

The video card just helps Skyrim look stunning. Gah, omg, it looks amazing. I loves it!

Anyway, I’m kinda geeking out over this as I put my studio back together after a fresh format. I didn’t realize that a few updates to Sonar X1 had come out, so I’m working on that too. Glee!

Hope everyone had a good holiday. Here’s to 2012. Live like it’s your last year… even though it’s not. Silly Mayans.

Seriously need to blog more

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 21:45:13 -0700

Rargh. And other such onomatopoeiae. So, I’ve made small progress on the album. As you may have guessed, it’s not coming out in September… if you haven’t guessed, either you didn’t catch the blog post where I said it would be out around September, or you don’t really have a concept of what order the months go in. I can’t really fault you for either. Regarding the former, not a whole lot of people read my blog. For the latter, you’re not at fault, the education system is, which is just a whole ‘nother can of worms entirely. Seriously. I think it’s critically flawed.

But I’ll write another blog about that some other time. If I remember to blog. And when/if I remember to blog, I’ll probably forget to blog about that. I’ll probably go on another socio-political rant. Like how fervently I support gay marriage. The recent bill that allows Americans to be detained indefinitely if suspected of terrorism. Or bullying. I’ll go on a mini rant on bullying. Bullying used to be a symptom of the bully. It just meant that that particular person was slightly less of a human being. He hadn’t evolved all the way to civilized society, so was still harboring some cro-magnon instincts. I punch harder, therefore, I’m superior. Even when I was a kid, which was not that long ago (I’m 23, do the math) bullies were just jerks. Now-a-days, it’s being treated as a societal problem. An epidemic of sorts. We have to stop bullying. The War on Bullying! Up there with the wars on terror and drugs. Newsflash: Bullying is going to happen. You can’t stop it. It’s part of growing up. They’ll eventually learn in the real world that bullying in the traditional sense doesn’t get you far. In fact, it gets you fired and kicked out of places. As for the people being bullied, unless it’s something so traumatic that it causes mega social issues, they’ll probably turn out fine. I did. *twitch*

Anyhow, micro-rant over.

Music. Yes, music. I’ve been playing acoustic shows at the local Crown Bar (Corner of Lincolnway and Carey Ave, Cheyenne, Wyoming) and having a blast. I’m there every Friday from 6pm-9pm, and play primarily covers. It’s the thing I look forward to most every single week. I live for Friday. ^_^

I’m also starting to write lyrics, which is odd for me since I relate more with instrumental music, but I want to get my lyrical chops up and start playing original music at these shows.

On top of the acoustic shows, I’ve also been playing more and more shows with my band Steel March. Those have been getting better and better, and we’re looking forward to getting back into writing mode again. We released our CD “Damage Done” back in July, and we’ve sold quite a few copies (I don’t have an exact number at this time), but only one of the songs on there was writting by us as a band. Everything else had been written by our singer and bassist Juliet prior to us forming Steel March. I came in and added my own guitar parts (which, on a few occasions were radically different from what previous guitarists had played, and I feel good about that) but we only wrote one song as a band: “You’ll Never Know.” It’s a blues song with bite.

As for the solo stuff, I wrote and recorded the first song since “Liberate Your World” about a month ago, “Eyes On Fire.” It’s got a very hooky melody that I’m pretty proud of. It’s not just guitar solos over guitar riffs like a lot of my previous work, and the structure deviates a little from my norm. A lot of my songs go ABCBCDBC, a being the intro. This one goes ABCBCDEBCDA. A is the intro and outro, B is the verse, C are little bridges, D is the chorus, E is the solo. I’m starting to focus more on interesting structures as well as interesting chord progressions. This one is actually pretty simple, but to keep things interesting, I alternated between a straight-up lead tone, adding wah, or adding the whammy pedal. Man, that pedal can add spice to anything if you want it to catch ears.

I have some time off from my day job coming up, and no gigs with the band for another week or so, so I plan on finalizing what few songs I have left for this CD, and possibly replacing one or two with more recent pieces.

Here’s to doing what we love for life. Signing out. :)

Ladies and gents, I give you “Eyes On Fire.” ♫...

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 00:14:46 -0700

Ladies and gents, I give you “Eyes On Fire.” ♫ >:D

Two Challenges This Month!

Sun, 30 Oct 2011 18:06:35 -0600

So, I’ve officially committed myself to two challenges for the month of November: National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and the lesser known National Solo Album Month (NaSoAlMo).

The goal of both is to complete a work starting on November 1, and ending on November 30. For NaNoWriMo, the challenge is to write a novel (50,000 words, roughly 175 pages), and NaSoAlMo’s goal is to write, record and perform an album (29:09 of music, 10 pop songs, roughly).

For me, both of these present specific challenges. For NaNoWriMo, I haven’t written for pleasure in about 6 years, when I wrote short stories in high school. We’ll see what I come up with, but I know this: It’s not going to be any sort of masterpiece.

NaSoAlMo forces me to silence my inner critic and personal music filter for a month and let the ideas flow. I have a ton of crappy guitar riff ideas in my head that could easily be fleshed out to give some mediocre songs. The idea is quantity over quantity, though, so the mixes are probably gonna suck, and the songs predictable. But hey, that’s the point: Lower expectations and just be an output machine. :)

Wish me luck! Anyone else out there taking part in these or anything else in November? The less-than-preferable weather is perfect for little challenges like this, even if you make your own goals. If you’re an artist, maybe do a piece a day. If you’re a screenwriter, NaNoWriMo also hosts the April Scriptwriting Frenzy, but you could totally do that in November! Anything. Hit me up if you’re doing anything like this. bobby[at]bobbyphillipps.net

Good luck to all of you!

My Folks

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 23:41:47 -0600

My parents are fucking awesome. I couldn’t ask for a more supportive, fun, grounded, well rounded pair of folks. They come to a lot of my shows, drag their friends out too. They were supportive when I was engaged, and even through our breakup and everything ever since. They supported me dropping out of college, chasing my dream of professional musicianship, and even as a whole new, scary and risky chapter of my life is beginning, they’re still there offering support. They also give me space. Since moving out, they don’t pester to make sure I’m eating enough, bills are being paid, and stuff like that. They know I’m an adult who can handle himself, and that, coupled with everything else, is just cool. I can go a super long time without seeing them, and we’re still tight.

This is to my parents, who in less than a week will be celebrating their 31st wedding anniversary. Were it not for them, I wouldn’t be able to do what I do. Love you guys!

Rough mix with a few scratch tracks still in there, and it was...

Sun, 09 Oct 2011 23:33:53 -0600

Rough mix with a few scratch tracks still in there, and it was definitely mastered WAY too hot… but otherwise, here you go, a re-recorded version of “Liberate Your Mind” (Working Title).

Don’t worry, all that crap will be fix for the album version. :)

My first attempt at acoustic guitar recording. Still ironing out...

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 17:53:45 -0600

My first attempt at acoustic guitar recording. Still ironing out the kinks, but I thought I’d share this one. I open a lot of my acoustic shows with this little jam, or some permutation of it. :)

Bobby Phillipps - Powered By Tumblr

Photo

Awww yeah. Cover of Metallica’s “Orion.” I got...

Photo

I’ve always loved this one. :)

lovequotesrus: Photo Courtesy: loserface666

lovequotesrus: Photo Courtesy: flickr

lovequotesrus: Photo Courtesy: khamzkee

tumblr-sketchbook: Billy Joel Lyrics (by johnkanesmith)

lovequotesrus: Photo Courtesy: only-the-unloved-hate

Not my creation, but fitting.

lovequotesrus: Photo Courtesy: fleshscars

Photo

greenandyellowmelancholy: :) That pesky dark passenger.

Studio Upgrade!

Seriously need to blog more

Ladies and gents, I give you “Eyes On Fire.” ♫...

Two Challenges This Month!

My Folks

Rough mix with a few scratch tracks still in there, and it was...

My first attempt at acoustic guitar recording. Still ironing out...

Bobby Phillipps - Powered By Tumblr