RM64 Artists Record

The biggest advice I could give to anyone trying to do anything (yeah, I know…really broad) is to know your strengths. I’ve said this many times to my friends, my family, my fellow students, etc… who were in one way or another in need of help or advice. This time around, I say “know your strengths” to a group of people who have never asked me for words of wisdom and probably never will, but I feel inclined to give it anyway.

To be specific, my audience is the city of Austin, a little quirky nook in the heart of Texas with a local music industry that, while conjuring up images of vastness and notoriety, oftentimes falls short of its pompous nickname, “The Live Music Capital of the World.” It has become very clear over the past few years that unless the city can either readjust its priorities or be honest with itself, it deserves, sadly, to be stripped of that, now empty, title. (more…)

so, we’re going on tour… heading all the way down to texas! we decided to make some limited edition tour EP’s to commemorate our first trip out to the midwest. we really hope everyone enjoys them. there’s only 42 copies total, and they are all hand-made by a a fantastic artist by the name of Jackie Lee, and The Narrative. Yay, Teamwork!

In my spare time I have been taking some pictures with one of my best friends who is also an amazing artist. Gonzalo Papantonakis (seemusic.org) He paints a lot of things inspired by music and musicians. Not the least of which is my recent rabbit transformation. This will end up in a beautiful painting when I least expect it. This photo shoot was inspired by a recent trip to the 99 cent store when I was looking for hangers. Although I did not find said hangers I did happen to find myself in the middle of easter world 99 cent style. There were bunny snow globes, bunny napkins, paper center pieces and bunny bowling. But, clearly I made the right choice.

Unfortunately, this mask does not come off and after 24 hours you disappear into a dark grass lined hole where you are surrounded by miniature furniture. A table with a dim lamp casts a shadow onto a small leather bound book. The title of which is “Do you know where you are?”

I plan to make music here.

Sooo we’re going on our first (semi) national tour in the spring. So we went out and bought a van…

Straight cash homie. Cuz that’s how we roll… Ballin!

Ohhh yess….

Can’t wait to name this beauty… (and paint her black).

Anyway, holla.

Walter Chastang,

The 54

So I bought a new MIDI controller couple weeks back to replace my full-sized Yamaha keyboard. I don’t use all those octaves and it was just a hassle taking it on the road with us, so I downgraded (read: upgraded) to a M-Audio Axiom 49. I already have the Axiom 25 and dig it, but wanted a few more octaves to work with.

Anyways, I picked up said Axiom on ebay and finally received it a couple of weeks ago. Anyways, the day before our Saturday Michigan show, my controller took a terrible fall down the stairs to our band room. I stood there horrified as I watched my new baby tumble down the stairs with nothing left I could do to save it. Long story short, everything seemed fine, practiced with it, then took it to the show with us to Flushing, MI. During the first song of our set, the notes kept sustaining constantly when I wasn’t even using the pedal. I checked the back where the sustain pedal input is and found it to be slightly bent, rendering it useless and shorting out the electronics to make it sustain every note pushed. I had to use my MicroKorg for the rest of the show.

Once back home in Indiana, I picked up a soldering iron from the hardware store and went to work. I took pictures, detailing the process for you wonderful readers! (more…)

Well folks,

It’s been a minute, but I’ve been a busy man.  The Southern Souls and I just played NPR’s internationally syndicated radio show, Mountain Stage.  If you have heard public radio anywhere you will hear this show, it’s on somehting like 90 some stations across the us, I think it plays on Sunday night almost everywhere.  Our show is slated to air in April.

There’s little hallmarks in your life that sort of act like high water marks insofar as accomplishments go, and for me and the Southern Souls, this was definitely one of em.  I tell you what man.  I first went to Mountain stage probably back in like 90 or 91, and saw that band, The Proclaimers, you know, “and I would walk 500 miles. 

The next time I saw this show it was maybe 95 or so and had already been playing for a few years, It was at this show that I got to meet Slide guitar legend Sonny Landreth and I’ll be danmed if the dude did’nt sit right down with me and show me how he did some of the things that he did.  One of the most original slide player of the last 30 years just fucking sat and showed me his tricks right there. 

So to be able to be on this show as a guest artist meant the world too me. 

If you have’nt gathered, It’s no less than a huge fucking honor to play this thing.  So here’s the recap, we played right after THE BOTTLE ROCKETS!,….Right Before SAM BUSH, yes THE Sam Bush, one of the greatest living Mandolin players, one of the guys who pretty much started Nu grass.  Then as if that was’nt enough the mighty Lucero headlined.

But, for the finale all of the guests came out and did Ronnie Dale Hawkins’ Susie Q.  As a grizzled veteran of the applichian pub circuit, you’d think that my ass would have had more than enough of this one, but not when your jamming it out in between Sam Bush on the Mando, and Scot Vestal on the Banjo.  Definietely a night to remember. 

Here’s a shot of me Jamming with Sam Bush during the Finale.

And here’s some video footage that appeared on youtube today of our first song. “I’m No Stranger”

My friend Adam got the whole thing on video so hopefully I can get some of that posted in the next How To Make a Record,…out this week!

Take care
Bud

Good afternoon internet. I recently came across this picture on your endless waves of information. Someone named “Thirst n’ Howl” took some pics of us at our last Roxy show. He was there to review the band before us for ‘indie rock reviews’ site. Anyway, I am glad he came because this incredible image was born. I actually remember this moment, and was feeling a bunch of things at the time which are much better expressed in this image. I will say that John is one of my favorite people and one of the most talented musicians I know and have had the luck to be able to learn from. Surrounding yourself with people you can learn from is very important in music…and life. Duh. But seriously, it’s ok to not know what you are doing. A lot of art begins as a mistake. Get uncomfortable and make something new.

Also, John asked me if I knew I was wearing my underwear on the outside. This was an important question because, what if I didn’t know? That could have been very embarrassing.

Ok the topic of this link may be a little late. I’m actually somewhat surprised no one has said anything about this yet. Of course I’m talking about the Super Bowl!… more specifically, the halftime performance by The Who. It’s obvious why this choice was, yet again, highly debated by a lot of people. The NFL, since the foreeeever infamous “wardrobe malfunction” incident with Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake, has taken the safe senior citizen approach to music… Lets take a look at the list; since the controversy in 2004 we’ve seen:
2005- Paul McCartney 2006- The Rolling Stones 2007- Prince 2008- Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers 2009- Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band and now 2010- The Who.

The Who Superbowl Halftime Performance

Now lets look at these guys’ ages. With the exception of Prince (and those mystery/auxillary/replacement members all these bands seem to have now…) every single one of these guys is in their 60s!!! (Prince is a mere 51). Prince, or honestly, any of these acts would have been an OK selection… but that’s if it were just one of them and the other years had different acts! Otherwise, they’re just lumped in with what seems to be the AARP Brigade!

-”Hold on! What are you sayin?? These guys are legends!”

That’s right. Every one of em is. I do not dispute their musical history of greatness. They’re just too old now. I mean, who wants to see, year in and year out, performers who are mere shells of their former selves? Nothing against them, but they just can’t perform like they could 40 years ago… that’s just the way it works when you’re a human being!

-”But the NFL is just giving fans what they want. Think about the average NFL fan. It’s not just a bunch of young people!”

Well I’m glad you mentioned that. All you have to do is Google ‘average age of NFL fan’ and you’ll see that Experian’s market research reported that around Superbowl time, the average NFL fan is not in his/her 60s… in fact the demographics are pretty even. Here are the numbers.

35-44                           21%

45-54                           20%

25-34                           18%

65+                              16%

55-64                           15%

18-24                           10%

And just so you don’t have to do the math, it’s only 51% above age 44 compared to 49% under. And this data doesn’t even include those under 18. I know I didn’t wait till I became a legal adult to start tuning in to the Superbowl.

-”Well who do you wanna see anyway? These young new auto tune people? Taylor Swift? Jonas Brothers?? Lil’ Wayne???”

No, no, and no. There are two things that I’m glad has changed about the Super Bowl Halftime Show since 2004: 1) That they aren’t trying to squeeze something like 7 acts and 13 chopped up songs into 12 minutes, and 2) That they aren’t doing pop music anymore cuz pop music kiiinda sucks right now.

So who do I propose play these shows? Well look. Someone who’s 40 now… was 20 in 1990… 20! So I say it’s at LEAST time to move up a couple decades out of the 60s and 70s and into the 90s.

-”Well you can’t just have these legends for 5 years in a row and then go to some 90s non-hall-of-fame act. There will be a huge drop off.”

Well we can even eeease into it maybe with an act that has had success throughout the decades. U2 and Aerosmith have already performed so they’re out, but someone such as Santana who is in his 60s but has managed to stay relevant with each generation up through the 2000’s would work just to ease us out of antiquity. But look, can we eventually get a Pearl Jam or somethin? They’re back together. Soundgarden is back together. Alice In Chains is reformed. Smashing Pumpkins never left. What about Red Hot Chili Peppers? Foo Fighters? These guys sold a looot of records! Metallica is one of the best selling bands of all time too, though they might be a little too aggressive for the NFL. I could even be ok with eventually seeing Nickelback (who I’m not that big on), or Linkin Park or even Jay-Z perform. They’ve all sold enough records to qualify.

I’m not saying never let an old guy perform in the Super Bowl ever again… Just don’t ONLY let old guys perform! There are other generations of music lovers watching the Super Bowl! It’s time for the NFL to get younger or else the NFL is going to go from already being called the No Fun League to being called the Nothing Fresh League or the Needs Femurs League. I’m just sayin…

and by “I,” I mean

Walter Chastang… of The 54.

Ok I’m through bashing old people now. Comments are welcome. I’m out.

What is the price people will pay for not paying for music?

A good friend of ours, Will Noon of the band Straylight Run, briefly explained in his recent blog post that a band is a business, and like any other business, without a sufficient income it simply will not survive.  Such is the current fate for Straylight Run, and a thousand other bands who seemingly have it all.

Within the last several years, music has become more accessible than we ever could have imagined.  More than ever, we are sharing our favorite bands with people we’ve never met, stumbling across songs that we feel literally save our lives, and expanding our music vocabularies, libraries,  and boundaries, and are growing musically as a culture in a way that is unrivaled by any era.  Never before have we had such a difficult time classifying music into genres.  A new sound is born every day.

Do we take it for granted?  Of course we do.

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