Hello world.
Not a whole lot has been going on lately with the instrumental crew in New Orleans. Not too many shows, at least.
Smiley With A Knife is putting the finishing touches on their album, which they will soon begin releasing online, one song at a time. They also have a tour planned, from July 23rd to August 7th, spanning from New Orleans all the way up to Brooklyn, NY. Soon after, on August 21st, they will have their CD release show at the Howlin’ Wolf Den w/ Man at Home and Six Gallery. They have worked their asses of on this album, as you have seen in their “60 seconds” episodes, so they are excited to finally be releasing it to everyone.
Both High In One Eye and Rabbit are taking it easy right now. That is, they aren’t playing many shows. But they are currently writing new songs and getting ready to record. Rabbit plans to record in August. High In One Eye also plans to record before the end of summer. Look out for new music!
And now for a quick rant…
There is a daily struggle that occurs in my mind. The first half of the fight involves separating my own wants from the wants of others. The second half involves following through with my own wants despite the opinions of others. Sometimes I lose the fight and sometimes I win. But from now on, I will always win.
For me, instrumental music is about creating the exact type of music that I want to create. It is difficult for some people to do this, especially for people that are not used to playing music in a band with no lyrics/vocals. This can make being in an instrumental band more difficult, because you have so many different ideas for the music that it can be hard to find a common ground. But when a common ground is found, it is a beautiful thing. This is exactly why I love being in an instrumental band, and it is exactly why I love talking about and analyzing the music of other instrumental bands. When it all comes together, the result is something beautiful and honest.
And honesty is the most desirable aspect of anything, in my opinion. Honesty is happiness, not just in music, but in any part of life. If you can be honest with yourself and accept every positive and negative aspect of yourself, you will be happy. And that’s what everyone wants, right? This state is hard to achieve, but it is worth the effort.
In conclusion, I’m sure you were not expecting a “life lesson” when you clicked the link to this post. But hopefully this post inspired you to do something the YOU really want to do to make yourself a little happier.
I really want to help out the bands in this city, especially those that are creating the unique type of music that I enjoy. I hope that this blog can help these bands out, and I hope to be talking about new bands in the future.
Thanks for reading,
Alex