"That Blinding Whiteness At Sunrise"

We finally got a new work schedule today. No longer shall I exhaust myself with a 50 hour work week--no, now I get to languish in the sub-30 hour lethargy. But 28 hours isn't too bad; that's what I was basically working before we went into "we have no employees" mode.

We're also supposed to get a new employee pretty soon (down on the schedule as "Newbie," proving my boss has a sense of humor). Of course, I feel sorry for the new person, because they'll have to spend at least one night a week working with Ev and me. If that's not saddling the new person with a hell of a tough shift, I don't know what is.

Somehow, with all the other CDs I've been listening to the past couple of days, I've managed to make time to listen to my uncle's band's two albums. Their self-titled first album, The Regular Joes, is probably my favorite of the two. It certainly rocks the hardest of the two. While Every Little Bit Helps is more melodic and features slightly stronger lyrics (and even features one of my favorite tunes, "Restless," as the opener), the album itself gets bogged down in mid-tempo sludge that really never flexes its musical muscle. My uncle is an excellent guitar player, but isn't given much to do on most of the album (whereas he's soloing left and right on the eponymous debute).

The first album also has my two favorite Regular Joes tunes currently available on CD--"Babylon Last Night" and "Sight Unseen." Lyrically, they're pretty basic--the former is about a morning-after hangover, essentially, while the latter is a by-the-numbers blues/rock love song. But the guitar work on both is phenomenal. It's the music for those two songs that really convinces me that, with a better lyricist/vocalist, my uncle's band could do really well.

Their third CD should be ready sometime this month, and from what I've heard of it (which is most of the album), it's their strongest outing yet. For one thing, the guy who does all the singing doesn't do all the singing this time around--there's also a guy named Chris (who plays guitar and violin) who steps up to do a couple of self-penned tunes that aren't half-bad. He's a decent country/bluegrass-style vocalist, but his vocal style fits the songs he's written (which are pretty traditional country fare, but good despite that). My uncle's also had more of a hand in writing this new album, co-writing at least four or five of the songs (he worked on the music part, of course) and writing one song by himself (called "Flame On," I think. Absolutely beautiful song with one of the best melodies I've heard in a long time). Having another vocalist/songwriter to compete with has led the usual singer to try a little harder, too, and his contributions are much stronger than before. I really look forward to the CD.

As I think about it, it strikes me as strange just how much I've been writing about music lately. Probably about half of the past month's posts have dealt with or mentioned music in some way. Admittedly, music is a big part of my life--not just the music my brother and I are always working on (which is probably little more than a pipedream, I know)--but simply the fact that everything I do seems to involve music, if I can help it. I listen to music when I shower, when I go to class or work, when I'm at work if I can get away with it, when I'm in the car, when I'm at the computer, going to sleep, reading, sitting around doing nothing, playing videogames, and damn-near any other time I can find to fit more music in. I won't even drive to the store sometimes if there's not a CD in my car or my hand, because that means I'd have to listen to the radio and there's a good chance I won't find anything on the radio I want to listen to (or worse yet, it'll all be commercials. I hate commercials). I mean, I go so far as to include a "Song of the Moment" at the bottom of every post I make here. How ridiculous is that?

I don't really know when music became this important to me, to be honest. I just know that it is.

~chuck

Song of the Moment: Regular Joes, "Restless"