Medusa Rising

Well, finally, here I am again. I believe Medusa is finally complete. Talked with a singer/ bass player this morning and there was a mutual excitement between the 2 of us. I don't want to jinx it by mentioning any names so until we have had a couple of rehearsals together to see how we gel, but I am almost positive this guy will make us complete. It has been quite a while of sending emails to people listed on craigslist and bandmix with no results whatsoever. But sometimes in this day and age it takes a year or 2 to get the right people. Back in 1973 when Kim, Lee and I were together in the garage practicing one night a stranger showed up, said he liked what he heard and wanted to manage us. Next time he came by he asked if we wanted a girl singer/guitar player. Donna who became the singer/guitar player was sunning herself on the beach in Chicago when some guy came by and started a conversation. When they talked about music his buddy came up in the conversation and next thing Donna met him who was a keyboard player and asked Donna if she wanted to join a band. Next thing you know she is in the band. Then we found Pete, our singer, in the Illinois entertainer newspaper and he joined. It was just that easy. But getting a musician nowadays you need to meet all of these requirements, almost like finding a job and filling out an application. One female singer said in her add please now one over 40. One guy wanted us to be symphonic rock, and on and on. When I talked with this new guy he listened to the album we have and that was that. It was as easy as the old days.

Learning To Market

So I haven't been posting anything lately but here I am. I have mentioned before that Donna and I are in the process of relearning our album from many many moons ago but we have also been writing a lot of music over the past year and a half. Our old singer Pete has been writing lyrics like a madman and Donna has been writing lyrics as well. We have been writing music to go with Pete's lyrics and Donna has been writing songs both lyrics and music. I have been helping with arrangements and recording. Since we are older our music is still heavy sounding but also carries meaning in the lyrics. We have become very proud of what we have been accomplishing musically but the task a head is very daunting in trying to get our music recognized. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of articles and books available on marketing yourself, but it is a task that we have to take no matter what age we are. We do have an edge that we have an album out but the new music we have created is different from what we did 40 years ago. We were much more like Psyche Rock or Metal back then. We still have an edge to our sound, just not the same. There is a market out there for us and we are going to find it. Like looking for a needle in a haystack, but we will find it.

The New Medusa Tee Shirt has finally arrived...

The long awaited tee shirt from Medusa has finally made it to Numero's website and an awesome looking shirt at that. A definitely good choice for a Sunday go to meeting shirt. Grab your bible and your goat's head tee shirt and head on down to pray for forgiveness for all your sins. Especially the sin for not owning a great shirt like this.

Got a good handle on Black Wizard 2

Okay, so we finally worked out a structure for Black Wizard 2. All of the verses and choruses are in their proper places. Now comes the tweeking. No, not twerking, tweeking. Massaging the song getting it right where you want it.
The one thing that is a major issue is the complexity of the parts do not yield time for daydreaming.
You drift for a second and the timing of the song requires goes to hell. And I am sure that I am not the only musician who drifts off listening to how the song is being played, making sure the parts sound good between the members of the band. But you drift once and bam, you missed your odd timing part that you were so proud of creating.

Brain lock at 8:30pm Brain unlock 12:30am

So the frustration was settling in late in the evening because Donna and I are writing Black Wizard 2 to go on the follow up to First Step Beyond and by 8:30 pm the brain shutdown and we couldn't remember the beginning. So eventually out of frustration I said F@*? it. Donna played quietly in the background as I balanced my checkbook and then at midnight we went upstairs started drinking our sleeping time tea and she looks at me and sings the beginning part with perfect aplomb. So here we are at 12:30, downstairs in our dungeon of despair, where the ghosts dance and the devil comes out to play and satan has his way and the Black Wizard will reign terror again.

Medusa is Alive

It was February 1, 2012 when Donna got the call. The voice asked her if she was Donna Brown. She said yes. You were in a band called Medusa back in the early 70's. She said who is this. I am Rob Sevier from Numero Group in Chicago and I have your 45 and it sounds great. Donna said wait a minute, don't tell me your a producer and you want to produce us. Rob continued to talk about how much he liked our music and that he is an archival specialist who brings old bands back to life, which is exactly what he did for Medusa. We were slipping into obscurity when he basically said not so fast.
I am about to turn you guys upside down. And that is exactly what he did. And that's okay by me because life can sometimes be ungratifying and get really weird. Case in point, a week after the phone call Donna went in for wrist surgery which has not really healed that well over the last year.
We then lost our sheltie Jack to congestive heart failure, and then a couple of days after that Donna had gotten bitten on the arm by the neighbors dog. The job situation also was going in the toilet, but that's another post. So with all of the bull*#$@, the album has breathed new life into us all.

The re-learning of First Step Beyond

This has been an interesting journey trying to re-learn First Step Beyond.Tuning was an issue back then since we did not own a tuner. Nobody wrote down the chords, or maybe we did and they are lost. Anyway we are working to figure it out. And the songs are sounding quite good if you ask me. In the song Strangulation Pete wrote of Black Spiders on the walls of your mind. More like cobwebs on the walls of your mind. But we will trudge on wearily and we will prevail.