Coffee Cup Half Moons

Well the challenge worked.

For those who don’t know the back story, my friend Phil Taylor and I, having been somewhat lacking in the new material, challenged one another to write and record a new album before and to be released on January 1, 2010.  This was in approximately November (2009 of course).

Knowing my own lack of spare time, I knew I would not be able to do full studio productions, but I felt confident I could write the songs.  After all, I had made a 2009 resolution to write new material, and I needed some catalyst (kick-in-the-butt).

I had originally intended to do 13 songs, but I ran shorter on time than even I anticipated, so I settled on 10.  I would release the album as my podcast on January 1 (how convenient that it fell on a Friday).  I figured that would would be perfect, because in my business I had missed 2 weeks of podcasts already.  Unfortunately, even at that, due to the New Year’s gig I did with Town Crier, I lost my voice, so I even missed the January 1 podcast.

At any rate, I finally got the songs recorded (once again on my trusty Sony ICD-SX700), and here they are.

1. The Teacher mp3 lyrics
2. Can’t Say mp3 lyrics
3. The Fortune Of Fallacy mp3 lyrics
4. The Way Home mp3 lyrics
5. The Thirst mp3 lyrics
6. The Walls mp3 lyrics
7. The Restless Folk mp3 lyrics
8. The Mirror mp3 lyrics
9. The Things I Say mp3 lyrics
10. Stand By mp3 lyrics

Unlike usual, I did do minimal editing, but only to do some equalization correction.  The recordings were not perfect anyway (they include the occasional flub and some cameos of my son screaming), but I wanted them to be as “tolerable” as possible.

My goal is to do full productions of this album by March of this year (2010), but I admit this is highly ambitious. 

So take a listen, enjoy, and feel free to impart your reactions here!

• Just finished #Dexter Season 3..great show, but good stopping point. Don't want to watch again until the end!! Next up, Battlestar Galactica #
• Town Crier's gig went great! More to come hopefully … #
• Happy new year!! #
• Getting ready for the gig tonight! We're gonna rock the house … come check us out if you don't have plans! http://jeremytharp.com/shows/ #
• I never forget a face. Although, I often forget who it belongs to … #
• Avenged Sevenfold drummer James Sullivan dies at age 28. http://abv8.me/27A #
• Blue moon of Kentucky keep on a shinin …. #
• If anyone is looking for New Year's plans, my band Town Crier is playing at the Shen. Farms Fire Dept (Just north of Front Royal) $40/couple #
• I wonder how many people press the buttons on both sides of the water fountain … #
• Back home — only to greet an extremely busy week …. #

Again, this time of year with the holidays, I really only had time to record one song this week, even though I keep saying I plan to do two!

I actually recorded this podcast as well as next week’s two days ago.

At any rate, the song for this week is “Careless Whisper” by George Michael/Seether.  My version is much closer to that of Seether, and, frankly, I don’t really do it justice, but I’m singing it in Town Crier, so I thought I’d offer the preview.

podcast.0011-Seether-Careless Whisper

As usual: me on my acoustic, in my studio, no editing, recorded on Sony ICD-SX700, blah, blah, blah …

Since we’ve now gotten reference recordings of all of our sets, we decided this week just to work on powering through sets.  We’re gearing up our fine tuning to get ready for our New Year’s gig, and we’re hoping to play a few gigs in early December as well (will post more details when it’s available).

We did, however, finally get a band photo, so I’ve posted that to the website (http://jeremytharp.com/towncrier/).

Also, all reference recordings for all 4 sets are now available at http://listapp.ciesurplus.com/jeremy_temp/

Enjoy!

After what has been, even for me, a long hiatus with no new music, hope may be alive for the small but dedicated constituency that follows my music. 

As I have slowly worked myself back into playing music, forcing a regular schedule of it into my life with my band and with my podcasts, I’m trying to do a little more.  One of my goals for 2009 was to write and record a new album.

Seeing as how 2009 (and my 10th year playing guitar) is coming to a close, I have little time to do that album, and I had given up any realistic odds of it’s happening — until today.  Phil Taylor contacted me with a kind of “motivate each other” proposition, where we would simultaneously produce albums — kind of keep each other accountable.

Since this works right into my goal for the year, I told him our deadline would be January 1, 2010.

Now, there’s no way I will have time for full productions with drums and whatnot, so I am only pushing myself to write at least a dozen songs, and record them with me singing along with the guitar.  I may do more if I get motivated, but since I would prefer to master the album once it is complete, it’s unlikely.

Anyway, I’ve set up the project page on my website, and you can keep tabs on it here:  http://tharp.me/8

After a year and a half or so of lots of business at geeXmedia, we finally had some time to build a more robust web front-end for CIE Surplus, whose commissioning of ListApp is really what brought about our company.

Anyway, I wanted to highlight the new features.

First of all, the most important enhancement is the ability to buy items directly from the website!  None of the other optimizations we’ve done are worth anything without that functionality.  That means you can buy an awesome steal of a deal from a CIE Surplus eBay auction, proceed to check out using the much-upgraded CIE cart, and pile on a bunch of additional blowout deals right from the site, and pay right there.

You can even specify customer pickup.  What does that mean to people in the northern Virginia, Winchester and Berryville Virginia, and West Virginia eastern panhandle area?  Super deals with no shipping charges!

And for the savvy user, there are RSS feeds to track new inventory from wherever you choose.  They are as follows:

• Current inventory BLOWOUTS
• All web items with a price attached
• All web-available items listed in the last 24 hours
• All current eBay listings

Check it out today!  They can ship to anyone, so even if you’re not stopping by to pick up, you can get some seriously awesome deals.

Last year sometime, I bought a Husqvarna YTH20K46 46″ riding mower from Lowe’s.  It was about $1850.

I would not make the purchase again.  That being said, the tractor itself is not too shabby — it’s the mower deck that needs rethinking.

Since I bought the mower, I’ve replaced the bladed 3 times, and I have less than 50 hours on the machine.  Sure, maybe I don’t baby the thing, but for $1850, it should be able to handle a few sticks and the occasional rock (believe me — I can’t avoid them all no matter how hard I try).

I’ve also had to replace the belt.

The arm that holds up the front of the deck is CRAP — pure and simple.  It has a hole for a useless cotter pin, and, of course, that is where it broke for me (after hitting a stump of course).

If you insist on buying this mower, be prepared to add some reinforcement welds on the rear deck brackets, as they might as well have tack welded them.

The tires do not hold air very well — expect to fill them every 6-8 hours of use.

Also, do NOT even attempt to use this mower without buying the mulching assembly as you will get enormous gobs of grass all over your yard.

The Kohler 20HP motor does a great job — the tractor itself is fantastic, although it always wants to spin the wrong tire when you need traction.

All that being said, with my own modifications (self-made, stronger front arm, reinforced welding) and the mulching kit, it’s actually turned into a half decent mower, at least for now.

Happy New Year everyone! I cannot believe it has been two years since I put this site online. Hopefully, this year will bring great things to my musical career. (Of course )

As you have probably noticed, I have made a minor facelift to the front page in order to facilitate use of my site for the increased number of new users I am receiving (Thanks in great part to the Million Dollar Homepage). Let me know what you think of the updates.

I feel very confident now in my projects, and I hope to hit the studio heavily to pump out my new stuff, as well as new versions of the old songs from my “demo albums.” I’ll keep you posted. You’ll notice the songs I update will appear as underlined on the Albums/Projects page.