Miggs Band

Miggs Musings

Friday, November 16, 2007

…if I could just move on, maybe you would too.

2007 is damn near over and I’m stunned at the speed in which it happened. We’ve done about 70 shows since brian joined the band july 1 and it’s felt like a fast forward sequence of an action movie. Crazy, crazy, crazy.

I write this from my hotel bed in las cruces, new mexico, where miggs seems to have some great fans. This leg of the tour has been interesting. Phoenix was a blast with a cool outdoor show and then we hit a few places that may need someone telling them it’s now the 21st century! Time warp stuff, for sure but we had fun. We always do.

So to end 2007 we’re completing that new album, UNRAVELED, which will be released overseas initially and then here in the states early in 2008. That is the plan. Unfortunately, things can change due to circumstances beyond our control. See, we are negotiating a deal here in America and if we sign they could decide that the release date be X even if we want Y because they may feel it’s smarter timing and we want to give UNRAVELED every chance for success. Got it? Music 101 has ended for the day…

Anybody out there read rolling stone? The 40th anniversary issue has a great editors note from jann wenner about the state of our country and the incredibly poor leadership we’re under, the global warming issue, this war we don’t even understand and music. I just read it and it makes me want to not WATCH this election go by. We all have to decide to become part of the solution. It’s not too late. This year we have a chance to do something never before done. We could have a black president. A female president. All very cool. What I hope is that we pick the RIGHT president because time is running out on making things better. Don’t mean to sound like a downer but we’re on the titanic and the wedge of ice would certainly capsize us if we weren’t melting it so fast! And I know that I do things every day to make things worse, so this isn’t don miggs on a soap box. I’m just worried about where we’re going. I like being alive. See, the earth isn’t in danger. We are. The earth will survive and mutate and do it all again. Just visit a museum to see that. It’s us humans that are in trouble!

Ok, enough of that. I’m getting depressed!!!

But there is hope. There is a new miggs album coming out. A shedding of the skin, if you will. Excorcising our demons, our past. Staring at the future. Wow, that was terrible!LOL UNRAVELED is a period at the end of phase one of miggs. If you’ve been to a show lately we are dusting off older tunes every day and adding in songs just written. It’s been a challenge deciding what to play each night so we wing it instead. Tonight we get to play for two and a half hours so we will throw everything but the kitchen sink at the audience. And if it gets nuts enough, maybe even the kitchen sink…

Fave CDs at the moment:

New coheed & cambria is kicking my ass
New ryan adams EP
New killers
New bruce springsteen

Meet the day and be good to each other,

miggs

Labels: arizona, elections, global warming, hilary, insomnia, jann wennner, killers, late nights, miggs, myspace, new mexico, obama, Q time patio, rolling stone, truth, U2, unraveled, youtube.com

Thursday, October 11, 2007

there's a fire burning out her heart...

so we've spent the last week holed up in tampa working on the album that is to come out in scandanavia in the new year, as well as doing pre production for the NEXT release internationally. it's a crazy time. we have all this music and want to share it but don't want to introduce it all too early and then when the album comes out, you're all like "been there, done that" on us!

but the UNRAVELED album is coming along nicely, thank you very much. we just got the mixed version of NOTHING and it sounds pretty great. look for it to post on myspace for a little bit. if you've heard the acoustic version from LATE NIGHTS & EARLY MORNINGS, it is that on steroids- complete with brian totten smacking the drums and electric guitars (remember the acoustic version has no electric guitars and jason played brushes-no drum sticks).

this album will contain some songs already released but redone in the current format of miggs, which is a bit more raw and stripped down. we're doing this album for IMPORT and decided to mix the last 3 albums since the european people didn't get the first albums (unless they went to iTunes or something like that). and then we will try to get a completely new miggs album out in mid 2008 so stay tuned there.

where was i? ah yes, so we're mixing some stuff and it's been cathartic revising these songs and playing with expectations a little. INVISIBLE was a song i really loved and am excited to rethink and finally put on an album. the orchestration that jason gianni did to that was magnificent and i want people to hear it. in fact, you should leave here now and visit jason at jasongianni.com. tell him we said hi.

if you didn't go yet, thanks.

go buy bruce springsteen's magic. i'm not 100% sure i LOVE every bit of the album or am just so impressed with his ability to tell a tale and write a relevant album that isn't missing the commercial mark. i appreciate that he is out there. and i think i do love the album cause i listened to it for 5 hours today flying from tampa to LA.

ok, off to vegas for some shows. be good.

Labels: anyway, insomnia, killers, late nights and early mornings, miggs, miggsband.com, myspace, perfect, tour, truth, unraveled, youtube.com

Sunday, July 15, 2007

"there’s a windshield staring at my face, there’s this rearview saving my mistakes and there’s a few..."

this trip i've been on- making music with miggs- has been a crazy one. changes and more changes. it's all cool for me and i love the journey and am glad you alll are taking it with me. i know it's weird seeing new faces over and over again and i wish i had an easy explanation. being in a band is hard work. it's close work. too close for some. i'm probably not the easiest guy to work with- who knows. but at this point, i don't see how i'd replace michael and brian. i believe i will play with these two as long as they let me. both want to be IN miggs, and that matters a lot. we'll see where it leads but i'm stoked (i was just in santa cruz area so i've adopted the lingo for you to read) to share a van with these two. they just love to play. wherever, whenever. it's cool. give them lot's of love when you see them live or in myspace, please...

we just got back from the first leg of the tour and i'm exhausted tonight. we played a place called the brookdale lodge in ben lomand, ca. it's supposedly haunted, making the night always more enjoyable. rumor is that while our friends in silver griffin were playing, the ghost was messing with their sound, making the speaker go in and out. it sure SEEMED like a technical glitch but who am i to know, right?

we always stay in rooms there when we play and i do half expect to see something of note. something besides michael's ass climbing into the bed across the room, that is. it is white, it is scary but it ain't a ghost.

our friend richard spent the night and i would like to publicly thank him for keeping me awake with his little snore-fest. i love him for it.

so, the show. we did play a show. and we did it as a three-piece. i've resisted this for a long time. i hate miggs as a 3 piece but instead of playing with people we KNOW we aren't going to keep or aren't really interested in staying with us, we've decided this is how we'll play until we run into the right person. what does this mean to you, the person spending money to see us? well, it means i will certainly do less moving around, likely it will mean you will get sub par guitar solos but hey, i never said i was good! and you'll hear the songs without as much icing. can you handle that? i knew that you could......

friday we played bakersfield at jerry's pizza. it's this basement venue that has a very cool vibe and it felt good to go down there and sweat it out. it was also brian's first "awaY" show with the band and he didn't wet the bed or need to leave in the middle of the night to go home so we considered it a success. our boy seems all growsed up.

and the tour leg started thursday night at the famous malibu inn. conveniently located about 5 minutes from my house so i LOVE playing there!LOL john carta stopped out and played guitar for us, which was fun. and aron and matt came out to watch so it felt like reunion night. i half expected to see jason gianni walk through the door....

speaking of jason- he is kicking ass and taking names in NY at the drummers collective. go to his site, drummersbible.com and say hello and see what he's up to.

the best part of the touring is knowing that we'lll have new videos up at youtube.com, pictures in the forum and friends made. oh, and making brian listen to all my favorite music to see what he likes. so far, so good. guy's got good taste to go along with his good hair.....

seize the day,

d

Labels: arizona, ayn rand, insomnia, late nights and early mornings, miggs, miggsband.com, myspace, new mexico, Q time patio, youtube.com

Journal

Tomorrow, There is always Tomorrow? - Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Today we learned that a friend, the guy who was working on our new website was killed in a motorcycle crash. what i read was that he was driving late at night, pretty fast, and lost control of the bike heading into a truck. no helmet, not that it sounds like that would have helped.

life is THAT fucking fragile. tomorrow you are dead. stop complaining about what you don't have or where you are if it isn't where you want to be. stop petty arguments with people. practice peace. practice forgiveness. respect that you will NOT GET ANOTHER CHANCE TO LIVE THIS LIFE and live it. for you, for your parents who gave birth to you, for duke grey, who doesn't get a choice anymore for a second chance.

"just for the record, the weather today is..." - Sunday, April 22, 2007

pretty damn cloudy actually. it's sunday and i've been thinking it was saturday. oh well, a day slipped by me somehow.

let's see....i just watched the DVD from the cafe du nord show and it was a fun show. there are some camera and sound glitches and i completely trainwreck "to be alone" but i think we'll spruce it up a bit and release it as a live DVD. any takers? what should we name it? tell me.

there have been a bunch of emails about the new pictures at myspace.com. it's funny because to me it's just the same old same old but i like hearing from you so thanks. last night we took some others as a band and those will begin appearing places soon.

the new website launches on or about May 10th so look for that and commment, of course.

the touring has been going well. where have we been lately again? hold on, i'll go look at the schedule.

ok, arizona was fun. really fun. people are all so cool there. i think i already told the border patrol pull over story so i won't waste your time again here. we were at a venue in newport beach the other night and some kid was doing backflips in front of the stage. full on. it was funny as hell and i wanted to put the guitar down and break off a little flip my own self. course, i'd probably slip and land square on my back but i still had INTENT.

we played the skate rink in san jose last night. it's weird doing that but it's cool cause then younger kids can see us and we like playing for them, too. my mic was all static-y for the first 2 songs and then just went out so i was running over to michaels mic to sing and then back to mine to see if it was on. finally got all sorted out and we didn't get rattled, so i consider it a success.

has anyone been watching this season of south park!?!?!?!? my GOD is that funny stuff. i bought the first 9 seasons and have been going through it but michael gets the latest on his iPod so last night Aron and I snuggled in the van and watched while mike drove. it was nice. and the show was good too...

there are too many books to get into here and i feel like it's all i've been talking anbout lately but i will say that this week i go visit corona del mar school and we're going to talk about the fountainhead and atlas shrugged. they've been reading them after we spoke recently so i want to go listen in and get into the debates....freaking cool.

i've had blue october on my iPod for a while now and barely checked it out but yesterday gave it a good listen. it's really goood. i wish he'd not always double his voice and i'd love to hear the rock ROCK more (people can say this about us, too!) but it's strong stuff. "hate me" is a powerful song.

and that led me to put the killers sam's town back on and that is a strong ass album. it's not as immediate as their first, hot fuss, but it is just better all around. some points in the lyrics really grab me, the melodies are damn goood and the drumming and guitar playing are so inspired.