Dealing with the Devil: Music Gear
This newsletter is out slightly later than usual because I failed to set my alarm last night and slept in two hours late. The dream that I had before awaking involved me being in a grocery store with two fitness trainers that I had known over the years, and we were picking out items to assemble a steak dinner that we would cook together for the purposes of my podcast. The plan is we would mic up the dinner table and record me eating the dinner and sipping the wine.
Meanwhile back on planet earth, I had recorded my podcast before bed but since it went on for 40 minutes I had to re-record it upon waking up today. So that would explain why I was dreaming about recording a podcast.
When I saw what time I woke up at today, I was faced with yet another one of life’s challenges: to make the choice between berating myself for making an innocent mistake (failing to set the alarm), or to just let that shit go. I chose the latter and made sure to get everything done in time.
I could’ve spared you the story here, but I think it’s nice to write a newsletter that’s “in the moment”. We live in a world with a 24-7 news cycle, so I think it’s nice when we can share breaking news from inside our minds. What are we thinking today? How are we feeling? Twitter does this but it’s just kind of insane to see this type of thing come at you at the speed it does on that site.
I feel like my newsletter and podcast on the other hand, is slow media, detached from the waterfall that’s out there.
The actual podcast this week, not the one in my dream above, talks about the never ending search for gear. I think this topic is fascinating from the perspective of how the gear has changed music, from the rock n’ roll era into disco, hip-hop and house music. But as a maker of music, one must find the energy to focus on the craft rather than hanging out in the stores.
Something I had left out of this episode is my relationship with the Canadian music store Long and McQuade. Certain sales reps know me quite well, and it’s almost like a bartender who knows you by your first name and what your drink of choice is.
Overall i’m appreciative of this place and the great service I have received there (since I was 12 years old - that’s loyalty!). But I also know when to stay the heck away from it and stay away from the YouTube videos reviewing all the gear. It’s a fun back and forth, and one of the closest things that I know of as dealing with the devil.
The track from this week’s show is Smoke Rings, a bluesy thing I made this year with a drum machine beat. My newest release coming out next week is on this tangent, but even better, I make my debut singing on it (Just to be clear, Smoke Rings below is instrumental).
Find it on other streaming sites here.
Grab it from my folder of free mp3s here.
Before I sign off here’s a great artist I’ve been listening to this week: Eric Bibb. A lot of his recorded music is mostly solo blues, but in this video below he’s with a band. Pure 🔥
Take care and enjoy your week! When you make a mistake like I did sleeping in, try to deal with it only once, not twice or thrice. Most importantly, stuff a few bagels down for me. They make you feel good.
Best,
Elliott “Butter and Rock Salt” Fienberg
An important lesson there :) (I've personally learned that a long time ago, though I'm just a consumer, after all, not a creator)