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The Sir Lord Report: Soul, funk, samba and blues. Sean style in word, picture, and video.

Welcome Home!

Some PDA? With Evidence! Sean Live at Berkley Coffee 

The Song: I wrote KISSING a long time ago. Not sure I remember when. It could have been during the early 00s, when I was in a band called, The Elevations. Most likely, after I left them, in the later 00s. I am completely guessing!

The Show: The venue was great, the owner bought the place, used to engineer, and bought foundations for great sound from the start. Studio level gear for a coffeehouse! Great guy, too. Before I started, long-time friend, Ernie Douglas, showed up out of the blue! He was on a different mission, but felt like more than just a co-incidence! 
For the astrology page readers, it was during a Mercury retrograde and a lunar eclipse. In addition, it was the first humid and warm weekend, so my guitar was never going to be in tune. Also, my laptop effects weren't working - which changed how I was going to play the whole show.
As the owner and I were trying to troubleshoot the problem, I just let it go, and decided to tell my tech-nerd-musician ego to sit down, and that it was going to be just vocals with a little out of tune guitar. This decision made the night a one with a shift in outlook and energy. A very good night in the end! 

The Video: I wanted to do a more elaborate visualizer, but in the end, just wanted to get these sounds out because it's from my first solo show in a decade. Hope you enjoy!

Baby, Let's Practice Cruisin... 

Here's a clip of my rehearsal from earlier this week. It's got pops and clicks, an alarm at the end and some good moments that get me even more excited to be singing to you onstage next Saturday! That's May 6th from 8-8:45 PM at Berkley Coffee / Oak Park Dry. 

NEW DATE ADDED: 5/6 at BERKELEY COFFEE 

 And just like that, there is a show coming up! I'm happy to have been asked to open up for my good friend, Sarah Grogan and her new band, Detroit Sol. I will be bringing my versions of some old Jamaican Lover's Rock songs, and bring some loops to life to begin a great spring evening starting at 8 PM EST!

Check out Berkeley Coffee and see you there!

SIMPLE, SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL (AL GREEN) 

Last night I just went ahead and broke my own rules about warming up my voice, and being precise about the camera, mic placement and all of that.

I'm trying to break my habit of letting the perfect get in the way of the good, iykwim.

 

 

TB-303, 808, and 909 TECHNO NOSTALGIA IS REBIRTH-338 ON YOUR IPAD 2 

The ReBirth RB-338 at my house is the iPad recreation of two Roland TB-303s matched up with a Roland TB-808 and it's follow-up, the TB-909. Basically two hits of clean acid, with the sacred heart of hip-hop beatmaking, on top of the drum machine that gave birth to house and techno in Chicago and Detroit. It is magic. It is funkyasallhell. 

This piece of software is the first music software I ever encountered, made music on, and fell in love with. My good friend Gus had it on his Mac clone, and another friend, Paul, was going in hard with his copy. I remembered just how easy it was to dig in and pull out some badass beats with just a few clicks. I also remember the haze hanging around in those rooms, too. But, that's a story for another day. 

Nowadays, there are companies like Behringer, and others, that make TB-808 and 303 clones. Word is that there is a 909 coming out soon as well! All for prices ranging from a couple hundred to a couple thousand (if you want a used Roland). And that's before you factor in the scratch pots, the non-functional buttons, the missing caps, poorly soldered midi retrofits, and the arcane user interfaces. 

Even so, the hardware world is now in the ascendancy for music makers, as most everyone has gotten sick of trying to jam hard with a laptop and mouse. I'm still with it, tho, with my Logitech roller mouse (damn, it makes a difference).  But finding that I had ReBirth on my old iPad means I've got some funky ass beats to make! And yes, I already have done a little somethin. More on that, and the music called, "Hi-Tech Soul," later. 

ReBirth combines these four units into one and adds effects like, compression, delay, a cool filter, and distortion, to give you an incredible palate to create with. The company that made it, Propellerhead, now makes a fantastic package of music creation software called Reason. Now, Reason is a suite I don't own, but have used, and can say they moved on full steam ahead with more great coding after leaving ReBirth behind. They did the world a solid, and with Roland's wink and a nudge, left the software online without support for a few years. Finally tho, they pulled it all down, only to be found by those hardcore interweb dwellers who have Windows machines to run it and the time to hunt down the pieces-parts, or those who want the adrenaline rush of downloading sketchy apps from unknown sources. 

That's something I don't have to worry about. I gots mine right beside me on my iPad. I'll probably play some beats in bed tonight, to dance the night away in my now nostalgic memories of 90's Detroit raves.

Shake Steady Shaky Shake 

We've been having fun playing, writing and rehearsing as we wait for some our studio work to be mixed.

I didn't want y'all to forget what we look like!

Here's the intro to a song tentatively called, "Rock Yr Body."

 

In Studio With Shake Steady 

Y-YEAH!

Always fun to get to make music at Detroit's Hi-Bias Recordings. This week spent some time adding vocals to a couple of tracks on the upcoming Shake Steady release (or releases? Not sure yet).

Alec and Shana, sax and drums respectively, were in attendance for team spirit and encouragement. MAN, I was glad they were there. It made for a great mid-week romp thru some sexy songs and power songs! Deep conversations about life, recording gear, and the industry with Chris Koltay, our guide thru the recording jungle of mics, compressors, eq units and giving good vocal takes. I, for one, do appreciate these things!

We are getting closer and closer to opening our discography! Still some work to do, but excited to hear these songs and find out what y'all think!

Shake Steady Website - Soon Soon come

Shake Steady Newsletter - Soon come

You can check out our IG @shakesteadymusic right here: https://www.instagram.com/p/B6Tca4AliG2/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

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