Birthdays
Mood:  a-ok
Now Playing: Savoy Truffle - The Beatles
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY MOM, WHO IS THE BIG FIVE - 0 TODAY, AND TO KATHY, WHO IS 29 (for the like...13th time).

To commemorate this birthday-type event, I knew I wanted to do something special. So I decided that the Mellotron and I would make a lush, beautiful orchestral arrangement of "Happy Birthday".
So click here to download this wonderful piece of music.
In there you will find Mark II flute, 3 violins, clarinets, M400 Cello, and at the end, Chamberlin harp glissando.
Hope you like it! Even if it's not your birthday!

/=MooT=\

Boz Scaggs' new hit single: Alito Shuffle?
Mood:  hungry
Now Playing: the confirmation hearings of Judge Jimmy Alito
Topic: Musing
I've actually been quite interested in this Sam Alito thing. I actually like the guy.
OK, enough of that type stuff.

I've been making lots of Mellotron music lately. I have found that I'm using all of the sounds that I've always wanted to have in my music, but didn't want to use cheezy samples. The Mellotron is so much more of a credible, living, breathing instrument that sounds quite organic. So there are flutes, cellos, violins, clarinets, horns, and bassoons in my music now. Just like there always should have been. Maybe. I'm trying not to get too lush and washy sounding. But I do have to indulge my King Crimson / Brian Wilson leanings for a while. It's irresistable. And in my opinion, the 'Tron versions of these sounds work as well or better in my music as the real things would. Which is great, because I can't afford the real things. There is definite merit to the fact that the Moody Blues used a real orchestra initially and then dropped it and just used Mellotron sounds. The Mellotron IS the Moody Blues. But those sounds are so ingrained in the minds and hearts of so many people that it's impossible to hear them and not think of the many famous songs in which they played a key part. Especially that flute. Man, I love that flute. Which, of course, becomes those flutes when you play chords. Obviously. I'm still very much infatuated with the Mellotron, used in any context. I love it.

/=MooT=\

Did I mention that I'm obsessed with Mellotrons?
Mood:  a-ok
Now Playing: Genesis - A Trick Of The Tail
Topic: Works In Progress
Yes, my current obsession is with the Mellotron. It has been going on for a couple of years, but it's getting more and more intense. If Mellotrons were people, they'd all have restraining orders against me.
Anyway, on to buisness.

Lots of things:
1. My new album is not Pandemic. I have another one newer than that now, called 1223. Because I did it in one day, 12/23/2005. This link should work later today, or tomorrow. You can read all the fascinating details. How's that for "no fanfare"?

2. Synthesizers.com now has an artist page for me. Complete with pretentious (but thankfully short) biography in third-person, picture of me throwing myself onto my modular synthesizer, and link to my main page. It's on the same link as the other link was. Or, go here:
http://www.synthesizers.com/artists/moot_booxle

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. Please to be bearing with me as I making the happy email spider matrix bookpage.

PS - I love Mellotrons.
http://www.mellotronics.com

Posted by MooT BooXLe at 9:14 AM EST
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Staring at the empty pages...
Mood:  cool
Now Playing: My own voice echoing inside my head.
Topic: Updates
Well, this whole INTERNET JUGGERNAUT known as MooT BooXLe's website has a new front door.
Also, perhaps a little prematurely, I have begun to sell Pandemic on its respective page, via PayPal. Get yours today! In the meantime, I'm printing up several copies for when the orders come FLOODING IN in massive volume! Well, I mean when two or three people decide to take a chance! Pandemic is a good record, but it's not for everybody. But it's for you, if you buy it. ;-)
(These shameless plugs....)
I'm trying to get it all together and bring anyone who cares a great source of infotainment. Or green onions. (You, know, they're really scallions...)
GOODBYE, and, in case I don't get to a computer before then, MERRY CHRISTMAS.

Your loving son,
Queen Victoria.

Complete
Mood:  cool
Now Playing: Radiohead - Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors
Topic: Works In Progress
Hello everyone,
the experimental project is completely finished, with titles and art and everything. I'm quite pleased with it.
If you're interested, you can read about it here. I'm going to go create that page right now. Bear with me. It may not be finished when you get to it. But I will finish it.

=MooTy MooTerson=

The Slithy-Toves
Mood:  cool
Now Playing: Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine
Topic: Writing Songs
I'm back from a nice hiatus from (what is now) normal life. Went back to my homeland of Tennessee. Saw family and friends. (Unfortunately, didn't see everybody I wanted to see. Apologies to those I missed. I'll be back again someday, and a lot quicker than that dreamer Frosty the Snowman. He made a lot of promises, but never delivered. No one has ever heard from him again. [I don't even want to hear about the sequel...that was not the real Frosty. He's gone forever.])
Right. So I've been writing feverishly ever since I got back home. I feel like I'm coming out of that slump I was in. That electronic record was just another detour which was preceded by an as-yet unfinished covers album.
I made the electronic/experimental thing (OH YEAH, BTW, it's called Pandemic) as a way to break in my new modular synthesizer which I have talked about plenty previously. Also, I find it easy to create things in that medium with minimal planning or...effort.
But now, I'm serious again. I've decided that I'm living in the musical world where I belong regardless of what the rat race of life tries to throw at me. I'm sick and tired of letting my primary source of income, which is not even remotely related to music, dictate how I feel about spending serious time creating art. Right now I'm sleep-deprived and sore, but it's worth it because I'm really proud of what I'm doing right now. It could be just a phase, but then, what in life is not? There are seasons in all things. And I'm at the start of another good one.
I think I should go now; quit while I'm ahead.

=TOODLES=
=MooTles=

=extra wide egg noodles=

Searching for Titles
Mood:  incredulous
Now Playing: THE SOUND OF MY SHORTING CIRCUITS
Topic: Works In Progress
HELLO MY NEW ALBUM IS FINISHED
IT SOUNDS VERY GOOD
BUT I DON'T HAVE TITLES
FOR ANY OF THE TUNES
OR THE ALBUM ITSELF.
SO IT IS NOT REALLY FINISHED, IS IT?

=A ROBOT=
MB

going on vacation now. goodbye.

The Law of Diminishing Returns
Mood:  cool
Now Playing: The Shaggs - My Pal Foot Foot
I think it was a lyric from that Postal Service record that said, "It's not a party if it happens every night."
That statement has echoed in my mind for a couple of years, in good times and bad. It's so true. Anything can lose its effectiveness, thrown off balance by overexposure. Moderation and temperance in all things are the key.
Take, for instance, this blog. If I posted daily, would I really have anything important to say? Or would I concoct hasty, unripe ideas and thoughts in the interest of keeping on schedule? What if a person was forced to write a song every day? How many of those songs would be inspired? How many would be nothing but excercises?
It's the old quantity vs. quality debate.

Like this post. In the interest of brevity, I could have simply said:

I prefer Quality over Quantity in most things in life.

Why think in terms of sheer numbers?

=This has been another discursive, rambling post by
MooT BooXLe.=

Improvisation #1
Mood:  not sure
Now Playing: Rumbling and Humming noises
Topic: Musing
What I am about to say does not make sense, even to me. If it somehow bears a resemblance to anything meaningful, it was totally by accident.

=
My intentions are not clear
And I want it that way
If I make a mistake
It'd be easy enough to say
That that was my intention all along
And if I succeed at whatever I'm at
My hope is by that time I'll have realised that
Success is a surprise if you've no goal in mind
And when you happen upon something great
You can pretend that it's what you were trying to find
And if you make a mistake


You can leave it behind.

=
MooT

Stone Knives and Bear Skins
Mood:  a-ok
Now Playing: Doug Carman - Field Recording
Topic: Writing Songs
I was just telling a good friend about something, and the thought struck me that I should share it with everyone.
I used to write a lot of songs whilst sitting and singing at the piano. However, I find this to actually impede my progress now.
I look at songwriting (and perhaps music creation in general) like mining: you find a rich piece of ground and you mine it and mine it and mine it, but that ore is of finite supply, and after a while, it becomes quite barren and the results of mining it further are an excercise in frustration.
That's the piano for me right now. Actually, that goes for any instrument that either sounds amazing or is extremely fun to play. I can't write good songs on my 12-string electric guitar, because it's too much fun to make sounds on it. Ditto the modular synthesizer.
I have written my best compositions, instrumental or vocal, on "limited color palette" instruments. These are usually unplugged electric guitar or my little Yamaha PSS-470, which has 49 small-sized keys, and a very basic overall sound. I don't get distracted and start tinkering endlessly. One can use up valuable inspiration that way, just noodling about. That accounts for my numerous unfinished songs.
Just some thoughts.

MooT BooXLe