Mike Outram ~ The Electric Campfire random header image

Site Meyhem: MysqHell

January 27th, 2010 · Geek, The Interwebz

Smash by practicalowl, on FlickrHello. If you've checked the site in the last day or two you'll have noticed that it's in a complete state. Sorry about that. I'm just moving the hosting and as my basic method for internet problem solving involves random button pushing and this sort of thing I've managed to mangle it good — real good — in a really bad sort of way. Like, totally broken. But broken in the kind of way that lets you know the solution is there, and is probably head-slappingly simple, but you just don't know it because you're a foot-licking half-wit. So I continue with my button pushing experiments until either I: a, abandon it altogether; b, destroy the machine; c, drink lots of beer. Option c is looking most likely right now.

*update*, hic.

It was a plugin that I'd previously altered/bastardized. Sorry, Dan — Gigs Calendar is great but I'd mangled it too much and it didn't survive the move. Anyway, WHAT GIGS?

So welcome back, Dear Reader. Me miss you long time :)

If you're new here, you may want to justify my existence by subscribing to my RSS feed. Click on that big blue blob [top right] and all will be well. Cheers, old bean!

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Live At Sin-é — West London

January 19th, 2010 · Gigs, Concerts, Events, Music, Personal Mountains

Last Saturday I did a trio gig at Ronnie Scott's. Didn't really advertise it as I haven't done anything like that — playing standards in a trio with bass and drums — for a really long time. It's quite daunting for me to play trio as it feels really exposed and I'm responsible for so much more. But, that's what makes it more rewarding when it does work.

Anyhow, I really enjoyed the gig. I hadn't played with Sam Burgess, the bass player, for ages, and he was completely amazing. Playing with him reminded me of what's good about trio with just guitar, bass and drums: you get a lot of space and freedom to mess around with the harmony; and, as the only pitch information that's coming at you is from the bass, it means it's easier to hear and interact with. The great thing about playing with Sam is that he puts a lot of stuff out that's really interesting and creative in itself, but he also really responds to what you do too, with frightening immediacy.

So, now I'm thinking I'd really like to get a regular trio gig. Somewhere where I could do some playing on standards. I used to do lots of that ages ago but I've been doing mostly original music lately. It'd be nice to explore a bit of that for a while.

In my utopian dreamworld It'd be great to have a little weekly trio gig in a coffee house or a bar in West London. Maybe somewhere that'd be a good place for students to come down and jeer or whatever. A little more specifically utopian (if one can have gradations of utopianism) — wooden floors wouldn't go amiss, and free to get in, near the tube, good food and coffee, jazz-loving owner, beer too… I'll stop short of a helicopter landing-pad :)

So, maybe you can help me out? If you know of anywhere that could be as cool as this place, let me know! Or better yet, if you're a regular, why not ask them if they'd be up for some live music. You never know. I'm off to make a big list and get scouring the West Side. There must be somewhere out there…

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Bottles, Bottles, Bottles.

January 15th, 2010 · Music

I've been saving bottles for a while now and yesterday I had a go at recording them. They're pretty easy to tune. You just pour in water until you hit the right pitch. Here they are:

bottles

Below are some very small excerpts of the things I recorded. The first track has a little bit of normal bottle shredding; then it's flipped backwards. Then I slowed it down a lot, changed the pitch and added some other gizmos in the machine.

My idea of an exceedingly good day would be to spend 48 hrs in a darkened room fiddling around with bottles, mics and laptop, and drinking copious amounts of coffee. Bliss…

Anyhow, I'm going to get someone round who can do some serious rhythmic damage on them soon. Then it'll be on to recording cats thinking.

**Should have thought of this before, but I'm off to YouTube to find some interesting music with bottles and water. Here's one that springs to mind. [no pun intended]

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Jazz Improvisation Technique Mushroom

January 11th, 2010 · Geek, The Interwebz

TheThinkerHere are some of the weirdest search terms people have used to find my site. Why this is of interest, I don't know. They just made me laugh so thought I'd post 'em up…

  • wasp cod piece
  • mike outram shredding
  • ted green sightreading
  • steve vai on obama
  • laura rossi giant
  • wet metronome time
  • does a minor key give everyone the blues
  • jazz improvisation technique mushroom
  • my baby's bmi index
  • blackie lawless exploding codpiece live
  • clare teal solos transcribed
  • electric rubik's cube
  • emily blossom from phantom of the opera
  • outram learning village
  • bass guitar from manchester called billy
  • improving process making a cup of tea
  • theo travis' double talk — live pizza
  • the most powerful chords
  • exercises with what time is it?
  • techno dido's lament
  • buttered crumpets pictures
  • suggested jogging 80's playlist
  • videos on jogging properly
  • is my effects pedal broken
  • how to finish 12 bar blues
  • "marseillaise"+"hair shampoo"
  • electric levitation
  • resistance is futile electrical humor
  • flakes athletics cockney
  • bagpuss chords

Not sure I can help with any of that, but if there's a place where one can hear a techno version of Dido's Lament whilst ruminating on the construction of a wasp's codpiece then I'm there. With bells on.

Can anyone throw some light on any of this? Does a minor key give everyone the blues? What is 'Wet Metronome Time'? Has anyone transcribed a Clare Teal solo?

Come join me in my little learning-village…

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What am I doing??

January 7th, 2010 · Personal Mountains

Today I registered for the Great Manchester Run. It's a 10k run. I've NEVER done anything like this before, and the longest [in one go] I've run for has been for about 5 minutes. But, the guy who won last year did it in 23:20. So, if you follow my logic, that means I'm real close :)

Er, no.

I'm expecting to do it under 2hrs.

I hope.

What am I doing??

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Do, Re, Mi, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me.

January 5th, 2010 · Music

Seeing as I've got no gigs until February, I'm thinking I ought to have a B-plan of some kind. My career-guidance forum's sage advice was to do some solo gigs. I'm inspired by the solo music that Theo Travis, Steve Lawson and Bill Frisell make using loops, and I find it inspiring to drift off into dreamland to try to imagine what music might be possible to make using looping devices. So I'm having a think about gear and what to get. Super — I'll get to hear more of me, me, me. How can this be a bad thing? Don't answer that…

MeMeMe

Here are the options: [Thanks for all the advice @davemarks1 @Benmcdonnell @tomcawley @alexsunnygtr @richiemiester @facesake @solobasssteve @Gibboniser]

Boss RC-50

Boss RC-20

Digitech Jamman

Akai Headrush

Looperlative

Line 6 Delay Modeler

Will let you know how I get on, on, on, on, on.

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