First off, the Spacecats gig at the Green Growler last Friday went great. We had a bunch people come out to see us, including some music friends from other groups. Also, Lizzy was in town for the weekend, staying with Michelle in the city, so the two of them came up to see us. Afterwards we all went out to a diner for a late dinner.
There’s a bunch more gigs coming up, including a Spacecats jazz brunch at the Grand in Croton on November 1, and a couple weeks after that my first gig with the horn section funk band Side Hustle, Friday November 13at the Shrine in Harlem. This is my first gig in Manhattan since the pandemic. And every night this week I have a rehearsal with one group or another. Ah well, be careful what you wish for.
Meanwhile, the Spellbound record is proceeding nicely. I finished the first three sections of the epic The Sailor’s Saga. The last take of the guitar solo turned out to be really good and easy to put down (I guess practicing really works!) and from there is was straight on to mixing. This is the first song I mixed since I read that book on mixing over the summer, and even though it’s a complicated song with lots of sections and lots of layers, the mix went pretty quick and I was really happy with how it turned out. In fact, I went back and did a fresh mix of all the other songs on the record. Mostly it was just minor tweaks, but enough to make a difference and elevate things. I’d say now most of the songs are sounding really close to perfect.
So now I’m working on Part IV, which is a long, slow instrumental jam called Heaven Awaits All Men. It’s basically a coda. The original inspiration came from Würm by Yes, but I decided to change it around a little to apply some of what I learned making this album and bring in some new ideas. I added a transitional section to set it up, I bit of quick riffing to introduce some motivic ideas which harken back to the first part (Prison Sails) and get developed during the main section, which a long build to a big finish. I also changed to meter to 5/4 and revoiced the chords to emphasize the major tonalities. Now I’m beginning to layer in the instruments, starting with the rhythm guitar the serves as the spine of the track. Before I go to much further I’ll probably flesh out the drum part to give a sense of where the accents and dynamics lie. Hopefully it’ll come together pretty quickly. I’m nearing the end of the record and am getting excited to finish and release it.
In D&D, we’ve finished the bonus module White Plume Mountain Level 2, which I wrote back in high school. The big boss at the end is the Lich which somehow does not appear in the original module. The thing about playing a Lich is that, even though they’re very powerful, they only get to cast one spell a turn, compared with spell and weapon attacks from six party members. As luck would have it, the party dispatched the minions (both monsters and undead) that were supposed to come to his aid before the final encounter, so he was fighting solo. His first attack was a fireball, which was supposed to take out half the party, but I rolled all 1’s and 2’s and a single 4 for damage. He did a good job bopping around with dimension door, invisibility and the like to confuse the party, but once they had him pinned down they slew him with relative ease. If I had to do it again I would have had him activate all his defensive spells before the combat started. Ah well. If I every publish the module I’ll include a bit on how to effectively roleplay a Lich in combat.
In any evert, we’ve now started A Palace in the Sky, a D&D module Martin and I wrote together when we were in high school, and was subsequently published in TSR’s Dungeon Adventure Magazine. The module is centered around a clan of Cloud Giants living in a magic castle on a cloud island. So far the party showed up and slew the garrison of Bugbears defending the guard house due to a misunderstanding. They were then befriended by a mysterious wizard and escorted into the castle where there were welcomed by the giants, and are now lounging at the bar.
In other news, the weather remains nice, mainly mild and sunny, even as Hallowe’en draws near. I’ve been doing a good amount of biking. Jeannie and I went to the local bike path this Sunday, maybe for the last time this season. We also finally fixed the screen door to the back yard, a task that’s been on my todo list since the springtime.