The life and times of Isaac Dust
Why record a cover of Jack White‘s “Why walk a dog?”
I don’t know. Why anything? Why wipe your ass? Sheesh…
(Actually, I was running an experiment to see if I could use my old BR-864 as an effects unit with my new Zoom LiveTrak L-12, and this song just came to mind, because it’s short and sweet. It worked, so I guess the null hypothesis was rejected, or something like that.)
It’s that time of year again. Time to take stock and set goals and all that shit. Me, I’m looking to crank up the creativity this year. As Maria Popova at Brain Pickings pointed out, both Tchaikovsky & Jack White agree: Inspiration AND hard work are needed to keep the creative flame burning. First Tchaikovsky:
There is no doubt that even the greatest musical geniuses have sometimes worked without inspiration. This guest does not always respond to the first invitation. We must always work, and a self-respecting artist must not fold his hands on the pretext that he is not in the mood. If we wait for the mood, without endeavouring to meet it half-way, we easily become indolent and apathetic. We must be patient, and believe that inspiration will come to those who can master their disinclination.
Then Jack:
Inspiration and work ethic — they ride right next to each other…. Not every day you’re gonna wake up and the clouds are gonna part and rays from heaven are gonna come down and you’re gonna write a song from it. Sometimes, you just get in there and just force yourself to work, and maybe something good will come out.
And then there’s folk legend Woody Guthrie, who wrote the following “New Years Rulin’s” in his journal on January 1st, 1943:
For years I’ve been encouraging Eric Wallen (the heart and soul of Minor Stars and My Dear Ella) to let the world have a listen to his impressive collection of song idea tapes and demo recordings. We’ve been talking about creating an online “vault” of demos and bonus material for so many years that Jack White had time to telepathically steal our ideas and launch his own version.
Well, the time has come and the Minor Stars Vault has been unlocked and launched into cyberspace at long last. Here’s Eric’s announcement and the first two offerings:
The Vault will put on full display the underbelly of Minor Stars and its members. Demos, riffs and jamz from practice, live videos, old abandoned songs, rough mixes of the latest song we’re working on…the stuff that might not otherwise see the light of day but that is often the most interesting and exciting. Anything goes.
Our goal is to add a new Vault post every week. In addition to offering up cool content, the Vault is meant to keep us focused and dedicated to writing and recording music regularly, and to loosen up the stranglehold that I’ve (Eric) always had on material I haven’t considered to be in its “final” form. I’m dropping all that. It’s never gonna be in its final form, or it already is and I don’t know it yet. But it really doesn’t matter, and now it’ll be in the Vault for all to hear.