BLOG: MUSIC STUFF
Hey all! Welcome back. Its my intention to write as often as I can here on my substack/website page just like I used to in the old BLOGGER days. I do posts blogs at my Patreon, but that is more behind the scenes/NSFW comics stuff. So if you want ALL the things, Subscribe there. That only costs a $1 for blogs and podcasts. For the NSFW comics and pinups and more, thats $5. Pretty cheap when comparing to other NSFW comics on Patreon. I try to keep the costs down for everyone. I appreciate anyone who ever wants to plunk down their hard earned for my work. But this website (Substack and idiothead.com that is connected to the substack now) will always be free. I think there are options to toss financial support but I don’t have that active. Just glad i got a landing page for such things. Links to Patreon down below!
One thing I will talk about on this blog is media. Not only my own comics but also movies, music, tv, books, other comics, etc. I shall try to avoid political posts cause there is enough of that everywhere else. I’d like for this place to be a place where people can go to for a nice distraction. Here’s hoping!
Let’s start with some music talk. I’ve played guitar since I was about sixteen years old. Admittedly, I’m not very good. I’m very decent at rhythm playing but soloing… Im certainly no expert. I do enjoy learning new songs that I love and I used to really be into fear like a big amp and effects pedals and such. I’ve only played live a few times. I always fantasize about being in a band and doing some live gigs sometime. I really enjoy performing and music is one of the few things that connects us all.
So from time to time here I may review a CD and such. I am a big physical media collector so I gotta be able to share my love somewhere now that I am off social media. As I have aged, my elitism in my tastes has lessoned so don’t expect me to ever shit all over your preferences for things. Don’t do it to me either. Just let people like what they like.
One definite inspiration in this creative life I live is the great Neal Peart. Not only is he considered (arguably) the greatest drummer who ever lived, but he also was a very prolific writer. He wrote majority of the lyrics and themes to every Rush song and he maintaned a blog of writings about his travels and experiences. We lost him in January of 2020… just at the start of the pandemic. Brain cancer. He kept it hidden. I remember the night I read the news. I was at work and it popped up on my phone. I think my friend Shane alerted me to it. Sure enough the news was real. I wept at my desk.
I only got to see Rush twice live. On both of their last tours. Over the years I became a big fan of theirs. Although I took a very circular route to get into them. At first I didn’t dig it but then fell in love with all other modern progressive rock bands that all cited Rush as their influence. I had to drill down and see what I was missing. I got the 3 anthology sets and dug in. And man.. I became a HARDCORE fan!
My lead in was the song “Subdivisions.” I had heard it before of course, but never really listened to what it was saying. Suddenly I found a link to “being cool” that has avoided me all my life. Oh how I wish I coulda heard this song when I was wee. Might have helped my social awkwardness. I mean, I got by being the “funny guy” in high school, but still, I knew I wasn’t cool. I never really got on the team or got the chicks. I was a comic book nerd in a world where not many around me were into it. And being a hardcore Trek fan, I was very much alone in that. I guess thats great cause its kind of “mine,” ya dig?
I have real affection for the 90s synth era of Rush. I know I am in the minority of that. But really when you like a band, you find love for all eras of their work. I love when bands evolve and aren’t afraid to try new things. And even someone like Neal Peart would continue to learn and grow. He challenged himself by working with Fred Gruber and improving his drumming. He was always sitting with his nose in a book, avoiding that rock star life. I certainly relate to that. I prefer to take the back roads and be on my own rather than in the spotlight. While I do enjoy being seen and apprecited and respected, I do admit to being awkward and shy most of the time. Unless I am around a lot of people I know and can feel confident in what I am doing and feeling.
With making comics, art and music like I do, there’s an aspect of “performance” you have to have along with it. You gotta sell yourself. If you are lucky, the work can outshine that. But I don’t just sell one thing. I sell everything I do. All of it. So thus, I am the product. I have to sell myself. It takes a bit of ego and confidence to do good at that. Sometimes I fail miserably. But that is okay, cause its my journey and its how I roll. Im increasingly comfortable with that place in life.
While I don’t think i will ever be as great and influential as someone like Neal Peart and many others that I look up to (Maybe I’ll share my love of them with you on this substack blog someday), I do enjoy the circus of it all. I am happy with my little corner of the pond and I let the big fish swim and eat whatever they want. I keep my nose out of it. And if someone drifts my way, I give them a lift onto the boat and let em in, kicking the aligators away. Neal taught me that.
Thanks, Bubba.
I have wrote and released three albums worth of music in my life. It was with my hetero life mate and best friend since high school, Shane Logan. The literal yin to my yang. We’ve played music together since I was 16 years old. We were in jazz band together. He is far more accomplished a musician than I am. But I try to bring the ideas to the table for him to hammer into existence the sword we need to slay the dragons. We wanted to be a serious band at one point, but never dove in completely. The musician life is one of uncertainty. I didn’t have it in me to live in a van, eating bologna driving from gig to gig hoping we “make it.” In another life I certainly fantasized about it. But I was happy to just make music with my friend. We wanted to do a serious prog rock project. Call it “Mind Sigh.” But to warm up, we took old songs we wrote in high school and put funny lyrics to them. We became sort of an offensive “Weird Al” style of band, making joke songs in every genre from rock, rap, blues and more. Our project name? IDIOTHEAD.
We got the domain and lived on that for a while. But then life got in the way. I kept the idiothead name and transistioned it to being my main hub website for my comics, promising to also incorporate our music together in it as well. But over the years, we just didn’t get to record as much as we used to. In 2015 we got together and recorded a couple new songs. The hopes were to do some sort of compilation record. I had hoped to maybe make a 45” of one of our songs, just cause I wanted it. Maybe we will someday still. I am always recording new song ideas in my phone. But I am very rusty in my playing. I’d like to get back to it. But the comics have taken priority. So it goes.
Music is VERY much in my blood and soul. First concert I saw was in 1995. The Ramones opened for White Zombie. Coming up right now I got tickets to go see Overkill and King Diamond and next year I got a ticket to see Primus/A Perfect Circle and Puscifer. I’ve lived during some great times in music! I will share my knowledge and experiences here on this substack blog, as well as review new stuff I get. I’m on a big Fleetwood Mac kick lately. So expect me to talk about that.
I hope to continue the tradition Neal Peart did in his own blog, by just sharing his world and experiences and speak my mind as he did. Fearless and very much seen. We’ll see how it goes. Either way, I’m not stopping. This is my life and this is what I do.
Watch me go!
Thanks for reading! -T
Get my comics via digital download! https://www.drivethrucomics.com/browse/pub/14301/phymns
My NSFW Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/ADAMTALLEY
Always feel free to email me at: phymns@yahoo.com