So I think I'm pretty much done with Thing-A-Day this year. I'm going out of town tonight, so today feels like a good stopping point. For my last post I thought I'd record a medley of me playing a few seconds of all 18 songs I learned this month:

bass.aiff

(download)

Click here to download:

bass.aiff (3.31 MB)

I know I picked a pretty un-entertaining project this year, but thanks for hanging in there everybody. I was drained, and it was either bass or nothing, and in a weird way working on these songs every day made me totally pumped to work on comics again for the first time in months (especially since the copy of Photoshop I bought on eBay just showed up in the mail!). I think I just needed to work on something, to get back in the habit.

I'll still be reading all your posts for the rest of the month...

Anyway, thanks again and see you next year.

Yesterday morning I started to learn "John Brown" by the Papercuts, but even after an hour I only got through the first 2 minutes of the song (page 1). So today I finished it up with the second half (page 2, natch). It's basically two separate songs stitched together so it made sense to do it that way. Great song:

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, this is the last song I'm learning this month... I've "scored" 18 songs, which should be more than enough to work on. I'll do something else tomorrow (not sure what yet).

And, I'll have a special post on the last day or two...

I tried to get back in comics mode again this weekend. Still really rusty, but feeling more determined now. I drew more of my public restroom comic on Saturday while at Ryan's house. I'm not fully happy with this yet (I was in a sleep-deprived from my crazy job/fighting my month-long cold/little bit crabby mood on Saturday and wasn't "in the zone") but it's a start:

Last night I tried to figure out my next zine, which'll probably be Black Tea #3:

And this morning I worked on the restroom comic a little more with a drawing slightly based on Green Apple Books:

This one came out ok.

This morning before work I learned "Fireman Hurley" by possibly the best bass player alive, Mike Watt.

I know the Minutemen's Double Nickels On The Dime is the go-to hip Mike Watt album to like & name-drop these days, but I almost prefer Watt's punk rock opera Contemplating the Engine Room (even though it's a little hokey, I'll admit). Maybe because I was a lit major and I like how this album tells a story -- it compares Mike's dad's life in the Navy to his own life in the Minutemen. Instead of a band touring the country in a van, he imagines himself working in the engine room of a submarine. D. Boon is "the Boilerman," and other punk bands like Husker Du and the Meat Puppets are the "Topsiders." And did I mention this album is also based on James Joyce's Ulysses? It works on a lot of levels.

Anyway, this song is about George Hurley, who played drums in the Minutemen and in Watt's second band fIREHOSE (hence the "Fireman" Hurley). This song is amazingly fun to play!

I love my job, but it's a really stressful time to work where I work, and today is going to be one of the crazier days.

Luckily, I found one of these cards on the ground this morning...

Today I went back to the 90's again and learned the somewhat obscure Smashing Pumpkins song Glynis, from the No Alternative compilation. I know this is a pretty cheesy song, but what a beautiful bassline.

PS - In case you can't tell I've completely given up on trying to write down rhythms. If it's a short/fast note, it's an eight note. Otherwise, every note is a quarter note now.

Last weekend Michelle and I finally watched the Michael Jackson movie This Is It so last night I decided to learn "Smooth Criminal":

This is another one I thought would be hard, but was really easy. All "white" notes (no sharps or flats, except the one passing tone), no bridge or anything like that. But it's such a fast bass line I think it'll be good for working on my "strumming," etc

I had a rare Saturday to myself, so I decided to work on a new comic for the first time since August. I was pretty rusty but still managed to pencil the first page of what's going to be a 4 page comic. It's for someone else's zine so I don't feel right posting the whole thing, but here's a sample:

On Sunday Michelle and I went up to the city for the pillow fight, and I took a quick detour to take a few reference photos for this comic. Like this one:

And last night I thumbnailed the last 2 pages. Another sample:

I have Friday off so I'm hoping to pick this up again that day. Meanwhile, back to the low end.

Yet another song from high school (and just in time for Valentine's weekend), here's "Lovecats" by the Cure. This one was way harder than I expected, as you can see from me taking up a lot of room on the page at first, then cramming in all the other parts of the song at the bottom:

PS: Kevin Smith recently did a podcast talking about Avatar, and he played this song at the beginning. Pretty genius.

Last night I learned another song from my high school days, "Cannonball" by the Breeders. I didn't bother trying to write out the exact rhythm, just the notes.

The bass is such a big part of this song, which I thought meant it would be hard to learn. But I actually got it down pretty fast.