Tuesday, March 29, 2016

notmovingpictures Episode 040: The Vox Populi Connection

Episode 40 of notmovingpictures is my rambling tale of how I came to receive a demo tape from a band called Vox Populi that was from Shepherdstown, WV in 1995  and then reconnect with them over twenty years later all thanks to the internet age. It's also the story of that band told in their (or at least one of the members) own words. It just goes to show you it's never too late to find something or do something.



Opening Music: Alloy - Live To See The Day
Closing Music: Vox Populi - Everything

Email: notmovingpictures@gmail.com
Twitter: @notmovingpics
Blog: www.notmovingpictures.blogspot.com

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Ten For Tuesday Episode 092: Lotta New Songs

Lotta new songs here with a couple of old ones. That's about all I got to say for now. Hey, at least it's on time.



The Thermals - Hey You
Bob Mould - Voices In My Head
Der Faden - Best Guess
Medication - Memories Of Youth
Soldiers Of Fortune (Featuring Stephen Malkmus) - Campus Swagger
The Last Slice - Sea Of Unknown
The Slackers - Truth Comes Knocking
The Clash (With Ranking Roger) - Red Angel Dragnet
R.E.M. - So. Central Rain
The Riot Waves - She's A Punk

Ten For Tuesday is a podcast dedicated to playing the music I couldn't find anywhere else. The music I like varies from style to style, genre to genre and era to era. You will hear punk, ska, rock, Americana, metal, country, rockabilly and more from all over the world. It doesn't matter if it's a major label or indie as long as I like it then it gets played. The motto is Less Talk More Music which means you won't hear me waxing poetic for fifteen minutes between songs. At TFT its all about the music...and me of course.

Email: tenfortuesday@gmail.com Twitter:@notmovingpics
Blog: www.notmovingpictures.blogspot.com
Old Episodes can be found by going to www.archive.org and searching for Ten For Tuesday.

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Iron Maiden at the BOK, Tulsa 2/26/16

So now of course I need to put up some pictures of Iron Maiden whose show I went to a mere three days after seeing Megadeth, this one though was in Tulsa. I was still trying to figure out the camera on my phone and we were in the nosebleed section so it doesn't always make for great pictures. Nor does the enormous group of cords hanging down from the rigging. It is what it is.









Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

Megadeth at the Fillmore Auditorium, Denver 2/23/16

I've taken my sweet time in getting to this but finally, here are some pictures from the Megadeth show I road tripped to with Tommy, Chris and Robbie. I'm still learning to use the camera on this new (to me) phone. We were at the back so I zoomed in quite a bit and thought they looked good on the phone. When I pulled them off onto my laptop though, they didn't seem quite as impressive. You be the judge.










Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

Ska Beat 2nd Anniversary Show Tape

This is the tape from the Ska Beat 2nd anniversary show. At the end the sports team came in without any advance notice for a promo before allowing me to end the show. What can I say, that's how things went at WMUL. Sports were king and music was an afterthought. Such is life. Click here to jump to the Internet Archive and listen or download.

Yardbeat - Push Wood
Dave Hillyard & The Rocksteady 7 - Hillyard Street
Stubborn AllStars - Take Your Chances
Gondwana - Irie
Alpheus - Nothing Can Stop You
Aswad - Freedom Street
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes - Teach The Youth
Hepcat - Riding The Region
The Skalars - After The Show
Long Beach Dub AllStars - Pass It On
The Inspector - Spanish Galleon
The Equators - Softly Softly
Bim Skala Bim - Set Me Up
The Dominant Seven - Stranded
Dave's Big Deluxe - Time After Time
The Robustos - Don't Be Down   cuts off
Laurel Aitken & The Skatalites - Come Down
Filibuster - Pale Writer
Pilfers - Agua
The Donkey Show - Mr. Brown
Inspecter 7 - Now
Skavoovie & The Epitones - Boyo
The Chinkies - Run Away
Notchoma - Rudeboy
Freetown - She's A Natural
The Radiation Kings - Come Down
Jimmy Skaffa - Magic City
Boitovision w/Greg Lee - Big Bamboo
Macka B - Malcolm X
Edna's Goldfish - I'm Your Density
Fishbone - Party At Ground Zero

Ska Beat was a show I did in the latter part of the 90s as a community volunteer for 88.1 WMUL, Marshall University's radio station, in Huntington, WV. The show ran for almost three years, mostly in the Sunday noon to 2PM timeslot before shifting to a Thursday evening 8-10PM shift. It was a great time to see live music as many ska bands came through the Huntington area on their way to somewhere else.

Be forewarned, I have chosen to include all of the Public Service Announcements, weather updates, mistakes and whatever else was recorded along with the music. Yeah, I am that lazy. Also, these shows were taped on cassettes and as such may suffer from sitting around for all of these years. Additionally, WMUL had an ongoing issue of a loud hum that would periodically present itself when I was talking but normally it went away when the music was playing. Often I forgot to hit record or to turn the tape over at the midpoint of the show so there will be gaps in songs as well as some being omitted entirely. I have tried to annotate when that happened.

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

Monday, March 14, 2016

notmovingpictures Episode 039: The Extremely Long Return Road Trip

This very short episode was recorded on the return road trip to Denver. Tommy was pretty much wiped out energy wise and to be honest so were the rest of us so he chose not to talk. The drive through Southeastern Colorado is rather boring as is the Oklahoma Panhandle. Nothing but miles and miles of farmland. So I made a recap of the trip before signing off but that really isn't the end. I tagged on a short piece that I recorded after seeing Iron Maiden here in Tulsa just a few days later. Since I was driving I finished and what you hear last is a very long song from Iron Maiden off of their most recent album. Hope you like it.



Opening Music: Alloy - Live To See The Day
Closing Music: Iron Maiden - The Red And The Black

Email: notmovingpictures@gmail.com
Twitter: @notmovingpics
Blog: www.notmovingpictures.blogspot.com

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Ten For Tuesday Episode 091: Kinda About The 90s

I've had the idea for this episode for a long time and finally it has come to fruition. Not all of the songs are from the 90s, I believe two are from 1989 but they all fit so well together it just had to be done. Perhaps my fiery rhetoric about that and why anybody who says Nirvana killed metal is wrong goes on too long but you can always fast forward to the music now can't you?



Sugar - A Good Idea
Seaweed - Go Your Own Way
The Tragically Hip - New Orleans Is Sinking
Matthew Sweet - I've Been Waiting
Soul Asylum - Somebody To Shove
The Pixies - Here Comes Your Man
The Lemonheads - Into Your Arms
Nirvana - Come As You Are
Urge Overkill, - Tequila Sundae
Teenage Fanclub - The Concept

Ten For Tuesday is a podcast dedicated to playing the music I couldn't find anywhere else. The music I like varies from style to style, genre to genre and era to era. You will hear punk, ska, rock, Americana, metal, country, rockabilly and more from all over the world. It doesn't matter if it's a major label or indie as long as I like it then it gets played. The motto is Less Talk More Music which means you won't hear me waxing poetic for fifteen minutes between songs. At TFT its all about the music...and me of course.

Email: tenfortuesday@gmail.com Twitter:@notmovingpics
Blog: www.notmovingpictures.blogspot.com
Old Episodes can be found by going to www.archive.org and searching for Ten For Tuesday.

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

Monday, March 7, 2016

Short Nights, Long Days and Mistakes

For me the day had started off early on far too little sleep. But that was okay, the reasons behind it are well worth it. My first major task to accomplish was dumping a full load of used shingles that were occupying my truck. The day before I had loaded the shingles (okay, with some assistance) and was already feeling sore from it. My thighs, lower back and elbows were killing me but I had a short time to get this done because there was a free lunchtime class at TCC (Tulsa Community College) called “Don’t Know How to Play Guitar” that I really wanted to attend. Every semester TCC’s Metro Campus offers a series of these introductory classes on various topics. This class advertised teaching beginners two or three chords and giving them a foundation on the guitar which is something I drastically need. I mean the cheap beat up acoustic I’ve had for about fifteen years continues to sit unused so it’s high time I buckled down and actually did something with it.

After a quick shower I jumped in my truck and raced to the campus and jumped into the first parking spot I could find. Grabbing the guitar case with its broken handle I hugged it to my body and fast walked my way into the building and through the door. It was then that I noticed that none of the people sitting in the large room had a guitar. It turns out I had my dates switched up. Today was “Don’t Know How to Draw Portraits” not the guitar class I was expecting. Feeling disappointed (and a bit embarrassed) I decided to stay and have something positive to show for my time. The class goal was to draw a portrait of actor Tom Hanks using pencil and then charcoal. Even though it’s been quite some time since I have drawn, especially something of this difficulty, I leapt into it, disregarding most of the instructor’s suggestions as I did it my way, on my timetable for better or for worse.


To me the finished product looks more like John Travolta than Tom Hanks but you be the judge. Maybe I need to get back into art, at least just a little and then things would actually look like they should. After stuffing the still unused guitar and the sort-of-looks-like-him portrait in my truck I had a quick lunch and a (far too) short nap before driving to work where a full, busy night awaited me. That’s life……………… and I’m still way too sore. The actual guitar class has to go better than this, presuming of course I remember to go on the right date that is.

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

Thursday, March 3, 2016

notmovingpictures Episode 038: Road Trip To Megadeth

Episode 39 of notmovingpictures is a rambling discourse between Tommy and myself as we make the oh so long drive to Denver to see Megadeth in concert. Among the myriad of topics we touch on are:

Collective unconscious
Psychedelics/marijuana and their medicinal abilities and how Big Pharma wants treatments, not cures
How the music industry has changed in our lifetimes
What taking a road trip to see bands means to us
The need to rid ourselves of career politicians and why outsiders like Sanders, Trump and Carson are finding support
The culture of fame in sports, music and politics
Police shootings, faux outrage and no outrage about Flint
The news we are presented with is slanted and biased
Military operations and bombings in countries without Congressional approval
Obama being more Conservative than Bush but not recognized in the press
Laws attempting to be passed in the guise of religious freedom that really discriminate

As you can see we roamed over a lot of territory but it was the most interesting part of the drive. The Oklahoma Panhandle and Southeastern Colorado both have a glaring lack of things to keep you interested. Just miles and miles of farmland whichever way you look. So go ahead and listen.



Opening Music: Alloy - Live To See The Day 
Closing Music: Megadeth - Post American World

Email: notmovingpictures@gmail.com
Twitter: @notmovingpic
Blog: www.notmovingpictures.blogspot.com

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

My Mind Has Been Blown

2015 was a year of firsts for me. I got in front of an audience and told a story and later actually won. I started a zine thereby self-publishing my thoughts and ideas. I wrote a song and recorded it doing the vocals. All were very cool things that I want to do more of in the future. This year I’ve got another first. Allow me to explain. The week before leaving I had found out about the Rutten and Ranallo podcast and subscribed to it. Bas Rutten and Mauro Ranallo were an announcing team for the Pride Fighting Championship, a Japanese MMA company that at its height challenged the UFC for supremacy in the MMA world before succumbing to scandal.
 

Recently Bas and Mauro started a podcast and at the end of it they talked about how they were accepting music submissions from fans to play at the end of the episodes. The night before going on my four day road trip I quickly sent the mp3 file from the song that I had done (Conflict Registered) with some personal info and hoped that maybe in the near future they might play it on their show. Since I was on vacation though I didn’t check my email until yesterday, eleven days after I had sent my song in. However once I read my email I was in shock. Not only did they use my song, they used it on their very next show.
 

My mind was sufficiently blown and after listening to the episode and hearing my name mentioned on this bigtime podcast as well as other info it was completely destroyed. I’ll admit, as I sat there in awed silence some tears almost spilled out from my eyes. That’s how big of a deal this is to me. I’m the guy that has suffered from low self-esteem all of my life, who never thought he was good enough to do a song (or anything else) and despite myself I’ve done it. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think I’ll become famous or anything like that. It’s just that receiving such positive affirmation after decades of doubt and procrastination makes me feel a little bit good about myself. That’s a good thing.

So if you want head over to their site and you can find several ways to listen or even download the eighth podcast episode. Showing them some love is the right thing to do since they showed me some. Going even further go to bandcamp and download the song for free. I’m rather sure it won’t hurt you and it’ll make me even happier than I already am.

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.