A New Band in the Making. Cool Guitarist Wanted!

Howdy. I am currently in the process of forming a new band here in Minneapolis, which is proving to be a difficult task for me these days as I've been out of the band scene for many years now. I decided to create this blog site to hopefully help spur on the process by connecting with other Twin Cities musicians as we are currently looking for a second guitar player.

I am a singer/guitarist/songwriter and I've been loosely collaborating with two friends- a bass player and a drummer. We have written and recorded a handful of songs, which are somewhat diverse in terms of style; but ultimately, I think the sound we are after is going to incorporate heavy funk/rock, psychedelic, and melodic elements that center around a solid groove. Of course, these things are always impossible to describe with any precision in words. So I thought, "Hey- instead of trying in vain to describe the sound, why not just post a couple demos?"  It makes sense, right? If nothing else, it may very well give you an idea of how horrible I am at describing my own music. So here they are....

BAND DEMOS

Move For Me

Hot Sun

My Band History

 I have played in a handful of original Minneapolis-based bands over the years which have spanned a fairly wide range of the rock spectrum style-wise. The band that I was a part of for the longest period of time was called Sled. Sled was a three-piece power trio in which I played guitar and sang lead vocals. In Sled I was a primary songwriter. It was and still is the nearest and dearest to me. Sled formed around 1994 and called it quits in 2001. For a more complete bio and to hear some songs from Sled, check out our Reverbnation site here:    Sled on Reverbnation


The most recent band I've been a part of was called Flux Box. I joined Flux Box as a guitarist in 2001 after the other three guys had already established a set of music. This was a cool new experience for me to be able to really focus on playing guitar. I didn't have to write songs from the ground up, there was another guitarist (and lead singer) who played primarily rhythm guitar, and more importantly I wasn't singing lead vocals, so it freed me up to do a lot of things on the guitar that I wasn't able to do in Sled, at least in a live situation. Here's one of my favorite songs from Flux Box called 'Gold Eyes'.

Gold Eyes, by Flux Box

My thoughts on: "Hoodwinked", by John Perkins

I'm currently reading "Hoodwinked", by John Perkins- a book about the most recent financial market crash and how big corporations have gained far too much control over our government, leading to the massive deregulation that occurred across many industries in recent decades. This deregulation ultimately allowed large corporations to add America to the list of countries that they exploit by, for example, allowing for financial corporations to offer deceptive 'predatory' loans to countless Americans, many of whom would end up losing their homes.  "Hoodwinked" paints a pretty bleak picture of the state of our domestic and global economies (even worse than we've been led to believe) but offers some good insight into what we can do to start solving the core problems.  It's definitely worth checking out, and I believe that a sustainable economic future for our country and beyond depends desperately on the American public becoming aware of the magnitude of the problem of corporate control over our government, and organizing to take actions to end it.

Perkins's earlier book, Confessions of an Economic Hit-Man, was a real eye-opener for me, personally. Both Hoodwinked and Confessions of an Economic Hit-Man offer rare and compelling first-hand accounts of the insidious schemes of corruption and global exploitation that have become the hidden pillars of the capitalist system in America.

About the author:
John Perkins was formerly a self-described "Economic Hit Man", working for a private engineering/consulting firm in the 70's. In conjunction with the objectives of the US Government, big business, and large banks (cumulatively referred to by Perkins as the corporatocracy) he was sent to many 'third world' countries during his tenure, tasked with the mission of corrupting the leaders of Ecuador, Panama, and Indonesia (to name a few), by bribing them with millions of dollars to allow US corporations to exploit their resources and their people. He eventually realized the horrible consequences of this predatory model of capitalism and also began to realize that it is not a sustainable model and would ultimately lead to a global economic collapse, much like we're seeing today. No longer able to ignore the human realities of exploitation- or his own feelings of guilt- he walked away from it all. He later felt a sense of duty to speak out against the system he had been a part of. In addition to his writing, Perkins also speaks at seminars and colleges around the world, advocating sustainable economic practices, and educating others about what's really going on and what we can all do to help take back the power from the large corporations that are destroying our economies, our resources, and our planet.

Here's a link to John Perkins's  website where you can find out more about "Hoodwinked" and learn more about the issues and causes in which he is involved: http://www.johnperkins.org/

By the way....
My objective is not to push my beliefs on anyone. I realize that issues raised in this book are often politically polarizing. While my own beliefs tend to be slightly liberal economically, and Libertarian socially, I truly believe that the current level of corporate control over our government is a huge threat to all Americans, regardless of their political affiliations. I also realize I can learn a lot from opposing viewpoints, and welcome them. My goal is to share my ideas, beliefs, and knowledge, while listening to others to become better informed on all sides of these issues- outside of the politically slanted media; with open-minded, tolerant, thoughtful people; and without the closed-minded, rhetoric-charged interference. So if you have any suggestions of books, films, websites, ideas, etc. that have helped you become more aware or more active regarding these issues-- please let me know! Thanks!