New Stationary Nomads Song - Conflict Registered

     After a minor delay I can proudly announce that my second song is now available on Bandcamp (for free). Just follow the link here to listen or download it. You could pay for it but why? The track is called Conflict Registered and once again the project name is Stationary Nomads. This time around I worked with my friend Aaron Hlusko to bring the song to life. Not only did Aaron play all of the music and program the drums, he also recorded everything and made it sound like I can sing, which is no small feat.
     Creating something feels amazing and we're already working on another track which thankfully (for you) will be more of a spoken word with music piece. It also looks like we might do a version of my first song Ladrones since I've never been happy with the drum sound on that one. Of course I've got a ton of other ideas so if anybody else can play music and wants to create something let me know, I'm up for the challenge.

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

Road Trip To Iron Maiden

Here's a couple of shots from the concert Saturday Night. Tommy, Chris and I took a road trip to Kansas City to see Megadeth opening for Iron Maiden. Yes we had nosebleed seats and right now my Sony Bloggie isn't usable so I had to use a dinky little one so the vast majority of the pictures are unusable. At least the trip has been fun. More to come later.

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

And The Award Goes To........................................

I won an award in college once. Well, strictly speaking it wasn't an award so much as a joke, but still, it counts. I had joined the Northeastern Activities Board (NAB) the office which was responsible for the social activities on campus such as dances, concerts and so forth. Students were allowed to choose which committees you wanted to be on and mine always dealt with music. None of which had anything to do with my "award."

At the end of the school year the NAB would host a banquet where they would give out real awards and quite a few joke ones. Mine was for having surgically attached earphones due to my penchant for not only walking around campus with my Walkman on at a screechingly loud volume but also for having it on in the same manner in the office and still being able to maintain a conversation. I'm sure a lot of people thought I'd be deaf by now.

I used my walkman the way I did for two reasons. First, because it did allow me the freedom to walk around and listen to the music I loved whenever and wherever I wanted. Secondly, and more importantly, for a painfully shy, insecure young man such as myself it gave me a social out. I mean, I couldn't actually be expected to look at people and say hello (or some other innocuous greeting that may or may not have elicited a response) while jamming out to insanely loud volumes of heavy metal now could I?

I've never been comfortable or even adept at making small talk or just plain speaking with people I don't already know. So back then, whenever I came upon someone who looked in my general direction, I was quickly able to affect a look of intense concentration towards my Walkman. I would pretend I needed to fast forward to a different song or that I needed to change to another cassette or any of several other various pre-thought out reasons. It was foolproof, guaranteed to work almost one hundred percent of the time, except of course when someone could hear the music and have interest in it. Of course then I would be on common ground with them and was able to speak clearly and concisely about the subject at hand.

Now more than likely this whole process wasn't such a good thing for me. Without having it I might have been forced to come out of my shell and actually interact with people. I guess I thought of it as protection against having to deal with all of the jerks out in the world but at the same time it never allowed me to find those rare beings that weren't jerks unless as mentioned before the conversation dealt with music. Ah well, such is life. It was the way I was and I did learn life lessons from it one way or another.

Nowadays I use my Ipod while I roam the hallways at work. However I've noticed that far more people ignore the fact that I can't hear them, in an effort to force me into a conversation with them, than ever did back in the eighties. When this happens I just slap on a look that feigns interrupted concentration in the hopes that they will notice and leave me alone. See, I have learned lessons about interacting with people after all.

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

(Podcast) Ten For Tuesday Episode 27: I Need A New Logo

Alright, a new episode is up playing some great music, old and new and in various languages. There were some technical difficulties getting the music to play right so hopefully all is well. This is a unique blend of styles and I don't claim to know everything that's being said but man is the music good. Hope you enjoy.

The Descendents - Nothing With You
Las Cafeteras - La Bamba Rebelde
Dende & Band - Como Comcou
Very Be Carful - El Rapidol
Bodeans - Fadeaway
English Beat - Hands Off She's Mine
The Del Fuegos - Don't Run Wild
The Clash - Armagideon Time
Big Country - Another Country
The Heartbreakers - Born To Lose



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

Ten For Tuesday Episode 25

Episode 25 is late this week because, well, do I need a reason why? Of course I do. Podomatic gives a certain amount of space for free so in order to keep adding new episodes I have to delete the older ones. I didn’t want to lose those older episodes so the idea was that I would post them on the Internet Archive thereby keeping them available for as long as the Internet exists. The only problem is that I stopped porting them over after Episode 7. Recognizing my lack of productivity I started moving them once again and as of right now I have added Episodes 8 through 12. My goal is have all episodes moved so that when I put a new one on Podomatic I will then immediately upload it to the Archive and not have to worry about this issue in the future.

A pleasant by product of this laziness on my part was that when I looked at the episodes I had already uploaded (1-7 for those keeping score) was the amount of downloads each of them had received. Now I’m not suggesting that they were in the hundreds but most had more downloads than they had on Podomatic. The largest amount so far has been 40 so it was a nice surprise for me. It made my day a little bit better to know that someone out there is listening (albeit not a lot of someones…so far). Anyway, enough of my babbling, here’s what you come here for, the music:

The Stubborn All Stars – Pick Yourself Up

The Magic Touch – Dance Pon Di Corner

The Equators – Age Of 5

Inspecter 7 – Brother vs Brother

Fishbone – Ugly

The Sunnyboys – You Need A Friend

The Boys – Brickfield Nights

The Scientists – Last Night

The Victims – Television Addict

The Saints - Stranded

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

Ten For Tuesday Episode 18

It's only been two weeks and I actually got another episode of Ten For Tuesday done. What's more, there should be another bonus episode in the next few days so pay attention! Music for this episode comes from Amsterdam, The UK, The States, Japan, Peru, Argentine and Canada. The track list is as follows:

Jaya The Cat - Here Comes The Drums
The Skints - Rise Up
Casper Loma Da Wa - How The West Was Won
X - Country At War
The Nerves- Hanging On The Telephone
Mission of Burma - That's How I Escaped My Certain Fate
Oi Skall Mates - Nutty Sound
Olaya Sound System - Innocente
Anabella - No Me Conviene
The Real McKenzies - Scots Wha' Ha'e



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

Episode 15 Of Ten For Tuesday Is Ready

It took a month but Episode 15 of my podcast Ten For Tuesday has finally been uploaded. It really is a continuation of Episode 14, when I selected the songs I had about seven or eight left over and I really didn't want to leave them out so after a little digging I found a few more songs and it was decided. Life as always intervenes but also I've been busy with my other podcast notmovingpictures. As a matter of fact I've just recorded three episodes of that one in the past five days. Be of good So jump in the time machine with me and remember what it was like to rock out in the early 90s.

Biohazard - Punishment
Rollins Band - Starve
Testament - Practice What You Preach
Prong - Snap Your Finger, Snap Your Neck
Rage Against The Machine - Testify
Butthole Surfers - Who Was In My Room Last Night
L7 - Pretend That We're Dead
Sponge - Rotting Pinata
Alice In Chains - Would
Paw - Jessie


twitter - @notmovingpics   email - tenfortuesday@gmail.com

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

Should I Stay Or Should I go?

Recently Tommy, my brother from other parents, sent me an email asking me to keep a date open because his band (Alloy) is finally going to be playing a show after a long hiatus. They've been spending their time practicing and recording, when they could get together, but they also knew that they needed to start playing live again. Not only do they have a gig lined up on April 7th but it in fact will be their highest profile appearance ever. In the past they had played mainly at a small bar for no money, solely with the intent of gaining experience and getting their name out to be recognized. Now they get the chance to potentially have more people listen to them at this one show than all their other ones combined.

Then comes the drawback to the scenario, where they will be playing and who it's for. They are to play outside the Tea Party Convention that will be held in Tulsa. My question to him when we next talked was if it was in support of the Tea Party or in protest of them. If it were the latter then that would be great, something that I could wholeheartedly get behind. If it were the former, well, I have reservations about being there even if it is only to help the band set up and break down.

You see, I feel that the Tea Party cloaks itself in patriotism yet hidden underneath there lurks an ugly side consisting of old school prejudice and racism. They say a lot of things that sound right, less government and so forth but then it seems that all too frequently a local leader or spokesperson gets far too comfortable with themselves and ends up sounding off with some bizarre comments about race or immigration. Maybe it's just me and my perception but that's how I feel about it.

So now I was perplexed about what I should do. If I came to the show I felt like I would be endorsing the Tea Party even though I don't like them or agree with what they stand for. At the same time I really want to be there for my friends, not just as a roadie, but to see them playing and hopefully gaining new fans. I may not be a member of the band but I'm probably as close to it as anyone can be without actually playing an instrument. After all, I write lyrics for them, roadie their gigs when I can, try to find gigs for them and am designing and will run their website. With this dilemma what's a poor guy to do?

Luckily Tommy and I talked it over and used each other as sounding boards to see what each other thought. Tommy completely understood my viewpoint and told me that if I felt that strongly about the Tea Party then I should follow my convictions and not think twice about it. One thing he did say was that by playing outside the convention it is not as if the band is endorsing the Tea Party. If they were playing inside and were part of the itinerary then that would be a different story altogether.

Let me be clear here, the band itself does not endorse the Tea Party. Tommy is on record as saying that while there are things he does like about them there are also things that he doesn't like. If you take the time to listen to the lyrics of the band you'll find that the way I feel about groups like the Tea Party is evidenced fairly well. This is merely a chance to get some badly needed visibility for them as well as a chance to play a big show. There will be two other bands playing and I believe that Alloy will play last. Hopefully people will stop and listen and not just walk in or out.

The question for me now is what am I comfortable with? After I really thought about it I feel that since the band is not endorsing the Tea Party I need to be there with them. If anyone asks me my opinion I will readily provide it with enthusiasm, pulling no punches. Besides, I really don't think that a reporter will see me there and say "Hey, Why is Don Leach here? He says he doesn't support the Tea Party. He's a two faced lying jerk!" Once I climbed down from my high horse I decided that I'll use the opportunity to educate myself about the Tea Party and the way they operate. The old saying goes "Keep your friends close and your enemies even closer" or words to that effect so I'll take that to heart.

If you decide to show up and see me there please do not think badly of me. I'll just be there to rock out and support my friends. If you want to hear what the band sounds like you can look them up on ReverbNation. Just search for Alloy and select the one from Claremore, Ok. There are two songs (Silencer and The Blacksmith's Testament) and although they are far from finished at least you can have an idea of what the group sounds like. I'll also be putting more information on this blog when I get their website up and running. Maybe I'll even get a t-shirt made with my thoughts about the Tea Party that I can wear that day. Don't put it past me. Stranger things have been known to happen when I'm involved.

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

The Flight Of The Trooper

In November of 1987 I joined the U.S. Army and since I was already in the National Guard and had attended all of my training all I had to do was go back and get a new MOS (Military Occupational Specialty). Basically that means getting trained for a new job. My training took me back to Ft. Jackson, S.C., the scene of so much pain, sweat and a few curse words that we shall call Basic Training. The Christmas and New Years holidays were fast approaching and at this time every year all of the training units were to be shut down and all of the trainees sent home for two weeks. It's a strange procedure called Christmas Exodus.

We weren't allowed to take all of our belongings with us since we would be coming back so we had to decide what we couldn't live without. The problem for me was that I had many cassette tapes to choose from and not a lot of space to put them in. This clearly was a process that required a great deal of thought and careful deliberation. After all, if I left a tape behind that meant I wouldn't have access to it for two whole weeks, almost an eternity in those days. So there I was kneeling in front of my locker going through my box of cassettes trying to make the hard choices.

Some choices were easy, like Moving Pictures by Rush, that went in the yes pile without a thought. Next to that was the maybe pile followed by the no pile. The maybe pile was the largest. As I went through them I came upon Iron Maiden's Piece Of Mind and I immediately put it in the no pile. However as soon as I did this and started to reach for another cassette I hesitated. It occurred to me that it did contain my favorite Maiden song "The Trooper" and you never know, I might be in the mood for something that aggressive during the holidays since I never was much for celebrating and didn't care for Christmas music.

With that thought my mind was quickly changed and I relocated Iron Maiden to the yes pile and continued with my selections. Once finished the cassettes were placed in my carry on bag with my walkman and a book or two, the bag properly zipped up and off I went to catch a cab to the airport dressed in my Class A uniform (it was a requirement not a style choice). From there I waited for my flight to Huntington, W.V. I'm not from Huntington, it's just that it has the closest airport to my hometown of Ironton, Ohio, which itself is not a huge, bustling borough. The ride was a short one and after checking my bag I still had time to kill once I arrived at my departure gate. So on came the headphones and I started jamming to some music and read a magazine.

Right after the announcement was made for first class to board I noticed a skinny, long haired guy walking past me with a very attractive, dark haired woman. The only thought that entered my brain was "Wow, that guy's got a messed up nose just like the drummer from Iron Maiden." Upon closer inspection I saw that he was carrying the kind of case that looked like it contained drum sticks and a practice pad. This called for a re-evaluation so I gave him a good once over and my next thought was "He even looks like the drummer from Iron Maiden."


As the rest of the passengers started boarding I could tell that the ladies working at the gate were excited as they were eagerly chattering to each other in hushed tones. Feeling that it was appropriate, I asked them if that indeed this fellow was the drummer from Iron Maiden, but they wouldn't confirm or deny it. Clearly something was up though. Again I gave him the once over as I walked down the aisle to my seat and as I did so I was totally convinced. It was Nicko McBrain, the drummer from Iron Maiden, here on my flight to Huntington, W.V. of all places. I knew I couldn't let a golden opportunity like this pass me by.

After sitting in my assigned window seat I immediately started digging through my bag frantically trying to find my Piece Of Mind cassette tape. The man sitting next to me in his dress shirt, tie and slacks asked me what was going on. I tried to explain to him that the drummer for the world famous heavy metal band Iron Maiden was at this very moment sitting in first class on our plane and I intended to get his autograph. After all, this is a group that could sell out stadiums in countries like Poland which always seemed like a pretty impressive an accomplishment to me. Although my seat companion clearly had no idea about who or what I was speaking of he was nevertheless impressed by my excitement and quickly loaned me his sharpie and wished me luck.

Slowly I made my way up the aisle (it wasn't a very large plane) into first class where I could see the stewardess talking to the only occupants there, Nicko and his lady friend. The stewardess glanced at me and asked me if she could help me. Looking directly into her eyes I told her "No, but he can" and immediately turned to Nicko thrusting out my tape and the sharpie and asked for his autograph. If he was surprised at the sight of this tall, skinny guy with his hair buzzed off, dressed in a military uniform, who had readily recognized him he didn't let it faze him. Instead he happily complied and asked my name as he started writing. Now at this moment my head almost overflowed with questions that I could ask of him now that I had been gifted with this rare chance meeting. Topics like when were they touring, when would a new album be coming and so forth all burst into my consciousness.

Instead, I only managed to blurt out "You guys rock!" That's it. That's all I could muster in my moment in the sun. So sad. I'm sure that he noticed the change in my demeanor as immediately I started berating myself mentally for sounding so stupid but if he did he didn't show it. He merely thanked me, finished signing my tape and handed it back to me. Realizing that my time was rapidly fading I regained my senses and asked him why he was going to Huntington. It turned out that the lady was his fiance and she was from a town located about midway between Huntington and Charleston, WV and they were on their way to spend the holidays with her parents. Thanking him again I quickly made my way back to my seat in the nether regions of coach class and prepared for takeoff.

The rest of the flight was a blur for me and yes, I did listen to Piece Of Mind during the flight. Once we arrived in Huntington I informed my sister and her husband of the famous musician on my flight and as we walked to claim my baggage Nicko was already walking away with his. I caught his eye and he nodded to me, a move of which I made sure my sister and her husband were aware of. We grabbed my bags and on the way to their car we could see Nicko putting his bags into his rental car with a cluster of teens around him. As we walked on those teens came by us and I overheard one of them saying "I don't know who he is but I know he's famous." I wanted to smack those young punks right then and there for having the audacity to ask someone for an autograph when they didn't even know who he was. The nerve.

There's my story of how I met a famous rock star and said something totally and completely lame to him. Some may say that my change of heart about bringing the only Iron Maiden cassette tape that I owned was merely a coincidence and nothing more but I think not. It was instead some strange twist of fate not meant to be life altering, perhaps only to be an amusing tale (hopefully) for me to bore people with later in life. That's where all of you come in. As for the only other question that can be asked about this momentous occasion, do I still have the tape? You better believe it. I wouldn't trade it for anything.




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

Christmas and Heavy Metal....How Could Anything Go Wrong?

Here's a little something that combines Christmas, Heavy Metal and comedy which is the way I like it. Sure, you can have your stuffy Christmas music that bores you to tears or you can try something a little................different this year.

Friday Flashback: Ronnie James Dio

I'm going to make this pretty fast as I don't have much time before getting to bed. I posted on Sunday about legendary singer Ronnie James Dio losing his battle with stomach cancer. I put up a couple of of my favorite videos by him on that post. So today in remembrance of RJD I decided to put up a few more videos. First up is Holy Diver which is off of the album by the same name released in 1982.



Dio was in the band Elf which led to which he left to help form Rainbow. They recorded four albums together before Dio left the group and replaced Ozzy Osbourne in Black Sabbath and recorded one of their best albums Heaven and Hell. Dio's next move was to form his own group named after himself. Dio the band was formed in 1982 and immediately found success in the metal world. He kept the band going through many lineup changes until 1991 when he returned to Black Sabbath.



In 1993 Dio reformed his band and started recording and touring again and kept the group going until his untimely death. He also returned to the Black Sabbath fold in 2006 but since they were still together with Ozzy Osbourne they decided to call the group Heaven And Hell. Heaven and Hell had planned on touring this summer after RJD had recovered from his illness but that was not to be as he passed away on May 16th. Although he was small in stature he had an incredible voice that lost nothing over the years. From all accounts he was a wonderful person so I think it's safe to say he will be greatly missed.

Friday Flashback - Scorpions

Usually when I'm thinking about the Friday Flashback I have no problem coming up with a band that I want to showcase. As a matter of fact I usually have several to consider however as the days went by this week I didn't feel any inspiration about who I should choose. Then I started watching videos of some of the bands like Scorpions and Twisted Sister that will be playing at the Rock N America show that will be held in late July at the Zoo Amphitheater in Oklahoma City. The idea that came to me was to showcase those bands closer to the date of the festival. But as I thought more and more about and watched the videos I decided that there's a reason I was thinking about it now so I had better go with the feeling and use the Scorpions this week.

The band was originally started in 1965 in Germany by Rudolph Schenker however they didn't really start to gain any real ground until vocalist Klaus Meine joined in 1969 along with Rudolph's brother Michael. The band broke up when Michael left to join UFO however several members formed another band and then persuaded Klaus to join them and they ended us using the name Scorpions since it was much better known. The bands sound started to really form in the mid 70s and by the end of the decade with the release of the album Lovedrive their formula of hard driving songs mixed with melodic ballads really had taken hold.

Blackout



With their 1982 release Blackout the band started gaining attention all over the world. This is when I first heard of them. I was on my schools track team and a guy named Russell Haynes was sitting behind me on the bus as we started on our way back from a track meet. He heard Rush playing on my Walkman and told me that if I liked them then I might like this band and he handed me his copy of the cassette. I was hooked immediately and I listened to it all the way back home. Somehow I got a copy of my own even though I had next to no money and I played it to death.

Can't Live Without You



In 1984 the band released Love At First Sting and became international superstars propelled by the video for the song Rock You Like A Hurricane. The album went double platinum in just a few months in the United States. On Friday April 13th, 1984 they came to the Tulsa Convention Center where I and about six other friends came to watch them. The ticket cost was a mere $13.75. We had crammed into my best friend Tom's mustang and made the drive up to Tulsa where we stood on the arms of our seats and rocked out to the band. One member of our group temporarily lost his glasses but we found them undamaged after the show. Another friend had taken them as a joke and apparently dropped them as he overdosed on PCP that was mixed in a drink and he was taken to the hospital. We never saw this happen and didn't even know where he was until his father came over the next day to let us know what had happened to him.

Rock You Like A Hurricane



Now all these years later the band that continued to tour and record has released their 17th and final album Sting In The Tail and will be touring the world for about 2 years as they say goodbye to their fans. Luckily for me they will be playing close to home an the Rock N America festival with other 80s metal groups so that makes it a nobrainer. I'll be there cheering them on and will be hoping that maybe, just maybe they'll come back one final time to Tulsa next year where this old man can rock out one more time like he did when he was young.

Raised On Rock