The tarnishing of whatever good name I had is now complete with the posting of "Only Wanna Screw" in mp3 and vorbis formats. I hope you like it rough. Your music, that is.

Okay, I've put an entry for my silly sex song "Only Wanna Screw" up in the Songs section. I'll have a recording up in a bit. Hope my folks aren't reading this...

I've uploaded the lyrics, music and story of Dracula's Cat for your enjoyment.

I'm doing a sound gig for Laura Fernandez and Kevin Stock at The Black Swan on Dec 11. I don't have to pay cover, I get to do sound, and hang out with friends. And I get paid too? Cool!

I've sorted out the other acts for the Albert Anyone show. Marcus Walker's Liveshow will kick off the night, and Floxology will cap it. Marcus will also be playing bass in Albert Anyone. Once again, that's:

Also, the Albert Anyone web site has finally got some stuff on it. It's a wiki, which means anyone can edit it. Just don't go nuts, okay?

Just a quick note, I'm doing the unthinkable-- doing sound at Oasis on a Wednesday this week. Laura Fernandez and Kevin Stock are opening for Amy Callowhill, and I'll be doing "sound reinforcement", as the hip cats say.

Almost a year after we first formed, Albert Anyone will be playing our very first gig on November 18. I haven't sorted out who the other acts will be yet, but I'm sure you'll like 'em.

I'm all excited about this. I've played gigs before, but never a full-band gig. I'll have more details sooner to the time.

Yes, the Albert Anyone web site is pretty much a placeholder, but I'm working on that.

I've just posted words and notes to "Works Department", my parody of Jeff Stone's "Worst Apartment".

I'm hosting the Oasis Open Stage until the middle June. Jason Lapidus has summer school. So I've been putting on a bit of a promotion. Made up flyers, and for the flyers, I wanted a URL, so I made a web site. I'll be tweaking it a bit further, with some tips from Rich Lowenberg.

I've got an upcoming gig, but it's way in the future: June 24. It's a four-way birthday gig with me, Signe Miranda, Sarah Greene, and Jeff Stone. Should be fun. I think we should each do one of the other's songs.

Happy leap day!

So I've got a new song, called "Comfortable Things".

Another thing interest: my brother Andrew, who's a law student, has started up a web site about sharing music and Canadian copyright law. It's called CanFLI.

It seems that in Canada, there's an exemption for private copying of music. That's balanced by a tarrif on CDs and MP3 players that goes back to SOCAN. So it would seem that in Canada, downloading is legal, but uploading is not. None of this has been tested in court, but it looks like it soon will be.

I'll be doing my first-ever sound gig this Friday, Jan 30. Sarah Taheri asked me to do sound for her. She's being accompanied by Arch, who once played drums with me in my ludicrously short-lived band, The Easily Amused. That name has now been taken by impostors. Arch is also a great singer/ songwriter.

My upcoming sound gig:

Of course, I didn't get into this for the sound gigs. I was offered some sound gigs at Oasis, but declined. But if they're friends or people I'd go to see anyway, I'm happy to do sound. I think I've even gotten good at it this past year.

In other news, we picked a band name: we're "Albert Anyone". And we're hoping to soon do that critical third full-band rehearsal, that will mean have a set's worth of songs. But unfortunately, not this week.

I've finished recording all the tracks for my CD, but I haven't finished mixing. I've gotten a bit distracted by being involved in an open-source project called "Arch", not to be confused with Sarah's guitarist. Who is also an excellent solo act.

The Oasis Open Stage is taking the rest of 2003 off. Just didn't seem prudent to run it on Dec 23 and Dec 30. But we'll be back in action January 6.

Just a quick note that I'll be hosting the Oasis open stage on Tues, Dec 16. I'm looking forward to it.

I'm still high after hosting the Oasis open stage. It was my first time hosting there and my second time hosting anywhere.

It was a small list, but a quality one. Honestly, just leaving the room to get beer or go pee was a sacrifice. Sure we're not packing the room these days, but we've got great regulars, and that can only be good.

I tried to hit a hosting style somewhere between Kevin Quain (full of wit) and Laura Fernandez (boundless warm energy). People said they enjoyed it.

Special thanks to Olivia Duck for covering for me on sound, and for putting up with numerous puns.

Speaking of Kevin, I saw his play Tequila Vampire Matinee last week, and had a good time. If you know Kevin's music, there's a lot of darkness in it, and that was what I went in expecting. But I've already mentioned the comedy in Kevin's performances, and that's something I'd left out of my calculations. Comedy plays a big role in this work.

I was also surprised as hell to see Jack Nicholsen from The Leslie Spit Treeo in one of the major roles. It's an odd thing seeing other people performing Kevin's songs, but the cast did a good job with 'em.

It runs to December 7, so catch it while you can.

I've got a new band. Jamie Tanner is playing drums and Jeff Kahl is playing bass. We just rehearsed on Tuesday in the pre-show Oasis spot.

We're working on

• "Bring on the Rain"
• "Masochist at Heart"
• "The Ember"
• "Wish I Were an Asshole"
• "Pennies to the Pound"
• "Feeling Fine"

Once we have those sorted out, we'll probably add a final few, and start looking for gigs.

It's really nice to play with your own band. Having time to rehearse and discuss the songs and the best way to approach them is great. Jason and Animal and Dominic and Sarah do a great job of playing along with songs they've never heard. but there's no substitute for rehearsal to really get it right.

Technically, this is not my first band. But my first band only lasted for one rehearsal. I think this one's far more likely to take off.

Last night, I was at Erika Werry's last open stage. I wanted to be there to give it that final send-off. I've clocked a lot of time there, had a lot of fun. It's true that I haven't been there as often recently, but it's still sad knowing I can't ever go again.

Seems like a bad time for open stages. The other Graffiti's open stage, The Mad Bastard Cabaret isn't doing too well either, so Steve wanted to try and combine the audiences. Personally, I'm not sure how well that'll work. People who want to go out on a Monday have the option of The Free Times or Groovy Mondays, and that's just the ones I go to. There are others.

The aforementioned Groovy Mondays got cut down to one night a month, but they're moving up to two nights, which I guess is an improvement.

Oasis on the other hand, seems to be rebounding nicely after hibernating through the summer. We had 14 acts this past Tuesday, and went to around midnight. I had fun, and I didn't have to fight the gear to get it working. I'm not gonna be complacent though. We've got decent numbers now, but if we're not moving forward it's easy to slide backward. So I'm promoting it when I hit other open stages.

I've been doing some mixing on my stuff. "What Do You Tell Yourself?" had some annoying bleed from the click track at the end. "Bring on the Rain" had farty-sounding bass buzz at the very end. In both cases, the solution was simple: use an alternate take-- the guitar pickup for "What Do You Tell Yourself?" and another bass take for the last bit of "Bring on the Rain".

I make no promises about when this CD's done. But this is progress.

Animal will be back in the house come next week. It certainly changes Oasis to have drums in the house, something Rich brought out last tuesday. As a bonus, I won't have to change my Oasis handbills.

. . . you're not dead. However, dyndns.org, the service that helps turn "www.aaronbentley.com" into my actual internet address, is currently undergoing disruptive upgrades. If you can't see me in the next few days, that's why.

I dunno about posting Oasis news. I mean, sure it's something I do a lot of, and it's music-related. But I'm doing sound most of the time.

The first Oasis was pretty cool. Not a full list, but a good list. Lots of old stalwarts were out. The second started out really empty, so we just jammed at first, but as people kept turning up, it got more open-stagey.

Both nights, we left at or after midnight.

Tonight (i.e. in about 19 hours), we'll have drums for the first time. Animal's not available right now-- he's in school. But the incomparable Rich Lowenberg voluteered to fill in. Should be fun. I hope a bunch of people take advantage. It's one of the special things about the Oasis open stage. But even if no one else uses the house band, I will, dammit. Probably "Masochist at Heart" or "Thick-Fingered", and definitely "The Ember".

The Laura Fernandez Band is taking the pre-show slot this time. They're getting ready for big gigs in NYC. I've sat in on their rehearsals before, and enjoyed them a lot. It'll be a pleasure to get their sound just right too.

I've written a new song called "The Ember", and you can find stuff about it at the link. It's a dark love song, about being consumed by a love that just won't die.

Just before Halloween, my first song involving vampires. I'm sure Kevin Quain would be proud.

I'll probably start playing it this week at open stages.

Speaking of Open Stages, the Oasis Open Stage has started up again. Tuesday, October 7 is the first day, and it should continue on Tuesdays after that.

I'll be running sound as usual, Jason Lapidus will be there, and probably Animal too. Come play, or just watch me!

Here's a new ImpulseSong for you. A quiet, moody version of Jeff Stone's "Worst Apartment in the City". Jeff's 3-CD ouvre is coming out soon, and this song's on Disc 2.

Every performer has "A" material and "B" material. But which is which? Is it the performer or the audience that gets to choose? People like "Wish I Were an Asshole", and so do I, but I wouldn't call it my best song of that period.

Still there's a certain amount of fan service in my performances, and I do still like "Wish I Were an Asshole", so I play it more often than "Overtired", which I think is the better song.

I've taken to thinking of these as albatross songs. And while "Wish I Were an Asshole" is one of mine, "Worst Apartment" is one of Jeff's. But I like it, and I cover it. The version here is utterly unlike my normal covers, though. Usually, it's an upbeat rock song, not a quiet, moody piece like this one.

Download in standard MP3 format or Download in renegade Ogg Vorbis format.

"Worst Apartment in the City" is © Copyright Jeff Stone, All Rights Reserved. It appears by special arrangement. Very special.

From time to time I record a song just for the hell of it. On impulse. I've never really made those quick and dirty recordings available, 'cause they're a bit rough, and I didn't want people thinking this was all I could do. But it seems a waste that no one but me ever hears them. So let's just agree that they're "ImpulseSongs", and not my totally polished output. Okay?

I've already said the blackout was a kind of neat experience for me. Forced me to break old patterns, and live deliberately for three days. It's important to not just let time go by. It's important to stop and stroke the kitties. Or smell the roses. Or taste the pizza. Whatever.

So I've recorded "Stop and Stroke the Kitties", an unabashed ripoff of "Stop and Smell the Roses", a song I loved as a child and cannot tolerate now.

Download in standard MP3 format or Download in renegade Ogg Vorbis format.

This one goes out to Jamie Tanner, the feline-pleaser on the night in question. And an actual Christian to boot.

Finally, things are back online. When the big blackout hit Toronto, the site went down. Perversely, my area was one of the last to get power back. Jamie and Rich live just a few blocks away, but they got their power back in 8 hours. I got mine back in 36 or so.

It was kinda fun. Like camping in the city. The first night, I grabbed my guitar, candles, and flashlight and Jamie and I headed down to Signe's place. We jammed with Jeff, Signe and her neighbours Ananda and Kevin, and a buncha people just jumped out of a car and joined the party.

Barring further power trouble, I'll be helping out on the new Signe Miranda's Veranda CD today, doing the sound tech monkey work so Jamie can just play drums. It's total guerilla recording. The "studio" is Jamie & Rich's place, the sound gear includes a 350MHz Compaq with 4 sound cards, and space is very, very tight. . .

Oh, Oz wants me to link to her site, but until she gets some actual content, this cryptic link is all she's gonna get.

Yes, I finally have a 'real' URL. Something relatively easy to remember that even looks kinda professional. It was my mom's birthday gift to me. I also have to thank Mike Audet for letting me use his server to make it all work. Thanks also to Noah Zacharin, who took one look at "http://abentley.dyndns.org" and said, "You chose this?".

I've just put up the page for my new song "Pickup Battery Holder". It's about the ordeal I went through trying to get back a small piece of plastic that I never realized was vital to my performances.

I'm pleased to announce that I've finally gotten my web site running on hardware that doesn't suck. That is, it's old, instead of ancient. For you, this means faster-loading pages. For me, it means faster server in general.

I know lots of people think the CPU is the heart of a computer, but I'm starting to think it's the hard disk that really deserves the honour. The web site's hard disk has lived in three machines since March, and each one has basically the same identity, because the hard disk (and therefore the software) is the same.

My upcoming gig:

In other news, I've just got back my Sanyo reel-to-reel, which was my very first multitrack (dual-track) recording device. It belonged to my grandfather. I recorded a version of Lonely Streets on it way back when. It's been on loan to Andrew Woolner for several years, because I didn't want it back. Now that Woolner's off to Japan, I'm stuck with this behemoth.

Sloth pays off again. Lately, I've been thinking I should play another gig, but I hadn't gotten around to actually seeking one out. Tonight I was talking with Signe, and she offered me a gig for July 15.

Details to follow. Friends are good to have.

And here are the chords to "WishI Were an Asshole".

I've just polished up my first web-based chord chart, for "Masochist at Heart". I had go over to the dark side and use a table-based layout, but this is one place CSS just doesn't cut it.

I had a CSS version. It only worked on IE, and looked wretched in Opera. Now it's pining for the fjords.

I could muster some halfhearted argument that a table really is appropriate-- that it's called a chord chart because the chords are on the top row and the words are on the bottom row, but I'd rather sleep.

Anyhow, it's something that's only worth doing if you're using a programming language-- I'd hate to hand-craft this kind of HTML, but it sure looks nicer than the plain text chord charts that you see everywhere.

Looks like I do private parties now. Well, my Dad's 60th birthday, that is. It was a fun time, and people seemed to really like Feelin' Fine and The Mess. I wasn't the only performer; Pat Archer played some songs too, and George Ceasar's wife, who's a pro magician, put on a magic show.

I've been to pretty busy lately, and it's not ending this week; I'm off to Oasis this evening for the open stage, and we'll be taking pix for a web page.

Jeff Oussoren's new CD is out. This is a guy I hadn't seen hide or hair of for a year or so, but I caught up with him last night thanks to Noah's tip. I haven't heard the whole thing, but what I have heard sounds really good, and it's great to hear those songs again. Jeff made the CD with Kevin Quain and Jocelyne Lanois, and a whole mess of others.

Oh, and I've posted lyrics and notes for Masochist at Heart

"Prolific" isn't a way I usually describe myself. I'm lucky to produce one song a month. But in the last two days, I wrote 3 songs: "Dog-Man", "Over and over", and "Masochist at Heart". Each is about a completely different subject, and I think they're all good enough to add to the repetoire, so they're coming soon to an open stage near me. Man, at this rate, I could have a song in every section of the dewey decimal system!

Well, I've recorded bass tracks for all the songs I meant to, and the bass is all ready to be returned to its rightful owner. It's a good thing, too-- the Ovation was getting jealous that the bass always got the guitar stand. So now I'm back to recording vocals and guitar, things I actually know about!

So there's still a bunch to do on the CD, but I feel a lot more momentum than I did before I borrowed the bass, and the songs feel much fuller with bass.

Shout out to Jamie Tanner for his cries of "More bass! More bass!" :-)

Already, this week, I've returned one instrument-- my sister's guitar. It's now my nephew's guitar, and no, I'm not changing the name of the tape! Trisha lent it to me back when I was just getting started on guitar, and it served me well. But Trish got it from Nili, and now Nili's son is starting out on guitar with it. Before giving it back, I tuned it up and played "Play Me a Song" (which was one of my early songs) one last time.

Got my computer back in shape. Probably spent more time thinking about it than it actually took to fix it. And after about 20 attempts, I've got a bass track I can live with for "Play Me a Song". Maybe I can get these bass tracks done this weekend.

Just when I was down to my last two Bass songs ("The Alligator Song" and "Play Me a Song"), the computer I record on decided to play dead. (I suspect it's that Windows Update I got.)

It's looking a lot like I'll have to reinstall Windows before I can get back to work. Yes, I know how to do that. No, I'm not looking forward to it.

For those interested, I now have an RSS feed. This is basically a case of doing something because I can, not because I should.

Nothing feels better to a programmer than a decent level of abstraction. I've put all the recent news posts one file, and their appearance is handled completely separately using PHP and CSS. But I'm still a musician, honest!

A lot of this site is old and crusty, but upgrading it will be a major pain. So I only want to do it once in the rest of my life.

PHP seems to be a broadly accepted form of automatic page production, but until yesterday, I had no idea how it worked. So I've been learning PHP today, making the site eventually more customizeable.

The Fishmonger Song is my current bass song. I've got the part basically worked out, now I've just got to play it right.

I didn't make Signe's band. Would you believe they found someone who was more skilled on bass than me? Apparently, he's a nice guy, too. Seriously, it's a bit disappointing, but I knew it was a long shot.

If you've been by recently, you may have noticed the website was up and down a lot. I think that's fixed. All I had to do was give up on my old computer and move the hard disk into an even older, slower machine. Don't worry-- it's still way overqualified to be a web server.

I've got a good bass track laid down for "Bring on the Rain". I guess I'll be moving on to the next one soon. . .

I've linked up some live recordings that you may not have heard before under Songs.

Btw, Rich Lowenberg's new CD is great.

I've gotten some more recording done: bass tracks! On the cassette, you'll notice some of the songs have "fake bass"-- that was done on a Casio SK-1 sampling keyboard, using my (regular) guitar's A string as a sample.

Now that I'm playing bass, I can do real bass. It sounds more authentic, and I'm not afraid to make it loud enough that people can actually hear it.

The only problem is that I'm getting ambitious-- last night, I started doing a quick bass part for "Blue Skies", and it took all night! I kept coming up with interesting things to do, and even when I'd stopped inventing, I still had to make a good recording of it.

I've put up even more links to folks I know from the music scene on the Links page. Enjoy.

After only four years with a web site, I've finally got a links page. You know, it's a good thing I'm not a music journalist, because when it comes to describing music, I'm utterly ineffectual.

The fact is, there's not a person on that page whose music I don't enjoy, whose gigs I have not attended. In fact, that's not all of them, and I can think of at least five things to add at the moment ...

Signe's band needs a new bass player now that Dietrich's moving to Ottawa, so I'm going to try out. That means I actually need to learn bass first, so Sarah was kind enough to lend me her spare. It's been fun learning it. Not completely foreign to a guitar player, but the ukulele player in me keeps saying, "Sure it's four strings, but they're the wrong four strings!"

My only problem is I keep going over to the dark side-- playing from my ears and memory instead of reading the charts. I don't need to improve my ears and memory, but my reading-- that could stand some improvement. It's just so tempting to just put on any old song and start trying to play along ...

I've now posted lyrics and a description for my new song, "The Mess".

The return of the last-tuesday-of-the-month-at-the-free-times-gig! That's right, my cancelled October 29 gig has been rescheduled for November 26. You have Signe Miranda to thank for this gig too.

Here's my classic gig summary:

November 26, 2002
The Free Times Cafe
320 College St.
416-967-1078
Show at 8:00
Pay what you can

As we planned for the last gig, Dominic von Riedemann will be accompanying me on electric guitar. The other folks performing are Signe Miranda, Jay17, and the not-yet-confirmed Kat Goldman . . .

It's be a real treat to play on the same bill as Jay17, who's an old friend back from Kevin Quain's Mad Bastard Cabaret. He's got a fantastic voice and great songs. Even though he's been kinda scarce lately, I can still sing some of his songs. Not as well as him, of course.

In other news, I've significantly updated the web site layout. No, really! I'm using CSS positioning and stuff. If you're using Netscape 6+ or Mozilla, you'll see that the navigation buttons stay in the same place. More importantly, this new design should be much easier to update and modify.

Wouldn't you know it? I came down with a cold that I just couldn't shake. So singing tonight doesn't look doable. And after all that effort I put into promotion, too!

Of course, Signe Miranda's Veranda and Adam Cotton will still be playing, it's just that I won't.

Update: The Kindly Ones will be taking may place tonight.

I'll be playing The Free Times next month. The very day I cancelled on Signe, she offered me another spot. Ain't she sweet?

Yessiree, it's time for another show.

October 29, 2002
The Free Times Cafe
320 College St.
416-967-1078
Show at 8:00
Pay what you can

This time, it was Signe Miranda who invited me to come play The Free Times. The other acts on the bill are Signe Miranda's Veranda and Adam Cotton. Signe's band just released their new CD, "Solar Eclipse", which I've been enjoying. I haven't seen Adam Cotton in any context for about a year, so it will be nice to catch him again.

So come on out. There'll be plenty of music to go 'round. We'll all have a good time.

Another gig, another wrap-up. Thanks again to Dad for taking the pictures.

Well, my gig's over. It was a good night, and I had a great time, and the audience definitely got their money's worth. If you missed it, or you just want to re-live the experience, check out this Gig Journal Entry . It's got pictures and music files, and my little story of how the night went.

Gig time!

April 23, 2002

Okay, so I haven't gigged for ages, but here we go again!

Tuesday, May 14, 2002
At The Free Times
320 College St.
416-967-1078
Show starts at 8:00

Jeff Stone, the witty and talented, is organizing that Tuesday night. I'll be playing, Jeff will be playing, a fellow named Adam Kositsky will be playing, and an all-girl band called Wilma will be playing.

I've got to thank Jeff for actually inviting me to play. I've been a terribly lazy musician lately. Haven't been out promoting, and I haven't done that much recording. So thanks Jeff, for getting me off my ass.

This is also the first time I've played a gig at The Free Times, unless you count that time I crashed one of Kevin Quain's gigs. Many years ago, Tony said I should try to get into The Free Times-- they'd probably did what I do there, he figured. Well, after years of sloth and probably hundreds of open stages, that's finally happened.

What will I play? Well, too early to lock it down, but here are some of the songs I'm thinking of:

• The Superficial Song
• The "Asshole Song", Wish I Were an Asshole
• The Alligator Song
• Blue Skies
• Overtired
• If You Don't Play
• Bring On the Rain
• The Rainbow Connection
• The Fishmonger Song
• Feeling Fine
• Waiting for the Gap

If you've got any suggestions (preferably stuff that I wrote :-)) or if you'd like me to email you about my gigs, just drop me a note.

Catch you later

Aaron

Killing the 3D

June 30, 2001

I love me!

Well, I hated me for a while, and that's because I made a bad call on the reverb I used in the slower songs like "In the Sighs". It was 3-D, which was really cool, but hardly anyone's listening to my songs on headphones, and the 3d stuff just sounds mushy on speakers.

I thought I was just going to have to chalk it up to experience, but I cracked open the data files for "Lonely Streets" I found that I'd kept a version that had no reverb. And now I check "In the Sighs", and find that it, too, has a reverb-free edition. So I can fix them! I love me!

I've also thrown up a new bio that's a little more serious and music-focused.

Here's where my own CD is at. . .

The Asshole Song	Recorded, ready for mastering
Pennies To the Pound	Sounds great, needs finishing touches
Overtired	Re-recorded, needs finishing touches
Play Me a Song	Imported to Sonar, tweaked, needs a bit more
Feelin' Fine	Sounds great, waiting for guest vocals
The Fishmonger Song	Remixed and tweaked, waiting for guest guitar
The Alligator Song	Remixed, ready for mastering
In the Sighs	Imported to Sonar, tweaked and remixed with normal reverb
Lonely Streets	Imported to Sonar, tweaked and remixed for normal reverb
What do you tell yourself?	Barely started (very new)
The Night We Never Kissed	Starting fresh
Swim Like an Otter	Not started
Waiting for the Gap	Not started
Juice Me Up	Not started

Not scheduled for inclusion: "Beam me up", "Cut to the Quick", "Fade Away", "Stuck in a Rut", "Time to Sleep", "Saga Tonite", "Chameleons" "Fast Forward", or "The Superficial Song".

Oh, and Cakewalk Sonar really is all that. It has some shortcomings, but it beats Cool Edit Pro hands down for multitrack recording.

Kids' Songs

June 28, 2001

Longtime readers of the site (i.e. me) will recall that my very first paying gig was a performance at a U of T event called The Kindergarten Lounge. Well, I guess you could say I'm going back to my roots, as I'm presently working on a CD of kids' songs.

No, I haven't given up on my (somewhat more) adult music. I have put it aside temorarily, though, in the interest of completing this thing in time for my nephew's birthday. Me and my dad and step-mom worked on some of the pieces together, and I recorded some by myself. Here's "(I am a man with) Four Fingers", a Negativland song. You may wish to turn it up, since I haven't obliterated the dynamic range.

"Puff, the Magic Dragon" and "I love Trash" are also in various stages of completion.

Gig	Feb 14 2000

Bet you never thought you'd see me play another gig. Me neither. Been two stinkin' years since the last one. But I've been playing open stages religiously, honing my craft or something, in the intervening time.

Time & Date	Wednesday, Feb 21, 7:00-9:00 p.m.
Location	920 Eastern
Cover	$5

The performance is part of "Naked and Alone", a showcase run by my friend Andrew Woolner. I'll be playing new and old material, starting the night off with a bang. There will be more performers, too. Another musican and a poet, most likely. Details as I get 'em.

So that's my gig. Hope I see you there.

Oh, and welcome to my new web server.

Not Much Music

Jan 29 2000

I admit it. I haven't updated in ages. I've got the sound clips working again, but there's not any new content. Maybe soon. I've been quite busy with work lately, so I haven't done much music. No new songs, no upcoming gigs.

It's three times the fun!

Aug 18, 1999

With only a month to go, I've radically reshaped my September 19 performance. Now, Tony Hightower and Mike Audet will be performing, too. You'll hear Mike perform, you'll hear me perform, and you'll hear Tony perform. So come out to Graffiti's at 9:00 p.m. on September 19. It's three great pop musicians for the same low price (free)!

Quiet spell

Aug 11, 1999

It's not that I haven't done anything, it's just that I havn't done anything notable. Tapes are selling gradually. I'm 25% of the way to braking even. I'm not even distributing tapes to venues right now, because I don't need another gig 'till November. I've copied my source files for all my songs to CD-R, and cleaned them off my hard disk. That leaves plenty of space for more recording. I've been trying to write a song about how much I love my cottage, but it's coming very slowly.

I've got gigs!

July 28/30, 1999

After a year of work on my tape, I've got two gigs at my two favourite venues. Sam Grosso, who runs Grafitti's, said the tape was excellent. Cindy Mathews, who runs The Cameron House, hadn't listened to it, but she booked me anyway. Thanks, guys!

The shows are in September and October, so I can't offer you instant gratification. But join my mailing list, and I'll remind you when it's coming up.

Update: The Cameron date has been moved to October 19. I was uneasy about having my shows so close together. So when Cindy from the Cameron said they had booking problems, I suggested mid-October. That should give you time to recover.

If you like, dig out your datebook and make an entry for Sunday, Sept 19 at 9:00 at Grafitti's. You can make another entry for Tuesday, Oct 19, 9:30 at The Cameron.

Tape Update

July 14, 1999

Finally, I've got casettes I'm happy with. The first casettes had some scratchy, ticky sounds and at first, it looked like Accudub, my duplicator, was going to blame it on the master and give up. Then Freddy took charge and went the extra mile to make it right. I suspect their CD player didn't like my CD-R master the first time, so I brought in a DAT. This time, they got it right.

MP3 available

July 25, 1999

Now, folks, you can find an MP3 for "Play Me a Song" on mp3.com. So far, it's number 448 on the pop chart, so have a listen and boost my ratings. Thanks!

Why Tape not CD?

July 21/28, 1999

People keep asking why my new tape isn't a CD. The reason is simple: I want it to be compared to other tapes, not CDs.

I'm proud of the tape. The performance and especially the recording stack up compare favourably to most demo tapes out there. But it's not a full album--it doesn't have enough songs, the production isn't as professional as a real CD. I don't want people being disappointed.

There's also the cost issue. CDs have similar duplication costs, BUT the minimum run is ten times as big. I haven't nearly sold all 50 of my tapes. Don't know what I'd do with 500 CDs!

In other news, I've been tweaking the web site. Small stuff that I hope doesn't even get noticed.

Hosting An Open Stage

July 14, 1999

Now you can read about how I hosted the Mad Bastard Cabaret in the Stories section.

Performance report

June 30, 1999

Friday's performance was fun. The Verge was, as Tony Hightower had said, more "open-stagey". Nik says I've definitely improved since the last time he saw me perform. More confident. But 15 minutes is just not enough time. Five songs (was it five songs I did?) go by really quickly. I did:

1. The Alligator Song
2. Chameleons
3. Waiting for the Gap
4. Hanged Men Dance
5. Overtired

The Audience was quite receptive, but not very big. Tony Hightower sang along on Hanged Men Dance, which is a Kevin Quain tune. I was going to play "Everyday clothes", which is a Jonathan Richman tune that Tony often performs, but Tony kept leaving the room as I was starting, so I didn't.

Upcoming performance

June 19/23, 1999

Sound the alarms! Tell all your friends! I will be performing a short set at The Verge, a showcase of independent pop and experimental performers. Come see me, and you'll also get to see performances by hosts Tony Hightower and Nik Beeson, plus other undetermined (not unnatural) acts.

My performance: Friday, June 25
Sometime between 6:30-8:30
Cameron House
408 Queen Street West
(Just west of Spadina)
Pay what you can

Site update

June 23/24, 1999

If you look to your left, you'll see a handy-dandy signup box for my newest feature: a news/performances mailing list. That's right, you don't have to check the web site every week-- I'll come straight to your mailbox. This is a free service from the good people at Topica, supported by some pretty benign advertising.

So sign up today! Everybody's doing it, you know.

Don't you want to be cool?

I've also hacked up a Javascript-based search that uses Altavista to search this site.

Cover art

May 28, 1999

Cover art for the tape just came in. Look at the preview (23k). (Yeah, the font will look better when it's done.) Big slobbering kisses of love to my cousin Hila, who drew the picture of me.

Site fix

May 21, 1999

Yikes! My site was getting JavaScript errors with NS 3 & 2! Fixed.

New song

May 12, 1999

A description for "Beam Me Up" is now online.

New song

May 5, 1999

I'm working on a new song. It's called "Beam me up", and, yes, it's got a Star Trek theme.

Pictures!

April 28, 1999

Remember how I performed my first gig last November? I've finally got pictures of the event on the site. You can find them in the story of my first gig. You can click on 'em for bigger versions.

ADSL rocks!

April 25, 1999

Well, I've finally got ADSL. And when it works, it works! This is the way the internet should be for everyone. WebDrive makes my web sites look like disk drives on a network, and ADSL makes them almost as fast.

Right now, I've got TOND running. TOND is a SHOUTcast radio station for Toronto's independent music that I'm running. Right now things are strictly in testing mode, but you can hear TOND at 142.150.64.15:8000 when it's playing.

Tapewarming?

April 14, 1999

I just moved into a new apartment, and I'm on the final stretch with my tape. So it seems quite likely that I'll combine my tape release with my housewarming party. More info when I have some.

I was just at Kevin Quain's CD release last night, and that was a great time. The Cameron House was packed to the gills, and I saw a lot of old friends. The CD's called "Hangover Honeymoon", and I'm liking it a lot.

Too Many Buttons

April 10, 1999

I realised that the Hear It section was duplicating a lot of the information in the Songs section, so I killed it and moved the info into Songs. I've also discovered that Windows Media Player plus Internet Explorer can make a real mess of 28.8 MP3s, so I killed them.

Site Update

March 31, 1999

It's a point of pride with me that my sites work on anything from LYNX to the latest graphical browsers. My recent updates broke that compatibility. Now, it's fixed, and I've tweaked things somewhat.

Site Update

March 27, 1999

Look at the pretty splashpage! (That's all I've done. I've been busy arguing with my ISP about how much space I get lately.)

Site Update

March 19, 1999

Okay, I've redesigned the navigation, and added pop-up comments for the 4+ browsers(move your mouse over ADSL) . Seems to work fine on NS 1-4.5, IE4 and Opera. WebTV and LYNX have a small problem in common, which I'll fix soon. Hope you like it--lemme know if there's a problem.

Site Update

March 10, 1999

I've updated the recording notes for My Sister's Guitar to include all the songs I've recorded so far.

My Ovation is in the shop, because when I took in in for maintenance, the problems turned out to be worse than I thought. But it's ready now, so I be glad to pick it up this week.

Site Update

March 3, 1999

I've just added The Open Stage Experience to this music section. It tells the story of my first experience of open stages.

I've also added a description of "Stuck in a Rut". This completes my set of descriptions for every song care to admit having written. I may have to write new songs or something. Rest assured, there will be weekly updates. Just don't know what yet.

However, I don't expect to do a lot of work on the tape before next month. That's when I move into my new place. There may be some disruption in the coming weeks, as I may be moving to ADSL, hence, a new Internet Provider, hence, a new web page address.

Site Update

February 24, 1999

Ten days after Vallentine's I've added a description of "The Night We Never Kissed". We're down to one song. Can you guess what I'll describe next week?

Site Update

February 17, 1999

Added a description of my rant cum poem cum song, "Saga Tonite".

Site Update

February 13, 1999

Now you can hear the high-quality version of "Lonely Streets" in the Music Online section.

Site Update

February 10, 1999

This week, I've added a description of "Time to Sleep".

Site Update

February 3, 1999

I've got a description of "The Superficial Song" online.

Also, my computer problems are solved. Yay!

P.S. www.aaronbentley.cx no longer works. Nice while it lasted...

Site Update

January 27, 1999

Another description. I write these things much faster than I write songs, so there's hope I'll finish up, one of these days. Check out the description of "Fade Away".

Site Update

January 20, 1999

I've added a description to "Cut To The Quick". I've added an appropriate picture to "The Grave You Dig".

I'm slowly getting the computers back on track. The BIOS voltage was okay. The chip was incorrectly reprogrammed. On the other hand, my new Celeron screams at 450 MHz, if it will just work with my video card. . .

Site Update

January 13, 1999

I wrote a new song, "Overtired", and I'm quite proud of it. I've also got "Feeling Fine"

Disaster struck my computer in the form of a BIOS upgrade gone wrong. Sigh. No permanent damage, I'm sure, but it's out of service.

Site Update

January 1, 1999

Cool! This site now has a free alternate URL: www.aaronbentley.cx. CX, you say? That's right: The Christmas Islands are offering free domains (for now), and their TLD is "cx" (as opposed to, say, "com", "org", "net" or "ca").

The site is mapped here to Interlog (for free) via the Capibara Freedomain project. Takes some effort, and it doesn't work on WebTV, but you can't beat the price!

I've also added a description of my newest song, Feeling Fine.

Site Update

December 16, 1998

Added description for "Waiting for the Gap".

Site Update

December 12, 1998

The newly-completed "Fishmonger Song" is ready for your listening enjoyment. Check it out in the Music Online section.

Site Update

December 9, 1998

Added description for "Chameleons". I can't believe all the text and RealAudio I was able to hyperlink!

Site Update

December 1, 1998

My first public performance was way before my first gig. But it was an amazing night. The open stage was just the beginning, and now you can read all about it.

Site Update

November 20, 1998

Well, the first gig is done. Not too painful... Fun, actually. Wanna know all about it? Check out the new stories section.

Site Update

November 14/15, 1998

The motherlode has arrived!

Filled in the Online Music section. Now you can listen to any of five songs in RealAudio or 28.8 MP3. Enjoy!

Now I've got lyrics online for virtually every song I've ever written.

Site Update

November 12, 1998

Added description for Fast Forward.

Site Update

October 31, 1998

Added instructions for how to get to the Junior Common Room.

Site Update

October 29, 1998

Added description of "Lonely Streets".

Site Update

October 23, 1998

Added recording notes for Play me a song

Site update

October 15, 1998

Added section for "The fishmonger song".

Site update

October 7, 1998

Added sections for My Sister's Guitar and Recording notes.

Tape Update

October 4, 1998

I just finished recording The Alligator Song. I'm very happy with how it sounds. That means My Sister's Guitar is half done as of today!

Site update

October 4, 1998

Added a description of The Alligator Song.

Tape Progress

October 2, 1998

My first tape, My Sister's Guitar, is nearing the half-way mark. With two songs complete and a third in progress, I hope to have it ready for distribution sometime this fall.

Gig	Oct 2/15/31 Nov 12, 1998

The Junior Common Room at University College November 19.

I originally anticipated this performance for October 22, but it has been moved to November 19 because I'm not a jazz musician, and they wanted to have a jazz show first. But this Nov 19 date is solid. I will be the only musician, and the evening starts at 9:00 (I start at 10).

It's the "Kindergarten Lounge", where university students get to play with fingerpaints and playdough. If you've never mixed fingerpaints and beer before, this is your chance.

Here's how to get there

Site is up

October 2, 1998

It's nearly empty, it's got links that go nowhere, and it's mine, all mine! This new site became reality today.

Questions, comments or suggestions about this web site? Email me at aaron.bentley@utoronto.ca