What happens when you mix Yorkshire lasses with the Muppets? Ai! Yai! Yai! Ya!

If I had any hair left, I’d say this was about a bad hair day. Or sod’s law. But, really, it’s a diary entry in running a band – it’s a long way from the bottom when you wanna roque’n’roll.

As for the music, while this sounds like a homage to the White Stripes – which would be praise indeed – I wrote the guitar riff on my acoustic. Am just too doggam lazy to flick a switch and hit a power chord.

When I hear a rock band about to kick it up a notch, they got to drop a gear down to get the revs. This was my inspiration for that B-A-E-G move to A5 for the verse, where am giving it some Whole Lotta Rosie. That bit where Mal Young is jamming on one chord for, like, foreeeeveeeer. Nice.

The mid section was me imagining a circus acrobat’s act, Gonzo fired from a cannon straight into the passenger seat of a Key Lime Pie-coloured Cadillac driven by the revomatic Lena Headey. Lucky Gonzo. In the absence of that marquee I had to put in a little schau. Great fun to play, that bit.

My last nod was, por supeusto, to Morricone and that tune from il Bueno, il Bruto, il Cattivo. Not only does the printed lyric not resemble what am yelling, it’s a placeholder for any Anglo-Saxonism you care to insert when things feck up.

I hope Ai! Yai! Yai! Ya! is just as evocative for you as it is for me.

Just prove that you cannot make anything up anymore, nossir! Here’s something I just stumbled on in writing this post.

Ai! Yai! Yai! Ya! indeed.

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Or ‘How A Murder Ballad Gets Itself Writ’

I either begin writing a song with a tune in my head, or start with the chords. I do love me a sweet chord progression, and I believe I got the one for Something Ain’t Right from Schubert – after watching Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon a bahzillion times. Schubert got his idea from a Swedish folk song back in 1827, Kubrick’s movie was in 1975, and I began writing mine in 2008. Ain’t that a grand lineage?

I was visiting a friend in the USA, writing songs on his porch and looking for an agent for my science-fiction novel, in between times meddling with them chords. He was having a little woman trouble, and I picked out a thread from it and spun my own tale of paranoid jealousy. With a little help from Marvin Gaye. I put the verse and chorus together real easy once I knew which direction I was going in (that’s always the hardest part), but there was something lacking…. or ain’t right. It felt incomplete.

That didn’t stop me playing the tune live, though – and when you have to put a song out before an audience you really feel the bumps of it. I had a filler mid section – and, boy, did it feel fillery. I knew I wanted a chromatic, perhaps cheesy, return from the mid to the refrain/ chorus, but what to do in the meantime evaded me until 2011. I guess I lost my rag a bit and simply hit two chords hard – trying to snap myself out of the oh-so-seductive sequence. It worked.

The Fmi and Dmi staccato really adds the chili-pepper to the whipped-cream verses, and reveals the frustrated fury beneath the entire lyric. I don’t usually write tunes with a storyline, much less take three years to do so, but I have to admit – this one sounds so good it doesn’t sound like me, it sounds like a band I really love. And that, gentlepersons, is why I do it.

So, here she is – Something Ain’t Right.

BTW, you can get Kubrick’s movie and the music over on iTunesazom. Enjoy!

© A Power

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I thought I was pretty up on tech, after all I visited Cupertino and got an effin t-shirt to prove it…

Until I went to see Barack Obama speak at Prague Castle in… what? 2009?

Anyway, as soon as the Commander in Chief stepped up to the mic, a thousand hands shot in the air with bleedin smartphones. I stand a reasonable 6’2″ in my Fox River socks, and I could hardly see him for cam-spamming. It’s not like it wasn’t going to be on the Internets, like, forever…

It’s all too easy to imagine the plight of the vertically challenged, now they have to compete with a forest of extended arms a-blinking.

That’s why it’s a refreshing change to see the Yeah Yeah Yeahs make an appeal to their audience that manages to get the job done without pissing people off.

I didn’t take a cam to see B/O in the CZ, as I wanted to be there in the moment. So instead, here’s a random photo I took while in my fave city, San Francisco.

Street Chimp, Miffed, Caught on Cam.

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As the title says – thanks for coming to the show!

I’ve been sick as a small puppy in a box since then, and had to get my biz back on track, so haven’t had the time to let you guys know – you roqued!

Also, thanks to Tomas and the bar staff for making us feel welcome. We had a fab time.

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This is our only show in March, and we’d love to see you there.

Especially when it’s our first chance to show off our new CD, and a few new tunes!

And we have some special offers – in addition to the gorgeous popster poster below.

• The first 20 people through the door get a lyrics sheet (fab, right?)
• Everyone who signs up for our mailing list at the show gets put into a raffle. Free CD prize!
• Existing fans who bring someone new also get put into the raffle. We know who you are, you lovely roquesters!
• Every CD bought (or won!) gets a dedication written on it by the lovely lads in the band.
• We will roque you!

(Okay, that last one is a given, but it’s certainly a given worth shaking your butt and coming down to see us).

If you’d like to print or treasure the poster for yourself, just right click and download. That’s more than cool with us.

So, don’t forget the details:

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Trey Roque will be playing a concert at Cafe Na Pul Cesty next week, on 7 March.

Doors open at 20:00, and it’s donations only – no tickets!

The venue is also known as Green Doors, but don’t let that confuse you. If you don’t have a smart phone, use the handy map below and print it off.

The band will be playing all the songs from their new EP*, plus many more favourites and – as always – some new tunes! Their tireless work at the coalface of roque’n'roll is never done.

You can buy download singles from the store on CDBaby, at iTunes & Amazon, or their 4-song EP CD at the show (100Kc). The boys will be more than happy to write a personalised message on every CD you buy.

All proceeds, as ever, go towards keeping the engine running on roque’n'roll history.

(BTW, we know the website calendar isn’t showing future dates – but we have it in hand, and a real proper calendar will be up quicker than an egret in an eerie. Thanks for the feedback!)

* Here at Power’s Towers, we call it “The Eagles EP”.

CAFÉ NA PŮL CESTY, 147 00 Praha 4, Česká republika

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Chart news – we are now #24 in the charts! Hell yeah!

Thanks to all you luberly listeners, clickers, sharers and roque music lovers out there. Our star is rising, and we will take you there….

Yeah, that got a bit too much, but you know what we mean – you guys roque!

Don’t forget to check out our other tunes in our store, and come see us at our next show. We’ll have CDs available to make that perfect March madness gift!

*For more about our favourite prison-breaker himself.

Photo by Tino.

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Another grande step forward for TR – we’re now on iTunes & Amazon, globally.

So, if buying through CDBaby (in $) ain’t your cup of hemlock, you can buy in your local currency with a familiar music store.

Just to open the kimono a little, we do actually get a little bit more from your contribution on CDBaby than elsewhere, after the distributors take their cut.

But the choice is yours, and any purchases are truly, madly and deeply appreciated.

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Only a wee bit of free music can soothe the savage heart

on this day of unfulfillable expectations, lousy restaurants, tasteless gifts and eggshell conversations.

And, no, Xmas hasn’t come early today.

My gift to frustrated lovers everywhere – an un-Valentine’s song as you’re going to get. Replete with acoustic band, harpsichord, and blemishes – though some of us like our blemishes, for they reveal the real meaning of beauty.

For all the singletons, one from the heart.

Force Majeure

True love, fallen from the skies above, is a feeling best kept close to heart
Once opened gates let flood waters inundate, when they’re gone what can be done to go on?

“Someone always pays”

Shooting stars are but collisions from afar, for all their beauty, and they’re meaningless
You’re in my constellation for all time, but am past you, across the universe

“Someone always pays
No one ever stays”

Word and music (C) A Power 2013.

Use the comments box to let me know where the blemishes are!

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Chart news!

As the man says, we are moving up into the dizzy heights of Prague’s premier pretenders p…. Hm, I ran out of alliterations, but you get the idea.

We are now the #34th bestest roque band out there.

Basically – thank you, all you lovely listeners, clickers, and word-of-mouthers. Trey can be a fussy bugger at times, but this has put a smile on his face up at Power’s Towers.

Photo by Tino.

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