Bad Copy

I’m assuming the average reader here does not follow Miley Cyrus, although her video for the song “Flowers” currently has a half billion views so maybe I’m wrong. Then again it has nudity so maybe it’s viewership isn’t comprised solely of music fans.

Saved you a click

The song permeated like a rash through my kid’s school and honestly, to use Miley’s own vernacular, it’s a banger. So, to manufacture a little father/daughter time, I sat down to learn the chords in anticipation of a little after-dinner family singalong. Yet, as I plucked out the tune I couldn’t help but feel like I was treading some artistically legal grey area. To test my suspicions I played Guns n’ Roses’ “Don’t Cry” and before the vocals even started my daughter exclaimed “Hey, that sounds like ‘Flowers’!”

So there I was with a song to play with my daughter – a song, it turned out, that was remarkably similar to another song which I spent years avoiding because it was on the Use Your Illusion record(s), and my side project – “San Francisco’s Worst G’n’R Tribute Band,” The Rocket Queens – played ONLY Appetite For Destruction.  Mmmm, smells like ingredients for a new LoveSong of the Month!

The irony is that once I decided to go ahead and make the song, and subsequent video, I holed up in the studio for a week and very conspicuously did not spend time with my daughter for most of that time. We did get some lovely vocals from her though, and I even got my son to play the bridge on his still-too-big-for-him bass and some of her friends to sing the post-choruses. I’m unbelievably biased but also unapologetically proud of how well they all executed their respective parts.

I should cut to the chase and put the song here, but I skipped last month so strap in for your second dose of unnecessary preambling!

For the last few months my brother-in-law and I have been building a guitar (also seen in the video below). It turned out marvelously and a lot of people (mostly relatives) have been asking how we did it. Here are four simple steps that anyone can follow:

• buy a blank block of swamp ash (try saying that again – “swamp ASH”)
• search “telecaster parts” online and buy them all
• go back online numerous more times because you keep learning of more “telecaster parts,” like “ferrules” and “top hat switch tips”
• lastly, and dare I say most importantly, have a craftsman for a brother-in-law who has his own maker’s space and let him do all the math and cutting and shimming and drilling and planning and whatnot while you contribute by deciding what to pump through the Bluetooth speaker.

And *poof* you’ll have a guitar! We branded it FCG which stands for Finger’s Crossed Guitars, as in “I hope this works!”

Like my daughters performance, it turned out beautifully. It even plays and sounds amazing.

High from our success we’ve been taking orders for custom guitars. We haven’t received any orders but we’re taking them. Basic models start at $10,000 which gives us enough cushion to go out and buy you the real thing in case our attempt doesn’t pan out.

Ok, onto the LoveSong of the Month…

(And if anyone is wondering, I used Kaiber.ai to generate the watercolors in the video.)

Download the song here: