:: ANUBIS SPIRE ONLINE JOURNAL ::

:: Thursday, December 28, 2006 ::

"Children Of A Foreign Faith" available NOW at CDbaby!



It's been a LONG and quite frankly, torturous journey but the long awaited new album "Children Of A Foreign Faith" from ANUBIS SPIRE is now available at CDBaby ( http://cdbaby.com/anubis3 ) Here's an early write-up:

Concept album? Rock opera? Thematic song cycle? Yes, yes and yes. And then some. On the surface, CHILDREN OF A FOREIGN FAITH seems deceptively straight forward. At over an hour in length, it moves through it's sixteen cuts seemingly without time for a pause or even a deep breath. Each song leads immediately to the next, separated ocassionally by spoken word lead in's that require the listener to rise up above the fray and try to see the big picture in order to understand. The big picture is what this album is all about. Many artists have written compositions about child abuse and alienation but none have looked beyond the obvious with the all encompassing thoroughness that songwriter/guitarist/vocalist Bill MacKechnie has. Though cruel and deplorable, it's not just the immediate effects of abuse that Children Of A Foreign Faith addresses. MacKechnie has divided the songs into the sub-headings of: SURVIVAL, AWAKENING, THE WORLD and finally TRUTH. Each section deals with the specific effects of damage done and most importantly, just how that damage continues to ripple through all future interactions and even onto the world stage in the forms of fear, hate and violence. Starting on a very personal internal level the story runs ever onward through troubled relationships, adult disillusionment, corporate greed, religious insanity and cut throat media manipulation, all the while making it clear that the same seminal principle of might-makes-right exploitation and human devaluing is at play. Once the pieces come together, it leaves us shocked and amazed that we've never recognized that simple fact before.
In the end, MacKechnie and ANUBIS SPIRE offer no magical solutions or feel-good validations and the listeners are left to find their own truth.
Musically the band again avoids being pigeon-holed and tied down. They speed through styles and genres as if they invented them. Everything from Mahavishnu fusion to Floydian dirge to Zeppelin celtic-acoustic; even Bill's venerable homebuilt ANUBITAR sitar/guitar makes an appearance in the Indian Raga-ish ETERNAL RESONANCE (Part Two).
I was blown away by the level of originality and sheer musicianship of their debut CD (Old Lions) but the band has honestly re-invented and out done themselves on this one. Bill, Tim, Mick and newest member, keyboardist David Sweet sound better than ever.
Featuring a cast of special guests that includes Saqqara Record's NEIL HENDERSON, MIKE WARD of TEMPORARY POWER, MARLON KEMPMANN of DOCTOR MEMORY, the ever-shadowy and elusive JP MACGREGOR among others, ANUBIS SPIRE have fashioned an album that will need more than a few listens to sink in but once it does, if you're like me, you'll have a hard time getting it out of your head.

~ Eric Barron

Check out ELECTRIC SHADOW'S review blog for another take on the new CD : http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=101725852&blogID=207909377&MyToken=42e75898-d6a7-4ac0-b7bc-f73e2d09b704

:: Bill Thursday, December 28, 2006 [+] ::
...

Hi All...
I had hoped to return here to introduce you to another new artist....
But now I must tell you some terribly sad news.
Leonardo Taglialavore,musician,multimedia genius,dear friend to so many of us,passed away suddenly on 13/11/2006.
Leo......
Leo was an extraordinary person.
You said hello and you became life long friends,bro's as Leo would have said.
He made each preson he met feel special,gifted,loved.
Now,all over the WWW,people are coming together,in their own ways,with their own words,to return the love to Leo.
He was such a talented man,such a warm,humourous and giving person.
Leo could have me in fits of laughter,even on the darkest of my days.
Here is a link to Leo's Soundclick page,already there are many many messages of condolences there :

http://www.soundclick.com/pro/view/01/default.cfm?BandID=118853&ref=7

To his good lady wife Lisa,and to the family,I pray that peace and love shield you and comfort you.
To Bill and the guys....
To The Anubes forum,where we are all hurting together for our missing Anubian Leo.
To all his friends across the world,whom he shared his love,laughter and music.
I will be thinking of you all.
For me,this has been a VERY tough post to make,so forgive me spelling mistakes and everything else...
I never ever thought I would have to write such a post for my friend.

To my friend Leo....
"Catch ya later Bro'"

Nigel.

:: Nigel Saturday, November 18, 2006 [+] ::
...

Hi all...
How have you all been????
Sigh,once again,apologies for the amount of time since last posting here.
So I will try to make up for it now :)
Some new music for you all.
FREE,now that has got to be a pretty good deal hasn't it?
So,let's get the ball rolling.....

Rather than overload you with numerous artists,I'll do one per entry.
So todays choice is :

FUNGUS/DACE
http://www.mixposure.com/fungus-dace
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pageartist.cfm?bandID=617158

I first bumped into dace on Mixposure when he reviewed one of my songs.
I went to return the review,and found myself spending quite some time there.
There was an instant appeal,this was class.
Remember the days when you used to rush home with the new album of your fav band and sit there and smile all the way through as you listened?
Well,that is how this grabbed me.
Dace has such a wonderful feel for guitar,it soars,weeps and takes you so far away....
From the deepest of space to the human heart.
Wonderous soundscapes envelope you and each song really is a journey in sound.
His guitar work is always first class,and his skills as a song writer,with mostly instrumental tracks is astonishing.
Emotion...
We all have them,and yet in music,increasingly these days,it seems to be lacking in the mass produced,mush-for-all markets.
Go listen to FUNGUS/DACE and you will hear and feel that REAL MUSIC is alive and well and thriving in the heart and soul of a wonderful musician.
Most highly reccomended to all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
CLICK THE LINKS NOW
I promise you,you will not be disappointed :)

More wonderful artists to follow,artists you will not want to miss!!
Nigel.

:: Nigel Tuesday, October 31, 2006 [+] ::
...

"It has been a long time hasn't it" :)

Well,how are you all out there in Anubeland?
Waiting for the new album like me I bet?
Some may recall how Kathy had set up a Smart Group site for everyone to just kind of hang out together?....
Circumstances forced a closure of that site,and well,we miss you all :)
So,a new site has been set up called :"THE ANUBES" in honour of Anubis Spire.
I cannot promise you direct contact with the guys,although Kathy does pop in from time to time,but I can promise you a WARM welcome.
We know we lost some old friends in the change over,so if you are out there.....
Old friends and NEW friends,all welcome on this link :

http://www.freeforum101.com/forum/index.php?mforum=terentek

That should land you safely amoungst friends :)

So what is there?
Music,friendship, a sharing of the musical journey.
I hope you can drop by,check us out and say hi.
I'll look forward to meeting you all there.
In the meantime I just want to send out my thoughts to Bill and guys who I know are working like crazy on the new album....
My best wishes to you all :)
My apologies for my absense,let's not make it so long till next time?
Hope you and yours are well,and happy.
Nigel.

:: Nigel Wednesday, May 31, 2006 [+] ::
...

Hi all...
Just dropped into wish everyone out there in Anubiland a happy new year!
I just want to applaud Bill's last posting.
Recently during the LIVE 8 concert,I innocently posted into one forum,asking people to take 30 seconds to sign an online petition to pressure world govenrments into helping the starving millions.
I told them how many tens of thousand starve each day,and the first reply I got back was:
"SO WHAT"
Recently also I was reading a discussion on the current state of our world,and read an intelectual state with great confidence that we could never harm this planet,and all this talk of saving the Earth was "CRAP"
At times like this it gets very hard to stay committed to trying to make the world a better place,becuase you know that sooner or later,you are going to have deal with these people.
They share our world.
So,please,walk the hard road with us.
Do what you can where you can to make your world,our world,just that little bit better.
Here is a for instance.
A gentleman musician friend of mine,told in one forum how he had rescued a caterpiller and nurtured it through to the day he released it as a Monarch butterfly.
Like most other life forms on this planet,they are struggling to survive,that was his way of doing something,a quiet, and beautiful miracle.
You and I want that kind of world don't we?
A world where hope thrives in every heart, a world where love and compassion rules.
We must choose love and peace,or we will get hate and war.
That is a choice we must make in our ways,every minite of every day.
The views expressed here are of course my own.
But I wish you and all yours a wonderful new year.
Please for the sake of all our children,do what you can,where you can and walk gently upon this Earth.
Nigel.

:: Nigel Saturday, December 31, 2005 [+] ::
...

At This time of the year I usually keep my mouth shut and just wish everyone a healthy, safe and happy holiday season. But this year I want to give you something to think about as we go about our lives and prepare for the new year. Whether media ever comes around again to some semblance of reality or just continues to be a ruling class propaganda tool, there's IS a a new world order they'll never tell you about but you should know, one which chillingly reflects the OLD world order that generations of poor fought and gave their lives to change. We now have a world where the rich rulers, whose lifestyles and excess makes the robber-barons of the industrial age look like paupers, and the 'service class' that is being pushed further and further below the poverty line are the only players; the haves and have-nots.

What does this have to do with the holiday season? Maybe the best present we can give the world is the realization that this new 'reorganization' of global society could NOT be happening without everyone's tacit approval. Either by ignoring the problem or keeping silent about it, or FALSELY believing themselves to be powerless to stop it. The working/service class/have-nots are hardly powerless but until they stop lusting after "SURVIVOR" style 'stab everybody in the back to get RICH!'success, bling and trinkets - cleverly used to keep them from joining together in any meaningful way - they'll be easy to use, abuse and keep down. The late union organizer Jimmy Hoffa (who unfortunately was forced to aligned himself with vicious uncaring street thugs and criminals to counter the vicious uncaring boardroom thugs and criminals ) said what has to be one of the truest statements of the last century: "They'll only give you what you're strong enough to take."

My present to all of you blissfully ignoring the world while enjoying your cheap consumer goods made possible by the new world order, would be an awareness of those who worked for poverty wages, no health benefits and no social security net to catch them when they age or become too sick to work. Because unless you're one of the protected wealthy, the new rules will eventually make you and yours one of the disposable drones. It's just a matter of time.

So here's my holiday song for this year. It was written by John Fogerty of Creedance Clearwater Revival over 36 years ago but it grows truer each year.

Don't Look Now (It Ain't You or Me)


Who will take the coal from the mine?
Who will take the salt from the earth?
Who'll take a leaf and grow it to a tree?
Don't Look Now, it ain't you or me.

Who will work the field with his hands?
Who will put his back to the plough?
Who'll take the mountain and give it to the sea?
Don't Look Now, it ain't you or me.

CHORUS:
Don't Look Now, someone's done your starvin';
Don't Look Now, someone's done your prayin' too.

Who will make the shoes for your feet?
Who will make the clothes that you wear?
Who'll take the promise that you don't have to keep?
Don't Look Now, it ain't you or me.

CHORUS

Who will take the coal from the mines?
Who will take the salt from the earth?
Who'll take the promise that you don't have to keep?
Don't Look Now, it ain't you or me.

:: Bill Sunday, December 11, 2005 [+] ::
...

-October 25th,

**** The CDBaby Hurricane Katrina Red Cross disaster relief fund drive is now over. Very special thanks go out to all the people who bought our CDs and helped make this so successful! Here's the official tally from CDBaby:

Bill -

Just a short note to say THANK YOU for putting your CD sales in the

Red Cross charity.

In the end, it raised a total of $165,060 over the last 7 weeks, sent

directly to the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund through our local

Portland Oregon branch.

(You should have seen their faces when we brought in that very first

check, in person, for $113,000!)


Thanks again.

--

Derek Sivers, CD Baby

http://www.cdbaby.com/


P.S. We donated $40,000 of our own CD Baby money too, in case you

were wondering. So - altogether, that's $165,060 from the artists,

$40,000 from CD Baby = $205,060 donated. I hope it helps!

~ Thank you all for donating through the buying of some great independent music (and us too!) through CDBaby. Enjoy the music and feel proud that you've made a real difference, you deserve it! :-)


~ Kathy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

:: Kathy Tuesday, October 25, 2005 [+] ::
...

- October 17th,

**** Bill's guitarwork is featured on the new TEMPORARY POWER album: THE TOWER MUST FALL. Temporary Power is the brain child of guitarist and unrepentant sonic renegade, MIKE WARD. Mike's envelope-pushing virtuosity and incredibly creative use of effects have garnered him such praise as:

"Think Jimi Hendrix alive in the 90's." and "Amazing stuff...sounds like a cross between David Verhouser and Jimmy Page ..."
If that sounds intriguing, pick up any TEMPORARY POWER cd and discover why Mike is one of Bill's all-time favorite guitarists!

Here is the official THE TOWER MUST FALL press release:

* 10/18/05 Temporary Power releases new album THE TOWER MUST FALL:

-West Palm Beach, Fl : “Once I got the idea for the Tower Must Fall, everything flowed pretty well together. As a matter of fact, the dream of working with Bill MacKechnie (Anubis Spire) became a very real and awesome reality.”

With both founders of progressive rock based music projects with the roots of our music steeped deeply into mysticism, it was a match made in heaven from any musical perspective.

THE MONUMENT OF THE NEW KING has become a trilogy based music epic featuring the soloing work of Bill MacKechnie (Anubis Spire) in parts II and III of the trilogy:

“The song had its beginning (Part I) in last year’s album, the Abyss, featuring Deitrich Sanders (Atomic Light Intrusion) on drums and Randy Powell (Parallel Redemption) on the bass guitar.

Monument of the New King is now a 3 part instrumental, which to me, brings forth all sorts of images of monuments and obelisks put in place by a new king, government, pharaoh or dictator. And we all know how that goes…when a new one enters the old ones go out. So there is tons of energy in something like that. But actually I went a little further in my mind…I thought about the monuments and pyramids on Mars and I speculated about vicious battles between tribes on Mars that could have taken place over a half a million years ago.”

"We are reaching a point in the evolution where desktop studios allow for these dream collaborations between artists to take place, even 1800 miles away! I have always been into Anubis Spire and when Bill asked me to do solo work on a simply majestic piece of music called ALL PERCEPTION IS WRONG. I was thrilled to say the least and I asked Bill if I could remix it and put it on the new The Tower Must Fall album as an instrumental piece and then there was the green light with the ole energetic, yes…okay…go for it! So, needless to say, I was thrilled and I definitely think there is a win-win scenario attached to this very unique musical experience for the creators of the song and the contributors alike.”

THE TOWER MUST FALL features ten new TEMPORARY POWER masterpieces.

Mike Ward lives with his many guitars all over his small West Palm Beach house, tripping over them and the amps and the cabinets filled with a vast array of effects and a computer work station that looks….well…dangerous. Song titles align the bulletin board and guitar and recording magazines are slewn all over the coffee table. Why? Because this is Mike’s life as a music fanatic! What can I say…he is really into it! Mike spends his days splitting his time with his very patient family and teaching music and engineering his pet music project, Temporary Power since 1997.

"The Tower Must Fall" is Temporary Power's 9th album since the project's inception in 1997.

All Temporary Power albums are available. To view discography go to: cdbaby.com/power and http://uk.towerrecords.com/discography.asp?entry=Temporary+Power

**** Anubis Spire’s ‘WHIRLING TOWARD SHAMBALAH’ is featured in the first part of a series of film noirish short films/online episodes at 8bucksproductions ( http://www.8bucksproductions.com/ ). We're not going to tell you all the details because we want you to visit and check out all the cool indie films for yourself! We WILL tell you that 8bucksproductions is one of our all-time favorites though. Check them out! :-)

**** BACK TO ABYDOS is back in stock at CDBaby.com! And remember, all profits go directly to the Red Cross Hurricane Katrina relief fund. We hope we sell out again very soon! :-)

:: Kathy Sunday, October 16, 2005 [+] ::
...

.

**** NEW ANUBIS SPIRE/CELEBRITYCAFE.COM GUITAR GIVEAWAY!!!!

~ Fellow Anubisoids,

The third Anubis Spire/CelebrityCafe.com guitar giveaway is now up and running. We're giving away another autographed Gibson-Epiphone Les Paul Special Jr guitar and an autographed copy of the soon to be released CHILDREN OF A FOREIGN FAITH CD.

You can enter once EVERY day!

For all the details and to enter, please go to this link:

http://www.thecelebritycafe.com/contests/anubis-spire.html

Please note* The CD cover shown is NOT the artwork from the new CD, that is still in the graphic artist's hands and won't be ready for a while yet. I'll give you all a preview on the NEWS page when it's done. :-)

Go enter!

~ Kathy

:: Kathy Thursday, October 06, 2005 [+] ::
...

Lots of developments. While tearing out stuff to make space for a new computer audio editing/mastering and video production station in the RBR control room, I was extremely happy to find an anvil case of original 8 track analog master tapes that had somehow been pushed to the back of a large storage cabinet. These included many of the first run masters from the OLD LIONS sessions that I had thought for years were either stolen or lost forever.

Of course, the new computer mastering suite and finding these tapes opens up the tantalizing possibility of totally remastering that CD. It is very tempting and will very probably come to be but for now, all my focus must be on the new CD.

That is coming along incredibly fast now. I will write more about that when I get a chance.



Still under construction but even now anxiously awaiting Dave's COOL EDIT expertise.



The long lost OLD LION masters and even many unreleased goodies!



It will take a while to go through these...



...and these. Two track mixdown and live jam tapes.


More later...


Bill

:: Bill Monday, October 03, 2005 [+] ::
...

Hi all...
There has been recent developments at Soundclick that are proving to be very unsatisfactory for all converned,
Recently Soundclick switched over to their own music player.
This took away the listeners ability to use the player of their choice.
On top of this,it also raised security issues,with people having to lower,or in somecase,turn off altogether,their internet security systems.
As I am sure you would all agree,that is a risky thing to do!
On top of all of this,the new player is very unreliable.
Often it will not work at all.
Other times there are pops and cracksles,skiping music and a genral very poor quality of sound.
The musicians and listeners at Soundclick are trying hard to persued soundclick to drop this aweful player.
Some of us are now carrying apologies and/or complaints on our artist pages as a protest.
This is what I have on both my artist page and message board:

"I would like to apologies to all the visitors to my page over not being able to play the music here at soundclick,and often,even when you can the sound is dreadful.As musicians we try our best to ensure that what we upload is of the highest standards we can manageUnfortunately our host SOUNDCLICK does not feel the same way.It has forced this new crap player on us.We have complained over and over again but they are arogant and greedfilled.They don't care what we say or do.They will not listen to us.So you have my apologies for any problems you have encountered here.I will continue to try to persued them to come down down out of their ivory tower and dump this heap of crap.I just hope you bear with all of us musicians,and understand we are trying the best we can to give you the best quality music we can.Nigel."

I must stress that I would not complain over something trivual.
This has far reaching consequences for all on Soundclick.
Daily I recieve messages saying that they were unable to play my music,if you are one of those,my apologies to you.
Some of my music is now available for listening,reviewing and download on MIXPOSURE on this link:
http://www.mixposure.com/nigel-potter

If you are a visitor to Soundclick,I would ask you to bear with us,and support us all there still.
We will continue to do what we can to make your visits there as stress free as possible.
The views I have expressed here are my own views and may or may not be others views.
Nigel.

:: Nigel Friday, September 23, 2005 [+] ::
...

A Case In Point. Often I have babbled on this journal and only later found that what appeared to me to be a straightforward explanation of the way I feel about one thing, has been taken as the way I feel about something totally unrelated. Obviously, I suck at this journal stuff. Today I had quite a few e-mails from people who had read my rant and were sure I was talking EXCLUSIVELY about either them or some A.S. project they were involved with. Let me clarify something: The WEB projects I was referring to were NOT our band related PUBLIC projects such as our YAHOO GROUP, our NEWSLETTER, our various FAN MAILING LISTS, our SMARTGROUP discussion list, our LIVEJOURNAL(s), our MYSPACE page, our FORUM memberships or ANY fan sites. What I WAS referring to was our PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATION with certain online entities that have simply not turned out to be as truthful or mutually supportive as we had hoped, and as they originally represented themselves. I'd also like to say for the record that the fault for this situation is NOT Kathy's, and as I said below, she had the band's best interests at heart at all times. Since things have been almost universally hard for EVERYONE lately, I can see how what I wrote was taken the wrong way. I apologize to anyone who felt I was criticising them personally or anything they might have said or done. I will definitely endeavor to be clearer and more detailed in the future.

:: Bill Wednesday, September 21, 2005 [+] ::
...

Kathy called Tuesday night, depressed, a bit weepy and offering to resign. Because I've been so absorbed with personal events and the deadline for the new CD, it took me a while to understand exactly why she was feeling this way. As it turned out, the problem was mine, not hers.

She was upset about being the one who had suggested a whole series of web things that while designed with the best of intentions, had not turned out as she hoped. She had originally been so excited about these ideas that despite my misgivings, I gave her the go ahead. What she couldn't know at the time was that they were GREAT ideas and would have worked for anyone else, but once I was added to the equation they were pretty much doomed to failure; not because of anything I did or didn't do, but simply because I am me. I know that sounds irrational but it's true. When we first met, Kathy often asked why I was not more outgoing, why I was and still am such a recluse. I found an answer to that very hard in the making then and I still do.

It's not because I don't know the answer- unfortunate truth be told, I know it too well- but rather because trying to explain it to those who have never experienced something of this nature for themselves is damn near impossible. The bottom line is: I don't belong, and at this time in my life I am forced to finally stop trying to, and content myself with the fact that although I suffered decades of disappointment and pain trying to prove otherwise and failing miserably, my one consolation is that I have now closed that door forever and that phase of my life is now truly over.

I know most of you reading this will have no idea what I'm talking about and believe me, for that I am very grateful. The easiest way to give you an idea of what I'm trying to say is to tell you about a movie I saw as a boy that made an indelible impression on me. The name of the movie was CARNIVAL OF SOULS. It was a sort of Twilight Zone style, ironic story of a woman who survives a car accident and after recovering tries to resume her life only to find herself being beckoned by images of the dead. The part of the movie I immediately identified with was her feeling of being somehow disengaged from those around her, unable to explain herself and misunderstood and shunned no matter how hard she tries to fit in. The reason of course, was that she should have died and somehow had become stuck between two worlds-the world of the living and the world of the dead. The living no longer truly recognized her as one of their own and found themselves unwittingly but instinctively rejecting and avoiding her, while the dead were trying to bring her to where she now rightly belonged. It was not the horror elements of the story that floored me but just how well they captured the feeling of not belonging and not really knowing why. I identified so strongly with that as a child, and still do. I think Kathy thought that the way I'd said people had reacted to me my whole life, was somehow either all in my head or would be different over the web. Guess again. She soon saw things happening that made no sense and was often dumb-founded when what I said or did would be ignored as a matter of course, but if someone else said or did the same thing later, they would be acknowledged and rewarded immediately. I was used to it and expected it, poor Kathy had never experienced it and found herself going through all those same emotions that I went through as a kid: disbelief, confusion, hurt, anger, resentment and the ever present feeling of being shunned simply because you're YOU. Everyone discriminates and the vast majority of us don't even know how hypocritical and subconsciously excluding we really are. It's far more comfortable to be surrounded by synchophants and yes men than those who have strong opinions of their own and aren't afraid to voice them. It seems our nature is to form cozy little tribes and reject those who won't wear the right color feathers.

It took quite a while to convince her that she hadn't done anything wrong and as a matter of fact had done everything right and extremely well! Her web projects have all turned into positive productive successes. Her only mistake was thinking that I could somehow fit into many of them. She told me she was sad to realize that what I had always told her was not some paranoid persecution delusion or figment of my imagination, but a real and easily seen and proven fact. I know how disheartening that can be, especially to someone as trusting and altruistic as Kathy.

After talking for over an hour and a half she suddenly said "Last night, for the first time, I realized what you were saying in the lyrics to CHILDREN OF A FOREIGN FAITH". I guess if there's a silver lining to any of this, that would be it. Although I have to admit, I'm not betting that many others will have first-hand experience and empathy there. But then as Martha Stewart (No relation) would say, in this case "That's a GOOD thing!"

Children Of A Foreign Faith

Is there anything else

I can change for you?

You don't like the way I sing, you want it all to sound the same.

So you cut me out

And you tear me down

And give a gold star to anyone who plays the game

Spent my life on the outside

denied admission to the club

No matter how high I climbed

You made damn sure that the prize was always one rung above

Must be nice

to fit right in

Mediocrity, MONEY and the right look you'll go

all the way

So, you suck up big

and you play along

Regurgitate the top ten till music's all but D.O.A.

I know you can't stand us peasants

I've seen you kick them when they're down on the floor

You call them scumbags and losers

But I know what they really are...

They're just children

of a foreign faith

THAT'S what bothers you

They're just children

of a foreign faith

with a different point of view

We're just children

of a foreign faith

We are not the privileged few

Children

of a foreign faith

And we will not worship...YOU.

Copyright 2005- Bill MacKechnie

:: Bill Wednesday, September 21, 2005 [+] ::
...

Hi all.
Been a while since I was here last,apologies for that.
But I HAD to come here to urge all to go along to the Anubis Spire Soundclick Page on this link:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pageartist.cfm?bandID=20

And give "Peace For Mercy Brown" a listen.
The guys have produced a classic classic song here.
Bill's playing is an emotional rollercoaster of emotions.
A huge high in his ability to play and the way he makes you FEEL when he does so.
GO THERE NOW!
Leave the guys some words.
Simply an amazing track.
Anubis Spire are the best there is!
Nigel.

:: Nigel Sunday, September 11, 2005 [+] ::
...

- September 1st,

**** SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Disaster Relief. The band has announced that until further notice they will donate all profits from the sale of their CDs sold through CDBABY (Old Lions and Back To Abydos) to the Red Cross disaster relief fund, to help the hurricane Katrina victims. If you or anyone you know has been thinking of picking up a copy of either of ANUBIS SPIRE's CDs, now would be the time to do it. You can use the handy CGI order form at the bottom of the NEWS and MAIN A.S. page (links below)or go to CDBaby.com. ALL profits will go to the relief effort. Please also check out the front page of CDBaby.com for tons of other great indie artists in all genres who are donating their profits as well.

http://members.aol.com/Anubis37/news.html
http://members.aol.com/Anubis37/main.html
http://cdbaby.com/cd/anubis (Old Lions)
http://cdbaby.com/cd/anubis2 (Back To Abydos)

Thanks, as always, for your support.

~ Kathy

:: Kathy Wednesday, August 31, 2005 [+] ::
...

London.

~By now the whole world knows the horror that happened yesterday in Britain. Just a few weeks ago, a friend (and Random Bullet Records intern) returned to the U.S. from living in London. While there she worked for an entertainment/booking company called PLUM and did the booking for the new MARQUEE CLUB and a host of others. She could have easily been among those in the King's Cross station yesterday, where 21 innocent people lost their lives and over a hundred were maimed and wounded.

While searching for words for this post, I dug out the demo copy of a song Bill wrote for the upcoming Children Of A Foreign Faith album titled "The Meaning Of The Word". It says what I'm feeling tonight far better than I can express right now.

The Meaning Of The Word

Come and sit with me awhile
Darlin' I can't sleep again
It's the same old nightmare
does this madness never end?

All the hatred I've known
All these scars upon my heart
Just when I think it's over
That's when it always seems to start

Does your god
Demand the blood of innocents?
What kind of monster do you serve?
Don't talk to me
Of all the things you claim are holy
You don't know the meaning of the word.

Right down through the ages
Doesn't matter what flag they fly
Those who love power
Don't care how many must die
The flowers of evil
Bloom on every faith
Take a prophet of peace
And twist their words into hate

Does your god
Demand the blood of innocents?
What kind of monster do you serve?
Don't talk to me
Of all the things you claim are holy
You don't know the meaning of the word.

~ Bill MacKechnie-copyright 2005

It's been a hard few months here at RBR but it all seems like nothing now in light of those innocent lives lost to the madness of fanatics. Our hearts and prayers go out to all those who's lives have been forever changed by this tragedy.

~ Kathy

:: Kathy Friday, July 08, 2005 [+] ::
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I have this image of Kathy on the phone to Robert Plant...

...and Robert laughing his ass off when she mentions he should fire his REAL guitarist and replace him with that big fumble-fingered doofus from ANUBIS SPIRE! :-)

Though I didn't see the performance and haven't really heard much of his new album, I know that Plant is no fool and whoever he tapped to play guitar is more than capable of giving him any kind of solo he desires. I guess the point Kathy was trying to make was the reining in of guitarists is now standard operating procedure. What once was an artform is now confined to brief ornamentation. It used to be that instrumental prowess and pop sensibilities could exist in the same song. Decades of rock, soul, blues and pop hits prove that, but today if you're a soloist who wants to play, you're banished to the instrumental ghetto. It's true there are prog-metal bands that defy that fate but let's face it, how mainstream rock are THEY? Not very. And, like our beloved Kathy, I miss hearing a great rock tune with an equally great solo. I don't believe for a moment that it's not possible anymore, only that someone, somewhere has advised that it might not be PROFITABLE in today's musical climate. That's a shame. Because I think it shows some of the legends of rock, people who changed music worldwide, forever, by NOT following the rules, are now sheepishly molding their "product" to a modern formula. Those who do this, I believe, will undermine their own integrity and legend status by writing music not for the ages but for the cash register. Rules are made to be broken and that has never been more true than in rock music. Always question fashion and never follow trends, no matter how accepted they are. To do so might make you a little money and short term fame, but in the end when people look back from a future where your piercings, tattoos and evil for evil's sake posturing look as quaint and antiquainted as the headbands and daisies that the flower children painted on each other's cheeks, only the music that had the guts to follow it's idiosyncratic muse rather than the herd (even if that muse never leads them to fortune OR fame) will be worth remembering.

:: Bill Monday, May 16, 2005 [+] ::
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Robert Plant performed last night on the Conan O'Brien show.

I missed his performance on Letterman earlier in the week so I was looking forward to seeing him. First, I'll post a sort of disclaimer, I was NOT a Led Zeppelin fan when I was younger. I was more into British blues players like John Mayal and later became a Cream fan, mostly because of Jack Bruce's vocals. There's something about his voice that just does it for me! LOL But back to Robert, he hit the stage with his new band and despite some audio problems with his mic level, sounded amazing! The song was very zep-like, with the booming drums and stately guitar chords. As usual with Plant's songwriting, there was no major chorus hook but overall, I thought it was a very impressive showing.

My only observation or complaint is something I've noticed that many of the rock veterans are doing, they keep the overall structures of their older work but "modernize" it by either cutting any solos out completely or putting a very short, technically unspectacular one in. IMHO, this makes the criticism often pointed at solos, for being boring and unneeded almost true. What is the use of a solo when it doesn't convey anything? Bill has always told me that music is a language and very few people can understand it, so they ignore what it's trying to say and use it as entertainment alone. Kind of like listening to someone telling a story in another language that you have no way of understanding, so it's impossible to have any emotional connection, but you listen because the story teller's foreign accent is so interesting. Without emotion, an instrumental solo is truly pointless and I think artists like Plant make a major mistake by putting such unremarkable playing in the middle of their songs. I almost think that his new song had the potential to rival zep at their finest, but halfway through it I could almost feel the studio audience waiting for a change in direction or the release that a passionate fiery solo would have made. Remember how Jimmy Page did it?

While watching Robert last night, I couldn't help but wonder what Peter Grant would have thought. I bet he'd side with me. Bill called earlier today and hadn't seen Robert's performance. When I told him that it was good but was missing something. He asked "What?", I said "You!" :-)

~ Kathy

:: Kathy Saturday, May 14, 2005 [+] ::
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Another busy but musically unproductive weekend. Personal matters dealing with finances continue to take top billing here, unfortunately. Spent some time at the SMARTGROUP site talking with the guys. I guess if I can't play music, listening to the great songs of fellow members and talking about it is the next best thing. Please go to the group and check out the links section to pages at Soundclick and Mixposure, just chock full of FREE downloads by exceptional musicians.

Heard from both Dave and Tim today. I was glad to hear from them both. I think Tim will probably give up bass playing to become a swing set dealer (inside joke...please disregard..LOL). Dave is getting his first CD re-stock ready to ship to CDBaby. Thanks to all of you who've bought his solo effort: Pioneer 7. Those of you who haven't checked it out yet, go here. He also just opened the EMRL (Electronic Music Research Labs) store here.

It looks like it'll rain today, I'll get out of mowing the grass for another day. Maybe I can sleep....Nah! LOL

:: Bill Monday, May 02, 2005 [+] ::
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I'm Back.

This year's UK trip appears to have been more successful than we here at Random Bullet had hoped. The band seems to have attained a much higher level of notoriety. I suspect that this is because of a combination of factors, not the least of which is the LZ video's success in Europe.

Bill had hinted in previous postings that we are now entering a new phase for the band, the music and even RBR itself. Today we went over a long list of previous projects and assigned each a pass/fail grade. Some of these were things that he had dearly hoped would work out, but had become total disasters. To Bill's credit, he agreed that a change in direction was warranted and together we set about modifying some and dispensing with others. We also agreed that we have outgrown the current studio space and will soon be relocating to better quarters and again upgrading our technology. A DVD production/post production facility will hopefully be added soon also.

On the web front, a similar pass/fail checklist showed that there have been many wrong turns and mistakes that must be remedied before forward progress can be restored. Now that our new directions are clear, our much talked about revamping of our web presence can begin. We started implementing the changes today.

Since Bill and the band will be once again entering the studio and focusing on the making of new music, I will probably take over many of the cyber projects he decides to keep going.

Thanks to all who wrote to welcome me back. I'll talk to you all again very soon.

~ Kathy

:: Kathy Tuesday, April 26, 2005 [+] ::
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Spent the day making plans, discussing the new world headquarters, talking to the pope and PLAYING my guitar. It amazes me that I can be away from it so long and yet when I pick it up and plug it in, my fingers not only remember everything they've ever played but even seem to have learned more somehow when I wasn't looking. There have been times when I've been quite convinced that they honestly don't need ME at all. Though I try to keep them busy with the mixing of the new CD, it seems they're trying to tell me they want to move on to newer pursuits. Who am I to argue with them?

:: Bill Friday, April 22, 2005 [+] ::
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