#localbands | MidiMike

Posts Tagged ‘#localbands’

A new home for the ‘toys’

Posted: October 24, 2025 in live Sound Reinforcement, Midi Series, My Tunes, technology
Tags: #localbands, #michaelskennedy, #midimike, #midimike.com, #music, #musicbusiness, #musicequipment, #musician, #personal, #recordingstudio, #songwriter

I know I talk about music and great artists I have worked and played with over the decades. During all that time I had my share of more-than full time jobs. I started with plastics and the injecting molding industry. I went from being a ‘hopper boy’ to a plant manager. Later I got into sales – service – and managing with a few other trades thrown in there.

I retired from work a bout 4 years ago. Now it is time I retired from the music business as well….

I have gathered all my recording gear. Packed up my vintage keyboards and guitars and have the drums all torn down and headed toward shipping boxes. I will keep my songwriting instruments and gear I can’t part with yet. I will list the rest of the gear for sale on Sweetwater’s Exchange platform.

If you know a musician give them the link below. They might thank you for it!

https://www.sweetwater.com/used/storefront/midimike

I will thank you now. lol

I have had the link up for one day and I have sold two items already. I will be adding more for a few weeks.

On the Sweetwater Exchange site, just search for the MIDIMike store!

So now I leave you with a musical joke. You can fill in the blank, but the joke works the same!

Q: What do you call a Drummer (guitar player, singer______) that broke up with his girlfriend?

A: Homeless!

MIDIMike

No Thing

Posted: July 5, 2025 in My Tunes
Tags: #electronicinstrumental, #korgnautilus, #localbands, #michaelskennedy, #MIDI keyboard, #midimike, #midimike.com, #music, #musician, #musicvideo, #original songs, #original video, #personal, #songwriter, #syncopps, #synthesizer

I have an instrumental piece to share. More of a soundscape than a song. For fun, I also made a short YouTube video to play. Headphones help.

‘No Thing’ by Michael S Kennedy

More coming soon!

MIDIMike

Lyrics for ‘First Move’

Posted: June 27, 2025 in #poetry, My Tunes
Tags: #acoustic, #beforethechase, #closerlook, #easysong, #firstmove, #folk, #localbands, #lyrics, #michaelskennedy, #midimike, #midimike.com, #msk, #music, #musician, #ovationguitars, #poem, #poetry, #progressivefolk, #recordingstudio, #singersongwriter, #songwriter, #Soundengineer, #syncopps, #takeacloserlook, #thechase, #vocalist

For a bit of prospect work, I wrote lyrics to an old 12 sting guitar jam of mine. I released ‘First Move’ as an instrumental track on my cd ‘Before The Chase‘ on February 25th, 2016.

(As a side note, one of the great cover/original bands I performed with live was ‘The Chase’. I also released a title called ‘After The Chase‘ in 2017. In both cases, auto-spelling correction wants to make the title : Before the Chase and After the Chase. Some on-line distributors would not accept the capitalized version in their listing. The reference to my former band mates does not jump out if it has a lower case ‘t’ for the. Now, back to my previous train of thought).

I really like the way the tempo and the groove combine to make an interesting driving-sports-workout jam. I use open tuning for the guitar, and that allows me to get those really clear harmonics to stand out. The lyrics reference the many people in my life that are truly amazing. Dedicated, hard working, dependable friends and strangers in the background making the world a better place for others. Doing the right thing – for no real reward and little recognition. Heroes are all around, they just don’t make that much noise.

‘Take A Closer Look’

“Take a Closer Look” © MSK 6/25/2025 (First Move)

It’s difficult to get going
Usually, it’s too hard to stop.
Heroes rise up against the wind
In spite of the inevitable drop.

Everyone has their place in life
But can not see it most of the time.
Not all of us become astronauts
Or Sherlock with the unsolvable crime.

Take A Closer Look
And you will see.

They guard over you silently
Yet never seem to get in the way.
Easy not to see them at first
But they are always ready to play.

One of them might be an artist
Musicians you truly understand.
A friend who has never failed you
Or strangers that gave you a helping hand.

Take A Closer Look
Take A Closer Look and you will see.

MIDIMike

The Merchants

Posted: May 19, 2023 in MUSIC, My Tunes
Tags: #hearnow, #localbands, #lyrics, #michaelskennedy, #midimike, #midimike.com, #music, #musician, #personal, #poetry, #reeltoreel, #singersongwriter, #songwriter, #tascam, #teac, #themerchants, #themerchantsofdeath, #video, #vintage recordings

I have referenced members of my originals band many times in this blog. I was fortunate to meet Tom Robinson in my senior year of high school. It was a rough time in my life. Just finding people even similar to you was difficult let alone finding friends. TR and I became friends immediately. He let me borrow a guitar so I could learn how to play and we could play guitar together. That became the core of a song-writing community that would span decades. A number of local musicians, songwriters and interested observors orbited that core. Separate core members were discovered and their songs were also shared.

I moved up to Dayton, Ohio and became part of the Merchants of Death. (….story to that name and it is really cool but no time for that now) With percussionist/vocalist Tom Gorman and bass guitar genius Mike Wheeler, TR and I blended the Cincinnati sound with the Dayton sound. This was my first real band in that we only played out a few times for friends and family, but we listened to each other. We wrote great songs together. Members filled in for core members as needed. I recorded almost everything with two Radio Shack condensor microphones (that I still have) sitting somewhere on a coffee table on my 4-Track Tascam/Teac reel-to-reel tape deck. Yes, this was 50 years ago.

We got back together on-line during the Covid 19 lock down. The latency was difficult but the connection was priceless, and we started jamming regularly. Eventually we were brave enough to meet in person and had a blast dusting off the old tunes. From that we decided to begin where we left off and started to record our first album project entitled Reinstated. Thinking the ‘Death’ reference in our name was a bit too close to home, we refer to this project as The Merchants.

We have a collection of original songs and a few tasty cover tunes that we perform in our own style. I think you will like a number of these. The project includes 18 songs (18!!) and that might give you the impression that we are done. As logical as that might seem for a bunch of old guys, we are already recording our second album project!

TR was goofing around with some old pictures and I decided to make a short video to introduce the Reinstated project release. Unfortunately I do not have a whole lot of flashy media from those days but there are some pictures that are worth a thousand words. To visit Youtube click here.

I have an easy web page that links to most media streaming services so you can get an idea what we were playing last millenia. To hear more of The Merchants – Reinstated, click here.

Thank you all for the years of listening and sharing. MIDIMike.

UnPredictable

Posted: August 29, 2022 in MUSIC, Opinions and Observations, Poetry
Tags: #guitar, #jayaronoff, #localbands, #lyrics, #Mara, #michaelskennedy, #midimike, #midimike.com, #music, #musician, #personal, #poetry, #recording, #songwriter, #sound, #stanaronoff, #UnPredictable

A common topic shared on this platform as I reach 70 years old.

Another friend of mine has died unexpectedly. He was ten years younger than me. My posts have bragged about the people I have met over the years, and he is one of the special ones. Jay Aronoff truly loved music…. in all it’s forms, but he made it his own. Life had it’s struggles but he always had time for good friends.

Son of former Ohio Senator Stan Aronoff but he chose his own path. I met him when I worked at a local music store chain. I managed the store and he was a guitar instructor. Even when he was not in a lesson, the guitar was strapped around his shoulder and he encouraged impromptu renditions of our favorite prog-rock songs. He was easy to love.

Jay was stunned I had never had a cup of coffee. He persisted until I had my first and only cup of coffee with him. It wasn’t that bad but not as good as the smell of fresh ground coffee in the old grocery stores so I decided to stick with tea!

I did a video of Jay’s band Mara performing live. My wife Ellen and I did all the camera work on two separate nights, and I did the post production video and timing by ear. In memory of Jay Aronoff, here are links to that video filmed in 1988:

I also have some lyrics to share with all who knew Jay, and those who know me:

This is all Unpredictable
The end to a terrible day.
A phone call from another friend;
This would be the last day with Jay.

He was a very special soul
Who bound so many together.
I thought he’d be the one
To remember us forever.

Jay had his demons to face
I’m sure he faced many alone.
None of that matters today
Because from now on, Jay is gone.

This is all UnPredictable
The cruelty cannot be more clear
This would be the last day with Jay.
So I raised another glass of beer.

This is all UnPredictable
The cruelty cannot be more clear
This would be the last day with Jay.
So I raised a glass of beer.

Michael K

The Chase vocalist search continues

Posted: August 20, 2021 in Live Sound Reinforcement Series, MUSIC, projects
Tags: #jamesbrown, #Jeffbeck, #Jethrotull, #Liveband, #livesoundreinforement, #localbands, #michaelskennedy, #midimike, #midimike.com, #musician, #recording, #seanbandy, #steelydan, #The Chase, #vintage recordings, #vocalist, #vocals

In no specific order here, we have our third vocalist working with my cover band called The Chase. Performing with us now is Sean Bandy (Shoeless Sean to his followers). I don’t think I have any real pictures of this time. I will keep looking but so far nothing great.

Sean also played acoustic guitar and does a great job of working with the audience. We played songs from the Beatles to Zappa and from James Brown to Queen and he kept up with them all. I am playing keyboards and electric rhythm guitar, as well as back up vocals. I am not running sound at this point from what little I can remember. I posted a couple videos of us on my You Tube channel earlier. See the following links THE CHASE LIVE 1 and THE CHASE LIVE 2. These are more like music with pictures and old video clips. The video recordings I made for that time did not translate well to the leap in resolution 30 years later lol.

The Chase and vocalist Sean Bandy performing “Cross Eyed Mary” by Jethro Tull

The Chase and vocalist Sean Bandy performing “I Feel Good” by James Brown

The Chase and vocalist Sean Bandy performing “Freeway Jam” by Jeff Beck and “Black Friday” by Steely Dan

Which vocalist is your favorite from the few examples here?

The Chase looking for a vocalist

Posted: August 17, 2021 in Live Sound Reinforcement Series, MUSIC, projects
Tags: #bass, #creed, #guitar, #jamesfidelli, #jimihendrix, #keyboardplayers, #Liveband, #livesoundreinforement, #localbands, #metallica, #michaelskennedy, #midimike, #midimike.com, #petergabriel, #queen, #redhouse, #stonecoldcrazy, #thechase, #vintage recordings

Continuing on in this series, the cover band I performed with is trying out new vocalists. Fortunately I record often and want to share with you some of the live performances during this time with The Chase. The songs were performed by James Fidelli and he also played a bit of electric rhythm guitar.

The Chase vocalist Jamie Fidelli singing “Stone Cold Crazy” by Queen and “Red House” by Jimi Hendrix

The Chase vocalist Jamie Fidelli singing “Tight Rope” then “Digging in the Dirt” by Peter Gabriel

The Chase vocalist Jamie Fidelli singing “One” by Creed

Early recordings of The Chase

Posted: August 13, 2021 in Live Sound Reinforcement Series, MUSIC, projects
Tags: #aliceinchains, #bass guitar, #cliffsofdover, #ericjohnson, #Euphoria, #keyboardplayers, #Liveband, #livesoundreinforement, #livingcolour, #localbands, #michaelskennedy, #midimike, #midimike.com, #musician, #personal, #recording, #rhythmguitar, #sound, #thechase, #vintage recordings

For a quick recap, I have been going through archived recordings I have made over the years. Recently reviving performances with the bands I have played in, I want to give you a few samples of recordings I made with The Chase.

For a period of time we were reforming the band Euphoria and looking for a new vocalist. These recordings were during that transition period working out with different vocalists. Short story for new visitors, I worked at a local instrument store as a salesman when asked by The Chase to fill in for their sound man while he was on vacation for a few weeks. I had never run sound (with the exception of one hotel gig band that was in desperate need for one night.) I filled in, loved it and the band, the sound man could not return and I became their regular sound guy. The band was smart and paid the sound engineer the same as the other members of the band. They knew the house sound was important.

Once running sound, the keyboard player took a break for a few years and I worked really hard to fill in for him. Soon after that I started playing rhythm guitar too………. and yes, in the early years I ran sound, played keyboards, rhythm guitar, back-up vocals and percussion all at the same time from stage. For a period of time I ran sound from the audience and had my instruments next to me. Not as strong a player as the others in the band I tried to “earn my keep” by being a jack of all trades.

I have recorded music since I bought my first four-track reel-to-reel when I was around 13 years old. I am closer now to 70 years old. When working with bands as a sound engineer or member, I record for a lot of reasons. Some were not intended to be hi-quality recordings and often were stereo cassette or DAT machines connected directly to the main outs of the sound board. Usually there was no level test and the band members would not know I was recording at all because it was so basic.

In the next few posts I will share cover songs we played live with three vocalists. In some I am playing Keyboards, rhythm guitar etc., and some I am running sound using various techniques to find quick ways to get a decent live recording. Many of these I have detailed here in my Live Sound Reinforcement Series.

Here are a few samples, starting with Gary Jefferson as the lead vocalist.

Vocalist Gary Jefferson performing The Rooster by Alice In Chains

Vocalist Gary Jefferson performing Middle Man by Living Colour

The Chase performing cover of Cliffs of Dover by Eric Johnson

The Chase Live

Posted: March 17, 2020 in Live Sound Reinforcement Series, Photography, projects, Video
Tags: #audio, #bass guitar, #Cassette, #Cincinnati, #drinking, #drummer, #drums, #guitar, #keyboard, #keyboardplayers, #Liveband, #livesoundreinforement, #localbands, #recording, #Reel, #vocalist, Black Crows, Black Friday, Cincinnati bands, Kenny Wayne Shepard, live audience, Live performance, live recording, local bands, Nakamichi, Steely Dan, The beatles, The Break Room

Thank you for your continued friendship. The story of friends and talented musicians, artists of all kinds was fun in the telling. Followers will know the names and projects I have been thrilled to be involved with. Sacrifices. Heart break. Overwhelming joy.

I have told the story but I also have my archives to share. I started recording with a reel-to-reel tape deck when I was 14. I recorded everything. Everyone. Everywhere (once I had portable recorders lol!)

The medium has changed many times over. Some of the video, for example, was amazing on a small tube television. It just does not stand up to the quality of large screens with high resolution. I did not include the ancient videos on this post because it just looks bad/old.

For some reason I did not take a lot of photographs in this time frame. Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures of the lead vocalist in this recording….. Shoeless Shawn was not with The Chase long before we stopped playing out. So I collected more recent pictures I had taken of group shots of friends, family and fans we have known over the years.

With a little free time on my hands, I have been going through my archives. This is an old recording from my Nakamichi stereo cassette player! I think it is straight off the board. I did not run sound for this recording. Our friend Dave Houston was at the helm.

Everyone stay healthy, and with social distancing, stay at home, grab a drink, and put up your feet. Press play and listen to some live music!

The Chase

MidiMike

Available on iTunes and CD Baby

Social Media

MSK original Songs

Posts Tagged ‘#localbands’

A new home for the ‘toys’

No Thing

Lyrics for ‘First Move’

The Merchants

UnPredictable

The Chase vocalist search continues

The Chase looking for a vocalist

Early recordings of The Chase

The Chase Live

Archives

Available on iTunes and CD Baby

Social Media

MSK original Songs

Posts Tagged ‘#localbands’

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