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There's someone in the flat above who plays the piano a lot better than I do. It's very offputting.

Turned up to the Forest tonight hoping to be part of some big ol' free-form jam (sounded like a nice easy way of getting some experience with playing in a band). Was told the piano wasn't really suitable for this sort of thing, partly due to being surrounded by people and covered in candles and plants, but I was handed a melodica instead, so I wandered down to the basement area and taught myself how to play it, mostly by playing the melodica bit at the start of the Fall's "Everybody But Myself" (and, to a lesser extent, the melodica bit at the end of Augie March's "Tulip", which doesn't have nearly so many notes). I think I'm going to buy a melodica sometime soon -- they're cheap, they sound interesting, I know how to play them, and most importantly of all, they are so very, very portable. I've never known an instrument that I can play and also pick up and move around, perhaps even to a location where other people have their own musical instruments to play. Things are going to change.

You should listen to the band Left Without Pictures, I think. I'd not heard of them until yesterday, when I found myself working at the Forest alongside Stuart Barter, one of the three multi-instrumentalists that make up the band, and for the sake of the friendly working environment I was very pleased to discover that the songs available for the down loadin' are really quite stunning. My favourite at the moment is "It Could Be A Sign", with all its distinct elements revealed gradually, one after the other... just when you think you'd be happy to hear that acoustic guitar melody on its own for a few minutes (and Christ, does it ever take a lot for a solo acoustic guitar to impress me these days), in comes the keyboard, stumbling back and forth arrhythmically but being perfectly in tune at the moments where it needs to be. There's even more after that, but I won't spoil it for you.
From the songs I've heard, they sound kinda like a stripped-back Flotation Toy Warning. I mention this partly for the sake of attempting a comparison, and partly because I'd never quite realised until now just how much Flotation Toy Warning sounds like the name of a fictitious band invented on the spot purely to take the piss out of scenesters (most of said bands are pretty much just Chimney Factory with a drum machine -- the state of music today, eh? Tch!).

I think I still have a gig on Monday, I'd better check tomorrow just to be sure. I may also have some very good news soon. Watch out... for it!