Pedal Board Shopping List

hey there to my faithful readers….i’m looking to building my own pedal board some time too.  I feel like my guitar tone could definitely use an overhaul…heres what I’m thinking as far as my line up….unfortunately, about half over these I don’t own…so i’m just drooling over them right now:

Boss CS-3 Compression Sustainer

Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive

Digitech Bad Monkey Tube Overdrive

Fulltone Fulldrive 2 – finally got one of these for Christmas…LOVE IT.

EHX Big Muff – not sure if i’ll use it much, but my dad has one…so smoke em if you’ve got em!

MXR Phase 90

Ernie Ball 6166 Mono Volume Pedal

Line 6 DL-4

EHX Holy Grail Plus Reverb

so heres my delimma…everything in red…i don’t own yet…haha.  Being a poor worship leader, getting ready for college…i probably don’t have the cash to buy all of this stuff yet.  Any of you guys know where I could get the hook up with some used gear?

musical tastes

haha…oh yeah…i have a blog.

well, even though its been about forever…heres a little post on an idea i’ve had lately.  I’m going to start recording what music i listen to in a day.  I’ve really realized how much my musical tastes have shifted from year to year.  I thought maybe it’d be a fun WAY late New Years resolution type of thing to just record what I’ve listened to over the year and look back on it.  I may post some of my lists on here…if i remember i have this thing. haha.

keep it real,

-mccoy

working space

so i have a lot to get done these days.  with the christmas season rapidly approaching, I have a LOT of music to arrange and practice through for mainstreet.  plus, mainstreet’s creative team needs to plan the big christmas eve service and i need to make several slides for our announcement reel.  in normal talk, that means lots of work to get done in the next week or two.

whenever i have a ton of work to get done, i typcially tackle it by starting it all at once.  for me, its way easier to work on a tiny bit of each project until i get things rolling.  then i focus in on each project invidividually.  having a big pool of projects to work on keeps me from getting bogged down and bored to death with what im working on.  i like trying to keep what im doing interesting and entertaining so that i put out my best work.

how do you do your best work?

-mccoy

politics

man…who else is EXHAUSTED on this election?

i know i am.  unfortuantely, i miss the voting deadline by 6 days. (My 18th birthday is November 10th).  Regardless, i’ve stayed informed this election run and i am WORN OUT!  It seems like we’re to the point in both campaigns that its just a lot of bickering and finger pointing.  I’m pretty tired of hearing about it and ready to move on with our new leader…whoever it may be.

Whoever our nations next leader is, I pray God will be shaping his character and directing his heart to service and generosity above all.

Can I get an amen?

-mccoy

kingdom theology

hey guys, not sure how much traffic i’m getting at the moment…but if you’re here and haven’t checked it out…my great friend Joel Larison has an awesome post on his blog all about his take on Kingdom theology.  Its some good, challenging stuff.   Check it out and give Joel some love.

changes

so as all of you who read this (mom) can tell, i’ve made some changes around here.

it seems like thats where my life is at, a place of change.  nearly every aspect of who and where i am is changing.  my musical tastes have shifted to much more acoustic folk music (a la Joni Mitchell, Stew, Damien Rice).  i’ve become very interested in literature again (currently reading Collective Stories by Saul Bellow).  i’ve changed my major three times in the past month and haven’t yet gotten to college.  (as of now its Journalism at Ball State). my career as a Marching Wildkat is nearly to an end, and its been a fantastic ride.  we have the opportunity to make history this weekend, being the first band to advance past regional competition in a decade.  it’s been such a learning experience and i’ll never forget it.

my friendships are changing and growing.  i feel more relationally honest then i have in years.

not to mention, it’s my favorite season of the year, fall.  i love seeing the vibrant colors all around as the leaves change from plain greens to vivid oranges and yellows.  this season is always an introspective one for me, as i see the world around me changing.  the smell of bonfires and taste of warm apple cider always makes me quite nostalgic.

perhaps best of all, and most uncommon, i’ve started writing again.  no great poems or songs yet, but simply writing my thoughts and feelings down in free form.  it’s been very redeeming to put a pen to paper again.  there are some great things happening around here, and my mind and heart feel more full then they have for quite some time.

just a little update on my life and where my head is at.
but let me know, where are you?

New Year

Sorry for the intense lack of posting lately.  The reasons being:

• Marching band has started…this means my schedule is WACK right now.  Seriously, you guys have no idea  how much time this thing takes
• School has started…one more year!

So on that note…i’m REALLY excited for my senior year.  Its shocking to think that its been four years since I first set foot in the high school, since i first played guitar at osm, since i first led worship.  It never seemed that huge, but i’ve grown an INSANE amount in the past year alone.

But enough of that deep rambling…this year i’m just really pumped to hang with the guys and have a blast.  Deciding what to do with my life terrifies me…but i’m okay with that right now, and i really think i’m ready for it.

just letting you all know whats up with me..

..type in down there to tell me about you

-mccoy

oh…and i just got The Bright Sadness by Charlie Hall…and i’m loving it.

Ants Marching 01

okay….so the title is a shameless Dave plug.  But i’m on a kick right now.

but this series of posts is actually about whats taking up 80% of my time right now…marching band.  From the outside…marching band seems like the weirdest thing in the world to be involved in.  First of all, it takes TIME.  my weeklong hiatus was due to marching band camp from 7 AM to 5 PM EVERY DAY last week.  We practice more than any group in the school.  Crazy.

Plus, theres always the hype about band being nerdy.  Whatever.  I sweat my butt off working during band, don’t knock it till you try it.

Any way…expect some posts about this group thats totally consuming my thoughts/time right now.

Last week’s band camp went great by the way…we got a lot done…halfway through the show already.  It’ll be a great year.

-mccoy

Free Tunes

check it out…8.8.08…free live album from Phil Wickham…great worship leader.

Shocking

so last night i got the pleasure of my first Dave Matthews Band show.  WOW.  i’d heard all of the hype, and more or less wrote it off as obession (sorry Jason).  But this show lived up to it AND THEN SOME.  I’ve been to a few shows in my day and none of them had this type of energy.  Dave was EVERYWHERE, at one point he started dancing like crazy and everyone LOVED it.  I love seeing a performer just enjoying what they’re doing.  The beautiful thing is, he wasn’t doing it for show, it was just all about the music and having a good time.  I even had a blast with his substance-abused fans, haha.  I made best friends with about 4 guys who were smashed out of their mind and it was awesome!  Its not totally not my scene, but we were all experiencing it together.

Maybe it doesn’t make sense unless you’ve been there…so if loving the show makes me a fan boy…call me obsessed.

Or, you could always come with me next year.

-mccoy

oh, and i LOVE the free taping…nothing like waking up the next morning to find the show you just experienced ALREADY uploaded online.  Incredible.