Mark Stock's Music Page

Mark Stock's Music Page

Crikey! This page has been aging poorly. Forgive the mess.

Anyway, welcome to my new and improved music page. That pretty much means I copied what someone else did and yelled louder about it.

Songs currently in my mind's heavy rotation list:

I first need to say that music is an important part of my life. Growing up, I enjoyed listening to my mom's records, Casey Kasem's Top 10 Countdown, and whatever the radio played that sounded cool. The first pop album bought by my siblings was Michael Jackson's Thriller. Wow.

I started into music a bit later than everyone else, it seemed. I "discovered" pop music on the radio when I was, like, 10 or 11. I didn't know *anyone*. In high school, I found this classic rock station; then it was Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and Creedence for the next 3 or 4 years before I rejoined the pop/rock mainstream.

Sometime in grad school, I tried playing an instrument for the first time ever, the guitar. Like every poser, I tried playing all the cool music I knew and loved, and most of it sounded crappy. I approach guitar playing from more of a pattern-based approach. I can't tell what a note or chord will sound like before I play it. So, I remember chord patterns, and like a matrix problem, I break down the fretboard into patterns and relations, and I repeat them. It's not formal, it's probably not even good, but it works. I really have no knack for music. Nevertheless, I continued, because it occasionally sounded good, and I had fun playing.

Now, I play a little for a local swing band called The Johnstown Cats, pictured above. I'm the second dork from the right. The music is fun to play, but hard-core swing dancers want more slow stuff. They just lose. We play fast stuff because it's far more fun. Click the "About the Band" link on the Cats page to find some mp3s.

My other musical project, which is more infrequently seen, cut their first live album earlier this year. The name of that band is The Mark Stock Fiasco. You can listen to some .mp3 music files if you ask me nicely. Parents are strongly cautioned. Hell, *you* are strongly cautioned. They really suck. I can't sing. Honestly.

I should really mention that my housemates are partners in crime in all of this music stuff. The music room at the house has been likened to "a guitar store" and we still keep several of the cooler guitars out of sight. Two of my roommates are in a band called North, which plays their own brand of folk and folk rock.

That's about it. Music is good, music is art, and participation in music is joy. Have fun.

And here's my old music page:

Welcome to my music page! On the right you see a digital photo of me playing one my 2 guitars. I own a Sigma 6-string acoustic guitar and an Ibanez Performer 300 electric guitar (1978). Both sound pretty nice, but the Ibanez kicks when I plug it in thru my JH-1 Jimi Hendrix Fuzz Wah. Cool.

These are my favorite bands/musicians:

Most recent album purchases: (Okay, this if from 1997, so just ignore it.)

Friends in music

or go straight to the New This Week list.

Link to a guitar site here. Back to my home page.

Drop me some e-mail.

Mark J. Stock, Graduate Student, Aerospace Engineering, The University of Michigan