No more scouring eBay for cheap 4-Tracks. No more scouring the city for some flaky-ass* drummer. Apple released GarageBand today.

John Gruber is absolutely right:

What’s so cool about GarageBand is that it exemplifies the market that Apple is going after. People who want to use their computers to make cool things. People who want to be producers, not just consumers.

I’m not kidding about the solo album. I’m totally putting every other project on hold.

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*I mean that in only the most complimentary way. A term of endearment, if you will.

See, over the summer we had a nice visit with my 87 year old Great Aunt. (She passed away just recently. She was a great lady and one of the blood sources of my artistic and musical abilities. She painted pictures and played the ukulele. I should write a little something about her when I can put two thoughts together.) The first thing she asked me was if I was still playing guitar and if I had a band going. I told her that I play everyday and some of my old band-mates and I were thinking of starting up again, but we might not be able to find a drummer. She replied that drummers are always difficult to find, especially reliable ones. So it’s always been this way ;-).
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And now if I may swing back to the topic for a second… GarageBand really looks like an excellent solution for writing and composing songs on the fly with your Mac, but when it comes to laying down tracks, can it emulate the raw beauty and power of mic-ed amps and drums recorded live to 4-Track? We’ll see I guess. Regardless, it’s another brilliant, market appropriate product idea from Apple for an unbeatable price, and I can’t wait to get my hands on it.