So I have Windows Vista, and I want to use it and not be one of the millions that complains about it, but...
I had a list of tracks that I wanted to develop on the notes gadget on the sidebar. The notes gadget comes with Vista; it's not like the creepy, virus-laden gadgets that you can download from Windows site. Anyway, it's crashed twice and I've lost the data I have on it.
So, time to list my thoughts here. Next up is a vocals/lyrics/guitar solo remake of "Skin Deep." I've also wanted to get lyrics onto the trippy little song in F# I've been kicking around for 5 years. There's the track that Ann titled "Jaunty" to my dismay. "Save Me", "Found You", "Angel" and "Crazy Days" all in various states of completion as well.
I wouldn't mind new lyrics to "Damaged Goods," either...
Monday, February 23, 2009
The Things I Do when I think No One is Watching
I had the place to myself Saturday morning, so I decided to tackle recording a song Mike and I had done a few years back, called "Song About Myself." I think this is one of the last songs that I've written and performed that I don't have a recording of.
We'd never played this song with a drummer, so I practiced a few beats and set up the mics. Mike pointed out that I screwing up the placement of the XLR mics at the last rehearsal, and I definitely fixed that this time around. I probably should have rethought my decision to dedicate a mic to the bass drum, but man can you feel the beat!
I got a basic feel for the tempo changes and laid down the drum tracks. I had gotten as far as laying down the rhythm and lead guitars before I realized I had omitted the first two Bm sections of the song. Nothing to do but jump back on the drums. Luckily, the mics and mic-levels were still there.
After I had rerecorded everything I laid down the bassline. I would have preferred to get Mike back on this one, but alas, he was not around in the 3 hours I decided to rehearse and record this song. I kept the lyrics intact, for better or worse. After I had recorded the rhythm twice, I wanted to lay down the vocals and call it done.
Just checked the lyrics folder; there is one song that I did with Mike and Will back in the day. It's a song called "Want It," based around an Em riff. There are some interesting dynamics and rhythmic stuff in there, maybe there's one more old song to bring to life yet; or maybe I should try writing something new...
We'd never played this song with a drummer, so I practiced a few beats and set up the mics. Mike pointed out that I screwing up the placement of the XLR mics at the last rehearsal, and I definitely fixed that this time around. I probably should have rethought my decision to dedicate a mic to the bass drum, but man can you feel the beat!
I got a basic feel for the tempo changes and laid down the drum tracks. I had gotten as far as laying down the rhythm and lead guitars before I realized I had omitted the first two Bm sections of the song. Nothing to do but jump back on the drums. Luckily, the mics and mic-levels were still there.
After I had rerecorded everything I laid down the bassline. I would have preferred to get Mike back on this one, but alas, he was not around in the 3 hours I decided to rehearse and record this song. I kept the lyrics intact, for better or worse. After I had recorded the rhythm twice, I wanted to lay down the vocals and call it done.
Just checked the lyrics folder; there is one song that I did with Mike and Will back in the day. It's a song called "Want It," based around an Em riff. There are some interesting dynamics and rhythmic stuff in there, maybe there's one more old song to bring to life yet; or maybe I should try writing something new...
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Rock Hurts, Rock Scars, Rock Wounds and Marks
Jim sent out a very well written email detailing why it wouldn't be a good idea for him to continue playing with us.
What?
I wanted to be pissed, but he explained his thoughts very succinctly. He's not interested in gigging, and he wanted to step out at a time when we weren't relying on him. In retrospect, we had always talked about just getting together and jamming. After we quickly got a few songs sounding great quickly, I got excited about having a solid band. If anything, he should probably be mad at me for pushing in a different direction.
So, whereas Jim is a great guitarist, came to the jam every week and brought a ton of energy, and is generally a cool and interesting person to hang out with, it's probably a good call. Everyone's gotta be on the same page. I think Mike said it best: "Well I think I speak for everyone when I say this is a bummer."
Hopefully we can keep the informal and fun jam feel while putting a few things together. We'll see where all this leads...
What?
I wanted to be pissed, but he explained his thoughts very succinctly. He's not interested in gigging, and he wanted to step out at a time when we weren't relying on him. In retrospect, we had always talked about just getting together and jamming. After we quickly got a few songs sounding great quickly, I got excited about having a solid band. If anything, he should probably be mad at me for pushing in a different direction.
So, whereas Jim is a great guitarist, came to the jam every week and brought a ton of energy, and is generally a cool and interesting person to hang out with, it's probably a good call. Everyone's gotta be on the same page. I think Mike said it best: "Well I think I speak for everyone when I say this is a bummer."
Hopefully we can keep the informal and fun jam feel while putting a few things together. We'll see where all this leads...
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
4th Jam: Multitasking
Date: 2/18
Location: Mt Prospect Studios
Jim: Guitar/Drums
Mike: Bass
Kevin M: Vocals
Ryan: Guitar/Drums
Kevin C had an unexpected conflict, and John was out of town, but we still got a solid groove going.
We kicked off on The Door and played through that a few times. Work on an intro was deferred to when we had a drummer. We did work on the stop in the third refrain. It looks like a long tradition of tweaking The Door shall continue, much to the benefit of Mike's and my sanity.
Mike mentioned that we should work the Outro dynamics more. I offered up my volume pedal, which amusingly did not serve this function very well.
We jumped over to Stooge next, and ran through it a couple of times with Kevin. Jim hopped on drums for the second go through, and we hit the Outro hard. A few times I had thought we were wrapping up, and Jim just kept the groove going. My failed attempt at using the volume pedal in the Door did have one benefit. I switched over to wah, and played wah guitar over the Stooge groove, with sick results. I wouldn't have thought to put a clean wah sound in there, but it worked.
Mike started messing around with playing 3's over the basic riff, and eventually came up with this locrian groove: A-Bb-C-D-Eb. We still have to figure out where to stick it in, but it should spice it up some.
Our search for a cover led us down much the same path of aborted Stones covers, Fire, before finally settling on "something from Weezer." My knowledge of only "Say it Ain't So" led us to launch into that. It held together on a once through, then somehow became a reggae grove, and we went through half the song again with the new feel. I wouldn't recommend ever doing that again, but it was a solid change in feel that everyone picked up quickly.
I hopped on the drums long enough to revive some 5/4 stuff Mike and I have messed around with in the past. I'm hoping to pull this into a track, possibly "Save Me."
We then launched into our coup d'etat: the Baba O'Reily Superjam. I kicked it off playing the basic keyboard part on guitar while sitting at the set. You can probably see where this is going. Jim came in with the guitar part, and I "quickly" jumped on drums.
For some reason, I had decided to sing backup while drumming. Unfortunately, the mic was at eye-level by the time I sat down, so during my Garth Algar drum solo I whipped my head into the mic. I sometimes play up minor injuries, but that mf'er hurt!
After that, we listened to the RM disc and picked out Far Side and Tomorrow to put together next week. Fresh Air was mentioned as a future possibility, and Mike brought up Damaged Goods.
Jim mentioned brining back the jam, possibly with the Crazy Days riff. I'm all for that, especially when it leads to new song ideas, but we also talked about putting together set songs for possible gigs in the future. Little did I know what that would lead to...
Location: Mt Prospect Studios
Jim: Guitar/Drums
Mike: Bass
Kevin M: Vocals
Ryan: Guitar/Drums
Kevin C had an unexpected conflict, and John was out of town, but we still got a solid groove going.
We kicked off on The Door and played through that a few times. Work on an intro was deferred to when we had a drummer. We did work on the stop in the third refrain. It looks like a long tradition of tweaking The Door shall continue, much to the benefit of Mike's and my sanity.
Mike mentioned that we should work the Outro dynamics more. I offered up my volume pedal, which amusingly did not serve this function very well.
We jumped over to Stooge next, and ran through it a couple of times with Kevin. Jim hopped on drums for the second go through, and we hit the Outro hard. A few times I had thought we were wrapping up, and Jim just kept the groove going. My failed attempt at using the volume pedal in the Door did have one benefit. I switched over to wah, and played wah guitar over the Stooge groove, with sick results. I wouldn't have thought to put a clean wah sound in there, but it worked.
Mike started messing around with playing 3's over the basic riff, and eventually came up with this locrian groove: A-Bb-C-D-Eb. We still have to figure out where to stick it in, but it should spice it up some.
Our search for a cover led us down much the same path of aborted Stones covers, Fire, before finally settling on "something from Weezer." My knowledge of only "Say it Ain't So" led us to launch into that. It held together on a once through, then somehow became a reggae grove, and we went through half the song again with the new feel. I wouldn't recommend ever doing that again, but it was a solid change in feel that everyone picked up quickly.
I hopped on the drums long enough to revive some 5/4 stuff Mike and I have messed around with in the past. I'm hoping to pull this into a track, possibly "Save Me."
We then launched into our coup d'etat: the Baba O'Reily Superjam. I kicked it off playing the basic keyboard part on guitar while sitting at the set. You can probably see where this is going. Jim came in with the guitar part, and I "quickly" jumped on drums.
For some reason, I had decided to sing backup while drumming. Unfortunately, the mic was at eye-level by the time I sat down, so during my Garth Algar drum solo I whipped my head into the mic. I sometimes play up minor injuries, but that mf'er hurt!
After that, we listened to the RM disc and picked out Far Side and Tomorrow to put together next week. Fresh Air was mentioned as a future possibility, and Mike brought up Damaged Goods.
Jim mentioned brining back the jam, possibly with the Crazy Days riff. I'm all for that, especially when it leads to new song ideas, but we also talked about putting together set songs for possible gigs in the future. Little did I know what that would lead to...
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
3rd Jam: Steady Beats
Date: 2/11
Location: Mt Prospect Studios
Jim: Guitar
Mike: Bass
Kevin C: Drums
Ryan: Guitar/Vocals
Kevin C joins us on the drums this week. I also get Mike to come rock the burbs.
After a warm-up jam, we have dinner, and I finally get the PA working for vocals. There was a good, heavy groove going that eventually added a progression (Em-Em-G-D.)
We ran through Stooge a couple of times. I tried my hand at vocals, but a combination of never singing/playing the song and not remembering the lyrics made this difficult.
Jim keeps ripping off Stones riffs -- I gotta get these under my fingers. We did get a little Fire going, followed by some Knockin on Heaven's Door.
Kevin mentioned he had to go about 40 minutes before he actually left, which is always a good sign. We did play some P-Funk at Mike's suggestion to close out the jam. Mike's take, "Uh...that was good...didn't sound anything like the song, but it sounded good." Nice!
Rock
Location: Mt Prospect Studios
Jim: Guitar
Mike: Bass
Kevin C: Drums
Ryan: Guitar/Vocals
Kevin C joins us on the drums this week. I also get Mike to come rock the burbs.
After a warm-up jam, we have dinner, and I finally get the PA working for vocals. There was a good, heavy groove going that eventually added a progression (Em-Em-G-D.)
We ran through Stooge a couple of times. I tried my hand at vocals, but a combination of never singing/playing the song and not remembering the lyrics made this difficult.
Jim keeps ripping off Stones riffs -- I gotta get these under my fingers. We did get a little Fire going, followed by some Knockin on Heaven's Door.
Kevin mentioned he had to go about 40 minutes before he actually left, which is always a good sign. We did play some P-Funk at Mike's suggestion to close out the jam. Mike's take, "Uh...that was good...didn't sound anything like the song, but it sounded good." Nice!
Rock
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Demotivation
Banged out some new lyrics for Fresh Air tonight. I was trying to strengthen the correlation of the verses to the 5 senses. Unfortunately, I realized I was changing the lines that sounded cool, so I quickly gave that up in favor of just changing the lines that didn't make sense and/or sounded really lame. Less was definitely more.
As I ripped through vocals that were pitchy and uneven dynamically, I realized that the more I record, the more my perfectionism wanes. It's not that I don't have a desire to rerecord certain tracks, or that I don't hear the mistakes on every playback. It's that the reward isn't worth the effort.
Perhaps if I were laying down tracks for a producible album, I might have the motivation to perfect what's going on. As it is, I'm going to bang out uneven drums, record barely audible bass-lines, do one take on guitars and solos, and slam out vocals. BOOM! MUSIC! DONE!
As I ripped through vocals that were pitchy and uneven dynamically, I realized that the more I record, the more my perfectionism wanes. It's not that I don't have a desire to rerecord certain tracks, or that I don't hear the mistakes on every playback. It's that the reward isn't worth the effort.
Perhaps if I were laying down tracks for a producible album, I might have the motivation to perfect what's going on. As it is, I'm going to bang out uneven drums, record barely audible bass-lines, do one take on guitars and solos, and slam out vocals. BOOM! MUSIC! DONE!
It is Growing
The shipment came in two parts. The set of microphones and stands came Thursday, whereas the rest had to be signed for on Friday. What a tease.
The Phonic Powerpod 780 Plus and two Phonic S715's came Friday afternoon. The most bang for the very least amount of buck. You never know when you will need a system that can pump out 500 watts of rock, but I hope that exact situation happens to me soon.
Still getting the hang of the powered-mixer. It looks like there's a monitor bus and a main bus, but I'm not sure if its set up to handle stereo recording. I at least have a way to get 6 mics mixed down into two input channels. I set up 4 mics to record the drums for a rough cut of Crazy Days. Did it sound better? Not sure. I was able to get a clearer snare sound, but it involved having a mic all in my junk, so it's probably not a long term solution.
Looking forward to the next jam. Kevin M. is out this week, so I might have the pick up the singing duties to break in the PA. Hmmm, I'd better learn the lyrics to my own songs...
The Phonic Powerpod 780 Plus and two Phonic S715's came Friday afternoon. The most bang for the very least amount of buck. You never know when you will need a system that can pump out 500 watts of rock, but I hope that exact situation happens to me soon.
Still getting the hang of the powered-mixer. It looks like there's a monitor bus and a main bus, but I'm not sure if its set up to handle stereo recording. I at least have a way to get 6 mics mixed down into two input channels. I set up 4 mics to record the drums for a rough cut of Crazy Days. Did it sound better? Not sure. I was able to get a clearer snare sound, but it involved having a mic all in my junk, so it's probably not a long term solution.
Looking forward to the next jam. Kevin M. is out this week, so I might have the pick up the singing duties to break in the PA. Hmmm, I'd better learn the lyrics to my own songs...
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