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Working on New Album... again

10/22/2006

I have been mixing/remixing inside. Two tracks had vocals I recorded back in January, so I got those mixed. So I have nine songs with vocals recorded that have been mixed. That leaves five songs that still need to have vocals recorded. This probably will not be until Christmas break, because I really don't have an opportunity to record vocals in my dorm room.

I found this really neat program called Synthfont that allows you to play a MIDI file with various SoundFonts or VSTis, which is something I've been searching for for years. I just downloaded it today, but it looks like I may need to re-render my tracks with it. In the past I've used QuickTime, but it throws in reverb that basically bugs me and, as far as I can tell, one cannot deactivate. Synthfont seems a little bit buggy, but it has a neat 'Render to File' option that does exactly what I want.

I'm going to install Windows XP on my iMac to dual-boot. I feel kind of dirty doing it, but I need a lean, mean copy of XP for recording and mixing, and it seems like it'll be easier to dual boot on my Mac, with Boot Camp and all. Apparently, my year-old PC is too slow to play my mixes smoothly, with all the software I run on it. I would use GarageBand on the iMac for mixing, but it's just not 'there' enough to do what I want. If there was no limit on the number of AudioUnit effects you can use with it, I might try it. I've mixed stuff with GarageBand in the past, but it's been a real pain.

I've been working on the album art for inside. It's going to be the same type of packaging as Pick Your Poison was. There will be a color, eight-page booklet (probably from CDPrintExpress) with lyrics and art. Without giving too much away, I'll reveal that I've been browsing the Morgue File for some of the art that will be in the booklet. It should be pretty thematic and cohesive, if all goes well. I've been using Scribus for the layout, since for the past decade or so I've been using Adobe PageMaker 6 for Mac OS 9.

I think that inside will be available freely online, with PDF files for the artwork. I've used so many free tools, artwork, SoundFonts, and programs that I feel I should give something back to the world of free software/media. The album will also be available for purchase (those CDs will cost me money, after all), although I doubt anyone will buy it. ;-)

New Order/Tracks for inside

04/25/2006

After showing a pre-release copy of inside to some friends, I've decided to re-order some tracks, add some new ones, and drop(!) one track.

The main problem was that it was 'too slow.' This is a rock record, and I come from a punk background, for God's sake! So I took a few songs I'd been working on as possible B-Sides or future songs or projects in general, and added them. I also re-structured the album, so it starts off faster and has a (hopefully) better flow than the presented before. Here is the revised tracklist, with explanations of some songs:

I Miss You - The oldest song here, from early 2004. A long-distance love song.

Just Another Day - A celebration of the mundane things in life... it's got piano, a melodic bass line, and one of those fifties-era 'build a V(7) chord with four vocal parts' buildups.

Temperamental - A fast-paced song about the frustrations of modern life, with a folksy electric lead.

Fret - A piano dirge about nasty thoughts,with some nifty percussion, including an Udu.

Polarize - About the 2004 elections... uh-oh, I get political. A reggae-meets-punk flip-flopper with a catchy horn and synth lead in the chorus.

Get Away - A folksy song about getting away from it all, despite the repercussions.

Written Off - Another song about the 2004 elections, and the hateful things said and laws passed.

Jenny Lewis Will Never Go Out With You - I saw, within a month of each other, three articles in three magazines about how Jenny Lewis is the Next Big Crush for whiny indie fanbois. The truth hurts.

Here There Be Monsters - A slow-building song about the fear of the unknown... especially when it's close at hand. Timpani... timpani!!!

Mary's Plea - Two sides of an oft-debated, never-resolved issue. Folk with a touch of electronica.

Lifted Up - A gospel song about finding Jesus... really!

Torn - Sadly, not a cover of the Ednaswap-covered-by-Natalie Imbruglia song. A vaguely hip-hop beat.

Soap - A song about washing away the nagging worries of life.

A Glut of Food - Bongoes and shakers give way to electronic drum hisses, with a reggae guitar skank thrown in for good measure.

The Highway - Impressions of I-90 between Couer d'Alene and Missoula. Folksy with a twist of alternative guitar.

The record clocks in at a beefy 54 minutes, so one track might be cut... but I don't know which! They're all so precious to me. Vocals need to be recorded for "Just Another Day", "Polarize", "Jenny Lewis", "Lifted Up", "Glut of Food", and "The Highway." This probably won't happen until summer, when the dorms clear out and I can sing without feeling like a lunatic.

Also, expect an EP to be released soon after... it will include a cover of "Hey Sandy" by Polaris, best known as the theme song to Nickelodian's The Adventures of Pete and Pete..

Lyrics: "Here There Be Monsters"

03/31/2006

Where is safety? What is freedom?
I don't know
The sounds of pleasure and of failure
Cannot stow
Abord my heart and in the attic
We lose out
Heavy breathing, heavy burdens
Heavy burdens

Here there be monsters
Bloodcurdling hot calls
Inside is anger
Chipped teeth on our walls

I am one with all my brethren
Complicate
Shards of meaning find their way home
Back to hate
Can they say monsters are here now
Or do they
Breathe in silence, watch in anger
watch in anger

CHORUS

Building fences, killing the lights
Our own past
Haunts us freely, daunts us daily
Chooses well
Monsters find us wherever we
Choose to hide
The chase beats us, we beat ourselves
We beat ourselves

Splinters, outbursts
They are coming for you and me
Preying on fear
The monsters aren't coming anymore
They're already

Here there be monsters
Devouring from within
Feeding on anger
Bathing in our sins
Here there be monsters
The monsters in us all
Feeding on anger
From within our walls

New Album Coming Soon...

03/29/2006

It's been almost two years in the making, but not because of endless toil -- quite the opposite, in fact. I just couldn't find time to work on the damn thing.

inside is its name. It's not as political as Pick Your Poison, and it has a lot more character songs. As with every album I've recorded, this one sounds better than the last one.

I just got vocals for 10 of the 12 or 13 songs recorded, and hope to do the last few songs sometime soon. Look for a release sometime in early summer.

Tracklist:

I Miss You
Temperamental
Mary's Plea
Compass Swings
Here There Be Monsters
Get Away
Written Off
Fret
Soap
Torn
Polarize (maybe)
A Glut of Food
The Highway

There might be some MP3's available in a few days.

Ha... No Updatey

01/02/2006

I never update this thing. What can I say? I'm lazy.

Today was one of those days that make me question my direction in life. I'm a Computer Science major. Working with computers is my job, my path in education, my hobby, and eventually will be my career.

So why am I so easily pissed off by them?

The story: I was planning on going over to Chris Rose's house to trade some local band CDs, check out his studio, etc. I have a punk CD I recorded last year, but I remixed some songs a few months ago. All I have that was ready to go on CD was the old mixes. I thought, hell, I can rebounce the unmixed files, remaster them, and be done in a few hours, right?

Wrong!

First, GarageBand apparently decided that it needed to fix the timing of the vocal tracks on some songs. Which is great, except they were already on time. So I listened to a song, heard it was off, and double-checked. The timeline showed that it was on time. "Whatever", I said, and pushed the track forward by ear so the words were once again in time to the music.

It only got worse from there.

I use Pro Tools Free with free RTAS for mastering. But it's only available with Mac OS 9. Luckily, my Dad has about 20 old Macs, and one's a second-gen iMac. I started mastering, then realized that I was putting everything in mono. This was about 7:30pm, and my target time for getting over to Chris's was about 5:00pm. It was only after another hour of mastering that I realized that I had no way to get the newly mastered songs off the computer. This particular iMac had broken FireWire. I had to burn a CD of the files just to get them on there in the first place. I tried two USB flash drives -- no dice. They're probably NTFS, while OS 9 demands FAT32. The thing didn't see my iPod in disk mode, either. Blehhhh.

Then, as I was mastering the last song, the damn thing crashed. I rebooted, and got nothing on the screen. That was my 'fuggit' moment. I'd had enough. I burned CDs of the old stuff, and was off.

Chris's studio setup was nice. The man got a Mac and some nice equipment. I'm jealous ;-). If I ever bought that much stuff, I think it would upset Carrie quite a bit. Right, too -- I need to get a car, first.

Then I got on MySpace. I've hated it from the start, but finally got on there so I could keep up-to-date on Killing the Hare, the last of the 'old skool' Bitterroot Valley punk rock bands.

Photos. Poison's in Stores. Me Happy.

10/26/2004

Current Listening: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – "Don't Do Me Like That" (Greatest Hits)

I was talkin' with a friend of mine / Said a woman done hurt his pride / Told him that she loved him so, then / Turned around and let him go

So I got the CD's down to Rockin' Rudies and Ear Candy, and a promo copy to KBGA, the college radio station. The local music program airs from 5pm-8pm on Saturdays, so give it a listen... ;-)

Here, of course, is the box of CD's:

And here's my George Bush 'Liar' T-Shirt, which came yesterday. Excuse my freakish look and wild, untrimmed hair:

Pick Your Poison's Here / Where I Stand

10/25/2004

It actually came on Tuesday, but it's been a busy week. Tomorrow, I'll do my best to get a couple of Missoula vendors to sell copies for me. I might even look into a PayPal arrangement for ordering them online.

It looks great -- type is readable, colors are vibrant, and the whole package looks pretty professional. I'm psyched. As I was staring in awe at my one-year-in-the-making baby, I noticed that I come across pretty negative on the record. But that's NOT the case! I swear. So, here is my not-so-expert opinion.

Where I Stand

I got my George W. Bush 'LIAR' shirt in the mail today. I was prepared to engage at least one Bush supporter in a less-than-intelligent conversation about it, but all I got was 'Cool shirt.' Silly liberal campus. Anyway, I had a response prepared for what I thought was inevitable: well, my "Kerry LIAR" shirt is in the wash. There is no shirt that I'm aware of. But the more I thought about it, the more I thought that, given the choice, I would wear one. After all, it's sort of a prerequisite to being a politician (or a human being). Everybody hurts (sorry Michael), and everybody lies.

And that bothers me. The basic stance of Pick Your Poison is that you're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't. Vote for Bush, four more years of stupidity. Kerry doesn't look any better. But the problem I see goes way beyond the candidates; it's the parties themselves, and the two-party system, that's to blame. We've becomed trapped in a mindset and it's a very destructive one: black and white, left and right, one and zero, Kramer and Kramer. Things just aren't that simple. But the American people have grown up all their lives being told that only two choices are viable, so they have to round off their views and go with the lesser of two evils.

Which is exactly wrong. Why would you vote for a candidate who only supports 60% of your own views? Fear isn't an answer. To vote Kerry just to keep Bush winning is spiteful, cowardly, and wrong. If you don't believe in somebody, you don't vote for them. It's that simple. It's time we stopped turning elections into exhibits of fear and started turning them toward the issues.

As I said, our current method of choosing our representatives is outdated. We need a more representative system, one where the winner does not claim everything. The majority is not right all the time. That's a simple fact. Politics has been stagnating for as long as I can remember. You'd think that with Internet and TV, people would be more informed, but the opposite is true. The Internet is binary by its very nature, ones and zeros, and that binarism filters down, or up, to its information. Every blogger's either a militant Republican or a smarmy, smart-ass Democrat. Where's the middle ground? Or the area outside the middle? TV is no better.

We're heading down a dangerous road. Right now, the two parties in control have made it so that no other parties can possibly be able to challenge them or change things. Thanks to our advances in technology and culture, we've accelerated the fall-of-empire syndrome. What took Rome hundreds of years may take us only a few. And that sucks, because America is great, and it still can be. What we need to do is get off our asses and scream, We've had enough!. It's time to stop shouting down others' views and time to listen, it's time to make things right. Not the way each of us wants them, but right.

It's a long road, but it's possible. Back in 1776, I'm sure that a nation that chooses its leader peacefully was as much a pipe dream as my wish. Anything's possible, given the power of change.

Pick Your Poison

10/19/2004

My first 'official' solo CD, Pick Your Poison, is finished. I went all the way on this one -- it's being printed up by CD Print Express, so there will be a profesisonal-looking eight-page color booklet (well, as professional as I made it). It will be here within the week and will officially be 'released' on Tuesday, October 26.

I'm planning to sell this bad boy for $6.00, which means I would made a whopping $0.25 profit off of each disc sold.

The CD expresses my frustration with our current 'all or nothing' political system (see my rant below), which values the snide remark over the well thought-out argument. More than half the songs are political in nature, but it's not like I wrote one called "Vote Bush Out" or anything like that. I'm disgusted with the whole system, not just Bush the Younger.

The music is all over the map, from driving rock ("Double Take"), to epic folk ("Lonely Planet") to hymn ("Starting a Religion"), dreamy, tripping ballads ("Dreaming Awake") and fast-as-hell punk rock meets medieval military marches (????) ("Good Fences"). This is also the first project I've recorded that I put money into -- $100 for a cheap condenser microphone and stand, as well as the cost of having them printed up.

As always, it was recorded at Why?-Fi studio in Corvallis, which is slang for my pump house and dorm room. The photo of me on this blog was actually taken while I was "in the studio" (slang for 'next to the boxes of macaroni).